ECONOMIC CRIME

Financial crimes are crimes against property, involving the unlawful conversion of the
ownership of property (belonging to one person) to one's own personal use and benefit.
Financial crimes may involve fraud (cheque fraud, credit card fraud, mortgage fraud, medical
fraud, corporate fraud, securities fraud (including insider trading), bank fraud, payment (point
of sale) fraud, health care fraud); theft; scams or confidence tricks; tax evasion; bribery;
embezzlement; identity theft; money laundering; and forgery and counterfeiting, including
the production of Counterfeit money and consumer goods.
Financial crimes may involve additional criminal acts, such as computer crime, elder abuse,
burglary, armed robbery, and even violent crime such as robbery or murder. Financial crimes
may be carried out by individuals, corporations, or by organized crime groups. Victims may
include individuals, corporations, governments, and entire economies.
Economic crime is a collective term for many different kinds of crime. In 2012, 15,800
offences were reported against the Tax Offences Act (skattebrottslagen) (including gross tax
crimes), 11,100 accounting crimes and 2,755 cases of misappropriation of funds. In addition,
128,000 cases of fraud and 7,900 cases of benefit fraud were reported.
The two most common varieties of economic criminality are tax evasion and accounting
crimes. Some examples of economic crime include accounting crimes, various forms of tax
evasion, misappropriation of funds, insider dealings, breach of trust and bribery. The number
of economic crimes that are reported depends largely on how active authorities such as the
Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) are in their inspection work. Most of the suspects are
middle-aged men. The crime is often committed through a business.
Economic crime is more common in certain industries

The two most common categories of economic crime tax evasion and accounting crime
are normally detected and reported by the Swedish Tax Agency and trustees in bankruptcy. In
this area, the number of suspected crimes has mostly increased throughout the 2000s.
Unreported income and undeclared work are common examples of economic crime that
frequently occur in industries that handle a lot of cash, such as the restaurant, taxi and
hairdresser industries. Economic crime has also been observed in the building industry, where
dealing with black labour occurs, amongst other things.
The number of reported economic crimes fell by 10 percent in 2012, compared with the
previous year. At the same time, the number of cases involving severe tax evasion have
increased by 13 percent which amounted to about 4,450 reports to the police in 2012.
High number of crimes cleared

The percentage of economic crimes that are cleared is relatively high, which is due to the fact
that there is almost always a suspect when the crime is reported. For example, a person can
be tied to the crime in 33 percent of accounting crimes and 23 percent of crimes against the
Tax Offences Act (2011).
In 2010, about 400 individuals were prosecuted for crimes against the Tax Offences Act as
the principal crime. Additionally, approximately 1,700 individuals were prosecuted for
creditor fraud of various kinds as the principal crime. Nearly 750 people were prosecuted for
embezzlement and other breaches of trust as the principal crime. For creditor crimes, it is
most common that the person is ordered summary punishment or is given a suspended
sentence, whilst, in the case of serious tax evasion, it is most common that the perpetrator is
sentenced to prison. The average sentence for serious tax evasion is one year and seven
months.
Previous years have been lacking in how economic crimes have been reported in the
statistics. In 2007, a new system was introduced that gives a clearer picture of the actual
number of reported crimes.
Large increase in fraud

Reported cases of fraud continued to rise in 2010 by 5 percent compared with 2009.
Computer fraud is a large part of the increase, which is connected to police efforts to combat
internet and credit-card fraud.
Over the past decade, fraud has more than doubled. The greater part of this increase has taken
place during the last four years, but the amount of fraud was also high in previous years. This
is connected with the fact that fraud is a typical serial crime where a single fraudster can
generate thousands of reported crimes in a short space of time.
A decrease in benefit fraud

Beginning in 2008, benefit fraud has been reported separately. Just under half the reported
cases of benefit fraud relate to crimes against the Swedish Social Insurance Agency
(Frskringskassan) less than 4,000 reported crimes in 2010. This represents a reduction
by 36 percent in comparison with the previous year. However, the number of reported cases
of benefit fraud increased in other areas during 2010, particularly cheating the unemployment
benefit fund (a-kassa).
Much fraud goes unreported

The actual level of crime is presumably higher, since a lot of fraud remains unknown to the
authorities. Of the approximately 8,000 individuals suspected of fraud in 2010, the majority
were men, whilst 21 percent were women. The most common punishment for fraud is a
suspended sentence and summary punishment.

Economic crime is described as:
Theft of Government assets
Fraud against government
Tax and duty evasion.
Theft and fraud against parastatals
A bribe is any payment in cash or kind, which is given or received corruptly. The legal
definition is valuable consideration. It includes a gift, benefit, loan, fee, reward or
commission, employment or contract, payment, service, assistance, protection, any
material gain, concession, advantage, or gift other than casual gift.
Effects
There will be a loss of public revenue from custom duties, sales tax, income tax which
means that government cannot carry out development work. The quality of life will
decline.
People will be busy looking for corruption opportunities instead of working hard and
there will be a decline in efficiency and productivity.
Botswana will get a poor public image and tourists, investors and entrepreneurs will
stay away, leading to a loss of foreign exchange.
Only those that can afford to pay bribes will benefit, this is unjust.
There will be a breakdown in public order with social unrest, riots, etc

Ml
Money Laundering is the process by which the Proceeds derived from a criminal activity (
i.e. the predicate offense) are disguised in an effort to conceal their illicit origins to
legitimize their future use .
Money laundering only attracted interest as a crime in the 1980s essentially within a
drug trafficking context and since then the fight against money laundering has become a
global priority as the world has witnessed the devastating effects of these criminal
activities on the integrity and functionality of financial systems ,anti corruption efforts,
Economic growth and development.
Money laundering can occur in any country whether developed or developing but it can
have adverse economic growth and development .
Effect of ml
Launders are continuously looking for new routes for laundering their funds. Economies
with growing or developing financial centers but inadequate controls are particularly
vulnerable as established financial center countries implement comprehensive anti-
money laundering regimes.

Launders that tend to move their networks to countries and financial systems with weak
or ineffective countermeasures will exploit differences between national anti-money
laundering systems.

Some might urge that developing economies cannot afford to be too selective about the
source of the capital they attract. But postponing action is dangerous. The more it is
deferred, the more entrenched organized crime can become.

As with the damaged integrity of an individual financial institution, there is a damping
effect on foreign direct investment when a country commercial and financial sectors are
perceived to be subject to the control and influence of organized crime.