Dirty Money? Clean It Up! The Lesser Known Forms of Money Laundering

Money laundering and drugs are commonly thought to go hand in hand; however, money laundering has many forms and can take place in a variety of industries and by the use of many instruments. The main source of Money Laundering data is Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) which are collected by the Treasury Department. This paper outlines a number of ways Money Laundering can occur and analyzes Money Laundering-related SAR data to determine if SARs are more likely to originate from Depository Institutions compared to other industries. This paper concludes with a discussion of possible limitations of SARs and suggests improvements to SARs and bank AML processes.