Mr Benjamin Ndego, an expert in Organised Crime and Money Laundering, says the lack of political will has impeded the fight against money laundering in the Sub-Region. He said political leaders often overlooked the rot in their governments and rather dedicated time investigating officials of past governments. Mr Ndego said this in Accra on Friday during a presentation on money laundering. The presentation was part of the KAIPTC's two-week Maritime Security and Transnational Organised Crime training for security personnel and maritime experts. The Course is being sponsored by the German Government. Money laundering is the process whereby the origin of monies derived from criminal activities are covered in a way to avoid detection. Mr Ndego said money laundering was part of most criminal activities that generated profits/proceeds for criminals. Such criminal activities include oil bunkering, trafficking in drugs, humans, arms trafficking, piracy and corruption. He highlighted the three stages of money l aundering which are placement, layering and integration. 'Placement' is the first stage in which illegal funds are separated from their illegal sources and involves the initial injection of the illegal cash into a bank or a security company. The aims of the launderer are to remove the cash from the location of acquisition to avoid detection from authorities and to transform it into other asset forms like cars, and jewelry. At the 'Layering' stage, there is the first attempt at concealment or disguise of the source of the ownership of the funds by creating complex layers of financial transactions designed to disguise the audit trail and provide anonymity. It disassociates the illegal monies from the source of the crime by purposely creating a complex web of financial transactions to conceal any audit trail; source and ownership of funds, complex dealings with stock, commodity and future brokers. 'Integration', which is the final stage in the process seeks to integrate the money into the legitimate economi c and financial system and it is assimilated with all other assets in the system. They sometimes do this through investment in economic activities such as Real Estate sales, buying of loss-making or failing enterprise, amongst others. Integration of the 'cleaned' money into the economy is accomplished by the launderer making it appear to have been legally earned. By this stage, it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish legal and illegal wealth. Mr Ndego said the rapid movements of money in and out of the economy due to money laundering destabilised small developing economies. He said it undermined the soundness of the financial system; crowded out legitimate private sector businesses; fueled conflicts and undermined the security sector. The Expert said money laundering diminished government tax revenue leading to higher tax rates than would normally be the case if the untaxed proceeds of crime were legitimate. He called for the proper functioning of robust Anti Money Laundering regimes and enactment o f related Laws. Mr Ndego suggested the establishment of Financial Intelligence Units and specialised institutions to investigate and prosecute money laundering offenders. He called for the training and capacity building of law enforcement agencies and judges to ensure effective prosecution and confiscation of proceeds of crime once the crime had been established. The Expert said cooperation should be strengthened with respect to cross-border investigations, prosecution and adjudication; sharing of information and data on transnational organised crime. Source: Ghana News Agency