Switzerland is seeing a surge in reports of money-laundering due to (a) the Swiss trying to clean their image as a haven for illicit assets and (b) Fallen regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya attempts to hide their money after the revolutions. Excerpt from a story published by The Globe and Mail below:
The value of suspected cases of money-laundering in Switzerland soared to a record sum of 3.28-billion Swiss francs ($3.51-billion) last year as regime changes following the Arab Spring led to a big jump in suspected cases from North Africa.
The number of “suspicious activity reports” jumped 40 per cent to 1,625 in 2011, according to the annual report released yesterday by the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS). In financial terms, that was an increase of some 287 per cent from 847-million francs in 2010.
There were 55 suspicious activity reports forwarded to MROS regarding Egypt last year, 40 about Tunisia and 33 about Libya. The amounts involved for these three countries totaled 566-million francs in 2011. There were no suspected cases reported in 2010.
