On April 7th, the RiskMonitor Foundation of Bulgaria presented the findings of its most recent project, Main Schemes for Laundering of Money Obtained from Human Trafficking in Bulgaria, which was funded with a grant from the Bulgarian Fund of the GMF/Balkan Trust for Democracy using legacy funds from USAID in Bulgaria. This first-of-its-kind research in the region was based on more than 150 interviews with a wide range of stakeholders, including victims of human trafficking, pimps, police officers, prosecutors, judges, journalists, policy-makers, and others who possessed insight into the money-laundering practices, turnovers, and profits of this underworld business. A thorough review of all available documents such as prosecutorial filings and trial case transcripts related to human trafficking and money laundering was also conducted as part of the research.

Key findings of the RiskMonitor Foundation report include:

• There exists three major organized crime rings that control and compete for most of the human trafficking that is based out of and/or transits through Bulgaria. Unfortunately, recent efforts of law enforcement have been primarily focused on the smaller-scale operators, such as individual pimps or locally based groups.
• With the understanding that somewhere between 8,000 and 12,000 Bulgarian citizens are currently victims of human trafficking, it is estimated that between 900 million and 1.3 billion EUR in annual revenue is generated, making human trafficking an extremely lucrative illicit business.
• Although, the revenues from trafficking Bulgarian citizens are brought in from a wide variety of countries throughout the world, experts estimate that between 50 and 80% of this money finds its way back into Bulgaria through a number of money laundering channels which are detailed further in the report. Key channels include investments in agriculture and land leases, false declarations of turnover in companies doing import/export trade and the use of well-known Bulgarian athletes as couriers of cash.

A conference on the topic, held on April 7th, was jointly organized by the RiskMonitor Foundation and the Bulgarian National Investigative Service and gathered experts on the issues of human trafficking and money laundering. Keynote remarks were given by Alexander Karagiannis, Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. of the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria. The conference received wide-scale media coverage, with more than 12 national and regional television stations covering the conference and substantial articles appearing on the front pages of Bulgaria’s daily newspapers.

The whirlwind of publicity continues with RiskMonitor being invited to appear on more than 10 news talk shows in Bulgaria and a planned two-part documentary to be made based on the findings of the report by the national television station bTV.

While the report is not yet available in English, it is expected be posted on the RiskMonitor Foundation website by April 30.

Panelists Speak at the ‘Main Schemes for Laundering of Money Obtained From Human Trafficking in Bulgaria’ Conference on April 7th

This entry was posted by Nathan on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 7:06 am and is filed under Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, Immigration.

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