Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies need to enhance their understanding and knowledge of risks related to TBML
“International trade networks can attract criminals and terrorists financiers who exploit the interconnected supply chains to launder the proceeds of crime or finance terrorism. Recognising trade-based money laundering is difficult, particularly when there is a lack of understanding of this technique,”
FATF/Egmont Trade-based Money Laundering: Trends and Developments, December 2020.
The Financial Action Tax Force (FATF), in its reports of 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2020, has highlighted that trade-based money laundering (TBML) has not received the attention it deserves. A case study of TBML mentions that a Pakistani exporter used the over-invoiced amount to settle the US operator’s outstanding account with his Pakistani counterpart and additionally got benefit of 20 percent VAT rebate on the higher prices of the exported goods.