a. Is Joey’s money-laundering scheme likely to work?
b. Is the bank likely to report the deposit of the payment for the yacht by filing a currency transaction report or a suspicious activity report?
c. Is law enforcement likely to discover his purchase of the house or boat for cash?
d. How would a forensic accountant go about investigating Joey for drug trafficking and money laundering if given subpoena power? Would the investigation discover the under-the-table house and yacht purchases?
Joey Nariz is a narcotics trafficker who has made a career of smuggling cocaine into the United States. Over the years, he has bought most of his supply from Colombia but more recently had begun to obtain it in Peru. His base of operations in the United States is San Lauro, a small California town northwest of San Diego. He controls his southern operations through encrypted satellite phones and fax machines.
Working in a small town provides the perfect cover, but he enhances his secrecy by operating out of a large farm supply store that he had purchased when he first came to San Lauro. He deals with his distributors in other small towns in California, New Nevada, and Arizona. He prefers small towns because the people are trusting, and small towns never possess any serious antinarcotics capabilities.