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Tag: counterfeits

  • ICAIE Applauds Global Financial Integrity (GFI) in New Report on China’s Role in Transnational Crime and Illicit Trade

    ICAIE Applauds Global Financial Integrity (GFI) in New Report on China’s Role in Transnational Crime and Illicit Trade

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    According to ICAIE, China Inc. has leveraged corruption, illicit markets, and predatory trade and lending practices to become the world’s biggest transnational illicit trade syndicate across global markets, supply chains, and online marketplaces, and to finance its economy and military, enhancing prosperity and anchoring stability for the ruling CCP regime.

    Press Release


    Oct 27, 2022

    David M. Luna, Executive Director of the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies (ICAIE), applauds the new report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), “Made in China: China’s Role in Transnational Crime & Illicit Financial Flows”, which analyzes the growing illegal trade and corruptive influence by China Inc. – China’s network of state-owned enterprises and criminal triads – across markets globally.  

    “Corruption and illicit trade are among the enabling drivers of China’s national aspirations to global economic power, its aggressive foreign policy, and great power competition strategies. China’s illicit trade facilitates a convergence of crimes that spawns bigger destabilizing threats across the international community,” said Luna.

    The state-sponsored corruption exported through its strident foreign policy is sanctioned at the top level of government through China’s state-owned enterprises or external economic development initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative.” David M. Luna 

    China’s role in diverse forms of illicit trade and dark commerce today includes the trafficking of illegal fentanyl and precursors, humans, counterfeits, endangered wildlife, and other contraband, as well as money laundering across black markets and the digital world, as the report finds.

    As detailed in the new GFI report, “China today is helping fuel the multi-trillion-dollar global illegal economy. China is benefitting financially through the illicit manufacturing and unauthorized exporting of harmful products such as the chemical precursors to make deadly fentanyl and other opioids, fake goods that can cause great bodily harm or death, and through its international role in laundering dirty money from all corners of the globe,” said Luna.

    “Illicit activities such as the illegal fentanyl trade not only harms our people – killing tens of thousands of Americans each year – it becomes a threat multiplier. It enables Mexican cartels to earn tens of billions of dollars a year in dirty money, some of which is laundered in China, and the financing enables the cartels to infiltrate the Mexican government,” added Luna.

    The GFI report also finds that another harm to global security is driven from China’s illegal trade and unregulated economy and the flooding of counterfeits – oftentimes dangerous and toxic fake products – into U.S. markets and online marketplaces. According to estimates in the report, China accounts for up to 80% of all counterfeits in the global marketplace (OECD: $500 billion/year).

    ICAIE encourages the United States and international community to confront and constructively engage China to be a more responsible global leader and market citizen in addressing a multitude of the illicit threats that harm U.S. national security and the collective security of all nations. 

    Source: ICAIE

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  • ICAIE Issues New Report on the Dark Side of Illicit Economies and Trade-Based Money Laundering: Free Trade Zones, Ports, and Financial Safe Havens

    ICAIE Issues New Report on the Dark Side of Illicit Economies and Trade-Based Money Laundering: Free Trade Zones, Ports, and Financial Safe Havens

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    The staggering multi-trillion dollar global illicit economy is thriving from dirty money derived from an array of cross-border smuggling and trafficking crimes. Free trade zones, poorly regulated ports, ineffective enforcement of beneficial ownership laws and secretive financial hubs are threat multipliers that expand dark commerce, as criminals exploit cracks and seams in the global financial and trading systems to advance illicit trade and hide their profits. No one alone can fight illicit economies; public-private partnerships are critical.

    Press Release


    Jun 13, 2022

    Today, the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies (ICAIE), a national security non-governmental organization based in Washington, DC, released a new 2022 report entitled, “The Dark Side of Illicit Economies and TBML: Free Trade Zones, Ports, and Financial Safe Havens”. The ICAIE report and recommendations outline the importance of public-private partnerships to counter illicit trade and TBML. ICAIE highlights the importance of leveraging strategic intelligence, network analytics, and pattern-of-life forensics to disrupt the logistics, financial wherewithal, and corruptive influence of criminals and their complicit enablers across borders, trade hubs, illicit economies, free trade zones (FTZs), and vulnerable ports. While the report has a focus on the Americas, it also illuminates the convergence of transnational criminal activities and illicit financial threats across other regions and global supply chains.

    In recent decades the confluence of transnational criminal structures and illicit economies has grown to create a clear and present danger to global security by siphoning trillions of dollars from legal economies. These funds fuel growing corruption, instability and violence while destabilizing markets in the Americas and around the world. Criminal actors and threat networks connected through global super fixers exploit advances in technology, transportation and other critical infrastructure for illicit enrichment. In these dangerous times, converging illicit vectors erode our collective governance, prosperity, and security.

    “Illicit trade, the trafficking and smuggling of counterfeit goods, narcotics, humans, natural resources, WMD, illicit cigarettes, and other contraband impact the security of all societies. Kleptocrats, criminal organizations, terrorist groups, and their enablers exploit networked hubs of illicit trade centered on free trade zones, ports, and other logistical channels of transportation, communications, and trade,” said David M. Luna, ICAIE Executive Director. “This allows illicit networks – such as the Chinese triads, Mexican cartels, Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), and Hezbollah – to profit from an array of criminal activities and corrupt institutions, drain resources for economic development, and compromise the integrity of supply chains. No country is immune from these pernicious security threats in the globalized world.”

    ICAIE brings together diverse champions across sectors and communities, including former members of the public sector, companies and prominent organizations from the private sector and civil society to mobilize energies to combat cross-border illicit threats that endanger U.S. national security. In the coming months, ICAIE is committed to raising awareness of the harms and impacts of illicit economies, TBML, and crime convergence in risky FTZs and criminalized ports.  ICAIE’s engagement will include briefings in the U.S. Congress, the White House and federal government, and across the international community including at the 2022 Concordia Americas Summit in Miami in July. ICAIE will also continue to support the United to Safeguard America from Illegal Trade (USA-IT) alliance to fight illegal trade across the country.

    Find Full ICAIE Report and visit us at: 

    https://www.icaie.com

    https://www.icaie.com/resources

    David M. Luna

    Executive Director

    E: DavidLuna@ICAIE.com

    Source: ICAIE

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  • Luna Global Networks Supports Private-Sector Campaign Against COVID-19 Fraudulent Goods

    Luna Global Networks Supports Private-Sector Campaign Against COVID-19 Fraudulent Goods

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    Luna Global Networks joins coalition of private-sector partners in the launch of a new initiative to spotlight resources available to help combat the trade in fraudulent goods.

    Press Release



    updated: Jul 13, 2020

    ​​​​Luna Global Networks today joined Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) in launching a new two-month advertising campaign designed to raise awareness of the trade of fraudulent personal protective equipment and resources available to combat the trade of these goods.

    “We are proud to be partnering with PMI and other private industry brand protection leaders and long-time partners in fighting illicit trade,” said David M. Luna, President & CEO, Luna Global Networks. 

    To date, there have been nearly 1,000 COVID-19-related seizures of prohibited test kits and medicine, counterfeit masks, and other medical equipment in the U.S., which has accounted for $17.9 million in disrupted transactions and recovered funds. 

    Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, global illicit trade was already booming from an array of trafficking and smuggling crimes. In fact, today’s global illicit markets generate trillions of U.S. dollars every year for transnational criminal organizations, complicit corrupt facilitators, and other threat networks. These profitable criminal activities include the trafficking of narcotics, opioids, arms, and people, fake medicines, counterfeit and pirated goods, illegal tobacco and alcohol products, endangered wildlife, pillaged oil, diamonds, gold, natural resources and precious minerals, and other contraband or commodities. They are sold on our main streets, social media, online marketplaces, and the dark web every hour of every day. 

    From the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, as the virus spread worldwide, numerous market and supply chain disruptions created new opportunities for criminals in vulnerable sectors. As police and security resources were re-directed, prosecuting the battle against illicit trade was attenuated. Bad actors and threat networks have further accelerated illicit trade in recent months and continue to exploit vulnerabilities in global supply chains to expand illicit economies and criminalized markets in areas such as the life science and healthcare sectors, excisable products, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), frauds, cybercrime and other profitable illicit enterprises.

    “In fact, COVID-19 has mutated criminality to a higher level of danger as corrupt regimes and criminals enrich themselves through an illicit trade pandemic that puts the health and safety of all citizens and communities at risk, such as fake medicines and counterfeited medical equipment and supplies,” said Luna.

    About Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies LLC

    David M. Luna is also a former U.S. diplomat and national security official. He is the current Chair of the Business at OECD Anti-Illicit Trade Experts Group (AITEG); Chair, Anti-Illicit Trade (AIT) Committee of the U.S. Council for International Business (USCIB); co-Director, Anti-Illicit Trade Institute, Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC), Schar School of Policy and Government, GMU.

    Luna Global Networks is an international security consultancy well-positioned to help clients tackle the most pressing illicit trade and governance challenges and related security threats globally

    Media Contact:

    David M. Luna, Luna Global Networks

    Info@LunaGlobalNetworks.com

    Source: Luna Global Networks

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