International White Collar Crimes

Описание

2 International White Collar Crime
II. Environment Giving Rise to International Economic Crimes
Contemporary transnational criminals take advantage of globalization, trade liberalization, and emerging new technologies to commit a diverse range of crimes and to move
money, goods, services, and people instantaneously for purposes of pure economic gain,
political violence, or both.4 A key component facilitating international white collar or
economic crime is trade liberalization, especially free trade agreements (FTAs). The
problem is that the leadership of trade liberalization or FTAs and the politics do not
allow negotiators to provide for comprehensive enforcement mechanisms. The politics
of FTAs make ratification difficult, especially if costly regulatory or enforcement mechanisms are added since surely they are perceived politically as underserving sovereignty.
Instead, such comprehensive enforcement mechanisms are completely omitted, or else
only isolated subjects are treated.
For instance, in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) there is a
large section on intellectual property (IP) enforcement and only several provisions on
customs cooperation and enforcement. Customs enforcement is a subject that FTAs
normally cover. However, the extensive coverage of IP enforcement reflects the strong
influence in the United States of intellectual property groups. As a result of failing
to include comprehensive enforcement provisions in FTAs, individual criminals and
criminal organizations are able to take advantage of FTAs to conduct their criminal
activities. FTA members usually became aware of the growth of criminal problems arising out of FTAs several years after they are implemented. They then try to develop ad
hoc enforcement agreements and arrangements. However, these agreements and arrangements usually have a narrower scope than the FTAs, usually lack institutional support,
and sometimes overlap. As a result, the international enforcement architecture arising
out of FTAs cannot sustain enforcement needs.
Transnational criminal groups and criminals live and operate in a borderless world.
Increasingly, transnational criminals are diversifying their crimes, instrumentalities, markets, and networks. Their intelligence networks and the coincidence of economic and
political power enable them to quickly transfer parts of their operations and enterprises
to the territories that they can dominate (e.g., “gray areas” in which governments do
not effectively control their territory – Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan and Yemen)5
or to operate surreptitiously (e.g., with sleeper cells).6 Although national governments
have determined that transnational organized crime and terrorism are national security
threats and have implemented various initiatives to combat those threats,7 they are continuously and actively seeking more significant political and legal initiatives to establish
4 Some of this introduction is adopted from Bruce Zagaris, U.S. International Cooperation against Transnational Organized Crime, 44 Wayne L. Rev. 1402–1405. 1–402–5 (1998). For additional background on
globalization and international white collar crime, see Herve Boullanger, ´ La Criminalite Economique ´
en Europe (Economic Crime in Europe) 35–46 (2002).
5 For a discussion of the gray area phenomena, whereby terrorists and criminals use portions of countries
where the government does not effectively control its territory to hide and operate their enterprises, see
Gray Area Phenomena: Confronting the New World Disorder (Max G. Manwaring ed., 1993). 6 See, e.g., Peter A. Lupsha, Transnational Organized Crime versus the Nation-State, 2 Transnat’l Org.
Crime 21–48 (1996).
7 See Interview with the Hon. Richard A. Clarke, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director, Global
Issues and Multinational Affairs, National Security Council, Nov. 30, 1995, 1 Trends in Org. Crime 5–9
(1996).

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