Professional Facilitators of Crime
Criminals are increasingly using industry professionals and service providers to help or ‘facilitate’ their criminal activity. Use of specialists and professional facilitators* is one of the key attributes of organised crime in Australia.
Nature of Professional Crime Facilitators
Criminal groups frequently seek out industry professionals and service providers to help or ‘facilitate’ their criminal activities. In some ways they are ‘outsourcing’ aspects of their criminal businesses.
They are motivated to do this for two reasons. Firstly, they may lack the necessary skills, knowledge or access to carry out crimes in particular sectors, such as in a complex financial sector, or through computer-based crimes. Secondly, using professional facilitators may help criminals to distance themselves from their criminal activity and give an aura of legitimacy, for example by employing accounting or legal firms to help them launder money.
Some facilitators are willing helpers, paid by their criminal partners. Others may help because they are being coerced through blackmail and intimidation. There are also some facilitators who may be unaware that they are indeed, facilitating crime.
Extent
The use of specialists and facilitators is now one of the key attributes of organised crime in Australia—and it’s on the rise. Recent Australian Crime Commission (ACC) investigations into Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCGs) and investigations into the transport sector have revealed the increasing use of professional facilitators.
It is clear that organised criminals, particularly those involved in high level white collar crime, cannot operate without the professional advice and assistance of facilitators any more than ordinary citizens can in complex commercial transactions.
The Australian Crime Commission conservatively estimates that serious organised crime costs Australia between $10–15 billion every year. This cost comprises loss of business and taxation revenues, expenditure on law enforcement and regulatory efforts, and through the social and community impacts of crime. Raising public awareness of crime issues is an important step in minimising the impact serious and organised crime can have on the community.
Impact
The increasing trend of criminals in using professional facilitators is of concern to law enforcement agencies and has a wide ranging impact that includes:
- broadening the range of sectors open to criminal infiltration
- exploiting vulnerabilities within business sectors
- damaging the integrity and reputation of sectors in which professional facilitators operate
- allowing criminals to distance themselves from their criminal activity by blurring the lines between what is legitimate and what is illegal
- creating additional cost to Australians. For example, book keepers who maintain a hidden paper trail for criminals which then results in lost tax income to governments.
How Professional Facilitators Work
The methods professional facilitators use vary from sector to sector but generally, they use their specialist knowledge and expertise to exploit legal loopholes, find opportunities for criminals, or help criminals retain and legitimise proceeds of crime.
Professional facilitators who are willing helpers of criminal activity almost always are motivated by profit. In an era where business competition is growing and markets are eroding, bona fide companies and individuals may switch to unethical practices to survive. Criminal networks are skilled in identifying these weaknesses.
Professional facilitators may provide their services either as part of an ongoing arrangement with their criminal partners, or as an external service to other criminal groups.
The type of work undertaken by facilitators is wide-ranging and can include:
- laundering money for criminals by working around the regulations and controls in the regulated financial sector, or by buying or selling high-end luxury goods
- manipulating import processes at borders
- transporting and storing illicit goods
- assisting with technical components in manufacturing illicit drugs
- reaching and communicating with intended victims of fraud
- providing access to their business’ communication facilities such as phone, fax or email so criminal groups can communicate with each other using the business as a ‘shield’
- helping criminals to avoid detection when laundering money by adding legitimacy to the financial transactions through complex transaction and legal structures
- providing clandestine accommodation for human trafficking victims
- using computer technology to assist in stealing identities.
Links to Serious Organised Crime
The use of professional facilitators is becoming more prevalent across almost all organised crime types.
Criminal groups often bring professional facilitators into the chain of financial transactions to help with money laundering enterprises. They may be used to assist in fraud crimes such as marketing scams or identity theft. Facilitators are also becoming more prevalent in cyber crime and intellectual property crimes. They have long played a role in illicit drug trafficking and people smuggling.
Government Responses
The Australian Government launched the Organised Crime Strategic Framework in November 2009 to ensure Commonwealth agencies are working together to prevent, disrupt, investigate and prosecute organised crime. As part of the Framework, the ACC has produced two biennial classified Organised Crime Threat Assessments (OCTAs) which identify the highest organised crime threats to the Australian community. The OCTA informed the development of the Government’s inaugural Commonwealth Organised Crime Response Plan (OCRP) in 2010 to help prioritise Commonwealth agencies resources against these threats.
Recognising that organised crime is a national issue that requires a nationally coordinated response, the Commonwealth and the States and Territories agreed to the National OCRP 2010-13 in 2010 to strengthen multijurisdictional approaches, coordination, information sharing and joint activities to combat the national threat of serious and organised crime. Preventative partnerships with industry and the community are part of the strategies to respond to organised crime. These organised crime fact sheets describe the breadth and impact of organised crime activities and provide an insight into how industry and the community can help combat organised crime.
Further information on the Organised Crime Strategic Framework and the OCRP can be found here.
This fact sheet was developed in collaboration with Attorney-General's Department and Australian Taxation Office.
*The shortened term ‘professional facilitators’ used in this profile when referring to those who help in criminal activities should not be confused with the general profession of professional facilitators who are learning and development specialists.