#QuickbiteCompliance day 254
🚨 The Puppet Show: How Straw Men Hide Sanctioned Criminals
Imagine your friend is banned from the candy store but secretly pays you to buy sweets for them. You’re the “puppet” (aka Straw Man)—acting for someone who’s hiding in the shadows. Here’s how criminals use these puppets to cheat the system:
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### 🎭 Real-Life Puppet Shows
1. The “Fake Boss” Trick
A sanctioned warlord can’t buy weapons. So, he hires a farmer with a clean record to “own” a company. The farmer signs papers but takes orders from the warlord. The company buys missiles while the warlord stays invisible .
2. Money Hiding Game
A corrupt politician (sanctioned!) uses her cousin—a teacher—to open bank accounts. The teacher moves dirty money across borders, buying fancy real estate. The politician enjoys the villa, while the teacher looks “innocent” .
3. Ghost Shopping Spree
A banned tech smuggler hires a student to buy restricted microchips. The student orders parts, gets paid $500, and ships them to a fake address. The smuggler gets the tech, and the student vanishes .
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### 🔍 How We Spot Puppets
– Look for “Confused” People: Straw Men often know little about their “job” or business. (Why would a farmer own a missile company?)
– Paper Trails: Mismatched signatures, weird payments, or sudden wealth spikes.
– Secret Strings: Links to high-risk people (e.g., a teacher’s cousin is a sanctioned minister) .
Fight back with:
✅ AI Detectives: Tech that scans millions of transactions to find puppet patterns.
✅ Open-Source Intel: Sharing clues globally to expose hidden strings.
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🌍 Together, we can cut the strings.
Straw Men rely on staying invisible. But with smarter tech (#InclusiveRegtech) and open collaboration (#OpenSourceAML), we protect the world’s wallets—one puppet show at a time.
🔗 Learn more terms: [ACAMS AML Glossary](https://www.acams.org/en/resources/aml-glossary-of-terms)
#FinancialCrime #AML #Sanctions #Compliance #Transparency #100HariNulis
#InclusiveRegtech #OpenSourceAML 💡