The Criminal Use of the legitimate economy by criminal networks: vulnerable economic (sub)sectors and modi operandi

• In Event: Unpacking High-Risk Criminal Networks: Bridging Gaps in Identification, Assessment, and Prevention

Abstract

As societies continue to promote and strengthen the principle of free enterprise, they inadvertently create opportunities for criminal entrepreneurship. The criminal use of the legitimate economy by criminal networks poses a significant risk to the integrity of the financial system, public security and economic fairness. Legitimate businesses have become key tools for these networks, enabling them to carry out illegal activities, conceal criminal activities and launder illicit profits. Virtually no sector of the legitimate economy remains untouched by organised crime.
Despite their global reach, criminal networks' use of the legitimate economy is often manifested locally. Understanding the local context is critical to identifying how these networks thrive, where criminal assets infiltrate the legitimate economy, and the patterns through which they develop and expand. This local lens is essential for understanding the wider implications for economic and social systems.
We conducted a review of studies on the criminal use of the legal economy over the last five years, collecting literature from eight EU Member States: Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy. This review sheds light on the economic sectors most vulnerable to criminal use and provides insights into the modi operandi of criminal use in the legal economy. These findings will form the basis of a subsequent bottom-up, local empirical study, consisting of 27 case studies in nine cities across eight EU Member States.

Authors

• Billie Baetens, Scientific Researcher, Faculty of Law and Criminology, University of Ghent

• Jelle Janssens, Ghent University