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 According to the 18-page report, Disruption in Southern Africa’s Money Laundering Activity by Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies, the AI system uncovered extensive trade-based money laundering, particularly gold export mis-invoicing and cryptocurrency layering, used to disguise proceeds from smuggling operations.
A network of 23 shell companies operating between Zimbabwe and South Africa has been implicated in laundering USD 450 million through illicit financial flows (IFFs), part of an estimated USD 3 billion in combined annual losses to the two countries.
The findings come from a study published in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management, which analysed 1.8 million transactions using data from South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and SWIFT. Researchers deployed an artificial intelligence tool known as FALCON, developed at India’s National Forensic Sciences University, to detect cross-border laundering patterns with a reported accuracy of 98.7 percent.
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According to the 18-page report, Disruption in Southern Africa’s Money Laundering Activity by Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies, the AI system uncovered extensive trade-based money laundering, particularly gold export mis-invoicing and cryptocurrency layering, used to disguise proceeds from smuggling operations. These schemes exploit regulatory loopholes, high-volume cash transactions and fragmented enforcement between the two countries.
