BizAims

Globalization hit organized crime over the last decade and now is integral to its most profitable business -- the international narcotics traffic. Once a regional problem involving a customer base of a few million, and barely a billion dollars in sales, the illegal drug industry is now a worldwide enterprise with tens of millions of hard core consumers spending hundreds of billions  on opiates, cocaine and amphetamines and marijuana, as well as other drugs.

The single largest marketplace for illegal drugs continues to be the United States. Although the market has decreased dramatically since its heyday in the mid-80's, close to thirteen million Americans still think nothing about occasionally buying a gram of cocaine, a few hits of ecstasy or a quarter ounce of weed to party with their friends on the weekends. A hard core group  estimated at between 5 and 6 million have more serious drug habits, and may spend $100-$500 dollars a week on purchasing their drugs. These two groups - hard core users and casual users - spend approximately $60 billion dollars a year, according to U.S.  government estimates.

Imagine a typical weekend in New York City. Experts estimate that at least one percent of the population - 80,000 plus - spends $200 on illicit drugs. That alone would amount to $16 million dollars a week or $832 million a year. And that's just New York.

Internet is a place where all information from the World Wide Web is collected by users of different ages. Almost everyone in the contemporary world uses the internet for a variety of purposes. For example, students look for information in order to write projects. Experts in certain fields perform market research. Music and movie fans watch favorite clips, trailers, download video and audio files. Some people use the Internet simply to entertain themselves. If earlier the main source of inspiration were the books, then over the last ten years Internet has become a powerful tool which people rely on more and more. The main advantage of the Internet is that everyone can easily access it and find everything they want on any subject.

With certain information being very valuable among internet users, the virtual world stumbled upon plagiarism, which is a continuously increasing problem. Quite often, Internet users are unaware if a story or another is protected by copyright laws. A lot of website owners consider that if certain information is provided for free than it can be easily copied and posted on personal website. But this is definitely a wrong idea. You don't copy books and say that you're their author, because each book has its author and thus it is his or her intellectual property. The intellectual property is protected by the copyright law.

For most countries, money laundering and terrorist financing raise sig­nificant issues with regard to prevention, detection and prosecution. Sophisticated techniques used to launder money and finance terrorism add to the complexity of these issues. Such sophisticated techniques may involve different types of financial institutions; multiple financial transactions; the use of intermediaries, such as financial advisers, accountants, shell corpora­tions and other service providers; transfers to, through, and from different countries; and the use of different financial instruments and other kinds of value-storing assets. Money laundering is, however, a fundamentally simple concept. It is the process by which proceeds from a criminal activity are dis­guised to conceal their illicit origins. Basically, money laundering involves the proceeds of criminally derived property rather than the property itself.

Is selling police equipment to a notoriously brutal government tantamount to assisting in torture?

William Schulz believes that it can be, and that these types of sales are one of the principal ways in which businesses can entangle themselves with torturers. Schulz, former executive director of Amnesty International, spoke during a presentation last week sponsored by Wharton's Zicklin Center  for Business Ethics Research.

Seldom are businesses in the developed world implicated directly in torture, but too often they avert their eyes as their products, purchases or independent contractors support abuses, according to Schultz, who is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank based in Washington, D.C. He cited the case of Taser International, the Scottsdale, Ariz., manufacturer of "stun guns." Taser's devices, sold domestically to police departments and private citizens, shoot electrified barbs that cause a flash of intense pain and momentary muscle failure. Police use them in place of pistols and clubs to protect themselves and subdue unruly people.

More than 20,000 victims of a prize draw scam will get their cash back today following action by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).

The losers, typically old and vulnerable people, will receive a letter from Soca with a cheque for £20, telling them they had been targeted by criminals.

Soca will inform them they were victims of a phoney lottery known as the International Prize Disbursement Center, which sent out personalised mailshots designed to fool recipients into believing they had won £2m in a sweepstake.

The return of the money to the 22,000 victims comes after a Soca raid last June on premises in Radstock, Somerset, when nearly £500,000 was recovered in cash – those who responded to the mailshot were told to send £20. Soca believes that without the raid the Radstock address could have taken in more than £35m in a year.

Most business owners and executives think that because they are good people who do their best to follow all laws and rules, they are immune from worrying about criminal business investigations and issues.  However, nothing could be further from the truth.  Everyday conduct and occurrences can be construed as criminal like the following:

a)    Forgetting to include income on a tax return

b)   Misstating your income or expenses on a financial statement when applying for a bank loan

c)    Using loan proceeds for a purpose other than that for which you applied

d)   Bouncing a check

e)   Talking to competitors

Intel Corp. was rather quick to respond to allegations of European Commission, which accused the world’s largest maker of x86 central processing units (CPUs) of illegal business practices which ultimate goal was to exclude Advanced Micro Devices from the market of x86 chips. The company said that all allegations were unfounded and that the market was still highly competitive.

“We’re naturally disappointed the Commission has decided to issue a new statement of objections (SO). The issuance of a second SO suggests that the Commission supports AMD’s position that Intel should be prevented from competing fairly and offering price discounts which have resulted in lower prices for consumers,” a statement by Intel reads.

According to MarkMonitor company report about the use of brands and trade marks, swindle cases in Internet becomes more and more. The report contains recommendation to owners of brands in order to more resolutely struggle against those physical persons or companies who appropriate another's trade marks or names of domains.

The special attention is given to the so-called “fishing” technics which purpose is to access the confidential data of users such as logins and passwords. It is reached by carrying out mass distribution of electronic letters on behalf of known brands.

Internet swindlers also actively use “fishing” technics for illegal reception of the personal information, for example, the data on credit cards. According to MarkMonitor, “fishing” cases for the second half of 2008 have increased on 122 %. The company carries it into the account of the present economic crisis.

About 100 kg of cocaine has burnt down as a result of an air crash in Honduras. The plane was carrying more than 1 tone of cocaine and under the preliminary version of the authorities the drug had to be transported from Venezuela to the USA and Honduras ' Bay Islands was used as a transit territory.

According to Vice Minister of Security Mario Perdomo, the aircraft was pursued by two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration helicopters. For unknown reasons the plane ran into the earth, the pilot died and about 100 kg of cocaine has burnt down.

Later on 10th of March, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Ledy Pacheco affirmed that U.S. aircraft hadn’t been pursuing the plane but said the DEA did help Honduras authorities locate the plane. But Honduran Security Ministry spokesman Hector Ivan Mejia denied U.S.  involvement. He also mentioned that authorities are investigating "whether drug traffickers landed the plane and set it ablaze or if the pilot didn't manoeuvre it right and crashed."

Identity theft is a crime used to refer to fraud that involves someone pretending to be someone else in order to steal money or get other benefits. The term is relatively new and is actually a misnomer, since it is not inherently possible to steal an identity, only to use it. The person whose identity is used can suffer various consequences when he or she is held responsible for the perpetrator's actions. In many countries specific laws make it a crime to use another person's identity for personal gain.

It can result in untold financial and legal problems that may literally ruin your peace of mind and/or your life. Someone gaining control of your most personal details can reck havoc and result in dire consequences for you and your family.

The question is reasonable (even though it may not have been best phrased). Corruption is without a doubt the fuel of human rights abuse. It allows it to continue unabated and undressed. Those suffer from its effects and impact has now where to turn. If they cannot feel confident that the person they need to seek help from are not likely to assist.

Businesses worldwide face an uphill struggle to wipe out corruption and restore public trust after the collapse of Enron, the world's top anti-corruption think tank said yesterday.

Launching its annual global corruption report, Transparency International said public confidence in governments and firms had fallen sharply over the past year, as one scandal followed another.

Industrial espionage appeared along with the development of economy and the appearance of new multinational corporations. In reality industrial espionage represents an attempt to obtain important information about certain products, specific clients, plans and commercial secrets of a company. Such attempt is usually considered to be illegal. It is legal when competing firm tries to find as much information as possible about the rival from public records, but when it goes into private then those involved in industrial espionage can face jail term and/or financial penalties.

In most cases when a spy is looking forward to find secret information about the competitor, he or she tries to find someone who works for the rivaling company and bribe or blackmail that individual to obtain the necessary data. There are more chances of getting secret information from a person who was recently fired from the spied company. The punishment for the person divulging private data can rang from the fact that this person can be fired and up to serious criminal charges.

The Internet is littered with offers for home-based business opportunities that promise big profits for easy work. But many of these offers, which range from envelope stuffing to medical billing, are really scams that prey on people's aspirations to work for themselves.

Business opportunities share three characteristics: a solicitation to the buyer, a mandatory payment to the seller, and a promise to help the buyer find locations or leads that will bring profits. They're often advertised in classified ads, online, and in spam e-mail. Many claim to be low-risk ventures with money-back guarantees, and no experience necessary. Offers stress how much the participants can earn each week in specific dollar amounts, and fraudsters often have shills who falsely testify about their own success.

While some home-based business scams target vulnerable people such as the unemployed, experts say anyone can be taken in by the right pitch. "The techniques are no different in kind from the ordinary marketing techniques that normal sales people use.

The Italian mafia, the country's organised crime network and biggest enterprise, has not been affected by the global economic crisis, a report by an Italian business association said.

The mafia has a turnover of 130 billion euros (163 billion dollars) -- surpassing any other Italian enterprise in 2008 -- and a profit approaching 70 billion euros, said the report by Confesercenti, a group of 270,000 businesses specialising in the tourism and service sectors.

"Unlike other businesses, the mafia has been little affected by the international economic and financial crisis.

That fact makes the mafia "even more dangerous," said the association's president Marco Venturi.

Washington's largest and most influential shellfish grower should pay a $1.3 million fine for illegally growing geoducks on state-owned tidelands, the state Department of Natural Resources says.

But state Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland, the elected leader of DNR, said in a letter to Taylor Shellfish Farms that the company could reduce the fine to about $444,000 if it can prove its owners and employees were unaware of the trespassing.

The $1.3 million fine would outstrip any previous penalty levied against shellfish growers by DNR, said Fran McNair, aquatic lands steward for the agency.

Ever since neighbors complained about the trespassing earlier this year, Taylor Shellfish has said it had no idea the land was state-owned.