Consultant or Advisor

They provide a veneer of legitimate business consulting while:

• Advising on how to manipulate the bidding process or tender documentation.
• Invoicing 'consultancy fees' that serve as kickbacks or bribes.

These fees and advisory services appear legitimate to financial institutions, helping to disguise collusion and the true origin of illicit funds.

Criminals exploit consulting or advisory businesses by:

• Issuing inflated or fictitious invoices under the guise of intangible services.
• Leveraging non-transparent pricing and minimal documentation to blend illicit funds with legitimate revenue.

This undermines financial institutions' ability to assess the legitimacy of fees, masking the illicit origins of the payments.

Consultants or advisors knowingly support fictitious consulting schemes by:

• Creating or endorsing sham advisory contracts and invoices for nonexistent or inflated services.
• Colluding with criminal clients to legitimize illicit proceeds as consulting fees, hindering financial institutions' ability to detect fraudulent transactions.

Consulting entities, including lobbying or political advisory firms, act as intermediaries by billing purported fees that disguise bribes or unlawful campaign support. They may knowingly or unknowingly issue invoices for lobbying or consulting work without providing genuine services, hindering financial institutions’ ability to detect false payment patterns.

Specialized consultants or advisors may be hired to:

• Provide detailed guidance on complex sector-specific regulations and document formats.
• Unwittingly or knowingly help criminals tailor fraudulent paperwork to pass authenticity checks.

Their expertise and professional reputation can add credibility to forged documentation, complicating financial institutions' efforts to detect irregularities.

These individuals or firms may knowingly or unknowingly facilitate the scheme by:

• Providing professional cover for dubious contracts labeled as consulting or advisory services.
• Issuing invoices or documentation that justify exaggerated fees, making it appear as standardized business relationships.
• Offering subjective or intangible services that are difficult for financial institutions to authenticate or price-check.