Advisory and consulting offerings provided by professional firms or individuals to assist clients with specialized expertise on business, financial, or related matters, typically governed by contractual agreements.
Main/
Professional Consultancy Services
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Code
PS0058
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Name
Professional Consultancy Services
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Version
1.0
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Category
Professional & Advisory Services
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Created
2025-03-14
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Modified
2025-04-02
Related Techniques
- Brokers or consultants can open or manage accounts in their own or third-party names, adding a barrier between the criminal and suspicious transactions.
- Their professional status lends legitimacy to otherwise suspect financial flows, complicating AML controls.
- Criminals draft fictitious or inflated consultancy agreements to funnel bribes.
- Payments made under purported 'consultancy fees' appear legitimate, thereby evading scrutiny and hiding the corrupt nature of the transaction.
- Specialized consultants can be hired for insider knowledge on sector-specific regulations and documentation formats, inadvertently or knowingly aiding in the creation of believable forgeries.
- Criminals present these forged materials as expert-vetted, adding an additional facade of authenticity to illicit operations.
- Criminals establish sham consulting firms under this service category, issuing invoices for nonexistent or minimal work to justify inflows of illicit funds as legitimate fees.
- Inflated or unexplained charges for intangible “advisory” tasks make it challenging for financial institutions to detect money laundering, enabling illicit proceeds to be layered into the system.
- Provide cover for questionable payments passed off as consulting or lobbying fees, allowing criminals to justify unusually large or frequent outflows toward political efforts.
- Facilitate issuance of invoices for supposed advisory or lobbying work, masking the true purpose of the funds and evading direct categorization as campaign contributions.
- Criminals seek specialized consulting advice to tailor intricate financial or corporate strategies that bypass AML safeguards.
- Professional credibility deters deeper questioning, and complex recommendations facilitate multi-layered transactions that obscure ownership.
- Used to facilitate or advise on rigged tender processes under a veil of legitimate business consulting.
- ‘Consultancy fees’ or ‘commissions’ can mask bribes or kickbacks paid to secure predetermined contract awards.
- Criminals establish or acquire consulting firms to issue inflated or sham service contracts, masking illicit proceeds as legitimate fees.
- The intangible, subjective nature of consultancy services makes it difficult to verify deliverables or pricing, allowing overbilling or fictitious charges.
- By labeling funds as 'consulting' income, offenders blend illegal capital into normal business receipts and reduce AML scrutiny.
- Criminals exploit the intangible nature of consulting work by issuing inflated or fictitious invoices to blend illicit proceeds with lawful fees.
- Non-transparent pricing structures and flexible service definitions allow for easy manipulation of fee arrangements, concealing the true source of funds.
- Offers specialized business or financial advice that may include structuring inter-company pricing strategies.
- Helps craft justifications or documentation that makes artificially manipulated transfer prices appear market-aligned.
- Tax advisors or consultants may design complex schemes to improperly shield or shift taxable income.
- Offer specialized knowledge to exploit loopholes and frustrate investigations into undeclared revenue.