The 3 businesses criminals are using to clean dirty money in Kenya [Revealed]

The Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) and Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) on Thursday released a report outlining the three business most criminals target for money laundering.

According to the report, law firms, real estate developers and second hand car dealers are the new conduits for the dirty money or corruption proceeds.

The report noted that investigations have been targeted at banks and other financial institutions in the past.

Due to the misconception, banks and financial institutions were asked to conduct investigations before allowing customers to withdraw any amount of Sh 1 million and above.

Bundles of Kenyan notes (Twitter) Pulse Live Kenya

"We are looking at …areas of real estate and second-hand motor vehicles where people are able to trade in cash basis. The issue of being able to buy a second-hand vehicle in cash and that sector is not regulated, we are also addressing that," FRC CEO Saitoti Maika explained.

KBA chief executive Habil Olaka added: "We need to keep improving the law as new areas come up. Things like human trafficking … and even second-hand vehicles are new ways of laundering money."

How Law Firms launder dirty money

The authorities explained that law firms are targeted due the wide range of services they provide.

Criminals use lawyers to carry out legitimate transactions for property purchased through the questionable cash.

A number of cars on sale (Twitter) Pulse Live Kenya

Bank account management, company acquisitions and set up of new firms are other ways money laundering occurs.

"To a large extent, it’s not the financial institutions that are used to abet corruption (because) proceeds of corruption are not necessarily going into financial institutions," Saitoti explained.