Cashing Out: Solving Frauds in the Cash Economy

Through surveillance and police work, investigators in Wellington, New Zealand, had strong suspicions that  middle-aged male was selling illegal narcotics. However, a financial analysis of the suspect’s lifestyle failed to show a cash shortage when comparing his expenses against his reported legitimate income. So, what was the suspect doing with the money he made from his drug deals?

The police decided to execute a search warrant on the suspect’s home. During the search, one of the investigators noticed a freshly dug area in the backyard. Thinking the suspect had buried his drugs, the investigators proceeded to dig in the loose soil. Instead of finding illegal narcotics, the investigators uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold coins. This was the missing key! This explained what the suspect was doing with his ill-gotten gains. When the purchase of gold was factored into the financial analysis, it was revealed that the suspect had a significant deficit in available cash, which proved to be strong circumstantial evidence when it was presented in court with the rest of the investigation’s findings.

Because New Zealand has proceeds of crime legislation, this analysis convinced the judge to levy a substantial fine against the defendant to be paid to the New Zealand government. Consequently, the defendant’s bank accounts were cleared out and all his assets and property were sold.