Case studies in culture

While investigating South American drug traffickers, I had to track their movements as they traveled with their families between South America and the U.S., but the only information I had were the men’s surnames. While this information might seem vital to tracing someone’s flights between continents, having grown up in a Puerto Rican family and in a neighborhood of South American families, I knew that it’s not uncommon for South Americans to use both maternal and paternal surnames, and it was possible they were using their wives’, mothers’ or maternal grandmothers’ last names to travel. At first, my team was skeptical that searching for the women’s names would help, but knowing this information soon paid off. The men and their spouses were indeed traveling under the women’s surnames since it was culturally and legally acceptable for them to do so. Not only were we able to track their travels to and from the U.S., but we were also able to find their “funnel accounts” — bank accounts that receive deposits in multiple locations so that money launderers can circumvent reporting requirements for transactions — because they’d used maternal surnames to open them. (See “Dos Apellidos: When Families Have Two Surnames,” by Nicolás Cabrera, Denver Public Library, Nov. 17, 2020; “Lourdes C. Miranda, CFE,” by Jennifer Liebman, CFE, Fraud Magazine, November/December 2023; and “12 Red Flags for ‘Funnel Accounts’ Used to Launder Money,” by Denise Hutchings, Verafin, Feb. 25, 2015.)

I’ve been conducting international financial fraud investigations for more than 25 years, including when I was a CIA officer and FBI analyst, and while the latest technologies and investigative methods are important to my cases, I’ve found that my knowledge of the human side of the equation — the cultural customs and the language — was essential to closing a case.

Be prepared for anything

Fraud examiners know that before they travel to a different jurisdiction, they need to consider whether they’re going to be working within a civil or common law system, what rules of evidence they’ll need to follow, and the digital privacy laws of the land, just to name a few. (See “Global fraud is the same - legal systems aren’t,” by Dr. Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA, Fraud Magazine, July/August 2019.) Savvy fraud examiners should also know to conduct reconnaissance of the region so that they can successfully navigate the terrain. Before you head out, read up on threats to the location, whether it’s terrorist organizations or human trafficking or weather, and spend time studying the local culture and customs to better interact with people.

No matter where you go, you’ll need to get around once you get there. Whether you’re meeting with subjects or witnesses for interviews or collecting documents for an investigation, you’ll need transportation, and you’ll need to confidently get to your destination like a local. But not all locations are created equal when it comes to extensive public transportation systems, especially if you’re in a rural area. Find out what modes of transportation the locals use, and plan to use those. Of course, this might mean that you’ll need to learn a new skill.

When I was in the CIA leading a team in South America and in Europe, I first had to take a defensive-driving training course so that I could learn how to evade people who might be following us and keep up with the suspects we were following. I also had to learn to drive a manual vehicle and a motorcycle. Manual vehicles are common in South America and in Europe, and as an American (and CIA officer), the last thing I wanted to do was call attention to myself by driving a vehicle with automatic transmission. Being able to drive a motorcycle was also crucial for me and my team as we often had to navigate narrow streets, blend in with crowds and move fast while escaping detection.

Technology isn’t always reliable, and you might not have access to a smartphone. In those cases, you might need to rely on maps to get around. Luckily for me, I learned how to read maps for my job as a truck dispatcher when I was in college, and this skill proved advantageous for me in field training. The trick to reading a map? Read the numbers, not the names of the roads, and analyze the miles from point A to point B, etc. Even in countries where I didn’t know the language and couldn’t read the street names, I could read the numbers on the map.

Obtaining information such as dates and places of birth is crucial when conducting international fraud investigations, especially if you get access to bank accounts, financial documents, passports, and visas and need to confirm identifying information. However, not everyone has a form of identification, and you might need to seek alternative routes for that information. When collecting documents, you might consider visiting local religious institutions to obtain information about your subject’s birth or go to local government offices to corroborate dates of birth.

Act like you belong

If you want to blend in wherever you are, you must dress the part. For example, in the U.S., when the temperatures soar, people put on shorts, dresses and t-shirts to keep cool. But in hot climates around the world, it’s typical for people to cover up with long sleeves and long pants, and you don’t want to look like a tourist. To prepare for fraud investigations in these regions, my team and I trained to acclimate to hot weather. When we set up shop in the region, we bought clothes in the local stores and styled our hair to match the locals. We got suntans, and we didn’t wear our usual colognes or perfumes. We didn’t wear anything that would indicate that we were outsiders. We wore the same types of watches, hats, eyeglasses (no contact lenses), shoes and jewelry as the locals. We had to get used to drinking local tap water because only tourists drank bottled water.

Learning some of the local entertainment customs can be a plus. For example, if you’re going to a Latin American country, learning to salsa or merengue is a good way to fit in and interact with others. Luckily, my Puerto Rican family taught me how to dance, and I always listened to old and current Spanish music when I was growing up. Learning the local dances and music is a great way to improve your language skills. Before you travel to your investigation destination, spend some time watching movies and news from the location; it’s a great way to get a better understanding of where you’re going to be.

Lastly, as a fraud examiner who’s interviewed many people from various cultures, I’ve learned to be mindful of gender. In some cases, male subjects weren’t comfortable speaking to me, and it was important to have a male colleague handle those interviews.

Learn the language

When you’re conducting a fraud examination in another country, you’re going to need to communicate with others. If you aren’t familiar with the local dialect, it’s a good idea to hire a linguist who can help you interview local subjects. Furthermore, having some knowledge of forensic linguistics can be extremely helpful in building cases, developing leads and closing gaps in intelligence. Forensic linguists use language that’s spoken and written to find viable evidence for legal cases. Knowing dialect, including someone’s accent or vocabulary specific to their region, or slang, can provide insights into where a person is from or where they might live. (See “Forensic Linguistics,” Vaia.)

For example, knowing that different Spanish-speaking people use different slang terms for currency helped me successfully investigate South American drug traffickers and money launderers. When I was reviewing surveillance tapes and videos, I was able to assess where the drug traffickers were from. The drug traffickers I investigated used the term “chavos,” which is Puerto Rican slang for money. In other Spanish-speaking countries people might say plata, dinero, chirola, billete, luca, quivo or barras when referring to currency.

Identifying different dialects is also crucial when interviewing. In one case while I was in the CIA, an Argentinian man I interviewed knew right away that I was Puerto Rican based on my dialect. He also knew I was raised in the U.S. because of my accent. I learned an important lesson about mastering the dialect. During an investigation in Spain, I brought a translator with me to help navigate the differences between the Spanish and Castilian languages, because they’re quite different. In my experience, interviewees were much more relaxed with me when I could communicate with them in their dialect. It assured them that they were respected and that I could relate to them. We were always able to gather more intelligence and evidence when we could speak to someone using their language. I strongly recommend that fraud investigators take language classes taught by native speakers. Even if you never become fluent in a language, having some understanding of what’s being said while you sit in on a meeting, or an interview, enables you to ask questions that can help build a strong case or gather valuable intelligence that can help you develop leads.

In my experience, investigations can collapse when people don’t learn about or understand the customs and the people involved in their cases. I’ve seen fraud investigators miss opportunities to build strong cases, and analysts and field officers collect weak intelligence because they didn’t have the cultural knowledge they needed. When you’re working in countries and with people with vastly different cultures from yours, you can’t rely on the ways you’re used to doing things. You must adapt to your surroundings and learn the ways of your host country — even better, learn about a place before you go there. Taking the time to understand other people and their ways of doing things enables you to relate to them and can even protect you when working on a sensitive case.

Lourdes C. Miranda, CFE, is chief consultant for the FinTech Advisory Group, a division of RaLytics, LLC. Contact her at lmiranda@ralytics.com.