A former multi-million dollar money launderer turned financial crime consultant will take centre stage at the Bermuda Compliance Summit II later this month.

Kenneth Rijock, who was previously involved in more than one hundred cash smuggling operations of between several hundred thousand and six million dollars via private jet, will be a featured speaker at the summit organised by Association of Bermuda Compliance Officers and held at the Fairmont Southampton Princess on September 28 and 29.

Mr. Rijock, who will be presenting the second day's penultimate session entitled "Tales from the Darkside", served as a banking lawyer in an international law firm, prior to working as a money launderer and adviser to narcotics trafficking organisations operating in North and South America in the 1980s.

Now based in Miami as a financial crime consultant, he was previously responsible for the bulk transfer of huge sums of money by business jet to locations from which the funds could be fed back into legitimate businesses. The earnings to the criminals were known to be hundreds of millions of dollars.

While serving a federal prison sentence for racketeering and money laundering, he assisted with the first joint Swiss-American money laundering investigation of bankers and lawyers, which resulted in a major seizure of the proceeds of crime.

Among some of his more elaborate schemes, Mr. Rijock dressed his clients in business suits carrying attache cases full of millions of dollars with a cover story they were inspecting potential factory premises in the British Dependent Territory of Anguilla, chartering a small jet from Fort Lauderdale piloted by a World War Two veteran to go and set up bogus companies in the Caribbean island, with his contact the prominent lawyer Peter Hendrix — constitutional adviser to Her Majesty's government in Anguilla — who over the years held several government posts in neighbouring St Kitts.

The money deposited in the Caribbean bank was then sent with other deposits to a major New York bank, into a correspondent account the bank maintained there, with the US bank paying more interest to the Caribbean bank than his clients received, and the money was lent out, at a higher rate still, to a Fortune 500 company, while Mr. Rijock carried on his day job as a lawyer as usual before the authorities caught up with him.

He was subsequently arrested and charged with racketeering and conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, prior to being imprisoned and landing a job helping law enforcement agents with their sting operations to catch money launderers on his release in 1992.

Mr. Rijock brings an extensive experience in money laundering tactics and tradecraft, spreading the word among law enforcement and the US and Canadian intelligence services.

He is also a veteran of the Vietnam and Cambodia war and holds the Combat Infantryman's Badge and Bronze Star Medal.

The cost of the conference is $1,050, and $1,200 for registration after September 15, including all sessions, breakfast, lunch and refreshments on both days, and a cocktail reception with dinner on the Monday evening.

The conference will offer continuing education credits approved by many professional associations for regulatory purposes. A certificate of attendance will be issued to all attendees. Volume discounts for more than three attendees are available.

For more information, visit the conference website at www.abco.bm or contact conference organiser Jacinta Baptiste-Jones at 236-2305 e-mail conforganizer@abco.bm