Criminals disguising illicit earnings stay ahead of police efforts to crack down

Chinese restaurants that stand empty day and night. Jewelry shops with no customers. Nightclubs without dancers. Travel agencies that don't organize travel. These are all businesses known at times to launder money -- typically by disguising illicitly generated cash as legal earnings and passing the money through the mainstream banking system. "There are businesses where it is easier to hide money. I know that Czechs like to travel, but you have a huge amount of travel agencies in Prague," said John Mottram, a European Union accession adviser working on money-laundering policy at the Interior Ministry. "There are also lots of restaurants and bars. I'm sure a number of those businesses are covers for criminal groups, even if the employees there don't realize it." These days, however, such firms are at the low end of vehicles used to hide sources of ill-gotten gains, observers say. Financial authorities, forensic specialists and bank security officials said money launderers are increasingly using legal and accountancy services, modern computer and Internet technology, stock market transactions and shadowy shell companies in an effort to stay ahead of investigators. As a result, these observers say, authorities are having a harder time than ever finding and prosecuting offenders, even as lawmakers institute EU-compliant laws and banks become more watchful.