Introduction and overview
The Black Money video shows how financial fraud and bribery is used in around the globe. In the movie, BAE was charged a $ 400 million fine by the US and the UK for bribery. BAE admitted to the charges where the company admitted that it had made false statements against the United States government as well as violating United Kingdom’s foreign policy laws (Mehsud, 2012). The content of the film is generally about policy issues. The movie is based on the global crises that struck the world in 2007/2008. With the decreasing financial strength in the world’s greatest economies, lawyers from the U.S. justice department emerged with a plan to crack down the looming bribery activities that were rapidly increasing (Mehsud, 2012). World Bank had valued the amount of money lost through this consortium to be around one trillion dollars per year (Mehsud, 2012).
Factors addressed in the video
Lowell Bergman sets out to investigate this syndicate, which had drained the United States of America billions of dollars. A hundred cases of bribery were before a prosecutor from the department of justice, Mark Mendelssohn, who asserts that the United States has collected close to $ 1.5 billion from cases connected to foreign bribery (Mehsud, 2012). Black money is used in large-scale in international business platforms where drug peddlers and other illegal deals are carried out. Black Money is easy to steal because it is usually not accounted for in the Federal Reserve’s and as David Leigh in the movie puts it, people steal the money because they can (Mehsud, 2012). David’s report, which is a landmark revelation about the extent of corrupt dealings involving a British company and a Saudi royal family, uncovers the $80 billion arms deal.
Policy implications and future ramifications
The movie shows the irregularities involved in the acquisition of arms for the Saudi government. The entire American congress rallied against the move while the U.S. ambassador Prince Bandar was in charge of the plan. In the movie, we are shown how the royal family acquired the American fighter jets under shoddy dealings. The ambassador lobbied for an agreement between the Saudi royal air force and the United Kingdom through BAE. This deal is the major cause of disagreement since it was characterized by massive bribery (Schmalleger, 2012). The deal caused immense suspicion among the involved parties. Nonetheless, the positive side of this deal was that it created numerous job opportunities for the Britons. The double benefits of this deal include creation of wealth for Britain while the Saudi were able to defend its territory.
Elements of crimes
At the same time, the deal was also suffering immense corrupt dealings under the table. Fraud officers reigned on the white-collar crime where prince Bandar was a major culprit. Black mail ensued when Blair threatened to continue with investigations on the Al Yamamah (Mehsud, 2012). The Saudi royal government threatened to halt their cooperation in the war against terror. This has been the main challenge globally in terms of the war against international crimes such as financial fraud. With the global community interdependence, countries take advantage of each other. The United States for instance is the world’s greatest global economy. It is also the world’s only superpower and its military technology is quite advanced. These advantages have been used before whenever America commits a breach of international law.
Crime theory in the movie
The atrocities committed by the western countries in other countries go unpunished simply because the developed world has a greater say in international laws. This movie depicts how corrupt dealings are done openly like other legitimate business. It also shows the involvement of government officials, a factor that raises great concerns. The crimes in this video can be addressed through the social conflict criminology theory. This theory suggests that criminal activities are as a result of societal conflicts between economic classes (Schmalleger, 2012). Such disputes utilize law and legal processes to maintain power over each other. Money fraud crime as shown in the movie is a very common criminal activity especially in the current generation where technological advancement. Technology has greatly compromised the level of privacy globally. Today people can purchase or sale their properties from one corner of the world to the other and they can save their finances using online banking (Schmalleger, 2012).
This has simplified and enhanced trade as well as businesses, but also it has put people and businesses at greater risks of falling victims of money fraud. Black Money is not accounted for, which is the main reason why it has been used world over. Curbing the use of black money is however, a very great challenge since even some legitimate government deals are sometimes carried out on illegal terms. Differentiating illegal dealings and the legitimate ones especially in situations where government officials are involved is quite a hard task. The movie is a perfect display of the international crimes and financial fraud that has been on the rise in this generation.
References
Mehsud, S. (2012). Black Money. Web.
Schmalleger, F. (2012). Criminology today: An integrated introduction. (6th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.