FBIS4-43533
"drweu118_a_94009"
FBIS-WEU-94-118
Daily Report
19 Jun 1994
AUSTRIA
Chinese Restaurants Reportedly Launder Money
Chinese Restaurants Reportedly Launder Money
AU1906190394 Vienna KURIER in German 19 Jun 94 p 5
AU1906190394
Vienna KURIER
German
BFN
[Unattributed report: "Triads From China and Mafia Members
From the Balkans"]
[Text] The Russians do not have a monopoly. In China and
Hong Kong, too, there are Mafia-like structures -- the so-called
triads. They are primarily organizing the smuggling of people.
How the gigantic profits are invested was cautiously
indicated by Interior Minister Loeschnak in his book
People From Abroad, Refugees, Expellees, Guest
Workers:
"At the moment 346 Chinese restaurants are registered in the
trade register in Vienna alone.... Even though I do not
overestimate these findings and know that there are many `good'
Chinese, the security authorities are of the opinion that these
Chinese restaurants form the pillars of a dynamic, rigidly
organized, perfectly and professionally working, cohesive
system."
The Chinese do figure prominently in money laundering and
these restaurants are excellently suited for that purpose.
Money laundering always works where there is a large and
sophisticated network of restaurants.
Just like Turkish-Kurdish organizations, the Chinese triads
also benefit from the extortion of protection money.
Over the past few months criminals from the former
Yugoslavia
have repeatedly come under the heading of "mafia." The
expression "Yugo Mafia" is, however, exaggerated, Josef Dick, an
official of the Interior Ministry, says. "Even though there is
organized crime, there is no large network of gangs in the
background, such as in Russia or China." Over the past years the
"Yugo Mafia" has primarily attracted attention because of its
activities in connection with the acquisition of weapons, but it
also earns money with prostitution. Almost the entire scene
red-light district of Vienna is in its hands.