Nowadays, it is common to hear news stories about the arrest of people trying to leave the country with money, especially hard currency, via borders and airports. A couple of months ago, law enforcement even forced a plane to return to Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport hours after it took off, in order to arrest a woman who had boarded the flight with close to half a million dollars in illegally smuggled money.
In line with the increasing illegal cross-border movement of capital, the number of cases filed in courts has also been mounting. Since 2014/15, close to 300 cases related to the illegal cross-border movement of capital were filed at the Lideta Federal High Court. 110 of those defendants have already been sentenced, and 99 of the cases are currently being heard. Each case involves sums of ETB50 to ETB300 million.
However, government officials stress that these cases are a very tiny portion of the illegal activity going on in the country. “It is like grabbing the tail of the devil,” says Temesgen Lapiso, director of the Trans-Boundary Crimes Directorate at Lideta Federal High Court.
Indeed, in Ethiopia, illicit financial flow (IFF) is one of the most serious issues being faced by the government and law enforcement. According to the study released by Transparency International in September 2018, called ‘Illicit Financial Flows in Ethiopia’ which covers the years 2005 to 2014, an estimated average of USD1.3 billion to USD3.2 billion has left Ethiopia in the form of IFFs every year. The annual capital flow from Ethiopia is equivalent to about 11Pct to 29Pct of the country’s total trade, 40Pct to 97Pct of aid, or 10Pct to 30Pct of the government’s annual revenue.
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