Video - Dealing in Hot Air - Trading in carbon credits is becoming the new playground for organized crime, INTERPOL warns.

Video - Dealing in Hot Air - Trading in carbon credits is becoming the new playground for organized crime, INTERPOL warns.HT: SunNews.

INTERPOL says fraudsters are drawn to the schemes because "carbon credits do not represent a physical commodity but instead have been described as a legal fiction that is poorly understood by many sellers, buyers and traders."

In a new guide for law enforcement agencies, INTERPOL says criminals pulled off a reforestation scam worth an estimated US$80 million in an unspecified country.
"A country recently investigated a number of transactions in which people purchased forested land with boundaries that either did not exist or were poorly marked," INTERPOL says in the guide. "According to INTERPOL reports there is evidence that documents were forged and bribes paid to facilitate the process."
In other cases, dishonest people sold the same intangible credit to multiple buyers, making a tidy profit off global warming fears.
INTERPOL says the guide, produced with the help of Environment Canada and several other agencies, is meant to help police get a handle on green fraudsters.

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