Money laundering is as old as money itself – and yet the laws designed to prevent it are as ineffective as they ever have been.
Today’s anti-money laundering (AML) regulations were designed to eliminate profits from drug trafficking and combat tax evasion, terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. However, the modern laws have done little to stop crime and have instead significantly increased the regulatory burden on legitimate businesses and consumers. As one banker at an AML conference quipped, ‘This does not stop money laundering; it just enables those in the know to charge more.’
Indeed, AML laws have laid the foundations for massive and sophisticated criminal enterprise support services that help criminals evade detection.
How to Launder Money: A guide for law enforcement, prosecutors and policymakers offers a peek behind the veil to see the bent levers of finance and how they are pulled. It also examines how many who have pulled them, including one of the authors, have ended up behind bars. While acknowledging the challenges faced by law enforcement in a borderless world, it also provides concrete recommendations on how to reduce the crime associated with money laundering.
The criminals already know how to launder money; this is, in part, their inside story. This book is for the rest of us, who want to know how the laws that are supposed to protect us from crime are in reality doing more damage than ever before.
