A how-to guide for the discovery and prevention of the illegal transfer of money Written for the private sector—where most money laundering takes place—this book clearly explains shows business professionals how to deter, detect, and resolve financial fraud cases internally. It expertly provides an understanding of the mechanisms, tools to detect issues, and action lists to recover hidden funds. Provides action-oriented material that will show how to deter, detect, and resolve financial fraud cases Offers an understanding of the mechanisms, tools to detect issues, and action list to recover hidden funds Covers mechanisms for moving money, identifying risk exposures, and investigating money movement Arming auditors, investigators, and compliance personnel with the guidance that, up until now, has been restricted to criminal investigators, Money Laundering Prevention provides nuts-and-bolts information needed to fully understand the money laundering process.

How exactly is money laundered? The answer to this question is not well understood – and for this very reason, costly prevention measures remain ineffective. This much-needed book provides the first in-depth explanation of the methods used by intelligent criminals to amass wealth from large-scale trafficking in drugs, arms, and human beings, as well as from less odious crimes. The author shows clearly not only why existing approaches to combat money laundering are bound to fail but also how money launderers easily circumvent such measures. Based on qualitative interviews with both alleged criminals and prevention experts, detailed illustrations of concrete steps taken by intelligent and specialized perpetrators of money laundering allow practitioners to anticipate and effectively combat this type of crime. The author fully documents such aspects of money launderers’ behaviour as the following: resources required; dealing with detection risks; and international mobility. A central chapter covers in depth the various markets, institutions, and facilities that are particularly favourable to money laundering, and original insights accompany the presented findings with relevant quotations from the interviewees. The author offers tailored recommendations for different professional groups, including bankers, prosecutors, defence lawyers, and judges. In its critical questioning of the logic behind anti-money laundering regulations and their costly implementation, the book demonstrates that either the existing measures of prevention are drastically tightened and extended to almost all branches of the economy or the financial sector is relieved of the burden it bears and alternative ways of fighting this type of crime are sought instead. It will prove enormously valuable to understanding and investigating white-collar and financial crime, and be welcomed by practitioners and professionals in financial markets, banking, criminal lawyers, and compliance experts, as well as academia.

Efforts to launder money and finance terrorism have been evolving rapidly in recent years in response to heightened countermeasures. The international community has witnessed the use of increasingly sophisticated methods to move illicit funds through financial systems across the globe and has acknowledged the need for improved multilateral cooperation to fight these criminal activities. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have developed this guide to help countries understand the new international standards. It will hopefully serve as a comprehensive source of practical information for countries to fight money laundering and terrorist financing. It discusses the problems caused by these crimes, the specific actions countries need to take to address them, and the role international organizations, such as the Bank and the IMF, play in the process. This guide is a tool for countries to establish and improve their legal and institutional frameworks and their preventive measures according to international standards and best practices. -- From Foreword (p. ix).

Many changes have occurred in the twenty-five years that have passed since the enactment of the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986. The law has been amended, new underlying crimes have been added, and court decisions have modified its scope. The Act remains an important tool in combating criminal activity. Now in its third edition, Money Laundering: A Guide for Criminal Investigators covers the basics of finding ill-gotten gains, linking them to the criminal, and seizing them. Providing a clear understanding of money laundering practices, it explains the investigative and legislative processes that are essential in detecting and circumventing this illegal and dangerous activity. Highlights of the Third Edition include Important court decisions and changes in federal law since the Second Edition New trends in crime and terrorism financing The rise of money laundering in connecting with major frauds, including the Bernie Madoff case Law and policy shifts related to terrorism and financing since the Obama administration New methods for financial intelligence and the filing of Suspicious Activity Reports How changes in technology have enabled launderers to move funds more easily and anonymously Knowledge of the techniques used to investigate these cases and a full understanding of the laws and regulations that serve as the government’s weapons in this fight are essential for the criminal investigator. This volume arms those tasked with finding and tracing illegal proceeds with this critical knowledge, enabling them to thwart illegal profiteering by finding the paper trail.

Responding to Money Laundering has its origin in the International Conference on Preventing and Controlling Money Laundering and the Use of Proceeds of Crime: A Global Approach organised by ISPAC, the International Scientific and Advisory Board of the United Nations in co-operation with the Crime and Justice Branch of the United Nations under the auspices of the Italian Government. This conference has been a milestone in the recent international debate on money laundering. Some of the main papers presented are substantially revised and collected in this book making a major contribution to the development of expertise in the field. Divided into two sections -- "Trends and Implications" and "Tuning the Instruments" -- the chapters develop an analysis of the different aspects of the money laundering problem and attempt to tune the instruments for combating them. Globalization of the problem calls for globalization of the responses. By presenting a wide range of different approaches and

This book analytically reviews the impact of the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) framework on the compliance trajectory of a number of jurisdictions to this framework. The work begins by examining the international financial sector reform and its evolution to inculcate the global framework for AML/CFT regulations. It challenges the resulting uniform AML/CFT due to its paradoxical impact on the compliance trajectory of African countries and emerging economies (ACs/EEs). This is done through an examination of the pre-conditions for effective regulation and compliance drivers for ACs/EEs that reveals the behavioural impact of the AML/CFT standards on the bloc of countries. Through the application of agency theory, it explores the relationship between ACs/EEs on the one hand and the international financial institutions that formulate, disseminate and facilitate compliance with the global framework for AML/CFT standards on the other. The remaining chapters review empirically the compliance pressures and resulting compliance trajectory of ACs/EEs with the AML/CFT standards. The final part of the book provides a detailed explanation of the compliance challenges of ACs/EEs and the legitimacy concerns that facilitate this. This book offers a new direction on the impact of global AML/CFT standards on ACs/EEs and contributes to the understanding of the conditions under which the global standards are likely to facilitate proactive compliance within these blocs of countries. As such it will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in this area.