Outside of crimes of passion, criminals, criminal organizations, kleptocrats, and some businesses and corporations are motivated by greed. In today's increasingly interconnected world, the criminal manifestations of unchecked avarice impact all of us - politically, socially, economically, and culturally. Transnational crime effects our individual and collective security. The magnitude of crime is measured in the multi-trillions of dollars annually. Laundering or hiding and disguising the proceeds of crime is essential for criminal organizations. Unfortunately, the last thirty years have demonstrated that our anti-money laundering (AML) countermeasures are not effective. Examining the "metrics that matter," we are a "decimal point away from total failure." The outlook going forward is not promising. Money Laundering and Illicit Financial Flows - Following the Money and Value Trails is the first book to take a hard look at our AML track record. Written primarily from a law enforcement perspective, the book examines old and new money laundering methodologies. It exposes threats, enablers, and facilitators. Making the case for an AML paradigm shift, the book offers alternative steps forward. Combining facts, straight-forward explanations, case studies, as well as the author's personal experiences, views and commentary, this book is valuable to the public and private sectors, policy makers, as well as students and concerned citizens. As a former Treasury Special Agent, John Cassara has investigated and studied money laundering for over 30 years. Equally at home in back streets or government bureaucracies, he has a unique perspective and offers an insider's knowledge. He delights in telling it as it is. The author of five books and countless articles on money laundering and threat finance, Cassara continues to surface important issues that deserve our attention.

This publication identifies the main areas of weakness and potential areas for action to combat money-laundering, tax evasion, foreign bribery, and to identify, freeze and return stolen assets.

In The Flow of Illicit Funds, Ola M. Tucker uses recent case studies to provide compliance professionals with a holistic understanding of the modern money laundering system and to give them a foundation to better detect and deter it.

Illicit financial flows constitute a global phenomenon of massive but uncertain scale, which erodes government revenues and drives corruption in countries rich and poor. This book offers a critical examination of existing data and methodologies, identifying the most promising avenues for future improvement.

Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? World Development Report 2017: Governance and the Law addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.

Anti–Money Laundering in a Nutshellis a concise, accessible, and practical guide to compliance with anti–money laundering law for financial professionals, corporate investigators, business managers, and all personnel of financial institutions who are required, under penalty of hefty fines, to get anti–money laundering training. Money laundering is endemic. As much as 5 percent of global GDP ($3.6 trillion) is laundered by criminals each year. It’s no wonder that every financial institution in the United States—including banks, credit card companies, insurers, securities brokerages, private funds, and money service businesses—must comply with complex examination, training, and reporting requirements mandated by a welter of federal anti–money laundering (AML) laws. Ignorance of crime is no excuse before the law. Financial institutions and businesses that unknowingly serve as conduits for money laundering are no less liable to prosecution and fines than those that condone or abet it. In Anti–Money Laundering in a Nutshell: Awareness and Compliance for Financial Personnel and Business Managers, Kevin Sullivan draws on a distinguished career as an AML agent and consultant to teach personnel in financial institutions what money laundering is, who does it, how they do it, how to prevent it, how to detect it, and how to report it in compliance with federal law. He traces the dynamic interplay among employees, regulatory examiners, compliance officers, fraud and forensic accountants and technologists, criminal investigators, and prosecutors in following up on reports, catching launderers, and protecting the integrity and reputations of financial institutions and businesses. In particular, corporate investigators will gain rich insights winnowed from the author's experiences as a New York State and federal investigator.

Transnational organized crime interferes with the everyday lives of more and more people - and represents a serious threat to democracy. By now, organized crime has become an inherent feature of economic globalization, and the fine line between the legal and illegal operation of business networks is blurred. Additionally, few experts could claim to have comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the laws and regulations governing the international flow of trade, and hence of the borderline towards criminal transactions. This book offers contributions from 12 countries around the world authored by 25 experts from a wide range of academic disciplines, representatives from civil society organizations and private industry, journalists, as well as activists. Recognizing the complexity of the issue, this publication provides a cross cultural and multi-disciplinary analysis of transnational organized crime including a historical approach from different regional and cultural contexts. Conception: Regine Schönenberg and Annette von Schönfeld.