"This new work by Margaret E. Beare and Stephen Schneider brings empirical evidence to the study of money laundering in Canada. The authors challenge the dominant, seemingly common-sense notion, fuelled by political posturing and policing rhetoric, that taking the profits away from criminals (proceeds of crime enforcement) is a rational and effective tactic. Using extensive research involving records gathered from police, financial institutions, and legal sources, the authors paint a picture of a dubiousenforcement strategy beset by conflicting interests and agendas, an overly ambitious set of expectations, and reliance on an ambiguous body of evidence as to the strategy's overall merits."--BOOK JACKET.

During the last few decades, corrupt financial practices were increasingly being monitored in many countries around the globe. The past few decades have been eventful for these issues. Today, tackling money laundering and terrorism financing are considered key issues in developed and developing countries alike. Eradication of money laundering and terrorism financing through a holistic approach of awareness, prevention, and enforcement is a current need. It has enabled the birth of new regulatory regimes based on strict compliance, robust processes, and technology. One of the many problems with this is the lack of general awareness about all these issues among various stakeholders including researchers and practitioners. Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in Global Financial Systems deepens the discourse about money laundering, terrorism financing, and risk management in a modern-day environment. It provides a fascinating and invaluable guide for understanding the theory, practice, and cases of these topics. Split into two sections, the first being money laundering and terrorism financing and the second being financial governance and risk management, the chapters create comprehensive knowledge on these acts of crime in the financial industry by defining the crimes themselves, the many challenges and impacts, and potential solutions. This book is ideal for government officials, financial professionals, policymakers, academicians, business professionals, managers, IT specialists, researchers, and students.

This book provides a detailed examination of anti-money laundering policies and legislative frameworks in a number of jurisdictions and considers how successful these jurisdictions have been in implementing international measures to combat money laundering. Looking at the instruments and proposals put in place by a number of institutions including the United Nations (UN), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the European Union, the book begins by reclassifying and expanding the traditional global anti-laundering policy to include aspects such as having a national money laundering strategy in place, the implementation of international instruments and the role of government and regulatory agencies. Ryder then offers a comparative analytical review of the anti-money laundering policies adopted in the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia and considers to what extent they have followed and implemented the identified global anti-money laundering policy. Money Laundering – An Endless Cycle? will be of particular interest to academics and students in the fields of Law, Finance, Banking and Criminology.

This report provides a summary of the anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures in place in Italy as at the date of the onsite visit. It analyzes the level of compliance with the Financial Action Task Force recommendations and the level of effectiveness of Italy's AML/CFT system, and provides recommendations on how the system could be strengthened. Italy has a mature and sophisticated AML/CFT regime, with a correspondingly well-developed legal and institutional framework. Law enforcement agencies access, use, and develop good quality financial intelligence. Financial sector supervisors have been using a risk-based approach to varying degrees, but their supervisory tools could be improved.

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.

Contributors offer a wide range of challenges to commonly-held views on transnational crime and approaches to fighting it, suggesting that current international policies follow an American model that exaggerates its threat out of proportion.

In 1994, when Jeffrey Robinson, author of The Laundrymen, first brought to the world's attention the problems of dirty money --- revealing how otherwise legitimate lawyers, bankers, accountants and even governments were helping drug traffickers hide the proceeds of their crimes --- he labelled money laundering the world's third largest business, estimating that at any given time there was around USD300 Billion circling the globe, looking to get clean. Now, in the sequel to Laundrymen, Robinson calculates that the dirty money business has doubled in under ten years and is ever more sophisticated (law enforcement and concerned governments flounder in its wake) - and he lays the blame on the offshore world. In an eye-opening tour de force of investigative journalism, Robinson reveals the state of the art of business-as-crime worldwide. As vast profits are turned into seemingly legitimate money, lawyers, bankers, accountants, brokers and governments have sold out to the mob and terrorists learn the lessons too and use Western financial networks to finance attacks on those same systems.

Originally developed to reduce drug trafficking, efforts to combat money foundering have broadened over the years to address other crimes and, most recently, terrorism. In this study, the authors look at the scale and characteristics of money laundering, describe and assess the current anti-money laundering regime, and make proposals for its improvement. -- From back cover.

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.