The War on Dirty Money: Demystifying Money Laundering

Central to the United Nations' definition of money laundering is the idea that wherever crime exists, there’s always dirty money. Money laundering is, therefore, the process of handling that dirty money whether from crime or egregious breaches of regulations. It's a definition that Nicholas Gilmour and Tristram Hicks, authors of the new book “The War on Dirty Money, wholeheartedly agree with. They argue that money laundering is not a victimless crime because such funds are often used to finance myriad criminal enterprises.

They chat with “Regulatory Ramblings” host Ajay Shamdasani about how financial investigations must take centre-stage before any meaningful criminal justice reform can occur. The authors stress that money laundering is not a series of stages and modalities, because at the most basic level – it is merely the transmission of value. While such transfers are commonly concealed with multiple layers of obfuscation, fundamentally, either a purchase is being made or some other transaction is taking place.

Nicholas Gilmour is a consultant to governments and international organizations in the fight against financial crime.

Tristram Hicks is a former New Scotland Yard detective superintendent and international criminal justice adviser on the operational effectiveness of anti-money laundering (AML) regimes.

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Topic Markers

0:00 Intro

02:29 Sophistication of Money Laundering - Legal Powers by Law Enforcement

04:35 Overcomplicating the Term ‘Money Laundering’

14:03 Trade-based Money Laundering

20:19 Role of the Data Scientist

25:03 Typology/Technology Reports

39:38 Fines Continue, Nothing Changes

40:52 Prevention/Enforcement Costs & Challenges

45:23 Competition Between International Corporations and the International State

51:22 Operational Effectiveness

58:11 Identification Principle in Law

01:00:59 Parallel Investigations

01:09:17 Compliance Industry

01:14:25 Good Compliance vs. Bad Compliance