Criminal Capital - How the Finance Industry Facilitates Crime

In the first book to expose the role played by the international financial services industry in facilitating crime and laundering criminal property, one of the world's leading anti-financial crime specialists scrutinises the vulnerability of banks, brokerages, trust companies, and investment funds to criminal abuse.

Discover:

• How the finance industry enables corruption, drug trafficking, terrorism, human trafficking, proliferation, piracy, and tax evasion
• Why extreme and dangerous industry behaviour correlates with the risk taking that toppled the global economy in 2008 
• What measures can be taken to prevent criminals from compromising the legitimacy of the global financial system 

Examining the role of the traditional powerhouse financial centres as well as offshore centres and rapidly emerging international financial centres in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, this highly informative book challenges the reader to consider whether following the 2008 crisis, sufficient steps have been taken to address toxic behaviours in financial services; or whether radical reform is needed.

About the Author

Stephen Platt is a highly respected practitioner of financial crime prevention and the conduct of related regulatory investigations. He is an English Barrister and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Over the past 20 years he has been engaged in several high profile matters involving money laundering, corrupt public officials, drug trafficking, terrorism, piracy, proliferation, sanctions, and fraud. Stephen has trained several national and supranational law enforcement and regulatory agencies. He was co-opted by the World Bank into both the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) and the Illicit Financial Flows from Somalian Piracy study. Stephen consults for the regulatory investigation specialists, Stephen Platt Associates LLP.

Table of Contents

1. Harmful Practices
2. Money Laundering Models 
3. Onshore/Offshore Dichotomy 
4. Drug Trafficking
5. Bribery and Corruption 
6. Piracy 
7. Human Trafficking / Smuggling of Migrants 
8. Terror Financing
9. Sanctions
10. Tax Evasion 
11. Causes and Solutions