Overview

From the bestselling author of MONEYLAND and BUTLER TO THE WORLD, a revelatory new anatomy of global money laundering: the crime that makes crime pay Without money laundering, few crimes of acquisition would be worth the trouble. South America's drug cartels would be stuffed without it, as would Nigerian kleptocrats, Afghan terrorists, American tax evaders and a whole bestiary of human (and animal) traffickers the world over. And yet, estimates of the dirty portion of world GDP have held steady at 2%-5% for decades. All efforts at legislation, diplomacy, prosecution and compliance have been a complete flop. It's not a lack of will to stamp it out. It's a lack of insight. So join bestselling investigative journalist Oliver Bullough on a perspective-altering adventure through the flipside of the global economy. In the criminal world, cash is still king (in fact, crime might now be the main thing cash is good for, and even why it still exists). Barter is pretty good too: vast, continent-wide exchanges of everything from luxury handbags to baby eels support a triangular drug trade linking Europe to the Far East. Cryptocurrencies flow through paper ledgers that would make a Florentine merchant feel at home. And the system works. Whether you're a fraudster, a cartel boss, a corrupt politician, a kleptocrat or a terrorist mastermind, your options to move and hide your money are more secure and more impenetrable than they have ever been. There has never been a better time to be a criminal. It's time that changed.

Full Product Details

9781399618090

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Reviews

In this lucid, funny and compelling book, our leading expert on dirty money exposes the secret networks that power the international economy of crime. Bullough may know more about money laundering than the criminals themselves -- ZEKE FAUX * author of NUMBER GO UP * The truth hurts and this stings. Insightful and accurate -- DAVID LEWIS * former executive secretary of the Financial Action Task Force *

In this lucid, funny and compelling book, our leading expert on dirty money exposes the secret networks that power the international economy of crime. Bullough may know more about money laundering than the criminals themselves -- ZEKE FAUX * author of NUMBER GO UP *

Author Information

Oliver Bullough is the author of the Sunday Times bestsellers Butler to the World and Moneyland, as well as two celebrated books about the former Soviet Union: The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame Be Great. His journalism appears regularly in the Guardian, The New York Times and GQ.

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