10th July 2020
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One of the critical issues I intend to write about through this blog is the scourge of money laundering and the extraordinarily corrosive effect it, and related activity, has on all societies.
The scale and scope of money laundering and illicit finance are now so mind-bendingly massive that it merits immediate explanation.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that up to 5% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – around $7 trillion – is now laundered on an annual basis. Seven trillion dollars equates to more than the combined annual GDP of Germany and the UK: the fourth and sixth biggest economies in the world.
Think about that. For every bit of economic activity that takes place in Germany and the UK each year – from the smallest transaction at a local bakery to major bilateral trade – a higher value of money laundering takes place around the world.
But incredibly, many experts question the conservative nature of the UN’s estimate in terms of attempts to explain the total value of illegal financial activity. They claim that if you add other illicit finance to the equation – including wealth illegally invested in offshore financial centres (OFCs) – significantly more than 10% of global wealth could be laundered, form part of illicit finance or hidden away without contributing to tax takes.
That latter point is, of course, critical because laundering and illicit finance deprive every state of tax income used to invest in and run essential public services and infrastructure. As we have seen from the devastation that the Coronavirus/Covid-19, has wrought on global health and care services, businesses, education, the jobs market, policing/security and housing: these services need cash more than ever before.
If the world is genuinely to emerge from the global Coronavirus pandemic stronger and in a healthier financial state, more must be done to tackle the scourge and scale of illicit finance. And quickly.
In recent months, I have been working on a ghost-written book which explores the horrific impact of money laundering and related criminality. I’m legally bound not to go into much detail, as I am writing the book for a client. But the entire project has opened my eyes to the scale of illicit finance – and the considerable challenge the world, never mind any single state or organisation, now faces in trying to tackle it.
The simple fact is that, for the time being, the criminals are winning this battle. Organised crime globally is winning a mostly unseen financial war – as discomforting as that may sound to the police, intelligence services, criminal justice sectors, tax authorities and anybody with interest in tackling illegality.
I say this not to glamorise the situation. Quite the opposite, I am very firmly on the side of law enforcement and the taxman – because they ultimately represent the interests of us ‘regular’ folk. Indeed, I find it disheartening in the extreme that ‘our’ side is losing this battle and that not enough is being done to confront the challenge head-on.
That’s not to say that nothing is being done. Many law enforcement agencies, tax authorities and organisations are fighting the good fight well. We all saw news coverage of recent pan-European raids on the homes and businesses of organised criminals using the encrypted communications network EncroChat. Unbeknown to crims, law enforcement and intelligence agencies had broken the encryption software and could see what the service’s users were up to. UK Police raids alone have scooped over £50m of illicit cash, as well as drugs, arms and other illegal goods funding the lavish lifestyles of organised criminals.
But this sum is a mere drop in the ocean – and it represents merely the start of the latest battle against those behind global illicit trade. It also doesn’t scratch the surface of the real impact on states thousands of miles from the UK now so destabilised by illicit finance that it forms a new form of colonialism. Only, the empires behind a new form of corruption, dependency and reliance have changed.
So on this blog, I intend to write about the scale of illicit finance, money laundering (and how to stop it), the impact of illegal finance, the criminality which fuels and feeds off illicit finance – and what authorities either are doing about it.
I hope this will be an interactive process. I want helpful or interested voices to contribute to the discussion, debate and publication of information. Of course, there are limits to information that the world’s law enforcement agencies can supply – and those boundaries will always be respected by this blog. But if you are in any way involved in the fight against illicit finance, tax evasion, organised crime and other related activity, then feel free to contact me in private with information and advice.
In the meantime, I want to point readers towards some of the extraordinary people, organisations, and publications which form part of the push-back.
For starters this week, please seek out the excellent team at Global Financial Integrity – a Washington-based think-tank and lobby group which regularly publishes ground-breaking information on the scale and scope of illicit finance.
I had the pleasure of meeting GFI’s president and CEO, Tom Cardamone, on his recent trip to London (before lockdown and social distancing!). Tom and I spent a few hours going over GFI’s exceptional work and discussing why illicit finance, and ‘McMafia’-style organised crime, has snowballed to become one of the biggest threats to the planet’s security.
Tom and his team are so incredibly well-informed, I don’t mind saying that some of the discussion went straight over my head! Nonetheless, it was one of the most enlightening mornings I’ve had as a journalist and writer for some time. Tom spoke so passionately about the ramifications of illicit finance that I knew it would be a subject I’d return to regularly.
Thanks, Tom (and Maureen in the press/policy team!) – and keep up your extraordinary fight.
Here’s to the start of a blog theme. I hope you find at least some of it interesting. I’ll scribble some further thoughts soon.
Mark Conrad, July 2020.
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