Masterclass: Tristram Hicks Book launch: The War on Dirty Money

The global war on dirty money engages hundreds of thousands of full-time professionals across the financial sector, international institutions, national governments and the criminal justice sector. It costs well over $200 billion per year and rising. Yet its victories seem few and far between, with no measurable overall progress. 

 

Slavery, drug trafficking and fraud are just a few of over 20 different crime types targeted by the war on dirty money. These activities threaten the planet, its people and wildlife through illegal environmental destruction. Making crime not pay seems an obvious, direct and measurable way to reverse planetary destruction, reduce human misery, and meet the challenge head-on. Recovered billions could finance a virtuous circle that reduces crime and directly supports education, public health and sanitation. 

 

The war is not going well. The authors trace the war back to a G7 conference in 1989, when a ‘Financial Action Task Force’ (FATF) was launched. Over the last 30 years a vast global infrastructure has been created to try and prevent ‘dirty money’ entering a financial system that is, in fact, already awash with it. 

 

The authors suggest that after a promising start, the project was derailed and stayed there. This book challenges the global approach, arguing that complacency, self-interest and misunderstanding have now created longstanding absurdities.

 

 

Meeting ID: 993 0852 7371
Passcode: 938767