Figuring out why money laundering wins, with Oliver Bullough

In this episode of “Financial Crime Matters,” Kieran Beer talks with Oliver Bullough about his latest book, “Everybody Loves Our Dollars: How Money Laundering Won.”

In their discussion, Bullough details how a well-intentioned anti-money laundering effort launched in the U.S. in 1970 snowballed to become today’s global compliance industry, which spends $200 billion annually even as money laundering and other financial crimes spike. 

Bullough faults several stakeholders in the current anti-money laundering (AML) status quo, not least global governments’ deputization of the private sector in lieu of adequately funding and empowering law enforcement and the courts to police the global economy. 

The failure of AML requires a total “rethink” of the war on illicit finance, according to the author of two fundamental books on money laundering, "Moneyland" and "Butler to the World.” 

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