Why the World Is So Bad at Tracking Dirty Money

``Michael Levi of Cardiff University and Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland have studied the global anti-money-laundering system (PDF) and conclude that it has helped facilitate some criminal investigations and prosecutions. But at best, it snares just a fraction of 1 percent of criminal income flows. A lower-end estimate for global laundering transactions is 2 percent of global gross domestic product--or about $1.5 trillion. Global money laundering convictions involve at the most hundreds of millions. In the U.S., a generous estimate of seizures would amount to a mere 0.2 percent of all laundered funds.'' -- This barely scratches the surface. The problems discussed in this article totally omit the type of control fraud which, e.g., allowed Madoff to continue running his scheme for some 16 years after he was first flagged for further investigation.