The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates money laundering comprises up to 5 percent of the world's gross domestic product, which translates to an average of $4 trillion per year. This money goes untaxed, depriving governments of much needed income. Tainted money also fuels criminal and terrorist organizations. Remarkably, much of the illegal financial flows are hidden in global trade and avoid traditional financial transparency countermeasures. Yet the international community is only now beginning to recognize the magnitude of the problem.

Trade-Based Money Laundering is a timely, user-friendly guide that sheds light on shadowy and complex components of international trade fraud and its relationship to criminal and commercial money laundering, underground financial systems, and various forms of value transfer and capital flight. Financial compliance officers and law enforcement professionals will gain from unique insights and turn to the rare advice inside this book again and again to improve their analytic and investigative skills. A wealth of international case studies and illustrative diagrams bring to life the practical ways criminals and their accomplices transfer value through international markets. Written by a former federal agent who had firsthand interactions with players in international black-market financial systems, this accessible tool offers:

• The author's cutting-edge plan to leverage data and analytics to discover TBML
• An eye-opening discussion about the magnitude of the problem
• Go-to checklists, cheat sheets, and bulleted advice for speeding along and improving the effectiveness of investigations
• More than three dozen concrete, red-flag indicators of TBML
• A discussion of how legitimate businesses use forms of TBML to maximize profits and minimize taxes
• A straight-forward explanation of underground financial systems such as the black-market peso exchange, hawala, and Chinese flying money and their link to TBML
• A convenient money-laundering primer to get you up to speed for advanced discussions

Trade-Based Money Laundering will prepare the reader for the coming regulatory and enforcement focus on the misuse of international trade to launder money and transfer value.