Chasing Dirty Money: Progress on Anti-Money Laundering [Paperback]

Edwin M. Truman (Author), Peter Reuter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2004

Originally developed to reduce drug trafficking, national and international efforts to reduce money laundering have broadened over the years to address other crimes, and most recently, terrorism. These efforts now constitute a formidable regime applied to financial institutions and transactions throughout much of the world. Yet few assessments of either the achievements or consequences of this regime have been made. Reuter and Truman (1) explore what is know about the scale and characteristics of money laundering, (2) describe the current anti–money laundering regime, (3) develop a framework for assessing the effectiveness of the regime, and (4) use that framework to assess how well the current system works and make proposals for its improvement.

Editorial Reviews

Review

". . . the most comprehensive treatment of money laundering to date." -- Robert E. Litan, Kauffman Foundation

"...the most seminal study ever undertaken of the effectiveness of efforts to deal with the growing threat... of money laundering..." -- Stuart E. Eizenstat, former deputy secretary of the US Treasury

About the Author

Peter Reuter is a professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the Department of Criminology at the University of Maryland. Since July 1999, he has been the editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. He was a senior economist in the Washington office of the RAND Corporation (1981–93). He founded and directed RAND’s Drug Policy Research Center (1989–93). His early research focused on the organization of illegal markets and resulted in the publication of Disorganized Crime: The Economics of the Visible Hand (MIT Press, 1983), which won the Leslie Wilkins award for the most outstanding book of the year in criminology and criminal justice. He has served as a consultant to numerous government agencies (including the US General Accounting Office, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the National Institute of Justice, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) and to foreign organizations including the United Nations Drug Control Program and the British Department of Health. He is coauthor of Chasing Dirty Money: Progress on Anti-Money Laundering (2004).

Edwin M. Truman, Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Economics since 2001, was assistant secretary of the Treasury for international affairs (1998–2000). He was staff director of the Division of International Finance of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (1987–98) and was director of the division from 1977 to 1987. From 1983 to 1998, he was one of three economists on the staff of the Federal Open Market Committee. He has been a member of numerous international working groups on international economic and financial issues. He is the author of Inflation Targeting in the World Economy (2003) and coauthor of Chasing Dirty Money: Progress on Anti-Money Laundering (2004).

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Peterson Institute (November 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881323705
• ISBN-13: 978-0881323702
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #617,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A discussion of methodologies used to hide revenues, April 11, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chasing Dirty Money: Progress on Anti-Money Laundering (Paperback)

Written by a senior economist and criminology professor along with a former director of the Division of International Finance of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Chasing Dirty Money: The Fight Against Money Laundering is a no-nonsense discussion of methodologies used to hide revenues gained from a wide variety of crimes and how to block such assets from being transferred and perpetuated. Chapters clarify laundering mechanisms, from simiply smuggling cash out of the country to using casinos, lotteries, and horse races to lose a little betting but receive clean payoff in issued checks, to taking out single premium insurance policies for which the premium is paid in an upfront lump sum rather than annual installments - then later redeeming these policies at a discount. Further chapters discuss protecting the integrity of financial systems, combating predicate crimes connected to money laundering, confronting such global evils as terrorism and kleptocracy or corruption that rely heavily on money laundering, and much more. A sober, serious-minded resource, an absolute must-read for all economic students and professionals, and an eye-opening revelation for lay readers.