Crime School: Money Laundering: True Crime Meets the World of Business and Finance [Paperback]

CHRIS MATHERS (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

What exactly is money laundering? Mathers, a former undercover operative with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and an expert on the topic, explains that the term dates back to the 1930s. Al Capone owned hundreds of commercial laundries, and he declared a fraction of his illegal earnings from the liquor business as legitimate takings from the laundries--washing his money, in other words. The detergent has changed over the years--today's crooks often use real estate to wash their money-- but the process remains the same. The book lays out exactly how criminals turn bad money into good; it also describes, among other things, the pervasiveness of organized crime, how to obtain false identification, and the mechanics of blackmail. Mathers has an easygoing, often humorous prose style: after noting that most criminals look like everybody else, he adds, "When people try to pick out the bad guys, they're usually looking for Don Corleone, when maybe they should be looking for Don Knotts." A revealing look at crime and the criminals who practice it. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Lays out exactly how criminals turn bad money into good... revealing look at crime and the criminals who practice it. -- David Pitt, Booklist 09/01/2004

Truth is more startling--and more amusing--than fiction in Chris Mathers' concise but humorously written black-market-meets-legit-business primer. -- Samantha Gonzaga, San Gabriel Valley Tribune 03/06/2005

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Firefly Books (July 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1552979938
• ISBN-13: 978-1552979938
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #284,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The stunning reality of financial crime exposed!, April 14, 2004

By	Jo Mamma - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crime School: Money Laundering (Paperback)

Mathers, an internationally recognized forensic expert, has really brought a useful book to the table for those interested in how exactly money laundering or big-money crime affects them. A former undercover RCMP officer, Mathers laundered money himself for many years; out of the trunks of cars, in the backrooms of seedy bars... and at banks and brokerage offices on Bay Street in Toronto, on Wall Street in New York, and, get this, in lawyer's offices, and sometimes in judge's chambers. By describing the problem, Mathers makes the connection for us between $100 million cocaine deals and why and how the drug dealer can be a client at the same bank as you. Bankers- please read the chapter on "Domestic Banking and Securities"; it is NOT the boring cont-ed you've read at industry conferences. It IS a highly readable and instructive description of what bankers *should* be doing, and how they can understand the purposes of the legislation they struggle with. Countless first hand descriptions and case studies of how he did the crimes as an operative for the RCMP, FBI, DEA etc.- and Mathers turns it into useable information for us. I recommend CRIME SCHOOL to financial professionals because it warrants their time: this book should be required reading. I do not recommend this book to natives of Dominican Republic or Quebec... But I do recommend the book to all others because it is hilarious, informative and telling. A great book! -MW

Contents:
*Intro by Norm Inkster, former Commissioner of the RCMP and Former President of Interpol
*Review by Jim Richards, Director of Global AML for Bank of America (and Fleet)
*Review by Reid Morden, former Director of Canadian Security Intelligence Service

*What is Money Laundering?
*Organized Crime
*Getting Money into Banks
*Terrorists
*Domestic Banking and Securities
*Offshore Banking (includes Correspondent Banking, fei-chein, hawalla, black market peso)
*The "Pen" with the Lifetime Guarantee (the manual on how best to enjoy your prison term)
*Cops, Cash and Corruption
*Economic Subversion and the Gray Market Economy

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astounding, Essential, Shocking, Hilarious, April 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Crime School: Money Laundering (Paperback)

Compelling, riveting and hilarious! An enlightening insight into shocking realities. Recommended for any (adult) reader. The book is a great read, immensely entertaining; and, crucially, it's a source of clarity on how the criminal world penetrates our daily lives in often subtle, potentially invisible, but highly damaging ways.

It's a textbook on life for us all.

For financial services professionals specifically, this book is a primary resource on the reality application of compliance, anti-money laundering and terrorist financing. It will, without doubt, help equip you in your aim to keep your professional reputation intact, and, further, help you to avoid becoming unwittingly involved at the more difficult end of a criminal prosecution. Personal bodyguards for compliance officers, "honey traps" on bankers, these and countless other lessons will be learned along with an improved understanding of criminal operations that could draw you in, naively, to a nightmare situation.

As an added benefit for altruistically inclined readers, the insights provided by this book can assist in preventing the ruin of lives that can happen simply through ignorance.

Read it, and you will be glad you did.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertainly written and educational, July 11, 2004

By	Lisa J. Steele (Bolton, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Crime School: Money Laundering: True Crime Meets the World of Business and Finance (Paperback)

An excellent discussion of crime, organized crime, and how it affects daily life. Money, and its mysterious movements, are at the center of the book, of course. But it digresses into drugs, gambling, prostitution, gambling, and other ways in which illegal income is generated