Money Laundering Books

This book is not only exquisitely written but extremely informative as well. The utter incompetence of high-level government employees that is exposed by Cassara is enough to make your blood boil. If you thought the government was infallible, think again. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who is concerned with the well-being of our country.

I'm sort of a government/spy stories buff, and I really enjoyed this book. The first half is sort of a story, almost like reading a novel, while the second half is almost instructional. The author makes a lot of good recommendations in the last chapter. This guy should go into politics!

What a great book! My husband somehow was able to get a copy of the book a few days before it came out (he lives for this type of stuff), and I picked it up the other day while he was at work. Four hours later, I was finished. I couldn't put it down. My reading usually consists of romance novels (I'm not ashamed), and to be honest, I only picked up this book out of sheer boredome. Boredom turned to fascination very quickly, and I was hooked after reading just one chapter. While there is a good deal of government jargon, the auther does a great job of explaining everything. Still, what I liked most about the book were his stories. This guy has had an amazing life! So many adventures, I'd love to meet this guy just to hear him tell some stories. Not to diminish the importance of the book, as he does say a lot of things that our government should be paying attention to, but he's a great storyteller. He definitely puts a personal touch on a sticky subject. Anyway, it's a great book, and believe me, I usually stay away from these types of books. My husband and I actually sat down and discussed the book for almost 2 hours last night...he was very impressed with my knowledge. Great book, I hope he writes another one.

The author provides an insightful and at time intense criticism of inner governmental workings. Depicting through first hand experience the bureaucratic failures that have resulted in the continued operation of many criminal and terrorist financial networks. The removal of these "financial networks" is crucial, to ensure our victory in the "War on Drugs" and "War on Terror". These failures can cost lives, as so dramatically depicted by the author. To someone who seeks to pursue a career in government service, like myself; this book is an invaluable tool. In depicting the failures of previous generations of government employees, it serves as a "wake up" call to both current and future governmental employees. This will help to prevent these errors from continuing to happen in the future. Finally, the authors' career serves as an example of excellence in government service, that the new generation of government service employees should aim for in their career.

HIDE AND SEEK: INTELLIGENCE, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND THE STALLED WAR ON TERRORIST FINANCE is a 'must' for any who would understand one of the failures of the U.S. in 9/11. John Cassara is an expert in terrorist financing and money laundering and here surveys the lack of reporting requirements before 9/11, efforts since, and how the failures of law enforcement have helped foster terrorist efforts. HIDE AND SEEK could not have been written without an insider's knowledge of how foreign intelligence, domestic efforts, and international finance works: the fact that John Cassara has such knowledge lends authority and depth to a survey which encourages law to follow the unusual paths of international terrorism's money networks.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book is an expose' into the Nugan Hand international bank and it's connections to the CIA.
Jonathan Kwitny is a top-notch investigative journalist and he doesn't disappoint with "The Crimes of Patriots".

Among the topics in the book:
The origin of the "French Connection".

Fraudulent enterprises such as Ocean Shores.

The CIA's involvement in the overthrow of Australian Prime Minister Whitlam.

A shared office building and secretary used by both Nugan Hand and the D.E.A.

The work C.I.A. agents did for Muammar Qaddafi.

Mr. Kwitny cites the work of Alfred McCoy on the "the Golden Triangle" and international heroin trade.
He also covers money laundering operations, particularly for drug traffickers. Nugan Hand had to ba a C.I.A. asset!
The author has frequent footnotes documenting the sources for specific information.

The cast of characters includes some famous intelligence operatives, high ranking military officers, con artists, Air America pilots, and just about any other type of people you would expect in a best seller spy novel. But "The Crimes of Patriots" is nonfiction and very well done at that!

This book ties in nicely with Bo Gritz,
Stan Montieth, Rodney Stich, Fletch
Prouty and Tom Valentine works on the
same type subject matter. Also check
out Terry Redd's Compromised which
gores both Clinton and the Bush, the
Presidencila Elder. Highly recommended.

As an Australian I was both surprised and gratified that an American journalist should want to trace the extraordinary history of the Nugan Hand Bank's Australian operations. This great document decribes the most cut-throat, heroin dealing, crime syndicate ever to have sullied our shores, and all under the covert auspices of the C.I.A. Kwitny's research is exhaustive and his even handed way of presenting his findings is exemplary of fine journalism. The implications hatched in this veritable can of worms will have net-sleuths busy for years tracing the myriad references to the numerous associates of Nugan Hand who vanished into the night only to surface again in the Irangate scandal. Essential reading for anyone trying to come to terms with the scourge of heroin, the world arms trade and those members of the U.S.'s covert agencies that spread misery in their own and other countries...Read it if you dare!

If the press was doing ots jobs, then Ronald Reagan would not have been able to appear in public during his Iran-Contra period without also being bombarded with cries of "What about Nugan Hand!"
The Nugan Hand scandal appears to be the biggest, dirtiest scandal to reach the upper levels of American government since Watergate. The suicide of Nugan and the flight of Hand occurred in Australia, but the scandal had all-American origins. If Australian authorities and reporter Jonathan Kwitny are right, then the coverup, which continues, involves at least the Defense and State departments, the CIA, the FBI, the Commerce Department and the National Security Council.
Such a coverup must reach at least into the president's Cabinet.
First a word about Kwitny, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. No investigative reporter in America is more highly regarded by other reporters, dating back to his exposes of the corrupt Teamsters Union Central States pension fund in the early '70s.
Frank Nugan was an Australian shyster. Mike Hand is an American, an ex-Green Beret decorated for heroism in Vietnam, later a CIA spook. Starting in 1973, the men set up a bank and a number of other financial companies, eventually opening offices around the world, though East Asia was their happy hunting ground.
Nugan Hand Bank may have been set up to launder and over up CIA money transfers; the Caribbean banks that performed that service folded about the time Nugan Hand Bank was set up.
It is not proper to be too definite about Nugan Hand. Because of incompetence by Australian investigators, many of its records were spirited away after Frank Nugan's death in 1980. (Kwitny says, "For an American, used to FBI efficiency, it is hard to imagine cops so spineless that they let criminal suspects carry evidence away right under their noses, while waiting for permission to examine it." That was written before Oliver North's testimony in the Iran-Contra scandal. Americans would have less trouble imagining such a thing now. 2007 update: This review was published in 1988. Kwitny's naivety seems quaint in the 21st century.)
"This isn't a book for people who must have their mysteries solved," Kwitny warns. No, it is only a book for those who need to have their eyes opened.
It is possible to say definitely that Nugan Hand laundered money and moved cash between countries where it is illegal to export cash. Many of their clients were trying to hide money from tax collectors -- for Australians, Nugan Hand usually charged 22 percent for this service.
Nugan Hand also was definitely, though ineffectually, trying to work illegal arms deals, and it probably was involved in a large-scale opium/heroin scheme in Burma.
Certainly, most of its prominent employees were con men, brothel keepers, dope and money smugglers, disbarred lawyers and other sleazy types. Its other top employees and consultants were retired generals of the U.S. Army and admirals of the U.S. Navy and former officials of the CIA, including former director William Colby. What, Kwitny asks, were men like that doing in association with the most notorious whoremasters and heroin pushers in Sydney, Australia?
For one thing, they were encouraging Americans who had served under them in the armed forces to place all their cash with Nugan Hand. Some of these men worked in places like Saudi Arabia, where there are no banks.
The generals and admirals later claimed that they, too, were victims of Nugan and Hand, but documents prove that these high officers were still taking in cash after Nugan Hand was in bankruptcy. Where the cash went is a mystery. The depositors didn't get it back.
Working with fragmentary records, receivers guessed that Nugan Hand owed more than $50 million when it crashed in 1980. It was probably much more -- many of the people who placed their money with Nugan and Hand were in no position to make claims against the estate in bankruptcy.
Nugan and Hand and their employees lived high, but they couldn't have spent $50 million on themselves in four years (though they started in 1973, the cash didn't start to flow in torrents until 1977.) the receivers found assets of only about $2 million.
Someone looted Nugan Hand after Nugan's death. Who?
There is a Hawaii connection to all this. There was a Nugan Hand Hawaii Inc. At the very least, Nugan Hand illegally engaged in banking in the USA without being regulated as a bank. When pushed by Kwitny, various agents of the American government have said that Nugan Hand's crimes, if any, occurred on foreign soil. But this explanation will not explain why Nugan Hand has escaped inquiry for its banking irregularities here.
It gets worse, right up to cold-blooded murder.
But the greatest value of "The Crimes of Patriots" is not just its partial exposure of a nest of very nasty crooks. Kwitny links it to a continuing pattern of lawlessness in the name of American national security that centers in the CIA -- and taints Congress and the highest levels of the executive branch. "As the theory of perpetual covert action is exercised, our national security is perpetually in the hands of criminals," he writes.
This is not news to anyone who has studied the activities of America's spymasters. But that is a tiny fraction of the voters. (See also my review of George Crile's "Charlie Wilson's War.") The torpor of most citizens in the face of repeated revelations suggests that they think that eggs have to be broken to make a spy's omelets. It is the virtue of "The Crimes of Patriots" to demonstrate that this is not so. Others have said as much, but seldom has the message come from anyone with credentials as respectable as Kwitny's.

On the advice of a friend who knows one of the "Cast Of Characters" (a "Yank In The Bank"), I ordered a used copy of this long out of print book. What an eye opener. It's amazing what a group of "former" senior military officers and spooks can get up to when allowed to run amok overseas. You name it and they got away with it. Even though some of the principals are dead, nobody has been held accountable for the myriad of crimes that have occurred abroad. With the lack of support rendered by the U.S. government (especially the F.B.I.), it makes one wonder how "former" some of these players really were. It's also amazing how many of these same people reared their ugly heads years later during "Iran-Contra". Read the book and then decide for yourself.

Politicias like to look at the public opinion polls before taking a position on significant issues. Statesmen and stateswomen (statespersons) deliver the message they believe provides the greater benefit to society and furnish the supporting arguments; they take risks, they don't go down with the current or in the direction of the wind. See what has happened to our nation with the war in Iraq, five years ago anybody who dared to question the wisdom of going to war with Iraq was deemed to be a traitor, public opinion was bluntly manipulated to march into Iraq. Today we know this has been the greatest foreign policy blunder the US has made and we are struggling to figure out how to get out of there with minimal additional damage. A parallel can be drawn between the war in Iraq and the decades-old "war on drugs." Somehow it is not politically correct to call for the end of the war on drugs, such position is equated by many with the promotion of drug use. Nothing is farther from the truth as I have documented --with US Government and United Nations data-- in A Silent Nightmare. These facts demonstrate that today there are more drugs available in the US and at lower prices that when President Nixon declared the "war on drugs" in 1971. Drug prohibition rather than becoming a deterrent to drug use as it was supposed to be, has become a primary business driver of the illicit drug trade. The collateral damage resulting from the current drug prohibition policy is many orders of magnitude worse than the damage drug use may inflict to our society and our youth under a new drug paradigm, under a policy of legalization and control. This analysis is what A Silent Nightmare presents and supports with sound US Government and United Nations data.

The war on drugs has failed. Drug cartels are flourishing. We will never win the war. Elementary economics, the cartels decentralization, and the cartels unlimited money for weapons and bribes show us why. Even honest politicians, drug officers, and even generals have been infected by the corruption the cartels breed. They either accept the bribe or will be killed. This is an estimated $400 billion dollar business the author says.

What really got me interested the book is the war going on in Mexico. You don't hear much about it; it is a "silent nightmare," but Mexico is in a war fighting corruption and drug cartels. Some of their tactics have been as brutal as al Qaeda's, including beheadings, bombings, torture, killing of children, and assignations. Often when members of the cartel are arrested they are found with weapons more powerful then the military including thousands of ammunition, grenades, cash, sometimes hundreds of assault rifles, battlefield rifles. The violence is happening right along the border, right in our backyard. The author and recent news articles I have read have found links between the cartels and human trafficking of people in the Middle East and even possible communication to terror organizations in the Middle East. These groups need to be taken as serious as the War On Terror.

The author briefly introduces the drugs the cartels deal with, the prices, and some of the consequences of using them. He uses lots of statics and some graphs. He goes on to talk about the drug business and the how the war on drugs is failing. The best chapter is how he explains how the cartels turn their dirty money into clean money via money laundering and the gray economy. In the end, the author concludes there are parallels between alcohol prohibition and illegal drugs and he presents us with five solutions that should be debated. What he wants is some form of legalization and a "broadbased drug education grounded on values and not on intimidation and fear." I don't disagree but I see this as not politically possible. Because the cartels are a cash-only business, I believe there may be other solutions, I am not sure how possible they are, but they have a fatal weakness if society continues to become an economy of credit. Also the sealing of our borders is not discussed as a solution. I think it should have been discussed even if it would not help because many see this as a solution.

Overall the book provides a solid introduction and *some* solutions Americans should be discussing.

The author clearly lays out the far reaching and devastating effects of poorly conceived drug policies and offers viable, albeit politically controversial, solutions. Those solutions require a radical shift in approach and tremendous political courage. This fact-based book opened my eyes to the global impacts -- social and economic -- from illegal drug production, distribution, use, and criminalization and the urgent need to do something now. Current policies aren't working. This book offers viable solutions. A must read for anyone (and especially politicians) who care about the health and well-being of our nation and global neighbors.

After 40 years in law enforcement and national security, my views on drug trafficking reflected those of my peers. However, Ferragut's research leads me to conclude that by any measure of effectiveness we care to apply the so called "war on drugs" has been, continues to be, and will end-up as an abysmal failure; a corrupt and corrupting concept that has caused more damage and human misery than any other ill conceived government program. By classifying a health problem as a "war" -at least in the public's mind - the only acceptable outcome is "victory" (however defined), anything less than that is failure. Sometime in the not too distant future the so called "War on Drugs" will be viewed as a quaint relic of 20th Century hysteria, just as we now view the 1918 War Time Prohibition Act. The biggest success that the "War on Drugs" can claim is that millions have switched from illicit drugs to abusing pharmaceuticals; same problem, drug abuse, different providers. Ferragut's education and experience in banking and systems analysis is evident, his argument devoid of partisanship or ideological bias. The main issues of illicit drug trafficking: Use and Abuse, Illicit Drug Trade, the War on Drugs, and Money Laundering are well researched and end with an objective cost benefit analysis. The concluding chapters; "Bottom Line - Myths and Realities," Lessons from Alcohol Prohibition, and the Solution Spectrum" identify policy guidelines: Zero Tolerance, Consumption Tolerance, Laissez faire legalization, and Legalization and Control. The book's appendices include illustrations of the Stock Transaction Model and Building Economic Empires with Drug Money, which provides the model of a compelling payback mechanism involving a private and public stock transaction combination of the stock of companies involved in money laundering. These two illustrations justify the cost of the book, which includes an excellent bibliography, and a comprehensive list of acronyms.

Ferragut offers a provacative look at the enormity of the global drug problem. His use of statistics is compelling. The book will cause people to rethink their attitudes on the best approach to dealing with the issue, and to protect our childrean and society. The correct answers aren't easy to determine, but Ferragut's presentation of "what is" will hopefully help to motivate government leaders and public safety officials to think more deeply about it.

My firm took on a civil asset forfeiture case and I received the daunting task of trying to get the case to court. I found Mr. Sibley's book most informative, as it made clear an area of law that is unfamiliar to most. The book includes sample pleadings that I found very helpful. The area of civil asset forfeiture is complex, and Mr. Sibley's book is a must-read for anyone who is considering tackling it.

This is truly a BIBLE to handling civil forefeiture cases! It contains everything you need in battling with the government in forefeiture cases.

Mr. Sibley has taken the mystery, wonder and guess work out of the Federal Foreiture arena. This Practice Manual is structured to equip any attorney with the knowledge and skill necessary to challenge a property seizure by the Feds efficiently, effectively and with confidence. As a sole practicioner criminal defense attorney the Manual is perfectly suited as a practice guide for the occasional forfeiture matters I handle. The time savings alone are invaluable as compared to conducting research from scratch and the ease of use allows for quicker, more complete planning of case stategy and preparation. I find the CD format ideally suited for this type of manual as compared to a 600 page book. If you handle any Federal Forfeiture matters this manual will provide you with the amunition and armor needed to do battle with the government.

This book isn't just for enforcement people. For someone like me who isn't a law officer and just wants to understand how terrorists and drug traffickers work, this book is great.

I always thought of terrorism and drugdealing in simplistic terms of what happens in the street. Now I understand how the system works and why our fight is so unsuccessful.

What I learned:
Our laws change slowly in response to rapid innovation by the traffickers and terrorists.

Horse-and-buggy standards for banks like "know your customer" are pointless in a modern world economy.

The worldwide supply of drugs is variegated and impossible to control. As a result, our approach to fighting drugs by cooperating with drug-producing countries is stupid. My guess is that a bread-and-butter approach of customs inspections and death penalty for dealers and launderers would work better. The mindset of modern law enforcement is dead wrong.

As icing on the cake, it was interesting to learn that the Afghanis, Arabs, and Iranians who attack America for our moral degeneration are number 1 in heroin production and smuggling.

A few disappointments:

Richards barely treated terrorists. If he had, his book would have had more mass appeal.

Some of the explanations would have been clearer with flow diagrams.

I still don't understand why layering is so effective. It sounds as if a simple computer trace would unpeel the layers.

This book is not light reading. But if you really want to know how the world works, it's worth the effort!

My father wrote this book. Even though I am only eleven years old I already want his job. I love to read and learn and I am very interested in this field. I read his book and I can finally understand what he's talking about at the dinner table! He now tells me about his cases in the car and I love hearing about them. This book helped me learn about things I wouldn't have learned about in college. It really opened my eyes to what was out there. Good work daddy! PS - Your kids books that you wrote for us are just as good! Publish them!

I became acquainted with James R. Richard's Transnational Criminal Organizations, Cybercrime, and Money Laundering : A Handbook for Law Enforcement Officers, Auditors, and Financial Investigators when it was used as a text in Utica College's Economic Crime Management Master of Science Degree program in the Advanced Economic Crime as well as the Legal Concepts of Criminal Fraud and Corporate Criminal Liability graduate courses. After quickly thumbing through it, I immediately recognized that it truly contains a bounty of useful, pertinent and relevant information.

Extremely well written, it is a well flowing, very easy read that is both highly informative and enlightening. The book provides a very extensive and detailed examination of organized criminal enterprises engaged in international financial crime. The book fully details the specific steps of the placement, layering, and integration stages of money laundering as well as fully itemizing the techniques and uses of non-financial institutions (casinos, securities et al.) in money laundering. The expanded international focus documents a very detailed and thorough examination of the scope of global financial crime. The book fully integrates an expanse of information on banking, money laundering and cybercrime basics, international criminal organizations - in both a national and international context - in a manner that is easily understood by the reader.

As a police officer, I would highly recommend this book as a "must have" for the reference shelf of federal, state, local or corporate based investigators engaged in financial crimes inquiries and analysis. For the non-professional who is interested in organized crime of a more cerebral nature, the book is more than worth the purchase price.

As a college instructor (Introduction to Economic Crime Investigation at Herkimer County Community College; Herkimer, NY), this book in invaluable to the both the instructor and the student engaged in a comprehensive review of money laundering actvities.

As a side note, Mr. Richards also gives an excellent presentation and lecture on the topics and subject matter covered in his book.

The subtitle of this book promises the "untold story" of dirty international financial dealings. That's not quite what it delivers, because the book compiles already-published accounts, public reports and Congressional testimony, and adds to them. Given that money laundering involves drug dealers, terrorists and slavers, the book has some titillating asides about sex, violence and filthy money. Author Peter Lilley explains precisely how money laundering works, including an introduction to the practices and techniques that have proven most successful. While praising the author's reportorial depth, we note one dilemma that emerges from such thoroughness: we hope this book doesn't fall into the hands of someone who wishes to take up money laundering but is unsure how to proceed. Business people who want to avoid being victimized should take particular note of the chapter discussing well-known checks-and-balances, controls and best practices.

The fully revised and updated third edition of Dirty Dealing: The Untold Truth About Global Money Laundering, International Crime And Terrorism by global crime expert Peter Lilly is an informed and informative study of international corruption and crime as resulting in over two trillion US dollars being siphoned for illegal purposes every year. Introducing readers to a methodical and documented account based upon expertly researched information and analysis, Dirty Dealing provides a progressive basis for comprehending the global funding of international terrorism, major national and international organized criminal groups, the impact of the internet and "cyber laundering", and international anti-money laundering strategies for all types of corporate and multinational businesses. A seminal work of considerable scholarship and insight, Dirty Dealing is very strongly recommended reading for students of economics, criminology, and global terrorism.

The book contains practically everything needed to ensure anti-money laundering compliance for banks, securities firms and other financial institutions, as well as extensive coverage of money laundering crimes and forfeitures. There is also plenty of interesting background material on money laundering techniques and terrorist financing. Recomended as a "must-have" core holding for every in-house corporate and white-collar crime library.

I would recomend Federal Money Laundering Regulation as a well-written guide to understanding and complying with U.S. laws and regulations covering money laundering and terrorist financing.

As noted in the preface, the book is a comprehensive and practical resource not only for banks and savings and loans, and their legal counsel, but also for the many other businesses that are now governed by anti-money laundering regulations, such as casinos, investment companies, securities broker-dealers, insurance companies, check cashers, travel agencies, and businesses involved with vehicle sales, real estate closings, or precious metals.

Federal Money Laundering Regulation contains 27 chapters:

1. Introduction to money laundering
2. How money is laundered
3. U.S. money laundering laws
4. Law enforcement and regulatory agencies
5. Recordkeeping requirements
6. Reporting requirements--general
7. Suspicious activity report
8. Currency transaction report
9. Currency and monetary instrument report
10. Reporting of foreign bank and financial accounts
11. Report of cash received in trade or business
12. Registration of money services businesses
13. Anti-money laundering programs for financial institutions
14. Customer identification programs
15. Due diligence for correspondent accounts and private banking
16. Information sharing among financial institutions and law enforcement
17. Money laundering crimes--general
18. Domestic money laundering transactions
19. International money laundering offenses
20. Undercover "sting" operations
21. Monetary transactions in unlawfully derived property
22. Conspiracy to commit money laundering
23. Asset forfeiture--general
24. Civil asset forfeiture
25. Criminal asset forfeiture
26. State money laundering laws
27. Worldwide efforts against money laundering

There are also dozens of sample forms, checklists, and other compliance aids.

An excellent book well worth considering.

Dr Hinterseer presents a comprehensive and thorough review of the world of global criminal finance, including the activities of organised crime syndicates, the developing world dictatorships, and the international terrorist networks. As a solicitor, he is able to assess the legislation and matrix of international treaties devised to deal with criminal finance and related financial crises, including the recent reaction to the terrorist events in the US and the New Basle Accord.

A highly recommended book for anyone involved or interested in these areas.

This is a book every single US Senator and Representative should read.

The title derives from the reality that illicitly gotten funds create their own momentum as the funds are laundered throughout the world, creating interest, mayhem, and leaving 3rd world countries (preyed upon for weak financial regulations) struggling under massive debt they didn't really incur.

This book is a remarkable piece. It opens ones eyes to the potential money laundering risks in mobile financial services. Great read. Very informative.