The Central Bank of the Bahamas hosts the Third International Research Conference on Empirical Approaches to Anti-money Laundering and Financial Crimes this January 20 and 21 in Nassau. 

Countering the laundering of the proceeds of corruption and other financial crimes has become a critical issue at both the national and international level. Enormous time and attention has been devoted to putting an end to money laundering and enormous sums spent complying with existing laws and directives. Few, however, are happy with the results to date. 

The principal reason for the failure of anti-money laundering laws is the lack of a sound empirical base on which to build an enforcement regime, a point their critics have made at since Reuter and Truman’s 2004 Chasing Dirty Money. The conference is an important step towards remedying our lack of knowledge about how such basic issues as how money launderers works, where the risks are the greatest, and what are the most effective means for reducing them. Details on attending either in person or online here. Current list of speakers and papers follows.

[Submissions to last week’s poll on the definition of corruption still being received.  It is not too late to enter with the chance to win a lifetime subscription to GAB at the current rate.]

• Investigating the Role of Organisational Culture in Corporate Scandals

– Tom Reader and Alex Gillespie, London School of Economics

Perceptions of Money Laundering and of the Legitimacy of Anti-Money Laundering

– Mike Levi, University of Cardiff

Conceptual Framework for Measuring Illicit Financial Flows

– Diana Camerini, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Pilot Results from Latin America and Africa

– Bojan Nastav, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

How Money Laundering Pollutes the Real Estate Market: an Agent-Based Model

– Raffaella Barone, University of Salento

The Impact of Ownership Transparency Policies on Illicit Purchases of U.S. Property

– Matthew Collin, World Bank

– Florian Hollenbach, Copenhagen Business School

– David Szakonyi, George Washington University

Enabling African Loots: Tracking Nigerian Ill-Gotten Gains

– Tena Prelec and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, University of Oxford

Testing Money Laundering’s Economic Costs: Evidence from States and Financial Institutions

– Karen Nershi, Stanford University

Economic Consequences of FATF Grey Listing

– Nicholas Morris, John Howell, and Louis de Koker, La Trobe University

Biases in National AML Assessments

– Charles Littrell, Central Bank of The Bahamas

How Much Demand for Money Laundering Services does Drug Selling Create?

– Jonathan Caulkins, Carnegie-Mellon University

– Peter Reuter, University of Maryland