Product Description

The chilling details of cleaning blood money.

What is money laundering? How does it work? And why is it such a threat to any democratic society?

International terrorism has focused federal and state law-enforcement's attention on the shadowy world of money laundering. While the media has examined money laundering, the topic is still little understood by the public.

In Crime School: Money Laundering, a twenty year law enforcement veteran of financial crime explains this felony in simple terms. Written anecdotally, the book describes what money laundering is and how the crimes behind it fit together.

Organized criminals operating both domestically and internationally corrupt bankers and subvert national economies through the use of drug money.

This book examines the history of money laundering from ancient times to the cocaine craze of the 1970s to the sophisticated, brutal techniques employed by today's terrorists and organized crime.

Lively and detailed, this book chronicles the stark realities and deadly dynamics of the lynchpin between organized crime and modern terrorism. It's a rare and fascinating look at a deadly world few have ever witnessed and lived to tell the story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #245028 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

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

Review
Could be a good criminal justice course textbook. (John Smyntek Detroit Free Press 20041003)

Gossipy... recounts [Mathers'] experiences in overturning various money-laundering schemes. (Frances Sandiford Library Journal 20041115)

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 20050306)

Lays out exactly how criminals turn bad money into good... revealing look at crime and the criminals who practice it. (David Pitt Booklist 20040901)

Customer Reviews

The stunning reality of financial crime exposed!
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

How bank tellers and corporate execs can avoid pen time
The book is aimed at those who legitimately handle large amounts of money. It doesn't have to be 'their' money, any supervision of cash will do. This includes bank tellers, small business owners, and corporate executives. Since they all 'handle' money, they all risk 'being nice' and going to jail for their troubles.

Mathers tries to shares some street smarts. The book doesn't try to 'explain' money laundering as much as put you 'inside' the process. The look and feel is given first priority. Thus, the author spends a lot of time toying with the lingo. You will learn about 'backstops' (a false history), 'beards' (intermediaries), 'bottoms' (what you owe), 'busting a cap' (discharge a bullet), 'Diming out' (informing), 'Dry conspiracy' (cop talk for an arrest with no contraband), 'juice' (interest rate), 'pooch' (fellow with no respect) and 'playing for shape' (willing to kill to curry favor). Mathers constantly belittles the intelligence of the crooks. Crime is easy, but getting away with it for long is difficult.

Along these lines, Mathers works hard to debunk popular perceptions. First, Hollywood doesn't do a good job of familiarizing us with 'real' crooks. Crooks don't look like Hollywood gangsters, they look like Joe average. Second, the crooks don't need high tech tricks to pull off their capers. All they need is a little, apparently harmless cooperation. For example, Mather describes the 'muffin man' method. The muffin man simply offers his bank teller a muffin every time he visits the bank. After giving away $5 worth of muffins, the recipient bank teller is likely to bend a rule. That bent rule may launder $100,000 in cash ($10,000+ profit to the crook). Additionally, it is all that is needed to put the teller in jail.

Mather makes his points by relentlessly bringing the reader down to the gutter level. Half the message is just the lingo and description of the terrain. Learn how to talk prison lingo, how to survive standing in line with a bunch of crooks, and most important, how a silly, everyday mistake can put you behind bars.

This is a book about avoiding the mistakes that have put many an otherwise innocent person in jail. Read and learn!

Astounding, Essential, Shocking, Hilarious
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.