Global (Anti-)Money Laundering

Catalog description

In this course, we will explore a phenomenon that you will encounter – and indeed, have already encountered – on an almost daily basis, whether you know it or not: anti-money laundering. This curious set of practices and institutions explains most ways that money travels through the world. Criminals attempt to use money from illegal activities in ways that are otherwise legal; governments go to great lengths to forbid it. The result is that everyone – banks and businesses, consumers and entrepreneurs, politicians and citizens, immigrants and tourists, official institutions and a local food truck – is caught in a complex web of legal, historical, financial, and political factors that defines our modern financial system. This course will equip students with an understanding of how and what money laundering is, what to expect as a business executive or entrepreneur in a world where money laundering and its prevention will motivate so many seemingly unrelated opportunities, and provide a broader context for understanding the modern global financial system.