Anti-Money Laundering

This is a good handbook, meant for British businesses, to help them develop policies and procedures that will allow them to identify patterns of money laundering and collusion with crime. The EU law is exceptionally broad, characterizing as money laundering *any* use of a good procured illegally (so eating a shoplifted candy bar is "laundering" the proceeds of a crime, in its way), so the case studies range from private bankers taking briefcases of cash to offshore institutions to drug addicted line employees stealing products off the shop floor and selling them. The interesting element here is that, no matter the laws in place that attempt to control it, money laundering is most often caught in businesses where the culture is to treat people well, reward whistleblowers and empower low-level employees.

This book taught me quite a bit about AML. It was well worded and simple to understand.

Each year for work (I work in a large financial services firm) I have to take the anti-money laundering training. If you think of money laundering as a mobster carrying around bags of cash, your view is too limited. That can be money laundering, but in this electronic, global age, the scope and possibilities of money laundering have expanded. Corporate compliance expert Rose Chapman has written Anti-Money Laundering: A Practical Guide to Reducing Organizational Risk to help people like me, and, even more, people who supervise my company's business, to navigate the complex requirements of anti-money laundering compliance.



The highlight for me is the case studies. As with any abstract principle of law, seeing it in application makes understanding it easier, as well as helping the reader grasp the implications of AML regulations. A major theme is training and educating employees and keeping good records. As one case study makes clear, as long as training has been demonstrably implemented, if an employee abuses his or her position to launder money, the firm is not held liable, only the individual employee. This spotlights the importance of those training sessions I have to listen to each year.



Chapman says she is writing for "emerging AML professionals at all levels of an organization." If you are there, in a supervisory role or in a role that touches on AML, Anti-Money Laundering will give you a helpful introduction and guide to this increasingly complex area of business.





Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!