Biteback Publishing has acquired a unique insiders’ guide to money laundering, addressing the failure of current regulations to tackle the problem, by George Cottrell and Lawrence Burke Files.
Money laundering is as old as money itself – and yet the laws designed to prevent it are as ineffective as they ever have been.
Today’s anti-money laundering (AML) regulations were designed to eliminate profits from drug trafficking and combat tax evasion, terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. However, the modern laws have done little to stop crime and have instead significantly increased the regulatory burden on legitimate businesses and consumers. As one banker at an AML conference quipped, ‘This does not stop money laundering; it just enables those in the know to charge more.’
Indeed, AML laws have laid the foundations for massive and sophisticated criminal enterprise support services that help criminals evade detection.
How to Launder Money: A guide for law enforcement, prosecutors and policymakers offers a peek behind the veil to see the bent levers of finance and how they are pulled. It also examines how many who have pulled them, including one of the authors, have ended up behind bars. While acknowledging the challenges faced by law enforcement in a borderless world, it also provides concrete recommendations on how to reduce the crime associated with money laundering.
The criminals already know how to launder money; this is, in part, their inside story. This book is for the rest of us, who want to know how the laws that are supposed to protect us from crime are in reality doing more damage than ever before.
George Cottrell is a British financier and political strategist. In 2016, at the Republican National Convention, he was arrested on allegations of a money-laundering conspiracy. He now runs Geostrategy.com, advising political parties and governments globally. All his proceeds from the book will be donated to charitable causes.
Lawrence Burke Files is an international financial investigator, due diligence expert and instructor who has handled cases in over 130 countries. He brings his practical investigative and problem-solving experience to his lectures on due diligence, AML, finance, risk management and anti-corruption. Prior to founding FE&E, Inc., he served as the director of corporate finance for investment bank American National. He is the author of the award-winning book Due Diligence For The Financial Professional, 2nd Edition.
Biteback acquired world rights direct from the authors.
In a joint statement, the authors said: ‘The current AML regime, despite decades of refinement, detects less than 1 per cent of illicit financial flows. This is not just a legal or financial failure; it is a total systemic governance failure. Indeed, most bankers now refer to the all-too-common AML fines as a spank tax. In this accessible book, we aim to show the general public how it’s possible for a few hundred million to go missing without a trace, why the current jungle of overregulation has no impact whatsoever on criminal money laundering, and how it can be replaced with simple, targeted interventions to effectively tackle financial crime.’
How to Launder Money will be published in February 2026, supported by a major marketing and publicity campaign.
Price: £25 hardback
ISBN: 9781837360406
For more information please contact Suzanne Sangster on suzanne.sangster@bitebackpublishing.com or 07818 810173