Central to the United Nations' definition of money laundering is the idea that wherever crime exists, there’s always dirty money. Money laundering is, therefore, the process of handling that dirty money whether from crime or egregious breaches of regulations. It's a definition that Nicholas Gilmour and Tristram Hicks, authors of the new book “The War on Dirty Money, wholeheartedly agree with. They argue that money laundering is not a victimless crime because such funds are often used to finance myriad criminal enterprises.

They chat with “Regulatory Ramblings” host Ajay Shamdasani about how financial investigations must take centre-stage before any meaningful criminal justice reform can occur. The authors stress that money laundering is not a series of stages and modalities, because at the most basic level – it is merely the transmission of value. While such transfers are commonly concealed with multiple layers of obfuscation, fundamentally, either a purchase is being made or some other transaction is taking place.

Nicholas Gilmour is a consultant to governments and international organizations in the fight against financial crime.

Tristram Hicks is a former New Scotland Yard detective superintendent and international criminal justice adviser on the operational effectiveness of anti-money laundering (AML) regimes.

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