Illicit Finance

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Illicit Finance: Impacts on corruption, national security, and development The IMF estimates that money laundering comprises roughly 2 to 5 percent of the world’s GDP each year ($1.74 trillion to $4.35 trillion). Much of this illicit money originates in the developing world and finds a convenient hiding place in the financial centers of the developed world. The negative impacts of illicit financial flows (IFFs) strike not only at the heart of a country’s economy but also increase the threats of instability, violence, and political and human insecurity, for not just the country in question but also for other countries in the region. This course will focus on developing an understanding of IFFs as a many-faceted problem with countries both rich and poor culpable in different ways. To delve into this problem, the course will utilize real-world case examples to understand the complementary roles that source, transit, and destination countries play. More specifically, the course will help students think critically about industries that act as easy sources of illicit capital, legal environments that protect individual property rights without asking probing questions about the sources of wealth, the methods to move these ill-gotten gains, and ongoing US policy mechanisms to highlight the full scope of this issue. This course straddles the study of law, economics, political science, and human rights.