Movie and book corner #1: The Giant Beast
As it’s getting colder outside and more often we stay home this time of the year, I hope you will enjoy the new series at Financial Crime Community of Practice Group. During upcoming weeks, I will present to you an overview of movies and books that are dedicated to money laundering, financial crimes, financial crisis and other topics that are interesting for us regarding where we work.
About this series
You can enjoy recommended positions on your own or watch it together with your family members or friends. Despite the topics of the recommended positions are financial, money laundering bias, I guarantee that your mates will find it enjoyable as well. Some of the recommendations are well known productions, majority of us have probably already seen, however I have also tried to find some less common movies and publications. I hope you all find something interesting for you.
If you are ready, let’s grab some warm blanket, prepare a cup of tea, or glass of fine wine and let’s start the Autumn with some great movies and books!
If you have already seen the recommended position, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion! If you have seen a movie or read a book that hasn’t been mentioned yet in the series, feel free to share the title with others. Let’s treat this series of posts as book and movie fans corner, where we can exchange our opinions and great titles.
This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy - Money Laundering: A How to Guide (S1E1)
What would you do if I gave you bag full of cash and ask you to clean it? – that’s the question you have most probably heard during your job interview and will hear another several times during next promotion interviews. Kal Penn, the host of the programme, American actor and White House staff member in Obama’s administration, asked himself the same question and decided to find out how to do it exactly.
The best place to start journey as money launderer is to draw on senior laundering colleagues’ experience. That’s why Kal starts his journey with convicted money launderer - Humberto Aguilar – asking him for tips in laundering money. Humberto Aguilar, who went out to freedom, explains how he laundered drugs money from Miami using whorehouses in Panama and Swiss banking system.
Tax heavens
Tax havens are one of the topics which cannot be omitted when talking about money laundering. That’s why we visit Cyprus and international law firm (only one agreed to appear in the show) which specializes in setting up companies. Is it complicated? Does it cost a lot? How can you hide behind nominee shareholder or director? As it turns out, after 2013 (crisis in Cyprus banking sector) there could be better places (or at least as good as other) for money launderers to set up a company. Have you ever wondered in which US state, the most companies are registered? Spoiler alert: Delaware. How many of them are registered in the most popular location? In 2012 more than 285,000. What time does it take to set up a company there? Can be less than 30 seconds.
Presented topics
The show is really brief compendium of AML topics. It discusses the most popular topics such as stages of money laundering, SARs, PEPs, Panama Papers and Mossac Fonsecca, which businesses are mostly used to launder money and why.
Summary
Next time when your aunt asks you what you exactly do in your job, instead of explaining it intricacies, play her “This Giant Beast […]”! When you help your friend to prepare for his first job interview in our Group, tell him to watch it instead of reading Wikipedia articles! Next time when you prepare yourself to the job interview, the night before, watch it! I guarantee you will relax, refresh some topics and you will know exactly what to do when your boss asks you to launder bag of money.
All series available on Amazon Prime. I highly encourage you to watch other episodes (talking about e.g. AI, counterfeiting or death) too!
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10 (693 rates)
Author: Agata Kossowska
