Criminal enterprise today supports a huge global economy, with a gross ¿domestic¿ product estimated at as high as five percent of world GDP. The World Bank puts the proceeds of crime, in recent years, at US$800 billion to US$1 trillion annually¿a degree of economic leverage trumped by only a few of the world¿s most developed nations.

The ravages of transnational crime are apparent everywhere¿terror, addictive and debilitating drugs, the ubiquity of combat rifles and handguns, political corruption, smuggling, tax evasion, trading in women and children, counterfeiting of goods and currency, and much more. Money laundering¿the methodology by which ill-gotten gains are legitimized¿is the visible link at which such crime can be most effectively attacked, as this powerful work by a leading expert demonstrates.

Using the Indian experience (with which he is well acquainted) to particularize the issues, the author investigates the forces that determine the various means of money laundering and its opposition in today¿s globalized world. These include the following: