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Georgetown Americas Institute

January 14, 2025

Crime and Money Laundering: FATF Standards and Recent Trends to Identify Licit and Illicit Activities

Event Series: Crime and Money Laundering: Understanding the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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Money

Money laundering and cross-border illicit financial flows pose significant challenges to the global economy and governance. The IMF (2019) estimates that up to 37% of international financial transactions may be linked to illicit activities, underscoring the critical need for an in-depth understanding of these complex crimes. The Georgetown Americas Institute and Transcrime - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore are pleased to host a series of three virtual seminars addressing the multifaceted issue of money laundering, which impacts not only criminal organizations but also legitimate firms, often disguised as law-abiding entities.

For the first seminar we are pleased to welcome Elisa de Anda, president of the Financial Action Task Force, and Roberto de Michele, former head of the institutional capacity of the state division of the institutions for development sector of the Inter-American Development Bank, who will explore some of the most recent advances in the international regulatory landscape, as well as the use of technology to identify and prevent these illicit activities, including initiatives to improve the transparency of business ownership.

This event is the first of three in the event series Crime and Money Laundering.

Featuring

Elisa de Anda Madrazo of Mexico began her two-year term as president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on July 1, 2024. De Anda currently serves as director general in Mexico’s Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. De Anda joined the ministry in 2015. During her time there, she worked as a senior advisor for two ministers of finance, providing her with continuous involvement in high-level engagements and topics. She also served in the Financial Intelligence Unit, including a role as head attaché to the Mexican Embassy in Washington, DC. In her current capacity, De Anda supports the advancement and development of anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) policies and fosters collaboration among AML authorities in Mexico. Previously she served as head of the Mexican delegation and co-led Mexico’s efforts for its mutual evaluation in 2016 and 2017. She was also co-chair of the Global Network and Co-ordination Group, which oversees the collaboration with and within the nine FATF-style regional bodies, as well as with the observers of the FATF. Additionally, she has been a member of the steering group and chaired the contact group on Malaysia’s membership process.

Roberto de Michele is the former head of the institutional capacity of the state division of the institutions for development sector of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Previously, he served as principal specialist and coordinator of the IDB's Transparency and Integrity Cluster. He is the secretary of the transparency fund that supports reforms of public integrity, open government, transparency of spending, strengthening of control bodies, and prevention of money laundering. He directs the IDB financial transparency infoguide, a knowledge platform that offers high-level technical resources for officials, academics, and experts. De Michele was director of the Argentine Anti-Corruption Office, manager of the private initiative against corruption at Fundación Poder Ciudadano, and founding member of the Association for Civil Rights (ADC, Argentina). De Michele chaired the preparatory meeting for the drafting of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and participated in the drafting of the follow-up mechanism of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption. Among other publications, he is the author of the book The Codes of Ethics in Companies (1998) and Use of information for the integrity of the financial sector: reflections from a project against money laundering in Guatemala and is one of the co-authors of the Anticorruption Toolkit for the United Nations Global Compact against Corruption. He is a lawyer with a law degree from the University of Buenos Aires and an LL.M. from Yale Law School.