Skip to Georgetown Americas Institute Full Site Menu Skip to main content
Georgetown University Logo

Georgetown Americas Institute

January 28, 2025

Crime and Money Laundering: Measuring the Impact of Criminal Activity and Money Laundering

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

RSVP Required
Machine to count money

Money laundering and cross-border illicit financial flows pose significant challenges to the global economy and governance. The IMF estimates that up to 37% of international financial transactions may be linked to illicit activities (2019), 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 seemingly law-abiding entities.

This third installment of this series will feature Joras Ferwerda, associate professor at the Utrecht University School of Economics in the Netherlands, and Sean Hagan, professor at Georgetown Law, as discussant. The session will focus on measuring the impact of criminal activity and money laundering. Presenters will discuss different methodologies that measure illicit financial activities, including cross-border illicit financial transactions. What kind of indicators can help us flag illicit transactions? How does money laundering impact governance and credit scoring of jurisdictions?

Featuring

Joras Ferwerda is associate professor at the Utrecht University (UU) School of Economics in the Netherlands. He also holds a Ph.D. in economics, a master’s degree in economics and social sciences, and a bachelor’s degree in economics and law from the Utrecht University School of Economics in the Netherlands. He is also on the academic board of the Catholic University of Milan for the international Ph.D. in criminology program and coordinator of the UU AI Lab for Sustainable Finance. He was visiting professor at the University of Maryland, College Park at the criminology and criminal justice department and senior researcher in the  criminology section of Vrije UniversiteitAmsterdam. He is a certified money laundering expert for the Dutch National Police.

Sean Hagan is a professor at Georgetown Law and a nonresident fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He has advised the IMF’s management, executive board, and membership on all legal aspects of the IMF’s operations, including its regulatory, advisory, and lending functions. He also led a number of policy initiatives, including, most recently, the reform of the IMF’s anti-corruption policy. Hagan has published extensively on both IMF-related legal matters and a broad range of issues relating to the prevention and resolution of financial crises, with a particular emphasis on insolvency and the restructuring of debt, including sovereign debt. Prior to beginning work at the IMF, Hagan was in private practice, first in New York and subsequently in Tokyo. Hagan received his J.D. from the Georgetown Law and also received a Master of Science in international political economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.