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.
For the second session of the series, we welcomed Michele Riccardi, deputy director and senior researcher at Transcrime and adjunct professor of financial and business information analysis at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, and Marcela Melendez Arjona from the World Bank to discuss the distinctions between money laundering by criminal and non-criminal organizations. Are we all criminals? Are strategies to launder proceeds of crime different if conducted by legal firms or by criminal organizations? Do they use the same methods and schemes? The panel will discuss how to make proper distinctions and adopt adequate policy responses.
Featuring
Michele Riccardi is deputy director at Transcrime – Joint Research Center on Innovation and Crime of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. He is also adjunct professor at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and at the University of Palermo. His research focuses mainly on organized crime, money laundering, and financial crime. In this domain, he has coordinated or contributed to numerous research projects, at national and international levels, and has authored numerous publications. He is member of the Europol SOCTA Academic Advisory board, of the experts group of the EU Supranational Money Laundering Risk Assessment (SNRA), and of the Italian National ML Risk Assessment (NRA). He is a member of the UN working group in the measurement of illicit financial flows (SDG 16.4) at the global level. He has been consulted by the Financial Action Task Force and World Bank on money laundering and risk assessment initiatives. He holds a Ph.D. in criminology, a M.Sc. in accounting and financial economics (with distinction) from the University of Essex, as well as an M.A. in international relations (cum laude) from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.
Marcela Melendez is a deputy chief economist at the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) chief economist office at the World Bank. Before joining the World Bank, she served as chief economist for the LAC region at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); prior to that, she was managing partner at ECONESTUDIO, a Colombian boutique economic consulting and research firm. Her recent research examines the relationship between market structure, inequality, and economic growth and the roles played by labor markets, social protection systems, and tax systems' regulatory frameworks in Latin America and the Caribbean. At the World Bank, she conducts and supports the production of research addressing the region's most pressing problems. She has a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University and a B.A. in economics from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia.