Oliver Bullough about his latest book: Everybody Loves Our Dollars: How Money Laundering Won.
(Dirty Money is EVERYWHERE But Our Governments Don't Care)
Aaron Bastani talks to Oliver Bullough about his latest book: Everybody Loves Our Dollars: How Money Laundering Won. Bullough explains how money laundering, as a global phenomenon, is estimated to be worth trillions of dollars a year. What makes such industrial-scale crime even possible is, ironically, the basic infrastructure that permits globalized trade in the first place: a basket of important currencies, centering on the American dollar.
So while the White House talks about the war on drugs, or the war on crime, the currency being issued by the Federal Reserve - America’s bank - is what makes much of that crime profitable at all. It turns out, according to Bullough, that while elected officials talk tough, they generally fail to take necessary steps to curb the global flow of dirty money. While completely eliminating laundering may never be possible, making a start is easier than you think.
What is money laundering, and why should you care about it? How does it look different in places like China and Russia when compared to the United States or Europe? Is it really like the TV shows? What do vape shops, NFTs and luxury watches all have in common? And is rampant criminal activity much more common, and closer to home, than we are led to believe?
00:00 Intro
03:14 Trillions of Dollars Laundered Each Year
07:50 Money Laundering Is Getting Easier
12:16 We’re Losing the Fight Against Money Laundering
15:46 What TV Depictions of Money Laundering Get Wrong
21:41 Bicester Village and Smuggled European Luxury Goods
26:32 The Vancouver Model: Chinese Gangs, Gamblers, and Drug Money
31:57 The Rise and Inefficacy of Debanking
39:28 The Islamophobia of Debanking
45:32 The Paradox of Bank Notes
56:59 Are We Living in Times That Are Perfect for Criminals?
1:01:13 Tether: The Most Valuable Company You’ve Never Heard Of
1:07:37 Why Right-Wingers Love Crypto
1:10:36 NFTs
1:11:26 Governments Are Completely Failing to Tackle Money Laundering
1:14:45 Vape Shops and Compliance
1:17:33 Money Laundering is Everywhere
1:21:51 Policy Solutions
https://youtu.be/Qd_ZjRGFGOw
Gemini Summary:
This video discusses the global phenomenon of money laundering, estimated to be between 2 and 5 trillion US dollars annually (4:08). Oliver Bullough, author of Everybody Loves Our Dollars, explains that despite government efforts to combat crime, the very currencies issued by major economies, particularly the US dollar, provide the infrastructure for this illicit activity (1:30).
Key discussion points include:
Scale of the problem: Money laundering is a massive parallel financial industry, far larger than commonly recognized, and its profits often fuel other serious crimes, including terrorism (7:09-7:45).
Ease of money laundering: While traditional methods like opening bank accounts with fake IDs are harder, the online world and the movement of value through goods like luxury watches and NFTs make laundering easier and harder to detect (7:50-21:11).
Ineffectiveness of current efforts: Despite significant resources allocated to combating money laundering, current strategies, which heavily focus on bank accounts, are largely ineffective. This leads to the "debanking" of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people, often from marginalized communities, due to overly cautious compliance measures (13:46-14:11, 31:57-32:32, 42:03-44:32).
Government complicity: Governments, particularly the US, benefit from the global use of their currency, which inadvertently supports money laundering (52:32-54:05). There's a lack of political will to implement effective solutions, despite the devastating impact on vulnerable populations (1:11:26-1:12:21).
Policy solutions: Bullough suggests simple yet impactful solutions like discontinuing large denomination banknotes (e.g., £50 notes) and properly resourcing law enforcement agencies to tackle financial crime at its systemic root, rather than solely relying on banks (1:21:51-1:24:55).
The "Vancouver model" describes a money laundering scheme where Chinese gamblers in Vancouver, unable to move money out of China, would receive large quantities of cash from Canadian criminal gangs (often drug dealers). The gamblers would then lose this cash in casinos, and their debt would be paid by shipping drugs from China to the Canadian gangs, completing a "circle of value exchange" that circumvents traditional financial systems and makes it difficult for authorities to identify as conventional money laundering.
Here are some videos related to the topic of money laundering and Oliver Bullough's work:
- Oliver Bullough | Moneyland & The Cancer Of Kleptocracy from Curious Worldview Podcast delves into Oliver Bullough's book "Moneyland" and the concept of kleptocracy.
- Moneyland by Oliver Bullough - Waterstones exclusive edition provides an overview of Bullough's book, focusing on money laundering and shell companies.
- Moneyland: illicit finance features Oliver Bullough discussing London's role in the global financial system as explored in his book "Moneyland."
- Moneyland: The Invisible Nation Where $13 Trillion Disappears from Shadow State Files examines the phenomenon of global wealth discrepancies and how it relates to illicit financial flows.
- "Where There's An Oligarch, There's A Brit": How The UK Enables Global Financial Crime by The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder features Oliver Bullough discussing how Britain facilitates global financial crime.
https://youtu.be/HHDMOFSXPSk
Gemini Summarize the video
This video discusses the global phenomenon of money laundering with author Oliver Bullough, whose book Everybody Loves Our Dollars delves into the topic. Money laundering is estimated to be between 2% and 5% of global GDP, amounting to $2 to $5 trillion US dollars annually (3:56).
Key discussion points include:
Ease of money laundering (7:50): Despite stricter regulations like those preventing opening bank accounts with fake IDs, the anonymity of online transactions and the use of cryptocurrencies have made money laundering easier.
Ineffectiveness of current efforts (12:16): The fight against money laundering is largely failing, partly due to outdated approaches that focus primarily on bank accounts while criminals use other methods like luxury goods and trade.
Misconceptions from TV shows (15:46): Fictional depictions often misrepresent money laundering by focusing on Western methods involving shell companies and bank transfers, ignoring the more prevalent global methods that involve moving value outside the traditional financial system.
Alternative methods of value transfer (19:46): Bullough explains that value can be moved through tangible assets like luxury watches, which can be bought, transported, and sold in another country, bypassing financial scrutiny.
The "Vancouver Model" (26:32): This model illustrates how Chinese gangs use gambling in casinos to launder drug money, where cash is delivered to gamblers who then lose it, with the debt repaid through drug shipments. This method avoids traditional banking systems.
Debanking and its paradox (31:57): The rise of debanking—banks closing accounts due to compliance concerns—has significantly increased, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. This often disproportionately impacts marginalized communities and humanitarian organizations due to the stringent and often flawed anti-money laundering regulations.
Tether and cryptocurrency's role (1:01:13): Tether, a stablecoin, is highlighted as a significant tool for money laundering due to its ability to facilitate transactions outside traditional banking systems, especially for sanctioned entities.
Government failure and potential solutions (1:11:26): Governments are criticized for failing to tackle money laundering effectively, often outsourcing the responsibility to banks. Bullough suggests policy solutions such as eliminating high-denomination banknotes (e.g., 50-pound notes) and properly resourcing law enforcement agencies to combat financial crime, particularly in the realm of crypto. He emphasizes that tackling money laundering is crucial for addressing street-level crimes that rely on these illicit financial systems.
How do casinos facilitate laundering?
The video explains that casinos can facilitate money laundering, particularly through the "Vancouver Model." In this model, Chinese punters would travel to Vancouver to gamble but couldn't access their money from China due to capital controls. They would then take delivery of large quantities of cash from Canadian criminal gangs, often drug dealers, and gamble with it (27:12).
The speaker clarifies that the gamblers would lose much of this cash, but the debt incurred from gambling would be paid by shipping drugs from China to the Canadian criminal gangs (27:25). This creates a circular exchange of value where criminals deliver cash to gamblers who then lose it, but the overall system allows for the movement and legitimization of illicit funds through drug shipments, effectively bypassing traditional banking systems. (28:08 - 28:21)
Why is global financial crime growing?
How do current anti-laundering efforts backfire?
What are the economic consequences of money laundering?
The video explains that money laundering, estimated to be between 2% and 5% of global GDP, or $2 to $5 trillion US dollars annually, primarily functions as the support industry for all acquisitive crime worldwide (3:56 - 4:13).
According to the speaker, the economic consequences include:
Enabling further crime: Money laundering underpins the entire criminal economy, allowing "the world's worst people" to legitimize their wealth and continue activities like terrorism, cartel operations, and human trafficking (4:42 - 5:29).
Massive victimization: It leads to an "unimaginable scale of devastation" for vulnerable people, as seen with push payment fraud, which costs the UK about a billion pounds a year, representing less than 1% of the money laundered through the City of London annually (6:14 - 7:28).
Increased criminal profits and more crime: By making money laundering cheaper, as in the case of Chinese gangs connecting supply and demand for cash, the profits for criminal gangs become much greater. This, in turn, leads to more profit in crime and therefore more crime, which is the opposite of the intended goal of tackling money laundering (30:30 - 30:47).
Costs borne by everyone: The global money laundering system costs "a huge amount of money, which is cost on all of us. We all pay that" (1:12:37 - 1:12:45).
Disrupting legitimate individuals and organizations: It victimizes already marginalized people by kicking them out of the financial system through practices like debanking (1:12:45 - 1:12:49).
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From the publisher:
From the bestselling author of MONEYLAND and BUTLER TO THE WORLD, a revelatory new anatomy of global money laundering, the crime that makes crime pay
Without money laundering, few crimes of acquisition would be worth the trouble. South America's drug cartels would be stuffed without it, as would Nigerian kleptocrats, Afghan terrorists, American tax evaders and a whole bestiary of human (and animal) traffickers the world over.
And yet, estimates of the dirty portion of world GDP have held steady at 2%-5% for decades. All efforts at legislation, diplomacy, prosecution and compliance have been a complete flop. It's not a lack of will to stamp it out. It's a lack of insight. So join bestselling investigative journalist Oliver Bullough on a perspective-altering adventure through the flipside of the global economy.
In the criminal world, cash is still king (in fact, crime might now be the main thing cash is good for, and even why it still exists). Barter is pretty good too: vast, continent-wide exchanges of everything from luxury handbags to baby eels support a triangular drug trade linking Europe to the Far East. Cryptocurrencies flow through paper ledgers that would make a Florentine merchant feel at home.
And the system works. Whether you're a fraudster, a cartel boss, a corrupt politician, a kleptocrat or a terrorist mastermind, your options to move and hide your money are more secure and more impenetrable than they have ever been. There has never been a better time to be a criminal. It's time that changed.
Orion Publishing Co
29 January 2026
ISBN: 9781399618090
