The Financial War on Crime and Terrorism - Opportunities and Challenges

The financial crime landscape is rapidly evolving, and so too have government responses over the past decade. This book, a product of the Financial Integrity Hub (FIH), critically examines global vulnerabilities and proposes innovative solutions to combat illicit activities. It addresses the rising sophistication of financial crimes, fuelled by technological advances, globalisation, human fallibility, and regulatory gaps.
The book highlights the systemic nature of financial crime, connecting areas such as AML leadership challenges, exploitation of the gaming sector, AI in crime detection, wildlife trafficking financing, and opportunities in public-private and private-private information sharing. It explores how criminal activity can shift to exploit weaknesses in global systems, from corruption and godfatherism to state capture, underscoring the need for proactivity, along with suitable legal frameworks and enforcement.
Chapters explore the ethical dimensions of financial crime, including the role of professional facilitators, and highlight gaps in current legal frameworks, advocating stronger whistleblower protections, transparency in beneficial ownership, and adaptable regulations.
Through case studies and analysis, this book equips practitioners, policymakers, and academics with the knowledge to better prevent, detect, and mitigate financial crime, contributing to a more secure, transparent global financial system. It is essential reading for professionals across finance, law enforcement, regulation, and academia seeking to understand and mitigate financial crime risks.

List of contents

Financial Crime Prevention in an Age of Paradox.- Leadership in the Evolving Landscape of Financial Crime: Navigating AML/CTF Risks and Controls.- FATF and the Conundrum of Public-Private Sector Intelligence and Information Sharing.- Private to Private: The Next Frontier of Financial Intelligence Sharing.- Network Analytics and Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Hybrid Approach to Money Laundering Detection.- Illegal Wildlife Trade as a Method of Financing Terrorism.- Practice to Deceive: A Taxonomy of Money Laundering Deception Based on US and Australian Case Studies.- Geopolitcal of State Capture: Systemic Corruption as a Professional Service.- Corrupt Elites and Godfathers in Nigeria: Structural Impunity and the Undermining of Accountability.- Dangerous Play: AML/CTF/CPF Risks in the Gaming Sector.- International Arbitration and Money Laundering: Is There an Actual Issue?.- The Impact of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standards and Focus: From Effectiveness to Effect.- Conclusions: The Financial War on Crime and Terrorism Important Research Questions.

About the author

Doron Goldbarsht LLB LLM (HUJI) PHD (UNSW) is an Associate Professor at Macquarie Law School, the Director of the Financial Integrity Hub (FIH) and the Academic Head of the Graduate Certificate in Financial Integrity Law. With over 20 years of expertise in anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF), he has published as sole author, co-author, and co-editor several books on financial crime and compliance, including Financial Crime and the Law: Identifying and Mitigating Risks (Springer, 2024) and Financial Technology and the Law: Combating Financial Crime (Springer, 2022). Doron also provides expert opinions to governments and the private sector in litigation, advising on financial crime and regulatory matters. His expertise is frequently sought in complex cases involving cross-border transactions, compliance with global AML/CTF standards, and the interpretation of regulatory obligations in high-stakes enforcement actions. He is regularly consulted by national and international media outlets on developments in financial crime law, policy, and enforcement.
Louis de Koker B.Iuris LLB LLM (UFS) LLM (Cambridge) LLD (UFS) is a professor of law at La Trobe Law School, Australia, an extraordinary professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of the Western Cape and an Advisory Board Member of the Financial Integrity Hub (FIH). His financial crime research focuses on mitigating unintended negative consequences of anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing objectives. He has undertaken various university research engagements with bodies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and has worked closely with the DC-based Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). This work extended to a range of developing countries including Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Namibia, Nigeria, Uganda, the Ukraine and Palau. His publications have been cited in publications and research papers of international bodies such as the World Bank, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Labour Organisation, the G20's Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion and the World Economic Forum.
Jamie Ferrill is a Senior Lecturer of Financial Crime Studies at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Charles Sturt University and a Research Fellow with the Financial Integrity Hub (FIH). Before transitioning to academia, she gained nearly a decade of experience in law enforcement, serving with the Canadian federal government. Jamie’s research addresses threats to national and economic security, with a particular interest in the intersection of financial crime with border governance frameworks, international cooperation, and organisational effectiveness. Jamie has been a visiting fellow at the Academy of International Affairs NRW (Germany) and the Border Policy Research Institute (USA), and she is a fellow of the FIH, Borders in Globalization (Canada), and the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen’s University (Canada). 

Summary

The financial crime landscape is rapidly evolving, and so too have government responses over the past decade. This book, a product of the Financial Integrity Hub (FIH), critically examines global vulnerabilities and proposes innovative solutions to combat illicit activities. It addresses the rising sophistication of financial crimes, fuelled by technological advances, globalisation, human fallibility, and regulatory gaps.
The book highlights the systemic nature of financial crime, connecting areas such as AML leadership challenges, exploitation of the gaming sector, AI in crime detection, wildlife trafficking financing, and opportunities in public-private and private-private information sharing. It explores how criminal activity can shift to exploit weaknesses in global systems, from corruption and godfatherism to state capture, underscoring the need for proactivity, along with suitable legal frameworks and enforcement.
Chapters explore the ethical dimensions of financial crime, including the role of professional facilitators, and highlight gaps in current legal frameworks, advocating stronger whistleblower protections, transparency in beneficial ownership, and adaptable regulations.
Through case studies and analysis, this book equips practitioners, policymakers, and academics with the knowledge to better prevent, detect, and mitigate financial crime, contributing to a more secure, transparent global financial system. It is essential reading for professionals across finance, law enforcement, regulation, and academia seeking to understand and mitigate financial crime risks.

Product details

• Assisted by: Louis de Koker (Editor), Jamie Ferrill (Editor), Doron Goldbarsht (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 10.02.2026
• EAN: 9783032063595
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3206359-5
• No. of pages: 305
• Illustrations: II, 305 p. 29 illus., 24 illus. in color.
• Series: European Yearbook of International Economic Law; Special Issue
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Law > Mercantile and commercial law; Strafrecht, allgemein, International Arbitration, financial law, Financial Regulation, AML, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, Financial Crime, FATF, Generative AI, Regulatory compliance, money laundering, Illegal Wildlife Trade, financial crime prevention, gaming sector, CPF, systemic corruption, compliance leadership, CTF, information-sharing