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January 2017 - present
October 2016 - present
Publications
Publications (103)
This paper examines how blockchain technology and the Metaverse can address persistent challenges in corporate compliance, with a focus on mitigating criminogenic asymmetries—such as regulatory arbitrage and opacity in cross-border transactions—through decentralized, transparent solutions. By contrasting the U.S. and Italian legal frameworks, we hi...
Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology have revolutionized the financial sector, offering decentralized, secure, and efficient transaction mechanisms. However, these innovations have also introduced new challenges, particularly in the realm of financial crimes such as money laundering, illicit trade, and fraud. This paper explores the dual-use...
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of the financial action task force (FATF) recommendations and their practical implementation on green criminology in Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative case study technique to achieve the study’s objective.
Findings
According to the study, criminals in Pakistan are...
This paper presents AI-SNIPS (AI Support for Network Intelligence-based Pharmaceutical Security), a production-ready platform that enables stakeholder decision-making, secure data sharing, and interdisciplinary research in the fight against Illicit, Substandard, and Falsified Medical Products (ISFMP). AI-SNIPS takes as input cases: a case consists...
By concentrating on what is officially defined as illegal or criminal, an even more serious threat to society is left out. This threat is caused by a host of company practices that are within the letter of the law and yet, they have multiple adverse social consequences. Quite often, the main reason why these practices remain legal and respected is...
Corruption causes some crises, but others are inevitable. However, the effects of all of them are made far worse by corruption. Social problems and inequalities are thus exacerbated, justice and rule of law are undermined, and all of this increases social turmoil and security risks. Systemic corruption, fraud and mismanagement result in a lack of c...
This paper inquires into “trade diversion”, a frequently complex type of misconduct about which little has been written in policy or academic papers, despite recent attention to illicit flows and trade-based money laundering (TBML). (African Forum and Network on Debt and Development, Illicit financial flows: towards a more integrated approach for c...
This paper reviews what is known about the nature, extent and effects of doping in sports in recent years. It places the issue in the context of sports and politics and considers current issues in the fight against doping in sports, concluding with thoughts on what needs to be done to address these problem that are more complex than most of us thin...
Purpose
Response to suggestion that EU-wide cash payment limits would assist in the control of terrorism finance and money laundering.
Design/methodology/approach
Desk review and interviews
Findings
The inception impact assessment (IIA) is ill-conceived, not grounded on firm empirical evidence and harmful to both crime control and the legitima...
Financial crime affects virtually all areas of public policy and is increasingly transnational. The essays in this volume address both the theoretical and policy issues arising from financial crime and feature a wide variety of case studies, and cover topics such as state revenue collection, criminal enterprises, money laundering, the use of new te...
In many countries high levels of corruption persist in spite of the adoption of so-called anti-
corruption “best practices”. In this paper we make a call to pursue a context-sensitive inquiry into the drivers of corruption in order to substantially improve the practices and effects of anti-corruption. We discuss evidence from case studies in Africa...
A widespread institutional aversion to cash and cash-related operators
characterizes public policy and bank practices for a number of years. As stated
by SUERF, “Recently cash has become unpopular in political circles, as it
effectively restricts states’ power to tax (explicitly or via negative interest rates)
or to survey and potentially control t...
Watch full hearing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdEe9MqEDkc
http://www.protagon.gr/scripta/editorial/44341044078-44341044078
Text available here: https://theconversation.com/europes-failed-response-to-refugee-crisis-risks-fraying-local-labor-markets-53348
Available here: https://medium.com/@n.passas/problems-in-the-pursuit-of-tax-evasion-in-greece-the-need-for-due-process-fairness-and-inclusive-81b89594c250#.w918knvku
Our goal is to determine the structural differences between different categories of networks and to use these differences to predict the network category. Existing work on this topic has looked at social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, co-author networks, etc. We, instead, focus on a novel dataset that we have assembled from a variety of source...
An article written by Aaron Arnold and me on the role of financial vigilance regarding counter-proliferation of WMD appeared in The Conversation. We argue that financial vigilance can help bring more traceability and transparency assisting counter-proliferation. This way, the deal with Iran can strengthen current capacity to monitor illicit financi...
Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4Dj0qdWLnk
http://www.newsweek.com/how-can-we-keep-iran-honest-nukes-follow-money-336663
free download at: http://thebulletin.org/how-know-if-iran-breaks-its-word-financial-monitoring8337
Available to read or download at: http://www.u4.no/publications/financial-intermediaries-anti-money-laundering-allies-in-cash-based-societies
Many informal cash-based economies run parallel financial systems that are very different to the Western banking concept. Such countries are perceived to have a high risk of money laundering. Looking at Afgha...
We consider the problem of determining the structural differences between different types of social networks and using these differences for applications concerning prediction of their structures. Much research on this problem has been conducted in the context of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, within which one would like to characterize...
Pardee House Seminar, Boston University, February 4th, 2014. Daivi Rodima-Taylor, John Harris, Donald Terry, Nikos Passas. https://www.bu.edu/pardee/2014/01/17/remittances-seminar/
Organización de los Estados Americanos – Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo – Centro Internacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo 4 Mayo de 2014 No. 18 El Rincón del experto Los efectos de la agenda anticorrupción en la Contratación Pública en Latinoamérica y el Caribe Por: Jorge Claro y Nikos Passas Promover la Integridad y rendición de cue...
As in many other developing countries, Chinese businesses and individuals frequently fund transactions using informal, unmonitored financial methods. The impact of this phenomenon is both positive and negative: positive when funds are used for legitimate purposes, such as providing much needed working capital for businesses, and negative when funds...
Terrorism is not a new problem, and politically motivated offending has been handled in a variety of ways from ancient Greece
to modern times (Passas, 1986). The process of globalization and the cross-border movement of ideas, information, people,
goods, and capital, have brought terrorism to the fore of public, media, and government attention. Po...
This paper focuses on financial controls and vigilance against the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). It refers to the new Financial Action task Force (FATF) Recommendations on this subject and outlines relevant provisions of the U.N. Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) and the considerable challenges facing the international com...
In 1987, grave robbers in Peru stole the largest gold object ever found from an ancient royal tomb in the archeological site
of Sipàn (Atwood 2004). Weighing in at just under 3 pounds, the piece was a backflap, ripped off the skeletal remains from
the tomb of an important warrior–priest. Ten years later, the backflap was recovered in the parking lo...
Many U.S. corporations and the goods they produce negatively impact our society without breaking any laws. We are all too familiar with the tobacco industry’s effect on public health and health care costs for smokers and nonsmokers, as well as the role of profit in the pharmaceutical industry’s research priorities. It’s Legal but It Ain’t Right tac...
Resumen: Este artículo ofrece, en primer lugar, una descripción de las fuentes de financiación del terrorismo de los grupos relaciona-dos e inspirados en al Qaida. En dicha descripción, se contrasta la información procedente de la literatura con los datos empíricos revisados en una investigación llevada a cabo por los autores. A con-tinuación, se d...
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to contribute to one's understanding of vulnerabilities for abuse in the realm of trade and commerce, and to appreciate how inattention to this issue undermines all other financial controls.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review the US rules and regulations regarding non‐vessel‐operating common carriers an...
International cooperation among prosecution services is an urgent necessity and cooperation mechanisms are evolving rapidly
to keep pace with new technologies. Their evolution over the last decade or so reflects the new determination of States to
work more closely with each other to face the growing threats of organized crime, corruption and terror...
This paper sheds light on the routine practices and mechanics of hawala, an informal funds transfer system, which emerged in the Indian subcontinent and spread globally in recent decades. Hawala has come under suspicion of being a tool in the hands of al Qaeda and other terrorists, so a series of measures and policies have been taken internationall...
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to raise the question of whether the combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) arsenal following the attacks of 11 September 2001 was developed and applied too fast, to the point of being unnecessarily costly, ineffective, unfair and even counterproductive.
Design/methodology/approach
– An outline of two pri...
This paper challenges the widely shared view that the United States and international frameworks regulating terrorist finance
and money laundering (AML/CFT) is productive and effective. Through a careful look at the evidence regarding the formal and
informal fund transfer systems, this paper shows that security, crime control and economic policy ob...
Commodities, trade, and natural resources have long been part of the political economy of conflict, as soldiers and militants usually employ accessible means and methods to raise funds unless there is a clash with honestly held religious or ideological positions. Reports about the role of commodities in the financing of terrorist groups cover many...
South Asia has experienced a sharp increase in remittances since the mid-1990s. According to recent World Bank research, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are all among the world's top 20 receivers of remittances, with estimated receipts of US$3.2 billion, US$17.4 million,US$4.0 billion, and US$1.3 billion, respectively. Building on this r...
By concentrating on what is officially defined as illegal or criminal, a more serious threat to society is left out. This threat is caused by corporate practices that are within the letter of the law and yet have multiple adverse social consequences. Thus, just when more effective regulatory action and oversight is imperative, the global neo-libera...
Indicates the importance of the Informal Value Transfer System (IVTS) and hawala in particular as a means whereby immigrant workers can send remittances to their home countries, and the reasons for suspecting that these systems can be used to transfer funds which support terrorist activities. Lists the indicators of IVTS activity. Lists and discuss...
Defines hawala, which in Arabic means “transfer”; what distinguishes it from other fund transfer methods is its informality, reliance on trust and networks, and lack of records. Describes how it can be used to finance terrorism and launder money, evade tax and so on. Discusses the many problems for law enforcement arising from the lack of records i...
Attempts to clamp down on the transfer of funds for terrorism following the attacks of September 11 2001 have included calls to regulate and supervise informal monetary transfer systems. This paper outlines how informal transfer systems operate, and points to the difficulties inherent in investigating and regulating them. The recent efforts on the...
Many U.S. corporations and the goods they produce negatively impact our society without breaking any laws. We are all too familiar with the tobacco industry's effect on public health and health care costs for smokers and nonsmokers, as well as the role of profit in the pharmaceutical industry's research priorities. It's Legal but It Ain't Right tac...
To facilitate law enforcement and regulatory actions in the relatively unfamiliar field of IVTS, three items are produced in this report. First, an analysis of difficulties likely to be encountered in investigations of hawala transactions in contrast with anticipated difficulties in investigations of any transnational type of misconduct. The point...
Since the September 2001 attacks in the USA, 'terrorism' has leapt to the top of the Western political agenda. Within this context, as soon as the word 'hawala', in particular, was uttered in Congress, lawmakers, policy think-tanks and the media turned their attention to what they defined as a financial tool for terrorism. This knee-jerk response t...
This chapter is concerned with the financial controls of international terrorism and informal value transfer systems (IVTS). IVTS refers to any network or mechanism that can be used to transfer funds or value from place to place either without leaving a formal paper-trail of the entire transaction or without going through regulated financial instit...
The debate on whether the problem of transnational crime is growing or not rages on. Yet, basic research and reliable data on which to inform this debate are lacking. As a consequence, anecdotal and incomplete information leads to analyses that focus on individual problems and neglect serious structural problems underlying the demand for illegal go...
This volume comprises a selection of papers prepared for the Second Colloquium
on Cross-Border Crime, held in Budapest, Hungary, at the National Institute
of Criminology (OKRI) in September 2000.
This article draws attention to the systematic and organised criminal acts committed by legitimate enterprises and professionals, focusing on accounting fraud. Firstly, the extent and consequences of false accounting are considered, then a theoretical framework is outlined which focuses on structural issues commonly found in financial scandals arou...
This article examines evidence from the case of the Bank of Credit and Com- merce International (BCCI) affair, one of the largest international financial frauds in history, to illustrate the effects of a crime-facilitative environment in the international banking com- munity. We argue that the official response to BCCI-related law violations was ha...
This is the first systematic study into so-called "underground banking" networks. The research was funded by the Ministry of Justice of The Netherlands. It is the study that coined the term "Informal value transfer systems". The main goals of the study were to provide a policy-useful analysis of the way in which such systems operate, the extent to...
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was established in 1972 to provide help for poor people and poor countries. However, its scandalous closure, as the centre of a huge fraud, indicated that the main beneficiaries of the services of BCCI were the Colombian drug barons, the CIA, and several prominent Third World dictators. The BCCI...
This paper describes and analyses a large fraud against the financial interests of the European Community (EC). On the basis of this case and our interviews with officials in five EC countries, we highlight structural impediments to the control of such frauds, draw parallels with other research on organisational crime and suggest that the distincti...
The Church of Scientology (COS) has been the center of controversy and moral panics around the world. Many of its critics, including government and professional bodies suggest that it is a “destructive cult” with values in conflict with society. Against such views, it is argued that the CoS both reflects and relies on conventional values. The CoS i...
This paper elaborates on Merton's theory of anomie, while aiming at the enhancement of our understanding of processes conducive to corporate deviance. It attempts to consolidate points made by theorists operating in diverse, often considered as conflicting, orientations or perspectives. A synthetic or integrated scheme is, thus, put forward, which...
