Trade-Based Money Laundering by Mariola Marzouk

Trade-Based Money Laundering by Mariola Marzouk

This book exposes how illicit finance hides in plain sight within legitimate global trade. Drawing on real-world cases, empirical interviews, and policy analysis, the book reveals how Trade-Based Money Laundering (TBML) exploits regulatory gaps, dynamic supply chains, and the ambiguities of modern commerce. It uncovers the systemic incentives that sustain symbolic compliance—where audit trails, checklists, and metrics give the appearance of vigilance while laundering continues unchecked. This work is essential reading for policymakers, financial institutions, law enforcement professionals, and scholars seeking a deep understanding of TBML. It combines rigorous research with practical insights, showing how public and private actors inadvertently perpetuate compliance rituals that fail to disrupt illicit trade. By mapping the structural, legal, and institutional challenges, the text equips readers to identify vulnerabilities, assess enforcement gaps, and rethink anti-money laundering strategies. Far beyond theory, the book offers a critical recommendation for moving from the mirage of oversight to effective disruption. Readers will gain the conceptual tools and operational realism needed to confront TBML, improve compliance practices, and safeguard global financial systems against one of the most pervasive forms of economic crime.

'A stimulating, critical examination of TBML and how it is combatted (or not)The authors cogently argue that the true danger of TBML is not its invisibility, but our belief that rigorous compliance frameworks equal control, when in fact, the illusion of control allows illicit finance to flourish.'

Michael Levi, Cardiff University, UK

'TBML is arguably the largest and most consequential money laundering methodology today, yet simultaneously the least understood, recognized, and enforced. This timely and valuable book provides fresh insights. I applaud its focus on how both policymakers and practitioners often prioritize symbolic responses over meaningful and substantive countermeasures.'

John Cassara, former U.S. Treasury Special Agent (retired); Author of Trade-Based Money Laundering: The Next Frontier in International Money Laundering Enforcement

'Following decades of debate on the topic, this book cuts through the noise of AML rhetoric to show how trade-based money laundering is often a distraction—a hoax, a misrepresentation of what is really happening. It is a must-read for policymakers and practitioners seeking to understand the realities surrounding the fight against the trillions of dollars in dirty money circulating the globe.'

Nicholas Gilmour, Co-founder, Vortex Risk; Co-author, The War on Dirty Money

Mariola Marzouk is a regulatory technology industry practitioner based in the United Kingdom.

Branislav Hock is Associate Professor in Economic Crime & Compliance, University of Portsmouth, UK.