TNRC Video TBML

Making the connection: Trade-based money laundering, corruption, and natural resources

October 2019 | TNRC Video

“Corruption is a key part of the logistics of the illegal economy.” – Dr. Louise Shelley, TraCCC

Trade-based money laundering (TBML) is the process of disguising proceeds of crime and moving value through trade transactions to legitimize their illicit origin. This can include exploitation of the international trade system to transfer value and obscure the true origins of wealth from the illegal exploitation of natural resources. In this short video, Michele Kuruc (World Wildlife Fund) and Louise Shelley (Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center) of the Targeting Natural Resource Corruption project, join Channing Mavrellis (Global Financial Integrity) to explain the basics of TBML, how illicit activities in the natural resource sector generate profits that may be laundered through TBML, how corruption can fuel this process, and what tools are helping to detect this global crime.