Illicit Financial Flows have long been recognized for their destabilizing impact on economies, yet their role in enabling corruption and institutional capture, related to sanctions evasion and sustaining military conflicts has received less mainstream attention in comparison to issues like tax evasion or organized crime. How state capture and corrupt practices within governments and institutions…

Financial institutions serve as the circulatory system of modern economies but, when corrupted, also as the lifeline of illicit wealth. By collating insights from dozens of journalistic reports in the Congo Hold-Up investigation, a new briefing by the Anti-Corruption Data Collective (ACDC) and the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) examines how BGFIBank in…

This seminar presents emerging insights from RUSI’s Interrogating Corruption Risk in Voluntary Carbon Markets project. Drawing on early evidence and case studies, the discussion explores how market volatility, weak oversight, and governance gaps create vulnerabilities to fraud and corruption in voluntary carbon markets. The session will highlight key risks, evidence gaps, and potential policy and…

This webinar will launch the new research paper Shadow Economies: The Rise of Illicit Networks and Alternative Markets in Sanctions Circumvention. The study examines how illicit financial flows linked to sanctions evasion have surged across the Western Balkans and Black Sea region, doubling to more than $31 billion in 2023. It shows that European companies…

This seminar examines real estate-linked money laundering in the Global South, focusing on Brazil, Kenya, and Indonesia, revealing how rapid urbanization, particularly in touristic destinations, has enabled different actors to exploit weak enforcement systems. The research documents severe consequences, including distorted housing markets, while demonstrating that current international AML framework for the real estate sector…