Anti-Money Laundering in a Nutshell: Awareness and Compliance for Financial Personnel and Business Managers, 2nd Edition

Anti–Money Laundering in a Nutshell is a concise, accessible, and practical guide to compliance with anti–money laundering law for financial professionals, corporate investigators, business managers, and all personnel of financial institutions who are required, under penalty of hefty fines, to get anti–money laundering training. This new edition of Anti-Money Laundering will update the topics discussed, and introduce the changes and updates including information on the AMLA Act of 2020, new EU standards and directives, anti-money laundering on digital currencies and more.

Money laundering is endemic. As much as 5 percent of global GDP ($3.6 trillion) is laundered by criminals each year. It’s no wonder that every financial institution in the United States—including banks, credit card companies, insurers, securities brokerages, private funds, and money service businesses—must comply with complex examination, training, and reporting requirements mandated by a welter of federal anti–money laundering (AML) laws. Ignorance of crime is no excuse before the law. Financial institutions and businesses that unknowingly serve as conduits for money laundering are no less liable to prosecution and fines than those that condone or abet it.

In Anti–Money Laundering in a Nutshell: Awareness and Compliance for Financial Personnel and Business Managers, Kevin Sullivan draws on a distinguished career as an AML agent and consultant to teach personnel in financial institutions what money laundering is, who does it, how they do it, how to prevent it, how to detect it, and how to report it in compliance with federal law. He traces the dynamic interplay among employees, regulatory examiners, compliance officers, fraud and forensic accountants and technologists, criminal investigators, and prosecutors in following up on reports, catching launderers, and protecting the integrity and reputations of financial institutions and businesses. In particular, corporate investigators will gain rich insights winnowed from the author's experiences as a New York State and federal investigator.

About the Author

Kevin Sullivan is the president of The Anti–Money Laundering (AML) Training Academy and Advisory LLC, which provides compliance training and AML (Anti–Money Laundering) independent reviews. He was the New York State Police money laundering investigations coordinator at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) El Dorado Federal Task Force (NY/NJ HIFCA) in Manhattan. He was first exposed to money laundering while a New York State Police investigator on an undercover narcotics detail. He was subsequently assigned to a money laundering and financial crimes unit of the FBI White Collar Crimes Task Force, then to the El Dorado HIFCA Task Force. Sullivan was a lead instructor for ICE’s Operation Cornerstone, which assisted financial institutions with their AML and BSA compliance programs and provided a liaison between private financial institutions and law enforcement. Sullivan holds a master’s degree in economic crime management He is a Certified Anti–Money Laundering Specialist, a founding member and past president of the NY Chapter of ACAMS. He has written and teaches many classes for ACAMS, a frequent speaker on AML at seminars, conferences, and webinars, and an expert commentator on money laundering in national magazines and television.