On Wednesday the 25^th May 2016, UCL’s Organised Crime Research Network held a seminar on one of the most recent hot topics in organised crime: the Panama Papers.

The speaker, Stephen Platt, is a barrister and the author of books such as “Criminal Capital: How the Finance Industry Facilitates Crime”

As a practitioner in the field of financial crime, Stephen took the stand to speak to a packed seminar room at UCL’s Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science about the implications of the Panama Papers to financial crimes, such as those associated with organised crime.

Stephen delivered a very clear and thought-provoking talk that went beyond long-held assumptions on the nature of money laundering (such as the 3 stage model), and discussed how differences in regulatory frameworks in the worldwide financial system—in particular those that facilitate the shady practices exposed by the Panama Papers—generate a number of criminal opportunities that range from reckless risk-taking  by the financial industry to facilitating and enabling crime by third parties (such as money laundering, corruption, fraud and tax evasion).

The seminar was followed by refreshments and the opportunity to network with fellow OCRN members.