The Sink: Crime, Terror and Dirty Money in the Offshore World

In 1994, when Jeffrey Robinson, author of The Laundrymen, first brought to the world's attention the problems of dirty money -- revealing how otherwise legitimate lawyers, bankers, accountants and even governments were helping drug traffickers hide the proceeds of their crimes -- he labelled money laundering the world's third largest business, estimating that at any given time there was around $300 Billion circling the globe, looking to get clean. Now, following in the footsteps of two previous international bestsellers -- The Laundrymen and The Merger -- Jeffrey Robinson brings the story of dirty money full circle, back to the offshore islands in paradise where the business of crime does its banking. He calculates that the dirty money business has doubled in under ten years and has become so sophisticated that law enforcement and concerned governments flounder in its wake. He lays blame on the offshore world. In tracking the route it takes, Robinson shows how dirty money -- for the most part, the proceeds of fraud and drugs -- drives much of the world's economy, how a few people have tried to do something about it, and how an unlikely cabal of powerful forces -- politicians, government agents, major corporations, criminals, and terrorists -- are intent on maintaining the status quo. In this eye-opening tour de force of investigative journalism, Robinson reveals the state of the art of business-as-crime worldwide. He lifts the lid on the lawyers, bankers, accountants, company formation agents, CEOs, and despots who have created -- and who actively sustain -- a world of window-dressing regulations where criminals and corporate giants live side by side, and by the same rules, beyond the reach of governments and the law.