Course Detail (Course Description By Faculty)

The U.S. kidnapping of the President of Venezuela, the conviction of noted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, President Trump’s lawsuit against Jamie Dimon (CEO of JP Morgan Chase), and the $4.3 billion penalty paid by the Crypto exchange Binance are all linked.  The common thread is via their connection to the U.S. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) infrastructure that is increasingly harnessed to pursue many different, sometimes competing, aims.  The modern AML regime ties together the U.S. government, the financial system, the underground economy and foreign countries in ways that are little understood, yet profound.   AML costs also represent a major expense for many businesses. 

This course will tell the story of how the AML regime came to its current form and will assess how it is functioning.   Students will do a group project involving original research to estimate the amount of money laundering through different channels, including the art market, cryptocurrencies, casinos, money service businesses, trade invoicing, commercial real estate, securities brokers and mutual funds, precious metals, jewels, and high-end automobiles, small banks, large banks and third-party payment processors.

Students must apply to enroll in the class – details on that are shown in the course syllabus.  Applications are welcome for MBA, MiF and 2^nd and 3^rd Law students.  The class will begin in the winter quarter with a series of lectures to give an overview of the topic and then the groups will begin their research.  The research will be completed in the Spring quarter, when the grade for the class will be assigned. 

The first 4 weeks of the course will be traditional lectures that provide an overview of the AML regime and an introduction to the methods used to estimate the prevalence of money laundering. In Class 5, I will present research that I have done on the prevalence of money laundering in the US residential real estate market.  This presentation will provide a template that the groups can use for their projects.  Class 6 (at the beginning of the Spring quarter) will include a first presentation by each group describing their ML area and the challenges they are facing.  For class 7, we will meet subject area experts who will provide their perspectives on each of the areas being studied by the groups.  The experts will begin with some lecture material and will take questions from the class.  This class will be split across two weeks.   Class 8 will have 25-minute presentations by each group on their area, along with initial estimates of the extent of AML in their area.   Class 9 will feature the final, revised presentation.   The final exam will be a report that elaborates on the presentations. 

The class size will be capped at 18 students, so that we can have 6 groups of 3 students each.

Twenty percent of the course grade will be based on class participation.  Participation will be based on attendance, contributing to class discussions during the lectures and most importantly giving feedback to other groups on their presentations.  The group presentations will count for 30% of the grade (and group members will also grade each other).  The remaining 50% of the grade will be based on the final report turned in by each group.  Because this course is open only to students who apply for enrollment, the normal Booth grade point cap is waived.