America was one of the first countries to criminalise money-laundering and since the 1980s has been the most aggressive in trying to curb it. Yet at home it tolerated many of the bad practices for which it hammered other countries
Measuring the private wealth parked in “secrecy jurisdictions” is, by definition, impossible. Estimates range from a few trillion dollars to $32trn. The proportion that is dodgy is also hard to estimate. At one extreme is perfectly legitimate money—personal funds seeking privacy, or cross-border joint-ventures using offshore structures for the purposes of neutrality. At the other is black cash, stashed in shell companies or trusts to mask corruption or launder drug money.
Casey Michel’s title leaves no doubt where the journalist and fellow of the Hudson Institute, an American think-tank, believes much of the blame lies. For all its claims to moral leadership in finance, he argues, America has become “the world’s greatest offshore haven” and the largest provider of the “financial-secrecy services” that facilitate money-laundering. This has let it pull in unrivalled amounts of tainted cash from “the world’s worst”, from corrupt regimes to extremist networks.
Yet at home America tolerated many of the bad practices for which it hammered other countries. As American states competed against each other for corporate registrations, shell companies proliferated in Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada—the last being a crucial bridgehead for Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers . South Dakota developed a line in super-secretive trusts.
Mr Kolomoisky did his alleged laundering in less salubrious places. His representatives swept into Cleveland, Ohio, wowing local officials with talk of regeneration. But much of the city-centre property, once purchased, was left to fall into disrepair. Why let your assets rot? “Think of American real estate as a kleptocratic rainy-day fund,” explains Mr Michel. If money is stolen or illicitly earned, return on investment is secondary. The land beneath a crumbling building retains its value.
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