Money Laundering Through Art ─ A Criminal Justice Perspective

?The art world has been discovered by criminals as an effective way for money laundering and other clandestine activities on an international level. Unfortunately, in most countries investigators, prosecutors, judges, and regulatory agencies are not equipped to accurately detect, investigate and prosecute this type of criminal activity. Also, regulation and international laws and treaties involving the art world have many loopholes that can potentially lead to the laundering of large sums of money. This book provides a bird’s eye view of novel ways in which money laundering happens through illegal activities involving art. It can serve as a guide for law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and others involved in efforts to curb money laundering and financing of terrorism, revealing why somehow new techniques used by criminals have been neglected by law enforcement in most countries. Drawing from his own experience with the matter in both Brazil and in the United States, the author makes a case for broader institutional and regulatory improvement, extending beyond mere regulation of the art market.

Fausto Martin de Sanctis holds a Doctorate in Criminal Law from the University of Sao Paulo’s School of Law (USP) and an advanced degree in Civil Procedure from the Federal University of Brasilia (UnB) in Brazil. He was a Public Defender in Sao Paulo, from 1989-1990, and a State Court Judge, also in Sao Paulo, from 1990 and 1991. He is currently a federal appellate judge in Sao Paulo’s Tribunal Regional Federal – with jurisdiction over Sao Paulo and the Mato Grosso do Sul states. From April 2 to September 28 he was a fellow at Federal Judicial Center in Washington DC, USA. Judge De Sanctis was selected to handle a specialized federal court created in Brazil to exclusively hear complex cases involving finance and money laundering. He is a world known expert on this topic and he has been invited to participate in programs and conferences both in Brazil as well as internationally. Judge De Sanctis has published extensively about money laundering and related crimes, primarily with Brazilian publishers thusfar.