• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

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28 October 2011The issue of illicit capital flows has emerged as one that is central to the mandate of UNODC: garnered through the proceeds of illicit trafficking and other forms of organized profit-motivated crime, dirty money promotes bribery and corruption, finances insurgency and, in some cases, terrorist activities. It also destabilizes and deters legitimate enterprise, foreign investment and development.

This study was undertaken by the Studies and Threat Analysis Section, Policy Analysis and Research Branch in order to complement previous work done to estimate the proceeds of various transnational criminal activities and fill some of the knowledge gaps on the extent to which these proceeds flow through the international financial system.

The starting point for the study was to estimate the global proceeds of crime. To do so, various methodologies proposed in the scientific literature are summarized and reviewed. Subsequently, a broad range of previous study results are presented and analysed. The studies range in coverage from the global to the national levels, and they consider somewhat different types and/or aspects of crime. Moreover, the studies were undertaken by a diverse set of stakeholders, including academics, private-sector companies, international institutions and non-governmental organizations.