Speaking abroad, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant recently said the global scale of laundered money was such that it could buy a laptop for every person in the world. Data backs this up: global illegal money flows reached $4.4 trillion in 2025, or 3.8% of world GDP, and are rising rapidly, with much of the money never recovered.
Bank frauds are also getting bigger. In India, 4,622 cases were filed under the anti-money laundering law in the past five years, but less than 1% resulted in convictions.
Here’s a lowdown on how the world’s dirty money flows, by Anoushka Sawhney.
ET Bureau
Illicit money flows are rising faster than world GDP
ET Bureau
Organised crime, drug networks form a bulk of this dark world
ET Bureau
Most fraud types are growing at 20% per year
ET Bureau
A tiny fraction of the defrauded amount is recovered
ET Bureau