Prof Soares de Oliveira part of DFID-funded research project examining money laundering
Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira is Co-Investigator on a project that has received DFID funding to study money laundering by African and Central Asian elites.
Based at the University of Exeter, ‘Testing and evidencing the effectiveness of beneficial ownership checks: investigating the laundering of monies and reputations by African and Central Asian elites’ is funded by the DFID-Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence Partnership and will evaluate the effectiveness of the international Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regime. Specifically, the two-year project will examine:
- how elites in six Central Asian and African states circumvent existing regulation
- how banking, property and charitable donations are used to exploit loopholes
- how global service providers, often in other countries, enable such behaviour.
The team, led by Dr John Heathershaw (University of Exeter), also includes Professor Alexander A. Cooley (Barnard College/Columbia University), Dr David Lewis (University of Exeter) and Professor Jason Sharman (University of Cambridge).
With upcoming legislation across the world – including the EU’s Fourth AML Directive – this project is particularly timely. The research will be supported by research assistants and fellows, and be accountable to an international advisory board composed of academics and civil society representatives from Africa, Central Asia and beyond. The project will also include four workshops organised with partners in the US, UK, Africa and Central Asia.
