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Black Market Billions: How Organized Retail Crime Funds Global Terrorists
- By Hitha Prabhakar
- Published Nov 11, 2011 by FT Press.
Book
- This product currently is not for sale.
About
Features
Dying for a deal: inside the shadowy, sinister, $38 billion world of terrorists and "organized retail crime."
- Hard-hitting investigative journalism from an up-and-coming star reporter: connects the dots as never before.
- Follows the money and the trail of stolen merchandise from retail stores via organized crime rings to terrorist groups and militant gangs.
- By high-profile retail analyst and CNBC contributor Hitha Prabhakar.
Description
- Copyright 2012
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-13-218024-3
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-218024-5
From piracy to counterfeiting to cargo theft, organized retail crime has exploded into a $38 billion industry. Synchronized global teams of thieves are pilfering immense volumes of high-value products, counterfeiting even more--and using the profits to support the world’s most vicious terrorists and criminal gangs.
In this eye-opening piece of investigative journalism, top business reporter Hitha Prabhakar connects the dots and follows the money deep into the world’s fastest-growing criminal industry. You'll learn how the Internet, social media, and disposable cell phones have opened the floodgates for a new generation of criminals--and how buying something as innocent as a counterfeit handbag or discounted cigarettes actually funds terrorist groups from Al-Qaeda to Central America’s drug lords.
Black Market Billions draws on extensive first person interviews with law enforcement, industry, and the criminals themselves to reveal how retail crime rings impact the security in every country in which they operate. Prabhakar goes "inside" to reveal why the piracy economy has exploded...why preventive measures have failed...and what to expect next, as organized retail crime reaches a terrifying critical mass.
Sample Content
Online Sample Chapter
Organized Retail Crime Goes Global
Sample Pages
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 1 and Index)
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I: The Piracy Economy
Chapter 1: Organized Retail Crime Goes Global 9
Why Is ORC Such a Threat? 11
The Promised Land: Money Talks 13
Made in America: Homegrown Terrorism 17
Recruiting from the Inside 19
From Prison to Gangs to the World’s Most Notorious Terrorist Group 21
Access to Funding Gets Creative 25
Burrowing In: The Hezbollah Finds a Home in the U.S. and South America 27
From America to South America: Ties Get Stronger in the Tri-Border Region 28
Chapter 2 When a Deal Isn’t a Deal 31
Getting a Slice of Luxury the Cheapest Way Possible 34
The “Real Deal” 36
Dying for a Deal: The Recession Doesn’t Make Aspirations Go Away 38
Big Takedowns Take Precedence Over Smaller Offenders 39
Counterfeiters and ORC Move Their Operations Online 40
eBay’s Swift Response 42
Too Little, Too Late 44
Lurking in the Shadows: Stolen Gift Cards Bought Online 45
Easy to Obtain, Easy to Sell 46
Fake-out: Retailers Fronting as Legitimate Stores 48
Protecting Yourself: Know the Signs of E-fencing/ORC 51
Chapter 3: The Cost to the Stores 53
The Blame Game 54
Insider Information: Employee Theft and ORC 54
Human Resources Fail: Hiring the Wrong People 56
Wholesale Scam: Terrorist-Affiliated Warehouses Sell to the Little Guy 61
Taking a Bite Out of the Balance Sheet: Economic Downturn Fosters Cargo Theft 64
Coordinating Information in Real Time: LAPD and APD Case Studies 67
Part II: Follow the Money
Chapter 4: The Money Trail and the Business of Cross-Border Trade 77
The Warehouse: Ground Zero for Cross-Border Trade 80
Profile of a Purchaser 81
Keeping Shelves Stocked Through Cargo Theft 83
Coveted Items: Over-the-Counter Drugs 84
Profile of a Cargo Thief 86
“Shell Stores”: A Conduit for Organized Retail Crime 87
Shell Stores Move Online 89
A Hotbed of Stolen Merchandise: Flea Markets 91
Nabbing the Bad Guys: Classifying Organized Retail Crime as a Felony 91
Insurance Companies: The Missing Link 93
The Gray Market: Another Retail Facilitator of ORC 94
Laws Have Been Passed, But Are They Helping? 95
Chapter 5: Profile of a Booster and a Fence 97
Moving the Merchandise: The Role of a Fence 100
Being Convicted as a Level 1 Fence: More Like a Slap on the Wrist Than a Slap in the Face 101
The Level 2 Booster: Inside the Mind of a Potentially Dangerous Criminal 104
Other Forms of Theft from a Level 2 Booster 106
Level 3 Boosters and Fences: A High-Level Organization Equals High Profits 108
Level 3 Boosters: Frequently Lifted Merchandise 112
Curbing Boosters and Fences: What Does and Doesn’t Work 115
Chapter 6: Family Ties 119
When Family Funds Support Terrorism 121
Assad Muhammad Barakat and His “Family” 123
Illegal Entry into the U.S. Is Not Difficult—if You Have Money 127
The Great Entrepreneurs: Terrorists 132
The Trust Factor: The Basis of Any Organized Retail Crime Ring 136
Chapter 7: Money Laundering 2.0 139
The Three Stages of Money Laundering 141
Organized Retail Crime and Latin America 151
Funneling Money Through the Black Market Peso Exchange 152
The South American, Mexican, and African Connection 155
Chapter 8: The Political Agenda 159
Homegrown Terrorism: How Retail Theft and Piracy Has Funded Terrorist Operations 160
Rebel Kids: Extremist Ideas Financed Through International ORC 163
When Things Went Awry 164
ORC Funding by Way of Somalia: A Tale of Two Misguided Kids 165
As Local as Down the Street 168
Funding Evil Under the Guise of Charitable Contributions: The Mosques 168
Muslim Charities: Capitalizing on Natural Disaster and Religious Empathy 169
Terrorist Fund-Raising Via Charities Finds Roots in the U.S. 172
Charitable Donation Loopholes: How the IRS and Banking Systems Failed to Prevent Fraudulent ORC Funds from Financing Terrorist Groups 173
Charities Turn to a Cyber Audience 175
Why the Government Can’t Regulate Charities 175
Chapter 9: Strange Bedfellows 179
How Banned TVs Funded Bombings 180
The Business of Cigarette Smuggling 183
The EC Versus R.J. Reynolds Tobacco 185
The Role of Money Brokers and Money Launderers 186
The History of Cigarette Smuggling 188
Cigarette Smuggling Funds Local Terrorism Around the World 189
Chiquita International Brands: “Either You Pay Me, or I Am Going to Kill You.” 192
Dole Foods’ Involvement with the Colombian Paramilitary 195
Part III: Putting a Band-Aid on a Broken Leg
Chapter 10: The Failure of Preventative Measures 201
Acting Locally, Thinking Globally 202
Types of ORC Theft Prevention That Are Supposed to Work But Don’t 204
A Bottom-Line Breakdown of Costs 207
Legal Issues: Defining ORC Versus Shoplifting and Shrinkage 215
Regulating the Resale Market 216
Chapter 11: Letting the Bad Guy Get Away 219
Regulation Epic Fail: How Banking BSAs and AML Programs Let Terrorist Funding Slip Through the Cracks 222
Continued Failure to Regulate IFTs: The Costs to Local and Federal Governments as Well as Retailers 223
Failure to Regulate Hawalas 224
IFTs Get Sophisticated: Stored Value Cards 227
Bulk Cash Smuggling Comes in a Smaller Package 228
Retailers Feel the Pain of SVC Fraud 230
Credit Card Fraud Is Even Worse 231
RICO Defined 234
Why ORC Rings Still Exist: Money Laundering and the RICO Statute 235
More Problems with RICO: It’s in the Definition 236
Laws That Once Protected Potential Terrorists Have Changed 239
Defining “Material Support” and “Coordination” 239
Epilogue 243
Glossary 247
Endnotes 271
Index 299