Book Review: The Lucky Laundry by Nathan Lynch
When people think of Australia, they might typically picture kangaroos, barbecues and the Sydney Opera House – what they won’t be picturing is a professional money launderer shot in the early hours of a Sunday morning, found with keys to a sports car and a Phantom Secure encrypted phone in his pocket.
This is exactly how The Lucky Laundry opens, more like the transcript to a movie than a book about money laundering in Australia but this is not the work of fiction, it is all real. From there on out the author, Nathan Lynch, takes the reader on a Australia-centred journey (and beyond) through a money laundering lens.
Lynch lays out chapter after chapter of some of the biggest and most important money laundering-related cases and issues in Australia, from the Commonwealth Bank case to the Westpac case and everything before and after them, the book takes not only anti-money laundering professionals but also the casual reader on a money laundering reality rollercoaster.
One of the standouts in the book is the story of Neil Jeans, a well respected financial crime expert, and how he managed to connect a penny stock fraud to a drug cartel laundering operation back in the 90’s. Fast forward to more recent times and the chapter goes on to outline that many may not be aware Jeans was a key part of the AUSTRAC alliance – he’d played a crucial role as an expert witness in prosecuting two of the biggest banks in Australia, resulting in the biggest fines in the Australian corporate world.
Another standout in the book is the chapter on the case of the encrypted mobile device called ‘AN0M’, in what was seen as a big win for law enforcement but you’ll have to read the book to find out more on this – there’s setting traps and waiting for crooks and then there’s setting traps and taking them to the crooks. The AN0M case went for the latter.
Lynch’s knack for writing is not just in his ability to lay out in a digestible manner the big stuff in money laundering and the state of play in efforts to tackle it in Australia but he is also able to weave in personal stories of the people he has spoken to around the world. He takes the reader outside the shores of Australia to places like the UK, Jordan and Vietnam to detail the characters he meets and talks to about money laundering as though we are right there with him.
Before picking up the book, the title ‘The Lucky Laundry’ may appear to be just another catchy alliteration but there is a deeper meaning to the title and its significance to Australia. This is not just a book for anti-money laundering professionals in Australia or those in living Australia, it is a book for everyone…money laundering and the crimes connected to it affect each and every one of us.
Links to buy The Lucky Laundry are here: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-lucky-laundry-how-the-aussie-economy-got-hooked-on-the-worlds-dirtiest-cash-nathan-lynch
© 2023 The Laundry. All Rights Reserved.
