U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) will deliver a keynote address tackling international trade-based money laundering, an issue that, Cassidy said, “is America’s biggest national security threat that almost no one is paying attention to.”
Cassidy’s September 18 appearance is part of a first-ever, multi-panel trade-based money laundering conference (TBML) hosted by the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. The conference will be held at Mason’s Arlington campus on Wednesday, September 18, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The free event is open to the public but registration at this site is required.
More than 25 experts from around the world representing the fields of finance, public policy, nongovernment organizations, think tanks, and academia will describe international efforts to combat the complex and growing problem of trade-based money laundering, an issue that impacts governments, financial institutions, economies, and the environment.
“This conference elevates the issue,” Cassidy said in a statement from his office in Washington, D.C. “Cartels and terrorists are moving billions of dollars unchecked to fund their violent organizations…In order to solve this crisis, we need to bring it into the national conversation.”
The conference is held as part of TraCCC’s membership in the Targeting Natural Resource Corruption Project, a consortium of leading organizations in anti-corruption, natural resource management, and conservation.