Posts by ICAIEpress
ICAIE Supports the Corporate Transparency Act (ACT); Opposes Repeal of CTA via H.R. 425 that Weakens U.S. National Security and Further Empowers Bad Actors and Threat Networks
20 April 2026 The Honorable French Hill Chairman House Committee on Financial Services U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Maxine Waters Ranking Member House Committee on Financial Services U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Chairman Hill and Ranking Member Waters, On behalf of the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies (ICAIE)…
Read MoreThe Twin Devils of Global Illicit Trade and Shadow Economy
A Convergence of Harms that Impact Global Markets An incredible busy week in Washington DC attending numerous meetings and side events during the 2026 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG), Semafor World Economy, Americas Society/Council of the Americas, including numerous high-level bilateral discussions with senior officials and…
Read MoreHow big are Criminalized (Illicit) Markets Internationally and the Global Shadow Economy?
How big are Criminalized (Illicit) Markets Internationally and the Global Shadow Economy? In 2025, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that the Global GDP was estimated to reach approximately $117 Trillion in nominal terms. According to ICAIE’s own research in the past two years, the global illegal economy consisting of an array of illicit markets and illicit…
Read MoreFrom Goods to Money: The Financial Architecture of Illicit Trade; Illicit Shadows Investigative Docuseries: StoryTelling/Powerful Narratives on Why Fighting Illicit Economies Matters
From Goods to Money: The Financial Architecture of Illicit Trade (OECD Forum on Countering Illicit Trade, Session 4 – Panel Discussion), March 18, 2026, OECD Conference Centre, Paris, France: This OECD Forum panel examined the financial underpinnings of illicit trade, exploring how illicit supply chains are enabled, financed, and concealed across borders and sectors. Beyond…
Read MoreWhy illicit cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and illegally-manufactured tobacco products (vapes/e-cigs) continue to be lucrative globally for criminals and other threat networks
Greed begets criminality. Illicit trade enables criminals to use their dirty profits to not only build their illicit wealth but to finance a greater cycle of greed crimes that destabilizes communities around the world. From Chile to Panama, South Africa and Australia to across North America, Europe and South Asia, criminals, terrorists, and smuggling networks…
Read MoreToday’s War Profiteers and Merchants of Violence Make Billions of Dollars from Armed Conflicts and Human Bloodshed
Is there a global conflict-crime nexus? Bad actors and threat networks not only expand today’s global illegal economy; kleptocrats, illicit traffickers, transnational criminal organizations, criminal entrepreneurs, and greedy enablers, et al, also profit from wars, armed conflicts, and fomented violence around the world. Tens of billions of dollars are made every year by bad actors…
Read MoreThe Dark Forces Shaping the Global Criminal Underworld, Museum of Illicit Shadows (MIS) & Project Helix – Predictive Convergence System (PCS)
ICAIE and Sam RAD/RADOC Original Creations had very successful briefings and meetings in Paris at the OECD this past week informing new partners and communities on our ILLICIT SHADOWS investigative docuseries, starting with Season I Episode on the Chemical (Fentanyl) Cartels in North America and their shadow economies now streaming on YouTube. We also shared…
Read MoreCriminals Accelerating Global Illicit Trade by Exploiting Digital Assets, Trade Finance Fraud, and other Emerging Transaction Laundering Schemes
The Dark Side of Illicit Economies: How Digital Assets and Transaction “Value” Schemes are Being Leveraged to Finance a Global Ecosystem of Criminality and to Launder Dirty Profits across the International Trading System, Digital Markets, Hubs of Illicit Trade, Risky Free Trade Zones (FTZs) and Financial Safe Havens Washington, DC / ICAIE News (Press Release)…
Read MoreThe Aftermath Turbulences of Tariffs and High Duties in Global Trade and Commerce
A recent 2026 U.S. Trade-Tariffs Conundrum has illustrated the 2nd and 3rd order effects of the long-term impacts of higher tariffs and duties on trade and how they will continue to contribute to the expansion of the global illegal economy: Higher tariffs on imported goods or higher duties on certain goods frequently act as a…
Read MoreCan Agentic AI and Frontier Technology Help National Security Communities Fight Illicit Trade across Sectors and Surface Bad Actors & Threat Networks
Can Agentic AI Help National Security Communities across Sectors Surface Bad Actors and Threat Networks? Yes. In the coming months, ICAIE will be briefing national security communities on anticipatory threat convergence, focusing on how sophisticated forms of AI and other advanced frontier technologies can be leveraged to disrupt complex “neural” networks of bad actors and threat…
Read More