Failure and fraud: anti-money-laundering policy, a warning to Uganda

This heterodox study is a critical policy analysis of anti-money-laundering policies in the Ugandan context. It uses published recovery estimates, legalization records, and Ugandan labor and housing figures, and it does not generate a new confiscation series. Anti-money-laundering laws are either a failure, held by officials through conviction rather than facts, or a fraud, operated by officials and contractors through fines, forfeiture, and compliance contracts. The duty multiplies the inefficiencies of prohibitions that had already failed. The study cites official statistics and cases from the United States and Germany, and adds evidence from Hong Kong, the Emirates, Estonia, Georgia, and Panama, in order to address Uganda. Uganda’s economic circumstances make anti-money-laundering measures particularly questionable, given informal employment above 90 percent, and they underline a stronger case for severe deregulation instead.