Given Europe’s stature as a major market for financial services, it is not much of a surprise that it is a haven for a significant chunk of the world’s flow of illicit funds—it is estimated that between €117 billion and €210 billion worth of suspicious activities and transactions flow through the European Union’s (EU) financial system each year. Such figures show that crime agencies’ efforts to clamp down on money laundering are floundering: in fact, according to the EU’s Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (EUROJUST), on average, only 2% of the assets from organized crime are confiscated by law enforcement annually, despite a 15% surge in cases.
