Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Pursuits
    • Q&A
    • Review
    • Old Chapel
    • Road Taken
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • How Did You Get Here Series
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Dispatches

It’s in the Wash

Moyara Ruehsen separates fact from creative fiction in the world of criminal finance.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Elena Zhukova
September 9, 2021
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

If you listened to this spring’s BBC World Service podcast The Lazarus Heist , you might have heard the voice of Moyara Ruehsen, professor of financial crime intelligence and head of the Financial Crime Management program at the Middlebury Institute (MIIS). In the seventh episode of this 10-part series, which examines North Korea’s 2016 effort to electronically steal $1 billion from the Bank of Bangladesh, Ruehsen explains the general elements of money laundering and which techniques the North Koreans used to try to make their illicitly obtained funds appear legitimate.

Or maybe you saw Ruehsen on YouTube in Vanity Fair’s 2020 series on financial crimes. Her video, “Professor Fact Checks Money Laundering Scenes, from Ozark to Narcos ,” in which she takes a look at how accurately popular TV shows portray money-laundering schemes, has racked up nearly 1.5 million views.

The same qualities that make Ruehsen a popular choice for money-laundering analysis in the media—deep expertise in her field and an ability to make the complex world of money laundering understandable to her audience—also make her a compelling educator. But she says she did not initially plan to go into teaching. As a student, she spent time in the Middle East on a Fulbright Scholarship and earned a master’s in Middle East studies, and she expected she’d work for an oil company or perhaps the World Bank.

Shortly after earning her PhD in international economics and Middle East studies, however, she gave a talk at Berkeley on the subject of her dissertation—the political economy of oil—which opened the door for her to teach there. Although the administration turned down her offer to teach about oil, they agreed to a topic that fascinated her: illicit markets. She spent a year as a lecturer at Berkeley, then took a faculty position at the Institute in 2003 to teach international economics. But she couldn’t stop thinking about the world of financial crime.

While international economics were what she calls her “bread and butter” at MIIS, whenever possible she taught courses on international organized crime, which covers everything from illicit drug markets and arms trafficking to sex trafficking and extortion markets. “I felt like I was wearing a lot of hats, and I thought, I’ve got to concentrate on just one thing,” she says. “And the one thing that excited me most about all of those different topics was the money-laundering piece. That’s what they all had in common. And that’s what I slid into.”

September 11 marked a new trajectory in her career. “All of a sudden you have somebody who understands money laundering—which uses the same techniques they use for terrorist financing—and who has knowledge of the Middle East,” she says. “I was in a really unique position to capitalize on that, and I just suddenly became in demand.”

Ruehsen found herself, in addition to teaching, conducting counterterrorist financing training for the FBI, consulting for the Intelligence Community, and speaking at conferences. Her expertise became even more valuable when North Korea turned to electronic bank crimes (such as the Lazarus heist) to finance its weapons building, as she was one of the early—and largely self-taught—experts on the newly emerging area of cyber-enabled financial crime.

She was instrumental in establishing the Institute’s Financial Crime Management program, and she currently teaches trade-based financial crime, cyber-enabled financial crime, and financial crime investigation, including compliance management.

Ruehsen says students interested in careers investigating money laundering—including counterterrorism financing and counterproliferation financing—often assume they’ll need to learn things like forensic accounting (a separate field). What they really need, she says, are a healthy dose of curiosity, a good grounding in geography, and general knowledge about the world.

International banks, for instance, are responsible for detecting and reporting financial crimes, including sanctions violations. Criminals will often try to obfuscate information on the documentation that the bank’s trade finance department sees, but an employee with a good grasp of geography will notice if place names have been entered in a suspicious way or if a ship takes a circuitous route that stops in an unusual port such as Vladivostok, the closest large seaport to North Korea.

Ruehsen advises prospective students, rather than reading books on money laundering, to read the Economist regularly as a way to keep up with everything from politics and culture to science to the environment. “It’s that general knowledge that makes for a great investigator,” she says, “because they will notice something unusual, which somebody who doesn’t have that general knowledge won’t notice.”

She estimates that about a third of graduates of the Financial Crime Management program go on to work for government agencies such as the Intelligence Community, FBI, DEA, or Homeland Security. Others start at traditional banks, working their way up to special investigations or perhaps jumping to fintech (financial technology) companies, such as PayPal or cryptocurrency exchanges. She’s been at the Institute long enough that former students who took her money-laundering class and pursued careers as investigators are now hiring recent Institute grads. “We call it the MIIS Anti-Money-Laundering Mafia,” she jokes.

As technology advances, so do money-laundering techniques. “In the old days, when people sold drugs on the street corner, sure, you’d get a lot of cash,” Ruehsen says. “In fact, drug revenue is the number one criminal revenue we’re looking at. Now people buy drugs online. So a lot of that revenue is coming in in the form of cryptocurrency.”

The purported anonymity of cryptocurrency makes it a natural avenue for money laundering. That in turn has given rise to the field of blockchain forensics. Ruehsen says, “These are companies that have their own proprietary software to trace and map all of these cryptocurrency transactions to illustrate how the criminals are laundering the funds and where the money is going, to which wallets and which exchanges.”

Ruehsen is particularly pleased with how one of these companies, CipherTrace, is collaborating with the Institute and a handful of other schools. The CipherTrace Defenders League trains students in blockchain forensics through what is essentially a pro bono clinic. Students then earn academic credit by taking on real-world cases that are typically too small for law enforcement to investigate—such as helping someone whose elderly relative has been the victim of a phone scam. Ruehsen calls it a “win-win.”

With money launderers constantly finding new ways to get around the law, experts have to work hard to keep up. “There’s an expression we use in law enforcement: ‘You sharpen the spear, and the criminals invent thicker shields.’”

From Vanity Fair: Fact checking money laundering scenes, from Narcos to Ozark.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

More Than a Game

In a critically acclaimed work of nonfiction, Abe Streep '04 introduces readers to the Arlee Warriors, a high school basketball team on a Native American reservation in Montana, where life's challenges are abundant.

By Alexander Wolff
Photograph by Devin Yalkin
October 21, 2022

Munya Munyati Has A Few Stories to Tell

Catching up with a young filmmaker who is rapidly making a name for himself at Vice.

By Mara Dolan
Film stills by Munya Munyati
September 16, 2022

Reverberations

A transcontinental move, a career discovered, a landmark speech studied and translated—and an identity reshaped.

By Clara Clymer, MA Translation '22
Illustration by Anna Gusella
April 2, 2022

The Road(s)

A little over a year ago, a writing student headed south to Florida for no other reason than J-Term was forced to go remote. She soon found herself reporting on an environmental justice battle that was roiling the state.

By Alexandra Burns '21.5
Illustrations by Yevgenia Nayberg
March 2, 2022

Dispatches

A Night Out

For one evening in December, Atwater dining hall hosted a student-dining experience unlike any other.

By Caroline Crawford
Photographs by Paul Dahm
January 20, 2023

Finding His Way

What happens when your identity is stolen—not by another person but by your own body?

By Sara Thurber Marshall
December 15, 2022

A Natural Selection

For more than a quarter century, Stephen Trombulak— now an emeritus professor of biology and environmental studies—guided students in avian research on a parcel of College land hard by Otter Creek. This preserved area now bears his name.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photography by Paul Dahm
November 18, 2022

The Utterly Fascinating Life of Howie McCausland

He saves lives. He brought the Internet to Middlebury. He has a degree in astrophysics. And he loves to fish. Yes, this is a true story.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by John S. Dykes
September 16, 2022

It’s a New Day at the Museum of Art

Reimagining what an art museum can and should be.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Art courtesy of the Middlebury College Museum of Art
June 30, 2022

First Aid

Their projects span the globe—from Kenya to Haiti to the United States. As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, a cohort of students gathered to discuss what having a social impact really means.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Illustration by Brian Stauffer
June 28, 2022

The Case of the Purloined Onions

Onions have been disappearing from Middlebury's garden. Now, a team of undergraduate sleuths are honing in on a lineup of suspects.

By Andrew Cassel
Illustration by Naomi Ann Clarke
June 21, 2022

Sonic Art

What began as an attempt by Matthew Evan Taylor to collaborate with fellow musicians during the isolation of the pandemic ended up being a yearlong project that culminated in an evening performance at the Met.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph by Josiah Bania
April 15, 2022

Poetry, In Exile

After fleeing civil unrest in her native Venezuela, a Middlebury Institute graduate student turned to poetry to help make sense of it all.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustrations by Anonymous
January 21, 2022
View All

Pursuits

Public Defender

On becoming one of the country's foremost cybersecurity experts.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by Neil Webb
April 14, 2022

Q&A

The Making of a Teacher

Hebrew Professor Michal Strier reflects on her life an education—in Israel and the States—a journey that led the Language School instructor to the undergraduate College for the first time this year.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Paul Dahm
May 19, 2022

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

Making Democracy Real

An Update on Our Conflict Transformation Initiative

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
January 20, 2023

Road Taken

What to Wear Now

Through accrued life experiences, a writer discovers that a common question has become a statement of identity.

By Samantha Hubbard Shanley ’99
Illustration by Naomi Clarke
March 11, 2021

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Alone Together, Ep. 9 with Jessica St. Clair ’98 and Dan O’Brien ’96

Dan O'Brien ’96, a playwright and poet, and Jessica St. Clair ’98, a comedian and writer, join President Patton for our final check in with the community during COVID-19 self-isolation. Dan and Jessica are a true power couple in the arts that met in a Middlebury improv group. They discuss Dan's magazine essay "Life Shrinks: Lessons from Chemo Quarantine," how reopening the country feels a lot like remission, and how their art is evolving to reflect the pandemic.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 15, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 8 with Dick Clay, Covid-19 Survivor

In this episode, Dick Clay, a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, shares his story of recovering from COVID-19. Dick discusses when the seriousness of the virus hit him, the "wilderness path to recovery," and how he will process this experience through writing.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 8, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 7 with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, Essential Workers

In this episode, we hear from Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, who have been working with custodial services to keep our Vermont campus safe and clean. Jodie and Jacque share what campus has been like since the students left: what it's like to schedule hourly sanitation of buildings, how every day feels like an empty Saturday morning, and that the infamous Middlebury squirrels have lost a bit of weight.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Photography by Bob Handelman
June 1, 2020

Review

Success Story

A book detailing the history of U.S. Olympic women cross-country skiers brings to light the decades of grit and determination it took to finally bring home a gold medal.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photos courtesy U.S. Ski and Snowboard
January 20, 2023

How Did You Get Here?

Megan Job

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Leif Taranta

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Mikayla Haefele

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Videos

Pomp and Unusual Circumstances

As viewed from above.

By Chris Spencer
June 1, 2021

Davis the Owl Returns Home

Having recovered from life-threatening injuries, a beautiful winged creature is released to its natural habitat.

By Andrew Cassell
April 22, 2021

In the Blink of an Eye

Gone in less than a minute—the middle of June 2019 to the middle of June 2020, as viewed from the rooftop of the Mittelman Observatory.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Video by Jonathan Kemp/Mittelman Observatory
June 10, 2020
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2023 Middlebury College Publications.