Mafias & Banks

Directed by Christophe Bouquet

How, from the 1920s to the present day, financial capitalism has gradually strengthened its secret alliance with mafia organisations. A relentless investigation on three continents, part economic thriller, part historical saga.

Trailer

Episode 1 - The Era of Pioneers

It was in New York, the temple of finance, that the mafia invented its own banking system. During the Great Depression, the underworld took up usury and laundered its money through gambling, while the wealthy built the new architecture of tax havens. In the 1950s, global finance was governed by the Bretton Woods system. But criminals and financiers were about to find the cracks in this framework. The New York mafia invested in the Caribbean. The bankers, for their part, invented new tools for the hidden circulation of money. It was the birth of white-collar crime, of which the Italian tax expert Michele Sindona, banker to Cosa Nostra and the Vatican, was one of the most terrifying models.

Episode 2 - Follow the Money

The 1980s were the decade of the Wall Street wolves and the meteoric rise of cocaine and heroin trafficking. For criminal organisations, cartels, mafias and yakuza, the need for money laundering was immense, and some banks opened their arms to them. To combat this scourge, an Italian magistrate, Giovanni Falcone, invented a method: follow the money. But the irresistible liberalisation of finance shattered all banking regulations. A race against time begins.

Episode 3 - The Criminals Global Network

The end of the Cold War raised hopes of a new world. But in the face of the new world order, the great nations are making the docile choice of globalisation. Russia and China, intent on preserving their spheres of influence to counter the all-powerful United States, will have to develop unprecedented alliance strategies. For the mafias, new territories and new markets are opening up. With so many financial transactions taking place every millisecond, dirty money is more untraceable than ever. Banks, the arteries of money circulation, are becoming the butlers of occult finance. From Moscow to Vancouver, from Beijing to Beirut, it's time for organised white-collar crime.


Direction :
Christophe Bouquet
Writing :
Christophe Bouquet and Mathieu Verboud
Production :
YAMI 2 - Christophe Nick
Broadcast :
ARTE
Year of broadcast :
2023
Duration :
3 x 60 min

In this fascinating series, Christophe Bouquet and Mathieu Verboud tell the story of the relentless progression from one world to the other - banking institutions and criminal organisations - where everything seems to be at odds. (...) What a journey and what an exceptional "manual on money laundering for dummies" this series is, educational and lively, rich in its archives and the testimonies of repentants and spies. - Télérama (3T)

A documentary series that deserves to be shown in business schools - L'Obs

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