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Oliver Bullough

Journalist and Author

Search every verified Oliver Bullough interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Oliver Bullough, a Welsh journalist and author, appeared in two recent events to discuss his work on money laundering and financial crime. On October 1, 2026, he participated in a discussion titled "The Dark Economy: How Dirty Money Shapes the World," where he spoke about the role of shell companies, tax havens, and cash in laundering stolen money. During the event, he referenced his book "Moneyland" and discussed his latest publication, which examines how money laundering operates globally. He also commented on the delayed phase-out of the 500-euro banknote, noting that despite decisions made after the 2016 Paris attacks, the notes were not fully discontinued until 2019. In a September 7, 2026 episode of the Odd Lots podcast, Bullough discussed the paradox of rising physical cash circulation, particularly $100 bills, despite declining use in everyday transactions. He attributed this to criminal enterprises and money laundering, and argued that central banks and governments have not prioritized addressing the issue. He also described how criminal groups combine cash and cryptocurrency to move wealth, stating that the two methods "supercharge each other." His comments reflect his broader analysis of how financial systems enable illicit activity on a global scale.

Recent appearances

  • The Dark Economy: How Dirty Money Shapes the World - With Oliver Bullough and Thomas Bollen

    October 01, 2026 · 📺 De Balie

    Together with investigative journalists Oliver Bullough and Thomas Bollen we dive into the shadow world money laundering. A world of shell companies, tax havens, crypto and empty high-end apartments. Through shell companies, millions and millions of euros in stolen money are laundered every day. The money is used to buy real estate in New York and London, yachts, or even entire football teams. Over the past few decades, an international system has been built to move money around, leaving national tax authorities powerless to do anything. Together with investigative journalists Oliver Bullou…

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  • Why Money Launderers Love $100 Bills | Odd Lots

    September 07, 2026 · 📺 Bloomberg Podcasts

    Hardly anyone nowadays seems to carry much cash, never mind carrying around a bunch of $100 bills. So why does the amount of physical cash in circulation — especially big denominations like the $100 bill — keep increasing? There's a pretty obvious answer. All those dollars are being laundered and used by criminal enterprises. In this episode, we speak with journalist Oliver Bullough, author of Everybody Loves Our Dollars: How Money Laundering Won, about this cash paradox. We discuss how cartels balance their books by trading drugs for farm equipment, the gigantic parallel financial system that…

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  • Oliver Bullough on financial secrecy, corruption and global power

    July 05, 2026 · 📺 Monocle Radio

    Georgina Godwin meets journalist Oliver Bullough, who explores money laundering in the most unlikely of places in his latest work, Everybody Loves Our Dollars. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information. _ _ Monocle Radio is a round-the-clock global audio service featuring live shows and podcasts that cover news, entrepreneurship, culture, design, urbanism, media and more. Tune in to hear our editors, correspondents, sector specialists and canny contributors across the schedule, as well as a perfect soundtrack of great music from around the world.…

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  • Ep.35: Dirty Money Wins with Oliver Bullough and Jason Sandoval

    June 30, 2026 · 📺 Asset Reality

    Oliver Bullough has written three books on how dirty money moves around the world. His single biggest finding is so low-tech it almost sounds like a joke. Jason Sandoval, former DEA special agent and Asset Reality’s Head of European Operations, spent thirty years chasing the same problem. One investigated it, the other wrote about it. Together, they unpack why the global system for tackling money laundering is not working and what it would take to build something that does. ⏱️ Timestamps 02:30 – Money laundering as a meta-crime 13:00 – Carousel fraud and what a mission-led response loo…

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  • Oliver Bullough | The Awful Consequences Of Moneyland Are Compounding

    June 09, 2026 · 📺 Curious Worldview Podcast

    Four years ago, almost to the day of recording, Oliver Bullough was a guest on this show for the first time to discuss his concept of 'Moneyland'. This borderless virtual country where the wealthy go to keep their wealth beyond the reach of any government, any tax office, any voter. Between then and now, I've maintained interest on this thread. Nicholas Shaxson discussed on the pod the cancerous plumbing of the offshore world in Treasure Islands. John Christensen showed how that plumbing quietly corrodes culture and politics. Bill Browder shows where the abstraction becomes violence. Nathan Ly…

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  • Oliver Bullough - Everybody Loves Our Dollars - S8 | E17

    June 02, 2026 · 📺 Radical Candor®

    While the podcast team is taking a Radical Sabbatical, Kim is interviewing authors of the books that have had a big impact on her in the past two years. In this episode, Kim speaks with Oliver Bullough, journalist and author of the highly acclaimed books: Butler to the World: How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything and Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How To Take It Back. Oliver’s new book is called Everybody Loves Our Dollars - How Money Laundering Won. Oliver describes a moment in his life that shaped eac…

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  • FACT Book Talk: Everybody Loves Our Dollars – How Money Laundering Won with Author Oliver Bullough

    February 26, 2026 · 📺 FACT Coalition

    On February 26, 2026, the FACT Coalition held a conversation with author Oliver Bullough, author of the new book Everybody Loves Our Dollars – How Money Laundering Won. Called a “jaw-dropping exposé” by The Guardian and “required reading” by The Financial Times, Everybody Loves Our Dollars shows how the world is flooded with dirty money. It traces the history of efforts to combat money laundering – from national legislation to global efforts such as the Financial Action Task Force – and why they so often fall woefully short. In this recorded conversation, Oliver Bullough joined FACT’s execut…

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  • Everybody Loves Our Dollars: A Conversation with Oliver Bullough

    February 26, 2026 · 📺 RUSI

    Oliver Bullough, journalist and bestselling author discusses his new book Everybody Loves Our Dollars: How Money Laundering Won, with CFS Director Tom Keatinge. Recorded at RUSI, 61 Whitehall, London on 25 February 2026. Upcoming RUSI events: https://my.rusi.org/events.html

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  • How Britain legalised money laundering | Oliver Bullough interview

    February 15, 2026 · 📺 PoliticsJOE

    Ava sits down with financial crime expert and author Oliver Bullough to unpack the vast, hidden system of money flowing through London and the UK. Bullough reveals the staggering scale of dirty money coursing through Britain, with estimates of hundreds of billions of pounds moving every year, and up to $5 trillion globally. As he explains, money laundering is the engine that powers organised crime, kleptocracy, terrorism, and war. From Russian oligarch wealth embedded in London property to criminal networks exploiting Britain’s financial infrastructure, the UK has long played a central role i…

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  • Here’s How Governments Help The Elite Launder Money | Aaron Bastani Meets Oliver Bullough

    February 08, 2026 · 📺 Novara Media

    Join us at EartH Hackney on Monday 16 February to see Ash Sarkar in conversation with Aaron Bastani, discussing 'Why the Right is Winning': https://dice.fm/event/wwrypg-downstre... Sign up for the new Downstream Newsletter here: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters/t... When it comes to the relationship between capitalism and crime, those on the left generally think of exploitation. People often turn to crime, so the thinking goes, because they can’t make ends meet by legitimate means. Whatever your views on that framing, there is also another - far less discussed - connection between capit…

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  • Oliver Bullough – How Money Laundering Won

    January 27, 2026 · 📺 The Conduit

    Join leading investigative journalist Oliver Bullough for a wildly thrilling exposé of the dark financial secrets at the heart of the world economy. Without the existence of money laundering, few crimes of acquisition would be worth the trouble. South America’s drug cartels would be stuffed without it, as would Nigerian kleptocrats, Afghan terrorists, American tax evaders and a whole bestiary of human (and animal) traffickers the world over. The system works. Whether you’re a fraudster, a cartel boss, a corrupt politician, a kleptocrat or a terrorist mastermind, your options to move and hide…

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  • Extra episode: Oliver Bullough on his book ”Butler to the World” - live from the Leaders in Finan...

    January 27, 2026 · 📺 Leaders in Finance

    During the Leaders in Finance AML Europe Event (22 September 2022) we recorded an extra episode with Oliver Bullough (https://www.theguardian.com/profile/o...) - world famous journalist (a.o. The Guardian) as well as author of many books, among them Moneyland and Butler to the World. In this episode we discuss his book Butler to the World, that has now been translated into Dutch: "De butler van de wereld: Hoe Groot-Brittannië handlanger werd van oligarchen, belastingontduikers en criminelen."   ***  Leaders in Finance (http://leadersinfinance.nl/) is made possible through support of K…

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

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“Crypto allows you to do that instantaneously. So the really entrepreneurial money laundering gangs now tend to — this is the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians do this too — they combine cash and crypto. So cash works at a street level. And then you collect the cash and exchange it for crypto, and then the crypto is useful for moving your wealth around the world for buying products from Colombia or elsewhere. So the”

“I mean, I think broadly speaking, this doesn't come up. You know, the system from the perspective of the European Central Bank or the Fed or the Bank of England or the Bank of Canada, the system is working fine. There's lots and lots of demand for their products. Why would you want to get rid of them? You know, if you look at it more broadly and you work out that essentially the products are enabling crime on a geopo”

“The most spectacular failure is in the willingness of particularly major western governments to print essentially unlimited quantities of cash. The most useful tool for laundering money has always been and remains cash money because you can move it around, it's totally untraceable. There is this astonishing weird phenomenon which has been referred to by central banks as the paradox of banknotes, with a remarkable lac”

“Money laundering is the support industry for all forms of acquisitive crime. You hear an awful lot about mobile phone theft on Oxford Street, for example. It's a real story. I had my mobile phone stolen on Oxford Street. That wouldn't happen if it wasn't possible to launder the proceeds of stealing those phones. You hear about terrorism spreading all across the Middle East and Central Africa. That wouldn't happen if ”

“If I could click my fingers and do one thing, it would be to have a global agreement that all the major countries would stop printing high denomination banknotes. That is the single thing that would do the most to make money laundering harder. It sounds like depressingly low tech but in terms of how criminals operate, banknotes remain central to their operations. Beyond that you start getting into questions around tr”

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