Levi, Michael (1948–)

IN 2004, MICHAEL LEVI was a professor of criminology at Cardiff University in Wales, England. Levi has addressed the problem of financial havens and bank secrecy in his work, as well as the process and rewards of becoming a white-collar criminal. Levi earned a M.A. degree from the University of Oxford, a Diploma in Criminology from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge, and finally a Ph.D. from the University of Southampton.

Most of Levi's research and writings have been about the prevention and criminal processing of white-collar and organized crime, including money laundering and asset confiscation. In 1997, he was chosen by the Strasbourg (France)-based Council of Europe to serve as its scientific expert on a new major initiative on organized crime. The council, Europe's oldest union of nations, is dedicated to promoting human rights and democracy, both of which are threatened by organized crime. Levi has also acted as a consultant to the United Nations and to the United Kingdom's Home Office Police Research Group.

Levi insists that it is inaccurate to think of the typical white-collar criminal as a person who just happened to take advantage of a criminal opportunity. Some white-collar criminals, like other types of entrepreneurs, may be people of vision who can detect possibilities of exploitation in their environment that remain invisible to others. People also become fraudsters via the transmission of information from people in the underworld who have carried out long-term frauds themselves, or who have learned the techniques from someone else.

The poor prosecution of white-collar crime has allowed many criminals to keep the profits. Levi discovered that British confiscation orders constitute a very small percentage of the estimated proceeds of drug trafficking. The orders are essentially civil in nature, making them out of place in the criminal justice system and making enforcement erratic. There is no organizational incentive for anyone to deal vigorously with confiscation matters in part because no percentage of assets confiscated is turned over to agencies for further use in combating drug trafficking.

Money laundering has emerged as one of the major types of white-collar crime. In a 1998 report prepared for the United Nations' Global Program Against Money Laundering, Levi acknowledged that criminal organizations have taken increasing advantage of financial havens and off-shore banking centers to launder money. These havens enforce strict financial secrecy, which serves to shield the criminal from regulatory authorities. Levi argues that all citizens must be legally accountable for government to work and that bank secrecy laws protect against legal accountability instead of privacy violations. Levi has called for an international convention on the privacy issues surrounding the electronic exchange of information and banks.