9780132180245

Black Market Billionsblows the lid off the world's fastest-growing illicit industry: organized retail crime. Hitha Prabhakar reveals how criminals with ties to terrorist groups around the world are committing huge product thefts, and using the profits to fund terrorist acts. Prabhakar connects the dots and follows the money& from consumers ;dying for a deal ; to terrorist cells eager to do the killing.

Hitha Prabhakar is a New York-based reporter for Bloomberg Television, covering business news and financial markets with a particular focus on retail. Before joining Bloomberg Television in 2011, Prabhakar was founder and principal of The Stylefile Group, a retail consulting firm based in New York City, where she served as an advisor to hedge funds and other clients with long-term holdings in retail companies. Prior to that, Prabhakar served as a retail reporter for Forbes Media, covering the luxury industry as well as men’s fashion. She has written for Time, People, MSNBC.com, ELLE India, and Metro newspapers, among other publications. Prabhakar was formerly a contributor on CNBC and has had numerous television appearances as a retail analyst on networks including CBS, CNN, Fox News, Sky News, and Bravo. She holds degrees in philosophy and economics from Smith College and a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She also studied at the London School of Economics.

Introduction	p. 1
The Piracy Economy
Organized Retail Crime Goes Global	p. 9
Why Is ORC SuchaThreat?	p. 11
The Promised Land: Money Talks	p. 13
Made in America: Homegrown Terrorism	p. 17
Recruiting from die Inside	p. 19
From Prison to Gangs to die World's Most Notorious
Terrorist Group	p. 21
Access to Funding Gets Creative	p. 25
Burrowing In: The Hezbollah Finds a Home in die
U.S. and South America	p. 27
From America to South America: Ties Get Stronger in the Tri-Border Region	p. 28
When a Deal Isn't a Deal	p. 31
Getting a Shoe of Luxury die Cheapest Way Possible	p. 34
The "Real Deal"	p. 36
Dying for a Deal: The Recession Doesn't Make
Aspirations Go Away	p. 38
Big Takedowns Take Precedence Over
Smaller Offenders	p. 39
Counterfeiters and ORC Move Their Operations Online	p. 40
eBay's Swift Responsev	p. 42
Too Little, Too Late	p. 44
Lurking in the Shadows: Stolen Gift Cards
Bought Online	p. 45
Easy to Obtain, Easy to Sell	p. 46
Fake-out: Retailers Fronting as Legitimate Stores	p. 48
Protecting Yourself: Know the Signs of E-fencing/ORC	p. 51
The Cost to the Stores	p. 53
The Blame Game	p. 54
Insider Information: Employee Theft and ORC	p. 54
Human Resources Fail: Hiring the Wrong People	p. 56
Wholesale Scam: Terrorist-Affiliated Warehouses Sell to the Little Guy	p. 61
Taking a Bite Out of the Balance Sheet: Economic Downturn Fosters Cargo Theft	p. 64
Coordinating Information in Real Time: LAPD and APD Case Studies	p. 67
Follow the Money
The Money Trail and the Business of
Cross-Border Trade	p. 77
The Warehouse: Ground Zero for Cross-Border Trade	p. 80
Profile of a Purchaser	p. 81
Keeping Shelves Stocked Through Cargo Theft	p. 83
Coveted Items: Over-the-Counter Drugs	p. 84
Profde of a Cargo Thief	p. 86
"Shell Stores": A Conduit for Organized Retail Crime	p. 87
Shell Stores Move Online	p. 89
A Hotbed of Stolen Merchandise: Flea Markets	p. 91
Nabbing the Bad Guys: Classifying Organized Retail Crime as a Felony	p. 91
Insurance Companies: The Missing Link	p. 93
The Gray Market: Another Retail Facilitator of ORC	p. 94
Laws Have Been Passed, But Are They Helping?	p. 95
Profile of a Booster and a Fence	p. 97
Moving the Merchandise: The Role of a Fence	p. 100
Being Convicted as a Level 1 Fence: More Like a Slap on the Wrist Than a Slap in die Face	p. 101
The Level 2 Booster: Inside the Mind of a Potentially Dangerous Criminal	p. 104
Other Forms of Theft from a Level 2 Booster	p. 106
Level 3 Boosters and Fences: A High-Level Organization Equals High Profits	p. 108
Level 3 Boosters: Frequently Lifted Merchandise	p. 112
Curbing Boosters and Fences: What Does and Doesn't Work	p. 115
Family Ties	p. 119
When Family Funds Support Terrorism	p. 121
Assad Muhammad Barakat and His "Family"	p. 123
Illegal Entry into the U.S. Is Not Difficult if You Have Money	p. 127
The Great Entrepreneurs: Terrorists	p. 132
The Trust Factor: The Basis of Any Organized Retail Crime Ring	p. 136
Money Laundering 2.0	p. 139
The Three Stages of Money Laundering	p. 141
Organized Retail Crime and Latin America	p. 151
Funneling Money Through the Black Market
Peso Exchange	p. 152
The South American, Mexican, and African Connection	p. 155
The Political Agenda	p. 159
Homegrown Terrorism: How Retail Theft and Piracy Has Funded Terrorist Operations	p. 160
Rebel Kids: Extremist Ideas Financed Through International ORC	p. 163
When Things Went Awry	p. 164
ORC Funding by Way of Somalia: A Tale of Two Misguided Kids	p. 165
As Local as Down the Street	p. 168
Funding Evil Under the Guise of Charitable Contributions: The Mosques	p. 168
Muslim Charities: Capitalizing on Natural Disaster and Religious Empathy	p. 169
Terrorist Fund-Raising Via Charities Finds Roots in the U.S	p. 172
Charitable Donation Loopholes: How the IRS and Banking Systems Failed to Prevent Fraudulent ORC Funds from Financing Terrorist Groups	p. 173
Charities Turn to a Cyber Audience	p. 175
Why the Government Can't Regulate Charities	p. 175
Strange Bedfellows	p. 179
How Banned TVs Funded Bombings	p. 180
The Business of Cigarette Smuggling	p. 183
The EC Versus R.J. Reynolds Tobacco	p. 185
The Role of Money Brokers and Money Launderers	p. 186
The History of Cigarette Smuggling	p. 188
Cigarette Smuggling Funds Local Terrorism Around the World	p. 189
Chiquita International Brands: "Either You Pay Me, or I Am Going to Kill You."	p. 192
Dole Foods' Involvement with the Colombian Paramilitary	p. 195
Putting a Band-Aid on a Broken Leg
The Failure of Preventative Measures	p. 201
Acting Locally, Thinking Globally	p. 202
Types of ORC Theft Prevention That Are Supposed to Work But Don't	p. 204
A Bottom-Line Breakdown of Costs	p. 207
Legal Issues: Defining ORC Versus Shoplifting and Shrinkage	p. 215
Regulating the Resale Market	p. 216
Letting the Bad Guy Get Away	p. 219
Regulation Epic Fail: How Banking BSAs and AML Programs Let Terrorist Funding Slip Through the Cracks	p. 222
Continued Failure to Regulate IFTs: The Costs to Local and Federal Governments as Well as Retailers	p. 223
Failure to Regulate Hawalas	p. 224
IFTs Get Sophisticated: Stored Value Cards	p. 227
Bulk Cash Smuggling Comes in a Smaller Package	p. 228
Retailers Feel the Pain of SVC Fraud	p. 230
Credit Card Fraud Is Even Worse	p. 231
RICO Defined	p. 234
Why ORC Rings Still Exist: Money Laundering and the RICO Statute	p. 235
More Problems with RICO: It's in the Definition	p. 236
Laws That Once Protected Potential Terrorists Have Changed	p. 239
Defining "Material Support" and "Coordination"	p. 239
Epilogue	p. 243
Glossary	p. 247
Endnotes	p. 271
Index	p. 299
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Black Market Billions How Organized Retail Crime Funds Global Terrorists

0132180243

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