Title: Stopping Human Trafficking: The complex legal, economic, and criminal landscape

Speakers: John Powell, Joshua Hewson, and Manuchehr Aminian. Note that Manuchehr was recently a postdoc in the department of mathematics at CSU!

Abstract: Banks unknowingly process financial transactions relating to Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (MSHT) and Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) enabling criminals to generate estimated profits of $160 billion p.a. from exploiting millions of individuals. Currently less than 1% of these transactions are being detected and only 0.2% of individuals in slavery are rescued. Legal requirements and financial incentives encourage financial institutions to withhold their data, limiting the visibility a single institution has on the wider network of associated financial transactions linked to a given entity. Most criminal activity is visible in the pattern of transactions rather than any one transaction, meaning no individual financial institution has the necessary information to understand the broader context of transactions passing through its customers’ accounts. We have developed a proof-of-concept persona based statistical model of payments across different platforms associated with criminal and non-criminal entities.

Zoom link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87034548710?pwd=enNqY05SSFYzZEZVbUJoWGRBRXVGZz09