Analysis: Criminal gangs are increasingly using technology, international financial networks and sophisticated corporate structures to move their money
The recent case involving Francisco de Borbon, a distant cousin of Spain’s King Felipe VI and a director of a Dublin-registered fintech company, reads almost like the script of a crime thriller. Spanish investigators have alleged links between De Borbon, an Irish fintech, an international drug-trafficking network and financial structures used to move suspected proceeds of cocaine trafficking. De Borbon was arrested in Spain in February and subsequently released on bail; he has denied wrongdoing and said he never intended to be a director of the Irish company.
The significance of the story for Ireland is not that an aristocrat happens to feature in a criminal investigation or that the existence of an Irish-registered company, by itself, establishes wrongdoing in Ireland. Its broader significance lies in what it illustrates about the nature of contemporary financial crime: criminal networks are far more sophisticated, multidisciplinary and pervasive than we might assume.
Ireland’s financial success
Over the past decade, Ireland has become one of the world’s most important centres for both investment funds and money market funds. The scale is extraordinary. PwC’s 2026 asset and wealth management review estimates that assets under management in Ireland could reach US$9 trillion by 2030. Ireland already domiciles approximately 75% of Europe’s exchange-traded fund (ETF) market, while European assets under management are projected to increase from $35 trillion in 2024 to $48.5 trillion by 2030.
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From RTÉ Radio 1’s Drivetime, Sunday World assistant editor Eamon Dillon on the Government’s plans to enhance money laundering safeguards
Such volumes change the nature of the risk. For Ireland, these represent enormous economic opportunities and equally important risks, as well as public-policy responsibilities.
Investment funds are not inherently suspicious and perform essential economic functions.The problem is that the same characteristics that make these structures economically attractive – large transaction volumes, cross-border activity, professional intermediaries, complex ownership chains and highly mobile capital – can also make them attractive to organised financial criminals.
The Irish Government’s timely response
Against this background, the Government’s launch of Ireland’s first National Anti-Money Laundering strategy is particularly important. The measures include stronger anti-money laundering requirements for crypto-assets and transfers, stronger oversight of gambling and better cooperation between Government departments, An Garda Síochána, Revenue, Criminal Assets Bureau, Central Bank and financial institutions.
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From RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland, RTÉ Crime Correspondent Paul Reynolds on the use of a major money laundering operation by Irish and international crime gangs
The strategy also recognises something fundamental: financial crime is no longer confined to traditional banking. Criminal organisations increasingly exploit technology, international financial networks, virtual assets, and opaque corporate structures. The strategy is therefore absolutely necessary and a step in the right direction. It has been welcomed, but it is not sufficient.
From rules to risk
For decades, much of anti-money laundering compliance has been built around rules: identify the customer, collect documents, establish beneficial ownership, screen names, monitor transactions, and file suspicious transaction reports. All of these remain necessary, but rules have a weakness: criminals learn them too. A sophisticated criminal organisation does not necessarily ask ‘how can we break the rules?’ as much as ‘how can we structure our activity so that it looks ordinary?’
This is why the international anti-money laundering system has been moving from a predominantly rules-based compliance model towards risk-based supervision and enforcement. The objective is not simply to apply identical controls everywhere, but to understand where the greatest risks lie and allocate supervisory and enforcement resources accordingly.
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From RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with David McCullagh, former Head of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau Pat Lordan on the new crackdown on money laundering
That sounds straightforward, but it is extraordinarily difficult in practice. A risk-based system requires institutions and supervisors to understand both the transaction and why it makes sense. It requires an understanding of customers, networks, jurisdictions, ownership structures, business models, technology and behavioural patterns. The De Borbon case illustrates why this matters.
The missing ingredient: knowledge
Europe does not necessarily have a complete absence of information about curbing money laundering. It suffers instead from the difficulty of converting fragmented information into actionable intelligence. This is where academic research becomes important. Financial crime is not exclusively a legal and also involves economics, finance, criminology, data science, accounting, computer science, sociology, and international relations. Criminal finance itself is interdisciplinary and collective so the institutional response also needs to be interdisciplinary and collective.
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From RTÉ Radio 1’s News at One, the government’s new plan to tackle financial crimes
Researchers can examine questions that regulators and individual firms often do not have the resources or institutional independence to investigate systematically. For example, in one of our research projects, we applied methods developed in conventional financial markets to practical, risk-based approaches for crypto markets, where illicit financial activity can otherwise appear extremely difficult – if not impossible – for supervisors and law enforcement to identify.
Universities can therefore serve as neutral spaces where law enforcement, regulators, financial institutions, technology companies and policymakers can examine cases collectively. They can test new analytical techniques, evaluate existing policies and, just as importantly, train the next generation of professionals fighting money laundering.
Ireland’s unique opportunity
Ireland’s position as a leading global funds centre in Europe creates a unique opportunity. A genuine transition from compliance as fragmented documentation to compliance as collective intelligence, underpinned by research and training, could enable Ireland to lead the way in making it harder for criminals to move, conceal and legitimise the proceeds of crime.
This could include developing a national research and training ecosystem bringing together universities and research institutions, the Central Bank, Government departments, An Garda Síochána, Revenue, the Criminal Assets Bureau, financial institutions, fintech and technology firms, professional and legal services, and other relevant stakeholders.
The objective would be to create a shared institutional capacity to learn, connect information and expertise and continuously improve the collective response to financial crimes.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
