INTERVIEW
Myles Mahadi,
NYPD detective
AT: What does your day entail?
Myles Mahadi: A lot of paperwork. The
NYPD organized crime investigation unit is
a very proactive unit because we initiate
investigations. I also have a strong back-
ground in money laundering, specifically
cases dealing with human trafficking and
high-ring prostitution. When I arrived at
HSI EDTF, I saw that no one specialized in
these cases even though they were text-
book money laundering cases. I am a sub-
ject-matter expert, much to my mother’s
embarrassment, on high-end prostitution. It
is a very interesting and unique sub-cul-
ture, particularly when you talk about
money laundering and financial crimes. In
my opinion, it has not received the expo-
sure it should. There are two things that
the sex industry relies on, one is advertis-
ing and the other is banking. The advertis-
ing is easy to stop.
AT: ACAMS Today has published
articles on this topic, there have been
sessions on human trafficking at
ACAMS conferences and the
response is always the same, people
want to know what else can they do
to help in the fight against human
trafficking?
MM: They need to monitor more. For exam-
ple, I presented at the annual El Dorado Task
Force/High Intensity Financial Crime Areas
(HIFCA) symposium where I went over how
we would investigate a human trafficking
case as a paper case. Toward the end of my
presentation, I pointed out that when we
arrest the owners of these human trafficking
syndications, they always lead to other
arrests or other cases. For example, HSI
EDTF arrested a former NYPD officer as part
of a crime family for a gambling charge. Inci-
dentally, he was just arrested again for a
bank mortgage fraud violation the other day.
AT: In the cases you have worked, are
the victims of human trafficking local
or international?
Myles Mahadi, NYPD detective
MM: There are two things two consider when chasing human traffickers. First, there has to be
a base for the traffickers to set up shop (e.g., the Asian massage parlors or escort agencies).
These girls come to a new country and then that is it. The human traffickers have certain terms
like the Korean express or the Chinese express and you will find the victims in all parts of the
country working. There is an organization behind all of this and the smart approach is for law
enforcement and financial institutions to partner up and work together to resolve this. For
example, how can we identify these human trafficking organizations? A human trafficking
organization is not going to walk into a bank and open an account under ABC Escorts because
no bank is going to tolerate this. However, if they walk into a bank and open an account under
ABC Consulting LLC that they set up two weeks ago, the human traffickers now have a bona
fide entity. And in my cases, that is the essence of money laundering because once the funds
start to go through the entity that was created solely to conceal what the source of the funds
is, then it is good to go. These human trafficking cases are textbook money laundering cases,
but they are also very tight prosecution cases. The key element to getting these cases solved
is aggressive prosecution. Second, many of these girls are transported across state lines.
Another side to this is that many of the escort agencies are fronts for narcotics trafficking and
frankly, there are loser men out there that call up these salons and order drugs and the girl
delivers the drugs. If the girl does not have to have sex with the man then it is also a win for the
girl and that is the way they look at it. It is an interesting sub-culture.
AT: Could you speak more about the financial aspect of the narcotics delivery
side of human trafficking?
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