The trade in counterfeit goods is growing and is increasingly linked to transnational organised crime. But little is known about the financial mechanisms that lie behind this trade.This is the first account of the financial management of the counterfeiting business. Written by experts in a wide range of fields, it examines the financial and business structures in relation to the illicit trade in counterfeit products.Based on interviews with active criminal entrepreneurs in ...

With its easy-to-use format, this book provides a collection of annual data on China’s 56 ethnic groups. It is a resource book that profiles the demography, employment and wages, livelihood, agriculture, industry, education, science and technology, culture, sports, and public health for each of these ethnic groups. This material, which is compiled from a variety of sources, will be of great value to researchers, businesses, government agencies, and news media. In this book, data are presen...

The story of a 'rogue unit' operating within the South African Revenue Service (SARS) became entrenched in the public mind following a succession of sensational reports published by the Sunday Times in 2014. The unit, the reports claimed, had carried out a series of illegal spook operations: they had spied on President Jacob Zuma, run a brothel, illegally bought spyware and entered into unlawful tax settlements.In a plot of Machiavellian proportions, head of the elite crime-busting...

This book argues that identity and money are both changing profoundly. Because of technological change the two trends are converging so that all that we need for transacting will be our identities captured in the unique record of our online social contacts. Social networks and mobile phones are the key technologies. They will enable the building of an identity infrastructure that can enhance both privacy and security – there is no trade-off. The long-term consequences of these changes are ...

Hitmen for Hire takes the reader on a journey like no other, navigating a world of paid hitmen, informers, rogue policemen, criminal taxi bosses, gang leaders, and crooked politicians and businessmen. Criminologist Mark Shaw examines a society in which contract killings have become commonplace, looking at who arranges hits, where to find a hitman, and even what it is like to operate as a hitman – or woman.Since 1994, South Africa has seen a worrying increase in the commerci...

Now available in a new edition entitled GLASS HOUSES: Privacy, Secrecy, and Cyber Insecurity in a Transparent World.A former top-level National Security Agency insider goes behind the headlines to explore America's next great battleground: digital security. An urgent wake-up call that identifies our foes; unveils their methods; and charts the dire consequences for government, business, and individuals.Shortly after 9/11, Joel Brenner entered the in...

Nothing in life is certain, except death and taxes – or so the expression goes. And over the past two decades South African criminals and tax dodgers have come to realise this truth the hard way.Tax sleuth Johann van Loggerenberg was at the centre of many of SARS' high-profile cases during his time there. As far as SARS is concerned all forms of income are subjected to tax, even if by ill-gotten means. Whether you are a drug dealer from Durban, one of the hitmen who shot Brett Kebb...

A chilling and revelatory appraisal of the new faces of espionage and warfare on the digital battlegroundShortly after 9/11, Joel Brenner entered the inner sanctum of American espionage, first as the inspector general of the National Security Agency, then as the head of counterintelligence for the director of National Intelligence. He saw at close range the battleground on which adversaries are attacking us: cyberspace.Like the rest of us, governments and c...

Although most Canadians are familiar with surveillance cameras and airport security, relatively few are aware of the extent to which the potential for surveillance is now embedded in virtually every aspect of our lives. We cannot walk down a city street, register for a class, pay with a credit card, hop on an airplane, or make a telephone call without data being captured and processed. Where does such information go? Who makes use of it, and for what purpose? Is the loss of control over ou...

In our digital world, data is power. Information hoarding businesses reign supreme, using intimidation, aggression, and force to maintain influence and control. Sarah Lamdan brings us into the unregulated underworld of these "data cartels", demonstrating how the entities mining, commodifying, and selling our data and informational resources perpetuate social inequalities and threaten the democratic sharing of knowledge.Just a few companies dominate most of our critical informationa...

Featured in The Times and Sunday Times'One of the year's most exciting releases' - The HeraldChina is building the world's first digital totalitarian state, a system of hitherto unimaginable social and political control. Internet freedom has been eliminated and ubiquitous surveillance cameras employ the latest facial recognition technology.Through flagrant cyber espionage, it has plundered Western technol...

'Only Anton Harber, a pioneer of independent journalism in south Africa and one of the keenest observers of the media around, could have written the thriller that is this book.' – Jacob Dlamini Veteran journalist Anton Harber brings all his investigative skills to bear on his very own profession, the media. For two years he conducted dozens of interviews with politicians, journalists, policemen, state security agents and 'deep throats', before piecing together two remarkable tales. The fir...