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If not, you should.
If yes, you know its a weekly podcast that runs about an hour per episode.
Its made by a team of about 20 people.
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After creating a podcast for TNW, Im in complete awe.
Turns out: podcast making might be the least time-efficient way to tell a story.
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Whats it like to be a victim of human trafficking?
How can technology and finance help develop a solution?
Listen to the first episode of Forensic Finance to find out.
Transcript Forensic Finance, Episode 1: How bank data analysis helps fight modern slavery.
Forensic Finance is made by TNW an ABN AMRO and hosted by me, Callum Booth.
Worldwide, human trafficking is a huge problem.
Callum Booth:Its a problem thats hiding in plain sight, probably near you.
Raila Abas: Since Ive been doing this project.
Ive noticed that I think twice before I go to a nail salon to get my nails done.
Cora:Before, I didnt know that Im a victim of human trafficking.
Callum Booth: A solution to this enormous problem might be coming from an unexpected source: banks.
My name is Jill Coster-van Voorhout.
Im a sociologist and a lawyer.
I work in the criminal law department at the University of Amsterdam.
Callum Booth: According to Jill, more than 40 million people have been trafficked worldwide since 2014.
So that could be a cafeteria, or a Chinese restaurant, or a factory building.
And he took me on a tour to show where they found instances in my own neighborhood.
Sometimes even two houses, next to mine.
Callum Booth:Many things we see day-to-day, we might not recognize as something illegal.
But even worse, the victims themselves often dont know theyre being exploited at all.
Callum Booth: For instance, they may not be allowed contact with the outside world.
Callum Booth:Cora, whos 66 now moved to the Netherlands from the Philippines.
Cora:Before I dont know that Im a victim of human trafficking, Id know.
But because I know its only those working in prostitution; that is the only form of human trafficking.
They are victims of human trafficking.
I came here in 2003.
In 2004, my son came here and then in 2004, in December, my daughter came.
And its so its nice that we are all together.
And the salary of my son is $300, the salary of my daughter is $200.
So 18 hours a day, seven days a week, we work for that [salary].
If you combine together, its big money for us, to help our family.
So we just, we just work, work, work work.
Cora:And then, later on, my daughter said: Mama, I feel crazy.
Because we are working so hard.
Wake up in the morning, early morning, and then we finish the evening.
Supposedly so we could take a rest.
But we couldnt take a rest.
How can we take a rest; every time when they need us, we had to go down.
So if we want to sleep we cannot sleep, because they will get angry.
Slowly, an escape plan forms in Coras mind.
Cora: The plan is: we need to escape on July 5th.
We did that because we need the salary of June, so they can send it to the Philippines.
Why didnt the teachers at school see the signals?
Were there no other staff members who could help?
According to Jill, we need to do a better job in recognizing and reporting cases of modern slavery.
And for that, we might need the help of technology and banks.
The financial sector has many ways in which theyre confronted with a crime like human trafficking.
So Jill wanted to analyze bank data to discover cases of human trafficking.
She just didnt have access yet.
Until Dutch bank ABN AMRO approached her.
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As a bank, we provide products and services to over five million people all over the world.
So I think it is imperative that we look at all of our activities from a human rights perspective.
Jill kicks off how the model works.
We started with a public-private partnership with law enforcement and ABN AMRO Bank in June 2015.
Callum Booth:A whole bunch apparently.
Others a contextual, such as several people in the same age group living at the same address.
Raila Abas: That, for me, are a lot of indicators.
So we want to confirm that we do explain, of course, what were doing.
Callum Booth:The indicators seem to be working too.
So we know this works, because theres a separate check by the Financial Intelligence Unit.
In other words, the bank itself doesnt decide if something is criminal or not.
Jill Coster van Voorhout: So its not completely up to us, of course.
Callum Booth: The model seems to be turning up solid results.
Jill Coster van Voorhout:We found 70 bank account holders that were related to those suspicious transactions.
One of them on a case that we didnt even know existed.
Providing some form of hard financial data…Thats something you cannot intimidate.
You cannot intimidate financial evidence.
The five euro is for you because Im really happy.
Callum Booth: Today, Cora and her son and daughter live and work in the Netherlands legally.
Cora is an ambassador for FairWork, a nonprofit organization fighting labor exploitation.
She offers support and advice to other victims of human trafficking.
They say: no, no, no, no, (because they are afraid).
No no, no, no.
Maybe you know somebody?
Callum Booth: Cases like Coras could have been detected with the model Jill and Raila are currently using.
But, other banks have expressed their interest in the model.
Jill is optimistic about the future.
Dont ignore the signals, report suspicious situations anonymously if you want, but take responsibility.
Ive been Callum Booth.
Thank you for listening.
