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Although investigators have little empirical insight into how often criminals exploit trade to transfer illicit value, the scope of trade-based money laundering is likely "overwhelming," according to John Cassara, a former intelligence agent and U.S. Treasury Department official. The most popular tactics, such as over- and under-invoicing, are at times viewed as standard practices of business in certain parts of the world, according to Cassara, who as an investigator for U.S. Customs helped uncover schemes in the 1990s that criminals continue to replicate today. Cassara, the author of "Trade-Based Money Laundering: The Next Frontier in International Money Laundering Enforcement," recently...