Global money laundering recovery gap highlighted by CJI

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant stated that for every Rs 100 involved in money laundering, authorities and law enforcement agencies recover only about Re 1, highlighting a significant gap in the global effort to combat illicit wealth. He made these remarks during his closing address at the 43rd International Symposium on Economic Crime, which concluded on August 29, 2026, in Cambridge. The CJI emphasized that the problem is not a lack of legal tools but a failure to deploy them effectively across borders. He noted that economic offenders can move illicit wealth faster than governments can coordinate their response, creating a critical mismatch between the speed of financial crime and the pace of international cooperation. "Of that immense tide of illicit wealth, by the most generous reckoning, less than one unit in a hundred is ever recovered," he said, adding that the world launders enough money annually to buy every person on Earth a modest laptop. Justice Kant pointed to two major obstacles: the ingenuity of offenders and inadequate international cooperation, particularly in extradition and asset recovery.