Miles Kellerman
@mileskellerman
Assistant Professor at Leiden University's Institute of Security and Global Affairs. Working on the intersections of finance, crime, and international politics. Website: mileskellerman.com Substack:
4️⃣ Potential applications: The article examines three scenarios where the LDA program would be applied. One example is market abuse in the U.S. The SEC could grant LDAs access to the Consolidated Audit Trail and establish compensation mechanisms. Much of the infrastructure is already in place ⤵️
3️⃣ Proposed solution: Licensed Detection Agents Create a new class of private firms authorized to surveil transactions and financially rewarded for reporting suspicious activity. Professionalize, in other words, the act of blowing the whistle. ⤵️
2️⃣Precedent for alternatives: whistleblower reward programs have been wildly successful. Take, for example, the False Claims Act. From 1987 to 2024, US gov awarded, in inflation-adjusted numbers, $13.1 billion in return for $76.6 billion in successful settlements and judgments (ROI of 486%) ⤵️
1️⃣ The problem: Existing approaches to detection are trapped in a web of constraints, in which difficult trade-offs must be made between data access, positive incentives, and privacy protection. As a result, rates of detection are abysmal. I call this the "Detection Trilemma" ⤵️
Last December, China sought to choke off America's access to a critical strategic mineral. But in a new post, I find that supply chains adjusted at lightning speed. Belgium, of all places, has replaced China as America's top source. It shows that weaponizing trade can have very strange side-effects
A remarkable open-source investigation, employing satellite imagery and 3D models of container ships, estimates that North Korea sent 4.2 to 5.8 million artillery rounds to Russia via 64 shipments on sanctioned vessels. Full report: static.opensourcecentre.org/assets/osc_b...
*TRUMP COIN*: For the low low price of $10.43, you, too, can own a piece of America’s decline. But that’s not all folks… open.substack.com/pub/mileskel...
There are many career paths after law school. One is to help write explanations of valuable cryptocurrency investment products like 'Dogwifhat (WIF)'
But NYSE and the exchanges viewed it as an existential threat to their right to self-monitor. In NYSE's archives, I discovered that staff composed critical questions about the MOSS which were subsequently repeated by members of Congress in an appropriations hearing:
The CAT story actually starts in the 1980s, when the SEC created its predecessor, the Market Oversight Surveillance System (MOSS). The MOSS was designed to give the SEC simultaneous oversight of all exchanges. And it worked! Its pilot program was successful.
Today I delivered my opening lecture for "Economics of Security." Had to throw up an emergency slide on that White House formula. Lesson 1: don't assume greek letters = sophistication
The roll-back of Treasury's beneficial ownership requirements was a specific Project 2025 recommendation. Heritage's objections were mostly about costs for small businesses. The privacy invasion argument is, well, quite something in light of DOGE's activities.
Stablecoins' use for criminal purposes (as a proportion of on-chain crime by asset) remained, well, stable..
Some preliminary crypto crime insights from Chainalysis for 2024. Notable growth in value of crypto held by illicit addresses associated with organizations providing money laundering services. But a drop in those associated with sanctioned entities. www.chainalysis.com/blog/2025-cr...
FCA finds signs of insider trading ahead of 30% of takeovers and 3% of market sensitive events. Both represent a decline…or an increase in obfuscation.
Data visualization from the 1940s: changes in the gender make-up of one British bank's staff during World War II. from John Wadsworth's Counter Defensive: A Bank in Battle (1946) #polisky #econsky #history #historysky
"Sir John Fielding...became one of England’s first and greatest police detectives. And for his entire crime-fighting career, he was blind." beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-...
"Government and business enter upon a new era of good feeling" (1914) by Udo Keppler
In the meantime, Israel is cut off from the Woensdrecht distribution network. Though there is nothing to stop those spare parts from being re-exported to Israel *after* they leave the Netherlands.
In February, human rights organizations successfully petitioned a Hague Court to stop Woensdrecht from exporting F-35 parts to Israel. The case centered on whether the Dutch state adequately considered the risk these parts would aid violations of int. humanitarian law. The state is appealing.
For the F-35, the U.S. and its allies chose to establish this depot in the Netherlands at the Woensdrecht Logistical Center. OneLogistics, a private company, oversees this center and organizes the distribution of F-35 spare parts to bases all over Europe and the Middle East (including Israel).
The F-35 is the world's most advanced fighter jet. Each plane costs $80-100 million off the shelf. But the real price is much higher due to sustainment costs, including the replacement of spare parts. How do you reduce these costs? You create a centralized depot for spare part distribution.
4. Chutzpah: When issued subpoenas by US law enforcement, Binance asked them to sign statements that they would refrain from taking any legal actions against the company. Interesting approach!