The Financial Integrity Platform – Young Leaders Chapter continues to explore new formats for engaging young people and making conversations about financial crime more accessible and engaging. This time, on 6 September, we brought together young people in Kyiv for a screening of “The Infiltrator”.

“The Infiltrator” is a crime thriller based on real events. The film follows federal agent Robert Mazur, who goes undercover as a financial consultant and infiltrates a network linked to the Medellín drug cartel to expose schemes for laundering illicit proceeds.

The film presents organised crime from another perspective — through the money that enables it to operate. At the heart of the story is the movement of illicit proceeds through the financial system, their use by intermediaries, and the ways in which they are disguised as legitimate funds.

Following the movement of money can often reveal connections that are difficult to establish when investigating the underlying crime itself. Bank transfers, accounts, companies, assets and other financial records leave a documentary and digital trail that can help investigators trace the origin of funds, their movement and their ultimate beneficiaries.

This is one of the reasons why money laundering plays an important role in criminal proceedings. The underlying offence is not always easy to prove: there may be a lack of direct evidence or witnesses, or it may be difficult to establish the precise role of each participant. Financial transactions, by contrast, can often be documented and corroborated. As a result, charges relating to the laundering of illicit proceeds can become an important tool for holding those involved in criminal schemes accountable.

At the same time, money laundering is not a “substitute” for the underlying offence. Following the financial trail helps establish where funds came from, who used them, how they were moved and who ultimately benefited from the criminal activity.

This illustrates one of the key principles of financial investigations — “follow the money”. By analysing financial flows, law enforcement can not only trace illicit proceeds but also uncover the wider structure of criminal activity.

The screening was not only an opportunity to watch a compelling film together, but also a way to explore organised crime through a financial lens. For us, it is important to create formats that help young people better understand how illicit financial schemes operate, why they can be difficult to uncover, and what role the financial trail plays in exposing them. Understanding how the financial system works is an important part of protecting it from abuse.