In general, the more sophisticated kinds of money laundering operations which have touched Canada have had an international component. They have involved either: Questionable funds earned or accumulated outside of Canada being laundered wholly, or in part, through this country; or Questionable funds earned or accumulated in Canada which are laundered elsewhere. An example of the latter involved a scheme set up in the 1980s by Donovan Blakeman. He was a former Toronto lawyer who handled the finances for an international drug ring. Between 1982 and 1987, it earned revenues of as much as $100 million. Blakeman who pleaded guilty to laundering charges in 1989 called his money-laundering scheme the "Spaghetti Jungle". There were:  eleven shell companies in the Channel Islands;  fifteen other shell companies in Liberia, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Netherlands Antilles and Switzerland;  fourteen secret bank accounts in the Channel Islands, Liberia and other jurisdictions; and  major real estate developments in West Palm Beach, Florida; Kitchener, Ontario; and Barrie, Ontario. Blakeman would himself carry currency in large denominations including $1,000 bills or monetary instruments to the offshore bank accounts. To blur its origins, the money would subsequently move through the corporate maze, known as the "Spaghetti Jungle". Then, he would employ the loan-back technique to patriate the funds. When their pedigree was sufficiently concealed, they would be "invested" in the drug ring's real estate developments in North America. For all intents and purposes, the investments would look like loans from foreign investors a common occurrence in the Canadian and American economies. It was a brilliantly conceived scheme. And it was of such complexity that had law enforcement not penetrated the trafficking end of the operation, it's unlikely the money-laundering side would have been compromised. As Blakeman told me: "It could have gone on forever and ever." What helped to facilitate this kind of activity was a key development in the 1950s and '60s. The world of finance and, by extension, the world of money laundering was transformed by the emergence of a dynamic international offshore sector. Why this occurred is subject to debate. Safe to say that during the post-Second World War era, there was a sustained battle between national governments, on the one hand, and multinational corporations, financial institutions and wealthy individuals, on the other. Governments tried to retain control over their national economies, financial structures and, of course, their currencies. And they were especially intent on maintaining the viability of their tax systems. Arrayed against them were multinational corporations, financial institutions and the wealthy who wanted to ensure that their capital and profits could flow as freely as possible around the world while incurring the lightest tax burdens. Indeed, their aims were in tune with post-war developments which resulted in increasingly freer movements of goods and services. It was a battle in which governments were outgunned. If nothing else, they had tried to go against the grain of the free market something no one has successfully done and lived to tell the tale. And, of course, they lost. Whenever they tried to close loopholes, tax planners and bankers innovated by expanding offshore finance and thereby reducing the power and scope of national governments. As the Economist, the British publication, recently stated: "...In international finance, regulators are at a great disadvantage because money is so slippery..." It was a situation that played right into the hands of criminal financi.