The Jordan Harbinger Show • 15 May 2025

1154: Sean Williams | The North Korea-China-Drug Cartel Connection

Sean Williams gives us a peek beneath a global shadow economy that thrives as countries like North Korea and China operate like criminal enterprises.

Jordan's must reads (including books from this episode): AcceleratEd

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1154

What We Discuss with Sean Williams:

North Korea operates as a massive organized crime outfit, generating revenue through forced labor, human trafficking, drug production/trafficking, and cybercrime to fund the regime's survival.
North Korean hackers (Lazarus Group) have become sophisticated cybercriminals, stealing $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency from ByBit exchange in February 2025.
Chinese "flying money" (Fei Chen) operates as an ancient, untraceable money transfer system now widely used by drug cartels and for capital flight from China, possibly totaling $2 trillion annually.
Chinese money laundering has had a visible impact on real estate markets in Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney, and Los Angeles, where properties purchased with laundered funds remain unfinished or abandoned.
Despite public diplomatic cooperation between US and China on financial crimes, both countries have conflicting incentives — China benefits from US drug chaos while the US benefits from Chinese capital flight.
And much more...

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