Mapping of criminogenic financial flows: typology, nodes and security threats
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64217/logosguardiacivil.v4i1.8388Keywords:
financial geography, illicit financial flows, critical financial infrastructure, jurisdictional arbitrage, topological architecture of capital flowsAbstract
This article proposes an operational cartography of criminogenic financial flows, structured through a topological, multiscalar, and geo-legal framework. The central hypothesis asserts that capital circulation is neither neutral nor random, but rather a strategic architecture assembled through physical infrastructures, legal structures, and digital devices. Based on an expanded taxonomy, the study develops a classification of twelve types of financial flows according to their geometry (binary, triangular, circular, multiple, hybrid) and their impact on national and international security.
The analysis reveals that these flows configure specific morphologies of structural vulnerability. Some follow well-established patterns: binary flows operate as preferred structures in scenarios of interstate financial coercion; triangular flows function as surgical vectors of strategic legalization; and round-trip flows simulate foreign investment through circular capital circuits. Others adopt more disruptive forms: fractal flows act as amplifiers of systemic risk via nested leverage structures, while mirror flows are engineered as algorithms of transnational legal subjugation, designed to shield extraterritorial control under contractual disguise.
Moreover, the study argues that conventional financial monitoring techniques are insufficient when confronted with multi-jurisdictional contractual assemblages, crypto-legal algorithms, and opaque risk nodes.
Methodologically, the research integrates network theory, geographic infrastructure analysis, and contractual engineering. The conclusion advocates for a doctrine of financial sovereignty grounded in strategic traceability, nodal cartography, and adversarial intelligence. Without maps, there is no control; without control, there is no sovereignty. Mastering the trajectory of capital becomes a critical prerequisite for geopolitical survival in the twenty-first century
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