Joras Ferwerda (March 5, 1984) holds a PhD in Economics, a Master in Economics and Social Sciences, and a Bachelor in Economics and Law from the Utrecht University School of Economics in the Netherlands. He is currently Associate Professor at the Utrecht University School of Economics in the Netherlands. He is also on the academic board of the Catholic University of Milan for the international PhD criminology programme and coordinator of the UU AI Lab Sustainable Finance. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park at the Criminology and Criminal Justice department and Senior Researcher at the section Criminology of VU University Amsterdam. He is a certified money laundering expert for the Dutch National Police.
He advises the Dutch Minister of Justice and Security regarding money laundering policies. He did the first study on the amounts and effects of money laundering in the Netherlands for the Dutch Ministry of Finance. He did EU-financed research projects on money laundering, corruption, tax avoidance, tax evasion, and organised crime. He also did research for the Dutch Ministries of Finance, Justice and Security, Interior Affairs, and Foreign Affairs about money laundering and tax avoidance. He organized the conference ‘Tackling Money Laundering’ with international leading experts on money laundering in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He initiated, together with colleagues in the field, the Money Laundering Research Network to foster academic research on money laundering (see moneylaunderingresearch.com). He has scientific publications in journals such as Review of Law and Economics, Scientific Data (Nature), Regulation and Governance (2x), Public Choice, Scientific Reports (Nature), Applied Economics, European Journal of Criminology, EPJ Data Science, PLoS One (Science), International Review of Law and Economics, and European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research (4x), among others. Besides his dissertation 'The Multidisciplinary Economics of Money Laundering' he published two Edward Elgar books about money laundering in the real estate sector and anti-money laundering policy in the EU and an Oxford University Press book about fiscal fraud.
Next to his research, he is involved in teaching at both the bachelor’s and master’s levels at the Utrecht University School of Economics, the Utrecht University School of Governance, and University College Utrecht. He gives guest lectures at the Catholic University of Milan, Copenhagen Business School, and the University of Aruba. Furthermore, he is PhD-supervisor of Lucia Rossel, Peter Gerbrands (Utrecht University), Mirko Nazzari, Francesca Maldi, and Michele Riccardi (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy), founder of the minor Criminology for Economics students, coordinator of the dedicated minor Economics and Law, coordinator of the MSc-theses Economic Policy, reviewer for international scientific journals and the World Bank and he gives presentations at international scientific conferences (see the Conference Page for a complete overview).
Every now and then Joras Ferwerda is in the (primarily Dutch) media about money laundering. See the Media Page for a complete overview.