An Interview with Casey Michel

By now, most people can readily conjure an image of the offshore havens where the uber-wealthy hide their dazzling riches to avoid the tax man: the pearly white beaches of the Cayman Islands; the mangroves; the plush cabana where the oily manager of a shell company sips a mango daiquiri with an umbrella perched on the rim, fielding calls from unsavory clients. In his book American Kleptocracy, journalist Casey Michel argues that this image is already an outdated mental map for the new geography of dirty money.