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...
And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps!
- Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course!
- Subscribe to our once-a-week Wee Bit Wiser newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom!
- Do you even Reddit, bro? Join us at r/JordanHarbinger!
This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors:
- Jordan's must reads (including books from this episode): AcceleratEd
- IQBAR: 20% off: text "Jordan" to 64,000
- BetterHelp: 10% off first month: betterhelp.com/jordan
- NordVPN: Exclusive deal: nordvpn.com/jordanharbinger
- Shopify: 3 months @ $1/month (select plans): shopify.com/jordan
- Homes.com: Find your home: homes.com
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com