New Delhi, Aug. 30 -- Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant has warned that the global fight against economic crime cannot remain confined to speeches and reports, pointing out that less than one per cent of illicit wealth is recovered despite the enormous scale of money laundering worldwide.

Addressing the closing session of the 43rd International Symposium on Economic Crime in Cambridge on Saturday, CJI Surya Kant said economic crime was not a modern phenomenon but an age-old vice that had merely acquired new forms, from ancient insurance fraud to sophisticated money laundering and digital arrest scams.

"Economic crime is not a modern invention but a longstanding vice that has merely assumed new disguises," the CJI said, tracing i...