what the heck is money laundering?

Question

i was waching america's most wanted the other night and i heard that term. what is it?

Answer 1

All the above. And I must add that because it is a crime of concealment- it is incredibly difficult to investigate. The probable cause is actual bank records, financial documents and phony invoices etc. but all of this is neatly protected under privacy laws.

If the money launderer is intelligent enough to use multiple bank accounts which are not in his name, then it will never raise suspicion to his bank. No SAR on record = no crime.

Loopholes like this make it very easy to do.

Answer 2

Taking money gained from illegal activities: Drug dealing, extortion etc.

Then running it through a legitimate business so it becomes "clean".

You see if you earn a lot of money and buy a lot of expensive things the taxman starts to ask how. With no legitimate business you are likely to be investigated.

Here's a simple example common in Liverpool UK.

Growth and sale of Marijuana (skunk) using a Tanning salon as a cover.

The electricity used growing the weed is attributed to extra customers these fictional customers then also represent the extra income gained from the sale of the drugs.

With a legitimate income the criminal can then get credit, mortgages etc etc and most importantly display legitimate accounts to the taxman.

Answer 3

Money laundering, the metaphorical "cleaning of money" with regard to appearances in law, is the practice of engaging in specific financial transactions in order to conceal the identity, source and/or destination of money and is a main operation of underground economy.

In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government regulators (such as the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) to encompass any financial transaction which generates an asset or a value as the result of an illegal act, which may involve actions such as tax evasion or false accounting. As a result, the illegal activity of money laundering is now recognized as potentially practiced by individuals, small and large businesses, corrupt officials, members of organized crime (such as drug dealers or the Mafia) or of cults, and even corrupt states or intelligence agencies, through a complex network of shell companies based in offshore tax havens.

Answer 4

The agencies watch things like large bank deposits as they could be traced to drug deals etc.

Money laundering is when the money is manipulated to make it appear to have come from a legal source, such as a Swiss bank account, or a phony charity, etc.

Good question,

Darryl S.

Answer 5

A term used and a crime alleged when the source and/or destination of funds are concealed, thus enabling the prosecutors to get a conviction without necessarily proving all the facts of the main offence. In that sense, it's like RICO: an ancillary offense.

One advantage of indicting for money laundering when the real offense is tax evasion is that it may be possible to extradite. Tax evasion (with few exceptions, including US treaties with Sweden and Canada) is not an extraditable offense.

It's also used for prosecuting drug traffickers, terrorists, pyramid scheme promoters, bribery, securities law offenses, extortion, etc. -- wherever substantial amounts of illicit funds are banked, wired or moved in cash. There is a good deal of prosecutorial abuse in charging money laundering. Like "conspiracy" charges, it's easy to accuse, easy to confuse a jury, and relatively easy to get a conviction.

It's been relatively easy to bring foreign countries -- OECD member states anyway -- on board in the "fight (is this another "war"?) against money laundering. To open a bank account today in most major countries one needs positive ID, proof of address, proof of source of funds or income to support a sizeable deposit. Most tax authorities will exchange information on bank accounts within their country under tax treaty arrangements. We know that SWIFT inter-bank money wiring data are monitored by the NSA, and that money sent in and out of the USA and/or Canada in excess of $10,000 is reported; US persons are required to declare foreign accounts to the Treasury and IRS under pain of severe penalties. All of this information is brought together, to the extent possible, so that governments can at will get a full picture of any individual's personal situation. Any attempt to avoid monitoring can be deemed "money laundering". That might include any but the most frugal lifestyle lived on a cash basis without bank account and credit/debit cards. Privacy is now a relative thing. Relatively passé,

Answer 6

Its when criminasl take money they got illegally and put it into businesses so that the money cant be traced. Then the business pretends to make lots of profit and the criminals get their money back. Its now clean and that why they call it laundering.

Answer 7

Money laundering is a term that describes the activities involved in concealing the identity, source, and destination of money.

Answer 8

its when money from illegal gain ( dirty money) is changed to untraceable money ( clean money) hence the name. EG: dirty money over $10,000 put into your bank would ring alarm bells as bank must tell Tax departments and other gov bodies of transactions over this size.
At a gambling institute dirty money could be used at any amount with no records needed, then the winnings would be clean money and a record for the money would not be from illegal gain so it would be clean.

Answer 9

Money laundrying is when stolen money is transfered into money that was won gambling and any investigation will not be able to show the money as ill gotten gains.Stolen money is gambled and the winnings apear as legitimate earnings

Answer 10

it is when you take dirty (gotten from a bad source or activity) money and put it into a respectable account,

such as drug money,,, if you have a large amount of that,,,,,,, you may give it to someone who has a pizza business, and let them deposit it into their business account,,,,, so that it looks like the business earned it,,,,,,,you would pay the person a percentage to do that for you,,,,,, later they would write you a check perhaps, as if you had done a service for them,,,,,, is just one small example ,,,,,,