Money laundering is where you hide the source of money. In this country if you have a small amount, that should be easy. Just don't deposit it all at once. Most banks will allow a small deposit of cash. Maybe up to a thousand dollars. And if you have a hundred thousand, deposit in a thousand banks or over a hundred days. Right? But when we get into millions, I see how that could be a problem. I know in corrupt countries in South America, the rich control everything. And drug lords are pretty rich there. So why can't they get away with it. Plus your a rich drug lord. Doesn't everyone already know where you got it from?
In South America and most other less developed countries, cash is still king. They don't need to launder most of their proceeds. When they do launder, it's easy. You just open a legit biz, and make the biz look successful by having lots of cash flow. Mafia did/does that since they need legit cash to buy big things. Once you have a legit business it can grow along with the illegal biz. You might also wonder where the US gets cash for black ops that the government disavows and can't directly finance. DEA is one source historically. Then again drug Lords seem to have lots of mistresses and children as well as extended families to spread the cash around. They usually buy real estate. They don't put money in banks, that's for sure. And when politicians get paid off, it's always cash, or sometimes they just get luxury vacations on yachts and 5 star hotels, just like the Supreme Court gets as a perk.
I work in the finance department at a casino As a Supervisor and can tell you for a fact that unless you perform a transaction for $10,000.01, the bank or anyone else isn't gonna look at it And legally they can ask you for your id but u do NOT have to present it or give a name Until you hit that $10000.01 mark. And legally they don't have to keep track of it for fincen unless they suspectthatu willcome close or go over thst mark. But you have to remember that if it is a cash business like a casino and you're gonna do multiple transactions that by the end of the gaming day, which is different for each casino that total that 10000.01, then they're gonna report it. So if you keep all your transactions at a couple hundred bucks and go to different cashiers, nobody is going to know your laundering money. When you work in the finance department at a casino, they pound into your head all the different ways Somebody can launder money and make damm sure you know how to watch for it. There's lots of ways you can launder money. And as an employee there, if you don't follow the Fincen reporting guidelines, it isn't just the casino that's gonna get the fine. It's gonna be them and the employee. So we all learn that very quickly.
money laundering is simply cleaning up dirty money.. one doesn't normally wish to pay taxes, but you do if your money is derived illegally; especially in cash.. buy yourself a chain of laundromats/self-service car washes. a theatre.. a busy cafe.. storage units.. keep the cash rolling in.. put $10-$20 bills through coin changers all day/night keep refilling machines and keep washers/dryers running 24/7 with clothes from rummage sales.. run 'revenues' through bank and pay income tax.. money is 'washed' theatres? funny how no one investigates why your theatre is always 75% full.. deposit $$$ and pay taxes.. (keep stubs) cafes? damn you're busy !! and your prices are high!! but deposit $$ and pay taxes storage units? 90% of units rented.. always (+-5%) pay taxes all that money us washed.. do it in multiple cash businesses.. do not exceed reasonable revenues for business type in a given area.. the trick is not attracting auditors' attention.. buy multi-unit apartments.. along with the storage units, cafes, laundry-car washes there's lots of repairs needed.. buy hardware or make deals with owners for 70/30 split.. hardware stores get after-tax windfall/split profits 70/30... your storage units, cafes, laundries, are owned by 'shell corps' or holding companies and WOW! those repair persons are busy ALL THE TIME (even though they're actually running money around country) lotsa ways to wash money..
Jane is good at money laundering. She never checks the pockets before putting the clothes in the washing machine.
The term "Money Laundering" derives from Al Capone's practice of running illegally gained money through a chain of laundromats that he owned. So you start with an illegal enterprise, in Capone's case that was bootlegging, demanding protection money etc and was highly lucrative but also illegal. To clean the money he ran it through his chain of laundromats - accounts were presented to the taxman, on the surface he had a legit business with a high turnover of revenue with clean money. These days illegal money is run through nail bars, restaurants, shops, bars, cafes etc i.e. the sort of businesses that usually operate on a cash basis. These like Capone's laundromats are often genuine businesses with employees etc however their turnovers would be artificially inflated by the illegal money. Receipts/invoices are faked and the taxman is too busy to do anything except say that your tax bill on a turnover of X is a certain amount leaving the owners to pay themselves generous dividends on money that has been taxed. On a more complex level the money is "layered" that is it goes via investments through several businesses - for example you might invest in business A which then invests in business B and so on, if this is done internationally it then becomes virtually impossible to trace because the illegal money has gone through several different legal jurisdictions and a taxman isn't going to travel to another jurisdiction to find out whether the company that transferred money from one country to another is legit or not. Frequently this goes through shell companies who do business with other shell companies.
You've got the basics and it doesn't take long to find a good explanation like this through a simple search: "Money laundering is a crime that conceals the origins of illegally obtained funds, making them appear legitimate. It involves three distinct stages: placement, layering, and integration. Common techniques include cash smuggling, shell companies, and real estate investments." Your specific question is about the rich drug lord. OK, so your problem is that you put out product in Western Europe and the US (where both the money and the drug demand are), and you have tons of Euros and USDs, but they're at point of sale. Sure you could buy Beverly Hills or London real estate and you will do some of that, but you don't want to spend any or much time in those places, and those national governments have lots of rules about identifying ultimate beneficial owners and prosecuting drug lords when they show up, and seizing their assets. You are the lord of your realm at home, in your home country, where the people you can trust and the military generals, state governors, and police chiefs you pay off are close to you. You have to get all those dollars and Euros home and converted to your country's currency, or to a safe neutral location like Switzerland. You can't just have shipping containers full of dollars or Euros delivered to a bank in Bogota or Culiacán for deposit to your account. The banking system at home can't handle the volume. Moreover, if you're a Latin American drug lord (think Joaquin Guzman Loera), you don't trust your country's banking system, and you need to keep most of your money in London, Frankfurt, Miami, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Tokyo, or other financial capitals in developed countries. Unfortunately, they all have rules, and their governments talk to each other. It's a real pain in the ass getting it there, and keeping agencies like the FBI from knowing whose it is. You need to launder it, whether you want to get it home as local currency, or to someplace safe where you can access it when you need it. It's a shit-ton of work. The life of the rich drug lord is not an easy one.
