How Money Laundering Works!!
How it Works. By, Detective Brooks Brooks Brothers Investigations
Netflix series!! Watch a financial adviser drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, a Netflix series, where he must launder $500 million in five years to appease a drug boss!
How money laundering works
As one of the most notorious gangsters in history, AL Capone presided over a vast and profitable empire of organized crime. But when he was finally put on trial, the most he could be convicted of was tax evasion. While nearly hundred million dollars a year which is 1.4 billion in today’s currency that AL Capone had earned from illegal gambling, bootlegging, brothels and extortion would have served as evidence of his crimes, but the money was nowhere to be found. AL Capone and his associates had hidden it through investments in various businesses whose ultimate ownership couldn’t be proven like cash only laundromats. In fact, those laundromats are part of the reason for the name of this activity, money laundering.
Money laundering came to be the term of any process that cleans illegally obtained funds of their dirty criminal origins allowing them to be used within the legal economy. But Al Capone wasn’t the first to launder money, in fact, this practice is about as old as money itself. Merchants hide their riches from tax collectors while others sort to sell their bounty without drawing attention to how they got it.
Although modern money laundering methods vary greatly, most share three basic steps, placement, layering and integration.
Placement
This is where illegally obtained money is converted into assets that seem legitimate. As often done by depositing funds into a bank account registered to anonymous cooperation or professional middleman. This step is where criminals are often most vulnerable to detection since they introduce massive wealth into the financial system seemingly out of nowhere
Layering
Involves using multiple transactions to further distance funds from their origin. This can take the form of transfers between multiple accounts and purchase of tradeable properties like expensive cars, and real estate. Casinos where large sums of money change hand every second are also popular venues for layering, a money launder may have their gambling balance made available at a casino chains locations in other countries or work with employees to rig games
Integration
This is the last step which allows the clean money to re-enter the mainstream economy and benefit the original criminal. They might invest it into a legal business, claiming payments by producing fake invoices or even start a bogus charity placing themselves on the board of directors with an absorbent salary.
Money laundering itself wasn’t officially recognized as a federal crime in the United States until 1986. Before that point, the government needed to prosecute a related crime by tax evasion. In 1986 onwards, they could confiscate wealth simply by demonstrating that laundering has occurred which had a positive effect on prosecuting major criminal operations.
Netflix series!! Watch a financial adviser drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, a Netflix series, where he must launder $500 million in five years to appease a drug boss!
Detective Craig Brooks
Brooks Brothers Investigations
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