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shmeggt t1_j024k0c wrote

Reply to comment by tektektektektek in Binance CEO Facing Possible Money Laundering Charges by habichuelacondulce

Stuffing EUR500 notes into a cane or suitcase is not money laundering. That's just moving cash around. The difficult thing is the actual laundering part....

Let's say you steal €25,000,000 in cash from a bank and you get away with it. There are no suspects... you're free. Now you have a problem: it's easy to spend small amounts of cash, but eyes will be raised if you try and buy a car or house with cash. It's also really inconvenient to use cash for other things, like plane tickets or hotel rooms. You need to get this money into a bank, and the bank is going to run a source-of-funds investigation on your €25M. This is where laundering comes into play. The easiest way to do this is to start/buy a cash-based business, like a laundromat. No one is going to check the size or busyness of your laundromat. So you do $500 a week of real business and you deposit $10,000. Unfortunately, that's going to take you almost 50 years, so as your funds grow, you need to launder the money faster and faster.

With crypto, you can do this a LOT easier and faster. Find a crypto exchange that doesn't do AML/KYC (there are quite a few of them) and deposit this money. Many of them will be happy to take your €25M. Now, start moving your money from exchange to exchange, from currency to currency. Do a lot of trading across different cryptos and exchanges and personal wallets.

Now, you just need to identify a set of cryptos and would have provided a huge return during this period so you can "explain" how you got a great return. Now, get an account on a more reputable exchanges (with AML/KYC), and withdraw into your bank. Money laundered!

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throwawayainteasy t1_j02guip wrote

Or "sell" a few NFTs for ridiculous prices that an "anonymous" wallet buys.

Given how arbitrary the pricing is, art has been used for money laundering for a very long time, and NFTs have made that even easier. You don't need to even get galleries involved to give yourself some facade of credibility.

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ItsCharlieDay t1_j05ri0r wrote

Art work is one of the oldest money laundering methods in the world

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neva5eez t1_j04b3z6 wrote

In BC Canada they just walk into casinos with hockey bags full of cash, play a few hands and walk out with a nice big fat cheque..

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iRedditonFacebook t1_j0509za wrote

>With crypto, you can do this a LOT easier and faster

People who don't figure this out this are usually the ones losing all their money and act surprised when someone runs off with millions.

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YAMAGLACHI t1_j02yakp wrote

Give me $25mil of currency and Ill show you how to live without the tiniest bit of concern for the remainder of my life. Its exceptionally easy to use cash to pay for everything in daily life. IF you have half a brain.

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shmeggt t1_j02z0lo wrote

That's very true if you want to live modestly. If that was the case, you probably wouldn't have stolen $25M. You can easily buy a cheap used car with cash.... you can pay rent on an apartment with cash...

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YAMAGLACHI t1_j032ypj wrote

Whats modestly? With that amount of money you can afford payments on everything and would never have to own a thing. And you dont have to live modestly. All of which can be made through CCs and cashiers checks. You only run into problems when you try to buy outright or deposit money into a bank. You lump sum youre toast. You make small, regular deposits you get flagged for structuring. You keep cash on hand and/or spread out in safety deposit boxes. I can live more than modestly on cash and CCs. And I can still grow the money off the books.

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