Why do people buy huge canvases with a few dots on from an arts unheard of for millions? I know it’s commonly used to launder money. Can someone explain how the process works?
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Fraud investigator here, this is why the government can always charge you with money laundering. Money laundering is “converting illegal value into another form.” Examples include, steal a car and trade it for drugs = money laundering. Rob a liquor store and then use the money to buy anything = money laundering. Period. Once you get over a arguable value of $10,000 it becomes its own felony. I say it that way because prosecutors will find a way to argue a higher value to get a felony. Let’s say you steal a car and sell it for $5k, if they say the car was worth $10k then it’s a felony. Pay someone to kill someone, it’s also money laundering etc.
What is the point? Three main reasons, one: charges like this will be used to bump state crimes up to Federal crimes, two, they can be used to increase sentences or pleas when bundled with other crimes, three, it it really hard to be found not guilty of money laundering because it is so basic, so if you get aquitted of other charges, they still got something to put you in jail on.
Also, if you declare assets to in any way being involved in money laundering then you can seize all of the assets, so you can seize assets, sometimes only for the purpose of putting more pressure on people.
TLDR: It’s a catch all like tax evasion or postal mail fraud, they can almost always find a way to tie in a charge.
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