Obviously not looking for advice, yeah?
I was watching Ozark, and they used construction and renovation cost to launder money. how does it work? if you say your floor cost 50k but it actually only cost 10k you still have 40k to explain.
in Breaking bad they had a car wash business (literally washing money) and that makes more sense, you can say you had 10 costumers today bringing in 100$ profit when you only really had 5, you have 50$ clean and 50$ you launder. but I don’t see how that works when you are the one actually paying for renovation
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It’s actually easier with construction.
“How did that driveway cost you $50,000 when mine cost me $5,000.”
“It was a nightmare. First company came in and the first thing they did was cut the gas line. By the time we got rid of them we were already $3,000 behind. The second company left the cement bags outside, and when that sudden rain hit, all the concrete set, and we had to pay to get it removed…”
There is this small town in the middle of nowhere. There is one hotel. A wealthy TV producer walks into the hotel, puts a $100 bill on the counter and asks the receptionist to reserve a room as he tours the town. The receptionists uses the $100 to pay the cook back pay they were owed. The cook runs over to the butcher and pays the $100 past bill. The butcher goes over to the plumber and pays his $100 bill. The plumber goes to the hotel and pays his back bill of $100 and leaves the money on the counter. The wealthy producer walks in, grabs the $100 and says the town is not what he expected and leaves. Everyone has been paid, yet, there is no money.
All these answers are wrong. You asked about laundering via construction:
I have made 1 million off drug sales, but I can’t spend it openly, or bank it, cos that would raise questions about where I got it and why I didn’t pay income tax. So I launder it like this:
I build a house worth 1 million, that costs 1 million, but I only have receipts for 100k (some costs get hidden like stupidly expensive fittings, some invoices are just understated by friendly suppliers, often it’s just extra shit added to pump the house value up such as wine cellars or theatres…anything where buying the input costs doesn’t trigger IRS). I’ve heard of vast wine cellars (bottles bought in small quantities), marble tiles with fossils in them (small quantity purchases, plus shady mafiosa suppliers), conduction top stoves (look like any stove to a casual assessor), etc etc
I sell it for 1 million (as it’s worth), and I tell the IRS I made a fortuitous 900k profit (favourable markets, prudent building, clever land selection, whatever…)
I get taxed capital gains on that 900k, which in any country is way way lower than income tax rates wud have been on the 1 million income.
Now I have 900k (less cgt tax paid) as legitimate money that I can bank and spend: Laundered.
That’s a house, which near anyone can do. And it’s largely why we see stupidly large mansions being built. But imagine how much you can launder in building an office block, or residential estate, or hotel…
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