How do people use the commercial art to launder money?
For context, I work in commercial galleries and it’s something I’m trying to understand to work in a safer way with collectors. Thanks!
In: 25
eli5 version:
Say I have $20 in monopoly money, I buy a $20 giftcard and they think it’s real money. Now the store has $20 in monopoly money and I have a $20 giftcard. Well, let’s say I have a 20 MILLION DOLLAR Monopoly money and I use it to buy a really expensive painting. They think it’s real money and now I have a $20 million dollar painting.
non eli5 version:
It’s the same principle as above, just gets convoluted on how you get money to the parties laundering.
High end art, high end real estate, and casinos are the best ways to launder LARGE amounts of money quickly.
Small scale money laundering. You know that kiosk in the mall with the dude asleep, that “repairs cellphones” yeah… mostly likely laundering money. At the end of the day that guy marks down he did 20 repairs at $100 each. All labor, no inventory, boom. That store just laundered $2,000 in a day. Or $7 million a year.
it’s likely the guy who “owns” that store would be the dude buying the art, the real estate, or washing through a casino.
So let’s say that guy buys a $7 million dollar painting, he can then “gift” it to a friend, and that friend can then give him, I dunno… $5 million worth of cocaine.
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