If no one knows about your dirty money why do you need to launder it

Question

I know money from drugs, robberies, stolen goods, etc is “dirty” but, how does anyone know it’s dirty? Why can’t you just spend your money?

In: 316

Answer 1

Large purchases and deposits are reported and tracked by the government. So, you could use dirty money to buy dinner at a restaurant in cash, but you couldn’t use it to pay rent, buy a car/house or deposit it into a bank.

If it’s a smallish amount of dirty money, just spending it in bits in cash might be an option, but if it’s your primary source of income, you’ll have a hard time actually *paying your bills* with it.