People always say mattress stores are shady and used for money laundering. Not totally sure I understand exactly what money laundering is. How would this occur at a mattress store?

Question

People always say mattress stores are shady and used for money laundering. Not totally sure I understand exactly what money laundering is. How would this occur at a mattress store?

In: 763

Answer 1

“Money Laundering” means faking a legal source of income for illegally earned money.

For example, you made some money selling illegal drugs. Now, you can’t really buy stuff with that over a certain threshold since the police (or your bank) might become suspicious on where you got that money and investigate.

That’s why you now open a legal business and tell the government “I’ve sold 100 mattresses this month at full price!” where in reality, you only sold 10 at a reduced price. But now, nobody will get suspicious if you buy yourself a new car because you said you made some money with your mattress store (where in reality, it is your good old drug money).