preview

Making Illegal Money Clean

Decent Essays

Money laundering, as the name suggests, is the act of making unreported or money or income appear as if the money has been earned through legal acquisition. It could take just one transaction or several processes, depending on the amount and the origin of the money. In its simplest forms, people with huge sums of money earned by illegal means can walk up to a bank and deposit their money. However, this method easily raises suspicion in most countries. For example, the United States have implemented laws that made it more difficult to utilize banks for money laundering. Under the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, banks are required to report any transaction that exceeds $10,000 to the government. Fishman (2006) also added that it “has been strengthened by subsequent legislation, making it a formidable tool for fighting money laundering and curbing the funding of terrorist activities” (p. 62). So a person can make a numerous bank deposits under $10,000 over a period of time, or a group of people can make different deposits to the same bank or different banks, also under $10,000 without raising any suspicion. There are nations throughout the world, particularly those with unstable government or economy, wherein they will take any amount of deposit, no questions asked. However, they also run the risk of their money being seized by the government and its corrupt officials. The common belief is that money that needs to be laundered are those which were profited from

Get Access