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The Internet : The Modernization Of Money Laundering

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The Internet: The Modernization of Money Laundering in the 21st Century Until all illegal activity ceases worldwide, there will always be a need for money laundering services. While there is no way of knowing when the first case of money laundering occurred, countries all over the world have been trying to fight this issue for at least the last 40 years. As soon as a new technique comes out into the public, countries write laws that try to prohibit that behavior. Unfortunately, there is no one-stop fix for this international dilemma because new creative ideas come to fruition every day. No other idea or technology has influenced the illegal washing of money like the internet in the last 25 years. This essay will attempt to conclude the influence of the internet by looking at three separate money-laundering activities such as banking institutions, money transfer systems, and online currency. Defining Money Laundering Before attempting to demonstrate why the internet is so important to money laundering, it is important to understand the basic structure of the process. Money laundering is a “complicated activity, in which the source and nature of dirty money are disguised in order to make the money look lawful and then become usable, transferable, and negotiable.” Although with each iteration of techniques in cleaning money becomes more complex, each one has the same three steps of placement, layering, and integration. With any successful illegal operations, large

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