What Is Money Laundering When Trump Advisor Is Currently Being Investigated?
Paul Manafort, a former Motherfucker adviser, is under investigation for money laundering, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Terrible, just awful , you might think, but also what is money laundering?
First, a little background. As you know, Manafort is already under investigation for Russian interference in last year’s elections. The New York Times reported yesterday that Manafort had perhaps $ 17 million in debt to pro-Russian interests before joining the Motherfucker campaign. If that wasn’t enough, the magazine now reports that New York’s attorney general is investigating Manafort’s real estate deals for possible money laundering.
Laundering is, in simple terms, I’ve learned to watch too much TV – and watching Tony Sopranos’ many high-budget businesses – is the process by which dirty money is cleared. Illicit money goes through a process in which its brief roots become (theoretically) untraceable. Investopedia explains it this way:
Money laundering is the process of making it appear that large sums of money derived from serious crimes such as drug trafficking or terrorist activities come from a legitimate source.
Here’s a hypothetical one. Let’s say you have $ 5 million that you received as a result of criminal activity, for example, as a result of a large-scale illegal drug deal. You can’t just put it into your Ally account! You will need to report this money to the IRS, and “serious crime” does not quite match 1099. You have to clear this money, and according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime , this involves three main steps:
- “Placement”: the process of withdrawing funds from a direct connection with a crime;
- Layering: masking the trail to prevent pursuit; and
- “Integration “, again making money available to the criminal, and his professional and geographic origins are hidden from view. “
Here are some examples of how a criminal might get through this process:
- Real estate laundering : Someone buys real estate with illegally obtained money and then sells it to make it look like their profits are legitimate.
- Major Cash Smuggling : The smuggling of cash to another country for deposit in offshore banks. These banks keep their clients secret.
- Structuring : Funds are broken down into smaller amounts so that they don’t have to be reported.
- Businesses that require large amounts of cash: When launderers use businesses that deal with large amounts of cash to channel their money to make it look legal.
Again, these are just a few examples, and there are a few more on this Quora thread . In case you’re wondering, the IRS also has a number of real life examples of money laundering.