this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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Privacy

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How is withdrawing cash a trigger for money laundering? (www.brusselstimes.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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My understanding of money laundering is the baddies have huge truck loads of untaxed dirty cash and they need to somehow legitimize it to get it into the bank. E.g. from Breaking Bad: drug money → car wash with phony sales → bank. Once it’s in the bank, it’s on the radar.

The linked article says that withdrawing cash is a money laundering red flag. Can someone please explain why that is? AFAIK, if the money is in the bank it must already be clean (or appear so), no?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Not sure it’s accurate to say cash is anonymous considering the practical matter of having to be present in person to spend it and collect a receipt if needed. Lack of traceability is certainly a factor, which is both a feature and a bug depending on whether the tracing is warranted.

But indeed I agree that the non-criminal masses are suffering collateral damage in this hunt for relatively few criminals who can be caught in other ways.