What is the federal crime of money laundering?
By: Dallas Federal Money Laundering Defense Lawyer John Helms
“Clean, Clear, and Confident” is a slogan for a soap brand, but it’s also a good metaphor for money laundering. If you watch true crime shows, you’ve probably heard detectives say that investigations should always “follow the money.” That’s because law enforcement can often find out who’s committing a crime if they can show that the person received money from the crime.
“Dirty money” is money acquired through crime. For example, money made from selling drugs is “dirty.” To avoid suspicion from law enforcement, people who receive large amounts of dirty money need to be able to “clean” that money and make it appear as if it came from a legitimate business or activity. This is money laundering. Dirty money is “laundered” to make it look clean.
Here is an example. People who buy and sell illegal drugs almost always use cash because, unlike checks or credit cards, cash is very difficult to trace. But if a person is caught with a huge amount of cash without explaining where it came from or why the person has it, it can be strong evidence that the person is involved in a lot of crime. A person who makes a lot of money from drug sales will probably want to make it appear as if the money is coming from legitimate activities.
A typical way of doing this is to funnel the money through a service company that deals in lots of cash. A person involved in drug trafficking could give the money to the company, which could then account for the company’s income, and the person could be used to provide services to the company, such as B. security, are paid. This gives the impression that all the money the person receives is for legitimate activities – providing security services for the company.
Another example of money laundering is helping criminals avoid suspicion from law enforcement by…
