Money Laundering

In the hopes of fighting against criminal organizations that participate in the illegal activity known as money laundering, the FBI has created a special division called the Economic Crimes Unit II that works to shut down these operations. One of the methods they use is asset forfeiture, the act of confiscating any items that were used to either commit a crime, or obtained as a result of the crime.

Definition

Laundering is a process of taking cash that was gained illegally, and farming it out to a variety of locations such as offshore or foreign accounts where it will be put into general use. Once the money is turned over to banking institutions that are outside of the United States, it will be disbursed in any way that bank sees fit. The criminal will then transfer their funds to one or more accounts to make the money difficult to trace. Eventually, the launderer will pull cash out of their accounts, and this money will be "clean". It will not be the same money that was obtained illegally, so it can not be linked to any crime via serial numbers of other identification methods.

Criminals often refer to this process as cleaning or washing money, thus the term money laundering.

How it works

There are three primary steps to the money laundering process:

Money that is obtained illegally is placed into a financial account, commonly a foreign bank.
The funds that have been deposited are then moved around to various other locations such as new bank accounts, investments and other sources that are difficult to trace.
The money is reclaimed from the various sources and is then clean and useable.

Cracking down

The FBI utilizes a dual approach in their goal to stop money laundering.

The first step is simply the ongoing fight against crime and the study and apprehension of known criminals. Basically the idea is to stop the criminals before they are able to commit the laundering crime. When criminal activity is halted before the assets can be liquidated and the money can be submitted to an offshore or foreign account, then the process of money laundering will not be allowed to begin.

The next step happens once the money has started into the laundering process. The concept is to follow the path that the money takes in order to determine where it is initially deposited, how many locations it is sent to from there and the method that is used to obtain "clean" money. This system allows law enforcement officers to better understand how money laundering is accomplished by criminal organizations. Once the methods and secrets of this crime are uncovered, it will be easier to stop the process in the future.

Money laundering is a very effective tool that criminals use to take stolen goods or money that may be traceable or identifiable, and convert it into cash that is not involved in any investigation. This allows them to spend money without fear of being caught for the initial crime. While this process works well for criminals, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are taking every step possible to fight against it and stop money laundering completely.

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