In Florida, many laws are in place with the intent to crack down on money laundering. This white collar crime comes with potential penalties. They may startle people with how harsh they are.
Today, we will take a look at money laundering itself. We will examine what it means to commit money laundering. We will look at the steps people often take to launder money.
Basics of money laundering
Cornell Law School takes an in-depth look into money laundering. In short, money laundering is a criminal act that involves filtering “dirty” money. You get this money in an illegal way. Common examples of “dirty” money include money from drug or prostitution rings. Money you obtained from forgery or bribery also counts. So does any money obtained through theft. In filtering this money, the launderer makes this “dirty” money appear legitimate.
Filtering means you run dirty money through many transactions. This makes it look clean. This involves three steps.
Three steps of money laundering
The first is to take the dirty money and deposit it in a legitimate institution. Most often this is a brokerage or a bank. In the next step, you separate the money from its origins. This most often occurs through layers of transactions. The more complex these transactions are, the better it is for the person laundering money. This makes it difficult for authorities to trace money back to its illegal source.
Finally, the person laundering money goes into the reintegration step. In doing this, they mix “cleaned” money with money obtained in a legal way. This is often done through purchasing sales assets.
This is the process of money laundering. Anyone caught in the act faces potential harsh penalties. This includes time in jail and steep fines. Having this crime on your record is also damaging. It is important to fight against accusations and charges.