Money Laundering

The term money laundering is an unknown thing before the year of 1973. The term was
used only as an expression by a newspaper article. Though, this thing is just an expression at that
time, it came out as a hit for the readers. It became a hit because of the scandal that the president
of America Nixon was part of it.

Money laundering is the process of disguising illegally obtained money to make the
funds appear legitimate and came from good activities or sources. When we say illegal activities,
you can name them all, drug trafficking, kidnapping, drugs trading, smuggling and so on.
Although money laundering for some is very difficult to understand, it as simple as shuffling or
mixing dirty money with the clean ones.

According to history, the term money laundering is said to originate from mafia owned
laundromats in the united states. In order for the mafia to show that their money is legal or clean,
they incorporate their dirty money with the income of the laundromats. As the laundromats is a
cash business, it is very easy for them to mix their dirty money with its daily income. The
laundromats don’t show the total customers they have as they focus on self-service. With this,
the mafia can put in any amount of money to the laundromats’ income any time they want.

Money laundering is very complicated, but for someone, especially Meyer Lansky, he
was considered a master in it. With the threat of going to prison with the charge of tax evasion,
he deposits his money in a Swiss bank, makes loan in the bank and the result was clean money
from a loan in the Swiss bank. With this, the process of money laundering is perfected. The
United States cannot easily get their evidence in the Swiss bank for the reason that the Swiss is
powerful enough to protect the privacy of its depositors.

We can say that money laundering is just cleaning dirty money but in reality, its effects
are big. There was drug lord known as Pablo Escobar. This man was so rich from his illegal
business that he was almost able to buy all the things that he wants and bribe any government
official. Even though this man is known as a drug lord, he was able to run for senator in his
country and even becoming a philanthropist by donating schools in any neighborhood that he
wants, making hospitals for the poor, making recreation areas for the people and giving financial
supports to those who are needy. With this kind of person, he became the robin hood of his time
and place. With so much money to squander, there is nothing impossible for him to have.