Title:Federal Money Laundering: Understanding the Basics
Description:Michigan Criminal Defense Attorney Barton Morris explains what constitutes federal money laundering.
Federal Money Laundering: Understanding the Basics
A charge for federal money laundering means that somebody is accused of taking money derived from a criminal enterprise and then doing something with it in an effort to do one of a couple different things. One, it could be what we call – or the government calls – a promotional type of money laundering. This means that they are taking that money to promote the underlying crime.
Drug dealers will sometimes use their money in an effort to bolster their enterprise. Sometimes they are accustomed to buying cars, for instance. They can even have a business of buying cars, but using those cars to help their business of dealing drugs. If so, they’re promoting their business of dealing drugs.
There’s also concealment. Concealment money laundering is disposing or transferring cash In an effort to conceal the source of the funds or even the ownership of the funds. If somebody is using money and doing financial transactions in order to conceal who actually owns the money or where the money came from, that’s called concealment money laundering. For instance, another example of purchasing cars: If an individual has a purpose of purchasing cars, but not in their name, they’re concealing the source of the funds.
Finally, there is also money laundering as it relates to avoiding paying income tax.
