Money laundering is a serious crime in Tampa as well as in any other city or town in the country. This crime involves individuals making ill-gotten money appear legitimate through a number of different processes. The mechanisms of money laundering are often different. But every instance can be a serious crime that is punishable by years in prison and the possible loss of one’s job and livelihood.
Cash-intensive businesses
One common money-laundering crime is running a cash-intensive business. This approach to money laundering is popular for individuals who have massive quantities of drug money or money from other criminal enterprises. Cash-intensive businesses like car washes and nail salons have many different customers paying in cash on a regular basis. The money launderer knows that it is nearly impossible to track the exact amount of cash that every individual pays at a business.
Investigators have no reason to stake out every potential cash-intensive business for signs of money laundering. Therefore, they open their business and pad the legitimate transactions with fake transactions using their dirty money. This approach to money laundering can be incredibly hard to detect and is often shut down due to other testimony or conflicts outside of the business.
Shell companies
Shell companies are frequently used for purposes of money laundering. A company can often be formed on paper for a few hundred or thousand dollars. They can be set up at a P.O. box in a tax haven and managed for little money or time every year.Individuals move money back and forth between shell companies that exist in a variety of different areas or countries. These countries all have different tax laws and reporting requirements.
The idea is that these movements make it nearly impossible for investigators or regulators to find the illegitimate sources of some funds. This effort is used for tax evasion as well as money laundering. Certain countries such as the Cayman Islands have become international sources of these shell companies. It may or may not involve cash-intensive businesses as a component of a money laundering scheme.
Trade-based money laundering
There are a number of forms of money laundering in Tampa that are based off of certain trades. These trades have payment structures that can easily be manipulated to turn dirty money clean. One of the most common forms of trade-based money laundering is through a real estate transaction. One individual may want to purchase a quantity of drugs from another and may want the transaction to appear clean.
Therefore, they might buy a property owned by one individual at a much higher asking price because they professed to like some subjective quality of that property. The transaction appears somewhat odd but not strange enough to catch the interest of investigators. Art purchases are a similar approach. An individual could profess to fall in love with a piece of art or artist and pay thousands more than listing value for that work.
Building trades are another way to conduct trade-based money laundering. An individual may hire another person as a contractor to fix a floor and may pay that person thousands of dollars above a normal rate. Once again, there are a myriad of legitimate explanations that both parties can use to hide their intentions to launder funds.
Conclusion
Every approach and type of money laundering is serious and needs to be treated seriously. Anyone charged with money laundering should contact a lawyer like William Hanlon Tampa criminal attorney immediately. A lawyer will help them decide the facts of their case and will aid with crafting a competent defense. An experienced lawyer will be able to do the work necessary to craft the best defense possible for a money laundering defendant.
