The latest revision of the Anti-Money Laundering Law of the People's Republic of China was passed on November 8, 2024, and will come into effect on January 1, 2025. Money laundering is a serious crime that not only undermines financial order but also provides funding support for other criminal activities. With countries increasing their efforts to combat money laundering, criminals have become more cunning, developing many methods of money laundering that are only limited by your imagination. The following will explore the nine common methods of money laundering.
Note: This article aims to break down information barriers and help ordinary people quickly identify crimes. It is not educational; viewers should be aware.
1. Live-streaming reward money laundering: Streamers agree with their supporters to return a portion of the reward income. This kind of reward money return is a tacit rule accepted by streamers, thus laundering the dirty money, creating an ecosystem that fosters money laundering.
2. Auction money laundering: Selling items that originally have low value at an exorbitant price is also a common method of bribery in corruption crimes. Through the bidding process, dirty money is successfully laundered into clean money.
3. Money laundering through lottery tickets: For example, a person wins 5 million, and criminals find the winner to buy the winning lottery ticket at its original price of 5 million. The winner saves 20% on income tax, and the criminals successfully launder the dirty money into lottery winnings.
4. Virtual currency money laundering: The anonymity of virtual currency makes it difficult to directly identify the identities of both parties in a transaction. Furthermore, virtual currency is not limited by national boundaries and can be traded and transferred globally, which can be said to be born for criminal activities. With just a string of keys or a small USB drive, one can easily transfer huge amounts of wealth without being regulated.
5. Shell company money laundering: Criminals register several shell companies in the names of others, injecting illegal gains into these companies, and then fictitiously create transactions with frequent transfers between these companies. Ultimately, after multiple layers, they successfully launder the dirty money through shareholder dividends or personal gains.
6. Film and television investment money laundering: Individuals spend dirty money by investing in film and television productions, and the later box office revenue becomes a legitimate source of income.
7. Casino money laundering: The rule in casinos is to first exchange money for chips, and later exchange the chips for cash. Many wealthy individuals go to casinos in Macau not to gamble but to agree on a certain percentage of service fees with the casino, take a stroll, and then come out with clean money.
8. Utilizing the securities and insurance industries for money laundering: By using complex financial transactions such as stocks, bonds, futures, etc., and purchasing high-value insurance and then canceling it, the source of funds is concealed.
9. Utilizing offshore financial centers: In countries and regions with banking secrecy laws, funds' true sources are hidden through anonymous companies or overly confidential personal assets.
The above behaviors 'seem to work well, but they are actually criminal.' There is nothing new under the sun; only by abiding by the law can one live a safe life.
