If you’ve been accused of money laundering, it’s important to know exactly what those accusations mean. This can help you as you look into your defense options and determine what steps to take.
Many people have heard of money laundering through popular media, like television shows and movies. But do you actually know what it means and what the goal is?
Making money appear legitimate
Essentially, someone who engages in money laundering is taking money that they know was obtained in an illegal manner. A common example is if someone has been selling illegal drugs. This could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue, but they know that would raise a lot of red flags in the government and with the IRS. They can’t just deposit that money in an account without paying taxes and answering a lot of questions about where it came from.
As a result, they’ll try to funnel it through another business in order to make it look like the money was earned legitimately. This business can overprice their services, create fake invoices and take other steps to make it look like all of the money has been earned by the company. Once the money has gone through this process, only then can it be used without raising so many red flags. The goal is to disguise the fact that it was originally illegally obtained.
As you can see, this is a very serious charge, and you could be accused of being involved in large-scale criminal activity. That can change your life, so you absolutely need to know about your legal defense options.