> It's criminal to be evading disclosure and tracking requirements even if all the money was obtained legally.
It was criminal to help fuel a nuclear arms race that put everyone at risk of nuclear holocaust. It was criminal to destroy Iraq for bullshit reasons. It's criminal to kill people with drones based on metadata.
But criminalizing money laundering? That's just power tripping.
I've answered this elsewhere but basically money laundering is responsible for keeping the wheels turning in a lot of real criminal activities like human trafficing and illegal weapons trade.
OK, so to play the devil's advocate, let's take the example of btc-e. btc-e did do a lot of business with criminal enterprises, it appears, but they also had a lot of legitimate users.
So how is that different from a restaurant deep in mob territory in some urban area that serves tons of mobsters dinner every evening? Should that restaurant be prosecuted? How about the corner grocery that serves the same mobsters? I mean, food is just as critical to surviving as money is, right?
So how is that different from a restaurant deep in mob territory in some urban area that serves tons of mobsters dinner every evening? Should that restaurant be prosecuted? How about the corner grocery that serves the same mobsters?
No, IMO it should not be prosecuted as long as they are only serving food and getting paid the normal way.
They might very well get in trouble if they for example
start offering the mobsters empty "takeaway food" for 1000 monies,
transfer 900 monies in payment for non-existent ingredients to a shell company run by mobsters.
Warning: IANAL. And I made this example to be simple and clear. I guess you could get in trouble for less than that.
Not to go down the rabbit hole with this line of reasoning, because I would always argue that money laundering is tax evasion, but the fact that criminal activities is incidental to another activity, doesnt make the other one criminal.
As another user said, cars and guns are used for robberies, if you banned them, then you would also be curbing criminal activity.
Buying a car from a guy you know or highly suspect used the car to rob a bank and is selling it to you for the express purpose of hiding what car was used in the bank robbery sounds like a crime (or at least something that would land you in hot water).
Buying a gun from a guy that you know or highly suspect used the gun to kill a guy and is selling you the gun for the express purpose of hiding what gun was used in the murder sounds the same.
It was criminal to help fuel a nuclear arms race that put everyone at risk of nuclear holocaust. It was criminal to destroy Iraq for bullshit reasons. It's criminal to kill people with drones based on metadata.
But criminalizing money laundering? That's just power tripping.