4 ms·

They are selling content through different payment services, this is not money laundering, stop being an alarmist. "the concealment of the origins of illegally

They are selling content through different payment services, this is not money laundering, stop being an alarmist. "the concealment of the origins of illegally obtained money, typically by means of transfers involving foreign banks or legitimate businesses" Illegally obtained money being they key term! > literally what the feds took down Backpage for recently. Also, incorrect. Backpage was taken down because they facilitated human trafficking https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/501214002 https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/501214002

deleted 8y ago
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SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
I wouldn't say that money needs to be "illegally obtained" to be classified as laundered. There are tax benefits to "laundering" legally obtained money, for example. Although at this point we're just arguing semantics.
- koboll 8y ago
  i.e., what Paul Manafort is currently standing trial for
- moneylaundering 8y ago
  Oversimplified version of most statutes: It has to be transferred AND (1)illegally obtained, or (2)intended for an illegal purpose, or (3)disguised and international but not in any way illegal.
akanet 8y ago
Your mistake is in thinking that the money laundering is achieved by, say, generating a credit card charge for FOO when the item sold was BAR. Not so - the money laundering is in opening many merchant accounts purporting to be for selling FOO, generating profit sanitized as "clean," moving those profits between banks, and essentially deceiving payment processors to generate a profit. This was, in fact, one of the actual mechanisms brought to bear against Backpage. Certainly the indictment was motivated by, you know, underage sex trafficking, but the enforcement mechanism used to achieve a verdict was mostly money laundering. You can read the indictment yourself: https://www.justice.gov/file/1050276/download https://www.justice.gov/file/1050276/download. How many counts of trafficking vs money laundering do you see? And finally, no, they are not "selling different content through other processors." These processors' entire business model is to create "legitimate," totally unrelated transactions to the credit card authorities, to take a cut, and pass back the funds to the merchant. I believe Backpage was instructing people trying to purchase ad inventory to go to a portal to purchase dog food for a while.
- caruana 8y ago
  My point is the issue is not as black and white as you are making it out to be (hence, don't be an alarmist). All things are subject to interpretation and your position attempts to definitively categorize this activity as fraudulent behavior based on a 1000 word essay by a developer.
  - akanet 8y ago
    Cascade billing was literally named by the Backpage prosecution as money laundering.
    - nwsm 8y ago
      What if they just default to the last method? Is it then no longer 'cascade billing'? Or are you saying the psuedo-crypto currency is money laundering?
  - moneylaundering 8y ago
    I work on money laundering cases. What the poster admitted to doing, particularly in the comments section, reads like money laundering. I have used emails more vague than this write-up against defendants in money laundering cases. The underlying crime would be bank fraud, wire fraud, or mail fraud, or all three, depending on how a particular merchant account was opened, how transactions were processed, and who the parties to a contract are (if a financial institution, then bank fraud, and so on).
    - caruana 8y ago
      You created your account 3 hours ago, with a creative name and then annonymously post you work on money laundering cases ... As if that is supposed to add credit or show some sort of background. You are anonymous, don't try and take some high ground to reinforce an invalid argument.
      - FlipperBucket 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

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SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago

I wouldn't say that money needs to be "illegally obtained" to be classified as laundered. There are tax benefits to "laundering" legally obtained money, for example. Although at this point we're just arguing semantics.

koboll 8y ago
i.e., what Paul Manafort is currently standing trial for
moneylaundering 8y ago
Oversimplified version of most statutes: It has to be transferred AND (1)illegally obtained, or (2)intended for an illegal purpose, or (3)disguised and international but not in any way illegal.

akanet 8y ago

Your mistake is in thinking that the money laundering is achieved by, say, generating a credit card charge for FOO when the item sold was BAR. Not so - the money laundering is in opening many merchant accounts purporting to be for selling FOO, generating profit sanitized as "clean," moving those profits between banks, and essentially deceiving payment processors to generate a profit. This was, in fact, one of the actual mechanisms brought to bear against Backpage. Certainly the indictment was motivated by, you know, underage sex trafficking, but the enforcement mechanism used to achieve a verdict was mostly money laundering. You can read the indictment yourself: https://www.justice.gov/file/1050276/download https://www.justice.gov/file/1050276/download. How many counts of trafficking vs money laundering do you see? And finally, no, they are not "selling different content through other processors." These processors' entire business model is to create "legitimate," totally unrelated transactions to the credit card authorities, to take a cut, and pass back the funds to the merchant. I believe Backpage was instructing people trying to purchase ad inventory to go to a portal to purchase dog food for a while.

caruana 8y ago
My point is the issue is not as black and white as you are making it out to be (hence, don't be an alarmist). All things are subject to interpretation and your position attempts to definitively categorize this activity as fraudulent behavior based on a 1000 word essay by a developer.
- akanet 8y ago
  Cascade billing was literally named by the Backpage prosecution as money laundering.
  - nwsm 8y ago
    What if they just default to the last method? Is it then no longer 'cascade billing'? Or are you saying the psuedo-crypto currency is money laundering?
- moneylaundering 8y ago
  I work on money laundering cases. What the poster admitted to doing, particularly in the comments section, reads like money laundering. I have used emails more vague than this write-up against defendants in money laundering cases. The underlying crime would be bank fraud, wire fraud, or mail fraud, or all three, depending on how a particular merchant account was opened, how transactions were processed, and who the parties to a contract are (if a financial institution, then bank fraud, and so on).
  - caruana 8y ago
    You created your account 3 hours ago, with a creative name and then annonymously post you work on money laundering cases ... As if that is supposed to add credit or show some sort of background. You are anonymous, don't try and take some high ground to reinforce an invalid argument.
    - FlipperBucket 8y ago