No, not necessarily. Just because there is a paper trail doesn't mean there is a criminal consequence. Money laundering is the action of obfuscating the origi

No, not necessarily. Just because there is a paper trail doesn't mean there is a criminal consequence. Money laundering is the action of obfuscating the origin. The CRIME of money laundering is the action of obfuscating an ILLICIT origin. So when the prosecuting government can't determine if the origin is illicit, they have no crime. A third state shell company sufficiently severs that link. And the money launderer gets money from the second state sent straight to the first state. So Russian oligarch example: First Country: Has illicit money in Russia. Second Country: Wants to invest in liquid US market to clean money, and use money. Third Country: Creates British Virgin Islands company. BVI company has names on banking and brokerage accounts in any country it wants, with no name of the beneficial owner if this is what is desired. It can invest in capital formation in the US without "Russian Oligarch" appearing on any cap table. BVI company wires money to US venture. New clean money is sent to the BVI company's accounts. BVI company and Russian oligarch now has liquid cash which is usuable and reportable in US, Europe, Russia, wherever. It can be reported for US taxes, it can do whatever it wants. Now back to the third country, why do we not care about the paper trail there? Well the BVI and other countries have no reporting demands. There is no taxing authority in these cases, these countries simply don't fund their public services this way, I know its hard to relate to but its also a great service now that other countries are less competitive. The BVI and other countries may have some form of information sharing agreement, but that comes with conditions too, such as their own standard of due process and probable cause, and there also isn't any information to share. When people use words like "funnel money", there isn't anything sophisticated going on. This is as easy and clear as clicking a button between your checking and savings accounts.