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> free untraceable and non-blockable money transactions enable some dangerous criminal business models > Pablo Escobar was making billions, but had to bury the

• akiselev 7y ago
  > What benefit do the laws actively provide? Just like a government can distort a market through intervention, so can cartels distort a government through corruption. Unlike gang members, most operatives in a government or political campaign need tons of clean money for ad spending, transportation, and paying for venues, campaigners, etc. Most of the individuals and businesses involved will not take dirty money for liability reasons (at least in the US). The purpose is to prevent some of the most violent organizations from getting a foothold in politics that makes their underlying activities even harder to stop.
• mullen 7y ago
  No, not at all. Escobar is a really good case on why money laundering laws are good. Escobar had BILLIONS of dollars that he could not easily move around and this limited his ability to influence elections and politicians and straight outright control whole countries. Not having the ability to easily drop thousands of dollars into the pockets of thousands of politicians saved whole countries from be swallowed up by people like Escobar. Yes, he could it on a limited scale but if he had not been hindered by anti-money laundering, Escobar would have been much worse.