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It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that there’s a money laundering aspect to this. For example, you give $100K in donations and the open source project then hires
by blowski 4y ago
It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that there’s a money laundering aspect to this. For example, you give $100K in donations and the open source project then hires Uncle Jimmy’s nephew as a designer.
- matthewheath 4y agoThat's not money laundering. More like corruption/bribery.
- blowski 4y agoIt’s layering, a money laundering term. You “clean” the money by hiding its origins and then returning it from a legitimate source. In my example, Uncle Jimmy ain’t doing this as a favour for his nephew. Uncle Jimmy’s nephew appears to have a legitimate job so his salary is clean money, which he then gives to Uncle Jimmy. Uncle Jimmy can’t hire him directly because the money trail would be much more obvious. By making a donation from company A to the open source group (and probably through multiple other misdirections) the money trail is almost impossible to follow.
- a2800276 4y agoThat's not money laundering either :) If anything, whoever is donating the 100k now needs to explain where that money came from. Uncle Jimmy's nephew needs to declare the money on his taxes.
- blowski 4y agoCheck out “layering”, which is a money laundering technique. The money trail here can be complex, something like this but with extra intermediary companies breaking it down and moving it around: Uncle Jimmy -> Casino high-rollers -> Casino -> Open Source Project -> Nephew -> Uncle Jimmy Paying taxes in the middle really helps clean the money as you now have an official government document recognising it. It’s a cost of doing business.