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>it almost always involves putting cash into a bank account Yeah, I edited my comment shortly after but you were already writing this probably. Only an observ

>it almost always involves putting cash into a bank account Yeah, I edited my comment shortly after but you were already writing this probably. Only an observation, it almost always starts as money flowing into a bank account, though. >If the developer's dirty sources need to layer their funds, they can subscribe to the app and have it laundered for a meagre 30% haircut. No, because you cannot pay for apps with cash. If you already have cash into a bank account somewhere in the world then ... you most likely don't have the need to conceal it anymore. Buy shitcoin, send it to a tax haven, whatever, why would you make it dirty again by sending it to (of all damn options) Apple. Lol.

spondylosaurus 3y ago
A (stolen) credit card isn't cash. The whole operation here is to turn someone else's credit line into usable funds. But also, why would sending funds to Apple make them dirty? That doesn't make sense—as GP pointed out, sending funds to Apple so that Apple sends those funds back to you is what makes the money clean. It's the difference between depositing $50k in your bank account from a drug deal and getting a $50k direct deposit from Apple's developer program. The latter won't raise a single eyebrow.
- moralestapia 3y ago
  >sending funds to Apple so that Apple sends those funds back to you is what makes the money clean No, because it is extremely easy for anyone to see that these funds came from an illegal activity, Apple would just say "these were stolen credit cards" within hours of it happening. That's the literal opposite of concealing the origin of money.
JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> If you already have cash into a bank account somewhere in the world then ... you most likely don't have the need to conceal it anymore This is where you’re going repeatedly wrong. Most money laundering doesn’t involve cash. If you embezzle funds, or defraud an investor, you wind up with dirty money in a bank account. While it’s there, it’s hot. You could do the crypto trade, but you’d still be in a position of holding cash (even in a tax haven, depositing loads of cash is expensive) and/or having a tainted account. Running it through Apple yields a bank account tied to a developer entity that receives deposits from Apple. You can leave your money in that account without too many worries for extended periods of time, and produce KYC receipts to wary counterparties when asked to. That’s valuable.

spondylosaurus 3y ago

A (stolen) credit card isn't cash. The whole operation here is to turn someone else's credit line into usable funds. But also, why would sending funds to Apple make them dirty? That doesn't make sense—as GP pointed out, sending funds to Apple so that Apple sends those funds back to you is what makes the money clean. It's the difference between depositing $50k in your bank account from a drug deal and getting a $50k direct deposit from Apple's developer program. The latter won't raise a single eyebrow.

moralestapia 3y ago
>sending funds to Apple so that Apple sends those funds back to you is what makes the money clean No, because it is extremely easy for anyone to see that these funds came from an illegal activity, Apple would just say "these were stolen credit cards" within hours of it happening. That's the literal opposite of concealing the origin of money.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

> If you already have cash into a bank account somewhere in the world then ... you most likely don't have the need to conceal it anymore This is where you’re going repeatedly wrong. Most money laundering doesn’t involve cash. If you embezzle funds, or defraud an investor, you wind up with dirty money in a bank account. While it’s there, it’s hot. You could do the crypto trade, but you’d still be in a position of holding cash (even in a tax haven, depositing loads of cash is expensive) and/or having a tainted account. Running it through Apple yields a bank account tied to a developer entity that receives deposits from Apple. You can leave your money in that account without too many worries for extended periods of time, and produce KYC receipts to wary counterparties when asked to. That’s valuable.