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Money laundering has become a default catch all term for "monetary misuse / suboptimal allocation". At least among the general public. I worked in AML tech for

Money laundering has become a default catch all term for "monetary misuse / suboptimal allocation". At least among the general public. I worked in AML tech for a bank earlier in my career. I put up a fight against this misuse of terminology for a while, but eventually just gave up. Just embrace that everything is money laundering to many people and life is easier.

estearum 2mo ago
> Money laundering has become a default catch all term for "monetary misuse / suboptimal allocation". No it definitely has not
- llm_nerd 2mo ago
  Among the generally misinformed public, which I was clearly referring to, yes, it absolutely has. Everything is money laundering. Do you think I was literally saying the financial definition has changed?
  - hkt 2mo ago
    I don't think he thought that, he was probably expressing the view that he doesn't think the representative person's understanding of the term is the same as yours. I have to confess, I've never heard anyone talk about money laundering in the way you suggest.
    - llm_nerd 2mo ago
      The root of this thread literally uses it in the way I observed. So...never? It's literally right there! I see similar uses everywhere (speaking specifically of the general public, not financial industry professionals), calling every misallocation, misspend, or even simple fraud money laundering. Reddit, HN, Facebook, LinkedIn...everything is money laundering. Again, I'm kind of an expert in AML, so I probably pay attention to it way more than you do, and probably have a much better perspective on this. I constantly see people refer to almost all misuse or misallocation of funds as money laundering. Maybe you just don't know what money laundering actually is? Because the vast majority of the public certainly doesn't.
      - ameliaquining 2mo ago
        Personally (n = 1), this thread was the first time I've seen the term "money laundering" used hyperbolically like this.
        xnx 2mo ago
        It's very very common. Look at the social media comments on any video that relates to fraud, grift, scams, or even a poorly run business. People say any use of money they don't like is "money laundering".
        estearum 2mo ago
        I think this does extend to fraud, grift, scams, and other illegal behavior. I have never seen "money laundering" extended to just "being bad at business."
        xnx 2mo ago
        On posts about companies spending so much money on AI (datacenter buildouts, tokkenmaxxing, etc.) comments wonder why they are doing this and replies say "money laundering", "definitely money laundering", etc. I'll post an example if I come across another one.
        inigyou 2mo ago
        You guys do realize that part of money laundering is making it look like you're just bad at business, yeah? "Oops we accidentally overpaid some incompetent guys for this data center" is a smokescreen for "I am taking your data center money and giving it to my cousin"
        lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2mo ago
        From a strict "anti-money laundering" standpoint (how the bank thinks), money laundering is taking money that is suspected as being proceeds of criminal activity ("dirty" money) and making it indistinguishable from "clean" money. "Being bad at business" in a way that matches the definition of nepotism is not money laundering. There is a necessary component that the money is "dirty" and needs to be "cleaned", hence it is "laundered".
  - alt227 2mo ago
    Unfortunately the official definition of 'literally' now means both exact and exaggeration, so it is impossible to know what you are saying here /s
chneu 2mo ago
Words in general don't really mean much anymore, online anyway. It reminds me of when health fads take off. Everyone "has OCD" or whatnot. I'd talk to people and they've given me a rundown of who they claim they were, but lol, they weren't that person. Everyone can identify and use words however they want. Once it goes viral the meaning of the word changes. It's difficult to parse who people are nowadays cuz of it. There's no sense fighting it. Someone will tell you you're wrong, you're out of touch, you just don't get it, or "your vibe isn't right".
- alt227 2mo ago
  I gave up when they changed the definition of literally to mean both literally and not literally, resulting in the word having zero purpose at all anymore as it is impossible to know the intention of the person saying it.
pessimizer 2mo ago
What is government giving money to foundations that donate to other foundations that in turn lobby the government but money laundering? Or worse, government giving favorable regulatory decisions to companies that donate to foundations that in turn lobby the government to do things that it has no public support to do? These are all actual money laundering, and the salaries (and resumes) of the people who are involved reflect this. This is not "I don't like how they are spending money" or "they are incompetent." They're not hiring white shoe union busting law firms because they're dumb, petty, or short-sighted.
- estearum 2mo ago
  Post evidence of your claims please. The linked post above does not even allege this, never mind provide evidence of it. Otherwise it seems like you're just describing abstract forms of malfeasance which is very uninteresting.

estearum 2mo ago

> Money laundering has become a default catch all term for "monetary misuse / suboptimal allocation". No it definitely has not

llm_nerd 2mo ago
Among the generally misinformed public, which I was clearly referring to, yes, it absolutely has. Everything is money laundering. Do you think I was literally saying the financial definition has changed?
- hkt 2mo ago
  I don't think he thought that, he was probably expressing the view that he doesn't think the representative person's understanding of the term is the same as yours. I have to confess, I've never heard anyone talk about money laundering in the way you suggest.
  - llm_nerd 2mo ago
    The root of this thread literally uses it in the way I observed. So...never? It's literally right there! I see similar uses everywhere (speaking specifically of the general public, not financial industry professionals), calling every misallocation, misspend, or even simple fraud money laundering. Reddit, HN, Facebook, LinkedIn...everything is money laundering. Again, I'm kind of an expert in AML, so I probably pay attention to it way more than you do, and probably have a much better perspective on this. I constantly see people refer to almost all misuse or misallocation of funds as money laundering. Maybe you just don't know what money laundering actually is? Because the vast majority of the public certainly doesn't.
    - ameliaquining 2mo ago
      Personally (n = 1), this thread was the first time I've seen the term "money laundering" used hyperbolically like this.
      - xnx 2mo ago
        It's very very common. Look at the social media comments on any video that relates to fraud, grift, scams, or even a poorly run business. People say any use of money they don't like is "money laundering".
        estearum 2mo ago
        I think this does extend to fraud, grift, scams, and other illegal behavior. I have never seen "money laundering" extended to just "being bad at business."
        xnx 2mo ago
        On posts about companies spending so much money on AI (datacenter buildouts, tokkenmaxxing, etc.) comments wonder why they are doing this and replies say "money laundering", "definitely money laundering", etc. I'll post an example if I come across another one.
        inigyou 2mo ago
        You guys do realize that part of money laundering is making it look like you're just bad at business, yeah? "Oops we accidentally overpaid some incompetent guys for this data center" is a smokescreen for "I am taking your data center money and giving it to my cousin"
        lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2mo ago
        From a strict "anti-money laundering" standpoint (how the bank thinks), money laundering is taking money that is suspected as being proceeds of criminal activity ("dirty" money) and making it indistinguishable from "clean" money. "Being bad at business" in a way that matches the definition of nepotism is not money laundering. There is a necessary component that the money is "dirty" and needs to be "cleaned", hence it is "laundered".
- alt227 2mo ago
  Unfortunately the official definition of 'literally' now means both exact and exaggeration, so it is impossible to know what you are saying here /s

chneu 2mo ago

Words in general don't really mean much anymore, online anyway. It reminds me of when health fads take off. Everyone "has OCD" or whatnot. I'd talk to people and they've given me a rundown of who they claim they were, but lol, they weren't that person. Everyone can identify and use words however they want. Once it goes viral the meaning of the word changes. It's difficult to parse who people are nowadays cuz of it. There's no sense fighting it. Someone will tell you you're wrong, you're out of touch, you just don't get it, or "your vibe isn't right".

alt227 2mo ago
I gave up when they changed the definition of literally to mean both literally and not literally, resulting in the word having zero purpose at all anymore as it is impossible to know the intention of the person saying it.

pessimizer 2mo ago

What is government giving money to foundations that donate to other foundations that in turn lobby the government but money laundering? Or worse, government giving favorable regulatory decisions to companies that donate to foundations that in turn lobby the government to do things that it has no public support to do? These are all actual money laundering, and the salaries (and resumes) of the people who are involved reflect this. This is not "I don't like how they are spending money" or "they are incompetent." They're not hiring white shoe union busting law firms because they're dumb, petty, or short-sighted.

estearum 2mo ago
Post evidence of your claims please. The linked post above does not even allege this, never mind provide evidence of it. Otherwise it seems like you're just describing abstract forms of malfeasance which is very uninteresting.