Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2018 June 1

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June 1

hackers

How do hackers launder their money when using banks? Is it offshore banks they are using or digital banks/electronic money institutions instead? Which banks are they using to launder their money?

My first thought was Bitcoin, and that seems to be at least one answer.[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:28, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Cash.
Sleigh (talk) 04:08, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

There is no need to launder money if the hacker is state-sponsored. 174.196.0.199 (talk) 20:31, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Money laundering is really a class of criminal acts, with various approaches to avoid detection, so there is no one answer to this. Here is a standard description of money laundering, taken from FINRA: Money laundering is generally defined as engaging in acts designed to conceal or disguise the true origins of criminally derived proceeds so that the proceeds appear to have derived from legitimate origins or constitute legitimate assets. Generally, money laundering occurs in three stages. Cash first enters the financial system at the "placement" stage, where the cash generated from criminal activities is converted into monetary instruments, such as money orders or traveler's checks, or deposited into accounts at financial institutions. At the "layering" stage, the funds are transferred or moved into other accounts or other financial institutions to further separate the money from its criminal origin. At the "integration" stage, the funds are reintroduced into the economy and used to purchase legitimate assets or to fund other criminal activities or legitimate businesses. John M Baker (talk) 18:21, 5 June 2018 (UTC)