But money laundering usually involves illicitly acquired cash and converting that into legit money you can invest/store/etc. Seems like localbitcoin to Monero to anything else makes more sense. No?
And yes, it can involve illicitly acquired cash, but it can also be used to conceal the purchase of assets or the exercise of political influence.
Huh, I never knew about the underground trade fueled by tide detergent. Well there goes a solid chunk of today's reading time.
Old HN post on the subject for others interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5023204
Converting illicitly acquired money to cryptocurrency and back to cash doesn't answer the question where did you find the money in the first place. But say you have a coffee shop, then you can claim that you sell twice as much beverages as you really do, pay the taxes and have your money cleaned.
As you play the game you can unlock some characters. But it's a very slow grind. You can also buy them.
The five most expensive characters cost £19.99, £28.99, £38.99, £48.99, and 5399 sticks of dynamite. You can buy 5,400 sticks of dynamite for £99.99
A young Chinese business dude bought a vacant 20 story former bank headquarters last year in my city to supposedly convert to condos. Nothing has been done there -- it's just a way to park money out of the hands of the PRC.
Money laundering is the process of transforming the profits of crime and corruption into ostensibly 'legitimate' assets.