Did the people working on this really think they wouldn’t be smacked down hard for it (unjustifiably so, imo) by governments that want to keep money laundering the province of bankers in their favor, high powered corporate donors, and government agents?
It’s a big club, and we aren’t in it.
Of course they knew. That doesn't stop a hacker.
Individual freedoms will always be hard-fought. And authoritarian governments will always resist them
If there's fundamentally a criminal or security problem, it seems like that should be the core thing that law enforcement should be chasing.
Disguising the source of funds, while arguably distasteful, shouldn't be the issue as long as appropriate taxes are paid. It's amusing that the IRS has explicit "declare your illegal income and we are not allowed to turn you over for doing so" mandates.
My guess is that it provides a simpler case for prosecution. So to speak, they'd rather go after Al Capone for tax evasion. Rather than having to build a case on the "base" crime-- "prove he sold specific drugs at a specific time" or "prove he was involved in a specific deal with $sanctioned_country" -- they can move to "prove that this neighbourhood Subway franchise isn't turning over $75 million a year", which can largely be proven with a couple people sitting over Excel, rather than on-the-ground investigations and witnesses.
As an activity it’s basically always indicative of a crime. (Wether you agree with the law or not)
And by its very purpose, it makes the ‘base’ crime harder to prosecute and trace.
I think you’ve flipped the causality.
So I don’t think it’s so much that prosecutors just think it’s easier way forward, and if they put their mind to it they could prosecute the base crime, but don’t want to. As much as the laundering activity itself has made it too hard to prosecute.
Legitimate firms might want to blur their supply chains and vendor relationships. If a manufacturer of some small component discovers the end buyer is Apple, for example, it might increase the temptation for "ghost shifts" and supplying extra components into the knockoff-product and aftermarket repair ecosystems.