Does this still work? I am not rich, I am not a drug dealer, I do not have millions of dollars in dirty money, I am simply curious about the money laundering process for educational purposes only. Does this money laundering process still work? It was posted by a deleted user a few years ago on Reddit. Everything below this is quoted text:
Yes! Finally a question where I can shine!
Here's exactly what I would do:
- Contact the law firm, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, which has offices in the Cayman Islands and Qatar.
- Have them form a Cayman Island company in my name.
- Take a flight to Qatar and deposit the money into an escrow account at their law firm. The Qatari government will not disclose the source of funds to any other government in the world. They are the modern equivalent of the Switzerland of yore.
- Then have the money sent from the Qatari escrow account to the Cayman Islands company.
- Move to a personal tax haven like Monaco or Andorra and pay myself an annual salary from the Cayman Islands company that falls below the annual foreign earned income tax exclusion.
- Invest the remainder of funds in the Cayman Island company into various equities/debentures so that it can appreciate in value until it all gets paid out in salary (though likely it would grow at a rate that, assuming the annual exclusion remains constant, would exceed my salary payments and thus I would earn the maximum amount under the exclusion for the rest of my life.)
- Live in a tax haven forever and enjoy lifetime annual income.
There! No silly nightclubs or other businesses that end up costing a bunch of money to set up, and that you'd have to pay taxes on to boot... Tax free income for the rest of my life. Beat that, Reddit!
Edit: for those of you asking how I'd sneak the money to Qatar on the plane, I believe Will Ferrell has the answer for you.
Does this process still work? Are there any shortcomings that everyone should know about?
Not a financial adviser nor a lawyer of any kind but I did finishing reading a book on Trusts and LLC's for the purpose of asset protection.
There are several problems cashing in your Bitcoins for Cash and not ending up in prison or paying taxes. Since you are a successful American DNW Drug dealer, you will have a lot of Bitcoins to convert. The best thing to do is not to convert them to cash in America since law enforcement views having a lot of cash is a sign that you are a drug dealer. Lucky for you, moving Bitcoin across borders is super simple and, if done right, can't be traced to you. The secret is moving the money around is the easy part, hiding who owns the money is the hard part. You will also need find a service or place that will convert your Bitcoins to cash. Your overseas lawyer might not be willing to work with you if you tell them you are a drug dealer. Some countries will disbar lawyers who knowingly try to hide money of criminals. However, there are "financial advisers" that can work with you to convert your Bitcoins to Gold or even cash. Once you have the cash, you might need other help to get that moved into bank accounts without catching the eye of the US Treasury. Once you have money in the bank in a foreign county, you will probably need fake documents to show that you have a successful business in the US or have a large inheritance and you just hiding assets from a "crazy ex wife". All these various countries that have low legal interfere banks know what is up. As long as you are not wanted by Interpol or kill a bunch of people they will leave you alone. However, the days of jumping on a flight to tax haven with a suitcase with a million dollars in it are over. One thing I need to make clear, there are specialist that you can hire to do this for you, don't try to do it yourself.
You need to decide how you are going to hide your money and what this money is going to be used for. For example, if you are going to buy property back in America (Like Apartments for a longer term legal revenue stream), you can setup an controlling LLC in a place Panama or Belize, which then has an LLC or Trust in a place like the Caymans Islands (Some place with strict LLC or Trust privacy laws), which then owns an LLC out of Delaware, Nevada or Wyoming (Good asset protection and privacy laws). The US LLC's then purchase or control other LLC's when purchasing the property (Ownership identity protection) and you control the various LLC's through being the majority stock owner of these LLC's. The main Trust or LLC in Panama is then fronted by your lawyer or someone else that they hire to act as a front (This is risky because these people can literally just walk off with your money and there is nothing you can do about it because they legal own your money and property). Getting the money through all the various LLC's is done through buying shares of the LLC's. Places like Cayman Islands don't ask a lot of questions and sometime you can even buy properties with Bitcoins that are used as collateral for various loans you would need to buy property in the US. If you are going down this path, working with established Asset Protection law firms that have been around for a while is the key. You can trust them with your money and assets since they have a reputation to protect.
If you are not an investor kind of person and you are okay with low returns but lots of protections, you might want to start a Trust in a place like Cook Islands. It's a great place to have a well protected Trust because they not only will protect your identity but also not honor any Judgments by any courts to transfer funds out of your Trust. If you get thrown in jail, some Cook Island Trusts will lock your Trust so no money can flow out of it no matter what because you are under Court Judgement Duress. These kinds of Trusts are good for people that have a shit ton of cash, want total control of their funds and are okay with low returns. You can also pass ownership of the Trust to whom every you want no matter what your US state Marriage laws say. These kinds of Trusts are popular with famous people since their identity is completely shielded.
If you want to buy property International, you will probably need to go the Panama/Belize LLC or Trust which then owns a LLC in local country which then owns the property route. You might need lawyers in each country, so I would find a law firm that is International and has experience with this (There are a number of them). Again, moving the money around is not the hard part, hiding the owner of the money is.
Where a lot of DNM owners and DNM drug dealers get into trouble is they start buying cars and property that don't match their legal income stream and they start living a lifestyle outside of their legal provable income stream. Hiding, Protecting and Securing your assets is a whole field of Finance and Law that these people just ignore. All it takes is one nosy jealous neighbor who wants to know why the "low life" down the street owns a $150,000 car to get the attention of the police, IRS or US Treasury. AB owner was an idiot because he bragged, had a bunch of property in his name and drove around in half million dollar cars in a country where people are lucky to make $15K a year. His OpsSec was super sloppy, so he was bound to get caught.
And here is the last part. Just because you hide your money overseas does not completely protect you. The cops might not be able to get your property but they can get you if they suspect you have assets overseas. Owning property and hiding your ownership of it is the main goal.