The Crypto Money Laundering Scheme
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Does this surprise anybody at all? Last year, we sanctioned, United States sanctioned a Moscow-based crypto exchange in order to stymie the Russians, to evade all sorts of financial blockades, sanctions, all sorts of good stuff. A year later, that crypto exchange is booming.
Oh yeah, you got problems with the fancy pants ones here in the United States and Gemini and then Binance moved and FTX collapse. But the Russian crypto exchange set up in Moscow, they’re doing Yeoman’s world. They’re kicking butts over there. Yeah, they’re on a US blacklist. But ask most of the world if they give a shit about that.
They don’t. This company, Garand Tex, has become a major channel through which Russians move funds into and out of the country. There will always be someone to provide that service. Their growing role as a global conduit for illicit funds was underscored by evidence that the Palestinian militants financed their operations through
crypto, really through crypto. It’s such a surprise. Oh, we were told by all the crypto people out there that it’s warm and soft and fuzzy and it’s the blockchain. I can’t remember the year when this whole cryptocurrency thing started kicking into gear. And I’m having a conversation with somebody about this and they’re explaining it to me. And the first thing that came
to mind is this is one of the greatest opportunities for criminals I’ve ever seen.
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I said, this takes money laundering to a whole new level. And obviously I get sub references going in my mind. Remember Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2 who was the accountant explaining to Riggs how money laundering works. And you also get that scene in Scarface where Tony Montana is bringing.
bags of cash to the banks in Miami who were able to launder it a hell of a lot easier than they are today. The bulk of my yearly continuing education that I have to take and all our advisors have to take, the bulk of it has to do with money laundering. Yeah, year in, year out, I have to sit through, read this, answer questions about money laundering.
Like I’m doing business with the cartels in Mexico. And I laugh at this stuff where you have a means, right there hiding in plain sight, which allows criminals to operate. Human traffickers, do you think they’re dealing in cash? Do you think they’re moving their money around via the banking system? No, what we’ve created.
Okay, and I don’t care you people that are all into it and think it’s the next greatest thing out there. Yeah, you got these crypto guys up there, they got a bank on their t-shirt, you know, rage against the machine. You do know what you’re doing, right? You have created an alternative system where bad guys, terrorists can operate. Now,
Banks have willingly done this for years and years and years and years. There’s been, you know, obviously been cracking down on that. But, um, man, you make it simple and easy and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. I mean, television shows now, I was watching one show. I forget where it was. And I’m watching some young criminal explain how you could go about money, money laundering via.
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crypto and doing stuff with pornography online. It made me sick to my stomach, but I’m like, yeah. Where else are you gonna go? And again, remember Carmella and the Sopranos? And she finds that in the, the bird feed container in the back, she founds a major stash of Tony’s cash and she starts opening up bank accounts.
in and around the northern New Jersey area, just under the $10,000 reporting limit. Well, if Sopranos were done today, Carmella wouldn’t have a problem. She could just do it via cryptocurrencies. Watchdog on wallstreet.com.