[grandalf]

Money "laundering" is used to hide transactions from view so that the parties involved in the transaction can avoid scrutiny or legal consequences for their actions.

The DoD accounting scandal is an example of the US Government effectively laundering massive sums of money to evade accountability:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/23/politics/us-army-audit-account...

Also, governments use other tactics that are illegal in the private sector extensively, such as fudging their accounting to hide market volatility.

https://www.sec.gov/news/testimony/2006/ts061506cc.htm

Governments care about private sector money laundering mainly because it can be used to conceal tax evasion. If drug lords and human traffickers simply paid their fair share of taxes chances are money laundering would not be on governments' radar.

[colechristensen]

>If drug lords and human traffickers simply paid their fair share of taxes chances are money laundering would not be on governments' radar.

This is a bit ridiculous. It's sometimes just more convenient to prosecute the side effects of crime than the crime itself. The financial system and regulations are set up in a way that makes it possible to catch and imprison criminals solely for their use of legitimate banking for their illicit activity. It adds a net to improve capture.

You don't put out mousetraps to protect the bait.

[MichaelGG]

What? Laundering often ends up with them paying taxes - for instance by putting tons of cash through a laundromat. Taxes then paid, the criminals are free to spend it as they wish. In fact, that's like, sort of the entire point of it.

Money laundering (as an offence) is just a crude tool to make prosecutor's lives far, far, easier.

[mistermann]

I suspect this is what's happening in Canada - billions of dollars of "under the radar" money is coming into Canada to buy real estate, but the construction & trades jobs it creates and resulting boost it provides to GDP makes the government happy to turn a blind eye to the source of this money or that they make no direct taxation revenue (and refuse to audit certain people who are obviously breaking the law).

[grandalf]

https://www.irs.gov/uac/overview-money-laundering