[CryptoPunk]

>It's nothing but an excuse to charge someone with something when you can't prove the thing they're actually supposed to be guilty of

This is exactly it.

If you want to stop a drug dealer, then prove they are dealing drugs, and put them in prison for that.

But it's too hard to prove they're dealing drugs, so create a law that criminalizes something that could potentially help a drug dealer cover his/her tracks, like concealing large transfers from the government. Now all of a sudden a new category of crime has been created that affects far more than drug dealers.

Anti-money-laundering laws are a blunt instrument for fighting crime that restricts the rights of millions of innocent people, in the name of stopping a small population of criminals.