> In US law, money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, or destination of illegally gained money.
Secretly transferring money out of your company to locations where you may at an opportune time be able to personally withdraw it seems to match the description very well. To put another way, even if you own 100% of your company, your company's money is not your personal money. Trying to make it so while concealing it and avoiding taxes etc is a crime.
I agree the base crime here appears to be embezzlement. However the actions taken to conceal the embezzlement may be considered laundering. Most embezzlements do involve hiding the money movements, so I would only expect it to be laundering if he mixed the funds with legitimate funds in order to conceal their source. I don't see that in the article.
He is being accused of nothing, because no charges have been filed.
They will formally charge him with something like money laundering because it is the easiest to prove (you don't need intent, just concealment) and more charges will be added later.
> In US law, money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, or destination of illegally gained money.
Secretly transferring money out of your company to locations where you may at an opportune time be able to personally withdraw it seems to match the description very well. To put another way, even if you own 100% of your company, your company's money is not your personal money. Trying to make it so while concealing it and avoiding taxes etc is a crime.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering