[miohtama]

It’s important to remember that money-laundering is a secondary crime. There is always an underlying crime, and money laundering is just its effect. Thus, anti-money laundering do not solve or prevent any crime (crime has already happened). With over reaching AML regime there is a danger that it is used against political opposition, like it is already happening.

AML is a very convinient tool for anyone who wants to abuse power.

India: India throws another opposition leader in jail as elections loom https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/03/22/india-throws-anoth... from The Economist

Hungary: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53093117

Plus Russia

Plus various African countries

Etc.

[acdha]

> Thus, anti-money laundering do not solve or prevent any crime (crime has already happened).

It prevents crimes as long as the people who would be committing them know it’s hard to cash out. As a simple example, phone theft was much worse in the United States a decade or so back because a teenager could grab a phone, wipe it, and get hundreds of USD. It plummeted once the stolen IMEI database went into effect because nobody buys a phone which can’t get service. It didn’t have to go to zero to be worth doing – just getting the easy money guys out often makes a big difference.

[miohtama]

The question is: if the new regulations will make it harder to cash out, or is it very hard to cash out already. If it is the latter, the new regulations do not contribute to the solving new crimes. In this case, the new regulations are not needed and the lobbying behind them is not about preventing crime, but about the interest of industry stakeholders. Such stakeholders include software companies that sell anti-money laundering solutions.

[lxgr]

> Thus, anti-money laundering do not solve or prevent any crime (crime has already happened).

Sure, but "follow the money" can be an incredibly powerful tool for criminal investigations.

> With over reaching AML regime there is a danger that it is used against political opposition, like it is already happening.

That's a concern I definitely share. I think there needs to be a push for a privacy-preserving middle ground between the complete two-sided anonymity of cash and some cryptocurrencies on one side, and the data privacy nightmare that's traditional electronic payment methods.