ShmoopTube

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Finance a la shmoop, what are anti money laundering laws? All right well we really

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wanted to do this video from Somalia where there are only pro money [Washing machine with a tick pops up on Somalia]

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laundering laws but well.. you know we couldn't get a visa so we're stuck with old [Visa application stamped denied]

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school money laundering and this concept comes to you direct from the Patriot Act [President Bush signing the act]

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A tool by the government that was deployed after the al-qaeda bombing on

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9/11 with the hopes of trying to make it harder for terrorists to you know just

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raise easy money to go do more terror... But ok here's a newsflash you're not [News headline on the TV about money laundering]

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supposed to launder money. And no this isn't the joke about the fiver in the [5 dollars going around a washing machine]

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dryer. Laundering in the financial sense refers to hiding money from the

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government essentially or hiding taxable earnings. Illustrative example time! Well there are lots of ways to

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launder in the good old days the system was very straightforward a bootlegger [People handing money to each other]

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made a ton of money selling illegal alcohol but wanted to find another way

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to show he had quote legitimately unquote made the dough so the [Quotes going either side of the word legitimately]

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authorities wouldn't catch on. Well a theater could show a cheap film but [Police officer walking past a theater]

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still be you know sold out yeah, yeah every seat was taken... So a bootlegger [Girl asleep in the almost empty theater]

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would buy a movie theater and voila the theater business shows itself to be

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hugely profitable with repeated sold-out showings of old Three Stooges black and [Cashier with his thumbs up holding two glasses of beer]

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white movies and the bootlegging profits well they're now hidden, they're

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disguised they're laundered as movie theater profits right. Well today money

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laundering usually involves fake accounts, fancy transactions, all over the [Someone picking up a stack of money]

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globe with computers doing a whole lot of talking and you know a bunch of

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offshore accounts. Well the idea is the same though you create falsified

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documents in some way called cooking the books to hide what you're doing from the [Printing out documents]

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IRS and from the government in general. Well anti money laundering laws are out

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there to catch people who do it and make sure that if they do cook the books well [Guy holding up a false document quickly tires to hide it from the police officer]

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and then their goose is cooked too... [Guy in a cell with a goose]

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