Money Laundering "Not Possible" with Bitcoin?

[arbitrage]

Maybe when you combine all these services and use coin like monroe and sdc ..
You can achieve full anonymity but risk is always you can be caught at the beginning or at the end..Perfect money laundering system does not exist!

[prtty2gal2]

I'm not so sure about that. Although Bitcoin is not anonymous, it is still pseudonymous. If you are looking at transactions, you don't know who exactly is behind an address and where those Bitcoins in that address came from. You don't know whether the money is from fraud or from legitimate business. And with mixing services and through other methods of anonymization like CoinJoin, it can make tracing Bitcoin extremely difficulty such that it is impossible to know who actually committed a crime and used Bitcoin to launder the money.

I agree with this. Bitcoins can be misused easily and using mixers, bitcoins cannot even be tracked which makes users spend it for illegal activities. A user of this forum was also charged for the same and hence we can be targetted for
other people's crimes. If bitcoins aren't regulated, we can be termed as money launderers easily.

[Supercrypt]

Even if bitcoin isn't completely anonymous it stills gives you a certain maneuberability that enables you to launder money. But there are a lot of ways to do that without it as well.

The article isn't right. There are many people who use banks as well for laundering money and even gold, jewels and cash can be used for money laundering but since these all are legal, they aren't targetted and only bitcoins get all the blame as they cannot be tracked. It's just a crypto currency and not all the users who trade in bitcoins are to be blamed for others crimes.

[Bitcoinpro]

Or at least "not possible" at the crazy-shit levels that Liberty Reserve handled. Though to be honest, if I was into money laundering, I probably wouldn't be using Bitcoin anyhow. http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/02/01/liberty-reserve-level-of-money-laundering-is-not-possible-with-bitcoin/

your nonsense post hardly provokes the link clicking experience

[stepwilli]

Money laundering is a big issue when it comes to bitcoins and I don't agree with the article, especially this statement
"Furthermore, the founder of Liberty Reserve pleaded guilty to money laundering recently, a concept that is not possible with Bitcoin by any means."
For me both liberty reserve and bitcoins have a lot of similarity except that the former had the owner at fault while the later has users at fault. Not all but many do use bitcoins for illegal purposes.

[jugador]

Or at least "not possible" at the crazy-shit levels that Liberty Reserve handled. Though to be honest, if I was into money laundering, I probably wouldn't be using Bitcoin anyhow. http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/02/01/liberty-reserve-level-of-money-laundering-is-not-possible-with-bitcoin/

I don't understand, the report says Arthur Budovsky pleaded guilty to laundering money worth more than US$250 million through the Liberty Reserve protocol. How the hell it is not possible to laundry money with cryptos then?

[wuvdoll]

I agree to some extent with the article as some of the bitcoin wallets do hold a license and websites like Virwox accept Bitcoin transactions. It was not the case with LR and bitcoins are much more recognized as a currency while LR was just a wallet.

[bob123]

Of course Laundering is possible with Bitcoins.
Bitcoin isnt anonymous, true. But its pseudoanonymous and if done correctly.. laundering shouldnt be a problem at all.

[owm123]

Of course Laundering is possible with Bitcoins.
Bitcoin isnt anonymous, true. But its pseudoanonymous and if done correctly.. laundering shouldnt be a problem at all.

Yes, but all indications are that bitcoin or other cryptos are not used widely for any illegal activities. From todays news:

The Treasury Department report concludes that ‘The evidence available indicates that digital currencies have been used by illicit actors, but the information does not suggest that digital currencies have, at present, been widely adopted as a payment vehicle in the wider criminal community.’

https://thestack.com/security/2016/02/02/eu-proposes-end-of-anonymity-for-bitcoin-and-prepaid-card-users/

Its seems that only stupid press and politicians like to think that cyrptocurrencies are only used for illicit transactions.

[Bungeebones]

I've said it was not possible since I first was introduced to it at a meetup. There was even a lawyer there and his explanation never made sense to me either.

Money laundering is, to me, making "dirty money" clean. What constitutes 'dirty money"? It is any money gotten from illegal activity. What constitutes "clean money"? Anything in a bank account, real estate, merchandise etc. that can pass through the financial system without drawing scrutiny. I'm not sure but I don't think AML even kicks in when transferring large amounts of money from one bank to another because the money coming in is assumed to be clean. It is the cash deposits that the criminals are trying to make clean, not the digital ones.

So criminal has 1 million in cash and buys 1 million Bitcoin with it. He no longer has cash but as Bitcoin. Someone else has the cash so what happens when they try to deposit it? AML! The could just keep it in cash like the criminal does but it is still not "clean money".

So now the criminal has 1 million worth of Bitcoin and puts them in an exchange. he buys, sells trades etc. Then he opts out and they send him a check. The question comes down to whether the check represents "dirty" or "clean" money? The problem is that the exchange enabled the Bitcoin to enter the banking system and become "clean" because it is now digitized.

The moral of the story is that the only money considered "clean" is the fraudulent digital money and all cash money (whether acquired legitimately or not) is "dirty".

[Thekool1s]

its more easier with bitcoin, where did you get this idea from its harder? the user can remain totally anonymous if he has some basic skills of tor etc. plus its non reversible.

[Dabs]

How to Launder Money the Old Way:

1. Send to dozens or hundreds of different bank accounts all over the world in dozens or hundreds of different countries. Pay the fees.

How to Launder Money using cryptocurrencies:

1. Send to dozens or hundreds of different exchanges all over the world in dozens or hundreds of different countries. Pay the fees.

Use offshore accounts, straw men, and cash.

[countryfree]

Money laundering is possible with any currency, electronic or fiat. A public ledger can even be useful for money laundering. It's a perfect proof that a transaction was real. What's not in the ledger though, is the proof that some service was done, or that some goods were exchanged. The blockchain is a great tool for creative accounting...

Gosh, I could sell methods to launder money with BTC!

I just purchased ten thousand and eight copies of a book entitled Methods to Launder Money with Bitcoin.

Full Disclosure: countryfree may or may not be a nym in my control.

@Gleb Gamow! You don't know me. So don't write silly things about me.

What's shocking here is that besides, Bungeebones, most people have no understanding of what money laundering is. Laundering $ or BTC is exactly the same thing. There isn't the slightest difference. BTC is not truly anonymous, but that's good. If you want to clean money, you don't want it to be hidden, nor without a known owner.

[ShrykeZ]

It is possible despite the entire blockchain history containing all the transactions, just figuring out who owns which address is the difficult part.

[elizabethqueen]

Or at least "not possible" at the crazy-shit levels that Liberty Reserve handled. Though to be honest, if I was into money laundering, I probably wouldn't be using Bitcoin anyhow. http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/02/01/liberty-reserve-level-of-money-laundering-is-not-possible-with-bitcoin/

this is possible,i think almost all things that have value and can be traded with money,it can used for money laundering,tha concept is almost same with money,just some account and regulation have different. maybe

[FlyingSaucer]

It is possible despite the entire blockchain history containing all the transactions, just figuring out who owns which address is the difficult part.

Yeah figuring out which address belongs to whom is the hard part and requires a pretty intensive detective work anyways.

[Pk880058]

It is possible despite the entire blockchain history containing all the transactions, just figuring out who owns which address is the difficult part.

Yeah figuring out which address belongs to whom is the hard part and requires a pretty intensive detective work anyways.

I dont think that even intensive detective will work, because their is no possible of finding the owner of the address, even if you can find the history of the transactions in blockchain. At most yo can find only the wallet address which are doing transaction but you cannot find who owns the wallet. This is the main point of Bitcoin , that you cannot find the owner details of wallet by any way. So obviously you can do what ever you want with out reveling your identity.

[arbitrage]

1. Buy bitcoins from local or on street.
2. Send them to mixer but not at the same time and then in small amounts to multiple exchanges.
3. Buy sdc monero dash..and use their services from one to another wallet mixing , you will finally be 99 percent anonymous..
4. Few days send those coins on multiple exchanges  every time in different amount.
Sell them for btc and windraw slowly to different addresses and wallets ..

weakness> you always must return to fiat and money can be folowed,
maybe if you sell bitcoins anonimus on street.
For all this you must use multiple wallets trading only via tor..

[arbitrage]

But this is in theory very good..
Problem is government has vast technical advantage!
Whole internet now is under surveillance, phones are under surveillance..
Tor nodes are weak for them.
And what to say at the end?
NOT POSSIBLE! You will be caught at some point.

[NorrisK]

1. Buy bitcoins from local or on street.
2. Send them to mixer but not at the same time and then in small amounts to multiple exchanges.
3. Buy sdc monero dash..and use their services from one to another wallet mixing , you will finally be 99 percent anonymous..
4. Few days send those coins on multiple exchanges  every time in different amount.
Sell them for btc and windraw slowly to different addresses and wallets ..

weakness> you always must return to fiat and money can be folowed,
maybe if you sell bitcoins anonimus on street.
For all this you must use multiple wallets trading only via tor..

Nice theory, but even if you sell your bitcoins for cash you have to prove where you got them from..

The problem is not making it untraceable, but having a good explanation of how the money was earned. That is why often there are front companies involved that can put extra work in their books that didn't happen for instance.

Telling them that you sold bitcoin for fiat is not enough, you'd have to explain where you got the coins from.