I've been trying to figure out a way in which bitcoin could be useful for money laundering, and I just don't see it.
Classic money laundering schemes use businesses which typically have large amounts of anonymous customers paying in cash - the dirty money flows in as cash purchases that didn't really happen from customers that didn't exist. The pseudonymous bitcoin doesn't seem to support this use - it will be obvious from an examinination of the block chain where that money came from.
Can anyone describe a workable money laundering scheme using bitcoin?
You could spread around small cash payments to establish a bitcoin network and then extract clean money when you managed to get enough outside interest.
I don't particularly think that is what is happening though.
Classic money laundering schemes use businesses which typically have large amounts of anonymous customers paying in cash - the dirty money flows in as cash purchases that didn't really happen from customers that didn't exist. The pseudonymous bitcoin doesn't seem to support this use - it will be obvious from an examinination of the block chain where that money came from.
Can anyone describe a workable money laundering scheme using bitcoin?