Money 'mules' don't always know they are laundering money

Money laundering is a three-step process: placement, layering, and integration

"Placement" occurs when dirty money is introduced into the financial system. Then "layering" happens when the money is moved around to disguise where it actually came from. Finally, the money is placed in other assets or investments in a step called integration.

Meet a government agent who laundered millions of dollars for Pablo Escobar.

Purchasing art is a common money laundering technique

Art is easy to transport internationally, susceptible to price inflation, and usually paid for with cash, making it a frequently used money laundering tactic. Additionally, loose regulations surrounding art transactions allow buyers to remain anonymous, adding an additional layer of ease for people trying to launder money.

There's a myth that Al Capone coined the term 'money laundering,' or the process of disguising the criminal origins of illegally obtained money so it can be used without detection.

Financial institutions use 'Know Your Client' standards to prevent money laundering

KYC standards include verifying customers' identities and conducting regular account checks for high-risk clients to avoid money laundering schemes. These standards obligate banks to report suspicious customers and activity.

Lack of regulation makes cryptocurrency a hotbed for money laundering.

Anti-money laundering laws forcing banks to report data have become important foreign policy tools

Since the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, which required banks to report transactions exceeding $10K and keep records on customers, anti-money laundering laws have become an important proxy for American foreign policy initiatives. Increased regulation via financial institutions helps curb drug and human trafficking, as well as destabilize the financial infrastructure for terrorist organizations.

What is the function of money?

Nearly everyone uses some form of money to facilitate day-to-day activities, but what is it, anyways? Economists define money as anything that can be accepted as final payment for goods and services. Shells, beads, corn, and a wide range of objects have acted as money throughout history—explore the common but deceptively abstract concept of money in this eight-minute podcast from the Federal Reserve.

A Chinese-Mexican alliance marked one of history's largest nonviolent money laundering schemes

In 2019, Chinese-American gangster Xizhi Li was arrested for an expansive money laundering scheme spanning four continents. Li reportedly laundered hundreds of millions of dollars for cartel members, wealthy Chinese Americans, and other foreign countries.

Many investment bankers work on mergers and acquisitions

At some point in their careers, many investment bankers work on facilitating or advising clients on mergers or acquisitions. From analyzing industry group trends to deal negotiations, an M&A in investment banking explainer outlines how investment bankers handle these business transactions.

The United States had a washing machine that cleaned dirty dollar bills

In the early 1900s, the US Treasury Department had a machine that washed and ironed old, soiled paper bills. The machine helped the Treasury save money by decreasing printing costs for new dollar bills, but had nothing to do with the modern understanding of money laundering.

A former financial crime investigator says Hollywood has done a pretty good job depicting money laundering

A former financial crime investigator says "Narcos" and "Ozark" have pretty realistic scenes, but other well-known financial crime depictions like "The Wolf of Wall Street" are off base. Some of the main inconsistencies include overly dramatic gunfights and unrealistic cash amounts.

More than $2.6B has been laundered through US real estate in the past 20 years

All cash real estate transactions don't require extensive background and identity checks, creating a loophole for criminals who would otherwise be flagged for suspicious behavior to clean large amounts of money with one purchase. Real estate prices are easily manipulated and can be used to generate more income by renting the space, making it an attractive and common tool for money laundering.

Individuals have been convicted of ordering assassinations from the dark web

Researchers have uncovered online storefronts allegedly run by members of various mafia or hitmen that offer to harm or murder individuals in exchange for monetary payment. However, no known murder has been attributed to any of them, and cybercrime task forces believe them to be scams (warning—sensitive content).

As of 2025, an estimated $3.2B in annual revenue flows through dark web platforms

The untraceable cryptocurrency Monero is used in about 60% of transactions across more than 37 active marketplaces that sell copyrighted materials, private information, and phishing kits—tools that help bad actors more easily create fake sites to steal users' data—for financial fraud.

The scam factories behind prolific scamming

Scammers are on the rise, and many of those behind them are trapped in so-called scam factories—shadowy organizations tricking honest workers into fraudulent employment.

Watch an insider break down how multilevel marketing companies operate—from recruitment to retention.

Organized crime, including money laundering, drains $1.96T from the global economy annually

Overall, financial crime drains $3T from the global economy, with organized crime making up nearly $2T of that total. Drug trafficking is the second-largest drain on the global economy.

Visualizing the history of money

Money is any medium of exchange used in payments for goods or services and can take many forms. From cattle and shells in ancient times to paper and blockchain today, money has taken many shapes and sizes. This infographic illustrates some of the major forms of exchange world cultures have used over the last 5,000 years.

How the people behind spam text messages make money

If you've ever gotten a text message from a scammer—sometimes even just someone from an unknown number saying hello and calling you by the wrong name—you've probably wondered what they're trying to get out of you. This podcast answers that question. Hint: The answer has to do with cryptocurrency.

Today, in the US, people can face years in prison for counterfeiting money

There are both federal and state laws that punish people who use or create counterfeit money. The crime can not only trigger hefty fines, but could also lead to decades behind bars.

Mortgages are loans used to buy property

A mortgage is a loan used to buy property, like a house. Borrowers typically put down a percentage of the cost of the home, and the amount left over is financed through a lender, like a bank.

A margin call is a way for traders to pay off debts by selling a security before they may be ready to do so.

The FBI estimates that $1B is lost to international romance scammers through fake online relationships each year.

The marvels of mucus

Mucus—otherwise known as snot or phlegm—has a gross reputation, but the substance is actually of vital importance, lining the moist surfaces of our nose, intestines, lungs, and more. It plays a constant role in keeping our tissues from drying out and acts as a line of defense, but if it gets too sticky or thick, it can cause problems. Read about the marvels of mucus here.

Watch a man who counterfeited over $1M explain how to counterfeit money—including information about the materials and processes required to make fake money and how to spot a fake banknote.

In 1882, American Express began offering money orders to compete with the US Postal Service

Money orders were American Express' first move into financial services. USPS launched its money order service in 1864 as a way for Civil War soldiers to send money back home. Between the 1880s and 1920s, immigration into the United States surged;the American Express money order service gave immigrants a way to send money to family members living in other countries.

Up to to $68M in coins ends up in American landfills each year.

Waste facilities and TSA say they collect thousands of dollars of discarded money per year. A Wall Street Journal reporter visited a waste facility and learned what you can do with your extra change.

Different types of malware are categorized by how they spread or operate

Computer viruses require user interaction to execute a file and spread, whereas worms can self-replicate across systems without human intervention. Ransomware locks systems until a key is provided, spyware tracks and reports user activity to a third party, and trojans disguise various types of malware as legitimate software.

Thomas and Anne Rogers were famous counterfeiters in 17th-century England

The pair used a practice called “coin clipping,” shaving the edges off silver coins to decrease their weight before sending them back into circulation. When banknotes rather than coins gained popularity, counterfeiting methods evolved—in the 1700s, an early banknote counterfeiter named Mary Butterworth created counterfeit paper money using starched cloth and a hot iron to transfer the pattern of a banknote onto paper.

AI could be increasing the opportunities for financial fraud

Systems that can reproduce near perfect counterfeits of legitimate financial documents are increasingly prevalent and sophisticated. The international Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimate organizations lose about 5% of revenue to fraud each year.

It’s an investment banker’s job to raise money for the bank’s clients

Investment bankers do this in a multitude of ways, such as selling securities, or acquiring other companies.

Burning Man's DMV refers to the Department of Mutant Vehicles

There's a specific Burning Man lingo that can be hard to follow if you haven't attended before. MOOP essentially refers to litter, the playa is another word for Black Rock City, and a playa chicken is a mythical deadly chicken.

A video showing how drug dealing really works

What motivates people to sell drugs? The "News on Drugs" series asks how people get drawn into the drug trade, unpacking the different goals and aims involved in dealing drugs. While there is a lot of focus on cartels, traffickers, and gangs...

To continue selling mortgages, agencies that determine how risky a loan is gave high ratings to homebuyers regardless of their actual risk portfolio.

How banking works

To do big things, people often need more money. Banks jumpstart economic activity with loans paid back with interest, and when things are working well, both people and the bank make more money. Formed in the Middle Ages amid competing currencies in Italy, banks—from the Italian for bench, banco—helped stimulate that era's commercial revolution, a massive expansion in Mediterranean trade and development. Find out the ins and outs of banks in this quick explainer video.

The shadow banking system is a group of intermediaries that operate outside of normal banking regulations

The nonbank financial intermediaries that make up the shadow banking system legally provide services that are similar to those of traditional commercial banks. Although the term isn't used as often as it once was, private credit firms are technically part of the shadow banking system, as are hedge funds, payday lenders, buy now, pay later companies, and more.

While the Fed is involved in issuing new generations of cash, the way it adds to the money supply does not involve printers

The majority of money in circulation is credit, not cash. This credit, which acts similarly to direct deposit from employers, is added to bank accounts by the Federal Reserve. The Fed also employs tools like the federal funds rate and open market operations to expand or contract credit.

Multilevel marketing companies are direct sales companies with a pyramid-shaped hierarchy resulting from recruitment, but they aren't legally considered pyramid schemes because revenue is driven by product sales rather than recruitment fees.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide.

Machine learning lets computers learn from data instead of relying on programming

ML is a core part of artificial intelligence and is foundational to applications like chatbots, fraud detection, and self-driving cars. Businesses are also adopting it to improve efficiency and identify patterns in data, though the latter may be inaccurate.

Before the US Mint, people made currency in private mints

Around the year 1652, New England coinage was created at private mints. Historically, private mints were often located in places where governments did not meet the demand for currency. This article dives into the history of private mints, including the ones people can still visit today.

Mutual funds pool money to create larger investment opportunities with higher returns for anyone who initially invests in the fund.

Investors need a 'margin account' to short sell stock

Margin accounts are leveraged accounts through brokerage firms that allow investors to make trades without the full amount of capital on hand. Similar to a secured loan, margin accounts often require some form of collateral and typically have a cap on how much investors can borrow. However, trading with a margin account is much riskier than a traditional investment account. Fees and charged interest are due on margin accounts, regardless of trade performance, meaning it's possible for investors to lose more money than just their initial investment.

Management consultants deal with solving complex business challenges

Specifically, according to an article from careers site The Muse, a management consultant can be loosely defined as someone who is “a problem solver for some of the more complex business and org structures out there.”

A look at nodes and miners in managing bitcoin transactions

Each time a transaction involving bitcoin is carried out, the information must be relayed and recorded onto the currency’s blockchain. Multiple steps are involved, including the passage of the transaction to various nodes and miners who comprise multiple layers of verification and validation. See an illustrated guide to how these two crucial features of bitcoin processing work here.

Escrow is when a third party holds on to the money during a financial negotiation between two other parties

In the homebuying process, escrow typically happens while the buyer and the seller negotiate the terms of the sale. Escrow accounts can also be used to hold a buyer’s money when making payments on their loan.

Microfinance, conceived as a solution to conservative critics of Western aid as a handout system in the 1980s, is a small-dollar, community-based financing structure that was originally created as a way to expand access to credit and end poverty.

How mutual funds work

Mutual funds function similarly to other types of investments. If you want to invest, you go through a brokerage firm. However, they have a few key differentiators. Most are actively managed by a broker instead of passively earning you returns. Plus, they can carry some hefty fees.

People who take out payday loans often know they are a bad deal

Despite common criticism that payday lenders take advantage of uninformed borrowers, some people who take out payday loans know they are usually a bad deal, but often feel like they don't have any other options. Payday loans are often considered a symptom of poverty. (Some users may experience a paywall.)