Placement money laundering

Examples include depositing cash into multiple bank accounts (“smurfing”), buying luxury items for later resale, using casinos to convert cash into chips and back, or funneling money through shell companies or money service businesses. These methods are designed to make large sums of illicit money appear legitimate and unremarkable.

The three stages are: 1. Placement – inserting dirty money into the system. 2. Layering – obscuring the money’s origin through complex transactions. 3. Integration – reintroducing the laundered money into the economy as seemingly legitimate assets.

Placement is difficult to detect because it often mimics regular cash activity. Financial institutions may lack visibility across different channels or accounts, making it hard to spot structured transactions. The use of decentralized finance (DeFi) and cryptocurrencies adds further complexity, as does cross-border laundering through offshore accounts. --- ###