Short answers, pulled from the story.
Money laundering is the process of concealing the illegal origin of funds obtained from crimes such as drug trafficking, corruption, or terrorism, converting them into assets that appear legitimate. It typically involves three steps: placement (introducing dirty cash into the financial system), layering (moving it through complex transactions to obscure its source), and integration (reintroducing it as apparently clean wealth).
A spokesperson for the IMF estimated in 1996 that 2-5% of the worldwide global economy involved laundered money. The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering has stated it cannot publish a definitive figure because of the inherently concealed nature of the activity.
HSBC paid a record $1.9 billion fine in December 2012 for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for drug traffickers, terrorists, and sanctioned governments including Iran. BNP Paribas agreed to pay $8.9 billion in June 2014, then the largest fine ever for violating U.S. sanctions. Westpac agreed to an AUD $1.3 billion penalty in 2020, the largest fine in Australian corporate history. Danske Bank's Estonian branch was linked to between $30 billion and $230 billion in suspicious transactions revealed in 2018.
Cybercriminals secured US$14 billion in cryptocurrency through illicit activities in 2021 alone. Methods include privacy coins like Monero and ZCash that obscure transaction origins, cryptocurrency mixers that blend funds from many users to hide ownership, and NFT wash trading in which fictitious sales between multiple wallets create a false transaction history before a real sale.
Smurfing, also known as structuring, is a placement method in which large sums of cash are broken into smaller deposits specifically sized to avoid triggering anti-money laundering reporting requirements. Jose Franklin Jurado-Rodriguez, a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University, was convicted in Luxembourg in June 1990 for using this method on behalf of the Cali Cartel.
Casino junkets operating from Macao have emerged as a major facilitator of money laundering, with individuals buying chips with illicit cash, playing briefly, and cashing out by check to document proceeds as gambling winnings. The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos has been identified as a hotspot for money laundering and transnational crime. Chinese money laundering networks drove over US$312 billion in illicit money through the U.S. between 2021 and 2024, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.