Short answers, pulled from the story.
In United States law, money laundering is defined as engaging in financial transactions to hide the identity, source, or destination of illegally gained money. This practice involves concealing the origin of funds through front organizations or complex transactions to avoid suspicion from banks and financial institutions.
Dedicated Anti-Money Laundering legislation was only implemented in the 1980s when the war on drugs led governments to turn to money laundering rules again. Existing laws were previously used during Prohibition in the 1930s to fight organized crime related to illegal alcohol sales.
Money laundering typically involves three steps: placement, layering, and integration. The first step introduces cash into the financial system, the second carries out complex transactions to camouflage the source, and the final phase acquires wealth generated from those transactions.
HSBC paid a record $1.9 billion fine in December 2012 for money-laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for drug traffickers, terrorists, and sanctioned governments such as Iran. BNP Paribas received an even larger fine of $8.9 billion in July 2014 for violating sanctions against Cuba, Iran, and Sudan.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic described Huione as the largest illicit online marketplace to have ever operated. Global law enforcement began to respond to threats posed by such platforms when the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a finding in May 2025 identifying Huione Group as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern.