In In “Rinsed: From Cartels to Crypto: How the Tech Industry Launders Money for the World’s Deadliest Crooks” (Penguin Business), Geoff White asks: What would you do with sudden wealth if it came from a source you couldn’t admit? “You face an agonizing dilemma,” he writes. “How can you enjoy your vast amounts of money while concealing its origins?”
The answer is money laundering, and in Rinsed, White reveals how the symbiotic relationship between technology and money laundering keeps criminals one step ahead of capture. “Technologists have a striking habit of creating innovations that inadvertently have the very properties that money launderers crave,” White writes.
In Rinsed, White reveals the three stages of money laundering, starting with its “placement” in existing financial systems. Then there is “layering,” where the money is mixed with real cash, and finally its new availability.
“Laundering money means changing your story,” White explains.
Technology has given money launderers a huge boost.
There are numerous examples – from the “Yahoo Boys” in Nigeria (so called because they use the company’s free email accounts) to the digital platform Hydra (the dark web, also known as “eBay” or “Amazon”) – that show that the explosion in cybercrime is facilitating the transfer of money.
And it’s getting more sophisticated, as demonstrated by the $625 million crypto heist at Singaporean gaming company Sky Mavis in 2022. “The scary thing was that the technology used to launder the cryptocurrencies was like a self-driving car: an autonomous mixer with no controlling owner,” White writes.
“It was the perfect technocratic crime.”
With every digital development comes new opportunities for fraudsters – especially when only a small initial investment is required. A police officer tells White: “If you want to distribute cocaine, you have to buy the cocaine from another trafficker and raise money. What is your stake in fraud?
“The goods you are selling are rubbish – cheap, abundant, infinite.”
In this respect, “Rinsed” predicts difficult days ahead.
“There’s an old saying: ‘A rising tide lifts all boats,'” White adds. “It’s usually expressed in positive language… but in the case of money laundering, it offers a grim vision of the future. The better these money launderers get, the more crimes of all kinds are enabled.”
