'''Money laundering''' is the act of funneling money from an [[illegal]] venture through [[legitimate]] businesses in order to obscure the original source of the money.
'''Money laundering''' is the act of funneling money from an [[illegal]] venture through [[legitimate]] businesses in order to obscure the original source of the money.
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Classical money laundering involves three stages: placement, layering, and integration. Placement is getting cash into the system. This usually involves a friendly banker who doesn't fill out reporting forms. Layering is a chain of transactions (these are often interbank transactions) at least one of which needs to be invisible in order to effectively break the monetary trail. Integration is getting the "clean" money back to the original owner. This may take many forms, including offshore "loans" which are never repaid.