Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Hey, as long as you paid taxes on the income, I don't see the IRS having any issues with this …
Okay, let me see if I have the pitch right—hypothetically speaking, let's say I have made, through many illegal means, a metric buttload of money and I want to have it laundered. I don't want to mess with the banking systems as they seem to be under high scrutiny these days (besides, everybody knows they're criminals anyway).
So, I grab a few hundred pages from Wikipedia, bundle them into a “book” which I “publish and sell” via Amazon. This costs me nearly nothing. Then I “buy” as many copies of this “book”, getting nearly 45% of the money as the “author.” Amazon won't complain, as they're getting a nice chunk of change. Heck, I could even get a higher percentage of the money if the “book” is bought through an affiliate program I set up (this might push my percentage over 50%).
And who's to say this isn't going on right now?
And you know, money laudering might explain some of these Etsy sites (link via Regretsy).
