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How scammers launder money and get away with it
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Once scammers persuade strangers to part with their savings, they need to move the money before the banks were alerted.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
Selam Gebrekidan and Joy Dong
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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Every few weeks, fireworks light up the night sky in Cambodia, set off by scammers to salute their biggest swindles.
By the time the shells pop and crackle, somebody’s life savings are probably gone. Maybe the victim fell for an online romance scam or bought into a fake cryptocurrency exchange. Whatever the scheme, the money has vanished, sucked into a complex money laundering network that moves billions of dollars at a dizzying speed.
