Money Laundering Methods used by Singaporeans and their corrupt counterparts.

[Strong Eagle]

I heard you can buy bitcoin in India using rupees and then sell it here in dollars.

Using what exchange rates?

You buy bitcoin in an Indian bitcoin exchange, using rupees and then transfer it to a wallet and then sell from that wallet using SG exchange and get paid in dollars. There is no exchange rate involved. But, currently the price of bitcoin is so volatile, that the sell price can vary widely compared to the buy price.

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What do you mean "There is no exchange rate involved"? Of course there is an exchange rate. You are not buying a bitcoin for one rupee, then selling the bitcoin for one Singapore dollar, are you. You pay X rupees for your bitcoin, and when you sell it, you get Y SGD.

Who is setting that exchange rate? Bitcoin "value" on the open market appears to be expressed in terms of US dollars. Somebody who is going to sell you a bitcoin for rupees has already figured out in her mind how many rupees it is worth, based on its US dollar value.

[Strong Eagle]

Maybe I'm missing something here, and, the examples given here are, for the most part, scams for tax avoidance rather than money laundering, per se. Money laundering has the express purpose of re-characterizing funds so that they look like they were gained from legitimate sources.

WD40's "havala" is a good example. Unless WD40 is exercising "know your customer" due diligence as specified by MAS, he could (wittingly or unwittingly) be part of scheme to clean up prostitution and trafficking money.

When I think of money laundering, I think of transactional techniques to hide the origin of the money. A Singapore company that sets up a Malaysian subsidiary to supposedly sell services to clients, but which in reality is taking ill gotten bribe money, laundering the money into a Singapore bank account, then paying that money out for "expenses" to yet another company formed in Malaysia... the trail can get very long.

[PNGMK]

Thanks SE. You're right. Hiding money, avoiding tax, re-characterising funds...