Originally Posted by
AlohaDaveKennedy
Much of the whole premise of MS activity in the banks looking like ML activity and thereby being risky is TOTAL BS. If you take a close look into the ML activity the major banks were into in the cases where they got caught, none of it closely resembles MS-like activity. It would take centuries to launder the drug money that flows into Miami through MS-like activity. Which is why the feds wanted disclosure on the foreign buyers here paying all cash for high end properties. Have we learned nothing since the days of Capone's Palm Island Hideaway? Real estate is where you want to go to launder your money! For example, Bashar al-Assad's uncle was recently caught in Spain with 500 properties involved in money laundering.
You're looking at it from the point of what's most likely to be ML. Banks aren't gonna devote time and resources to play detective with us, a very small % of their customers who perform highly unusual activities (by comparison to most of their consumers) like regularly buying and liquidating thousands of dollars of VGCs > MOs/WMBP. The well run banks, like Chase, will put some low-cost & easy to implement barriers like 5/24 and have some other protocols for what they see as risky and/or not very profitable behaviors passed that. The other banks might struggle more or less based on their competence and business & risk models, but bottom line is they don't care to and have no reason to dedicate time and resources to verify that our MS activities are indeed safe for them and not at all illegal.
Also ML isn't the only criminal activity with credit cards and gift cards. Ask any store manager where we buy said Visa & M/C gift cards and they will tell you.