# Breaking Bad 5.10 "Buried" 8/18/13 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 18, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580 "2013-08-18T18:48:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/181 "2013-08-20T20:53:41Z")
I never did understand the wisdom of a car wash. How much could you conceivably launder in a year without raising too many eyebrows? $100,000 tops, maybe- that’s figuring several hundred dollars per day. The crooked casino deal Saul brokered (which was brilliant) probably laundered more money already than the carwash would in years. I would think a convenience store or a liquor store or even cheap rental properties would do a better job than a carwash. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/182 "2013-08-20T20:56:15Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > How much could you conceivably launder in a year without raising too many eyebrows? I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/183 "2013-08-20T20:56:30Z")
Still holding out for Walt to buy lasertag ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/184 "2013-08-20T20:57:31Z")
Saul’s got to wind up like Fagin in the musical _OLIVER!_ (the musical, not the book): broke (or close to) and fallen, in Saul’s case probably disbarred. Otherwise, unless it’s a prequel, I can’t imagine him continuing in the biz. He’d probably already have done the “take the money and run” thing if he weren’t afraid of Walt. OTOH, his waiting room is always full of people. Though hard to believe he’d be handling a paltry $1000 bankruptcy or divorce fee when he’s cleared hundreds of thousands from Walt and Jesse. Was his receptionist the same one who Walt gave $25,000 to “fix the door”? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/185 "2013-08-20T20:59:52Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > OTOH, his waiting room is always full of people. Though hard to believe he’d be handling a paltry $1000 bankruptcy or divorce fee when he’s cleared hundreds of thousands from Walt and Jesse. I guess Saul’s office is his car wash, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/186 "2013-08-20T21:01:08Z")
Hate to admit it, but I kind of like Saul’s loud shirts. Odenkirk should shop an endorsement deal. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/187 "2013-08-20T21:08:51Z")
I think they’re being careful to call the spinoff a prequel so that they can kill off Saul if they want to. ---
**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/188 "2013-08-20T21:18:11Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > How much could you conceivably launder in a year without raising too many eyebrows? Just an aside, a friend of mine has a friend that owns a gas station. It’s fairly large (10-14 pumps), large convenience store/deli and one of those automated drive-through car washes. He said by far the largest profit margin on anything was the car wash. He barely made anything off the gas sales, the store and deli were decent but the car was was the cash cow. MtM ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/189 "2013-08-20T21:24:19Z")
The money laundering plan may have always been implausible, but it was less implausible when Walt was Gus’ employee instead of the head of the operation. And I’m not sure it mattered if they were able to launder all the money- they had to start laundering some of it or it was almost useless to them. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/190 "2013-08-20T21:24:33Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I never did understand the wisdom of a car wash. How much could you conceivably launder in a year without raising too many eyebrows? $100,000 tops, maybe- that’s figuring several hundred dollars per day. The crooked casino deal Saul brokered (which was brilliant) probably laundered more money already than the carwash would in years. > > I would think a convenience store or a liquor store or even cheap rental properties would do a better job than a carwash. They could probably launder a lot more than that per day. Also, they were talking about buying another car wash before shit got real so the medium term plan was probably to start a business empire with a bunch of shops. They probably also use some of that cash for their walking around spending money which admittedly isn’t going to be much. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/191 "2013-08-20T21:29:12Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I never did understand the wisdom of a car wash. How much could you conceivably launder in a year without raising too many eyebrows? $100,000 tops, maybe- that’s figuring several hundred dollars per day. The crooked casino deal Saul brokered (which was brilliant) probably laundered more money already than the carwash would in years. > > I would think a convenience store or a liquor store or even cheap rental properties would do a better job than a carwash. With a liquor store you can only sell as much booze as you can produce reciepts to show you bought in the first place. With a car wash who’s to say how many cars came through on a given day? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/192 "2013-08-20T22:06:39Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > They could probably launder a lot more than that per day. Also, they were talking about buying another car wash before shit got real so the medium term plan was probably to start a business empire with a bunch of shops. > > They probably also use some of that cash for their walking around spending money which admittedly isn’t going to be much. Good points. There was mention of a planned trip to Europe, which I thought at first could be a great way to use some of the unlaundered money on extravagant five star restaurants and so on. But then it occurred to me that it would be risky to transport large amounts of cash overseas. (Although I guess maybe they could arrange for the Czech connection to provide them some money on site.) But so maybe the best idea would be to go places like Las Vegas or New York, and just go wild with big nights out on the town, paying cash for Cristal and insanely expensive appetizers made with truffles and gold leaf. And speaking of Vegas, wouldn’t that be another way to launder some of the money? You go to the high roller roulette wheel and pick a single number and bet over and over on it. Then when you occasionally hit, you get a big payout and presumably some kind of tax paperwork from the casino. Whereas the individual bets you made that were lost are not kept track of in any way that I know of. So you can have your story be that you are a lucky gambler, and who can prove otherwise? Sure, you have to keep this within reason or it looks way too fishy. But you combine different things: the car wash, some gambling, and then just spending untraceable cash on little luxuries–or big luxuries, as long as they are consumable and not something that converts into merchandise. > [@zoid](#): > > With a liquor store you can only sell as much booze as you can produce receipts to show you bought in the first place. > With a car wash who’s to say how many cars came through on a given day? Great point. Although I guess if they are really going to be careful, they need to run the hoses and dump soap down the drain for a couple hours each day after they close, so if audited, their water bill and consumption of soap will match what a car wash of their level of revenue would use. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/193 "2013-08-20T22:23:31Z")
Pretty sure car washes recycle water. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/194 "2013-08-20T22:26:51Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > And speaking of Vegas, wouldn’t that be another way to launder some of the money? You go to the high roller roulette wheel and pick a single number and bet over and over on it. Then when you occasionally hit, you get a big payout and presumably some kind of tax paperwork from the casino. Whereas the individual bets you made that were lost are not kept track of in any way that I know of. So you can have your story be that you are a lucky gambler, and who can prove otherwise? Sure, you have to keep this within reason or it looks way too fishy. But you combine different things: the car wash, some gambling, and then just spending untraceable cash on little luxuries–or big luxuries, as long as they are consumable and not something that converts into merchandise. You’re over-thinking money laundering via a casino. You get five grand in chips with dirty money, play a bit, and cash out for $4,500 in clean money (which you report on your taxes as gambling profits). The trouble is that the amount have to stay relatively small, and the casinos watch for this. Even if you spread it out time and location-wise, they will catch on. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/195 "2013-08-20T22:39:30Z")
[QUOTE=drastic\_quench] You’re over-thinking money laundering via a casino. You get five grand in chips with dirty money, play a bit, and cash out for $4,500 in clean money (which you report on your taxes as gambling profits). The trouble is that the amount have to stay relatively small, and the casinos watch for this. Even if you spread it out time and location-wise, they will catch on. [/QUOTE] Do casinoes have to report anything over a certain amount to the IRS? I wonder how winnings from foreign casinoes work; obviously Monte Carlo and Macau can’t be compelled to report to the IRS. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/196 "2013-08-20T23:23:48Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > So you can have your story be that you are a lucky gambler, and who can prove otherwise? That pretty much IS his story. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/197 "2013-08-20T23:54:42Z")
all my law education is from movies and TV so I don’t know, but the minute Skyler told hank she needed a lawyer, Hank needed to not do anything else related to her. Additionally, Marie coming over could have serious consequences in any trial. Hank is trying to be the “kind” brother-in-law, but in fact he is an investigating officer critical to the investigation and he cannot be seen to be intimidating a potential witness. At this point his interactions with Skyler have probably poisoned any chance she could be used at all. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/198 "2013-08-21T01:00:42Z")
The lotto ticket. I can’t see it staying in the same place. But I also can’t see Walt forgetting the coordinates. He’s too smart with too good a memory. The ticket is a backup of some sort. I see Hank getting Jesse to talk, only to have other cops watching behind the mirror who think that Hank is trying to shut the witness up and Hank being seen as an accomplice before he tells the boss. I don’t think Walt will live through it. He will die shortly after picking up the ricin from something blowing back on him, the same way he forgot about the Leaves of Grass edition. Can anyone say whether Walt knew about the inscription? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/199 "2013-08-21T01:06:02Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I see Hank getting Jesse to talk, only to have other cops watching behind the mirror who think that Hank is trying to shut the witness up and Hank being seen as an accomplice before he tells the boss. Interesting theory! Does anyone else think that taller cop with the shaved head is an awesome character? I loved him in S4 and am really glad to see him back. > [@Smeghead](#): > > That pretty much IS his story. Right, but he doesn’t have any paperwork or witnesses. And actually, he is claiming to have counted cards or been a poker shark or something. The roulette wheel would have to be pure luck, but it would also allow you to theoretically win a large amount of money in one spin without having to have a huge bankroll. > [@drastic\_quench](#): > > You’re over-thinking money laundering via a casino. You get five grand in chips with dirty money, play a bit, and cash out for $4,500 in clean money (which you report on your taxes as gambling profits). The trouble is that the amount have to stay relatively small, and the casinos watch for this. Even if you spread it out time and location-wise, they will catch on. Why would the casinos care? This is profit for them. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580/200 "2013-08-21T01:28:01Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Is this actually true? I thought it was just that a person can’t be \*forced \*to testify against their spouse, not that they can’t give evidence _at all._ 😕 > [@Marley23](#): > > I think the theory here was that Walt would have the ability to block her testimony because of spousal privilege. [I’m not sure that’s true because I’m having difficulty with the Wikipedia entry here.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spousal_privilege) There are situations in which either spouse can say a communication was privileged - meaning here that Skyler could refuse to testify against Walt OR Walt could block her from testifying to certain things. However the situation may be different in federal cases: if I’m reading correctly Skyler could refuse to testify if she didn’t want to, but Walt (as the defendant) would not be able to block that testimony. > > I think it’s more likely Walt places his phone call and Skyler says she’s not going with him. But that’s just me. Under federal law, there are two different types of spousal privileges. The first, is the privilege from giving adverse testimony. This privilege prevents the government from compelling a person to testify against his or her spouse in a criminal trial. The privilege can only be asserted by the spouse testifying. If Skyler wanted to testify against Walt, the privilege would not apply. It would only apply if Skyler did not want to testify against Walt and the government wanted to compel her testimony (e.g. using a subpoena). The second privilege is the marital communications privilege. This applies to confidential communications between spouses during the marriage. The privilege can be asserted by both spouses. Walt could use this privilege to prevent Skyler from testifying about anything he said to her in a confidential conversation. Confidential generally means that the conversation only took place between the two spouses. If Walt and Sklyer said something in front of Walt Jr., it would not be considered confidential. The biggest draw back of the spousal communications privilege (besides the large number of exceptions) is that it only applies to communications - not actions. Skyler can testify to Walt bringing her millions of dollars if she wanted to, and about her entire money laundering operation. Skyler can also testify to any threats that Walt made against her, because threats from one spouse to another is one of the exceptions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-10-buried-8-18-13/666580.md?page=11)