# Crooked billionaires...where do you put your money?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crooked-billionaires-where-do-you-put-your-money/611943>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 6, 2012, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crooked-billionaires-where-do-you-put-your-money/611943 "2012-02-06T06:17:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crooked-billionaires-where-do-you-put-your-money/611943/1 "2012-02-06T06:17:58Z")

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When reading about this guy [Forbes List Directory](http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_Joaquin-Guzman-Loera_FS0Y.html), I became curious as to what this guy actually _does_ with all his ill-gotten gains. Does he launder all of it somehow and invest that money legitmately? Or are the just mountains of cash somewhere in Mexico? This man is an actual billionaire from selling coke. Where _are_ those billions of dollars, exactly?

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**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crooked-billionaires-where-do-you-put-your-money/611943/2 "2012-02-06T09:32:07Z")

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Well, the Cayman Islands are infamous for money laundering. Then there are Swiss bank accounts rich people and corporations have when they are trying to hide how much money they really have.

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**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crooked-billionaires-where-do-you-put-your-money/611943/3 "2012-02-06T09:48:08Z")

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> [@Ambivalid](#):
>
> When reading about this guy [Forbes List Directory](http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_Joaquin-Guzman-Loera_FS0Y.html), I became curious as to what this guy actually _does_ with all his ill-gotten gains. Does he launder all of it somehow and invest that money legitmately? Or are the just mountains of cash somewhere in Mexico? This man is an actual billionaire from selling coke. Where _are_ those billions of dollars, exactly?

Remember the scandal over Wachovia laundering drug money? Or, a bit further back, the brother of President Salinas of Mexico laundering drug money through Citibank? They don’t have warehouses full of cash, their money is all entirely legitimate once it gets to the nearest corrupt bank. Some drug lords even own banks. Others fly planeloads of cash to the Caymans, or whatever secrecy jurisdiction is currently in vogue.

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**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crooked-billionaires-where-do-you-put-your-money/611943/4 "2012-02-06T13:42:51Z")

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One word: [plastics](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHGCvJjat1E&feature=related).

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**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crooked-billionaires-where-do-you-put-your-money/611943/5 "2012-02-06T13:57:06Z")

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The Secret Service(?) has an large department with fancy computer models trying to track this all down. It’s all part of the "report an transaction over $10,000"plan.