Let’s suppose you are, as usual, holding the earth hostage with your gigantic Moon (air quotes) laser.
You demand the princely sum of 1 billion dollars from the world governments. After some squabbling over who will chip in what, the UN wire transfers the money to the bank account number you give them. As per your agreement, you activate the self destruct on your Moon base and head back to Earth for a shopping trip.
But wait. Can’t the authorities just freeze the account or even reverse the transaction and get their money back?
Ok, well, a lot of movies have the cliche that you “route the money through thousands of different accounts”, with this process happening in seconds and accompanied by a nifty CGI animation. First of all, doesn’t each wire transfer take at least a day to clear? And second, no matter how many accounts you funnel the money through, can’t the authorities just trace each connection until they get to the final destination?
Inquiring minds must know. With the authorities be there to catch the villain as he tries to spend his ill begotten gains? Will his Platinum debit card be declined when he rings up a few million bucks worth of weapons for his henchmen?