They are cheating the customers. Nobody knows the real price of a matress. They are buying it for 50 Bucks and selling it for 399 Bucks, saying that orignal price was 700 Bucks.
Every one needs a bed & mattress to sleep on , and you have to replace the mattress every 7-8 years, as the springs sag and you wake up with a sore back... That’s how mattress shops stay in Business!
The margins are insane and the stores are usually owned by the same GM so it gives people the illusion that they could get a better deal across the street, but it’s the same guys. It’s like a car dealership.
There is a large mattress manufacturer in Vietnam. The name of the manufacturer is Kymdan. They are the top latex mattress manufacturer and very well known in Vietnam. About 20 years ago they opened a store near where I lived, in the suburb of Footscray, Melbourne Australia. They have some mattresses and some furniture on display but I have never seen anyone working there let alone customers. This has been the case for many, many years. I have always wondered what they are doing? I am not suggesting any illegal activity here, I just found it quite interesting that you mention mattress stores.
I was once in an Italian restaurant in the Bronx. It was cash only, and they didn't have a printed menu. They would tell you what the specials were, but you could order pretty much whatever you wanted and they would tell you the price. You were also welcome to see the food prep area if you wanted to look at the food before ordering it. There were three or four guys standing around doing nothing in the middle of the afternoon. There were four of us together, and we were the only customers there.
@@robertwilliams3527 I don't remember where it was in the Bronx. We had been visiting a botanical garden, and from there we walked to the restaurant. The people we were with looked up restaurants on Yelp and picked the one we ended up going to.
In my country (Switzerland), there are shops (empty all day) pretending to sell Swss watches to tourists, or (empty) boutiques selling expensive shoes. Another trick: Pop up stores. They open just for a few months, you won't see any customers there, and then they close again. Often, the next pop up store subsequently opens at the same place...
All tourist destinations are filled with these sorts of black businesses. I lived close to a tourist island growing up and I am pretty sure they practiced some sort of human trafficking, coupled with money laundering. The people at these shops on the island would be all foreign workers, especially young ladies, and the shops were not so popular to where I think they could have paid the rent or mortgage. I was in a sort of underground world when I was older and I came across a lot of unsavory things and have come to realize that no matter where you are, there is always an underground world that operates in plain site. So, it’s no surprise that even in a country as nice as Switzerland, you have brazen black business. It’s a sad state the world is in. So much corruption everywhere.
Black businesses, African countries!!!! I live in California and can point out several of these fronts right now. Thai restaurant, self serve car wash, and a never patronaged barber shop. None of them have black owners, black paint, black floors, black walls, etc. Dark money comes in various shades!!! Dark money 😂😂😂!!! Smh, sad as Fudge!!!!!
Politicians launder bribes by getting paid to speak at various functions, like graduations at universities. A "donor" pays the school a large sum, they take a cut, then pay the politician an enormous sum for giving a speech. Also, politicians write books. Organizations, like unions buy truckloads of the books, which might just sit in warehouses. The politician gets a % of the book sales.
@@DerekDavis213 Oh really? How so? The art sales by Hunter Biden is just one way they are laundering the money Joe is getting for selling influence to foreign interests. Along with the 20+ shell companies the biden crime family is using to launder bribe money.
Best thing during COVID in Germany: everybody could apply for a license to open a Covid test centre and get 18€ per tested person paid by the government. No questions asked. Many of these centres recorded more than 1.000 people tested per day when in reality, there were none.
@@samsperformance4930 at the beginning - no. Later they had to, but as long as this person really existed, noone ever prooved if it was tested this day. There where "centers" in private flats with hundreds of "costumers" a day. Some "costumers" where tested up to 50 times a week.... It was insane and also everybody knows what happend, there are very little legal proceedings - and if, then there is it against unemployed people how lived of wellfare for years and than had several centers and made 250.000+ euros a month without even having a company-bank-acount; so finally the bank itself shout down the bankaccount and gave report to the police.... It was insane.
Here in the UK we have (in the last few years) seen the establishment of Turkish Barbers shops all over the country. Every town has several Turkish Barbers and larger towns and cities have dozens or even scores of them. The small town I live in used to have three barbers shops, there are now nine, all but one are Turkish. Most of the new shops are large, well-appointed and in prime locations. Most of these new establishments employ perhaps six or more people, all young Turkish men and, strangely, they have a rapid turnover of staff. I find it quite peculiar that the men of this town are not looking much smarter in appearance now, although this might be because this superfluity of barbers spend much of the day sitting outside their respective shops smoking and chatting. It would be highly cynical of me to suggest that many of these establishments are fronts for money laundering, people smuggling and other illegal pursuits, from what I can see the government and police don't seem to think so.
My guess is that they are running several crimes together. In the US it would be : Human trafficking, drug trafficking, providing pretend jobs for illegal immigrants for their citizenship application, with the money laundering. All cash businesses.
Green Lanes, North London - it's basically a barbershop and restaurant paradise. I know kebab is amazing but you can walk for half an hour and you're still passing by restaurants, with more popping up every year, forget covid or the cost of living. Also, non-chain cafes/social clubs and nail salons, as the video says. Young guys chilling at the outdoors tables at all hours of the day... They're not even trying :-D I thought of another one: (non-chain) phone/electronics shops. Lots of them, not that many customers, staying in business in prime locations. How about charity shops? You can totally fub the price of donated clothes and most people pay cash. edit: forgot bookies and (janky) antiques shops. There's one on my street. I don't think I've ever seen anyone go in bar the owner but it's still in business.
i moved back to my native country this year Congo, from Canada, to start my tech businesses. Congo (DRC) is estimated to have 80-90% of its economy is corrupted. Money laundering is so common here, people don't even see it as bad anymore, and worse, the government is on it too. It's sad because it makes you wonder if an economy can build itself like this, especially one of such extreme poverty.
Some of these are way too stressful. From experience, the easiest way to launder money is through buying stocks or crypto using an FA. They don't really ask questions as they're more interested in your money and when the payouts start coming, it's clean money. Funny thing is that you even get to still make a lot of profit on that money if you use a good one.
Nice... This makes a lot of sense... I've been considering going into this stock thing for sometime now but not for the reasons you mentioned... Heard its a nice way to make some extra funds... How do you get a good F.A and how expensive are they...
I don't judge man lol. You should start by looking out for those with strong records. Also, make sure the person is registered. Personally, I use Michael, Allen Eckrich. He's not so popular but he's good. And from my experience, they're usually way cheaper than you would expect.
In the early 2000s, I had a dream about a pot dealer who owned an apartment complex with 6x8 unit buildings. He grew pot in some of the units and sold it about 90 miles away in a large city. He took the cash and purchased 48 money orders at a "very profitable" convenience store he also owned. Deposited them as rental income at the bank no questions asked. Kept the parking lot of the complex full of non working junk cars to keep up appearances. By the end of that dream he hadn't been caught.
@@makenocommento-kj4gq 'Twas but a fleeting mirage, lost to the sands of time. My comment was just the vague highlights, barely remembered upon my waking stupor and some 20 years thenceforth...
In Singapore, there's this one old mall in the heart of city center Orchard Road. The mall is almost empty most of the time and people go there just to have a meal in a few of the restaurants there. They have every type of shops you could think of money laundering. Body massage & spa parlor, nail salon, buying and selling crystal jade, bridal shop, no-brand women clothes store, and consultant agency.
In 2003 or so I hired a taxi to take me from the airport to the Hilton. He took me to Orchard Towers instead. I did not enter the building and needed another taxi to take me to the Hilton.@@nousername3532
My wife and I agree that a local popcorn store is actually a money laundering site. No customers, expensive product and all the businesses surrounding them went out of business.
I think that jewellers are a pretty obvious one. People don’t buy gold chains and rings like they used to but these businesses never seem to be affected.
in Worcester UK, we have a street FULL of Polish & Romanian supermarkets, Turkish Kebab shops, Turkish hairdressers, electronics shop with laptops from 10 years ago, a small stripclub and a mattress store that never makes any sales. There are ALWAYS expensive BMW's and Mercedes parked in this street owned by drug dealers using these stores to launder money. Every single store in this street. Yet the police do nothing about it..... and fine people for driving 31mph.
In my city, it’s pet shop (there are 5 per shops at my area, but I’ve barely seen anyone living here keep any pets), gym (filled with old equipments, dont need any memberships, charge 5 bucks in local currency per entry), and restaurants (a restaurant here have 5/6 items on the menu, but taste wise it’s ok, it was supposed to be a front for money laundering, but it turned out to be a pretty successful business because of the location and price point)
10 years back, it was fro-yo (frozen yogurt) stores in my area. You could find 5 of them within 5 minutes of walking on the same road. None of them survived for more than a year though, authorities were on to them from the beginning. Financial services and casinos are missing from the list!
I once had a job in Edmonton, London UK and on my way to and from work noticed there were second-hand furniture shops that were perpetually locked shut but were presumably able to pay the rent for years. Even then I thought they were probably money laundering fronts :)
Same with those discount everything must go!! Perfume shops that have no prices on anything. I’ve been suckered before in to buying fancy shaving cream and a nail kit for a ridiculous price in Vancouver I was cornered by a rather attractive young Romanian girl in this fancy pop up store to get out of there I made a purchase.
We have those. Constantly "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE" only to close and reopen a month later--under a different name but all the same product. They don't care about selling furniture, no pressure sales, etc. They are being paid to sit there and make it look legit.
There's an Indian restaurant near my friend. There's only ever one car in the parking lot and it's the same car. She went in once to get food. The food wasn't bad, but wasn't great. She thinks they had to defrost it. We're pretty sure they're laundering money. They've been there for decades.
Here is a good one. I live in Evanston Illinois which is a prestigious suburb that borders Chicago and is right on Lake Michigan. it is also home to the very prestigious School Northwestern University. I am a cigar smoker and now and then I would pop into a local cigar store to see what they had. I was always amazed at how shitty the selection was, how dry the cigars were, and how indifferent the store clerk was to my business. I wondered how the hell these guys could possibly stay in business. it turns out that it was a front for drug dealers. obviously, people could walk in and out and it didn't look weird on a retail district. one day a SWAT team of the cops came in, and then had a shootout and killed a few of the owners. That was the only time I ever saw a front business right under my nose. Presto no cigar store exists there now!
I was gonna day in Chicago vapor and glass store can't be legit. I get some stuff from there, but i doubt they would be able to pay for premium locations if they are empty most of the time.
There is a clothes shop in my area which totally looks like a front for money laundering or something seedy. There are barely any customers in it, the clothes it sells are old-fashioned AF, the owners place plastic covers on the hanger racks to keep off dust (!) and prices are written on shoddy pieces of cardboard. And there it is, more than a decade open and counting.
I saw three apparent money-laundering operations in a South American country. A clothing store that had a large staff of beautiful girls, an adress on the most expensive block in town, inventory priced very high, but clothes kept leaving the store by the back door at close of day (no cameras anywhere), but never any customers. A pizza joint owned by a customs officer that had very few customers but a large staff, and lastly, a University, talk about selling an intangible! Students mostly hung out on the street during 'classes' and almost all were on scholarships when you talked to them, especially the models, but classes had thirty people registered but fifteen who stopped by even once. The professors also regularly didn't show up and had a student prepare a lesson for if anyone showed up.
Other Business's that maybe used as Money Laundering 1. Solicitors/Law Firms who have Trust accounts 2. Pawn Brokers/ Payday Lenders 3. Construction Firms. 4. Smaller Style Grocery stores 5. Mechanic's and Panel Beaters 6. Car Yards 7. Pharmacies 8. Music Festival's especially those that are smaller + underground, In Australia a very well known Outlaw Motorcycle Group would invest in Dance/Music Festivals sell tickets, provide secure car parking, sell food and Drinks and sell Drugs all for Cash$$$
5 & 6 = 🎯🎯🎯 ▪︎ Especially when they keep odd hours ▪︎Or when the 👨🔧...(usually called s'thing like Mehmet or Omar 🤷🏽♀️😅)...insists the shop/business ISN'T his. But belongs to his "brother-in-law". ▪︎ (Or other times, it'll be an Uncle.) Eitherway...said 'Owner'...is conveniently NEVER in the country. ▪︎ But ALWAYS "currently back home* attending a wedding." * The Country regarded as "home" varying from week to week.
Small mom/pop movie theatres. I'm skeptical about that one, cause its a huge hassle, lot of labor to run a place like that. The "janky horror" theatre near me has a loyal clientele, they rotate some rather esoteric stuff around for a week or so on their one screen and play the old "blockbusters" for a few weeks on their other screen. This year, 30 years of Jurassic Park. God they made bank for that month or two. This Halloween its the Hocus Pocus/Nightmare Before Christmas double header. They keep the place clean, replaced all the chairs, upgraded the projectors/sound system, I mean its IMPRESSIVE for one small and one decent sized theatres. $8 tickets with $2 small popcorn and $2 all you can drink cokes. I think that they rent most of the building to a gym and a church keeps the lights on for them.
Antiques and exotic home decor shops in expensive retail space like New York City. These shops are completely empty no matter what time and date you pass by. You usually find like weird looking sculptures, chandeliers and furniture. Who’s buying this stuff? Definitely not the residents of that neighborhood as it’s mainly studio and 1-bedroom apartments.
I have noticed that there are some shops in the high streets selling useless items and have no customers at all. Sometimes you don't see any staff in the shop and they don't seem to care if people steal their goods. I find it quite amusing that these shops can survive.
"So basically, Jimmy, my business is video game arcades, laundry, cigarette machines...and trucking. I dabble a little bit in personal loans and politics." "I think that all that really matters is that the kids are happy together."
Add Shisha-Lounges and Barbershops to the list. Also Kebab 🥙 Stands, Thrift stores for used mobile phones. In certain areas of Berlin, entire high streets are made up of these shops.
Here in Central Bogota there were flash shops selling expensive sports items and toys for 3-4 months and later on just disappeared. That was like a jackpot for sports enthusiasts. Here in Colombia drug dealers don’t care for recovering just 60-70% of money invested on those items being sold. They want as much money back in a short time.
The buying an air freshener for $1 and selling for $15 sounds a lot, and I mean a LOT, like any marked-up item in a hospital. There's no way a couple of aspirin that sell for a penny a piece at Dollar Tree are now suddenly worth $60 for two, just because it's now "prescribed".
Small, dusty shops selling old collectibles, LPs and miscellaneous what-nots. The stores are all centrally-located in an old mall right in the middle of the city, yet sees little to no footfall. Also, the stores are open only two or three days each week for a few hours. There's just no way that a normal business would be able to keep their lights on given the operating costs in the city.
In California, there are many Korean and Chinese stores that is hardly visited by the public but continue to stay in business. There was one Chinese food court in Arcadia that sells dried fish for $300 a piece and nobody buys them but still stay in business. There plenty of Korean bookstores that nobody goes to but are still in business.
I always look at those places that sell Chinese pottery. Most everything in these is listed at something like 90% off. You know it was even cheaper. So you say that a tacky Chinese vase you bought for 50 bucks was sold for $1000. You can even throw the original in the dumpster if you really want.
There is a high-end restaurant in my town that is one prime real estate and must be paying high rent. It's always empty and yet has remained open over 10 years now.
Ever walked down a street in London UK and every store is a mobile phone repair shop you gotta be questioning what is going on. It’s like those cafes that no one ever goes into but always opened but no one goes in or out. Also in Bangkok walk around most areas how many Russian and Polish restaurants are there it’s insane they’re all fronts for Russian and Polish mafia operations.
Well, I have to say fireworks stores are probably at the top of the list. They are open year-round but their sales are concentrated a few weeks before July 4th celebrations..
In the US they continue to catch the Indian convenience store owners under reporting sales avoiding paying tax. I have seen them load up on merchandise at the grocery and resale it at their gas station / Liquor store. They just arrested three Indians for not paying tax on five million in sales. They should deport all immigrants caught committing felonies.
I worked for a short while at a manufacturer of a food product that worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I asked one worker, why are you stacking everything against the loading dock door? He said that they never sold anything, never saw the doors open in the years that he worked there. The owner wouldn't give me a key to the front door, had this one room that had these antiques and stuff in there and told me never to go in there. He wanted to install another machine to make more product, it was bizarre, the first thing that I thought was that it was some form of smuggling or money laundering of some sort. I quit after a couple of weeks as I was sketched out, like maybe he was smuggling drugs or something.
Some mobile phone stores are in small storefronts. There are a few dummy phones (models pretending to be smartphones) on display, and very few staff and fewer customers. If you do come in thinking that it is an actual phone store, you’ll be quoted a plan that is more expensive than what you are paying T-Mobile or AT&T. The staff won’t be able to tell you what’s included in the plan because there is no plan. The stores are fronts for other businesses.
This. Last year I walked into a cellphone store to buy one and the saleswoman told me that they didn't have any device in store. When I pointed at the phones in display and asked her if they sold those ones, she simply said no. The store closed less that a year later.
I went to a Chinese restaurant in a downtown metro to pickup food delivery. It was noon on a Friday. People are walking around everywhere, it's a high traffic corner. Then I go inside, it's big for a downtown restaurant, it sits probably 75 people. Tables set with white linen. And there is absolutely no one in the place. Totally empty. I try to check in, but there is no hostess. I was about to unassign when a guy walks out from the kitchen. "10 more minutes". He didn't have to ask the name on the order, he only has one. So, I'm thinking, is this place grossly over priced to keep people away? I look at a to go menu on the counter. No, everything seems normal. It had to be a front. No one can pay downtown rent in a major metro & operate with no customers. The guy wasn't in a hurry at all. It was high paying, which is why I was willing to wait. But never seen anything like it.
Once upon a time I and my 18 y.o. son were looking to buy him an inexpensive previously owned car in a shady district in Denver , Colorado on Colfax .I was really shocked how many dealerships there were, and most of them have had just several cars to choose from. That were truly money laundering enterprises with their sales persons looking like a small potato mobs.....
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I already knew half of those these businesses were obvious. I wish you included small convenient stores. I know dozens of them with barely any customers but they last for decades.
Two ways that they skim money is if you are on food stamps and want to buy, say some liquor. They will double the price and charge it as a food item. Some are beneficial and won't scam you too much, but those are rare. This happens at some food trucks also, they will cash out your food stamps for cash, like 50%. Another would become payee for street people. He talked an old guy into cashing out his stock portfolio and giving him the money. Then when he came into the store to buy something, he'd deduct it. In a couple of weeks, the store owner had scammed the old dude out of 50k, told him he didn't have any credit left!
For a couple of years there was a massive Yum Cha place which was part of a shopping complex where I lived. Barely had 3 customers a day, but luxuriously done up interior. The writing was on the wall
I work for a bank and we have a donut shop that everyone does like to go to in our area but I see the deposits that it makes and I highly doubt that there business generates thousands of dollars in cash that they deposit and put some into a safe deposit box on a weekly basis.
We had a Halloween store that was opened all year long. Hardly anyone went in and they were open for 30+ years. There was a furniture store across the street that was open for years, yet not many people went in or purchased large ticket items. No-one suspected a thing, but I had a feeling things were less than legit.
Mattress only stores, there are six of them within a one mile radius of me, drive by them and you'll never see anyone inside them, but they're always open.
The Indian restaurant down the road has been open for 25 years despite an empty parking lot … always. I’ve been suspect all these years. Hunter’s paintings … 😂 surely suspicious
Based on the comments, this video needs to explain what money laundering is. Money laundering is "concealing the origin of illegally obtained money". For example, say you make a lot of money selling drugs. How do you get $100k in cash into your bank account, so you can pay your mortgage or VISA bill with it? You need to run it through a business that does a lot of cash transactions, and then deposit your drug cash as income. Due to the nature of the business, that will not look too suspicious. Laundromats, vending machines, strip clubs, bars, etc, are great for that. (Candy stores, though... really?) Additionally, you generate a lot of false expenses (fake invoices for repairs, etc,. things that are hard to trace) and deduct it off your income, so you don't have to pay too much income tax on it. (Or pay your business expenses with your drug cash, then your regular income is clean and you can take it to the bank.) Although they didn't explain it completely there either, watch the TV show Ozark to see money laundering. Things like a mattress stores are curious, because they are often so empty, but people don't pay cash for mattresses. Not good for laundering money. Mattress stores have huge margins, like 400%, so if they sell one or two a day, that's enough to make the business work.
There's a pizza place in the West Side of Buffalo, NY that has Lexus SUVs for their delivery vehicles. They legitimately have great pizza, but not so great that pizza could justify the cost of $60k vehicles to use to deliver their pizzas. Those in the know locally, know that it is a front for the local mob. Despite being in one of the rougher areas of the city, never have gotten robbed.
There needs to be an SNL sketch where a busload of tourists decides to patronize one of these businesses. Cue comical chaos as the employees and owner frantically rush around trying to keep the customers happy while an FBI agent watches suspiciously in the background. A followup skit could have the tourists giving multiple five star ratings to the business, causing a boom in demand. The business is forced to neglect its criminal side while attending to the legitimate customers, causing difficulties for the underworld. An unhappy mob boss shows up and gets swarmed by happy customers complimenting the business. Cue suppressed murderous rage as the boss realizes he dare not cause trouble in front of witnesses (and the FBI agent smirks at him in the background).
Those candy stores in London got raided by police and were charged. Guess what they got charged for ? Selling out of date candy. They could not get them on anything else.
Used car dealerships are used to launder money in my city. Most of them provide rental services too so there’s the other method. When you can rent/buy a few months old “used” G63 AMG from a shack you know they up to something.
I'm pretty sure a lot of those clothing stores that sell scrubs, levis, dickies, and other generic clothes around DTLA are fronts. How is it possible these stores stay open when the entire street is filled with stores selling the EXACT same things. And they're all cash only with very minimal record keeping on sales. There's no receipt and they just write it down on a notebook lol. And then there's these furniture stores that I rarely see people shop at that have been around for over 20+ years. You know something shady has to be going on at those places.
Mattress Firm. There is like five or six stores in my town of 80,000. Plus there is other companies selling mattresses, and if coarse you can buy mattresses online.
People probably go to Mattress Firm to personally try out the mattress, then search for the best deal online. I have to agree though, that 5-6 in a town of 80K is a bit much.
In London, UK. There's a street called Brick Lane, E1. On this street, there's a small part of it next to the mosque, where the restaurants which cater to mostly white people. These restaurants are always open and rarely busy, they are all owned by one group of people and are used to funnel drug money. Even if you go to another spot: Shadwell E1, there cash and curry groceries under train tracks that are all front for laundering operations. There's even a couple other spots around like haircut shops, chippies, and of course car garages that operate to launder money.
Sometimes i wonder when i walk past the same boutique in malls where you never see customer and yet they have different "collections" for different season. Mall rentals are not cheap so these boutiques are kinda sus.
Laundromats had one problem that the IRS found out about, and that was the amount of water a washer uses. A top loading Maytag or Speed Queen uses about 15 gallons of water per load. Oh so the water bill is too low? They must be laundering more than clothes! Now, the timers are electronic and record how many washes are paid for. Wrecking yards are suspicious to me. They buy a car, maybe sell a few parts, and then crush it for scrap. Who is to say what parts they sold? Just a tail light, or did they sell the engine and transmission also?
I’ve figured out that most wrecking yards don’t have set prices for parts. Ask one employee how much something is, then ask another and it’s totally different. Perfect for vague book keeping.
A laundromat can just let a bathroom sink faucet stay on after hours to bring up the water usage and the electronic timers and load counters on the washers can be easily be altered just like a car's odometer.
Mattress stores, Doughnut Shop & Bowling Alleys - Yeah they have all been busted inthe past! Really though you can use any business to launder money if you wan to try hard enough!!! 😎
Keep in mind that not all businesses that they claim here do illegal stuff. Just a small percentage are actually doing dubious stuff! The rest are legit business! I know for in fact that the nyfx and the New York bank were all doing money laundering in the early 90’s for sure.
I live in a small town in Ireland & there was a takeout that none one ever seemed to order from, had bad reviews but was open for more than a decade…defo gave “front” vibes
I know Car washes have been a prime example for decades. But something weird is happening in the Tampa area. Car washes are springing by the dozen but here's the kicker. 9 out of 10 of these NEW places DON'T ACCEPT CASH only debit credit. I couldn't believe it when a new one opened down the street from me and is card only payment. When I asked why the "owner" said it was for security reasons. Something doesn't make sense.
I'm always surprised by these cellphone accessory shops in huge malls, like how many mobile phone cases must you sell to make rent. And the shop always looks empty
The music business. Drug lords set a bunch of night clubs and entertaiment companies in order to sign artist and hire those to do shows at their locations, inyecting the drug's money as tickets sales, etc.
Actually, I saw churches coming, and I am surprised it was not higher on the list. More than a few houses of worship in Western New York have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, and I can regale everyone with stories from various shuls around town.
Perfume stores. I still can't believe they can manage to afford space in premium malls. Though I have to admit that they did find an out of production scent I like, but the price was so relatively reasonable that it makes me think that they thought I might be investigating them.
There is a small mall near us that had only one anchor store (Macy's) which eventually closed. Among the stores in the mall is a perfume shop. I've never seen anyone in it except a guy sitting behind a counter. Always wondered how they made any money.
It'd be too obvious. (Even a 5yr old knows that pharmacies "sell drugs." 😅) So being a Pharmacy....yet trying 2 🪣🧼🫧 💵💶💸....equivalents taking out a billboard ad saying..."Pls come bust us."
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I'm surprised that mattress stores weren't named. How the hell are they staying in business?
They are cheating the customers. Nobody knows the real price of a matress. They are buying it for 50 Bucks and selling it for 399 Bucks, saying that orignal price was 700 Bucks.
lol mattress stores is a big business and they make alot of money
Every one needs a bed & mattress to sleep on , and you have to replace the mattress every 7-8 years, as the springs sag and you wake up with a sore back... That’s how mattress shops stay in Business!
The margins are insane and the stores are usually owned by the same GM so it gives people the illusion that they could get a better deal across the street, but it’s the same guys. It’s like a car dealership.
There is a large mattress manufacturer in Vietnam. The name of the manufacturer is Kymdan. They are the top latex mattress manufacturer and very well known in Vietnam. About 20 years ago they opened a store near where I lived, in the suburb of Footscray, Melbourne Australia. They have some mattresses and some furniture on display but I have never seen anyone working there let alone customers. This has been the case for many, many years. I have always wondered what they are doing? I am not suggesting any illegal activity here, I just found it quite interesting that you mention mattress stores.
I was once in an Italian restaurant in the Bronx. It was cash only, and they didn't have a printed menu. They would tell you what the specials were, but you could order pretty much whatever you wanted and they would tell you the price. You were also welcome to see the food prep area if you wanted to look at the food before ordering it. There were three or four guys standing around doing nothing in the middle of the afternoon. There were four of us together, and we were the only customers there.
Sounds like there some good.... fellas working there!
Did you stay and eat?
@@gatorhawk1324 Well, we were already seated and hungry, so yes. And the food was very good!
Arthur ave
@@robertwilliams3527 I don't remember where it was in the Bronx. We had been visiting a botanical garden, and from there we walked to the restaurant. The people we were with looked up restaurants on Yelp and picked the one we ended up going to.
In my country (Switzerland), there are shops (empty all day) pretending to sell Swss watches to tourists, or (empty) boutiques selling expensive shoes. Another trick: Pop up stores. They open just for a few months, you won't see any customers there, and then they close again. Often, the next pop up store subsequently opens at the same place...
Can you please help me to come to sweetzerland
All tourist destinations are filled with these sorts of black businesses. I lived close to a tourist island growing up and I am pretty sure they practiced some sort of human trafficking, coupled with money laundering. The people at these shops on the island would be all foreign workers, especially young ladies, and the shops were not so popular to where I think they could have paid the rent or mortgage. I was in a sort of underground world when I was older and I came across a lot of unsavory things and have come to realize that no matter where you are, there is always an underground world that operates in plain site. So, it’s no surprise that even in a country as nice as Switzerland, you have brazen black business. It’s a sad state the world is in. So much corruption everywhere.
@@veravera2535 Good luck !
@@angelinimartiniJesus loves you
Black businesses, African countries!!!! I live in California and can point out several of these fronts right now. Thai restaurant, self serve car wash, and a never patronaged barber shop. None of them have black owners, black paint, black floors, black walls, etc. Dark money comes in various shades!!! Dark money 😂😂😂!!! Smh, sad as Fudge!!!!!
Politicians launder bribes by getting paid to speak at various functions, like graduations at universities. A "donor" pays the school a large sum, they take a cut, then pay the politician an enormous sum for giving a speech.
Also, politicians write books. Organizations, like unions buy truckloads of the books, which might just sit in warehouses. The politician gets a % of the book sales.
Does anyone actually believe that Hunter's "art" sales we not laundering money?
The Library Association also 'recommends books for librarys to purchase to increase sales for 'friends'.
@@The1stDukeDroklar 'art sales' are much less harmful than what drump was doing!
@@DerekDavis213 Oh really? How so? The art sales by Hunter Biden is just one way they are laundering the money Joe is getting for selling influence to foreign interests. Along with the 20+ shell companies the biden crime family is using to launder bribe money.
That is how Hitler got his money from books the Jews bought and burnt.
Little they realize that he would be burn them.
Best thing during COVID in Germany: everybody could apply for a license to open a Covid test centre and get 18€ per tested person paid by the government. No questions asked. Many of these centres recorded more than 1.000 people tested per day when in reality, there were none.
and those so called centers did nt have to state customer's name?
This happened elsewhere. You would check your phone for a nearby testing site, and it would be a mailbox center.
Irresponsible, incompetent government officials spending tax payers money
Covid legislation enabled a lot of corruption.
@@samsperformance4930 at the beginning - no.
Later they had to, but as long as this person really existed, noone ever prooved if it was tested this day.
There where "centers" in private flats with hundreds of "costumers" a day. Some "costumers" where tested up to 50 times a week....
It was insane and also everybody knows what happend, there are very little legal proceedings - and if, then there is it against unemployed people how lived of wellfare for years and than had several centers and made 250.000+ euros a month without even having a company-bank-acount; so finally the bank itself shout down the bankaccount and gave report to the police....
It was insane.
You forgot to mention the government. Federal, state and local.
That's the mob and corporations favorite laundering partners 😂
Government > Mafia
Deadass tho 👹🙄🤣🤷♂️
Best course on how to launder money so far 💯
😂
Alux gives us intros to all aspects of making millions.
😂
Alux helps make you rich okay. Thats their promise😂
I thought the same thing 😂😂😂
Here in the UK we have (in the last few years) seen the establishment of Turkish Barbers shops all over the country. Every town has several Turkish Barbers and larger towns and cities have dozens or even scores of them. The small town I live in used to have three barbers shops, there are now nine, all but one are Turkish. Most of the new shops are large, well-appointed and in prime locations. Most of these new establishments employ perhaps six or more people, all young Turkish men and, strangely, they have a rapid turnover of staff. I find it quite peculiar that the men of this town are not looking much smarter in appearance now, although this might be because this superfluity of barbers spend much of the day sitting outside their respective shops smoking and chatting. It would be highly cynical of me to suggest that many of these establishments are fronts for money laundering, people smuggling and other illegal pursuits, from what I can see the government and police don't seem to think so.
I live in a medium sized town in the south of England. It's the same here.
The legit barbers are busy. The launderers tell you they're appointment only. I'm surprised the authorities don't know this.
Turkish barbers are bases for laundering drug money and doing visa scams.
My guess is that they are running several crimes together. In the US it would be : Human trafficking, drug trafficking, providing pretend jobs for illegal immigrants for their citizenship application, with the money laundering. All cash businesses.
Green Lanes, North London - it's basically a barbershop and restaurant paradise. I know kebab is amazing but you can walk for half an hour and you're still passing by restaurants, with more popping up every year, forget covid or the cost of living. Also, non-chain cafes/social clubs and nail salons, as the video says. Young guys chilling at the outdoors tables at all hours of the day... They're not even trying :-D I thought of another one: (non-chain) phone/electronics shops. Lots of them, not that many customers, staying in business in prime locations. How about charity shops? You can totally fub the price of donated clothes and most people pay cash.
edit: forgot bookies and (janky) antiques shops. There's one on my street. I don't think I've ever seen anyone go in bar the owner but it's still in business.
i moved back to my native country this year Congo, from Canada, to start my tech businesses. Congo (DRC) is estimated to have 80-90% of its economy is corrupted. Money laundering is so common here, people don't even see it as bad anymore, and worse, the government is on it too. It's sad because it makes you wonder if an economy can build itself like this, especially one of such extreme poverty.
RIP
Some of these are way too stressful. From experience, the easiest way to launder money is through buying stocks or crypto using an FA. They don't really ask questions as they're more interested in your money and when the payouts start coming, it's clean money. Funny thing is that you even get to still make a lot of profit on that money if you use a good one.
💯💯
Nice... This makes a lot of sense... I've been considering going into this stock thing for sometime now but not for the reasons you mentioned... Heard its a nice way to make some extra funds... How do you get a good F.A and how expensive are they...
I don't judge man lol. You should start by looking out for those with strong records. Also, make sure the person is registered. Personally, I use Michael, Allen Eckrich. He's not so popular but he's good. And from my experience, they're usually way cheaper than you would expect.
@@kevingood-r3n LMAO
small world. met him at our country club just weeks ago. had to go to his page to confirm that i wasn't mistaken. really small world.
In the early 2000s, I had a dream about a pot dealer who owned an apartment complex with 6x8 unit buildings. He grew pot in some of the units and sold it about 90 miles away in a large city. He took the cash and purchased 48 money orders at a "very profitable" convenience store he also owned. Deposited them as rental income at the bank no questions asked. Kept the parking lot of the complex full of non working junk cars to keep up appearances. By the end of that dream he hadn't been caught.
Sounds like more of a blessing...
@@makenocommento-kj4gq 'Twas but a fleeting mirage, lost to the sands of time. My comment was just the vague highlights, barely remembered upon my waking stupor and some 20 years thenceforth...
AKA....that's some good 💩, u got. Right there!
Great dream
Wouldnt mind hearing about more of your, dreams.
I bet you have some fun ones.
In Singapore, there's this one old mall in the heart of city center Orchard Road. The mall is almost empty most of the time and people go there just to have a meal in a few of the restaurants there. They have every type of shops you could think of money laundering. Body massage & spa parlor, nail salon, buying and selling crystal jade, bridal shop, no-brand women clothes store, and consultant agency.
Orchard Towers?
@@nousername3532 Far East Plaza
In 2003 or so I hired a taxi to take me from the airport to the Hilton. He took me to Orchard Towers instead. I did not enter the building and needed another taxi to take me to the Hilton.@@nousername3532
In Singapore, 24 hr fruit stalls, hand phone shops, $2 shops in HDB estates 😂
maximum 20k cash per "customer" per day. so i bet they launder just slightly less than 10k a week to keep it not sus.
My wife and I agree that a local popcorn store is actually a money laundering site. No customers, expensive product and all the businesses surrounding them went out of business.
I think that jewellers are a pretty obvious one. People don’t buy gold chains and rings like they used to but these businesses never seem to be affected.
They dont just spend all of their gold into jewelry. They save some to sell it in case they go bankrupt
Very good one. Never thought about it but it's obvious.
in Worcester UK, we have a street FULL of Polish & Romanian supermarkets, Turkish Kebab shops, Turkish hairdressers, electronics shop with laptops from 10 years ago, a small stripclub and a mattress store that never makes any sales. There are ALWAYS expensive BMW's and Mercedes parked in this street owned by drug dealers using these stores to launder money. Every single store in this street. Yet the police do nothing about it..... and fine people for driving 31mph.
Of course!
The 🚔 are doing that to slow down sales...🤣🤣🤣
21 mph, you mean.
But we celebrate our rich diversity with these retail outlets.
Just so you know, many of those Polish & Romanian supermarkets are run by Indian, Pakistani or Arab people.
Romania =slavering and human trafficking
@@kazikkozakiewicz9983*eastern European people
In my city, it’s pet shop (there are 5 per shops at my area, but I’ve barely seen anyone living here keep any pets), gym (filled with old equipments, dont need any memberships, charge 5 bucks in local currency per entry), and restaurants (a restaurant here have 5/6 items on the menu, but taste wise it’s ok, it was supposed to be a front for money laundering, but it turned out to be a pretty successful business because of the location and price point)
Here
1.candy stores
2.claw machines & play areas
3.laundromats
4.car wash
5.nail 7 beauty salons
6.restaurants
7.strip-clubs
8.physic readings
9.cash only parking
10.churches
11.art galleries
12.flower shops
13.local cinemas
14.cash to crypto assets
15.fruit and gran stands
Thank you!!!
#7 could be bars/taverns/pubs and strip clubs
Thanks for saving me from hearing the insufferable narration style.
10 years back, it was fro-yo (frozen yogurt) stores in my area. You could find 5 of them within 5 minutes of walking on the same road. None of them survived for more than a year though, authorities were on to them from the beginning. Financial services and casinos are missing from the list!
JP Morgan & HSBC were mentioned
Too obvious to be mentioned?
I once had a job in Edmonton, London UK and on my way to and from work noticed there were second-hand furniture shops that were perpetually locked shut but were presumably able to pay the rent for years. Even then I thought they were probably money laundering fronts :)
Maybe they sell online only.
Same with those discount everything must go!! Perfume shops that have no prices on anything. I’ve been suckered before in to buying fancy shaving cream and a nail kit for a ridiculous price in Vancouver I was cornered by a rather attractive young Romanian girl in this fancy pop up store to get out of there I made a purchase.
Like antique shops, they buy a lot of stolen goods and trade between themselves.
We have those. Constantly "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE" only to close and reopen a month later--under a different name but all the same product. They don't care about selling furniture, no pressure sales, etc. They are being paid to sit there and make it look legit.
There's an Indian restaurant near my friend. There's only ever one car in the parking lot and it's the same car. She went in once to get food. The food wasn't bad, but wasn't great. She thinks they had to defrost it. We're pretty sure they're laundering money. They've been there for decades.
Here is a good one. I live in Evanston Illinois which is a prestigious suburb that borders Chicago and is right on Lake Michigan. it is also home to the very prestigious School Northwestern University. I am a cigar smoker and now and then I would pop into a local cigar store to see what they had. I was always amazed at how shitty the selection was, how dry the cigars were, and how indifferent the store clerk was to my business. I wondered how the hell these guys could possibly stay in business. it turns out that it was a front for drug dealers. obviously, people could walk in and out and it didn't look weird on a retail district. one day a SWAT team of the cops came in, and then had a shootout and killed a few of the owners. That was the only time I ever saw a front business right under my nose. Presto no cigar store exists there now!
That’s sad cause I love cigars and those drug dealers weren’t taking care of their cigars
I was gonna day in Chicago vapor and glass store can't be legit. I get some stuff from there, but i doubt they would be able to pay for premium locations if they are empty most of the time.
There is a clothes shop in my area which totally looks like a front for money laundering or something seedy. There are barely any customers in it, the clothes it sells are old-fashioned AF, the owners place plastic covers on the hanger racks to keep off dust (!) and prices are written on shoddy pieces of cardboard. And there it is, more than a decade open and counting.
🎯
No ways😂
Charity shop, totally legit
I saw three apparent money-laundering operations in a South American country. A clothing store that had a large staff of beautiful girls, an adress on the most expensive block in town, inventory priced very high, but clothes kept leaving the store by the back door at close of day (no cameras anywhere), but never any customers. A pizza joint owned by a customs officer that had very few customers but a large staff, and lastly, a University, talk about selling an intangible! Students mostly hung out on the street during 'classes' and almost all were on scholarships when you talked to them, especially the models, but classes had thirty people registered but fifteen who stopped by even once. The professors also regularly didn't show up and had a student prepare a lesson for if anyone showed up.
That's crazy!
Other Business's that maybe used as Money Laundering
1. Solicitors/Law Firms who have Trust accounts
2. Pawn Brokers/ Payday Lenders
3. Construction Firms.
4. Smaller Style Grocery stores
5. Mechanic's and Panel Beaters
6. Car Yards
7. Pharmacies
8. Music Festival's especially those that are smaller + underground, In Australia a very well known Outlaw Motorcycle Group would invest in Dance/Music Festivals sell tickets, provide secure car parking, sell food and Drinks and sell Drugs all for Cash$$$
5 & 6 = 🎯🎯🎯
▪︎ Especially when they keep odd hours
▪︎Or when the 👨🔧...(usually called s'thing like Mehmet or Omar 🤷🏽♀️😅)...insists the shop/business ISN'T his. But belongs to his "brother-in-law".
▪︎ (Or other times, it'll be an Uncle.) Eitherway...said 'Owner'...is conveniently NEVER in the country.
▪︎ But ALWAYS "currently back home* attending a wedding."
* The Country regarded as "home" varying from week to week.
So basically we've added to the list to include basically type of business there is?
Small mom/pop movie theatres. I'm skeptical about that one, cause its a huge hassle, lot of labor to run a place like that. The "janky horror" theatre near me has a loyal clientele, they rotate some rather esoteric stuff around for a week or so on their one screen and play the old "blockbusters" for a few weeks on their other screen. This year, 30 years of Jurassic Park. God they made bank for that month or two. This Halloween its the Hocus Pocus/Nightmare Before Christmas double header. They keep the place clean, replaced all the chairs, upgraded the projectors/sound system, I mean its IMPRESSIVE for one small and one decent sized theatres. $8 tickets with $2 small popcorn and $2 all you can drink cokes. I think that they rent most of the building to a gym and a church keeps the lights on for them.
Expensive coffee shops, that never have any customers, but the high prices keeps the riff- raff out.
Yeah but the liberal cities say you have to let the homeless hang out, use the free wifi and mess up the bathrooms.
Antiques and exotic home decor shops in expensive retail space like New York City. These shops are completely empty no matter what time and date you pass by. You usually find like weird looking sculptures, chandeliers and furniture. Who’s buying this stuff? Definitely not the residents of that neighborhood as it’s mainly studio and 1-bedroom apartments.
This is one small reason that they are pushing for electronic currency world wide, and planning on getting rid of cash transactions all together.
Exactly
We need to build our own economy.
@@JohnDoe-bt9qp Agreed, like in the book Atlas Shrugged. IT could have been a documentary account of the future.
And then the government could “cancel” you on a whim. No thanks, I like my chances better with cash, gold, and silver.
@@skoodercrunch2821 cash is worthless
I have noticed that there are some shops in the high streets selling useless items and have no customers at all. Sometimes you don't see any staff in the shop and they don't seem to care if people steal their goods. I find it quite amusing that these shops can survive.
Well , this is almost all businesses in the economy 😂😂
"So basically, Jimmy, my business is video game arcades, laundry, cigarette machines...and trucking. I dabble a little bit in personal loans and politics."
"I think that all that really matters is that the kids are happy together."
They forgot her birthday...
Add Shisha-Lounges and Barbershops to the list. Also Kebab 🥙 Stands, Thrift stores for used mobile phones. In certain areas of Berlin, entire high streets are made up of these shops.
16. Golf gears shop
17. Money changers
18. Second hand high end watch shops
19. Construction and infrastructure contrantors
Mattress stores and TV repair shops are BIG money launderers!! 🤣
Who gets a TV repaired nowadays?
@@allwrighty100I was thinking the same thing.... must be located next to the video rental store and the shoe repair shop.
Here in Central Bogota there were flash shops selling expensive sports items and toys for 3-4 months and later on just disappeared. That was like a jackpot for sports enthusiasts. Here in Colombia drug dealers don’t care for recovering just 60-70% of money invested on those items being sold. They want as much money back in a short time.
Alux I think you just taught us a mini course on how to launder money!
Yup
I was taking notes, planning on starting 15 new businesses.
The buying an air freshener for $1 and selling for $15 sounds a lot, and I mean a LOT, like any marked-up item in a hospital. There's no way a couple of aspirin that sell for a penny a piece at Dollar Tree are now suddenly worth $60 for two, just because it's now "prescribed".
Small, dusty shops selling old collectibles, LPs and miscellaneous what-nots. The stores are all centrally-located in an old mall right in the middle of the city, yet sees little to no footfall. Also, the stores are open only two or three days each week for a few hours.
There's just no way that a normal business would be able to keep their lights on given the operating costs in the city.
Same. Mainstreet in my small town is jam packed with these tiny dusty shops which are never open and I have never seen anyone enter.
@@asahearts1 😉
In California, there are many Korean and Chinese stores that is hardly visited by the public but continue to stay in business. There was one Chinese food court in Arcadia that sells dried fish for $300 a piece and nobody buys them but still stay in business. There plenty of Korean bookstores that nobody goes to but are still in business.
I always look at those places that sell Chinese pottery. Most everything in these is listed at something like 90% off. You know it was even cheaper. So you say that a tacky Chinese vase you bought for 50 bucks was sold for $1000. You can even throw the original in the dumpster if you really want.
Vietnamese coffee shops with a gambling room 😊
There is a high-end restaurant in my town that is one prime real estate and must be paying high rent. It's always empty and yet has remained open over 10 years now.
Ever walked down a street in London UK and every store is a mobile phone repair shop you gotta be questioning what is going on. It’s like those cafes that no one ever goes into but always opened but no one goes in or out. Also in Bangkok walk around most areas how many Russian and Polish restaurants are there it’s insane they’re all fronts for Russian and Polish mafia operations.
100% about London. It's also heartening to know you can get your borscht and pierogi in Bangkok, haha.
@@bogdiworksV2 Made me hungry for borscht and pierogi! 😃
Well, I have to say fireworks stores are probably at the top of the list. They are open year-round but their sales are concentrated a few weeks before July 4th celebrations..
In the US they continue to catch the Indian convenience store owners under reporting sales avoiding paying tax. I have seen them load up on merchandise at the grocery and resale it at their gas station / Liquor store. They just arrested three Indians for not paying tax on five million in sales. They should deport all immigrants caught committing felonies.
It's not only the income tax they don't pay, but also the pocket the sales tax collected as well.
I am opening up new doors for the “unknown” world thanks to this channel…
Every mattress place in America must be a money launderer. No one is ever in those stores.
Thanks for giving me ideas Alux 😉
The art gallery sounds genius 🤯
I worked for a short while at a manufacturer of a food product that worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I asked one worker, why are you stacking everything against the loading dock door? He said that they never sold anything, never saw the doors open in the years that he worked there. The owner wouldn't give me a key to the front door, had this one room that had these antiques and stuff in there and told me never to go in there. He wanted to install another machine to make more product, it was bizarre, the first thing that I thought was that it was some form of smuggling or money laundering of some sort. I quit after a couple of weeks as I was sketched out, like maybe he was smuggling drugs or something.
What exactly was the "food product"?
Good decision to quit.
Where ?
@@Neoluddism It was the edge of Gardena and Compton, SoCal
Some mobile phone stores are in small storefronts. There are a few dummy phones (models pretending to be smartphones) on display, and very few staff and fewer customers. If you do come in thinking that it is an actual phone store, you’ll be quoted a plan that is more expensive than what you are paying T-Mobile or AT&T. The staff won’t be able to tell you what’s included in the plan because there is no plan. The stores are fronts for other businesses.
This. Last year I walked into a cellphone store to buy one and the saleswoman told me that they didn't have any device in store. When I pointed at the phones in display and asked her if they sold those ones, she simply said no. The store closed less that a year later.
In most caribbean islands, laundering is the main economic driver. Not tourism, that's just a cover.
Explains those big expensive yachts and palaces built high up on the hill sides.
I went to a Chinese restaurant in a downtown metro to pickup food delivery. It was noon on a Friday. People are walking around everywhere, it's a high traffic corner. Then I go inside, it's big for a downtown restaurant, it sits probably 75 people. Tables set with white linen. And there is absolutely no one in the place. Totally empty. I try to check in, but there is no hostess. I was about to unassign when a guy walks out from the kitchen. "10 more minutes". He didn't have to ask the name on the order, he only has one. So, I'm thinking, is this place grossly over priced to keep people away? I look at a to go menu on the counter. No, everything seems normal. It had to be a front. No one can pay downtown rent in a major metro & operate with no customers. The guy wasn't in a hurry at all. It was high paying, which is why I was willing to wait. But never seen anything like it.
As a fellow delivery person, I'd be nervous what i was actually delivering.
How was the food?
Chinese have human organs delicasies as well
Once upon a time I and my 18 y.o. son were looking to buy him an inexpensive previously owned car in a shady district in Denver , Colorado on Colfax .I was really shocked how many dealerships there were, and most of them have had just several cars to choose from. That were truly money laundering enterprises with their sales persons looking like a small potato mobs.....
in and around Chicago, dozens of used car dealers are cartel cash clearing houses
Basically, any business that would fail on normal circumstances but it doesn't no matter what.
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#1 global Art. You missed some other ones like Bakeries especially small ones with steam trays, cash normally up front very easy to launder money.
I already knew half of those these businesses were obvious. I wish you included small convenient stores. I know dozens of them with barely any customers but they last for decades.
They did
True
Two ways that they skim money is if you are on food stamps and want to buy, say some liquor. They will double the price and charge it as a food item. Some are beneficial and won't scam you too much, but those are rare. This happens at some food trucks also, they will cash out your food stamps for cash, like 50%.
Another would become payee for street people. He talked an old guy into cashing out his stock portfolio and giving him the money. Then when he came into the store to buy something, he'd deduct it. In a couple of weeks, the store owner had scammed the old dude out of 50k, told him he didn't have any credit left!
For a couple of years there was a massive Yum Cha place which was part of a shopping complex where I lived. Barely had 3 customers a day, but luxuriously done up interior. The writing was on the wall
I work for a bank and we have a donut shop that everyone does like to go to in our area but I see the deposits that it makes and I highly doubt that there business generates thousands of dollars in cash that they deposit and put some into a safe deposit box on a weekly basis.
More likely, there are some closet, binge-eaters in ur Town. (There are probably A LOT more 🍩 🍩 being sold that u know of.)
I thought it’s illegal to keep cash in a bank safe deposit box?
@@tangyjoe4326so who’s going to know?
My mom just walks-in in my room when the strip club shows, so embarrassing.
😂😂
Bad kitty 😂💀😂
We had a Halloween store that was opened all year long. Hardly anyone went in and they were open for 30+ years. There was a furniture store across the street that was open for years, yet not many people went in or purchased large ticket items. No-one suspected a thing, but I had a feeling things were less than legit.
Mattress only stores, there are six of them within a one mile radius of me, drive by them and you'll never see anyone inside them, but they're always open.
And they always have a sale going on.
Thanks for the info. I will be sure to open 15 LLCs this week.
😅 go for online stores and lemme know when done 👍
Should take you all of 15 minutes to open 15 LLC.
The Indian restaurant down the road has been open for 25 years despite an empty parking lot … always. I’ve been suspect all these years.
Hunter’s paintings … 😂 surely suspicious
Based on the comments, this video needs to explain what money laundering is. Money laundering is "concealing the origin of illegally obtained money". For example, say you make a lot of money selling drugs. How do you get $100k in cash into your bank account, so you can pay your mortgage or VISA bill with it? You need to run it through a business that does a lot of cash transactions, and then deposit your drug cash as income. Due to the nature of the business, that will not look too suspicious. Laundromats, vending machines, strip clubs, bars, etc, are great for that. (Candy stores, though... really?) Additionally, you generate a lot of false expenses (fake invoices for repairs, etc,. things that are hard to trace) and deduct it off your income, so you don't have to pay too much income tax on it. (Or pay your business expenses with your drug cash, then your regular income is clean and you can take it to the bank.) Although they didn't explain it completely there either, watch the TV show Ozark to see money laundering.
Things like a mattress stores are curious, because they are often so empty, but people don't pay cash for mattresses. Not good for laundering money. Mattress stores have huge margins, like 400%, so if they sell one or two a day, that's enough to make the business work.
There's a pizza place in the West Side of Buffalo, NY that has Lexus SUVs for their delivery vehicles. They legitimately have great pizza, but not so great that pizza could justify the cost of $60k vehicles to use to deliver their pizzas. Those in the know locally, know that it is a front for the local mob. Despite being in one of the rougher areas of the city, never have gotten robbed.
The best 9 minute video on how to launder money by using different businesses.
Anyway, Thanks alux for the content.
There is one place in Rome where a big church keeps its own bank running. That Bank!!!! OMG. They are the Kings of this business!!!
There needs to be an SNL sketch where a busload of tourists decides to patronize one of these businesses. Cue comical chaos as the employees and owner frantically rush around trying to keep the customers happy while an FBI agent watches suspiciously in the background.
A followup skit could have the tourists giving multiple five star ratings to the business, causing a boom in demand. The business is forced to neglect its criminal side while attending to the legitimate customers, causing difficulties for the underworld. An unhappy mob boss shows up and gets swarmed by happy customers complimenting the business. Cue suppressed murderous rage as the boss realizes he dare not cause trouble in front of witnesses (and the FBI agent smirks at him in the background).
Not a bad idea.
Those candy stores in London got raided by police and were charged.
Guess what they got charged for ?
Selling out of date candy. They could not get them on anything else.
I didn't see insurance underwriters on the list and they are some of the largest.
Used car dealerships are used to launder money in my city. Most of them provide rental services too so there’s the other method.
When you can rent/buy a few months old “used” G63 AMG from a shack you know they up to something.
Peanuts, go ask government agencies who manage tax money, and send it abroad as "aid", what a real laundry is.
I'm pretty sure a lot of those clothing stores that sell scrubs, levis, dickies, and other generic clothes around DTLA are fronts. How is it possible these stores stay open when the entire street is filled with stores selling the EXACT same things. And they're all cash only with very minimal record keeping on sales. There's no receipt and they just write it down on a notebook lol.
And then there's these furniture stores that I rarely see people shop at that have been around for over 20+ years. You know something shady has to be going on at those places.
you guys are brave for tackling on this topic. not all people will agree on this though.
They don't have to be brave. It's common knowledge and as long as there's no evidence, the "launderers" have nothing to worry about.
Mattress Firm. There is like five or six stores in my town of 80,000. Plus there is other companies selling mattresses, and if coarse you can buy mattresses online.
People probably go to Mattress Firm to personally try out the mattress, then search for the best deal online. I have to agree though, that 5-6 in a town of 80K is a bit much.
Does government pay taxes from the money they get from taxes and then sending that money to overseas as "Fund to aid X crisis"?
Ukraine
In London, UK. There's a street called Brick Lane, E1. On this street, there's a small part of it next to the mosque, where the restaurants which cater to mostly white people. These restaurants are always open and rarely busy, they are all owned by one group of people and are used to funnel drug money.
Even if you go to another spot: Shadwell E1, there cash and curry groceries under train tracks that are all front for laundering operations.
There's even a couple other spots around like haircut shops, chippies, and of course car garages that operate to launder money.
And probably an area where you can find time by time cheap mobile phones on the floor. Used for just one call and disposed.
Go to Diagon Alley. They can make that money work like magic.
Sometimes i wonder when i walk past the same boutique in malls where you never see customer and yet they have different "collections" for different season. Mall rentals are not cheap so these boutiques are kinda sus.
Laundromats had one problem that the IRS found out about, and that was the amount of water a washer uses. A top loading Maytag or Speed Queen uses about 15 gallons of water per load. Oh so the water bill is too low? They must be laundering more than clothes! Now, the timers are electronic and record how many washes are paid for. Wrecking yards are suspicious to me. They buy a car, maybe sell a few parts, and then crush it for scrap. Who is to say what parts they sold? Just a tail light, or did they sell the engine and transmission also?
I’ve figured out that most wrecking yards don’t have set prices for parts. Ask one employee how much something is, then ask another and it’s totally different. Perfect for vague book keeping.
A laundromat can just let a bathroom sink faucet stay on after hours to bring up the water usage and the electronic timers and load counters on the washers can be easily be altered just like a car's odometer.
@@johntracy72 Sounds like you know a thing or two about this. 😂😂
Mattress stores, Doughnut Shop & Bowling Alleys - Yeah they have all been busted inthe past! Really though you can use any business to launder money if you wan to try hard enough!!! 😎
In the Seattle area there is at least one bowling alley that's also a casino. Prime money laundering operation!
Keep in mind that not all businesses that they claim here do illegal stuff. Just a small percentage are actually doing dubious stuff! The rest are legit business! I know for in fact that the nyfx and the New York bank were all doing money laundering in the early 90’s for sure.
Thanks for the help Aux. Now I will be opening a coffee shop!
No. Open a bank instead. Those are the biggest money launderers
Why not open a synagogue?
@@JohnDoe-bt9qp🤦🏽♂️ (B/c u'd need to close on the sabbath.) 🤣
Motels with ghost guests are ideal and I have seen it in action.
Fireworks stores. They’re everywhere. They’re huge. And how do they sell enough year round to cover overhead? Can’t be legit.
Because I’m not gonna go spend 10k on the 3rd of July ,so like most people I need all year to accumulate the fire works.
Definitely art galleries! And, dare I say it, though you refused to, although it's obvious - Casinos!
Excellent! As a former investigative reporter I had no idea there this many sources of money laundering!
Chinese food restaurants would be good. They never go out of business and hardly any customers, at least in my area.
Yeah I use the Chinese restaurant I own for money laundering, it’s pretty good.
Videos of this channel are so inspiring and informative. Thank you, ALUX.
I live in a small town in Ireland & there was a takeout that none one ever seemed to order from, had bad reviews but was open for more than a decade…defo gave “front” vibes
Alux gotta talk about great American depression, types of people who survived the great American depression
I know Car washes have been a prime example for decades. But something weird is happening in the Tampa area. Car washes are springing by the dozen but here's the kicker. 9 out of 10 of these NEW places DON'T ACCEPT CASH only debit credit. I couldn't believe it when a new one opened down the street from me and is card only payment. When I asked why the "owner" said it was for security reasons. Something doesn't make sense.
#17: Steven Seagal movies.
I'm always surprised by these cellphone accessory shops in huge malls, like how many mobile phone cases must you sell to make rent. And the shop always looks empty
The music business. Drug lords set a bunch of night clubs and entertaiment companies in order to sign artist and hire those to do shows at their locations, inyecting the drug's money as tickets sales, etc.
A smoothie shop, the mix can be dumped down the sink drain and just ring the nonexistent sales into the cash register. Instant clean cash
Actually, I saw churches coming, and I am surprised it was not higher on the list. More than a few houses of worship in Western New York have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, and I can regale everyone with stories from various shuls around town.
🙈🙉🙊
Now I know where my sister got the idea of starting a church
Can you please help me to come to new York
@@nokubongavundla8725 One of the best scams there is.
Perfume stores. I still can't believe they can manage to afford space in premium malls. Though I have to admit that they did find an out of production scent I like, but the price was so relatively reasonable that it makes me think that they thought I might be investigating them.
Good video! You have nailed it… and captured 90% of the daily lives of people and businesses….
There is a small mall near us that had only one anchor store (Macy's) which eventually closed. Among the stores in the mall is a perfume shop. I've never seen anyone in it except a guy sitting behind a counter. Always wondered how they made any money.
I'm surprised Pharmacies are not on the list.
It'd be too obvious.
(Even a 5yr old knows that pharmacies "sell drugs." 😅)
So being a Pharmacy....yet trying 2 🪣🧼🫧 💵💶💸....equivalents taking out a billboard ad saying..."Pls come bust us."
What’s the point of money laundering? To pay taxes on dirty money?