Crime and the Wash

The juxtaposition of laundry with crime is seemingly classic. Disguising the origins of ill-gotten gains has long been called, “money-laundering.” The process is one of ins-and-outs, putting money in here and taking it out there until its place of germination becomes obscure. Looked at another way, the process is more one of dirtying up the provenance of money so no one can tell where it came from. But the metaphor of washing persists. Kind of gives laundering a bad name.