How America Became the Money
Laundering Capital of the World
The U.S. is the venue of choice for cartels and kleptocrats. Now lawmakers want to use an agency called FinCEN to do something about it.
Jorge VINUEZA/AFP/Getty Images
May 7, 2021
In March, federal agents raided the Beverly Hills premises of a company called U.S. Private Vaults. According to a subsequent grand jury indictment, U.S. Private Vaults was a money laundering operation where drug dealers and others could anonymously stash fentanyl, guns, and “huge stacks of $100 bills” in safe deposit boxes. U.S. Private Vaults didn’t really bother to hide its business, boasting in ads, “We don’t even want to know your name.” It also shared its strip mall storefront with Gold Business, which allegedly specialized in laundering drug money via purchases of gold.