Comment by thecupisblue

It being a crime depends on who you are.

I'm in an EU country where banks go through all the necessary checks.

As someone who worked for a bank, I got hit by the AML check on a larger transaction, delaying it for over 3 months in the end, causing me to have to spend from my companies war chest instead.

Once, I mistakenly sent a large amount of money from my own account to my own account, which I had to spend multiple emails and phonecalls explaining the mistake to the tax authority.

But, we had cases where people illegaly transferred hundreds of thousands/millions of dollars to accounts without anyone reacting.

We have a large amount of real estate that is "bought in cash". It is especially popular among politicians who declare getting a large "loan in cash from their mother" or "their parents collected money for years". When you compare the salaries to the amount of cash earned, it is obviously impossible unless they were genius investors too.

We have corruption cases in which money was transferred from government companies into personal accounts without anyone's knowledge or anyone triggering a check.

These transactions are somehow legitimate and not investigated.

The AML system as it is is not just inefficient, it is suspect to corruption, human error and vindictiveness.