Laundering money is essentially making money disappear somewhere and reappear somewhere else. A money launderer is therefore like a magician with a wand. Puff the magic dragon... in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg's magic dragons, otherwise known as bankers and lawyers, have been serving their offshore clients since 1929. Today, Luxembourg enjoys its fair share of roughly 7 trillion US dollars held offshore. It has more than a score of competitors on this planet.

The following flow chart is a sum-up of the money laundering process, which applies to Luxembourg and its competitors alike.

Key terms:

Placement --- To place the dirty money into offshore companies for legitimization.

Layering --- To put on layers of business transactions for obscuring the audit trail.

Integration --- To channel the laundered money back into the economy.

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The long arm of law may finally catch up with a money launderer. Stay tuned.

To be continued...

--- Lingyang Jiang