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Why did the government want Bowman’s to be involved with dirty money?
The American had channelled $20 billion into aid in Russia in an attempt to keep the Russians sweet and on side. The Russian mafia kidnapped a Russian government worker and tortured him until he revealed the codes needed to transfer the money into their account. They needed to get the money laundered as soon as possible, and so approached Sir Richard at Bowman’s with a proposal.
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Sir Richard immediately informed MI6, but was informed to do as the mafia wanted. Bowman’s had long been the bank the government channelled suspect and secret transactions through, and this time they planned to get their hands on the $20 billion.
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Sir Richard was asked to find someone to make the transfer, who would then cipher the money off into a government account. It couldn’t be Sir Richard, it had to be someone deniable so that if they were caught the government wouldn’t appear to be involved.
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How does money laundering work?
Money Laundering, unsurprisingly, is a term to describe the process of cleaning dirty money. Criminals need to hide the origins of their ill-gotten gains to prevent the money, and the blame, being traced back to them. They have to make the money appear to have legitimate origins. The key to doing this is to get the money moved about as much as possible.
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In the 1920s the mafia in America found they had to cover up the enormous amounts of cash they were amassing in relatively low denomination coins. They did this by starting laundrettes and slot machine companies. These were places you would expect to see a lot of cash in coins, so it was the perfect cover.
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Nowadays, with the growth of computer technology and wire transfers, it has become even easier to hide the origins of money. In seconds large amounts of money can be scattered and sent around the world. It can pass through hundreds of different transactions, through false companies and secret foreign bank accounts. With each transaction it becomes harder to track the money’s journey, and eventually it appears to be clean.
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Why would the government need a 'dirty bank'?
Governments around the world are constantly agreeing financial deals between them. They might be about any number of things, including loans, or sale of armaments. Many of these deals are organised in highly secretive circumstances. In the case of arms deals a government may feel it would not be politically circumspect to be seen to selling weapons to certain countries, or it may actually be illegal. These governments will want the money and the trade, but not want people to know where the money is coming from. This is where they may use a bank such as Bowman's to pass the money through, and cover up any traces of where it has really come from. Ìý
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