China’s Dirty Money Problem, Explained

(upbeat music) (background chatters) - These people are ghost, authorities don't see absolutely anything.

(bright music) Inside of this bag is a hundred thousand dollars. What should I spend it on? I could buy a fancy orange jacket, I could buy a new drone.

I could buy like really nice antique maps, but actually I can't spend this money 'cause I have a big problem, this money is dirty.

(bright music) No, not like germs, I mean I'm sure there's plenty of those, but it's a different kind of dirty.

This money is dirty because I got it from selling drugs. (bright music) And in fact, I can't spend it because I need to get it back to my bosses in another country.

(Johnny sighs) I could take it to a bank and deposit it, but they'll end up asking questions and report it to the government.

(siren shrieking) I could try to ship it, bring it with me on a flight, but that also can get pretty risky.

(bright music) Ultimately, I need to clean this money, to launder it. It's not gonna be easy though.

(air whooshing) Okay, no, I did not sell drugs to get this money and know it is not dirty and in fact it's not even real.

(bright music) But we'll leave it here to remind us what money looks like, because a lot of money that moves around our world is dirty.

(bright music) - More than $50 million in drug cash vanish from U.S. streets without tripping a single bank alarm, and this was just one city.

Multiply this around the world and you can see how much money is flowing around. - I mean, we're talking, you know, trillions and trillions of dollars.