Mattress stores being money laundering scams is actually kind of a stretch. However, this idea is easy to believe when all of the facts are presented. After explaining this idea to many people, they were very surprised. This idea is easily believed and people are very impressed with the ideas that are fed to them. The argument I hear most is, “How do you know?” and “Why don’t I hear anything about this?” There is a simple answer for this, they are successful. Money launderers who are successful, they continue to money launder. These people never get caught so it is actually very unlikely to hear anything of this if these money launderers are, in fact, successful. The main reason people hold this money is so they do not have to put it in the bank and be deemed as “suspicious.” However, when you want to hide money, but not have any trace of it, old fashioned people usually have the tendency to hide it in their mattresses. The person in charge of this could be old fashioned, and think their idea of hiding it in a mattress is clever. It is, however, should be and soon will be discovered.

                Money laundering would, for most, be hard to understand because it is not commonly detected. It is not a crime like murder, robbery, or rape. Furthermore, it is a crime of motive more than activity. This is why people do not believe this accusation to be true. For example, two people could be doing the exact same thing, and one could be charged for money laundering and one could not. If there is money laundering happening somewhere where someone is actually getting something out of it, there is no denying that anyone wouldn’t say anything about these money laundering scams even if they were suspicious. It is not a popular idea, but it is not completely false either. The way to argue back with people who do not believe the idea of mattress stores being money laundering scams because they deem it as “false” or “too much of a stretch,” is to tell them the facts that aren’t really facts because this idea has not been yet proven true. We cannot say it is false but we cannot say it is true. However, we can prove it to be more true than false. There are more points to argue that this idea is true.

                The question we are all left to wonder after hearing the points on how this idea could be true is, “Why still are there so many stores? Why still is there no one inside?” Like said numerous times, a mattress is a once in a decade purchase, and people every so often are going to need a mattress store. However, there shouldn’t be this much demand on mattresses. There shouldn’t be these many stores within a hundred-foot radius of each other. Once again, they have the money to keep these stores open with the limited number of customers they get each day. The way they have this money, you might be wondering, is from the amount of money they are laundering inside of these stores. The sales on the window is so they draw you in and take your money. They don’t want to look too desperate for money. They want more so they can hide more, but with sale signs to draw you in, they will sooner than later meet their money goal.

                Many people do in fact wonder how these people do not get caught so quickly. From much research, it is not hard, but it is also not easy to track a person involved in money laundering. People who are involved in money laundering are actually very smart and can think of ways to safely, quickly, and secretly clean their money without, obviously, getting caught. People who look for money launderers are looking between the hours of 9 to 5. However, people who do in fact money launder are schemers, and try to work after hours to clean their money so they have less of a chance of getting caught. They always try to find new techniques to “put old wine in new bottles.” To explain, they try and take this dirty money, and make it look like it is not suspicious nor dirty. The whole idea of money laundering is actually a lot more serious and thrilling to someone who is a money launderer rather than a law enforcement employee or a banker.

                Money launderers, like said before, are actually some of the smartest people. They use many tactics to get away with this crime. Some tactics include the idea of “trade based” money laundering. This actually is when smaller companies make money and give it to their parent company after the money is made and the parent company launders it. This, in terms of mattress stores could mean this. Let’s say Mattress Firm is the parent company, and there are many, smaller non-branch mattress stores that are working for Mattress Firm. For example, we know of Mattress Factory and The Mattress Place. These two smaller stores can be teamed up with Mattress Firm and have sales and signs just like Mattress Firm so that they could make more money for the parent company to essentially launder.

                It used to be a lot easier for money launderers to launder money, and now, after 9-11, when money launderers used to be able to put money through commercial banks no problem, it is a lot harder to deposit certain amounts of money without it being looked at as suspicious. Today, it is not nearly as easy, so that’s why it has become much harder to find and stop a money launderer. Money launderers have now moved from commercial banks, who now are more secure and aware of their deposits, to smaller corporations who won’t question the transaction. There could be many things a person could say to argue against the fact that mattress stores are money laundering scams, but actually, it is quite easy to persuade these people because there are so many facts to prove this idea true.

Reference:

https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/confessions-former-money-launderer-a-818

https://cei.org/outreach-regulatory-comments-and-testimony/why-war-money-laundering-should-be-aborted