Hey, as long as you paid taxes on the income, I don't see the IRS having any

* * * * *

Hey, as long as you paid taxes on the income, I don't see the IRS having any
issues with this …

Okay, let me see if I have the pitch right—hypothetically speaking, let's say
I have made, through many illegal means, a metric buttload of money and I
want to have it laundered. I don't want to mess with the banking systems as
they seem to be under high scrutiny these days (besides, everybody knows
they're criminals anyway).

So, I grab a few hundred pages from Wikipedia [1], bundle them into a “book”
which I “publish and sell [2]” via Amazon [3]. This costs me nearly nothing.
Then I “buy” as many copies of this “book”, getting nearly 45% of the money
as the “author.” Amazon won't complain, as they're getting a nice chunk of
change. Heck, I could even get a higher percentage of the money if the “book”
is bought through an affiliate program [4] I set up (this might push my
percentage over 50%).

And who's to say this isn't going on right now [5]?

And you know, money laudering might explain some of these Etsy sites [6]
(link via Regretsy [7]).

[1] http://www.wikipedia.com/
[2] http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller-account/mm-summary-page.html?topic=200260520
[3] http://www.amazon.com/
[4] https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
[5] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3618360
[6] http://www.etsy.com/listing/79507271/celebration-dress-applique-couture
[7] http://www.regretsy.com/2012/02/07/clown-collage/

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