At 12:17 PM 6/18/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>The people you illegally obtained the money you're laundering from.  Even
>drug money deprives people of their health :)
>
>You also probably didn't pay income taxes on the illegally obtained money.
>
>Jason

The fraud would come in later then, when (if) you claimed a lower income
than your actual income. One of the Italian design firms got into trouble
because they overvalued their imports to the US by about 10%, claiming expenses
to their offshore design center (or "centre", to be more accurate).
Unfortunately, they failed to do ANY design activity there, so they were
caught hiding income in a tax-free jurisdiction, but this is far more the
exception than the rule. Had they done even nominal work there, they
would probably have gotten away with it.

Valuing non-arms-length transactions is actually quite complex.

I have cases where I've paid out $20,000 US for an item, and the legitimate
value to be declared to customs is closer to $100.

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

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