From: hughes@ah.com (Eric Hughes)
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 94 18:27:55 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Laundering money through commodity futures
In-Reply-To: <199404172035.AA04142@access3.digex.net>
Message-ID: <9404180119.AA00279@ah.com>
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>There is a major difference between playing this game with commodities
>and trying to win with a double or nothing Martingale scheme in a
>casino.  The casino always takes their cut.  The transaction costs in
>the futures market are often much smaller if you're dealing with
>significant amounts of money. Many of the people who experiment with
>these schemes have very large pools of money to move. 

You still need infinite pockets with transaction costs of zero.
Again, it's only this one example that's flawed, not other ways around
it.

>If Entity A wants to move money to Entity
>B then, Entity A contracts with B for a big new building. B charges too
>much for the building and A pays up. This can be done with supplies
>or other commodities. 

Ever been suspicious of the run-up in prices of Impressionist
paintings by the Japanese a few years ago?  Give someone an
inexpensive painting (or have them buy it), and then buy it at an
inflated rate from them, at auction.

Eric