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I'm working on a small fictional country that might be good for money launderers. How would this affect its relations with other countries? (please click for details) (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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The country is small:

It's less than 10 000 sq km in area, has fewer than 1 million people, and GDP less than about US$50 billion. It might have a coast. It's a liberal democracy, or at least mostly a liberal democracy. It's been independent for almost 100 years, attempts a strong neutrality, and is thus generally non-aligned.

I suppose the country's currency is hard, or reasonably hard, enough that it can be freely exchanged.

In this country you can bring a gym bag with US$1 million (say 10 000 $100 bills) in or out of the country. There are banks there which you can deposit the money, and while they might be required to report this to the government, the government won't tell the governments or other international organizations about it.

What would be the consequences for such in international relations?

Thank you.

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Edit (probably over 20 minutes after posting):

However, I should have added, that this generally occurred between 1998 and 2004.

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[–] 1 point 3 hours ago (2 children)

The amount of money the US has is, IIUC, slightly over $2 trillion.

About $5.5 trillion. Which, through banking, is multiplied as a money supply of about $23 trillion.

Honestly, my take is that you shouldn't get into the weeds of foreign currency exchange, money supply, etc., in a fictional work unless you already have a strong grasp of the concepts involved. I personally don't, just some macroeconomics coursework decades ago in college, but I know just enough to see when things don't look right. If the plot allows for you to hand wave away how it works, you can just model things after existing banking havens throughout post-Bretton-Woods history.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 hours ago (1 child)

    I mostly agree

    However, in my story—as I presently have it—at least one of my characters—and a possible protagonist—lives in the US as an illegal alien, builds a drug empire (mostly marijuana, nor is he violent—he's not a Vito or Michael Corelone, Tony Montana, or that guy in Breaking Bad), and then he, if you will, between 1998 to 2004, "cashes out" by laundering his money—in the $100s of millions—in varying banks, perhaps those of this country, and assumes a new life as a citizen there, somewhat of a playboy, who spends most of his time in the country, while running legitimate businesses he bought or started there. He then rarely, if ever, goes to the US.

    Would this be possible for him in this country as the US and others continue their war on drugs?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 hour ago*

    Just hand wave away the "how," if your story is about the person rather than about the laundering techniques. Just say that he has been laundering money and finally built up enough legitimate-seeming wealth that he can hold overseas.

    Not every story needs to have an Andy Weir style explanation of the nuts and bolts of how each step progresses. Unless that's what you want to do, in which case you better start consulting people who really know this stuff.

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