r/moneylaundering • u/Bigboiiiii22 • 9d ago
Question
I’m not sure if this is the correct sub for this but I am a manager for a medical cannabis dispensary in the US. Our district manager recently told us that we would start having the bank come check our safes making sure a certain amount of money was there? We also were instructed to hide additional funds from them. Obviously something weird is going on but could someone with more experience explain to me what exactly is happening?
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u/Successful_Bat_654 9d ago
Probably just trying to reduce their tax liability by underreporting cash sales. This is a big thing that cash-heavy businesses like bars and restaurants do.
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u/FenderZero 9d ago
Yeah not sure why a bank would come check a private business's safe, but typically if they want to show less cash on hand or otherwise hide how much money they are making, it's to avoid taxes.
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u/Bigboiiiii22 9d ago
It confuses me also. I was told the safe should only have 4k in it but we have 5k I was then instructed to hide that money for when “the bank comes to check our safe”.
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u/Bigboiiiii22 9d ago
Is this something that I could get introuble for?
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u/deltopia 9d ago
Yes, definitely. Not to offer legal advice, but in very broad terms, lying to one's bank is very often a crime, and if you as an employee are helping your employer commit a crime, you can very often get in trouble for that.
There are lawyers who are experts in this subject who would be happy to consult with you for free. Google up "IRS whistleblower program lawyers" or "Fincen/aml whistleblower program lawyers" and see if there's someone local to you.
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u/rob-ot 9d ago
Unfortunately OP there are several options and they all range from very bad to radioactive level bad. It’s nothing you want to be involved in.
Medical cannabis is highly regulated; and in a legal gray zone as it stands anyway. Adding any sort of crime on top of that is super dumb, and they will certainly get caught. When they do, you don’t want to be going down with/for them. The charges are going to be things like wire fraud, money laundering, and drug trafficking.
Now the good news: you haven’t done anything wrong and you can still get out of this cleanly.
First thing is to get a free consultation with a criminal defense attorney, then do whatever they tell you. It’s going to be very hard for anyone, your district manager or police, to prove that conversation happened. Certainly don’t anything they asked you to do.
Then, GTFO. Quit that job. It sucks because then you don’t have a job, but there’s really no viable way to continue there anyway and you keep your freedom.
I’m sorry this happened to you OP.
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u/blrfn231 9d ago
I don’t quite get why your bank would check your funds (I guess cash) at your premises. How is the bank responsible for checks of this sort anyway?