> You buy 1000 pizzas a day from your pizza store, with cash you already have. You report all that income to the IRS.

So, assuming that money isn't illicitly gotten, I'm pretty sure that's not money laundering.

It's not my job to prove the money is acquired legally, it's the investigator's job to prove otherwise.

You don't have to prove that that money is obtained legally. You do have to refrain from knowingly transacting with illegally obtained money. If a reasonable person would be aware that the money you are handling is not acquired legally, you can be found culpable.

You can say it's "not your job" all you like--if you are operating in the United States, you are not correct and it would go very poorly for you to try.

Yeah but in order to do that they need a warrant. If you're moving around money like that, it's very likely you got that money illegally. I'm no fan of the police, but sometimes following the paper trail is the only place to start an investigation. I'd rather the police be able to get a legitimate warrant to investigate something than have them operate in lesd than legal ways.

Three is no lie, and there is no money laundering. The problem is if you order 1000 pizzas, you are charged for them, the pizza place claims they made then, but they only delivered 1000 empty boxes... Now there is laundering going on.

There's only a lie if you don't make the pizzas.

>What lie is required? You buy 1000 pizzas a day from your pizza store, with cash you already have. You report all that income to the IRS. Where's the lie?

1. I'm not sure why you'd do that. You'd have to pay taxes on the money twice as ordering pizzas is not tax deducible.

2. You'd then have to make 1000 pizzas.