This trend started a long time ago when they realized it&#x27;s easier to hide millions of dollars behind companies people expect to bring in millions of dollars. The smaller ones often used chain stores that did a lot of cash business but also plenty of volume. The larger ones just partnered with banks that looked the other way at where the money was coming from. Sometimes they start a bank (BCCI) geared toward like-minded individuals. A side-benefit of all this is much less heat on them and [in U.S.] a statute of limitations on any given crime that wasn&#x27;t murder.<p>So this is nothing new except to the writer apparently.