To think this sounds like money laundering?

[Beetleback]

There’s a takeaway shop on our high street that is constantly being refurbished. It occasionally opens for a few weeks or months, then closes again for a long, elaborate refurbishment. This has happened maybe four times in the last few years.

There’s a lot of muttering locally about money laundering, but I really don’t understand how that would work? Can anyone explain it to me?

Or businesses are going under constantly so new owners are taking over each time?

Why would anyone takeover a newly refurbished takeaway then spend a year refurbishing it before opening? It doesn’t sound like a sensible business plan, and four different owners in a row making the same mistake seems a little unlikely.

It always reopens as the same type of takeaway, it’s not like it’s being switched from an Indian to a burger bar or anything that might need a different look and equipment.

Theoretically- money earned through illegal means can be used to buy, refurbish a property. Makes the property more valuable and the dodgy cash has been spent and cleaned - as it were - in the process. Makes sense if it's a refurbishment in a couple of stages but not if they keep on gutting and refurbishing again and again. Unless they own the building/contracting business and are paying themselves essentially but into a legitimate business?

Yes it is very likely that this is what is happening. But most of MN lead a very sheltered life and will not accept that this could possibly be the case. Because unless the BBC news at 10 reported it, it didn’t happen.

Restaurants tend to carry a lot of cash, and have a legitimate reason to do so. As such, quantities of cash in a restaurant is less likely to draw suspicion.

Money laundering is basically taking ‘dirty’ money and introducing it into the legal economy. Restaurants and takeaways are a popular cover for it because it’s common for people to use cash in them. The dirty money is mingled in and processed with the ‘clean’ cash, and it looks like it’s been gained legally.

Yes absolutely. We've got a Turkish place near us. Closed and refurbished repeatedly. Opens for a couple of weeks and shuts again for months. A look at their company accounts shows a very healthy profit...

Oh, and the refurbing - laundering via duplicating, overvaluing or straight up falsifying invoices is an also a common technique. Again, you’re talking about trades where it’s common for cash to be used.

Obviously the contractors would need to be part of it.

Happens all the time around here - a well known "open secret".

It's probably one of the most common ways of money laundering that we see at work.

Went to see a chicken shop once which never even opened and had very healthy turnover.

Look up their accounts on companies house.

@whumpthereitis not necessarily- they may be in for what they think is a genuine refurb

I suspect like @whumpthereitis that this is a couple of companies working together to launder money - the restaurant takes a lot of dirty cash and deposits it to look like regular income. In the meantime, the construction company can show contracts for, say, 6 full refurbs a year and the associated (over inflated) income whereas it's really just another way to get rid of dirty money because I doubt the refurbs actually are proper full refurbs!

The men where I live must be spending half their wage on haircuts and shaves, there are so many barbers/Turkish shave places.

See also carwashes (plus immigration scams) and nailbars

All well known classic money laundering places.

Banks and law enforcement know this.

Surely you wouldn't even need real contractors to do any actual refurbishing, you could just turn up in overalls, cover the windows in Windowlene, wave a ladder around a bit, then send yourself an invoice (or get a mate to). A lot of the things people do for money laundering is theatrical. Like those empty nail bars.

At least two local restaurants definitely launder near me. One actively deals to the teenagers. Everyone knows.

Yep, this is true. That said, it’s very likely they’ll want to do some actual work (hiring their ‘friends’) in case of investigation. Experienced launderers will make it appear believable, and be able to provide evidence that work was indeed done.

The reverse could be the case, it is amazing how much soap opera dramaticness people can make up on here where to dramatise basic information

Might be money laundering. Might be drugs. Probably both.

No, that wouldn’t necessarily clean the money at all. If the business is closed they’re not generating profit, (but, assuming it’s drug money, there will be a steady stream of money coming in, that will be more than what they’ve already registered as profit), so where is the money coming from that pays for the refurbs? That’s going to raise suspicion. It’s not cleaning it, but even if it were, it’s not cleaning it in a way that would benefit the launderers.

It’s super common tbf, and isn’t particularly dramatic or ‘soap opera’. Of course they may be totally legit, but what OP has described is pretty classic for money launderers.

Fish and chip shop near us…it’s probably actively traded 6 weeks in 6 years..always being refurbished and sold on within the family. Also big local festival, big acts, lost a lot of money but promoters not at all worried…raised eyebrows.

@whumpthereitis I do this for a living - not all businesses trade. They simply give the impression of trading to clean their dirty cash I.e put it in the bank.

A legitimate business running is not always required (if you are a stupid launderer)

@whumpthereitis financial crime prevention I should add for a living, not laundering 😂

And you haven't reported it because........?