Breaking Bad Reveals True Tactics of Money Laundering

An iconic series ‘Breaking Bad’ better called “The Art of Deception” is a fictional tale of criminal schemes and how ethically deceived groups operate to dodge law and order.

A chemistry teacher who was diagnosed with cancer started leveraging the holy chemicals for his survival and produced the purest methamphetamine in the town.

Breaking Bad money laundering shows a real-world reflection of anti-money laundering violations where Walter White and his acquaintances cleanse their drug (meth) proceeds by adopting different money-laundering tactics that are relevant even today.

Every character in the series played an important role while highlighting how gaps in regulatory and security laws are exploited by those who know the system.

In Breaking Bad, Walter White’s crafty laundering mirrored real-world tactics. Today, global money laundering hits a jaw-dropping $3 trillion annually, proving this crime’s relentless grip on our financial systems and the complexity of the three stages of money laundering.

In this blog, we will retrospect every significant character in the series and their involvement in deceiving financial systems.

Additionally, this parallel journey of fiction and real-world crimes will let you explore the compliance measures that can protect businesses and institutions from falling prey to such criminal schemes.

Before digging deeper into the protagonist characters of Breaking Bad, let’s rewatch one of my all-time favorite clips from the series where a sinister and slick-talking lawyer Saul Goodman explains the method of cleaning dirty money to a troubled but ambitious Jesse Pinkman. The iconic scene breaks down money laundering in placement, layering, and integration with open and bold metaphors.

Conversion of drug proceeds into spendable cash is an intricate process and the series artfully did justice to showcasing different dimensions of money laundering and how each individual performed a significant role in executing illegal activities.

Let’s take a look at each character in detail and how they facilitated Walter White in his drug ventures.

Walter White: Evolution of Heisenberg

“I am not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger. A guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that of me? No. I am the one who knocks!”

-Walter White

The saying of Mr. White demonstrates his motivation to expand his drug kingpin by any means with a heightened need of cleaning his drug money no matter what comes next.

The kind of state-of-the-art meth empire, Walter White who evolves from a chemistry teacher to Heisenberg and lays down the foundation of the whole operation from producing methamphetamine to laundering the proceeds.

A jobless chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with cancer decides to use his acumen in producing blue meth with one of his students Jesse Pinkman whose character will be dissected later. The quality of Walter’s meth makes noise and starts bringing cash. Initially hiding it in his laundry machine, the need to spend the cash motivates Walter to meet Saul Goodman, a lawyer of criminals or a criminal lawyer.

Saul suggests laundering his money through a legitimate and cash-intensive car wash business. Later, he comes up with a manifested gambling addiction to convince his family the source of cash that started appearing from nowhere.

Skyler White: Intricate Balance of Books & Morality

“Someone has to protect this family from the man who protects this family”

-Skyler White

Being the main caretaker of Walter’s drug money, Skyler played a paramount role in laundering her husband’s illicit proceeds as an act of protecting his family from the aftermath of Walter’s passion to make more meth.

She leverages her accounting skills to manage Walter’s car wash books and starts laundering meth money in the disguise of legitimate car wash receipts.

Driven by her passion to protect her family and secure their future altogether, she uses car receipts with inflated expanses of utilities to adjust meth money without getting attention from federal law protectors.

In another plot, Ted Benek, Skyler’s ex-boss and an acquaintance, faces financial losses in business and IRS debt. She offers to pay the debt from meth money to avoid troubles in their own laundering schemes.

We see how financial desperation can lead individuals to make questionable decisions. Singapore’s massive money laundering probe calls for rigorous oversight.

Saul Goodman: A Mastermind Behind Money Laundering Schemes

“You don’t want a criminal lawyer, you want a ‘criminal’ lawyer,”

-Jesse Pinkman

It was all about producing meth until Saul Goodman appeared in the series. He is the kind of lawyer who plays with the intricacies of laws and exploits the loopholes for his client’s benefit.

What could be a perfect fit if not Goodman who has limitless connections to those with power to help Mr. White in expanding his drug empire?

The character of Saul Goodman perfectly mirrors the participation of law experts in disgusting the very legislation to protect criminals with his interesting laundering techniques.

An essential element of support for Walter’s drug venture, Saul comes up with so many creative laundering meth money and cover-up stories to hide the origin of Hiesenburg’s piles of cash.

From opening a nail salon bar to a laser tag business where small payments in cash can be easily manipulated to adjust the drug money influx, Saul suggests laundering meth money through a charity account of Jr. Walter in the form of a small but consistent amount.

Gustavo Fring: Laundering In the Disguise of Los Pollos Hermanos

“I hide in plain sight, same as you,”

-Gus Fring

Running a big empire of methamphetamine production and supply behind the disguise of his food chain, Los Pollos Hermanos, Gus Fring appears to be a generous humanitarian who works for the public in the daytime and runs a criminalistic empire at night time.

A structured and legitimate food business is used to not only clean meth money but Gus uses the supply chain for drug distribution beyond the borders.

His unbeatable strategies to blindfold compliance watchdogs make him an ideal launderer in the series.

Jesse Pinkman: A Right Hand & A Troubled Partner

“You either run from things, or you face them, Mr. White”

Jesse Pinkman

One of my favorite characters from the series, Jesse Pinkman with minor involvement in the direct money laundering schemes of Walter, aids in meth production. His character perfectly mirrors a troubled individual who starts seeing the consequences of his illegal ventures.

Struggling to meet his morally gray ambitions, Jesse helps Mr. White in all activities of meth production, distribution, and laundering of drug proceeds. The series shows his improving concepts on adapting to criminal activities and sustaining the drug business strategically.

Inspired by Walter White’s money laundering tactics, discover the red flags and real-world examples of money laundering for the detection of prevailing financial crimes.

What Did Law Enforcement Do Behind the Badges?

Each character played a quirky role in the series to reflect how organized criminals operate to expand and protect their illegal activities. However, one might wonder where were the law enforcement elements to protect the law and bring a showdown to these criminalistic individuals.

The significant character of Hank Schreder mirrors the struggles of compliance watchdogs while maintaining a family perspective and challenges against the meth mastermind Heisenberg. The series ends with a powerful display of how law enforcers manage to identify and get criminals like Walter White to their knees.

However, it is equally crucial to highlight the possible compliance measures that could aid DEA agents in unfolding the prolonged laundering saga. Below is the comprehensive map of compliance measures if implemented at the right time could bring a twist to the plot.

Understand Real-World Implications of Money Laundering Tactics

Apart from offering an unforgettable series of events, the series, and leading characters represented the complex web of crimes and challenges of crime fighters in a parallel world. The viewers not only got the idea of criminalistic tactics but how money laundering works on smaller to bigger scales.

The need for law and order to come up with advanced yet functional anti-money laundering controls is inevitable. Increasing financial crimes requires effective screening plans which include AML monitoring and financial investigations to expose criminals with their hidden income and illegal profits.

The integration of technology with minimum to no complexity can save institutions from financial fraudsters and anti-compliance consequences. AML Watcher a data-driven compliance partner who not only equips you with compliance partnership but facilitates your customized AML compliance needs.

Compliance is just a click away. Book your free demo to raise scrutiny bars against fraudsters.