It really depends, in today's day and age money laundering does NOT just mean cash -> bank account, you could have money in an offshore account that you need to move countries under the radar and then launder it in that country, in which case you could buy the bitcoins with that bank account, through them through a tumbler and wash them in the country of your pleasing.
As far as turning cash into bitcoins to launder, its much harder to do but definitely not impossible.
As far as turning cash into bitcoins to launder, its much harder to do but definitely not impossible.
strictly and technically speaking, laundering simply means to remove any taint on an amount of funds(in any form) that comes from illegal activity. this can mean cash to other cash, cash to bank and out again, it can simply mean dropping the load at a casino and turning the chips in hours or days later for new money, as long as the activity cannot be traced and the same "tainting" applied to the new funds
With bigger amounts it seems to be a lot more than that
Just making your money untraceable to their illegal source evidently won't suffice. If you drop by a casino and wash a few million dollars there (let's assume this activity won't raise suspicion itself), you may still have problems explaining to anti-money laundering agencies where all this pile of wealth comes from. It wouldn't even work out with cash since once you begin spending, this will inevitably attract attention of their preying eyes. So I guess you should not just hide the real origin of your hard-earned wealth but also provide a plausible (and verifiable) source of income that would add up to the amount you have managed to launder
