Money Laundering Is Criminal and Immoral Not always . By definition, money laundering involves hiding, moving, and investing the proceeds of criminal conduct. Even legal money can become illegal, for example, if moving it violates a country's foreign-exchange controls or other financial regulations. For instance, all foreign-exchange transactions out of Malaysia must be reported to Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank. Failure to do so renders the exported money illegal.
Clean money can also generate dirty money through tax evasion.
Even if the money itself was lawfully earned, the sums that should have been paid in taxes are considered laundered. But legitimacy often resides in the eyes of the beholder. What may be illegal in one country represents a moral victory in another. Similarly, regimes operating a closed economy will drive legitimate businesspeople to operate on the fringes of the law. For a number of years, Nigeria was such a case.