Submitted by Snickersneed t3_10drfox in movies
Movies are a well established mechanism for laundering money.
Steven Seagal movies are absolute trash. The total actual sales can’t be much higher than four maybe five digits.
Yet he constantly churns them out.
I can’t think of a better mechanism for Russian oligarchs to launder money than a pro Russian, pro authoritarian, narcissistic sociopath that loves making movies about what a world class badass tough guy he is.
It just seems so obvious that I can’t imagine any other explanation.
BTW, real estate and real estate development are other well established mechanisms for money laundering. So, yes, a pro Russian, pro authoritarian, narcissistic sociopath that loves slapping his name on buildings is another ideal vehicle as well.
Edit: some people seem to be unaware of how much money is laundered globally per year.
$2 trillion.
Compare that to TOTAL US domestic box office sales per year; $11B. Global? $21B.
There was only 300M units of DVDs and VoDs sold globally last year across ALL movies released on DVD and VoD combined. All movies. There is no way DVD sales explain Seagal movies.
There is much more demand by launderers for producing Seagal movies than by legit producers looking to recoup money though ticket and DVD sales.
Oh, BTW; that crypto scheme Seagal was wrapped up in and paid fines for promoting? That was also a money laundering scheme. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/united-states-v-kristijan-krstic-et-al