There are many movies and tv shows that are based on money laundering. Some are based on a true story, and some are just fictional. The films mainly focused on money fraud are sometimes so fascinating, but one should always know the after-consequences of doing such things.
Money laundering can be of many types, like Casino laundering, Real-estate laundering, Bank laundering, and many more. These types of movies and tv shows always teach important life lessons at the end and make us aware of such frauds.
These type of movies focuses on converting dirty money into clean money. And the whole plot of the film is based on that only. The success of these movies depends on how intelligently the procedure is done and the story is told.
This article will list some of the all-time favorite money laundering movies that amaze you with their plot and organized crime situations.
7 of the Movies About Money Laundering
7. The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jordan Belfort, Margot Robbie, Jonah Hill
- IMDb Ratings: 8.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80%
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime and Netflix
Wolf Of The Wall Street is an American dark comedy movie released in 2013 and became one of the most successful films of that time. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a stock market adviser, but later becomes one of the best stockbrokers in the NewYork city by hiring all financial adviser drags in his firm and making them learn new tactics about client dealings. He gained all his fame by laundering money and corruption on Wall Street.
And all these situations led to his downfall, and he faced a financial crisis. Besides this, he was also a drug and sex addict, which affected his husband and wife relationship. And at last, he was sent to prison by the federal government for doing all this fraud. But after his release, he again started his career as a clean sales market agent.
6. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- Director: Frank Darabont
- Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Clancy Brown, Bob Gunton
- IMDb Ratings: 9.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime and Netflix
Shawshank Redemption is one of the most intelligent movies ever made. This movie stars Tim Robbins, a clever investment banker sentenced to life imprisonment by law enforcement agencies for an organized crime against his wife and her lover. Despite his claims that he is innocent, no further court sessions were done.
At the prison, he was depressed by the surrounding desperate circumstances, but later, he made fellow prisoners his friends and won their trust. And made a good impression on the prison authorities, leading him to manage the prison accounts and be a personal financial adviser of the jailer. And during his job, he learned about so many money laundering operations within the prison system. Later he escaped the prison and mailed the government agencies about the prison money laundering operations.
5. American Made (2017)
- Director: Doug Liman
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Sarah Wright, Domhnall, Caleb Landry, Jayma Mays
- IMDb Ratings: 7.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 85%
- Where to watch: Netflix
This is an action comedy-packed movie based on a true story starring Tom Cruise as Barry Seal, a commercial pilot hired by a CIA agent for a mission related to drug dealing through a drug cartel. During his mission, he used to deal with a drug lord and fly cocaine from one region to another secretly. And no one noticed his drug money. In the eyes of other agencies, he became a suspect in drug trafficking.
And later, he got convicted for all these circumstances, which led to his death by the assassins contracted by the drug cartel. This movie tells us about the internal malicious activities of government agencies to gain money and not get any jurisdictions against this because at least all the power is in their hand.
4. The Infiltrator (2016)
- Director: Brad Furman
- Cast: Bryan Cranston, John Leauizamo, Diane Kruger, Amy Ryan
- IMDb Ratings: 7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 71%
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime
This film is a biographical crime movie that is based on true events. The movie stars Bryan Cranston as Robert Mazur, who works as a federal agent for US authorities. He goes on an undercover mission to track the drug trafficking network of the famous drug boss Pablo Escobar. To hide his identity from all these drug traffickers, he poses a get-up of a businessman who does money laundering.
And after so much effort, he finally became one of the trustworthy people for Roberto Alcaino, who was Pablo’s closest person. And this led him to their drug business, where he discovered their money laundering, drug dealings, and many criminal activities. This movie got a good response from the critics but became a failure at the box office.
3. Savages (2012)
- Director: Oliver Stone
- Cast: Blake Lively, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Salma Hayek, Sandra Echeverra, John Travolta
- IMDb Ratings: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 50%
- Where to watch: Netflix and Amazon Prime
This movie is loosely based on a crime novel written by Don Winslow. This movie depicts the story of two entrepreneurs, Ben and Chon, who are involved in the drug business.
And later, they got troubled by the city’s new drug dealer and had to take help from an anti-narcotics police officer to deal with a Mexican Drug Cartel. The thing that we learned from this movie is that bad deeds will take you nowhere.
2. Bound (1996)
- Director: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
- Cast: Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano
- IMDb Ratings: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 90%
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime
This old but gold movie is full of crime, thriller, suspense, and the best plot line. The film was critically acclaimed good, and the audience’s response was also excellent. All because of the realistic approach to the life of the lesbian couple Violet and Corky. The story of the movie begins with Violet, who is the girlfriend of Caesar, a drug lord. When Violet meets Corky, a plumber, they immediately fall in love, and Violet tells Corky about Caesar.
And in the morning, they both plan to rob millions of stashed mob money and blame Caesar for all this. And because of this, Caesar will get arrested, and both of them can live happily without fearing anyone. But during their plan execution, they got into trouble, and things got more twisted.
1. The Laundromat (2019)
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Cast: Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, Sharon Stone
- IMDb Ratings: 6.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 57%
- Where to watch: Netflix
This movie is based on a true story, the Panama papers scandal, and is loosely based on the book Secrecy World. This movie contains a comedy involved with a money laundering scheme.
The story of the movie highlights exploited financial system, which is done by two lawyers belonging to a prestigious law firm and was hidden from the outside world. But during the investigation of insurance fraud by Ellen Martin, things got fishy and led her to the biggest fraud discovery, “The Panama Papers Scam”.
The movie does not get the response that it needs from the audience because of the poor screenplay and less promotion on social platforms. But in critic’s end, the movie was a masterpiece because of its true and realistic portrayal of the scandal. And the movie got underrated because of two different opinions.
Conclusion
These money laundering movies are best for taking notes on “what not to do”.But one of the best lessons these movies teach is never to give up on any situation because if you work hard with honesty, the situation changes.
We all know that money laundering is a never-ending issue that can be solved but cannot be fully demolished. Therefore people should be aware of their rights and ethics for a better world.
