In March 2015, a black card worth 100,000 yuan was handed to Shen Mo in the hot spring pool of a bathhouse.
A loan of three million yuan, with just one requirement: speed up the process.
That was the first time Shen Mo stepped into the Underworld River. He thought he was just doing someone a favor and could quit afterward.
But there’s a reason it’s called the Underworld River. Step in with one foot, and the water will drag you all the way under.
From fraudulent trade to underground banks, from auction houses to film investments, from Bitcoin to mixers, from charitable foundations to carbon trading, Shen Mo used eight different methods to launder money for four years, handling more than 400 million yuan.
He thought he’d covered his tracks perfectly. He didn’t know that Lin Jing of the Anti-Money Laundering Bureau had been writing down his name since the very first transfer, for a full thousand days.
This is also a letter written by someone who stood on the banks of the Underworld River, for everyone who might step into its warm waters.
Some money can never be cleaned. Some roads have no way back.
