system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How do offshore bank accounts work? Why are they used for illegal money or criminal activity?
gpt
Because they avoid the local regulations that might easily track where the money came from and who it is going to. Large movements of money say between the USA and Columbia might attract the attention of authorities suspecting that it might be drugs related. However if the money is moved from the USA to the Cayman islands and then from an account in the Cayman islands to another account in the Cayman islands and then to Columbia it becomes impossible to track where the money is going without the cooperation of the authorities in the Cayman islands.