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Switzerland is reissuing the world's most valuable bank note despite criticism over potential money laundering. Professor Nikos Passas tells finews.com that a crackdown on cash would actually help criminals.

Professor Nikos Passas, what’s so dangerous about Switzerland’s 1,000 franc note ($991) in terms of money laundering?

It simply reduces the volume you would have to carry for someone who is physically transporting cash from place to place. If you have $1 million to transport, the bulk will be reduced significantly with fewer notes. The EU came under criticism for the 500 euro note for the same reason.

So it makes no difference in terms of cleansing the money?

Regardless of whether you’re coming to a bank with one suitcase or ten of them – if you have cash above a certain amount, they have to ask you where it is coming from. It’s just easier to carry a lot of money if the notes are in bigger denominations.

So how does it get rinsed then?

When it comes to legitimating an asset, the question is do you want to use that money in the legitimate economy? If you reinvest in criminal enterprises, then you don’t need to clean it – criminal organizations generally don’t require receipts or certificates of origin. There is lots of crime-to-crime investment: guns for drugs, diamonds for illegal payments, and that kind of stuff.

What about if I want legitimate money?

There are millions of different methods. Trade and services mispricing is an easy way – if you misinvoice goods or services, you can justify existence of money that wasn’t there.