I never imagined that one could launder money using books found in the Library of Babel, but here we are.
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Wait. So, if it’s really Reames’ money, he’s using the most transparent dodge ever to evade taxation. But if it’s not… then he might be… in league with the person who stole his identity and used it to commit crimes?
It’s like the theory that Shakespeare’s plays weren’t really written by Shakespeare, but another man with the same name.
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Maybe he should sue Amazon for his share of the money?
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The book in the image doesn’t ship to the US, do we know where the perpetrator of the fraud is?
They are laundering credit card fraud into an Amazon account using a real person as a front for their account. After that they may declare it as income to the IRS (if they are in the US) or it may be part of a holding companies assets and not subject to income tax but be part of something more complicated again.
It’s clean money that they can declare as income though, so it’s laundered. Just not if you hold it up to the light, which Amazon won’t let happen. Amazon has a lot of rules that just happen to allow their cash to keep rolling in while other people get ripped off.
Is there a rule written up yet that states “for every benefit the internet provides for doing good, there is a similar benefit it provides for doing evil”? Or is that just common sense predating the internet, going back to the dawn of civilization?
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There’s the old saw in science fiction that you’re allowed to predict the automobile as long as you predict the traffic jam.
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did not know amazon does magic
I would say that this is theft.
Vyacheslav Grzhibovskiy: dozens of Kindle “books” that appear to be similar gibberish
Pfft. That’s what they said about Bill O’Reilly’s books and look how well he’s done.
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Take it to court and get Amazon/IRS to prove that they have laundered money?
Of course, that requires you to have enough money to fight the court case.
Amazon knows who bought the e-books, because Amazon maintains the right to go in and change them. Can the author not re-publish his books at a cost of free, and let them all demand a refund? 
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I suspect Amazon will give that information under the right legal circumstances. I am NOT an attorney but they are correct in not just handing over account info because someone cried “foul”.
I Imagine it will take a petition to the proper court to issue a subpoena before Amazon divulges that info so they in turn do not get sued by someone else for invasion of privacy.
The IRS has considerable resources also and, much as I dislike them, they will likely be investigating this and the Treasury Department probably already ha s a paper trail of some of this due to things thar get filed by banks when larger transactions they reasonably suspect might be hinky are done.
Google CMIR and SAR in respect to finances.
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A very good point.
Well that was actually my point. I’m not saying the money isn’t being laundered, I’m saying the scheme, as described is not a money laundering scheme, it’s just plain theft (from the holders of the stolen credit card numbers). The money might then be laundered, reported as income in another jurisdiction, or maybe they just took the money and are spending it as cash like a lot of small time thieves would do.
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