[Ads-l] Slang: smurfing, smurf (domain financial transactions in 1984)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

On x-twitter Barry Popik asked about the provenance of the slang term
"smurfing" which refers to strategies used to obfuscate large
financial transactions. The general idea is to convert a single large
transaction into multiple small transactions which are less likely to
trigger systems which monitor the financial system to detect illegal
transactions. For example, financial institutions typically must
report transactions which result in either cash-in or cash-out
totaling more than $10,000 dollars.

Here is an excerpt from a 1986 article that helps to explain one type
of smurfing.

Date: April 17, 1986
Newspaper: Austin American-Statesman
Newspaper Location: Austin, Texas
Article: Bill Targets loss to cash laundering
Author: Seth Kantor (Austin-Statesman Staff)
Quote Page A12, Column 1 to 3
Database: Newspapers.com
https://www.newspapers.com/image/363721116/?match=1&terms=smurfing

[Begin excerpt]
Legislation sponsored by Pickle and endorsed by the Reagan
administration would give more teeth to current law so that the
criminal mob runners, known as "smurfs," can be convicted, laundered
money can be seized by the government, and bankers who "willfully
violate" the law's reporting requirements will face new civil
penalties.
. . .
"Money would come into Mr. Behar's office in duffel bags," Friedberg
said. Friedberg said he would handle "as much as $100,000 in cash a
day." Going from financial institution to financial institution,
Friedberg said, he would convert $9,000 chunks of cash to cashier's
checks that would be laundered by the Behar operation through foreign
banks.

Federal law requires that any cash transaction of $10,000 or more be
reported to federal authorities by the bank or savings and loan
institution involved.
. . .
Friedberg, 53, said he read an article about illegal smurfing and "I
immediately knew that I had been an unknowing participant in this type
of money-laundering activity."
[End excerpt]

Here is the earliest match I found for  "smurfing" with the pertinent
sense in the newspapers.com database.

Date: June 1, 1984
Newspaper: Kingsport Times-News
Newspaper Location: Kingsport, Tennessee
Article: Crime probe bill may benefit area
Author: Rod Franklin (Times-News Staff Writer)
Quote Page 3A, Column 4
Database: Newspapers.com
https://www.newspapers.com/image/595383364/?match=1&terms=smurfing

[Begin excerpt]
The usual scheme he explained, is to set up what organized crime calls
a "smurfing" operation. Latinos -- many of whom have been run out of
Florida since federal police began pressuring drug traffickers --
exchange "dirty" drug money for cashier's checks at area banks. They
then export the checks illegally to other countries to buy guns and
other things for the organized-crime community, said Dedrick.
[End excerpt]

Barry Popik was asking about a different type of "smurfing" in which a
large political campaign contribution is broken into a set of small
contributions.

Apparently, the slang term "smurfing" was inspired by the diminutive
Smurf comic characters.

[Begin excerpt from Wikipedia]
The Smurfs is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony
of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses
in the forest. The Smurfs was created and introduced as a series of
comic characters by the Belgian comics artist Peyo (the pen name of
Pierre Culliford) in 1958, wherein they were known as Les Schtroumpfs.
[End excerpt from Wikipedia]

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