Has anyone given any thought to the topic of credit laundering? If so, what do you think it should cost (in terms of a percentage)? How long should it tie up the funds? How difficult should it be to find a credit launderer?

The issue came up in my last session, and I ended up basically hand-waving it into an off-screen, basically instant process costing 10%, but I'm rather unsatisfied with that result, so I'm interested in figuring out some "rules."

As far as finding a credit launderer goes, I'd probably treat it just like finding a Restricted Rarity X item for sale, with a Streetwise check modified by location. Looking at the black market and restricted items in the Core Rulebook, Rarity 8, which is the equivalent of a cargo container of Glitterstim strikes me as a reasonable starting point for an NPC money launderer who can handle a decent number of credits. My reasoning is that Glitterstim is sort of the iconic drug of the Star Wars universe, and a single dose (analogous to finding a small-time dealer) is Rarity 7, a crate (analogous to finding a minor drug lord) is Rarity 8.

Thoughts and suggestions?

As a basic rule of thumb to me it would be very difficult to just land and start asking where to fence anything, so that would be a pretty difficult check, at least ♦♦♦ . Now if they have Knowledge Underworld and succeed at that on a lower check, maybe drop the difficulty of finding a fence. Def a high difficulty though, every government/law enforcement, has a direct interest in securing the money. They will be far more tolerant of smuggling of spice than they will be of anyone undermining the monetary system.

I would assume a Knowledge (Underworld)/Streetwise check to find a fence or crooked accountant, followed by a Negotiation check to avoid being ripped off. Depending on how the PCs are paid or what they steal, finding someone who can convert rare high-profile items into cash could be a small module in itself.

My understanding of the canon was that the credsticks used galaxy-wide were nigh-impossible to tamper with or trace; if you go with that, the party's getting cash for their ill-gotten loot would be the end of the matter. Failing that, the PCs might engage in a complicated series of trades to unload stolen or smuggled merchandise- exchange some stolen blasters for a starship thief's stolen engine parts, trade or sell those parts to a mechanic who isn't terribly curious about where they come from and will install them in a dozen different (legal) ships where they'll be impossible to trace, etc.

I've been running Star Wars campaigns for over 20 years, and laundering money has never come up. Whenever my players have been paid for doing something shady, they've been paid in cold, hard cash. Or credsticks, but mostly cash. It makes most sense from a roleplaying perspective; after all, why would the people paying them leave a trail back to themselves if something goes wrong? Cash is easy and anonymous.

If you do want to launder it, you should take at least a 33% cut, probably more. This is very much a seller's market - the one doing the laundering has an incredibly valuable, highly marketable skill while the players have nothing to offer in return but money. The launderer should get multiple boost dice to his Negotiation skill. Also, someone with that particular skill set would be extremely valuable to various criminal organizations, so he'd have serious protection in case the players want to start doing something stupid, like threatening him.

This is a mechanic that i am not bothering with. There is no taxes in my game, and the InterGalactic Banking Clan (IGBC) is one of the most secure banks in the galaxy.. or no one wants to bother messing with the IGBC, not even the Emperor. Most of the "Taxes" collected are in the form of Docking fee's or Trade Tarrifs

It makes most sense from a roleplaying perspective; after all, why would the people paying them leave a trail back to themselves if something goes wrong?

I'd say it makes a fair bit of sense for someone who is employing criminals to pay them in cash, but some people "pay" criminals involuntarily. In that case, the thieves may be the ones who don't want to leave a trail when they spend.

When it comes to slicing cred chips, In SW:Scoundrels, they have chips that the original owner can cash in for... i forget, 120 million or so, but due to circumstances, they are forced to slice and get only 800,000.

So you're looking about less than 1% recovered from sliced cred chips.

I'll have to reread that, was a great story.

The way I look at it is that outside of the core worlds is more like the wild west. A lot of people use cash credits. E-Credits are readily available though. The main reason for laundering money in the real world is to hide illegal income as legal income to the authorities for solely to avoid notice/taxation. If someone regularly drops 100k into their bank account, the Feds are going to ask questions. If someone has a busines that is "successful" and regularly puts 100k into the bank, no one is going to notice unless they do a deep audit into the company.

It's a big galaxy with not a lot of government overwatch. IBC doesn't care about transferes of credits from one individual to another. As far as they're concerned it's a legitimate transaction and up to the local authorities to monitor. If someone drops 100k cash credits into their account, so what? At most, if the local authorities come calling, they may provide transaction records. As far as local authorities go, there's so much business and travel around the galaxy that it would be impossible to ensure that someone was a legitimate business person and not doing something illegal based on finincial transactions alone. They would have to catch or suspect you and then get into your records.

my .02 Credits