Law in popular media

by John Bandler

Television and movies are often good entertainment, and sometimes they depict situtations relating to law, criminal law, law school, trials, and a fascinating areas of criminal and regulatory law -- money laundering and anti-money laundering.

I have compiled some clips that are available online for your viewing enjoyment, and so I can access them easily when I teach.

Law school

Criminal trial

Money laundering

Fun YouTube videos, excerpted from some really good TV. Watch the clip, then you may decide to watch more. Consider how the typologies for virtual currency and cybercrime money laundering will differ from cash money laundering depicted in these videos.

  • The Wire, Baltimore detectives follow the money trail to see who is really profiting from street drug dealing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShWe-4mtV8w
    • YouTube title: The Wire - Chasing the Paper Trail
    • The Wire, Season 1, Episode 9, “Game Day,” Blown Deadline Productions/HBO, 2002.
  • Breaking Bad, a criminal defense attorney (who is also a criminal) explains money laundering. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez6xH-su2xI
    • YouTube title: Breaking Bad, Saul explains money laundering – subtitle
    • Breaking Bad, Season 3, Episode 9, “Kafkaesque,” High Bridge Entertainment/Grand Via Productions/Sony Pictures Television, 2010.
  • Breaking Bad, money laundering wife explains to husband the difficulties laundering all their dirty cash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXH6fhueO3I
    • YouTube title: Breaking Bad: The Fifth Season - How Much Is Enough?.
    • Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 8,  "Gliding Over All”, High Bridge/Sony Pictures.
  • Scarface, a ridiculous 80’s music video montage that shows laundering of cash criminal proceeds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olgn9sXNdl0
    • YouTube title: Scarface | Push It to the Limit
    • Scarface, Universal Pictures, 1983.
  • Ozark Official Season 1 Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hAXVqrljbs
    • I need to mention Ozark, but should mention that I lost interest sometime after Season 1
    • YouTube title: Ozark | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix
  • Global Witness, Undercover in New York https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC2DDNLvFg8 (attorneys and their role with financial transactions)

Conclusion

This is a brief summary, and I broke this material out from my longer Introduction to Law Outline/Article and my Virtual Currency References article because they were getting too long.

My articles on this site

This article is hosted at https://johnbandler.com/law-in-popular-media, copyright John Bandler, all rights reserved.

Material here was pulled from my 2021 article outline on Introduction to Law , and from my Virtual Currency References page.

Posted 12/12/2024. Updated 12/12/2024.