Tainted Money


A. In a recent column, we pointed out that Jewish law forbids buying stolen merchandise. We quoted Maimonides who wrote: “For if he can’t find anyone to buy, he won’t steal.” (1)


The Talmud teaches:

The rabbis taught: It is forbidden to accept deposits from women, slaves and children. If [despite the prohibition] he did accept from a woman, he should return it to her. If she died, he should return it to her husband. (2)


It is forbidden to aid transgressors. And if he doesn’t accept from them, they will return [the objects] from wherever they stole them from.


In a similar vein, Maimonides rules:


At the strict legal level, there is still a difference between the actual stolen money and money that is the proceeds from transgression. The distance from the transgression in this case is greater, and the sources above do not demonstrate that there is a specific legal prohibition on accepting deposits which are suspected to be the proceeds of wrongdoing.

However, we do see that Jewish law recognizes the concept of tainted money and the problem of abetting wrongdoing. The strict money-laundering laws that have been passed in recent years are in the spirit of the laws we have just discussed, and in any specific case where accepting the money is a substantive aid to wrongdoing it would be forbidden.

SOURCES: (1) Maimonides’ Code Laws of Theft 5:1. (2) Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 51b (3) Maimonides’ Code, Laws of Lost and Stolen Objects 5:9