Negligence and Weak Oversight in AML Systems
Another weakness highlighted in Ozark is the displayed negligence and weak oversight that continue to allow laundering operations to exist. AML, also known as Anti-Money-Laundering, depends completely on accurate reporting from employees, proper training, and system monitors. However, to this day, we still see businesses not properly enforcing these steps, allowing gaps to open for criminals to effectively transport illegal money. Throughout the 4 seasons of Ozarks, Marty would continuously manipulate or change financial records and backend casino systems to avoid detection. It serves as a demonstration of how laundering isn’t based on skill or luck, but rather companies failing to notice the early stages of the scheme. While some employees may ignore a flagged transition, in large companies, it is extremely hard to catch a small movement within such a large cash base. A real example of this appears in the article Chinese Money Laundering Networks, which talks about how illegal groups have moved “over $92 million in illicit funds, including proceeds from the importation and distribution of illegal drugs into the United States, primarily through Mexico” (Rosen 2025).
This example shows us how criminals may use multiple systems and exploit gaps in casinos by moving funds through other countries and miscellaneous items. This has a direct connection to Ozarks due to Marty relying on oversight slack. While this isn’t direct and physical cash, it is still a form of illegal transport of items through groups of people. Similar to what the cartel relies on, which is businesses and systems failing to recognize initial patterns and being unable to stop the operation. In multiple occurrences during the show, Marty is shown being trapped inside the criminal cartel system, and later, his family gets caught up in it. Even though Marty joined the operation when he thought it was safe, it quickly turned into growing threats and constant threats towards him and his family, so he was unable to leave the situation. This is a perfect showcase of how real criminal groups utilize the factors of fear to control people into working for their operations. The failures shown in real cases and the show hint to us how institutional weakness allows these things to happen. With the focus on over-prioritizing self-monitoring or self-reporting, there is the negative effect of a lack of oversight, allowing operations to be concealed, as we see it visualized in the show.