The prices of Bearbricks in Thailand, meanwhile, could vary from tens of thousands of baht to several hundreds of thousands, depending on the rarity of the model.
High-value, easily transportable and unregulated, they are also an ideal vehicle for money laundering, experts say.
Jamie Ferrill, the head of financial crime studies at Charles Sturt University, told ABC Australia news that the purpose of money laundering was to obscure the trail between money and its illicit source.
She said the high value of luxury goods made them useful for money laundering.
“If a Bearbrick is worth, say, US$100,000, the money launderer can purchase it with their dirty money with relatively little suspicion,” she said. “They can build up a nice collection with these high-worth goods and eventually sell them.”
Another valuable attribute of luxury goods is that…
