History Main / TotallyNotACriminalFront

* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': early in their working relationship, Holmes sends Watson to pick up some laundry from a dry cleaner, which is staffed by a woman only speaking Polish and a quiet, large man in a leather coat reading a magazine in the back, and with state of the art surveilance cameras, and on a second visit Watson notices none of the clothes in the racks had moved since her last visit, and she surmises both that the dry cleaner is a front for criminal activity, and that Sherlock sent her there specifically to see if she would notice.
* ''Series/{{Lillyhammer}}'': Frank buys a local pub and turns it into Flamingo Club, which acts as a convinient conduit for his many criminal dealings.
* In the ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' episode "Love & Hate in Cabot Cove", the new owner of a restaurant in Cabot Cove is running an illegal casino upstairs. Sherrif Metzler is having difficulty proving this (because [[DirtyCop one of his deputies is on the take]], and the owner can switch it out to look like a disused function room), but to Jessica it's really obvious that a lot of people are going upstairs without even pretending that they're there for the restaurant.
* ''Series/{{Ozark}}'' as Marty starts trying to find busineeses to use for money laundering at the Lake of Ozarks, he meets with the owner of the local strip club, who turns him down, and Marty realizes the club is already used for laundering by someone else.

** the Barksdale organization is headquartered in the backroom of Orlando's Gentlemen's Club. However, Orlando, the owner who the gang needs as a clean name on the liqour licence suffers a bad case of IJustWantToBeBadass and is constantly trying to get involved with the drug trade for extra income, and after getting caught up in a sting, is forced to sign the club over, and is later killed in an ambush. After Orlando's is seized at the end of season one, the organization starts running the business out of a funeral parlor.
** The Greek's associate Spiros almost always meets his drug dealer associates at a dingy Greek diner that never seems to have any clientele except for an old man who just sits at the counter reading a newspaper. It turns out [[spoiler:that "customer" is the Greek himself]].

* The traditional [[UsefulNotes/TheMafia Mafia]] social club (which was always less a "Mafia" thing and more a "New York" thing, with many similar non-criminal private clubs operating out of storefronts as well) has ironically become an inversion in the modern era; with many urban locales becoming heavily gentrified, storefront real estate is simply too expensive to waste on a private club.

** Former Genovese boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante and his crew was based out of the Triangle Social Club in Greenwich Village, while Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano of the Bonanno family based his crew out of The Motion Lounge nightclub in Williamsburg.

* Many old-school Italian-American social clubs used to be (and some still are) mafia hangouts and fronts for illegal activities.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/ThePittsburghSOAPranos'' The mob soap shop seemingly exists entirely to dispose of bodies, although [[TheDon Old Man Calzone]] seems to take it personally that people prefer Sami's soaps to his. The soaps are extremely pretty, and named after serial killers.
* Discussed in the ''[[Film/TheBoondockSaints Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day]]'' episode of ''Podcast/WeHateMovies''. The guys, speaking as four New Yorkers, mock the fan hysteria which arises around the mob murders committed by the protagonists, pointing out that most people on the street are ignorant of the presence of organized crime because their business is done behind closed doors at these places; unless you're connected or you get involved in sketchy mob-related business, you won't ''know'' enough to be able to follow the Mafia or the Triads like they're a sports team.
-->'''Stephen:''' The only time the Mafia enters your life in New York City -- if you live in a Mafia neighborhood, which I have done -- is, you can't go into certain coffee shops, and that might be a bummer. That's really it! You go in, and [they say], "we're outta cawffee!", and you're like, "ohhhh, it's one of ''those'' coffee shops. My apologies, Giuseppe! Enjoy your crime!"\\
'''Chris:''' Or one of those bars -- oh, wait, ''tonight's'' karaoke night, and there's nobody here? Weird.\\
'''Andrew:''' Uh, in my neighborhood in Queens, there's a lot of "social clubs", where [people] go to watch "soccer games", and I'm not allowed to go "watch the soccer game". And that's totally fine, and ''that'' is your interaction with the Mafia!

* {{Invoked|Trope}} in one WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon, where Bugs torments a couple of crooks, and finishes up by erecting a huge sign on the side of their hideout. The police find the two crooks in no time.

-->"Whichever 'bunny' you think would be best for shooting a guy in the head."

** A subversion also appears in "Bender Gets Made," in which it appears that the Robot Mafia really ''are'' members of a legitimate club:

'''Bender:''' Nah, [[NotEvenBotheringWithAnExcuse I'd rather plan some felonies.]]\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

** In "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment", Moe's Tavern becomes a speakeasy when prohibition is declared in Springfield, and changes its name to "Moe's Pet Shop". The true purpose of the place is obvious, but fortunately for Moe, Rex Banner -- the guy in charge of enforcing the law -- is just as stupid as Wiggum. (Maybe even more so; unlike Wiggum, Rex can't be bribed, but he still can't solve crimes worth squat.)

* In ''Theatre/BellsAreRinging'', Titanic Records, which sets up shop within Susanswerphone's offices, is a [[TheMafia Mafia]]-controlled [[IllegalGamblingDen bookie operation]] pretending to be a record company. As Ella innocently observes, the company's ledgers contain a lot of orders for recordings of works of ClassicalMusic that don't actually exist, so she decides to correct some of them, inadvertently putting herself in danger.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] when Saul starts shopping around for ways for Walter and Jesse to launder their money, and shows Walt a bankrupt, out-of-the-way Laser Tag place, and Walter questions why he, a recently retired chemistry teacher with cancer, would suddenly buy such a weird business, and how would he explain how it would be turning a profit. They eventually settle on the car wash Walter used to work at. At the car wash, Skyler also does some mental math, as she processes cash payments from fake customers, and realizes they can't move all the money they need through the place without having to report an unrealistic amount of customers.

** the Barksdale organization is headquartered in the backroom of Orlando's Gentlemen's Club. However, Orlando, the owner who the gang needs as a clean name on the liqour licence suffers a bad case of IJustWantToBeBadass and is constantly trying to get involved with the drug trade for extra income, and after getting caught up in a sting, is forced to sing the club over, and is later killed in an ambush. After Orlando's is seized at the end of season one, the organization starts running the business out of a funeral parlor.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] when Saul starts shopping around for ways for Walter and Jesse to launder their money, and shows Walt a bankrupt, out-of-the-way Laser Tag place, and Walter questions why he, a recently retired chemistry teacher with cancer, would suddenly buy such a weird business, and how would he explain how it would be turning a profit. They eventually settle on the car wash Waler used to work at. At the car wash, Skyler also does some mental math, as she processes cash payments from fake customers, and realizes they can't move all the money they need through the place without having to report an unrealistic amount of customers.

** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoOnline'' allows the player to buy a number of businesses from a non-descipt startup company used to run illegal cargo to a roadside biker bars and nightclubs that also act as hubs for drug and counterfeiting businesses. Returning VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV character Franklin has founded F. Clinton & Partner "Celebrity Solutions Agency" from which the player can both complete a story mission shaking down and murdering people who have copies of a leaked album from Music/DrDre, as well as "security contracts" that range from stealing back stolen goods to destorying rival criminal operations and murdering gang leaders.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] when Saul starts shopping around for ways for Walter and jesse to launder their money, and shows Walt a bankrupt, out-of-the-way Laser Tag place, and Walter questions why he, a recently retired chemistry teacher with cancer, would suddenly buy such a weird business, and how would he explain how it would be turning a profit. They eventually settle on the car wash Waler used to work at. At the car wash, Skyler also does some mental math, as she processes cash payments from fake customers, and realizes they can't move all the money they need through the place without having to report an unrealistic amount of customers.

* ''Series/TheWire'': The Greek's associate Spiros almost always meets his drug dealer associates at a dingy Greek diner that never seems to have any clientele except for an old man who just sits at the counter reading a newspaper. It turns out [[spoiler:that "customer" is the Greek himself]].

* The Japanese {{Yakuza}} gangs stand in an interesting contrast to this trope: they are in no way secret societies, and openly maintain offices. Members may even have business cards. That being said, the Yakuza are known for referring to themselves as "ninkyō dantai", literally "chivalrous organizations". This only refers to the direct, overt yakuza organizations themselves -- there are ''tons'' of fronts, shell companies, associates who exist on a spectrum from real hardcore yakuza to victims making payoffs to survive either literally or in regard to their careers, and many, many other "connections" or "affiliations" or "friends," especially with tightening organized crime laws. Anything from a record label to a restaurant can be a yakuza front now.

* Capone's crosstown rival [[TheIrishMob Dion O'Banion]] ran a floral shop in addition to his bootlegging operation. [[RealMenWearPink He was evidently a pretty good florist]], and seemed to have as much of a passion for flowers as he did for crime. Admittedly, many of his customers were mobsters, but it wasn't a money laundering business. He was just good with flowers, and they knew him. Whenever a high-ranking Chicago mobster was killed, O'Banion's shop sold lots of flowers to the funeral home. [[JustForPun He made a killing.]]

Ah, TheMafia. Known for their subtlety and planning, they can orchestrate murder, drug dealing, prostitution, racketeering, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the sale of non-labelled tomato sauce]] without anyone finding out. But their fronts lack the same subtlety, as can clearly be seen on the massive sign above their hideout that reads, "'''[[PaperThinDisguise Legitimate Casino]]! [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Not Mafia-owned!]]'''" Expect a great deal of {{Doublespeak}}. Sometimes, what gives the game away is the effort put into securing a supposedly legitimate establishment -- for example, what's that [[{{Bouncer}} scary 350-pound guy doing]] standing in front of a bakery? Other times, it's the total ''lack'' of effort given to make it seem like an actual business -- if this bar is closed for the night, then why did those six men come in as a group, get served free drinks, and then walk into the back room?

!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16937572860.97364600 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.

* ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'' features the cast working in a small café which in ''no way'' has ''any sort of illegal underground speakeasy''. Nope.
** Another St. Louis speakeasy, the Marigold club, is secretly housed within the Maribel Hotel.

* UsefulNotes/AlCapone was officially an antiques dealer. He even owned an antique shop. However, most people, including the police and the press, knew what he really was, but couldn't nail him on anything worse than tax evasion.

* Former Gambino boss Paul Castellano had at one point launched a poultry business called "Dial Poultry" (based on Castellano's background as a meat butcher), which supplied poultry to several UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity grocery chains. While technically legitimate, Castellano would not hesitate to resort to various forms of intimidation to convince the "customers" to carry the poultry. Part of this was that Castellano fancied himself more of a "legitimate businessman", and while some businesses he ran did technically become legitimate, the intimidation tactics and the Mob ties helped ensure their success.
* Former Bonanno boss Sal Maranzano used a real estate brokerage and development company as a front for his illegal booze and heroin rackets. His acolyte Joe Bonanno ran a funeral parlor in Brooklyn that [[CrammingTheCoffin was reportedly a front for disposing the bodies of mob victims]].
* Former Genovese boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante and his crew was based out of the Triangle Social Club in Greenwich Village, while Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano of the Bonanno family based his crew out of The Motion Lounge nightclub in Williamsburg.
* The traditional Mafia social club (which was always less a "Mafia" thing and more a "New York" thing, with many similar non-criminal private clubs operating out of storefronts as well) has ironically become an inversion in the modern era; with many urban locales becoming heavily gentrified, storefront real estate is simply too expensive to waste on a private club.

* John Gotti maintained two of these establishments: the Ravenite and the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club.

* In the 70's and through into the early 2000's, it would be easier to list the businesses in [[UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}} Baltimore, MD]] that ''weren't'' an example of this trope. Let's see, there was the schools, the hospitals...and that was pretty much it.

* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': The Church of Violence/ Ripoff Church is a supposedly [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Christian church that sells weapons]], despite the fact that the church doesn't seem to do anything even remotely religious. [[spoiler: It's hinted that its true purpose is to function as a CIA listening post]]. Other organizations in Roanpur are a bit more legitimate.

* Nino's Pizza in ''Film/Drive2011''. Doubly so because as Nino's introductory scene points out, he's actually Jewish, and aspires to be held in higher esteem by the Italian Mafia.

* ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'': The climax involves the "Friends of Italian Opera", which is a front for the Cosa Nostra.

* [[AllThereInTheManual According to]] ''[[UniverseCompendium The Discworld Companion]]'', the Ankh-Morpork City Watch first became suspicious that Chalky the Troll was a drugs smuggler for the Breccia when he registered the company name "Hollow Statue Imports".
* Impro Fanfic ''Do Gooders'' had the "Tokyo Legitimate Businessmen's Club" -- probably in tribute to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. To their credit, neither the heroes nor the main villain realized their actual purpose until the shoot-out started. Then again, everyone else knows what they really do...

* An episode of ''Series/DarkAngel'' features the Odessa Social Club, "a perfectly legitimate syndicate". Do not lose their mail.
* In ''Series/DharmaAndGreg'', the parents once jointly bought a boat from a friend of Larry's who would soon be needing a lawyer more than a boat. The name of the boat? ''Innocent Fishing Boat''.
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': Luigi Vercotti would like to remind you that he runs a high-class establishment for the gentry of Biggleswade, and [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial not a cheap clip joint for picking up tarts]].

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'':
*** The Thieves Guild and their EvilCounterpart, the [[TheSyndicate Camonna Tong]], both operate out of various taverns and clubs in the major cities that are used as guild halls, and talking to anyone on the street makes it obvious that their function is an OpenSecret. )
*** Averted by the [[MurderInc Morag Tong]], since despite being assassins, their existence is perfectly legal and they have no need to hide their presence (except for their headquarters in Vivec, which is extremely well hidden, partly as a test for would-be initiates and partly as protection from the [[EvilCounterpart Dark Brotherhood]]).
* ''VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame'': Ivo Shandor ran a club out of the Natural History Museum. Naturally, it was a front for the Cult of Gozer's rituals.

* The NES game ''VideoGame/Nightshade1992'' has the Pyramid Club, reflecting the BigBad's fixation on ancient Egypt. There's also an all-girl ninja gang that runs the clothing boutique and a restaurant ("Chopsticks and Ninja Stars").
* In the Slaughterhouse heist in ''VideoGame/{{PAYDAY 2}}'', you can find shipping containers labelled "Legitimate Business Ltd."
* In ''VideoGame/Persona2'', Club Zodiac is run by the Masked Circle, a cult with Zodiac-themed names for its members. In the sequel, the club falls under the ownership of the [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Taiwanese mob]].

* The Umbrella Corporation from the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series poses as a pharmaceutical company, but they really deal with {{Bioweapon Beast}}s. Notably, their pharmaceutical work is actually ''more'' profitable than their illegal dealings and some members of the group, like co-founder Edward Ashford and his son Alexander Ashford, wanted to [[CutLexLuthorACheck stick strictly to pharmaceutical work]]. [[spoiler:It's ultimately revealed the company's CEO Ozwell E. Spencer is an EvilutionaryBiologist with serious GodhoodSeeker tendencies, and he couldn't care less about all the money Umbrella makes unless it's being used to push him toward his goal.]]

* In ''VideoGame/StarCitizen'', Drake Interplanetary produces ships with features ''very'' enticing for aspiring SpacePirates. Drake insists that the extra armor, extra large cargo holds and radar intercept stations are for militias and search and rescue. Even their SpaceTrucker offering has boosted armor, additional weapons, and an extra large cargo hold for "[[BoardingParty search and rescue]]". Their ship naming system certain doesn't help, with names like ''Cutlass'', ''Marauder'', ''Privateer''.

* In ''Webcomic/AkiAlliance'' there are two rival gangs, the "Girl Gang" and... "The Legitimate Business Club".
* In ''Webcomic/CinemaSnobReviewsFrozen'' (a fan comic where ''WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob'' reviews ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013''), Snob says Oaken doesn't like being called a crook, because he's is a "legitimate businessman".

** The page image above is Springfield's local Mafia hideout, the "Legitimate Businessmen's Social Club". They have a softball team and "family" picnics.
*** In the episode where Fat Tony's son appeared, the front is "Waste Management".
** ''The Simpsons'' also has the Ancient Society of No-Homers, which meets at an old Baskin-Robbins with a marquee reading "Abandoned Store".
** Also, in "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment", Moe's Tavern becomes a speakeasy when prohibition is declared in Springfield, and changes its name to "Moe's Pet Shop". The true purpose of the place is obvious, but fortunately for Moe, Rex Banner -- the guy in charge of enforcing the law -- is just as stupid as Wiggum. (Maybe even more so; unlike Wiggum, Rex can't be bribed, but he still can't solve crimes worth squat.)

** The TropeNamer is Fat Tony's hideout. They have a softball team and "family" picnics.
*** In the episode where Fat Tony's son appeared, the front is "Waste Management".[[note]]The company [[https://www.wm.com/ actually exists]].[[/note]]

* [[DanceTropeDance Parodied/subverted/etc]] in one WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon, where Bugs torments a couple of crooks, and finishes up by erecting a huge sign on the side of their hideout. The police find the two crooks in no time.

* ''Manga/MajinTanteiNougamiNeuro'': Later in the manga, the Hayasaka brothers ran a firearm smuggling operation using a spice shop as a front.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': According to Creator/EiichiroOda,[[note]]SBS Chapter 884[[/note]] the real-life job of the character Capone "Gang" Bege, a walking homage to mafia movies, would be shoe store manager.
** Donquixote Doflamingo ran one for the [[AristocratsAreEvil World Nobles]] for a time. It was a huge slave ring centered around selling slaves to the Nobles, so they would ignore almost everything else he did. Such as sell weapons to pirates on the side.

* Barry's aviation company "Independant Airline Consultants" from ''Film/AmericanMade''.

* In ''Film/TheGodfather'' films, Vito Corleone poses as an "olive oil importer", and occasional references are made to "the olive oil business" when characters do not want to refer to what ''actually'' goes on. (Subverted in that he actually ''does'' have a legitimate business that imports olive oil; it just isn't where most of his money comes from.) In the original novel, he starts out as a completely legitimate olive oil importer. [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain Then he cuts corners by intimidating his rivals into selling their business to him]]. Then Prohibition comes along and he realizes there are some bottled goods he can import that would be more profitable than olive oil....

%%* ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'':
%%** [[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring Gustavo Fring]] is a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive fast-food tycoon / drug lord]] who uses his chain of fried chicken restaurants (Los Pollos Hermanos) as a legitimate front for his underground meth-trafficking cartel. Gus Fring's drug ring also hides their meth-producing lab underneath a mundane laundromat building called the Lavandería Brillante; it's a perfect front for shipping in industrial quantities of chemicals and having tons of trucks coming and going without anyone batting an eye. Most of the employees (with the exception of the manager) are legitimate, primarily because the laundromat only employs poor Latino immigrants that can be threatened with deportation if they peek too closely on what's really going on. Surprisingly, there's no jokes about "money laundering".
%%** When [[Characters/BreakingBadWalterWhite Walter White]] earns his massive bucketloads of cash from meth-cooking, [[Characters/BreakingBadSaulGoodman Saul Goodman]] recommends that Walt and Skyler should purchase a legitimate front in order to launder all this money. Saul tries to convince them to buy a laser tag arena (because it's managed by someone in on the take), but Skyler decides the old car wash where Walter used to work is more in-character, including working as the wash's manager to launder the money by reporting additional nonexistent customers. Unfortunately, Walt [[GoneHorriblyRight ends up earning so much money]], there's no way for Skyler to convincingly launder it all, leaving them with a small mountain of greenbacks they can't even use without arousing suspicion.
%%** Saul also tries convincing [[Characters/BreakingBadJessePinkman Jesse Pinkman]] to purchase a nail salon to launder his own money; but Jesse hates the idea of running a business, paying taxes despite being a criminal, as well as having to give Saul a 17% cut, and so [[DefiedTrope he rejects doing this]].
%%** Saul has an associate named Ed Galbraith who will give anyone a new, untraceable identity somewhere else in the country within a day for a flat fee of $125,000 per person (and he can raise the fee for more difficult clients). The location he runs this business from is a regular vacuum cleaner repair shop, and the secret code for requesting a disappearance from Ed is to ask for "a new dust filter for a Hoover Max Extract® Pressure Pro™ Model 60".
%%** Before he ended up in a wheelchair, Hector Salamanca laundered his drug money through a number of Mexican restaurants in the Albuquerque area (one an ice cream parlour called El Griego Guiñador, another named El Michoacáno). It's noted that the money they bring in is far less than Gus' enterprises, and their fate is left unclear after Hector is paralyzed and unable to manage them (and the people left to care for them in his stead end up being killed shortly afterwards).
%%** Dr. Caldera is a BackAlleyDoctor who works as a vet, providing medical services and contact information for the Albuquerque's criminal underworld. However, he takes his job as a vet quite seriously and only sees his criminal activities as a side business, eventually wiping his hands of illegal activities to focus on being a legitimate vet full-time, passing on his criminal contact info to Saul before leaving town for good.

* ''Series/{{Intelligence|2006}}'': The protagonist has many front companies, including a shipyard and a lumber business, but his favorite is a strip club called the Chick-A-Dee.
* Marvel's Netflix shows:
** ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes has a number of fronts to his name, including real estate holdings, and his nightclub Harlem's Paradise. Harlem's Paradise is enough of a money-spinner that [[CutLexLuthorACheck Cottonmouth could still remain afloat even after losing his other criminal assets]].
** ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
*** In Season 1, Wilson Fisk owns a number of legitimate companies and shell companies to hide the source of his income, investing in real estate and construction.
*** The Hand in Season 2 are hiding behind the face of Asano, Japanese branch of the Roxxon Corporation.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich", the mob boss Nino Lancaster uses Nino's Toys & Imports at the docks as a cover for his smuggling operation.
* ''Series/TheWire'':
** The Barksdale Organization initially operates out of Orlando's, a strip club, and have a problem with the Front's owner, Orlando, wanting to get into drug dealing for more income, when they need someone to run the club with a clean criminal record. After Avon is arrested, Stringer runs the operation out of a funeral home.
** The Greek's associate Spiros almost always meets his drug dealer associates at a dingy Greek diner that never seems to have any clientele except for an old man who just sits at the counter reading a newspaper. It turns out [[spoiler:that "customer" is the Greek himself]].
** Proposition Joe runs his drug empire out of his appliance repair shop. He actually does repair appliances for people in his community, though he notes that modern society is too wasteful to actually make appliance repair profitable. He does the work because he actually enjoys it.

[[folder:Pinballs]]
* ''Pinball/TheSopranos'' has both the Bada Bing! strip club and Satriale's Pork Store.
* TheSyndicate in Creator/{{Capcom}}'s unreleased ''Pinball/{{Kingpin}}'' operate out of the Hotel Lex.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has a card in the mafia-themed set ''Streets of New Capenna'' called Witness Protection themed after this trope, which transforms the enchanted creature into a new one called "Legitimate Businessperson."
[[/folder]]

* ''The Hairy Ape'': Subverted -- Yank goes to a meeting of the Industrial Workers of the World, expecting it to be a front for an organization that achieves its goals by blowing things up. The people there assume that he is a government spy trying to entrap their genuinely legitimate organization when he approaches them, and kick him out.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'':
** [[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring Gustavo Fring]] is a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive fast-food tycoon / drug lord]] who uses his chain of fried chicken restaurants (Los Pollos Hermanos) as a legitimate front for his underground meth-trafficking cartel. Gus Fring's drug ring also hides their meth-producing lab underneath a mundane laundromat building called the Lavandería Brillante; it's a perfect front for shipping in industrial quantities of chemicals and having tons of trucks coming and going without anyone batting an eye. Most of the employees (with the exception of the manager) are legitimate, primarily because the laundromat only employs poor Latino immigrants that can be threatened with deportation if they peek too closely on what's really going on. Surprisingly, there's no jokes about "money laundering".
** When [[Characters/BreakingBadWalterWhite Walter White]] earns his massive bucketloads of cash from meth-cooking, [[Characters/BreakingBadSaulGoodman Saul Goodman]] recommends that Walt and Skyler should purchase a legitimate front in order to launder all this money. Saul tries to convince them to buy a laser tag arena (because it's managed by someone in on the take), but Skyler decides the old car wash where Walter used to work is more in-character, including working as the wash's manager to launder the money by reporting additional nonexistent customers. Unfortunately, Walt [[GoneHorriblyRight ends up earning so much money]], there's no way for Skyler to convincingly launder it all, leaving them with a small mountain of greenbacks they can't even use without arousing suspicion.
** Saul also tries convincing [[Characters/BreakingBadJessePinkman Jesse Pinkman]] to purchase a nail salon to launder his own money; but Jesse hates the idea of running a business, paying taxes despite being a criminal, as well as having to give Saul a 17% cut, and so [[DefiedTrope he rejects doing this]].
** Saul has an associate named Ed Galbraith who will give anyone a new, untraceable identity somewhere else in the country within a day for a flat fee of $125,000 per person (and he can raise the fee for more difficult clients). The location he runs this business from is a regular vacuum cleaner repair shop, and the secret code for requesting a disappearance from Ed is to ask for "a new dust filter for a Hoover Max Extract® Pressure Pro™ Model 60".
** Before he ended up in a wheelchair, Hector Salamanca laundered his drug money through a number of Mexican restaurants in the Albuquerque area (one an ice cream parlour called El Griego Guiñador, another named El Michoacáno). It's noted that the money they bring in is far less than Gus' enterprises, and their fate is left unclear after Hector is paralyzed and unable to manage them (and the people left to care for them in his stead end up being killed shortly afterwards).
** Dr. Caldera is a BackAlleyDoctor who works as a vet, providing medical services and contact information for the Albuquerque's criminal underworld. However, he takes his job as a vet quite seriously and only sees his criminal activities as a side business, eventually wiping his hands of illegal activities to focus on being a legitimate vet full-time, passing on his criminal contact info to Saul before leaving town for good.

[[caption-width-right:350:Looks [[TropeNamers legitimate]]. [[RevealingCoverup So why]] the human brick for a {{bouncer}}?]]