I'd move abroad, and maybe get a fake name and id or something, if it was stolen money, and definitely swiss bank accounts and some others on those islands.

$17 mil? That's such a buttload of money. I think I'd buy lots of coastal real estate as my main investment, set my family up, start a nonprofit, buy a 1950 Martin D-18 and some frivolous, fully restored vehicle like a woodie wagon, and donate giant chunks to my former summer camp, the United NEgro College Fund, People for the American Way, etc. I might even grubstake friends in their entreprenerial projects.

I would buy MetaFilter.

$17 million is an enormous amount of money. It would take up a pretty ridiculous amount of room.

According these guys, 1 million bucks in hundreds weighs 20 pounds and takes up about as much room as a 15 tv. So, 17 million would be 340 pounds of money and one big ass tv, really big.

I'm not greedy, I'd take five and disappear into thin air. Probably a hundred thousand acre game park in southern Africa somewhere. I'd send a postcard.

It's an interesting question... I've always wondered how people do this without detection and without using outside money launderers.

Obviously, I would educamate myself about all aspects of the question... and probably do something smarter than what I'm about to say, but I would think about becoming an art dealer, travelling all around Europe with an EU passport over a period of years, and depositing money in various countries as I go along, in amounts always under the limit of required currency transaction reports for that banks in that country, and buying art in each country I visit - again for sums unlikely to attract any attention, later "selling" this art for much greater sums (though still nothing terribly notable).

Little by little, I would transfer sums from various banks into a Swiss account. To all outside appearances, I should appear simply a fairly canny contemporary art dealer, and since I'm not the sort of person who would want to live a flashy, ultraconsumer lifestyle anyway, I think I could probably do this without seeming very remarkable to any authorities... Plus, travel! Art! Whee! Fun!

(Also, since I wouldn't need/want anywhere near that much money, I would probably spend a significant part of it on anonymous donations for good works.)

How about reporting it as gambling earnings and give the gubmint whatever huge chunk they would want? The rest I'd split between real estate investment in revitalizing downtown areas and a few select plots of land w/ an off the grid house. And I'd build myself a nice studio with a gallery up front that had a bar and room for dancing on Fridays.

I'd spend it all on an even bigger anus.

I wouldn't call a radio station to brag.