People sometimes refer to money or profit as ~, especially when they think that it has been obtained by dishonest means. (HUMOROUS or OLD-FASHIONED)
...so they can feel less guilty about their piles of filthy ~.
N-UNCOUNT disapproval
LUCRE
Meaning of LUCRE in English
Collins COBUILD. Толковый словарь английского языка для изучающих язык Коллинз COBUILD (международная база данных языков Бирмингемского университета) . 2012