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How To Move Money Quietly
The obvious answer is cash - high denomination notes, but remember, banks in the U.K. and Europe are under an obligation to inform the authorities of transactions in or out of an account of more than £10,000. (try several transactions of smaller amounts over a period of time?). If moving cash on your person, avoid a wallet - the mugger's friend; cash, credit cards, home address in one neat package. Keep it on you in a zipped or secure pocket. Don't wear expensive watches, jewellery; look ordinary. The reason for this report, though, is to look at other non cash methods that do not leave a paper-trail back to you.
MONEY ORDERS: Walk into your nearest American Express office, same as with cashiers cheques, and purchase a money order, then mail it to whoever or wherever you need to pay off. You do not need to show ID and the money order is made out on the spot. These money orders are available at a nominal charge in just about any country and are accepted for clearance by banks anywhere. They are also insured against loss if you keep the carbon copy. You will be asked for a name to be put on the money order when you buy it, but no ID is required.
INSTANT TRANSFERS: Western Union and Thomas Cook offer similar money transfers. How long it takes depends on how much you wish to pay. Western Union is located in all EU capitals and is busy signing up banks and businesses in the provinces. Its charges are steep but head offices are open 24 hours a day. You need one person paying cash in one end and another to collect at the other end.
POSTAL MONEY ORDERS: In the UK a postal Giro account holder can usually be supplied with International Giros, cashable throughout Europe by going to a Post Office at your destination and cashing the Giro. Enquire at your post office about British postal orders - can they be paid into a foreign bank account after conversion charges? They are available just by paying over cash at a post office, with no identity required. The highest postal order value is £50.
TRAVELLERS CHEQUES: Thomas Cook is not recommended as they charge 1% commission to cash their own cheques and both Cook and Amex give exchange rates worse than banks. Ordinary travellers cheques can be purchased by anyone walking in off the street. Only when cashing them do you need to show ID. If you want someone else to cash them the other end, make sure their name is put on the cheque(s) this end. Is it possible to pay travellers cheques into a bank (i.e. offshore account) - enquire: if it is, ensure the name put on them will tally with whatever name the offshore account is held in.
BEARER BONDS: The type of financial instrument dealt with by banks and stockbrokers. As the name suggests, the value of the bond is payable to whoever is bearing it, with no ownership details written on it (so don't loose them). This might be a good idea if the amount in question is what we can only call "serious money". Some bearer bonds could have a face value of £100,000, so that with just 10 of these bond certificates you could be carrying £1,000,000, but not in cash which if restrictions apply at boarder crossings would be a problem (and the very large suitcase full of banknotes).
Remember that no central register exists for bonds, so that you could just buy stolen bonds, and end up kissing your money goodbye. The same would apply if you bought bonds that had been cancelled but never quite made it to the incinerator. You would need to purchase from a major bank or broker who then guarantee the bond's worth.
Cash is great but bulky but it can start to take up a lot of space. £1,000,000 (chance would be a fine thing) would equal 2,500 Swiss 1,000 Franc notes; 18,500 US 100 dollar notes; 20,000 £50 notes. If you transport cash, strictly on your person you could manage 600 to 1,000 notes strapped to your legs and in a money belt, but after that you have to carry it in some sort of container.
What about gold? Down the ages this has been a favourite commodity, but first make sure there are no restrictions to wherever you intend to take it and turn it back into cash, and the second is weight. With regard to the above, after a while, depending on the actual amount of cash value you might wish to move, even a body builder is going to have problems.
There is a little story about someone moving a million dollars of gold from New York to Zurich, Switzerland some years ago. In those days there were no reporting requirements for gold, and likewise, the Swiss customs would not care if you were importing 20 tons of the stuff into Switzerland. The trunk containing the gold broke the axle of the heavy duty baggage cart at Zurich and took three porters to lift it. Now that we have anti-terrorist precautions at our airports, try getting through the scanners with just a modest amount of gold, let alone a trunk full.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend - they would be your friend, too, if you had to carry them any distance. The question is how much are you likely to loose on the transaction in buying them and then selling them on reaching your destination, and just how much cash are you hoping to move? Works of art assuming no export restrictions apply would do; valuable stamps better still.
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