DO NOT let this person deposit or wire money into your account or you could have a lot of issues with the source of found reporting and taxes later on.</p>
<p>Tell this person to have an account at a bank with international presence, like Chase or HSBC. If this guy has that kind of cash, he is probably a client of private bank and should be able to get great advice from his private banker. Not sure why he would be asking you. </p>
<p>agree with the rest. People who operate at that rarified a level do not ask random buddies how to move 600K around. There are certainly accepted procedures in place for legitimate operations of this sort.</p>
<p>Agreed…this fellow should not deposit into an account that is not HIS. There are plenty of international banks and he should open an account with one of those. He can then draw on the funds here.</p>
<p>As an FYI…if something goes south with this 1/2 million dollar transaction, your antique buying friend will have NO recourse if he pays cash. Poof…money gone. </p>
<p>I had the dubious pleasure of being acquainted with someone who is currently serving time for money laundering. He billed himself as a high end antique dealer. No lie.
Anyone who is really into the high end antiques business knows exactly how to transfer money legally from one country to another. The fact that they are asking someone for “assistance” makes this whole transaction appear to be highly suspicious.</p>
<p>I’m just curious as to why you would start a thread with the title suggesting $10,000 or equivalent, whereas, in reality, it’s $600,000. Huge, huge difference. </p>
<p>Yes, but why not say $600,000? I really don’t think the issue is whether it’s over the threshold; it’s the amount; - I’m guessing customs sees a heck of a lot more forms with $11,000 to say $25-30,000 and deal with this on a more regular basis. I doubt they deal with $600,000 on a regular basis. The OP is wanting to know how much his friend might need to explain and I expect there’s a lot more explaining to do with $600,000 than $11,000 (not that I’ll ever know). </p>
<p>As an aside, we just got back from a cruise that visited three countries in the Western Caribbean. When we went through customs, we had absolutely nothing to claim - did no shopping when in port - and the guy actually asked us if it was zero after reading the form, as if he didn’t believe us. Geez.</p>
<p>artloversplus, this is hitting me in a very fishy way. I think you need to back off and let your friend figure this out on his own. There is nothing to be gained by your being involved in this – but there is a huge potential down side. It this individual is an antiques dealer, he must have dealt with this kind of situation before. Let him talk to a banker or some financial advisor to figure out how to do what he wants to do.</p>
<p>Thank you for your interest in this thread. I appreciate all your comments.</p>
<p>I think I touched an area that none of you are familiar with thus the thought of “illegal” and “smuggling” became the tone of this thread. There is no need to take a position like that and there are legal ramifications for a legitimate business to transport cash while traveling internationally. As matter of fact, it happens on daily basis, it is not a crime to have large sums of “cash”. I simultaneously post this thread on “flytalk.com” under the same screen name: artloversplus and indeed, it turned up some eyebrows. However, there is a knowledgeable poster in flytalk where his replies are as follows:</p>
<p>Also, the reason I did not state the whole amount in the title is because the threshold to carry currency internationally is US$10,000.</p>
<p>Please revisit my original post in that, I said very clearly, that my friend is intended to report the amount of cash to the government and want to make sure all the steps are taken so it will NOT be viewed as smugglers. </p>
<p>Regarding the value of antiques. I think 600K is a pretty small figure among all the valuable antiques in the world. Picasso’s painting, for example.</p>
<p>Lets take a subject I know very well and you probably can relate: Postage Stamps. In 1918, the US 24c airmail stamp found a sheet of error was sold through post office. In the stamp world, we call it “Inverted Jenney”. A block of 4 of this stamp will fetch some thing more than 6 or 700k today, just for example. So, why can’t my friend buy an item like this and need cash to pay for it? </p>
<p>You are asking people (me) who don’t normally carry more than $20 in my wallet, and pay for coffee with credit card. I send my kids, niece, nephews birthday money via paypal. I move funds from one acct to another via inter-bank transfer. I do not understand the need of carrying 60K in cash. Your friend can do whatever he/she wants. One of my professional expertise is wealth management, so I am familiar with type of services private bank customers get and am very well trained about AML.</p>