'Private' off shore Banking

Conrad

Ok, so where is the safest and most discreet place on Earth to store money?

Switzerland seems not so private any more.

Singapore perhaps?

Has to be safe and secure - so that rules out for example Panama I guess.

Any thoughts?

This has nothing to do with money laundering but a lot to do with an ex wife shall we say.

shaun_from_Africa

Unless you want to fly over to the country concerned and deposit the money in cash, I doubt if there is anywhere that would fit your criteria.
Any bank transfer from the UK to an overseas bank would be recorded so could possibly leave an easy trail for someone to follow.

Another problem would be the amount needed to open an account in a country such as Singapore. I doubt very much if it would possible to open a non resident account with less than something like £10,000.

About the only way to keep it totally hidden would be to take out small amounts of cash from your bank, and keep these hidden somewhere in your house or keep a small box in the vault of your local bank.
I do this in my local NatWest, and am charged about £40 per year.

LillythePink

As said, transfers can be traced, so can cheques/drafts

If you go to a well regulated place (even if you did manage to walk through customs with £100k cash for example), any bank worth their weight or worth their license, will not accept large amounts of cash deposited by a new customer - money laundering etc!

The vault idea is a good one!

Loughton_Monkey

Yes, drawing it out in cash 'on the drip' is a good one!

When you have enough, some little Thai bride might be happy to invest it in her name for you!

DavidHayton

Smeagold would tell you to turn it into gold before you deposited in the safety deposit box.

Masomnia

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Yes. It's no coincidence that his name is an anagram of "Lame Dogs".

In on your own this evening?

Loughton_Monkey

Masomnia wrote: »

In on your own this evening?

I am accompanied, at home, by Mrs Loughton Monkey as usual. Although she nodded off during "Question Time".

Many thanks for the interest.

PS Anagram of Masomnia? I'm a Mason

Conrad

I transfered money by wire no problem in the past for property in Bahammas - which I did not proceed with. Imagine doing that and then onto, Singapore - then buy gold, put it in a vault, then later turn back into cash, mmmmmm. Eventualy turn into an income yielding investment to draw on by debt card for UK spending. Mmm.

shaun_from_Africa

I transfered money by wire no problem in the past for property in Bahammas - which I did not proceed with.

But there would have been a paper trail showing the money coming out of your bank.
If your ex-wifes solicitor applied for a court order asking your bank to divulge your assets, they would very easily see that you were moving money overseas.
They might have great difficulty finding where it had ended up, but they wouldn't have to do that. All they would need to do is to show that you were attempting to hide the money.

Voyager2002

Shaun has hit the nail on the head. Unless you can come up with convincing reasons why you have less money at the time of divorce proceedings than you had during the last year of the marriage, her lawyers would be able to work out what you were up to and convince the court that you had been hiding money (and presumably lying to the court about the assets available to you). Courts are decidedly NOT impressed by this kind of thing, and you would end up losing a lot in court, and probably paying a hefty bill for the time her lawyers spent looking at your finances.

A better option: invest in a good lawyer, and if the legal fees seem steep, console yourself with the thought that you don't have to pay all those wire transfer fees and the costs of turning money into gold and back.

Alternatively, you could just send the money to me or one of my neighbours. (I am in West Africa.)

Masomnia

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

PS Anagram of Masomnia? I'm a Mason

NWO here we come!