Anyone have customers purchasing cashiers cheques for the purpose of buing Iraqi Dinar? We've had a few customers doing this, as either an investment or collectors. There is a company in California that does this and is a registered MSB.

A customer used a wire to purchase Dinars this week.

We had a customer come in today to purchase a cashier's check payable to a company for the purchase of Iraqi Dinar. Our teller system says the company failed the OFAC screen. We sent the customer away and he has come back with the name of a different company. It too failed the OFAC screen. I don't see either of these names on the OFAC list when I go to the Treasury website. I have a call into our processor to figure out what is going on? Anyone else a Fidelity Tellerplus user with similar issues?

For what it's worth.

http://www.mint.com/blog/investing/iraqi-dinar-scam/

Once I get appointed to the head of the FDIC, I am going to try to regulate idiocy.

Oh, oh please let me help, Old Teller. I often say, "You can't regulate stupidity."

That's the best part about administrative law....If the FAA can regulate pre-flight checklists, I'm pretty sure anything is possible.

We had a customer purchase about $8500 in cashiers checks over a few weeks to purchase Iraqi dinars. The branch manager was very concerned and called it to my attention. I did some research and learned a few things.

The most important thing I learned is that this is a legal business and there's nothing we can do about it. A fool and his money... In fact, as we are not investment advisors, I've told the staff not to try to counsel customers on the wisdom of this investment.

The second thing I learned is that while there are many companies that will sell you dinar, almost no one will buy them back. It's an illiquid asset at this point, unless you're willing to sell at 60 to 70 cents on the dollar.

The sellers tease you with the idea that the currency will be re-valued, and a few thousand dollars of dinar will be worth millions.

IF the dinar is ever publicly traded on currency exchanges, and IF the Iraqi economy grows faster than the US economy for an extended period, there could be some small profit to be made IF you are a sophisticated currency trader.

Good piece on mint.com on the Irai Dinar.

http://www.mint.com/blog/investing/iraqi-dinar-scam/

We have a customer who purchased dinars several months ago. Now he is trying to redeem them. His "currency broker" in California told our customer if his proceeds are sent by wire, the funds could be seized by the Department of Homeland Security. Instead, the broker intends to send a check to our customer. This will definitely warrent an exception hold. Anyone else with a similiar incident? What was the outcome?

I guess my question is, if the funds could be seized by Homeland Security, why would you risk taking a check form the 'currency broker'. I'd want to know that the funds were absolutely good after being told that.

I think that is part of the scam. I don't think the funds would be seized, but then again I don't know who the broker is or if their on the OFAC list. I think the broker is trying to put off our customer.

The whole Iraqi Dinar deal is a scam. Does he have them in his procession and does he even know what a real one looks like, or is the broker holding his dinars for him. Either way, this is not something that the bank should be advising the customer on - if he presents a check - place a hold on it. His currency broker is all wet unless the broker is on the OFAC list. There are basically no IRAQ sanctions left accept for specific blocked parties.

The commissions and fees charged on these Iraqi Dinar deals are so high that the sucker customer will never benefit from whatever appreciation actually occurs.

Considering the exchange rate in the last year has varied from 1,166 to 1,179 to 1 US dollar in the last year, you should be making bets on the Euro or Oil or Silver as you will have much wider swings

Currency speculation is incredibly risky even for very sophisticated people. Anyone buying the dinar is simply a rube.

In this forum, the issue should be: Is it SAR worthy? Unless the particular purchase can be established as illegal, I don't think so.

There's no box for "stupidity" on the form.

If there were I'd be filing them by the dozens every week.

What if the customer is depositing checks from other individuals (all with dinar in the memo line)into their personal account and then sending a wire to Florida for the purchase of dinars? Is he now an MSB? Anything requiring a SAR?

Sounds like he is acting as a currency dealer to me.

Which would mean???

So, I'm guessing there are no OFAC issues involved with our customer wiring money to one of the Dinar dealers in the US as long as that dealer is not on OFAC?

No OFAC issues, only customer stupidity issues.