Quick question.......

[Rav67]

A client of mine is selling a boat to a Norwegian man.  The boat is in Spain.  Obviously the Norwegian doesn't want to transfer the E7k to my client before going to Spain to get the boat given he doesn't know him personally.  My client does not want to travel to Spain and collect a cheque which might bounce, and he doesn't have a Spanish bank account to put cash into.

He asked me if our firm could act as an intermediary and hold the money to order awaiting transfer of ownership of the boat but it would be in breach of all sorts of money laundering regulations.  Anyone know of who would usually act as an intermediary in these circumstances and how much would they typically charge for the service?

[Our Nail Loney]

Stick it in my account and I will only charge you a grand for the hassle...

You're welcome

[illdecide]

Rav if you don't know then the rest of us are f**ked...your the brains behind it saan. Paramilitaries will cash that cheque for you and if it bounces then your man is dead...

[scud]

This is more than likely wrong 'cos I know fook all about ebay but you might be able to use pay pal.

Even if you can't use it in an intermediary sense, get them both to set up an account, no worries then about rubber cheques and spanish bank acounts - Mr Norway can wire the funds by email to your guy when he sees the Sloop John B nestled in the marina!

Is it against money laundering regs to hold a cheque made out to someone else? ie. never lodged in your firm's account?

[Rav67]

This is more than likely wrong 'cos I know fook all about ebay but you might be able to use pay pal.

Even if you can't use it in an intermediary sense, get them both to set up an account, no worries then about rubber cheques and spanish bank acounts - Mr Norway can wire the funds by email to your guy when he sees the Sloop John B nestled in the marina!

Is it against money laundering regs to hold a cheque made out to someone else? ie. never lodged in your firm's account?

We'd have to lodge it so it cleared before we paid it out to make sure it wouldn't bounce.  We can;t take accept money when we're not doing substantive legal work regarding the transaction anyway.

Paypal is a possibility though as they could meet in Spain and do it this way.  Is it easy to set a paypal up?