As China's foreign exchange controls have tightened, China's citizen is required to fill in a form for the use of foreign exchange in addition to the $50, 000 a year limit on foreign exchange purchases, and strictly forbids the use of foreign exchange to buy homes. But this is a big problem for most foreign students who depend on their families to remit their living expenses and tuition fees in exchange for US dollars. Some foreign students thought of finding someone to change their money in private, but they were closed by the Bank of America.
Xuan is a junior student studying in Los Angeles. Since her parents sent her money twice and was returned by the bank, after being introduced by a friend, she met a "broker" who specifically helped people convert RMB into US dollars. But this "intermediary" is an underground bank. "because it was introduced to me by a close friend, and the friend herself said that her tuition was for the person who changed her money, then I must have believed that I would like to ask that person to help me change the money," Shi Xuan said.
After that, Xuan asked her parents and family to inject renminbi into her Alipay and social app accounts in China, then looked for the "agent" in Los Angeles to convert the renminbi into US dollars and deposit the US bank cards. According to Xuan, the place where she was interviewed each time she changed her money was different, and it was about the night. She said the agent who contacted her social app for change was not the same person who was sent every time. "although I felt something was wrong, I didn't think much about it. After all, every time I exchanged money for him, he gave it to me according to the amount of money he had promised. He never said anything to me, and the charge for exchanging money with him was not high. There was good faith in the truth."
As a result, Xuan exchanged US dollars three times, but Chase (Chase) sealed its account and sent her a letter saying it would permanently discontinue its relationship with her. Publicity did not take it seriously at first, thinking of a new bank, but did not expect that, in succession, the banks have sealed her account, and now no bank is willing to apply for her account.
Small C, like Xuan, was closed by Chase (Chase) Bank, but unlike Xuan, small C did not exchange money with others, but was in trouble by doing a favor to a friend. Xiao C said in an interview: "my friend's bank account has been closed because there is no bank card, but he has to pay tuition fees, he wants to put the money in my bank card, with my card to pay online tuition fees. As a result, within two days of paying his tuition, my card was sealed by the bank. "
"Bank of America is very sensitive to the origin of the money," said Mr. Su, an account manager at Chase Bank in Los Angeles County, (Chase) West Corlina, in an interview. "if the bank feels that the money of a guest is unknown, The bank will choose to discontinue its relationship with its customers. "
Chinese lawyers say a private exchange is not illegal in itself if it is not for the purpose of making money and doing business. But if the source of the exchange money, such as the drug or porn industry, is incorrect, then both sides are guilty of money laundering. According to bank regulations, if the source of funds is suspected, the storage amount reaches 5000 yuan, the bank must report to the federal agency, if no suspected funds, then the storage amount of more than 25,000 yuan should be reported to the federal agency. If money-laundering amounts to $ five hundred thousand, you'll be in jail for 10 years.
The lawyer advised not to exchange foreign exchange in private because of the high risk. In addition to being considered to be at risk of money laundering, it is possible to be deceived. Some people because of the large number of money exchange, people to exchange as bait to meet, the result was dizzy, money was also taken away.