Public clarification #1"Transfer for a friend" is not "third-party transfer" and is not "money laundering".
I was not merely doing a simple transfer, I was doing a business with this friend by giving him preferential foreign exchange rates compared to his banks, for a return of a small commission.
The supposed procedure:
Friend's LR -> My LR (my revenue to perform the service)My LR -> My USD bank account (my own exchange activity through AurumXchange, et al.)
My USD bank account -> X (my own exchange activity for forex)
X -> My SGD bank account (my own withdrawal in another currency)
My SGD bank account -> Friend's SGD bank account (my cost to perform the service)Only the first and last part are related to both my friend and me. It's a common business procedure for all kinds of legitimate trades, and the procedure itself is completely legal.
The suspicion comes from a Bitcoinica hack which happens to involve an email address that I used for testing purpose on mtgox.com, and a transfer on AurumXchange at similar timeframe with an amount of similar order of magnitude. However, "third-party transfer" is strictly defined to be using an exchange service as an intermediary between two different accounts not controlled by the same person.
For example,
My LR -> AurumXchange
AurumXchange -> Friend's bank account
This is third party transfer, and it
should trigger an AML investigation immediately.
A common use of third-party transfer is scamming:
Trader A: I want to buy some Bitcoins
Trader B: Sure, send the funds to *** (AurumXchange's bank account), and make sure you have transaction reference XXX
Trader A: Done
Trader B gets a Mt. Gox code from AurumXchange, and deposits into an unverified Mt. Gox account, and cash out Bitcoins.
Trader B never pays Trader A anything.
Trader A: You are a scammer! I'm reporting to the police with your bank account.
AurumXchange will be investigated, and Trader B may never appear again.
This IS the real (third-party transfer == money laundering) you're talking about.
EDIT:
I only post public clarification when too many people are questioning the same thing when I deem to be factually wrong and worth a public clarification. You should continue contacting me at
[email protected] for other clarifications or explanations. You shouldn't expect me to read/reply every single post in this thread.
Laundering = conceal the origin of funds. this is exactly what you try to do by covering your "friend"
(I can understand that you protect him from the public but with AurumXchange you should put your cards on the table)
After you stated publicly that you are acting for a third party in this transaction ergo not acting on your behalf, AurumXchange was responsible to prove that everything is legitimate. Your friend could have used an unknown source to hand the funds over to you, just to receive them in his own account. In this scenario you would have been an intermediary of money laundering. The sole thing you have to do is provide all information concerning this transaction to AurumXchange to prove it is legitimate. If you are doing your best you should provide this information quickly.
Your scenario:
If you run an exchange business you would probably need a licence in which case you as intermediary are responsible of supervising AML-regulations. I doubt you have this kind of business and guess it is a theoretical construction to serve your cause.
