Passengers Caught With $20M in 8 Bags at Moscow airport!!

[Tim22]

21 December 2010
Bloomberg

Four male passengers have been detained at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport as they arrived from Istanbul with about $20 million in cash, customs officials said Monday.

Three Azeri citizens and one Iranian attempted to enter the country without declaring the $14.5 million and 4.1 million euros ($5.4 million) they carried in four suitcases and four backpacks, the Federal Customs Service said on its web site.

The bills, in $100 and 500 euro denominations, weighed 400 kilograms, said Larisa Ledovskikh, a spokeswoman for the customs service.

 “This is a particularly large sum,” Ledovskikh said by phone. “I haven’t seen anything like it.”

The men are being held for failing to declare the currency before they entered the country, Ledovskikh said, declining to identify the men before they are charged.

Before Monday, Vnukovo, one of three international airportsin Moscow, registered 382 violations of customs and currency laws totaling 75 million rubles ($2.4 million) since the start of the year. Nobody could immediately be reached for comment at the Iranian or Azeri embassies in Moscow.

[tfcrew]

The bills... weighed 400 kilograms

In American currency...a bill [any denomination] weighs one gram.
I've never had the opportunity to weigh $20 million.
It would be fun huh?

Wonder who'll keep the cash?

[tfcrew]

Link...

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/passengers-caught-with-20m-in-8-bags/427399.html

[neo]

surely would have been cheaper to buy off the entire customs team than lose the 20M.

[Shadow]

Now we know what Putin gets for Christmas.

On another note...this sounds pretty much like a bandit deal being interfered with by the FSB. Either someone did not listen or whatever was to be exchanged for the money should not leave Russia.

[tim 360]

What we have here is failure to communicate to the right person.  Or the right person did not get paid enough to look the other way.   

I have a feeling these clowns may not be too experienced at moving money around.  Somebody lost $20M and for someone else--it's payday.

Is there a monetary fine?  Or is the money confiscated?  Or does everything disappear in a cloud of fog.

[viking]

I have the feeling that these guys will soon disappear for losing this amount of cash.