“Plump” Chinese smurf arrested with cash-stuffed gut

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From SCMP:

A Chinese man was caught by customs officers as he tried to breach regulations by leaving the country with up to US$74,000 hidden strapped around his waist, mainland media report.

Mainland rules state that people who leave the country with more than US$5,000 in cash must notify the customs authority, which will then issue a bank certificate, covering the outstanding sum, which permits them to take a large sums of foreign currency abroad.

Shenzhen officials became suspicious of the “surprisingly plump” unnamed man last Friday morning after he began constantly looking at staff and appeared nervous while queuing up to pass through customs, the news portal Youth.cn reported.

Officials were also surprised that man, who is in his 50s, was wearing a jacket, even though the weather was hot and humid, and also had an unnaturally large waistline.

After he was stopped and questioned by customs officers an alarm sounded when a scanner revealed the money strapped to his waist.

The man was found to have been carrying the US currency in six large pockets that were sewn onto a large scarf, which was wrapped around his waist.

The case is under investigation.

On his way to Melbourne, no doubt!

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.