[tripod]

How is a guy going to cash a phony cashiers check. Certainly no bank is going to make funds available on a deposit that large until it clears the issuing bank, which presumeably would not transfer the funds. Unless, he went to some stupe and offered to sell him the check at some discount - but how many people would fall for that and how many would have the millions in their account to buy a bad check. There must be some scam out there I don't know about to get cash out of counterfit cashiers checks written for millions of dollars!

[blau993]

I had precisely the same reaction. I work with a lot of banks, and I can't imagine any of them making $5 million available in an account on the strength of a cashier's check without at least some attempt to verify that the check is genuine. Bank check forgeries are very common these days -- a function of the sophistication and widespread availability of computer graphics technology. Look at the web sites of the bank regulatory agencies (Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC and OTS). You will see an alert almost every day about forged bank checks.

In this case, since the check was written on a branch that didn't exist, red flags would have gone up immediately. I would like to think that our terrorist enemies were that stupid and unsophisticated, but I doubt that is so. There is something funny about this whole story.

[capydick]

Youre right,especially if the check is an obvious forgery. But,just as there are scams selling counterfeit food stamps, there probaby is the same thing going on for phoney checks. Another thought - what if he were a decoy for somebody or something else going on? In other words,just like the drug dealers do - let the Feds bust 1 kilo of something while 10 kilo's get thru the other door.

[APBaer]

"How is a guy going to cash a phony cashiers check."

No, No No.

It is part of a clever devilish plot.
While we are on the lookout that they might blow up the Brooklyn Bridge,
they are going to buy the Brooklyn Bridge.