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Comment by walrus01 | Hacker News Reader

He could've taken out cash from his local bank account, turned off his phone, driven to San Ysidro and walked through the public turnstile into Tijuana. And then tried to get a flight from Mexico City to somewhere in south asia.

Would have been much better than going through the US/Canada border which has a full data sharing agreement between CBSA and US CBP/ICE.

(note: this is a stupid, humorous theoretical, not real advice on how to flee to avoid prosecution)

also, a note, any airline flight that crosses US airspace submits its passenger manifest to US CBP/ICE/DHS electronically as a database transfer, this has been a thing for 20+ years as a result of 9/11 and the PATRIOT act.

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Isn't the whole point of crypto that you don't need to get your cash out of a bank account that the government can monitor and potentially lockdown?

ideologically, yes, but I don't see any airlines that take payment in crypto for one-way rush last minute tickets to india

Crypto is good for recouping his funds once he's out of country and settled. Not super liquid when making last minute on-the-fly purchases though (at least not with the current level of adoption)

But he is likely not a crypto believer. He already sold all of them, at least the tokens he was trading with insider information.

> turnstile into Tijuana

q1: Surely walking from one country to another needs paperwork of some kind?

q2: And even then, don't they check passport for port of entry? Like how and when did you get to mexico if you want to leave it?

1. Nope. Technically you are supposed to show id if you want to go further into Mexico than about 40km? The army has checkpoints.

2. Nope to enter mexico by foot in certain border tourist cities, of course USA cbp/ice requires full id for anyone coming back.

Mexico doesn't check anything. Years ago I walked into Mexico. 2019 I rode a motorcycle into Mexico, so you could argue they had my plates, but they didn't know who was under the helmet, and definitely didn't know which 5' passenger I had as a passenger also wearing a helmet, even though you could argue she's possibly the size of a child even (she was just a small 23 year old)

Taking a large sum of cash would have probably been a trigger for the folks surveilling him, though. Maybe he could get away but that is going to trigger something.

Why the need for the large amount of cash? It's not that you can't access banking websites from abroad. Sure, his bank accounts might be frozen or off-boarded as a result of the investigation. But in general, you can always transfer your money and don't need to bring cash.

If you're expecting someone to call the police during or after the meeting where they ask you about the crimes you committed against them, you probably want to obtain enough spending money before you're officially a fugitive, rather than hope they won't cancel your credit card or use it to find out where you are in the coming days.

Though you'd have thought someone committing financial crimes in the crypto industry might have more scope for planning their offramp

> someone committing financial crimes in the crypto industry might have more scope for planning their offramp

One would think.

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