A few months ago, the father-in-law of one of my sons, who lives in New York state, sent what was, for him, a significant sum of money to his family in England. The money never arrived. Worse, it was impossible to discover what had happened to it. His bank contacted the intermediary it used, but was told that the destination bank in the UK, one of the country’s largest, would not respond to queries. I asked colleagues what might have happened and was advised that it might have something to do with money laundering. Meanwhile, my in-law was distraught. Then, after two months, the money suddenly reappeared in his account. He remains entirely ignorant of what happened in between.
幾個月前，我住在美國紐約州的那個兒子的岳父給他在英國的家人寄了一筆對他而言數額可觀的款項。錢卻遲遲未能到賬，更糟的是，也查不到是怎么回事。他的銀行聯系了中介行，卻被告知英國的收款銀行——全英最大的銀行之一——拒絕回應問詢。我跟同事們打聽，他們推測或許跟反洗錢有關。這期間，我的親家十分焦慮。兩個月后，這筆錢突然又重新出現在他的賬戶里。而他至今仍對這個過程中到底發生了什么一無所知。