Hello there,

Are there limits as to how much cash one can withdraw from a bank account, and not set off red flags or alert the government?

Obviously, I'm thinking as a US citizen, where there is 9/11, anti-anti-terrorism, Guantanamo, the Patriot Act, Big Brother, the IRS-Mafia, the Federal Reserve, and copious amounts of civil liberties being taken away from the citizen-slaves every day.

I wonder how it is in Thailand?

Would there be any problem say, withdrawing 1.5 or 2 million baht in cash, from inside a bank branch, in a single transaction?

The goal here is to simply move money from one bank account, where there is a paper trail from where the funds came from, to a new bank account with NO TRAIL. (Meaning, the new bank account was opened with cash. No one can ever know where the cash came from.)

I guess another way to do this would be with bitcoins, but withdrawing a ton of cash and depositing it in the new bank would take just a day or two.

Thanks all

Withdrawing should not be an issue, although they may need advance notice to ensure they have enough cash in the branch.

If there is a problem, it would be when you deposit 1.5-2 million in cash, but I think as a one-time deposit for opening the account, you should be fine. It would be more of an issue if you were to deposit that much cash on a regular basis, then they might start to ask about the origin of funds.

AML Regulations per Bangkok Bank

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/WebServices/AMLRegulations/Pages/Default.aspx

From experience I can assure you that withdrawing 1.5m-2m baht is absolutely no problem at all, and staff won't even think twice about it.

As has been mentioned, the only problem will be if the bank is a little low on cash. If this is the case they will ask you to come back later in the day or very occasionally the next day.

Thai banks are very sensible and realistic when it comes to handling cash. I find their attitude quite refreshing.