$1m barber among several suspicious transactions

In the last three days, several suspicious transactions by dubious professionals have been unearthed in the banking sector as thousands of customers continue to rush financial institutions to exchange their existing $100 bill for the new $100 polymer notes.
One suspicious activity involved a barber who walked into a bank with $1million in paper-based $100 bills to be swapped for the new $100 notes which the public began accessing at banks on Tuesday.
The old $100 notes will become invalid on December 31.
The changeover from paper to polymer is the basis of Government’s latest anti-crime plan to flush out criminal elements, cut off funding of gangs and take the profit out of crime.
The revelation came from National Security Minister Stuart Young and Finance Minister Colm Imbert at yesterday’s post Cabinet media briefing at Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.
Imbert was first to talk about the suspicious activities, stating that he received reports yesterday that some customers had been visiting banks with “large quantities of cash.”
Imbert said some of these individuals are finding it difficult to fill out a source of funds declaration form “to indicate where they got the money from.”
If someone walked into a bank with a $1 million in cash and claimed it was their savings over the years, Imbert said: “It can prove to be a challenge.”
In cases like that, Imbert said that customer would be advised to go to the Central Bank to have the money exchanged or to get some consideration for the notes.