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.
几个月前，我住在美国纽约州的那个儿子的岳父给他在英国的家人寄了一笔对他而言数额可观的款项。钱却迟迟未能到账，更糟的是，也查不到是怎么回事。他的银行联系了中介行，却被告知英国的收款银行——全英最大的银行之一——拒绝回应问询。我跟同事们打听，他们推测或许跟反洗钱有关。这期间，我的亲家十分焦虑。两个月后，这笔钱突然又重新出现在他的账户里。而他至今仍对这个过程中到底发生了什么一无所知。