The Movie Star Entrepreneur

The title you see above is the exact title I saw on the blog of Tim Ferris the other day.

If you’re a friend of mine for even a few hours, it wont be hard for you to know that I’m fascinated by the covert world of special operations, CIA, NSA, FBI, and anti-terrorist organizations around the world.

I’m an international currency dealer so my world of making monetary deals with people and banks across the world only fuels this appetite of mine.

When I lived in Washington D.C. I often met with men who worked for the major government agencies who wanted to buy Iraqi Dinar.

(Side Note: They wanted and still continue to buy Iraqi Dinar because the value of the money has become so distressed since the war began.  If the results are favorable in Iraq in 5 to 10 years, anyone who is currently holding the Iraqi Dinar as an investment may have a good likelihood of becoming overnight millionaires.  My business is to get Iraqi Dinar out of Iraq through various channels, have it sent here to the United States, and then sell it off to people who want to invest.)

They knew me to be the guy to get Iraqi Dinar for them.

They’d call me up.

We’d meet in a coffee or sandwich shop.

We’d always meet in a booth so that three sides of our activity were shielded from prying eyes.

I’d give them the Iraqi Dinar, and they’d give me the U.S. cash (they always brought cash, never cashiers checks).

We’d often exchange in excess of $20,000 or $30,000 U.S. dollars¬†(20 million to 30 million Iraqi Dinar) right in a D.C. suburb coffee shop or sandwich shop (Starbucks, Panera Bread, etc…)

I lived in McLean (Tysons Corner) VA which is about 15 minutes outside the heart of D.C. and is connected to Langley, which is where the CIA headquarters are located.

The whole area is a hot bed of people making unusual transactions, whether it was business or political deals.

To give you an idea of what McLean is like, here is a snippet from Wikipedia:

“McLean is home to many diplomats, members of Congress and high-ranking federal government officials, entrepreneurs and service businesses partially attributable to the close location to¬†Washington, D.C. and the¬†Central Intelligence Agency. It is also the location of¬†Hickory Hill, the home of¬†Ethel Kennedy, the widow of¬†Robert F. Kennedy.”

That congressional district is the richest district in the country due to the multitude of lobbyists, CEO’s, and people like former Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell who reside there with vast homes near the Central Intelligence Agency.

It’s all a very interesting web.

Continuing on though, in the business of being an Iraqi Dinar dealer I’ve also had soldiers on a convoy going through Afghanistan call me on a satellite phone before to ask me about ordering Iraqi Dinar.

Can you imagine these guys going through the desert, sand flying up everywhere, and they hop on the sat phone and call me up half way around the world?

Those types of calls are fun.  Very fun.

My exploits go much further than D.C. though.

One night I had been down on South Beach Miami at the Delano Hotel having drinks.

This is the sort of place where it’s common to see Ferrari’s, Bentleys, and Maserati’s pulling up with famous faces getting out.

(I now have a good friend Tatum who is an event planner at one of these hotels on South Beach…mental note: ¬†Get down there ASAP.)

I had taken a new girlfriend of mine down there for fun.

We got to know some of the people in the bar.

One of them was a porn producer.

He had been asking me about my business as an international currency dealer and I naturally had been asking him about his business in the porn industry (I often find the seedier side of life much more fascinating than the everyday mundane side of life).

He then began giving me details on the benefits of setting up an offshore banking account.  Since the porn industry is known for being a shady business, they often have very good advice on topics like offshore banking.

I didn’t end up going the route he suggested but it was interesting nonetheless.

In today’s political climate, it’s not that feasible to have an offshore account that is untraceable (as I’ve experience since president Bush implemented The Patriot Act).

But as it turns out, as an international currency dealer it’s my business to know about offshore banking so I learn from any sort of person I can whether it’s government agent or porn producer.

Currently the two offshore banks I have are in Amman Jordan and Baghdad Iraq. ¬†Those are easily traceable…for the IRS, not so much for anyone else.

The first I had setup by sending my cousin over to Amman for almost a month to setup my account and make contacts for me for Iraqi Dinar.

He was provided with a driver and bodyguard to ensure his safety (and also the safety of the massive amount of money I was soon to wire to him to that account).

He also met a woman there who has since come to visit him in the states. ¬†It’s a pretty interesting story.

Since I’m deeply entrenched in this world of international banking I’m also fascinated with the covert world of espionage.

Movies like The Bourne trilogy, Shooter, Blackhawk Down, and Tears of the Sun fascinate me.

That’s why recently when I came across a blog post called, “How to Be Jason Bourne: ¬†Multiple Passports, Swiss Banking, and Crossing Borders” written by Tim Ferris, I devoured it.

It told of the new book by Neil Strauss called, “Emergency”.

I immediately ordered the book from Amazon.

I’m now 235 pages into the book. ¬†I love it.

It’s Neil’s quest to become a self sufficient man in the event of a cataclysmic tragedy where all societal rules break down and it’s every man for himself.

He learns about offshore banking, how to get a citizenship in another country (and why few countries are good options in the event of a societal breakdown), how to become an expert at firing various types of guns, and many other interesting things.

It’s fascinating to be able to follow him on his journey and learn some of the things he is learning.

Even if you have no intentions of ever having an offshore account, or multiple passports with dual citizenship, you’ll enjoy reading this book.