Over the weekend I had an appointment at my bank regarding a long term CD that was maturing and what I wanted to do with it…

Anyway, while going through the various -truth be told pathetic– interest rates available should I squirrel away what little money I have for up to five years, the person dealing with me noted how when they started working at the bank in the 1980’s, there were long term CDs available with interest rates over 10%.  Today you’re lucky to get anything between 1-3%.

Now, before your eyes glaze over and/or you run away screaming from this website thinking I’m about to get into investment and banking:  Relax, I’m not.

The banker’s story of what was going on in the 1980’s reminded me of something I experienced back then, in those heady days, the days when banking wasn’t quite as well regulated and Miami, let’s be honest here, was a place many used to launder their money.

Today, if you try to deposit more than $10,000 at a bank, you will be scrutinized.  Back in the 1980’s, this wasn’t the case.  Do some quick research and you discover that banks were -wittingly and unwittingly- laundering vast amounts of “dirty” money made through drug dealings.

But it wasn’t limited to banks.

Back in/around 1986-7 or so, I was in the market for a car.  I finished High School and was in the University and had a budget of about $16,000 for a car.  I looked around and this one caught my eye…

That’s an Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce.  A fairly economic car to buy at that time yet one you could only purchase from dealerships that offered much higher priced exotic cars.

So my Dad and I headed to one of those dealerships (he’s an expert at haggling for the best price for a car), I looked around the lot and was wowed by many of the incredible, exotic vehicles available there.  While I was there for my more modest priced Alfa Romeo, my eyes lingered on two beautiful Lotus Turbo Esprits…

If the car looks familiar and you are a fan of films, you may recognize an earlier (circa 1977) model, one that is still very familiar, in the most famous scene of the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me…

Anyway, I was impressed by the two Lotus cars and curious what they cost and asked the guy we were dealing with what it would take to buy them.

“Sorry, you can’t have them,” the dealer said.  “They’ve already been sold.”

I stiffled a laugh.  There was no chance in hell I had the money to buy one, much less both, of these vehicles.  But back in those pre-internet days, the only way to find out about these things was to ask.

“I was just curious,” I said.  “What do each of them cost?”

“$50,000 each,” the dealer said, then continued: “Yesterday a guy comes in carrying a suitcase with $100,000 in it.  He bought them both on the spot.”

So I picked my jaw up from the floor and my father and I tried -but failed- to make a deal on the Alfa Romeo.

There is no way to know for sure if the cars’ buyer was anything but an honest man who made the $100,000 honestly.  Honest.

Yeah, there’s no way of knowing.

Nonetheless I suspect I came away with what may well have been the closest I ever got to the drug laundering going on in real time in Miami during that time.