My dad always said, if shit hit the fan, he would go to Brazil. Brazil isn’t exactly lawless, but it’s such a mass of humanity and so many cultures blending together that literally nobody would stick out like a sore thumb there.

I met a guy living in Brazil once while I was staying at a hotel for work, he said he moved there specifically because he had enough of the governments reach into his personal matters.

Two days later, his (Brazilian) bank started to withhold his (non-Brazilian) salary payments for money laundering suspicions because he forgot to file one random document, he was frantically trying to find a way to open a bank account here in Europe, no one would let him with his Brazilian residency, and he had to resort to asking his wife for money. Another two days later, his lawyer told him to get lost because the Brazilian tax office knocked at his office door, he lost the preliminary court case to get his (to begin with, legal) money back, was stranded in Europe and they went to detain his wife. He couldn’t even open a cryptocurrency exchange account because not even they want to deal with the Brazilian authorities and the only ones operating in Brazil itself are on the governments leash.

It's not lawless at all. He also told me they have a personal identification number like the US SSN, but that it's much more widely used for almost anything, even if you want to rent an apartment or go shopping (his words, never verified it) and allows authorities to track their every (mostly financial) step. He emphasised you better have that number ready when you enter the country too.

I'm pretty sure the 30% of the Brazilians who don't have bank account, don't have these issues. Your friend picked to live in Brazil, but also didn't want to sacrifice his western conveniences (ie: A bank account, card, being connected to the "system"). He got the worst of both worlds.

Just telling the story because I thought it fitted into the conversation, I don't really agree with his decision or would call him a friend haha.

Yes, Brazil is extremely bureaucratic and almost everything is linked to the CPF (Cadastro de Pessoa Física) tax registration number. It's necessary to open a bank account, get a phone, book a flight, rent a car, etc.

As they say, Brazil is not for amateurs.

No. Purchase a plane ticket first. Then leave by car.

They probably have computers on the outgoing checkpoint too. Maybe walk across Rio Grande or something. Or just go to Florida and swim for a really long time.

> They probably have computers on the outgoing checkpoint too.

Does the US have outgoing checkpoints on its land borders? I thought you only dealt with the Canadian/Mexican customs agents on your way out, and only dealt with US CBP on your way back in. (I haven't crossed a US land border since a road trip to Canada when I was a kid, so I could be very wrong.)

I've crossed three land borders to Canada in the past few years and none had an outgoing checkpoint.

I've driven through the Tijuana border into mexico about 10x and haven't been stopped once. Easy to do. Hard part is getting back in to the US.

it was too late for him.

How can you stop someone driving to mexico? They can drive to a border city and walk across without any passport control.

It depends on the stage of the investigation. if he was only a suspect then could he leave whenever he wanted. However, if someone is already indicted but it's sealed, then he would have been under watch without anywhere to go. Or he could hve been stopped and brought before a magistrate. HIs mistake was he waited too long, probably should have left in april before the evidence came out, not May.

His mistake was to make those trades.