Bitcoin Forum

I have a friend in Argentina who wants to bring about $15,000 from Argentina to the United States.  Currently, he is looking at paying 35% for the transfer, which is unacceptable.

I've been buying and using bitcoin for some time now, so I suggested it to my friend.  However, I've never had to sell any bitcoin, and certainly not $15,000 worth at one time.  Assuming my friend can get his money into bitcoin, can anyone suggest the best option I have for helping him convert it back to dollars?  Right now I have a Coinbase account, but I don't know if I trust them to do that large of an exchange.

coinbase are usually reliable, but you can try circle or localbitcoin(only with high trusted users)

but for that amount you need some sort of verification on any exchange

If he doesn't need the entire amount in one go, one option would be to sell bitcoins in parts. And not sell all together on the exchange. You can also chose to go for 1000$ cash transactions here in the US.

They might help you http://www.liquidtech.info/ondemand. I am not sure. You can contact them for the detail. Good luck for you!

you can do the BTC to USD exchange at https://bitcoinxc.net
They can:
a) send the funds via Western Union to your friend or to you. if the amount is big you can tell them to split it in few transactions...
b) send you the funds directly to your bank account and the funds won't be connected with bitcoin in any way.

Does your friend has cash? I know there are currency controls in Argentina, but he may buy a flight ticket and travel with the money in his pocket for way less than 35% of $15,000.

Well, my opinion is to buy Bitcoins in Argentina locally. Then go to the US and sell it there in some steps. For example, use coinbase or localbitcoins. Then open a banking account in the US and transfer the cash to it.

You should definitely not do it all in one go. That might set off some red flags and require a ton of verification. Instead break up the conversing across multiple sites as suggested above.