The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, just three blocks from the World Trade Center, remained open throughout the day, though it shifted its electronic funds transfer and security transfer system to backup computers at the Federal Reserve Regional Bank in Richmond, Virginia.

CNN: Attacks prompt widespread closings

He did it through what he says was the only means available to transfer funds to war-torn Iraq, an ancient informal system known as hawala, in which brokers move money outside the conventional banking system.

NPR: Town Backs Kurds Who Sent Money Back to Iraq

Posing as money launderers, DEA agents picked up bags of cash from the bad guys at hotels and parking lots and sent the funds into the U.S. financial system after getting wire transfer instructions from money brokers.

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