From: tsbrueni@dcn.davis.ca.us   
      
   On Sunday, January 12, 2003 at 6:53:57 AM UTC-8, Troels Forchhammer wrote:   
   > Thomas Madura wrote:   
   > >   
   > > Tim Bruening wrote:   
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   > > > At the end, Sirius Black reveals that he ordered a new Firebolt   
   > > > Broomstick for Harry Potter.  Sirius sent in the order via the cat   
   > > > Crookshanks, using Potter's name but telling the Owl Office to take the   
   > > > gold from Sirius' vault.  How in the world was Sirius able to authorize   
   > > > the use of his gold for Harry's broomstick without using his (Sirius')   
   > > > name?  What weren't Sirius' assets frozen when he was first arrested?   
   > >   
   > > It would seem that maybe the Wizarding Bank operates like the Swiss   
   > > banks do - and freezing assets is not possible. If a Weasley works in   
   > > Egypt for Gringotts, it may be Multi-national - or it may not be   
   > > controlled by governments at all.   
   >   
   > I seriously doubt that the Gringotts goblins cares anything about   
   > local ministries - the Wizard authorities will always need Gringotts   
   > more than Gringotts will need them.   
   >   
   > I bet that if Sirius could find a way to any Gringotts branch office   
   > he could just walk in and get access to his vault - no questions   
   > asked.   
      
   Harry accessed his vault via the Gringotts branch in London.  I had assumed   
   that his vault was within the London city limits.  How would he access a   
   London vault from Egypt?   
   >   
   > Furthermore the freezing of assets of a living person is - I think -   
   > a relatively new idea (20th century), which has probably not caught   
   > on in the wizard world.   
   >   
   > Also - Sirius indicates that he referred to his vault by number (711 -   
   > this has for some reason been left out in the Scholastic version),   
   > and the goblin in PS doesn't care one bit who Harry is - as long as   
   > he has the key (which Hagrid brought - I wonder how it came to him).   
   > Taken together those could imply that Gringotts doesn't care one bit   
   > who their customers are - they are identified either by having the   
   > key or by some code word (Sirius explicitly tells us that he used   
   > Harry's name, so he must - I think - have provided something else to   
   > authorize the withdrawal).   
      
   I would assume that Gringotts would take precautions to make sure that no one   
   impersonates their customers.   
      
   Book 7: Gringotts does have precautions against people using Polyjuice Potion   
   to impersonate customers.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)