A businessman is at the centre of a bizarre cross-border money transfer investigation in the US state of Texas.

Franz Felhaber arrived at the US Treasury department earlier this year with a suitcase stuffed with £2.6 million.

The bills were decomposing, nearly unrecognisable, and he asked to swap them for a cashier's check. He said the money came from Mexico.

For the past few years, authorities say, he and his family have popped in and out of US banks, looking to change about £10 million in buried treasure for clean cash.

The money is always the same, decaying 100 US dollar bills from the 1970s and 1980s.

The stories behind how he obtained the money keep changing: it was an inheritance; somebody dug up a tree and there it was; it was found in a suitcase buried in an alfalfa field; a relative found a treasure map.

No matter where it came from or who found it, the money could make someone rich or send someone to jail and it has been seized by the Justice Department.

In the coming weeks, the department plans to seek forfeiture of the seized money.

That means Mr Felhaber will be able to go to Washington to ask for it back, but he'll have to explain exactly where it came from.

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