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A Glimpse Into a Recess of International FinanceBy BILL BERKELEY
rom the well-appointed offices of Lehman Brothers in Lower Manhattan, federal prosecutors say, Consuelo Marquez, a Barnard College graduate and by all appearances an immigrant success story, laundered tens of millions of dollars in Mexican drug money.
Using the firm's good name, the prosecutors contend, Ms. Marquez, now 39, set up a labyrinthine web of shell companies and offshore accounts from Switzerland to the Bahamas, at the behest of one of Mexico's most notoriously corrupt public officials.
The money laundering scheme began to unravel in 1999, when Ms. Marquez began what prosecutors described as a blizzard of checks and wire transfers intended to liquidate millions in drug proceeds. They say she did so even as her client, a former Mexican state governor named Mario Villanueva Madrid, fled into hiding in Mexico after he became the target of a drug and racketeering investigation. A year later, Lehman fired her. Finally, last June, she was indicted.
A Glimpse Into a Recess of International Finance (Page 2 of 3) Lehman, through a spokesman, declined to answer questions about the supervision Ms. Marquez received or the safeguards at the firm. In a statement, the firm said it was committed to fighting money laundering.
Neither Ms. Marquez nor her lawyer would be interviewed for this article. But some experts argue that even the best controls may not catch a determined money launderer.
"You shouldn't dismiss the fact that a very creative, very adept broker who wants to do bad can withhold information from his or her superiors," a former law enforcement official said.
The International Monetary Fund's move to share the spotlight with the existing international experts on money laundering and terrorist finance, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is triggering tensions which threaten to overturn some of the key techniques developed over the past decade.
Sources close to both organisations have told BBC News Online of fundamental differences between the two groups' practices and philosophies - and some fear the result will be to delay at best and handicap at worst further progress in making sure countries around the world keep their defences up.
I do not think that sidelining the FATF and incorporating much of its work into the IMF/World Bank would be desirable or effective Steven
More than three hundred reportedly authentic secret Federal Reserve wire transfer records show how the Chairman of America's private central bank has apparently bribed and aided in corrupt deeds George Herbert Walker Bush and his family, all over a period of time. Later, Greenspan reportedly jointly with Bush and a swarm of major financial entities, derived a horrific benefit in a major gold swindle.
In clandestine meetings, over a period of months, the reportedly genuine documents were turned over to our research and investigation group by government officials clearly in an inside position to possess and confirm such data.
A conversation at one such meeting, "Tell Sherman, if you or he ever reveals our identity, we are all dead, everyone one of us. Also in jeopardy of life and limb would be more than eight others in key government and financial positions." Some of the records purport to have the wire transfer signature of A. Greenspan whose term as Commissar of the Federal Reserve was renewed in the new century. Because he is like a corrupt Soviet dictator, answerable to no one, we coined the term, "Alan Redspan".
North Coast Xpress - - Aug-Sept 97 CIA COVERT ACTIONS & DRUG TRAFFICKING by Alfred McCoy Excerpted from testimony before the Special Seminar focusing on allegations linking CIA secret operations and drug trafficking-convened February 13, 1997, by Rep. John Conyers, Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus Let's look at the heroin boom of the 1980s. In the 1980s, CIA op-erations again played a role in the revival of the U.S. drug problem. In 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and the Sandinistas seized power in Nicaragua, prompting two more CIA operations with some revealing similarities. Let us now pay particularly close attention to the CIA's Afghan operation. Not only is the Afghan operation simultaneous and similar to the controversial contra operation, but its direct and negative impact on U.S. drug supply is beyond question or controversy.I
Home / Members / Contents / Search Introduction / Executive Summary / Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Recommendations / Notes
CHAPTER 7 THE RISE OF ORGANIZED CRIME THE NEW RUSSIANS: Russians pay their respects to a fallen gang member. Mikhail Kuchin, portrayed on his tombstone, is holding keys to his Mercedes Benz, a symbol of new Russian power. In the absence of market reforms in Russia, organized crime replaced the state as property distributor and dispute arbiter, while it stifled legitimate entrepreneurs. Yevgeny Kondakov
Golden Warriors - Gold Bugs Take On US Govt by CARLOS MARTICORENA
Gold bugs, lead by Bill Murphy’s Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), have been crying foul over an X-files type conspiracy to suppress the price of gold. Lackluster gold demand during the typically strong Christmas season has further strengthened GATA’s resolve to expose the collusion.As media exposure has done little to help the market, Gold market analyst, Reginald H. Howe is putting his money where his mouth is and is filing suit against the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the US treasury department.The lawsuit charges the defendants with price fixing, securities fraud, and breach of ju
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"Dirty Money" Foundation of US Growth and Empire - Size and Scope of Money Laundering by US Banks From La Journada [Mexico], 5/19/01, [Reprinted with permission, James Petras]
by James Petras - Professor of Sociology, Binghamton University -- There is a consensus among U.S. Congressional Investigators, former bankers and international banking experts that U.S. and European banks launder between $500 billion and $1 trillion of dirty money each year, half of which is laundered by U.S. banks alone. As Senator Carl Levin summarizes the record: "Estimates are that $500 billion to $1 trillion of international criminal proceeds are moved internationally and deposited into bank accounts annually. It is estimated that half of that money comes to the United States".
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GUEST EDITORIAL James E. Sinclair of Tan Range Exploration Corp. & Harry D. Schultz of International Harry Schultz Letter
Gold & Silver Derivatives asTools of Money LaunderingTo be attached to communication with the authorities investigatingthe possibility of improper activities by corporations, partnerships or individuals
by James Sinclair & Harry SchultzJuly 30, 2002 Silver, but primarily gold, has been used for many years to effectively, secretly and safely transport money from one place to another. This same technique has also been used to drain money from one place and to lodge the same money elsewhere. It is sophisticated, secret and common to those that live in the international trading circle. It has been used to evade taxes, to commit bankruptcy fraud and to just plain steal. There is a strong possibility, bordering on a probability, that at the heart of recent corporate illegalities, amongst public companies that have trading, as one of their activities, and non-gold producers who have leased gold for cheap financing, that an ILLEGAL transport of money has occurred via gold
The movement of terrorist-linked money across borders was as much a factor in the events of September 11 as were lax airport controls, arguably more so. In the era of globalization, cross-border flows of capital can be as dangerous as cross-border flows of weapons of destruction. International cooperation and enforcement is the key to combating terrorism but this includes a fiscal fight as well as an armed conflict.
That is one reason why we need to pay more attention to the importance of preventing and detecting money laundering — the insertion of illegally obtained funds into the stream of commerce, so that "dirty" money appears "clean." Another reason we should focus on this issue is that the increasing globalization of financial services, wire transfers, and faster Internet payments arguably make the life of a money launderer easier, making detection even more urgent.
MPEG COMMENTARY - Page 18 August 13, 2001. Gibson's Paradox Revisited: Professor Summers Analyzes Gold Prices Due in no small measure to articles he wrote as a young economist, especially his 1966 essay "Gold and Economic Freedom" (reprinted in A. Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, available online at www.gold-eagle.com/greenspan041998.html), Fed chairman Alan Greenspan is widely recognized as quite an authority on gold. Far less widely known are professional articles on gold by another young economist who also went on to serve until quite recently in some of the nation's top economic policy positions.
Not long before joining the new Clinton administration as undersecretary of the treasury for international affairs, Harvard president and former treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers, then Nathaniel Ropes professor of political economy at Harvard, co-authored with Robert B. Barsky an article entitled "Gibson's Paradox and the Gold Standard" published in the Journal of Political Economy (vol. 96, June 1988, pp. 528-550), available online at www.gata.org/gibson.pdf. The article, which appears to draw heavily on a 1985 working paper of the same title by the same authors, is an excellent technical piece, revealing a high level of expertise regarding gold, gold mining, and the interconnections among gold prices, interest rates, and inflation.
PsyOpNews.com Comments: Wondering why the WTC attack took place? Follow the money. In this case a mere $44Trillion of global derivatives.PsyOpNews predicted the war optionsolution to the imminent market crash in our mid-August article "Animal Farm UK" and in our "Iceberg Ahead". COMMENTARY ON THIS SUMMARYby authorBoudewijn Wegerif FROM WHAT MATTERS-9 September 19, 2001
Please prove me wrong, but I think the world's top banks will be let off the hook on the gold and other derivatives losses that are now inevitable.
On the day of the 9.11 disaster, in fact, as the planes were tearing into the twin towers of the One World Trade Centre, I was working on the hereon following review and summary of an important essay by market analyst Adam Hamilton, The JPM Derivatives Monster .
Computer Law Association30th Anniversary ProgramMay 3-4, 2001Monarch Hotel, Washington, D.C.World Computer and Internet Law Congress Presentation"Managing the Global Digital Information Technology Explosion" INSLAW, Inc.Luncheon Address by William A. HamiltonMay 3, 2001"The Largest Global Software Theft In History"Thank you for inviting me to speak at this 30th Anniversary program of the Computer Law Association. Nancy Burke Hamilton, my wife and the mother of our six children, and I are the principal owners and officers of INSLAW, Inc. Both Nancy and I will be pleased to answer any questions you may have.The topic of my talk is "The Largest Global Software Theft In History." It is a story of copyright infringement
International Finance CongressGlobalization Process and Hidden Menace of the Crisis of the World Reserve Currencies
DECLARATION The International Finance Congress was held on 6th – 7th March in Moscow at “Bor” hotel and resort of the President’s Administration Directorate R.F. More than 200 chiefs and representatives of the Russian and foreign banks and others business structures as well as guests from Germany, the U.S.A., Malaysia, China, Republic of Korea, Israel, Arabian countries were brought together facilitating discussion and the exchange of ideas.
After the Congress on the 10-th March the Declaration based on the proposals had been made by the Congress’s participants was elaborated. This Declaration was sent to the World financial organizations and to the U.N. Security Council. !--
Kafka's BankerBob Maxwell's nightmarish slide from banker to bartender began with a simple question: Are you willing to do work for the CIA? by Robert Dreyfuss
This is a spy story about a banker named Bob Maxwell. Eleven years ago, Maxwell entered a frightening world of spooks, arms dealers, and money launderers when he unwittingly became involved with the Central Intelligence Agency. That chance encounter cost him his career and his health, and has propelled him into a legal battle that has gone all the way to the Supreme Court.
The CIA does business with many banks, not to mention law firms, airlines, computer companies, and corporations of all kinds. Some know they are dealing with the CIA, some don't. Most of us believe that if we found ourselves caught in the underworld of national espionage, the police or the courts would rescue us.
Lenders Trying an Alternative to Foreclosure By DAVID LEONHARDT ICHMOND, Va. — As the recession of the last year caused a sharp increase in the number of people falling behind on their mortgage payments, the nation's lenders decided to take a risk.
Adopting an approach that economists say has led to one of the most important changes in the housing market in recent years, mortgage lenders significantly reduced the rate at which they repossessed homes. In place of foreclosure, many altered the schedule of loan payments in the hope that the drop in borrowers' income would turn out to be relatively brief.
Now, as the economy continues to show signs of recovery, the bet seems to be paying off. Mortgage delinquencies have begun to fall, suggesting that many homeowners are getting back on their feet. That should help lenders — particularly, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the large government-created companies that have driven much of the change — avoid the staggering losses that their newfound flexibility could have caused if the economy had deteriorated further.
International Finance CongressGlobalization Process and Hidden Menace of the Crisis of the World Reserve Currencies
DECLARATION The International Finance Congress was held on 6th – 7th March in Moscow at “Bor” hotel and resort of the President’s Administration Directorate R.F. More than 200 chiefs and representatives of the Russian and foreign banks and others business structures as well as guests from Germany, the U.S.A., Malaysia, China, Republic of Korea, Israel, Arabian countries were brought together facilitating discussion and the exchange of ideas.
After the Congress on the 10-th March the Declaration based on the proposals had been made by the Congress’s participants was elaborated. This Declaration was sent to the World financial organizations and to the U.N. Security Council. !--
[The following was the lead story in the March 31, 2001 issue of FTW for paid subscribers only. In accordance with our reprint policy we are posting it here for free, just ahead of our 30 day embargo. This is also to honor our commitment to Nexus Magazine, http://www.nexusmagazine.com/ who had purchased advance rights to the story. For reprint permission please visit the Home Page at www.copvcia.com. - FTW]
----------MOSCOW ECONOMIC CONFERENCE DRAWS 200 FROM RUSSIA, GERMANY, MID EAST AND ASIA
* TOP RUSSIAN POLITICIANS, BANKERS, ECONOMISTS ATTEND TWO DAY MEET ON U.S. ECONOMY
MOSCOW - A two-day conference on March 6-7, sponsored by an Agency of the Russian government and focusing entirely on the U.S. economy, attracted more than 200 investment bankers, scholars, diplomats, economists and members of the Russian Parliament. Inspired by developing weakness in the US economy, the conference overcame initial reservations that its intent was simply to promote investment in Russia. It quickly established itself as an invaluable forum for fresh perspectives on the single most dominant factor in the world economy today - the United States of America. The two dominant psychological the
Savings & Loan Crisis: Lessons and a Look Ahead Volume 2, Spring 1990 Lobbying Into Limbo: The Political Ecology of the Savings & Loan Crisis Joseph A. Grundfest The S&L crisis was caused primarily by underpriced deposit insurance and inadequate supervision. This was not an accident but the result of intense lobbying by the U.S. League of Savings Institutions. Four factors enabled the savings and loan industry to strong-arm Congress into providing unconscionable benefits: 1) a broad geographic base; 2) a non-controversial ideology that was popular with the middle-class; 3) the ability and willingness to finance congressional campaigns; and 4) the willingness to exploit Congress’ fiscal bind spots. The S&L bailout will cost from $325 to $500 billion. Other government programs threaten to impose similar costs. To avoid this, the information component of the political equation must be changed: hidden costs of loan insurance and guaran
[ North Bay | Metroactive Home | Archives ] Funny Money Enron and al Qaida share offshore banking tactics By Lucy Komisar How did top executives of Enron do it? How did they cause the world's biggest bankruptcy while making off with millions of dollars? Simple: They used the same financial tools as Osama bin Laden.
To attack the Osama bin Laden financial network, the Bush administration knew right where to look--in offshore secrecy havens, including the Bahamas, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Dubayy, and Panama.
Investigators know that the world's bank and corporate secrecy system was set up to move money for people with something to hide. Sometimes they are terrorists. Sometimes they are financial swindlers. They are welcomed in offshore centers that promise to keep ownership of companies and bank accounts secret, even from law enforcement.
A { TEXT-DECORATION: none } Drug Politics Dirty Money and Democracies / I By © David C. Jordan (*) Preface I began this book without knowing where it would lead me. My preliminary assumptions were that narcotics trafficking was best understood in a supply-and-demand context, that criminal elements were taking advantage of the addictive habit and profiting from it, and that traffickers assisted producers to meet demand with credit, transport, and distribution capabilities. According to this last assumption, traffickers actively corrupted police and judges in order to facilitate their illegal business. In more corrupt states, criminals bought off politicians who aided them in return for subst
A { TEXT-DECORATION: none } Drug Politics Dirty Money and Democracies / II By © David C. Jordan (*) CHAPTER 2 / Defining Democracy Procedural Democracy and Corruption The type of democracy that has emerged from authoritarianism since the 1980s is best defined as procedural. A procedural democracy is essentially a competition of parties in an electoral system. An electoral-based definition of democracy assumes that process is at the core of its legitimacy. The electoral definition emerged where the purpose of establishing representative institutions was taken for granted. Those using this definition did not deem it a problem that corrupt elites might use electoral procedures to maintain themselves in power against the best interests of the people.
Google Cache:http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:Z3Jw4C5lnVEC:www.msnbc.com/news/574167.asp%2Bprince%2BAlwaleed%2Bmsnbc&hl=en&ie=UTF8
MSNBC Direct Link:http://www.msnbc.com/news/573642.asp “In the history of Citibank and Citicorp it was one of the defining moments,” said Reed. So who is Prince Alwaleed? Where did he come from? And more importantly, where did he get that kind of cash? Ask the prince himself, and he’ll tell you he earned it. After graduating from California’s tiny
Ask the prince himself, and he’ll tell you he earned it. After graduating from California’s tiny Menlo College in 1979, the 22-year-old Alwaleed returned to Saudi Arabia. He set up shop in a modest office, and with a $30,000 gift from his father, began speculating in the then-booming Saudi real estate and stock markets.
HOME PAGE | SUBS INFO | BACK ISSUES | PRODUCTS LIST | ORDER FORM Project Hammer Covert Finance and the Parallel EconomyThe off-ledger trading programs operated by some central and international banks launder massive amounts of money and provide vast sums to fund covert 'black budget' projects.
Part 1 of 2 Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 9, Number 1 (December-January 2002)PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia. editor@nexusmagazine.comTelephone: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381From our web page at: http://www.nexusmagazine.com/
by David G. Guyatt © 2001c/- NEXUS Office55 Queens RoadEast Grinstead, W. Sussex RH19 1BG United Kingdom
David Guyatt Email: goldbug@goldbug99.freeserve.co.ukDavid Guyatt Website: http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/
HOME PAGE | SUBS INFO | BACK ISSUES | PRODUCTS LIST | ORDER FORM Project Hammer Covert Finance and the Parallel EconomyThe off-ledger trading programs operated by some central and international banks launder massive amounts of money and provide vast sums to fund covert 'black budget' projects.
Part 2 of 2(Go to part 1) Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 9, Number 2 (February-March 2002)PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia. editor@nexusmagazine.comTelephone: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381From our web page at: http://www.nexusmagazine.com/
by David G. Guyatt © 2001c/- NEXUS Office55 Queens RoadEast Grinstead, W. Sussex RH19 1BG United Kingdom
David Guyatt Email: goldbug@goldbug99.freeserve.co.ukDavid Guyatt Website: http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/
SOFTWARE HELPING BRING THE "BADDEST" TO JUSTICE As reported by Nicole Manktelow, ZDNet Australia, software tools are becoming an increasingly important link in criminal investigations. The Australian Federal Police are combining their core system with off-the-shelf products that can sniff out underworld connections. When the Australian Federal Police asked their computer system to find Australia's 'baddest' people -- those involved in the most investigations -- one name on the list surprised officers.
Although the person wasn't unknown, investigators were shocked at just how many cases the underworld figure had connections with, AFP Director of Information Management David Rofe told ZDNet Australia.
Until recently it was not possible to ask such a straightforward question of the agency's criminal database.
The Iran Brief® Policy, Trade & Strategic Affairs An investigative tool for business executives, government, and the media.
The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq by Kenneth R. Timmerman Copyright © 1991 by Kenneth R. Timmerman. All rights reserved. Chapter 13: BNL Builds the War Machine (pp225-246) Saddam Hussein wasn't quite sure how he would pay for it all, but when he looked at the huge sums in foreign aid regularly awarded to Israel and Egypt by the U.S. government, he probably figured that Uncle Sam's deep pockets would have something left over for him. After all, Iraq was acting in America's strategic interest, by preventing an Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq war that would have jeopardized the stability of U.S. allies in the Gulf. If the U.S. government couldn't sell Iraq arms openly, as France and other Western powers were doing, then the grain credits from the Department of Agriculture which freed up other Iraqi assets for arms purchases were the next best thing. By late 1985, Iraq was spending nearly 60% of its gross oil revenues to buy weapons and weapons-manufac