APFNShadowy system to secretly move trillions of dollarsFri Aug 8 20:11:48 200364.140.158.211 Explosive Revelation$The world’s biggest banks and multinational corporations have set up a shadowy system to secretly move trillions of dollars—a system that can be exploited by tax evaders, drug runners and even terrorists.http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/26/10/feature1_1.shtml n the tax haven of Luxembourg, a little-known outfit called Clearstream handles billions of dollars a year in stock and bond transfers for banks, investment companies and multinational corporations. But a former top official of this “clearinghouse” says Clearstream operates a secret bookkeeping system that allows its clients to hide the money that moves through their accounts.In these days of global markets, individuals and companies may be buying stocks, bonds or derivatives from a seller who is halfway across the world. Clearinghouses like Clearstream keep track of the “paperwork” for the transactions. Banks with accounts in the clearinghouse use a debit and credit system and, at the end of the day, the accounts (minus “handling fees,” of course) are totaled up. The clearinghouse doesn’t actually send money anywhere, it just debits and credits its members’ accounts. It’s all very efficient. But the money involved is massive. Clearstream handles more than 80 million transactions a year, and claims to have securities on deposit valued at $6.5 trillion.It’s also an excellent mechanism for laundering drug money or hiding income from the tax collector. Banks are supposed to be subject to local government oversight. But many of Clearstream’s members have real or “virtual” subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, where records are secret and investigators can’t trace transactions. And Clearstream, which keeps the central records of financial trades, doesn’t get even the cursory regulation that applies to offshore banks. On top of that, it deliberately has put in place a system to hide many of its clients’ transactions from any authorities who might come looking.According to former insiders: * Clearstream has a double system of accounting, with secret, non-published accounts that banks and big corporations use to make transfers they don’t want listed on the official books. * Though it is legally limited to dealing with financial institutions, Clearstream gives secret accounts to multinational corporations so they can move stocks and money free from outside scrutiny. * Clearstream carried an account for a notoriously criminal Russian bank for several years after the bank had officially “collapsed,” and clearinghouse accounts camouflaged the destinations of transfers to Colombian banks. * Clearstream operates a computer program that erases the traces of trades on request from its members. * Clearstream was used to try to hide a dubious arms deal between French authorities and the Taiwanese military.Many of these charges were first made in a controversial book called Révélation$, written by Denis Robert, a French journalist, and Ernest Backes, a former top official at the clearinghouse who helped design and install the computer system that facilitated the undisclosed accounts. The book’s impact was explosive. Six European judges called it “the black box” of illicit international financial flows. Top Clearstream officials were fired. The scandal made headlines in big European newspapers; TV networks broadcast specials; the French National Assembly’s financial crimes committee held a hearing. Luxembourg authorities ordered an investigation, and then they effected a cover-up. Yet Révélation$ remains unpublished and relatively unknown in the United States. FULL STORY - PART I http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/26/10/feature1_1.shtml Part two of the investigation >>>>>>> http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/26/10/feature1_2.shtml http://www.apfn.org/apfn/money.htm OFFSHORE MONEY ACCUSED BARAKAT BANK DENIES TERROR TIES LONDON. The chairman of a financial organization accused of funding Osama bin Laden's terrorist network denies the allegations. LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3Y6C4P1UC ----- ISLAMIC BANKERS CLAIM CLEANLINESS Muslim bankers say they are less likely than their western counterparts to allow money laundering and tax evasion. LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6278 ----- But INDIA's largest, the Bombay-based State Bank of India, is fined $7.5 million by the US government for money laundering. LINK: http://www.americanbanker.com/cgi-bin/read_tagstory?20011115WASH165 ----- FRENCH INSURERS SUSPECT PARIS. French insurance companies are accused of being lax on dirty cash. LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6268 ----- GERMAN FINANCIAL CRIMES SOAR There's been a huge increase in suspected money laundering and tax evasion cases reported since the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6232 ----- GOLD IN THE NEWS Sales of gold as an investment soared 400% after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/14/business/14GOLD.html ----- And a multi-billion dollar merger is about to create the world's number one gold mining company. LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3O8A471UC ----- THE COMING DEFLATION? US industry's recession is the longest since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the new worry is deflation. LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3WJ6FF4UC ----- CARD COMPANIES SUED OVER OFFSHORE CHARGES Major credit card companies are sued for rigging currency exchange rates to soak customers who have offshore card charges. LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3BEWC13UC ----- CITIBANK WOOS ASIAN WEALTHY Special private banking in Asia earned $3 billion last year. LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3X4DO57UC ----- LUXURY GOODS KEEP ON SELLING $80 billion annually is spent on luxury goods, and the beat goes on. LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/18/business/18INSI.html ----- GOLD IN THOSE MERGERS Experts suggest new corporate combinations of gold mining companies could result in a major upturn in the price of gold. LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3VK15Y2UC ----- CLEAN CAUGHT IN DIRTY CASH NET LIMASSOL, Cyprus. A legitimate financial reporter is caught up by nervous world money laundering laws, US and otherwise. LINK: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/11/19/009.html Banking / Federal Reserve System BY FAR, THE SINGLE GREATEST SLEIGHT-OF-HAND SCAM EVER PERPETRATED ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. !! http://www.freedomdomain.com/bankfed.htm Tracking bin Laden's money, Tracking bin Laden's money — Wayne Madsen, Fri Aug 8 23:12 Questions the media probably won't ask George W. Bush — Kevin McHall, Fri Aug 8 23:37
Main Page - Sunday, 08/10/03
Message Board by American Patriot Friends Network [APFN]
APFN MESSAGEBOARD ARCHIVES
