My friend and I were out creek riding today out in the bottoms in his all steel four wheel drive steel caged lifted 2005 lincoln WITH GM axle'S...

we had a case of beer between us today, and we had a good time running between producing fields and creek beds fields... we have known each other a long time through business dealings.

I asked him if I could include him telling him I write about this stuff/// and he said ok.. told him I don't do facebookin ... he does it and he understands why I dont.

He's a four wheel drive genius, an artist... he does johny cash type 4 wheel drive vehicles... you know the stuff 4 wheel caddys, old chevys he's even done a four wheel Rolls. He's a black guy with a big heart... but he's tired of being taxed and fee'd to death... in His business there is a price point. You have to meet the customers need and wants.


We have had this conversation before and We Share the same set of techs and producers and mechanics that are dying off, some either keeling over at the kitchen table, dying in bed because of the stress,,having to eat fast because the people that are working for you drive you crazy and you have to do the work you are PAYING THEM TO DO because you cant find the talent you need and all you can find are people WHO HAVE TO BE TRAINED.

There are signs up all over town for people to be hired that have skill sets... but all you get coming through the door are people that can;t even make a sandwich, or work at taco bell.. and all you hear is ME, ME ME, MY NAMES JIMMY WHAT YOU GONNA GIVE ME...

Well Nothin CAT SCAT!!!

leave the people alone who deserve the pay.

So more venting here... when you have to go to the banks because because of a start up project... or even just changing banks because the last one screwed you... and trust me folks country banks are the best or small credit unions...the to big to fail ones want a wad of money up front, and there is a minimum and they are gonna attach fees too... especially if you are doing payroll..its taxes and fees and paperwork and crap on top of crap when all you are trying to do is put out a good product...

Its called the price of doing business...

Now I am NOT COMPLAINING... I DONT HAVE IT THAT BAD... but have been through all of this in the past...

first you have too set your employees straight;
let them know if you have growing pains;
you have to fight city hall,
the inspectors,
the banks;
the landlord unless you own your own land;
and the accountant; unless You have the time;
who wants to look at the books all time who may or may not be on your side....
and then pay the taxes and all the other nonsense that makes you mad

and then even your most loyal people cant figure why you are pissed at least half the time

I was blessed I had the same accountant for twenty years or more and he taught me a thing or two and you better know constitutional law... trust me...

BUT WE ARE TIRED OF BEING TOLD WE HAVE TO RAISE WAGES WHEN WAGES HAVE TO DO WITH WHAT THAT PARTICULAR PERSON CAN PRODUCE...

EACH PERSON IS DIFFERENT YOU CANT PAY THE BMW MECHANIC THE SAME AS THE MCDONALDS HACK.

BUT THIS IS THE SOCIALIST PAP AND I for one am totally sick of hearing about class warfare and raise wages...

If You TURN A PROFIT FOR YOU BOSS THEN... YOU CAN GET A RAISE... BUT IT AIN'T PERMANENT AND IT AIN'T WRITTEN IN STONE... IF YOU DONT KEEP PRODUCING... then hit the road. Young "Maam" 'JACK'

YOU PEOPLE FORGET YOUR BOSS HAS TO TURN A PROFIT TO STAY IN BUSINESS AND PUT UP WITH ALL your NONSENCE AND HAVE to LISTEN TO YOU COMPLAINING
OR TELLING STUPID STORIES TO COVER YOU BUTT...because you screwed up an expensive brand new piece of equipment,,, some of you know what I'm talkin about.

I know about this stuff and I don't have it all that bad... But I have been through all of this... and I don't care if you don't like what I just said.

So God Bless You and Have a Nice Day

this was all contrived everyone knows it ... still vote republican

because

demoncrats fast train to hell

republicrats slow train to hell

not to mention they listen better if you hammer on them ... keep in mind it is a task.. and you have to work at it ... they never stop

go write dianne fienstien... see if guitar slinger will respond

demoncrats will disregard you completely.... you tell me

never a limited amount of jobs... its up to you,,, what are you going to do .... preaching to the saints here... its all about your skill sets and how you...You... You market your own skills..... thanks...

U.S. Banks Helped Afghan Officials Launder Millions in Corrupt Funds:
By Colby Adams author


U.S. officials believe that representatives of at least two major American banks agreed to help top Afghan officials disguise hundreds of millions of dollars in corrupt funds, according to a person familiar with the matter. edit...

Edit detail... I can name the names... you can too

The Banks, which are among the Largest in the United States, maintained accounts for Afghan ministerial officials following meetings in Dubai and Kabul, despite knowledge that their deposits were likely embezzled from Development Funds or possibly the proceeds of Drug Trafficking, according to the individual, who reviewed intelligence data from multiple sources.

The U.S. bank officials aggressively pursued the money in multiple conversations” and advised the Afghan leaders on how to circumvent anti-money laundering reporting requirements through structuring and other means, the person said.

Those strategies were discussed by high-level U.S. banking officials in Kabul who coordinated with ministerial aides, the person said. The principals involved in the Afghan government were good about not directly taking part in the conversations.


Their discussions with the banks usually centered around keeping the money under certain thresholds, using certain offshore vehicles to move the money so it wasnt always coming from the same place and changing remittance companies to obscure the trail, according to the individual, who said that accounts were unearthed during investigations of Afghan officials.

Read further how the professor not the author of the article...does not mention mention the meat??? He will loose his tenure if he does... I dont blame him...edited detail don

While the investigations pinpointed two well-known U.S. banks, at least two other Western financial institutions also knowingly accepted corrupt funds from Afghan officials.


I can say that with 100 percent certainty, said the person, adding that the Afghan money was either transported in bulk or sent through hawala networks from Afghanistan to Dubaia...

edited detail... dubai... get it



Afghanistan One More Time: Since the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan the production of heroin has escalated at a very unheard of rate. A decade after the American occupation of Afghanistan the country has a virtual monopoly on the production of heroin. A country occupied by allied troops and with a hand-picked warlord government produces 95% of the global supply of heroin. In fact, from 2006-2010 the pro-U.S. Afghani government oversaw the production of a 12,000 ton surplus of opium. The Afghani-warlord democracy managed to seize three tons of heroin 2008, less than 1% of the total produced in-country.
Somehow, despite all the U.S. troops and all the anti-drug funding, 375 tons of heroin managed to move across the borders in 2008, most of it to U.S. ally Pakistan (United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, 2010).
Conclusion


From the early days of World War II to the mountains of Afghanistan the U.S. government has been a close partner with organized crime and drug traffickers. In the name of national security the very state which is responsible for controlling organized crime has partnered with organized crime. The very state waging a vicious “war on drugs at home protects drug traffickers abroad. It is the very definition of hypocrisy.
Gary W. Potter, PhD
Professor, School of Justice Studies
Eastern Kentucky University

this is a good... not to mention, Incredible simple visuals

.

Pictures look GREAT!!!

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

you are from Northern Europe?

are you here in the US or there?

read the clinton body count.. up to almost 50 now? not very good friends

history hurts..

at least you got your box of crayons... buddy

thank you for the info... dont think any one is listening...you get it

though.... its a my names jimmy whats you gonna give me crowd

thanks!!!

was at waco... you know janet pyro reno!

Would wish that someone would post a picture of the that crazy eyed guitar picker Dianne Fienestein with the AK.. does she not look like she likes it, or what ... she has a gleam in her eye.

tell me i'm wrong

let them practice on the dope cartels.... oh... thats right they get their marching orders from the same demons...

dont watch much you tube so, will say this...

In Texas it was always somewhat legal to carry but when they passed the law to allow all "legal" citizens to carry in their car... all carjackings stopped immediately. the numbers went to zero... no more, zilch... end of story.

I know that this is going to throw a monkey wrench into the mix...

Morgan Chase was the first Bank to make money/ fees and interest and contractor fees.... off all state food stamp cards and the rest are following... they would rather have you on welfare than allow you to make an honest living...

the only banks participating in this fraud are the to big to fail banks.

thanks crayons

I know that this is going to throw a monkey wrench into the mix...

Morgan Chase was the first Bank to make money/ fees and interest and contractor fees.... off all state food stamp cards and the rest are following... they would rather have you on welfare than allow you to make an honest living...

the only banks participating in this fraud are the to big to fail banks. meaning they are broke and are sucking off of the Lucy Cow,,, they have nothing... they depend on you not knowing history...

thanks crayons

how is fast and furious, and drug running proceeds honest,,, or constitutional?

we'll see... edited by crayons

Vatican Bank To Shut All Embassy Accounts To Halt Money Laundering

The Vatican has been laundering money for different Kings and Armies for Centuries, the source said adding that after it is laundered it can be used for good.

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/30/2013 19:15 -0400


Following Pope Francis' demand that the Vatican Bank review its procedures, Reuters reports that the bank is likely to close all accounts held By Foreign Embassies, following concerns about large cash deposits and withdrawals by the missions of Iran, Iraq and Indonesia, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The private bank IOR has around EUR7.1 billion in assets but is concerned it could be "an unwitting vehicle for money laundering and other illicit finances."

The source admits the former president of the Vatican bank was engaged in money laundering and that money laundering was still going on there. The Vatican has been laundering money for different kings and armies for centuries, the source said adding that after it is laundered it can be used for good.

Via Trust.org,

The Vatican bank is likely to close all accounts held by foreign embassies, following concerns about large cash deposits and withdrawals by the missions of Iran, Iraq and Indonesia, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

The Vatican's financial watchdog, which examined the transactions in 2011, believed the embassies' justifications for the transactions were too vague or disproportionate to the amounts -- up to 500,000 euros at a time -- these people said. In one case, a large cash withdrawal was said to be for "refurbishment", one person added.

Now the bank and the watchdog want to reduce the possibility that the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), as the bank is called, could be an unwitting vehicle for money laundering and other illicit finances.

Four people with knowledge of the matter said the closure of the accounts was likely to be a key recommendation of a broad review that Pope Francis has ordered of the bank, whose scandal-tainted history has long been an embarrassment for the Holy See.

...

The IOR is a private bank - currently with about 7.1 billion euros in assets under management - whose stated goal is to hold and manage funds for religious orders of priests and nuns, Catholic charities, Vatican employees, and other Catholic institutions. But the number of account holders has swelled to 19,000 over the years and diversified beyond the original categories with the right to hold accounts.

...

The bank is also coming clean on possible illicit financial activities. The Vatican has said it detected six possible attempts to use the IOR to launder money last year, and at least seven in the first half of this year. In one case, a prelate who had close ties to the IOR was arrested in June on suspicion of plotting to smuggle 20 million euros in cash into Italy from Switzerland to give to rich friends in southern Italy. The prelate, who will be tried in December, says he was not acting for personal gain.

this is started the Bush era.. the point described further on ending 2014

United States Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad

In 2001, President George W. Bush asked Khalilzad to head the Bush-Cheney transition team for the Department of Defense and Khalilzad briefly served as Counselor to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In May 2001, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice announced Khalilzad's appointment as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Southwest Asia, Near East, and North African Affairs at the National Security Council.

Presently, Khalilzad serves as the President of Khalilzad Associates, LLC an "international advisory firm that serves clients at the nexus of commerce and public policies, helping global businesses navigate the most promising and challenging international markets." Khalilzad Associates and its parent company Gryphon Capital Partners counts among its clients international and US companies, which are primarily interested in doing business in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Khalilzad, these include companies in the sectors of energy, construction, education, and infrastructure.

On September 9, 2014 news items appeared in the Austrian media stating that Khalilzad was being investigated by Austrian authorities for suspected money laundering and that his wifes accounts had been frozen. On September 10, the Austrian court made known that the case had been dismissed and the accounts ordered unfrozen already a week earlier, on September 3. The leak was the result of court documents having been disposed of unshredded in the general trash, and found by scavenging bloggers.

Khalilzad also currently serves as a Counselor at the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) and sits on the Boards of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), America Abroad Media (AAM), the RAND Corporation.

Top Ten Felons, Fugitives, and Shady Characters in Obama's Life

by John Nolte

Now that the increasingly erratic and desperately sleazy Obama campaign has decided to cavalierly throw around the word "felony" when it comes to pushing a campaign of lies surrounding Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, this seems like a good time to jump in the wayback machine for a look at the actual convicted felons, criminals, and dubious characters who have always been associated with Barack Obama's political life.
What? What's that? You dont want to talk about this?
Objection overruled, Corrupt Media!
The President opened this door, and now we're going to walk right on through it.
Starting with�

1. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich: Sentenced to 14 years in prison for political corruption.
NBC Chicago:
President Barack Obama's chief of staff, then a congressman in Illinois, apparently attempted to trade favors with embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich while he was in office, according to newly disclosed e-mails obtained by The Associated Press.
Emanuel agreed to sign a letter to the Chicago Tribune supporting Blagojevich in the face of a scathing editorial by the newspaper that ridiculed the governor for self-promotion. Within hours, Emanuel's own staff asked for a favor of its own: The release of a delayed $2 million grant to a school in his district.
-----

2. Tony Rezko: Sentenced to 10 and a half years for corruption and kickbacks.
Politico:
Rezko raised money for Obama when he ran for Illinois senator, but not during his presidential campaign, the AP noted.
Obama also involved Rezko in a house deal after he was elected to the U.S. Senate, a move he later called a boneheaded mistake, according to a 2008 report in ABC News.
Obama wanted to purchase a home that the seller had a specific condition on: the adjacent empty lot to the house had to be purchased at the same time, ABC News reported. In the house deal, Rezkos wife paid the full asking price for that parcel, $625,000.
Obama shelled out $300,000 under the houses asking price, paying $1.65 million, according to ABC News. Obama then purchased a part of Rezkos lot for $104,500.
It was a mistake to have been engaged with him at all in this or any other personal business dealing that would allow him, or anyone else, to believe he had done me a favor, Obama told the Sun-Times at the time.
Obama said his connection to Rezko was above board and legal.
Rezko and others connected to him gave Obamas 2004 Senate campaign more than $120,000, ABC News reported.
ABC News:
While Rezko's wife paid the full asking price for the land, Obama paid $300,000 under the asking price for the house. The house sold for $1,650,000 and the price Rezko's wife paid for the land was $625,000.
Obama denies there was anything unusual about the price disparity. He says the price on the house was dropped because it had been on the market for some time but that the price for the adjacent land remained high because there was another offer.
Obama then expanded his property by buying a strip of the Rezko land for $104,500, which the senator maintains was a fair market price.
Obama later told the Chicago Sun-Times, "It was a mistake to have been engaged with him at all in this or any other personal business dealing that would allow him, or anyone else, to believe he had done me a favor."
Obama had known Rezko long before the house deal, calling him a "friend."
An ABC News review of campaign records shows Rezko, and people connected to him, contributed more than $120,000 to Obama's 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate, much of it at a time when Rezko was the target of an FBI investigation.
It's important to keep in mind that this was dutiful reporting from the media. Any attempts to turn this into the Bain-style narrative it deserved and still deserves to be has always been blunted by the media. This is the shadiest land deal involving a politician in my lifetime, and Obama got away with it legally and politically.
-----

3. Courtney Dupree: Democratic fundraiser convicted of bank fraud.
Daily News:
Dupree, who attended the elite Wharton School of Business, was a rainmaker in Democratic circles.
In 2008, Dupree hosted a $1,000-a-ticket fund-raiser for Barack Obama at his Broad St. apartment that was attended by top aide Valerie Jarrett.
-----

4. Willie Shepherd: Obama bundler plead guilty to assault.
Denver Post:
On Tuesday, Shepherd was sentenced to 12 months of supervised probation, according to state court documents.
Shepherd, the former finance co-chairman of the Democratic National Convention host committee, was originally charged with negligent child abuse and third-degree assault that knowingly caused injury, a class one misdemeanor. Those charges were dismissed and Shepherd pleaded guilty to the class two misdemeanor.
Denver Post:
Shepherd, 44, the former finance co-chairman of the Democratic National Convention host committee and $100,000-plus bundler for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, pleaded not guilty to the charges last month at a Denver court hearing.
Denver police on Sept. 13 were called to Shepherd's house by his wife, Sarah Trainor-Shepherd, who said she had been the victim of domestic violence, according to the arrest affidavit.
The court document says police officers noticed a red mark on her brow and bruises on her face and arm, but Trainor-Shepherd then told police she did not want to press charges.
-----

5. John Corzine: Top Obama fundraiser currently under FBI investigation. Obama's "Wall Street guy."
MSNBC:
Jon Corzine, now the center of an FBI investigation into the handling of hundreds of millions of dollars invested in his securities firm, was one of the leading Wall Street fundraisers for President Obamas campaign and suggested to investors that he might take a top administration post if the president were re-elected.
His new legal troubles, sparked by the bankruptcy filing of his investment firm, MF Global, could complicate the presidents efforts to raise money from the financial community given Corzines central role in those efforts.
A recent list of top bundlers or elite fundraisers released by Obamas campaign listed Corzine in the highest category -- reporting that he had raised more than $500,000 for the campaign. A substantial chunk of those funds were collected at a $35,800 per ticket fundraiser that Corzine hosted at his wifes spacious Fifth Avenue apartment last April -- an event that was touted at the time as part of a concerted effort by the presidents campaign team to reach out to well-heeled Wall Street donors who had been alienated by some of his policies and previous public comments.
Star Ledger:
In a sign of his emerging role as a financial guru for Barack Obama, Gov. Jon Corzine Sunday unveiled the latest piece of the presidential candidate's plan to curb soaring oil prices.
The governor touted an Obama proposal that marked the latest clash between the Democrat and Republican opponent John McCain over energy policy, as voters rank the economy as their biggest concern heading into the November election.
In his plan, Obama calls for more regulation in oil markets by promising to close the so-called "Enron loophole" that exempts some energy trading from federal oversight. The rollout also provided a showcase for Corzine, the former Goldman Sachs CEO whom Obama referred to as "our Wall Street guy" at a meeting of Democratic governors in Chicago on Friday.
-----

6. Shervin Neman: Obama bundler currently under investigation for fraud.
Politico:
The Obama campaign will return the donations of an accused Ponzi schemer who is facing an SEC investigation, a campaign official confirms.
"With 1.8 million donors thus far, we constantly review those contributions for issues. In this particular case, we will be refunding the contributions and have placed the funds in escrow until a trusteeship or other appropriate place to return these funds is established given the interests of the investors," a campaign official told POLITICO.
Shervin Neman, a hedge fund manager in Los Angeles, stands accused by the SEC of defrauding members of his California Persian-Jewish community, the conservative Washington Free Beacon reports.
-----

7. Abake Assongba: Obama bundler under investigation for fraud.
Washington Post:
New Yorker Abake Assongba has pledged to help President Obama win reelection, and as one of his 400 volunteer fundraisers, she has delivered $50,000 to the cause.
But she is also trailed by some controversy, accused in court of defrauding a businessman out of $657,000, impersonating a bank official and dodging creditors.
Assongba disputes the allegations, but the mysteries around her personal life highlight a challenge for Obamas reelection effort and other presidential campaigns. The astronomical cost of running for the White House requires an army of bundlers, many of whom are strangers to the campaign. And as candidates quickly learn, it is no small task to woo and vet those citizen fundraisers.
-----

8. Alberto and Carlos Cardona: Obama bundlers with ties to a Mexican fugitive accused of attempted assassinations.
Politico:
The Obama campaign will return more than $200,000 in campaign donations from the American relatives of a fugitive Mexican businessman and casino owner, a campaign official said Tuesday.
On the basis of the questions that have been raised, we will return the contributions from these individuals and from any other donors they brought to the campaign, said Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the campaign.
The fugitive, Juan Jose Rojas Pepe Cardona, fled drug charges and other legal troubles in Iowa in 1994 and rose to prominence as a wealthy Mexican casino operator. State Department reports have also linked him as a suspect in attempted assassinations of business rivals and illegal political donations in Mexico.
According to a story first reported by The New York Times, Pepe Cardonas American brothers have suddenly emerged as major Democratic donors raising and contributing up to $300,000 to the Obama campaign alone, mostly from relatives. The donations put one brother, Alberto Rojas Cardona, in the top bracket of Obama campaign volunteer fundraisers, known as bundlers.
According to the Times, another brother, Carlos Cardona, has also been approaching political figures including a former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party and a former governor of Iowa trying to seek a pardon for his brother Pepe Cardona.
-----

9. Solyndra: First company to receive taxpayer backed loans from Obama. Solyndra's investors are Obama bundlers. The FBI raided Solyndra last September.
Breitbart News:
The Obama Administration loaned over $500 million to Solyndra via an accelerated process; later, of course, Solyndra went bankrupt and had to fire 1,100 employees. Some of Solyndras biggest stakeholders were major Obama donors George Kaiser, an Oklahoma billionaire, raised between $50,000 and $100,000 in 2008; Steve Westly, an Obama bundler, was linked with Solyndra; so was Steve Spinner, another Obama fundraiser, who pushed the Administration to greenlight the loan, even while his wifes law firm was legally representing the company.
Bloomberg:
An FBI raid on Solyndra Inc., a solar-panel maker that failed after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Energy Department, may signal the escalation of a probe into the Obama administrations clean- energy program.
Agents for Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman, who has called the departments clean-energy loan program lacking in transparency and accountability, joined in the search yesterday at the Fremont, California, headquarters of Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 6.
-----

10. Bill Ayers: Unrepentant domestic terrorist. Early Obama backer. Fellow board-member of the Woods Foundation. 4th of July pal.
Breitbart News:
As a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama disavowed any connection with former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground radical who was one of Obama's early backers and his colleague on the board of the Woods Fund in Chicago. We now have proof that Obama's association with Ayers continued even after Obama had been elected to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate--in the form of a now-scrubbed blog post placing Obama at the home of Ayers and his wife, fellow radical Bernardine Dohrn, on July 4, 2005.
Dr. Tom Perrin, Assistant Professor of English at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, was a graduate student at the University of Chicago at the time, and maintained a blog called "Rambling Thomas." He lived next door to Ayers and Dohrn in Hyde Park. He wrote at 8:44 a.m. on July 6, 2005:
Guess what? I spent the 4th of July evening with star Democrat Barack Obama! Actually, that's a lie. Obama was at a barbecue at the house next door (given by a law professor who is a former member of the Weather Underground) and we saw him over the fence at our barbecue. Well, the others did. It had started raining and he had gone inside be the time I got there. Nevertheless.
Dohrn is a Clinical Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University, and Chicago did, in fact, record rainfall on the Fourth of July holiday in 2005.
-----
We all know the media will refuse to vet Obama's sordid past until he's safely out of office. But other than Ayers, every convicted felon and person under investigation listed here was a part of Obama's political life while he was president or running for president.
In the case of domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, he and Obama enjoyed that barbecue together in 2005, when Obama was only a United States Senator.

From Dirty Dealing

Money Laundering Statistics

At an individual country level….

In 2000, illegal narcotics sales in the United States were estimated by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Drug Policy Information clearinghouse as being: $36 billion spent on cocaine, $11 billion on marijuana, $10 billion on heroin, $5.4 billion on methamphetamine and $2.4 billion on other illegal substances. In total, the overall spend in 2000 reached $160.7 billion – with Americans consuming approximately 260 metric tons of cocaine and 13.3 metric tons of heroin.

The use of illegal substances has some strange but telling after effects. Research has shown that 90 per cent of banknotes in circulation in the United States are contaminated by narcotics; a similar analysis in London in 1999 showed that 99 per cent of all banknotes circulating in the city are tainted with cocaine, with 1 in 20 exhibiting high levels of the drug, suggesting that they have been handled by dealers or have been used to snort the drug.

The black market peso exchange system in Colombia is estimated to launder $6 billion per annum in drug profits.

It has been estimated that each year $15 billion flows our of Russia – and it is almost impossible to determine how much of this figure is capital flight and how much is money laundering. Government figures in the mid 1990’s calculated that 25 per cent of the country’s gross national income was derived from organized criminal activities.

The NCIS ‘ United Kingdom Threat Assessment of Serious and Organized Crime’ in 2003 stated that the overall size of criminal proceeds in the country – and the amount that is laundered is unknown. However, customs authorities had estimated that the annual proceeds from crime in the UK were anywhere between £19 billion and £48 billion – with £25 billion being a realistic figure for the amount that is laundered each year.

A 1996 report published by Chulalongkom University in Bangkok estimated that a figure equal to 15% of the country’s GDP ($28.5 billion) was laundered criminal money.

Mexican drug cartels (now more powerful than their contemporaries in Colombia ) are conservatively estimated to generate profits of more than $9 billion per year - that is approximately 5% of Mexico ’s GDP.

The Canadian Solicitor General commented in 1998 that the illicit funds generated and laundered in Canada each year was between $5 and $17 billion.

Also in 1998 the Swiss Finance Ministry confirmed that the country was implicated in $500 billion of money laundering each year. Although no official figure exists it has been reliably estimated that between $40 to $50 billion of Russian Money resides in Swiss Banks - with realistically little way of knowing whether it is flight capital or laundered money.

In Indonesia, which has a rapidly escalating money laundering problem, one US law enforcement agency states that $500,000 is washed on a weekly basis by West Africans and Southeast Asians using West African Couriers.

The Republic of Ireland with its growing financial centre of Dublin estimates that in 1998 $126 million was suspected of being laundered through the country.
Informal estimates voiced in 1997 were that yearly money laundering activity in Italy totalled over $50 billion.



And then at a global level……

The United Nations Human Development Report of 1999 commented that organized crime syndicates grossed $1.5 trillion per annum - which is more than many developed economies and multinational corporations. Recent figures from the International Monetary Fund suggest that the amount is now nearer $2 trillion.

In March 1998 Dow Jones News reported that money laundering amounted to between 2-5% of world GDP: in other words between $1 and 3 trillion.

It is estimated that there are in excess of 200 million drug users in the world and in 1995 the world’s illegal narcotics trade was calculated at $400 billion. This total is equivalent to 8 per cent of the world’s trade- that is more than motor vehicles, iron and steel and about the same as the gas and oil industry. In 1999 a Congressional hearing was told that up to $48 billion per year in profits were generated by illegal drug sales, which was laundered.

If you accept - and I think you should - that the scale of global money laundering each year is at least $1.5 trillion then either the staggering, horrifying scale of the whole problem suddenly snaps into place or you are so bemused that you still don’t really believe it. To put that $1.5 trillion figure into context, in real and comparative terms: $1.5 trillion is $1,500,000,000,000 - which when put like that is even more astounding.

The estimated GDP of the United States in 1998 was $8.511 trillion - thus the annual money laundering figure is 17% of this. Or to put it another way the GDP of the United States is only just five times that of Global Organized Crime Inc. In fact the figure of $1.5 trillion is only dwarfed by three individual country’s economies.

The largest corporation quoted in the Fortune 500 as at February 2000 is General Motors with a turnover of $161,315,000,000 which is about a tenth of the amount laundered each year (or Money laundering per annum is ten times the annual turnover of General Motors).

The GDP of Switzerland is $191,000,000,000 - just an eighth of the annual money laundering figure.

One could just go on - and the comparisons would become even more overwhelming. Normally when such a staggering financial value is placed on Money Laundering the normal reaction is one of incredulity and extreme scepticism. Combined with this is the claim that all such figures have no basis in actuality - that essentially they have been plucked out of thin air. The Australian, John Walker has addressed these problems in his work on ‘Modelling Global Money Laundering Flows’. The bad news for the sceptics is that output from the research and modelling process has produced a global money laundering total of $2.85 trillion per year. Rare for someone who introduces a new economic model, Walker actually admits that he is not claiming that the model is yet producing accurate estimates of money laundering flows. That being said, the critical fact is that the total produced is almost twice as much as official estimates or calculations. The basis of Walker ’s model is as follows:

(It) uses a range of publicly available crime statistics to estimate the amount of money generated by crime in each country around the world, and then uses various socio-economic indices to estimate the proportions of these funds that will be laundered, and to which countries these funds will be attracted for laundering. By aggregating these estimates, an assessment can be made of the likely extent of global money laundering...

For simple folk like me, this means taking the national crime figures and estimating what of this is laundered and where. Thus we have estimates which place the value of global money laundering between $1.5 and $2.85 trillion each year. Such staggering totals raise a variety of issues, but surely the two fundamental questions are:

Where on earth (literally) is all of this money?

Why do the reports of suspicions of money laundering filed by financial institutions and professionals to relevant official bodies across the world represent merely a minuscule percentage of this estimated total?

And once again, at the risk of stating the obvious, these total figures relate to one year alone. Presumably this is newly generated criminal wealth to be added to the amounts produced in previous years. Thus, even basing it on the lower estimate, the last five years of the 20th century must have produced a figure in excess of $7.5 trillion. Because even if the figures for previous years in that time span were lower than $1.5 trillion per year, we must not forget the interest which would be generated.

So prior to the anti-money laundering initiatives that followed 9/11, why were the suspicious transaction reports filed by civilised countries across the world so pitifully short of anything approaching this total?

In Switzerland in 1998 there were 160 suspicious transaction reports with a financial value of 330 million Swiss francs (roughly equivalent to $210 million). This compares with about 30 to 40 previously. With typical Swiss understatement, Daniel Thelesklaf, the director of the office responsible for tracking money laundering commented that “the number of reports is still low, given Switzerland’s importance as a financial centre”.

In Belgium between December 1993 and June 1998 there were 1416 cases of money laundering sent to the judicial system with a value of $3.92 billion. In 1997 there were 476 suspicious reports filed with a value of 42.5 million Belgium francs (approximately $1.1 billion).

In most other countries the financial value of reported suspicious transactions relating to money laundering is hard to come by. Nevertheless the number of reports does not inspire confidence that across the world we are doing nothing more than scratching the surface. In the United Kingdom in 1998 there were 18,000 suspicious transactions reported. In the Netherlands in the first half of 1997 there were 5,683 reports: but in the previous year only 0.5 per cent of such reports led to arrests and prosecution. Hong Kong appears to be particularly vigilant: in 1996 there were 4,124 reports and from January to Mid November 1998 there were 4,700 reports of suspicious activity. In Cyprus between 1997 and late 1998 there were 125 referrals - but half of them were from other governments. In the first nine months of 1998 Greece had approximately 200 cases of suspicious activity. And finally in Hungary between 1994 and 1998 there were about 2,000 relevant reports

If this is just scratching the surface, it is not the law enforcement agencies that are at fault: these reports are generated by banks, professionals and business. In the United Kingdom in 1997 NCIS (National Criminal Intelligence Service), the relevant law enforcement body that receives notification of suspicious transactions, dealt with 14,000 such tip-offs. Legal and regulatory obligations mean that banks, other financial institutions and various professionals have to report suspicions. Of these, 7,000 came from banks; 3,000 from building societies. But, here is the rub: 44 came from accountants - and there are 100,000 such professionals in the country; 236 came from solicitors - of which there are over 40,000 practising in the UK. Insurance Companies (3.7 per cent of total reports), financial advisers (3.8%) and bureau de change (17.5 per cent, that is 2000 reports, double that of the previous year) all succeeded where accountants and solicitors so patently failed.

It could of course be argued that solicitors and accountants reported large value cases (because that is what they predominantly deal with) and thus the number will be lower than volume markets such as those inhabited by banks and building societies. Such a case could be argued - but I’m not going to. I suggest that almost the opposite is true: the sums involved in money laundering are so huge that you cannot miss them (unless of course you want to). How can anybody ignore:

The $500 million stashed away in Swiss banks by Ferdinand Marcos.

The various Russian money laundering stories where figures of $15 billion washed through accounts have surfaced.

The former dictator of the Congo, Joseph Mobutu, is believed to have transferred up to $5,000 million from the country.

As for where the funds generated by money laundering reside, I suggest that the best place to start is offshore. Conservative estimates place the funds controlled by offshore centers at $5 trillion - which increases by $500 billion each year.....

As for where the funds generated by money laundering reside, I suggest that the best place to start is offshore. Conservative estimates place the funds controlled by offshore centers at $5 trillion - which increases by $500 billion each year

From Bloomberg
Mar 31, 2013 6:30 PM EDT
By Simon Johnson

Money laundering by large international banks has reached epidemic proportions, and U.S. authorities are supposedly looking into Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Governor Jerome Powell, on behalf of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, recently testified to Congress on the issue, and he sounded serious. But international criminals and terrorists needn’t worry. This is window dressing: Complicit bankers have nothing to fear from the U.S. justice system.

To be on the safe side, though, miscreants should be sure to use a really large global bank for all their money-laundering needs.

There may be fines, but the largest financial companies are unlikely to face criminal actions or meaningful sanctions. The Department of Justice has decided that these banks are too big to prosecute to the full extent of the law, though why this also gets employees and executives off the hook remains a mystery. And the Federal Reserve refuses to rescind bank licenses, undermining the credibility, legitimacy and stability of the financial system.

To see this perverse incentive program in action, consider the recent case of a big money-laundering bank that violated a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, openly broke U.S. securities law and stuck its finger in the eye of the Fed. This is what John Peace, the chairman of Standard Chartered Plc, and his colleagues managed to get away with March 5. The meaningful consequences for him or his company are precisely zero.
Chairman’s Statement

At one level, this is farce. Standard Chartered has long conceded that it broke U.S. money-laundering laws in spectacular and prolonged fashion. In late 2012, it entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, agreeing to pay a fine that amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist (in any case, such penalties are paid by shareholders, not management).

Then, on a March 5 conference call with investors, Peace denied that his bank and its employees had willfully broken U.S. law with their money-laundering activities. This statement was a clear breach of the deferred prosecution agreement (see paragraph 12 on page 10, where the bank agreed that none of its officers should make “any public statement contradicting the acceptance of responsibility by SCB set forth above or the facts described in the Factual Statement”). Any such statement constitutes a willful and material breach of the agreement.

This is where the theater of the absurd begins. For some reason, it took the bank 11 business days, not the required five, to issue a retraction. No doubt a number of people, in the private and public sectors, were asleep at the switch. (The Justice Department and Standard Chartered rebuffed my requests for details on the timeline.)

The implications of the affair are twofold. First, with his eventual retraction, Peace admitted that he misled investors. It also was an implicit admission that he had failed to issue a timely correction. Waiting 11 days to correct a material factual error is a serious breach of U.S. securities law for any nonfinancial company. Wake me when the Securities and Exchange Commission brings a case against Standard Chartered.

Of course, it’s possible that Peace didn’t deliberately violate the deferred prosecution agreement because he hadn’t read it, or at least not all the way to page 10. Peace is an accomplished professional with a long and distinguished track record. Everyone can have a forgetful moment. That still doesn’t explain why the bank took so long to correct the facts.
Leadership Matters

Tone at the top matters, as reporting around JPMorgan Chase and its relationship with regulators makes clear. Will Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon be more cooperative than he was, for example, in August 2011 when he refused to provide detailed information on the goings-on in his investment bank?

Why hasn’t Standard Chartered’s board, which is made up of talented and experienced individuals, forced out Peace as a result of this bungling? (I called for his resignation on my blog last week.)

The only possible explanation is that the board thinks Peace did nothing wrong. They may even regard U.S. laws as onerous and the Department of Justice as heavy-handed.

They would be entitled to their opinions, of course. But if they would like their bank to do business in the U.S., the rules are (supposedly) the rules. If used appropriately, permission to operate a bank in the U.S. grants the opportunity to earn a great deal of profit.

At a recent congressional hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts asked what it would take for a company to lose its U.S. banking license. Specifically, “How many billions of dollars do you have to launder for drug lords?”

Powell, the Fed governor, replied that pulling a bank’s license may be “appropriate when there’s a criminal conviction.”

I have failed to find any cases of the Fed ordering the termination of banking activities in the U.S. for a foreign bank after a criminal conviction for money laundering. Nor, for that matter, has the Fed taken action to shut down a bank that signed a deferred prosecution agreement, which, in the case of Standard Chartered, was an acknowledgment of criminal wrongdoing. Nor has it taken action when such an agreement was violated.

To see what the Fed is empowered to do under the International Banking Act, and working with state authorities, look at the case of Daiwa Bank, which received an Order to Terminate United States Banking Activities in 1995. Note to big banks: Don’t allow illegal trading in the U.S. Treasury market; on this, we may still have standards. By the way, in the case of Daiwa, there was no criminal conviction.
Cleaning House

Last summer, when Barclays’s Chief Executive Officer Robert Diamond was less than fully cooperative with the Bank of England in providing details of the Libor scandal, he was gone within 24 hours. Any bank supervisor has the right and the obligation to force out a manager who impedes the proper functioning of the financial system.

The new CEO of Barclays is trying to clean house. The obstreperous approach of the previous management set the tone for the entire organization, creating a mess of macroeconomic proportions.

Will any senior executives at Standard Chartered be forced out? Could the bank lose its ability to operate in the U.S.? Based on what we have seen so far, neither seems plausible.

If Standard Chartered violates its cease-and-desist order with the Fed, would it then lose its license? Not according to what Powell said in his congressional testimony. The Fed has no teeth whatsoever, at least when it comes to global megabanks, hence the continuing pattern of defiance from JPMorgan and Dimon.

If you or I tried to launder money, even on a small scale, we would probably go to jail. But when the employees of a very big bank do so -- on a grand scale and over many years -- there are no meaningful consequences.

would like to see glass stiegal re enacted thats all! this has opened up more gambling than any time since before 29 do we have to keep repeating history...

the too big too fail banks gamble with our middle class dollars

we are being played by both sides,,, look at spain and the euro do you want to participate in bail ins have your bank box raided? you tell me.


is this moral? is this good or something else? welcome critisizm but am leaving till next time

thanks and Its called wall street derangement... it is on both sides

vote for bible school teacher if you have too,,,, this is a christian forum? or am I misinformed? criticals welcome

would also tell you to check into a credit union as long as they could insure half your deposits... fdic wont cover you look at the stories comming out of europe I would hedge my bets, like the big boys do... you may have to split up stuff... Keep your Wealth its your money... Keep Your Freedom thanks crayons