On 10 April 2006, a DC-9 jet landed in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, on the Gulf of Mexico, as the sun was setting. Mexican soldiers, waiting to intercept it, found 128 cases packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100m. But something else – more important and far-reaching – was discovered in the paper trail behind the purchase of the plane by the Sinaloa narco-trafficking cartel.
During a 22-month investigation by agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and others, it emerged that the cocaine smugglers had bought the plane with money they had laundered through one of the biggest banks in the United States: Wachovia, now part of the giant Wells Fargo.
I've gotten at least a dozen emails over the last couple of days frantically asking me to cover this story. Naked Capitalism said:
If this news story does not prove that banks are effectively above the law, I don’t know what does. The Guardian, in an account yet to be picked up anywhere in the US media (per Google News as of this posting, hat tip readers May S and Swedish Lex) reports that Wachovia was at the heart of one of the world’s biggest money laundering operations, moving $378.4 billion into dollar-based accounts from Mexican casas de cambio, which are currency exchange firms. While these transfers took place over a period of years, the article notes that it equals 1/3 of Mexican GDP. And the resolution?
Oh really? Not picked up anywhere in the United States eh?
Gee, it's not enough to steal from ordinary Americans, it's not enough to rip off state and city governments, it's not enough to rig bids in the municipal bond markets, we must sit still while these institutions literally make possible funding criminal gangs that are committing murder.
There's a name for this folks.
Dateline: The Market Ticker, June 29th, 2010
The Market Ticker did cover this story in detail - nearly a year ago.
The real question is why this wasn't picked up by everyone last year, why it wasn't run into the ground, and why only now, when the deferred prosecution agreement expired, are people talking about it.
That's right - now the media will cover it, including The Guardian!
Mish covered this story in July, incidentally, so it wasn't like The Market Ticker was the only site that was talking about it.
I have one question for everyone, and it's a really important question that bears on exactly how we have gotten to be where we are - that is, where "certain special people and institutions" can do damn near anything they want - law or no law:
How'd we get beyond the deferred prosecution boundary before all these supposed journalists "discovered" this story, when in fact not only did I report on it nearly a year ago but so did a few others. Now we have people profess, for the first time, to see that this is "proof that banks are effectively above the law."
Wouldn't the below have been an interesting question for Yves to ask Timmy Geither during her audience at Treasury in August of 2010 - with many other bloggers present?
"How do you defend not attempt to convict Wachovia or any of the bank officers for alleged money laundering on behalf of Mexican drug cartels in the amount of nearly $400 billion - money that we know was used, directly and indirectly, to slaughter both Mexican citizens and Americans? In what form or fashion is it in the public interest to not only allow a tiny fine of less than one tenth of one percent of the loot so-transferred to be paid but to refuse to criminally try the institution and every officer and employee involved in this offense?"
Now that would have been worth being a fly on the wall for.
Of course you wouldn't exactly make the Christmas list if you asked such a question, and you might not have been invited at all had you ran the story and asked this question before hand.... right?
PS: I'd still like to see that question asked. Hell will freeze first.
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Wearedoomed
Posts: 3585
Incept: 2009-01-14
slightly red state
Online
Another reason why the Drug War will continue to be fought - the banks get their vig.
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And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
The Big Banks are effectively and for all intents and purposes the Financial Arms of the Terrorist Organizations and Drug Cartels.
When YOU do business with the Banks; You are effectively aiding and abetting Terrorist Organizations and Drug Cartels.
When the US Government backstops and bails out these Banks it is effectively aiding and abetting Terrorist Organizations and Drug Cartels.
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DIONYSUS: " Thou hast no knowledge of the life thou art leading; thy very existence is now a mystery to thee. " -from 'The Bacchantes' By Euripides “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” -George Orwell
Went to heaven with the Dodo bird. Have we improved since this post by Karl Denninger nearly 3 years ago? IMO the venality and debauchery of the planets human inhabitants accelerates like the worldwide debt ponzi. As KD has pointed out you just can't ask the bad folks to please be nice. Rob a bank, rob the middle class and pay a fine of 10% of the loot, and admit no wrong doing. <sarc on>This is the most profitable business plan ever known, and then spin it as G_d's work by the masters of the universe. <sarc off> Meh!!!
Quote:
Perhaps its time.
There have been a number of people on the forum talking about this, with one of the most recent converts being "iflyjetzzz".
Look, we can rant and rave about market manipulation and government-sponsored games. We can petition the SEC, the FBI and Congress. We can demand that they stop it all we want.
But they haven't and likely won't until and unless America gets*****ed off enough to force them to act.
So how do we make that happen, yet remain within the law?
Its not that hard, and in the intermediate and longer-term it would be incredibly positive for our economy and nation.
We go on a consumption strike until and unless our demands are met.
What are our demands? Here's the list:---
Any points on the list accomplished? Spot on for your poignant work KD. Worth a reread.
"---Gene Sharp is no Che Guevara but he may have had more influence than any other political theorist of his generation.
His central message is that the power of dictatorships comes from the willing obedience of the people they govern - and that if the people can develop techniques of withholding their consent, a regime will crumble.
For decades now, people living under authoritarian regimes have made a pilgrimage to Gene Sharp for advice. His writing has helped millions of people around the world achieve their freedom without violence. "As soon as you choose to fight with violence you're choosing to fight against your opponents best weapons and you have to be smarter than that," he insists.---"
USA an authoritarian regime---a dictatorship? Certainly not to the banksters and their lackeys.
I write this viewing the world from inside a bottle of JW Black. Drunk is good. Reality fades. Denial is psychotropic. Running away is not an alternative.
Meter barely budging.
Best to all.
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"---the politicians---they think the laws of mathematics are suggestions." K. Denninger
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand exponential function." Al Bartlett
moving $378.4 billion into dollar-based accounts from Mexican casas de cambio, which are currency exchange firms.
If any us should deposit $10,001 into our accounts we will have Homeland Security checking every aspect of our lives. On the other hand we now know why the banks were so desperate to get bailed out.
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you're good at stealing and you're good at lying now lets see how good you're at flying... jump you ****ers....Gene Burnett
I don't know how you continue this fight, Karl. I am and always will be grateful for the continued spotlight, but I'm slowly beginning to feel resigned. I never used to understand those people who went off the grid, but I'm starting to get it.
Jonathanr
Posts: 3168
Incept: 2008-05-16
Melbourne, Australia
Banned
Quote:
This snippet:
"---Gene Sharp is no Che Guevara but he may have had more influence than any other political theorist of his generation.
His central message is that the power of dictatorships comes from the willing obedience of the people they govern - and that if the people can develop techniques of withholding their consent, a regime will crumble.
For decades now, people living under authoritarian regimes have made a pilgrimage to Gene Sharp for advice. His writing has helped millions of people around the world achieve their freedom without violence. "As soon as you choose to fight with violence you're choosing to fight against your opponents best weapons and you have to be smarter than that," he insists.---"
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Why do you complain? It's the criminals who decide how proceeds of crime are spent, not the victims.
Mortgageguymn
Posts: 1566
Incept: 2009-03-09
North Coast
What the hell is this deferred prosecution boundary? Same as statute of limitations? One year? It's hard to believe htey couldn't still prosecute people (if they wanted to).
String em up. Wells Fargo deserves to fall to the government takeover of banking because they're #5 (next on the list), and we now have proof that they were involved in the nefarious practice of...money orders?
Ah well we all know we're not gonna do anything about it. Even Karl who is possibly the most informed human on the planet doesn't yet have a literal pitchfork in his hand.. Every man is corrupt, though there is always a breaking point. We've all been taking bribes in the form of false prosperity since the 80s that Karl accurately says we haven't actually grown since. If ignorance is no excuse we are all implicated.
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Fear of govt IS the government.. Statism is a pack of unbacked threats; If govt gets out of control, ignore it and go about life as you see fit. Where's your crown, King Nothing?
Only freelancers, independents, get prosecuted and have their access to money laundering denied (though their products and profits still end up going along the Crystal Road).
Journalists know far more than this, but won't print (not that they can even get such stuff printed), or their access to work, being able to pay their bills, or even being able to continue being alive, are at serious risk.
Sit in with journalists talking amongst themselves, and ones jaw might rapidly hit the floor.
And Bezz, you are still wrong. You still don't understand the difference between "The Divine Right of Kings" and "If the Law makes the King, then the King is subject to the Law" (not surprising, as most Americans seem to think British "subject" is somehow related to being forelock tugging feudal serfs).
We are right back at "The Divine Right of Kings", and as always, it's "The Divine Right of Tyrants, Thugs, and Criminals". Not just assuming to be above the Law, but assuming to be THE Law.
This never ends well (for them).
"The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom." John Locke
You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. The truth will always out.
It's only ever a question of time, and logical consequences and inevitabilities are always utterly lost on those that are most utterly and insanely corrupt and criminal, those in positions where by default, they really should know much better.
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If the State was a Nanny, it would have been fired for incompetence, unreliability, and having its hands in the till, a very long time ago now.
We have ample evidence that the banks own the government (and not just ours). - your most recent post - the fact that the Democrats and Republicans are arguing over $31 billion in cuts while the deficit is many more times that - the Tea Party, it was bought! - bankers do not go to jail! - Angelo had to give up $25 million of his cash but got to keep over $400 million. - The C-level executives of all the guilty get bigger bonuses. - BP just gave their C level executive bonuses for outstanding safety performance. - GE pays no taxes. - Obama is sending us into our third Middle East War. - The stock market rises when almost all of the Middle East is rioting. - It took 60 minutes years to discover "robo signers". - Small banks fail and are bought by insolvent big banks. - Hundreds of just released .pdf files show that foreign banks were first in line at the Fed's discount window. - The Irish throw out one government and the new government licks the ECB's backside.
nice post, although i do disagree about the tea party. are there a few rotten eggs in there trying to gain something?-i am sure.
the MAJORITY of the tea party members just want smaller government, less spending, and some fiscal responsibility. they can't control everyone who latches on to them, nor can any other group open to membership.
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