Good point---"follow the money." This sleeper scandal came to mind when I read your post.
How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs [April 2011]
Wachovia Drug Money Laundering
The first link is from the Guardian. To my knowledge it was the most indepth article published.
A review of some of the facts [The entire article should be read]:
"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."
Criminal proceedings were brought against Wachovia, though not against any specific individual.
The case never came to court.
In March 2010, Wachovia settled the biggest action to date brought under the US bank secrecy act.
Wachovia paid $110m in forfeiture, and a $50m fine.
"Wachovia was sanctioned for failing to apply the proper anti-laundering strictures to the transfer of $378.4bn [between May 2004-May 2007]– a sum equivalent to one-third of Mexico's gross national product – into dollar accounts from so-called casas de cambio (CDCs) in Mexico, currency exchange houses with which the bank did business."
Wachovia's total fine was less than 2% of the bank's $12.3bn profit for 2009.
"At the height of the 2008 banking crisis, Antonio Maria Costa, then head of the United Nations office on drugs and crime, said he had evidence to suggest the proceeds from drugs and crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to banks on the brink of collapse. "Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade," he said. "There were signs that some banks were rescued that way.""
[Note to Hoosiermama: If the above paragraph is true, How could anyone follow THIS money trail?] The only entity with the means to do so is the government, and they don't have the will (foremost, because it would require the government to indict itself)---except in selected cases, like Wachovia, where punishing the crime became self-serving to the government.
The Guardian article was written with the assistance of Martin Woods (one of the most important whistleblowers of our time.") If for no other interest, the article is worth a read to hear his story. I barely touched the highlights---and perhaps not even the most important ones.
Martin Woods: "Is it in the interest of the American people to encourage both the drug cartels and the banks in this way? Is it in the interest of the Mexican people? It's simple: if you don't see the correlation between the money laundering by banks and the 30,000 people killed in Mexico, you're missing the point."
One last note: The article suggests that the settlement doesn't preclude additional liability on the specifics of this case---which just tells me that the government has a powerful inducement for Wachovia (purchased by Wells Fargo) to play ball.
IMO Off shore banking in the Caribbean should be monitored. Any/all transfer of funds in any amount from one of these banks to any on shore immediately noted and followed.
...and my reply (post 141)
Your comment reminded me of this quote by the whistleblower Martin Woods in the article in post 126. I don't think I quoted it in #126. I should have. Woods has extensive knowledge about operations in London:
"New York and London," says Woods, "have become the world's two biggest laundries of criminal and drug money, and offshore tax havens. Not the Cayman Islands, not the Isle of Man or Jersey. The big laundering is right through the City of London and Wall Street.
How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs
THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about!!!
Thank you for saving this. And this is STILL ONLY the tip of the iceberg.
I gotta go bsck over the last three matrix threads and pull the banking stuff, the gold securities that went missing, the shariah banking stuff, and the fake gold bullion stuff. These bastiches looted the whole world and moved dirty money from bank to bank, country to country, IMF and World Bank as well.
Anybody wonder why i-bama didn’t want the sanctions on iran to interfere with their central bank?
Plus they have been moving drugs and weapons, not to mention slavery, porn, gambling.
This is gonna be a heck of thread.