Ian Narev, the CEO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the nation’s largest bank is set to step down amid money laundering charges.
Money laundering is big business in Australia because regulations do not cover lawyers, real estate agents, accountants, and CEOs ignoring warnings from police.
Despite the obvious problem, it’s cash itself that gets the blame.
There are several stories here buts let’s start with Australia’s Biggest Bank Says CEO Will Retire Amid Money-Laundering Scandal.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia Chief Executive Officer Ian Narev will step down by the end of June 2018 as the nation’s largest lender seeks to mitigate the fallout from a money-laundering scandal.
Pressure is building on Commonwealth Bank amid allegations by the nation’s financial crimes agency that drug syndicates used its network of deposit machines to launder cash, despite warnings from police. The nation’s securities regulator opened its own inquiry last week and the governor of the central bank called for accountability in the banking industry, which is beset by a string of scandals.
Narev, 50, has presided over a market-topping stock price since he took the helm at the start of December 2011. Last week, he delivered the lender’s eighth consecutive record profit.
His achievements have been overshadowed by the money-laundering allegations — the third major public-relations scandal he has faced as CEO. The bank has paid A$29 million ($23 million) in compensation to customers who were allegedly given poor financial advice, and has faced accusations it wrongly failed to honor insurance claims to sick clients.
The financial crime agency, Austrac, alleges that Commonwealth Bank failed to report either on time or at all suspicious transactions through its network of automated cash deposit machines totaling more than A$624 million, and it failed to monitor the activities of drug syndicates even after being alerted by police. The bank has blamed most of the breaches on a software coding error which has since been fixed.
The allegations are the latest in a series of scandals in Australia’s banking industry, ranging from giving poor advice to wealth-management customers to allegations the nation’s three other biggest banks manipulated a benchmark swap rate.
Moral of the Story
With share prices high after three scandals, the moral of the story must be CEO crimes pay. What other lesson could there possibly be?
Australia a ‘Place of Choice’ for Money Laundering
Please consider Australia a ‘place of choice’ for money laundering due to lack of regulation.
Australia’s hot property market is an attractive haven for criminals, with estimates that billions of dollars of dirty money is being laundered through residential property.
Australia’s anti-money laundering law does not cover real estate agents, lawyers and accountants, despite promises when the law was enacted in 2006 that the legislation would be widened.
ANZ’s head of financial crime, Guy Boyd, is scathing of the failure of subsequent governments to extend the legislation.
Australia’s housing market has been targeted by money launderers from countries including Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and China.
Let’s Blame Money Itself
Given than scandals provide perfect cover to place the blame on innocent people and innocent things, no one should be surprised by this outcome: CBA Scandal Blamed on ‘Outdated’ Banknotes.
The Commonwealth Bank money-laundering scandal has given ammunition to the anti-cash crusade, with one analyst asking whether “outdated” $100 and $50 notes are the “root of the problem”.
The nation’s largest bank is facing allegations of more than 53,000 breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, the majority relating to large cash deposits made at CommBank ATMs.
In a note earlier this month, UBS analyst Jonathan Mott said the CommBank scandal raised “four critical questions”.
“Is the root of the problem the outdated high denomination cash notes?” he wrote. “Should Australia move to phase out cash given its role in the black economy (including: proceeds of crime, money laundering, tax avoidance, welfare fraud)?”
Synopsis
- The CEO of CBA, Ian Narev, has been involved in three major scandals.
- Large, suspicious real estate transactions went through without a hitch.
- Large, repetitive, cash deposits at ATMs raised no red flags.
- Narev was warned by police that the ATMs were used for money laundering.
- The CBA ignored 53,000 breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.
- People are asking if the root of the problem is outdated high denomination cash notes.
War on Cash – How Twisted Minds Function
The Black Economy Taskforce’s final report is due in October. Gee, I can hardly wait.
Meanwhile, please consider War on Cash Proposals in Australia: Microchip Expiring $100 Bills, Forcing People to Keep Receipts
In an unrelated nonsensical idea from down under, also consider How Twisted Minds Function.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Let’s take a little freedom from everyone (to hold notes) but avoid taking every freedom from law breakers.
Same as in the GFC. Profits concentrated, losses shared.
System of law enforcement and sentencing is screwed.mLax sentencing for those committing crime partly facilitated by high denomination notes is more to blame than availability of high denomination notes, but rarely discussed.
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Yup! Never point the fingers at the real criminals and lax enforcement! Also put such instances not to correct the law but to abrogate power to oneself on the basis of common good (e.g. like the central banksters say if they had not siphoned off trillions of your money by screwing you on interest for a decade you all would have been on the streets).
It is time to take these guys on!
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If the news story details are accurate (the press has been known to misrepresent things…)
If the news story details are accurate, then the Royal Bank of Australia is party to the money laundering — either RBA employees are in on the money laundering, or else RBA’s policies are to willfully ignore it.
All G7 central banks have procedures to detect money laundering — many were in place before the 9/11 terrorism led to additional anti-money laundering regulations.
RBA wouldn’t necessarily know which specific accounts were involved, but they would know the branch and probably the ATM. The ATMs have transaction level logs and audit trails that could be subpoenad in routine regulatory actions.
The CEO would have been fired same day if the RBA could make a case without implicating themselves. So the CEO will resign next June 2018, almost a year from now.
Translation: If the CEO is guilty of neglect (not having procedures to detect the money laundering), then so are the Aussie regulators.
Do you seriously expect Aussie regulators to indict themselves?
Did you expect Congressman Barney Frank to indict himself over the FNMA collapse in the US? And how could the US government go after bank CEOs without also indicting Rep Frank (and many other Congress members)?
Yet there are very very slow people (who vote!) who believe more corrupt government regulators will stop corruption. DUH!!!
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They want to outlaw cash so that the banks can make a cut on every of your spendings and incomes.
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Yes, the alternative is worse, far, far worse. If they switch away from income based taxes to consumption based taxes, they can quit caring about this.
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Who does money laundering harm but the tax man.
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increasing numbers of australians are using debit cards which swipe terminals to complete transactions…even transactions lower than a dollar carry no fees…it’s too easy…slowly but surely cash transactions will be squeezed out..
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If cash is outlawed, then there will be no competition to debit cards, which can then charge ever-escalating fees with impunity. Free debit cards sound like an opening gambit to hook people.
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“Despite the obvious problem, it’s cash itself that gets the blame.”
Similarly, capitalism gets blamed too! When it should be blamed on the central banksters, politicians, government and lobbyists.
This is the nature of wilful blindness… never see the problem (government, politicians, inane policies, central banksters, promise the moon for votes and tax the living daylights out of common man, crooked corporate etc.). Just blame that which can be maligned easy with a plausible but not really true story, basically do a Goebbels! Long live Fake news!!
As far as money laundering is considered, if it is proved in Singapore the punishment is caning (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_in_Singapore#Offences_punishable_by_caning), whereas in the US, UK, Australia etc. it is the cost of doing business and you are let off with a slight tap on your corporate’s wrist and you can jump ship to a neighboring corporate (welcomed with open arms mind you – after all you bring in profits, ethics be damned).
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Interestingly, no surprise if intense short duration physical pain (canin) is more of a deterrent and punishment than a couple of years in the clink with shelter, food, drink, exercise and books.
Cheaper on the tax payer too.
We are animals, responding to pain and pleasure just as animals do.
Could televise the caning too or sell tickets.
If bullfighting is acceptable in places then why not caning miscreants?
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“Cheaper on the tax payer too.”
Yup.
“Could televise the caning too”
Helps being a deterrent too!
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Being a TV criminal could become a high-paying profession, for those who are good at it. If you are tough, why not make pain pay?
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the war on cash is just that. a war , not a mandate yet. I don’t think cash will totally disappear. they changed the C note here to make it controllable, other countries want to do the same. all the other hype is just that.
most americans use plastic now anyway. or their phones.
I would guess the underground economy might be the pillar that holds things up when a digital crash occurs. (I mean that to include anything not currency. )
if and when a financial crash occurs, tptb will have cash and none of us will, because they talked us out of having it.
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Something different about handing cash in payment then being given change, compared to swiping a card and the shop assistant being told by a screen that you paid. More than a tradition, it is a moment of contact, a bit like shaking hands, kids having their change counted on the counter for them when they buy sweets …. I digress.
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Cash? Grubby, unsafe, inconvenient physical fiat?
I am a citizen of the US and the only way I can use my Nation’s fiat is with grubby, unsafe, inconvenient physical fiat?! While the banks, credit unions, etc. have inherently risk-free, convenient checking accounts at the central bank itself? What ever happened to equal protection under the law?
Give me a checking account at the central bank itself and a couple (in case one fails) debit cards accessing it, a few checks and deposit slips and, except for petty amounts and a few hundred dollars for just in case, I don’t need any cash.
And, since checking accounts at the central bank are inherently risk-free, we can then abolish government-provided deposit insurance and all other privileges for the banks too.
Then who does need large amounts of cash besides criminals? The banks do, in case they are ever charged interest (i.e. negative interest) LIKE THEY SHOULD BE* for their checking accounts at the central bank, then they can evade that negative interest with vault cash.
*Being risk-free, no sovereign debt should yield more than 0% to avoid welfare proportional to account balance. And that’s for the longest maturity sovereign debt (e.g. 30 yr. US Treasury Bonds); shorter maturities should yield even less, i.e. negative yields, with account balances at the central bank costing the most, i.e. most negative interest. That said, individual citizen accounts at the central bank should be exempt from negative interest up to, say, $250,000.
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Yet the governor of the Australian Reserve Bank is on record as saying that for practical reasons the cash economy in Australia cannot be curtailed.
Secondly. Australian 100 dollar notes abound in Asia. One reason : US notes are too easily counterfeited. There are cities where U.S. dollar notes are not accepted at banks or money changers – plenty of Aussie dollars.
The Reserve bank governor admitted that there was a large percentage of $100.00 notes abroad.
Many retailers still charge to use credit debit cards. One restaurant I went to last week charges 30 cents for a debit card using a PIN or $1.00 using a paywave card.
Next. If you do a bank transaction for $10,000 cash then the bank is obligated to notify a relevant government department you have done so. If you do 5 transactions of $9,999.00 there is no reporting obligation.
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YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!! If you do 5 transactions of $9999 they will charge you with financial structuring after the bank files its Suspicious Activity Report with AUSTRAC. Expect the money to be seized and for you to be convicted and fined.
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In the US, doing the 5 transactions you describe above is called “structuring” and is illegal. All banks must report multiple deposit transactions within a 24 hour period that exceed $10,000.
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The Aussies are learning a lot from American politicians. Fabricate a crisis and then step in to manage it.
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This story is confusing… CBA is accused of “money laundering” because they either failed to report, or failed to report “on time”, cash transactions going through ATMs.
But ATM cash is almost always handled by armored car companies (not really the bank that owns the ATM)… and the cash goes either the armored car company’s handling facility (for remote areas) or directly to the nearest central bank branch (where old bills get replaced with crisp new ones etc).
That is the case in the US and Europe, and presumably in Aussieland too? Any Aussie bankers (not general public) that know for certain?
The RBA had to be “in on it” for this type of laundering to work — either there was an inside man at the RBA, or the RBA was willfully asleep at the switch. Anyway one looks at it, RBA was involved — laundering cash through the royal bank isn’t possible unless the RBA was in on it.
That is probably why the CEO of Commonwealth is being “fired” (in the newspapers but not really)… he is going to step down a year from now in June 2018. Obviously the Royal Bank of Australia doesn’t want a scene where people start asking questions about the RBA’s involvement (whether it was deliberate or neglect).
The US Congress talks a big game about eliminating cash, but its how they (and their campaigns) get most of their … ummm lets call it “slush funds”. If Congress clamps down on the bad guys, they clamp down on themselves at the same time. When a Congress member (or Secret Service) wants some hookers and blow, the hookers and drug dealers don’t take american express. Paying off informants with dirt on the competition, paying off witnesses who saw something … The US Congress simply cannot operate without lots of anonymous cash.
The war on cash is exactly like the war on drugs and the war on poverty and the war on terrorism. Selectively enforced because these wars are 100% for show.
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Guessing :
Only the CBA has access to details of ATM accounts, i.e. that any particular person is entering large amounts of cash.
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The central bank doesn’t need to know account specifics to know there is abnormal activity going on. A very simple and routine regulatory inquiry could get the account specifics.
There is transaction level detail on EVERY ATM machine — which would give even more alerts to the central bank.
Again, the RBA is either in on the money laundering, or else they are deliberately not looking (or the “news” story is poorly researched / wrong, which is definitely a likely scenario)
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You may well be right, so far all I have found is:
The way it is presented is that financial monitor Austrac relies on signalling of activity by the bank itself
http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/banking/commonwealth-bank-accused-of-53000-contraventions-of-money-laundering-laws/news-story/83b64e7014510e5695dca4228f5ca776
So will have to look if there exist “covert” means that RBA monitors activity, and I expect there are… the difference between open legal framework and responsibilities/corruption/leverage in an non-official but of office, shadow entity.
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2015 “They tell us the poor monitoring conducted by some of the RBA’s employees of banks such as Macquarie, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and NAB has upset the most powerful organisation in the financial markets.” …. though not sure if that is right-RBA blaming own employees?
https://www.crikey.com.au/2015/03/26/rba-on-australian-banks-dont-trust-em/
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Whenever the regulators complain that mobsters didn’t report their crimes and turn themselves in, you have to ask what the point of the regulators is.
RBA should have been all over this within 1-2 business days, even if CBA failed to report as the news story claims. If RBA didn’t see a problem, its because they didn’t want to (either RBA employees were in on it, or RBA policy was to deliberately look the other way).
The RBA has no legal case (or no case that wouldn’t embarrass the RBA and Aussie regulators). If they could make a case without implicating themselves, the CEO would have been out the same day — not a year from now.
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Which would sort of explain how financial authority, hence finance and politics, is how it is in many countries .
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Fight cash with cash – buy junk silver!
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Based on my own observations, most young people use primarily digital payments; debit, credit, smartphone because they find it convenient. They rarely carry cash, and abhor writing a cheque (or check, for you Americans). Most people who are primarily using cash are in the underground economy, criminals, homeless, paranoid, or just very old.
Cash will slowly disappear on its own.
Governments will want to speed this up to help combat crime, terrorism, tax evasion, etc. I’m not saying I agree; I’m just saying they won’t be able to resist.
Your paper currency, gold and silver coins etc. won’t help you much if they are all banned.
That’s why crypto currencies are becoming popular among those who want to keep transactions private/anonymous. They are another alternative for some who believe they protect them better than physical currency.
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“young people” use debit and credit cards because daddy won’t give them cash, and they don’t have a job of their own (or they have a menial job that doesn’t pay enough) and they live in their parent’s basement.
“young people” in G7 countries that went to daycare camp (formerly known as universities) were indoctrinated to think school administrators and helicopter moms are the norm. Most are still buried in daycare debt (student loans is inaccurate) decades after alleged graduation. These “young people” are essentially cult members trained to obey — even with a concerted effort, it would take decades to deprogram them from cult thinking.
The typical house cat or pet dog has 1000x the independence that millennials have — even though I am sure the millennials will argue about this. Millennials are not free, not independent, and basically not much elevated from slaves. They think and do what they are told, they have been trained since birth to believe they have no privacy; they are property of the university and/or the state.
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As usual, Medex, you have blinders on, spouting your personal tired, old American story of hate and bigotry. I was referring to young people everywhere in the world. The article was pertaining to Australia. Everywhere I have been in Asia recently (including Australia and China) young people are using their phones to tap and pay. Most other adults are using plastic, except for the aged.
The only cult I see is the one that you belong to. The one that wears their pants up to their armpits and complains about everything full time. Very sad. Why don’t you back away from your computer, venture out of your basement and try making the world a better place, instead of sitting in the shadows and spitting out your useless tripe.
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So presumably this freed melee of people, if not actually calling for, are happy with the idea of, banning physical payments ?
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Err yeah, only straight societies use cash, the rest… serves ’em right for being terroristic criminal money launderers:
http://www.pymnts.com/cash/2017/swiss-buck-the-trend-embrace-their-cash/
https://www.german-way.com/germanys-cash-culture-geld-stinkt-nicht/
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@chrysangle — I think the whole blog, not just the comment section, would benefit if we all start ignoring @realist. There is no upside to arguing with an extremist
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I think some comments deserve to be argued, as long as anyone tolerates that and it stays somewhat succinct and to the point – that leaves something of a discussion for other readers to think about. Sometimes people have strong feelings and…well popcorn time.
Anyone is free to tune out anyone, I think comments works better without organised whatever – else am not saying what I think but group meme.
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Criminals can still pass around goods, favours and certificate of titles.
Lets go communist, outlaw all private possessions, everyone is given some kind of ration cards. In this way, no organized crime can exist!
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Organized crime in the Soviet Union was rampant
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Think of other things to ban ! Freedom of movement? Freedom of assembling? Banning is free to the gov. Keep banning until you get the results !
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Yes, let’s ban!
“Vote Demorestrict, we ban so you can”
(Disclaimer : I worry about myself when I start thinking like politicians)
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I know you are being sarcastic, but there are many places in the world that are (or have recently been) under “permanent” martial law (officially the martial laws are labeled “temporary” until order is restored, but that “temporary” period lasts decades).
Northern Ireland, part of “civilized” England, was under “temporary” martial law for how many decades? Israel is just one really long martial law period, even if officially there were temporary periods of rest/peace. Not saying either case was/is unjustified, just saying organized crime and violence groups thrived under both police states.
USSR had plenty of organized crime. Nations all over Africa and South America have defacto police states and loads of crime and violence.
And Bernie Sander’s wet dream, Venezuela, is a dictatorship where a horrid socialist government guns down the proletariat that socialism supposedly represents.
Concentrated power leads to concentrated corruption. Always has, always will.
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They’ll just use crypto currencies. And as the tyrants’ grip weakens, making them increasingly desperate, they’ll work ever harder at making sure more and more of their underlings are “criminals.” Whose rights it is then somehow OK to disregard. Like what happened in Venezuela. And America. Hence, more and more people will be using crypto currencies.
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If they also censor the internet then any crypto currency is also useless !
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It’s almost entirely uncensorable by now. Short of burning the whole planet to the ground in a nuclear armageddon, at least. The protocols, network bandwidth and latencies under which crypto currencies could still function, is such a tiny fraction of what we have today, that you could almost keep it running with no other available medium than smoke signals. A mesh network of short range cell phone radios, is plenty; if the need is there.
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“A mess network of short range cell phone radio” is a good idea for networking. They can operate like HAM radio to transmit messages under the LAN like protocol. However even those projects for emergency use are to be slaughtered by Mobile Networks as they eat into their revenues. The states may also outlaw the possession of any unregistered transceivers which include smart phones.
The last line is Power comes from the barrels of the guns. If you are not allowed to keep your guns you will slowly but surely lose everything, including your children!
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I hear you. If the entire radio spectrum gets silenced at point of a gun, a packet network gets much harder to operate. But the entire country, including the military, will then be in a state less advanced than even North Korea. At which point you’d hope even a population as hopelessly indoctrinated as the current US one, would realize Somalia is actually a much freer and better ran country, than what America has been for several decades by now. And act accordingly.
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“The bank has blamed most of the breaches on a software coding error”
There it is, another huge mistake caused by a computer error; so, nobody’s fault.
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The invisible finger of a free market.
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Why does money have serial numbers? Use that number to track cash deposits and with drawals.
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“Money Laundering Scandal at Australia’s Largest Bank Triggers Another Call for Ban of Cash”
The public is not calling for a ban on cash. Those calling for a ban on cash, have an ulterior motive, which has nothing to do with money laundering.
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One day not in our lifetimes, all currencies in developed nations will be digital. However no one ever thinks what happens when the electricity goes out. Then money disappears and commerce stops.
I was in hurricane Hugo years ago. We lost power for six days. The grocery store had food but could not open because their registers did not work. Now imagine power out for six months…..chaos. Smart people will keep some money at home for such emergencies.
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I understand your point and agree with you. However, physical cash won’t help much if it is banned and confiscated. You will have to hope that it is still acceptable to some.
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Instead of fixing the money laundering problems with legislation they’ll use it to confiscate cash from the ordinary man and woman.
Just like they’ll use events in Charlottesville to eventually erode our First Amendment rights.
US banks individually laundered hundreds of billions of dollars for the international drug cartel – and were found to be criminally liable in civil courts – yet not one banker was criminally prosecuted or sent to prison. ha.
Not one public protest over that!
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The initial protest march in Charlottesville — against the safe space nutjobs at UVa trying to rewrite history — had a public permit and police protection, as it should be.
The civil war is part of US history, even if it offends the academic terrorists. Starting with Lincoln, every single US President has gone and paid respects to confederate soldiers who are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Even Obama paid his respects to Confederate soldiers buried there. Presumably Obama was not endorsing slavery, presumably Obama was following historical tradition started by Lincoln to mend hearts and minds, bring the country back together, etc.
The UVa faculty attempting to rewrite and sanitize history are wrong, and deserve to be labeled intolerant. Same problem that exists at Berkley, Evergreen State, U Missouri and countless other daycare camps that are mislabeled universities.
The violence started because George Soros bussed in lots of violent antifa SJW’s. He has gotten away with this man times before, not just Berkley. Its why Soros is banned from many countries — he is a financial sponsor of terrorism.
Once a legal precedent is set (even if set by neglect or because the sponsor bribes legislators), violent protest becomes the accepted norm.
Once Soros’ violent agitators were legally allowed to beat up and intimidate everyone they disagree with, everyone is legally allowed to do it. That doesn’t make it right, it only makes it legal.
The poor police (including the two killed in a helicopter crash) are trained and equipped to deal with “regular protesters”, not with organized terrorist groups like the ones Soros bussed in.
The US civil war happened, even if that fact offends academia. Robert Lee was a highly decorated and respected general on both sides of the war — he was a US general before the civil war, later a confederate general, and was respected by both sides even by those who disagreed with him.
The nutcases at UVa who want to deny history are in the wrong.
But the violence happened because Soros bussed in terrorist groups like Open Society. And since he got away with this before, it “legally” allowed other terrorist groups (skinheads and such) to do the same things Soros is doing.
As long as Soros is allowed to use violence to advance his politics, the US government will have an impossible time preventing other groups from doing the same. That doesn’t make the other groups “right”, it just means selective enforcement is destined to fail.
Hopefully the students at UVa will recognize how out of touch their faculty are. The civil war happened, and so did all the efforts to re-unify the country afterwards.
Hopefully, financial sponsors of terrorism like Soros will be banned. He is already banned from many other countries, and its overdue for the US government to arrest him.
The skinheads and other crazies were on their way out. Lets ban Soros’ groups before they burn the whole country down.
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By the way, the US Constitution recognizes that all men (and women) are endowed by their creator (not by the supreme court or congress) with certain inalienable rights, including the right to free speech.
Free speech means we can talk about the US civil war, and the safe space academics have no legal right to stop us. It also means the academics have the right to deny the civil war happened, even if that makes most people think the PhDs are intolerant and miseducated.
Free speech does not cover terrorist groups like Soros/Open Society, or terrorist groups like the skinheads, from using violence to force their warped opinions on everyone else.
Free speech also does not protect the UVa faculty from efforts to censor debate about the civil war — even if they get “offended” by those debates.
Its sad how many college graduates were indoctrinated in lunatic politics instead of actually studying the historical events that led to the Bill of Rights, and led to US Presidents (including a black President) paying respects to confederate soldiers.
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Funny we didn’t see this same outcry against the BLM people who were largely responsible for outbreaks of violence over false narratives like we saw in Ferguson, Mo.
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Everywhere I travel (and I seem to spend way too much time on planes lately) — I see vast differences between what the media gets excited about, versus what the average American is talking about. Not sure the void between media publishers and media consumers has ever been wider.
The media pushed BLM. The public was more “all lives matter”
In the end, thousands of people cut out cable TV and newspaper subscriptions. Its not just the cost, its also the low quality of content
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Count me in those thousands of people.
And I’ve never missed either.
In fact, I asked myself why I was so stupid to subscribe to their services in the first place.
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“Never let a good crisis go to waste.” — Rahm Emanuel
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I wouldn’t hold your breath expecting 50 and 100 dollar notes to disappear down under. Lots of people use fifties still on a daily basis and people keeping some cash on hand would be using hundreds. I’d be a prime example of both.
Take several hundred out of the bank and you will get fifties as the default offering.
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“A mess network of short range cell phone radio” is a good idea for networking. They can operate like HAM radio to transmit messages under the LAN like protocol. However even those projects for emergency use are to be slaughtered by Mobile Networks as they eat into their revenues. The states may also outlaw the possession of any unregistered transceivers which include smart phones.
The last line is Power comes from the barrels of the guns. If you are not allowed to keep your guns you will slowly but surely lose everything, including your children!
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This was wrongly posred here. Please ignore.
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“Money laundering” fines are a money extraction racket, state-sponsored bank robbery to supplement tax revenues. Bank customers will eventually reimburse the bank in various ways (e.g. fees, bail-ins) for whatever the government withdraws in fines. Thus, bank fines will function as indirect taxes on customers. A great system, make no deposits and get large withdrawals.
Why target banks? That is where the money resides, and banks are lucrative to go after. For example, the $8 billion USA.gov Deutsche Bank fine, which was recouped by selling $8 billion in stock and diluting shareholders. Money is best in its thousands of years old neutral role as a medium of exchange free of moral values (neither clean nor dirty, albeit often debased). Governments could go after crime directly, but that would be hard work and not yield as much as just withdrawing large sums from banks in the guise of fines. No doubt reason USA Congress keeps passing legislation to make new bank crimes (like lending money to Russian energy companies). Being a government is like being the mafia without breaking any laws, because you are the law. What a racket.
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The real reason for eliminating money is the fees that the banksters can charge for using your own money. So think about giving a banker 1 or 2% of your paycheck each month for the privilege of spending your own money. And do not forget the scammers. If they steal all of your cash electronically who gives it back to you? Can you even get it back?
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