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anybody revealing why these banks would so readily lend funds sums at stake, banks and the financial community are, de facto, that amounted to a cool US$1.4 billion to a small bank with an _ laundering dirty money. insignificant net worth. Seeking to clarify this point, I asked the Operating within the CIA is a smal] team known as the "Fifth Bank of England to name which banks provided funds to the Column". Staffed by experienced computer-hackers using a Cray group and whether they formed a formal or informal syndicate. I supercomputer, this group tracks dirty money accumulated in was politely told that "we don't have secret offshore bank accounts by this information, but if we do it’s con- f : 1 “scores of high-level US political fidential and not available". A curi- It's not their money they re figures".” Once the funds are ous answer indeed. Meanwhile, the playing with. It's yours and mine. tracked and the secret authorisation only casualty besides, of course, the code located, the money is electron- bank's shareholders—who, with Ifa bank goes belly-up, culpable ically swept up and deposited in the unspeakably poor grace, continue to a ACUTE idei “ot US Treasury. Intelligence sources grumble about their missing US$160 bank executives slide into other estimate that in excess of US$2 bil- million—is Leeson. Found guilty and cushy jobs with other banks or lion has been gathered in this man- given a six-and-a-half-year sentence, disappear down the sunset trail ner, and none of the now-poorer he now resides in Singapore's Changi sf : : : high-profile figures is contemplat- prison. Some believe he joins toting a swag-bag of ‘lost loot— ing lodging complaints. Illegal? sometimes both. Daiwa's Iguchi as a scapegoat, You betcha it is, but no more than demonstrating that when the bucks go any one of a dozen other operations down in the ‘connected’ world of high that have previously come to light. finance, those who have most to gain, do A great many more bank scandals not.?! can be expected in the coming years. Why this should be so is simple. It's not their money they're playing with. It's yours and MORE MONEY SPENT ON DOPE THAN FOOD mine. If a bank goes belly-up, culpable bank executives slide into The sheer volume of money skating around the world's financial other cushy jobs with other banks or disappear down the sunset markets is staggering, and a huge proportion of it is illegal. Of a _ trail toting a swag-bag of ‘lost’ loot—sometimes both. Simply massive US$6 trillion that annually circulates the globe, one quar- _ stated, high finance is a ‘connected’ world where presidents touch ter—US$1.5 trillion—is illicit, and a third of this, US$500 billion, | shoulders with mobsters, bankers shake hands with Masons, regu- is narcodollars. US$200 billion worth of narcotics are shipped to _lators buckle under political pressure, law enforcement protects the US annually, roughly one third of the total annual import bill. crime, the CIA ‘does its thing’, and fortunes can be and are won. Random forensic testing throughout the US reveals that virtually Bankers say of themselves that theirs is a "prudent" profession. every single banknote contains microscopic traces of cocaine. In the last analysis, this is true. Nothing can be more prudent than Globally, more money is spent on dope than on food.” With these playing with and losing other people's money. °° MORE MONEY SPENT ON DOPE THAN FOOD The sheer volume of money skating around the world's financial markets is staggering, and a huge proportion of it is illegal. Of a massive US$6 trillion that annually circulates the globe, one quar- ter—US$1.5 trillion—is illicit, and a third of this, US$500 billion, is narcodollars. US$200 billion worth of narcotics are shipped to the US annually, roughly one third of the total annual import bill. Random forensic testing throughout the US reveals that virtually every single banknote contains microscopic traces of cocaine. Globally, more money is spent on dope than on food.” With these Endnotes: Obviously the creditors are left picking up the tab. 14. Loftus, John, The Belarus Secret, Paragon House, 1989. Casey, an-old OSS warrior, saw no shame. in using Nazi war criminals—many of them gutity of the most horrendous crimes against 1, Following the Barings debacle, the Bank of England’has told me that it will resist tougher reg- ulation—fearing that this will drive financial institutions to less-regulated centres. (Phone con- Bree St ‘ : versation with this writer, December 1995.) humanity—in his fervent anti-Communism. This 2. Sterling, Claire, Cr iout Frontiers, i¢® permeated the thinking of many of the old Lite Brows, London. 1008 NM Frontiers. Cola Warriors in the CIA and elsewhere. ‘The 3. Sterling, Claire, op. cit., p.23. See also p. 111, Story of former Nazis connected to the P2, Banco citing the Yakuza’s near-miss attempt to take cor- Ambrosiano and BNL affairs remains largely trol of Parisbas, a leading French bank. untold. ee . : ‘ 4, Kochan & Whittington, Bankrupt: the BCCI 15. The BNL affair is covered in Alan Friedman's J Fraud, Victor Gollancz, London, 1991, p:%6. Spider's Web (Faber & Faber, London, 1993), 5. Sir Kit McMahon, former Chairman of 16. Op.cit.,p.85. : Midland Bank Group Ple, stated during a British 17. Kochan & Whitington, op. cit., p. 14. See TV programme, broadcast in Autumn 1995, that also Adams and Frantz, A Full Service Bank banking is a “confidence trick” (Simon & Schuster, London, 1991), on the BCC] 6. Robinson, Jeffrey, The Laundrymen, Simon & — affair. @ us Schuster, London, 1994, p. 266. 18. Kochan & Whittington, ibid. 7. Op. cit., p. 272. 19. Op. cit., p. 130. 8, Sterling, Claire, op. cit., p. 203 20. A finding of the Singapore Report, authored: 9. Op. cit., pp. 63-64. by Price Waterhouse, Singapore, on behalf of the | 10. Brewton, Pete, The Mafia, CIA & George Minister of Finance. Bush—the untold story of America's greatest 21. Leeson and Iguchi are obviously culpable, (financial debacle, SP1 Books, New York, 1992. but the point is that they did not act alone; This is ll. Fora brief synopsis on Bush's secret back- the view of this writer, based on many years’ ground, see Mark Lane's Piausible Denial (Plexus experience working in international banking. In Publishing, London, 1992, pp. 330-333). Leeson's case, the authors of the official 12, Chapter 21 of Pete Brewton’s book deals with | Singapore Report make it clear that they share this case in some detail (see Endnote 10). this view. 13. “Burnout” is a mob scam where they acquire 22. Robinson, Jeffrey, op. cit., p. 173. a failing company, boost its borrowing, strip its 23. “Fostergate", Unclassified, No. 34, Fall 1995, assets and then piace it into voluntary liquidation. _pp. 6-9. : About the Author: David Guyatt was born and educated in Hampshire, England. His career in the stockbroking, investment and banking industries has spanned 28 years, the last 12 of which he spent as a director and treasur- er of a major British bank. There he gained insight into the world of interna- tional weapons financing and was familiar with all aspects of international capital, foreign exchange and money markets, with global trade finance his specialisation. For the last five years, David has pursued a career as a freelance writer/researcher, writing or contributing to a number of screenplays, novels, documentaries and feature articles. He is currently research- ing high-tech, anti-personnel, electromag- netic weapons systems and their focus within 'black’ mind-control/behaviour- modification programmes in the military and intelligence communities. His other in-depth research project at present centres on the structure, power and hidden influence of elitist groups and inter- linking tax-exempt foundations, including RIIA (Chatham House), Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateralists, Bilderbergers, the shadowy "Le Cercle", the Rockefellers, Brothers Fund, Ford, Carnegie, Hoover, IMF, World Bank (ad nauseum)... 26 « NEXUS JUNE-JULY 1996