Pankit ja eliitti - joka päivä niin kiireisiä

[38911 BASIC BYTES FREE]

Aina kun näitä rahanpesukuvioita lukee niin yhä enemmän itkettää/naurattaa kun pankki sitten tentaa meikäläistä 35 tonnin remppalainan yhteydessä että olenko poliittisisesti vaikutusvaltainen ja mistä lähteestä rahani ovat peräisin

Täähän on semmonen mikä on itse asiassa pankkilainsäädännöstä peräisin, eli pankeilla on velvollisuus tivata tämmösiä. Sit jos on kyse tarpeeksi isoista rahoista niin varmaan järjestelyjä löytyy siihen miten tämmöset ikävät kysymykset vältetään.

[fanaattinen vaaliharrastaja]

Aina kun näitä rahanpesukuvioita lukee niin yhä enemmän itkettää/naurattaa kun pankki sitten tentaa meikäläistä 35 tonnin remppalainan yhteydessä että olenko poliittisisesti vaikutusvaltainen ja mistä lähteestä rahani ovat peräisin

Täähän on semmonen mikä on itse asiassa pankkilainsäädännöstä peräisin, eli pankeilla on velvollisuus tivata tämmösiä. Sit jos on kyse tarpeeksi isoista rahoista niin varmaan järjestelyjä löytyy siihen miten tämmöset ikävät kysymykset vältetään.

Tiedän että se tulee laista, ja varmaan Rotenbergit ja Timtshenkot ja muutkin vastaavat voi vaan todeta että en ole vaikutusvaltainen ja tallettamani 500 miljoonaa ruplaa ovat palkkatuloa kahvilasta missä toimin baristana

[Lana Ctrl-Alt-Del Rey]

Aina kun näitä rahanpesukuvioita lukee niin yhä enemmän itkettää/naurattaa kun pankki sitten tentaa meikäläistä 35 tonnin remppalainan yhteydessä että olenko poliittisisesti vaikutusvaltainen ja mistä lähteestä rahani ovat peräisin

Täähän on semmonen mikä on itse asiassa pankkilainsäädännöstä peräisin, eli pankeilla on velvollisuus tivata tämmösiä. Sit jos on kyse tarpeeksi isoista rahoista niin varmaan järjestelyjä löytyy siihen miten tämmöset ikävät kysymykset vältetään.

Tiedän että se tulee laista, ja varmaan Rotenbergit ja Timtshenkot ja muutkin vastaavat voi vaan todeta että en ole vaikutusvaltainen ja tallettamani 500 miljoonaa ruplaa ovat palkkatuloa kahvilasta missä toimin baristana

No siis onhan se selvä, että jos jollain on valmiina selitykset rahanpesuepäilyille, niin se on rahanpesijällä. On yleensä varaakin palkata asiantuntija kertomaan se paras selitys.

[Hra Mezola]

Aina kun näitä rahanpesukuvioita lukee niin yhä enemmän itkettää/naurattaa kun pankki sitten tentaa meikäläistä 35 tonnin remppalainan yhteydessä että olenko poliittisisesti vaikutusvaltainen ja mistä lähteestä rahani ovat peräisin

Täähän on semmonen mikä on itse asiassa pankkilainsäädännöstä peräisin, eli pankeilla on velvollisuus tivata tämmösiä. Sit jos on kyse tarpeeksi isoista rahoista niin varmaan järjestelyjä löytyy siihen miten tämmöset ikävät kysymykset vältetään.

ja näin.
Paras henk.koht. kokemus oli kun kävin hakemassa hakiksen op:sta uudet tunnarilistat. Odotusaulassa nautintoainekonössööri käy posket lommollaan keskustelua siitä kuinka kohta on rahat tilillä ja kaupat ok, niin ettei kukaan voi olla kuulematta abaut kaikkia yksityiskohtia asian tiimoilta. Siitä sitten hetken kuluttua kutsutaan vierekkäisille kassoille allekirjoittanut ja konössööri. Setelinippu siirtyy tilille sen kummempia kyselemättä ja minulta tentataan poliittisia yhteyksiä jne. jotta saan ne uudet tunnarit hanskaan. Taisin hörähtää epäuskoisesti pariinkin kertaan.

[Pasi Fist]

Linkin takana kuvia:
https://www.hs.fi/talous/art-2000006224146.html

Suomalaiset opiskelijat osoittivat mieltään pankkeja vastaan Sveitsissä: Seurauksena maahan­tulokielto ja nimeäminen kansalliseksi uhaksi

Viranomaisten kovat otteet mielenosoittajia kohtaan ovat herättäneet huomiota Sveitsissä ja muualla Euroopassa. Heinäkuisen protestin kohteena olivat pankit, jotka rahoittavat ympäristöä pilaavia energiayrityksiä.

Kaksi suomalaista opiskelijaa on saanut vuoden pituisen maahantulokiellon Sveitsiin osoitettuaan mieltään sveitsiläispankkeja vastaan Baselissa.

Helsinkiläiset Teemu Vaarakallio ja Amos Wallgren ihmettelevät Sveitsin viranomaisten kovia otteita, joita he pitävät täysin ylimitoitettuina siihen nähden, että mielenosoitus oli rauhallinen ja väkivallaton.

Kumpikin arvelee, että mielenosoitus osui Sveitsin arkaan paikkaan kohdistuessaan maalle tärkeisiin pankkeihin. He arvelevat, että poliisin toimien ja mielenosoittajien kohtelun tarkoituksena on antaa varoittava esimerkki siitä, mitä tapahtuu, jos Sveitsin keskeistä elinkeinoa häiritään.

Tapaus on saanut runsaasti huomiota eurooppalaismedioissa ja herättänyt myös Sveitsissä kritiikkiä viranomaisten toimintaa kohtaan.

Mitä siis oikein tapahtui? Kuva tilanteesta syntyy suomalaiskaksikon kertomusten ja median uutisten perusteella.

Aikaisin maanantaiaamuna 8. heinäkuuta yhteensä noin kaksisataa mielenosoittajaa tukki kahden sveitsiläispankin sisäänkäynnit Zürichissä ja Baselissa.

Zürichissä valkoisiin kertakäyttöhaalareihin pukeutuneet mielenosoittajat kerääntyivät Credit Suissen pääkonttorin eteen Paradeplatzille. Baselissa kohteena oli suurpankki UBS ja sen toimistotalo Aeschenplatzilla.

Mielenosoitusten taustalla oli ilmastoaktiivien yhteenliittymä Collective Climate Justice, joka painottaa ilmaston lisäksi myös sosiaalista oikeudenmukaisuutta ja vastustaa kapitalismia. Se otti kohteekseen Sveitsin kaksi suurinta pankkia siksi, että ne rahoittavat yrityksiä, jotka ilmastoaktiivien mielestä osallistuvat ilmastonmuutoksen edistämiseen.

Tällaisia pankkien rahoituskohteita ovat muun muassa saksalainen energiayhtiö RWE ja yhdysvaltalaisen Dakota Access Pipeline -öljyputken taustalla olevat yhtiöt.

”Sveitsissä ei ole hiilikaivoksia eikä öljylähteitä, mutta tätä toimintaa rahoitetaan täältä”, Collective Climate Justicen tiedottaja Frida Kohlmann kertoi uutistoimisto Reutersille.

Zürichissä järjestettyyn mielenosoitukseen osallistui myös ympäristöjärjestö Greenpeace.

Mielenosoittajista suurin osa oli sveitsiläisiä, mutta etenkin Baselissa mukana oli muualta Euroopasta tulleita. Vaarakallion ja Wallgrenin lisäksi osallistujissa ei ollut muita suomalaisia.

Monikansallinen osallistujajoukko on tyypillistä: ympäristöliikkeet ovat globaaleja, ja tiedot tulossa olevista tapahtumista, aktioista, leviävät tehokkaasti.

Vaarakallio ja Wallgren kuulivat Sveitsin tulevasta aktiosta Saksassa, jossa he osallistuivat tuhansia mielenosoittajia keränneeseen Ende Gelände -tapahtumaan. Kesäkuun lopussa järjestetty Ende Gelände oli suunnattu kivi- ja ruskohiilen käyttöä vastaan.

Myös HS on kertonut laajasti Saksan ruskohiiliprotesteista: Täältä nousevat ilmaan Euroopan suurimmat hiilidioksidipäästöt – Saksan viherkäännöksen varjopuolet näkyvät valtavilla louhoksilla, jossa aktivistit istuvat hiilijunien raiteilla

Sveitsissä mielenosoittajat valmistautuivat pankkien sisääntulon saartamiseen yhteisellä leirillä. Vaarakallion mukaan leirit ovat tärkeitä, koska niillä käydään tarkasti läpi muun muassa se, miten on tarkoitus toimia, mitä lakeja mahdollisesti rikotaan ja mitkä ovat mielenosoittajien oikeudet.

Baselin mielenosoitus oli suomalaiskaksikon ja myös asiasta kertoneen sveitsiläismedian mukaan rauhallinen. Aktivistit tulivat maanantaiaamuna kello kuuden aikoihin istumaan UBS-pankin sisäänkäynnin eteen ja estivät työntekijöiden pääsyn rakennukseen. Paikalle tuotiin risuja ja hiiltä, jotka mielenosoittajat kasasivat ovien eteen.

”Tavoitteena oli häiritä UBS:n sijoitustoimintaa, kunnes he lopettavat investoinnit fossiiliseen energiaan”, Wallgren sanoo.

Tarkoitus oli istua pankin edessä pitkään. Vaarakalliolle ja Wallgrenille kerrottiin, että kaksi vuotta aiemmin Collective Climate Justice oli osoittanut mieltään Baselin öljysatamassa samalla taktiikalla eli estänyt sataman toiminnan. Tuolloin poliisi ei puuttunut tilanteeseen.

Nyt kävi toisin, ja reaktion jyrkkyys yllätti paikalliset järjestäjät. Poliisi oli aamusta asti seurannut tilannetta vierestä, mutta iltapäivällä kello 14 se päätti hajottaa mielenosoituksen ja otti mielenosoittajat kiinni.

”Olimme Teemun kanssa päättäneet, että emme kävele poliisiautoon omin jaloin”, Wallgren sanoo.

He eivät vastustelleet, mutta poliisi joutui kantamaan heidät ”mustaan maijaan” ja viemään edelleen poliisiasemalle.

Kaikkiaan 83 mielenosoittajaa otettiin kiinni, heistä 64 Zürichissä ja 19 Baselissa.

Mielenosoittajat olivat etukäteen olettaneet, että heitä syytettäisiin laittomasta alueella oleskelusta ja niskoittelusta. He varautuivat myös siihen, että jos kiinniottoja tulisi, he joutuisivat olemaan poliisiasemalla korkeintaan sen ajan, että henkilöllisyydet saataisiin varmennetuksi.

”Poliisiasemalla tilanne muuttui radikaalisti. Poliisi lakkasi ottamasta kokonaan kontaktia”, Vaarakallio kertoo.

Vaarakallion mielestä poliisi rikkoi useita pidätettyjen oikeuksia muun muassa niin, että kaikilta otettiin näytteet dna-profiilin tekemiseksi, myös tapahtumaan osallistuneilta alaikäisiltä.

Tästä on syntynyt jälkipolemiikkia myös Sveitsissä, jossa on ihmetelty poliisin intoa dna-näytteisiin.

Kiinniotetut olivat pitkiä aikoja ilman ruokaa, Vaarakalliokin 24 tuntia. Vaarakallio kertoo olleensa ennen vapauttamista kaikkiaan viidessä eri sellissä yhteensä 47 tuntia. Wallgrenin kiinniottoaika oli hieman lyhyempi.

Kolmenkymmenen tunnin jälkeen Vaarakalliota oltiin siirtämässä poliisin ilmoituksen mukaan tutkintavankilaan, kun hän pyysi saada soittaa ja olla yhteydessä lakimieheen. Tähän ei suostuttu.

Wallgren ja Vaarakallio vapautettiin keskiviikkona 10. heinäkuuta. He kertovat saaneensa Sveitsin valtiolta päätöksen, että he ovat uhka kansalliselle turvallisuudelle ja Sveitsin kansainvälisille suhteille. Heidät karkotettiin Sveitsistä vuoden maahantulokiellon kera. Aikaa poistua maasta oli muutama tunti.

Tämän lisäksi kumpikin sai puolen vuoden ehdollisen vankeustuomion, joka tulee voimaan, jos he rikkovat Sveitsin lakia seuraavien kolmen vuoden aikana. Lisäksi he saivat sakot. Molemmat ovat valittaneet tuomiostaan.

Kaikkia mielenosoittajia syytetään yhteiskuntarauhan rikkomisesta ja omaisuuden turmelemisesta eli paljon vakavammista teoista kuin he etukäteen olivat olettaneet. Vaarakallion ja Wallgrenin mukaan mielenosoittajat eivät rikkoneet paikkoja, mutta ovelle kipattu hiilikuorma aiheutti sotkua.

Sveitsin suurlähetystö Suomessa sanoo mielipiteenvapauden olevan taattu Sveitsissä ja mielenosoitusten olevan yleisiä. Lähetystö ei ota kantaa suomalaisten kohteluun Baselissa. Sveitsi on liittovaltio, jossa jokaisella itsehallintoalueella eli kantonilla on oma perustuslaki ja omat poliisivoimat.

Vaarakallio sanoo uskovansa väkivallattomaan suoraan toimintaan ilmastonmuutoksen vastaisessa taistelussa. Kansalaistottelemattomuus 1960-luvun malliin kiehtoo ympäristöliikkeen nuorempaa sukupolvea.

”Kaikki muut asiat on tässä jo kokeiltu. On äänestetty vihreämpiä puolueita, on annettu markkinoille mahdollisuus ratkaista tämä, on uskottu teknologiaan, on luotettu parlamentaariseen väylään ja on kiinnitetty huomiota omaan kuluttamiseen. Mutta ilmaston lämpeneminen ei ole kääntynyt, eikä sitä ole edes hidastettu”, Vaarakallio sanoo.

Vaarakallion mukaan maailman poliittinen ja taloudellinen eliitti hyötyy nykytilanteesta. Siksi oli tärkeää mennä ongelman alkulähteille, rahan luokse.

[Pasi Fist]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... al-in-bonn

'The men who plundered Europe': bankers on trial for siphoning €60bn

Martin Shields and Nick Diable are accused of tax fraud in ‘cum-ex’ scandal that exposes City’s pursuit of profit

They have been called “the men who plundered Europe”: a group of cowboy traders, seasoned tax lawyers and mathematical whizz kids who are alleged to have conspired in the heart of the City of London to siphon at least €60bn in taxpayers’ money from the state coffers of several EU countries.

In Britain, the so-called “cum-ex” scandal, named after the complex derivatives juggling act employed, gained little attention amid the frenzied debate around the UK’s departure from the European Union when the fraud scheme was discovered in 2017.

But in continental Europe what Le Monde has described as the “robbery of the century” has done almost as much to shape the view of Britain as Brexit itself. Dutch media has called it “organised crime in pinstripe suits” and one of the original German whistleblowers saying he now welcomes Britain’s exit from the EU in the hope it could weaken the influence of London investment banking on European financial institutions.

This week, a British former investment banker involved in developing the scheme for the first time gave the public an insight into how the scheme worked and what spurred on its architects.

Speaking at a regional court in Bonn, Martin Shields, one of two former bankers on trial for 34 instances of serious tax fraud between 2006 and 2011, painted a picture of a London banking scene which lured in the brightest scientists from the country’s top universities and used them to boost their profit margins – without teaching them about the moral and legal consequences of their actions in return.

“This was the environment at that time: a financial industry that – at least as far as I could see – was geared towards maximum profit optimisation,” the 41-year-old told a packed courtroom on Wednesday.

“One tool to achieve this goal was tax optimisation: avoiding taxation as far as possible – and taking advantage of any opportunities that could be found or created. This was not the clandestine approach of a few. Rather, I saw it as the clear and openly communicated expectation of most major banks and their customers.”

Hailed as a maths prodigy at school, Shields accepted a junior position at Merrill Lynch after studying engineering, economics and management at Oxford University because the trading room floor offered him a thrilling, dynamic environment. He was not alone: of 120 engineers in his year group at university, Shields added, only five went into engineering.

Wearing a navy blue suit and the latest Apple Watch 5 with a white strap, Shields on Wednesday used a Powerpoint presentation to talk the court through the “cum-ex ecosystem” of labyrinthine trade chains he helped conceive and control, which prosecutors say cost the German state €450m. A translator tasked with rendering City trader jargon into German legalese was struggling to keep up.

The financial rewards were breathtaking: for the five years in which Shields practised cum-ex trades through Gibraltar-based investment vehicle Ballance Capital, his personal income amounted to €12m. In 2010 Shields and his wife managed to purchase a £9.7m mansion on Chelsea’s Egerton Crescent, followed by a €6m Edwardian terrace on Shrewsbury Road, Dublin’s most expensive residential street.

While Shields did not respond directly to the charges of serious tax fraud this week, he said in hindsight he had started to feel regret about devising the schemes, which hoovered up money that could have otherwise been spent on building roads, hospitals or nurseries.

He told the court: “I often ask myself whether if I had my time again I would do things differently. Knowing what I now know, the answer is obvious. I would not have involved myself in the cum-ex industry.”

He had made the “difficult decision” to cooperate with the investigation, which increases his chance of reducing a potential 10-year jail service. Co-accused Nick Diable (39), who worked with Shields for Germany’s fourth largest bank HypoVereinsbank (HVB), will also give a testimony in the trial, which is expected to last until next year.

Shields said cum-ex trades were practised on an “industrial scale” in the first decade of the 21st century, and involved a vast network of banks, companies, brokers, lawyers and financial advisers. Even the most basic cum-ex deal involves at least 12 transactions.

The banks and financial institutions he mentioned in Wednesday’s and Thursday’s court session included Clearstream AG, a 100% owned subsidiary of Deutsche Börse AG that processes the dividend compensation payments and which Shields appeared to suggest played an active part in keeping the cum-ex bonanza going after German lawmakers tried to close a loophole in 2007.

A spokesman for Deutsche Börse, which was raided in connection with the wider investigation in August, said it was cooperating with the authorities.

During Shields’s appearance this week, the back benches of the court were packed with numerous lawyers representing high-profile banks and financial institutions that could be dragged into the scandal if the judge in Bonn rules that cum-ex trades did not merely exploit a legal loophole but violated the law at the time.

Three characters mentioned in the testimony were notable by their absence from the court proceedings: Shields’s long-time boss and later business partner Paul Mora, and the renowned German tax lawyer Hanno Berger, who allegedly introduced him to cum-ex methods at HVB. A third man, Dubai-based British citizen Sanjay Shah, is alleged to have copied their methods to defraud the Danish treasury on a vast scale.

Until 2015, Mora was a director of the Cinnamon Club, an opulent ​Indian restaurant located in a grade II-listed Victorian building next to the Department for Education and popular with politicians and business people. According to Die Zeit, the restaurant was where cum-ex deals were contrived and later celebrated, and one insider referred to it as the “cum-ex lounge”. Mora has denied wrongdoing, telling New Zealand media that all his trades were “approved by legal experts and undertaken in accordance with advice”.

In separate investigations into the same scheme, the justice minister of North-Rhine Westphalia said that Cologne prosecutors are now conducting 56 probes with a total of about 400 suspects related to cum-ex. More than 400 individuals and companies have been charged in connection with the scheme in Denmark.

Estimated losses include an estimated €31.8 bn Germany, at least €17bn for France, €4.5bn in Italy, €1.7bn in Denmark and €201m for Belgium

“The Cologne investigations have now reached a point that prosecutors say that cum-ex wasn’t a legal tax-driven trading strategy, but organised white-collar crime of unimaginable magnitude,” the minister said.

The alleged architects of the scheme

Hanno Berger

A prominent German tax official turned tax lawyer whose past clients include the owners of BMW and companies like Adidas, Berger has been described as the mastermind behind the cum-ex scheme and was charged with tax fraud at a court in Wiesbaden last year. Based in Switzerland, he insists all of his dealings were within the law and has not appeared in court so far.

Paul Robert Mora

A 51-year-old Kiwi with a penchant for rugby and Hawaiian shirts, Mora had a background in tax law before moving into investment banking in the City of London. At HypoVereinsbank and his own investment vehicles Ballance Capital and Arunvill, Mora is alleged to have worked with Berger to construct a vast number of cum-ex trades. Believed to have returned to New Zealand, where he has property investments in Christchurch, Mora has also not appeared in the German courts to far.

Sanjay Shah

A British-born son of Indian immigrants from Kenya is the key figure for investigations in Denmark, where prosecutors say he defrauded the treasury to the tune of €1.3bn, mainly through his hedge fund Solo Capital LLP, by copying the system used by Berger. Shah has denied any wrongdoing.


Q&A
What is a cum-ex deal?

A cum-ex deal, from the Latin meaning with-without, is a complex set of share transactions with the purpose of getting the state to reimburse a tax that was never paid in the first place.

Cum-ex transactions work by trading shares at high speed on or just before the dividend record date – the day the company checks its records to identify shareholders – and then claiming two or more refunds for capital gains tax which had in fact only been paid to the state once. Because the payout is automated, the trade can be repeated again and again.

Some financial experts have likened the practice to the banking equivalent of parents claiming child benefit for multiple children when they only have one.

[Maidanin Veteraanien Veljesliitto]

Cum-ex transactions work by trading shares at high speed on or just before the dividend record date – the day the company checks its records to identify shareholders – and then claiming two or more refunds for capital gains tax which had in fact only been paid to the state once. Because the payout is automated, the trade can be repeated again and again.

Jostain pelistä sais permabännin samana päivänä

[Pasi Fist]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... -interview

Prince Andrew was an abuser, Epstein accuser says in TV interview

Virginia Giuffre claims prince was participant in disgraced financier’s exploitation of her

An accuser of Jeffrey Epstein has alleged Prince Andrew was “an abuser, a participant” in the disgraced US financier’s exploitation of her as a teenager, in her first television interview.

Virginia Giuffre, formerly Roberts, who was pictured with Prince Andrew in a now notorious photograph, spoke to the US network TV station NBC News about her involvement with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in a New York jail in August while facing fresh child sex trafficking charges.

The interview was due to air late on Friday night in the US but there were clips of it on the morning news shows. In them Giuffre tells how Epstein directed her to have sex with other powerful men in his orbit, including, she said, the Queen’s second oldest son, Andrew.

Giuffre has previously alleged she was recruited by Epstein when she was 15 and was coerced into sexual activity with him and associates in return for payments.

She alleged in 2011 testimony that Andrew “knows the truth” about Epstein’s abuse of underage girls and said he should be made to testify. In a December 2014 court filing she claimed she was made to have sex with Andrew, among other friends of the financier. The prince has always vehemently denied the allegations.

In 2015 a court decided that the allegations made by Giuffre about the prince were “immaterial and impertinent” and ordered them to be struck out of a defamation claim against Epstein’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell.

The prince hosted Epstein and Maxwell, a daughter of the late, disgraced British newspaper publisher Robert Maxwell. Ghislaine Maxwell has been accused of assisting Epstein’s abuse, but denies any wrongdoing.

Giuffre told NBC news anchor Savannah Guthrie about her allegation that Maxwell played a crucial role in the financier’s alleged sex trafficking racket.

She said: “The first time in London, I was so young. Ghislaine woke me up in the morning and she said, ‘You’re gonna meet a prince today.’ I didn’t know at that point that I was going to be trafficked to that prince.”

She added of Prince Andrew: “He denies that it ever happened. And he’s going to keep denying that it ever happened. But he knows the truth. And I know the truth.”

The prince has previously strongly denied any inappropriate behaviour or of being aware of any such behaviour from Epstein, in rare statements issued from Buckingham Palace. The palace pointed to those previous denials when asked about the Giuffre claims on Friday.

The prince said in a statement last month that he made Epstein’s acquaintance in 1999 and saw him once or twice each year. The prince also said he stayed at several of Epstein’s homes.

He said he did not “see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to [Epstein’s] arrest and conviction”.

He added: “I have said previously that it was a mistake and an error to see him after his release [from prison] in 2010 and I can only reiterate my regret that I was mistaken to think that what I thought I knew of him was evidently not the real person, given what we now know.”

The prince also said: “His suicide has left many unanswered questions and I acknowledge and sympathise with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure.

“This is a difficult time for everyone involved and I am at a loss to be able to understand or explain Mr Epstein’s lifestyle. I deplore the exploitation of any human being and would not condone, participate in, or encourage any such behaviour.”

Giuffre went on to say in the TV interview on Friday, after recounting that she been woken up in London by Maxwell: “That night Prince Andrew came to her house in London. And we went out to club Tramp. Prince Andrew got me alcohol. It was in the VIP section. I’m pretty sure it was vodka.

“Prince Andrew was like, ‘Let’s dance together.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’ And we leave club Tramp. And I hop in the car with Ghislaine and Jeffrey, and Ghislaine said, ‘He’s coming back to the house. And I want you to do for him what you do for Epstein.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

Last month, lawyers for some of Epstein’s victims said Prince Andrew should give sworn testimony on “everything he knows” about Epstein, after the prince said he was appalled by Epstein’s sex crimes.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida: one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, followed by a year of community control or house arrest.

[fanaattinen vaaliharrastaja]

Enää ei oo kiire
https://www.is.fi/taloussanomat/art-2000006250314.html

Siirry sivun pääsisältöön.
Siirry sivuston hakuun.
Taloussanomat
Virolaismedia: Danske Bankin kadonnut ex-johtaja löytyi kuolleena omalta pihaltaan

Danske Bankin entisen Viron toimitusjohtajan etsinnät päättyivät. Mies löytyi kuolleena.
Viron poliisi ja rajavartiolaitos (PPA) pyysivät aiemmin yleisön apua löytääkseen Danske Bankin entisen Viron toimitusjohtajan Aivar Rehen, kertoi Viron yleisradioyhtiö ERR News maanantaina.

Poliisi etsi kadonnutta ex-johtajaa laajasti Tallinnan alueelta. Viron poliisi kertoi julkisuuteen, että mies ei välttämättä ollut kadonnut vapaasta tahdostaan. Poliisi kertoi Rehe oli poistunut kotoaan maanantaina mustaan lenkkipukuun pukeutuneena. Hän oli jättänyt matkapuhelimensa ja koiransa kotiin.

ERR:n mukaan Rehe löytyi kuolleena omalta pihamaaltaan. ERR:n saamien tietojen perusteella kyseessä olisi itsemurha.

Aivar Rehe oli ryvettynyt Danske Bankiin liittyvien rahanpesuepäilyjen vuoksi.


Epäilyjen mukaan Viron-yksikön läpi on siirrettiin 2007–2015 pimeää rahaa ilmeisesti yli 200 miljardia euroa. Tuolloin Rehe oli yksikön johdossa.

Paljastuksia mahdollisen rahanpesun summien suuruudesta sateli viime vuoden mittaan. Ne johtivat Danske Bankin johtajan Thomas Borgenin eroon.

[Pasi Fist]

Kyllä tollasilla selityksillä pitäisi ainakin parinkymmen miljoonan kultaset kädenpuristukset saada yhtiön hallituksen siunaamana.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... g-fortnite

Telstra chairman defends executive pay, saying 'kids are earning $5m playing Fortnite'

John Mullen’s remarks kick off the 2019 annual shareholder meeting season that’s expected to focus on the climate crisis

The Telstra chairman, John Mullen, has taken a swipe at critics of executive pay by saying that while teenage Fortnite players can earn millions, someone who is well rewarded for devoting their life to a career in business is derided as “morally wrong”.

Speaking at the telco’s annual general meeting in Sydney on Tuesday, Mullen warned that talented executives might shy away from running Australia’s biggest companies because of criticism about pay.

An overwhelming 97.4% of shareholders voted to approve the telco’s remuneration report at the meeting, a sharp contrast to last year’s 62% vote against that sparked 12 months of consultation by Mullen.

But he said that while talented business people once aspired to run big firms, they might now think twice.

“Young kids are earning $5m playing Fortnite but when a business executive devotes a huge portion of their life ... that it’s somehow morally wrong they get rewarded for it,” he said.

Mullen’s remarks on pay kicked off an annual shareholder meeting season that nevertheless is expected to focus on corporate Australia’s response to the climate crisis.

BHP and Origin Energy are among companies to face shareholder resolutions over global heating while other companies are set to face questions over social issues ranging from slavery to the deportation of asylum seekers.

Meanwhile, discontent over pay is expected to continue, although at a lower pitch than last year when a dozen top 200 companies received “strikes” – votes of 25% or more against the remuneration report.

The Telstra director Craig Dunn’s position on the telco’s board has been under pressure because of his long stint as an executive with AMP, which saw its share price plummet after last year’s banking royal commission revealed that the financial services group misled the corporate regulator at least 20 times over a scandal in which it charged customers fees for services they never received.

He received a vote against him of almost 30%, more than three times as much as the opposition to two other directors also up for election, Nora Scheinkestel and Eelco Blok.

Market observers also expect the chair of gambling giant Tabcorp, Paula Dwyer, to attract a healthy protest vote for the second year in a row when the company’s shareholders meet next Thursday.

Her 13-year tenure on the board, which includes the group being hit with a record $45m fine for failing to properly combat money laundering, represented a “performance not at group 1 level”, one market source said.

BHP’s Anglo-Australian structure, where it is listed both on the London and Australian stock exchanges, means it will face British and European shareholders on Thursday and antipodean ones next month.

One of the mining giant’s biggest shareholders, Standard Life Aberdeen, last week backed a shareholder resolution put forward by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and endorsed by the tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes calling on BHP to quit industry bodies that have positions on the climate out of tune with the company’s position that fighting the crisis requires “the biggest global mobilisation since the second world war”.

Activist anger is focused on the Minerals Council of Australia, which Australia’s biggest superannuation fund has attacked for not taking a strong enough position on the climate, and an associated body, Coal21.

A similar resolution to be debated at Origin Energy’s AGM in Sydney on Wednesday has been withdrawn, but it still faces four shareholder motions dealing with the climate crisis and the environment.

These motions include one calling on the company to disclose the cost of mitigating particle pollution from its elderly New South Wales coal-fired power plant at Eraring – something the company says is not needed because it already keeps the emissions below legal limits.

Traditional owners unhappy at the process by which Origin gained consent for fracking in the Beetaloo Basin will protest outside the meeting in Angel Place. Shareholders will be able to vote for a resolution challenging the development process.

In finance, three of the big four banks – ANZ, NAB and Westpac – will face climate resolutions when they meet later in the year. Activists have spared CBA, which meets on Wednesday.

At its AGM on 13 November supermarket giant Coles is to face Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) motions calling on it to eliminate slavery and exploitation from its fresh food supply chain, while next week Qantas will be asked to stop forcibly deporting asylum seekers on its planes under a contract with the Australian government.

None of the shareholder resolutions are likely to pass – most generally attract only a few per cent of the vote – but activists claim they have helped to force companies to change their positions.

“A little bit of scrutiny is a healthy tonic for the formation of capital,” Dean Paatsch, the co-founder of proxy adviser Ownership Matters, said.

He said the AGM was “not dead” but a lot of work was done behind closed doors.

“More directors and shareholders are talking to each other than ever before in the time I’ve been doing this, which is 18 years,” he said.

“If you’ve got a fight on the day, it’s because they’ve been talking past each other.”

Dan Gocher, director of climate and environment at the ACCR, which is bringing resolutions to 20 AGMs over the next six weeks, agreed that investor understanding of issues such as modern slavery had grown thanks to the campaigns.

“As much as people judge success on a vote, it also creates a space for companies to discuss the issues,” he said. “If there is no resolution, will they have the conversation? Probably not.”

[Lusku]

Jotain mätää Vatikaanissa

[Lusku]

[Pasi Fist]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... h-revealed

Superyachts and private jets: spending of corrupt super-rich revealed

Groundbreaking analysis finds £300bn of suspect funds funnelled through the UK

The multimillion pound spending habits of corrupt members of the global super-rich – including 421 luxury homes, three superyachts, seven private jets as well as elite private school fees and even hovercraft – have been revealed in a groundbreaking analysis of more than 400 money laundering and corruption cases.

Research by Transparency International, an anti-corruption campaign group, found more than £300bn of suspect funds have been funnelled through the UK banks, law firms and accountants before being spent on a £1m Cartier diamond ring, masterpiece art works from Sotheby’s, and a £50,000 Tom Ford crocodile-skin jacket with matching crocodile-skin handbag from Harrods.

The suspect cash – which often comes from corrupt officials’ embezzlement of hundreds of millions of pounds from poor countries’ state coffers – was also found to have been spent on a £200,000 Bentley Bentayga driven by the 22-year-old son of the former prime minister of Moldova. His father, Vlad Filat, had been sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in the “theft of the century”.

In its forensic analysis of more than 400 global bribery, corruption and money laundering cases in 116 countries, Transparency International’s At Your Service report found 582 UK firms or individuals had helped rich people bring suspect funds into the country.

The money was paid through some 17,000 shell companies, 1,455 of which were registered to at the same serviced office above a wine bar in Birmingham.



“We’ve known for a long time that the UK’s world-class services have attracted a range of clients, including those who have money and pasts to hide,” said Duncan Hames, director of policy at Transparency International UK. “Now, for the first time, we have shed light on who these companies are and how they have become entangled in some of the biggest corruption scandals of our time. This should act as a wake-up call for government and regulators, and deliver much-needed reforms to the UK’s defences against dirty money.”

One case revealed that a shell company called Airship Universal was used to buy a corporate box at Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge for £126,000. In another case £34,827 was paid to a now-defunct hovercraft company in Kent.

Almost £3m was funnelled to private schools, including Charterhouse, Harrow and Lancing College. In 2010 alone Charterhouse, in Surrey, which describes itself as “one of the great historic schools of England” received £300,000 of funds linked to the Troika Laundromat scheme to move £3.5bn out of Russia, according to the report.

British universities, including the London School of Economics, the University of York, the University of St Andrews and University College London, were paid more than £500,000. The payments all came from shell companies with bank accounts at institutions that have since closed owing to mismanagement and money laundering failings, the report said.

Earlier this year the National Crime Agency (NCA) seized £25,000 of suspect cash from a niece of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, who had been studying design at the University of the Arts London. Several members of her family are subject to international sanctions. Anisseh Chawkat, whose mother is al-Assad’s sister and whose father had been the head of Syria’s military intelligence, was living in a £60,000-a-year rented flat in Knightsbridge.

In another case, Vlad Luca Filat, the son of Vlad Filat, the former prime minister of Moldova, was studying business at City University in London. An NCA investigation found that the son’s extravagant lifestyle in the city, which included a £1,000-per-day Chelsea penthouse and £200,000 Bentley Bentayga, was funded by large deposits from overseas companies, including in the Cayman Islands and Turkey. Large cash sums were paid into three HSBC bank accounts, including £98,000 in one three-day period. Facebook posts showed the 22-year-old drinking Dom Pérignon through a straw at beach parties in St Tropez.

For offspring that may not have been clever enough to get into top schools or universities on their academic merit, the researchers found that more than £300,000 was spent on “educational consultants helping to secure places at the most prestigious institutions”.

Large fees were paid to an educational consultant from funds linked to the Troika Laundromat scheme, which helps parents gain places for their children in top private schools.

Daniel Bruce, chief executive of Transparency International UK, said: “Government and law enforcement agencies have made real progress in recent years to reduce the places for corrupt individuals to hide, yet our findings confirm it is still far too easy for criminals and the corrupt to seek impunity with the assistance of UK businesses.

“Despite the dedication of many committed professionals in the fight against corruption, there remains too much poor practice to be able to assume bad behaviour is confined to a few rotten apples. Businesses and government should redouble their efforts, through resource and will, to remove the helping hand for those who have abused positions of power and stolen from their people.”

[Lusku]

Eikös tämä ollut muuten sama konsulttifirma joka haamukirjoitti Vanhasen hallituksen hallitusohjelman?

[Lusku]

jumankauta, aiemmin julkastu juttu McKinseystä tältä vuodelta

Sisällys käsittelee mm uiguurien keskitysleirejä, Etelä-Kiinan meren sotilastukikohtia, lahjuksia, Saudi-Arabian toisinajattelijoiden doksaamista, ja opioidien massadumppaamista yhdysvaltain markkinoille

Spoiler:

Times Insider
How We’ve Reported on the Secrets and Power of McKinsey & Company
Among the many locations of McKinsey & Company offices is this building in central Kiev, Ukraine.
Among the many locations of McKinsey & Company offices is this building in central Kiev, Ukraine.Credit...Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times

By Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe

Feb. 19, 2019

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

When we began investigating McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm with the golden pedigree, we knew how difficult it would be. McKinsey had built itself into the world’s most influential consultancy, not only by hiring smart Ivy League students, but also by keeping its most sacred promise: secrecy. For 92 years, the firm has held fast to the dictum of never disclosing names of clients or the advice it gives.

We were intrigued by a company that seemed to be everywhere — and nowhere at the same time. As a private company, it had no obligation to report information to the public. And as a consulting company, it wasn’t regulated. Other types of companies, especially accounting firms and investment banks, have similar client rosters, but they are overseen by government agencies. This lack of accountability, particularly for a firm as influential as McKinsey, beckoned us to dig deeply into its conduct around the world.

The most basic question we set out to answer was this: Did McKinsey’s pristine reputation as the foremost purveyor of “best practices” match its record? After nearly a year of reporting, we found that the answer was often no.

That point was driven home in startling fashion when we recently reported that the Massachusetts attorney general had accused McKinsey of fanning the flames of the opioid epidemic. In legal papers, the attorney general alleged that McKinsey had instructed the maker of a powerful opioid on how to “turbocharge sales” of the drug, how to counter efforts by drug enforcement agents to reduce opioid use and how to “counter the emotional messages from mothers with teenagers that overdosed” on the drug.

Despite McKinsey’s refusal to allow its employees to speak freely with us, we managed to contact and interview 44 current and former McKinsey employees around the world, often using encrypted forms of communication. As part of our research, we traveled to South Africa, Ukraine, Austria and Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

Michael Forsythe, who has reported extensively in China, used his deep knowledge of that nation’s government, language and social media to help build a custom database tracking McKinsey’s work in that country. As a result, we were able to report that McKinsey had advised 22 of the 100 largest state-owned enterprises, including one that built the artificial islands in the South China Sea, a major point of military tension with the United States.

Just one week after the United Nations denounced the mass detention of thousands of ethnic Uighurs in a vast archipelago of indoctrination camps, McKinsey chose to quietly hold its annual corporate retreat nearby. We not only reported on that retreat, in Kashgar, China, we also published pictures of it, including one that showed red carpets winding through the desert. Under the headline “How McKinsey Has Helped Raise the Stature of Authoritarian Governments,” we also documented the firm’s work in Russia, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia. McKinsey’s work in these countries is noteworthy because it comes at a time when democracies around the world are under attack.

Much of our reporting relied on McKinsey’s own words, memorialized in a medium the firm has mastered: the PowerPoint slide.

One slide, made for Boeing, became the basis for an entire article involving the aircraft maker, a Ukrainian oligarch, Indian titanium and possible bribery. Another slide deck, uncovered by our colleague Katie Benner, identified social media accounts of three prominent online critics of the Saudi government. One was subsequently arrested.

Today’s article focuses on McKinsey’s hedge fund, MIO Partners. Like McKinsey itself, it is highly secretive, a point reinforced during our visit to an offshore tax haven where MIO conceals some of its money. No one from the fund was willing to speak to us, though we did talk to two former executives. The $12.3 billion fund is coming under increasing scrutiny because McKinsey sometimes consults or advises companies where MIO has a financial stake.

There is more to report on this influential company. If you have a McKinsey story you would like to share with us, please let us know.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/read ... ation.html