Money Laundering News Television

F.R.E.E.-Freedom Rights Equality Enterprise: 

Polaris Project, Liberty Asia, and LaStrada International are tackling the question of how to connect local, national, and regional anti-trafficking helplines through a data-driven network, an idea conceived at the Google Ideas INFO Summit. We're excited to announce this 'Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network,' an international collaboration between nonprofits that will enable better coordination and victim protection across borders, a project funded by Google's Global Impact Awards. 

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A European Commission report states six of the bloc’s 27 members had implemented new rules agreed two years ago. They encourage member states to hand out tougher punishments to offenders, including seizing the proceeds from their criminal activities. The latest available data shows there were nine thousand, five hundred and twenty eight victims in 2010, up from six thousand three hundred and nine in 2008. EU directives are pieces of legislation that set down clear goals for one or several member states to achieve. But how a country goes about achieving those goals is up to them.

TOOWOOMBA detectives arrest 20 people allegedly involved in million dollar money laundering.

Working with AUSTRAC as part of Operation Kilo Dictate.  Targeting an international crime syndicate involved in laundering fraudulently obtained money from Queensland to Europe.

Allegedly  during a nine week period from February to April 2012, one million dollars was acquired through card-skimming and credit card fraud offences committed globally.

Frediano Manzi, head of an anti-racketeering organisation in Italy. Set himself on fire in a protest against illegal loans (given by criminal organisations).

Dousing himself with petrol in front of the Milan corporate headquarters of Italian media giant RAI. Mr. Manzi had written a letter explaining his extreme measures.

In the letter, Manzi, who heads up SOS Racket[Who We Are:

Established in 1997, the SOS RACKET AND WEAR has now decided not to join, or access to financing under Law 108 of 1996, in order to avoid any critical reference to forms of exploitation and ambiguous purpose which may have led to the emergence of the Association.

The Association was born from the need to offer concrete help to victims of usury, but intends to broaden its field of action to the victims of racketeering and various forms of organized crime. The purpose of the Association is not only to provide assistance to victims of usury and organized crime in general, but also to create the conditions that provide an understanding of the needs of victims and the utility to follow the path of the complaint to 'judicial authority.], says he was "doing it for the victims of usury that no one helps."

Journalist and expert on anti-racketeering Nello Scavo explained the situation in Italy.

"There are concrete difficulties, especially for families and small businesses, because in Italy it’s not possible, for private citizens or families, to get access to state funds to compensate racketeering victims. It’s slightly easier for companies," said Scavo.

"Unfortunately in Italy a vast majority of the victims, especially due to the economic crisis, are families who can’t get bank loans any more and who therefore turn to this form of illegal and clandestine credit," he added.

Manzi was found by a passing tram driver who quickly put out the flames.

The anti-racketeering advocate is in a"serious but non-life threatening" condition in hospital after suffering third degree burns all over his body.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING: 

Three people have been charged with human trafficking.  Allegedly operating a suburban prostitution ring. 

Cook County's state’s attorney’s office indicted  Keith Williams, 52, Roman Kurek, 49, and Sylvia Topolewski, 37.  All three have been charged with involuntary servitude and trafficking in humans. 

According to State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, what started out as an investigation into drugs and prostitution evolved into a human-trafficking case.

Alvarez said Williams’ organization provided the sexual services of drug-addicted women to customers, with Williams and the two others taking most of the cash profits. 

Williams is being held on $650,000 bail. Kurek and Topolewski are being held on $350,000 bail.

Dutroux has claimed that his two accomplices, Bernard Weinstein,  a businessman and politician, and Michel Lelievre, a drifter who stayed in one of Dutroux’s houses, had actually carried out the kidnappings of Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo in August 1995, at a time when police actually searched the house on August 24, 1995 in which the girls were held captive silenced by being drugged in their underground chamber. 

The Belgian pedophile and child killer, Marc Dutroux , 56 years old was sentenced to life for the kidnap and rape of six girls, and four murders. He has served nearly sixteen years. Police blunders meant his case wasn’t heard until 2004 even though arrested in 1995.  A ruling is not expected before 18 February and no release can be made before 30 April.  It’s one of the worst cases in the Judicial history of the country. 

Some families of the victims are questioning the efficiency of the Belgian justice system and have taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Responding to public anger, finance minister George Osborne said they would force banks to sell their investment arms if they fail to shield their day-to-day banking from risky investment activities: “My message to the banks is clear. If a bank flouts the rules, the regulator and the Treasury will have the power to break it up altogether; full separation, not just a ring-fence. We’re not going to repeat the mistakes of the past.” 

Osborne wants the new laws to be in force early next year, and could include directors of failed banks being black balled out of the industry. 

Big British lenders, of course  have warned they will be left at a disadvantage against continental rivals because of what the government is planning, but the Fitch ratings agency said the legislation could improve the credit profile of the UK's high street banks.

The FBI alleges that jewelry shops in the “Little India” neighborhood of New Jersey were at the heart of a vast credit card fraud ring, which stretched across several states.  Several properties have been raided and 18 people have been charged so far.  Officials say participants in the scheme “stole” at least 200 million dollars.  US Attorney for the District of New Jersey Paul Fishman regarding the perps:   

“They hid tens of thousands of dollars of cash in their homes. You will see in the complaint that 68,000 dollars (50,000 euros) in cash was seized from just one defendant’s house during an earlier search warrant, executed as part of this case. Money was hidden in a kitchen stove.   

“And the complicit merchants, the jewellery store owners in Jersey City, used the proceeds to purchase millions of dollars worth of gold and gold jewellery and we’ll be seeking to forfeit whatever we can find,” Fisherman added.  Officials believe the fraud involved thousands of fake identities, lies to credit rating agencies and funds wired abroad.   

Beginning in 2007, the alleged scam was based on falsely improving the credit scores of cardholders, allowing scammers to borrow high amounts of money – which they never repaid.

SelectaDNA’s High Velocity DNA Tagging System is a gun that shoots non-lethal pellets, which contain uniquely-coded synthetic DNA.  These pellets leave traces of DNA on the target, traces that can be detected by authorities  weeks after the incident helping police identify offenders.  Developed by British scientists, it has a range of between 30 and 40 meters, and is marketed as a pistol or rifle. Makers  insist it is not deadly or harmful to the health of the target.  Andrew Knight, director of the rifle, explained that “when it comes into contact with the target, the uniquely-coded SelectaDNA solution leaves a trace of synthetic DNA, which would allow authorities to confirm or rule out the involvement in a particular incident leading to the arrest and prosecution of a person.”

Voice Risk Analysis (VRA) software, also known as the lie detector, used when carrying out a review of people claiming single person's council tax discount. 

This reminds me of the protests of the Facebook group campaigning for better treatment of disabled people, known as Black Triangle. This group was protesting against the use of software by Atos when assessing whether people were entitled to disability employment support allowance.   

Councils should probably use these lie detectors during negotiations with service providers, because many contracts fail to meet expectations.

France: Paris Deputy Mayor arrested for money laundering

French police have cracked a money laundering/drug dealing network. Seventeen have been indicted.

Seventeen people, including Florence Lamblin, a leading Parisian environmentalist and EELV Deputy Mayor of the 13th arrondissement (district) in Paris, have been indicted. The drug bust is alleged to relate to trafficking of cannabis between Morocco and the Paris.

A French police spokesperson, speaking to Le Télégramme, estimated that the money laundering operation had cleared €40 million over the last five months.

The elected deputy mayor has strongly denied any involvement. Paris ecologist and fellow 13th arrondissement council member, Yves Contassot, denounced the arrest of Lamblin as "attempted political manipulation," reports French political magazine L’Express.

Lamblin’s lawyer, Jerome Boursican, released a statement saying that his client possessed €350,000 in a Swiss bank account but that the source of the money was a family inheritance dating back to 1920. Boursican claimed a confidante of Lamblin, who was connected to a party implicated in the money laundering operation, had made arrangements for the Swiss bank funds to be repatriated to France and that if there was any criminality, it related to a failure to declare the repatriated funds to the French tax authorities rather than money laundering.

Lamblin has agreed to resign her position as Deputy Mayor of one of Paris' electoral districts pending the criminal investigation proceeding.

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

South Florida Retired Businessman Pleads Guilty to Failing to Disclose Assets Held in Swiss Banks

Wolfgang Roessel of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., pleaded guilty today in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida to filing a false tax return for 2007, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.