http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100903/us_yblog_upshot/pentagon-declined-to-investigate-hundreds-of-purchases-of-child-pornographyPentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography
A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department -- including some with the highest available security clearance -- who used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon investigated only a handful of the cases, Defense Department records show.
The cases turned up during a 2006 ICE inquiry, called Project Flicker, which targeted overseas processing of child-porn payments. As part of the probe, ICE investigators gained access to the names and credit card information of more than 5,000 Americans who had subscribed to websites offering images of child pornography. Many of those individuals provided military email addresses or physical addresses with Army or fleet ZIP codes when they purchased the subscriptions.
In a related inquiry, the Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) cross-checked the ICE list against military databases to come up with a list of Defense employees and contractors who appeared to be guilty of purchasing child pornography. The names included staffers for the secretary of defense, contractors for the ultra-secretive National Security Agency, and a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. But the DCIS opened investigations into only 20 percent of the individuals identified, and succeeded in prosecuting just a handful.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal.htmlBanks Financing Mexico Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal
Just before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and searched the jet.
They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found. Law enforcement officials also discovered something else.
The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August 2010 issue.
This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.
The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years.
‘Blatant Disregard’
Wachovia admitted it didn’t do enough to spot illicit funds in handling $378.4 billion for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. That’s the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history -- a sum equal to one-third of Mexico’s current gross domestic product.
http://market-ticker.org/cgi-ticker/akcs-www?post=165919&page=1More Bank Lawbreaking: Terrorism Links?
Yes. Funding terrorism. Funding nations that are on the restricted list.
No, really.
Nine banks have been caught up in the probe, and some are in discussions to settle, according to a person familiar with the case. Three have already. Last month, Barclays PLC in London agreed to pay $298 million and admitted to allowing payments on behalf of clients in Cuba, Sudan and other countries. Lloyds Banking Group in London and Credit Suisse Group in Zurich—banks that operated extensive transfer systems for Iranian clients—have agreed to settlements totaling $350 million and $536 million, respectively.
Settle? SETTLE?
Let me guess - this was some rogue banker in some satellite office, and there was no systemic knowledge or involvement by the banks involved, right?
Uh, wrong:
These weren't rogue operations. The investigators discovered that the banks ran dedicated units to systematically aid the undetected transfer of money through the U.S. banking system. They did that by removing identifying coding on fund transfers so they could evade automated U.S. bank computer systems designed to spot money flowing from a sanctioned state.
These are serious criminal acts folks. This money gets people killed. Literally. It buys guns, it buys missiles, it buys bombs. Bombs, guns and missiles that are then used to shoot at our troops and those of our friends.
Credit Suisse, according to court records, removed Iranian names, addresses, telephone numbers and identification codes from payment messages sent to U.S. financial firms. In some cases, the bank then replaced the information by using names such as "Order of a Customer" or "Credit Suisse."
Why do these institutions still have US banking charters?
Why do their executives not stand on indictments?
Why do we, the people of this country, permit this?
This isn't the first time crimes like this have been talked about in the media or the Ticker over the last few years. Indeed, we've had banks laundering money for Mexican Drug Cartels, we had banks that were involved in elaborate scams to rip off taxpayers in Jefferson County Alabama, and we have had other unsavory acts by these institutions.
If I pull something like this I don't get fined, I go to prison. I get a felony record to go with it. I don't get a fine that amounts to a tiny fraction of one percent of my market cap.
Hell, if I could traffic in money to pay for missiles in Iran and if caught I'd be fined, say, $200 - a tiny little fraction of a percent of my net worth - sure, I'd do it. I could make hundreds of thousands or even millions doing this for years, and eventually, well, I'd have to pay some "tax" for my sins in the form of a fine to the widdle liddle gubbermint.
This sort of crap makes a mockery of our justice system and our laws. We have sat back as citizens and watched these institutions not only do things like this, but rip off the taxpayer with dodgy municipal finance deals that ultimately land the other people involved in the hoosegow, while they, when they get caught, simply pay a tiny little fine (in comparison to the value of the firm) and nobody that works for the bank goes to prison.
You want to know why these things keep happening?
It's because we the people refuse to insist - and back it up with strong political action - that the banks involved in these sorts of scams be charged and that every single employee and officer involved in either doing it or covering it up goes straight to jail, while we revoke the US charter of any foreign institution involved in this sort of crap.
When will you wake up America?
http://market-ticker.org/cgi-ticker/akcs-www?post=165919&page=1#discussCan you say WTF America?
