Monthly Archives: August 2016

Millions in CIA “ghost money” paid to Afghan president’s office [2013]

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“Tens of millions of U.S. dollars in cash were delivered by the CIA in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags to the office of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai for more than a decade, according to the New York Times, citing current and former advisers to the Afghan leader.  The so-called ‘ghost money’ was meant to buy influence for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but instead fuelled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington’s exit strategy from Afghanistan, the newspaper quoted U.S. officials as saying.  ‘The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan’, one American official said, ‘was the United States.’  The CIA declined to comment.”

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-money-cia-idUSBRE93S00K20130429

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How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish [2007]

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“The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.  The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee.  In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1

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US secretly sent plane with $400 million in cash to Iran

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“President Barack Obama approved the $400 million transfer, which was the first payment of a $1.7 billion settlement resolving claims at an international tribunal at The Hague over a failed arms deal under the time of the Shah. The Iranians were seeking more than $10 billion at arbitration.  Because existing US sanctions ban American dollars from being used in a transaction with Iran, officials said the money was procured from central banks in Switzerland and the Netherlands, and an unmarked cargo plane loaded with wooden pallets of Swiss francs, euros and other currencies were flown to Iran.”

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/politics/us-sends-plane-iran-400-million-cash/

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Ban $100 bills to tackle crime: Ex-bank chief

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“He argued that high-denomination notes in high-value currencies were little used other than for crime, with people in most parts of the world favoring cash for small payments and electronic alternatives like credit cards or Paypal for bigger ones. As such, Sands called for the elimination of the 500 euro note, £50 bill and 1,000 Swiss franc bill and the $100 note.  Depending on the country, tax evasion robs the public sector of anywhere between 6 percent and 70 percent of what authorities reckon they should collect, Sands added. He said that global financial crime flows amounted to $2 trillion per year, with corruption accounting for another $1 trillion.”

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/08/ban-100-bills-to-tackle-crime-ex-bank-chief.html

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No Negative Rates Without Banning Cash, Says Former Fed Official

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“I think it’s going to be hard to push the Fed Funds rate below negative 1. That’s going to be difficult. People can basically take out cash and put it in a vault and they get a zero return on it.  This is supporting the ban on cash rhetoric. This is a huge social debate that we should start having. One way of doing it is to ban cash. Banning cash is a social and political debate, which is going to happen increasingly. As long as we have cash, we can’t have rates of much below negative 1 percent.”

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1974891-cash-ban-would-boost-effect-of-negative-rates/

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Bitcoin Exchange Loses $60M In Hack; US Regulations ‘Prevented Cold Storage Use’

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“Bitfinex was previously fined $75,000 by the CFTC for failing to register as an appropriate entity for the services it offered as well as:  ‘[F]or offering illegal off-exchange financed retail commodity transactions in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.’  These ‘off-exchange’ transactions could be alluding to the storage of funds offline — commonly known as cold storage — one of the best ways to keep your funds out of hackers’ reach. If this is indeed the case then the incident could undermine calls for more regulation as cryptocurrency exchanges face a dilemma between security and compliance.”

https://news.bitcoin.com/bitfinex-us-regulation-cold-storage/

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EU ‘Terrorism’ Directive Would Create Centralized Database of Bitcoin Users

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“The European Commission – the executive arm of the European Union – has proposed a directive aimed preventing the use the financial system for terrorist financing which includes a central database for bitcoin and virtual currency users’ identities and wallet addresses accessible to government financial intelligence units (FIUs).  The proposal seeks to require member states to bring into force the regulations necessary to comply with this directive by Jan. 1, 2017.  The updated anti-money laundering rules adopted May of 2015 marked an important step to improve the effectiveness of EU attempts to combat money laundering from criminal activities and to fight financing terrorist activities, the proposal noted.”

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/eu-central-database-bitcoin-users/

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