Wachovia Laundered Money for Mexico Drug Cartels; To Pay 160 Mil

[axollot]

Source: NY Times - Reuters

The Wachovia Bank, a unit of Wells Fargo, has agreed to pay $160 million to settle a federal criminal case accusing it of laundering Mexican drug money, Reuters reports.

Under the agreement, Wachovia will forfeit $110 million, representing the proceeds of illegal narcotics sales that were laundered through the bank, the United States attorney’s office in the Southern District of Florida said. The bank will pay an additional $50 million fine to the Treasury Department.


Read more: http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/wachovia-to-pay-160-million-in-drug-money-case/

---

With all the violence due to these cartels 160 Mil isnt enough. Since corps are people then someone needs to be in jail for this crime. Disgusting.

Cheers
Sandy

[unhappycamper]

1. Is anyone going to jail?

:(

[axollot]

4. nope =( n/t

[saigon68]

13. Too Big to Fail-- PS Pass the Moet

[mod mom]

16. UCitizens United gave them the right to strongly influence elections so with their big $

they will be even more protected than the average citizen. :mad:

[axollot]

20. Yet this happened even BEFORE that decision. Now the influence

doesn't have to be laundered anymore. They can just provide it without having to set up numerous PACs etc.

5 Justices have sold the US. How can a citizen, like myself bring a case to show these justices should be impeached? I will never be heard, as I do not have the money to buy my voice.

*hangs head* I do not want my daughter growing up to think this is normal. This is not how the world works.

Cheers
Sandy

[mod mom]

24. They should have been impeached after thwarting democracy in their bush V Gore decision

The ruling elite have strategically placed their corporatists. Hate to be negative, but I keep hoping karma strikes the health of these guys and they are forced to retire. Remember the false rumor about Roberts last week? Hope was in the air for a short while.

[axollot]

27. That is what the US has become it's Mussolini's Italy all over again-

but with more money, weapons and power than Mussolini could have ever imagined. And I think it's fair to say something needs to get these guys off the bench if only we had a system of checks and balances set up in this country to prevent one arm of the US to become stronger than the other..oh, yeah right...

Why is it the more bitter, evil a person is the longer they live? I asked S.O this the other day. He said that must be the secret ingredient, willing to do anything, say anything and hurt anything and anyone not only gives you a long life but makes you very wealthy.

I'm becoming so cynical it scares me.

Cheers
Sandy

[Catshrink]

39. Only low level mules go to jail

[axollot]

51. That's a fact. Our full prison system is a testament to the poor getting...

..the short end of the stick when it comes to justice. It doesn't help that so many in jail are illiterate and often gave up their rights under very little pressure.

Cheers
Sandy

[The Genealogist]

56. Only the small fry drug folks go to jail

Old WASPS don't really go to jail for this sort of thing.

[hobbit709]

2. They were just unlucky enough to get caught.

even money says the others are in on it too..

It's like who financed the pirates in their heyday.

[Steerpike]

3. Good Morning!

Who has jurisdiction on this? Is it the Justice Department?

[axollot]

5. I dont know how they were caught -

but it sickens me no less. Anyone of us doing something like this would cool our heels in jail for LIFE. The DEA would see to it that we were dragged through the mud and our families destroyed but these guys? They get a f*ing FINE!!!

:banghead:
makes me want to puke

Cheers
Sandy

[Uben]

6. MAdoff went to jail.....

...who is going to jail over this? Fuck the fines, someone better go to prison for a very long time. Anything less is not justice, it's justice for sale.

[axollot]

7. Exactly. DEA what? Justice has been for sale for a long time.

Kids (18-22), from poor communities will spend most of their young life in jail for making a stupid mistake (i.e run pot from either border). But these guys finance what has been wholesale murder in Mexico over drug monies and get a fine, no one is named (not that I can find and but still looking) because someone KNEW - someone always KNOWS and OK'ed it. Makes me ill.

Cheers
Sandy

[No Elephants]

10. + 1 Fining corporations does not punish or deter the humans who make driminal decisions

on behalf of the corporations.

[axollot]

8. From Rueters

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1713901020100317

Original story from Rueters

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62G35720100317?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r1:c0.375000:b31975936:z0

The deferred prosecution agreement announced in Miami, which included a $50 million fine to be paid to the U.S. Treasury, was the largest penalty ever imposed for a violation of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jeffrey H. Sloman told reporters.

Sloman said a "systematic" failure by Wachovia, now a unit of Wells Fargo & Co, to maintain effective anti-money laundering (AML) controls had led to more than>> $400 billion in unmonitored funds being channeled to accounts at the bank between 2004 and 2007 by currency exchange houses in Mexico, mostly through wire transfers<<

400 billion! OMG.

Cheers
Sandy

[RKP5637]

9. Do petty larceny, they throw the book at you, do Corporate Shenanigans you get

a pat on the back. A lot of execs. and tools in these corporations should be behind bars, yet in the good old lame US make money at any cost, it's OK, it's just another day at work for these white collar crooks in our judicial system rigged/bought on the side of the really wealthy with leagues of lawyers and cash to throw around.

And a supreme court willing to let them have their way now to buy politicians and whatever they need to ply their trade and control the US. Is this place a mess or what... just throw money at the case and move on... no personal responsibility or integrity is needed. And there are no repercussions for actions... just another day at work. Is this country sick or what.

[axollot]

12. The country has been sick for so long.

I realized that when I first moved to Australia in the 80's. I didnt come back to live (lots of visits) until the Boy King was put in by SCOTUS. I live in Florida.

When I see stuff like this and the recent SCOTUS case, the degradation of the US school system and the fact my daughter is only 6 I think to myself - do I have to break my ageing mother's heart, move back home (Australia will always be home) so my daughter has a chance? (my 2 boys are 16 & 20 born duel citizens). My eldest son desperately wants us to move back and if not for my SO and Mother, we would be gone.

Cheers
Sandy

[RKP5637]

18. You are so lucky to have a choice. Many of us do not. In my case I am now too

old and stuck here with this mess hoping enough of it hangs together until my final days, but I do question how much longer the US can last financially and as a supposedly good citizen of the world. I think the NEW US is up for grabs for control by anyone that throws enough money into the system. When young I had a chance to live in Canada, but choose here... looking back I wish I had chosen Canada.

My gut feeling is that over the next couple of decades the US is going to go into a severe decline. There are just too many disenfranchised people in the US and the list is growing each day of good people now outcast from the system, and that is not a healthy country, but a very very sick one.

[axollot]

23. Indeed I am lucky to have a choice. But it's a hard choice because

of the way it will split my family. Plus you need money to move to another country and I am on SSDI benefits now. I was disabled in a car accident shortly after moving back here and it's been a major factor in not being able to pick up and go back.
Now due to our status as Aussie/Americans we may be able to go to Canada, which my S.O. would be more willing to do as we would remain on the same continent as our family. We were both Northern US born (SO Toledo, myself Chicago).

SO is so very patriotic he believes this country will get better and insists we must stay to fight. I say we can still fight for it from the safety of Australian (or Canadian) shores.

The next several decades is all I will live long enough to see, if I have any grandchildren I do not want them to grow up in a country that preaches Christian values for everyone but those with the $$ - they get to do whatever they want to do.

It's amazing that this story has not been front page news. Amazing how well it was buried that the NY Times had it on their blog and not front page. Bernie went to jail, everyone asked for his head but whose head do we ask for here as no names are given, Wells Fargo buys them muddying the waters even more.

Cheers
Sandy

[xchrom]

11. Several someones need to go to jail for this.

And how much did wachovia spend in campaign
donations and lobbying?

[axollot]

15. Excellent question. They're a Florida Bank -

and this was being looked at between 2004-2007 period (no telling how long it went on but that's what they looked at). During that time 400 BILLION dollars went through from these sources. 400 Billion.

Cheers
Sandy
who knows now why she always felt ill passing a Wackovia bank and has never banked with them. I will be telling anyone I know about this tho. Although, everyone here seems to have an a/c with Vystar which is a Credit Union.

[No Elephants]

14. Wasn't Wells Fargo the one that complained about pressure from Paulson to take the bailout

when it didn't want or need it?

The fine should be at least triple the criminal income; and personal criminal liability should be imposed upon the human "deciders" and enablers within the corporation.

I find it hard to believe our laws don't already provide for individual liability, so this slap on the wrist may be discretionary.

[axollot]

19. From a quick google -

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/09/eveningnews/main4788018.shtml (02/2009)

Wells Fargo was one of the 1st to receive bail out funds and one of the largest amounts to the tune of 25 billion.

From the link:

Wells Fargo hit the jackpot. It was one of the first banks to get bailout funds - the biggest amount awarded in a single shot: $25 billion tax dollars.

So how's all that money being used? CBS News asked repeatedly and Wells Fargo told us it is "positioned well to continue lending across all sectors and satisfying customers' financial needs, which is in the spirit of the Treasury's plan."

In other words, they didn't give specifics. And the fact is, neither Congress nor the treasury department required them to.

But there's one big change at Wells Fargo that's hard not to notice.

**Troubled Wachovia** has been bought out by Wells Fargo for $12.7 billion, creating the nation's second-largest bank in terms of deposits. But it might not have happened without the generous support of the federal government and your tax dollars.

Link is from 2009 and goes on to talk about it buying up Wachovia! UGH.

There is a law in place that was supposed to stop them from being able to do this - the AML controls. It didnt stop them. People talk about the old mobsters of the day - well we know where they went - they went legal, hide behind a Corporation because then NO ONE has to go to jail! Woopee! If only Capone had thought like this he wouldnt have died in jail of syphalis.

Cheers
Disgusted
Sandy

[PBS Poll-435]

41. Wow.

Do a little more Googlin'

:eyes:

[axollot]

46. What is that supposed to mean? I said it was just a quick look.

[PBS Poll-435]

47. Of course you did. What you came up with is no where in the vicinity of fact

That's why I said do a little more Googlin'.

:)

[axollot]

53. LOL. I was a little worked up earlier and just wanted to know if they

took the bail out. I'm going to blame it on the coffee. :P

Cheers
Sandy

[PBS Poll-435]

58. Wells Fargo, arguably the strongest bank in the country at the time, was "pressured" to take TCPP

Funds in order to not directly show relative strength among it's peers/competitors.

[axollot]

60. I did not know that, obviously! Thanks, n/t

[girl gone mad]

62. Sure, sure.

The mean old government forced poor widdle Wells Fargo to take the money.

That's why they were so eager to pay it all back quickly, right...? :eyes:

[PBS Poll-435]

64. They paid it back "quickly". They also saved taxpayers billions of dollars by absorbing Wachovia

The alternative scenario is much more frightning.


(The Gov't also pressured US Bank and JPMorganChase to take funds that they didn't need...)




:eyes:

[girl gone mad]

61. That one was a massive TARP booster...

and seems to be allergic to the truth.

[PBS Poll-435]

66. Nope. And the weird thing is that I think that you know the truth but still keep up this front.

Why?

:shrug:

[vanboggie]

17. Isn't the BFEE tied up with Wachovia?

They've likely been money laundering for the * drug cartels for years.

[Blue Owl]

21. Corporate criminals???

Unheard of!

:eyes:

[annm4peace]

22. someone should go to jail

and close the gun shows in the US where the drug cartel buy their guns

[axollot]

25. But our 2nd amendment right to shoot potential burglars is so much

more important! :sarcasm:

Cheers
Sandy

[SteveM]

30. That's why I keep mine handy.

Cheers
Steve

[axollot]

33. And you are talking to an old sharp shooter.

I do not have an issue with guns per say however the way it's set up here anyone can get a whole lot of guns and there is a whole lot of crazy going on in the US atm. In Australia (before Hobart), I had to belong to a local gun group and attend meetings as well as the Australian National Shooters Ass. more for educational purposes than anything else. I've shot everything from black powder to 50 cal. and love it dearly as a sport.
Lack of education gets people killed. But it is true, prohibition would not work and would likely make things worse.

Cheers
Sandy

[SteveM]

36. Thanks for your reply...

Please note that the violent crime rate in the U.S. (including those crimes in which guns are employed), has been on a strong decline since the mid-1990s, even as the number of firearms in civilian hands has gone up by over 100,000,000. This is not to say that "more guns=less crime," but to illustrate that the number of firearms in people's hands has not been related to "gun crime." So, what ever "crazy" is going on, it is declining.

The gun show "controversy" has little going for it. In most gun shows, there are LEOs both within and from without the building, looking for felons who should not have guns, and some arrests are made. To close these shows would mean ready-made "sting" operations would shut down (this is why the vast majority of crims & thugs who have obtained guns do NOT get them from gun shows). To shut down a facility having a gun show merely means sales would metastasize to vacant lots, dark streets and car trunks -- or over the kitchen table for most Americans. Gun shows are merely rent-a-halls where folks can sell guns and share the brick & mortar expense.

I wish I could get to the range more often because I enjoy shooting, though not as much as hunting: I killed 2 deer last season and have filled my freezer. I'm a good "localvore."

Thanks again
Steve

[SteveM]

29. Hmm, one prohibition compounded by another...

We already are seeing the results of the War on Drugs, Inc. Now, you want to add in another prohibition tactic, shutting down gun shows? Face it: the cartels can get ANY manner of firearms they want; they have the money, and they have the smuggling network (used for anything, from "smokes to folks"). Keep in mind, that there are millions of firearms south of the border; that is, south of the MEXICAN border, due to years of U.S. interventionist policies and counter-insurgency support. And those arms are usually FULL AUTOMATIC. Oh, and they have the Mexican army, whose full-auto weapons kinda, sort of get up and walk away from arsenals and into -- voila -- the cartels' hands.

Do you really believe that shutting down "gun shows" will stop the cartels from getting guns? Do you really believe that?

[grahamhgreen]

26. So the bank needs to be dissolved - this is BS.

[defendandprotect]

28. Wait a minute . . . WELLS FARGO is part of FEDERAL RESERVE interests?

Is it not????

What we're actually saying here is that not only the banks --

but the FEDERAL RESERVE is laundering drug money!

We have to understand just how threatening this is to our society,

to our economy, to government and democracy!!

We have 12% of African Americans imprisoned -- 1 in 34 Americans!!

While the elites protect and profit from the drug trade !!

The elites and the GOP/NRA gun dealers!!



The GOP has long been aiming to turn America into a third world nation --

they've largely succeeded!


.

[Trillo]

32. Why isn't big brother implicated?

Federal Reserve approved the merger of Wells Fargo and Wachovia, so why isn't big brother implicated?

Probably just another deceptive shell game....

[axollot]

49. To be fair, They would need to prove WF had knowledge of the crime-

to be implicated and they only recently purchased Wachovia.
For me the question is more - why did this go unnoticed for so long, why would they purposefully break AML laws for this to happen. We arent talking small change being transfered. 400 billion dollars total between 2004-2007 laundered. While someone who let this slide in Wachovia should most certainly go to jail, I give credit to The South FL Justice System for finding this and following through the courts.

Cheers
Sandy

EDIT for wordy-ness :P

[axollot]

34. Excellent post. It always sickens me when I hear about how

*free* (tm) we are as a nation, yet have the most prisoners in the world. How is that a free society? It's a facade. The money in this country have been working long and hard to keep the citizens afraid. The TEA people are the kids that had to sit under their desks in the event of an Atomic Bomb. As if the desk was going to protect them much - but that whole red scare rhetoric works well on them today!

Cheers
Sandy

[PBS Poll-435]

42. SOMEBODY CALL GLENN BECK RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!!!!!!!!1111!!!

The Hamilton Model is FAILING!!11!!!

[lib2DaBone]

31. K/R The corruption is so deep and so complete... I can't see a way out for America...

..sure.. we can write and call and fax.. yada, yada, yada... it does no good.

Money talks and BS walks... the lobby money flowing to our elected leaders is so pervasive.. a citizen does not have a chance.

Get caught with a Marijuana cigarette.. and you'll go to jail for 30 years. Rob $3 Trillion from taxpayers and give it to Goldman Sachs... and you end up on the cover of Time as "Person of the Year".

I hate to be negative.. but the Unites States is very, very sick country, with not a doctor in sight.

[axollot]

35. The game is rigged that's for damn sure! n/t

[Poll_Blind]

37. +1. n/t

PB

[RKP5637]

38. Agree so much. I do my bit as a good little citizen, write congress, write

this one and that one, get the same lame responses and often I think WTF, what a waste of time. It provides a catharsis for me, but in the big picture it is useless. Few in power and politics are interested in citizens unless they can use them for something or get a huge donation. Even voting is becoming useless IMO. This country has become totally out of control IMO, and sicker each day.

[axollot]

45. Yes I feel the same way especially since I still receive letters from

my congress critter Cliff Stearns (Douche-bag extraordinaire RW Thug) still using the party line of 2003. It has become a joke in this household on what would happen if I met him in person.

BUT - I have hope as my district boarders on Grayson's district a man for the people. His area and my area are very poor and run down hard right, but if a man like Grayson can get voted in then anything is possible. So I try to continue to not let them get me down so much as to take my vote away - by letting me be to apathetic to go to the polls.

Cheers
Sandy

[RKP5637]

48. Good point! Not to become apathetic. I will still vote, but sadly my choice

is generally RW Republican or RW Democrat, and the Democrats generally lose.

[axollot]

54. To be honest. I think everyone should vote, including inmates.

Non-cits should be the only people unable to. I see the issue with forced voting, where you are given a small fine if you dont vote. That is law in Australia and everyone has their voice heard. It seems to work pretty well over all. Thinking about our prison system made me think just how insidious driving out often the poorest vote, and huge parts of minority communities on top - there is simply no reason to change it if you're the ultra-rich. The prison system is designed to profit when it was privatized. How anyone could think that was a great idea is beyond me but here we are.


Cheers
Sandy

[RKP5637]

55. I also think the electoral college, as well as, districting should be abolished. Votes

should be equal across the country, one for one IMO.

[axollot]

59. I've heard interesting opinion that I agreed with for and against it.

That I have not actually made up my mind.

[PBS Poll-435]

40. Wells Fargo bought Wachovia in 2008. Still 2 independent banks in most states...

Conversion from Wachovia to Wells Fargo occurs in my state in July.


And is it any wonder why Wachovia was having problems?...

[PBS Poll-435]

43. Probe began about 3 years ago. Way before Wachovia was even showing signs of being in trouble

And long before Wells Fargo was even in the realm of thinking of acquisition.

[Matariki]

44. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the whole world is run by one Mafia or another

read an interview w/ Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice, where he talked about the Yakuza's massive influence of Japanese politics. It struck me that it's a much more global thing. Stuff like this really backs it up.

Very depressing.

[RKP5637]

50. Makes you really wonder about the Bilderberg Group, URL included...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group

"G. William Domhoff, a research professor in psychology and sociology who studies theories of power, sees the role of social clubs such as Bilderberg as being nothing more than a means to create social cohesion within a power elite. He adds that those understandings of the clubs such as the Bilderberg fit with the perceptions of the members of the elite. In a 2004 interview with New Internationalist magazine, Domhoff warns progressives against getting distracted by conspiracy theories which demonize and scapegoat such clubs. He argues that the opponents of progressivism are corporate elite, the Republican Party, and conservative Democrats. It is the same people more or less, but it puts them in their most important roles, as capitalists and political leaders, which are visible.<25>"

The more I hear of some of these conspiracy theories, and you look around at what is going on, darn, some of them start to make more and more sense.

[ljm2002]

52. Seriously, where are the criminal charges?

If the bank laundered drug money, and it was illegal enough that they have to pay a fine, then someone knew what was going on and needs to go to prison.

Okay, okay, stop laughing. I know as well as you do, that if you can cough up $50 million you got yourself a nice handy Get Out Of Jail (not Free) card right there.

[leftstreet]

57. K&R

Very interesting!

[BlueIris]

63. Holy CRAP. Disgusting indeed. nt

[DemoTex]

65. QUICK: What's the difference between Wachovia and the other Big Banksters?

Wachovia got caught.