The pillars of our wonderful capitalist system is the financial giants, our honourable banks. They oil the wheels of capitalism, they feed the growth of the parasites' wealth, and now we find that they are up to their necks in wheeling and dealing with criminal and corrupt elements, laundering trillions of their ill gotten gains of this festering mess we call capitalism.
UK bank shares have taken a hit after some of the world's largest lenders were accused of allowing criminals to launder dirty money.
Over 2,100 suspicious activity reports (SARs) covering more than $2trn (£1.5trn) in transactions were leaked to BuzzFeed News and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
These reports, and more than 17,600 other records obtained by the ICIJ, allegedly show how senior banking officials allowed fraudsters to move money between accounts in the knowledge that the funds were being generated or used criminally.
Five global banks were named in the investigation: JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon.
Their greed and brass necks allow them to follow the money, no matter where or how it was generated, more funds in the bank means higher share prices, then bigger bonuses for the masters. To expect other than this from these financial vultures, is being rather naive. After all they firmly believe that they control the world.
The ICIJ reported that some of the banks named continued to work with "mobsters, fraudsters or corrupt regimes" even after they were warned by US officials that they would face criminal prosecutions for doing so.
The sums involved are no trifling petty cash, but vast fortunes, and they are not one or two isolated incidents, it is hundreds of transactions over a considerable lapse of time.
The top 10 banks represented in the FinCEN Files include:
Institution Number of SARs Amount flagged Deutsche Bank 982 $1.3 trillion BNY Mellon 325 $64bn Standard Chartered 232 $166bn JP Morgan 107 $514bn Barclays 104 $21bn HSBC 73 $4.4bn Bank of China 35 $1.3bn Bank of America 35 $384m Wells Fargo 21 $57m Citibank 18 $251m Data compiled by Buzzfeed News
Looks like Deutsche Bank could be the biggest money laundering machine in the world. So what does all this tells us, well nothing new, we should all be aware that the entire capitalist system is built on exploitation, though some of that exploitation receives the stamp of legitimacy from the state, others are given the badge of criminality. The latter are simply cash making exploitations that the state feels it has not got control of, nothing to do with morality, ethics or any of that stuff. Of course pursuing these types of affairs creates the illusion that the state is the guardian of the purity of our capitalist system. Will they pursue all those who made money from the rising shares and bonuses, as the stinking trillions flowed smoothly through the system?
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