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John Kerry's testimony on offshore money laundering

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nothingshocksmeanymore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 03:13 PM
Original message
John Kerry's testimony on offshore money laundering
Edited on Wed Feb-04-04 03:48 PM by nothingshocksmeanymo
Kerry had worked back in the late 90's on blocking off shore money laundering and his foresight on this matter and it's relationship to terrorism was outlined in 1997.

For those who say he adopts all of Bush's programs, perhaps you should read this:

<snip>
Today, too many nations - some small, remote islands - have laws that provide for excessive bank secrecy, anonymous company incorporation, economic citizenship, and other provisions that directly conflict with well-established international anti-money laundering standards. These nations have become money laundering havens for international criminal organizations like the al-Qaida.

<snip>

However, I am concerned that the money laundering strategy recently released by the Bush Administration begins to step away from the bilateral efforts that have proven successful in fighting financial crime and contradict the tough stance rightly taken by President Bush in his recent Executive Order. The new strategy, combined with efforts previously announced by Treasury Secretary O'Neill related to tax havens, seems to support a more unilateral approach toward fighting financial crimes instead of the successful multilateral approach adopted by the OECD and the FATF. I believe this will make it more difficult to track and freeze the assets international terrorists like bin Laden and expand upon the recent progress we have achieved. I also believe that this is the wrong time to pull back our efforts to stop money laundering into the United States by increasing the amounts necessary to require a Suspicious Activity Report issued by a financial institution.

It is now time for the United States to do its part to stop international money laundering and stop international criminals from laundering the proceeds of their crimes into the United States financial system. First, I believe the Bush Administration should call an emergency meeting of the G-7 nations and the Financial Action Task Force to implement a more vigorous international strategy to cut off the blood money that these international criminal networks use. Second, the United States should immediately impose bilateral and multilateral sanctions against any country that has, through neglect or design, permitted its financial systems to be used by bin Laden or other terrorist groups.

Third, the Congress should pass the International Counter-Money Laundering and Foreign Anticorruption Act of 2001, which I introduced along with Senators Grassley, Sarbanes, Levin and Rockefeller. During the 106th Congress, the House Banking Committee passed this bill with a bipartisan 33-1 vote. The bill will give the Secretary of the Treasury the tools necessary to crack down on international money laundering havens and protect the integrity of the U.S. financial system. The bill provides for actions that will be graduated, discretionary, and targeted, in order to focus actions on international transactions involving criminal proceeds, while allowing legitimate international commerce to continue to flow unimpeded.

http://banking.senate.gov/01_09hrg/092601/kerry.htm
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sandnsea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 03:44 PM
Response to Original message
1. They are so screwed
Between these reports and the reports of how he wanted to change intelligence gathering and the legislation he's introduced; they can't touch him.
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sistersofmercy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 06:06 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. I agree
I can't wait to see Kerry debate bush*.
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blm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 07:17 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. same here. THIS is why I have supported him for so long.
He really has the accumulated knowledge, not just to beat Bush's ass from here to eternity, but have COATTAILS. I also see his great depth in these areas as exactly what is needed in a president for these times.
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Tantrum Donating Member (6 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 07:48 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. coattails for who?
Kerry'll lose all of the southern Democrats who are trying to replace the incumbents who are retiring. I know there are other candidates that can do much better than Kerry.

Kerry = elitist.
Dean = pragmatist.
Clark = militarist.
Edwards = wannabe.

Who would you choose?

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salin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 07:22 PM
Response to Original message
4. Very strong position and is at the heart of one of bush's vulnerabilities.
Remember shortly after 911 they were going to go after the financing of terrorist networks... but suddenly backed off - because it would allow going after this whole off-shore tax sheltering (that we now know VP Cheney's Halliburton had mastered to a tee) as well - so they lopped this off of legitimate areas of intel gathering and actions. Every time we are told of another heightened alert - this question should come up along with (playing their game)... if this alert is real... just why is it that we never made real progress in doing as the admin said - cutting off the terror funding ... Pretty powerful way to turn each 'higher alert' into a stab at the heart of the bushco image of being "strong on national security"... don't you think?
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nothingshocksmeanymore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 07:27 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Molly Ivins had written about Laurence Lindsay's backing off of Clinton's
plan in June of that year ( '01). Then of course, they did tighten it up after they gave their cronies a chance to move their money around.

I would venture to guess Kerry understands banking technicalities better than any of the candidates.
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RUMMYisFROSTED Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 07:29 PM
Response to Original message
6. I"m sorry. I thought you were talking about Kerry's offshore
money laundering.


Kerry took a loss in tax shelter in 1984 to avoid political fallout

Until now, Kerry has never disclosed details of this tax shelter, which utilized offshore companies registered in the Cayman Islands and a "straddle" scheme of forward contracts to buy and sell commodities, apparently worth up to $238,527.

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061903b.shtml



Whoops!
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Tantrum Donating Member (6 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 07:49 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. Nice!
Nice counter to this -- it shows what kind of man Kerry is -- a hypocrite.

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nothingshocksmeanymore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 07:56 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. Where's the scandal, he took the loss and paid the taxes?
Jesus Christ! Can you dig for something worth reading?
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RUMMYisFROSTED Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 08:05 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. He moved his money offshore in order to avoid taxes.
Edited on Wed Feb-04-04 08:05 PM by RUMMYisFROSTED
And then he turns around and assails corporations that do just that (while running for office). He's fighting for the little people!


I'm not suggesting any major illegality. I'm suggesting that the type of person that was more worried about paying taxes than paying his/her fair share is the kind of person that doesn't give a shit about anybody else. In my household we call them Republicans. You've got millions yet you're worried about $40,000 in taxes. It's pointless.
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nothingshocksmeanymore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 08:07 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. Read your own article. He was flat broke at the time he did it.
Edited on Wed Feb-04-04 08:08 PM by nothingshocksmeanymo
Tax shelters were being set up as legal means of AVOIDING NOT EVADING taxes in the 80's (and it is NOT a crime to AVOID taxes) and as soon as the ethics were challenged by his accountant he took care of it. Really..so what?

BTW: Your own post indicates you didn't read your own article. He didn't have millions at the time. Busted.

another edit: And as a campaign issue, that would be really stupid for Bush to bring up..ya think?
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KaraokeKarlton Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-04-04 09:19 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. "Avoiding" and "evading" are the same damn thing when it comes to taxes
Kerry's little endeavor was NOT legal. He also broke the law after pulling out by NOT reporting it and trying to hide the fact that he did what he did. That's evasive.
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