American Banks 'High' On Drug Money" Whistleblower Blew Lid Off Wachovia-Drug Cartel $$$ Laundering

[kpete]

American Banks 'High' On Drug Money: How a Whistleblower Blew the Lid Off Wachovia-Drug Cartel Money Laundering Scheme
A fraud investigator helped expose the shocking world of multi-billion dollar drug laundering by American banks and the surprising lack of oversight by the Feds.

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When Woods zeroed in on deposited traveler's checks with sequential numbers sent by the CDC he discovered that large amounts of funds were exceedingly more than a typical person would need. The questionable CDC checks either lacked adequate identifying information or had none at all, including no legible signatures affixed on the funds.

Following this discovery investigator Woods issued a "suspicious activity report" (SAR) on a series of the CDCs' financial transfers and deposits. Then he requested the CDC checks to be temporarily blocked from transaction pending further investigation.

Not long after, an exchange of heated words occurred. A senior Miami-based manager called Woods' SAR reports "defensive and unwarranted."

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Wachovia officials ordered Woods to cease inquiries about Mexican CDCs and to also stop blocking other Eastern Europe and Moscow accounts. The British investigator, snapped, "I don't need to read up on Mexico. My interest are drug trafficking and money laundering."

THE REST (lots):
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/151135/american_banks_%27high%27_on_drug_money%3A_how_a_whistleblower_blew_the_lid_off_wachovia-drug_cartel_money_laundering_scheme/?page=entire

[Hotler]

1. k&r n/t

[xchrom]

2. where there's one doing it -- there's others.

can't wait for them to get busted.

[mucifer]

3. I'm curious to see if they are above the law if no laws can touch them . nt

[xchrom]

5. you'd thing money laundering would have put them under for good. pad lock on the doors.

so to that extent -- yes they are above the law.

[mucifer]

9. Isn't that what the whole Iran-Contra thing was about?

Doesn't give me much confidence in justice. Hell, oliver north got a radio show deal out of it.

[xchrom]

10. indeed. iran/contra. nothing new under the sun. nt

[shraby]

4. We should have known when Bush said they were cracking

down on money laundering, it was just for the Mom and Pop accounts with a hundred dollars or so in them.

[mopinko]

6. got that

[azul]

7. Can local sheriffs seize the assets?

Like they get do for other drug dealers, seize first and sell stuff and let the courts try to f-up after.

Will there be armed competition to occupy the money stores?

[RainDog]

8. time to seize the banks' assets

and put them in the federal coffers to help pay down the mess created by the bankers.

ironic, that.

[sofa king]

11. As I said here recently:

The shady drug money goes to shady banks, the shady banks offer low-interest corporate loans, and money gravitates from the very bottom of society directly to the top.

But the process requires the illusion that something is being done about it. Hence the drug war.