Speakers Corner: Why can’t we all be allowed to launder money? ANONYMOUS
By the time the banking crisis happened in our country back in 2012, we saw some huge improvements in operational procedures in the way that banks receive funds from clients, along with increasing the oversight on who can and cannot have an account. It was not unheard of pre 2012 to hear of representatives of account holders from far off lands, going into the dimly lit back rooms in the belly of the bank with very large sums of money in cash, and their larger personal security staff helping them carry the bags. With KYC being carried out with the shake of a hand, and a nice commission made by the account manager we could see first hand how taking money from some dubious sources was not frowned upon in this country. It was not as bad as the scenes in the famous film Scarface, where the main protagonists walk daily into the bank with millions of dollars. However, from what I understand when the crash occurred, the ‘businessmen’ that had their funds exposed to the hair cut, had interesting ways of making sure that the government policy did not apply to them by using persuasion tactics on the bank manager perhaps only beaten in Guantanamo bay. Having watched bankers go crazy and pretty much destroy a nation’s economy, with little or no recourse from the state or judiciary on those who carried it out. It was not incredibly surprising to read about the $2 Trillion USD that has been washed through several of Tier one banks over the past two decades from the usual alumni of drug dealers and terrorists, and no legal redress being carried out on a global scale for the accused. Reading the recent FinCen reports in the media, which will no doubt disappear from our news feeds soon, it led me to a moment of contemplation on the subject. I Have long believed that where money and humans are in a relationship you will always have corruption. As the banking system runs on these two actors to make it work, why not just let all the money flow regardless where it comes from. Now this may seem absolutely mental, however there is method in my madness. In Cyprus we were labelled as a major money laundering location. However, according to many journalists and academics
who monitor international financial crime, London offers a far more sophisticated operation, which can accommodate those with many billions to have access to clean funds. I think our problem locally was we were not laundering enough or for the right people, therefore we would get huge pressure from the EU to clean up our act. We aimed for the small to medium sized oligarchs that needed funds cleaned, and not the super rich who are looking to have amounts similar to the GDP of a small African nation, moved into the banking system. Every large crime needs what is known as a patsy who takes the blame for the crime acting as the fall guy. This role has been taken on by Cyprus, viewed as the home for all the ills of the global banking system. Cyprus is often seen as the catalyst for this, something which it has been unable to shake off, more in part to its weak PR game. How many times have you said to a client that their funds are being held in a Cyprus bank account, to be greeted with that 3 second silence where they still deep down believe that it is 2012, conjuring the image of impending bread riots and economic collapse. Why is this? incredibly weak PR to speak up for our country, which although not entirely blameless, we do appear to many to be worse than what we actually are.
P - 21
