Michael Pugliese
http://www.anu.org/archives_federalreservenewyorkbank.html
Federal Reserve, NYC Bank Financing Russian Mob's Global Activities.htm Federal Reserve, New York Bank Financing Russian Mob's Global Activities by Paul Richert "Five nights a week, at least $100 million in crisp new $100 bills is flown from JFK [Airport] nonstop to Moscow, where it is used to finance the Russian mob's vast and growing international crime syndicate. State and federal officials believe it is part of a multi-billion-dollar money-laundering operation. The Republic National Bank and the United States Federal Reserve prefer not to think so." So begins a remarkable article in the January 22, 1996 edition of New York magazine. While airline workers at JFK Airport casually toss luggage into a Boeing 767 bound for Russia, an armored truck pulls up, and two armed guards unload 2,300 pounds of crisp new $100 bills, still in their Federal Reserve wrappers, onto the plane. A few minutes later another armored truck pulls up and empties its load, while the airline workers continue to act as if nothing unusual is happening. Robert I. Friedman's article in New York states that the Russian mob is using the unimpeded supply of brand new Federal Reserve $100 bills to finance "a vast and growing international crime syndicate." The Russian mob's operations include a global drug trade, as well as laundering the money through Russian banks to set up operations abroad, as well as investing in legitimate businesses in Europe and the U.S. Friedman writes that "The Russian mob's monstrous growth has been aided considerably by its ability to quickly and easily launder its dirty criminal proceeds into clean --- and now supposedly counterfeit-proof --- U.S. hundreds." Almost all Russian banks are corrupt and gladly accept the endless billions of U.S. currency now entering the country. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the government-controlled banking system collapsed, replaced by private institutions supposedly regulated by the Russian Central Bank, which is apparently the Russian equivalent to the U.S. Federal Reserve --- in function and in corruption and criminal endeavors. A gaggle of mobsters from such countries as the U.S., Germany, Turkey, Italy and some South American countries met in the former Soviet republic of Armenia in July of 1993 and decided to use the new Russian banking system to launder funds in order to maintain and expand the various mobs' activities. The new "liberal democratic" Russia has been systematically looted from the beginning. While billions of laundered U.S. hundred dollar bills entered the country, some $60 to $70 billion worth of gold, rubles and other material assets were shipped out of the country by the mob, which Friedman describes as "a melange of gangsters and black marketers, unemployed KGB spies, and Communist Party hacks." The Russian Central Bank allows felons to own banks. More than a dozen Russian bankers have been murdered since 1994 --- which tends to make even the semi-honest ones fall in line. It wasn't long before the Russian mob set up operations in the U.S. "Long envious of their Jewish cousins in crime, the [Russian Mob] dispatched [godfather] Vyacheslav Ivankov to Brighton Beach [New York] in 1992," writes Friedman. In fact, Friedman's article is loaded with Jewish names, both among the Russian mob and various figures in the U.S. --- both those connected with the mob and those in the Clinton administration doing little or nothing to stop the daily flights of $100 million going to Russia. In the U.S., the bank acting together with the Federal Reserve to provide millions of new $100 bills in tainted money is Republic National Bank of New York City. Republica was founded by Edmond Safra, a Lebanese-born Jew descended from generations of Syrian traders. By the age of 21 Safra had founded a bank in Brazil. Now 63, Safra founded Republic in New York in 1966 with $11 million in capital and opened a lone branch in Manhattan. Safra is now the head of a $50 billion global empire. Republic Bank quickly became known on the street, writes Friedman, for sending "an armored car to pick up large sums from its more secretive customers --- no questions asked." The bank grew rapidly and is now the twentieth largest in the U.S. with assets of $42 billion and more than 70 branches in New York, Florida and California. In the mid-'80s American Express, which had bought Republic's Swiss parent in 1983, began a campaign against Safra, spreading stories depicting Safra as an "unscrupulous operator involved in everything from Iran-Contra to money laundering." Safra successfully sued for libel, and was awarded $8 million in damages, which he gave to four "charities," one of said "charities" being the Anti-Defamation League. Friedman writes that Safra's victory in the libel suit "helped inoculate his bank against subsequent money-laundering allegations that later emanated from legitimate law enforcement inquiries, as well as scare away reporters." The Criminal Investigation Bureau of the New York State Banking Department did begin to investigate Republic two years ago, but when they went to the feds, they were met with blank stares. Friedman quotes a source from the New York Criminal Investigation Bureau as saying, "But 'right down the line' from the FBI to the CIA, basically the response that we were getting was 'Yeah, it looks like we've got a potential problem here, but you know what? It's not our problem.' " Various other federal officials give fumbling, bumbling answers as to why Republic can get away with what it's doing. Friedman stops short of following up on just why the federal government --- whose IRS just loves to hound Americans for a few dollars in unpaid taxes --- sanctions and leaves untaxed the daily transfer of hundreds of millions of dirty dollars to the Russian mob. Perhaps the article --- daring enough as it is for an establishment media source --- couldn't have been published if it hit too close to home. As it is, Friedman has written a fact-packed story that should wake up more than a few Americans and make them wonder about the high-level criminality that is occurring on a global scale --- with the active participation and encouragement of Washington.
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