<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 5.5.2650.12"> <TITLE>"When did you first notice that you had become quietly wealthy?" </TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> There is a quarter-page advertisement for private banking services in the current NY Observer that has certain, er, resonance in light of recent events.  The headline reads:  "When did you first notice that you had become quietly wealthy?"  Sustaining that unctuous tone (characteristic of private banking pitches) the copy begins:  "Chances are, you've looked at your portfolio recently and the rewards of investing over time have made themselves abundantly clear.  Now is a good time to think about preserving your wealth, even as you continue to enjoy it." The ad was run by none other than The Bank of New York. Today's NY Times supplies useful context for that ad: "In the eight years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Bank of New York has emerged as the undisputed leader in providing an essential behind-the-scenes payment service linking Russia's economy with the West. It is a high-volume business in which thousands of international transactions are handled in a sequence of payments involving Russian and foreign banks. "Now, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation examines the bank's records for possible money laundering, specialists question whether the huge flow of money -- nearly $4 billion a day -- made the bank less vigilant than it should have been about the background of its customers and the sources of their money. "'They turned into a huge supermarket,' said Andrei Melnichenko, the director of MDM Bank, which was a Bank of New York customer until he had a dispute with the bank. 'If you have many clients and you want to have good relations, you don't have time enough to control all of it and there is a risk of error.'" Errors such as getting caught. Carl </BODY> </HTML>