The sale of fake shares requires a sophisticated network. Abrue’s criminal organisation uses bogus websites, shell offices, glossy brochures and mass-market emails. ibid.
George Abrue Gang - London - Sweden - Barcelona: Organised crime has moved into our financial markets. Thousands of victims across Britain have lost their livelihoods. The most vulnerable are the prime targets. Tonight, the City of London police investigated a gang making millions. ibid.
Fraud is the new goldmine for criminal gangs. 3,200,000 people in Britain have become victims. Organised crime’s latest enterprise is to con people into purchasing shares in companies that don’t exist. ibid.
The City of London police have a specialist department tackling fraudsters nationally and internationally. They have identified 1,200 boiler rooms making criminals over £300 million per year. ibid.
Criminal gangs share the list of people they have conned. ibid.
The sale of fake shares requires a sophisticated network. Abrue’s criminal organisation uses bogus websites, shell offices, glossy brochures and mass-market emails. ibid.
The City of London Police have arrested nine people. They are accused of selling millions of pounds’ of fake shares to hundreds of British victims. Fraud Squad II
Ringleader Abrue has been arrested in Sweden for assault. ibid.
Fraud is one of the fastest growing crimes in Britain. ibid.
Nine suspects are charged with sixteen offences. ibid.
Detectives have seized £1 million in assets from the gang. The victims have lost £20 million. ibid.
And so the Crimson Permanent Assurance was launched on the high seas of international finance. Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life 1983 starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Terry Gilliam & Eric Idle & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Carol Cleveland & Patricia Quinn & Judy Loe & Simon Jones & Matt Frewer & Jane Leeves et al, director Terry Jones
The Bible runs as little as $49.95. And we have three plans on it. Maysles Brothers & Zwerin, Salesman, 1968, Paul Brennan
Money is being made in the Bible business. ibid. sales pep talk to salesmen
The oligarchs and organised crime bosses started colonising Israel for a number of reasons. It was the ideal place to invest or launder money. Israel’s banking system was designed to encourage atiyah ... Israel had embraced the zeitgeist of international financial deregulation and considerably eased controls on the import and export of capital ... It had no money-laundering legislation. Misha Glenny, McMafia
Israeli police estimated that these Russians laundered between $5 and $10 billion through Israeli banks in the 15 years following the collapse of communism. ibid.
But the extent of the internationalisation of organised crime and the role that Israelis played in it would not have been possible without globalisation – and one aspect in particular, the deregulation of international financial markets. ibid.
The urgent need for greater financial regulation in the financial markets: in a world where legitimate institutions are unable to account properly for their dealings, the ability of criminals to launder their money through this merry-go-round of speculation is greatly increased. ibid.
It is not globalisation in itself that has spurred the spectacular growth of organised crime in recent years, but global markets that are either insufficiently regulated, especially in the financial sector, or too closely regulated, as in the labour and agricultural markets. ibid.
At the twilight of the British empire, bankers, lawyers and accountants from the City of London set up a spider’s web of offshore secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and funnelled it to London. The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire ***** 2017, Youtube 1.18.01
The British Empire: the largest empire the world has ever known. For over 300 years Britain ruled, its armies conquered, and its bankers proclaimed the might of its currency. But one day it all began to fall apart. One by one countries declared their independence from Britain and no amount of force could reverse the tide. As British elites saw their wealth, privileges and empire disintegrate, they began to search for a new role in a changing world. And they found one in finance. This is a film about how Britain transformed from a colonial power to a modern financial power and how this transformation has shaped the world we live in. ibid.
Britain’s overseas jurisdictions – the last remnants of empire. Accountants and lawyers from London arrived in the Cayman Islands and other dependencies and began to draft a set of secrecy laws and regulations. ibid.
The City of London adapted and survived … Its Lord Mayor is selected by the heads of medieval guilds. ibid.
‘Over and over again we have seen that there is another power than that which has its seat at Westminster. The City of London, a convenient term for a collection of financial interests, is able to assert itself against the government of the country. Those who control money can pursue a policy at home and abroad contrary to that which is being decided by the people.’ ibid. Clement Attlee
BCCI: extensive financial fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing … The Bank of England did nothing. ibid.
‘The Trust lies at the core of the British secrecy model.’ ibid. expert
International banks from across the globe set up branches in London and Britain’s offshore jurisdictions in order to take advantage of this new system. ibid.
Secrecy jurisdictions are heavily used for fraudulent and grey area financial activities, areas where secrecy is not just desirable but a necessity. ibid.
The Cayman Islands is the first largest financial centre in the world. It hosts 80,000 registered companies, over three-quarters of the world’s hedge funds and $1.9 trillion in deposits. It has a population of 60,000, roughly equivalent to New York’s homeless population. ibid.
Accountants form the backbone of the offshore system; they administer the structures that allow individuals and corporations to shift their money offshore and evade taxes. ibid.
In Britain secrecy and complexity in finance and government help to obscure corruption in public office. ibid.
The moment that defined the chaos of the 21st century: a financial atomic bomb exploded in the heart of the world’s banking system, sucking up the lifeblood of the global economy. The Treason Trilogy I: Casino Capitalism, Terror and Doom, 2011
Banks too big to go bust held nations to ransom. Trillions of dollars cascaded into bankers’ vaults. ibid.
Subprime mortgages blighted whole neighbourhoods, boarded up houses were vandalised, driving down the value of next-door properties. ibid.
The way we abuse each other in the scramble to monopolise the riches of Earth. ibid.
But we won’t be able to reform the laws if we allow corporations to compromise the democratic process by buying the privileges that put their profits above the interests of everyone else. ibid.
The world is out of control: a legacy of the West’s dirty secret. ibid.
Lives are shattered when people speculate in property. ibid.
And that charge of treason can be levelled against many governments in the twenty-first century. ibid.
Meltdown: A four-part investigation into the greed and recklessness that drove the world into financial collapse. Meltdown: The Secret History of the Financial Global Collapse I: The Men Who Crashed the World, CBC 2011
The crash of 2008 brought the largest bankruptcies in world history, pushed over 30 million people into unemployment, and brought many countries to the edge of insolvency. ibid.
Banks began making what were called subprime loans to people who could ill afford to pay back the money. ibid.
Greenspan was revered in Washington. ibid.
Banks and mortgage companies were indulging in all sorts of fraudulent practices. ibid.
Bankers went wild for these financial securities which were really just stacks of IOUs. ibid.
He [George Brown] called his approach the Light Touch. ibid.
Worried Northern Rock customers lined up to get their money out. ibid.
Rumours swept the financial world that Bear Stearns had liquidity problems. ibid.
The world financial system went into cardiac arrest. Meltdown: The Secret History of the Financial Global Collapse II: A Global Tsunami
The next crisis … The near-collapse of the world’s biggest insurance company AIG. ibid.
In the end they got the powers and the money but the signs of depressions started to appear anyway. ibid.
‘The biggest welfare cheque in history had been paid to Wall Street.’ ibid.
The orgy of greed and recklessness that drove the world into financial collapse. Meltdown: The Secret History of the Financial Global Collapse III: Paying the Price
The year since the 2008 collapse have been marked by demonstrations around the world … In some countries the struggle went much further. ibid.