Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. When
Speaker 1: you talk about money laundering and ways to hide money,
Speaker 1: there are many creative ways that the rich and powerful
Speaker 1: have come up with, whether it be in real estate
Speaker 1: or hiding money offshore. They always come up with a
Speaker 1: way to make sure that they're protected and that they're
Speaker 1: not getting absolutely crushed with taxes. And when you talk
Speaker 1: about a guy like Jeffrey Epstein, while he was doing
Speaker 1: a lot more, it wasn't just to avoid paying taxes.
Speaker 1: He wanted to shield all of that money from public view.
Speaker 1: He didn't want people to know where his money was
Speaker 1: tied up. He didn't want to know, he didn't want
Speaker 1: people to know where his investments were, and he wanted
Speaker 1: to keep things shadowy and all gummed up. That way,
Speaker 1: if he was ever caught, nobody could put the pieces together.
Speaker 1: And one of the best ways to do that, one
Speaker 1: of the best ways to stash your money these is
Speaker 1: high end art. Not only do you have you know,
Speaker 1: the ritzy buying art these days, you have drug traffickers,
Speaker 1: you have you know, arms traffickers, you name it, and
Speaker 1: criminals who are a little bit more hip to what's
Speaker 1: going on anyway. Well, they're putting their money into art.
Speaker 1: You look at inflation, you look at the stock market,
Speaker 1: you look at how things are tanking. Well, guess what
Speaker 1: market is never affected. That's right, arts and antiquities. So
Speaker 1: there's a reason people like Leon Black have you know,
Speaker 1: five six, seven hundred million dollars in artwork. Very hard
Speaker 1: for the government to trace. That, very hard for the
Speaker 1: government to track that. And well, what's the biggest problem
Speaker 1: these drug dealers have bringing the money home? Right? What
Speaker 1: would be easier having your money invested in a picasso
Speaker 1: that's never going to lose value or shoe boxes of
Speaker 1: cash that are being eaten by the rats. So it
Speaker 1: just makes sense for a high end money movers and
Speaker 1: criminals really to get involved in this game. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying the whole entire high end art market is
Speaker 1: a money wandering scheme, but it's certainly a vehicle that
Speaker 1: they're using the same way that they're using high end
Speaker 1: real estate. I mean, look at these buildings that we
Speaker 1: have around the country, big ass buildings built and nobody
Speaker 1: in the offices. It's because they have ways to get
Speaker 1: over on the government via tax loopholes, via write offs,
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. That's the motivation, and that's certainly
Speaker 1: the motivation with a lot of these people and their
Speaker 1: purchases of high end art. They don't want to pay
Speaker 1: the money on it, they don't want to have to
Speaker 1: transport the money on it, and they want to make
Speaker 1: sure that the value of their investment stays where it's at,
Speaker 1: and the art market is certainly one of the best
Speaker 1: mediums for them to accomplish the And in today's article
Speaker 1: from art net, we're gonna keep on this topic and
Speaker 1: talk about it, So let's dive in. This article was
Speaker 1: authored by Taylor Defoe and this article was published on
Speaker 1: February second of twenty twenty two. Like I said art
Speaker 1: Net headline, more than sixteen hundred works of art, including
Speaker 1: major pieces by Bankseat, were secretly shoveled through shell companies.
Speaker 1: The Pandora Papers reveal a new report shows how the
Speaker 1: wealthy exploited the relatively unregulated art market to protect their money.
Speaker 1: Do you really think that all of these people that
Speaker 1: were involved in high end art are these like connoisseurs
Speaker 1: or are they just scumbags who know that this is
Speaker 1: a proper vehicle to stash their money. Go and talk
Speaker 1: to any high end tax accountant, and they'll tell you
Speaker 1: that this is a great vehicle. More than sixteen hundred
Speaker 1: works of art by some four hundred artists were quietly
Speaker 1: shuffled through shell companies and taxaans, according to records from
Speaker 1: the Pandora Papers, a trove of eleven point nine million
Speaker 1: leaked documents that revealed the offshore accounts of numerous world leaders.
Speaker 1: And you know who else was caught up in this.
Speaker 1: You know the guy Zelenski over there in Ukraine. Everybody
Speaker 1: seems to think, is this great leader. Well, up until
Speaker 1: this invasion, basically he was being looked at sideways for
Speaker 1: being a kleptocrat. You can go and find articles from
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, twenty twenty that talked about how his
Speaker 1: whole entire mantro was coming in and getting rid of
Speaker 1: the oligarchs, getting rid of the kleptocrats, only to do
Speaker 1: the same exact thing that they were doing. In a
Speaker 1: new report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ,
Speaker 1: the group that published the Pandora Papers last fall, researchers
Speaker 1: show the ways in which the wealthy used their relatively
Speaker 1: unre regulated art markets to secretly move their money and Look,
Speaker 1: I know it sounds crazy, right, Who thinks about this?
Speaker 1: When you're sitting around, you know, thinking about money laundering
Speaker 1: or whatever. The last thing people think about is the
Speaker 1: art market. Well, if you think that people like the
Speaker 1: cartels and big time narcotics movers. I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: corner boys. I'm not talking about people who are moving
Speaker 1: small amounts of weight. I'm talking about people with real work.
Speaker 1: These people are investing their money like anyone else. And
Speaker 1: one of the main vehicles folks, I'm telling you right
Speaker 1: now for people like this is this high end art market.
Speaker 1: It is not regulated, very rarely looked at, and how
Speaker 1: are you going to track it in the first place.
Speaker 1: London financier Mauricio Fabris, for instance, has used an offshore
Speaker 1: trust in New Zealand to acquire more than a dozen
Speaker 1: works by the highly sought after street artist Banksy since
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine. Among the major he bought our
Speaker 1: flower Thrower, Grow with Balloon and Rude Copper. The latter
Speaker 1: depicts a police officer giving the middle finger. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not really too hip on art, I'll be straight up
Speaker 1: with you. I'm not somebody who follows the art scene
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But some of these pictures from Banksy,
Speaker 1: these drawings and renderings pretty cool. Again, it's terribly ironic.
Speaker 1: John zarabel, a San Francisco University professor and author, told
Speaker 1: the ICIJ the artist's work, he explained, attacks not only authority,
Speaker 1: but the political and economic structures that undergird the art world.
Speaker 1: But when you become a famous artist like Banksy, as
Speaker 1: your work gains a lot of value and then it
Speaker 1: can become a tool in these kinds of schemes by
Speaker 1: the ultra wealthy in order to hide their wealth. And
Speaker 1: it goes even further than that with some of these people. Sure,
Speaker 1: the wealthy have been looking to game the system forever,
Speaker 1: and it's hilarious that they're trying to game the system
Speaker 1: considering they created the system. But here we are with
Speaker 1: them still trying to get over stash money, hide money.
Speaker 1: They can never have enough right. Through an agreement with
Speaker 1: a Singapore based financial service provider called Asiati Trust, Fabris
Speaker 1: was allowed to display the works at his home without
Speaker 1: paying taxes. He later sold three of the pieces to
Speaker 1: a London gallery run by Banksy's former agent, just as
Speaker 1: Fabris came under investigation for tax fraud in Italy. Well,
Speaker 1: of course you're gonna eventually get nailed in one of
Speaker 1: these countries if you're out here acting like a jerk
Speaker 1: off and Fabris nailed. You see, these people that are
Speaker 1: involved in this game, they think they're way smarter than
Speaker 1: everybody else in the room, and a lot of times
Speaker 1: they outsmart themselves. As a result of that investigation, Fabris,
Speaker 1: a former race car driver, was formally charged with tax
Speaker 1: evasion in twenty fifteen. After that, Asiati transferred ownership of
Speaker 1: the banks the artworks from the Fabris Trust back to
Speaker 1: the man himself and to shell companies in the UK
Speaker 1: and British Virgin Islands were closed. I mean, really, and
Speaker 1: this is going on, rinse and repeat. We're talking about
Speaker 1: this gentleman Fabris here, but you can insert numerous people
Speaker 1: into this conversation and they're making the same moves, acting
Speaker 1: goofy in the same way, and our government are sitting
Speaker 1: around and letting it happen. They're the ones who write
Speaker 1: the laws. Remember, they're the ones who put these loopholes
Speaker 1: in there. Do we really need a tax code that's
Speaker 1: five million pages long? Should be one page? Here's what
Speaker 1: you pay, Here's how you can write, write off your expenses,
Speaker 1: done and done. But no, it has to be a
Speaker 1: whole ass fucking thing like everything else. Right. Other parties
Speaker 1: included in the ICIJ's new report include controversial Russian television
Speaker 1: CEO Constantine Ernst, members of the powerful Sri Lankan Rajapaksa family,
Speaker 1: and the Indian auction house Saffron Art. Now we know
Speaker 1: that this led directly to the Rajapaksa family losing power
Speaker 1: and basically Sri Lanka, you know, devolving into a non
Speaker 1: functional government and non functional nation at this point. And
Speaker 1: a lot of that had to do with this family,
Speaker 1: the Rajapaxas being outed as kleptocrats, and the people, look,
Speaker 1: they don't want to deal with it. People have had enough,
Speaker 1: you know what. People are sick of. People are sick
Speaker 1: and tired of not being able to pay their own bills,
Speaker 1: working all day, killing themselves, coming home, not having the
Speaker 1: energy to even play with their children. And meanwhile these
Speaker 1: people are out here stealing hand over fist and there's
Speaker 1: never any sort of punishment for them, never any retribution.
Speaker 1: They call the whole lass world economy to crash in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, and nobody went to prison. Each
Speaker 1: was shown to have used offshore companies to purchase art
Speaker 1: tax free, but none have been accused of illegal activity.
Speaker 1: According to the Art newspaper. A review of the Panama
Speaker 1: Papers previously revealed that the late disgraced antiquities dealer Douglas
Speaker 1: Latchford also used offshore trust to sell looted art. And
Speaker 1: that's another big deal. You have a lot of looted
Speaker 1: art on the market now after the ISIS invasion of Iraq,
Speaker 1: the ISIS invasion of Syria, we're talking about the levant here.
Speaker 1: There's so much history in those museums and ancient artifacts.
Speaker 1: Now those ancient artifacts, they're looted and they're sold, and
Speaker 1: they find their way to the hands of people like this,
Speaker 1: And instead of doing the right thing, you know, you
Speaker 1: would think, if you're some rich collector, you'd want to
Speaker 1: make sure that this gets back to the people who
Speaker 1: own it. You buy it for yourself through a shell company,
Speaker 1: and then you sit on it and you launder your
Speaker 1: money through it, rinse and repeat. But you know who
Speaker 1: else is getting into this game, folks. Narco traffickers, the
Speaker 1: cartel bosses are not stupid men, and anyone who thinks
Speaker 1: they are is not paying attention, And don't even get
Speaker 1: me started on people like the Kinahans. You know that
Speaker 1: they're in this game. So considering we're talking about money
Speaker 1: laundering this week and Jeffrey Epstein's finances, all of this
Speaker 1: stuff goes hand in hand. All of Jeffrey Epstein's biggest
Speaker 1: bag men are huge in the world of art. So
Speaker 1: ask yourselves, why is that? Why are they so involved
Speaker 1: in art and why do they have such big collections.
Speaker 1: It couldn't be because they're trying to hide their finances,
Speaker 1: could it. That's gonna do it for this episode. If
Speaker 1: you'd like to contact me, you can do that at
Speaker 1: Bobby Gapuchi at protonmeil dot com. That's bo bbu Y
Speaker 1: c apu Cci at proton on mail dot com. Can
Speaker 1: also find me on Twitter at Bobby underscore c ap Ucci.
Speaker 1: The link that I discussed can be found in the
Speaker 1: description box about the art world. In regards to Jeffrey
Speaker 1: Epstein and those fellow travelers that he was always hanging
Speaker 1: out with, like Leon Black and Jess Staley and Glenn
Speaker 1: Dubin and the rest of them, well, they're all involved
Speaker 1: in this shady, sisty ass art world. In fact, Glenn
Speaker 1: Dubin and Leon Black are both on the MoMA board.
Speaker 1: We also know from the Fins and Files investigation that
Speaker 1: has broken in the last few months that there is
Speaker 1: a huge problem with money laundering in the art world,
Speaker 1: and we know that this world is used for money laundering,
Speaker 1: for hiding money, and for evading taxes. That has been established.
Speaker 1: So it's no shock that we have an article today
Speaker 1: about Jeffrey Epstein and his Picasso and his Chazani. These
Speaker 1: people would buy these pieces of art and then they
Speaker 1: would use these pieces of art to launder money, and
Speaker 1: it's still going on today. What do you think is
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein's gone, that this party's over? It's not. This
Speaker 1: whole entire art world, just like the world of modeling,
Speaker 1: needs to be completely and utterly audited. There is no
Speaker 1: oversight here whatsoever. How many of these rich people are
Speaker 1: buying one hundred million dollar paintings and then not paying
Speaker 1: taxes on them, using them as money laundering tools. How
Speaker 1: many of them are doing it? I would say a
Speaker 1: lot of them. And I think that if a real
Speaker 1: investigation was ever ever carried out, or if there was
Speaker 1: ever an audit of one of these places, I think
Speaker 1: it would be clear as day what these people are
Speaker 1: up to. But the problem is, none of these people
Speaker 1: have ever really faced serious scrutiny. Every time they get
Speaker 1: in trouble, it becomes some sort of fine or some
Speaker 1: sort of suspended penalty. Nobody in the financial world, and
Speaker 1: that's what we're talking about here, right, Normal people aren't
Speaker 1: buying picassos. These people in the financial world have never
Speaker 1: ever had any consequences for their behavior. Destroy the economy, bad,
Speaker 1: No big deal. We'll just belly you out. Here's a
Speaker 1: few tart programs for you. Give out a bunch of
Speaker 1: predatory loans, bad, No big deal. Helping bezel money, bah,
Speaker 1: just part of the course. Folks involved with money laundering,
Speaker 1: sex traffickers or murderers or a cartels, bah, no big deal.
Speaker 1: Let's look the other way. We're all getting rich here
Speaker 1: and that needs to stop, and it needs to stop
Speaker 1: at the very top. Our lawmakers need to take this
Speaker 1: shit more seriously. They need to have strict and stringent
Speaker 1: rules when it comes to money laundering, and not just
Speaker 1: for normal folks, because when it comes to average people,
Speaker 1: like if you were engaged in a money laundering scheme,
Speaker 1: forget it, you'd be underneath the prison already, but there
Speaker 1: needs to be an elimination of these loopholes and these
Speaker 1: backroom deals and the way that this stuff is navigated,
Speaker 1: because I'll tell you what, people are fed up. People
Speaker 1: are tired of rules for thee but not for me.
Speaker 1: People are tired of that. And it's coming to a head, folks.
Speaker 1: It really is coming to a head. You see it
Speaker 1: around the world. People are fired up and they're demanding change.
Speaker 1: And these governments that don't start smelling what their people
Speaker 1: are cooking are going to be in serious jeopardy in
Speaker 1: the future because how long are normal, average people supposed
Speaker 1: to sit back and be abused, be treated horribly, be
Speaker 1: preyed upon by these so called elites as they feed
Speaker 1: us into their never ending war machine, build their fortunes
Speaker 1: on our back, and then when shit goes south and
Speaker 1: we have a pandemic like this, they tell the work
Speaker 1: in class, screw you, you're on your own. Well, don't worry.
Speaker 1: All of our huge major companies got PPP loans, but
Speaker 1: you guys, screw you, not even some unemployment. And that's
Speaker 1: the way these people conduct themselves, and it's not going
Speaker 1: to work out for them for much longer. We have
Speaker 1: the largest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind
Speaker 1: that has taken place during this pandemic, and I think
Speaker 1: the number is some crazy number like twenty six point
Speaker 1: three percent of all money ever printed in the history
Speaker 1: of the United States has been printed in like the
Speaker 1: last year. That means inflation is not far behind, folks.
Speaker 1: So we have to get our shit together and we
Speaker 1: have to make sure that these people that we send
Speaker 1: to Washington, DC are not there to be part of
Speaker 1: the political ruling class. People need to go to DC
Speaker 1: to represent their constituents, point blank, period the end. And
Speaker 1: until we can get to that point, until we can
Speaker 1: get to a point where there's none of this money
Speaker 1: coming in from out of state to influence senatorial races
Speaker 1: or congress races or any of that jazz, then it's
Speaker 1: just going to be the same bullshit over and over
Speaker 1: and over again. These same people were talking about who
Speaker 1: were manipulating the money, who are laundering money, who are
Speaker 1: hiding the money. These are the same people pumping that
Speaker 1: money into your state and local races. It needs to end.
Speaker 1: And these people that hide their money in their paintings
Speaker 1: and in their artwork and in these high rise buildings.
Speaker 1: We're onto you, folks, now all right, you're no longer
Speaker 1: going to be able to piss on our backs and
Speaker 1: tell us it's raining. That ship is sailed, the curtain
Speaker 1: has been pulled back, and the red pill that Morpheus
Speaker 1: was offering has most certainly been consumed. Our article today
Speaker 1: is from Okay magazine, and it's again by Chris Spargo,
Speaker 1: and he's all over these subpoenas down there in the
Speaker 1: Virgin Islands, folks, and there are some more to talk about.
Speaker 1: Some more of these art houses have now been dragged
Speaker 1: in to the subpoena party as well. The headline of
Speaker 1: this article, Prosecutors demand Christie's and Softbe's, revealed details of
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein's one hundred and thirty nine million dollar mysterious
Speaker 1: purchases of Picasso and Chizan's. So Epstein, who apparently only
Speaker 1: has six hundred and thirty four million dollar fortune, spent
Speaker 1: one sixth of that fortune on paintings a Picasso and
Speaker 1: a Chazan's. I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that
Speaker 1: name right. I'm certainly not a culture art world person,
Speaker 1: all right, folks, So if I'm pronouncing the name wrong,
Speaker 1: for any of you already's out there. I do apologize,
Speaker 1: but you mean to tell me that this guy ponied
Speaker 1: up one sixth of his wealth on a couple of paintings. Huh.
Speaker 1: That does not make sense. That does not make sense
Speaker 1: at all. And where are these paintings? Are they sold?
Speaker 1: Are they going into the fund? They better be. Christie's
Speaker 1: and and Southbees are being asked about Epstein's art habits.
Speaker 1: Christie's and Softbees have been ordered to turn over information
Speaker 1: prosecutors believe is essential to their case against Jeffrey Epstein
Speaker 1: and the pedophiles of State. Again, I think it's important
Speaker 1: that we comment when they say a state that has
Speaker 1: that's that's Darren Endyke and and con So they're the
Speaker 1: executors of this estate. So well, we know that Denise
Speaker 1: George has pegged them as co conspirators and participants in
Speaker 1: Epstein's crimes. She has certainly set them up as that.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting to me when we hear that they're
Speaker 1: going the case against Epstein and the pedophiles of State.
Speaker 1: You know, it's always interesting to see how things are
Speaker 1: going to play out for Endike and Khan, considering what
Speaker 1: we know about them. So I think that with all
Speaker 1: of the subpoenas being sent out by Denise George, we're
Speaker 1: going to get a really gigantic picture of what was
Speaker 1: going on behind the scenes, and it would be nice
Speaker 1: to see the SDNY go this hard after the financial records. Huh,
Speaker 1: what are they waiting for? Is the real question. Okay
Speaker 1: has obtained court records that show the world's largest auction
Speaker 1: houses were served with the pena this week by prosecutors
Speaker 1: in the Virgin Islands. Those lawyers are still busy building
Speaker 1: their case eleven months after first filing charges against the
Speaker 1: deceased pedophile and his estate. So we know that Denise
Speaker 1: George has been doing really good work as far as
Speaker 1: trying to lift the veil of secrecy off of the
Speaker 1: Epstein enterprise. Now it would be nice to see the
Speaker 1: SDNY do the same thing. But at least Denise George
Speaker 1: is firing off these subpoenas like she's at a shooting
Speaker 1: range and shooting a machine gun. Every time we turn around,
Speaker 1: someone else is catching a subpoena from Denise George. And again,
Speaker 1: I think that's awesome work. I think it's good stuff.
Speaker 1: With the cooperation from PRESCA, you would have to think
Speaker 1: that it would be the same thing going the other
Speaker 1: way as well. So if prosecutors at the SDNY want
Speaker 1: to request information from Denise George's investigation, I am sure
Speaker 1: that she would be on board with providing that to
Speaker 1: them as well. And I would think that SDNY has
Speaker 1: been in contact with Denise George already. You would think that, right.
Speaker 1: Do I know that? For sure? I do not, but
Speaker 1: common sense would say that that's the case. These subpoenas,
Speaker 1: along with a third that has been issued to the
Speaker 1: Chicago Deferred Exchange Company, relates specifically to Epstein's art collection. Now,
Speaker 1: remember it's significant. Like I was saying in my opening monologue,
Speaker 1: these guys love to use the art world as a vehicle.
Speaker 1: And if you watch the show Billions, I've mentioned this before.
Speaker 1: Bobby Axelrod had himself the same kind of scam. He
Speaker 1: would have the had fake art made and had that
Speaker 1: art on display while keep the real art in his
Speaker 1: house or vice versa. On one or the other, but
Speaker 1: either way it was, they always have these scams within
Speaker 1: the art world. What do you think Leon Black is
Speaker 1: just some kind of connoisseur of the arts, Give me
Speaker 1: a break. It's always about increasing their wealth. It's always
Speaker 1: about the means justifying the end with these people and
Speaker 1: everybody else and everything else be damned. Okay can further
Speaker 1: reveal that three specific pieces in Epstein's collection caught the
Speaker 1: attention of prosecutors, a painting by Pablo Picasso and two
Speaker 1: works from Paul Chazahan. Those three pieces stand out because
Speaker 1: Epstein bartered for them by trading in art he already owned,
Speaker 1: while working out a deal that helped him avoid paying
Speaker 1: any taxes on his purchase. See what I'm saying. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm not completely locked into how the art world is maneuvering,
Speaker 1: but they are certainly using these pieces of art to
Speaker 1: launder money, to avoid paying taxes, and to hide their wealth.
Speaker 1: Very obvious what's going on. They also stand out because
Speaker 1: the value of all three combined is a staggering one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty nine million dollars. Again, Jeffrey Epstein supposedly
Speaker 1: was worth six hundred and thirty four million dollars, So
Speaker 1: he invests one sixth of that wealth in three paintings.
Speaker 1: That doesn't sound like a move Jeffrey Epstein would be
Speaker 1: making if that's the case. So what it does is
Speaker 1: it shows me anyway, it says to me anyway that
Speaker 1: he had much more money than that six hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty four million. And I am sure that there's a
Speaker 1: treasure trove of art somewhere, that there are tons of
Speaker 1: other assets that belong to Jeffrey Epstein. And the only
Speaker 1: way to ever get to the bottom of that and
Speaker 1: to find those funds so that they can be seized
Speaker 1: is for a complete and exhaustive forensic accountant investigation into
Speaker 1: his crimes. And I am talking every last dollar ever spent,
Speaker 1: every ATM swiped, every credit card purchased, and every single
Speaker 1: cash transaction that's possible to trace. All of it needs
Speaker 1: to be investigated because it leads not just to Jeffrey Epstein,
Speaker 1: but it leads to these enablers that were helping him
Speaker 1: and facilitating him. Prosecutors are asking that Christie's and Softbey's
Speaker 1: handover request number one all documents reflecting or relating to inquiries, sales, bids,
Speaker 1: communications with or about Jeffrey E. Epstein, any Epstein agent
Speaker 1: and or Epstein entity redacted or any redacted. So the
Speaker 1: first request, they want it all. They want the documents
Speaker 1: that have anything to do with sales or bids, communications,
Speaker 1: anything at all that has to do with their communications
Speaker 1: with Epstein, as far as the sales or inquiries or
Speaker 1: anything like that in regards to art all have to
Speaker 1: be turned over to Denise George and the United States
Speaker 1: Virgin Islands. Request number two. All documents reflecting or relating
Speaker 1: to inquiries, sales, or bids for any artwork or other
Speaker 1: object by any of the individuals or entities in Request
Speaker 1: number one. This includes, but is not limited to financial
Speaker 1: information related to the inquiries, sales, or bids. So they
Speaker 1: want the receipts, right if anyone who was working as
Speaker 1: an agent for Jeffrey Epstein or Jeffrey Epstein ham self
Speaker 1: purchased art from them, they want the paperwork, they want
Speaker 1: the document, the documents, and they want the receipts. The
Speaker 1: question is are they going to be able to provide
Speaker 1: them to the authorities? Request number three All documents reflecting
Speaker 1: or relating to the tax treatment or transfers to other
Speaker 1: entities for artwork or other objects by any of the
Speaker 1: individuals or entities in Request number one. And that's another thing.
Speaker 1: They trade this artwork like baseball cards, right, like it's
Speaker 1: a baseball card market. And who the hell knows. Look,
Speaker 1: I don't have enough expertise in the area to even
Speaker 1: begin to try and explain it and break it down
Speaker 1: to the nuts and the bolts like we usually do here.
Speaker 1: But the art world is certainly being used as a
Speaker 1: vehicle for this dark money. It's one hundred percent, without
Speaker 1: a doubt happening. And I'm I'm digging more into the
Speaker 1: art world with the limited amount of time I have
Speaker 1: freedomy right now, and it's just another world of filth
Speaker 1: and another world of abuse exploitation. It's like the modeling world, right.
Speaker 1: These young artists are just man, it's crazy. Not so
Speaker 1: much as in physical abuse, but it's just crazy. The
Speaker 1: whole art world is just nuts. The way these young
Speaker 1: artists are pressured to sell to people like Epstein, and
Speaker 1: then how the art world is used as this vehicle
Speaker 1: for all of this money laundering. It's just a lot
Speaker 1: going on with the art world, folks, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: And it's shady, it's seedy, and there needs to be
Speaker 1: more regulation. Request number four. All documents relating to the redacted,
Speaker 1: redacted or redacted, Well, that's helpful, huh. I won't even
Speaker 1: begin to try and guess what those are are. The
Speaker 1: third subpoena issued to CDCRE is similar to the above two,
Speaker 1: but with one additional question that company will have to
Speaker 1: hand over all records pertaining to a twenty eighteen tax
Speaker 1: audit that uncovered what looked like what looked to be
Speaker 1: a possible taxation scam that played out in these transactions.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, there was a taxation scam. These people don't
Speaker 1: want to pay their taxes. None of these people do.
Speaker 1: And these will be the first ones yelling about, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you should do the right thing, pay your taxes. All
Speaker 1: of these rich people have their money parked offshore, not
Speaker 1: paying a single dime. Meanwhile, you and I are getting
Speaker 1: completely and utterly hammered property tax, this tax, the next tax,
Speaker 1: the other tax, a new tax, your tax, my tax,
Speaker 1: his tax, their tax, tax, tax, tax, tax tax. But
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein, Nah, I'll buy me a nice Picasso and
Speaker 1: I'll just stash my money there. Okay was able to
Speaker 1: obtain the original division of taxation filing, which read in
Speaker 1: part specifically, the division disallowed the application of trade in
Speaker 1: credits on invoices issued by petitioner in three separate transactions.
Speaker 1: One involved the transaction between petitioner and an entity called
Speaker 1: redacted on the bill of sale to redacted for the
Speaker 1: entity's purchase of a Chazani watercolor. Petitioner reduced the sale
Speaker 1: price subject to sales tax by computing a trade in
Speaker 1: credit for artwork that redacted transferred to petitioner in connection
Speaker 1: with the exchange. So it's all a scheme and a
Speaker 1: plot and a scam. Right, Oh, I'll trade you this
Speaker 1: piece of art in while I'm getting this one, and
Speaker 1: that'll take care of my taxes. Probably a loophole that
Speaker 1: the government allows anyway, because they're all in bed together, right,
Speaker 1: all of these people that are stealing and laundering, all
Speaker 1: of these rich people at the same time, they're all
Speaker 1: donating to a bunch of political candidates. Just go take
Speaker 1: a look at anybody we ets talk about and look
Speaker 1: at the people they have donated to. Pete Buddah, Judge
Speaker 1: took a max donation from Glenn Dubin. We've went through
Speaker 1: all of the people who took money from Jeffrey Epstein,
Speaker 1: and that's just the tip of the iceberg. You know
Speaker 1: what other sort of scumbags and pieces of trash are
Speaker 1: funding our political system. The worst of the worst folks.
Speaker 1: The second transaction was between petitioner and redacted involving a
Speaker 1: different Chazani watercolor on the bill of cell to redacted.
Speaker 1: For that entity's purchase of the watercolor, Petitioner reduced the
Speaker 1: selle price subject to sales tax by computing trading credit
Speaker 1: for artwork redacted transferred to petitioner in connection with the exchange.
Speaker 1: The third transaction was between petitioner and redacted for a
Speaker 1: Picasso painting on the invoice issue too redacted. For that
Speaker 1: entity's purchase of the Picasso painting, Petitioner reduced the sales
Speaker 1: price subject to sales tax by computing a trade in
Speaker 1: credit for artwork transferred by DSOCA to petitioner in connection
Speaker 1: with the exchange. So it's all a scheme. It's all
Speaker 1: a plot. And if Jeffrey Epstein's doing this, you know
Speaker 1: that all of them are doing it. What do you
Speaker 1: think They're just buying these Picassos and throwing them on
Speaker 1: their wall. Hell no, A means that justifies an end.
Speaker 1: Like everything else. Everything to these people is a piece
Speaker 1: on the chessboard. A notice of determination later came back,
Speaker 1: asserting sales and use tax in the amount of three million,
Speaker 1: six hundred and twenty two thousand, five hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: seven dollars and fifty two cents for the periods ended
Speaker 1: May thirty first, twenty and sixteen and November thirtieth, twenty
Speaker 1: and sixteen, plus interest. That on top of the eight
Speaker 1: million that has already been paid in New York taxes.
Speaker 1: It does remain unclear just what Epstein's role, if any,
Speaker 1: may have been in this. The news that he spent
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty nine million dollars on these three
Speaker 1: works is quite substantial. Those who knew him have long noted, however,
Speaker 1: that he enjoyed putting up counterfeit art throughout his homes. Again,
Speaker 1: like I was saying, that's part of the scheme too.
Speaker 1: They'll buy the real art and then they'll put up
Speaker 1: a counterfeit right, and that's how they do this shit.
Speaker 1: These people are scummy. They don't want to be accountable
Speaker 1: to anybody. They feel like they're above the law. The
Speaker 1: rules are not for them. The rules are not for them,
Speaker 1: rules for thee, not for me. That is their motto.
Speaker 1: Picasso set a record during this same time period between
Speaker 1: twenty and fifteen and twenty and sixteen, when the women
Speaker 1: of Algiers sold for one hundred and seventy nine point
Speaker 1: four million at Christie's, while while Sothbe's his feme Assis
Speaker 1: sold for sixty three point seven million at auction. Chazani, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: is well beyond that record, having reached a high of
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty million dollars when is painting the
Speaker 1: Card Players sold that auction in two thousand and eleven.
Speaker 1: Good lord, you imagine paying that kind of money for
Speaker 1: a piece of artwork. That is insane. And what's even
Speaker 1: more insane is that these people have that kind of money.
Speaker 1: Leon Black has like a billion dollar art collection with
Speaker 1: a bee a billion dollars. If you can afford to
Speaker 1: pay all for all of that art, and you can
Speaker 1: afford to have all of that shit hanging around your
Speaker 1: house or wherever you have it, you can pay your
Speaker 1: taxes on it as well. These people that use this
Speaker 1: art the art world, as a vehicle for their money
Speaker 1: laundering and their tax evasion and all of the other
Speaker 1: criminal activity that occurs, they need to be put on blast.
Speaker 1: All of these industries that have flown under the radar
Speaker 1: for so long because we have been so busy being
Speaker 1: gas lit by other non important shit by our media. Well,
Speaker 1: their time needs to come, because how long are we
Speaker 1: going to let these people get away with this. As
Speaker 1: we've established previously, money laundering is not a victimless crime.
Speaker 1: The poor are the ones who get screwed at the end.
Speaker 1: That means you and me, folks, all right. When I
Speaker 1: say working poor, I mean all of us for the
Speaker 1: most part, because to them, that's all we are, the
Speaker 1: working poor, just a bunch of regular working stiffs that
Speaker 1: don't mean shit. And for the longest time they've gotten
Speaker 1: away with it, them and their banker friends, and they're
Speaker 1: bought and paid for politicians and their laws that are
Speaker 1: set up to tilt the game in their favor. But
Speaker 1: it sure seems to me like things are turning. It
Speaker 1: sure seems to me like more people are waking up
Speaker 1: and taking a look at the whole entire situation around them,
Speaker 1: and it's making them on comfortable. These people, the Jeffrey
Speaker 1: Epstein's of the world, the Leon Blacks of the world,
Speaker 1: the Glenn Dubins of the world, the Less Wexner's of
Speaker 1: the world. These people are truly truly involved in some
Speaker 1: of the most heinous bs you could possibly ever imagine.
Speaker 1: And we see it with Jeffrey Epstein. We see it
Speaker 1: with his behavior for the past how many decades until
Speaker 1: he died, And we see it with all of these
Speaker 1: people who played their part, who facilitated him, who gave
Speaker 1: him shelter, who helped him hide his funds. And now
Speaker 1: that Jeffrey Epstein's gone and he can't face the music, well,
Speaker 1: guess who's left for us to turn all of our
Speaker 1: attention to. If you liked contact me, you can do
Speaker 1: that at Bobby Kapucci at ProtonMail dot com. That's Bo
Speaker 1: bbycap you Cci at ProtonMail dot com. You can also
Speaker 1: find me on Twitter at Bobby Underscore cap you Cci.
Speaker 1: It is Ryan here day. What's up everybody, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the program. So look, I know for the past
Speaker 1: few days we've been going hard in the paint on
Speaker 1: the Joe exotic of the Windsor family, the new lawsuit
Speaker 1: that Virginia has filed against him, and all of the
Speaker 1: fallout that has occurred around that. Well, this morning, I
Speaker 1: want to change paces a little bit and I want
Speaker 1: to dive back into the financial portion of this conversation.
Speaker 1: There's new reports out that the United States of America
Speaker 1: has become a preferred destination for laundered money through real
Speaker 1: estate projects. And it is disgusting, to say the least.
Speaker 1: You have all of these politicians in the United States
Speaker 1: part of committees, this, that the other thing where they
Speaker 1: get together and they point the finger at all of
Speaker 1: these other countries around the world. Meanwhile their own yard
Speaker 1: looks like absolute shit. It's hypocritical, it's embarrassing, and it
Speaker 1: needs to stop. Washington, DC has plenty of problems of
Speaker 1: their own, and while they're out there pointing their fingers
Speaker 1: blaming everybody else, money is pouring in to the United States,
Speaker 1: into these money laundered projects, into these projects where these
Speaker 1: guys are washing their money away. And what's Congress doing
Speaker 1: about it? Nothing? Absolutely no sitting on their hands like usual,
Speaker 1: just like with Jeffrey Epstein. Unless they can find a
Speaker 1: way to divide the populace. It's not a hot button
Speaker 1: issue for them, even though this should be something that's
Speaker 1: being talked about all over the news. How is it
Speaker 1: that the United States of America, with all of their
Speaker 1: checks and balances in place, is able to end up
Speaker 1: being a preferred destination for scumbags from around the world
Speaker 1: who are engaged in all kinds of fucked up activities
Speaker 1: to park their money here and watch it grow with
Speaker 1: nobody saying a peep. Yet, if you or I are
Speaker 1: a little bit off on our tax return, guess who's
Speaker 1: shown up at your house. That's right, the irs with
Speaker 1: all kinds of nonsense looking to garner your paycheck, look
Speaker 1: going to send you to prison. What if these scumbags
Speaker 1: from insert country here come to America and park their
Speaker 1: money in you know, illegal real estate projects that are
Speaker 1: only going up to wash the money bad, That's okay.
Speaker 1: The whole entire thing is a dumpster fire, folks, the
Speaker 1: whole entire thing. And I you know, again, I don't
Speaker 1: speak for anybody else, and nobody speaks for me. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I'm just one man with one opinion. But my opinion
Speaker 1: is the whole entire system is absolutely fucked. You look
Speaker 1: at every single institution that we're supposed to have faith in,
Speaker 1: and then you tell me with a straight face that
Speaker 1: you have that you have faith in that institution, because
Speaker 1: I don't know how people do. But the Federal Reserve,
Speaker 1: we're supposed to trust them, We're supposed to trust Congress.
Speaker 1: I think like a violent polar bear that's raging through
Speaker 1: a village in insert Siberian town here is more trusted
Speaker 1: than the current crop of congressmen and senators and congress women.
Speaker 1: I mean, really, nobody trusts any of these institutions. And
Speaker 1: then when these reports come in, it just makes you
Speaker 1: chuckle and shake your head and disgust how many of
Speaker 1: these politicians are gaining through these illegal operations. And you know, look,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that they're the ones, you know, setting
Speaker 1: them up or anything like that, but we know that
Speaker 1: money filters back down. We know that that money somehow
Speaker 1: finds its way to these politicians, and the cycle continues.
Speaker 1: The wheel spins on and on and on, and when
Speaker 1: all of a sudden done, you and I once again
Speaker 1: are left with the bill. It's like that episode of
Speaker 1: The Sopranos when they all go to the restaurant up
Speaker 1: in Atlantic City and Christopher gets stuck with the bill. Right,
Speaker 1: so instead of him paying the bill, he gets up
Speaker 1: and he's going and he goes to the bathroom and
Speaker 1: Paulie gets stuck with it instead. That's basically what's going
Speaker 1: on here, right. It's the old SWITCHERU. We get stuck
Speaker 1: with the bill all the time. We get stuck with
Speaker 1: the hike tag. We don't have loopholes. We don't have
Speaker 1: these fancy tax attorneys that are showing us where to
Speaker 1: stash our money. That's only for them. And that's why
Speaker 1: I thought it was laughable when Sharad Brown came out
Speaker 1: when President Biden was first elected and talked about how
Speaker 1: they were gonna enforce this and how they were going
Speaker 1: to be so hard on these people. These people put
Speaker 1: you in off of Sharad Brown. You're not fooling me.
Speaker 1: The neo cons, the neolibs, they're all the same folks.
Speaker 1: And until these people put up, it's time to shut
Speaker 1: up because articles like this and stories like this, it's
Speaker 1: unacceptable in the United States in my opinion. So let's
Speaker 1: dive into this article from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,
Speaker 1: who have done just exceptional work as far as the
Speaker 1: fins and files go and as far as their coverage
Speaker 1: of this aspect of the world goes. They have just
Speaker 1: done a fantastic job. So if you aren't following them
Speaker 1: on social media yet, or you're not getting their newsletter
Speaker 1: or any of that, make sure you do that because
Speaker 1: they do some fantastic work. Over here, and it's straightforward
Speaker 1: investigative journalism, no bs and around, And I respect the
Speaker 1: hell out of that because there's not much of that
Speaker 1: that goes on anymore. I mean, what do you have
Speaker 1: like Whitney Webb, Caitlin Johnstone. Very few people that I'm
Speaker 1: willing to dig into their content and know that they're
Speaker 1: coming from a solid place and not trying to gaslight me.
Speaker 1: Very few people headline a Kleptocrat's dream. US real estate
Speaker 1: a safe haven for billions in dirty money, reports says
Speaker 1: based on a review of more than one hundred money
Speaker 1: laundering cases, a new study finds that the US has
Speaker 1: become a for destination for those looking to stash illicit
Speaker 1: funds through property. This article was authored by Sean McGoey.
Speaker 1: And that's pretty sobering, right, you know. It's it's everyone's
Speaker 1: always thought that America was, you know, the shining city
Speaker 1: on top of the hill, the place where you know
Speaker 1: the law is equal, where if you come from a
Speaker 1: different country or anywhere and you're trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: make a better life for yourself, if you do it
Speaker 1: the right way, you're supposed to be able to do that.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, on top of that you have people who
Speaker 1: are always going to manipulate the system. And you would
Speaker 1: think that if these billions and billions of dollars are
Speaker 1: coming in from foreign lands, places where there are oligarchs, kleptocrats,
Speaker 1: people like that, that they'd be more stringent about what
Speaker 1: goes on. But they do not care. If you think
Speaker 1: the banks give one fuck about you, you're well being,
Speaker 1: or if your bills are paid, you are absolutely wrong,
Speaker 1: absolutely wrong. The bank isn't your friend, These mega corporations
Speaker 1: aren't your friends, none of this, none of that. These
Speaker 1: people only care about the bottom line. That's it. Not
Speaker 1: your welfare, not the climate, not anything else. At least
Speaker 1: two point three billion has been laundered via real estate
Speaker 1: transactions in the last five years, according to a new
Speaker 1: report by Washington, DC based think tank. That's nice, and
Speaker 1: that's just another scarlet letter for Donald Trump. Who I mean, honestly, though,
Speaker 1: did anyone think any different. We all knew that he
Speaker 1: was going to be super friendly to these kind of kleptocrats.
Speaker 1: Oli garks, that's what he is. Let's call him how
Speaker 1: I see him here, folks. Right, Trump is an oligark
Speaker 1: type of dude. One hundred percent so of course, during
Speaker 1: his tenure in office, nobody was going hard on white
Speaker 1: collar criminals. In fact, they pulled back. But let's not
Speaker 1: act like Biden's doing anything different here either. What exactly
Speaker 1: has the Biden administration done to rein in these what
Speaker 1: I call financial terrorists? Not a damn thing, folks, Not
Speaker 1: a damn thing. Meet the new boss, same as the
Speaker 1: old boss. By using a database of over one hundred
Speaker 1: publicly reported real estate money laundering cases in the US,
Speaker 1: United Kingdom and Canada, Global Financial Integrity says the US
Speaker 1: has become a preferred destination for those looking to use
Speaker 1: real estate to stash ilicit funds, making it a kleptocrat's dream. Imagine,
Speaker 1: we have to have the UK and Canada hold our
Speaker 1: fucking feet to the fire in the United States, that's
Speaker 1: who we've become. We can't check ourselves, We don't know
Speaker 1: how to conduct ourselves correctly on the world stage. Huh,
Speaker 1: everybody's laughing at us. What a fucking nightmare, What a
Speaker 1: joke this country has become. Huh pathetic? Then to watch
Speaker 1: everybody fight with each other and continue the division amongst
Speaker 1: along the lines that Jeffrey Epstein's buddies have set out
Speaker 1: there for you and to watch people manipulated by them. Man,
Speaker 1: it's frustrating. What's really frustrating for me, though, is people
Speaker 1: who say that they're really into this case. Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: into this case. I'm but then they're busy. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's a nice guy. Joe Biden's not a nice guy.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump wasn't a nice guy. None of these fucking
Speaker 1: people are nice guys, you know. And you can live
Speaker 1: in a fantasy world all you want, But the questions
Speaker 1: about Tara Reid and Joe Biden still stand. What she
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, of course she does. Public officials in their associates,
Speaker 1: known as politically exposed persons, were involved in more than
Speaker 1: half of the in half of the US cases that
Speaker 1: the GFI reviewed. Those PEPs included Gennaro Garcia Luna, a
Speaker 1: former Mexican security minister who bought millions of dollars of
Speaker 1: US property while accused of taking bribes from the Sinaloa cartel,
Speaker 1: and the stepson of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najeebrazak, who
Speaker 1: was arrested in twenty nineteen for his alleged role in
Speaker 1: the one MDB scandal. So you know it's no big deal, right,
Speaker 1: you have operators for the cartel, people who are in
Speaker 1: bed with Sinaloa, No problem. Come and invest your money here,
Speaker 1: Come to my project. Come over here to the new
Speaker 1: Jared Kushner project and invest your money. What do you
Speaker 1: think any of these people are above taking money from scumbags.
Speaker 1: They don't care, and up until recently, they were able
Speaker 1: to get away with whatever they wanted. Real estate provides
Speaker 1: a really easy way to hide ill gotten gains with
Speaker 1: little oversight and few questions asked. GFI Policy Director Lakshmi
Speaker 1: Kumar told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, if you're
Speaker 1: a criminal, why would you not choose a method that
Speaker 1: allows you to flaunt your wealth openly but also hides
Speaker 1: its illicit nature? One hundred percent. Real estate has always
Speaker 1: been a go to move for these sorts of folks,
Speaker 1: and the real estate market, the real estate industry is
Speaker 1: perfect for this. Now recently, I've had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: perhaps pursue a real estate license, and I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: doing it just to get more hip to what's going
Speaker 1: on here, right, to get more of an idea what
Speaker 1: goes on behind the scenes. As you all know, I
Speaker 1: am necked deep when it comes to the financial portion
Speaker 1: of this case. In fact, I think that's the most
Speaker 1: plausible way to get all of these people caught up.
Speaker 1: And the option has been put towards me and Carrie
Speaker 1: about grabbing our real estate licenses and dipping our toes
Speaker 1: perhaps in that industry as well. And it's certainly something
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about because I'm fascinated about all of the
Speaker 1: ins and outs and how all of this works, right,
Speaker 1: and what better way to learn something than to actually
Speaker 1: get into the shit. So it's certainly something I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about and probably going to pursue. The US was once
Speaker 1: considered at the regulatory forefront when it came to preventing
Speaker 1: money laundering through real estate, adding persons involved in real
Speaker 1: estate closings and settlements to the Bank Secrecy Act definition
Speaker 1: of financial institutions in nineteen eighty eight, but over time,
Speaker 1: Kumar says, the country lost ground to its peers in
Speaker 1: the UK and Europe. Well, yeah, that's because the corruption
Speaker 1: has rotted the Congress and the Senate from the inside out.
Speaker 1: Whether that's not the truth, which one of you look
Speaker 1: at Congress or Senate and say to yourselves, Man, I'm
Speaker 1: really confident in the job they're doing. Me and my
Speaker 1: family are future secure. I would think that nobody except
Speaker 1: people that are suffering from cognitive dissonance from you know,
Speaker 1: people who carry water from one party or the other.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, you know, you look around
Speaker 1: and you say to yourself, everything's broken, and where the
Speaker 1: America used to be at the forefront, we've taken ten
Speaker 1: steps back. This is clearly a systemic issue globally, Kumar said,
Speaker 1: everyone's discovering how easy it is to use and abuse
Speaker 1: the real estate sector. The difference is that everyone else
Speaker 1: seems to have charted a path forward. They they have
Speaker 1: put in legislation, they're trying to figure it out. In
Speaker 1: the US, we're still held back. And again, whose fault
Speaker 1: is that? Who's in charge? Now? We're Charad Brown and
Speaker 1: all of his big AML conversations, he was having, what
Speaker 1: no more declarations about how you guys are going to
Speaker 1: fix the financial sector? No movement? What are words? Six
Speaker 1: months now, seven months now? Still nothing. One of the
Speaker 1: biggest issues that the report sites is the use of
Speaker 1: geographic targeting orders at the as the US's primary tool
Speaker 1: to identify potential money laundering events. GTOs impose reporting requirements
Speaker 1: on real estate purchases, but only in narrowly targeted scenarios
Speaker 1: large cash purchases by legal entities in specific geographic areas.
Speaker 1: So if you go to a county or a place
Speaker 1: not covered by that, then what There's so many loopholes
Speaker 1: that are always put into this, so many ways for
Speaker 1: people to skirt the system, and the laws are drawn
Speaker 1: up like that, that's the pathetic part. More than sixty
Speaker 1: percent of the US cases examined in the report involved
Speaker 1: properties in at least one county not covered by a
Speaker 1: targeting order, which GFI says highlights the inadequacy of the system.
Speaker 1: A lot of the money laundering cases we saw reported
Speaker 1: in the UK and Canada were really concentrated in what
Speaker 1: you'd call real estate hubs in the country, Kumar said.
Speaker 1: In the US that was not the case. It was
Speaker 1: spread far and wide, and with the real estate boom
Speaker 1: going on in the United States right now, you got
Speaker 1: to think that's even accelerated a bit, right. I know
Speaker 1: here in Las Vegas, everywhere you look, there's houses being built,
Speaker 1: there's cranes in the sky. And how much of that
Speaker 1: money is being or how much of that money that
Speaker 1: has been doled out has been from ill gotten gains.
Speaker 1: I would have never even thought about things in these
Speaker 1: terms prior to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. But now every
Speaker 1: single time I see a bank involved in something, every
Speaker 1: time I see something like this cracking off, I shake
Speaker 1: my head and say to myself, well, these scumbags are
Speaker 1: up to it again. Because I have to be very
Speaker 1: honest with you, guys. Everyone talks about a big game
Speaker 1: in the United States, all of our politicians on both
Speaker 1: sides of the aisle, and then they don't do shit
Speaker 1: about it. They just wait for the next news cycle
Speaker 1: and latch onto that whatever's politically expedient for them. And
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, folks, but I'm pretty tired
Speaker 1: of it, the fence and thought excuse me. Another concern
Speaker 1: the report outlines is that the US anti money laundering
Speaker 1: regime is focused on residential purchases when a significant portion
Speaker 1: of the cases GFI reviewed involved commercial real estate transactions. Well,
Speaker 1: that would make sense. There's a lot more money in
Speaker 1: commercial real estate than residential real estate. Right, you're renting
Speaker 1: out I mean, you're selling property to businesses, companies, you know,
Speaker 1: people with big money. So I would think that in
Speaker 1: commercial real estate there is a lot of dough to
Speaker 1: be made, and I don't know why they wouldn't regulate
Speaker 1: that more. It's not an oversight, Come on, they know again,
Speaker 1: My guess is it's probably a loophole, probably one of
Speaker 1: those wink wink, nudge nudge oversights. Right, Oh, it's an oversight.
Speaker 1: But pH whatever, this is gonna help us out later
Speaker 1: on down the road. The Fens and Files, an investigation
Speaker 1: on global dirty money flows by ICIJ and BuzzFeed News,
Speaker 1: examined the impact of large scale money laundering on Middle America.
Speaker 1: ICIJ found that Ukrainian oligarch Ehor Kolomoyski, whose case is
Speaker 1: cited in gfi's report, amassed a Midwest real estate empire
Speaker 1: with his associates, at one time, becoming Cleveland's largest commercial
Speaker 1: landlords and leaving behind the trail of unpaid property taxes,
Speaker 1: unemployed workers, and dangerous factory conditions. Kolomoyski has since been
Speaker 1: sanctioned by the US State Department. Ooh, sanctioned. Bet you
Speaker 1: he's really worried about being sanctioned by the big bad
Speaker 1: State Department. As he swims swims around in his billions
Speaker 1: of dollars in sochi. I mean, come on, man sanctioned
Speaker 1: and again, when are they ever going to arrest any
Speaker 1: of these people Unless they're scoring like political points, then
Speaker 1: they have no desire to do it. Kumar said that
Speaker 1: because commercial deals often involve several parties and complex financing arrangements,
Speaker 1: they're an easy way to stash elicit money. When you
Speaker 1: talk about residential real estate, the heart of it is
Speaker 1: identifying who is the beneficial owner, because if you find
Speaker 1: out who the beneficial owner is, it also tells you
Speaker 1: who the criminal is. Kumar told ICIJ. In a commercial
Speaker 1: real estate investment, you don't have to own the majority
Speaker 1: stake to be a criminal. You can own two percent
Speaker 1: of a five hundred million dollar property and you are
Speaker 1: still laundering millions through it. And that's what they do, right,
Speaker 1: just a big enough chunk to be able to conduct
Speaker 1: their business. And if you have a two percent piece
Speaker 1: of enough businesses, two percent piece of enough real estate projects,
Speaker 1: that shit all adds up in the end, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: The report also delves into the involvement of gatekeepers in
Speaker 1: real estate transactions and the direct role of real estate agents, lawyers,
Speaker 1: and accountants in facilitating illicit transactions. But GFI also points
Speaker 1: to regulating private investment advisors as more under the radar
Speaker 1: way of tackling real estate money laundering. Now, we know
Speaker 1: that the gatekeepers quote unquote lawyers and accountants played a
Speaker 1: huge role in Jeffrey Epstein's organization. Indike and Khan were
Speaker 1: crucial to the day to day operations of that criminal enterprise.
Speaker 1: That is exactly what the evidence has pointed to, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly what the survivors have said themselves. So without
Speaker 1: the lawyers, without the accountants, without the real estate agents,
Speaker 1: all of this can't take place. Investment vehicles are one
Speaker 1: of the key methods in which to invest in commercial
Speaker 1: real estate in this country, Kumar said, and private equity,
Speaker 1: venture capital hedge funds have no anti money laundering requirements,
Speaker 1: So that becomes a black box because you don't know
Speaker 1: who is bringing what money into this country. And now
Speaker 1: and again, the hedgies are always going to have their way, right,
Speaker 1: Notice how these hedge funds always have different rules than
Speaker 1: the rest of us, always have a different set of
Speaker 1: standards they have to live by. Oh, there's no there's
Speaker 1: no AML for hedge funds, So why don't we use
Speaker 1: that funny. What was Jeffrey Epstein and all of his
Speaker 1: friends involved in? Oh yeah, yeah, that's right, Hedge Funds.
Speaker 1: The report proposes major overhauls to the US Anti Money
Speaker 1: Laundering Program to fill these gaps, including replacing GTOs with
Speaker 1: more stringent reporting requirements on real estate transactions across the country,
Speaker 1: robust implementation of the Beneficial Ownership Registry past this year
Speaker 1: as part of the Corporate Transparency Act, and urging the
Speaker 1: US Treasury to issue specific regulations regarding purchases by foreign PEPs.
Speaker 1: So again, it really comes down to this. Cut through
Speaker 1: all the bs, cut through all the technical financial terms,
Speaker 1: it comes down to this, does Congress have the willpower
Speaker 1: to go after these people? So far? I'm not too
Speaker 1: confident that they do. Moving forward, maybe it'll be different,
Speaker 1: but I won't hold my breath. If you'd like to
Speaker 1: contact me, you can do that at Bobby Kapuchi at
Speaker 1: ProtonMail dot com. That's Bo bbu Y c ap u
Speaker 1: c Ci at ProtonMail dot com. You can find me
Speaker 1: also on Twitter at Bobby Underscore c A. P u Cci.
Speaker 1: All of the links that go with this episode can
Speaker 1: be found in the description in box. All right, folks,
Speaker 1: I'll be back later on and we will pick up
Speaker 1: where we left off. Hope everybody has a great day.