Clearstream Banking S.A. (CB) is the clearing division of Deutsche Börse, based in Luxembourg. It was created in January 2000 through the merger of Cedel International and Deutsche Börse Clearing, part of the Deutsche Börse Group, which owns the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Cedel, established in 1971, specialized in clearing and settlement. In 1996 it obtained a bank licence. In July 2002 Deutsche Börse purchased the remaining 50% of Clearstream International for €1.6 billion. Deutsche Börse's strategy is to be a vertical securities silo, providing facilities for the front and back ends of securities trading. By 2004 Clearstream contributed €114 million to Deutsche Börse's total Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) of €452.6 million. It handled 50.0 million transactions and was custodian of securities worth € 7,593 trillion. Following the publication of Révélation$ (2001) by investigative reporter Denis Robert and ex-Clearstream banker Ernest Backes, Clearstream was accused of being an international platform for money laundering and tax evasion via an illegal system of secret accounts. This became known as the "Clearstream Affair". However, in Spring 2004, a "Second Clearstream Affair" began, which exploded in 2006. This Second Affair, peripheral to the primary Clearstream Affair, accused several French political figures, industrial leaders and members of the secret services of maintaining secret accounts at Clearstream, which allegedly were used to transfer the kickbacks in the French-Taiwan frigates scandal. In banking and finance, clearing denotes all activities from the time a transaction is made until it is finally settled (see settlement). ... Deutsche Börse Group LSE: DHE is a marketplace organizer for the trading of shares and other securities. ... 2000 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December Events: January 1- Millennium celebrations take place throughout the world. ... The phrase mergers and acquisitions or M&A refers to the aspect of corporate finance strategy and management dealing with the merging and acquiring of different companies as well as assets. ... Cedel is a conglomerate of 92 banks, that holds 50% of Clearstream. ... The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (outside) The DAX chart (inside) The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (German: FWB® Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) is a stock exchange located in Frankfurt, Germany. ... Security is a type of transferable interest representing financial value. ... Investigative journalism is a kind of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest, often related to crime, scandals, government corruption, white collar crime. ... Denis Robert is a French journalist, author of Revelation$ with Ernest Backes, former #3 of Clearstream. ... Ernest Backes (1946, Trier, Germany) was #3 of compensation chamber Clearstream (formerly Cedel), in charge of relations with clients, and was fired in May 1983. ... Money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions in order to conceal the identity, source and destination of the money in question. ... This article contrasts tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax resistance and tax mitigation. ...

Accusations

In 2001, investigative reporter Denis Robert and Ernest Backes, an executive at Cedel until May 1983, published a book, "Revelation$ [1]", in which they alleged Clearstream played a major part in the underground economy, was a main platform for money laundering for hundreds of banks, and that "Clearstream operated hundreds of confidential accounts for banks so they could move money undetected", according to Business Week ^[1]. Investigative journalism is a kind of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest, often related to crime, scandals, government corruption, white collar crime. ... Denis Robert is a French journalist, author of Revelation$ with Ernest Backes, former #3 of Clearstream. ... Ernest Backes (1946, Trier, Germany) was #3 of compensation chamber Clearstream (formerly Cedel), in charge of relations with clients, and was fired in May 1983. ... The underground economy consists of all trade that occurs without detection by government so that commerce and income are not taxed. ... Money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions in order to conceal the identity, source and destination of the money in question. ... ... BusinessWeek is a business magazine published by McGraw-Hill. ...

Backes and Le Figaro were found guilty of libel on March 29, 2004, after a successful suit by Clearstream; however, the case is due to be heard in Appeals Court in 2006, and all financial demands made by Clearstream were rejected by the judges, who considered the information revealed to be "serious and cross-checked, absent of any animosity, and expressed with caution". Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... March 29 is the 88th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (89th in Leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

After the initiation of an investigation in Luxembourg, on suspicion of money-laundering, tax evasion and other fraud, Clearstream's CEO, André Lussi, resigned (See below). This enabled Deutsche Börse to purchase the remaining 50% of Clearstream International in July 2002. According to some, such as Business Week, Lussi had opposed such a takeover. Clearstream Banking S.A. (CB) is the clearing division of Deutsche Börse, based in Luxembourg. ...

Following the July 2004 anonymous revelations about personal secret accounts, allegedly maintained by important French political figures, Volker Potthoff, a member of Deutsche Börse's board, was asked to conduct an audit and control mission regarding Clearstream.

A long-time member of the German Stock Exchange (aka Deutsche Börse), Volker Potthof was surprised by what he found in Luxembourg, and he proposed harsher measures concerning the firm's customers and the control of the accounts. However, Jeffrey Tessler, also a member of Deutsche Börse's board and the person there responsible for Clearstream, asked him to resign. Volker Potthof departed in January 2006 and officially ceased his functions on June 30, 2006 ^[2] The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (outside) The DAX chart (inside) The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (German: FWB® Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) is a stock exchange located in Frankfurt, Germany. ... June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 184 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Clearing

Clearstream often has been described as a bank for banks, as it practices what is called financial clearing. Basically, its duty is to record each transaction between the accounts of different banks, and using that data to calculate the relative financial positions of banks with regard to each other. In banking and finance, clearing denotes all activities from the time a transaction is made until it is finally settled (see settlement). ...

So a bank can just order a transaction between its own account and the other bank's account, in lieu of less secure methods such as carrying a case full of currency or securities around on the street; the bank merely transmits an order to Clearstream to credit/debit one of its own accounts and the other bank's account(s). This general system is in use between regular companies, and governments, and banks around the world.

The purpose of Clearstream is to facilitate money movements around the world, particularly by handling the resolution of sales of European stocks and bonds, in which market Clearstream was a major player, with an estimated 40% market share until May 2004 - together with its competitor Euroclear, the two firms settle 70% of European transactions ^[3]. Furthermore, in January 2006, Clearstream was the 18th biggest employer in Luxembourg ^[4]. A value transfer system refers to any system, mechanism, or network of people that receives money for the purpose of making the funds or an equivalent value payable to a third party in another geographic location, whether or not in the same form. ... The stocks are a device used since medieval times for public humiliation, corporal punishment, and torture. ... Bonds can refer to: A financial bond (including a junk bond or a zero-coupon bond) Barry Bonds A chemical bond (including the ionic bond, covalent bond, coordinate covalent bond, metallic bond, hydrogen bond, Carbon-carbon bond, Disulfide bond and Glycosidic bond) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid... Euronext N.V. is a pan-European stock exchange with subsidiaries in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Clearstream does not hold a monopoly in this market: Euroclear, owned by Euronext, and SWIFT are competitors. However, SWIFT mainly assures routing, while only Euroclear and Clearstream supply cross-borders securities clearing and settlement services; Clearstream's quasi-monopoly is demonstrated by this European Union statement declaring that "Clearstream Banking AG is an unavoidable trader partner" ^[5]. Euronext N.V. is a pan-European stock exchange with subsidiaries in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. ... Euronext N.V. is a pan-European stock exchange with subsidiaries in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. ... Genera Many; see text. ... In economics, a monopoly (from the Latin word monoplium - Greek language Greek monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a kind of product or service. ...

Euroclear was created by JP Morgan in 1968 in Brussels (Belgium). By the end of 2000, JP Morgan had extricated itself from Euroclear, but JP Morgan still is one of the 120 international banks which own shares in Euroclear. In 2000, Euroclear processed 145 million transactions, dealing with a total of 100,000 billion euros ^[6]. John Pierpont Morgan John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who at the turn of the century (1901), was one of the wealthiest men in America. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Brussels City Hall Emblem of the Brussels-Capital Region Flag of The City of Brussels Brussels (Dutch: Brussel, pronounced ; French: Bruxelles, pronounced in Belgian French and often by non-Belgian speakers of French; German: Brüssel) is the capital of Belgium, the... This article is about the year 2000. ...

Eurodollars

Cedel (now Clearstream) and Euroclear were started to manage transfers of "eurodollars", U.S. currency kept in banks outside the United States. By the 1990s, the Federal Reserve estimated that about 2/3 of U.S. currency was held abroad as eurodollars. Eurodollars are deposits denominated in United States dollar at banks outside the United States, and thus are not under the jurisdiction of the Federal Reserve. ... The Federal Reserve System is headquartered in the Eccles Building on Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC. The Federal Reserve System (also the Federal Reserve; informally The Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. ...

Cedel and Euroclear later expanded into handling transfers of stock titles and other financial instruments. In 1975, several big Italian and German banks wanted to centralize their accounting, so other members of Cedel directly sent them transfers to the main branch. 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Accountancy (British English) or accounting (American English) is the process of maintaining, auditing, and processing financial information for business purposes. ...

"The Cedel council of administration -- its board of directors -- authorized banks with multiple subsidiaries not to put all their accounts on the published list. Backes and Gérard Soisson, then Cedel's general manager, set up a system of non-published accounts (...) Requests for non-published accounts came from some banks that were not eligible, but Soisson turned them down", writes Komisar ^[7]. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A subsidiary is a corporation controlled by another. ...

"$1.5 trillion math errors"

Business Week said, in 2001, "Earlier this year, Clearstream, which handles the back-office paperwork for some 40% of European stock and bond trades, was found to have overstated its assets in custody by $1.5 trillion. (It has $6.5 trillion.) If Clearstream makes $1.5 trillion math errors, customers are understandably nervous--and some have moved to rival Euroclear." ^[1]. According to investigative journalist Lucy Komisar, Clearstream is audited by KPMG, one of the largest global accounting firms. KPMG declared that it found "no evidence" to support the allegations made by Denis Robert and Ernest Backes, although its report was not made public. Lucy Komisar is an investigative journalist. ... KPMG is one of the largest professional services firms in the world. ...

Clearstream's dominant position

On June 2, 2004, the European Commission found "that Clearstream Banking AG and its parent company Clearstream International SA (“Clearstream”) infringed competition rules by refusing to supply cross-border securities clearing and settlement services, and by applying discriminatory prices. The Commission’s investigation revealed that Clearstream refused to supply Euroclear Bank SA ('Euroclear Bank') with certain clearing and settlement services, and applied discriminatory prices to the detriment of this customer." June 2 is the 153rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (154th in leap years), with 212 days remaining. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. ...

The decision states that "Clearstream refused to supply to Euroclear Bank clearing and settlement services for registered shares issued under German law", underlining the "dominant position" of Clearstream since it, "is the only final custodian of German securities kept in collective safe custody, which is the only significant form of custody today for securities traded. New entry into this activity is unrealistic for the foreseeable future. Therefore, Clearstream is an unavoidable trading partner."

The Commission defined clearing and settlement as follows: In banking and finance, clearing denotes all activities from the time a transaction is made until it is finally settled (see settlement). ... Settlement (of securities) is the process whereby securities or interests in securities are delivered, usually against payment, to fulfill contractual obligations, such as those arising under securities trades. ...

"Securities clearing and settlement are necessary steps for a securities trade to be completed.

Clearing is the process by which the contractual obligations of the buyer and the seller are established.

Settlement is the transfer of securities from the seller to the buyer and the transfer of funds from the buyer to the seller. (...)

Clearstream Banking AG is Germany's only Wertpapiersammelbank (Central Securities Depository).

"The Commission considered that during the reference period concerned, 1997 through 2001, Clearstream held a dominant position for providing cross-border clearing and settlement services to intermediaries situated in other Member States. The investigation therefore focused on a specific cross-border market and the decision does not set out findings that go beyond that relevant market." Central Securities Depository (CSD) is an entity holding securities either in certificated or uncertificated (dematerialized) form, to enable book entry transfer of securities. ... Central Securities Depository (CSD) are Entities holding securities either in certificated or uncertificated (dematerialized) form, to enable book-entry transfer of securities. ...

The Commission underlined in a note that, "Central Securities Depositories hold securities and enable securities transactions to be processed through book entry. In its home country, the Central Securities Depository provides processing services for trades of those securities that it holds in final custody. It can also offer processing services as an intermediary in cross-border clearing and settlement, where the primary deposit of securities is in another country." ^[5]

Daewoo shutdown inquiries

After Daewoo was split apart in the year 2000, Clearstream was the subject of two commissions of inquiry in Lorraine (France) conducted before the French parliament and European parliament. This article is about the chaebol Daewoo Group. ... Capital Metz Land area¹ 23,547 km² Regional President Jean-Pierre Masseret (PS) (since 2004) Population  - Jan. ... The Parlement of France is bicameral, and consists of the National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and the Senate (Sénat). ... The European Parliament building in Strasbourg The inside of the building The European Parliament (formerly European Parliamentary Assembly) is the parliamentary body of the European Union (EU), directly elected by EU citizens once every five years. ...

The Clearstream Affair

"The greatest financial scandal in Luxembourg"

In 2001, co-authors Denis Robert and Ernest Backes released a book called "Révélation$", followed by Robert's "La Boîte Noire", describing what has been named the "greatest financial scandal in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg" ^[8]. The little publicity their works received came only in the French media, and even there publicity was minimal. In a number of interviews, Denis Robert has accused "Le Monde" of deliberately suppressing articles and reviews of his book, suggesting that financial links between "Le Monde" and Deutsche Börse, (which now owns 100% of Clearstream's shares) were the cause of this censorship. Denis Robert described Clearstream as a huge money laundering and tax evasion machine, used by major banks, shell companies and organized crime all over the world. Clearstream's alleged criminal activities used an automated system of unpublished accounts, revealed to Denis Robert by Ernest Backes and Régis Hempel, a vice-president of Clearstream who, as a computer engineer, had helped set up the system in the 1970s. Denis Robert is a French journalist, author of Revelation$ with Ernest Backes, former #3 of Clearstream. ... Ernest Backes (1946, Trier, Germany) was #3 of compensation chamber Clearstream (formerly Cedel), in charge of relations with clients, and was fired in May 1983. ... Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... A shell corporation (aka International Business Corporations - IBCs -, Personal Investment Companies - PICs -, front companies or mailbox companies) is defined in Barrons Finance & Investment Handbook as a company that is incorporated but has no significant assets or operations. ... Organized crime is crime carried out systematically by formal criminal organizations. ...

Banco Ambrosiano scandal

Further information: Banco Ambrosiano

By 1980, Ernest Backes had become Cedel's #3, in charge of relations with clients, but he was fired in May 1983, allegedly because he, "knew too much about the Ambrosiano scandal", one of Italy's major political scandals. Two months after his dismissal, Gérard Soisson was found dead in Corsica. The Banco Ambrosiano, allegedly involved in money-laundering for the Mafia and owned in majority by the Vatican Bank, collapsed in 1982. The bank, "laundered drugs- and arms-trafficking money for the Italian and American Mafias, and in the 1980s it channeled Vatican money to the Contras in Nicaragua and to Solidarity in Poland", according to Komisar. Banco Ambrosiano (which was closely related to the Vatican Bank) was an Italian bank which collapsed spectacularly in 1982. ... Banco Ambrosiano (which was closely related to the Vatican Bank) was an Italian bank which collapsed spectacularly in 1982. ... The Vatican Bank is a common name given to the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR) or Institute for Religious Works, the central bank for the Roman Catholic Church located in Vatican City. ... The Contras (from the Spanish term La Contra, short for movement of the contrarrevolucionarios) were the armed opponents of Nicaraguas Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle (which ended the Somoza dynasty), and continuing throughout the following decade. ... Solidarity (Polish Solidarność) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980, originally led by Lech Wałęsa. ...

In 2005 the Italian justice system re-opened its investigation of the murder of Roberto Calvi, Ambrosiano's chairman; it has requested the support of Ernest Backes, and will investigate Gerard Soisson's death, according to Komisar. Licio Gelli, headmaster of Propaganda Due masonic lodge (aka P2, it was involved in Gladio's "strategy of tension" starting from the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing), and mafiosi Giuseppe Calo, are being prosecuted for the assassination of Roberto Calvi. Ernest Backes explained: "When Soisson died, the Ambrosiano affair wasn't yet known as a scandal. (After it was revealed) I realized that Soisson and I had been at the crossroads. We moved all those transactions known later in the scandal to Lima and other branches. Nobody even knew there was a Banco Ambrosiano branch in Lima and other South American countries." ^[7] Roberto Calvi (1920 - 1982) Roberto Calvi (Milan, April 13, 1920 - London, June 17, 1982) was an Italian banker dubbed by the press as Gods Banker, due to his close association with the Vatican. ... Licio Gelli (born in Pistoia, Tuscany, April 21, 1919), was the masonic Worshipful Master of the powerful Italian lodge Propaganda Due (P2), involved in Gladios strategy of tension. He has been involved in almost all of the Italian scandals in the past three decades (Tangentopoli, which led to the... P2 is the common name for the Italian pseudo-Freemasonic lodge Propaganda Due (Italian: Propaganda Two). ... Operation Gladio Operation Gladio was a clandestine stay-behind operation sponsored by the CIA and NATO to counter communist influence in Italy, as well as in other European countries. ... The Strategy of Tension (Italian; strategia della tensione) is a way to control and manipulate public opinion using propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs and terror. ... The Piazza Fontana bombing refers to the terrorist bombing on December 12th 1969 in the offices of Banca Nazionale dellAgricoltura (National Agrarian Bank) in Piazza Fontana, Milan, Italy. ... Giuseppe Pippo Calo (born 1931) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. ...

Secret accounts and the workings of 21st century economics

Gérard Soisson, murdered in July 1983, was the person who authorized each non-published account, "which would be known only by some insiders, including the auditors and members of the council of administration". "With Soisson out of the way, there was nothing to stop the abuse of the system," wrote Lucy Komisar. Whereas Soisson had refused numerous requests to open non-published accounts (from such institutions as Chase Manhattan in New York, Chemical Bank of London and numerous subsidiaries of Citibank), Cedel opened hundreds of non-published accounts -- all of them irregular -- especially after the arrival of CEO André Lussi in 1990. No longer were they just sub-accounts of officially listed accounts, Backes charges. Some were for banks that were not subsidiaries or even official members of Cedel. At the start of 1995, Cedel had more than 2,200 published accounts. But in reality, according to documents obtained by Backes, Cedel that year managed more than 4,200 accounts.", leading to an alleged total of "2,000 unpublished accounts in 1995." The Chase Manhattan Bank was formed by the merger of the Chase National Bank and the Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1955. ... The Chemical Banking Corporation was a bank holding company formed as parent of Chemical Bank, which had been founded in 1824. ... Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York. ... Chief executive officer of Clearstream, André Lussi resigned in December 2001 following the scandal brought up by the publication of Denis Robert and Ernest Backes book, Revelation$, which described a double system of accounts, one of whom was non-published. ...

Régis Hempel, vice-president of Cedel, explained to the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance how the system of unpublished accounts was generalized, allowing all sorts of illegal operations; Clearstream, during the lawsuit against Denis Robert for "defamation", did not deny it (See below). According to Hempel, some dormant accounts were activated for special transactions: "Such an account can be opened in the morning, used for a transaction, and closed to appear as delisted in the evening", Backes explains. "Only the guy who gave the order to open it in the morning knows about the transaction. An investigator or auditor would not look at such an account because it doesn't appear on the accounts list". // Glossary and basic concepts Note: There exist significant problems with applying non-French terminology and concepts related to law and justice to the French justice system. ... Clearstream Banking S.A. (CB) is the clearing division of Deutsche Börse, based in Luxembourg. ...

Among the major companies with unpublished accounts, Backes discovered the Shell Petroleum Group and the Dutch agricultural firm Unilever, one of whose accounts was associated with Goldman Sachs. "By 2000," according to Backes, "Clearstream managed about 15,000 accounts (of which half were non-published) for 2,500 clients in 105 countries; most of the investment companies, banks and their subsidiaries are from Western Europe and the United States. Most of the new non-published accounts were in offshore tax havens. The banks with the most non-published accounts are Banque Internationale de Luxembourg (309), Citibank (271) and Barclays (200) (...) On the April 2000 Clearstream list, there are 37 Colombian accounts, of which only three are published. " ^[7] German multinational Siemens had four non-published accounts, while Crédit Lyonnais bank had 23 and Japanese Nomura 12 ^[9]. Royal Dutch Shell plc / Koninklijke Nederlandse Shell NV is an Anglo-Dutch major energy company, one of the top four vertically-integrated private sector oil, natural gas, and petrol companies in the world (along with BP, ExxonMobil, and Total). ... Unilever (Euronext: UNA, LSE: ULVR, NYSE: UN) is an Anglo-Dutch company that owns many of the worlds consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. ... The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ... Offshore may refer to oil and natural gas production at sea, see oil platform. ... A tax haven is a place where certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all. ... Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York. ... Barclays Bank is the fourth largest bank in the United Kingdom. ... Siemens AG (FWB:SIE, NYSE: SI) is the worlds largest electronics company. ... Crédit Lyonnais is a French bank. ... The Nomura Group (野村グループ; Nomura gurūpu) is an international conglomerate of financial services and consulting companies, headquartered in the Nihombashi district of Tokyo, Japan. ...

Although an investigation of Clearstream was begun in France and Luxembourg, and a European Parliamentary report on money-laundering denounced Luxembourg's financial activities, Clearstream continued to use unpublished accounts. According to Denis Robert, in 2001, a year before being bought back by Deutsche Börse, Clearstream managed 330,000 unpublished accounts ^[10].

This system of unpublished accounts made it possible to hide money for the purposes of money laundering, tax evasion, accounting manipulation and fraud. It allegedly was used for such purposes by a large variety of banks, among them Columbian banks linked to the drug cartel, Bank Menatep involved in the "Kremlingate", and the French Credit Lyonnais involved in a major crash in the 1990s. The money from the Taiwan frigates French scandal allegedly transited via Clearstream, as did the money from Elf oil company, two major financial scandals which shook France in the 1990s. Clearstream secret accounts also allegedly held part of the Argentine debt which led to the December 2001 riots. Numerous unpublished accounts were owned by Argentine companies and by Citibank, which managed a large part of Argentine funds. Money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions in order to conceal the identity, source and destination of the money in question. ... This article contrasts tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax resistance and tax mitigation. ... Retail selling Street selling is the bottom of the chain and can be accomplished through purchasing from prostitutes, through cloaked retail stores or refuse houses for users in the act located in red-light districts which often also deal in paraphernalia, dealers marketing merriment at night clubs and other events... Bank Menatep was a privately owned bank created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. ... Bank Menatep was a $29-billion holding company created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, that had indirect controlling interest in Yukos Oil Company, and was involved in the $4. ... Crédit Lyonnais is a French bank. ... Elf logo Elf Aquitaine is a former French oil company merged with TotalFina to form TotalFinaElf. ... Argentina went through an economic crisis since the mid-1990s; though it is debatable whether this crisis has ended, the situation has been more stable, and improving, since 2003. ... The December 2001 riots were a period of civil unrest and rioting in Argentina that took place during December of 2001, with the worst incidents taking place on December 20 and December 21, 2001, in Argentinas capital Buenos Aires. ... Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York. ...

Another revelation of Denis Robert's book is that, according to the May 9, 2001 op-ed by Bernard Bertossa, attorney general in Geneva, Benoît Dejemeppe, king's attorney in Bruxelles (procureur du roi), Eva Joly, investigative magistrate in Paris, Jean de Maillard, magistrate in Blois and Renaud van Ruymbeke, a judge in Paris, entitled "The 'black boxes' of financial globalization", is that: Bernard Bertossa was Genevas public prosecutor from 1990 to 2002. ... Geneva (pronunciation //; French: Genève //, German: //, Italian: Ginevra) is the second most populous city in Switzerland, and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). ... For other uses, see Brussels (disambiguation). ... Eva Joly (b. ... An inquisitorial system is a legal system where the court or a part of the court is actively involved in determining the facts of the case, as opposed to an adversarial system where the role of the court is solely that of an impartial referee between parties. ... Blois is a city in France, the préfecture (capital) city of the Loir-et-Cher département, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours. ... Renaud van Ruymbeke is a French magistrate (juge dinstruction, in charge of the investigation and the prosecution) who investigated on the French-Taiwan frigates scandal and on the Urba affair. ...

"The chaos of financial flux is only an appearance. Of course, offshore banks and tax havens perfectly hide the points of arrival and of transit of dirty capital. It is even their reason of existence (raison d'être). Trying to find the illegal money flux in those offshore centers is hopelessly doomed... However, since capital from criminal origin pass in the same financial 'pipes' as otherones [legal funds], i.e. clearing and financial routage companies, they become vulnerable precisely during their transfer [in those clearing companies]." ^[11] An offshore bank is a bank located outside the country of residence of the depositor, typically in a low tax jurisdiction (aka tax haven) that provides financial and legal advantages. ... A tax haven is a place where certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all. ... In politics, a capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has an alternative meaning based on an alternative meaning of capital) is the principal city or town associated with its government. ...

In other words, all financial money flows, legal or illegal, have to pass through Clearstream or Euroclear; the system of un-published accounts, of which a few (less than 10%) also were found at Euroclear, is the way illegal funds are metamorphosed into legal funds which can be used to buy any financial service. Michel Volle, economist and former INSEE administrator, has compared this financial system to famous historian Marc Bloch's description of predation in the Middle Ages, in his book Feudal Society (1961): INSEE is the French abbreviation for the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (French: Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques). ... Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (July 6, 1886 - June 16, 1944) was a French historian of medieval France in the period between the First and Second World Wars, and a founder of the Annales School. ...

"I believe that the actual economy is composed by two types of relations: balanced exchanged, where both parties have the same power to refuse or accept the transaction; and predation, where one of the party is in the position to impose the transaction to the other party. Predation, compensed by charity, is the typical feudal relation (cf. Marc Bloch, The Feudal Society). Balanced exchange has been put in place with the industrial society at the beginning of the 18th century. Predation didn't disappear at this time - the mafia is a feudal organization - but it was in the industrial economy an archaïc remnant. But it is coming back with the automated and computerized economy which founds the actual technic system and in which risk and violence, both extreme, goes in pair (cf. my work "E-conomie" and also F.-X. Verschave, Noir Silence). Therefore, the economy has divided itself in two parts, one working under the balanced exchange regime, and the other under the predation regime. Shakespeare's heroes are coming back! The interface between these two parts is money-laundering, which allows the results of predation to enter the "normal" and legal circuit. Thereby, predators can acquire influence (controls of the media and, through them, governments), prestige and honorability; thus bankers, politicians and magistrates that the predators have bought may enjoy in complete tranquillity of the fruits of corruption... This, and not the First Employment Contract, should have provoqued the demonstrations! But, as you say, medias are what predators control the best". ^[12] Allegorical personification of Charity as a mother with three infants by Anthony van Dyck Charity, meaning selfless giving, is one conventional English translation of the Greek term agapÄ“. // Etymology In the 1400, charity meant the state of love or simple affection which one was in or out of regarding one... François-Xavier Verschave (October 28, 1945, Lille, France; June 29, 2005, Villeurbanne) was primarily known as one of the founder of the French NGO Survie (Survival), which he presided since 1995, and as the coiner of the term Françafrique, since then passed into popular usage - the expression designed... Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a commonly used term among media critics, policy makers, and others to characterize ownership structure of media industries. ... Demonstration against CPE, March 28, 2006, Paris The contrat première embauche (CPE), translated first employment contract, is a proposed law that would be created by an amendment to the eighth article of the Statute on the Equality of Opportunities law. ... The 2006 labor protests in France occurred throughout France during February, March, and April 2006 as a result of opposition to a measure set to deregulate labor. ...

A "black box" of Cedel

Ernest Backes also explained that a company called Cedel International, located in Geneva, had been inscribed in the Swiss register of commerce but not included in the books of the mother company, Cedel International in Luxembourg. "This non-consolidated 'branch', whose president is Robert Douglass of New York, former private secretary of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and vice chairman of the Chase Manhattan Corporation [now J.P. Morgan Chase] , apparently had not raised too many questions for Swiss federal magistrates". Backes qualified this "black box" as "institutionalized tax evasion at highest level in world finance", noting that tax evasion was even "more or less expressed in the objectives of the company as filed in the Swiss register of commerce." The "branch" has since "been resold to another Luxembourg holding company, with the people in the backyard remaining mostly the same." Geneva (pronunciation //; French: Genève //, German: //, Italian: Ginevra) is the second most populous city in Switzerland, and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Chase Manhattan Corporation was a bank holding company formed as parent of the Chase Manhattan Bank. ... J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. ...

March 2000 French parliamentary report

In March 2000, a parliamentary report by French deputies Arnaud Montebourg and Vincent Peillon, entitled "Parliamentary Report on the obstacles on the control and repression of financial criminal activity and of money-laundering in Europe", dedicated its whole third section to "Luxembourg's political dependency toward the financial sector: the Clearstream affair". ^[13]. Arnaud Montebourg (born October 30, 1962, in Clamecy, Nièvre)is a French politician, and a deputy to the French National Assembly for the Socialist Party. ... Vincent Benoît Camille Peillon (born 7 July 1960 in Soresnes) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the north-west of France. ... Money laundering, the metaphorical cleaning of money with regard to appearances in law, is the practice of engaging in specific financial transactions in order to conceal the identity, source and/or destination of money and is a main operation of underground economy. ...

Judicial investigations & libel lawsuits

Following the publication of "Revelation$", the tribunal of Luxembourg opened up an investigation on February 26th, 2001. The judge finally declared no proof of "systematic manipulations" had been found, but found evidence of accounting manipulation and tax evasion ^[14]. However, the case was dropped on November 30th, 2004, due to the running of the statute of limitations. At the beginning of the 1990s, Luxembourg had no specific law prohibiting money-laundering. February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... This article contrasts tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax resistance and tax mitigation. ... November 30 is the 334th day (335th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days remaining. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A statute of limitations is a statute in a common law legal system setting forth the maximum period of time, after certain events, that legal proceedings based on those events may begin. ...

The Reuters dispatch describing the closing of the money laundering probe gave no reason for the dropping of the case, i.e. the statute of limitations. Reuters is dependent upon Deutsche Börse, which now owns Clearstream, to supply its data feed to their subscribers. In addition to Clearstream, Deutsche Börse also owns the German Stock Exchange and Eurex "Termin" (futures) market. The Reuters cable also stated that Clearstream successfully sued Backes and French newspaper "Le Figaro" for libel on March 29, 2004, but deliberately failed to follow up the initial October 1, 2003 judgements (see below). Reuters quoted Deutsche Börse's Chairman Designate André Roelants as stating that "this announcement is very important as it closes once and for all this chapter." ^[15]. Reuters Group plc (LSE: RTR and NASDAQ: RTRSY) is best known as a news service that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters. ... Eurex is an European derivatives exchange market. ... Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... March 29 is the 88th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (89th in Leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 1 is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Clearstream Banking S.A. (CB) is the clearing division of Deutsche Börse, based in Luxembourg. ...

In 2003, the Paris Court rejected all of the finance company's requests (Clearstream was seeking damages of 500,000 Euros because of "defamation"), and condemned Clearstream to pay 3 500 Euros to Denis Robert ^[16]. The magistrates decided that the Clearstream money-laundering evidence was "serious and cross-checked, lacking in any animosity and expressed with caution" ^[17]. The suit is due to be examined by the Appeal Court in 2006. Court of Appeals or (outside the United States) Court of Appeal is the title of certain appellate courts in various jurisdictions. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Denis Robert also has been sued for defamation by other banks and companies incriminated by the book: 50+ different cases -- among which Bank Menatep, Banque Générale du Luxembourg, etc., in which the author and his editor Laurent Beccaria were acquitted in all but two cases, and damages for both cases of one Euro were awarded of one Euro. On January 27, 2006, once more Denis Robert was charged by a Luxembourg committing magistrate for defamation, slander and insults. Bank Menatep was a privately owned bank created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. ... January 27 is the 27th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

A complaint was opened in March 2001 against Ernest Backes, and Denis Robert was included in it five years later: "I am very surprised of this accusation five years after the facts and of the energy which the Luxembourgian justice puts continuing me while it was not at the end of the inquiry opened for money laundering, tax evasion and corruption against Clearstream", Roberts said. A organization, "Freedom to inform", declared to Le Nouvel Observateur magazine that "By transforming the affair Robert in affair Frieden (famous Luxembourg Minister of Justice, of the Treasury and the Budget), every signature will be a civil act which protects the freedom of the media in Europe." ^[18] Le Nouvel Observateur (often shorten to Le Nouvel Obs) is a weekly French newsmagazine. ...

Suspension and prosecution of Clearstream's CEO

On May 15, 2001, André Lussi, was suspended from his CEO functions at Clearstream, and on December 31th, 2001 he was dismissed ^{[19] [20]}. On February 2004, an investigation was opened against him, on money-laundering, fraud and tax evasion charges ^{[21] [22]}. André Lussi was replaced by André Roelants, who had been at Dexia. 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Chief executive officer of Clearstream, André Lussi resigned in December 2001 following the scandal brought up by the publication of Denis Robert and Ernest Backes book, Revelation$, which described a double system of accounts, one of whom was non-published. ... A chief executive officer (CEO), or chief executive, is the highest-ranking corporate officer or executive officer of a corporation, or agency. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → // February 29, 2004 Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti and flees the country for the Central African Republic. ... Dexia (Euronext: DEXB, Euronext: DX) is a Belgian-French financial institution, specialized in public finance. ...

Refusal of the European Commission to open an investigation: 20 Minutes ' revelations

Along with Ernest Backes, Denis Robert presented Revelation$ to the Capital Tax, Fiscal Systems and Globalization intergroup of the European Parliament in March 2001 and also to the French National Assembly. The European Commission did not react to the question raised by European MPs (MEP) Harlem Désir, Glyn Ford and Francis Wurtz, who asked the Commission to investigate the accusations made by the book and to ensure that the 10 June 1990 directive (91/308 CE) on control of financial establishment be applied in all member states in an effective way. Commissioner Frits Bolkestein observed that "the Commission has no reason to date to believe that the Luxembourg authorities do not apply it vigorously". The three MPs then issued a press statement demanding an investigation by the European Union of the correct application of the June 10, 1990 directive ^{[11] [22]}. The European Parliament building in Strasbourg The inside of the building The European Parliament (formerly European Parliamentary Assembly) is the parliamentary body of the European Union (EU), directly elected by EU citizens once every five years. ... 2001 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December Events: March 3 - A U.S. Air Force Materials Command C-23 Sherpa transport crashes during stormy weather in the U.S. state of Georgia, killing 21. ... The Palais Bourbon, front The French National Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale) is one of the two houses of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. ... The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. ... A Member of the European Parliament (English abbreviation MEP) is a member of the European Unions directly-elected legislative body, the European Parliament. ... Harlem Désir is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the ÃŽle-de-France. ... Glyn Ford (born 1950) is a member of the European Parliament for South West England for the Labour Party. ... Francis Wurtz is a French Member of the European Parliament. ... Frits Bolkestein Frederik Bolkestein (born 1933; usually known as Frits Bolkestein) is a Dutch politician and former EU Commissioner. ...

On April 26, 2006, 20 Minutes revealed that "in May 2005, MEP Paul Van Buitenen was shocked by Frits Bolkestein's presence on Menatep's international consultative council, a Russian banking establishment, and by his work for Shell, a British-Dutch petrol company, two firms 'maintaining secret accounts in Clearstream'... Van Buitenen, also Dutch, then asked for 'clarification' to the European Commission and the opening of a parliamentary investigation. The Commission's president, José Manuel Barroso, replied that these facts 'do not bring up any new question' and that it is not known 'if Menatep made contact with Bolkestein while he was in these positions'. No investigation therefore took place." April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 20 Minuten is a free daily newspaper in Switzerland, distributed to commuters in more than 150 train stations. ... Paul van Buitenen (born 28 May 1957 in Breda) was a Dutch assistant-auditor in the European Commission’s Financial Control Directorate who became the whistle blower who first drew the attention of a Member of the European Parliament to the irregularities, fraud and mismanagement within the Commission in 1998. ... Bank Menatep was a privately owned bank created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. ... Royal Dutch Shell plc/Koninklijke Nederlandse Shell NV is an Anglo Dutch oil company which is amongst the largest energy corporations in the world, and one of the six supermajors (vertically integrated private-sector oil, natural gas, and petrol companies), along with BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Total. ... This article needs to be updated. ...

The free daily points out that "in 2001, it was Bolkestein himself who announced the Commission's refusal to open up a parliamentary investigation on Clearstream", following Harlem Désir's requests and accusations that Menatep had an "undeclared account" at Clearstream. Bolkestein refused to answer any questions by the newspaper, which recalls that Van Buitenen, former European public servant, had already revealed a vast corruption affair in 1999, which led to the resignation of the Commission presided by Jacques Santer (who has also been prime minister of Luxembourg) and the fall of Edith Cresson ^[23]. Jacques Santer (born May 18, 1937) is a politician from Luxembourg. ... Édith Cresson Édith Cresson (born on 27 January 1934 as Édith Campion in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris) is a French politician. ...

Furthermore, two Belgian Senators, Isabelle Durant and Jean Cornil, proposed a law in 2004 to create a national investigation commission charged with the investigation of the use of accounts in "clearing and routing firms" to commit fiscal frauds (tax evasion) and/or money-laundering ^[24]

Clearstream's reply

In April 2006, while the second "Clearstream affair" was beginning to make French media headlines (See below), Clearstream filed a lawsuit against "John Doe" targeting this time neither Denis Robert nor Ernest Backes (Régis Hempel, the former vice-president and computer programmer who revealed how he had set up the system of unpublished accounts, never was targeted by Clearstream's lawsuits), but the anonymous denunciations claiming that Nicolas Sarkozy and other French political personalities had secret accounts at Clearstream, which would have been used for hypothetical kickbacks. Clearstream Banking S.A. (CB) is the clearing division of Deutsche Börse, based in Luxembourg. ...

Furthermore, Clearstream agreed to answer the questions of 20 Minutes. In this interview, it denied knowing anything about the various attempts to create European-level investigations commissions about its internal workings. It also denied "the existence of parallel accounts" and of "personal accounts" (in response, Denis Robert published a list of several personal accounts on his blog ^[25]). However, the firm did recognize that "a banking establishment may request an unpublished account, that is, an account only known by the establishments concerned by the transaction, control authorities, and the auditors of the firm". Clearstream also claims to have "spent 15 million euros on various audits without finding anything", Denis Robert's accusations ^[26]. 20 Minuten is a free daily newspaper in Switzerland, distributed to commuters in more than 150 train stations. ...

Nadhmi Auchi, largest private share-holder of BNP Paribas bank

Strangely, Iraqi-born Nadhmi Auchi, #34 on the "Sunday Times Rich List 2004" (#22 on the same list in 2005) and 13th richest man in Britain according to The Guardian, estimated to be worth $1 billion according to Forbes, also appeared to be a key figure in the implementation of the double accounting system ^[27]. Nadhmi Auchi, born in 1937, is a British-resident, Iraqi-born billionaire. ... Since 1989 the British national Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times (sister paper to The Times) has published an annual supplement to the newspaper called the Sunday Times Rich List. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... Forbes Building on Fifth Avenue in New York City Forbes is an American business and financial magazine founded in 1917 by B.C. Forbes. ...

Auchi was convicted of illicit profiteering by the Paris Criminal Court and received a 15-month suspended sentence for his involvement in Elf's scandal, "the biggest fraud inquiry in Europe since the Second World War. Elf became a private bank for its executives who spent £200 million on political favours, mistresses, jewellery, fine art, villas and apartments" ^[28]. The "Guardian" noted that Nadhmi Auchi had helped Orascom (which owns Djezzy GSM), owned by Onsi Sawiris (worth $5.2 billion with his family according to Forbes ^[29]), gain a contract to set up mobile phone networks in post-Saddam's Iraq. Moreover, as owner of the General Mediterranean Holdings, Auchi is the largest private shareholder of BNP Paribas, which until 2001 managed the escrow account through which the money from the Oil-for-Food programme transited. Orascom Telecom or (“OTH”) (LSE: OTLD) is telecommunication company established in Egypt in 1998 and owned by Onsi Sawiris. ... Djezzy GSM, a branch of the Egypt-based Orascom Telecom, is Algerias principal mobile phone operator, with a market share of 73% (over 5 million subscribers) and a network covering 84% of the population (48 wilayas. ... Onsi Sawiris (Unsi Sawires, Arabic: أنسي ساويريس) is an Egyptian businessman, estimated to be worth approximatively $5. ... Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, (Arabic: ), (born April 28, 1937 ), was the President of Iraq from 1979 until the United States-led invasion of Iraq reached Baghdad on April 9, 2003. ... The General Mediterranean Holdings (GenMed) is a financial holding established in 1979 in Luxembourg, through which Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi control his financial empire. ... BNP Paribas (Euronext: BNP, TYO: 8665 ) is one of the main banks in Europe and France. ... Escrow is a legal arrangement whereby an asset (often money, but sometimes other property such as art, a deed of title, website, or software source code) is delivered to a third party (called an escrow agent) to be held in trust pending a contingency or the fulfillment of a condition... The Oil-for-Food Programme, established by the United Nations in 1995 (under UN Security Council Resolution 986) and terminated in late 2003, was intended to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs for ordinary Iraqi citizens without allowing...

Bank Menatep

Further information: Bank Menatep

Bank Menatep, owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was involved in the "Kremlingate", when $4.8 billion in IMF funds were diverted to various banks, including US banks ^[30]. It opened up its non-published Cedel account #81 738 on May 15, 1997. "Menatep further violated the rules because many transfers were of cash, not for settlement of securities", writes Komisar. "For the three months in 1997 for which I hold microfiches, Backes says, only cash transfers were transferred through the Meanatep account. There were a lot of transfers between Menatep and the Bank of New York." Natasha Gurfinkel Kagalovsky, a former Bank of New York official and the wife of a Menatep vice-president, was accused of helping launder at least $7 billion from Russia, according to Komisar. US investigators have attempted to find out if some of the laundered money originated with Menatep. Bank Menatep was a privately owned bank created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. ... Khodorkovsky speaking at a conference shortly before his arrest. ... Bank Menatep was a $29-billion holding company created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, that had indirect controlling interest in Yukos Oil Company, and was involved in the $4. ... The flag of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the international organization entrusted with overseeing the global financial system by monitoring foreign exchange rates and balance of payments, as well as offering technical and financial assistance when asked. ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Bank of New York (NYSE: BK), sometimes BNY, is a global financial services company operating in four primary business areas: Securities servicing Treasury management Investment management Private banking // History The Bank of New York was founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1784, making it the oldest bank in the United...

On November 26, 2003, Backes and another ex-banker, Swiss citizen André Strebel, filed a criminal complaint with the Swiss attorney general against Khodorkovsky and his colleagues Platon Lebedev and Alexei Golubovich, accusing them of money-laundering and supporting a criminal organization. They requested an investigation and a search of records of the Swiss office of Menatep SA, Menatep Finances SA, Valmet. and of Bank Leu in Geneva, related to claims of fraud against the Russian company Avisma and money-laundering by Menatep in Switzerland. According to this complaint, Bank Menatep has been linked since its creation to the Russian oligarchy and criminal organizations, such as Khodorkovsky, Alexander Konanykhine and the Russian godfather Semyon Mogilvich. "Even though Menatep officially failed in 1998, it oddly remained on the non-published list of Clearstream accounts for 2000", wrote Komisar. Clearstream's listings also present 36 other Russian accounts, most non-published ^[31]. Lebedev Platon Leonidovich (Russian: Лебедев Платон Леонидович) is a former CEO of Group Menatep, and is best known as the business partner of the embattled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. ... Valmet (originally Valtion Metallitehtaat - Governmental Metalworks) was formed in 1951, when the state of Finland decided to group their various factories working on war reparations for Soviet Union under one company. ... Geneva (pronunciation //; French: Genève //, German: //, Italian: Ginevra) is the second most populous city in Switzerland, and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). ... Business oligarch, a synonym of business magnate, describes wealthy people that significantly influence the life of a state. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Izmailovskaya (Mafia). ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

In April 2006, Clearstream declared, to the French edition of 20 Minutes, that if "Menatep may have strange accounts, it wasn't closed because of money-laundering". It also claimed that it dealt with "banks accredited in their country of origin", but not with "establishments that are registered on the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering's black list" ^[26]. 20 Minuten is a free daily newspaper in Switzerland, distributed to commuters in more than 150 train stations. ... The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), also known by the French name Groupe daction financière sur le blanchiment de capitaux (GAFI), is an inter-governmental body founded in 1989 by the G8. ...

The Second Clearstream Affair

The Second Clearstream affair has interested the media even more than the earlier explosive revelations did. This affair began in July 2004, when anonymous denunciations sent to magistrate Renaud Van Ruymbeke accused various important French political figures of having received kickbacks related to the Taiwan frigates scandal, through secret personal accounts at Clearstream. Once more Clearstream was pointed out as having been a major platform for illegal financial transactions. Renaud van Ruymbeke is a French magistrate (juge dinstruction, in charge of the investigation and the prosecution) who investigated on the French-Taiwan frigates scandal and on the Urba affair. ...

The Taiwan frigates scandal

In 1991, France sold six frigates to Taiwan, which led to more than five billion francs of kickbacks, with intermediary Andrew Wang as a major figure. The large amounts of these kickbacks made this affair one of the most important French political and financial scandals of the 1990s. The kickbacks were exposed after the 1993 murder of naval captain Yin Ching-Feng, who had written a report critical of the $2.8 billion purchase. Eight deaths have been linked to the affair, and 13 military officers and 15 arms dealers were sentenced by Taiwan courts to between eight months and life in prison for bribery and for leaking military secrets ^{[32] [33]}. The money for these illegal percentage fees transited through Clearstream, according to Denis Robert.

Joël Bucher's testimony

Following the publication of "Revelation$", Joël Bucher, former deputy general director of the Taiwan branch of Société Générale (SG), wrote to Luxembourg prosecutor Carlos Zeyen, investigating Clearstream, to testify that SG used Clearstream to hide bribes and to launder money. "In the early 1990s, Bucher contends, Cedel was used to launder $350 million in illegal 'commissions' on a contract for the sale by Thomson-CSF, a French government arms company, of six French frigates to Taiwan. He said that the money, handled by a SG subsidiary, was paid as a registered securities transfer to a 'nominee' -- a stand-in for the real beneficiary -- and that Thomson (now known as Thales) didn't appear in the transaction except in the Cedel archives. He said SG used two non-published Cedel accounts." Société Générale (Euronext: GLE) is one of the main banks in France (one of the three oldest). ... Thomson-CSF was a major electronics and defense contractor. ... The Thales Group is a global electronics company serving aerospace, defence, and information technology markets worldwide. ...

Investigation of the anonymous denunciations

On May 3, 2004 and June 14, 2004, Renaud Van Ruymbeke and Dominique Talancé, the French magistrates in charge of the Taiwan frigates scandal, received two letters and a CD-ROM from an anonymous informant (called corbeau in French), detailing numbered bank accounts maintained at Clearstream and describing secret transfers of millions of dollars. Many personalities were named, including Alain Gomez, former director of Thomson-CSF (which since has become Thales), Andrew Wang, the Taiwanese intermediary of the frigates contract and one of Taiwan's key figures concerning arms contracts, Philippe Delmas, vice-president of EADS the European aeronautics consortium, and Nicolas Sarkozy, then minister of the Economy, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, and others. Members of the French secret services also were named. ^[34]. May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Renaud van Ruymbeke is a French magistrate (juge dinstruction, in charge of the investigation and the prosecution) who investigated on the French-Taiwan frigates scandal and on the Urba affair. ... Thomson-CSF was a major electronics and defense contractor. ... Thales of Miletus (ca. ... The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS N.V. (EADS) is a large European aerospace corporation, formed by the merger on July 10, 2000 of Aérospatiale-Matra of France, Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) of Spain, and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) of Germany. ... Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (born 28 January 1955, in Paris, 17th arrondissement), simply known as Nicolas Sarkozy ( — ), is a French politician born of a Hungarian father and French mother, often nicknamed Sarko. ... Dominique Strauss-Kahn (born 25 April 1949 in Neuilly-sur-Seine; often known as DSK) is a French politician, member of the French Socialist Party. ... Jean-Pierre Chevènement Jean-Pierre Chevènement (born March 9, 1939 in Belfort) is a French politician. ...

Magistrate Van Ruymbeke opened another investigation, in July 2004. According to the denunciations, Andrew Wang passed on money to several very important French officials from 1999 to 2003, using Clearstream ^{[35] [36]}.

Colombian drug-dealers and a Russian oligarch also issued some of those payments, according to the corbeau ^[37]. Andrew Wang allegedly received a high part of the illegal fees given during the selling of the six frigates. According to Luxembourg's public prosecutor, the investigation of Clearstream has not confirmed money-laundering suspicions concerning the Taiwan frigates and Bank Menatep, owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. However, Dominique de Talancé and Renaud Van Ruymbeke, the French magistrates in charge of the Taiwan frigates affair, made a demand for information in Clearstream's offices in Luxembourg. In countries adopting the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system, the prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution. ...

But in January 2006, both magistrates declared the case closed, on the grounds that the corbeau 's list of Clearstream accounts owned by various political figures was a fraud. For example, the numbered Banca popolare di Sondrio Clearstream account, supposedly in the names of "Stéphane Bocsa" and "Paul de Nagy" -- probable contender for the 2007 presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy's full true name is "Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa" -- was not Sarkozy's personal account, but an account used by various persons, according to the declarations of the Banca popolare di Sondrio to Judge Ruymbeke. Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (born 28 January 1955, in Paris, 17th arrondissement), simply known as Nicolas Sarkozy ( — ), is a French politician born of a Hungarian father and French mother, often nicknamed Sarko. ...

The Italian bank asked the judge for a new subpoena concerning a specific person. However, the judges didn't bother, because, according to L'Express, the "investigation proves that all accounts designed by the 'corbeau' [were] falsely attributed to [important] personalities. Furthermore, the authors of this fraud [were] known, even though there exist no proofs allowing to prosecute them. But the mystery remains: have they acted alone, or under command? And why did they choose the town of Sondrio for the ghost account of Sarkozy?" ^[38]. The news article stated that the accounts were "falsely attributed", but did not deny their existence. The magistrates decided not to issue a subpoena personally targeting Nicolas Sarkozy to the Sondrio bank, offering no reasons to the press for not doing so. A subpoena is a writ commanding a person to appear under penalty (from Latin). ... LExpress is the name the first news magazine in France. ... Sondrio (Latin Sundrium) is a town in the Province of Sondrio, in the region Lombardy in Italy. ...

Lawsuits alleging defamation

On September 3, 2004, the Paris parquet (public prosecutor) opened an investigation into charges of "defamation", following a complaint by Philippe Delmas, EADS' vice-president. Magistrates Jean-Marie d'Huy and Henri Pons are in charge of this new investigation concerning a peripheral aspect of the main Clearstream affair. September 3 is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In December 2005, magistrate Van Ruymbeke, in charge of the Taiwan frigates Affair, showed that the listings had been modified to falsely accuse French political luminaries. The existence of unpublished secret accounts at Clearstream is not, however, questioned, but only the fact that the persons named by the anonymous informer maintained such accounts.

On January 31, 2006, Nicolas Sarkozy sued. A probable contender for the 2007 presidential election, Sarkozy is upset about allegations that he might be linked to the Taiwan frigates scandal via a foreign and secret account at Clearstream. He was followed quickly by other French political figures, including Dominique Strauss-Kahn on April 18, and Alain Madelin and Jean-Pierre Chevènement on April 19. EADS also filed a complaint on April 13, followed by Clearstream itself on April 20. Clearstream did not want to see its brand-name associated with the Taiwan frigates scandal, and clearly did not enjoy the sudden bad advertising it was receiving. The firm denied hosting any personal secret accounts, which in turn prompted Denis Robert to publish a list of personal accounts maintained by Clearstream (which did not include any of the political luminaries accused by the corbeau) ^{[26] [25]}. January 31 is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (born 28 January 1955, in Paris, 17th arrondissement), simply known as Nicolas Sarkozy ( — ), is a French politician born of a Hungarian father and French mother, often nicknamed Sarko. ... Dominique Strauss-Kahn (born 25 April 1949 in Neuilly-sur-Seine; often known as DSK) is a French politician, member of the French Socialist Party. ... April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). ... Alain Madelin in 2005 Alain Madelin (born March 26, 1946) is a French politician and a former minister of that country. ... Jean-Pierre Chevènement Jean-Pierre Chevènement (born March 9, 1939 in Belfort) is a French politician. ... April 19 is the 109th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (110th in leap years). ... April 13 is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (104th in leap years). ... April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ...

The magistrates then ordered an investigation of General Philippe Rondot, former member of the French Secret Service DGSE and the man who captured Carlos the Jackal in 1994 ^[39], currently attached to the French Ministry of Defence, and to the DGSE headquarters (nicknamed la piscine, "the swimming pool", because of its former location). On March 28, 2006, in a declaration to the magistrates in charge of what became the "second Clearstream scandal", General Philippe Rondot directly accused Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and President Jacques Chirac of having ordered the investigation of French politicians. ^[40]. Philippe Rondot (1936 - ) is a French retired general, formerly an important personality of the French intelligence. ... The Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (generally known as DGSE) is Frances external intelligence agency. ... Carlos with fiancée Isabelle Coutant_Peyre Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (born October 12, 1949) was a terrorist, professional revolutionary, and playboy; he is better known by the nom de guerre Carlos the Jackal, which may have been given to him by the press after a copy of the Frederick... March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (88th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (born 14 November 1953 in Rabat, Morocco) simply known as Dominique de Villepin ( — , is a French diplomat and politician. ... Jacques René Chirac (born November 29, 1932) is a French politician and the current President of the French Republic. ...

It is not the existence itself of the accounts, however, that has been proved false, nor the existence of personal accounts maintained by Clearstream, but the claim that they belonged to such important politicians ^[41].

On the other side of the political spectrum in France, the Socialist Party asked for the creation of a commission to investigate such mis-use of the intelligence services. On April 6, 2006, in a new demonstration of the independence of French judiciary power from the executive, Jean-Claude Marin, Paris' public prosecutor of the Republic (procureur de la République), sent a letter to Jean-Claude Magendie, the court's president and to Yves Bot, attorney-general, complaining about the attitudes of the investigative magistrates Henri Pons and Jean-Marie d'Huy. The Republic's public prosecutor complained that he wasn't told before hand of the location of the various investigations ^[42]. The Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), founded in 1969, is the main opposition party in France. ... April 6 is the 96th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (97th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Yves Bot (born 1947) is a French magistrate, currently public prosecutor of the city of Paris (procureur de la République de Paris). ...

According to Philippe Rondot's testimony (20 pages), Prime Minister de Villepin ordered him on January 9, 2004, to conduct a confidential investigation of a list of secret personal accounts held at Clearstream. The list was given to him by Jean-Louis Gergorin, an executive vice-president of EADS European arms consortium, and allegedly a close friend of Villepin. January 9 is the 9th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS N.V. (EADS) is a large European aerospace corporation, formed by the merger on July 10, 2000 of Aérospatiale-Matra of France, Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) of Spain, and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) of Germany. ...

On April 28, 2006, Villepin denied having commissionned an investigation of Nicolas Sarkozy. He declared, to the conservative newspaper Figaro, that although he had demanded that Rondot carry out these investigations, he explicitly had limited the investigations to non-politicians. Villepin thus declared that he "never" had commissioned an investigation of Sarkozy, and that he always had "acted within the ambit of action defined by the President" to regularize international financial markets. April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ...

On the same day, President Jacques Chirac also denied having ordered an investigation of French politicians. It was the first time that the Elysée palace had expressed itself, regarding this Clearstream affair. Le Figaro noted, in the same article, the "very serious accusations against the executive" power that Rondot had made, quoting Le Monde: "According to Mr. Rondot, the future prime minister [Villepin] had asked him, following the instructions of the head-of-state [Chirac], to go beyond the limits fixed to his investigation by the office of Minister of Defense Michèle Alliot-Marie and examine the clues concerning politicians" ^{[43] [44]} The entrance to the Élysée Palace. ... Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... Michèle Alliot-Marie Michèle Alliot-Marie (born 10 September 1946) is the French Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs. ...

In this April 28, 2006 article, Le Figaro thus explained how the head of staff of Minister of Defense Michèle Alliot-Marie (called "MAM" by the Canard Enchaîné) had ordered "Philippe Rondot to investigate the veracity of the computerized listings of of Clearstream account-holders". According to Rondot, the investigation at that time did not include any politicians. Le Canard enchaîné is a satirical newspaper published weekly in France, founded in 1915, featuring investigative journalism and leaks from sources inside the French government, the French political world and the French business world, as well as a large number of jokes and humoristic cartoons. ...

These listings should not be confused with the other listings, sent to the French justice system during the spring of 2004 by the anonymous informer, which have been revealed by the secret services to have been fraudulent ^[45]

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's refutation of accusations against himself began as follows:

"The Prime minister wishes to make the following observations on the Taiwan Frigates Affair and on the Clearstream Affair. In the first place, the Taiwan Frigates Affair: as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and following the guidelines set by the President of the Republic regarding the Taiwan Frigates Affair, on January 9, 2004, I asked General Rondot to attempt to verify the credibility of rumors concerning the existence of international mafiosi networks and intermediaries which could threaten our national security or our interests. This meeting, in which Jean-Louis Gergorin participated, was an opportunity for us to address several international questions, in particular organized crime networks... The aim was not at all to investigate individuals, but networks and intermediaries... I acted within the framework defined by the President of the Republic, which aimed at regularizing the large international financial markets and at defending ourselves against any manipulation or destabilization of our economic interests... In the second place, there are these calumnious deununciations of the Clearstream Affair : the Affair took a new turn in Spring 2004, with the mention of political personalities, industrial leaders and people in government services among the names on a list of account-holders. As Interior Minister, it was my responsibility to ask that the DST [Direction de Surveillance du Territoire, a secret service] undertake verifications. The DST concluded that the authors of this manipulation offered nothing concrete or probative. I asked the director of the DST to notify the judicial authorities of the conclusions which had been given to me. To conclude here, I will make several personal observations: my first preoccupation is tht justice be done to all individuals injustly involved in this affair who legitimately feel they have been injured -- I said this yesterday to Nicolas Sarkozy. As Prime Minister, I am profoundly shocked by certain innuendos here, and by the shadow cast upon the State and the government services. I have no doubt that full light will be shed upon this affair by the investigations of our justice system." ^[46] The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... Organized crime is crime carried out systematically by formal criminal organizations. ...

Villepin now is under great pressure from various sides of the political spectrum in France to resign. The politicians named in the Spring 2004 listings, which have been described as a "manipulation", say they are furious, while Clearstream itself is upset to see its name quoted side-to-side with the very real Taiwan Frigates Scandal. It now appears that the Taiwan Frigates payments definitely passed through the Clearstream system of unpublished accounts, exactly as discovered years before by reporter Denis Robert.

Now the magistrates Pons and Huys, in charge of the investigations concerning the anonymous denunciations, have demanded the right to investigate magistrates Renaud Van Ruymbeke and Dominique de Talancé, who since 2001 have been in charge of the Taiwan Frigates Affair.

Le Figaro noted: "The approximatively 35 tomes of the case, concerning eventual kickbacks from the frigates market, are therefore officially connected to the Clearstream affair. If several judiciary sources take refuge in 'not understanding this approach', the two magistrates have from now on a considerable and unexpected content to feed their investigations. While magistrate van Ruymbeke is supposed to quit the financial pole [of investigation], in September to integrate the Parisian Appeal Court, Henri Pons and Jean-Marie d'Huy may immerse themselves in this case which bumps into the secret defense [or 'state secret']." ^[47]

On the other hand, the April 28, 2006 Presidential communication stated:

"Since its very beginnings, the Presidency of the Republic has worked for the regularization of international financial markets and for the struggle against international criminal networks. It always has bequeathed this task to successive governments. Concerning the Clearstream affair, the President of the Republic categorically denies having asked for any investigation targeting political personalities whose names may have been mentioned." ^[48]

On April 30, 2006, Socialist Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also named in the manipulated listing, called the scandal a "type of French Watergate" ^[49]. Two days later, the May 2, 2006 edition of Le Figaro offered an interview of General Philippe Rondot in which he recanted his earlier testimony, declaring that: "My investigation was limited to former public servants of the DGSE [secret service] whose names had appeared on the Clearstream lists". The Clearstream affair had taken on such proportions that even TF1, the major French television channel, featured it at primetime 8H00 PM. ^[50] April 30 is the 120th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (121st in leap years), with 245 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The emblem of the French Socialist Party The Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), founded in 1969, is the main opposition party in France. ... Dominique Strauss-Kahn (born 25 April 1949 in Neuilly-sur-Seine; often known as DSK) is a French politician, member of the French Socialist Party. ... The Watergate building. ... May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (generally known as DGSE) is Frances external intelligence agency. ... TF1 is a private French TV network, controlled by TF1 Group, which major share-holder is Bouygues. ...

Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie, whose office was searched by the police on April 13, as part of the investigations concerning the denunciations, has been suspected -- in an April 26, 2006 article by L'Express -- of having known of this affair since 2003 without informing Sarkozy. MAM formally denied these allegations, claiming that she didn't know anything about these listings until July 2004, when the press started talking about them. Michèle Alliot-Marie Michèle Alliot-Marie (born 10 September 1946) is the French Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs. ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... LExpress is the name the first news magazine in France. ...

But General Rondot's testimony, published on May 3, 2006 by Le Monde, contradicts this denial. Rondot claimed having met MAM at the end of April 2004 to warn her of the "political consequences" of such an affair. On May 4, MAM refuted Rondot's claims, emphasizing that his area of expertise "does not cover France itself". She acknowledged having met him on May 11, 2004 to discuss the named people belonging to the Ministry of Defense who were accused of having Clearstream accounts, but she declared that they had not talked about the political personalities. MAM claims that her position and the possibility that she might be named Prime Minister in case of Villepin's resignation explain the recent developments concerning her. ^{[51] [52]} May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years). ... May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (132nd in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The October surprise conspiracy

Main article: October surprise conspiracy

Ernest Backes also declared in Révélation$ that he was in charge of the transfer of $7 million from Chase Manhattan Bank and Citibank, on January 16, 1980, to pay for the liberation of the American hostages held in Tehran's embassy (Iran). He gave copies of files shedding new light on the October surprise conspiracy to the French National Assembly. The October Surprise Conspiracy was an alleged plot that claimed representatives of the 1980 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign had conspired with Islamic Republic of Iran to delay the release of 66 Americans held hostage in Tehran until after the election. ... The Chase Manhattan Bank was formed by the merger of the Chase National Bank and the Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1955. ... Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York. ... January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... The Iran hostage crisis was a 444-day period during which the new government of Iran after the Iranian Revolution held hostage 66 diplomats and citizens of the United States. ...

Bin Laden's Bahrain International Bank

Bahrain International Bank, which has been suspected of moving Osama bin Laden's money, had an account number in Clearstream, according to records supplied by Ernest Backes ^[9]. Osama bin Laden Usāmah bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Lādin (Arabic: ‎; born March 10, 1957 [1]), most commonly known as Osama bin Laden or Usama bin Laden (أسامة بن لادن) is an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist, a primary founder of the al-Qaeda Islamist terrorist organization and a member of the immensely...

Banks with accounts in Clearstream

• Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which, although officially closed in July 1991, continued to operate via Clearstream through unpublished accounts -- as did Bank Menatep, involved in the "Kremlingate" (diversion of IMF funds), and owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky
• Banque Générale du Luxembourg
• Carlyle Group ^[53]
• Crédit Lyonnais, one of France's major financial crashes during the 1990s
• Société Générale
• Banco Ambrosiano, controlled by the Vatican Bank and involved in one of Italy's major financial and political scandals
• Bahrain International Bank, possible links to Osama Ben Laden
• And numerous others: as Clearstream is an international clearing and settlement organization, most companies and banks have published accounts. Dealing with Clearstream is entirely legal. Unpublished accounts used for tax evasion or money-laundering is not.

BCCI in London was closed by the Bank of England in 1991 after evidence emerged of fraud and money laundering. ... Bank Menatep was a privately owned bank created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. ... Khodorkovsky speaking at a conference shortly before his arrest. ... The Carlyle Group is a Washington, D.C. based global private equity investment firm with approximately $40 billion of equity capital under management. ... Crédit Lyonnais is a French bank. ... Société Générale (Euronext: GLE) is one of the main banks in France (one of the three oldest). ... Banco Ambrosiano (which was closely related to the Vatican Bank) was an Italian bank which collapsed spectacularly in 1982. ... The Vatican Bank is a common name given to the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR) or Institute for Religious Works, the central bank for the Roman Catholic Church located in Vatican City. ...

Bibliography

• Denis Robert, Ernest Backes: The silence of the money. The Clearstream scandal. (2002, ISBN 3-85842-546-X )
• Denis Robert, Ernest Backes: Révélation$ (Edition des Arènes, 2001, ISBN 2912485282)
• Denis Robert, Ernest Backes: Das Schweigen des Geldes. Der Clearstream-Skandal, Pendo Verlag Zurich (2002, ISBN 3-85842-546-X)
• Denis Robert, Ernest Backes: Revelaçoes sobre o mundo financeiro, Editorial Inquérito (Portugal)
• Denis Robert, Ernest Backes: Revelation$ (Japanese ed. Tokuma Shoten Co, Tokyo)
• Denis Robert, La Boîte noire (Editions des arènes, ISBN 291248538 X )
• David Loader, Clearing, Settlement and Custody (operation management Series (Securities of institutes) (2002, ISBN 0750654848 )
• David M. Weiss, Global Securities processing: The Markets, The Products (1997, ISBN 0133239659)
• Lucy Komisar, Explosive Revelation$
• Official March 2000 French Parliamentary Report on the obstacles on the control and repression of financial criminal activity and of money-laundering in Europe by French MPs Vincent Peillon and Arnaud Montebourg, third section on "Luxembourg's political dependency toward the financial sector: the Clearstream affair" (pp.83-111 on PDF version)

Lucy Komisar is an investigative journalist. ... Vincent Benoît Camille Peillon (born 7 July 1960 in Soresnes) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the north-west of France. ... Arnaud Montebourg (born October 30, 1962, in Clamecy, Nièvre)is a French politician, and a deputy to the French National Assembly for the Socialist Party. ...

References

BusinessWeek is a business magazine published by McGraw-Hill. ... Denis Robert is a French journalist, author of Revelation$ with Ernest Backes, former #3 of Clearstream. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). ... Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... Lucy Komisar is an investigative journalist. ... Pacific News Service (PNS) is a nonprofit media organization founded in 1969. ... Harlem Désir is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the ÃŽle-de-France. ... Glyn Ford (born 1950) is a member of the European Parliament for South West England for the Labour Party. ... Francis Wurtz is a French Member of the European Parliament. ... Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... Bernard Bertossa was Genevas public prosecutor from 1990 to 2002. ... Geneva (pronunciation //; French: Genève //, German: //, Italian: Ginevra) is the second most populous city in Switzerland, and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). ... For other uses, see Brussels (disambiguation). ... Eva Joly (b. ... An inquisitorial system is a legal system where the court or a part of the court is actively involved in determining the facts of the case, as opposed to an adversarial system where the role of the court is solely that of an impartial referee between parties. ... Blois is a city in France, the préfecture (capital) city of the Loir-et-Cher département, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours. ... Renaud van Ruymbeke is a French magistrate (juge dinstruction, in charge of the investigation and the prosecution) who investigated on the French-Taiwan frigates scandal and on the Urba affair. ... INSEE is the French abbreviation for the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (French: Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques). ... Denis Robert is a French journalist, author of Revelation$ with Ernest Backes, former #3 of Clearstream. ... Vincent Benoît Camille Peillon (born 7 July 1960 in Soresnes) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the north-west of France. ... Arnaud Montebourg (born October 30, 1962, in Clamecy, Nièvre)is a French politician, and a deputy to the French National Assembly for the Socialist Party. ... Bloomberg L.P. is a Financial Media Company founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1982. ... Photo of the cover of the first issue of Der Spiegel (1/1947) Der Spiegel (German for The Mirror) is Europes biggest and Germanys most influential weekly magazine, published in Hamburg, with a circulation of around one million per week. ... Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC - Association pour la Taxation des Transactions pour lAide aux Citoyens) is an activist organization for the establishment of a tax on exchange transactions. ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... Le Nouvel Observateur (often shorten to Le Nouvel Obs) is a weekly French newsmagazine. ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... 20 Minuten is a free daily newspaper in Switzerland, distributed to commuters in more than 150 train stations. ... 20 Minuten is a free daily newspaper in Switzerland, distributed to commuters in more than 150 train stations. ... Frits Bolkestein Frederik Bolkestein (born 1933; usually known as Frits Bolkestein) is a Dutch politician and former EU Commissioner. ... Harlem Désir is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the ÃŽle-de-France. ... This article needs to be updated. ... Paul van Buitenen (born 28 May 1957 in Breda) was a Dutch assistant-auditor in the European Commission’s Financial Control Directorate who became the whistle blower who first drew the attention of a Member of the European Parliament to the irregularities, fraud and mismanagement within the Commission in 1998. ... Denis Robert is a French journalist, author of Revelation$ with Ernest Backes, former #3 of Clearstream. ... 20 Minuten is a free daily newspaper in Switzerland, distributed to commuters in more than 150 train stations. ... Logo of the World Bank The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, in Romance languages: BIRD), better known as the World Bank, is an international organization whose original mission was to finance the reconstruction of nations devastated by WWII. Now, its mission has expanded to fight poverty by means... Joseph Stiglitz (born February 9, 1943) is an American economist, author and winner of Nobel Prize for economics ( 2001). ... Globalization and Its Discontents is a book written by the 2001 Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz. ... Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC - Association pour la Taxation des Transactions pour lAide aux Citoyens) is an activist organization for the establishment of a tax on exchange transactions. ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... This article needs to be wikified. ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... The current BBC News logo BBC News and Current Affairs is a major arm of the BBC responsible for the corporations newsgathering and production of news programmes on BBC television, radio and online. ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... LExpress is the name the first news magazine in France. ... 20 Minuten is a free daily newspaper in Switzerland, distributed to commuters in more than 150 train stations. ... Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... 20 Minuten is a free daily newspaper in Switzerland, distributed to commuters in more than 150 train stations. ... Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... Agence France-Presse (abbreviated AFP) is the oldest news agency in the world. ... Agence France-Presse (abbreviated AFP) is the oldest news agency in the world. ... Le Figaro is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ...

See also

• Argentine debt restructuring
• ATTAC
• Banco Ambrosiano scandal
• Kremlingate
• Underground economy

Argentina went through an economic crisis since the mid-1990s; though it is debatable whether this crisis has ended, the situation has been more stable, and improving, since 2003. ... Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC - Association pour la Taxation des Transactions pour lAide aux Citoyens) is an activist organization for the establishment of a tax on exchange transactions. ... Banco Ambrosiano (which was closely related to the Vatican Bank) was an Italian bank which collapsed spectacularly in 1982. ... Bank Menatep was a $29-billion holding company created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, that had indirect controlling interest in Yukos Oil Company, and was involved in the $4. ... The underground economy consists of all trade that occurs without detection by government so that commerce and income are not taxed. ...

External links