July 15, 2004
Bad bank! You've been a very, very bad bank!
I used to have a checking account at the Riggs Bank in Adams Morgan. It was near my apartment and looked like a place where people with money went to deposit it, even if I only went inside to drop the $25 I got after taxes on tips as a waiter every two weeks. They're a local DC favorite and have branches all over town.
Well, it seems that some very nasty people also bank at Riggs, including a few dictators:
"Riggs Bank courted business from former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and helped him hide millions of dollars in assets from international prosecutors while he was under house arrest in Britain, according to a report by Senate investigators."[snip]
"In May the bank agreed to pay $25 million in civil penalties for what federal regulators called "willful, systemic" violation of anti-money-laundering laws in its dealings with the embassies of Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea. Several other federal investigations continue into the bank's activities, and Riggs has hired investment bankers to explore a sale of the company."
Pinochet - right wing favorite, installed in '73 with Kissenger's help.
Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang, pockets billions of dollars worth of oil revenue while his tiny nation remains mired in poverty. The Bush administration reopened the U.S. Embassy in E.G. after Obiang threatened to kill our ambassador in '96.
As for Saudi Arabia, well, you know the story about most of the 9/11 hijackers and money came from there, but we decided to invade Iraq instead, etc..
Three dictators, all of whom are in power mainly by the will of Republicans, use Riggs to launder their ill-gotten gains. I guess now that Lincoln Savings & Loan is out of business, the GOP has a new bank of choice.
Posted by rj3 at July 15, 2004 11:52 AM
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