We suspect (according to a forensic accountant friend) that up to $200 million was laundered through various bank accounts, in various countries, with those accounts owned by international mining contracting companies (who ironically themselves are also registered in multiple countries).
Those international contracting and associated companies probably have tax free accounts in places like the Cayman Islands under Names and Account Numbers that cannot (and will never be) divulged by those banks in those locations.
I'm told that the likely route of the funds starts with an Australian company depositing money overseas to a bank account of it's subsidiary for onward intended payment to contractors. This first step is straight forward. The subsidiary then forwards payments to multiple contracting companies, in advance of receiving equipment, which ironically doesn't end up arriving, for various reasons, and excuses. The company then asks the contractor, "where is our equipment?" and gets a response like "it's on it's way", or "it's held up at the border", or "we paid the equipment producer but their company has now just gone bust" etc etc. The company then asks the contracting company for their money back, to which the contracting company replies "we paid it to the equipment maker, but they've gone bust, so the funds are unrecoverable". In reality, the funds are being channeled through multiple bank transfer overseas accounts and finally end up in the Cayman Islands. This is the stage at which the CEO of a company comes in on Monday morning and hands in his resignation, rather than go to shareholders and explain how he lost their $200 million dollars.
The level of greed and corruption doesn't stop there though, oh no. Having worked the "Sting" once, they try again, to milk everything they can. The contractor goes back to the subsidiary and then says "but we've now found another equipment provider who can get the equipment, if you just forward more money". This is when the truly naive are taken in and provide more money, which ironically disappears in similar fashion. The savvy however, being "stung" once, decline to send more money and just pull the pin and shut the mine or project down, or go broke, or go into Administration. The CEO or MD is usually long gone by this stage.
You may have all read about these "Stings" many times in the newspaper in Australia, many time attributed to the Nigerian mafia like organizations, operating at many levels, from corporate to personal. Thousands of people in the West have also been stung using the same methods and techniques, and it's all pretty well documented in many newspaper and articles and television documentaries.
All of this is nothing new. It happens all the time, in many different ways. The Chinese for instance have a thousand different methods for laundering money into Australian real estate, and have been doing it for decades. And an ABC documentary last year uncovered how the son of one African leader (President or Prime Minister) somehow came to own outright 12 incredibly expensive mansions in the richest parts of Melbourne Australia. Go figure eh! Like I said, it happens all the time, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. For those who saw that documentary, it was interesting how the African president's family ownership of those mansions was found out. They were all inhabited by various African people, most of them illegal immigrants or relations, but a couple of them were using No Electricity, yep, the electricity company queried these houses which had a quarterly bill of zero (0). It turns out that these African idiots had disengaged the electricity cables into their mansions, and illegally (secretly) wired into the neighbouring properties lines via the poles in front of their mansions, and were using their neighbours electricity. What a bunch of idiots.
The corruption stories involving international banking are never ending.
Which reminds me, for anyone else here who is also a Star Trek (Deep Space Nine) fan.
"Ferengi Rules of Acquisition - Rule Number 26"
"The vast majority of the rich in this galaxy, did not inherit their wealth, they stole it".
Gw
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