Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Mega Edition: Jeffrey Epstein And The FinCen Files Leak (10/15/26)

Transcript

Mega Edition: Jeffrey Epstein And The FinCen Files Leak (10/15/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: For our article today, we're going to jump back into
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the FinCEN files, folks, and we're going to read an
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: article from Martin Kenney over at the FCPA blog. If
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: you're not familiar with the FCPA blog, it's a blog
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: that deals with white-collar crime enforcement and compliance. So basically,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all of the stuff in the FinCEN files. It's another
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: one that you might want to bookmark if you're interested
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: in this sort of thing. Martin Kenney has good commentary usually.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: And he definitely knows what he's talking about. So let's
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: jump into this article by Martin Kenney and see what's what.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Are the FinCEN files the most devastating leaks so far?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: That's the headline. And the article, like I said, is
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: by Martin Kenney. The recent news that U.S. FinCEN records
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: have been leaked to journalists from the ICIJ, BBC, and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: BuzzFeed News surprised me much more than their predecessor revelations,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the Panama and Paradise Papers. Now, I've talked about the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Panama Papers, and they're very significant. What they uncovered and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: what they showed the world was very eye-opening. At some point,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I might have to dive into those as well. If
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: we have some time... Moving forward in the case and
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: we have another lull, then maybe I'll dive into that
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: as well because the Panama Papers give you another look
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: behind the curtain at what these scuzzbags are about, what
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: these financial institutions are up to, and how the richest
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: amongst us are parking their money in these offshore, basically
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: just money laundering factories. So they don't have to pay
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: their fair share. While me and you, if we don't
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: pay our taxes, forget it. The tax man's at the door.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: The tax man has his hand in our pocket. The
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: tax man's at your bank. But these scumbags can get
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: away with it and then use that money to proliferate
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: crimes like Jeffrey Epstein's criminal enterprise? Sorry, I'm not having
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it no more, folks. I'm not okay with it. I'm
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: not going to accept it. And I'm not going to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: shut up about it. The reason for my raised eyebrows
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: was the Panama and Paradise Papers came to light via
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: two offshore law firms, a fact that should not be
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: too surprising, given that such firms are likely considered fair
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: game by those who would out them. And look, this
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: is a whole different ballgame here, right? We're talking about
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a consortium of investigative journalists, my kind of people, the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: kind of people that aren't okay with just accepting the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: answers and the narrative and from places like the financial sector.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: We need people like this, hard-charging people, fearless, who are
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: asking questions from an unbiased place. Does everything have to
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: be to advance your political gains? Does everything have to
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: be a cudgel to hit the so-called other side over
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the head with? Of course it doesn't. But people are
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: so wrapped up in the rage porn that the legacy
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: media is dumping on them and gaslighting them with on
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: a regular basis that they truly think it's their neighbors
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: who are the enemy. Your neighbor is not your enemy, okay?
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: These people are our enemies. These banksters. These people who
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: facilitate Jeffrey Epstein's disgusting behavior. And all of the nonsensical
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: morons surrounding them. Those are our enemies, folks, okay? While
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the Panama Papers were pure dynamite in that they pointed
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the finger at a number of persons engaged in tax evasion, corruption,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and money laundering, the Paradise Papers were full of tittle-tattle
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: about sports, film, TV stars, and politicians engaged in tax avoidance.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Very important stuff, in my opinion, right? Look, how long
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: are we going to have two separate tiers of justice?
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I am tired of it. I am tired of average
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: folks like you and I paying the price while these
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: people have no repercussions no matter what they do. And
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: this is the time, folks. People are truly angry. But
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: their anger is being farmed and harvested By bad people.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: And it's being directed in the wrong place. And you
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: see the result. You just go take a look at Twitter.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Go take a look at any of your social media. Platforms.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: And see how your people who have been lifelong friends.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Are at each other's throats. All because of the bullshit.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Rage porn. Pumped out by all of the major news networks.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: 24 hours a day. You're being inundated by that shit.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: That oblong box in the corner of your room. is
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: ruining your life, folks. Turn it off. Go outside. Have
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: a walk. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your friends.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Rekindle that shit. Don't let politics and this bullshit get
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: in the way because that is what they want. If
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: you're busy hating me and I'm busy hating you, who's
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: going to hold these assholes responsible? Nobody. And that is
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: how it's always been. But after six months of being
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: locked in your homes, six months of being basically told
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: where you can and cannot go, Don't you see it's
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: all about power? Don't you understand yet? The FinCEN, Financial
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Crimes Enforcement Network, leaks are different. Why? Because FinCEN is
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: perhaps one of the most powerful bodies involved in regulating
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: financial services and anti-money laundering anywhere. Its ability to monitor
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: financial transactions has never been widely questioned before. Until now. Look,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: we've never really had any conversations about this. I never
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: once sat in a meeting at work, an operations meeting
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: at work when I was working in the financial sector
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: for Cantor Gaming and talked about SARS and the FinCEN database.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: It was always just something like I always told you.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: It's a cover your ass situation, right? It was never
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: something that they really cared about. Give me a break.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I know for a fact that my company never really cared.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: All you have to do is go and look at
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: all of the financial regulation missteps we've made when the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: company was active. It's an absolute joke. The compliance departments
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: are an absolute joke. The FinCEN files, as they're being called,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: paint a far from rosy picture, particularly of the banks.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Among the worst culprits are banks based in the UK.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I have called the UK into question on many levels
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: over its anti-money laundering strategy. Yeah, well, what do you
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: expect when you have Jess effing Staley as the bigwig
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: over at Barclays, the biggest banking institution in London? What
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: do you expect is going to happen? This guy needs
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: to go. He cannot be involved in the banking sector.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: He can't be involved with Barclays. He shouldn't be involved
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: in running a lemonade stand until he answers for his
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Now, that doesn't mean I think
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: that this guy should just be put on the crucifix
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and crucified here. We have a lot of circumstantial evidence
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: that Jess Staley played a huge role in Jeffrey Epstein's
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: financial life. And if we have all of this circumstantial
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: evidence and regulators in England are even looking at him,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: what do you think the prosecution has? So why is
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Jeff Staley still in the position that he's in? I
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: have pointed the finger at its model for regulating companies
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: due to the paucity of KYC and the due diligence
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: conducted to identify ultimate beneficial owners, UBOs, both at the
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: point of formation and administration, at both company house and
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: with underlying formation agents. Basically, he's saying that the beneficial owners,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: the people who are benefiting from all of this, need
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: to be outed, need to be in the public sphere.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: There is way too much secrecy in the banking sector,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and especially in the UK. And let's remember, it all
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: started in the UK, right? You know, the financial sector
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: in London was around long before Wall Street. So a
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: lot of the behaviors you see on Wall Street were
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: co-opted from the original scuzz bags over in London. So
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the fact that the Fincen files depict the UK as
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: being a hub for money laundering comes as little surprise.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: And again, I don't want to pile on London, right? Because...
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: We have our own problems here in America, and I
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: certainly never worry about other people's backyards or front yards
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: until mine is immaculate. But it's all interconnected, right? When
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: we talk about the financial system and we talk about
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Wall Street and London, it's the same thing, basically, okay?
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: The same players, the same nonsense. The ICIJ, International Consortium
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: of Investigative Journalists, have stated that the UK has 3,000
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: companies implicated in the leaked files, more than any other country.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: The files have revealed U.S. suspicious activity reports totaling in
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the vicinity of $ 2 trillion in transactions. And that doesn't
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: shock me one bit. I had a player from England
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: when I worked at the sportsbook a big, big time well.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Bet big money on games, $ 150, 000, $ 200, 000 per game. Well,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: he was from England, came from England. money. Long story short,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: he ended up getting busted for money laundering. Yeah. And
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: you see it a lot with these kinds of people.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: They think they can get away with anything. These big players,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: these big banking types, and I've seen a ton of
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: them come through my room in Vegas from London. There's
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: been a bunch of them, but don't get it twisted.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Do not get it twisted. Wall Street is the absolute
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: worst of the festering sores that must be addressed. Banks
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: are required to file SARS with the U.S. government within
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: 30 to 60 days of learning of a questionable transaction.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: The Finson files contain the names of fraudsters, terrorists, and
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: those suspected of organized crime links. These links include references
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to at least one individual who was brutally murdered for
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: unwittingly becoming involved in a Ponzi scheme. We've talked about
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: this too, right? Laying out the template of the Finson
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: files and how dangerous and how bad the money laundering
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: is for all of us. And if you think that
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: comes without death, You are sorely mistaken. People get clipped
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: all the time over shit like this. And to be
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: honest with you, I'd rather owe a loan to the
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: local mafioso than owe a loan to these scumbags. At
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: least the local mafioso is only going to charge you
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: a point or two depending on who you are and
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: what neighborhood you're in. You'll get a better rate. Your
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: vigorous will be better from the local mafioso than from
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: these banks if you don't have good credit. And that's
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: just the straight-up truth. I can't tell you how many
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: people in my old neighborhood would go to the local guys,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: the wise guys, the crooked noses, to get their money
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: instead of going to the banks. Why would you go
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: to the bank and pay them 28% when you can
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: go to the local guy on the street and get
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: it for a point? The banks mentioned in these leaks
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: include household names such as HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered, and J.P. Morgan.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: The plethora of SARs obtained by the ICIJ is still
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: subject to research, but there appears to be instances where
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: banks have identified adverse issues, reported them via a SAR,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: but continue to conduct business with the individual or entity
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: that raised their suspicion. I have done the same thing
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: at my sportsbook. Not me personally, but our sportsbook has
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: done the same thing when I worked there. We've put
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: in a SAR on someone and still conducted business with them.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: So why wouldn't the banks be doing the same thing?
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: You see, folks, it's all a game. It is all
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: a game. They never expected this shit to be out
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: in the public. They never expected people to be locked
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: in their homes for six months. Well, now it's time
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: for their chickens to come home to roost. And they
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: don't like it. They don't like it one bit. But
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the tables have now turned. All of these elites who
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: had their money parked elsewhere, all of these so-called members
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: of polite society, it's their time to be on their heels.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: It's their time. to understand that they don't run this world.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Here's the problem. For some members of the financial services world,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: a SAR is seen as a get out of jail
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: free card. In the United States alone, FinCEN receives in
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: the region of 3 million SARS per year. There is
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: no way that FinCEN or any other agency can be
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: expected to review critically and thoroughly this number of alerts.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: The banks know this, and some are using it to
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: their advantage. Of course, cover your ass. CYA, baby. That
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: should be the mantra of every boardroom in the world. CYA,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: that's all that matters. Cover your ass. And I've seen
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: it firsthand working for Cantor, folks. The type of SAR
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: that banks issue is sometimes referred to as defensive reporting.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: The bank has issued an alert and then, assuming no
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: federal response, it can carry on. But a system that
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: is creaking under pressure can be manipulated. Well, yeah, if
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: there's 3 million of them and they can't get to
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: look at all of them, then how do you know
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: which ones are legit and which ones aren't? So it
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: becomes pointless, right? A waste of time. Here's an idea.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Put some more money into hiring agents to take a
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: look at this shit. I know, groundbreaking idea, right? The
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: BBC documentary series Panorama ran an expose off the back
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: of the FinCEN leaks, claiming that Russian oligarchs in particular
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: were exploiting London's financial services systems. It also referenced the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: use of UK limited liability companies as dummy vehicles designed
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: to facilitate global money laundering. Yeah, we know that. Shell
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: companies is where it's at if you're rich. If you
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: don't have a shell company when you're rich, forget it.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: You're not cool. You're not part of the posse. Every
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: last one of these shell companies needs to be looked at.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I am so tired of these people. I mean, I
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: am sick of our so-called ruling class. The program also
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: called into question the ability of the UK's Companies House
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: to police its systems and prevent it from being abused
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: by the unscrupulous. For example, the Panorama reporter cold-called a
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: small office in the south of England where thousands of
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: companies were registered. More than 100 were linked to the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: latest FinCEN files leaks. So that's just, that's a coincidence, right?
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: It's just a coincidence that there are over 100 of
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: them are linked to the latest FinCEN leaks. No big deal.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: No big deal. Just 100 of them. Coincidence, folks. That's
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: what they want us to believe. Everything's an effing coincidence. No,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: there's malfeasance here, okay? You people are hiding money, laundering money,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: washing money, and then using it to commit crimes. If
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: any one of us did that, we would all be
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: caught up in a RICO case. Yet you scumbags are
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: still floating around like a turd. I just don't get it.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: The FinCEN files have done the UK no favors. In
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the Panama and Paradise papers, the UK was tarnished in
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: a similar fashion. But to single out the UK would
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: be wrong and unfairly make it a scapegoat. All three
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: of these leaks touch heavily on the USA and other
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: global financial systems. Yeah, look. I'm the first person, right,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: to direct my ire at my own country in my
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: own backyard. And I'm the first person to go against
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: the grain, really, and blame the CIA for Jeffrey Epstein's
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: criminal enterprise. A lot of people believe it's the Mossad,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: but you know where I'm at on that. And we
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: can disagree about stuff like that, right? But in my opinion,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: there is no worse actor on the world stage than
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the CIA, folks. We also need to consider whether the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: media and public interest angles are outweighed by the leak's
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: ethical implications, in particular where individuals could well be put
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: at risk depending on the nature of any particular SAR.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: So if it's going to put someone's life in danger
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: or something like that, these reporters have to be careful, right?
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: They have to be careful with their information and they
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: have to be diligent. They can't just go willy-nilly dumping things.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: They have to make sure it's vetted. They have to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: make sure it's correct. And they have to make sure
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the right people are being discussed. Because this is serious
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: stuff here, folks. Serious stuff. At the very least, if
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the FinCEN leaks follow a similar path to their predecessors,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: we can expect to be drip-fed further scandal as the
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: weeks slip by. I will reiterate what I have said before.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: The fear of your organization featuring in one of these
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: exposés should be a strong deterrent. Of course, in the
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: court of public opinion, many minds will already have been
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: made up. Well, look, I know my mind's made up.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I have seen enough. I have seen enough evidence from
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the financial sector to know that my best interest is
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: not what they are about. They don't care about me.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: They don't care about you. And they do not care
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: about our loved ones. The banks aren't your friends, folks.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: And it's just amazing to me that more people aren't
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: hip to what's going on. We could talk about the
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: symptoms to the disease all day, right? But unless we
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: confront the disease itself, the symptoms will persist. The symptoms
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: will return. And from where I'm sitting, folks, from my perspective,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: there is no bigger cancer than the financial sector. And
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: it must be dealt with. If you'd like to contact me,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: you can do that at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: at protonmail.com. You can find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. All of the links that go with this
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: episode can be found in the description box. And if
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: you're sending... Let's jump into this article from the International
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Headline, how our smallest FinCEN files
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: story captured the biggest data lessons. Each confidential client profile
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: amounts to only a few hundred words, but the huge
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: data lift involved was emblematic of the entire FinCEN files investigations.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: This article is authored by Delphine Reuter. Unlike previous ICIJ investigations,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: such as Luanda leaks, Moraitis leaks, or Panama Papers, the
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Finsen Files documents didn't number in the hundreds of thousands
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: or millions. I think it was like 2,100 pages, 2,600 pages.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: And they were very telling, right? How these financial institutions
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: continue to skirt around the rules, continue to be negligent
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: when it comes to reporting properly, and how the government
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: up until recently with the new anti-money laundering legislation that
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: was just passed has pretty much given these people a pass.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: So it still remains to be seen if this anti-money
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: laundering legislation is going to have any teeth. And we'll
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: see moving forward just what it means, right, as far
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: as bringing these people to heel. In fact, the entire
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: investigation was based primarily on a cache of just over 2,600 documents...
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: that BuzzFeed News shared with the International Consortium of Investigative
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Journalists and 108 media partners, including more than 2,100 suspicious
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: activity reports, several hundred spreadsheets, a few dozen Word documents,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: and emails. Now, how much longer before the ICIJ finds
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: themselves in a spot where they're being censored as well,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: or where they find themselves deplatformed because they're sharing quote-unquote
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: hacked data. Isn't that one of the new terms of
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: service over there at the old swamp we call Twitter?
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure it is. So, again, I ask you,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: do you want a free media, or do you want
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the packaged bullshit that the legacy media has been pumping
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: down your throats and gaslighting you with for years? You're
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: going to have to make a choice. It's going to
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: be up to you. In the long run, it's going
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: to be up to you. You're the consumer, you're the
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: one that's consuming this content either here or elsewhere, and
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: you're going to have to make the choice. But don't
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: let the size of the leak fool you. It took
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: months of deliberate, meticulous data work and diligent reporting to
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: eke out some of the investigation's big stories and findings.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: like analyzing the more than $ 2 trillion in suspicious transactions
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: flagged by U.S. banks or identifying the networks of shell
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: companies used to launder potentially dirty money. And we have
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: went through pretty much all of these stories. Everything that
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the FinCEN files has produced, we have pretty much covered,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: if it has related even in the smallest way to
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: the overarching of our case, the Jeffrey Epstein case. And
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: what we have found is chilling and disturbing. And it
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: goes a long way to confirm a lot of our
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: beliefs about what was going on behind the scenes with
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the money laundering, with the douchebaggery in the world of financials.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: And the Thinson files and the SARS that they produced
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: was just more evidence and more concrete stuffing in the wall.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Proving that these financial institutions are engaging on large scale
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: money laundering episodes right under everybody's nose. And nobody is
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the wiser for the most part. The people that are
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: in the know, the people who are hip to it,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: are taking part in it or they're enriching themselves in
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: some way. With any data journalism project, it's important to
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: put a human face to the figures. Our confidential client's
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: feature was a selection of businessmen, fraudsters, and political leaders
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: whose stories appeared in the leaked files. The aim was
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: to show how global banks continued moving billions of dollars
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: around the world for clients they suspected were funding illicit
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: or illegal activities. And we know that that's our guy
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: to a T, right? Definitely 100% to a T. That's
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the painted image of that bitch-ass punk Jeffrey Epstein. And
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: that's why the Finson files have been such an ongoing
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: point of discussion here on the podcast. It's been such
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: a huge deal, right? Because it is very important if
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: we're going to build a blueprint that shows the web
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: that connects all of these people financially. It's not, you know,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: they're not going to just have it right out there
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: for everybody to see. That's why when people are like, well,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: but what about their taxes? Their taxes say, what does
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: that mean? So somebody's involved in a money laundering scheme,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: so they're going to claim it on their taxes. Come on,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: wise up, folks. We quickly discovered that each profile offered
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: a microcosm of the huge amount of reporting and analysis
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: that would eventually go into every story across the entire investigation.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Whether it was a 7,000 word feature on British shell
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: companies or a 300 word profile of a corrupt politician.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Here's what we learned along the way. So... No matter
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the length of the stories. That was published. In regards
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to the Finson files. All of them. Proved to be.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Pretty important in my opinion. And when you're following it
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the way we are. And you're following it so. In
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: such a almost. I don't know. Almost unbreakable pattern. Right.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I have the notifications turned on. So anytime there's a
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: new story. I'm all over it. It just shows you.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: that every single thing that they were talking about here,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: when you start putting the pieces together and adding it
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: up to what we already knew from the other leaks,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: from other fines, from other cases in regards to the
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: financial world, that the Finson files were just another nail
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: in the coffin when it comes to the financial world
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and them trying to act like they are not involved
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: in in wide-scale money laundering and the protection of the
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: assets of some of the world's scummiest individuals. The data
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: required reading between the lines, another reason why I enjoy
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: it so much. As you all know, that is the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: premise of this podcast. I don't make pretend I'm a
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: journalist or none of that nonsense. I'm not out here
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: acting like I'm old Anderson Cooper or we're breaking news
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: like other people do. Other salacious ass people who are
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: into all kinds of, you know, nonsensical gaslighting and muddying
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: of the waters. That is not what we're doing here.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: What we do here is we follow the stories as
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: they appear in the news and we analyze them as
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: they happen. And that calls for a lot of reading
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: in between the lines. The files we were looking at
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: were not the sort of frank exchanges between a client
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: and their trusted wealth manager, accountant, or lawyer that we've
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: seen in past investigations. There were no details of intimate
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: client meetings or clear indications of intentions or motivations. And
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: exactly right. That is not what this was. The SARS
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: are never that. They're never going to give you that
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: full picture. What they're going to do is give you
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: an inroad to spring an investigation onto somebody and or
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: to get an idea that they're moving bad money through
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: your bank with the way that they're conducting their transactions.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: And it's one of the first steps to starting an investigation, right?
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: There are many steps that go into an investigation. This
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: is just one of the first ones. The suspicious activity
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: reports and spreadsheet lists of transactions we accessed were put
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: together by bank's compliance officers... reporting their suspicions to the U.S.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN. These officers
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: often had no direct connection to the transaction or the
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: client themselves, and were often either ill-informed or limited in
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: the amount of details they could provide FinCEN. And we've
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: talked about this as well. What happens is, I'll use
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: again the sportsbook as an example, a ticket writer, the
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: very lowest man on the totem pole in the whole
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: entire shop can initiate a SARC. And what you do
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: is you fill out this report if you think a
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: transaction was shifty, and then that gets sent out in
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: the audit all the way up to your compliance division,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and then compliance takes it from there. They enter it
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: into FinCEN, and off we go. So there's really no
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: face-to-face like they're talking about here, right? In the reports,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: there's no conversation between, say, the ticket writer and the
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: compliance officer. But if you read between the lines and
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: you use the template that's been set out previously in
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: the other leaks, it is safe to assume what is
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: going on here. The data we had was was also
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: quite patchwork most of the files were unstructured narratives outlining
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: officers suspicions written into documents from which we could extract
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: some details about transactions on occasion we had access to
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: transactional data in spreadsheets those files gave us very detailed
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: information from the point of the point of view of
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: the filing bank. Some came in the FinCEN files with
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: the corresponding reports, but there is no mandatory format for
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: the transactional data to be filed. Each bank had chosen
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: its own way of presenting the transactional information. Only 46
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: of these spreadsheets came with contextual narrative files attached. So
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: there's no like market standard here, right? Each one of
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: these shops or these banks or these casinos, they all
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: have their own way of dealing with these SARS and
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: filing them and covering them and making sure that they're
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: put into the database. That has to end. There needs
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: to be a uniformed pattern for all of these SARS
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: to be entered into FinCEN. And then there needs to
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: be levels, right? The lowest level, make it, I don't know, green.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: And then second level, yellow. And then the third highest level,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: somebody who is probably engaging in some sort of financial crime,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: have them colored red. And then when you add it
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: into the FinCEN system, if it's someone who's red or
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: somebody who is needing of more attention, it automatically pings
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: an agent or something. Look, I'm not a computer programmer.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I certainly don't have all of the answers. But if
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: you can put a rocket in a terrorist's window 6,000
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: miles away from America... I'm pretty sure you guys can
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: figure out a system to alert the financial officers at
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: FinCEN when some bad shit's coming their way. As a result,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: the reports had to be treated with a lot of caution,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: though they still contained a wealth of useful information to
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: use as a starting point. For example, JPMorgan Chase reported
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transactions made by
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Paul Manafort. the former manager of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: campaign and his associates. The SAR itself wasn't particularly detailed,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: but we fortunately had access to the corresponding list of transactions,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: which showed the money flows tied to Manafort and his companions.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Before I go any further, I think that of all
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: the pardons Trump has passed out so far, the one
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: to Manafort is the worst. This guy is obviously a
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: financial criminal. I don't care what team he's on. I
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: don't care if he was your campaign manager. It's a
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: bad look. It's gross. It's disgusting. How about some other
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: people who really deserve pardons? How about some people that
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: were involved in quote-unquote illegal gambling? And now that it's
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: legal across the whole country, how about you throw out
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: some pardons that way, Mr. Trump? For each confidential client profile,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: we had to assess what information we had, what information
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: we needed to get, and then piece it all together. Boy,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: that sounds familiar, huh? Almost like what we do here
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: on a daily basis about the Jeffrey Epstein case. Put
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: it all together, catalog it, and then, well, the puzzle
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: starts to form, doesn't it? The data was selective. The
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Finston Files documents represent less than. 02 % of the
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: more than 12 million documents suspicious activity reports that financial
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: institutions filed between 2011 and 2017. I started at the
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: sportsbook in 2011 and I was there until 2016. So
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: I'm guessing every single one of the SARs I've ever
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: filed is in that FinCEN database, huh? Pretty interesting. I
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: wonder if any of those got caught up in this leak.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Probably not. Nothing there as far as interest when it
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: comes to big fish or big game like Paul Manafort.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: According to BuzzFeed News, some of the records were gathered
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: as part of U.S. congressional investigations into Russian interference in
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Others were put together following
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: requests to FinCEN from law enforcement agencies. What we had
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: was but a very small window into the world of
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: a few banks who were selectively picking the information they
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: deemed worthy of being reported to the U.S. government. And again,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: I think that if we used the color code system
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: that I was talking about here a second ago, that
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: it would stop these folks from having cover, right? If
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: you don't put in someone who is a level three,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: say a level three suspected offender, and it comes out
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: that that person was engaging in money laundering, then everybody
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: involved in not sending that SAR should be looked into, right?
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Every single person in management who just let that SAR
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: sit there and didn't do anything with it, they should
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: be held responsible. It wasn't possible to pick a bank's
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: famous client and follow a steady trail of information exchanged
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: between them over the years. Nor was it possible to
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: carefully build a complete picture of each bank's relationships with
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: their correspondent clients around the world. A few names of
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: individuals and companies popped up quite quickly. Still, it took
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of heavy lifting to fill in the blanks.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: And that's how they want it, right? They do it.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: like this, specifically so things are shadowy. That's why they
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: use the shell companies. That's why they're using the LLCs.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: That's why they use the beards. And that's why, ultimately,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: they love to structure. For example... We knew Deutsche Bank
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: took an interest in a few companies owned by Ukrainian
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: businessman Ihor Kolomoisky, especially in 2016 when it filed several
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: reports mentioning transactions made by Kolomoisky's Ukrainian International Airlines. You know,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: it's pretty funny. Seems like every time we talk about
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: money laundering of any kind, the word Ukraine and the
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: country Ukraine pops up. What in the hell is going
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: on over there? And why are our politicians allowing it
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: to occur? Because if you think they're not, you're wrong.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: How many of them are enriching themselves in the Ukraine?
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: That should probably be a baseline for where we start
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: looking at who the most corrupt sons of bitches are, right?
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: But we couldn't know what exactly prompted the reports to
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: be filed in the first place, whether more reports were
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: filed than those we had, and what happened after they
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: were sent to Finson. What we had was not dissimilar
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: to the feeling you get when driving on a sparsely
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: lit highway. You can distinguish patches illuminated by streetlights, but
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: you cannot know what lies in the darkness beyond. That
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: is for sure, too. Right? It gives us a little
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: peek behind the curtain. And it gives us a little
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: bit more context and more of an idea of what
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: goes on with these mega-rich scumbags. What it most certainly
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: does is shine a spotlight on Jeffrey Epstein completely, though.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Every bank mentioned in the Finston Files was a bank
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: that was in bed with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: at some point. And I hope beyond hope, folks, that
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: at some point in time, a reckoning is coming for
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: these people. The data was full of duplicates. One of
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: the things we like to do in the ICIJ data
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: team is to count things. We count documents, we add
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: up amounts, we calculate date ranges, and we classify entities,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: such as banks, all in the name of contextualizing information
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: and building understanding, just like any sort of good outlet
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: would do. If you're doing an investigation, this is the
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: same thing that a cop would do, a detective, as
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: he's investigating a crime. You've got to set everything up, right?
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Nothing just falls into your lap. It starts with little pieces,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: little bits of circumstantial evidence. That starts to add up.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: And once that all adds up, then you have some
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: probable cause. I like to use the analogy of a
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: person collecting shells on the beach. Whereas most people would
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: select the most beautiful or original shells and discard the rest,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the data team goes through every shell there is and
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: considers each one against the methodology. In the end, the
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: questions we need to answer are plentiful. Is it useful?
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: Is it representative? Can it be trusted? What can we
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: safely say and what don't we have enough information about? Boy,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: who does that sound like, huh? What do I always say, folks?
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: It is not what I know. It is what I
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: can prove, at least circumstantially. So that's one thing that
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: you can guarantee from me. If I'm talking about it,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: there is enough circumstantial evidence there for it. You're never
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: going to hear me talk about some of the more
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: wild shit, right? Not here on the podcast. Unless, of course,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: on a Sunday, you want to pop into the live
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: stream for that open forum. Then I'll talk about whatever
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: you want. But adding it to the catalog here on
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: the podcast, I'm very particular about that. The first confidential
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: client we looked at was Mukhtar Ablazov, a Kazakh national
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: who has lived in exile for more than 10 years
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: and is accused by Kazakh authorities of having embezzled billions
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: of dollars during his tenure as chairman of a bank.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Ablazov has appeared in a number of previous ICIJ investigations.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: In the Thinson files, his companies were mentioned in suspicious
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: activity reports filed by seven different banks. This gave us
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: an inclination that it was a good profile to focus on. Yeah,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: you think seven different banks think that this guy is
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: up to no good? Usually where there's smoke, there's a
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: little bit of fire, right? So I think that that's
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: a pretty good baseline to use to initiate an investigation.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: In the Finson files, his companies were mentioned in suspicious
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: activity reports filed by seven different banks. This gave us
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: an inclination that it was a good profile to focus on.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Not only were we able to review the bank's reports,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: but we also had access to FinCEN's own summary reports
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: about Ablazyov, which provided additional background information. So they were
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: using their own information that they had previously to cross-check
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: the new information in the SARS. And I can't tell
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: you how many times I do that with the stories
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: that we talk about here. You know, go through them,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: cross-check them, and see if they all line up. One
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: thing that we run into in the Epstein case, though,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: is that one outlet will run a story, and then
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: all of the other outlets will piggyback on top of
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: that outlet and run the same story. Pretty lazy journalism,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: if you ask me. But because the suspicious activity reports
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: came from numerous banks filed over the course of several years,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: we ran the risk of having multiple banks reporting the
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: same transactions. Different banks can be involved in the same transaction,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: or a series of transactions can partly intersect with another
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: series reported by another institution. This risk of double counting
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: also existed when banks filed multiple reports and failed to
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: explain what transactions they had included in previous reports. So... Again,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: is that the banks just being lazy? Or are they
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: doing that on purpose to make it easier for them
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: to mask these transactions so nobody can follow this stuff?
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: And so it makes it harder for people to put
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: things in place. We had to cross-reference the transaction data
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: from the suspicious activity reports, the transaction spreadsheets, and FinCEN's
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: own reports to be able to identify and set aside
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: potentially duplicate records. So in other words, they did a
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: lot of work to get this, the Finston files out
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: to us. And again, all of the journalists involved over
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: here at the consortium, they all should be commended. And again,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: I don't agree with all of their work on all
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: of the other subjects they talk about, but guess what?
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: That's okay. I don't have to agree with everything somebody
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: says or does to respect them or to respect the
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: work that they do. And if you find yourself living
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: in an echo chamber where every single person has to
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: align with every single thing you agree with, that sounds
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: like a you problem. The data needed more data. Because
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: so many of the rich and powerful rely on shell companies,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: including for legal reasons, it is often very difficult to
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: identify the individuals that ultimately benefit from operating those companies. Hopefully,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: The new money laundering legislation is going to address this. Now, again,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: I'm not too confident that it's going to have the
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: teeth needed, but it's a start. It's better than what
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: we had in place. And hopefully the Democrats now, they
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: have the whole show, right? There's no excuse. I don't
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: want to hear any excuses being made for these people
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: if there's no good, strong laws. Just like if they
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: do the right thing and they enact all of these
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: laws and they're strong and they pursue the Epstein folks
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: in a very fast manner, then I'll give them props
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: as well. But, you know, let's not act like things
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: are going to move at such a fast pace now.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Because I have my reservations. How many of these newly
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: elected officials, people on 46's cabinet, are involved with the
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: financial sector? Not very hard to find out. Very easy,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: in fact. How many of them graduated from Harvard? The U.S.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: banks themselves sometimes have a hard time tracking those ultimate
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: beneficial owners... or UBOs, as shown in the Finson files.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: We had to research what companies were owned by each
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: of the individuals portrayed in the files and check whether
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: we had additional transactions in the data tied to those
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: companies which hadn't been identified by the banks. So again,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: a lot of cross-referencing, a lot of good, hard journalism
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: being done here. You're not going to see that in
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: the major outlets. You're not going to see that in
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: the major outlets anymore at all. The editorial room is
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: completely and utterly toothless, and they're all in bed with
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: the intelligence agencies and huge business. I don't know how
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: anyone can deny that fact at this point. This happened
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: for transactions tied to Isabel Dos Santos, which Standard Chartered
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: flagged as part of a report about various companies called Unitel.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Thanks to our previous Luanda Leaks investigation, we were able
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: to identify the transactions that were relevant to the Unitel company,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: partly owned by Isabel Dos Santos, and include this amount
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: in her confidential client's profile. So, again, if you're not
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: familiar with all of the leaks that have come before
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: the FinCEN files, I urge you to check them all out.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: The Luanda Leaks, the Panama Papers, the Paradise Files, all
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: of it. And, of course, WikiLeaks. We came across several
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: other cases where banks reported suspicious transactions we could tie
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: to one of the confidential clients through outside research, such
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: as Oleg Deripaska, a Russian businessman whose companies used accounts
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: at Expo Bank in Latvia. Deripaska, huh? Sounds like a
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: defenseman in the NHL. The Bank of New York Mellon
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: reported suspicious transactions to FinCEN that included Deripaska companies using
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: the Latvian bank, but the U.S. bank didn't report about
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Deripaska directly. Of course not. You know, I don't want
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: to seem like I'm just hammering overseas banks because that's
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: certainly not the case. I am certainly of the mind
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: that I need to worry about my backyard, meaning what's
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: going on here in America, before I can really point
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: my finger and try and judge elsewhere. So the banking
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: system here in America needs to be cleaned up. And
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: these sons of bitches that let people like Deripaska run
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: around and do whatever they want need to be held accountable.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: It's only through contextualizing the documents that the profiles could
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: be built. Thankfully, we could rely on a network of
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: knowledgeable media partners to help with that contextualization and also
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: on ICIJ's access to previous data leaks. Finally, ICIJ reached
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: out for comment to the individuals, companies, and banks mentioned
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: in the Confidential Clients Interactive, including those that were part
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: of the transactions we chose to visualize with each client.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: In some cases, their responses helped contextualize and inform our reporting.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: In all cases, we included their responses alongside their profiles.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: So there you have it, folks. That's a little behind-the-scenes
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: look into how a real investigative journalism project is done.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: How real investigative journalists conduct themselves. My question to you is,
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: how much longer... Does the ICIJ have? How much longer
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: do journalists like these people, these brave journalists who broke
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: this story have before they are also facing being deplatformed? What,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: you think the elites are just going to stop with
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: the crazies? Of course not. The power grab is on, folks.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: And these people, all of these elites that use the
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: banks and and use the financial system to launder money,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: to have operations like Jeffrey Epstein's go on throughout the decades,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: four decades, well, these people are finally on their heels.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: These people finally are no longer in control of the narrative,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: and you see how desperate they are to get that
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: control back. If you'd like to contact me, you can
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: do that at bobbycappucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: You can also find me on that cesspool we call
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. All of the links that
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: go with this episode can be found in the description box.