Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Mega Edition: What Our Politicians Learned From Jeffrey Epstein (10/16/26)

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Mega Edition: What Our Politicians Learned From Jeffrey Epstein (10/16/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles.
0:06
Speaker 1: So the United States Virgin Islands is saying that J.P.
0:09
Speaker 1: Morgan alerted the U.S. Treasury Department to over $ 1 billion
0:15
Speaker 1: in transactions that were related to possible human trafficking. And
0:20
Speaker 1: what makes that significant is that if that is the case,
0:24
Speaker 1: then FinCEN was aware of what Epstein was up to
0:27
Speaker 1: as well. Just like we've said from the very beginning,
0:32
Speaker 1: nobody cared. Not in regulation, as far as Finson goes,
0:37
Speaker 1: and certainly not down in the U.S. Virgin Islands. So
0:40
Speaker 1: what you see here is the whole ass system failing
0:44
Speaker 1: before your eyes. Doesn't matter if it's the U.S. Virgin
0:47
Speaker 1: Islands or elsewhere. Anywhere that Jeffrey Epstein was active, people
0:51
Speaker 1: in positions of power were playing ball. And at this point,
0:56
Speaker 1: it's not even debatable. Because time and time again, we
1:00
Speaker 1: see the same story unfold. So should anybody be shocked
1:04
Speaker 1: that Finson ignored all of this as well? Especially if
1:08
Speaker 1: you look at it in the context of Jeffrey Epstein
1:11
Speaker 1: working as an asset for the United States government. Now,
1:14
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's a spy. You know, there's people
1:17
Speaker 1: out there that'll tell you he's like a Mossad agent
1:20
Speaker 1: or a CIA agent. No way. The dude's an asset, okay?
1:25
Speaker 1: He's somebody that was being used by intelligence. to get information.
1:30
Speaker 1: But when you're being used by intelligence, when you're an asset, well,
1:35
Speaker 1: you have a little bit more wiggle room to commit crimes,
1:38
Speaker 1: especially if those crimes are advancing whatever sort of devious
1:42
Speaker 1: plot the lunatics in the intelligence sector have going on.
1:46
Speaker 1: And we all know it was a two-way street when
1:49
Speaker 1: it comes to Jeffrey Epstein and the intelligence community. Today's
1:54
Speaker 1: article is from CNBC. Headline, USVI says JP Morgan notified
2:00
Speaker 1: Treasury of more than $ 1 billion in Jeffrey Epstein human
2:05
Speaker 1: trafficking transactions after he died. $ 1 billion in human trafficking transactions.
2:13
Speaker 1: They told Treasury about them, but not till after he died,
2:16
Speaker 1: of course. But the truth is, there were all kinds
2:20
Speaker 1: of suspicious activity reports sent over throughout, and they were ignored.
2:26
Speaker 1: And the reason they were ignored is because JP Morgan
2:30
Speaker 1: didn't want to lose Jeffrey Epstein as a client. Let's
2:33
Speaker 1: just call it what it is. Profits over people. Every
2:39
Speaker 1: time you turn around with anybody who's on this grand stage,
2:43
Speaker 1: it's all about the money. It's all about advancing their
2:47
Speaker 1: own financial position and making sure that the means justify
2:52
Speaker 1: the end. And if that means that your children or
2:56
Speaker 1: the most vulnerable in society get swept up into some
3:00
Speaker 1: human trafficking ring and abused for their whole lives, ah,
3:03
Speaker 1: so what? That's truly how they feel, because with these psychopaths,
3:08
Speaker 1: it's all good as long as the means justify the ends.
3:15
Speaker 1: This article was authored by Dan Mangan. JPMorgan Chase notified
3:21
Speaker 1: the Treasury Department of more than $ 1 billion in transactions
3:25
Speaker 1: related to human trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein dating back 16
3:30
Speaker 1: years after the notorious sex predator killed himself, allegedly, in 2019.
3:37
Speaker 1: A lawyer for the U.S. Virgin Islands told a federal
3:39
Speaker 1: judge at a hearing. And everybody out there should be
3:43
Speaker 1: upset that it took Jeffrey Epstein dying for all of
3:47
Speaker 1: this information to be turned over. The bank should have
3:50
Speaker 1: been forced to turn all of this information over after
3:54
Speaker 1: his first arrest. And you know what I'm going to say, right? Well,
3:57
Speaker 1: if they would have recode his ass, every one of
3:59
Speaker 1: these miserable pieces of shit we talk about on a
4:02
Speaker 1: regular basis would be on the radar. Epstein's entire business
4:08
Speaker 1: with JP Morgan and JP Morgan's entire business with Epstein
4:12
Speaker 1: was human trafficking. Mimi Liu, an attorney for the Virgin Islands,
4:16
Speaker 1: told Judge Jed Rakoff in U.S. District Court in Manhattan
4:20
Speaker 1: on Thursday, according to a transcript reviewed by CNBC. Liu
4:26
Speaker 1: cited the bank's notification to the Treasury Department as she
4:30
Speaker 1: argued that Rakoff should issue a summary judgment against JP Morgan.
4:36
Speaker 1: So we talked about the summary judgment a little bit yesterday,
4:39
Speaker 1: and I highly doubt that Judge Rakoff is going to
4:42
Speaker 1: go that route. I'm much more inclined to think that
4:45
Speaker 1: Judge Rakoff is going to make both sides argue their
4:48
Speaker 1: case in open court. The huge bank is being sued
4:52
Speaker 1: by the Virgin Islands government for allegedly facilitating sex trafficking
4:56
Speaker 1: by Epstein of young women when he was a JP
4:59
Speaker 1: Morgan customer from 1998 through 2013. The attorney, referring to
5:06
Speaker 1: a $ 9 million block of transfers to women and suspicious
5:10
Speaker 1: withdrawals from Epstein's accounts at J.P. Morgan, said it related
5:15
Speaker 1: to facilitating more than 20,000 sexual acts, given Epstein's habit
5:20
Speaker 1: of paying several hundred dollars for each sexual encounter. Think
5:25
Speaker 1: about that for a minute, okay? A $ 9 million block
5:28
Speaker 1: of transfers? All of it being used to facilitate... More
5:33
Speaker 1: than 20,000 sexual acts? How many women and girls do
5:38
Speaker 1: you think were caught up in that abuse? Meanwhile, the
5:41
Speaker 1: fine folks over at FinCEN, you know, the regulatory department
5:45
Speaker 1: that's supposed to be keeping an eye on things like this? Ah,
5:47
Speaker 1: they were asleep at the switch. JP Morgan was a
5:52
Speaker 1: full-service bank for Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking, Liu said at
5:56
Speaker 1: the hearing. The only reason that J.P. Morgan, after 16 years,
6:00
Speaker 1: reported the $ 1 billion in suspicious transactions was because he
6:05
Speaker 1: was arrested and then he was dead, she said. This
6:09
Speaker 1: was a cover-your-ass reporting after 16 years of all the
6:14
Speaker 1: monies flowing in his J.P. Morgan accounts after he was dead.
6:19
Speaker 1: There's no doubt that all of this is cover-your-ass by
6:23
Speaker 1: all of them, the U.S. Virgin Islands included. How they're
6:27
Speaker 1: not getting sued is just baffling to me. They were
6:31
Speaker 1: right in the middle of it, right in the mix
6:33
Speaker 1: of things. And as I've said before, if it was
6:36
Speaker 1: one of my loved ones or somebody that I was
6:39
Speaker 1: friends with, I'd be telling them to make this move.
6:43
Speaker 1: Go after the U.S. Virgin Islands. What do you have
6:45
Speaker 1: to lose? Especially considering J.P. Morgan has done all of
6:49
Speaker 1: the legwork here for you. The Virgin Islands has accused
6:54
Speaker 1: the bank of continuing to do business with Epstein for
6:57
Speaker 1: years despite repeated red flags internally and his 2008 guilty
7:02
Speaker 1: plea to a Florida sex crime. A sex crime against
7:05
Speaker 1: a child, you mean? By 2006, the bank thus had
7:10
Speaker 1: reams of financial information related to Jeffrey Epstein and that
7:14
Speaker 1: corroborated his sex crimes involving children, Liu argued. So if
7:19
Speaker 1: the bank had that, what did the U.S. Virgin Islands
7:21
Speaker 1: have at the same time? I guess that's a question
7:24
Speaker 1: that should be asked, no? Epstein, 66, killed himself in
7:29
Speaker 1: a New York jail, allegedly. Hey, Dan Mangan, why do
7:32
Speaker 1: you buy that official narrative? You seem like a pretty
7:35
Speaker 1: intelligent guy, and you've had really good coverage of this
7:38
Speaker 1: case for the most part. But why do you buy
7:41
Speaker 1: into what the OIG said? Because honestly, that whole entire
7:44
Speaker 1: report was trash. Everything in that report was garbage. No
7:49
Speaker 1: questions were answered. And honestly, he showed me nothing as
7:53
Speaker 1: far as evidence goes. to confirm or deny one way
7:57
Speaker 1: or the other what happened in that jail cell. So
8:00
Speaker 1: the fact that so many people are so cavalier to
8:02
Speaker 1: just say, oh yeah, well, the OIG said, well, fine,
8:06
Speaker 1: if you want to believe the OIG, then go for it.
8:08
Speaker 1: But I've told you for a very long time how
8:10
Speaker 1: I feel about internal investigations, and that goes for the
8:14
Speaker 1: United States government as well. In addition to a residence
8:18
Speaker 1: in Manhattan, Epstein owned a private island in the Virgin
8:21
Speaker 1: Islands where he was accused of sexually abusing women. A
8:25
Speaker 1: lawyer for JP Morgan, which denies wrongdoing in the case,
8:29
Speaker 1: pushed back against the Virgin Islands' claims that it should
8:32
Speaker 1: be found liable for abetting Epstein's abuse of women. The
8:37
Speaker 1: Virgin Islands is seeking at least $ 190 million in damages
8:42
Speaker 1: in the case, which will go to trial on October
8:46
Speaker 1: 23rd if Rakoff does not grant summary judgment to either side.
8:51
Speaker 1: I don't see a summary judgment coming here. I've said
8:53
Speaker 1: that before and I'll say it again. I do not
8:56
Speaker 1: see a summary judgment in the cards. The bank's lawyer,
9:01
Speaker 1: Felicia Ellsworth, told Rakoff that the Virgin Islands had presented
9:06
Speaker 1: not a scintilla of evidence that J.P. Morgan violated laws
9:10
Speaker 1: about sex trafficking. And in fact, you could look at
9:14
Speaker 1: this as a shakedown almost. Because from where I'm sitting...
9:19
Speaker 1: the U.S. Virgin Islands has no tenable ground to stand
9:22
Speaker 1: upon as they hurl these accusations down on other people, considering, well,
9:26
Speaker 1: you know, the guy that was running your island, his
9:29
Speaker 1: wife was working for Epstein and then Epstein was trying
9:32
Speaker 1: to manipulate the sex offender laws through her. Yeah, that
9:36
Speaker 1: seems like a bit of an issue for the U.S.
9:38
Speaker 1: Virgin Islands if a jury gets this case, no? Ellsworth
9:44
Speaker 1: also argued that the Virgin Islands lacked the legal standing
9:47
Speaker 1: to sue the bank. J.P. Morgan has said the American
9:50
Speaker 1: territory can only sue to vindicate the rights of residents
9:55
Speaker 1: and that there is no proof that any of Epstein's
9:57
Speaker 1: victims were residents of... the Virgin Islands. There is hotly
10:03
Speaker 1: disputed testimony and evidence, Ellsworth told Rakoff. There is, as
10:08
Speaker 1: I said, testimony from J.P. Morgan, current and former employees,
10:13
Speaker 1: disclaiming knowledge of Epstein's criminal conduct, she said. A J.P.
10:18
Speaker 1: Morgan spokeswoman declined to comment to CNBC about the Virgin
10:23
Speaker 1: Islands claims that the bank had notified the Treasury Department
10:26
Speaker 1: of more than $ 1 billion in suspicious transactions by Epstein. J.P.
10:33
Speaker 1: Morgan in July agreed to pay $ 290 million in a
10:36
Speaker 1: settlement with victims of Epstein to resolve a similar lawsuit
10:41
Speaker 1: filed by one of the accusers in Manhattan's federal court.
10:45
Speaker 1: In June, Deutsche Bank which had taken Epstein on as
10:49
Speaker 1: a client after he was forced out by J.P. Morgan
10:52
Speaker 1: in 2013, agreed to pay $ 75 million to Epstein's victims
10:58
Speaker 1: to settle a third suit in the same court. All right, folks, well,
11:03
Speaker 1: this one continues to roil on. And this is going
11:07
Speaker 1: to be contentious all the way down to the wire
11:09
Speaker 1: because I do not expect the U.S. Virgin Islands to
11:13
Speaker 1: concede here. They've already paid out $ 290 million to the
11:18
Speaker 1: actual survivors. And from their point of view, that's the
11:22
Speaker 1: restitution that they owe. They don't feel like they owe
11:25
Speaker 1: the Virgin Islands anything. And honestly, I don't think anybody
11:29
Speaker 1: should be giving the U.S. Virgin Islands one single dollar.
11:33
Speaker 1: If any money is getting taken from anybody, well, that
11:35
Speaker 1: money that's seized, it should end up with the survivors,
11:38
Speaker 1: not with the U.S. Virgin Islands. So we'll see what
11:41
Speaker 1: Judge Rakoff has to say at trial, but I don't
11:44
Speaker 1: think it's going to go the way the U.S. Virgin
11:46
Speaker 1: Islands wants it to go. All right, everybody, that's going
11:50
Speaker 1: to do it for this one. All of the information
11:52
Speaker 1: that goes with this episode can be found in the
11:55
Speaker 1: description box. Today we're going to talk about the Panama Papers.
12:01
Speaker 1: And it's been five years since their release. So what
12:08
Speaker 1: sort of Resulting effects have come into play due to
12:14
Speaker 1: the Panama Papers release and just how hard is it
12:19
Speaker 1: to stash a billion dollars after the Panama Papers? Let's
12:24
Speaker 1: jump into this article from BloombergTax.com and let's see what
12:30
Speaker 1: Jeff Blumenfeld has to say. Headline, is it still as
12:36
Speaker 1: easy to hide $ 1 billion five years after the Panama Papers?
12:42
Speaker 1: The fifth anniversary of the Panama Papers scandal was April 3rd.
12:47
Speaker 1: Jeff Blumenfeld of MonetaGo asked if it's still easy to
12:51
Speaker 1: hide a billion dollars and discusses the technology that may
12:55
Speaker 1: make it impossible to hide large amounts by the 10th
12:58
Speaker 1: anniversary of the Panama Papers. Now... This goes right into
13:03
Speaker 1: the vein of what we've been talking about, our ongoing
13:07
Speaker 1: conversation about the financial sector and especially Jeffrey Epstein's behavior
13:13
Speaker 1: within it. Now, Jeffrey Epstein was mentioned in the Panama
13:18
Speaker 1: Papers in connection to Mossack and Fonseca. So it's doubly
13:27
Speaker 1: important for the Jeffrey Epstein case to follow this thread.
13:34
Speaker 1: And just like the Finston Files leak, the Panama Papers
13:38
Speaker 1: has been a treasure trove for those of us who
13:42
Speaker 1: are interested in curb stomping this money laundering and dark
13:47
Speaker 1: money problem. April 3rd this year marked five years since 11.5
13:54
Speaker 1: million leaked documents detailing information from more than 214,000 offshore
14:01
Speaker 1: companies were brought into the public sphere. in what is
14:04
Speaker 1: now known as the Panama Papers leak. Now, when this
14:09
Speaker 1: first happened, and these leaks first came out, it threw
14:12
Speaker 1: everything on its head. I mean, it really exposed a
14:18
Speaker 1: bunch of the so-called elite and their schemes to harbor
14:24
Speaker 1: money in tax havens, to hide money, and honestly, to
14:29
Speaker 1: launder money. Now, five years on, and against a backdrop
14:35
Speaker 1: of rapid digitization, it is crucial to ask whether the
14:38
Speaker 1: world has really learned that much from the Panama Papers,
14:42
Speaker 1: and to question how the measures in place to mitigate
14:45
Speaker 1: tax evasion have been strengthened, if at all. Now, we
14:50
Speaker 1: know that governments around the world have added some teeth
14:54
Speaker 1: to their regulations, and they have started to talk about
14:59
Speaker 1: going harder against money laundering. Now, you and I, and
15:04
Speaker 1: we all know that talk is cheap. And these governments,
15:08
Speaker 1: these sitting bodies, they always like to run a lot
15:14
Speaker 1: of gum. They always like to talk a big game.
15:17
Speaker 1: But when it's time to swing the hammer, when it's
15:20
Speaker 1: time to really come down on these scumbags, well, a
15:25
Speaker 1: lot of times we're left wanting, right? oh, we're going
15:28
Speaker 1: to give you a suspended sentence for the company, and
15:31
Speaker 1: as long as you pay your fine, everything's going to
15:33
Speaker 1: be okay. Meanwhile, for the rest of us, go ahead
15:39
Speaker 1: and try and make a move like that and see
15:41
Speaker 1: what the end result is. The Panama Papers scandal has
15:48
Speaker 1: been widely analyzed, scrutinized, and assessed since the first papers
15:52
Speaker 1: were leaked in 2016. The leak unearthed decades of financial
15:57
Speaker 1: wrongdoing and detailed the works of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca.
16:04
Speaker 1: The paper shed a light on how Mossack Fonseca enabled
16:07
Speaker 1: a handful of wealthy individuals to create shell corporations to
16:11
Speaker 1: manage their assets and taxes. So, in shorthand, basically, translation,
16:18
Speaker 1: Mossack and Fonseca set it up so they can cheat, lie,
16:21
Speaker 1: and steal, while the rest of us, who are you know,
16:25
Speaker 1: struggling to survive in this K-shaped economy... are doing the
16:31
Speaker 1: right thing, paying our taxes, making sure everything's locked in...
16:36
Speaker 1: while the richest amongst us continue to laugh at us...
16:39
Speaker 1: and continue to get fat at the trough. Although shell
16:49
Speaker 1: corporations are not illegal in and of themselves... Their anonymity
16:54
Speaker 1: and lack of transparency mean that they can be used
16:56
Speaker 1: for tax evasion, fraud, and evading serious sanctions. Well, yeah,
17:01
Speaker 1: that is exactly what they're used for. And while they're
17:04
Speaker 1: not illegal, how many of you out there, working class stiffs,
17:10
Speaker 1: have an offshore account that you're moving money through, that
17:13
Speaker 1: you're manipulating the tax structure through? I'm going to guess
17:17
Speaker 1: not many of us out there, not many people listening
17:19
Speaker 1: to this podcast anyway, The vast majority of the leaked
17:26
Speaker 1: Panama Papers revealed tax avoidance, the minimizing of tax, which
17:31
Speaker 1: is perfectly legal. However, the leak did show that some
17:35
Speaker 1: individuals used Mossack Fonseca for tax evasion, which is illegal.
17:40
Speaker 1: The use of shell companies means that ownership and financial
17:44
Speaker 1: history of these assets can be hard to determine. If
17:48
Speaker 1: records were modernized with new technologies, these types of scandals
17:52
Speaker 1: would eventually become a thing of the past. And that
17:55
Speaker 1: is certainly something we need to move into. And I
17:59
Speaker 1: think that it's very important that we explore the blockchain
18:02
Speaker 1: moving forward as perhaps a way to decentralize all of this.
18:08
Speaker 1: I think that having a small group of people with
18:11
Speaker 1: all of this power, financial power in their hands, is dangerous.
18:15
Speaker 1: Not only for America, not only for England, not only
18:18
Speaker 1: for Europe, but for the whole entire world. And if
18:23
Speaker 1: we can get away from centralizing all of this stuff,
18:27
Speaker 1: I think we'd be on the right path to making
18:31
Speaker 1: a difference. The fallout from the leak. Mossack Fonseca announced
18:38
Speaker 1: its closure in 2018. Over a billion dollars has been
18:42
Speaker 1: recovered and numerous countries have launched their own investigations into
18:46
Speaker 1: the scandal. Many of the individuals exposed of wrongdoing have
18:50
Speaker 1: been held to account and in many cases, forced to
18:53
Speaker 1: resign from their various posts. But it's just like the
18:56
Speaker 1: cartels or the mafia, right? Next man up. So you
19:01
Speaker 1: get rid of one scumbag politician, and the next one
19:04
Speaker 1: slides right in to continue the grift. And that is
19:09
Speaker 1: going to continue until we get rid of the political class.
19:14
Speaker 1: This was never supposed to be a career. You know,
19:17
Speaker 1: it was never supposed to be, oh, well, I'm going
19:19
Speaker 1: to go to Washington, D.C. to get rich. It's not
19:23
Speaker 1: what it was supposed to be about, but that's what
19:25
Speaker 1: it is. And that's what it's become. Despite the international
19:31
Speaker 1: reaction to the leak and the tangible shift in perception
19:34
Speaker 1: around the moral accountability of the rich and powerful, changes
19:37
Speaker 1: toward comprehensive registrations of corporations in many jurisdictions have been
19:42
Speaker 1: slow to come. And we have talked about this at length, right?
19:46
Speaker 1: How a lot of these countries, America included, and hell,
19:50
Speaker 1: close to the top of the list, have been dragging
19:53
Speaker 1: their feet when it comes to putting real, hard, with teeth,
20:02
Speaker 1: sanctions on the books for people who screw up, for
20:05
Speaker 1: people who get engaged in money laundering or tax evasion.
20:10
Speaker 1: A little simple slap on the wrist and a little
20:12
Speaker 1: fine is not going to cut it anymore. The fact
20:17
Speaker 1: remains that tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands,
20:20
Speaker 1: the Bahamas, and Panama will continue to exist as there
20:24
Speaker 1: are massive incentives for small countries to provide these benefits
20:28
Speaker 1: in lieu of industrial contributions or wealth in the form
20:32
Speaker 1: of natural resources. So it's like a trampoline, right? And
20:38
Speaker 1: that's what I call it, basically, the dark money trampoline.
20:41
Speaker 1: It gets bounced from here to there to here to there.
20:45
Speaker 1: And these smaller companies, they've made a cottage industry out
20:48
Speaker 1: of it. And you can't blame them, right? They're just
20:52
Speaker 1: filling a need that is created by the scumbaggery of
20:58
Speaker 1: those in the West. And unfortunately, that's just the way
21:03
Speaker 1: of it. We have to be very honest with ourselves, right?
21:07
Speaker 1: And you know how I feel about looking at other
21:10
Speaker 1: countries or in my neighbor's yard and crying about it
21:13
Speaker 1: being dirty when my own yard is a mess. So
21:19
Speaker 1: my suggestion is to everybody listening to this podcast, no
21:22
Speaker 1: matter where you're from, start locally and pressure your local politicians,
21:28
Speaker 1: the people who were elected to represent you. Start with
21:32
Speaker 1: them and work from there. Until real international cooperation is
21:43
Speaker 1: achieved and technology is deployed to assist in that effort,
21:47
Speaker 1: the status quo is likely to prevail. And the cynic
21:51
Speaker 1: in me says they want the status quo to prevail.
21:54
Speaker 1: They don't want to change things. Why would the people
21:56
Speaker 1: who are in power, the people who are being enriched
21:58
Speaker 1: by all of this, want to change anything? And then
22:03
Speaker 1: the people who do want to change things, people like us,
22:06
Speaker 1: we're powerless almost to do so. Because they have us gaslit.
22:11
Speaker 1: They have us gaslit into thinking that this is just
22:14
Speaker 1: the way things are. And that things can never change.
22:17
Speaker 1: And that if you fight against the system, if you
22:19
Speaker 1: rage against the machine, that it's all pointless and you're
22:23
Speaker 1: wasting your time. Well, let's be very clear, folks. Roughly only, what,
22:29
Speaker 1: 3% of the population participated in the American Revolution? And
22:36
Speaker 1: that turned out well enough, huh? The point is, it
22:39
Speaker 1: only takes a handful of people to really make change
22:44
Speaker 1: if those people are willing to go the extra mile.
22:48
Speaker 1: The question is, do we have anyone with any sort
22:51
Speaker 1: of backbone in a leadership position that's willing to take
22:54
Speaker 1: up the mantle and do the right thing? Unfortunately, from
22:57
Speaker 1: my seat here in the peanut gallery, I have not
23:00
Speaker 1: seen that. Avoidance and evasion. At this juncture, it is
23:05
Speaker 1: worth noting the crucial line between tax evasion and avoidance,
23:09
Speaker 1: the former being illegal and the latter being legal. None
23:14
Speaker 1: of it should be legal, okay? Everyone should just pay
23:16
Speaker 1: their taxes the way that they're set up and situated. Look,
23:20
Speaker 1: I get that taxes are overbearing, and we can discuss
23:26
Speaker 1: dropping the tax structure and making it less burdensome for
23:29
Speaker 1: the middle class, but I don't want to hear shit
23:32
Speaker 1: about these crybaby, uber-rich people crying about their tax structure, okay? 36%, 39%.
23:39
Speaker 1: Shut up, man. Shut up and pay it. Because the
23:43
Speaker 1: real truth of the matter is, the people that are
23:45
Speaker 1: in that tax field, that part of the tax structure,
23:53
Speaker 1: they're not paying 39% anyway. They're finding ways to avoid taxes.
23:57
Speaker 1: They have offshore. So they really end up paying nothing anyway.
24:01
Speaker 1: And for the longest time, I was gaslit into believing that,
24:04
Speaker 1: you know, these people were... They were paying taxes another way. No,
24:08
Speaker 1: they're not. These people are skirting their responsibilities to the
24:11
Speaker 1: rest of us. And they're continuing to shit on anybody
24:17
Speaker 1: who is not part of the so-called elite class. And
24:20
Speaker 1: that's just the way of it. These people don't care
24:24
Speaker 1: about you or me. If they cared... Would their wealth
24:27
Speaker 1: have increased the way it has? What, 400 something trillion
24:30
Speaker 1: dollars during this pandemic while the rest of us are
24:35
Speaker 1: scurrying around? And then they want to talk about recoveries. Well,
24:40
Speaker 1: the majority of stores opening folks around the country as
24:44
Speaker 1: far as like, you know, chain stores, the majority of
24:47
Speaker 1: them are dollar stores right now. And you know why? Well,
24:51
Speaker 1: that's because the economy is not good. And they see
24:58
Speaker 1: the writing on the wall with inflation and all of
25:00
Speaker 1: the other shit that's coming down the pipe. That shit
25:04
Speaker 1: is about to get bad for the working class. But
25:07
Speaker 1: guess who it's not going to be bad for? All
25:09
Speaker 1: of these jackoffs who have all of these offshore accounts,
25:13
Speaker 1: all of this money parked in other places. Never going
25:17
Speaker 1: to affect them one bit. While much of the leak
25:23
Speaker 1: could be constituted as scandalous, the reality is the vast
25:27
Speaker 1: majority was not illegal. Then and now, most taxes are
25:30
Speaker 1: avoided rather than evaded. The true scandal, in fact, may
25:35
Speaker 1: be that governments everywhere are plagued by lobbyists and self-interested
25:39
Speaker 1: parties which benefit from the current state of affairs and
25:42
Speaker 1: have little desire to bring about meaningful change. 100,000%. Those
25:46
Speaker 1: lobbyists are the biggest problem, folks. Again, look, I know
25:53
Speaker 1: I get on the people that are utilizing these tax
25:55
Speaker 1: loops and the ways to avoid taxes, but the real
25:59
Speaker 1: problem are the lawmakers who allow it and the lobbyists
26:03
Speaker 1: who are dog-walking these people right to the trough. Preventing
26:10
Speaker 1: a repeat. In order to avoid these types of incidents
26:13
Speaker 1: in the future, fully functioning registries of ownership accessible across
26:17
Speaker 1: jurisdictions are needed. The key issues to be addressed are
26:22
Speaker 1: clearly around anonymity and transparency. The critical question being, who
26:27
Speaker 1: is the true owner of the underlying assets of any
26:31
Speaker 1: given company? I don't think that's too much to ask, right?
26:34
Speaker 1: Everybody knows everything these days. You can't leave your house
26:38
Speaker 1: without the NSA collecting your data and knowing what you're
26:41
Speaker 1: up to. So I don't want to hear about, oh, well,
26:45
Speaker 1: we don't want anyone to know who owns this company.
26:47
Speaker 1: Why not? What are you trying to hide? What are
26:49
Speaker 1: you trying to avoid? Are you trying not to pay
26:51
Speaker 1: your wife what you owe her? My man, pay up.
26:58
Speaker 1: Enough with the games. We need to have strict regulations
27:01
Speaker 1: and strict oversight of all of this offshore bullshit. By
27:08
Speaker 1: allowing individuals and companies to offshore their assets, Mossack Fonseca
27:13
Speaker 1: enabled over 200,000 shell companies to be used for both
27:18
Speaker 1: tax avoidance and evasion. And Mossack Fonseca was in business
27:23
Speaker 1: with Epstein. You can go back and take a look
27:26
Speaker 1: at some of the stuff that Epstein had going on
27:29
Speaker 1: with them. But look, almost as sure as the sun
27:33
Speaker 1: is going to rise... If there was some sort of
27:36
Speaker 1: financial douchebaggery going on while Epstein was alive, he wasn't
27:40
Speaker 1: far from it. Preventing this from happening again requires investment
27:48
Speaker 1: in modern, technology-led transparency measures. The core challenge is creating
27:53
Speaker 1: financial registries. This comes down to the questions of determining
27:57
Speaker 1: the true owners of assets in given jurisdictions. A clearer
28:01
Speaker 1: global financial picture can be made possible through distributed ledger technology.
28:07
Speaker 1: And I agree with all of this. We have to
28:10
Speaker 1: employ technology to help combat this, right? And again, I
28:14
Speaker 1: know that technology can be manipulated. I'm not stupid. Well,
28:17
Speaker 1: all right, that's debatable. But I know that technology can
28:20
Speaker 1: be manipulated. That's why I think moving to the blockchain
28:24
Speaker 1: for all of this stuff is the proper way to go.
28:27
Speaker 1: I am not the kind of guy that knows all
28:30
Speaker 1: the ins and outs of the technical issues of doing
28:33
Speaker 1: something like that, but I do know for sure that
28:37
Speaker 1: the blockchain is the safest way to go moving forward.
28:43
Speaker 1: Unveiling the truth. Distributed ledger technology's underlying premise of a
28:49
Speaker 1: secure archive of transactions is an ideal fit for a
28:53
Speaker 1: record of wealth and ownership. Existing land and legal registries
28:57
Speaker 1: can be made stronger and ownership of assets clarified through
29:01
Speaker 1: a public recorded ledger of ownership. And I think this
29:06
Speaker 1: is a really good idea that he's proposing here. You know,
29:09
Speaker 1: something that can be accessed around the world, a registry
29:12
Speaker 1: of ownership. And look, the whole entire world's economy is
29:16
Speaker 1: connected at this point. So we have to come to
29:20
Speaker 1: terms with the fact that there needs to be some
29:22
Speaker 1: sort of way to that countries can figure out who
29:26
Speaker 1: owns what, so that we can try and curb-stomp this shit.
29:32
Speaker 1: In the instance of the Panama Papers, much of what
29:35
Speaker 1: allowed so much money to be hidden offshore was the
29:37
Speaker 1: archaic way in which ledgers of ownership are kept. Many
29:41
Speaker 1: ledgers are recorded on localized, inaccessible spreadsheets and, in some cases,
29:48
Speaker 1: remain paper-based. I mean, come on, folks, really? There's a
29:52
Speaker 1: reason that it's like this, that it's still archaic, because
29:55
Speaker 1: you can manipulate it. If you move to the blockchain,
29:58
Speaker 1: you know, where cryptocurrency is hanging out at, Yeah, a
30:01
Speaker 1: little harder to go in and manipulate things. So I
30:07
Speaker 1: would think that the financial regulatory industry is certainly thinking
30:13
Speaker 1: about the blockchain and making a move towards it. A
30:19
Speaker 1: consistent and tamper-proof registry of each subsequent owner would go
30:23
Speaker 1: a long way to ensure that every corporation has clear proprietors.
30:27
Speaker 1: Ones that can be held to account for their fair
30:29
Speaker 1: share of taxes and which are required to cooperate with
30:33
Speaker 1: authorities in cases of tax evasion. And there's a big,
30:37
Speaker 1: big hole that is left by the offshore manipulation of
30:41
Speaker 1: money in that regard. People aren't held responsible because nobody
30:45
Speaker 1: knows who owns these companies. And that is the allure
30:49
Speaker 1: of having an offshore shop. Efforts to prevent tax avoidance
30:57
Speaker 1: need to be wide-reaching and coordinated at all levels in
31:00
Speaker 1: conjunction with policymakers as well as technology providers. Measures built
31:06
Speaker 1: around legacy technology targeted at limited jurisdiction will never be
31:10
Speaker 1: enough to make meaningful change. And I agree with that.
31:14
Speaker 1: The technology being deployed right now is archaic as hell.
31:17
Speaker 1: They need to step into the new realm. Distributed ledger
31:26
Speaker 1: technology has proven itself already with various real-world applications. Implemented
31:32
Speaker 1: in tandem with strong policies to help mitigate tax avoidance,
31:36
Speaker 1: these implementations have the potential to greatly improve society for
31:40
Speaker 1: all those honest taxpayers amongst us. So, again, he's talking
31:46
Speaker 1: about deploying technology and I'm right there with him. I
31:51
Speaker 1: think that like I was stating just a couple of
31:53
Speaker 1: seconds ago, that the obvious move is to go blockchain here.
32:01
Speaker 1: Preventing tax avoidance and tax evasion are both policy issues.
32:06
Speaker 1: The last five years have clearly shown us that addressing
32:09
Speaker 1: them will require new tools and new approaches. Investing in
32:13
Speaker 1: the technology that allows prevention to be practically applied is crucial.
32:19
Speaker 1: If innovative technology and policy are addressed simultaneously, then by
32:23
Speaker 1: the time we reach the 10th anniversary of the Panama Papers,
32:27
Speaker 1: we will be facing an entirely different landscape, one where
32:31
Speaker 1: it may well be impossible to easily hide billions of dollars.
32:37
Speaker 1: And if we get to that point, folks, a point
32:40
Speaker 1: where we have a system set up where these guys
32:44
Speaker 1: can't manipulate it as easily, well, we're going to be
32:47
Speaker 1: on the right path. Because the money laundering, the tax evasion,
32:55
Speaker 1: and all of the other stuff that goes with it, well,
33:00
Speaker 1: we've turned a blind eye to it for far too long.
33:03
Speaker 1: And from where I'm sitting, it's about time that these
33:07
Speaker 1: people are held accountable for their actions. If you'd like
33:12
Speaker 1: to contact me, and doing that, we have an article
33:16
Speaker 1: from inequality.org and the headline, Beyond lucrative, Jeffrey Epstein's billionaire
33:23
Speaker 1: tax avoidance assistance business. The infamous financier, pedophile, exploits a
33:30
Speaker 1: cast of shadow on one of Wall Street's favorite tax
33:34
Speaker 1: avoidance schemes. This article was authored by Daniel Hemel and
33:43
Speaker 1: Bob Lord. The sex trafficking scandal surrounding the late Jeffrey
33:49
Speaker 1: Epstein already has tarnished the reputations of prominent politicians, businessmen,
33:55
Speaker 1: and the British royal family. Now, it's casting a dark
33:59
Speaker 1: shadow on an estate tax avoidance strategy popular among Wall
34:03
Speaker 1: Street CEOs and tech entrepreneurs. Now, remember, all of these
34:09
Speaker 1: people that are involved in this sort of group of
34:17
Speaker 1: people be it tech billionaires or politicians or Wall Street CEOs.
34:24
Speaker 1: They're all involved in the same kind of hustles. They're
34:27
Speaker 1: all using these grat schemes. They're all using loopholes so
34:32
Speaker 1: they can avoid taxes. And it is rather obvious for
34:37
Speaker 1: anyone who has ever spent more than a few minutes
34:40
Speaker 1: looking into it. The whole entire offshore scam that these
34:45
Speaker 1: scumbags are working on is ridiculous, and it should be
34:50
Speaker 1: stomped out. How many of you out there have multiple
34:55
Speaker 1: offshore accounts that you're moving money to and from? I'm
34:58
Speaker 1: guessing not many of you. The strategy exploits a loophole
35:05
Speaker 1: that Congress unintentionally left open when it passed the provisions
35:09
Speaker 1: related to Granner Retained Annuity Trusts, or GRATs, in 1998.
35:15
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they unintentionally left that loophole there. Yeah, right.
35:20
Speaker 1: When has Congress unintentionally done anything? Again, maybe I'm just
35:25
Speaker 1: a cynic. Maybe it's the cynic living deep within my soul,
35:29
Speaker 1: rearing its ugly head. But somehow, I don't believe that
35:34
Speaker 1: it was unintentional. Congress loves to put loopholes in their laws.
35:40
Speaker 1: They love to have a backdoor exit when shit goes south.
35:44
Speaker 1: It's just like somebody who creates software for a computer.
35:47
Speaker 1: How many times do people leave back doors in there?
35:55
Speaker 1: Use of these trusts already has cost the IRS, by
35:59
Speaker 1: one estimate, well over $ 100 billion in just the last
36:03
Speaker 1: two decades. A recent filing with the Securities and Exchange
36:07
Speaker 1: Commission by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management said,
36:11
Speaker 1: reveals that the firm's longtime CEO, Leon Black, relied on
36:15
Speaker 1: Epstein's assistance to extract more than $ 500 million in tax
36:20
Speaker 1: savings from Gratz. So here they are, out there with
36:25
Speaker 1: all the money in the whole entire world as it is, right?
36:30
Speaker 1: Stealing from everybody, getting involved in companies, and being a
36:37
Speaker 1: vulture at the corpse... And at the same time, still
36:41
Speaker 1: hustling you out. That's right, you, the taxpayer, out of
36:45
Speaker 1: 500 million big ones. 500 million dollars go a long
36:49
Speaker 1: way in some poor communities, wouldn't it? What would 500
36:53
Speaker 1: million dollars do to help your community? But it's no
36:58
Speaker 1: big deal. These dudes are out here avoiding taxes, no
37:01
Speaker 1: big deal. But let's attack our neighbor who's on unemployment.
37:08
Speaker 1: Don't you see the absurdity of all of it? These people.
37:13
Speaker 1: These powerful ass people. Have the whole game rigged to
37:17
Speaker 1: such a point. Where they have you thinking. That your
37:19
Speaker 1: fellow citizen. Your neighbor is the problem. Meanwhile. These dudes
37:25
Speaker 1: are moving around. Like snakes. Doing all sorts of shit
37:28
Speaker 1: in the shadows. Talking about. Oh yeah well. We donate
37:32
Speaker 1: this amount of money. Or that amount of money. Meanwhile.
37:36
Speaker 1: It doesn't even come close. It's not even a drop
37:39
Speaker 1: in the bucket to just the petty tax avoidance that
37:42
Speaker 1: these dudes are involved in. Grats, which combine a trust
37:50
Speaker 1: and an annuity to generate supercharged tax benefits, are entirely legal.
37:56
Speaker 1: But they make no sense from a policy perspective, and
37:59
Speaker 1: they only work because Congress in 1990 enacted a valuation formula...
38:05
Speaker 1: That defies economic reality. Oh yeah, but it was unintended, right? Please,
38:10
Speaker 1: Congress knew exactly what they were doing. They were setting
38:12
Speaker 1: this shit up for it to be exactly what it
38:15
Speaker 1: is so that all of their rich bag men, a.k.a.
38:18
Speaker 1: the Leon Blacks of the world, can move with impunity,
38:22
Speaker 1: can make all the financial moves they want, destroy lives,
38:27
Speaker 1: and not have to worry about any of it. Hell,
38:30
Speaker 1: not even have to pay their taxes. While Gratz aren't
38:38
Speaker 1: responsible for Epstein's predation, the appearance of Gratz in the
38:42
Speaker 1: most recent Epstein revelations is one reminder that Congress and
38:46
Speaker 1: the Biden administration should scrap this tax shelter. They won't.
38:51
Speaker 1: I mean, come on. Guys, girls, everybody else, listen to
38:55
Speaker 1: me very carefully. Joe Biden has been in politics for
38:59
Speaker 1: how long? This dude is part of the problem. He's
39:02
Speaker 1: no savior. He's not riding in on some whore's in
39:05
Speaker 1: a suit of white armor to save anybody. The dude's
39:10
Speaker 1: lucky he could put a sentence together at this point.
39:12
Speaker 1: And that's who we're going to rely on to stop
39:14
Speaker 1: these kind of people? These wolves? I'm sorry, but I
39:19
Speaker 1: don't have very much confidence in it. And flowery words
39:23
Speaker 1: are fine. Big talk is cool. But if that big
39:28
Speaker 1: talk and those words aren't followed by any walk, then
39:32
Speaker 1: what's the point? And so far, all we've got is
39:36
Speaker 1: a bunch of yap from the current administration. How many
39:40
Speaker 1: of these scumbags on Wall Street are being pressed? How
39:43
Speaker 1: many of these people who stole from you are being pressed?
39:47
Speaker 1: None of them. According to the report of an outside
39:52
Speaker 1: law firm hired by Apollo, Epstein advised Black on a
39:56
Speaker 1: range of matters between 2012 and 2017, generating $ 158 million
40:03
Speaker 1: in fees. The most valuable piece of work Epstein provided Black,
40:07
Speaker 1: according to the report, concerned a GRAT that Black had
40:11
Speaker 1: set up several years earlier. Now, previously we have talked
40:16
Speaker 1: about this GRATS situation, and I call it the GRATS Hustle.
40:21
Speaker 1: And it's typical for people like this. All of them.
40:25
Speaker 1: All of these big talkers who get up there and
40:28
Speaker 1: yap about how they're concerned about society, like Facebook or Twitter. Oh, well,
40:33
Speaker 1: we're going to make sure these people aren't on our
40:35
Speaker 1: platform because they're toxic. Meanwhile, these sons of bitches, Twitter, Facebook,
40:42
Speaker 1: the rest of them, are stealing money hand over fist
40:45
Speaker 1: from your mouths, basically. They don't pay their taxes, but
40:50
Speaker 1: you have to? Why is it they have a set
40:54
Speaker 1: of rules that they can live by, but you have
40:56
Speaker 1: a different set of rules? And the funny thing is,
41:01
Speaker 1: even though they have some sort of set of rules
41:03
Speaker 1: that they're supposed to live by, there's never no punishment
41:06
Speaker 1: if they veer off course. But for us, go and jaywalk.
41:11
Speaker 1: Don't pay your taxes, any of it, and see how
41:14
Speaker 1: quickly you get the hammer smashed down on you. Epstein
41:23
Speaker 1: wasn't the only financial advisor helping high net worth individuals
41:27
Speaker 1: set up grats, and Black isn't the only one to
41:29
Speaker 1: take advantage. The strategy surged in popularity after a 2000
41:34
Speaker 1: decision by the U.S. tax court rejected an IRS challenge
41:38
Speaker 1: to the Walton family's aggressive use of grats. Of course
41:42
Speaker 1: they did. How much money do you think the Walton
41:46
Speaker 1: family has pumped into the pockets of these shitbag politicians
41:50
Speaker 1: who let the grats hustle continue? What do you think,
41:53
Speaker 1: they did it just because they're nice people? They like
41:56
Speaker 1: their policy, so we're going to give you some money?
42:01
Speaker 1: Don't be naive. When people are dumping this kind of
42:06
Speaker 1: money into political races, when people are throwing this kind
42:09
Speaker 1: of money at politicians, you don't think that they exert
42:14
Speaker 1: some control over these politicians? You don't think those politicians
42:17
Speaker 1: are answering their phone calls? Try and call your politician
42:22
Speaker 1: as a constituent and see how quickly you end up
42:25
Speaker 1: either A, on an answering machine, or B, speaking to
42:28
Speaker 1: an intern. You think if you donated a bunch of
42:32
Speaker 1: dough to them, that would be the case? That's not
42:37
Speaker 1: the way it was ever supposed to be, folks. These people,
42:40
Speaker 1: our politicians who are writing these laws, were never supposed
42:44
Speaker 1: to be inaccessible. There was never supposed to be a
42:47
Speaker 1: political class in the United States. But these shit birds,
42:53
Speaker 1: once they get a little taste, just like anybody else
42:56
Speaker 1: with power, you have to wrest that power away from
43:00
Speaker 1: them because they will not cede it. Following the Waltons' lead,
43:05
Speaker 1: thousands of others, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and JPMorgan
43:10
Speaker 1: Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, have used rats to cut their
43:13
Speaker 1: gift tax and eventual estate tax liabilities. And it's the
43:19
Speaker 1: hypocrisy of it all. is just disgusting. I mean, Mark
43:23
Speaker 1: Zuckerberg's bitch ass? You have this dude talking about how, oh, well,
43:27
Speaker 1: we want to have Facebook as a safe platform. So
43:30
Speaker 1: they throw off people who have dissenting opinions, but child
43:34
Speaker 1: sex trafficking rings are still able to conduct business on there.
43:38
Speaker 1: People that are pushing terrorism, that's cool. And then he
43:43
Speaker 1: has the audacity to use the Gratz hustle and think
43:48
Speaker 1: that he has some sort of tenable position to look
43:52
Speaker 1: down on the rest of us from? Yeah, right. All
43:54
Speaker 1: of these scumbags from Silicon Valley are devious. And, to
44:02
Speaker 1: be honest with you, they all seem to be deviants
44:04
Speaker 1: as well. Two of the most masterful users of Gratz
44:11
Speaker 1: are Zoom founder Eric Wan and the late casino magnate
44:15
Speaker 1: Sheldon Adelson. SEC filing indicate that Juan saved more than
44:20
Speaker 1: $ 2 billion with well-timed transfers to two grats around the
44:24
Speaker 1: video conferencing company's April 2019 IPO. So right around the
44:30
Speaker 1: time that things were about to IPO, he transfers about
44:34
Speaker 1: $ 2 billion worth of hustling money to grats. And... avoids
44:45
Speaker 1: all of that tax, avoids all of that paying money
44:48
Speaker 1: into society. Adelson, a major Trump donor who died last month,
44:54
Speaker 1: reportedly reduced his family tax liability by about $ 2. 8 billion
44:59
Speaker 1: through Gratz. So all of that money, think about this
45:02
Speaker 1: for a minute, folks. Think about all of that money
45:04
Speaker 1: that is being basically stolen from you. All of that
45:09
Speaker 1: money that these people are not paying in Gratz, that
45:11
Speaker 1: they're not paying in taxes, stolen from your mouth. from
45:15
Speaker 1: your community. Yet you're mad at your cousin because he
45:19
Speaker 1: has a stupid opinion? Stop it already. These are the
45:23
Speaker 1: people we should be focused on, folks. The bankers, the
45:27
Speaker 1: financial sector, the dudes hustling us on a regular basis,
45:31
Speaker 1: and then we show up with our bowl like it's
45:34
Speaker 1: a soup kitchen. May we have another, sir? It's like
45:40
Speaker 1: the whole entire world suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Here's how
45:46
Speaker 1: it works. To set up a GRAT, an individual called
45:50
Speaker 1: a grantor, and almost always a multi-millionaire or billionaire, makes
45:54
Speaker 1: a gift to a trust with a string attached. So,
45:58
Speaker 1: if you ain't got millions, you ain't got billions, you're
46:01
Speaker 1: not even invited to this party. You can't even begin
46:05
Speaker 1: to dip your toe into the GRAT's hustle, unless you're
46:09
Speaker 1: already filthy stinking rich. The string is that the trust
46:16
Speaker 1: must make a series of payments, a retained annuity, back
46:19
Speaker 1: to the grantor for several years. After the several year
46:23
Speaker 1: period is over, the trust assets go to its beneficiary,
46:27
Speaker 1: which is usually another family trust set up for the
46:30
Speaker 1: grantor's children and grandchildren. You know, it's like going to
46:35
Speaker 1: fight in the crusade back in the day. If you
46:37
Speaker 1: were like a prince or a baron, you could set
46:39
Speaker 1: up a beneficiary to go and reap the rewards in
46:45
Speaker 1: your place. It's like the same situation here, just on
46:50
Speaker 1: a much grander level. They're going to set all that
46:56
Speaker 1: money up, swing it into these accounts, and avoid the
46:59
Speaker 1: tax liability on it all while their people continue to
47:04
Speaker 1: get rich. Enjoy that $ 3. 69 a gallon gas, folks. A
47:14
Speaker 1: 1990 law allows the grantor to calculate her net transfer
47:18
Speaker 1: for estate and gift tax purposes by subtracting the value
47:22
Speaker 1: of the retained annuity from the amount that goes into
47:25
Speaker 1: the trust. Since those annuity payments happen in the future,
47:29
Speaker 1: Congress needed to set an interest rate that would be
47:31
Speaker 1: used to calculate the annuity's present values. Congress's error was
47:36
Speaker 1: to tie the rate to the interest rate on the U.S.
47:38
Speaker 1: Treasury bonds. For February 2021, the interest rate for GRATS
47:44
Speaker 1: is just 0.6%. And again, it was no mistake. Congress
47:48
Speaker 1: knew what they were doing. What, you don't think that
47:50
Speaker 1: they had an idea of what the future might be
47:56
Speaker 1: if they go this route? They have projections. They have
47:58
Speaker 1: people that go through all of this stuff. So they knew,
48:03
Speaker 1: and they just didn't care in my opinion. The low
48:07
Speaker 1: interest rate assumption gave rise to an easy planning opportunity.
48:11
Speaker 1: Wealthy individuals can stuff their grats with high-risk, high-growth assets
48:16
Speaker 1: that are likely to generate returns well above the Treasury rate.
48:21
Speaker 1: On top of that, they can structure their grats such
48:24
Speaker 1: that the present value of the annuity exactly equals, or
48:29
Speaker 1: zeros out, the value of the transferred assets, resulting in
48:33
Speaker 1: a net gift of zero. So... You see what's going
48:37
Speaker 1: on here, right? You see how they're working this out?
48:40
Speaker 1: So it's all about structuring. They structure all of this
48:44
Speaker 1: in a way to show that they end up with
48:47
Speaker 1: zero tax liability. When in reality, if it wasn't for
48:52
Speaker 1: this grat system, they'd be on the line for billions
48:56
Speaker 1: in some cases. But all of that money, over $ 100 billion,
49:00
Speaker 1: mind you, according to this report, has been grifted by
49:04
Speaker 1: these people as if they're not rich enough. The upshot
49:11
Speaker 1: is that if assets in the zeroed-out GRAT grow faster
49:14
Speaker 1: than the Treasury-based rate, the GRAT will have money left
49:17
Speaker 1: over after it's done paying out the annuity. and that
49:20
Speaker 1: money will go to the GRAT's beneficiary free of any
49:24
Speaker 1: gift tax. If GRAT assets grow slower than the Treasury
49:28
Speaker 1: rate or dip in value, the trust will run out
49:31
Speaker 1: of money before it makes all of its annuity payments.
49:34
Speaker 1: The trust will cease to exist, and no one will
49:37
Speaker 1: owe any tax. From the Granner's perspective, this is a
49:41
Speaker 1: heads-I-win-tells-we-win bet with the IRS. And guess what? You know
49:47
Speaker 1: who gets to make those kind of bets with the IRS?
49:49
Speaker 1: People that are rich already. People that have this kind
49:52
Speaker 1: of dough. You don't make no deals with the IRS.
49:55
Speaker 1: None that you come out a winner on, do you?
49:58
Speaker 1: They'll shove their hand right into your bank account and
50:01
Speaker 1: take your money. But if you're Jeffrey Epstein, if you're
50:04
Speaker 1: Leon Black, if you're Sheldon Adelson, if you're one of
50:07
Speaker 1: the Waltons... It's cool. Just use the Gratz hustle and
50:10
Speaker 1: you're set. Recognizing what a problem Gratz had become, President
50:16
Speaker 1: Obama repeatedly asked Congress to clamp down on these tax
50:20
Speaker 1: avoidance trusts. After President Obama left office, Senator Bernie Sanders
50:25
Speaker 1: and Representative Jimmy Gomez picked up the mantle of Gratz
50:29
Speaker 1: reform and introduced legislation that would shut down the strategy
50:33
Speaker 1: that the Waltons pioneered. But President Trump, who owes much
50:38
Speaker 1: of his fortune to transfers that his father made to
50:40
Speaker 1: him using grats, showed no interest in fixing the problem,
50:45
Speaker 1: and the Sanders-Gomez bills stalled under divided government. You know,
50:50
Speaker 1: it's rather obvious that Donald Trump took a very hands-off
50:56
Speaker 1: approach to these white-collar criminals. And it's also apparent that
51:01
Speaker 1: the supposed populist man of the people, Donald Trump, really
51:05
Speaker 1: wasn't interested in going after any of his Wall Street buddies. Hopefully,
51:12
Speaker 1: the latest Epstein revelations will put Gratz back on the
51:15
Speaker 1: tax reform agenda. The easiest fix would be simply to
51:19
Speaker 1: repeal the 1990 law that allows Gratz to exist. Taxpayers
51:24
Speaker 1: who desire the steady stream of income that comes from
51:27
Speaker 1: an annuity can continue to buy those products from insurance companies.
51:32
Speaker 1: It's only the ultra-rich taxpayers who are using annuities as
51:36
Speaker 1: an estate tax avoidance strategy who would be affected. So,
51:41
Speaker 1: any of us losing any sleep over that? Anyone crying
51:44
Speaker 1: into their coffee because these rich billionaires will get slapped
51:47
Speaker 1: in the ass a little bit? I'm certainly not. Repeal
51:50
Speaker 1: that shit. Democrats, you have the Congress, you have the Senate,
51:55
Speaker 1: and you have the presidency. There is no reason why
51:57
Speaker 1: the Gratz situation should not be repealed. It's time to
52:01
Speaker 1: put up. It is time to put up, Sherrod Brown.
52:05
Speaker 1: It's time to put up, Joe Biden. You're in control now.
52:09
Speaker 1: Nobody else. Don't try and gaslight me and blame anybody else.
52:14
Speaker 1: Don't try and kick the can down the road. Fix it.
52:20
Speaker 1: Grats are not the most infuriating aspect of the Epstein saga.
52:26
Speaker 1: in which dozens of prominent individuals and institutions actively abetted
52:31
Speaker 1: or turned a blind eye towards Epstein's deeds. But by
52:35
Speaker 1: shining another spotlight on Graz, the Epstein revelations remind us
52:40
Speaker 1: of the continuing damage from a tax shelter that never
52:44
Speaker 1: should have been allowed in the first place. And this
52:50
Speaker 1: article is spot on about the whole Graz hustle, folks.
52:53
Speaker 1: It's a scam. It's set up for rich people. And
52:56
Speaker 1: all it does is continue to steal from the rest
53:01
Speaker 1: of us. If you'd like to contact me, you can
53:05
Speaker 1: do that at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com.
53:14
Speaker 1: You can also find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I.
53:21
Speaker 1: All of the links that go with this episode can
53:24
Speaker 1: be found in the description box.