You hear whispers. A local businessman explained that he tried to get into the used car business but found that his competition were selling vehicles cheaper than he could buy them. He claims money laundering was their primary goal, not profit from the transactions. A Brownsville family, Oscar Oropeza, his wife and daughter were all convicted recently of money laundering. Bank officials became suspicious of large cash deposits being made of money that smelled like the fabric softener Bounce
The Wachovia Bank, bought out a couple of years ago by Well's Fargo committed the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act on record by laundering 378.4 billion dollars of drug cartel money between 2004-7. "Wachovia's blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocain cartels a virtual carte blance to finance their operations," Jeremy Slomar, federal prosecutor, stated.
Actually, any business with a large cash flow can be a vehicle to clean money. Laundramats, for example, are difficult to monitor. Who knows how many quarters actually go through the machines? Sometimes, law enforcement has monitored the water usage to estimate the appropriate monetary receipts.
Some businesses undergo an extensive remodel but never show a profit. The investment is partially recouped when the building is sold, but the real goal was to exchange dirty money for real property than convert that real property to clean money.
According to a 14-page court filing from the United States District Court for the Western District, middlemen for the Zeta and Gulf Cartel drug-smuggling organizations moved millions easily in their purchase of real estate and other consumer goods.
Banks such as the Commerce Bank in California, Falcon Bank and the International Bank of Commerce provided millions without the required reporting, easily moved by Antonio Pena-Arguelles, who was paid millions by leaders of the Gulf cartel and the Zetas to help influence politicians, including Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Tamaulipas state, which borders Texas.
There are whole lot of Cartel/Zeta/Mafia fronts in the valley (car delership, Night Clubs, and restaurts to name a few).
ReplyDeleteWhat about that deli/bar on 15th and Washington. Someone told me they have rented two portions of a building, each for a thousand a month for a year, but still not opened up for business. That's $25,000 rent with no income yet. Typical business people can't afford to do that.
ReplyDeletejim, you are threading in waters that Montoya and Jerry seem to stay away from. Thanks for having the guts to speak about the elephant in the room.
ReplyDelete