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The international criminal network thrives in large part due to the lack of a global force capable of countering its gravity of influence, particularly when cooperation between criminal organizations further darkens their cloak of secrecy.
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00:02:32Transcrição e Legendas por Quintena Coelho
00:02:53But the realities of the Soviet state's power were more complex.
00:02:58Behind the state apparatus was the Communist Party,
00:03:01and behind the Communist Party lay the real masters of the USSR,
00:03:06the sword and shield of the Soviet world,
00:03:08the secret services, and the political police, the KGB.
00:03:16By the early 1980s, the more astute members of the KGB
00:03:20realized that the Soviet bloc could no longer compete with the West.
00:03:26The system's collapse was not out of the question.
00:03:30To guarantee their own survival,
00:03:33the KGB set up a vast operation to extract Soviet resources through shell companies,
00:03:38originally used as cover for destabilization operations and industrial espionage.
00:03:46The idea was to recycle this accumulation of shell companies
00:03:53with no real economic activity
00:03:56to enable the assets of the Communist Party and the KGB to be transferred abroad.
00:04:04The plundering began.
00:04:09Aluminum, copper, steel, and titanium,
00:04:12bought in the USSR at Soviet prices,
00:04:15were sold in the West at the much higher world market price.
00:04:20The surplus was recovered by a chain of shell companies
00:04:23that then invested the money outside the USSR.
00:04:27A small, sunny country, far from the icy Soviet Union,
00:04:32had been rolling out its red carpet for a long time.
00:04:35The island of Cyprus.
00:04:38Cyprus,
00:04:40Cyprus,
00:04:44Cyprus was one of the main investment vehicles.
00:04:48Cyprus was one of the main investment vehicles.
00:04:48They literally saw the island as a huge shopping mall for offshores.
00:04:57Split in two since the 1974 Greek-Turkish war,
00:05:00the Greek part of Cyprus is an outpost of the West,
00:05:04which joined the European Union and later the Eurozone in 2004.
00:05:11It came down to a few law firms that were again very happy to receive Russian,
00:05:17Kazakhs and Tajikistanis and Ukrainian corrupt business.
00:05:21Everybody from the former Soviet Union who had a bit of dirty money,
00:05:24there would not be any question asked in Cyprus if you wanted to open up on offshores,
00:05:30if you wanted to do business, to open up bank accounts, and so on and so on.
00:05:33So Cyprus was literally that enabling place, a whole island that was put in the service of criminals and corrupt
00:05:43politicians for a very, very long time.
00:05:47To conceal its operations, the KGB employed businessmen born in the USSR who had emigrated to the West.
00:05:55In Soviet intelligence terminology, these men were managing partners and their companies friendly firms.
00:06:04Among these traders was Boris Birstein, trained at the foreign ministry in Moscow and dispatched to the other side of
00:06:11the Iron Curtain.
00:06:12Boris Birstein, Boris Birstein.
00:06:16Boris Birstein, who was he?
00:06:19He was a Lithuanian born in the 40s, who began his international career in the 70s.
00:06:27He first set up a company called Cibico, which had a base in Hong Kong, but which was backed by
00:06:35a head office in Switzerland.
00:06:37These were small companies all over Canada and Western Europe.
00:06:42And with this company, he was able to invest funds in banks and in the equity of companies, this sort
00:06:50of thing.
00:06:54What is interesting about Boris Birstein is that he wasn't just a businessman who was involved in trading and then
00:07:05all of a sudden looked after the interests of the KGB.
00:07:11He was also caught up in the criminal underworld.
00:07:24Russian organized crime was officially non-existent in the socialist paradise.
00:07:29The Vorvi Zaccone, thieves in law, those tattooed men with their sanguinary stories, were sent to the gulag or broken
00:07:37down in penal colonies.
00:07:39Yet the underworld survived, maintaining a long history with the KGB.
00:07:45Organized crime was never eliminated totally during the Sralin era.
00:07:51Many of the criminals went to labor camps, and there they dominated the political prisoners.
00:07:58So they were a force in the labor camps, and they stayed a force in Russian society.
00:08:05There were songs about them.
00:08:07They were colorful characters.
00:08:10They were called Voriv Zaccone, thieves in law, because they had their own legal code.
00:08:17So they were from the Caucasus, they were from Central Asia, and they were very, very involved in different types
00:08:27of organized crime, racketeering, extortion, the second economy.
00:08:36In a country where a command economy meant collective farms, state companies, and constant scarcity, factories and businesses operated thanks
00:08:45to a parallel economy, the black market, which led to widespread corruption.
00:08:54The Voriv Zaccone chiefs, recruited by the KGB, enforced control of society through violence, and took control of the huge
00:09:03underground market that kept the USSR from collapsing for a while.
00:09:10In the last five years of the Soviet period, the economy, or the state budget, was dependent on the sale
00:09:19of alcohol.
00:09:20And that money, instead of going to the state, went to organized crime.
00:09:25And at the same time that organized crime was just making massive amounts of money by producing illegal alcohol, Russia,
00:09:36or the Soviet Union, began to privatize the economy.
00:09:40And so they were sitting on huge amounts of cash.
00:09:48At the end of the 1980s, the Paris Stroyka, initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, unleashed production and attempted to reestablish some
00:09:57semblance of economic efficiency.
00:10:03Gorbachev wanted to reopen the country, but despite his best efforts, he opened Pandora's box.
00:10:12On November 9th, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell.
00:10:17The Soviet bloc crumbled.
00:10:23In Moscow, less than two years later, in August 1991, an attempted coup by the regime's hardliners failed, marking the
00:10:31end of the USSR.
00:10:34Inheriting a shrinking Russia on the brink of ruin, Boris Yeltsin ordered investigations into the country's greatest secret, its finances.
00:10:44The investigations would be difficult.
00:10:46A lot of archives had disappeared, and three of the Communist Party's main financial managers had the misfortune of falling
00:10:53from windows.
00:10:57The Yeltsin era marked the end of 70 years of political repression and collectivism.
00:11:03In Moscow's Lubyanka Square, the statue of Felix Terzhinsky, the founder of the Sheka, the forerunner of the KGB, was
00:11:12taken down.
00:11:14The KGB was dissolved and replaced by the FSB, an organization with a diminished role.
00:11:24When the USSR collapsed in 1991, it was a vital moment because everyone in the game, small businessmen and big
00:11:35businessmen alike,
00:11:37understood that since the traditional law enforcement agencies no longer existed, they would be replaced by someone else.
00:11:46This is exactly where organized crime would play a very special role, namely by saying, we are order, we are
00:11:54the true protectors against economic tyranny.
00:11:57Do you own anything?
00:11:58Okay.
00:11:59You pay us, we protect you, and we guarantee that you remain the owner of your company.
00:12:07A new economic era began, marked by the meteoric rise of a new class of entrepreneurs, the oligarchs, led by
00:12:15Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Boris Berezovsky.
00:12:23Masters of economic predation, the oligarchs made a pact with the only remaining power in the country.
00:12:31From the inception of the post-Soviet economy, you had the new financial leaders of the economy working hand in
00:12:42glove with organized crime.
00:12:47All it took was for a group to come in with guns blazing, take over the accounts department, rip up
00:12:54the share register, and you no longer owned anything.
00:12:58Most of the world's steel changed hands in one morning.
00:13:02In the Russian aluminum industry, 47 people were murdered.
00:13:10They took Kalashnikovs and seized control of the big coal mines.
00:13:15They seized control of the copper mines.
00:13:17But they did so in such a way that they owned percentages, sometimes even tens of percentages, of the world's
00:13:24resources in some of these sectors.
00:13:28And they created their own bank and their own network of influence, and less than a decade later, they found
00:13:35themselves listed on the London Stock Exchange.
00:13:45It is from a former Soviet Republic that the world of crime would be reorganized.
00:13:52In 1993, in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, a huge crowd accompanied Rafik Svo, the great godfather of the Armenian
00:14:00mafia, on his last journey.
00:14:03The funeral was attended by Soviet wise men from various countries of the former USSR, the United States, Germany, and
00:14:12Turkey, as well as Italian mafiosi and Colombian drug traffickers who were also invited for the occasion.
00:14:18During the ceremony, the mafia held a historic meeting.
00:14:22The time had come to create a new international criminal organization to keep up with the changing globalized world, where
00:14:29the circulation, investment, and laundering of money needed to be rethought.
00:14:34At the same time, criminal summits were held in Tel Aviv and Puerto Rico to discuss international investments by mafiosi
00:14:41from the former Soviet Union.
00:14:44When the USSR collapsed, there were two movements abroad.
00:14:50First of all, as we've talked about, there was an organized movement designed by the KGB and based on these
00:14:58companies abroad.
00:14:59But there were also other movements, which, either in isolation or because they were supported by criminal groups, felt that
00:15:07it was necessary to leave the former USSR and expand.
00:15:12I remember going, I think it was in 1993, to a closed government conference in the Washington area, and there
00:15:22was somebody from Scotland Yard who got up and said,
00:15:27you know, we have all these professors and mathematicians staying at our top hotels in London.
00:15:35These are Russian mathematicians, Russian statisticians.
00:15:39We don't understand what they're doing here, but we think that they're doing something with money from Russia.
00:15:49They moved their money out of Russia into England, into the south of France, into Spain, into the United States,
00:15:59where there is rule of law.
00:16:01It's not that they built rule of law within their own country.
00:16:05They went out to find rule of law elsewhere.
00:16:33And in Brooklyn, in the south of New York, the Russian mafia, the Russian mafia, and the Russian mafia, and
00:16:38the Russian mafia are being killed.
00:16:38Made up of Vori bosses and former KGB members
00:16:40Were getting into business with the big Italian-American families
00:16:44And bringing their expertise in financial crime with them
00:16:47Namely money laundering and the infiltration of banking systems
00:16:51The United States, the great victor of the Cold War
00:16:54Failed to see the emergence of this threat
00:16:56The culmination of these new alliances
00:16:59Convinced of its omnipotence
00:17:01America accelerated the globalization of its economy
00:17:05In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton set up NAFTA
00:17:12A vast free trade area between Mexico, the United States, and Canada
00:17:29NAFTA was a gift to organized crime in Mexico
00:17:33The opening of border crossings is accompanied by another major change
00:17:38Since the death of Pablo Escobar in Colombia
00:17:41The Mexican cartels had taken control of the huge cocaine market
00:17:49Mexican organized crime
00:17:52Wasn't born with a cocaine trade
00:17:57They already had these smuggling networks in place
00:18:00To move people
00:18:02To move heroin
00:18:03To move marijuana
00:18:08The cocaine trade
00:18:10Is so lucrative
00:18:12And moves
00:18:14Such scale
00:18:16That they very quickly
00:18:19Developed
00:18:20Their own infrastructure
00:18:24And then the Mexicans become the senior partners for the U.S. market
00:18:28Which is the case today
00:18:32The free trade agreement expedited border crossings
00:18:35With an endless stream of trucks dumping clothes, toys, and television sets
00:18:39Into the United States
00:18:40Along with cannabis, heroin, and cocaine
00:18:46Drug money traveled in the opposite direction
00:18:51In Mexico, one bank in particular stood out for its ability to launder this money
00:18:56The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, HSBC
00:19:00The couriers were carrying in Samsonites
00:19:03In duffel bags full of $100 bills
00:19:06You know, fresh off the streets of Los Angeles and Seattle and Chicago
00:19:11The drug couriers frequently wearing leather jackets
00:19:16With the symbol of the Sinaloa drug cartel
00:19:18Or the Los Zetas drug cartel on their back
00:19:20Okay, so they're like pretty obvious
00:19:23They have like a little badge
00:19:24Like I'm a Sinaloa member, don't fuck with me
00:19:26Okay, so they'd show up at the bank
00:19:29The bank built special windows
00:19:31So they could raise the window
00:19:34And you could just shove the duffel bags of cash under it
00:19:39And how did we know that?
00:19:40Because we had surveillance cameras inside HSBC Mexico City's headquarters
00:19:46Okay, all over
00:19:47We had them all over the place in there
00:19:50After years of investigations
00:19:52The U.S. justice system succeeded in convicting HSBC
00:19:56Which paid a fine of almost $2 billion
00:19:59A slap on the wrist for a banking group of this size
00:20:02HSBC is a notorious serial violator
00:20:05On kind of a scale of Credit Suisse
00:20:08When it comes to financial crimes
00:20:10And here's another example where they didn't lose their license
00:20:14Nobody went to jail
00:20:15It was basically a, you know, a non-penalty penalty
00:20:19And, you know, a technical foul
00:20:22I don't think until we take these big banks to the cleaners
00:20:26And basically make an exhibit of one of them at least
00:20:29That we will be able to get rid of this behavior
00:20:35Unsurprisingly, HSBC kept its banking license
00:20:38However, the Mexican cartels were obliged to rethink their money laundering system
00:20:46We've seen Mexican cartels in the U.S.
00:20:49That came out from an FBI leaked document
00:20:52Set up private investment accounts
00:20:55Essentially into the investment markets
00:20:58And then take that money out to buy gold
00:21:03At the same time
00:21:04To the north of the American continent, in Canada
00:21:07Another mafia system was setting up its own money laundering mechanisms
00:21:10The Chinese Triads
00:21:14Since the 1980s
00:21:15Cocaine and heroin have flooded the country from Vancouver
00:21:18The fourth largest port in the Americas
00:21:22In the evenings, Vancouver's city center was the stage for gruesome scenes
00:21:30Just the volume of open-air drug market activity
00:21:35The violence in the area
00:21:37The disproportionate number of First Nations and Indigenous people
00:21:42That gravitated towards this open-air drug market
00:21:46In downtown Vancouver
00:21:48It was hard to look at and watch
00:21:53In Canada's major cities
00:21:55Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver
00:21:57The Triads divided up the drug market
00:22:03These mafia groups were all the more invisible
00:22:06Because they formed part of a diaspora
00:22:08That had been present in Canada for over a century
00:22:13In Vancouver
00:22:14The Triads were laundering and reinvesting crime money
00:22:17Using the same tried and tested model
00:22:20As two colonial enclaves
00:22:21Macau and Hong Kong
00:22:30Over the decades
00:22:31The Triads had built a vast empire
00:22:33Of prostitution
00:22:35Drug trafficking
00:22:36Gambling
00:22:36And illegal betting
00:22:41In Macau
00:22:42A huge casino park
00:22:44Was used by Chinese Communist Party
00:22:46Apparachics
00:22:47To squander and hide their fortunes
00:22:49And by the Triads
00:22:51To launder their dirty money
00:22:55This is the model
00:22:56That Macau organized crime
00:22:58Was exporting to Canada
00:23:01The Triads succeeded
00:23:03Infiltrating the vast world of casinos
00:23:05In the province of Vancouver
00:23:07British Columbia
00:23:12Government casino workers
00:23:14Saw figures such as
00:23:15Betty Big Sister Yan
00:23:17Kwok Chun Tam
00:23:19Lai Cheng Sing
00:23:21China's most wanted fugitive
00:23:23These were the high rollers
00:23:25The loan sharks
00:23:26That employees in the casino
00:23:29Saw had such influence
00:23:31Carried such amounts of cash
00:23:34Generated such profits
00:23:37That they became
00:23:38The de facto bosses of the casino
00:23:46Casino through the use of tokens
00:23:48Creates a parallel economy
00:23:51When you have multiple casinos
00:23:53Spread across an entire territory
00:23:55You could have tokens worth
00:23:57100,000
00:23:581,000,000
00:23:582,000,000
00:23:595,000,000
00:24:00100,000,000
00:24:01It's worth that kind of money
00:24:04But they're tiny
00:24:05And made of plastic
00:24:09It's great for money laundering
00:24:10Or for transferring money
00:24:12Because you could take a token
00:24:14From Moscow for example
00:24:15And then change it in Vienna
00:24:16You can take a token from Shanghai
00:24:19And change it in Hong Kong
00:24:21And vice versa
00:24:24And then it became international
00:24:28Because you could pay with these things
00:24:30Which are completely outside any kind
00:24:33Of financial regulation
00:24:39On the American continent
00:24:41Drugs, money laundering circuits
00:24:43And a host of criminal players
00:24:45Combined to create
00:24:46A new criminal superhighway
00:24:48From Tijuana to Vancouver
00:24:50At a time when Macau
00:24:52And then Hong Kong
00:24:53Were falling back
00:24:55Into the hands of China
00:25:04In Europe
00:25:05Another mafia group
00:25:06Was about to throw their hat
00:25:08Into the global crime arena
00:25:09The Indrangheta
00:25:12Based in Calabria
00:25:13In southern Italy
00:25:14The criminal organization
00:25:16Of rural origin
00:25:17Is one of the country's
00:25:18Four historic mafias
00:25:19Unlike the Sicilians
00:25:21Of Cosa Nostra
00:25:22Or the Neapolitans
00:25:23Of the Camorra
00:25:24Or the fourth mafia
00:25:26Of Apulia
00:25:27The Indrangheta
00:25:28Was the only mafia
00:25:29Present on every continent
00:25:31And this expansion
00:25:32Enabled it to understand
00:25:33What the fall of the Berlin Wall
00:25:35Meant before anyone else
00:25:37The Indrangheta understood
00:25:41That there were no longer
00:25:43Any barriers
00:25:44Between west
00:25:45And east
00:25:46There was no longer
00:25:47A cold war
00:25:48No longer two opposing blocks
00:25:50But the world to conquer
00:25:53So
00:25:55So we're talking about
00:25:57The colonization of markets
00:25:58In South Africa
00:26:00In the Congo
00:26:01In Kenya
00:26:03In eastern Europe
00:26:04In South America
00:26:09Based in the United States
00:26:11For over a century
00:26:12The Indrangheta
00:26:13Then deployed its men
00:26:14In Colombia
00:26:15Peru
00:26:16And Brazil
00:26:18By the early 1990s
00:26:20They had become
00:26:21The world's leading exporter
00:26:22Of cocaine
00:26:23Managing entry points
00:26:25In Europe
00:26:25Africa
00:26:26And Oceania
00:26:29And the Indrangheta
00:26:32Which has considerable
00:26:33Financial resources
00:26:35At its disposal
00:26:36Found an extraordinary ally
00:26:39In the unregulated capitalism
00:26:41Because drug money
00:26:44Entered the legal economy
00:26:46With impressive ease
00:26:49Today
00:26:50Today
00:26:51There isn't a country
00:26:52In Europe
00:26:53Where the Indrangheta
00:26:54Hasn't managed
00:26:55To invest money
00:27:00The Indrangheta
00:27:02Invested in various sectors
00:27:03Services
00:27:05Restaurants
00:27:06Real estate
00:27:06Construction
00:27:07Supermarkets
00:27:08And transport
00:27:09They diversified their investments
00:27:12Wherever they set up shop
00:27:13Consolidating their links
00:27:15With criminal organizations
00:27:16In Russia
00:27:17China
00:27:17Turkey
00:27:19Morocco
00:27:20Nigeria
00:27:21And Albania
00:27:24Over the years
00:27:25This rural mafia
00:27:26Has become a criminal
00:27:27Multinational
00:27:28Investing all over the world
00:27:31Except in Calabria
00:27:36Luigi Bonaventura
00:27:38Is a repentant member
00:27:39Of the Indrangheta
00:27:40Who left the organization
00:27:41At the risk of his life
00:27:43The real problem
00:27:47Lay not just
00:27:48In how to obtain
00:27:49And distribute cocaine
00:27:50But also
00:27:51How to launder the money
00:27:55Today
00:27:55The price of cocaine
00:27:56May seem very high
00:28:00But we mustn't forget
00:28:02That if I buy coke here
00:28:03In Italy
00:28:04At $10,000 a kilo
00:28:07And sell it for
00:28:08$35,000 or $40,000
00:28:13In all this
00:28:14You have to factor in
00:28:16The losses associated
00:28:17With tax
00:28:18To recycle
00:28:19And launder the money
00:28:26Money laundering
00:28:27Even works in such a way
00:28:29That the drug trafficker
00:28:31Becomes the one
00:28:32Who pays the most tax
00:28:33Because you automatically
00:28:35Have restaurants
00:28:37Hotels
00:28:38The Indrangheta
00:28:40Swarmed entire states
00:28:42And bought up everything
00:28:44And anything
00:28:46There have been towns
00:28:47Where people have said to us
00:28:48Stop buying
00:28:49You've bought everything
00:28:50So the Indrangheta
00:28:52Is a phenomena
00:28:53That goes beyond
00:28:53Italy's borders
00:28:54To identify it solely
00:28:56As an Italian problem
00:28:58Would be really restrictive
00:28:59And dangerous
00:29:00Very dangerous
00:29:04In a telephone conversation
00:29:06Intercepted by the Italian police
00:29:08One Andragutus declared
00:29:09That the world
00:29:10Is divided in two
00:29:11Calabria
00:29:13And what will one day
00:29:14Become Calabria
00:29:26In Russia
00:29:27The young federation
00:29:29Had barely emerged
00:29:30From a state of limbo
00:29:31And already appeared to be
00:29:33On the verge of collapse
00:29:34Most of its resources
00:29:35Were in the hands
00:29:36Of predators
00:29:37The banking system
00:29:39Was on the verge
00:29:39Of becoming overrun
00:29:40By the mafia
00:29:46Recalcitrant bankers
00:29:47Were being murdered
00:29:49In 1995
00:29:50The central bank
00:29:51Of Russia
00:29:52Estimated that
00:29:53Between 50 and 80%
00:29:54Of the country's banks
00:29:55Were in the hands
00:29:56Of organized crime
00:29:57The money flights
00:29:59Were enormous
00:30:01And the economic situation
00:30:04Of the ordinary citizen
00:30:05Was extremely precarious
00:30:08But because if you
00:30:09Owned a bank
00:30:10And you raided the bank
00:30:12And sent the money overseas
00:30:14The bank depositors
00:30:16Lost their assets
00:30:17And so this impoverished
00:30:21The Russian population
00:30:23Over and over again
00:30:25With these banking scandals
00:30:26Which is part of the reason
00:30:29That people wanted stability
00:30:31Because they'd lost stability
00:30:34And the support
00:30:36Of the social welfare benefits
00:30:38That existed in the Soviet period
00:30:40Then they lost their life savings
00:30:43In the banks
00:30:45And so everything seemed
00:30:48To be collapsing around them
00:30:50And you could see
00:30:52The rise of oligarchs
00:30:55You could see gangsters
00:30:57In the restaurants
00:30:58In expensive cars
00:31:00In the streets
00:31:01And this was just traumatic
00:31:15One man symbolized
00:31:17The immense power
00:31:17Enjoyed by Russian criminal groups
00:31:19At the time
00:31:20Sergei Mikhailov
00:31:22The leader of the Moscow
00:31:23Solstovskaya
00:31:24Then the most powerful
00:31:26Mafia organization in Russia
00:31:30Mikhailov recycled the income
00:31:32From Solstovskaya's
00:31:33Criminal and banking activities
00:31:35Through a myriad of shell companies
00:31:37With offshore accounts
00:31:43In 1996
00:31:44Mikhailov was arrested in Geneva
00:31:47Where he lived
00:31:47For money laundering
00:31:51Swiss investigators
00:31:52Discovered this on Swiss territory
00:31:55They started issuing letters
00:31:57Of request abroad
00:31:58They went to Western Europe
00:31:59And what did they find?
00:32:01They found links to Boris Berstein
00:32:03In companies linked to the
00:32:05Solstovskaya
00:32:06Organized crime group
00:32:07So pure organized crime
00:32:10This is where we were left puzzled
00:32:12Saying to ourselves
00:32:13But what are we talking about
00:32:16In this web of Russian organized crime
00:32:18Where they had such close ties
00:32:20With mafia bosses
00:32:21Businessmen
00:32:23And KGB intermediaries
00:32:36This was the secret
00:32:38Of the Russian mafia's power
00:32:39The underground networks
00:32:41Of the former KGB
00:32:42And the positions acquired
00:32:44In the West
00:32:45Thanks to the network
00:32:46Of front companies
00:32:50Ousted from the Kremlin
00:32:51By the Yeltsin clan
00:32:52The former KGB
00:32:53Disappeared from Moscow
00:32:55Their vengeance
00:32:56Would come in the country's
00:32:57Second city
00:32:58St. Petersburg
00:33:02In the mid-1990s
00:33:04In an atmosphere
00:33:04Of extreme violence
00:33:06The Tambov mafia group
00:33:08Took control of the port facilities
00:33:09And turned them into a hub
00:33:11For cocaine trafficking
00:33:13To launder their money
00:33:14The mafia acquired a stake
00:33:16In Rossiya
00:33:17A small regional bank
00:33:18Set up by former KGB officers
00:33:21Bank Rossiya
00:33:23Is a very good example
00:33:25This was one of those banks
00:33:27And there were a few in Russia
00:33:29That were acting
00:33:30Kind of in the same vein
00:33:31To enable politicians
00:33:34To launder money
00:33:34And to amass
00:33:36A large part of the loot
00:33:39So this is the bank
00:33:41That kind of sits
00:33:42At the center of crime
00:33:43And politics
00:33:44The pivot
00:33:44That allowed people
00:33:46To shuffle money around
00:33:48And to gain control
00:33:50Financial control
00:33:51Which is crucial
00:33:52To political control
00:33:54Major shareholders
00:33:55In Bank Rossiya
00:33:56The St. Petersburg mafia
00:33:58Also benefited
00:33:59From the diligent help
00:34:00Of the city's deputy mayor
00:34:03The man who kept
00:34:04Such a low profile
00:34:05That he was invisible
00:34:06In official photos
00:34:07Was none other than
00:34:08Former KGB officer
00:34:10Vladimir Putin
00:34:13Stationed in Dresden
00:34:14In the 1980s
00:34:15Putin took part
00:34:16In destabilization operations
00:34:17On behalf of the KGB
00:34:19And the Stasi
00:34:20The East German Secret Service
00:34:22As well as smuggling technology
00:34:24From the West
00:34:25At the end of 1999
00:34:27Putin succeeded Yeltsin
00:34:29In a Russia
00:34:30On the verge of bankruptcy
00:34:31After defaulting on its debt
00:34:33The previous year
00:34:35At the head of the country
00:34:36Vladimir Putin set about
00:34:38Bringing the oligarchs
00:34:39And mafia bosses
00:34:40To heel
00:34:40Under the authority
00:34:42Of one man
00:34:43Himself
00:34:45President Putin
00:34:46Gets up and says
00:34:47Well this corporate rating
00:34:48Is very bad
00:34:50For the Russian economy
00:34:51We've got to do
00:34:52Something about it
00:34:55The former KGB agents
00:34:56Around the president
00:34:57Put security services
00:34:59Back into the heart
00:35:00Of the Russian system
00:35:01Via the FSB
00:35:02The first target
00:35:04Was the Yukos oil tanker
00:35:05It was retrieved
00:35:07And its owner
00:35:07Mikhail Khodorkovsky
00:35:09Was sent to Siberia
00:35:11Yukos Etchin
00:35:12A native of St. Petersburg
00:35:13And one of Vladimir Putin's
00:35:15Closest friends
00:35:16Acquired Yukos
00:35:17For his own oil company
00:35:18Rosnift
00:35:21To finance the investments
00:35:22Needed to exploit
00:35:23Siberian oil
00:35:24Etchin needed access
00:35:26To international capital
00:35:29The city of London
00:35:30The world's leading
00:35:31Financial center
00:35:32Opened its doors to him
00:35:33Here
00:35:34There was no need
00:35:35To certify the accuracy
00:35:36Of financial accounts
00:35:38And therefore
00:35:38No risk of criminal offense
00:35:41In the city of London
00:35:42It's like
00:35:43That's sort of
00:35:44Their raison d'etre
00:35:45They're basically
00:35:46You know
00:35:47That's
00:35:48What do you think
00:35:48Bankers do
00:35:49In the city of London
00:35:50I mean
00:35:51It's all about
00:35:53Setting up
00:35:53And structuring
00:35:54Entities
00:35:55That are basically
00:35:58Opaque
00:35:59And the most
00:36:01Obvious
00:36:02And most frequent
00:36:02Use of these entities
00:36:04Is just for tax evasion
00:36:06In 2006
00:36:07Rosnift was listed
00:36:09On the city stock exchange
00:36:10It was the third
00:36:12Biggest share sale
00:36:13In the world that year
00:36:14A triumph
00:36:16As oil prices soared
00:36:17Russia became an
00:36:19El Dorado for oil companies
00:36:20An El Dorado
00:36:21In the middle of the wilderness
00:36:25In 2006
00:36:26Andrei Kozlov
00:36:27Vice president
00:36:28Of Russia's central bank
00:36:30Who had dismantled
00:36:31Several money laundering networks
00:36:32And closed 44 banks
00:36:34Was murdered in Moscow
00:36:36Along with his driver
00:36:38For the financial markets
00:36:40And investors
00:36:40The mafia-like methods
00:36:42Of the KGB oligarchy
00:36:43Were of little importance
00:36:45Oil money
00:36:46Even if it's Russian
00:36:47Has no smell
00:36:51London
00:36:52Acting as Russia's money handler
00:36:53Was nicknamed
00:36:54London grad
00:37:00You've got
00:37:01A huge
00:37:02Amount of property
00:37:04Owned by Russians
00:37:05You have law firms
00:37:08With so many lawyers
00:37:11Helping facilitate
00:37:13Russian money laundering
00:37:15Russian business
00:37:16You've got PR firms
00:37:18That are working
00:37:19You have a whole
00:37:20Profession of facilitators
00:37:23But some of these people
00:37:25Serving this Russian elite
00:37:27Are getting recognition
00:37:31From the British apparatus
00:37:33You know
00:37:34They're honored lawyers
00:37:36Of the realm
00:37:40In the 2010s
00:37:42Twenty years after
00:37:43The historic meeting
00:37:44Of the main criminal organizations
00:37:46In Yerevan
00:37:46The transformation of Russia
00:37:49Into a mafia state
00:37:50Had facilitated
00:37:51Commercial relations
00:37:52Between various criminal actors
00:37:53Established in all the strongholds
00:37:56Of the global economy
00:37:58This is when Paul Radu
00:38:00Appeared on the scene
00:38:01And with his OCCRP team
00:38:03Delved into the financial archives
00:38:05Of the Soviet bloc
00:38:06Over the last three decades
00:38:08By scrutinizing
00:38:09The money movements
00:38:10Of a Baltic bank
00:38:11Paul Radu
00:38:12Discovered a suspicious account
00:38:14Used by various
00:38:15Criminal organizations
00:38:17I was surprised
00:38:19I said
00:38:19What is this?
00:38:20This seems like
00:38:20A crazy conspiracy
00:38:22One bank account
00:38:23And you have
00:38:23All these criminal groups
00:38:24Coming together
00:38:25To launder the money
00:38:26Through this one
00:38:27Tormex Limited company
00:38:29This is insane
00:38:32And then I looked
00:38:33A little bit more
00:38:34At those companies
00:38:35Mentioned in the banking record
00:38:37And there were always
00:38:38These offshore companies
00:38:40With bank accounts
00:38:41Sometimes in Latvia
00:38:42Sometimes in Estonia
00:38:43Sometimes in Germany
00:38:45Sometimes in the US
00:38:45All over the world
00:38:46China, everywhere
00:38:47And they were
00:38:49Transferring these
00:38:50Huge, huge amounts of money
00:38:51And that's when
00:38:53For the first time
00:38:54We saw
00:38:55We had access
00:38:56To direct banking records
00:38:57That showed
00:38:59That the conspiracy
00:39:00Was on the side
00:39:02Of the bankers
00:39:03Who put this system
00:39:05Together
00:39:05And that's when
00:39:06We slowly started
00:39:07To understand
00:39:08What was going on
00:39:10With his colleagues
00:39:11At the OCCRP
00:39:13Paul Radu
00:39:14Then made a second discovery
00:39:15By tracking variations
00:39:17In the costs
00:39:17Of money laundering
00:39:18In Europe
00:39:19And the former
00:39:20Soviet Union
00:39:22You look at the Italian
00:39:24Mafias
00:39:24You look at other groups
00:39:25And they would have
00:39:27To give away
00:39:28Quite a bit of their
00:39:30Criminal profit
00:39:31To people who are
00:39:32Professional money launderers
00:39:34It was sometimes
00:39:3510%
00:39:3615%
00:39:37Quite big chunks
00:39:39From the hard earned
00:39:42Criminal work
00:39:43From the crime
00:39:45But bankers
00:39:47In the Baltics
00:39:50Thought that
00:39:51There's opportunity
00:39:52In lowering
00:39:53The cost of money laundering
00:39:56There's great opportunity
00:39:57In there
00:39:58From the 10%
00:39:59From the cut
00:40:00That was taken
00:40:01From money laundering
00:40:02They went down
00:40:03To even 0.1%
00:40:06But for the banker
00:40:07To make a profit
00:40:08Like a sizable profit
00:40:11The banker needed
00:40:12Volumes
00:40:13Of money
00:40:13There was a banker
00:40:14Who set up the system
00:40:16And said
00:40:16Look
00:40:17I have a bank
00:40:18And I have this pipeline
00:40:20For laundering
00:40:21Billions
00:40:22Now I only need the clients
00:40:24Who wants to launder money?
00:40:26This is why you see
00:40:28Multiple criminal groups
00:40:29Laundering their money
00:40:30Through the same pipelines
00:40:32It's not that they know each other
00:40:34But they make use
00:40:35Of the same infrastructure
00:40:37That was put together
00:40:38In their service
00:40:40By the bankers
00:40:44Paul Radu conceptualized
00:40:46The pipeline
00:40:46A hidden financial network
00:40:49Set up by bankers
00:40:50Businessmen
00:40:50And mafiosi
00:40:51One after the other
00:40:54The OCCRP
00:40:55Would bring three cases
00:40:56Of money laundering
00:40:57To light
00:40:58Revealing obscene amounts
00:40:59Of misappropriated funds
00:41:00The Troika laundromat
00:41:03The NGO
00:41:04Incovered more than
00:41:0547,000 financial transactions
00:41:07Involving
00:41:0926 billion dollars
00:41:10Of money
00:41:10Laundered by
00:41:112,900 companies
00:41:13The Azerbaijani laundromat
00:41:15An operation involving
00:41:17Four UK registered
00:41:18Shell companies
00:41:19For people close to
00:41:20The government
00:41:20In Azerbaijan
00:41:21And the
00:41:22Moldovan laundromat
00:41:2320 billion dollars
00:41:25Implicating
00:41:26732 banks
00:41:27In 96 countries
00:41:28Among them
00:41:29Deutsche Bank
00:41:30UBS
00:41:31Bank of China
00:41:33HSBC
00:41:33The Royal Bank of Scotland
00:41:36And Kutz & Co
00:41:38The Bank of the British Crown
00:41:42Through OCCRP
00:41:43We're able to connect those
00:41:45To what was going on
00:41:46In Western Europe
00:41:47What was going on
00:41:47In the US
00:41:49The United States
00:41:51And elsewhere
00:41:52So the whole thing
00:41:53Is to understand
00:41:55These patterns
00:41:55Because at the end
00:41:57Of the day
00:41:58Crime is a commodity
00:41:59You have an import
00:42:01Export of crime
00:42:03You have
00:42:04All this
00:42:05Lot of money laundering
00:42:07But you also have
00:42:08This mindset
00:42:09Where criminals
00:42:11When they find
00:42:12A criminal model
00:42:13That works
00:42:13Like the laundromats
00:42:15Be sure that
00:42:17They will apply
00:42:18That same model
00:42:19Over and over
00:42:20And over again
00:42:21Until someone stops them
00:42:22If anyone is there
00:42:24To stop them
00:42:24And usually there's
00:42:25Nobody
00:42:26Because these are
00:42:27Global structures
00:42:28And at the global level
00:42:29There's no natural
00:42:31Enemy of organized crime
00:42:33And corruption
00:42:34And this is
00:42:36The power of the criminals
00:42:40The work of the OCCRP
00:42:42Marks a turning point
00:42:44In our understanding
00:42:45Of contemporary financial crime
00:42:46At the same time
00:42:48Other NGOs
00:42:49Were tackling
00:42:50The world's criminal lung
00:42:51Tax havens
00:42:52From 2013 onwards
00:42:55A series of revelations
00:42:56Known as
00:42:57The leaks
00:42:58Revealed criminal financial practices
00:43:00Directly involving states
00:43:01Offshore leaks
00:43:032013
00:43:04Lux leaks
00:43:062014
00:43:06Swiss leaks
00:43:082015
00:43:09Bahamas leaks
00:43:102016
00:43:11Paradise Papers
00:43:132017
00:43:13Pandora Papers
00:43:152021
00:43:19John Christensen
00:43:20Co-founded
00:43:21The Tax Justice Network
00:43:22An NGO
00:43:23That documents
00:43:24The abuses
00:43:25Of tax havens
00:43:26Christensen
00:43:27Was an insider
00:43:28In offshore finance
00:43:29On the island of Jersey
00:43:30For 14 years
00:43:33This veteran of the fight
00:43:34Against dirty money
00:43:35And tax havens
00:43:36Sees the release
00:43:37Of the first leaks
00:43:38As the reward
00:43:39For 20 years work
00:43:40What the leaks
00:43:41Have done
00:43:41Is to show
00:43:42The banality
00:43:43Of global corruption
00:43:45Show that really boring people
00:43:49Bankers
00:43:50And accountants
00:43:51Are all involved
00:43:53In supporting corruption
00:43:56They're all involved
00:43:58In a criminogenic environment
00:43:59They pretend
00:44:01They pretend
00:44:02That they are
00:44:02Ultra respectable
00:44:04Professional people
00:44:05Whereas in reality
00:44:08They are engaged
00:44:10In a long term
00:44:11Process
00:44:13Of enabling
00:44:15And facilitating
00:44:16Criminal activity
00:44:17And undermining democracy
00:44:25In 2013
00:44:26A new leader
00:44:27Came to power
00:44:28In China
00:44:29Xi Jinping
00:44:31At the same time
00:44:33The offshore leaks
00:44:34Came out
00:44:34Exposing the secret accounts
00:44:36Of senior Chinese politicians
00:44:38And directors
00:44:39Of major state-owned companies
00:44:40Between 1,000 billion
00:44:42And 4,000 billion
00:44:44In untraceable assets
00:44:45Have left China
00:44:46Since the 2000s
00:44:47To invest in
00:44:48Caribbean tax havens
00:44:49Particularly
00:44:50The British Virgin Islands
00:45:13Xi Jinping
00:45:14Launched a vast
00:45:15Anti-corruption campaign
00:45:16But it only affected
00:45:18His rivals
00:45:19The Chinese triads
00:45:21Escaped the purges
00:45:22And were not dismantled
00:45:25It was against
00:45:26This backdrop
00:45:27That a synthetic opiate
00:45:28Appeared in Chinese laboratories
00:45:31Fentanyl
00:45:33There is nothing illegal
00:45:34About its manufacture
00:45:35But when added
00:45:37To heroin and cocaine
00:45:38Fentanyl multiplies
00:45:40The narcotic power
00:45:41By 100
00:45:41Making it
00:45:42A deadly poison
00:45:43In 2013
00:45:46The United States
00:45:47And Canada
00:45:48Were already reporting
00:45:49Thousands of deaths
00:45:50Caused by the drug
00:45:51Which then had poorly understood
00:45:53Supply networks
00:45:54By 2021
00:45:55The figure had risen
00:45:56To 100,000 deaths
00:45:57In the United States
00:46:01Vancouver
00:46:01The gateway to fentanyl
00:46:03On the North American continent
00:46:04Was setting new records
00:46:06An exponential rise
00:46:07In the number of deaths
00:46:08Out of control
00:46:09Property speculation
00:46:11And a proliferation
00:46:12Of gambling venues
00:46:15The only difference was
00:46:16That the patrons
00:46:17Of the system
00:46:18Were no longer the triads
00:46:21Fentanyl is
00:46:22First and foremost
00:46:23A generator
00:46:24Of proceeds
00:46:25For the state of China
00:46:27They could shut
00:46:29Those factories down
00:46:30If they wanted to
00:46:31They could eradicate
00:46:33The precursors
00:46:34If they wanted to
00:46:35If they were listening
00:46:36To the United States government
00:46:37But they're not doing that
00:46:39This is essentially
00:46:40What we can call
00:46:41The company
00:46:43A network of triad bosses
00:46:45With interrelationships
00:46:47With Chinese security
00:46:48And intelligence
00:46:49And Chinese communist party
00:46:51Handlers
00:46:53The international mafia
00:46:55Facilitated a global
00:46:56Division of labor
00:46:57The chemicals
00:46:58Needed to manufacture
00:46:59Fentanyl
00:47:00Were exported to Mexico
00:47:01By legal Chinese companies
00:47:03The Sinaloa cartels
00:47:05With links to the triads
00:47:07Are responsible
00:47:07For synthesizing them
00:47:09Into narcotics
00:47:10In this nebulous
00:47:11Mafia network
00:47:12A criminal group
00:47:13Which didn't usually
00:47:14Operate in these parts
00:47:15Was spotted
00:47:16By the Canadian authorities
00:47:17Key people
00:47:19From the Sinaloa cartel
00:47:21Arriving in Vancouver
00:47:22And we can see
00:47:24That they would be meeting
00:47:26With agents of Hezbollah
00:47:28Or Persian
00:47:29Iranian
00:47:30Middle Eastern
00:47:30High level
00:47:32Organized crime actors
00:47:33Why would they be
00:47:35Meeting together?
00:47:36This is a question
00:47:37That confounded
00:47:39Canadian investigators
00:47:41Until they recognized
00:47:43That the Persian
00:47:45Or Hezbollah actors
00:47:46Were also very tightly
00:47:48Connected
00:47:48With the Chinese
00:47:50Triad networks
00:47:51So why was that happening?
00:47:56The appearance of Hezbollah
00:47:57The Lebanese religious militia
00:47:59In Vancouver
00:48:00Reflects the need
00:48:01For its leaders
00:48:02To develop sophisticated
00:48:03Financial engineering
00:48:04In order to conceal
00:48:06Its criminal activities
00:48:08Hezbollah's presence
00:48:09In Canada
00:48:10Came as no surprise
00:48:11To US intelligence
00:48:12Which keeps a close eye
00:48:14On its clandestine activities
00:48:15On the international stage
00:48:19It all began
00:48:20A few years earlier
00:48:23In 2006
00:48:25The DEA
00:48:26The US anti-drug agency
00:48:27Was monitoring Colombia
00:48:29A telephone tap
00:48:31Was intercepted
00:48:32Between members
00:48:32Of the Medellin cartel
00:48:33And partners
00:48:34Talking in Arabic
00:48:35We started hearing
00:48:37A lot of calls
00:48:37In Arabic all of a sudden
00:48:39And a lot of mentions
00:48:40Of Hezbollah
00:48:41And money movements
00:48:44All around the world
00:48:45Including the Middle East
00:48:46And Africa
00:48:48Washington had become
00:48:49Very involved
00:48:50In the Middle East
00:48:51Since the invasion
00:48:52Of Iraq
00:48:52And set up a task force
00:48:54Jack Kelly
00:48:55Then a DEA agent
00:48:57Was called in
00:48:59And Operation Cassandra began
00:49:01We knew that
00:49:02This was the beginning
00:49:03Of a burgeoning relationship
00:49:06Between this Medellin cartel
00:49:08And Hezbollah
00:49:11Hezbollah
00:49:12Weakened by Israel's war
00:49:13In Lebanon in 2006
00:49:15Began trafficking cocaine
00:49:17To the Middle East
00:49:18Africa and Europe
00:49:19Using its networks
00:49:20Within the Lebanese
00:49:21Diaspora in Latin America
00:49:25It did look
00:49:26As though
00:49:27You had a Medellin drug lord
00:49:30Sitting in a Hezbollah
00:49:31Controlled area of Lebanon
00:49:33Coordinating
00:49:33International cocaine trafficking
00:49:36You could tell
00:49:37By the way
00:49:37The numbers contacted
00:49:39Who they were contacting
00:49:41And who held the phones
00:49:42Of those being contacted
00:49:46Phone taps
00:49:47And field investigations
00:49:49Revealed another state actor
00:49:50Venezuela
00:49:51The president at the time
00:49:54Hugo Chavez
00:49:55Developed close links
00:49:56With Hezbollah
00:49:57Syria
00:49:58And Iran
00:49:59Through cocaine trafficking
00:50:00Money laundering
00:50:01And arms trafficking
00:50:02Aimed at undermining
00:50:04American interests
00:50:05In the US
00:50:06Latin America
00:50:07And Iraq
00:50:09They began moving massive amounts
00:50:11Of cash
00:50:12Mostly cocaine proceeds
00:50:15On Camillasa Airlines
00:50:17The Venezuelan airlines
00:50:19Out of Caracas
00:50:21And that airline then
00:50:22Would go to Damascus
00:50:24And Tehran
00:50:26And in Damascus
00:50:27A lot of the money
00:50:28Would be dropped off
00:50:29And some of that money
00:50:30Would make its way
00:50:31Into Lebanon
00:50:33As part of this whole
00:50:34Money laundering scheme
00:50:37America focused on Lebanon
00:50:39Where in just a few years
00:50:41Dollar reserves
00:50:42Had doubled
00:50:43To 16 billion dollars
00:50:44David Asher
00:50:46Supervised Operation Cassandra
00:50:48Along with the DEA
00:50:49In his capacity
00:50:50As a senior advisor
00:50:51To the Special Operations Command
00:50:53Within the Pentagon
00:50:54When we did Project Cassandra
00:50:56Against Hezbollah
00:50:56We systematically attacked
00:50:59Their narcotics trafficking
00:51:01Money laundering enterprise
00:51:04Operation Cassandra
00:51:06Traced the movements
00:51:07Of large sums of money
00:51:08From the Lebanese-Canadian bank
00:51:10Through exchange offices
00:51:12In Beirut
00:51:14They helped penetrate
00:51:16Bank
00:51:16Lebanese-Canadian bank
00:51:18We learned things
00:51:19That we had just
00:51:20No idea about
00:51:21We learned that
00:51:22That the Iranians
00:51:23Had this massive amount
00:51:24Of money inside that bank
00:51:25They were using
00:51:26To move money
00:51:27Through Lebanon
00:51:28All over the world
00:51:29For their intelligence service
00:51:30And for their
00:51:32Quds Force
00:51:33Their terrorist organization
00:51:35In the space of a few months
00:51:37Hezbollah transferred
00:51:39Five billion dollars
00:51:40To 249 accounts
00:51:41At Lebanese-Canadian bank
00:51:44In 2011
00:51:45The U.S. Treasury
00:51:46Activated the 311 designation
00:51:49A legal device
00:51:50That can prevent
00:51:51Foreign banks
00:51:52From accessing
00:51:52U.S.-based banks
00:51:54Overnight
00:51:55The Lebanese-Canadian bank
00:51:57Ceased to exist
00:51:58But no criminal proceedings
00:52:00Were initiated
00:52:00In the U.S.
00:52:02The Lebanese gave us
00:52:03A spreadsheet
00:52:04Where they showed us
00:52:06Where all the money
00:52:06Had gone
00:52:07For all these
00:52:07Suspicious accounts
00:52:08Tied to Hezbollah
00:52:09They all the other
00:52:10Where they went
00:52:10To all the other banks
00:52:11They gave us
00:52:11The names of the banks
00:52:12They gave us
00:52:13The account numbers
00:52:14They gave us all that
00:52:15We did nothing with it
00:52:16As a government
00:52:17So just merely
00:52:19To get to the point
00:52:20Where we went after
00:52:21Lebanese-Canadian bank
00:52:22It was so exhausting
00:52:23That frankly
00:52:25The Treasury Department
00:52:26Department of Justice
00:52:27Just called it a day
00:52:31For David Asher
00:52:32And Jack Kelly
00:52:33The decision to drop
00:52:34Criminal proceedings
00:52:35Against Hezbollah
00:52:36After all their effort
00:52:37Left a bitter taste
00:52:38The reason
00:52:40May have been political
00:52:42At the time
00:52:43America was keen
00:52:43To avoid anything
00:52:44That might undermine
00:52:45The Iran nuclear deal
00:52:47Which was under negotiation
00:52:50Between the risk
00:52:51Of nuclear proliferation
00:52:52And the threat posed
00:52:54By one of the world's
00:52:54Largest transnational
00:52:56Criminal networks
00:52:56Washington made a choice
00:52:58A choice that left
00:53:00The Lebanese banks
00:53:01In the hands of
00:53:02Mafia groups
00:53:03Leading to the country's
00:53:04Present-day bankruptcy
00:53:06A choice that also meant
00:53:08Canada was alone
00:53:09On the front lines
00:53:10Against the growing number
00:53:12Of criminal groups
00:53:13On its soil
00:53:14And Drageta
00:53:15The Triads
00:53:17Hezbollah
00:53:18Setting up operations
00:53:19In Canada
00:53:20Because there's
00:53:21Not a strong
00:53:22Racketeering law
00:53:26In Vancouver
00:53:27In 2016
00:53:28The amounts
00:53:29Laundered from
00:53:30Drug trafficking
00:53:31Reached record levels
00:53:32Nevertheless
00:53:33Canadian authorities
00:53:35Agreed to raise
00:53:36The betting threshold
00:53:36From $5,000
00:53:38To $100,000
00:53:39For a throw
00:53:40Of the dice
00:53:41You know
00:53:42When we account
00:53:43How much money
00:53:44Has been laundered
00:53:45In Vancouver
00:53:45We have to take
00:53:47The scale
00:53:48And multiply it
00:53:49From the billions
00:53:51In BC government
00:53:52Casinos
00:53:52Into the tens
00:53:53Or even hundred
00:53:54Billion
00:53:55In Vancouver
00:53:56Real estate development
00:53:57Which is being
00:53:59Driven largely
00:54:00Especially in latter
00:54:02Years
00:54:02By the very same
00:54:03Whale gamblers
00:54:09In this video
00:54:10Shot in Vancouver
00:54:11And posted by
00:54:12A Canadian journalist
00:54:13Beijing officials
00:54:15Intelligence service
00:54:16And Triad members
00:54:17Parade together
00:54:18For Chinese New Year
00:54:25So there's willful
00:54:26Blindness
00:54:27From politicians
00:54:29There's willful
00:54:30Blindness
00:54:31From the bankers
00:54:33At some level
00:54:34Many lawyers
00:54:36Are willfully blind
00:54:38Willful blindness
00:54:44In 2018
00:54:45A resounding trial
00:54:47Was held in Madrid
00:54:48Against the Tambov group
00:54:49The St. Petersburg
00:54:50Mafia group
00:54:51Whose illicit activities
00:54:52In Spain
00:54:53Included money laundering
00:54:54Drug trafficking
00:54:56And arms dealing
00:54:57With complicity
00:54:58At the highest levels
00:54:59Of the Russian state
00:55:02Among the 17 accused
00:55:04One man was on the run
00:55:06At the time of the trial
00:55:07Jannady Petrov
00:55:08One of the leaders
00:55:10Of the Tambov group
00:55:11And a former shareholder
00:55:12In Russia bank
00:55:14The Russia bank
00:55:16Which was exposed
00:55:16By the Panama papers
00:55:18Appeared to be
00:55:19The crown jewel
00:55:20Of the Putin empire
00:55:22Bank Russia
00:55:23Is sometimes called
00:55:24Putin's bank
00:55:27There's
00:55:27Also
00:55:28All this
00:55:29Inner circle
00:55:31Of Putin's
00:55:33Close friends
00:55:34That used
00:55:36The same bank
00:55:37For their money laundering
00:55:38For looting
00:55:40State-owned companies
00:55:43In Russia
00:55:45If you look
00:55:46At the universe
00:55:46Of Russian banking
00:55:48You see
00:55:49Banka Russia
00:55:49Is being like
00:55:50A pillar of the system
00:55:51But there were
00:55:52Many other banks
00:55:53Trying to do
00:55:53The same kind of business
00:55:54That Banka Russia did
00:55:55And they were
00:55:57Gradually shut down
00:55:58Shut down
00:55:59For money laundering
00:56:01Shut down
00:56:02For various fraud
00:56:03For the corruption
00:56:04That these banks
00:56:05Allowed
00:56:06But Banka Russia
00:56:07Was never touched
00:56:09We're taught
00:56:10That one plus one
00:56:11Equals two
00:56:13Simple
00:56:14The Panama papers
00:56:15Also reveal
00:56:16One of the favorite
00:56:17Destinations
00:56:18For the Russia bank
00:56:19The island of Cyprus
00:56:22In Cyprus
00:56:23A respectable
00:56:24Financial center
00:56:24It's not just
00:56:26Banking institutions
00:56:27That host dirty money
00:56:28But another
00:56:29Key actor
00:56:30In the financial industry
00:56:31Major auditing
00:56:33And consulting firms
00:56:37Who's the Bank Russia's
00:56:39Auditor?
00:56:41PwC
00:56:42Who sets up
00:56:44All the companies
00:56:45In Cyprus
00:56:46For Bank Russia?
00:56:48PwC
00:56:49Consulting
00:56:50Where are all
00:56:51The companies
00:56:52Located for Bank Russia
00:56:53In Cyprus?
00:56:55In Nicosia?
00:56:57And in Limassol?
00:56:58Inside PwC's
00:57:00Buildings
00:57:01Okay?
00:57:02Like that's not a secret
00:57:04The people who really get
00:57:06Protected
00:57:07Are the accounting firms
00:57:08And the law firms
00:57:09When's the last time
00:57:09A lawyer went to jail
00:57:11For providing services
00:57:12To a criminal?
00:57:17A decade of leaks
00:57:19Documented the major role
00:57:20Russia had played
00:57:21In laundering dirty money
00:57:24And when the scandal
00:57:25At Donska Bank
00:57:26Denmark's largest bank
00:57:28Broke in 2018
00:57:29Journalists could hardly
00:57:31Believe the figures
00:57:34Donska Bank
00:57:35Had laundered
00:57:35200 billion dollars
00:57:37Of Russian money
00:57:38From companies
00:57:39Controlled by
00:57:40Vladimir Putin's
00:57:41Family entourage
00:57:41And former KGB officers
00:57:45According to the
00:57:47Financial analysts
00:57:47And Bloomberg
00:57:48Russian capital flight
00:57:50Amounted to
00:57:51330 billion dollars
00:57:53Between 2007
00:57:54And 2014
00:57:55And 390 billion
00:57:58Between 2014
00:57:59And 2020
00:58:02But there was
00:58:03One troubling
00:58:04Characteristic
00:58:05Of this succession
00:58:06Of leaks
00:58:13The United States
00:58:15Was never caught up
00:58:16In the whirlwind
00:58:17Of revelations
00:58:19Despite spearheading
00:58:20The fight
00:58:21Against the world's
00:58:21Dirty money
00:58:22America allowed
00:58:23Tax-free
00:58:24And opaque zones
00:58:25To flourish
00:58:26On its territory
00:58:28The transparency
00:58:29Imposed by Washington
00:58:30On the small tax havens
00:58:31Of the Caribbean
00:58:32Encouraged tax evaders
00:58:34To transfer their assets
00:58:35To places like
00:58:36Delaware
00:58:37Nevada
00:58:37South Dakota
00:58:39Wyoming
00:58:40And Florida
00:58:42The world's
00:58:43Financial enforcer
00:58:45Had turned into
00:58:46The ultimate safe haven
00:58:47For dirty money
00:58:49There are a number
00:58:50Of reasons
00:58:51Why people
00:58:52From across the world
00:58:53Might want to use
00:58:54The US
00:58:55They are competent
00:58:56Holding dollars
00:58:58They can hide
00:58:59Their identity
00:59:00The US is particularly
00:59:02Weak at sharing
00:59:03Information
00:59:04They can capture
00:59:05Information about
00:59:06US citizens
00:59:07Using offshore
00:59:08Accounts
00:59:09Through foreign
00:59:09Banks
00:59:10They will not
00:59:11Share that information
00:59:12With countries
00:59:13Elsewhere
00:59:14And for that reason
00:59:15Foreign
00:59:16Wealth holders
00:59:18Who are wanting
00:59:18To use the US
00:59:20For all sorts
00:59:21Of purposes
00:59:21Which might include
00:59:22Tax evasion
00:59:23Or hiding stolen
00:59:24Assets
00:59:25Or whatever
00:59:25They are quite
00:59:27Confident
00:59:27That they can
00:59:28Hold their assets
00:59:29In the US
00:59:30And not have
00:59:31That information
00:59:32Shared
00:59:32With the national
00:59:34Tax authorities
00:59:35Of the country
00:59:36Where they're resident
00:59:41The United States
00:59:42Had another problem
00:59:43In its hunt
00:59:44For dirty money
00:59:46After 25 years
00:59:48Of budget cuts
00:59:49The power
00:59:50Of the once
00:59:50Mighty IRS
00:59:51Had been
00:59:52Severely reduced
00:59:54The IRS
00:59:55Had fewer agents
00:59:56Than in 1945
00:59:58The result
01:00:00Of the agency's
01:00:01Controlled demolition
01:00:02Was the loss
01:00:03Of 600 billion
01:00:04Dollars a year
01:00:05In revenue
01:00:06The equivalent
01:00:07Of the US
01:00:08Military budget
01:00:09A third
01:00:10Of the total
01:00:10Tax loss
01:00:11Was attributable
01:00:12To the richest
01:00:13One percent
01:00:15And this might
01:00:17Be a moment
01:00:17Of truth
01:00:18Where Europe
01:00:19And the United States
01:00:19Finally have to
01:00:20Confront
01:00:21Their demons
01:00:22Which is
01:00:23This horrible
01:00:25Convergence
01:00:26Of interests
01:00:27Between
01:00:28Kleptocrats
01:00:31Organized crime
01:00:33And the
01:00:35Interests
01:00:36The economic
01:00:36Interests
01:00:37Of domestic
01:00:37Political
01:00:38And economic
01:00:39Elites
01:00:39And this
01:00:41Alignment
01:00:42Of interest
01:00:42Has completely
01:00:43Undermined
01:00:44The fundamentals
01:00:44Of a market
01:00:45Economy
01:00:45Undermined
01:00:46Rule of law
01:00:47Undermined
01:00:47Democracy
01:00:48Itself
01:00:54The war
01:00:55In Ukraine
01:00:55Closes a chapter
01:00:56Opened in 1989
01:00:58With the fall
01:00:59Of the Berlin
01:00:59Wall
01:01:02Economic
01:01:02And financial
01:01:03Sanctions
01:01:04Imposed on
01:01:04Russia
01:01:05The most
01:01:05Drastic
01:01:06Ever imposed
01:01:07On a country
01:01:07Lay down
01:01:08A clear path
01:01:09In the global
01:01:10Fight against
01:01:11Dirty money
01:01:11Pipelines
01:01:14More and more
01:01:15Activists
01:01:15Investigative
01:01:17Journalists
01:01:17Academics
01:01:18Judges
01:01:19And whistleblowers
01:01:20Are rallying
01:01:22To this cause
01:01:22And speaking out
01:01:26They help show
01:01:28That while
01:01:28Organized crime
01:01:29Is the most
01:01:30Violent form
01:01:31Of capitalism
01:01:32It is the tools
01:01:33Put in place
01:01:34By the facilitators
01:01:35Investment bankers
01:01:37Tax lawyers
01:01:38Consultants
01:01:39Legislators
01:01:40That amplify
01:01:41Its brutality
01:01:42Many fold
01:01:43And ultimately
01:01:45Lead to war
01:01:46Mafias
01:01:47And banks
01:01:48The story
01:01:49Of two worlds
01:01:50Seemingly pitted
01:01:52Against each other
01:01:52And of two worlds
01:01:54That could not
01:01:55Help
01:01:56But meet
01:02:24To be continued
01:02:39Legenda Adriana Zanotto
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