Suspicious Activity Reports in the #FinCEN Files flagged more than $2 TRILLION in transactions Moving Thru #Banks between 1999-2017

In all, suspicious activity reports in the FinCEN Files flagged more than $2 trillion in transactions between 1999 and 2017. Western banks could have blocked almost any of them, but in most cases they kept the money moving and kept collecting their fees.

Read the whole investigation on BuzzFeed News here:

Deadly Terror Networks And Drug Cartels Use Huge Banks To Finance Their Crimes. These Secret Documents Show How The Banks Profit.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-files-financial-scandal-criminal-networks

Another One Bites The Dust… BNP Shuts Swiss #Commodities #TradeFinance Team—A Sector it Helped Pioneer—After Series of Frauds

BNP Paribas SA is shutting its Swiss commodity trade finance business, exiting a sector it once dominated but has been hit by a series of massive frauds.

The former Paribas investment bank's office in Geneva helped pioneer the use of letters of credit to finance oil trading in the 1970s, and became one of the leading lenders to the industry. However, BNP Paribas had been shrinking in commodity trade finance since 2014, when it was fined $8.9 billion for violating U.S. sanctions.

The plan could impact as many as 120 employees in its Geneva offices, the French bank said in a statement late Tuesday. 

Read the whole story on Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-23/bnp-shuts-swiss-commodity-trade-finance-team-in-fraud-hit-sector

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#Swiss financial media reports Weber & Rohner, @UBS & @CreditSuisse board presidents, sounding out possible merger $UBS $CS #MergerMonday

Sounds like bad news for Switzerland's banking sector to have such a high concentration of power in one institution... 

Weber und Rohner prüfen angeblich UBS-CS-Fusion

According to a media report, the board presidents of the two big banks are sounding out a possible merger.

(AWP) The two major Swiss banks UBS ( UBSG 11.3 1.3% ) and Credit Suisse ( CSGN 10.02 1.89% ) want to merge according to a media report. UBS Board of Directors President Axel Weber is planning a merger with CS President Urs Rohner, writes the finance portal "Inside Paradeplatz" on Monday.

The project is called Signal, according to the report from inside the two big banks. Weber was the driving force behind it and spoke to Finance Minister Ueli Maurer about it, said an informant according to the portal. The financial market regulator Finma is also in the picture about Weber's plans. The merger should be agreed in early 2021, and at the end of 2021 Switzerland would have a new financial giant.

#COMEX’s #Gold & #Silver Trade Data Doesn’t Add Up!

"How did you go bankrupt?"

Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.

     Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises 

Is COMEX Data Rigged?

— We all know the answer to that...

It now seems the mother of all short squeezes may finally be near, as more and more investors take Physical Delivery of Gold, rather than roll over their Futures Contracts... 

"Just like a fear of cash shortages would cause a run on the banking system, fears of physical precious metals shortages could cause a run on whatever is left in the COMEX warehouses."

"While the COMEX claims there is enough gold in registered to satisfy current deliveries, we have started to see some anomalies in the data which potentially paint a different picture."

Interesting piece on how the fudging of the numbers on the COMEX is going to come around and bite them in the …, sooner rather than later, as more and more people are taking delivery of physical metal vs. rolling over their paper contracts...  this has been going on for years, but the potential short squeeze is becoming more glaring as the pumping of liquidity, without any real backing, goes into overdrive. 

"while the COMEX allows as many paper derivative contracts to be placed as bets on the market price, we only have a finite amount of the real metals available on the market at any given time. Those cannot be printed up at the push of a button on a computer like the paper contracts can be. This has two effects on the market.

"First, when the physical deliveries are miscounted, the paper contract derivative trades overstate short term speculative interest in the metals versus those willing to take ownership. Secondly, and probably more importantly, it overstates the amount of physical metals available for delivery on the futures market for those that want to take delivery. It basically amounts to fraud, much as if your bank claimed to have enough cash for your deposit, and then notified you when you showed up to the bank that you would have to wait 2-3 months to get your cash."!!!