From: Black Unicorn <unicorn@schloss.li>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 18:07:58 -0700 (PDT)
To: "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>
Subject: Re: Anonymous banking
In-Reply-To: <01I3X9YJ35NE8Y50LP@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.93.960424205627.3252L-100000@polaris.mindport.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



On Wed, 24 Apr 1996, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote:

> 	Speaking of the below information, what is anonymous banking like in
> Austria,

Not too bad, but there are crackdowns on anonymous and pseudonym accounts.
MLAT's exist with the United States.  Austria has been the focus of
careful investigations and a lot of diplomatic pressure.  EC membership
will require compliance with standards for client identification.  The
article is somewhat in error.  Anonymous accounts are no longer easy to
open and generally require the voucher of a local attorney.


 Colombia,

Do not travel to or use Colombian banks for your financial needs.
Columbia is essentially lawless outside of the tourist areas and the
concentration on drug investigations combined with the presence of the
military for the purposes of law enforcement makes banking secrecy a near
impossibility.  Given a moderate budget I could have the banking
information of any depositor in Columbia in short order.  So could you.

 Venezuela,

Banking secrecy is dependent on connections with local officials or
'corrupt' bankers.  I don't find that Venezuela properly protects banking
secrecy from a statuatory prespective.

 and Thailand?

Better, but still subject to some criminal investigations and limited
statuatory protection.

In general adding a country to the money laundering offender list is a
political decision and NOT demonstrative of a country's actual money
laundering use.  (Note that Vanuatu is not included, nor is Isle of Man).
Mostly its a question of countries with corrupt officials who will look
the other way, not of countries which strict banking privacy.

> >Austria, the only country in the EU which allows anonymous bank accounts,
> >was adamant its current legislation did not run counter to the resolution.

This is nearly irresponsible reporting.

---
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