From: Maryanto Tuan dan Puan <lamdn@idola.net.id>
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 17:54:24 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: EUB - Pay attention next time guys.
Message-ID: <9610080735.AA07736@merak.idola.net.id>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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Tx


Posted-Date: Mon, 7 Oct 1996 17:08:12 -0400
>Date: Mon, 7 Oct 1996 17:09:35 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Black Unicorn <unicorn@schloss.li>
>X-Sender: unicorn@polaris
>To: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
>Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
>Subject: EUB - Pay attention next time guys.
>Sender: owner-cypherpunks@toad.com
>
>On Mon, 7 Oct 1996, John Young wrote:
>
>>    10-7-96. WaPo:
>> 
>>    "Russian Crime Finds Havens In Caribbean"
>> 
>>       Russian organized crime groups are using unregulated and
>>       secretive Caribbean banks to launder their illicit
>>       gains, according to U.S. and Caribbean law enforcement
>>       officials. One bank that has drawn the scrutiny of U.S.
>>       authorities is European Union Bank in Antigua. EUB
>>       describes itself as the first bank on the Internet,
>>       offering the chance to open accounts, wire money, order
>>       credit cards or write checks by computer from anywhere
>>       in the world, 24 hours a day. A U.S. official said, "The
>>       bank is being investigated for violating U.S. laws with
>>       open solicitations on the Net, which is at best for tax
>>       evasion and at worst for money laundering."
>> 
>
>Of course I'm very interested to hear exactly what laws have been broken
>in this case.  Last I checked offering accounts, credit cards, and checks
>24 hours a day was a selling point, not a crime.  This hardly surprises me
>however.  The money laundering and tax evasion rhetoric is dragged out
>whenever there is no tangible crime being committed.
>
>EUB is probably in more trouble than they realize because they chose an
>interesting solution to their bandwidth problem. 
>
>For a long time their home page resolved to a U.S. access provider, and
>only forwarded offshore for the secure HTTP connection.  This might still
>be the case.
>
>See below:
>
>European Union Bank (EUB-DOM)
>   PO Box 1948
>   St. John's,
>   Antigua and Barbuda
>
>   Domain Name: EUB.COM
>
>   Administrative Contact:
>      Richards, Pete  (PR374)  75057.2515@COMPUSERVE.COM
>      (809) 480-2370
>   Technical Contact, Zone Contact, Billing Contact:
>      Kulkov, Val  (VK41)  val@GREATIS.COM
>      (202) 835-7489
>
>   Record last updated on 03-Dec-95.
>   Record created on 23-Jun-95.
>
>   Domain servers in listed order:
>
>   ELF.GREATIS.COM              205.229.28.5
>   WHALE.GREATIS.COM            205.229.28.10
>
>
>I found this curious and called them up to ask them about it.  I think,
>though I don't remember exactly, that I spoke with Mr. Richards.  Whoever
>it was, they were very sure that their U.S. connection would not be a
>problem.  I think they are about to be in for a great big surprise.  They
>have effectively put themselves in U.S. jurisdiction and their local
>access provider is likely to be in some trouble as it is the easiest thing
>to reach.
>
>Prediction: EUB will change its structure dramatically in the next 6
>months if it still exists at all in that time.  Lesson learned: Never
>involve the United States directly.  Clever political risk analysis would
>have prevented a great deal of trouble for EUB.  Future institutions take
>note.
>
>--
>I hate lightning - finger for public key - Vote Monarchist
>unicorn@schloss.li
>
>
>