JUST IN: Peter Schiff’s Bank Suspected as Major Money-Laundering Tool of Organized Crime Syndicates
As reported by Australian media The Age, Euro Pacific Bank co-owned by Bitcoin hater Peter Schiff has been suspected of being a money-laundering tool used by organized crime syndicates in Australia and world-wide.
Schiff’s bank targeted in international tax probe by J5
According to an article published by The Age, international law enforcement agencies and tax services have suspected that Euro Pacific Bank, co-owned by Bitcoin critic and gold lover Peter Schiff, has been actively used by crime syndicates in Australia and globally for laundering illicit profits.
This emerged as a result of the Operation Atlantis, a large-scale international tax probe conducted by a special task force J5.
The taskforce consists of tax evasion investigators from the UK, Australia, the US, Canada and the Netherlands and it was after the Panama Papers leak.
“Grave organized crime threat to Australia”
Hundreds of Australians were investigated regarding possible tax evasion and could be sentenced to a time in prison for avoiding paying taxes. The investigation took place after raids in late January around the world and was described as an “unprecedented joint probe".
Now, Australian law-enforcement agencies suspect Euro Pacific Bank in helping to do a lot of money laundering and have called it “a grave organized crime threat” for the country.
That’s the most serious classification that can be made by the Criminal Intelligence Commission of Australia.
Peter Schiff walks out in the middle of an interview
Peter Schiff insists that despite the US IRS visit earlier this year, no accusations were thrown at the bank and he denies the accusations passed to him by the media that came to his house for an interview.
He insisted on the bank not being linked to any criminal activity, saying:
“We've complied with all sorts of requests for information. We somehow got caught up in whatever's going on, but there are no valid allegations against the bank. I can tell you there is no tax evasion going on at the bank. The bank is not facilitating anything.”
He refused to continue the interview and walked out.
However, an investigation made by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, 60 Minutes and The New York Times has taken a different point of view and made a reminder that the bank works with top financial institutions connected with 13,000 global customers.
Among Euro Pacific’s partners are the New York Federal Reserve, UK bank NatWest, Canada’s Bank of Montreal and Japan’s Mizuho Bank. Some of those banks are also being investigated by Operation Atlantis in connection with money-laundering for large criminal organizations.
Alex DovbnyaCriminal customers of Euro Pacific
According to the investigation documents, the list of the bank’s customers’ includes Simon Anquetil, who was put in prison for creating and running the largest tax scam in Australia – Plutus Payroll.
There is also a Russian hacker wanted in Australia and the US for conducting the largest cyber malware attack in the world and an Australian citizen suspected of helping a drug syndicate launder $1 bln.
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