Banks, financial institutions and government regulators have failed us miserably. To add injury to insult, AIG which received $170 billion of your taxpaying dollars is handing out $165 million dollar bonusesto the very people responsible for this disaster. But that’s another story.
Global Witness has released a scathing report disclosing how Barkley’s, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC have violated human rights and aided in moving large sums of money that financed bloody civil wars. They are robbing the poor and now they are getting bailed out.
This murky industry has had its hand in financing wars, exploiting resources, and making the lives of ordinary and extremely vulnerable people miserable. Blood hungry rebels and kleptocracy in one part of the world are directly linked to the white collar crimes and morally blind businessmen on Wall Street. In between are the victims. One thirsts for power through blood, the other through corporate greed and wealth.
This is not capitalism where those who take capital gains risks stand to end up on the street with us common folk. The current bail out and the bonuses fly in the face of that argument. Instead these pinheads should be charged for crimes against humanity for helping despots finance wars that have devastated the lives of children, women and men.
Directly or indirectly, the US Congress and banks around the world are complicit in fostering the culture of corruption and state looting that robs emerging and developing countries of any chances to lift themselves out of poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa, the fall-out of the financial crisis will cost each person $43 when most just get by on a dollar a day.
Since the 1990s Citibank has grown exponentially, thickening its wallets along with lax Congressional legislation, regulators, and anti-trust who chose to turn the cheek. Before the collapse, the bank managed 200 million personal accounts over 100 countries.
According to the Global Witness report, Citibank was the correspondent bank of the Liberian Bank that allowed Charles Taylor (currently on trial for 11 charges of war crimes) to finance his wars through the global banking system. The intertwined wars of Liberia and Sierra Leone killed an astounding number of people.
Timber was exploited then sold off to buy weapons that armed the notorious Revolutionary United Front (RUF) who hacked off limbs and “recruited” child soldiers. The Dutch run Oriental Timber Company controlled over 40% of Liberia’s timber assets. At one point the company was trucking weapons. Citibank made sure the transactions went smoothly. And of course, they took a cut.
Here is an odd intro into that sordid world.
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