Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Hot Money

Indonesia's Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) Deputy Chairman Agus Santoso told Jakarta Post that while the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) move to stop issuing the S$10,000 note from October 1 onwards would "meaningfully" help Indonesia curb rampant corruption and money-laundering, withdrawing or imposing a new expiration date on the notes would be more effective.

"If the bill remained on the market, let's say until five to 10 years after its production stops, Indonesia would still be vulnerable to money-laundering and graft," Mr Agus said in the report.

It was bad enough when people like Samad (not his real name) used to hand carry sports bags chockful of US dollars across via the Batam-Singapore ferries. Remember what Lee Kuan Yew said about Indonesians flying in for weekend shopping and be back to Jakarta by Monday morning? Well, Samad's task was to meet some of these visitors at selected hotels to pass over the hot money, either as gratitude for favours extended by the politically connected or plain old palm greasing. Your boss trust you with all that cash, ever feel tempted to pocket few hundred dollar bills for yourself? Samad said even if he did, no one will notice, the system frowns on receipts which tend to leave a paper trail.

The $10,000 notes would have made his "day job" a lot lighter. Heck, he can probably dispense with the attention getting sports bag. Samad dresses casually, you'll never suspect he was loaded to the gills with cash. And if the immigration officers ever notice his frequent passport stamps, they never seem to want to know why. It's not known as Sin City for nothing.
Scene from "The Counterfeiters", movie about Nazis
printing money in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

6 comments:

  1. MAS is using the same trick all the time: do the surface job, leave the deep (blow) job unscratched. Sabahan Taib has 20b somewhere in the red dot, TB Tee's Potcullis and TrustNet is the tip of the iceberg. The elites infest the highest levels, they will from time to time catch small fries to make a show, in reality they are running the biggest money laundering machines. Saddest is red dot can more than survive without all the laundered money, the elites just won't let go of their money tree.

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  2. In terms of such activities we have gone from first world to third. Remember the guy who would rather have more billionaires? Even the ones who are wanted for corruption like Chen Jihong who became a Singapore citizen and now arrested for his part in the $19 billion gold scam. Sin city indeed.

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  3. Allowing those corrupt PRC immigrants to snap multi-million landed properties here, is it considered accessory to murder (oops stand corrected) money laundering ?

    They can talk about how clean they are (as clean as their white uniform) but the minute they change our laws to accommodate them, it stinks. Even a PRC govt clerk can even snap up a condo and get PR here, you know they really don't mean business when it comes to corrupt money.

    That is why they have to keep it white to hookwink the people, just like the white they wear at funerals.

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  4. Lui - "Regular fare increases will be needed to ensure the new bus contracting model"

    See how it works? First import the FT to create the transport problems. Then create a few "solutions", some "new models" and make you pay even more. Their solution to every problem they create is: throw more taxpayers' money at the problem to create even more problems. How easy is it to earn a few million bucks if you can always squeeze the taxpayers to fork out more? That's how it works in sillipore: public service needs no productivity and efficiency improvements, those are only for the private sector to worry about. Meanwhile, the G continue to introduce all sorts of artificial inflation of the non-tradeable type to make sure the IRAS collect more taxes and the banks can collect their mountains of loans.

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    Replies
    1. Who Does Minister Lui Work For?

      “Regular fare increases will be needed to ensure the new bus contracting model”
      - Transport Millionaire Lui

      “What’s wrong with collecting more money?”
      Lee Kuan Yew
      http://sgtalk.org/mybb/Thread-Ngiam-Tong-Dow-had-a-big-fight-with-Lee-Kuan-Yew-over-COE
      ——————————-
      As long as Singaporeans can continue to endure.
      The tax, I mean fare increases will keep coming.
      I get confused.
      In most democratic countries, the CEO has to justify the price increase.
      Not the Minister.
      So we pay Minister Lui’s salary so that he can fight for higher bus fares for us ??!!

      Delete
  5. Red dot's walls are meant to cover away the dirty laundry of laundered money from international community, present a air of cleanliness, whiter than white. Good thing they are in cahoots with the highest elites in disneyland, or else they would be dragged to the human rights courts like some african tyrants, or sanctioned by the US IRS for money laundering - its nice to be in company of international elites - until their elite friends also get lynched by the disneyland mobs. Like my grand father said: I will (die die) stay alive , wait for that day to come when the reset begins...

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