3 big banks, DBS, UBS and Stanchart, serious lapses in AML

I can expect the foreign banks to be involved in money laundering activities as many have been charged in the US and fined by the billions. It is looking like the main business of many big banks, to make big money to be paid big bucks. Were UBS and Stanchart also fined in the US for such ‘lapses’, not intentional money laundering? Anyone can confirm this?

DBS is as good as the national bank and to be found with anti money laundering lapses is a big surprise. It cannot be and definitely cannot be intentional. It must be due do some low level staff’s carelessness. DBS would never get stuck in this kind of shit. DBS would be the one setting the standard for everyone to follow, the flag bearer of Singapore, the cleanest and most incorruptible country in Asia.

I can swear DBS is clean and blameless. I have seen how it operates and have attended AML classes umpteen times, at least twice a year to remind us, little boys on the floor to be aware of money laundering activities. Anyone making payments of more than ten or twenty thousand dollars in cash would have to make a statement to declare where the money came from.

Here we are talking about millions, hundreds of millions. How can there be lapses for such big sums of money passing through the banks for so long and no one noticed, no one escalated this to higher management? The external parties transferring such monies must be very sophisticated to be undetected. They are professional money launderers, so cannot blame the bank staff. I am sure they have done their best and would have gone through intensive training on anti money laundering and would have known one if they saw one.

Trust DBS would do all the right things to check on money laundering. Not to be alarmed.  Everything is fine. It happened everywhere, in every big banks, in UBS, in Stanchart and in many big banks in the US and Europe.  It is part of the business risk in the industry. We are so lucky this is the first time it happened. I am sure nothing of this would ever happen again. All the holes would be plucked.

My only reservation is that little people like us would have to attend many many more AML courses to make sure we know what is money laundering and check on our clients closely, to know our clients well. We will make very sure that our little clients would not be involved in money laundering at our low level, at ground zero.

The Empire robbing Najib of his billions

Read in front page news that the Americans are going after the assets of Najib in the US worth more than US$1b. The Americans have unilaterally judged that the assets were illegally acquired using stolen money from 1MDB by Najib’s step son Riza Aziz, Najib’s friend Jho Low and Mohamed Badawy al-Husseiny. The best part, the Americans are forfeiting the money, all US$1b. Najib would now be US$1b poorer.

How can the Americans do that? Najib is not guilty of any charges in Malaysia and has accounted for all the money from 1MDB. The Americans must return the money to 1MDB, the rightful owner. How can the Americans keep the money?

This case is even better than the kangaroo court case on the South China Sea. At least the tribunal put up a show, like everything is legal and the arbitration was fairly done, by their own appointed judges and even convinced the nitwits around the world that it was UN backed. The Americans used the US Court of Justice to grab the money, not an international tribunal, not backed by the UN.

Najib must learn this lesson fast. Do not offend the Emperor. Unless Najib can say, ‘What is US$1b?’ And Najib’s govt is very close to the Americans, supporting the Americans in the South China Sea kangaroo court. Now getting a piece of the same American medicine for good taste. Perhaps if Najib had agreed to go along with another kangaroo court to sue China he may have been let off.  Alternatively he could have let Hishammudin send his naval flotilla to chase the Chinese Navy out of the South China Sea and everything would be fine with him and his assets.

How many more dumb Asians, Arabs and Africans are parking their money and assets in the US waiting to be seized and forfeited? This is not the first time it happened. It has happened many many times and dumb Asians, Arabs and Africans, 3A ratings, continue to repeat this silly mistake.

Oh, I forgot, stupidity has no cure. Singapore is also seriously and furiously investigating this 1MDB fraud and has also seized the properties related to … oh, it is Jho Low, not Najib.  Heng ah, or else Singapore would have another tight rope to walk.

Najib better be very careful. If they could do it to Erdogan, it can easily be his turn.

The sell out of pathetic Singaporeans continues unabated

Another sickening letter appeared in the Today paper today. Forum writer Chua Kim Choo wrote about the plight of her daughter’s search for employment. She got a masters degree to boot. Her child sent close to 1000 letters before lending herself an entry level position. After a year she moved on to a regional job in another company of 30 staff only to be replaced by the 24^th foreigner the company employed.

Since last year she has been trying to get re employed but in vain. The point here is that this is a qualified Singaporean, young and not expensive, just like the 500,000 foreigners here who don’t have to write 1000 letters to get a job. Probably someone would give them the rope or a helping hand to get a better job than this Singaporean and happily enjoying working here, and some even have the luxury of venting their frustration when they did not get their way to fuck this country and people.

The forum writer said that employers are demanding that young PMETs have enough experience for the job. She did not know that this is a standard lame excuse to reject Singaporeans like her child from employment. If experience is what the employers are looking for, our senior PMETs would not be driving taxis or be retrained to be semi skilled workers.

The sell out of our children continues unabated with the influx of foreigners continuing to replace our children. With half a million of these foreigners here and with more to come, there is no place for our children. Don’t be stupid when you go to the ballot box the next time. Vote for a govt that put Singaporeans first instead of their stepchildren from other countries.

I have one suggestion for the forum writer. I worked in MBFC and everyday I see many young professionals looking just as raw as her child, happily employed by the banks and financial institutions here. Looking at them you know that the experience they had would be no more than 10 years. If these foreigners can be employed in herds in MBFC, there must be something very wrong and very sick in this country that our young cannot be employed in MBFC. 

If nothing is done to put a stop to hiring all these little boys and girls from other countries, these little boys and girls are going to get all the training and experience they need to become the CEOs of the banks and financial institutions in MBFC, not Singaporeans. These young foreign boys and girls are going to get the best training that this country can give to become the future top bankers of this country. They don’t need the training and retraining put up by NTUC and other local training organizations to become waiters and salesperson or semi skilled workers or taxi drivers and security guards.

What would Singapore be going forward? What would happen to our young PMETs going forward? Is this what we want for our children, unable to find decent jobs in our own country that provides half a million good and decent jobs, even top jobs to foreigners that have dubious backgrounds and even fake degrees?

Singaporeans must wake up and take back this country for their children’s sake. Don’t sell out the future of your children or allow anyone to sell out the future of your children. Thinks of what you can do to help your children and the young of our fellow citizens.  Remember, this is your country, not the country of foreigners. This country must be for Singaporeans not for foreigners.

“China Will React If Provoked Again: You Risk the War”

Below is an Interview with Andre Vltchek by an Italian media, AntiDiplomatico on the mischiefs of the Americans and the West and their ruthless attempts to dominate the world.

 The AntiDiplomatico (Italy) interviews philosopher, Andre Vltchek: “Russia and China are forming an incredible defensive wall to protect humanity from Western terrorism.”

By Alessandro Bianchi

Q: I start from a brutal question: What has become of a country that it offering Donald Trump as its ‘best candidate’?

AV: It is not much different from the country that it used to be for decades, even centuries. Since the beginning, the US presidents (all of European stock, of course), had been promoting slavery, extermination campaigns against the native population of North America, barbaric wars of aggression against Mexico, and other Latin American countries, the Philippines, etc. Has anything changed now? I highly doubt it. Donald Trump is horrendous, but he is also honest. Both Presidents Clinton and Obama were great speakers, but unrepentant mass murderers.

Q: Will the growing US expansionism come to a breaking point and collision with China?

AV: Yes it will. I have no doubt about it. China is one of the greatest cultures on Earth, and it is one of those countries that suffered immensely from colonialist horrors and humiliation. Chinese people are indignant. Indignant! For decades, despite everything, they tried to make peace with the West. They are in fact the most peaceful big nation on Earth and what do they get in return? They get insults, provocations and intimidation.

The Western public should learn and remember one essential thing about China: no matter what European and North American propaganda barks about the People’s Republic, China is much more “democratic” than the West. It is democratic in its own way. For thousands of years, it developed its own political system. Its rulers, no matter who they are, are given a conditional right to govern by the people. In the past, but even now it is called a “Heavenly Mandate”. If the rulers fail to respect the will of the people, they get deposed. And the Communist Party of China is greatly respectful of the desires of the majority of the Chinese people. When they want liberal reforms, they are delivered. When they want more Communism and an epic fight against corruption, like now, China’s government immediately reacts. It is powerful and democratic, although a very specific and complex arrangement.

And now, the Chinese people are outraged and they are sending clear signals to Beijing: “do not succumb to the West.” “If you do, our nation will suffer immensely, and the rest of the world will turn to ashes.”

Do understand: Chinese people are brilliant; the West cannot fool them. And they are thoroughly sick of Western imperialism. This time, if confronted and provoked, the Chinese government would yield to the pressure from its people: it would be forced to give orders to fight – to defend its motherland!....

The West, both the elites (consciously) and ordinary people (sub-consciously), want Russia to go to hell; to disappear, drown, explode. It is because Russia is once again defending humanism all over the world. If it succeeds, the elites would lose their power over the planet, and the ‘ordinary citizens’ of the West would lose their privileges; the plunder would have to stop, and the life of one African or Asian person would suddenly gain the same value as that of a one European or North American. And that would be really ‘unacceptable’!

On top of it, Russia and China have become two great allies. They’d never be divided as they were during the Cold War Days. Russia and China together cannot be defeated: militarily, economically or morally. The West can only try to destroy them internally, through horrendous sets of tricks, propaganda and toxic lies. But now even such a scenario is unlikely. Russian people, like their Chinese comrades, are well aware of what is going on. And there are tens of millions of their martyrs who are reminding them what is to be expected from the West.

Encircled and provoked, Russia is once again turning into a mighty monolithic defense wall. Its people are ready! They want peace, above anything else. But if they’d have to fight for their own survival, and for the survival of the world, they will. And this time again, if there is a showdown, two enormous nations, Russia and China, standing side-by-side, will defeat fascism!

That is why Russia is hated. That is why China is hated. They are forming a tremendous, final defense line protecting humanity from the Western terror…..

Q: What do you think will be the final scenario for Syria? It risks crystallization like the Cold War-style situation between the two blocks – Damascus, Russia and regional allies, on the one hand, and Kurds with the United States on the other – and Raqqa, which would become a new Berlin?

AV: The Western planners are definitely trying to fragment the entire Middle East. They already have done, on several historical occasions. But this is a new chapter. They play with the Arab countries as if they were simply some milking cows. There is no regard for human lives, or local national interests. It is because the West, despite its hypocritical rhetoric (political correctness) does not really consider non-whites and non-Christians as human beings. You kill millions, so be it. You ruin 5 regional states; who cares?

Q: 14 years ago, the coup in Venezuela against the democratically elected President Hugo Chavez failed and began the US exit from Latin America. Shortly after, the US invaded Iraq. Today the hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean wobbles, and Washington uses all the weapons at its disposal to return to Latin America. Is, in your opinion, President Rafael Correa right when he says that we are facing a new Plan Condor in the region?

AV: Definitely! Comrade Correa gets it right, most of the time. This is new, ‘final’ offensive of the Empire in Latin America. I have just returned from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay; it is absolutely horrible what is going on there. The Empire is trying to finish both BRICS and all the Latin American revolutions.

 

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” and “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”.

The truth about the South China Sea issue

The truth about the South China Sea Issue

First let those politicians, strategic studies research personals , the mass medias, the TVs and Radio talks in some ASEAN countries and those who are beholden to USA somehow or other beware of what they are talking

when they keep on parroting USA version and stunts on the South China Sea issue less they be accused of complicity with USA in deceiving the world that the PCA is part of the United Nation which it is not and the

United Nation official spokesman had already reiterated publicly  that the PCA tribunal is a private organisation and United Nation has nothing to do with it. UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric  spokesman for United

Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said, "The UN doesn't have a position on the legal and procedural merits of the South China Sea arbitration case."

Professional maritime experts worldwide pointed out that the use of terms such as "United Nation Tribunal" or "United Nation backed Tribunal is incorrect as they confuse 'PCA' with the "United Nations "ICJ"  (

International Court of Justice ) This private tribunal acts as an agent of external powers The arbitration case is a political farce enshrouded in a legal cloak. It is important that people in ASEAN countries especially the mass

media and TV take note of this.

The case was contrived with evil intent and initiated at the behest of USA to suit its agenda. Acquino, being beholden to USA acted for his own personal interest and USA is not acting for the interest of the Philippines either

but to suit its agenda of seizing it as an excuse to meddle in the region's affairs. While the absurb proceedings were going on USA accompanied it with military threats of destroyers, aircraft carriers, strategic bombers,

reconnaisance planes and many other vile tricks to show an outright demonstration and manifestation of "might is right". This outward show of modern gun boat policy of the Opium Wars of the 1830s to 1860s no longer

frightens China for China will make sure all the American ships will be welcomed to the deep ocean floor.

The Philippines was ill advised by a powerhouse of Anglo American legal team
appointed by Abe's appointed Japanese judge . The fake private tribunal manipulated the ruling and tries to deny China's historic claims in the South China Sea and wipe out its rights to resources there. The lawyers in the

sham tribunal redefined the standard meaning of arbitration which for centuries had been defined as a procedure in which two parties agree to a third party to settle their disputes. Now it seems to Philippine lawyers

arbitration can be a unilateral arbitration. The bogus tribunal issued the final award on 12th July,2016 amid a global chorus that the panel has no jurisdiction and its decision is naturally null and void . The award sweepingly

sided with the claims unilaterally filed by Aquino 111, which in the eyes of observers , is a mockery of justice.

China from the outset ruled that the private arbitration set up is illicit and illegal and has no jurisdiction. The bogus tribunal failure to recognise that is a matter of professional incompetence and deliberate disregard is a matter

of questional integrity.China attribute territorial sovereignty over maritime feature in the South China Sea is beyond the 1982 United Nation  Convention on the Law of the Sea ( UNCLOS ). In fact China abide Article 298

of UNCLOS which excludes compulsory arbitration on maritime boundaries. The international law of 1982 cannot redraw the border or reinvent new right.

Further since decades ago and after the Second World War  Japan had through various treaties like the Cairo Conference, Potsdam Treaty and San Francisco Treaty officially returned the Paracel and the Spratly island

archipelagos to China. In 1958, Vietnam under the then Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Dong officially  acknowledged and confirmed China's sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly islands with Chinese Premier

Zhou En Lai.

In fact in 1947 the KMT Republic of China had 291 islands , reefs and banks mapped and qualified as part of the "Nine Dash Line" . In1949 The Peoples Republic of China  inherited the claim made by KMT . In 1958

China declared its territorial waters within the "Nine Dash Line encompassing the Paracels and the Spratly islands and it was officially acknowledged and  endorsed by Vietnam as already aforementioned. It is a historical

fact that China has continuous sovereignty over the South China Sea islands , the Paracels and Spratlys since the 4th Century BC to the Tang, Ming and Ching dynasties and right up to the present time.
Trouble surface when in the mid 1970s Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia stealthily and illegally grab many of the Chinese islands. Vietnam stole 21 islands, Philippines 7 and Malaysia 5. This was followed by recent silly

accusations on China's land reclamation. China was the last country to do so as Vietnam and Philippines had carried out reclamation earlier, and China does so only on the islands and reefs under China's control rather than

trying to take back the islands and reefs illegally occupied by others.

Tensions began to rise in the South China Sea when USA pivot to Asia in 2010. America then deliberately instigate and provoke trouble and intensify disputes strained relations and weakened confidence. However, China

believe that negotiation and consultation among parties concerned is the most feasible and effective way to solve the issue. China's ambassador to USA, Mr Cui Tiankai reiterated that "diplomatic efforts should not and will

not be blocked by a 'scrap of paper or by a fleet of aircraft carriers."

The American hyping on Freedom of passage and Navigation is hogwash. Freedom of passage and navigation was not an issue in the past, is not an issue now and will never be an issue in the future. But America is twisting

and abusing freedom of passage and navigation by constantly sending warships close to Chinese coastline to threaten and intimidate China. This hostile American behaviour must stop. How will America feel and react if

Russia and China constantly sail warships close to America's coastline?

Southernglory1
Wednesday,20th July, 2016