Re: Czym zyje zydowska smietana w Izraelu

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http://www.haaretz.com

The Bottom Line / How to launder money
by Guy Rolnik

One morning in 1991, two nice young men skipped into the office of
Israel Discount Bank manager Gideon Lahav bearing a small suitcase. We
came to make a deposit, they trilled, $85 million. Lahav started, but
the young men sought to assuage his fears by presenting a document from
the Polish central bank attesting that the money was kosher.But at the
bank they wondered, and asked the Bank of Israel's Supervisor of Banks
what he thought they should do with the money. Regardless of what he
said, what's certain is that Discount took the money, deposited it, and
within a few months, Andrei Gushiurovsky and Bogoslav Bagshik, who
later became known as the "Polacks", bought half of Paz. Later it
transpired that the "Polacks" had not inherited the money from a rich
uncle, or earned it selling bibles door-to-door or from a lemonade
stand. They had embezzled it from a Polish bank ... Why are we so
popular? The Israeli bank books reveal that they have no less than $25
billion in foreign deposits. Why do foreigners like Israeli banks so
much? Some because they are Jewish, but in most cases, it's because the
lion's share of the money comes from tax dodges at best, and crime at
worst. Over the years, Israel's banks set up massive branches and
operations in South America, Europe and the U.S., which amassed money
from exactly such dubious sources. A lot arrived in unmarked suitcases,
and usually the banks made little effort to elucidate its provenance.
As the 1990s began, Israel's big banks discovered a new geographical
entity growing far faster than South America, Europe or the U.S. -
Russia. Every few months, some new Russian celebrity, all Jewish of
course, would visit Israel, bringing tens or hundreds of millions of
dollars. The banks didn't pester the dignitaries with questions, they
just opened special divisions for eastern Europe. Picking on Russians
Yesterday, Knesset member Yuri Stern attacked the police, claiming the
only reason it was picking on the customers of Hapoalim's Hayarkon
branch was that they are Russian. The truth is, he has a point. The
police and the bankers are highly suspicious of "Russian" money. Yet
one can understand their itchiness. Forbes counted no less than 10
Russians in its latest list of the world's richest people, from Mikhail
Khodorovsky of Yukos fame with $15 billion, to Roman Abramovich with
$10.6 billion, to Mikhail Fridman, Vladimir Potanin, Mikhail Orokhorov,
Vladimir Lisin , Alexei Mordashov , Oleg Deripaska , Viktor Vekselberg,
and Vagit Alekperov , the poor man on the list with a mere $2.7
billion. Where were these people 10 years ago? Some were in their 20s,
some were penniless entrepreneurs, and most were small businessmen. How
did they become enormously wealthy, in global terms, in a vast country
whose GDP is 5 percent of America's? Good question. The truth is that
most of their assets derived from corrupt politicians. Legitimate
millionaires Israel's parallel to Forbes, TheMarker list of the 500
richest people in Israel, has been published for three years now. It
also sports some surprising names, such as Arkady Gaidamak, whose
wealth is estimated at $800 million; or the trio of Vladimir Dubov,
Mikhail Brudno and Leonid Nevzlin, each of whom is worth billions. The
Russians on the list don't actually like the publicity. The editor of
the Russian version of Forbes was murdered a few months after running
the list of Russia's wealthy. Attorney Zvi Hefetz is Israel's
ambassador to London. Until recently, he was the representative in
Israel of Vladimir Gusinsky, another Russian multi-millionaire who made
most of his money in the 1990s. Four years ago, we met with Hefetz
after the Wall Street Journal published unflattering assessments of his
Russian patron. Hefetz was boiling mad. He claimed Gusinsky had made
his fortune legitimately, through banking and media businesses in
Russia. During the conversation, he shot out, "You think that all the
rich families in Israel, the ones starring on the business pages, made
their money legitimately? Did you check how they made their money in
the `50s, `60s, `70s and `80s?" Like Stern, Hefetz has a point. The
difference between most of the Russians who deposited money at Bank
Hapoalim's branch on Hayarkon Street and our "legitimate" millionaires
is mainly one of the times. The best way to launder money is to let it
age. Wait a few decades. Time is the best bleacher of all. The robber
barons of the 20th century are America's most distinguished families
today. Israelis who smuggled, stole and bribed politicians for
franchises and the like have become the respectable monied classes of
this millennium. Until the enactment of the money-laundering law, all a
crook had to do was wait enough time for his coal-black filthy lucre to
turn white as snow. Now, with the law in place, that's become harder to
do.

A nie mowilem ze zydowskiego zlodzieja trudno okrasc.

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