11 places where bad guys stash their cash

The world’s poorest countries are losing at least US$1 trillion each year to criminals who siphon cash through money laundering, tax evasion and embezzlement, according to the latest report from  a non-profit organisation called One.

Developing countries are losing between US$972 billion and US$2.02 trillion every year through Illegal tax evasion, shady deals for natural resources and money laundering, and of the US$20 trillion in offshore tax havens US$3.2 trillion is from developing countries.

One says, it has been digging into the web of secrecy that makes this siphoning of trillions possible and has found 11 places that have been used to hide the ill-gotten gains. Here they are:

1. 40 Wall St, New York

 In 1982, Joseph J. and Ralph E. Bernstein bought this tower block in the heart of New York’s financial district. They were later found to be acting on behalf of Ferdinand E. Marcos, the corrupt President of the Philippines, who stole billions.  In 1982, Joseph J. and Ralph E. Bernstein bought this tower block in the heart of New York’s financial district. They were later found to be acting on behalf of Ferdinand E. Marcos, the corrupt President of the Philippines, who stole billions.

2. Jersey

In August 2014, the US seized more than $480 million in assets hidden by former Nigerian military dictator Sani Abacha and his associates. That included about $303 million in two bank accounts in the Bailiwick of Jersey, a small island near France ruled by Britain. In August 2014, the US seized more than $480 million in assets hidden by former Nigerian military dictator Sani Abacha and his associates. That included about $303 million in two bank accounts in the Bailiwick of Jersey, a small island near France ruled by Britain.

3. A yacht

Tunisian authorities recovered a luxury yacht belonging to the brother-in-law of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country’s former dictator. Found in Spain, It was put on sale with a value estimate of €8m.

4. Cars

 In 2011, eleven sports cars worth more than US $4 million were seized by French police in Paris. They belonged to Teodoro Nguema Obiang, the vice-president of Equatorial Guinea (and son of the current president), who has been accused of spending more than $300 million on luxury goods while more than one in seven children under the age of five were dying from preventable diseases inside his country and poverty remains rampant.

5. Art

American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work “Hannibal” was seized from a Manhattan warehouse by US investigators as part of a probe into Edemar Cid Ferreira, a former Brazilian banker who stole millions.

6. Suitcases

Maryam Abacha, the widow of Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, was stopped at Lagos airport with 38 suitcases full of money shortly after he died. And when Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos fled to Hawaii from the Philippines, they had 24 1kg gold bars fitted into a $17,000 hand-tooled Gucci briefcase with a solid gold buckle.

7. A tea room

After Viktor Yanukovych was deposed as president of Ukraine, investigators found 200 folders of documents dumped in a lake. They dried them in the sauna and found (amongst other things) receipts for payment of $2.3m for a tea room.

8. Lichtenstein

The Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Action Centre found that Mr Yanukovych’s home was owned by a company called Tantalit, which was owned by an Austrian company, which in turn was 35% owned by a British shell company, Blythe (Europe) Ltd, and 65% owned by an Austrian bank. Blythe was owned by a trust based in Lichtenstein, a tiny Alpine country tucked between Austria and Switzerland where many trusts find a home.

9. London

The son of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi owned a $10m house in London’s leafy Hampstead, via a phantom firm based in the British Virgin Islands. It had its own swimming pool and cinema.

10. A think tank

US Lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon set up the “American International Center” as a think tank to hide their money, gained from Washington corruption. It was run by two childhood friends of theirs: yoga instructor Brian Mann and lifeguard David Grosh.

11. Jewellery

A white gold watch with 300 embedded diamonds, valued at $160,000 and confiscated from Peru's former head of Intelligence.  If your initials are VM, you might like to bid for jewellery belonging to Vladimiro Montesinos, Peru’s corrupt former intelligence chief.  He is serving a 20 year stretch for corruption, and his jewellery, watches and other goodies are being sold off. On the other hand, you might not share his tastes: it was pretty bling.

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