-Caveat Lector- I wonder if they are for or against big bro..... http://news.excite.com/news/r/990916/13/russia-probe-interpol Interpol chief: Russia laundering scheme "enormous" Updated 1:57 PM ET September 16, 1999 GENEVA (Reuters) - The head of Interpol said Thursday that the alleged Russian money-laundering scheme involving a New York bank was the biggest such affair the global crime-fighting agency had come across so far. Interpol's British Secretary General Raymond Kendall told Reuters during a visit to Geneva that his agency was cooperating with U.S. investigators in the probe but that no arrests had been made so far. "We are involved," Kendall said. "In dimension terms, it is the biggest affair we have seen up to now," he added. "What is complex in the Russian situation is that you seem to be dealing with corruption taking place at such high levels that the normal ways of cooperation you'd use are not necessarily the valid ones," said Kendall. "You want to be sure that the information that you are dealing with doesn't get to the wrong people...I could not send a message to anyone in Russia, I have to be sure that it's not going to get into wrong hands." U.S. and British prosecutors are investigating whether Russian mobsters, businessmen or officials siphoned more than $15 billion of dollars out of the country and laundered them through accounts at the Bank of New York. Separately, prosecutors are also probing reports that a Swiss firm may have bribed Kremlin officials to win hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to renovate public buildings. So far, prosecutors have not publicly linked the Swiss and U.S. probes. The Swiss Federal Prosecutor's office has said it is ready to assist the U.S. investigators if there is a request. Their outcome is certain to have an impact in Russia, Switzerland as well as in the United States where Vice President Al Gore's Republican opponents have seized on his close ties with Russian leaders as ammunition against his presidential bid. Kendall said investigators had failed so far to find evidence of any illegal activity in the affair. "It (the Russian affair) is of such enormous dimensions...for laundering money that in some cases, it didn't even get into Russia," he said. "It is interesting that we haven't yet seen the proof of illegal activity." Asked about reports that mobsters laundered the cash through the same channels used for tax evasion out of Russia, Kendall said: "Tax evasion is a fiscal offense. But the way you move money -- whether you do it for money-laundering purposes, whether you do it for tax evasion purposes or whether you do it for legal purposes, the same channels are going to be used." No one has been charged in the widening affair. Kendall said Russian organized crime groups were much more violent than the traditionally Mafia-type groups. "Russian organized crime groups are essentially still based in Russia but they do have more and more connections with people in other countries. The menace they represent is increasing every day," he said. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
