wealth privacy index


Subject:     KYC under new name rears its ugly head
        Date:       Wed, 31 May 2000 12:32:47 -0400
        From:      JBJ

[It's an election year:  European politicians can blame their problems on the Anglo spy network, and American politicians can appease law enforcement here while feigning to be "tough on crime" by taking away more civil liberties and the last shreds of privacy left.  Two years ago, Congress passed a bill directing the banking regulators to issue the now-notorious Know Your Customer proposal.  Well, it's an election year again: will unthinking politicians fall into the same trap?  We may find out next month as the banking cmte reportedly will consider the latest Clinton proposal to require banks to "know" their accounts better (give them some points for style, this time) and give more discretionary tools to Treasury - JBJ]


Secrets and spies: A surveillance system that intercepts communications has become the latest focus of dispute between the US and Europe,
Financial Times ; 31-May-2000 12:00:00 am
By THOMAS CATAN

 Long after most people thought spies had gone into post-cold war retirement, espionage has emerged as one of the most serious irritants to transatlantic relations since beef and bananas.

 As Bill Clinton, the US president, tours European capitals this week, the European parliament is preparing a year-long investigation into allegations that  the US - with the help of Britain and other English-speaking allies - not only spies on foreign companies but feeds its intelligence to US corporations.  Next Thursday, European parliament leaders are due to vote on the composition  and terms of reference of the inquiry.

 The claims have touched off a storm in France, and again highlighted suspicions that Britain's loyalties remain divided between America and Europe. That the US eavesdrops on foreign businesses is not in doubt.  So, for that matter, do other countries, including France.  But whether Washington uses the information to gain underhand commercial advantage over its western allies will be much harder to prove - not least because economic interests and national security have become so closely entwined.

At the centre of Continental European anxieties is a global surveillance system, operated by the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, that intercepts millions of phone calls, faxes and e-mails each day.  Codenamed Echelon, it consists of about 10 listening posts worldwide, including at least one in the UK. Data carried by satellites, microwave transmitters and underground cables are searched by computer for keywords; selected data are then sent to the US National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland.

What happens to the information once it reaches the triple-fenced compound at Fort Meade is a matter of dispute. In an extraordinary public hearing of the Senate intelligence committee last month, Lt Gen Michael Hayden, director of the NSA, acknowledged that the agency examined intelligence relating to weapons proliferation, money laundering and corporate corruption.  But both he and George Tenet, director of the CIA, denied that the information was passed  on to US companies.

 "There are instances where we learn that foreign companies or their governments bribe, lie, cheat and steal their way to disenfranchise American companies," Mr Tenet said. But complaints were always taken up with foreign  governments - not the offending company, he stressed:  "We play defence. We never play offence."

 That distinction can be hard to maintain. The report submitted by British journalist Duncan Campbell to the European parliament in February cites two instances in which US companies are said to have benefited from government espionage. In 1994, the report alleged, the US intervened in a Brazilian tender for a Dollars 1.3bn surveillance system after the NSA intercepted evidence that Thomson-CSF, the French defence contractor, was offering bribes.  Raytheon, the US defence company, won the contract.  In the second case, NSA found that agents for Airbus, the European aerospace consortium, were offering bribes to a Saudi official. The Saudi government was alerted; Boeing and McDonnell Douglas won the Dollars 6bn contract.

Neither case directly contradicts the US's insistence that it uses intelligence only to "level the playing field" in cases where the bidding process has been corrupted. The European Commission and the European parliament have called on companies that feel they have been the victims of espionage to come forward; none has yet done so.  But suspicions persist.

The US's emphasis on economic security began under the Bush administration, but appears to have been taken up with renewed vigour by the Clinton White House. Warren Christopher, then secretary of state, declared in testimony before the Senate foreign relations committee: "In the post-cold war  world, our national security is inseparable from our economic security."

 To address that new priority, US intelligence support was extended to commercial organisations in 1993 through the creation of a National Economic Council, which mirrors work of the National Security Council.  Two years later, the White House National Security Strategy focused on economic security as a national priority. Ron Brown, the late commerce secretary, also set up a business "Advocacy Center", which reportedly combines intelligence with other trade and economic data.

One result is the CIA's Daily Economic Briefing, also created under Mr Brown.  Though highly classified, the document is thought to contain a large amount of publicly available information, supplemented by information from intercepts.  But general economic intelligence will at times involve company-specific espionage. For example, it is likely that most arms deals are targeted by Echelon.  And as Jeffrey Richelson, senior fellow at Washington's National Security Archive, points out: "There you're at the junction between trade and national security."

 In addition to formal channels for passing information between government and US companies, informal contacts also take place. Most heads of the CIA and NSA join the boards of US companies once they leave, keeping one foot in the world of intelligence and another in corporate America.

 Many former directors of central intelligence (DCIs) maintain a contractual relationship with their former employers. "They have a contract with the agency to allow them to continue to come in and consult on a case-by-case basis as required by the president or a subsequent director of intelligence," a CIA spokesman says. However, the official adds, DCIs are bound by federal  post-employment regulations and, in any case, would need to demonstrate a "need to know" before being granted access to any intelligence.

Such safeguards are insufficient to allay the fears of the European parliament.  "The temptation to more than 'level the playing field' must be absolutely enormous," says Glyn Ford, the MEP who originally commissioned the report on Echelon.

Nevertheless, Europe's complaints may be overdone.  First, there is the potential for scandal. NSA got badly burned in the 1970s when it was found to have been eavesdropping on US opposition figures such as Jane Fonda, Martin Luther King and Eldridge Cleaver, the Black Panther leader.

Second, there is the question of who to help: with the rise of multinationals, it is getting harder to decide which companies are truly American.

Last, doubts remain as to whether any Echelon-like system would be capable of intercepting the enormous volume of global electronic messages. The NSA has been affected by personnel and funding cuts just when its targets have been increased, worldwide communications have exploded, and private encryption is becoming commonplace, says Steven Simon of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

To many, the transatlantic friction is symptomatic of deeper issues.  In part, it reflects widespread anxieties about the loss of privacy in the information age.  More importantly, the European protests should be seen in the light of rising tensions about several issues: national missile defence; European plans to create an EU military force outside of Nato; the conduct of the Kosovo war; and trade.

"This is not anxiety about the arcane field of signals intelligence so much as it  is concern about apparent American hegemony - whether it be aircraft or hamburgers," says Steven Aftergood, of the Federation of American Scientists.

Steven Simon, of the IISS, agrees: "The general conviction that America wields too much power too heedlessly has helped animate the fury over Echelon.  The lesson should be that Europe and the US had better start talking more constructively about the issues that divide them."
 

---------------------------------------------

Rooting Out Dirty Money
by David Ignatius
The Washington Post, May 31, 2000  OP-ED

Imagine for a moment that you are the corrupt defense minister of some faraway country and that I am your designated "commission agent," money launderer and all-around partner in crime.

What a jolly time we could have in the borderless, lawless world that has emerged over the past decade of "globalization." For one of the dirty little secrets of the global economy is that it has been a money launderer's paradise--allowing everyone from Russian gangsters to Chinese arms dealers to Middle Eastern bagmen to hide their ill-gotten loot with near impunity.

Let's say you wanted to launder that $100 million commission you just received on a big weapons deal. Not a problem, sir! I'd start by creating my own bank--dozens of Web sites explain in amazing detail how to do this--in one of a dozen or so havens, mostly in the Caribbean and South Pacific.

I'd call our bank First Ignatius Trust Co.--not exactly anonymous, but it has a nice ring to it. I'd register the bank in, let's see . . . the South Pacific island nation of Nauru.  That desolate atoll (known otherwise mainly for its phosphate deposits) is where Russian operatives moved an amazing $70 billion in 1998, according to the Russian Central Bank.

Our little concern would be what's known as a "suitcase bank," or "brass plate bank," which means it wouldn't have any employees or records in Nauru, only a post office box. Indeed, the bank wouldn't exist except in my laptop computer, which can go anywhere.

Next I'd open a correspondent account for First Ignatius with a big money center bank in New York or London. And then, esteemed sir, I would arrange to wire that delicious $100 million commission to our little suitcase bank, via the correspondent account at the giant bank.  And if I did it right, nobody would be the wiser--no taxes, no cops, no records.

That's an imaginary (and extreme) example of the kind of money laundering that goes on every day. Some real-life details could surface soon in hearings Sen. Carl Levin wants to hold before the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations.

But things may get nasty soon for First Ignatius and its hundreds of real-world counterparts. That's because the United States and other financial powers are finally deciding to get serious about money laundering. The new counterattack is converging from two flanks.  First, a group known as the Financial Action Task Force, which was created by the world's 26 leading financial nations, plans to issue a report in June identifying the top money-laundering havens around the world. There has been a lively debate about who should be on that list--should it include Russia, for example?--but the initial version is likely to name just a few notorious spots in the Caribbean and in the South Pacific.

 "Naming and shaming" is the term given to this blacklist approach. The resulting publicity will push major financial institutions around the world to restrict transactions with local banks in the listed countries--effectively shutting down their operations. What's the point of having money in First Ignatius, after all, if you can't move it anywhere?

The task force is also pressing its 26 members to make internal reforms. It has warned Austria, for example, that if it doesn't agree to eliminate its existing system of anonymous "passbook" accounts, it will get kicked out of the group, effective next month.

The second push is coming from Congress, which is considering legislation that would expand the U.S. government's ability to attack money launderers. One bill that will be marked up by the House Banking Committee next month would give the Treasury Department new tools--such as requiring U.S. banks to investigate who really controls secret accounts at offshore banks, mandating elaborate new record-keeping for banks that do business with money-laundering havens, and authorizing Treasury to ban such transactions outright. These new powers, if actively used, would raise the cost of money laundering so much that no legitimate bank would knowingly touch it.

The House Judiciary Committee is considering another bill that would expand the list of crimes that trigger money-laundering investigations to include such global scourges as foreign corruption or arms trafficking. Now, the feds tend to focus on the cash deposits made by drug traffickers and other low-lifes--rather than on the hundreds of millions stashed away by corrupt dictators.

By creating a seamless financial world, globalization has made life easier for the new pirates of the 21st century. But that could change in a hurry. If the world's leading financial nations decide to get serious about the menace of corruption, they could quickly create a world in which dirty money, quite literally, would have no place to hide.
 

================================================

                         THE SOVEREIGN A-LETTER (abridged)
               A Web Publication of the Sovereign Society, Ltd.
Your Link to Freedom, Privacy & Prosperity in the Offshore World
                        Vol. 2 No. 21 - May 27, 2000
================================================

Bahamian banks are now adopting due diligence software for the financial sector called ASSIST//customerknowledge, a computer program of the Florida based Americas Software. The software will analyze cash flows in Bahamian bank customers' accounts.
NEWS LINK:
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/full_article.cfm?page_ID=2161&newspaper_ID=1&category_ID=7 Americas Software LINK: http://www.americasoft.com/

A major financial services industry seminar will meet in the Bahamas on June 16 addressing the controversial OECD's demands for an end to what it calls "harmful tax competition" and the Caribbean response to such initiatives.
NEWS LINK:  http://www.tax-news.com/html/stories/st_jbaconference_24_05_00.html

...............................................

REUTERS in Zurich reports a special prosecutor probing allegations of money laundering in LIECHTENSTEIN says more arrests are possible after authorities detained five people last week in a sweep on homes and offices in Vaduz.
LINK:   http://www.scmp.com/News/Business/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-20000515002743992.asp

...............................................

From Bern, a report confirms SWISS voters gave clear backing to measures forging closer ties with the EUROPEAN UNION. With results from 24 of the 26 Swiss cantons counted, voters approved the seven mostly economic bilateral accords by 65.8%. Some see the accords as leading to a further weakening of Swiss banking and financial privacy.
LINK:   http://www.scmp.com/News/World/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-20000522031218159.asp

...............................................

One observer believes the EUROPEAN UNION is rapidly becoming as a federal super state, with serious, destructive consequences for peace and personal liberty.
LINK: http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j052400.html

   ................................................

Has the RUSSIAN economy been plundered by the Clinton regime and its friends in the banking community? A leading journalist says billions of US taxpayers' dollars funneled through the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other major U.S. banks, and the Harvard Institute for International Development have been looted.
LINK: http://www.thewandererpress.com/e2.html

................................................

Leaders of offshore financial jurisdictions in the CARIBBEAN are breathing easily again after a recent meeting of the United Kingdom/Caribbean Forum in London confirmed the UK has no present plans to force the tax haven nations out of business. LINK:  http://www.tax-news.com/html/oldnews/st_forum_18_05_00.html

 .................................................

VANUATU's government, financial institutions and telecommunications industry are restructuring to provide investors with asset protection laws, user-friendly administration and global Internet service for e-commerce. Contacts: ebusiness-incorporated PO Box 257 Port Vila, Vanuatu. E-mail: webright@ebusiness-incorporated.com
LINKS:  http://www.tax-news.com/html/stories/st_vanuatecom_24_05_00.html

...............................................................

Latest Word on Money Laundering Laws

In the world's leading tax, asset and banking haven nations strict laws guarantee financial privacy with criminal penalties for violators.  In the US and UK financial institution staffs are threatened with jail if they fail to spy on their clients. For Richard Rahn's most recent writings on money laundering legislation and financial privacy, check "End the Bank Anti-Secrecy Assault on Financial Privacy" at
LINK: http://www.cei.org/OnPointReader.asp?ID=980

=================

How Greenspan Manages

In a recent exchange with US Congressman RON PAUL, Federal Reserve Chairman ALAN GREENSPAN lapsed into rare clarity, admitting he cannot define nor actually manage the US money supply!  Their exchange, unreported in the establishment media, can be read at:
LINK: http://www.fame.org/whatsnew.asp
 

 ==============================================
                                PRIVACY +
==============================================

French and Swiss Plan Heavy Net Regulation

French government officials intend to control the Internet in every way they can, proposing a laundry list of suffocating regulations.
LINK: http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,36363,00.html

 .......................................

And big Swiss telecommunications companies bridle at a proposal from Swiss police to make Internet service providers there block access to sites police suspect of "criminal content."
LINK: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36345,00.html

=================

20 Years of Israeli Spying

Last week intelligence sources claimed that more than 20 years of ISRAELI spying operations in Washington, DC culminated in the interception of e-mails from President Bill Clinton.
LINK:   http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/05/21/stifgnusa02003.htm

=========================

Identity Theft Protection & Fake IDs

A good summary of recommendations to protect yourself from identity theft can be found at LINK:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/fcra/index.html

.....................................................

Creative web sites are making it increasingly easy to outwit America's document hungry authorities. For a small fee, or often for free, Internet users can download programs or buy software that will print driver's licenses, birth certificates, immigration cards, job certificates and school transcripts.
LINK:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/A29724-2000May18.html

====================

FBI Net Search Curbs Sought

In a case with broad implications for communications technology, lawyers for the US Justice Department and a coalition of  privacy groups went to court last week to argue that the FBI should not be allowed to intercept Internet communications and pinpoint locations of cellular phone users without first obtaining a search warrant.
NEWS LINKS:  http://msnbc.com/news/408389.asp?cp1=1
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap

=================================

Huge Database on 33 Million Canadian Revealed

Last week Canada's federal privacy commissioner revealed that the government has quietly assembled computerized files on over 33 million Canadians.
LINKS: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/000517/4116449.html
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_dougherty/20000518_xnjdo_big_brother.html

But the Canadian government immediately dismissed fears that private companies and others would be able to access the vast federal database containing up to 2,000 pieces of information on every Canadian citizen.
LINK:  http://news.excite.com/news/r/000518/16/rights-canada-privacy

 Last week it also came to light that Canadian customs officials randomly paw through imports in a search for drugs, then charge innocent importer-owners for the privilege of being searched.
LINK:  http://www.nationalpost.com/news.asp?f=000522/295659&s2=national

Sovereign Society Advisory Board member PIERRE LEMIEUX said Canadians shouldn't be surprised about a national database that records their intimate life details. Such a system, he points out, is needed to sustain the much beloved Canadian welfare state.

And the government of the UK is the latest to be taken to task for maintaining a centralized database of information about its citizens.
LINK:  http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_dougherty/20000523_xnjdo_britains_t.html

For a full exposition of national databases and proposed IDs, see the excellent roundup of news and comment entitled "BRANDED: Privacy and National ID Schemes" at
LINK:  http://www.free-market.net/spotlight/natid/

===================

Spotlight on: Pierre Lemieux

A distinguished member of the Sovereign Society Board of Advisors is PIERRE LEMIEUX (Canada). Economist, author, teacher, translator and consultant, Prof. Lemieux is one of the leading figures in Canadian free market economics. A vigorous opponent of government intervention, he is a visiting professor at the Univ. of Quebec and author of many books on economics and personal freedom. Check out his lively bilingual web site at
LINK:  http://www.pierrelemieux.org
Meet the full Sovereign Society Board of Advisors at
LINK:  http://www.sovereignsociety.com/board.html

=========================

Sneak Attack on the 4th Amendment

Obscure wording inserted into two pending US legislative proposals has sparked an uproar because of the vast damage it does to Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure.
LINKS:  http://www.mercurycenter.com/partners/distribution/docs/dg052300.htm

=========================

Forbidden Knowledge Can Be Yours

Here's the one book that explains it all; the safest ways to protect and invest your money; how to reduce your taxes and retire in luxury; the financial secrets of the super rich. How to reorganize your life to pay ZERO taxes legally. How to disappear from prying eyes and snoops with simple but effective privacy techniques.

You'll learn * the world's top 5 banking havens * the world's 6 best places to do business * the 20 best tax and asset haven nations * 5 of the world's best investment strategies. PRICE: US$57. ORDER ONLINE http://www.sovereignsociety.com/bookstore.html or CONTACT our international headquarters Tel: + (353) 51 844068   Fax: + (353) 51 304561. In the U.S. call (toll free) 888 358-8125
ORDER "Item FORDW12172" - Forbidden Knowledge edited by Robert E. Bauman JD.

==================

Gnutella Gives Net Privacy

Two months ago, Justin Frankel created an ingenious little software tool that allows users to bypass Internet companies and communicate directly among themselves. His bosses at America Online Inc. were so impressed they tried to snuff it out of existence. GNUTELLA allows users to trade files without going through central systems that can be controlled by authorities. Read all about it at
LINK:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21559-2000May17.html
For more about this new software and download sites, see
LINK:  http://websearch.about.com/internet/websearch/msub45.htm?terms=Gnutella

==============================================
                      THE SOVEREIGN A-LETTER
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                TEL: 353-51 844 068 - FAX: 353-51 304 561
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  Copyright (c) 2000. All domestic & international rights reserved.
 


Radio 'sniffers' likened to fed e-surveillance
By Bob Brewin 05/29/2000
From: Sanho Tree[SMTP:stree@igc.org]
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2000 7:18 AM
http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/CWFlash/000529E3E6

The privacy debate is likely to get more heated with the growing popularity of a wireless technology that detects which stations car radios are tuned to and feeds the information to advertisers via the Web.  Mobiltrak Inc., a Birmingham, Ala.-based start-up firm, says it can help focus an advertising campaign by ascertaining which radio stations potential customers listen to in the vicinity of retail outlets.

Mobiltrak uses FM radio "sniffers" that can detect, from several hundred feet away, the station to which a car radio is tuned. It can do that because every radio receiver is also a minitransmitter.  "This gives us a large-scale, perfectly random sample from 10% to 20% of the passing traffic," said Jim Christian, Mobiltrak's CEO.

Mobiltrak equipment, mounted in unobtrusive shelters about the size of household cable TV boxes, can sample as many as 100,000 listeners per installation per day, Christian said. The company operates in the Phoenix, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Toronto metropolitan markets and in more than 100 stand-alone retail locations outside of those markets.

Privacy advocates said they view Mobiltrak's activities with alarm.  David Banisar, the Silver Spring, Md.-based deputy director of Privacy International, said Mobiltrak is conducting the kind of "random electronic surveillance" carried out by the National Security Agency, which is the government's electronic-intelligence-gathering organization.

Christian said the Mobiltrak technology performs a truly random sampling that doesn't identify a particular vehicle. But Banisar said he worries about the potential merging of the technology with intelligent vehicle highway systems and location-reporting cellular phones that could allow Mobiltrak to zero in on individuals.  "This is a situation like the Web, where information is secretly collected without any discussion of whether it is a good idea," Banisar said.

For subscribers, though, Mobiltrak has provided a valuable service.  Lenny Sage, a vice president at Sage Automotive Group in Los Angeles, said his company, which "spends in excess of seven figures every month" on advertising, has seen a measurable increase in sales by using the Mobiltrak technology to target its advertising dollars.

The company's Universal City Nissan dealership -- which Sage said is the largest Nissan dealership in the world, with annual sales of $250 million -- used Mobiltrak to determine that it had failed to advertise on a station to which a large number of passing cars were tuned.  "We started advertising on that station, and sales went up 22% in a month," Sage said.

 Susan Robertson, a marketing manager at ParkSide Mall in Pinellas County, Fla., began using Mobiltrak's service last October. She said the Mobiltrak data is significantly better than ratings information from The Arbitron Co., a nationwide radio and TV ratings firm based in New York.

 "Mobiltrak samples about 85,000 vehicles a week in front of our  building," Robertson said.  A spokesman for Arbitron said his company provides the kind of detailed demographics that "radio stations live and die for." He added that he doesn't view Mobiltrak as a competitive threat.  "They don't measure in-home or office listening, and they don't measure AM radio stations," the spokesman said.

Monitoring and More

 But the Mobiltrak technology does more than just monitor car-radio usage, Christian said. The company's Phoenix data center houses a 64-bit Compaq Computer Corp. Alpha-based system, as well as five high-powered Intel-based servers. The servers apply sophisticated signal processing algorithms to filter out extraneous transmissions such as signals from aircraft, which use frequencies next to the band for communications.

Christian said that his technology can detect AM stations but that Mobiltrak doesn't deal with AM because the band is "very noisy."  The data center processes millions of records each month from the four major markets, Christian said, and delivers location-specific listening patterns to clients on a password-protected Web site.

# # # # #

Canadian Government Kills 'Big Brother' Database
By Steven Bonisteel, Newsbytes, 05/30/2000  5:23 PM CST
http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/149805.html

OTTAWA, ONTARIO - The Canadian government has responded to withering criticism from privacy advocates and opposition politicians and announced it will scrap a massive database that was able to collect as many as 2,000 data points on just about every one of its citizens. The cache of personal data - called the Longitudinal Labor Force File (LLFF) - came to light earlier this month when the federal government's own privacy commissioner, Bruce Phillips, said in a report that he was concerned about the possibility that its information on 33 million Canadians could be shared with outside companies. The LLFF contains information collected from such sources as tax returns, health-insurance records, child-benefit payments, welfare claims, federal job programs and employment insurance records - essentially linking data from the government's taxation arms with that of its social assistance operations.

Jane Stewart, the minister of Human Resources Development Canada, whose department oversaw the LLFF, said the database has been dismantled and the taxation data returned to the revenue ministry. "The Privacy Commissioner fully supports this decision, and the other measures we are taking to protect privacy," Stewart said yesterday in a statement. "In a letter to my department Mr. Phillips has said that he accepts and supports these measures, and that they satisfy all the recommendations and observations outlined in his ... report." "The privacy commissioner acknowledges that there has never been a known breach of security with regard to this databank, and HRDC has been acting within the existing Privacy Act. However, given public concerns about privacy issues in this era of advanced and constantly changing technology, I have chosen an approach that addresses future threats to privacy."

Stewart also said her department would create a special advisory committee to monitor the use of data in the future. "Canadians expect programs that are well designed, continually improved, and responsive to their changing needs," she said. "They can be reassured by the actions I have announced today that we will continue to place their fundamental rights of privacy at the center of how we manage our policy analysis and research activities."

 ----------

From: rachel[SMTP:ehrenfeld@worldnet.att.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 9:02 PM
To: Jansen, J. Bradley
Subject: The CSC and me

Dear Brad,

As you know I've been hard at work advising the Indonesian AG on ways to fight corruption. Alas, it seems that despite its claims, the Indonesian government is dragging its feet, and implementation of the anti corruption project are on hold. But armed with so much knowledge on corruption, its various forms, how to measure it, and how to tailor special systemic reforms, I'm ready to make presentations and advise on these issues as well as on the different forms of money laundering and the manipulation and abuse of bank secrecy laws.

I'd appreciate your help in suggesting and identifying potential interested entities in this areas of my expertise. I'm enclosing my brief bio, the general statement of the CSC, and an article I thought you'll find interesting.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.  Best, Rachel

 
THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF CORRUPTION and THE RULE OF LAW (CSC)
Good Governance and Public Integrity

The ultimate objective of the CSC is to promote standards of national and international integrity. To do so it is developing a data bank. This data bank will be a unique resource for governments, multinational corporations, and others interested in this project.  Thus, the CSC conducts a comprehensive evaluation of national and international corruption practices for the development of an annual Integrity Index.

This Index will provide a comparative measure on a country - by - country basis of corruption and anti-corruption measures and the effectiveness of their implementation. The Center will issue policy proposals for national and international legislation/sanctions, focusing on countries identified as poor performers. Of course, the CSC will rely on and cooperate with other national and international anti-corruption activities.


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