Neighborhood Bully - America Recklessly Throws its Weight Around

By: Peter Schiff
Friday, August 15, 2014

"On June 30, U.S. authorities announced a stunning $9 billion fine on French bank BNP Paribas for violations of financial sanctions laws that the United States had imposed on Iran, Sudan and Cuba. In essence, BNP had surreptitiously conducted business with countries that the United States had sought to isolate diplomatically (sometimes unilaterally in the case of Cuba).

Although BNP is not technically under the jurisdiction of American regulators, and the bank had apparently not broken any laws of its home country, the fine was one of the largest ever issued by the United States and the largest ever levied on a non-U.S. firm.

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve made clear that unless BNP forks over the $9 billion (equivalent to one year's of the company's total earnings), the U.S. will prevent the bank from engaging in dollar-based international transactions. For an institution that makes its living through such transactions, that penalty is the financial equivalent of a death sentence. The fine will be paid."






It seems similar to the kind of things we talk about the government doing to us here on an individual level, except the United States government in collusion with the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank is now doing it to a foreign banking institution.

Regardless of the politics involved, and focusing just on the situation as it relates to the subjects we regularly discuss here, if the U.S. and Federal Reserve have no jurisdiction, and no laws were broken in France, how can BNP Paribas be lawfully fined?

And if they cannot be lawfully fined, then there must be lawful recourse/remedy available to them. With $9 billion at stake, shouldn't those remedies be forthcoming?

Aren't all of the Central Banks of Europe (of which French bank BNP Paribas must be a member bank) and the Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S. all part of the same worldwide banking system?

If so, why don't they handle it internally, rather than give the appearance of a Central Bank civil war?


Seems very strange.

From the same article:


"It is widely rumored that Germany's Commerzbank will be the next European institution to face Washington's wrath. It is rumored that it will face a penalty of at least $500 million, an amount that is roughly equivalent to one year of the bank's income.

As if choreographed by a financial god with a wicked sense of humor, the very next day marked the official implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a new set of laws that will require all foreign financial institutions to routinely and regularly report to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service all the financial activities of their American customers.

The law also requires that institutions report on all their non-American customers who have ever worked in the U.S. or those persons who have a "substantial" connection to the U.S. (Inconveniently the law fails to fully define what "substantial" means).

Failure to report will trigger 30% IRS withholding taxes on any dollar-based transactions made by clients who the U.S. has determined to be American...either by birth, marriage, or simply association."



Question:

How can FATCA apply to someone who does not use a SSN, TIN or EIN?

How can a foreign bank report anyone to the IRS who does not use a SSN, TIN or EIN?

How can the IRS levy a 30% withholding against anyone who does not use a SSN, TIN or EIN?

As for the first post, It seems like just another offer. It will be interesting to see how the BNP responds. If it has broken no laws or contracts the FED should have no standing in its claim, However it's hard to tell what's going on behind the scenes.

As far as the questions it's hard to see how the banks and IRS can regulate people who have no public records of their accounts. In my view it's just another way of getting the ones who wish to be a part of the fantasy to be pushed to the point of asking questions to what they are involved in. I don't see it as anything to be worried about, but maybe I'm wrong.

In both these cases, the foreign banks' desires to bank in Federal Reserve Notes creates the US leverage needed to manage the banks' behavior. These foreign banks can give the US the finger if they want, but it would be the end of their bread and butter business.

Let's face it... the US uses its military and economic might to get what it wants. It's disgusting really, but that's how empires behave, especially empires on the decline.