Free Republic

Snippet: "Iran and its terrorist proxy groups’ influence in Latin America remains a troubling security threat to the region and world, experts said at a congressional hearing on Tuesday."

The operators of two exchanges for the virtual currency Bitcoin have been arrested in the US. The Department of Justice said Robert Faiella, known as BTCKing, and Charlie Shrem from BitInstant.com have both been charged with money laundering. The authorities said the pair were engaged in a scheme to sell more than $1m (£603,000) in bitcoins to users of online drug marketplace the Silk Road. The site was shut down last year and its alleged owner was arrested. Mr Shrem was arrested on Sunday at New York's JFK airport. He was expected to appear in court on Monday, prosecutors said....

St. Louis police are searching for a man who robbed a Bank of America branch from the drive-through lane about noon Saturday. Police said the man drove up to the bank in the 6600 block of South Kingshighway in a white Impala and announced a robbery while at the drive-through window. The teller gave him an undisclosed amount of cash and the man drove off.

When Dmitry Argarkov was sent a letter offering him a credit card, he found the rates not to his liking. But he didn't throw the contract away or shred it. Instead, the 42-year-old from Voronezh, Russia, scanned it into his computer, altered the terms and sent it back to Tinkoff Credit Systems.

The banks would hold a buffer of liquid assets - such as government bonds - to draw on to ensure they can meet withdrawals by depositors, to post collateral due to credit rating downgrades and to meet other needs. U.S. government debt and excess reserves held at the Fed are deemed the most liquid under the Fed's proposal, while claims on government-sponsored enterprises, such as mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are less liquid and may make up only 40 percent of the buffer.

Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has launched what it says is the first market index and portfolio based on gay-friendly policies. The LGBT Equality Index ranks companies by how well they respect the rights of employees and other members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. It currently covers 201 US-based firms, but Credit Suisse said it hoped to expand the index and associated investment portfolio, unveiled Monday in New York, to other countries. The portfolio is currently only available to US-based private banking clients able to spend a minimum of $250,000 but could be open to smaller...

MOUNT CLEMENS, Michigan - A 53-year-old woman has pleaded guilty after she allegedly used cans of spaghetti sauce to simulate a bomb and then proceeded to rob a bank. Police say Ophelia A. Neal, a parole absconder, robbed a Fifth Third Bank branch in Macomb County's Clinton Township on April 6. According to police, Neal told bank employees she had a bomb in a cloth bag, demanded money and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash into a getaway car driven by a man. Neal pleaded guilty Monday in Oakland County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens to bank robbery and...

"Gunman who took hostages at Louisiana bank posted chilling Facebook messages" SNIPPET: "The gunman who took three hostages at a Louisiana bank Tuesday -- killing one of them before being shot and killed by police -- recently posted chilling messages on Facebook, including a cartoon strip about hostages.   In a post on Sunday, 20-year-old Fuaed Abdo Ahmed displays a cartoon strip that focuses on an apparent hostage situation." SNIPPET: "Ahmed's final post, made Tuesday just hours before the hostage standoff began, is of a photo of a man with a sword attacking a tank.Under the photo is a quote...

Burka bandit tries to hold up National City bank, CBS8 San Diego, August 2, 2013 A woman tried to rob a bank in National City, and officials sought the public's help locating her. The attempted robbery occurred at around 6 p.m. Thursday at a Wells Fargo Bank branch at 1199 Highland Ave., according to FBI Special Agent Darrell Foxworth. "At the time of the robbery, the woman entered the bank and stood in the teller line until summoned by a teller," Foxworth said. "Upon arriving at the teller counter, the woman presented a demand note." The teller read some of...

In a sign he possibly needs to get out more, President Obama asserted in an interview broadcast Sunday that bank tellers had vanished from the face of the earth, saying their absence is an example of how the new economy has eliminated low-end jobs and heightened inequality. Obama made the odd remark during an interview with ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos. “If you look at the data, a couple of things are creating these trends,” Obama said of the growing gap between the rich and the poor. ”Technology: if you go to a lot of companies now, they’ve eliminated...

COLUMBUS, Texas -- Two bank robbery suspects were shot in Colorado County Thursday night by a man who said they kidnapped him and his wife, a bank employee. According to the Colorado County Sheriff’s Office, the couple had been held at gunpoint by the suspects inside their home just north of Columbus. They were then forced to drive to the First National Bank of Eagle Lake in Columbus. The suspects then forced the woman to take out an undisclosed amount of funds, investigators said. “We believe they had knowledge that she was an employee of the bank for them to...

Glenn promised that TheBlaze would continue to cover this story until the bank rectifies the situation. “First National Bank in Wellston, Ohio, I would recommend that you do the right thing. And it’s really shameful that you have to be shamed into it, and I would recommend that all those who have accounts with the First National Bank in Wellston call the bank and say, “What are you doing?” I mean, I’m doing business with you because you’re a local bank. Stop being a dirtbag. Do the right thing. Settle with these people. And if you haven’t, on Monday we’re...

An influential Vatican journalist has explicitly charged that the newly installed prelate of the Vatican bank has engaged in homosexual misconduct, and has been protected by other officials at the Vatican. Sandro Magister of L’Espresso reports that Msgr. Battista Ricca provided room and a job for a male companion while he was assigned as a Vatican diplomat in Uruguay between 1999 and 2001. The Italian cleric also frequented gay bars, and was once beaten in an altercation at a bar. Magister goes on to charge that although these incidents were well known, there were not noted on Msgr. Ricca’s personnel...

Raynard Versatile Crowe, 31, formerly of Hazel Park, was sentenced yesterday to 535 months in federal prison, following his conviction on March 21, 2013, by a jury in Detroit on charges of bank robbery, pharmacy robbery, using a firearm during a crime of violence, felon in possession of a firearm, and conspiracy, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced. McQuade was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Robert D. Foley, III of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow. The evidence presented at trial established that...

"Lebanese Canadian Bank to Pay $102 Million in Hizballah Laundering Case" SNIPPET: "The Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank ("LCB") will pay $102 million as part of a settlement reached this week with federal prosecutors. The LCB was accused in a December 2011 complaint of funneling money to the Lebanese terrorist group Hizballah as part of a global money-laundering scheme. The "settlement shows that banks laundering money for terrorists and narco-traffickers will face consequences for their actions, wherever they may be located. This type of money laundering network fuels the operations of both terrorists and drug traffickers, and will continue to use...

The Kansas Food Bank gave out record numbers of Friday food packages to schoolchildren in Wichita and throughout the state this year as part of its Food 4 Kids program. The highest number of backpacks of food handed out to needy school children was 7,158 during a week in February, said Larry Gunkel, a Food Bank official running the program. (Snip) The program ensures that students identified by school staff as chronically hungry can get a backpack of food on Fridays for the weekend. Teachers and school social workers have told the Food Bank

FBI agents shot one bank robbery suspect dead and arrested two others at a bank in the small town of Richmond on Friday, investigators said. Federal investigators had been tailing the three men on I-90 and to the bank because they were suspected of previous bank robberies and were thought to be planning another, a source close to the investigation said. FBI spokeswoman Joan Hyde said the men "had been the subject of an investigation," but declined to elaborate. The shooting occurred at about 11:30 a.m. in the parking lot of Associated Bank at 10910 N. Main St. in Richmond,...

John F. Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), spoke at New America Foundation's National Security Studies Program on Wednesday and said $50 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars was stolen from the United States Treasury and found in a bank in Afghanistan. The money has since gone missing. "We identified 50 million dollars stolen from the United States Treasury and it was sitting in an Afghan bank account," said Sopko. "We identified the bank account, we obtained a court order in the United States and had it served on the Afghan government to get them to seize that...

A worldwide gang of criminals stole $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then draining cash machines around the globe, federal prosecutors said Thursday — and outmoded U.S. card technology may be partly to blame. Seven people are under arrest in the U.S. in connection with the case, which prosecutors said involved thousands of thefts from ATMs using bogus magnetic swipe cards carrying information from Middle Eastern banks. The fraudsters moved with astounding speed to loot financial institutions around the world, working in cells including one in...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1908.aspx Treasury Identifies Kassem Rmeiti & Co. for Exchange and Halawi Exchange Co. as Financial Institutions of “Primary Money Laundering Concern” 4/23/2013 In First Use of Section 311 Against a Non-Bank Financial Institution, Treasury Acts to Protect the U.S. Financial System from Foreign Exchange Houses Tied to Global Narcotics and Money Laundering Networks and Hizballah WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today named two Lebanese exchange houses, Kassem Rmeiti & Co. For Exchange (Rmeiti Exchange) and Halawi Exchange Co. (Halawi Exchange), as foreign financial institutions of primary money laundering concern under...