DRUG SMUGGLERS AND MONEY LAUNDERERSDUTCH TREAT
The Netherlands government still controls foreign-policymatters in the semi-autonomous Dutch Caribbean entities of Aruba and Curaçao.In early May this year, a conference was held in Curaçao, on moneylaundering in Latin America. The sponsors of the gathering included theAssociation of International Bankers of the Netherlands Antilles. Thesebankers have not been consistently rigorous in action against money laundering.In 1989, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau stated the investigationthat led to prosecution of Bank of Credit Commerce International (BCCI)for irregularities. A BCCI subsidiary, First American Bank Shares of Washington,D.C., was a wholly owned subsidiary itself of the Credit & CommerceAmerican Investments of the Netherlands and of Curaçao. Three yearslater Morganthau had broken some of the bank secrecy in the Netherlandsand in its Antilles dependencies. A former Dutch prosecutor told the Curaçaoconference that drug traffickers had penetrated the government institutionsin Aruba. The conference heard that the powerful Mansur family, whose membersown Marlboro cigarette factories in Aruba and liquor stores, were linkedto money laundering. The U.S. indicted cousins Eric and Alex Mansur forusing Interbank to launder money from Colombian drug sales in the USA.Now the U.S. Justice Department is trying to find what parallel operationsfrom Mexican drug cartels involve Netherlands Antilles entities.
The Aruban Attorney General is always a Dutchnational, the appointment of whom must be approved by the government atThe Hague. New York journalist Lucy Komisar reported on May 29, 1997, thatthe Dutch government helping the U.S. probe the Caribbean connection, soDutch banks will continue to be welcome to operate in New York. Aruba andCuraçao banks do have depositors who are Mexican nationals but sofar we have no details on any of them in terms of money or drug trafficking.But the Colombian-Antilles connection has been firmly established, boththe WASHINGTON TIMES and the WALL STREET JOURNAL have reported. Further,Bogota newspapers in 1996 charged that someone from the Mansur family ofAruba funneled US$500,000 in campaign cash to Colombian President ErnestoSamper through the wife of a Cali cartel boss. Samper denied it vigorously.After such charges, the Mansurs were awarded a monopoly on managing Colombiangambling, but then the government suddenly canceled that monopoly withoutexplanation.
More on the Mansur family.
DRUG SMUGGLERS AND MONEY LAUNDERERSDUTCH TREAT
The Netherlands government still controls foreign-policymatters in the semi-autonomous Dutch Caribbean entities of Aruba and Curaçao.In early May this year, a conference was held in Curaçao, on moneylaundering in Latin America. The sponsors of the gathering included theAssociation of International Bankers of the Netherlands Antilles. Thesebankers have not been consistently rigorous in action against money laundering.In 1989, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau stated the investigationthat led to prosecution of Bank of Credit Commerce International (BCCI)for irregularities. A BCCI subsidiary, First American Bank Shares of Washington,D.C., was a wholly owned subsidiary itself of the Credit & CommerceAmerican Investments of the Netherlands and of Curaçao. Three yearslater Morganthau had broken some of the bank secrecy in the Netherlandsand in its Antilles dependencies. A former Dutch prosecutor told the Curaçaoconference that drug traffickers had penetrated the government institutionsin Aruba. The conference heard that the powerful Mansur family, whose membersown Marlboro cigarette factories in Aruba and liquor stores, were linkedto money laundering. The U.S. indicted cousins Eric and Alex Mansur forusing Interbank to launder money from Colombian drug sales in the USA.Now the U.S. Justice Department is trying to find what parallel operationsfrom Mexican drug cartels involve Netherlands Antilles entities.
The Aruban Attorney General is always a Dutchnational, the appointment of whom must be approved by the government atThe Hague. New York journalist Lucy Komisar reported on May 29, 1997, thatthe Dutch government helping the U.S. probe the Caribbean connection, soDutch banks will continue to be welcome to operate in New York. Aruba andCuraçao banks do have depositors who are Mexican nationals but sofar we have no details on any of them in terms of money or drug trafficking.But the Colombian-Antilles connection has been firmly established, boththe WASHINGTON TIMES and the WALL STREET JOURNAL have reported. Further,Bogota newspapers in 1996 charged that someone from the Mansur family ofAruba funneled US$500,000 in campaign cash to Colombian President ErnestoSamper through the wife of a Cali cartel boss. Samper denied it vigorously.After such charges, the Mansurs were awarded a monopoly on managing Colombiangambling, but then the government suddenly canceled that monopoly withoutexplanation.
http://duncan.gn.apc.org/bat/Health_Committee_Evidence_1.htm