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    Bank Leumi Media Monitoring 02/20/15

    English Language Press

  1. Finally! The US is busting Israeli banks

    Feb 19, 2015 | CNBC

    By Sam Antar

    Foreign banks have been helping Americans dodge U.S. income taxes for years. But it's taken decades for law enforcement to catch up with them.
  2. Sam Antar: I was laundering money through Bank Leumi decades ago

    Feb 19, 2015 | NBC

    Former Crazy Eddie CFO and convicted felon Sam Antar explains how he got away with laundering money through Bank Leumi decades ago and why it took so long for the Feds to crack down on the Israeli-based bank.

    3. Swiss German Language Press

  3. Overview: US-Swiss Tax Dispute

    Feb 20, 2015 | Tages-Anzeiger

    There was no mention of Bank Leumi or Israeli banks in Swiss media today. There was, however, continued coverage of the broader tax dispute.

    4. Israeli Press - There are no relevant clips to report at this time.

    Bank Leumi Media Monitoring 02/20/15

    English Language Press

  1. Finally! The US is busting Israeli banks

    Feb 19, 2015 | CNBC

    By Sam Antar

    Foreign banks have been helping Americans dodge U.S. income taxes for years. But it's taken decades for law enforcement to catch up with them.

    Bank Leumi, Israel's second largest bank, admitted late last year to helping its American customers evade income taxes, hide assets, and launder their money back into the United States. The bank agreed to pay $130 million in fines to New York regulators and another $270 million to the federal government, and assist in an ongoing probe of other Israeli banks.

    But I know that the FBI and SEC have known about this for decades because I personally flagged it to them in 1989, when Crazy Eddie was busted for fraud and I was trying to avoid prison time. (Which I did.)  

    During my criminal career at Crazy Eddie, my family used Bank Leumi to help them evade taxes, hide assets, and launder money because of their exceptional client services and discretion. From 1971 to 1984, I was intimately involved in my family's scheme to underreport cash revenues and evade income taxes at Crazy Eddie when we were a private company. Bank Leumi sent its Israeli employees to New York to assist my family in opening secret numbered accounts in Israel, ferry their skimmed cash overseas, and later helped them launder that cash back into the United States when they needed access to those funds.

    Family members handed over briefcases full of cash to Bank Leumi employees. When family members boarded their El Al flights to Israel, somehow the cash was waiting on the plane for them. The Israeli bankers personally handed over to family members all bank documents to avoid using U.S. mail. When my family needed cash, they obtained sham business loans from Bank Leumi-USA, but those loans were secretly secured by the cash deposited at Bank Leumi-Israel. They were able to deduct the interest paid on those loans as a business expense, while earning tax-free interest on the funds deposited overseas.

    Then in 1984, after we went public, we stopped doing income-tax fraud to engage in the more lucrative business of screwing investors by doing securities fraud. From 1984 to 1987, we overstated our income to reap huge financial rewards by selling stock to unsuspecting investors at inflated prices. We used Bank Leumi to launder cash back into Crazy Eddie through a foreign dummy corporation in Panama to overstate our sales and profits to drive up the stock price. The financial rewards that my family reaped by selling stock at inflated prices many more times covered the added cost of Crazy Eddie paying corporate income taxes on the laundered cash.

    Even after the U.S. government cracked down on secret bank accounts in Switzerland, Bank Leumi never stopped – in fact, it went into overdrive to attract new customers, according to a statement by New York regulators after a deal was reached.

    I delivered Bank Leumi to the feds on a silver platter 25 years ago, so there appears to be no plausible excuse for the delay in taking action against them.

    A lot of Bank Leumi's customers, particularly in the New York Jewish community, are crapping in their pants waiting for the next shoe to drop, but they should have been worried 25 years ago. Anyone who used Bank Leumi's competitors in Israel to evade taxes should be crapping, too. Bank Leumi is required to help the Justice Department investigate other Israeli banks. 

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  2. Sam Antar: I was laundering money through Bank Leumi decades ago

    Feb 19, 2015 | NBC

    Former Crazy Eddie CFO and convicted felon Sam Antar explains how he got away with laundering money through Bank Leumi decades ago and why it took so long for the Feds to crack down on the Israeli-based bank.            

    For video:

    http://www.nbcnews.com/watch/cnbc/sam-antar-i-was-laundering-money-through-bank-leumi-deca-401476675667

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    3. Swiss German Language Press

  3. Overview: US-Swiss Tax Dispute

    Feb 20, 2015 | Tages-Anzeiger

    There was no mention of Bank Leumi or Israeli banks in today’s Swiss media. There was, however, continued coverage of the broader tax dispute.

     -          A Geneva court yesterday opened a case regarding the legality of Credit Suisse handing over employee data to US courts. CS is being represented by two renowned Geneva lawyers. The plaintiff is a former CS client advisor, who for two years has prevented CS from handing over thousands of documents regarding so called US persons handled by her. She maintains that the handover of personal details to the US Justice Department is illegal.

    The plaintiff’s lawyer, Douglas Hornung, says there is no basis for handing over this information, nor is there an overriding public or private interest for doing so. CS is trying to bypass regular legal and administrative assistance procedures. The handing over of personal information is forbidden, despite the fact that in 2013 CS was granted special permission by the Swiss government to do so.   

    According to Hornung, the Swiss government knew this procedure was illegal, as did the Swiss Federal Office of Justice and the Swiss market supervisor Finma, but they changed their mind based on instructions from the government in 2013. The government tried to create a basis for the procedure by adopting the so called Lex USA, which was rejected by Parliament.

    The risk remains high for Swiss bank employees who worked at US desks to be arrested when traveling abroad. Only two weeks ago, a former client advisor at Wegelin was arrested in Frankfurt on behalf of the US.

    The verdict in the Geneva court case concerning CS is expected in four to five months.

    http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wirtschaft/Genfer-Richterin-vor-wegweisendem-Entscheid/story/15779648

     

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    4. Israeli Press - There are no relevant clips to report at this time.

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