15

Spanish Trace, Florida

Deke liked to refer to his head of Security and Investigative Services, Carol Morris, as “Southern steel magnolia.” A little older than Deke, Carol was a dynamo in the office and out in the field. She had grown up in the South, the daughter of an army staff sergeant. Some of her father’s hardness must have rubbed off on Carol, because she easily intimidated anyone with her “in your face” presence that she could control like a light switch. Deke himself wouldn’t want to be on her bad side. She did have an impulsive nature, and Carol had been known to lose her temper. That said, she could be polite and charming when that same switch flipped.

Carol had worked for years in law enforcement, and she was especially good at speaking to and comforting female victims or interrogating women suspects. Heaven help male suspects if they faced Carol Morris across the table from them! She could be “good cop” and “bad cop” at the same time.

She had many connections in the world of law and order. Carol had go-to sources in the DOJ, the Treasury Department, the FBI, the CIA, the DEA, and in police departments around the country. Given Deke’s task that she look into the terrorist organizations that Bank Antriol was doing business with, she knew who to contact.

Tyra Schilling worked in the Treasury Department. Like Carol, Tyra was a no-nonsense career woman who took the job seriously and suffered no fools. She was often at odds with her superiors, which, in Carol’s book, meant she was trustworthy. Carol gave Tyra a call.

“Carol Morris, are you still alive and kicking up dust?” the woman answered, recognizing the caller ID.

“I’m as mean and ornery as ever,” Carol answered with a laugh. “How are you, Tyra?”

“Working my butt off. The Treasury never sleeps. What can I do for you?”

“Tyra, aren’t you part of a team that compiles the list of sanctioned individuals and companies that banks aren’t supposed to do business with?”

“Uh huh. You mean the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. The SDN. You’ll find my fingerprints all over that thing. Why do you want to know?”

Carol launched into the story. “My law firm is doing preliminary investigations into possibly taking on a civil action against a bank that we believe is still doing business with players on the SDN list. I was wondering if you might know something about the bank and any of these places.”

“Maybe. Who are we talking about?”

“Bank Antriol.”

Tyra laughed. “Oh, Lord. Funny you should mention them. I am well aware of Bank Antriol’s case with the DOJ. We have them under a consent order now, with auditors in place monitoring their SAR compliance and look-back review. The DOJ got after the bank for allowing money transfers between wealthy individuals in Europe and the Middle East to fund companies identified as fronts for fundraising entities linked to Iran and other entities suspected of supporting terrorism. We were never able to tie the bank directly to a terror group though. You know what reverse money laundering is?”

“Theoretically.”

“Well, you know that money laundering is when criminals turn dirty money into clean money. It’s like when drug cartels make a million dollars in cash for selling drugs, and then they find ways to filter that money through various channels so that it comes out looking like the money was made through legitimate means. We just handled a case where a small-time jeweler in New York was money laundering for some heroin distributors. Let’s say they made $10,000 from selling drugs. The jeweler would take a cheap diamond worth, say, $150. He would then throw that diamond into New York Harbor. However, he’d then create a receipt of purchase for selling the diamond to a nonexistent customer for $10,000. Ta-da. That dirty ten grand is now clean ten grand.”

“Yeah, I understand money laundering.”

“Well, reverse money laundering is the opposite. It turns clean money into dirty money that is used by the bad guys for illegal purposes. It’s a lot more difficult to flag and trace. In a case like this, say you have some alleged upstanding citizen who deposits legitimate money into a bank or investment firm. Those funds are then moved to make fictitious investments, or into shell companies, or offshore tax havens, or whatever. Then the bad guys withdraw those funds from the financial system, and they use it for illegal means. Here’s an example. Someone buys a bunch of kitchen equipment for ten grand. But it’s a ‘gift’ for some relative in the Middle East. When the recipient receives the kitchen equipment, it turns out to be guns, or grenades, or material to make bombs. Somewhere along the way, the company that was supplying the kitchen equipment did a switcheroo through a series of in-between companies—shadow companies—and the original clean money came out dirty.”

Carol said, “That’s kind of what’s going on here. We have a source who has told us that Bank Antriol is still doing business with sanctioned companies. Have you heard of SeedDotz Manufacturing? They’re American but have facilities in Europe.”

Carol heard Tyra typing on her computer. “Yeah, I’m pulling their information now. US-based machine tool company with subsidiaries in Europe and Asia. Specializing in supplying industrial metal manufacturers with custom tools. Their website doesn’t tell you much. It’s almost as if they deliberately make their business vague so no one will bother them.”

“Exactly. We think they’re just one of the groups involved. What can you tell me about the bank?”

Tyra answered, “The president of the New York branch is a guy named Nigel Beech. He’s actually been very cooperative with the DOJ. From what I understand, he seems like he’s decent. For a rich bastard, anyway. I’m pretty sure he’s under a lot of pressure from the board of directors and other officers to put up more resistance to the DOJ.”

“Have you heard of Blake Dullea or Karl Maher? They’re executive VPs.”

“No. They’re not on my radar. But I tell you what. We have files on all the bank’s officers. Complete bios and profiles. And we have all the case files of the settlement agreement with the DOJ.”

“Oh, my. Who do I have to buy dinner for to get copies of that stuff?”

“Me? Next time you’re in DC?”

“Done!”

“Do me a favor, Carol. I’ll send the files to you, but don’t tell anyone where they came from, okay?”

“I’m not a dummy, Tyra.”

“I know that. And also … keep me informed? We’re very interested in Bank Antriol. If your case actually goes forward, perhaps we can help each other out.”

“You got it. Thanks, Tyra.”

“As soon as I round up everything, I’ll send you a secure zip file.” She confirmed Carol’s email address, and the two women hung up.

Carol thought, Not bad for an hour’s work!