ING Bank has kindly been asked to pay, a record price for its sins, 619 million dollars to be precise! This fine has been imposed on them by the US authorities. Why? Because ING Bank happened to move more than 2 billion dollars, of Cuban and Iranian funds illegally, through the US banking system. ING even threatened to fire employees, if they didn’t agree to hide the evidence of where the money came from. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control prohibits some countries access to the US banking system, to contain money laundering and terrorist financing. ING obviously didn’t quite agree with such regulation and used a complicated system to successfully conceal the origin of more than 20,000 transactions.
This Sunday is decision day for Greece – to stay in the euro zone or not to stay, that is the question, to be answered in the upcoming elections. The fear of the unknown has prompted the Greek population to pull out up to 800 million euros out of major Greek banks daily, and Greeks are also stocking up on food. At this point there are two political parties fighting over Greece, the conservative New Democracy Party, that wants to keep the 130 billion euro bailout, and the leftist SYRIZA party, which wants out of the deal. Official polls have now been cancelled, so all we can do now is wait and see. Can you imagine what would happened at a Germany versus Greece Soccer match?
It is trial day three for former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky in the child sexual abuse trial, that shocked the nation. Sandusky supposedly used his charity the Second Mile, to get access to vulnerable boys and take advantage of them. After several witness accounts, Sandusky now faces a sentence of over 500 years in prison, if convicted on all counts. So far two accusers have testified and six more are to take the stand. May justice prevail. Protect your children.
Soccer fans in Poland came head to head in clashes, as an organized Russia Day march, through the streets of Warsaw, right before the soccer game, brought some Polish fans to a boiling point, leading to full on attacks on Russian fans. 184 people were arrested, out of which 157 were Polish and 24 were Russian. Luckily no deaths were reported. Given Russian and Polish history, I can see the risks of allow an official Russia Day march through Poland, but I would like to believe that the past is now in the past. The attacks were apparently led by the ultras in Poland, who are known for their aggressive ways, and Polish media promptly apologized for their behavior to the Russians. And more importantly, the Russia vs. Poland match ended in a 1-1 draw, which means both teams still have the chance to go through to quarter finals. Although, I am routing for Germany and Greece in the finals!
ING Bank has kindly been asked to pay, a record price for its sins, 619 million dollars to be precise! This fine has been imposed on them by the US authorities. Why? Because ING Bank happened to move more than 2 billion dollars, of Cuban and Iranian funds illegally, through the US banking system. ING even threatened to fire employees, if they didn’t agree to hide the evidence of where the money came from. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control prohibits some countries access to the US banking system, to contain money laundering and terrorist financing. ING obviously didn’t quite agree with such regulation and used a complicated system to successfully conceal the origin of more than 20,000 transactions.
This Sunday is decision day for Greece – to stay in the euro zone or not to stay, that is the question, to be answered in the upcoming elections. The fear of the unknown has prompted the Greek population to pull out up to 800 million euros out of major Greek banks daily, and Greeks are also stocking up on food. At this point there are two political parties fighting over Greece, the conservative New Democracy Party, that wants to keep the 130 billion euro bailout, and the leftist SYRIZA party, which wants out of the deal. Official polls have now been cancelled, so all we can do now is wait and see. Can you imagine what would happened at a Germany versus Greece Soccer match?
It is trial day three for former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky in the child sexual abuse trial, that shocked the nation. Sandusky supposedly used his charity the Second Mile, to get access to vulnerable boys and take advantage of them. After several witness accounts, Sandusky now faces a sentence of over 500 years in prison, if convicted on all counts. So far two accusers have testified and six more are to take the stand. May justice prevail. Protect your children.
Soccer fans in Poland came head to head in clashes, as an organized Russia Day march, through the streets of Warsaw, right before the soccer game, brought some Polish fans to a boiling point, leading to full on attacks on Russian fans. 184 people were arrested, out of which 157 were Polish and 24 were Russian. Luckily no deaths were reported. Given Russian and Polish history, I can see the risks of allow an official Russia Day march through Poland, but I would like to believe that the past is now in the past. The attacks were apparently led by the ultras in Poland, who are known for their aggressive ways, and Polish media promptly apologized for their behavior to the Russians. And more importantly, the Russia vs. Poland match ended in a 1-1 draw, which means both teams still have the chance to go through to quarter finals. Although, I am routing for Germany and Greece in the finals!