Talk:Delta Asia Financial Group

US Control/Inflluence over BDA deposits

It would be interesting to add a discussion to this article of how the US is able to exert such influence over the North Korean funds that are deposited at this insitution. I haven't seen that addressed in the media, and it doesn't seem to be very intuitive that the US has this kind of influence over a non-US depositor at a non-US bank. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Gjones0316 (talk • contribs) 17:55, 20 March 2007 (UTC).

The U.S. Treasury Department has the the authority to cut a bank loose from the from the U.S. financial system as a result of the Patriot Act passed after 9/11. Actually, I think they always had the authority, but implementation used to be more complicated. BDA was cut off in March will persumably be liquidated. IMO, it's only natural that the U.S. Treasury exercises authority over U.S. dollar accounts where ever they might be located. Otherwise, any overseas bank could just create U.S. dollar accounts out of funny money deposits. I know that China has regulations concerning yuan accounts overseas, so its not only the U.S. that does this. The counterfeit North Korean notes used to be called "superbills," but there is now readily available technology to detect them. If BDA was fooled, it's because they didn't want to know. Kauffner 10:32, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Israeli banks

But even if allegations of $50 million in money laundering in 2002 or hundreds of million of dollars in some other time period have some basis in truth, they are small beer compared to sums uncovered in other and far better documented Treasury investigations of non-US banks which branch operations based in the US. From March 2004 to March 2005, the Israel Discount Bank of New York (a financial institution based in Israel) processed "181,000 third-party wire transfers totaling $35.4 billion," a substantial fraction of which "exhibited characteristics and patterns commonly associated with money laundering." In short, BDA, a small bank in Macau still only vaguely accused of various irregularities despite Treasury's review of 300,000 bank documents, is a tiny fish swimming among some much larger banking whales involved in financial wrongdoing much more extensively documented by Treasury. Moreover, consider that in July 2002 Treasury issued an advisory stating that "Israel has enacted significant reforms to its counter-money laundering system . . . and has taken concrete steps to bring these reforms into effect. Because of the enactment of new laws and the beginning of effective implementation, enhanced scrutiny [by Treasury] with respect to transactions involving Israel . . . is no longer necessary." Yet as noted above, a few years later Treasury (along with New York state banking authorities) was investigating the Israel Discount Bank of New York for major violations involving "high-risk foreign accounts, such as accounts for non-bank financial institutions in Latin America" (the bank was eventually fined $12 million in October 2006). Because of the sums involved and the existence of US-based branch operations that are conduits for direct financial flows into the United States, it might be said that Israeli banks pose a greater threat to the US financial system – and possibly national security – than banks in Macau.

have removed this as constituting original analysis and unattributed pov. Doldrums (talk) 09:55, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Looks like it was added by IP editor in late October and nobody noticed.[1] Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 16:46, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

BDA is just a little bitty bank (Number 10 in Macau), but it's quite well connected. It was shut down as a warning to the Bank of China, to force Macau to adopt anti-money laundering rules, and to put pressure on North Korea with respect to the nuclear issue. How much money Israeli banks launder has no relationship to this issue. The current article gives way too much prominance the Ernst & Young audit. If BDA did business with North Korea, that's plenty of reason to shut it down right there. What legitimate business is NK in? It's all drugs, counterfeiting, weapons sales, and Pachinko profits.

BDA must be a very strange bank nowadays. They are supposedly back to "regular operation," but Hong Kong money is common currency in Macau and they are appearently not allowed to use it. Kauffner (talk) 03:09, 9 June 2008 (UTC)