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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Money-Laundering by Public Figures

This is Steven Petrick Posting.

One of the things that constantly annoys me is the statement that this or that public figure cannot be held accountable for giving money to some organization because the money that figure gave was for a "specific purpose".

If you look at the situation you get things like:

"Yes, the XYZ Organization supported the rebel/counter rebels forces in country A, but the money Senator so and so, or congressmen such and such, gave was only for college scholarships and was all spent there."

If you dig deeper, and supposedly our ever vigilant members of the media are supposed to do this, but often cannot be bothered, you will find the following:

The XYZ organization has a college scholarship fund. But the XYZ organization also has an opportunity or other need to sudden give the rebel/counter rebel force it supports a large infusion of cash.

So they go to the public figures, ask for the money, pretty much telling them what they need it for. The public figure provides the money, then the XYZ organization simply applies the public figure/s money as the money for the scholarship fund, while it transfers the funds to the rebel/counter rebel group.

The upshot is that the public figure HAS given his or her money, knowingly, to the rebel/counter rebel force, but has "plausible deny-ability" because, after all, the money they gave was for the scholarships. Therefore they are not supporting the rebel/counter-rebel force and cannot in any way be held accountable for the fact that the XYZ organization is supporting the force.

The fact is that they are, because if they had not given the money, the organization would have been forced to cancel its scholarship funds, or choose not to give money to buy guns and explosives and other goodies to the force it supports.

The public figure can then run for office with the good feeling that he/she has supported the cause but blandly tell the American People that his/her contributions are "only used to support scholarships".