num_pages: 304
description: The denizens of the global underground economy are as diverse as they are colorful: incredibly wealthy tax evaders with megamansions, 200-foot yachts, and $45 million private jets; arms dealers and mercenaries; drug-dealing warlords; art forgers and art thieves; Russian oligarchs, Russian mobsters, and Chechnyan terrorists; the Saudi Royal family and their mujahideen arch-enemies; smugglers, interrogators, assassins, con artists and fraudsters of all description; more than a few corrupt First and Third World politicians, judges, dictators, generals; and even a prelate or two. Despite their diversity, all these players share the same basic financial concerns for their stocks of anonymous private wealth—at last count, worth more than $5 trillion—against the threats posed by prosecutors, tax men, kidnappers, and each other.Fortunately for this Noah’s Ark of subterranean characters, a sophisticated network has grown up to deliver precisely these services. This global "pirate banking" system now conceals the riches of the world’s wealthiest people and largest corporations as well as many of its worst villains. They are all citizens of a brave new virtual country—one that lacks a physical location, but offers them freedom from most taxes, laws, and moral restraints.
language: English
title: Pirate Bankers: First-Hand Investigations Of Private Banking, Capital Flight, Corruption, Money Laundering, Tax Evasion, Drug Trafficking, Organized ... And The Continuing Global Development Crisis
publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press,U.S.