Sunday, January 6, 2013

13-01-03 PRESS RELEASE: FATCA, Stanley Fischer - complaint asks release of $250,000 seized of "US Person" by Israeli Bank HaPoalim

The complaint asks the release of $250,000, unlawfully seized from "US Person" by the Israeli Bank HaPoalim, BM.  The conduct has no foundation in either the law of the State of Israel, or the law of the United States, but appears to have been induced by Bank of Israel's Stanley Fischer unparalleled, unconditional submission to the United States FACTA. Petition, previously filed with the Israeli High Court of Justice claimed that Fischer exchanged his loyalty to the State of Israel and its law with loyalty to another nation and its law, and/or loyalty to financial institutions and their interests. The case captures the financial crisis in a nutshell – criminality by financial institution is patronized by national banking regulators and the national highest courts.  In this case – under the guise of compliance with United States law by Israeli banks. Eventually, the territory of "FACTA-compliance" is likely to coincide with the territory of the financial crisis, through corruption of banking regulation of other nations, under United States coercion.
image  image
Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Bank of Israel - Israel’s Banking Regulator and Bilderberg Member, showing off his newly acquired Israeli ID in 2005; Supreme Court of the State of Israel, FATCA.




Jerusalem, January 6 – complaint, filed with Bank of Israel-Banking regulation, documents the seizing on January 1, 2013, of some $250,000 of "US Person's" funds, which were deposited with the Israeli Bank HaPoalim, BM. [1]  The conduct of the Bank was purported by the Bank as part of its "New Policy" of compliance with the United States FACTA law in the State of Israel.  Under such "New Policy" the Bank demanded that the customer, a US citizen living in Israel, sign "Waiver of Privacy" to the United States government of his financial transactions in an Israeli bank in Israel, which the customer refused to sign. In response, Bank HaPoalim now denies the customer's access to the customer's own deposit accounts, totaling some $250,000.

The complaint also documents that:
·       Bank HaPoalim in fact had no "New Policy".  The Bank refused to provide a copy of the policy record and stated that none existed.
·       Bank HaPoalim refused to comply with pertinent United States Internal Revenue Regulations – reporting to the account holder the total interest gained in his account on an annual basis (US IRS form 1099-Int) – conduct that is inconsistent with honest banking as well.
·       Bank HaPoalim's conduct in seizing deposit accounts had no basis even in the purported US FATCA – the act provides only for only withholding tax on income from US financial assets held at the Banks by non-compliant customers. 

petition, previously filed with the Israeli Supreme Court, sought to compel Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer to perform his duties as banking regulator.  The Court was asked to order Stanley Fischer to duly register and review a complaint, relative to conduct of Bank HaPoalim, BM, and its purported enforcement the United States FATCA in the State of Israel. [1] 

Today, staff of Bank of Israel confirmed receipt of the consumer's complaint, filed by Joseph Zernik, PhD, of Human Rights Alert (NGO).  Whether the complaint would ever be registered, be reviewed "according to legal standards", and decision communicated to the complainant (as promised on the Bank of Israel web site for all complaints), remains to be seen.

In August 2012, a previous complaint against Bank HaPoalim was filed by Dr Zernik, which documented unlawful, extortionist demands and threats by Bank HaPoalim, BM, under the guise of FATCA compliance. [2] For months Bank of Israel refused to inform the complainant, whether the complaint was registered and reviewed. Most recently, from conversations with Bank HaPoalim, Dr Zernik discovered that the Bank had received a decision from Bank of Israel on Dr Zernik's August 2012 complaint, which had been registered (No 82304-12), and that the Bank of Israel decision in part induced Bank HaPoalim's most recent unlawful actions.  Regardless, Bank of Israel continues in its refusal to disclose any details on the matter to the complainant. [3]

In October 2012, petition was also filed with the Israeli High Court of Justice to compel Mr Fischer to perform his duties by duly registering and reviewing the complaint against Bank HaPoalim. [4] The petition alleges that in permitting Israeli banks to act as they will under the pretense of enforcing the US FATCA, Stanley Fischer "undermines the rule of law" and "sovereignty of the State of Israel", and "substitutes his loyalty to the State of Israel and its laws with loyalty to another nation and its law, and/or with loyalty to financial institutions and their interests." [5]

The petition in the Supreme Court of Israel was subjected to a fate that was remarkably similar to the fate of the complaint against Bank HaPoalim, BM, at Bank of Israel-Banking Regulation:  The office of the clerk of the Supreme Court refused to duly register the petition. [6]

The case of Bank HaPoalim is particularly striking, since in previous years Mr Fischer had removed some of the Bank's senior officers and initiated criminal investigations against them. Now Mr Fischer is patronizing their criminality. 

The case of Mr Fischer is also striking, since review of Israeli media reports indicates that under his tenure Bank of Israel was determined, even prior to the final enactment of FATCA, that the matter was "not under its purview", and that Bank of Israel refused to issue Banking Regulations of the State of Israel in this matter, even after being pressed to do so by Israeli banks. [7]
  
Combined, conduct of Mr Fischer, Bank of Israel-Banking Regulation, and the Supreme Court of the State of Israel should raise concerns regarding integrity and stability of financial systems in the State of Israel.

Corruption of banking regulation in collusion with the US courts, under the color of law, has been increasingly recognized as central to the current socio-economic crisis in the United States. [8, and see quotes below] 

The State of Israel has not yet seen financial institutions' defaults of the size, seen in the US and Europe in recent years.  However, the case captures a snapshot of emergence of the basic conditions for a financial crisis, in a nutshell: Criminality by financial institutions is patronized by national banking regulators and the national highest courts.  In this case – under the guise of compliance with United States law by Israeli banks. Eventually, the territory of "FACTA-compliance" is likely to coincide with the territory of the financial crisis, through corruption of banking regulation of other nations, under United States coercion.

LINKS:
[1] 13-01-04 FATCA-related Consumer Complaint No 2 against Bank HaPoalim, BM, and its Chief Internal Auditor Jacob Orbach, filed with Bank of Israel-Banking Regulation
[2] 12-08-25 Dr Zernik's complaint, filed with Israeli banking regulation against Bank HaPoalim - for attempting to extort compliance with US IRS regulations in Jerusalem
[3] 13-01-03 Letter to Stanley Fischer, Bank of Israel Governor RE- request for immediate production of records re FATCA-related complaint against Bank HaPoalim, BM
[4] 12-10-23 PRESS RELEASE – Petition alleges Bank of Israel Fischer patronizes criminality at Bank HaPoalim, BM
[5] 12-10-23 Joseph Zernik v Stanley Fischer (7650/12) Petition in the High Court of Justice of the State of Israel.
[6] 12-12-27 PRESS RELEASE – FATCA, Stanley Fischer, and "Chief Clerk" Sarah Lifschitz in the High Court of Justice of the State of Israel
[7] 13-01-06 FATCA - United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (2011) - Israel and other nations' responses - compilation of media reports
[8] Zernik, J, Large-scale fraud in US court records is linked to failing banking regulation _ OpEdNews
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Joseph Zernik, PhD
< josephzernik@humanrightsalertngo.org>
Sent from "1984", Iceland-based Internet Service Provider
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Human Rights Alert (NGO)   
* United States - the 2010 submission of Human Rights Alert to the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations was reviewed and incorporated in the official HRC Professional Staff Report with a note referring to “corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California.”  
[1] 10-10-01 United Nations Human Rights Council Records for 2010 Review (UPR) of Human Rights in the United States, where Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission was incorporated with a note referring to "corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California."
* State of Israel  - the 2012 submission of Human Rights Alert to the HRC, titled, "Integrity, or lack thereof, of the electronic record systems of the courts of the State of Israel', is scheduled for review in January 2013.
[1] 12-06-04 Human Right Alert's Submission;  2013 UPR of the State of Israel: Integrity, or lack thereof, of the electronic record systems of the courts of the State of Israel
[2] 12-05-10 Appendix I to Human Right Alert's Submission; 15th UPR - State of Israel: Integrity, or lack thereof, of the electronic record systems of the courts of the State of Israe
[3] 12-07-18 Human Right Alert's Appendix II to Submission; 2013 UPR of the State of Israel: Integrity, or lack thereof, in the electronic record systems in the courts of the State of Israel  -  Additional Responses by National Authorities/Experts, Re: ComSign, LTD - sole certifier and hacker of the digital signatures of the State of Israel
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Human Rights Alert online:  
http://inproperinla.blogspot.com/   
Flag Counter: 145
http://www.scribd.com/Human_Rights_Alert
Total Reads: 1,007,042
Followers: 1,640
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Occupy! 
11-12-10 Where should Occupy go next? Civil Disobedience in the footsteps of Thoreau and Gandhi!
http :// www.scribd.com/doc/75348301/
12-06-08 Courts and Judges as racketeering enterprises under RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) - key element in the current financial crisis
http://www.scribd.com/doc/96504009/
Secede! The US in its current form is simply unmanageable...
12-01-01 Secession - A Smart Business Move!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/76877453/
Get Up, stand up, stand up for your rights! 
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Take away justice, then, and what are governments but great bandit bands?
Saint Augustine, Civitas Dei (City of God,4.4) 
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WHAT DID THE EXPERT SAY ABOUT THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS?
 "I think it's difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history," said Raymond Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School who has written articles analyzing the role of courts in the financial crisis. "I can't think of one where you have literally tens of thousands of fraudulent documents filed in tens of thousands of cases." Reuters (Jan 22, 2012)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/79572282/
* Foreclosure fraud: The homeowner nightmares continue” CNN (April 7, 2011)
* 
About 3 million homes have been repossessed since the housing boom ended in 2006… That number could balloon to about 6 million by 2013” Bloomberg (January 2011)
* 
"...a system in which only the little people have to obey the law, while the rich, and bankers especially, can cheat and defraud without consequences." Prof Paul Krugman, MIT (2011)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50753639/
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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA?
* 
"...judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they did not commit." 
Prof David Burcham, Dean, Loyola Law School, LA (2001) 
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29043589/
* 
"This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states... and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted."   Prof Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Irvine Law School (2001) 
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27433920/
* "Innocent people remain in prison"
* "...the LA Superior Court and the DA office, the two other parts of the justice system that the Blue Panel Report recommends must be investigated relative to the integrity of the system, have not produced any response that we know of..." LAPD Blue Ribbon Review Panel Report (2006)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24902306 /
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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CALIFORNIA?
* "...corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California."  United Nations Human Rights Council Staff Report (2010)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38566837/
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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE STATE COURTS IN THE UNITED STATES?
* 
"On July 26, 2010, Laurence Tribe, Senior Counsel for the United States Department of Justice, Access to Justice Initiative, delivered an important speech to the Conference of Chief Justices, challenging them to halt the disintegration of our state justice systems before they become indistinguishable from courts of third world nations."  Prof Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School (2010), per National Defender Leadership Institute (2010)
http://www.nlada.net/library/article/national_dojspeechto%20chiefjustice07-26-2010_gideonalert 
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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE CONDITIONS IN THE PRISON IN MONROE COUNTY, TENESSEE?
* 
"What goes on there is more like gulags of centuries ago." ACLU
http://www.scribd.com/doc/72546279/
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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES?
* 
"More than 100 law professors have signed on to a letter released today that proposes congressional hearings and legislation aimed at fashioning "mandatory and enforceable" ethics rules for Supreme Court justices for the first time. The effort, coordinated by the liberal Alliance for Justice, was triggered by "recent media reports," the letter said, apparently referring to stories of meetings and other potential conflicts of interest involving Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas among others." More than 100 law professors, as reported by the Blog of the Legal Times (February 2011) 
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49586436/
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WHAT DID CHIEF JUDGE OF THE US COURT OF APPEALS, 5TH CIRCUIT, SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM? 
* 
"The American legal system has been corrupted almost beyond recognition..."  Chief Judge, US Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, Edith Jones, speaking before the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School (February 2003)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50137887/
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WHAT DID THE CHAIR OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM?
* In a speech in Georgetown University, Senator Leahy, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee called for a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" on the US Department of Justice. Transcript of Senator Leahy speech (2009)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38472251/
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1 comment:

Human Rights Alert (NGO) said...

FATCA Ends 2012 with a Whimper, Stumbles into 2013

James George Jatras
www.RepealFATCA.com

January 4, 2013

Proponents of the “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) – a/k/a “the worst law most Americans have never heard of” – fell short at the end of 2012 on two key indices, further puncturing its air of presumptive inevitability:

The Treasury Department had predicted that 17 countries (already a shamelessly padded list, with inclusion in that number of three tiny British Crown Dependencies) would finalize intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) with the United States to impose FATCA on themselves by December 31. The actual result at year’s end? Signed IGAs with the UK, Denmark, Ireland, and Mexico. Switzerland and Spain reportedly also have “initialed” agreements, whatever that means.

The Department had also expected to finalize the draft regulations applicable to foreign financial institutions (FFIs) by year’s end – but that didn’t happen either.

Oh, to be sure, we can expect that sometime in the next few days or weeks the Department will announce another IGA or that they finally have the final regulatory language all worked out. At that point, we can expect the compliance vendors – for whom FATCA promises to be a goldmine – to turn up the volume of their chorus on the need for FFIs to pony up for very expensive and (at this point unnecessary) services. But that won’t change the increasingly evident fact that FATCA is in trouble as more people, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, take notice that FATCA is sheer idiocy and does almost nothing to police actual tax evasion while imposing crippling costs on, and violating the personal privacy of, innocent institutions and persons. As I observed in a recent interview with George Prior on iExpats.com: “FATCA is a law that doesn’t achieve its purpose but does manage to hurt the U.S. and global economy, and consumers worldwide, in almost any way conceivable. If that’s not the ‘worst law ever,’ what is?” (See full text of interview and link below for additional analysis.)

Of particular note is the “fact-finding forum” in Toronto, Ontario, on December 15, 2012, hosted by the Progressive Canadian Party and its distinguished chairman, the Honourable Sinclair Stevens, and featuring presentations by Allison Christians, Professor of Law at McGill University, Abby Deshman of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and others (including me, on how FATCA can be defeated). (Commendably, the full video and transcripts have been posted by the Isaac Brock Society.) Make no mistake, CANADA is key, with other countries watching to see if Ottawa knuckles under to a unilateral, extraterritorial demand from Washington to impose billions of dollars of FATCA compliance costs on Canadian consumers and to violate the human rights guaranteed by the “True North strong and free” to citizens and residents. As Canadian media are now beginning to notice, the “massive new layer of bureaucracy” Washington threatens to impose on our close friend and ally – backed up with the threat of sanctions – has “little to do with tax fairness or cutting the [U.S.] deficit.”

This year is likely to shape up as make or break for FATCA. With a little support for the anti-FATCA campaign – at a tiny fraction of what the compliance vendors are demanding – 2013 can be the year that FATCA collapses under the weight of its own flaws, before its worst ravages can take effect.

Now that would be a happy new year!

Jim Jatras

RepealFATCA@gmail.com
www.RepealFATCA.com
@RepealFATCA
+1.202.375.1007