re: #50 jaunte

Article behind a paywall for me, but…

Epstein’s entire rep as an investing guru could be vapor and the specific valuation of his worth overly high, but the premise provided a shell allowing for big quantities of money to move in and out of financial vehicles (corporations and such) masking entirely illegal activity. It could be he’s been a trafficker and a pimp all along, and his finances need to be scrutinized to a forensic degree.

That in turn suggests that no one who’s transacted with him should be fucking trusted, because anyone handing that much money to a financial advisor is doing some kind of due diligence on how it’s being used. And I’ve said before…it’s understandable to focus on demand side of trafficking because they’re garbage in a very intuitive ways, but we should also remember that the operators on the supply side are just a much monsters even if they’re only interested in return on investment. It’s quite possible that Epstein’s associates weren’t only clients paying for services or being extorted after the fact, but men looking for good passive income.

And if that sounds dark, consider that international business—banks like DB and HSBC, legal firms like Mosack-Fonesca— keeps getting caught laundering money. Big finance absolutely loves the speed and efficiency with which criminal operations pile up liquid assets, and look the other way, why wouldn’t venture capitalists feel the same?