VHeadline commentarist Arthur Shaw writes: The US-imperialist-loving Venezuelan bourgeoisie and much its long ugly tail, the middle class, are at the moment kind of worried about the possibility of losing in an imperialist-perpetrated "massive fraud" as much as $5 billion in "legal" transactions and losing much more money in a flat-out money laundering operation for a total that could go as high as $20 billion.
The Venezuelan bourgeoisie and its middle class tail can't afford to lose this kind of money, even though much of the capital of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie, like that of the US bourgeoisie, comes from dealing dope and selling human beings.
The mastermind of the "massive fraud" is good ole boy R. Allen Stanford of Houston, Texas, before whom the members of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie are used to bowing, tap dancing, grinning, singing and otherwise acting the fool.
"R. Allen, please take care of our money because we are afraid Hugo will take it," the Venezuelan bourgeois, with tears pouring down their faces, pleaded before the imperialist R. Allen Stanford.
"Why sure, partner, I'll take your money and rest assured ... will ya ... that Hugo will never get his hands on your money, no sir, I'll tell you right now. Please, now, dry yo tears." R Allen responded, releasing all of his Texas charm on the helpless Venezuelan bourgeois hopelessly in love with the cowboy.
The Venezuelan government, an increasingly proletarian state that is very smart and tough, ran into the Stanford's bank headquarters in Caracas, Thursday, and grabbed the bank to stop the US imperialists in Washington and Dallas from sucking out all of the money left in the bank which has seven branches in Venezuela. The imperialists use a trick called an "asset freeze" to suck out the leftover money in dead banks. The money sucked out is supposed to go a US court in Dallas, but it will never get there.
The revolutionary bank examiners in Venezuela are counting the money left by the imperialist thief and the examiners are un-cooking Stanford's books, mostly reflecting the status of the so-called "legal" banking transactions not the money laundering, to get an idea of real condition of the financial institution.
The books on the money laundering, a matter of greater concern for the Venezuelan bourgeoisie, most likely won't be in the bank's computers. The US imperialists encouraged and supported Stanford money laundering operation in so far as it assisted Venezuelan citizens in removing hard money out of Venezuela. So far, it looks like the US imperialists only wanted Stanford to help remove the money of Venezuelan reactionaries from Venezuela, not steal the money from Venezuelan reactionaries. Stanford stole it anyway. The imperialists were also concerned about Stanford's money laundering operation that offered a offshore tax haven to US citizens and very concerned over Stanford ties with drug lords.
The revolutionary bank authorities in Caracas have suspended depositor withdrawals and loan making to individuals and businesses. The situation with the servicing of outstanding loans is not clear.
The US imperialists want the Venezuelan customers and other foreign customers to pay the victimized US customers for the losses the US customers suffered as a consequence of the Stanford's fraudulent operations spread over a number of countries. Again, the imperialists are grabbing everything that R Allen didn't steal in the Stanford Bank in Antigua, Panama, and other countries where an amazing large number of Venezuelan bourgeois illegally sneaked hard money, mostly US dollars and euros, out of Venezuela and parked their money in Stanford's pockets where the Venezuelan bourgeois felt certain that their money rested in a "safe haven" from the hands of Hugo.
On Friday, February 20, the US court in Dallas appointed Dallas lawyer Ralph Janvey as the receiver to suck out the money left in the Stanford's US and Caribbean businesses. Antiguan authorities also on Friday appointed two UK lawyers as receivers for Stanford banks on the island. Since the UK bourgeois and upper middle class generally do whatever the US imperialists tell them, it seems that the US money-snatchers already got what's left of the Stanford money in Antigua, including the money in Antigua of Venezuelan origin.
The US receiver, representing the US imperialists, will likely have a harder time sucking money out of Stanford's Venezuelan bank, not because most of the transactions of this bank were in Venezuelan currency, but because the increasingly proletarian government in Caracas may prefer to self-administer the failed bank. The use of Venezuelan currency in most of transactions for Stanford's bank in Venezuela is not important at all to the US imperialists because the Venezuelan currency in convertible into US dollars. Thus, the imperialists will be delighted to suck out all of the Venezuelan currency in the seven branches of Stanford bank in Venezuela.
To be fair to the imperialists, we concede that the receiver is not just sucking money out of Stanford's foreign customers, the receiver is also sucking money from Stanford US customers, especially customers of the main brokerage, Stanford Financial Group. The receiver told investors they can't withdraw money from their accounts, but they can order the brokers at Stanford Financial Group to sell securities in their brokerage accounts.
Over the years, many Venezuelan bourgeois flew to Houston and opened accounts at the home office of Stanford Financial Group, the main brokerage. It was a "convenient" thing to do because the office of the brokerage is located directly across the street from the Galleria, the huge upscale shopping mall in Houston that endowed Venezuelans love to visit. Plus, the Galleria area has been a place of feverish real estate development, the area now boast many 50 to 70-story high rise buildings offering $1,000,000 plus condos. Rich Venezuelans seem to have an insatiable appetite for these condos.
One Venezuelan bourgeois told me "I bought my condo in the Galleria area to be close to my money at Stanford when I'm in Houston."
Well, now he may as well leave town or not come back, because his money is no longer at Stanford.
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