Kalistan

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Chancellor speaks on Corruption in Bank Probe
Warns of rise of possible organized criminality associated with Bookmakers' Association
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
November 30, 5690


Chancellor of the Empire announces results of Banking probe at National Assembly

"The bottom line here is that there appears to be a fairly large group of entities involved in widespread corruption and criminality in Suldanor, and we aren't even at the end of it yet," said Chancellor of the Empire, Lady Ericka Donahue on the floor of the National Assembly. She was releasing the report of the Commission to investigate banking irregularities linked to the Sulari Bookmaking Association, which oversees most gambling in the Empire. "It appears that the corruption touches several legitimate institutions and suggests that we have a much larger problem in Kalistan than just accounting errors."

The summary of findings shows that the Bookmaking Association had "over reported" more than ₭70 million Imperial Rubles over just the last three years to the Imperial Republican Bank for tax purposes. "What this means is that they told Kalistani revenue agents that they earned 70 million more Imperial Rubles than they actually deposited. It would seem absurd that a company would pay more in taxes than they actually earned, which was the thing that tipped us off to this activity in the first place." The Chancellor said the report implicates the Bookmakers' Association of diverting profits and earnings into the hands of outside individuals, causing discrepancies between bank deposits and tax reports.

"Normally, tax cheats underreport their earnings, to pay lower taxes than they were legally required to," said the Chancellor. "But overpayment of taxes suggests money laundering activities, not tax evasion. But, why would the Bookmakers' Association, who does, by the way, fabulously well, need to launder their money, when they are the agency that holds the public trust for overseeing both on and off track betting and parimutuel betting, as well as online betting and most table games in casinos, unless one or both of two things was true: a) the money they were paying taxes on was not their money, and/or b) the money they were paying taxes on was illicitly obtained, came in dirty and needed to be cleaned. The investigation suggests that there is a possibility that some organization outside of the Bookmakers Association was being used by another organization to clean money, and at that sum, the suggestion leads to organized crime."

The Chancellor said that the investigation into the bank discrepancies, which was due to present a final report this month, has been turned into a more formal probe of the connection between the Bookmakers and organized crime. "We are not pointing any fingers right now, but we have people and organizations of interest that we are beginning to look into," said the Chancellor, who did not want to reveal many details. Some Party insiders suggest that the targets are foreign mafia who are using Kalistan to clean money, both others insist that the targets are domestic.

"I feel confident that they are investigating the Bank of Suldanor as a part of this, as they were the primary holders of the Bookmakers' Association's accounts," said one source familiar with the report who spoke on condition of anonymity. "There are also ties to some civil society organizations in Kalistan Proper that are involved in low level racketeering in Sulari, but it is really unlikely that the amount of criminality in some of those illegal sectors would generate the kinds of revenue we are seeing the Bookemaker's Association probe investigating. The Justice Ministry has a huge job ahead of it as it expands the probe, and I do not think the results will be flattering to anyone touched by this."

The Chancellor stressed that the Bookmakers' Association has not been formally charged as an entity, nor have any of its members or regulators. "We still do have the presumption of innocence in this Empire," said Lady Donahue, "and this probe is only pointing out that concerns about irregularities are founded in fact. We still aren't sure about why there is the discrepancy, if the Association is directly involved or was involved without its knowledge, or what the motive force for these discrepancies could be. More importantly, we also do not know who this investigation touches. So it is premature to make any assertions along those lines at this early time. Just rest assured, Her Imperial Majesty's Justice Minister has been given full authority and whatever resources she needs to adequately investigate this issue, and if she brings indictment after that, we will deal with that issue when we get there."

@TheRepublic