"Turkish" Barber Money Laundering.

The way to put an end to the money laundering is to stop using such establishments. You know the type: the Turkish barbers who are actually Albanian setting up shop with a beautifully equipped and immaculately finished barbers. From scratch, with no obvious previous activity.

That establishment is set up with a huge initial loan from an Albanian crime boss. The guys in the business aren't the people taking out the loan, they are employees of the crime boss.

In my town there are now around a dozen of these establishments. Too many to make a profit. But that's not the point. The place will stay open as long as it takes to launder the initial loan.

If the business does well and turns a profit, so much better. But the reason for the business existing in the first place is to launder the initial outlay.

The way to stop abuses like this is to refuse to use these establishments. That way the "loan" will take forever to repay. We don't want organised crime on our high streets. 

The same goes for the hand car washes that use virtual slave labour to man them. Stop using them and use a car wash that doesn't use slave labour. 

More publicity needs to be out there highlighting these issues.

There was a programme on TV a few weeks ago that tracked down a group of Albanian "refugees" from their 4-star hotel daily to their place of work: a hand car wash in the town. Don't think this is an isolated experience. It's happening the length and breadth of the country. 

But hey, nothing to see here. The Banks aren't interested. Instead they close down the acco8unts of legitimate businesses, whilst the actual money launderers carry on unaffected.

The Curse of Epstein Strikes Again

The curse of Epstein continues and the body count rises.

The latest addition to the body count being the son of Judge Esther Salas.

In this case a so-called assassin disguised as a FedEx employee rocks up to Judge Sala's house and shoots the son dead as he opens the door. The assassin then proceeds to shoot the Judges husband several times. The husband is in a critical condition but hopefully will survive the attack. The Judge herself was in the basement of the home at the time apparently.

But.. why is this linked to the Epstein case?

Judge Salas was appointed last week to head up the investigation into Deutsche Bank corruption and money laundering. Epstein used Deutsche Bank and..... the investigation Judge Salas has just been appointed head of will have full access to bank accounts, information, transactions etc. including Jeffrey Epstein's. Not only that, but she would have access to details of other significant accounts as part of the investigation. Maybe someone unrelated to Epstein didn't want their accounts scrutinised and it's just a coincidence that Epstein is also involved. Yeah right.

In effect the investigation will have a full list of Epstein's clients, the truth behind Epstein's fortune and who was bankrolling him.

It's quite feasible to imagine a scenario where Judge Salas was contacted discreetly and asked not to look in certain areas, or to ignore certain accounts or clients of Epstein. More politely maybe she was asked to limit the scope of her investigations.

Possibly she refused. Then this happens.

Now quite conveniently the assassin has turned up dead. Turns out allegedly he was a lawyer that had a case before the judge in 2015. What the outcome of that case was and what possible grievance he could have held against the judge is not clear at this time.

But.... it's all a bit too convenient, a bit too obvious. Just like Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, so the FBI couldn't find out Oswald's motives, or if he had been groomed and by whom.

I can quite easily see a professional assassin looking through Judge Salas' history and pick out a lone attorney that had a bad decision and use them as a scapegoat for the killing, but then a pro wouldn't leave the Judge alive in the basement if she was the target. Unless the object of the shooting wasn't to kill the judge but instead to intimidate her.

After all, you kill the judge, all that happens is a new judge gets appointed to the investigation. You can hope they will be receptive to any suggestions regarding the scope of the investigation. But it's a risk even to contact them. And there are only so many judges that can wind up dead before things smell fishy.

But hey, it's interesting to speculate, right?

My thoughts and prayers go out to Judge Salas and her husband at this time. I just hope if she was approached, that she continues to proceed with the inquiry and isn't swayed by this.

After all, she's in the US, not Mexico. In the US you can't just kill judges that investigate things you don't want them to investigate.

As a side note, I hope the rumours of Ghislaine Maxwell retaining a number of copies of the "black book" she kept on Epstein's clients, dates, etc. are true. The more copies the better because that's her only insurance policy against her having a nasty accident in prison. I'm still waiting for the news of her lawyer's office and/or house being broken into (totally unrelated of course). Because I assume her lawyer retains a copy of the book, or some information included in the book that protects Maxwell.

The Epstein-effect on people's health seems to be quite profound.... in the negative sense.

So I hope Ghislaine Maxwell has the intelligence to keep the wolves and would-be assassins at bay.