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When former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer handed over information about bank accounts of over 2,000 individuals to WikiLeaks, it stirred the world. This was probably the first step towards the opening of a closet of skeletons, and skeletons they were of politicians, god men, terrorists, oil barons and kings. The details are still awaited but even then, the fact largely known but seldom acknowledged, primarily because of the high-profile names attached with it, has hit the headlines both in India and abroad.
The Darker side of Black Money discusses this ugly side of dirty money and the murky hands that handle it and tells us how everyone from the banks to individuals, fathers to sons, politicians to mafia dons, god men to terrorists – all follow every possible trick to clandestinely hide their large, unaccounted cache of black money from friends and foes alike. It talks about the demand and supply of secret money and how the likes of Swiss banks carve rules that clearly mean “Come, hide it with us”. It discusses various terms such as money laundering and drug trafficking that are often used but not always understood. Besides, it explains why certain countries, termed as tax havens, are more conducive to such stashing of cash. Unfortunately, the problem doesn’t end with hiding the money. In fact, it begins here. From funding terrorism to destabilizing a government, this dirty money comes in handy in everything that is murky and illegal. The book unfolds the mystery and explains the modus operandi of this money business through a detailed ease study of what was probably the world’s biggest banking scam e “Bank of Credit and Commerce lntemational”. The book discusses how the rogue bank that started in |972 expanded exponentially worldwide through fraudulent ways and generated enough connections with powers that be to ensure immunity, but finally saw its collapse in 1991.
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