WATCHING ITALY: THE MAFIA STILL USING LIRA AS PARALLEL CURRENCY
Watching Italy is becoming very interesting, for it would appear that there are certain "deep interests" in that country that didn't get the memo on the glories and benefits of the euro according to this article passed along by A.F.:
Ponder this carefully:
An Italian senior police official has revealed that criminal organizations in the country are still using the currency of the pre-Euro period for illicit transactions, the Bloomberg news agency reported.
According to the agency, the lira exchange rate is not known for euros or if it exists, however the police say they still find bills linked to the mafia. The lira ceased to be a legal tender at the end of February 2002 due to the introduction of the euro, the single European currency.
“We have still found large amounts of lire,” said Giuseppe Arbore, a finance guard police officer investigating financial crimes, during a parliamentary hearing on Thursday. “Italian lire still represents part of the illicit transactions.”
“When a ballot is accepted by an organization internally, even if it is outlawed as a legal value, it can settle transactions. We are obviously talking about illegal organizations,” Arbore said.
While the use of a parallel Lira shows that another world is possible, in no way is this meant to condone the whole range of illicit activities engaged in by the mafia.
...
This is not the first time that the Mafia is related to the old Italian currency. In 2012, the report of the Central Bank’s Financial Information Unit revealed that it worked with the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate on “suspicious transaction reports” related to the lira-euro exchange rate.
The implications here are stunning, for if one puts all this together and "reads between the lines", we get this:
1) The Italian mafia has continued to transact in Italian lira since the introduction of the euro. This means a significant segment of the Italian deep state has maintained suspicions about the viability and therefore the value of the euro and the EU-eurozone since its inception;
2) This means, as the article rightly points out, that there has to be, at some point, a transaction mechanism between the lira and the euro, in short, an exchange rate. What is implied by this is that there is an infrastructure for currency conversion between the two, and that implies:
3) a parallel system of finance and ultimately and at some point the participation of banks in the scheme.
Additionally:
4) The assumption of the article is that the continued use of the lira is tied to some unknown exchange mechanism with the euro, but what if some other currency was being covertly converted for these lira? If that be the case, then it means that the Italian mafia has some sort of covert arrangement with whatever country's currency (or, with whatever countries' currencies) might be involved in such a scheme.
I can think of a few countries to the east of Italy that might participate in such a scheme, although, it would be extraordinarily risky for them to do so, for if that participation were ever disclosed, that country's trustworthiness would take a further hit.
The bottom line here is that this article raises immense implications and questions, for it's an admission that there is a parallel financial system in Italy, with the Mafia at one end of it. The real question is, who is on the other end of it?
See you on the flip side...
23 Comments
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All I know that is that a country that can sack it’s entire immunology board after investigations find that there are none of the said ingredients in them deserves my praise and awe, even if it was the mafia that love their children too that got the job done. Mind you, they didn’t say what WAS in the vacinnes.
https://www.thelocal.it/20181204/italys-vaccine-sceptic-m5s-sacks-entire-board-of-health-experts
it’s a step. they’ll be working for gerberding if they’re not directly already. or maybe they’ll all write books like hotez. they gotta know amazon won’t censor them.
heard and read this week that f/b’s libra is basing out of geneva switzerland and aiming to be the next world reserve currency. curious that their reasons for doing so site all the failures of the current centrally controlled fiat currency and their public declarations all state that they’re doing basically the same thing.
reminds me of days gone by where folk online insisted on digital payments and refused any form or paper transactions (check or cash) and eventually forced all but one or two of us (me for one) to pay digitally. eventually we might all be forced to submit to all of f/b’s standards in all ways for all things in order to get our script. social score anyone? sounds like australia is the first anglo-culture moving toward the china model of toto-contro (aka tyranny).
correction. nz is probably being co-opted first. evidence is shooting incidents, gun confiscation, imprisonment for so much as viewing video evidence of govt crimes and internet bans for any dissenters outside the govt’s preferred dissenter list.
The use of Lira is simply a way of circumventing the serial number tracking of the euro and us dollar. Italians are very good at ignoring government….
A better synopsis: one criminal organization (the government) is upset that another criminal organization (the mafia) isn’t paying tribute (taxes).
Sophisticated *Rules of Acquisition* is what much of this sounds like. After all certain family members of the well-financed ruling class in Italy have never left its shores never to return. They might have travelled and vacationed abroad, but never forsaken their homeland of many generations past. They’re there for good reason, if not well placed in the world, especially, the European world. Call it their unique insurance system guaranteed by that famous Fifth House of Lawyers also unique to Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Milan, and a few others in Italy.
Lawyers, laws, and Rules are not anything foreign to Italians – the ruling class to simpler country folk by choice – they already know who made them in the first place. They’re far more engaged in the real world, as some like to program, than what most folks give them credit for Being. They know the value of low-profile profitability and the tools of high tech. There are those well aware of currency schemes, shadowy government manipulations, UAP’s from the days of Mussolini as well as the state of affairs throughout Europe to include major portions of the world. A small footprint anywhere is not to diminish their access. Some say they’re clever and savvy at business affairs. The ignorant might have doubt’s, but not this one.
*Access* is a lucrative currency on its own. “What is *money* anyway if it’s not an equitable agreement of exchange among strategic business associates?” Never mind where they’re from or might have been.
Tidbit: Deutsche Mark still circulates in some German cities (article from last year). Recalling of course that DM banknotes have value “indefinitely” unlike most of the other currencies absorbed by the euro.
https://www.rnz.de/nachrichten/region_artikel,-aktionswochen-in-gaiberg-ist-die-d-mark-wieder-etwas-wert-_arid,360590.html
Interesting. This one is a good snag but it demonstrates a localized phenomenon–one strangely reminiscent of the kind of activities one finds in the Deep South during the aftermath of the Great Depression. I know this article is written as if it’s a one-off phenomenon, but one has to wonder if this is under-reported. I started to say more, but decided the idea may be truly nutty. The deja-vu is strongly present because it’s the two major Axis powers involved in this type of activity.
Exclusively lira?
Of course, money laundering is standard fare for mafia’s; whether state sponsored or otherwise.
Ah! 4) There is the other currency[s] angle.
Since the ports are going the silk route; might the money being going that route now. May as well get the tru$t & relationships nailed down, as this will be a major part of the infrastructure.
No doubt, there was already a triad/mafia business arrangement in place globally. Perhaps other mafias are getting some action on the new silk trillion$ enterprise.
The money greases those wheels of commerce/relationships.
… and as Hercule Poirot might say,
Then there is THE hidden system of finance.
No doubt that’s in the mix, and who knows what role it’s been playing, all along, in this silk road/Euro business?
OK. Now the oddest statement in the article is: “The Italian state has not said how it will fight off this criminality.”
At first glance one might think this is a generic article termination construct. But why not use something like: “Based on past actions by the Italian state we assume they will pursue the criminality strenuously.” Or, perhaps this: “The Italian state has not stated publicly how it will fight off this criminality.” The final form would be the terse way to state things, but the published ending left out a critical piece of information. Perhaps this was simply an oversight. After all we are all guilty of assuming context sometimes in our public and private communications–especially when we assume the other persons automatically know about that which we’re speaking. The other side of the argument is that journalists are often trained to not make these assumptions and to keep things always transparent. One should never assume the reader knows the context. This leaves me right back where I started. Do we have reasons to suspect the writer is suggesting that the Italian state may do nothing?
I have no opinion in the matter except to say that I am comfortable with the idea that there is an interface between the mafiosi families in Italy and the Italian government. I think this, and his deep knowledge of ecclesiastical history, is where the whole speculative argument Dr. Farrell proposes rests. If we assume the possibility that the Italian state has an interface with the mob through banking houses, and the proper hands are greased, there will be no further need for investigation. This presupposes an exchange rate. It presupposes banking house complicity. It also assumes some international trade component in lire. Italy was once a nation of city states with very powerful banking interests, families and cartels with deep connections to the Vatican. This legacy remains part of their cultural heritage and a source of national pride. After all, the best place to keep the ledgers isn’t the bank–but the local diocese or the Vatican archives. Italy is also the perfect place to begin experimentation for the use of local currencies for exchanging goods and services produced locally to preserve continuity and prosperity within the local community. If any country would attempt such an experiment if their local artisans, craftsmen, and farmers feel threatened financially and politicly by heavy EU regulation and sanctions, it would be Italy. The Italians believe they have a culture worth preserving, with members in the mafia and the government in full agreement. Of all the nations in Europe whose traditions and culture whose predisposition to resist EU over-reach it is Italy. The globalists do not have the depth of control there as they do in France, Germany, even Britain. A move like this by Italy may well inject greater determination in Britain to endure Brexit. Indeed, the two may be linked.
Spot on analyses.
Bravo!
OC, well said!
Demonetized Lira banknotes still in use? The high official of the Finance Guard has not released any detailed information and even if he had, would it be credible, at least in the schematic way presented? I doubt this because:
a. There are not enough surviving banknotes for any big operations;
b. With all the resources of organized crime there are lots of more “acceptable” things, such as packets of “white powder”, the “art works” mentioned by Goshawks, and lots of offshore banks, some far from and some inside Europe.
Now and again there are press stories about people finding lira banknotes in their attic etc. for the equivalent of a few thousand dollars, and how they are regretfully told by the authorities that their paper is worthless. Do they receive offers from shady parties? Are such parties gambling that some “populist” politician will call for, or even achieve, the “remonetization” of the lira banknotes, as a gesture of solidarity so that those “orphans and widows” whose parents’/husbands’ savings of a lifetime kept under the mattress will suddenly regain value? After all, the Deutschmark banknotes were NEVER demonetized….
The statement by General Arbore (the Finance Guard is a branch of the Italian Armed Forces) should probably be read as a coded message. It says too much but also too little when in comes to details, just as in the case of the “Bearer Bond scandal” extensively discussed by Joseph.
Here are two takes. Either
1) This alleged association between the lira and the Mafia is a political provocation orchestrated by supporters of the euro (Germany comes to mind…), to discredit those calling for a return to the national currency, and for the issue of “mini treasury bills” for domestic circulation to combat austerity; or
2) It is an oblique way of stating that there are secret, parallel payment mechanisms in existence.
Now the strange case of the real/fake bear bonds has already indicated the existence of such a secret system
On the other hand, there may be something in Joseph’s points 3 and 4.
Perhaps the Mafia/lira aspect is just an excuse, and the real message to the public is that secret means of exchange exist, and are not necessarily denominated in euros, dollars etc. Remember the story of the US occupation money in Europe, “not denominated in dollars”, that came out in the McCarthy hearings.
Will there be a follow-up to the story? That’s anybody’s guess.
Yes!
I was thinking of the McCarthy G.I. money connection too.
The similarities are ever present.
Great post, Dana, much to consider there.
As for the DM never being demonetized, they just changed the name to “euro.”
In the beginning, there was barter. Somewhere along the way, some despot (well-meaning or ill-meaning) sat a bunch of subjects down in a room and said that a ‘piece of something’ he/she held up would be worth two hogs, four sheep, or whatever in exchange for something else. And if both parties did not accept the ‘piece of something’, bad things like torture or death would happen. (And if you personally made copies of this ‘piece of something’, you would also be tortured or killed.)
The key here is (a) a credible threat to use force and (b) the ‘piece of something’ can be anything…
Now, on to the mafia and the lira. Does the mafia have credible force? Many might think so. Could the lira make a convenient ‘piece of something’? Why not? It ceased being Italian currency when the euro was adopted.
There may not even be an ‘exchange rate’ between the two parallel streams:
http://mileswmathis.com/launder.pdf
Miles Mathis wrote an excellent article on how modern art work was, in effect, a ‘piece of something’. Mathis called it money laundering, but it is the same principle of a separate financing system. Whomever is controlling the art world (Mathis identifies several suspects) provides the ‘credible threat to use force’. An otherwise-worthless modern art piece provides the ‘piece of something’.
Person A provides a service to the ‘kingdom’. Person A is then ‘told’ to buy a certain piece of art (otherwise worthless). Person B is then ‘told’ to buy that piece from Person A for higher than the original price. Person A has now been rewarded for his service to the ‘kingdom’. When Person B does a service to the ‘kingdom’, Person C is then ‘told’ to buy that piece from Person B for higher than Person B’s price. And on it goes…
Note that this is a self-enclosed system. The otherwise-worthless piece of art is the ‘piece of something’ that is a symbolic token. Whomever is controlling the art world sets the price for the next buyer, simply as payment for whatever service was rendered by the previous buyer. It is almost a random number, seen from ‘outside’. The ‘exchange rate’ is whatever is needed in that moment…
Nowadays that’s where the inside money goes;
it’s a great inflation hedge.
I believe Dr. Farrell’s right on the CIA capture of “art”; corrupting it’s cultural roots/being.
It’s become an art form of brainwashing: Polock to Pollock.
SQUARE POINT THEATER 60
Pedophile pope
has army of harlots in
Corleone Bank.
I wonder if this is anything other than a necessary way for the Italian mafia to hold on to illicit “value,” and I would assume that these old lira notes are only circulating within the mafia-controlled black market economy.
If you think about it, if you’re a mafioso, you can’t simply go to the bank and exchange all those illicitly gotten lira notes for euros, otherwise you’d be exposed and prosecuted. So the mafia held on to them and continued to use them as a sort of in-house scrip, settling debts within their networks, necessity being the mother of invention.
Also, they have the scale to make this work; I recall an eye-opening article a few years ago that estimated that nearly 20% of the Italian economy was mafia-controlled alone. With that sort of scale, this “in-house” currency can definitely be made to work.
Mafias are great businessmen; their ideas/operations
are often taken over permanently by governments.
In others words; by the biggest mafia w/the biggest muscle.