Grandmas stockings grin:-)
Since the US cracked the bank secrete of the swiss company called SWIFT.
Bathrooms, old stockings, boxes filled with coffeepowder are up to date again.
I can't believe it. Guys, my private advice: open an anonyme account in an Austrian bank. Austria is the only country in the world where the anonyme number account is protected by the basic Austrian Constitution. It works well.
Cash found in a bathroom, Jesus - this land must be a smugglers paradise.
Rightwings use normaly paymaster
It is everywhere more or less the same, black accounts in Switzerland etc.
And everywhere is the possebility to make some extra bucks. I read today in the newspaper that the Deutsche bank said that Argentinian economy is more influenced by fraude than Italy, which will mean something.
I mean forgetting cash is one thing, but could it be that way? Its not a typicall female behaviour - rather something like a males aktion in a rush I would say. Maybe I will hear the solution when I am finaly in BA.
Siemens Argentina and corruption.
Today's "Clarin" had the breakdown of how the coimas (bribes) were distributed by Siemens for the contract to provide a new system of National Identity documents. Siemens were forced to admit their corrupt behavior by action in the USA. Not too many people believe this is the full extent so they are saying "possible coimas". Probably much more.
The contract was for U$1.26 billion and was started during the presidency of Carlos Menen. Unfortunately for Siemens, the contract extended past Menem's term and they had to pay out the next few administrations as well, but they are not too forthcoming with the truth or quantity. Probably being threatened with something dire if they are too frank.
Here's the distribution admitted by Siemens.
President Carlos Menem. U$16 million plus another U$30 million distributed to him and his cabinet. Total U$46 million.
Minister for the Interior. Carlos Corach U$9.75 million.
Director of Immigration Hugo Franco. U$9.75 million.
President Fernando De La Rua. U$6 million.
President Eduardo Duhalde. Admitted but not yet quantified.
President Nestor Kirchner. Admitted but not yet quantified.
Functionaries. U$15.7 million.
Lobbyists. U$35.1 million.
Other entities. U$54.9 million.
Not including what Duhalde and Kirchner squeezed when it was their turn at the top, it comes to U$177.2 million dollars.
Siemens admits in the USA to paying out over U$1.4 billion dollars in bribes to get U$4.283 billion dollars of business. That is right on the button of the generally accepted 33 1/3% that is allowed here for coimas when bidding for public works. Without exception.
So probably the true figure for the Argentine DNI contract coimas is more than U$420 million dollars plus the dough for the later administrations, no doubt added to the contract price in the form of 'extras'. I wonder who got the extra money that no-one is prepared to spill the beans on.
I also wonder if the proposed new law allowing "black money" to be repatriated without penalty or questions isn't a simple device for these corrupt bastards to wash the money and bring it back in. Menen cheerfully admits he received over U$1 billion dollars from "generous friends" while he was President. But he claims he never took a bribe. After this Siemens admission, he story is looking a little flaky.
Argento
I worked on this contract
Actually, this contract was my introduction to the country and women of Argentina (my lucky day) I was project liason from my company to the RNP. I spent 40 weeks in BsAs from fall of 1999 til spring of 2001.
I was livin large, $4K / month penthouse apartment on Posadas (one block from Padio Bullrich) full salary, per diem, weekly bonus, milestone bonuses, company driver, etc, etc, etc. Let me tell you if I got non-pro chcas to the apartment (the typical exclamation was, cinco banos! It was a done deal!
This was two companies ago. They were responsible for the imaging component of the project. Not considering the corruption in the acquisition of the contract. The project was a cluster F$#K from the git go.
Siemens paid the entire front end cost of the project $250 Million (we got paid) Then they were supposed to be paid $30.00 for each DNI produced. However, they did not manage their customer well at all. First, they agreed to have the RNP supply government union employees (who ended up constantly on strike) mostly because they weren't getting paid.
Then, they caved every step of the way. The RNP was against the project, so every step along the way they were an obstacle. What should have been maybe 8 different application types ended up being like 75. They didn't listen to us about form design even though we were responsible for the handwritten recognition and key from image. Even though our systems were far from perfect, it was the poor company responsible for the database who could never get the complexity of 75 application types functioning.
The project had problems all the way along. The RNP changed operational considerations after the design and a lot of the development was done, causing major retooling. The delapitated facilities, continual power disruptions, theft of key equipment from PFA guarded facilties (the processors and hard drives disappeared from 120 systems one weekend) RNP obstacles, etc.
The system never really got off the ground. I think maybe 5000 DNIs were produced before Menem left office and then the project just went into a holding pattern until it was finally cancelled.
So does this sound like the Argentina that many of you know so well or WHAT!