Preet Bharara, whose office said Tuesday that “these actions show that the use of foreign banks for tax evasion remains a high investigative priority of this office.” "Bank Records Sought in #Offshore Tax Inquiry" https://t.co/CAqYyaOt0D via @dealbook
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) April 14, 2020
Former US Attorney Preet Bharara was an apparent crusader in the war against all things foreign. His office participated in the well publicized nine billion dollar fine against the French Bank BNP Paribas. In simple terms, the U.S. Department of Justice imposed a fine on BNP Paribas for: “Conspiring To Process Transactions Through The U.S. Financial System For Sudanese, Iranian, And Cuban Entities Subject To U.S. Economic Sanctions”. In other words, the United States claimed jurisdiction over BNP Paribas because it used the U.S. dollar.
Interestingly the the fine was based NOT on a violation of a U.S. law passed by Congress, but rather on the basis of a breach of an Executive Order signed by President Obama. (This reminds me of the Trump administration of today sanctioning companies that do business with Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran.)
The Economist in an article titled “No way to treat a criminal – The French bank deserved a clobbering, but America’s legal system looks like an extortion racket“, commenting on the process concluded that:
So even if BNP fully deserves its punishment, the legal system that meted it out is closer to an extortion racket than justice. France’s economy minister, Arnaud Montebourg, has compared America’s pursuit of BNP to “economic warfare”. In other words, a bank that catered to mass murderers has had some success in portraying itself as a victim. Any process that can make BNP’s dealings with Sudan look anything less than shameful must be very flawed indeed.
From Mr. Bharara’s perspective (from the June 30, 2014 Department Of Justice media release):
“BNPP banked on never being held to account for its criminal support of countries and entities engaged in acts of terrorism and other atrocities. But that is exactly what we do today. BNPP, the world’s fourth largest bank, has agreed to plead guilty and pay penalties of almost $9 billion for performing the hat trick of sanctions violations, unlawfully opening the doors of the U.S. financial markets to three sanctioned countries, Sudan, Iran, and Cuba. For years, BNPP provided access to billions of dollars to these sanctioned countries, as well as to individuals and groups specifically identified and designated by the U.S. government as being subject to sanctions. The bank did so deliberately and secretly, in ways designed to evade detection by the U.S. authorities. For its years-long and wide-ranging criminal conduct, BNPP will soon plead guilty in a federal courthouse in Manhattan.”
Mr. Bharara celebrated his retirement with his book – “Doing Justice:A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law”. His book tour included a stop (March 21, 2019) at Harvard University in Conversation with Harvard Professor Michael Sandel. During the conversation Mr. Bharara described his years as a Harvard undergraduate. His undergraduate experience including taking a course with Professor Sandel. It appears that the course described by Mr. Bharara was a course called “Justice” (basically a course in moral philosophy). He described the course as one of his most influential courses at Harvard.
An Introduction to Michael Sandel's "Justice" Course https://t.co/1MvCsCwkia via @YouTube
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) April 14, 2020
Professor Sandel‘s “Justice Course” is available for free starting on June 8. It seems to me that this course might be of great interest to those interested in the moral basis of current events in general and the U.S. claims of extra-territorial jurisdiction in particular.
You can create a free account and sign up here:
https://www.edx.org/course/justice-2
As an old Brock post argued:
Burning Barns Down is not Wrong Because it is Illegal – It is Illegal Because it is Wrong – "When Law Becomes a Substitute for Morality" https://t.co/JvZOS58IYH
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) April 14, 2020
I know I have posted this link before to these US DOJ and US Treasury internal emails that in part this BNP Paribas case in New York but they are worth a look if you have not seen them yet.
https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/07072016_oi_tbtj_sr.pdf
Mr. Bharara like many Obama Administration officials has been put in a very sticky situation by the Trump Presidency. First the independence of the US Department of Justice has been much more of a mirage than many of it’s senior leadership i.e. Comey, Mueller, Sally Yates ever thought it was. I think in part unlike say the more civil service-esque “independence” of crown prosecutors and attorney’s in Canada the US DOJ’s independence was really more based in maintaining good relations with media and whichever of the two parties was not currently in power in DC. Thus during the Obama Administration the US DOJ and Attorney General Eric Holder would continue to prosecute “Republican” crimes i.e. those Republican party officials thought were very important i.e. drugs, sex, immigration even over the strong objections of the Democratic Party base and people like Bernie Sanders. However, shortly under after Trump got re-elected this trilateral bargain between Democrats, Republicans, and the media with the DOJ and FBI at the center basically broke. You can actually now find longtime retired FBI agents now praising the RCMP and Australian Federal Police over their former agency even acknowledging the various sex and other abuse of power scandals in the RCMP that many Canadians are aware of.
One other point I would mention is technically Congressman Holding of North Carolina previously held the “same” position as Preet Bharara or at least a technically equal position to Bharara. Holding prior to being a member of Congress was the US Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina which to be fair does NOT have nearly the same prestige as being US Attorney for the Southern District of New York something I think both Holding and Bharara would admit to.
On another note Preet Bharara is in some hot water today on TWITTER over calling for the US Federal govt to cut Federal funding for Kentucky in favor of his home state of New York.
https://twitter.com/TPCarney/status/1254740934404833281
What is amazing about this is that Bharara “was” the most powerful on the ground Federal official in the State of New York during his time in office. He was essentially the guy on behalf of the Federal govt that got people in New York who are predominately wealthy with the threat of imprisonment to pay Federal Income Taxes to the US Treasury so that the US Treasury could turn around and send that same money to much poorer people in the state of Kentucky. Now Bharara as Tim Carney in pointing out is basically saying his professional career was a sham.
From my perspective this is the great benefit of “Trumpism” in that it is blowing up any sense of solidarity and tradition within the US government.