Bloomberg reports that the US plans to fine a French bank US $10 billion:

U.S. authorities are seeking to impose the fine to settle allegations that BNP transferred funds for clients in violation of sanctions against Sudan, Iran, and Cuba, according to people familiar with the investigation. The fine could be the largest criminal penalty in the U.S., eclipsing BP Plc’s $4 billion accord with the Justice Department last year.

I have little sympathy for banksters and politicians who are essentially arguing over how they going to divide the spoils of the middle class. But this $10 billion fine of France is a particular arrogant treatment of an “ally” and has the potential of helping the anti-FATCA movement. It is an especially egregious example of how the US determines that its laws have international jurisdiction and has set about confiscating the world’s wealth through its banking hegemony. If the US keeps this up, expect the rest of the world to join Russia and China economic coalition against the US.

Hat tip, Zerohedge: France Furious At US $10 Billion BNP “Masterful Slap”, “Racketeering” Fine

We’ll be getting together for lunch Saturday, 7 June, at 1:30 pm at the Flying Banzini, 1242 Wellington Street West, Ottawa.   The Flying Banzini specialises in sandwiches and desserts and there’s plenty of on-street parking.

Hope you can make it!  Please rsvp by posting a comment here or e-mail me at pacifica.isaacbrocksociety@gmail.com

Well, I hope that our technical problems have finally come to an end. Problems Wednesday were about changing our domain registration to a new ISP (internet service provider), which required time for “prorogation”.  I myself didn’t have access until Thursday morning. Then the normal Brock traffic simply overwhelmed our shared server service which was promoted by the ISP but turned out to be thoroughly inadequate for our needs. That’s when we started getting the account suspended message–and no, that wasn’t because you put some bad language in a comment. So we had to change to a new platform which is more robust and will hopefully carry us into the next year.

For those naysayers of Isaac Brock–and boy do we ever have them, I have a message. Take for example Kim Moody, who wrote:

Continue reading →

http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4499209/paul-fatca

Update

These seminars will include discussion and analysis of the IRS “relaxed opportunities” for people to come into compliance.
 

“Life planning, career planning and the reality of U.S. citizenship for Americans abroad”
“Everything I wish I had known, but couldn’t even have imagined to ask!”

During the winter, John Richardson presented a number of seminars for those concerned with the obvious problems of U.S. citizenship (including the “threshold question” of whether you really are a U.S. citizen).

Seminar topics have invariably included the problems of: FBAR, FATCA, investing, retirement planning, mutual funds, U.S. tax compliance, renunciation, etc. The official “FATCA Launch” of July 1, 2014 will surely make the existing problems worse.

U.S. citizens living outside the United States are subject to a regime of rules that diminish their “life opportunities”. These rules are such that U.S. citizens abroad live at a disadvantage relative to the citizens of any other nation. Those attending previous seminars have been primarily “middle aged” people, who have attempted to plan for their retirement, only to find that their retirement plans are threatened, because of their birth in the United States.

A shared sentiment has been:

“If only, I had known about these rules earlier … This is information that my children and other young adults need to hear! What does all this mean for my children?”

The seminar on June 22 will be a session specifically designed for your children and young adults. They will be exposed to (at least “some”) of that information that they need to hear!
Continue reading →

Now that we’ve arrived at 10,000,000 hits, it is time to move to a more robust platform. My personal thanks to our software developer who has worked hard as a volunteer to make this happen.

At around 11:00 am this morning, I will turn off the ability to make comments at isaacbrocksociety.ca. Then, thanks to a website developer who has graciously volunteered his time, we will be upgrading the website to a more robust platform. This will enable us to handle more easily the traffic that we have been experiencing.

Please note that if you are absolutely in need of comment fix, that our Facebook page is also available.  If you haven’t liked that page, today is a good day.