Governor Schwarzenegger and banks push money-laundering scheme that will bankrupt the state

The scheme is called "Bank on California". Bank on California puts the state and the tattering bank system in great peril because it encourages millions to get bank loans that they may not want or be able to pay back. California cannot afford to repeat the mistakes made by the federal government driven home mortgage collapse. With the state facing a $50 billion budget deficit and sinking credit rating a massive amount of bank loan defaults would prove fatal to our state economy.

The state of California just launched the taxpayer funded "Bank on California" project to help California banks money-launder the illicit earnings of millions of illegal aliens. Since the Bill Clinton Foundation, the familiar banks from the $1 trillion bailout and the likes of George Soros are behind the initiative, expect it to arrive in every state in the nation sooner than later.

The state argues that Californians need help opening bank accounts. Practical experience tells us that banks open accounts with easy for anyone with $20 and 20 minutes to spare and in some cases the account applicants get a donut and a cup of coffee while waiting.

Californians donīt need help opening bank accounts, illegal aliens do.

Illegal aliens donīt open bank accounts because they fear blowing their covers and getting deported. The Governorīs plan uses the power and influence of the state to help the banks pry loose the cash that illegal aliens now hide under their mattresses.

State facilitated money-laundering is made possible by the programīs acceptance of the Mexican Matricula Consular and other consular IDīs.

Steve McCraw, Assitant Director of the FBI Office of Intelligence, testified before Congress that Matricula Consular is unreliable and a threat to our national security; and that it was needed exclusively by illegal aliens to game the system.

The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 defines money laundering as:

"the process by which one conceals the existence, illegal source, or illegal application of income and then disguises that income to make it appear legitimate"

The IRS defines money laundering as:

"activities and financial transactions that are undertaken specifically to hide the true source of the money". "In most cases, the money involved is earned from an illegal enterprise and the goal is to give that money the appearance of coming from a legitimate source"

The collaboration between the State of California and banks in money laundering could be in violation of the racketeering laws (the RICO Act).

Governor, the penalty for violating our borders and working in the state illegally is deportation; who will take the hit when hundreds of thousands of deported illegal aliens default on credit cards and bank loans? Have we not suffered a national financial meltdown that threatens to bankrupt the nation by giving loans to unqualified borrowers? What short-term gain from enriching the banks can justify your putting bank stockholders and taxpayers at risk of financial ruin from illegal alien loan defaults?

Money-laundering and RICO violations are not limited to illicit income from narcotics or terrorism.

Under RICO, income from "specified unlawful activity" is defined broadly to include a large number of state, federal, and foreign crimes. (18 U.S.C. § 1956(c)(7).) These include most of the RICO predicate offenses-such as mail fraud, wire fraud, food stamp fraud and yes, income from illegal employment.

U.S Congressman Ted Poe testified at a Congressional Hearing on Financial Services recently that the Matricula Consular poses a security risk for the United States. He pointed out the following facts uncovered in his investigation:

Mexican Banks in Mexico DO NOT accept Matricula Consular as a valid identification

The Matricula Consular can be obtained without authentication of the applicant.

The Matricula Consular can be easily forged with any desired identity and can be purchased either from the Mexican consulate or from counterfeiters for under $40.

The U.S. banks that accept the Matricula Consular have no means to verify that the Matricula Consular is valid.

A Congressman Poe staffer was able to get a Matricula Consular issued in his name using the address 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, for the purpose of demonstrating how unreliable it is.

The governor and the banks know or are in reckless disregard of knowing that people identifying themselves with a Matricula Consular or consular ID is are in most cases illegal aliens.

Can we afford to fund a questionable state program when the state is already over-spending $50 billion annually?

Under your guard Californians pay the highest income taxes, business taxes and gasoline taxes in the nation and now you are lobbying to increase our taxes by $14 billion or about $1400 per family.

Questionable programs and over-spending have chased out of state more businesses and taxpayers in the last four years than have arrived. The flight from California is accelerating under the heavy tax and regulation hands of the Democrat controlled Senate and Assembly and under your disingenuous fiscal conservative leadership.

The Bank on California website states that you want Californians to do business with banks rather than non-bank financial institutions in order to cut annual service fees by $500. If you are interested in saving Californians money, why donīt you cut state spending instead of raising our taxes $1400 per family per year?

What crazed project will you launch next to save Californians money? How about a program to promote shopping at Costco or Wal-Mart to the detriment of neighborhood stores? Why not a project promoting buying our cars over the Internet because it might be cheaper than at a local car dealership? There could be an unlimited number of possibilities for state government intervention and expenditure of taxpayerīs money – for our own good, of course.

The Bank on California website states the goal of teaching up to 100,000 unbanked Californians basic skills such as balancing a check book. Our stateīs high schools fail to graduate 50% of students and those it graduates can barely do basic math. Wouldnīt it be better to graduate another 100,000 high school students per year than teaching hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, that could be deported at anytime, how to money-launder their illicit earning?

As a citizen of California and a taxpayer I would like you to stop the state involvement with "Bank on California" and instead collaborate with federal authorities to put an end to bank complicity in money-laundering illegal alienīs illicit earnings. And while you are thinking of the public good in California, cut government over-spending and donīt even think about raising our taxes, the nationīs highest. The pressure you are putting on fellow fiscal conservatives in the senate and the assembly is disgraceful and will haunt you and anyone who follows that path.

Call and write Governor Schwarzenegger and demand that "Bank on California" be dismantled immediately.

Governor's Office - Telephone 916-445-4571 Fax: 916-558-3160

Media Contact: Article Author, Tony Dolz dolz.com 310-371 7500 bankoncalifornia@dolz.info

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