20 years for money laundering

20 years for money laundering

51-year-old Vikram Datta, who was found guilty in September last year on money-laundering charges, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court here.

"Datta used his perfume business to remove the stench from Mexican drug cartel money, and now he will pay a steep price for his crimes," Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said.

AMERICAN PENNY HISTORY SECRETS

AMERICAN PENNY HISTORY SECRETS

The penny in the United States is a one-cent coin. Presently, the United

States Mint strikes about 12 billion pennies annually, accounting for over onehalf of all coins struck by the mint. If the pennies struck by the U.S. Mint since its inception were lined up edge to edge, the pennies would roughly circle the earth 137 times (www.penny.org ).

Historically, the penny was a copper coin. Copper coinage came slowly to the

English-speaking countries, perhaps because of its long association with currency debasement. Early in the 17th century, Spain had debased its silver coin with copper alloy, eventually striking coins that were virtually all copper with face values commensurate with high silver content.

ALCHEMY and Isaac Newton experiments

ALCHEMY and Isaac Newton experiments

Alchemy was a pseudoscience that flourished during the Middle Ages. Its chief aims were the transmutation of base metals into gold and silver, and the discovery of an elixir of eternal youth. The alchemists searched in vain for the philosopher’s stone, a substance that, if properly treated, would allegedly transmute lead, iron, copper, or tin into gold or silver—but particularly gold.

ADJUSTABLE-RATE MORTGAGES

ADJUSTABLE-RATE MORTGAGES

An adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) provides for varying interest rates over the life of the mortgage. It forces the borrower to shoulder some of the risks that fixed-rate loans place on the lender.

Key to the rationale for ARMs is the almost one-to-one relationship between short-term interest rates and inflation rates. Over the life of a 30-year, fixedrate mortgage, inflation ranks among the biggest enemies that a lender faces.

Increases in the inflation rate reduce the real (inflation-adjusted) rate of interest that a mortgage pays to a lender.

How Marco Polo discovered ANCIENT CHINESE PAPER MONEY

How Marco Polo discovered ANCIENT CHINESE PAPER MONEY

Banknote from Kublai Khan’s first issue of banknotes, 1260–1287 china

In the second book of The Travels of Marco Polo, Chapter 18 is entitled: “Of the Kind of Paper Money Issued by the Grand Khan, and Made to Pass Current throughout His Dominions.” In this chapter, Marco Polo, who lived in China from 1275 to 1292, described the paper money system as follows:

ACT FOR REMEDYING THE ILL STATE OF THE COIN (ENGLAND)

ACT FOR REMEDYING THE ILL STATE OF THE COIN (ENGLAND)

Woodcut illustrating the alchemical bonding of gold and silver, from Von dem grossen Stein uk

In 1696, Parliament enacted the Act for Remedying the Ill State of the Coin, after one of the famous currency debates in history, which pitted those who favored return to a historical currency standard against those who favored ratifying past depreciation.

Toward the end of the 17th century, the old hammered-silver coinage accounted for the bulk of England’s circulating coinage.

Iraq’s central bank under currency attack

Iraq’s central bank under currency attack

Iraq’s central bank said it’s under a “currency attack” as traders buy U.S. dollars in daily auctions and resell them on the black market in Syria and Iran, which face hard currency shortages due to sanctions.

Demand for the greenback at the central bank auctions has risen since November to about $200 million to $300 million a day, compared with about $160 million in the prior 12 months, the deputy central bank governor, Mudher Salih, said in an interview in Baghdad Jan. 10.

“Now we are checking the applications to buy dollars from the auctions more closely. We are afraid that some of it may be related to money laundering,” Salih said. “We are now under a currency attack because of the regional situation.”

Money exchange offices revaluation in Saudi Arabia

Money exchange offices revaluation in Saudi Arabia

currency exchange in hofuf in Hofuf Saudi Arabia 1945-1946

A number of dealers in the money exchange sector in Makkah have urged the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) to expedite giving licenses to interested citizens to open money exchange offices as the Umrah season is rapidly approaching and the holy city only has five of these offices at present.