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In reply to the discussion: Dennis Hastert aside, it shouldn't be a crime to take your own money out of the bank [View all]Igel
(35,191 posts)It had a rainy day fund. A large one, since it wasn't just a really small non-profit.
Bosses wanted to set up a Swiss investment account. Taxes, obviously, weren't the issue. We paid no income tax or capital gains tax.
They told me to withdraw something like $30k and wire it overseas. Then they countermanded this. "That'll look suspicious"--they knew about the law that had been on the books for many years--"Instead, every Monday for the next three weeks withdraw $10k and wire it."
Sure. That certainly looked a lot less suspicious.
One point that has to be made is this: The Patriot Act is far, far less than it appears. While we like to point to all of its horrible provisions, one thing that the PA did was amalgamate all kinds of bits and pieces of pre-existing laws into one omnibus statute. Most of the Patriot Act pre-existed the Patriot Act. Parts were modified and parts added. Much was just taken as it already was. It's like saying everything in a Walmart is somehow "Walmart": In fact, while some things are made by and specifically for Walmart, some things are already on the market and are just modified for Walmart, but most things in a Walmart can be bought at any number of stores with no difference.
It's easier to ignore this, because then we have a neat (R) to blame right at hand without doing any additional work or thinking. Another motivation is that the real culprits in many instances are previous congresses and presidents, sometimes (D), and that's just icky.