Does Chile's (ex-) right-wing dictator General Augustus Pinochet (seated with sunglasses) have nine tons of gold (appoximate value: US$160,000,000) stashed in The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd (since rebranded as HSBC)?
Pinochet's lawyer says the reports now circulating have no merit.
Pinochet, who was head of the authoritarian military council which ruled Chile from 1973-1990, instigated a brutal oppression of leftists and other political opponents in the several months after seizing power on 11 September, 1973.
Although an accurate figure will never be known, it is believed at least 2,095 murders and 1,102 "disappearances" occurred under Pinochet's watch in the first three months after the coup. Tens of thousands were detained and tortured, including Chile's current president Michelle Bachelet. More than 30,000 Chileans subsequently fled their country.
Pinochet is already under indictment on corruption, tax evasion and multiple human rights abuses charges. The tax evasion charges involve 27 million American dollars stashed in Miami's Riggs Bank.
According to the BBC, HSBC spokesman Richard Lindsay says the bank has started an investigation.
HSBC probes Pinochet gold claims: BBC News
Whether the Pinochet story is true or not, Hong Kong banks have not been averse to having dictators as clients.
Mister Bijou remembers that in the hours preceding the fall of the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos (25 February, 1989), private planes were flying backwards and forwards between Manila and Hong Kong and unloading crates on the tarmac at Kai Tak Airport. Some of those crates were in transit, others were loaded into armoured trucks and delivered to one of Hong Kong's leading note-issuing banks.
Standard Chartered Bank, anyone?
No comments:
Post a Comment