How To Escape Financial Surveillance — Before AML Traps You

How To Escape Financial Surveillance — Before AML Traps You

AML laws are a scam. They were not built to stop criminals, they were built to control you. If you’re part of the thousands of people with undeclared crypto or you received a gift or inheritance, you could literally be using those funds to cure the eyesight of the blind kids or feed the homeless, and yet in the eyes of the government you’d still be considered a crook.

I’m not even joking. Case in point, the 2022 Canadian trucker protests, where the government literally froze the bank accounts of both protesters and donors just for feeding and clothing the truckers. And the real money laundering is happening in major bank branches such as the 2012 HSBC scandal with the Mexican cartel.

Not with some privacy coin or some couple ounces in gold. And by the way, those execs, they walked away scot-free. You, on the other hand, would get hit just for a 10,000 euro crypto transaction that’s unexplained.

Is there still a place in the world where you can somewhat protect yourself from this financial surveillance before it traps you? In the next few minutes, I’ll break down the two types of AML regimes used by first world countries and show you how to pick the right jurisdiction to protect your money from freezing orders, from legal harassment, or straight up confiscation. So let’s dive in. Now, let’s get one thing out of the way.

We’re not going to talk about developing countries. Not because they’re irrelevant, but because if you’re watching this, you’re probably not parking six figures in some Colombian bank. Sure, they don’t have crazy banking regulation, but if you have decent wealth and for right reason, you’ll hesitate to store it there long term.

Instead, we’ll be focusing on first world countries. The ones where the laws seem to be clean, where the institutions pretend to be fair, and yet they’ll still freeze your accounts for some 5,000 euro transaction if you can’t prove immediately where the money came from. Because here’s one thing you need to understand.

In many democratic countries, like in Europe, it is on you to prove that your funds are legit. Forget about the innocent until proven guilty. It is legally and officially the other way around.

Even if your money is 100% clean, you have to give those receipts and prove that it’s legit or else your assets can be seized. So the real game here is not to look for some safe country, because honestly guys, laws, they can be outright ignored or amended. They’re being used as weapons of mass surveillance, which is why even Nigel Farage compared AML rules to a sledgehammer that misses the nut.

Instead, it’s about finding a jurisdiction where the government has to work hard to get to your assets, where they have to spend a lot of time and money in courts and bureaucracy, and where they don’t get immediate access to it. Because in a world where all states are thieves, you want to store your wealth long term, in a country that pretends to have freedoms and constitutionality. Basically, you can put countries into two categories.

You have the hammer states, where the country doesn’t even need to prove that you’ve done anything wrong in order to take your stuff. And then you have those circus states, where they have to jump through a few more hoops. They have to pretend that they’re building a case in order to take your assets.

It builds a bit more of an obstacle between them. Those are the places you would actually want to store long term. But when it comes to hammer states, they go by the assumption that you are guilty.

Forget that old courtroom adage of innocent until proven guilty. No, it’s more like you are a criminal and prove that you are not, or else we’re going to take everything. And let me give you a few examples of countries and how they apply it.

In France, courts are allowed to presume that your assets are criminal if the financial task unit deems your explanation to be incoherent. And guess who gets to decide whether it is incoherent? The financial task unit. Alot of times, circumstantial evidence has been used as proof just to seize your property or funds.

And it’s no different in Germany. The state no longer has to prove that your assets are illegitimate. Under Gesetz zur Reform der strafrechtlichen Vermögensabschöpfung, the authorities, they can confiscate everything.

And it is up to you to prove their legitimacy. And for those guys, pretty much everything is organized crime. The same thing applies to the Netherlands.

All banks and institutions must file Unusual Transaction Reports, UTRs. Not suspicious, just unusual. And it’s gotten so absurd that entire industries, crypto, logistics, even consulting, are now pretty much deemed high risk by default.

In Latvia, where our team has had over 30 years of experience, assets can be confiscated in money laundering procedures if the owner can’t prove its origin. And this was famously abused a couple of years ago when the ABLV bank collapsed to siphon customer funds to the Latvian state by creating these unreasonable and massive constraints for clients to actually get their money back. And all EU countries are pretty much going down this path, even if their laws may say otherwise.

And that’s because they have to harmonize their laws with the EU’s Directive on Asset Recovery and Confiscation. So long story short, don’t expect any wealth or financial privacy in this part of the world anytime soon. Now, for all the crap that we’ve given common law countries, such as the UK or the US, we call them circus states because they have to jump through more hoops.

They have to play theater in order to get your wealth. And my personal opinion is because they’re the actual hubs for dirty money, and therefore the system is designed to give some leeway for the criminals to actually get away. And as a freedom-loving person, you can obviously take advantage of this.

So let’s start off with the United States. The legal system over there requires the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred. In plain English, it’s about 95% certainty that you’re guilty, and the burden is on them. That’s pretty hard to do. You don’t have to prove that you’re innocent. They have to prove that your money is dirty.

Now, is the US system perfect? Absolutely not. Just go and ask Roger Ver. But Roger Ver, he had over a billion dollars in assets, and the IRS went after 48 million of them.

Plus, he’s a very outspoken public figure. If you’re a nobody who keeps a low profile, then the cost for them to actually look into you is going to far outweigh anything they’ll get out of it. Especially if you’re using creative accounting. The goal is to put in as many obstacles and to make it as costly as possible for them to seize your funds.

Now, the UK is similar on paper, where the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the accusation on money laundering in court. But my issue with Britain is that they have a procedural loophole that can be abused.

And it’s called the Unexplained Wealth Orders. Essentially, the government, they can flip the burden of proof on you, but only once you’re already under investigation. Even though this isn’t the standard procedural approach, all they really have to do is start an investigation on you for some minor, maybe even cooked up charge, and all of a sudden can slap you with a UWO, ask you where did all the money come from, all of the financial information, you’ve pretty much lost your wealth privacy. So case closed, right? Just plow all of your money and wealth into the US. Hold on for a second. Confiscation is not the same as freezing.

Also known as Temporary Seizures or Mareve injunctions, these do not require a trial. And unlike confiscation, they’re recognized by pretty much all first world countries in the world. So while a US judge may not be outright able to confiscate your wealth without a case, they can certainly freeze your bank account just based on suspicion that you’re going to move it out of the country.

That’s why when building a long-term and practical banking infrastructure for money that you don’t want governments or lawyers to find out about, here’s a simple workaround.

Don’t hold anything in your own name.Silent partnerships,Trustees,Nominees,

For what you do not own cannot be taken away from you.

If your bank account isn’t in your own name, it’s in the name of someone else, then it doesn’t really matter what situation you find yourself in. There’s nothing to take.

You want to build this multi-layered structure without relying on a single jurisdiction or a single bank. That’s it for today’s article, guys.

If you enjoy this type of content, as always, you can leave a comment down below or share it with a friend. I want to sincerely express my gratitude for all of you and the kind words you’ve said, the support. It definitely means a lot to me.

This article is issued for information purposes only and is not an offer to purchase or sell investments or related financial instruments. Individuals should undertake their own analysis and/or seek professional advice based on their specific needs before purchasing or selling investments. The information contained in this article is based on sources that I believes to be reliable, but I makes no representations or warranties regarding the completeness, accuracy or reliability of any information, facts, estimates, forecasts or opinions contained in this document. The information, opinions, estimates, assumptions, target prices and forecasts could change at any time without prior notice. I am under no obligation to inform any recipient of this document of any such changes. I hold that I shall have no liability for any loss or damage of any nature arising from the use of this article.

How To Escape Financial Surveillance — Before AML Traps You was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.