"Tiger Woods Of Poker" Loses Landmark Lawsuit For Cheating In Mayfair Casino

The American poker player, Phil Ivey, ten-time World Series Poker winner, lost his UK Supreme Court case to recover 7.7 million pounds ($10.2 million dollars) of winnings from Crockfords, a casino in London’s prime Mayfair district. Afterwards Ivey – known as the “Tiger Woods of poker” with $23 million of career winnings – complained that British judges have “no experience or understanding” of casinos. Crockfords accused Ivey of cheating, using a method called “edge sorting”.

Wiki explains edge sorting as follows.

Edge sorting is a technique used in advantage gambling where a player determines whether a face-down playing card is likely to be low or high at casino table games by observing and exploiting subtle unintentional differences on the backs of some types of card, after persuading a croupier to cooperate by unwittingly sorting the cards into low and high…(the technique) requires the player to trick the croupier into rotating cards. Many packs of cards produced by manufacturers have unintentional edge irregularities. Typically all the backs of the cards in such a pack are identical, but the two long edges of each card are consistently distinguishable: the pattern is not symmetrical to a 180° rotation (half a full turn).

The FT reports that the case is a landmark judgment in the UK, overhauling how fraud cases are presented and potentially making it easier for prosecutors to secure fraud convictions, according to legal experts.

Mr Ivey won the £7.7m playing a version of the card game Baccarat known as Punto Banco at Crockfords Club in Mayfair in 2012. Genting, the casino’s owner, refused to pay out, arguing that the 40-year old American had used an unfair technique called “edge-sorting” that allows a sharp-eyed player to exploit design irregularities in the cards. The five-judge Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously upheld an earlier majority decision of the Court of Appeal, and dismissed the case on the grounds that Mr Ivey and a fellow gambler, Cheung Yin Sun, had cheated by interfering with the game. More broadly, the judgment has far-reaching implications for fraud cases, where disputes often centre on whether a defendant was dishonest.

Wednesday’s decision found that part of the go-to test of dishonesty, dubbed the “Ghosh test” after a famous 1982 case, should no longer be applied. The two-step test asks whether a defendant knew his actions would be deemed dishonest by a reasonable person, but went ahead and committed them anyway. After Wednesday’s decision, a prosecutor no longer has to prove that a defendant held this particular belief.” The decision represents a “fundamental change to one of the basic facets of criminal fraud law”, said David Corker, a lawyer at Corker Binning who specialises in white-collar cases. “A prosecutor need only place before the court facts about what the accused did and thought and invite the court to hold that he was dishonest. This is a huge shift towards an objective test of dishonesty.

Ivey argued that he exploited the casino’s failure to defend itself again a professional gambler, as the FT explains...

The court judgment said that Mr Ivey and Ms Sun used the pretext that they were superstitious to get the croupier to arrange the cards with the edges of high-value ones all lined up in the same direction. Mr Ivey said the practice was “legitimate gamesmanship”, and he had simply made use of Crockfords’ failure to protect itself against a professional gambler. One of the judges, Lord Hughes, said that Mr Ivey had staged a “carefully planned and well executed sting”. He said Mr Ivey’s actions were “positive steps to fix the deck and therefore constituted cheating”.

 

He added: “If he had secretly gained access to the shoe of cards and personally rearranged them that would be considered cheating. He accomplished the same results by directing the actions of the croupier and tricking her into thinking that what she did was irrelevant.”

When it comes to lawsuits for edge sorting, and losing them, Ivey has “form”.

Mr Ivey said after the judgment:

“It is very frustrating that the UK judges have no experience or understanding of casinos…or the ongoing battle between casinos and professional gamblers attempting to level the playing field.”

Paul Willcock, president and chief operating officer of Genting UK, said:

“We are delighted that the High Court, the Court of Appeal and now the supreme court have all found in Genting’s favour, confirming that we acted fairly and properly at all times and that Mr Ivey’s conduct did indeed amount to cheating.”

He said the judgment “entirely vindicates Genting’s decision not to pay Mr Ivey, a decision that was not taken lightly”. Mr Ivey lost a similar case in the US last year where a district judge ruled that the gambler had breached his contract with a casino in Atlantic City by deploying edge-sorting.

Brandon Smith: A Tactical Analysis Of The Las Vegas Mass Shooting Incident

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

I set aside some time for more details of the Vegas shooting to emerge before writing this article. A few important data points have been released, but I have to say that this remains one of the most confusing terror incidents in decades.

The tactical and strategic thought applied in this attack denotes a sophisticated and experienced shooter, yet, we are told by Stephen Paddock"s family and girlfriend that there was no indication that he had such knowledge or experience. There were some advanced tactical decisions involved in every aspect of the staging of the event, yet, there were also a few glaring mistakes that do not fit. Beyond this, there is evidence that Paddock (the alleged shooter) did not act alone, yet, the official mainstream narrative continues to tell us that he was a lone wolf.

Now, every terror event these days produces an endless supply of alternative theories, some practical and some ridiculous. I will be keeping my theories to a minimum here, because I don"t think they serve much purpose in this instance beyond comfort for those that desperately want explanations. What I will be doing is presenting some questions and pointing out inconsistencies. My goal is merely to show that there is evidence which indicates far more complexity to the Vegas shooting than the mainstream media and federal officials are willing to discuss.

First, lets look at how the attack was staged versus what we are told about the background of Stephen Paddock.

Mass Shooter Psychological Profile

Psychological disposition is the root of tactical behavior.  It is important to note that mass shootings are an extremely rare occurrence despite the propaganda often poured onto the pages of the mainstream media. Psychological profiling of the people behind these crimes is difficult because the number of candidates is very small. There are, however, some common themes.

For example — many mass shooters are motivated by revenge or envy. Shooters often exhibit signs of sociopathy, a self-centered nature and a lack of compassion along with past instances of abuse and violence towards other people and animals. There is also usually a previous history of mental illness. In most cases there is a "triggering event" which leads to a psychological break and a reaction to violence.

According to the personal accounts from the people that knew Paddock, including his girlfriend, none of these attributes seems to fit. Marilou Danley described him as a "kind and caring man," stating that he had never taken any action which would have led her to believe he was capable of such violence. The only factor that stands as evidence of a potential psychological break is the fact that Paddock was prescribed the anti-anxiety drug diazepam months prior, which has been known to cause aggression when taken in larger doses.

Did Paddock take this drug because of unrelated anxiety and did it trigger his shooting spree? Or, was his anxiety caused by the fact that he was already planning a shooting spree and the drug was meant to "take the edge off" so he could more easily follow through with the attack?

Paddock was prescribed the drug once in 2016 and on June 21st of this year.  I have seen no evidence that he was using the medication in the days before the attack.  The meticulous planning that went into this attack, as well as possible evidence that Paddock was renting rooms adjacent to major musical events for some time, shows that this was not initiated by a psychological break. Rather, there was a considerable level of conscious critical thought and foresight.

There is also no available evidence of domestic instability or financial troubles. Paddock was a multi-millionaire with a successful real estate investment portfolio. He was a former postal worker and tax auditor, as well as an employee for defense contractor Lockheed Martin (I have not seen any statements by Lockheed on what exactly he did for them). It should be noted that Paddock, at age 64, was one of the oldest mass shooters in recent history.

Paddock"s father, a bank robber on the FBI"s Most Wanted list, was not present for the most of the early lives of the children according to his brother, Eric Paddock, which undermines the notion of poor environmental influences.

Eric Paddock claims Stephen also had no strong ideological or religious leanings and simply "didn"t care" about such matters. Meaning, no apparent ties to extremist views. He had no social media profiles and police claim they have found nothing in his home computers or phones to suggest a philosophical or political motive. So far I have not seen a single concrete and verified piece of evidence proving Paddock believed in anything other than making money, gambling and traveling the world for fun.

I personally find this extremely hard to believe. Stephen Paddock, for all intents and purposes, was positively the perfect "Gray Man," a ghost that blended completely into the background, so much so that his own family and girlfriend had no idea that he was amassing the weapons and training needed to pull off the Vegas attack.

The Tactical Know-How Of A Nobody

This is the area which brings up the most questions for me in terms of the Vegas incident. As an avid tactical shooter and long distance shooter, I immediately recognized some strange factors. For instance, the choice of his perch, two adjacent rooms on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, was rather effective for a number of reasons.

If you have the chance to study counter-sniping methodologies or talk with veterans involved in counter-sniping in urban areas, you will learn that the most successful snipers tend to choose mid-ground perches to take shots from. Meaning, they never choose the highest points nor the lowest points, and never shoot from the closest points or the furthest points. Well trained snipers can and do sometimes shoot from 1,000 yards or more, but they prefer to shoot from the "sweet spot" around 300-400 yards away at an elevated point from an expedient hide in the middle of a building or structure.

They do this because when people (including trained combat soldiers) are shot at, their eyes naturally tend to scan for the highest points in the background and the closest points in the foreground first. Choosing mid-ground positions makes snipers more difficult to pick out quickly and also harder for the average person to shoot back at.

I would note that average, untrained mass shooters are more likely to enter a crowd and start shooting at point blank range in order to ensure hits on targets. Paddock chose the position of a trained shooter, which you can see a photo of in this article by The New Yorker. It was NOT the best possible position, but a very good one.

Paddock"s choice to fire from the position of a large occupied hotel gave a layer of cover to his attack; anyone attempting to suppress him with their own fire would risk hitting innocent people within the building.  Only a person with an understanding of counter-sniping and a scoped rifle would have the ability to stop the attack from outside.  Nevada is a very concealed carry friendly state and attacking a crowd at close range on the ground would be a high risk scenario.  Firing from the Mandalay was the shooter"s most likely chance of a high body count without meeting opposition, as long as he had the proper training.

The first room Paddock used in the Mandalay is in the corner of the 32nd floor with a view of the concert area and the north. It has a diagonal range of around 400 yards and a linear range of around 240 yards. When firing from an elevated position snipers range targets and bullet drop according to the shorter linear range or "true ballistic distance" (base of the ground to the target) rather than the direct range from their perch to the target. This is because gravity only affects the bullet over the true ballistic distance and elevation in a scope must be adjusted to that distance. It is not as easy as it seems to hit targets from an elevated position, even with an "automatic" weapon.

It has been recently stated by Las Vegas police that the "note" found near Paddock"s body was scribbled with calculations for bullet drop from his position. These calculations can be done with newer laser rangefinders, but Stephen apparently chose to do them on paper. Las Vegas Detective Casey Clarkson was on the grounds of the concert during the attack, and recounted "I"m like, how is he so accurate" (in reference to Paddock) in an interview with 60 Minutes. Yet another piece of evidence showing that Paddock (or someone else) had extensive shooter training.

The two adjacent rooms at the Mandalay offered extensive coverage of possible approaches for first responders. The first room gave the shooter good coverage of the concert and the north approach of Las Vegas Blvd. The second room gave the shooter a very wide angle of coverage to the south approach to the Mandalay as well as the main entrance of the hotel. More tactical know-how on display.

Finally, Paddock allegedly placed small surveillance cameras in the hall approaching his room. A valuable tool which a shooter could use to surprise law enforcement, maintaining a longer period of shooter effectiveness as well as possibly allowing for an escape. Las Vegas police are quoted as stating that it appeared as though Paddock had planned to evade capture. This fits in line with the rest of his tactical staging. His suicide does not.

Things That Don"t Add Up

Again, I am not going to enter into much discussion on theory, here. I am only going to cite some instances of evidence and narrative that, for me, do not make sense.  Let"s begin...

The motive: No apparent motive. Paddock led a life of near luxury, had a happy relationship with his girlfriend and gave no indication to anyone of any instability or ideological affiliation. He had no criminal record. He was also well beyond the average age range of people commonly involved in such crimes. He does not fit any of the characteristics of mass shooters.  Period.

The arsenal: Paddock put a substantial amount of thought and planning into the position of his perch as well as a potential escape. He had the knowledge and experience to calculate accurate shots from an elevated position at distance. But, for some reason the 64-year-old-man decided it was warranted to drag at least 23 guns and hundreds of pounds of ammunition in ten separate suitcases to his room at the Mandalay Bay. A person with the intelligence displayed in the planning of this event would know that most of these rifles were not needed in the slightest to achieve the effect desired. They are dead weight, and moving them into the Mandalay only presented unnecessary risk of discovery. Unless, of course, the original plan involved multiple shooters.

A strange year?: Family and acquaintances have mentioned Paddock"s propensity for "disappearing" in the year previous to the Vegas attack. And, there is the fact that 33 of the 47 firearms Paddock owned were purchased in the last 12 months.

Security calls: Paddock called hotel security at least twice to complain about "loud music" on the floor below him the day of the shooting.  Why would a mass shooter care, or take the risk of drawing too much attention to himself?

The windows: Why, after so much careful planning, did Paddock expose his position by smashing two separate windows in his adjacent hotel rooms? There are other ways of providing a shooter"s loophole with less exposure? Very odd.  Almost as if the decision to actually shoot was made suddenly, which does not fit the rest of the narrative or evidence.

"Unrelated" room alarm leads security right to Paddock: The Las Vegas Sheriffs Department indicates that security was originally led directly to the floor that Paddock was shooting from by a "door alarm" that was set off by someone three rooms down from him. Now, authorities have been forced to admit that this alarm and the confrontation between security and Paddock took place BEFORE he began his shooting spree.  This means that police should have been alerted to Paddock"s presence and exact location in advance of the attack.  Who set off this alarm which conveniently helped to give away Paddock"s position early, and why?

The surveillance cameras: Paddock had a head start on security, SWAT and anyone else that approached his rooms. He fired at hotel security through his door injuring employee Jesus Campos. He also had thousands of rounds of ammunition including .308 rounds which could easily be fired through several walls on the floor of his hotel room. Why did Paddock prepare for an escape, use his cameras to allow him to fire at hotel security through his door, equip rounds capable of annihilating any SWAT team that stacked up to breach his room, but decided to shoot himself instead before SWAT ever entered? Some people might argue that there is no logic to the mind of a "madman," but again, I"ve seen no evidence that Paddock was insane beyond the criminal act itself.  Also, the hotel had its own surveillance in the hall near Paddock"s rooms.  No one noticed the man placing cameras about the area?

Multiple shooters?: Las Vegas County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo is quoted as saying that it was only logical to assume given the evidence that Paddock "had some help at some point" in the staging of the Vegas attack. To me, this is absolutely clear in the tactical planning.  Paddock does not appear to have the background or training to have chosen and staged the perch.

The report suggesting that a phone charger was found that did not belong to Paddock has since been refuted by police, as well as the report that his card key was used to access his room while Paddock was gone. Of course, hotel surveillance would prove this one way or the other and should be made available to the public.

Still, there are multiple accounts by witnesses that there may have been a second shooter, including the initial reports given by first responders on the scene, who were told a shooter was on the 29th floor as well as the 32nd floor.  All of these accounts have been dismissed as a result of "panic" and the fog of war.

The mystery woman: A witness on site at the concert stated that a woman (and her apparent boyfriend) approached people near the stage 45 minutes before the attack, telling them that "they were all going to die." She was later escorted out of the venue by security. Who was this woman? Was she trying to menace the concertgoers or warn them? Or, was it all coincidence?

Conclusion

In my view, there is simply no way that a man with Stephen Paddock"s history and background committed the Vegas shooting alone.

There is no motive, no clear evidence of mental illness, no ideological markers and nothing to be gained. The tactical expertise displayed in most cases shows considerable training. Theories will abound.

It is possible that he was used. It is also possible that he was secretly radicalized and trained, as ISIS has continuously asserted since the attack. Or, perhaps he never pulled a single trigger and somehow ended up shot through the head in a room full of guns overlooking Las Vegas Blvd. and dozens of dead concertgoers.

The most disturbing aspect of this event and the mainstream narrative, though, is what it insinuates.

It insinuates that anyone no matter how seemingly normal could one day simply "snap" and murder crowds of people with impunity.

It is the anti-Second Amendment narrative personified, because if "anyone" is capable of such horror, and motive is nonexistent, then the mere existence of firearm access means that we are surrounded by millions of latent mass shooters.

That is to say, we are supposed to fear everyone around us at all times.

I will write about the solution to this problem in my next article. In the meantime, I suggest everyone ponder on the oddities of this event and continue to ask questions.

Behind Vancouver's Housing Bubble: How Canadian Casinos Are Use To Launder Millions In Chinese Drug Money

Nearly two years after we first observed that Vancouver"s soaring real estate market is nothing but a bubbling melange of criminal Chinese oligarch "hot money", desperate to get parked offshore in any piece of real estate, but mostly in British Columbia regardless of price, a new multi-year investigation has uncovered extensive links - including money laundering and underground banking - between China"s criminal underworld and British Columbia drug and casino cash and VIPs, as well as their connections to China, Macau and the notorious triads.

In retrospect, and as many suspected, it appears that much of the B.C. real estate bubble can be explained as nothing more than the "layering" and "integration" aspect of a giant money laundering scheme involving billions of dollars of Chinese hot money and the criminals behind it.

Here is Postmedia"s real estate reporter Sam Cooper reporting on and explaining how British Columbia casinos are used to launder millions in drug cash.

* * *

On Oct. 15, 2015, a Mountie burst through the front door of an office in Richmond, carrying a battering ram and with a rifle slung on his back. The door swung shut behind him, locking him inside. He was in the lobby of Silver International Investment, a high-end money transfer business, surrounded by bulletproof glass. Behind a second glass door, a woman rushed to make a call while hiding several cellphones. Under her desk was a safe stuffed with bundles of cash. The Mountie, a large man, counted seconds anxiously, wondering if the woman would unlock the interior door.

It was one of 10 police raids in Richmond that day — part of a major investigation that has uncovered massive money laundering and underground banking networks with links to Mainland China, Macau and B.C. casinos, allege the RCMP’s federal organized crime unit and China’s national police service.

Postmedia has spent six months looking into the case, involving freedom of information requests for thousands of documents and dozens of interviews with government and law enforcement sources that were not authorized to be identified. Now, the inside story can be told of the investigations that led B.C.’s attorney general last week to order an independent review of casinos overseen by the B.C. Lottery Corp.

In late August, at a Vancouver conference attended by U.S. and Canadian law enforcement officials, RCMP Insp. Bruce Ward outlined the details of E-Pirate, the investigation into Silver International, Asian organized crime groups, and an alleged $500-million-plus international money laundering service run from Richmond. Central to the money laundering probe, allege B.C. government documents, is suspect Paul King Jin, a 50-year-old Richmond spa owner.

Paul King Jin, from a 2011 CTV News Vancouver video

BCLC and B.C. gaming policy enforcement branch documents say that information revealed by the RCMP’s investigation into Jin and Silver led them to suspect the funds are tied to “transnational drug trafficking … (that) could have a potentially devastating impact on the casino industry.” Jin allegedly helped ultra-wealthy Mainland China “whale” gamblers, recruited in Macau, to gamble in B.C., the investigation documents allege.

The Macau whales were able to gamble with suspected drug cash supplied by Jin’s network, especially at River Rock Casino, the investigation documents allege. With those funds borrowed from Jin and “private lenders,” they were not only able to gamble, but to develop real estate in B.C.

Without naming names, a paragraph in the confidential MNP LLP audit of B.C. Lottery Corp. that the attorney general released last week describes underground banking channels that allowed “Chinese nationals” to evade China’s tight capital controls and transfer wealth into B.C.

Investigators learned the Chinese whale gamblers were “provided with a contact in Vancouver, either locally or prior to arriving in Vancouver,” the MNP report says. Next, the gamblers would “contact the person via phone for cash delivery,” which they use to buy chips at a casino. The gamblers would repay these funds “through cash holdings in China.” When the gamblers cash out, they are left with money available for use in Canada.

At the anti-money-laundering conference in late August, the RCMP’s Ward used security videos seized from Silver International’s office, in a multi-storey business complex in the 5800-block of Cooney Road, to explain Silver’s operations. Ward walked conference attendees through a security video that showed the Mountie attempting to enter Silver’s office.

“This lady is the primary target, she returns to her desk, she is hiding her three cellphones and calls someone,” Ward said. “Meanwhile there is a very anxious police officer counting the seconds, waiting to be let in.”

The woman allowed the Mountie and additional officers to enter Silver’s inner sanctum, and what they found could lead to one of the most significant money laundering cases ever in Canada, police say. Ward said Silver was so diligent in recording transactions, and its security system videos are so revealing that Mounties believe they are able to clear a difficult hurdle for Canadian law enforcement: proving that laundered money is directly connected to a “predicate” crime, in this case, drug-trafficking.

In the E-Pirate raids, RCMP seized 132 computers and cellphones, yielding 30 terabytes in data. If all that digital evidence were printed on paper, it would fill almost three million thick telephone books. And ledgers suggest that in only one year, Silver laundered $220 million in cash in B.C., and sent over $300 million offshore, according to Ward.

“This is huge,” one police officer, who was not authorized to be identified, said of the case’s expected impact. “This could change money laundering in B.C.”

In the raid on Silver International’s office on Cooney Road, civil forfeiture documents allege, Mounties seized over $2 million in mostly $20 bills, plus ledgers and daily transaction records. The claim also alleges that two people identified entering the Silver office were later stopped by Mounties on Highway 5 in Merritt, driving a car with $1 million in suspected drug cash stuffed into two suitcases in the trunk.

On Wednesday, Zachary Ng, a lawyer for Jin, told Postmedia he would “convey” requests for comment on E-Pirate allegations to Jin. But Ng said he could not immediately comment. Matthew Nathanson, lawyer for Silver International Investments, said: “I don’t have any comment on this matter.”

To understand Silver’s network, law enforcement had to understand the nature of organized crime in Richmond and Mainland China, which operates “parallel” to the Chinese business community, according to Ward.

“Any given gangster, if you want to call them that, businessman, will have many schemes and thus many networks, and this networking is what facilitated the business,” Ward said. “Because they were able to start a profession of money laundering … to all their friends in drug dealing, who needed the service of converting cash into bankable instruments.”

Ward said Silver International and Jin’s alleged network had many facets, but the main business stemmed from funding the “whale” gamblers, who gambled both in B.C. legal casinos, and illegal gaming houses set up in rural Richmond.

“Part of what we found, is they had two ongoing illegal casinos where the same businessmen who are part of the conspiracy were able to provide non-legal gambling for these offshore gamblers,” Ward told conference attendees. Describing the unimaginable wealth of these Chinese gamblers, Ward said that each man typically gambled between $100,000 and $1 million on a weekend visit to the Lower Mainland. The RCMP’s investigation started with surveillance of gambling and cash drops at River Rock Casino, which led to Silver International’s cash house.

“The primary target that led us there, was a person that is involved in generating ‘whales’ … these high-end gamblers,” Ward said. “His expertise is going over and working in Macau, identifying rich Chinese businessmen that would go to Macau, and he was attracting them to Canada, to gamble. He would use Silver International as a bank account.”

Describing a typical delivery, Ward said: “They would put $100,000 into a hockey bag, show up at the casino, and give (the VIP gambler) $100,000 … the loaning out would go to Chinese offshore gamblers coming into Canada.” Ward said Canadian residents were also loaned cash from Silver in “loan sharking” operations. And Lower Mainland wire transfer businesses were also funded with suspected drug money.

“The extra cash they had would end up in money exchanges, to wire money around the world.”

According to B.C. Lottery Corp. documents, anti-money-laundering investigators identified Paul King Jin in 2012, and these investigators collaborated with B.C. law enforcement to identify Jin’s alleged network, and about 36 gamblers believed to have received criminal cash to buy chips in B.C. casinos.

A suspicious-transaction report filed in 2014 by B.C. Lottery Corp. to Fintrac, Canada’s anti-money laundering agency, says Jin “has been identified as one of the main cash facilitators in the Lower Mainland for casino VIP patrons.” From 2012 to 2014 Jin logged 50 large cash transactions and at least $1.24 million in cash buy-ins, the report says. Jin has been banned from all B.C. casinos for five years, according to the Fintrac report, because of an “extensive history of suspicious incidents.”

BCLC investigators found that Jin and “numerous other people” believed to be working for him were discovered delivering “large amounts of bundled $20 bills” to “known VIP players with … considerable wealth with mostly Asian-based businesses.”

When Jin was barred from casino properties, he continued delivering cash to VIPs, but in parking lots outside or nearby casinos, the Fintrac report alleges.

“Jin was also recently brought to the attention of BCLC by law enforcement agencies that are working with BCLC to identify patrons that are involved in known criminal organizations in B.C.,” the 2014 Fintrac report says. “BCLC is actively working with the RCMP gang unit.”

Jin does not have a criminal record, but has been found guilty of a number of city bylaw infractions. In 2011, Richmond cancelled the licence for Jin’s spa, The Water Club, after RCMP visits. Directors of the club were from Mainland China, Mayor Malcolm Brodie’s council was told. Brodie’s council had access to a report from a Richmond RCMP officer, who noted that in police visits to Jin’s club: “Members later confirmed that high level drug traffickers were inside getting ‘foot massages’ … it is suspected that Jin was meeting with members who are associated to drugs and violence.”

In his E-Pirate presentation in late August, Ward said RCMP surveillance identified 40 different organizations linked to Asian organized groups dealing cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Gangsters or their couriers were delivering “suitcases laden with cash” to Silver International’s cash house, allegedly at an average rate of $1.5 million a day.

At Silver, dealers could drop off $100,000 in cash in a suitcase, Ward said, and within minutes a credit for $95,000 would appear in a Chinese bank, after a five per cent fee taken for the laundering and transfer service. Using an alleged transaction from Silver’s security tapes as an example, Ward explained.

“This is a typical event, of a drug dealer bringing in cash. She receives a call, and she goes out to receive a trusted customer … the vast majority is $20s,” Ward said. “The relationship is such, and trusted, that the phone call is made, ‘I’m coming in with $1.4 million,’ and the staff will wire transfer the credit for that in China, before the cash even comes in the door.”

Ward alleged Silver got so sophisticated that it evolved into an operation that could wire funds to Mexico and Peru, allowing drug dealers to buy narcotics without carrying cash outside Canada, and cover up the international money transfers with fake trade invoices from China.

“They facilitated drug trafficking and moved money from it around the world,” Ward said, pointing to slides of transaction records captured in the E-Pirate raids. “This is a typical request, a direction from Silver International to move money from their own account to a drug dealer’s account. We saw evidence of over 600 (bank) accounts in China that were controlled or fed by Silver International. Chinese police have followed up, and they have labelled this a massive underground banking system.” RCMP seized over $9 million, including millions in cash during E-Pirate, and are trying to seize about $4 million in assets, Ward said.

Mountie lab technicians considered themselves lucky the cash seizures in 2015 took place before B.C.’s deadly fentanyl crisis hit, Ward said, since drug cash handled in Vancouver now is often dangerous, covered in traces of fentanyl dust.

Sources in B.C. government and federal law enforcement say it is believed Jin’s network and the Chinese VIP gamblers allegedly funded by Silver International own many luxury properties in the Lower Mainland. But it’s difficult for Canadian governments to seize assets believed to be directly connected to crime.

“It is very difficult nowadays to say, ‘OK, that house that is being used as a casino is an illegal residence, so let’s seize it,” Ward said. “But who owns it? We are finding now, not only one layer of nominees, but two, three and four. And some of those nominees live in China. And they are either related to you, or they don’t even know they are owners. So for many of the properties, we just had to walk away.”

CIVIL ACTION LAUNCHED

A civil forfeiture action against Silver International Investment and two men, Andy Kai Wai Cheung and Yong Li Chen, was launched in August 2015. The action states the men were witnessed by RCMP surveillance among a number of the people entering Silver’s office with suitcases.

RCMP later stopped a rented Chevrolet Malibu with Alberta plates on Highway 5 in Merritt. In the car were Cheung, who has a criminal record in the United States for conspiring to import ecstasy, and Chen. In the trunk, the claim alleges, was a black suitcase holding $349,950 split into 35 bundles of $10,000. And in a hard shell suitcase was $649,560 in vacuum-sealed bags. The cash indicated ‘positive’ for drug residue, the claim states, and was “bundled in elastic bands and shrink-wrapped in a manner consistent with drug trafficking.”

Silver International has stated it has no connection to the cash, and Cheung and Chen deny any wrongdoing. The action continues.

Gold Tumbles Most Since July (As Bitcoin Bounces)

Gold is down over 1% this morning, extending recent weakness to 3-week lows on the basis that the world didn"t end (and the debt ceiling was extended) we presume. Notably, both USDJPY and Bitcoin are mirroring the precious metal"s move...

It seems gold"s stop-run over the election night highs prompted the reversal...

Kuroda has been busy the last week or so saving the world with Yen-carry trades...

But it seems the sudden realization that China"s crackdown in crypto is not such a big deal has prompted some rotation...

The dollar index is on the rise also.

Microchips Should Be Used As "Identification Tool", Says Doctor With 6 Implants

As we’ve reported, at least two companies, one in the US, and one in Sweden, have begun offering their employees optional microchip implants. In theory, the chips make life easier by allowing employees to effortlessly open locked doors and pay for lunch.

In the US, 41 employees at a small Wisconsin technology company voluntarily agreed to be microchipped at a “chip party” thrown at the office. At Epicenter, the Swedish company, employees hold parties for newcomers who take the plunge and become a cyborg.

“The injections have become so popular that workers at Epicenter hold parties for those willing to get implanted.

“The biggest benefit I think is convenience,” said Patrick Mesterton, co-founder and CEO of Epicenter. As a demonstration, he unlocks a door by merely waving near it. “It basically replaces a lot of things you have, other communication devices, whether it be credit cards or keys.”

Companies and hobbyists are increasingly experimenting with the benefits of biohacking. Aleksandr Volchek, a Siberian doctor and avowed microchipping enthusiast, has implanted six chips in himself that help him easily pay for things, while also unlocking doors at his home and office with a “wave of his hand," according to Russia Today.

The Novosibirsk-based obstetrician-gynecologist, who calls himself a crypto anarchist, said the chips work like “magic,” and described them as a “time-saving convenience.”  

The process of injecting the chip is mostly painless, Volcheck says. Furthermore, he can easily remove the chips whenever he’d like. The chips themselves can be as small as 1.5 x 8mm.

“A syringe with a thick needle is needed to inject a microchip.

The size of a standard chip is 2 × 12mm, and the smallest one is no more than 1.5 × 8mm, the doc says.”

Volcheck believes that someday people will have chips for a range of purposes from payments to medicine. Someday, implanted microchips will encode a person’s medical records, while diabetics might receive chips that function like glucometers to help them monitor their condition, though research suggests this capability is still a few years away, Volcheck said.

“I would like to have a chip for payments.”

“My dream as a crypto anarchist is to have an identification tool for encrypting an electronic signature, and of course for medical application. I also want an implanted glucometer that will resolve a ton of problems many are currently facing, but research is still underway.”

Spurred by the conveniences it offers, microchipping will likely become increasingly popular with hobbyists and companies. Over the next five-to-ten years, we expect that they will be used widely for both work-related and personal reasons.

As more people become comfortable with being microchipped, it makes it easier for governments to adopt mandatory microchipping for identification purposes. What will you do when the day arrives? Will you go along with it, against your better judgment?

Looks like we’ll all know soon enough.
 

Inside The So-Called 'Resistance'

Authored by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

Entropy never sleeps. It works remorselessly to transform things of value into useless, dissipated waste and heat. Complexity stokes it especially as the law of diminishing returns multiplies the wheels of futility spinning down to zero. Hence, the intellectual decay of American life in which spin is everything, anything goes, and nothing matters.

The latest manifestation of this dynamic is the curious movement that styles itself The Resistance, lately adopted by the grotesque handmaiden of the Deep State that the Democratic Party became in the regency of Hillary Clinton. Its mission is to undo the results of the last national election by claiming that Russia undid it. It pretends to seek the restoration of something — but what? Of dissipated power relations within the Deep State itself?

President Trump is actually taking care of that by turning government management over to his generals and the minions of Goldman Sachs. The generals are reinvesting in the strategic black hole of our military adventures overseas. The Goldman Sachs appointees are making Wall Street safe for the continued asset-stripping of the USA. The last time I checked, Hillary’s gang did not oppose either of these endeavors.

The Resistance employs cadres of useful idiots — Black Lives Matter, “undocumented” visitors, “Antifa,” the LGBTQ “community” — to pretend that it stands for social justice, but these are just straw persons fronting a gang devoted only to regaining the levers of “privilege” — which they also pretend to be against. The Resistance takes its name from the movement in World War Two France that fought the Nazi occupation, thus self-valorizing itself. But the pre-owned styling is just another victory of spin in the public relations nightmare that American political life has become.

It also begs the question: what would a real resistance look like? First, it would oppose the aforementioned asset-stripping that the US economy has become, the transfer of capital in all its forms — monetary, political, cultural, social — from the dis-employed former middle classes to the tiny, select beneficiaries of financial manipulation. Note that the things being manipulated — markets, currencies, securities, and interest rates — are increasingly phantom entities that appear to maintain their value only because the high priests of financial authority say that they do.

The shelf-life of that flim-flam approaches its endgame as it self-evidently immiserates the masses and their sheer faith in its recondite promises dwindles away to nothing. A genuine resistance would begin to deconstruct this clerisy and its institutions, namely Too Big To Fail banks and the Federal Reserve. The best opportunity to accomplish that would have been the early months of Mr. Obama’s turn in the White House, the dark time of the previous financial crash when the damage was fresh and obvious.

But the former president blew that under the influence of high priests Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. And the lower order clerics were allowed run their hoodoo machine flat out in the following eight years. Just look at the long chart of the Standard & Poors index. Tragically, this ever-upward arc is now taken to be the normal state of things, and when it fails the implosion will be orders of magnitude more violent than the last time.

One would think that a genuine resistance would also oppose the growing consolidation of power in the now-colossal spying apparatus of the nation — the often averred to “seventeen intel agencies” that show signs of being actively at war against other parts of the government and against citizens themselves. Hence, the non-stop murmur of allegation about “Russian interference in the election,” going back to the summer of 2016 without either any real evidence, or any clarification of what is actually alleged to have happened.

Another tragic turn is that this fifth column of rogue intel agencies has recruited the major organs of the news to incessantly repeat its allegations until the public accepts the story as established fact rather than just the manufactured story it so far appears to be. Well, the lives of persons and societies founder on versions of the “reality” they fabricate for their own purposes. A genuine resistance would show foremost some fidelity to a reality beyond the spin-factories of self-delusion. And it would lead in the hard work of shedding this over-burden of self-multiplying despotisms.

Maybe this Memorial Day is a good moment to question the claims of the so-called resistance, and perhaps patriotically meditate on what the nature of an authentic resistance would be to the ongoing decay of this nation while it is still possible.

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Strong markets struggling at breakout levels of late

The S&P 500, Banks, Small Caps and Transportation indices continue to climb higher, as the long-term trend remains up. The two charts below, look at performance over the past month and how each index is testing long-term breakout levels.

The chart below looks at how the above mentioned indices have performed over the past 30-days.

CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE

These key markets are a little soft the past 30-days. The Power of the Pattern below looks at where this softness is taking place.

CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE

Multi-year trends remain up for each of the indices above, as they create a series of higher lows and higher highs.

Each are testing key breakout levels at each (1), where a little softness has taken place the past month. Transports index (lower right) could be creating a pattern similar to what it did in 1999 and 2007. The odds of Transports creating an identical pattern to the 1999 and 2007 highs is low for sure. If Transports would turn weak at (1), bulls might want to keep a tight stop on positions.

Great news for the bulls if these breakout at (1). If they would breakout, each should attract buyers. Bulls don’t care to see weakness start taking place at each (1). Will be very interesting where each of these are 30 days from now!

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Mass Effect: Andromeda - Sucky Animations, Bigoted Designer And Fugly Females Result In Canceled Pre-Orders

On Tuesday, the latest installment of the once awesome "Mass Effect" intergalactic action-role playing franchise will be released. Developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts ($EA),  Mass Effect: Andromeda is already drawing massive ire from fans over horrendous graphics, ugly female characters, and one majorly bigoted designer who hates white people.

STRIKE 1: Emotionless Facial Expressions And Horrendous Animations:

Nothing takes you right out of a virtual experience faster than creepy bush-league animations; as in - the original Mass Effect from 2007 looked better (see comparison below)

i dont think ill ever get tired of trashing the new Mass Effect pic.twitter.com/jwXxdaRCtU

— Nathan Ranney (@RatCasket) March 16, 2017

pic.twitter.com/3x7MQcfHwC

— Nathan Ranney (@RatCasket) March 16, 2017

no really pic.twitter.com/ADssd5c7lv

— Nathan Ranney (@RatCasket) March 16, 2017

Comparison:

Gamers having serious concerns over Mass Effect: Andromeda"s emotionless characters. Looked better 10 ys ago. https://t.co/tiyu8mWGAa pic.twitter.com/oyIbEUJuNw

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) March 19, 2017

Review by xLatalis

STRIKE 2: Ugly Female Characters

Bioware has been invaded by Social Justice Warriors; millennial feminists who believe the white-male dominated "patriarchy" is the reason opinionated purple-haired land whales aren"t landing jobs. SJW females are threatened by women who keep their shit dialed in. They"d rather neglect their shapeless pre-diabetic bodies while bitching about "mansplaining" and other recently invented triggers.

Here"s a picture of the male and female protagonist voice actors from Mass Effect: Andromeda

The only time she smiles is while chopping your dick off...

Note to Bioware / EA: gamers don"t buy role playing games to be in the friendzone. They buy them to engage in fantasy. That 200lb neckbearded troll in the corner of Starbucks may look disgusting, nipples protruding - but in the virtual world he"s a tanned and chiseled hero, decelerating from trans-dimensional warp strapped into his Faster Than Light space steed - on a mission to save a big breasted damsel in distress, who will reward his gallantry with mass quantities of intercourse. Nobody wants Pepperidge-farm stuffing androgynous bitches in their virtual world.

  

Gamers want Ivanka, yet BioWare is giving them Chelsea...

STRIKE 3: Bigoted Designer

Perhaps the best way to drive die-hard fans away, aside from horrendous animations and fugly potato-faced women - is to repeatedly insult an entire demographic on Twitter.

Aaaand, people are canceling their pre-orders (scroll down for general commentary):

There"s a lot of air under that chart EA... 

Content originally generated at iBankCoin.com * Follow on Twitter @ZeroPointNow

Nasdaq & Russell attempting 15-year breakouts, says Joe Friday

The strong rallies over the past several months have pushed each of these up to test 15-year breakout levels. If they do breakout it would be something neither has  been able to do for a long time and would send a very positive risk on message.

Joe Friday Just The Facts; Each are testing breakout levels at the same time. The risk on trade in stocks, would not want to see rising wedge support give way, like both did back in 2007.

Click on chart to enlarge

Liberal Preppers Are "Tired Of Being Perceived As Wusses" - Stock Up On Guns, Food As Trumpocalypse Looms

Submitted by Shane Dixon Kavanaugh via Vocativ

With Trump on the horizon, the survivalist movement — long a pastime of the right — is picking up progressive converts fast.

Colin Waugh bought a shotgun four weeks before November’s election.

An unapologetic liberal, he was no fan of firearms. He had never owned one before. But Waugh, a 31-year-old from Independence, Missouri, couldn’t shake his fears of a Donald Trump presidency — and all of the chaos it could bring. He imagined hate crimes and violence waged by extremists emboldened by the Republican nominee’s brash, divisive rhetoric. He pictured state-sanctioned roundups of Muslims, gays, and outspoken critics.

“I kept asking myself, ‘Do I want to live under tyranny?"” said Waugh, who supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary and later backed Hillary Clinton. “The answer was absolutely not.”

With Trump now days away from assuming the White House, Waugh’s preparing for the worst. He’s made “bug-out bags” stuffed with ammo, energy bars, and assorted survival gear for his wife and their three cats. He’s begun stowing water and browsing real estate listings in Gunnison County, Colorado, which he’s determined to be a “liberal safe-haven.” Last month, Waugh added a 9mm handgun to his arsenal.

His advice to others on the left fearful of the next four years? “Get ready. Pay attention. Keep your wits about you.”

Waugh’s not alone. He is among a new cadre embracing extreme self-reliance in the wake of Trump’s surprising victory. Long a calling among conservatives spooked by big government boogymen and calamitous natural disasters, the so-called prepper movement is gaining a decisively liberal following.

“We’re tired of being perceived as wusses who won’t survive when shit hits the fan,” said Stacy, a Texas Democrat who recently caught the prepper bug. She spoke with Vocativ on the condition we not publish her last name. “I, for one, don’t like to be thought of as some precious snowflake.”

After years cast as a fringe survival group, preppers entered a kind of golden age during the Obama presidency. A horrific housing crash and the spectacle of Hurricane Sandy helped give rise to reality television shows like Doomsday Preppers and Doomsday Bunker, and fueled a multi-billion dollar survival industry. Branded by some as a foreign-born, gun-grabbing socialist, Obama aroused deep suspicion among the patriot groups, right-wing conservatives, and apocalyptic Christians at the center of the growing movement.

Trump’s provocative posturing and unpredictability is now inspiring a fresh wave of panic on the left. Those who spoke with Vocativ have envisioned scenarios that could lead to military coups led by loyalists of the president-elect and internment camps packed with political opponents, bloody social unrest and an all-out civil or nuclear war. Sound bonkers? Perhaps. But, for many, so was the prospect of a President Trump.

“It’s the nature of the political beast,” said Kevin O’Brien, a conservative prepper and realtor who specializes in off-the-grid properties in eastern Tennessee. “Obama had many on the right really wound up. Now it’s the left’s turn.”

The signs of change are surely in the air. Groups that cater to gun-toting bleeding hearts — such as the aptly named Liberal Gun Club — say they’ve seen a surge in paid membership since the election. Candid talk of disaster preparedness among progressives is showing up on social media. Even companies that outfit luxury “safe rooms” — which protect their wealthy owners from bombs, bullets, and chemical attacks — attribute recent boosts in business to the incoming administration.

“I don’t think we’d have the same level of interest if Hillary had been elected president,” Tom Gaffney, whose fortified home shelters at Gaffco Ballistics run as high as $400,000, told Vocativ in an interview.

Looking for likeminded folks to weather the Trumpocalypse, Waugh started a private Facebook group called the Liberal Prepper shortly after the election. In nine weeks, it’s drummed up more than 750 members, all of whom are individually screened and vetted, Waugh said. Dozens more flock to it daily.

Few are wasting precious time. They trade tips on survival swag and solicit recommendations for solar panels, firearms, and raising chickens. There are discussions on homesteading and home safety. Links to news stories about the president-elect or signs of instability around the globe are never in short supply.

Occasionally, posts on the Liberal Prepper seem to veer close to parody. One debate thread last week centered around the merits of stocking up on recycled toilet paper rolls versus buying Angel Soft, a brand produced by Koch industries, a notorious climate change foe. And in another discussion, vegetarian and vegan members talked about the best meat- and dairy-free food supplies to have during a sustained crisis.

In a smaller Facebook group, Progressive Liberal Preppers, members who blacksmith, bow hunt, and operate ham radios are eager to teach their skills with others, said one the site’s administrators, who goes by the name of Blythe Bonnie. “The next thing we’re going to do is a class on home brewing and winemaking,” said Bonnie, a lifelong Democrat and 70-year-old now living in Arkansas.

While most of these liberal preppers say they are readying for any disaster — natural, manmade, or even zombie —  a doomsday scenario at the hands of a President Trump continues to be a primary concern.

“With the new administration I worry about Nazi-style camps that would include my wife, our twins and myself,” said Melissa Letos, who lives with her family on a five-acre spread near Portland, Oregon. In a recent interview, she said she raises chickens, strives to keep a year’s supply of canned food, and is able to hold her own with a firearm. She and her family plan to a build a bunker-style basement in the future.

Even as Letos and other liberals brace for bedlam, some longtime preppers worry that others in the movement have let their guard down. Michael Snyder, author of The Economic Collapse blog, recently warned against those on the right who seemed overly optimistic about a Trump presidency. “Everyone is feeling so good about things, very few people still seem interested in prepping for hard times ahead,” he wrote, raising the specter of financial instability in Europe and a potential trade war with China. “It is almost as if the apocalypse has been canceled and the future history of the U.S. has been rewritten with a much happier ending.”

For Waugh and his liberal peers, the apocalypse may have just begun. “Fear is an unfortunate catalyst for a lot of folks,” he said. “But there are still too many caught up in the idea that the system is infallible and that it will persevere and prevail.”