[2dogs]

Gee, that Miami Vice gig paid pretty well.



http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/12-3-19103-0-19-55.html

Don Johnson is caught with £5bn in suitcase

German customs suspect Miami Vice star of running money-laundering operation, writes ALISON CHIESA
THE plot line is one that the scriptwriters of Miami Vice, the 1980s cool cop drama, would have taken pride in penning.

However, Don Johnson, the star of the show who, as Sonny Crockett, frequently broke the gangland power behind money-laundering crime, is himself now under investigation.

The actor was stopped leaving Switzerland carrying a suitcase filled with more than £5bn-worth of share certificates, cheques, credit notes, and bonds.

Johnson is suspected of running his own money-laundering operation, customs authorities in Germany, who are investigating the incident, confirmed yesterday.

No charges have been filed, but an official said tax and customs authorities in the US had been told of the discovery.

Leonhard Bierl, of the Customs Criminal Investigation Department in Cologne, said: "That wouldn't have happened unless we were suspicious about why he had all these stocks and shares and so on with him. This was a lot of numbers."

Johnson's documents were photocopied, his personal details taken and he was allowed to continue on his way. However, he was warned an official investigation could ensue.

"A decision on whether to launch a criminal probe against him will come soon," said Mr Bierl. "American authorities have been fully informed of what we found."

Johnson, 53, who had his paper fortune concealed in a suitcase as he returned from Zurich to Germany, found fame as Crockett alongside police partner Ricardo Tubbs, played by Phillip Michael Thomas, in the popular series set in the sunshine crime capital of Florida.

The actor was stopped at a roadblock two miles over the border in the town of Bietingen. He was with three other men in a black Mercedes, but the paperwork was all in the actor's suitcase. Although he was stopped in November of last year, the details emerged only yesterday.

Customs officials said Johnson introduced two of the men to officers as his investment manager and his personal assistant. The role of the third man was unclear.

A customs spokesman did not specify the nationality of the other men, but admitted that the money was in the name of several people "including Don Johnson".

The spokesman confirmed that the other men were also under suspicion of money laundering.

In recent years, German authorities have accelerated spot checks on routes leading to banking havens across its borders - including Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg - in a bid to stanch the flow of black money into undeclared accounts.

Officials said Johnson was subdued and co-operative when they asked to search his luggage. However, he became "extremely critical" as the paperwork was photocopied, page by page - a process that took several hours, with the documents subjected to intense scrutiny.

According to the customs record of the incident, Johnson "was extremely critical and worried whether American tax authorities would be informed".

Mr Bierl said the paperwork weighed "several kilos" and that each document was being carefully examined.

A customs spokesman added: "We are still awaiting information from authorities at the clearing station down where the incident happened. This is why this is taking so long."

It was reported yesterday that included in the monetary papers were large payments made out to Johnson, which included cash drawn from the Union Bank of Switzerland and the Bank of Taiwan.

When asked what he needed so many billions in paper for, Johnson allegedly replied: "I am going to buy a car."

A customs official was reported replying: "With that kind of money you could buy the factory."

[El Tejon]

Was he bound for the Cayman Islands or Luxembourg by chance?

[cordex]

To paraphrase WotG:
"5 billion pounds isn't money, it's motive with a universal adapter".

Far more than I can comprehend ...

[Quartus]

Pretty sad that having money is now a crime.

[Greg L]

Reruns of Miami Vice and Nash Bridges must be paying REALLY well these days. :rolleyes:

I would like to see the car he was planning on buying also. :D

Greg

[Soap]

Pretty sad that having money is now a crime.

It has always been viewed as a crime in the eyes of those who wish to take it away. Just look at the punishment known as the tax code.

[Blackhawk]

Sort of like the high cap mag ban, isn't it...? You can have 10, but with 15, you get new clothes. :rolleyes:

[BigG]

Gotta love Sonny Crockett. He had a BREN TEN, ya know...

[rock jock]

Pretty sad that having money is now a crime.
It's not. Money laundering is. The latter is one of the many ways terrorists get and transfer funds, so if you want to stop the likes of bin Laden, you shouldn't complain when the cops do their job, and do it well.

[Chris Rhines]

Good for Sonny! I hope he gets off scot-free.

Money launderers are heros.

- Chris

[JohnBT]

Sheesh.

John

[Ledbetter]

Money launderers are heros.

You apparently don't know up from down, Chris. Wise up. Colin Powell is a hero. Alvin York is a hero.

Who do you think pays the share of taxes that Sonny might have been avoiding? What if his Hollywood "Peace Principle" motivated him to transfer money that wind up in the hands of our enemies?

When we find out more about this, we'll all know better.

Here's a tip: If that money was Don Johnson's, he'd be on Forbes list of richest men. Look at that list and see what knid of people have that kind of money. They aren't B-class TV stars.

[Tamara]

Dear me!

Trying to get around taxes and government fiscal snoops?

How... how... American!


(Anybody who wants to debate this point, yet pays a CPA every April, had better check their motives...)

[TheeBadOne]

I agree. I think that those who cheer money laundering really have no idea of what it involves.

[Quartus]

Colin Powell is a hero.


:confused: By what standard? What has this RINO ever done that would put him in the same paragraph as Sgt. Alvin York?




BTW, I don't think money launderers are heros, but Johnson is not a money launderer. He had a lot of money with him. That's all.


Have you ever heard of the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty'?

[Waitone]

Who else was in the car with Johnson?

Things must really be bad for Don for him to become a mule for the Illuminati or the Rockefellers.

[David Park]

Ledbetter, so the money is not Don Johnson's, but he should be paying his "fair share" of taxes on it anyway? :scrutiny:

[Ledbetter]

If it's not his, then he's definitely not there to avoid taxes is he? Do any red lights go off in your brain when a Hollywood liberal smuggles that much cash into a foreign country out of Germany? Is the power on?

Okay, but if you delete Colin Powell, you really need to rethink Don Johnson.

Anybody who thinks Don Johnson has $8 Billion+ of his own money in liquid assets, well, I don't know what to say that would educate you on how much money that actually is.

At $250,000 per episode, thats 32,000 epsodes of Miami Vice. At 26 episodes per year, that's 1,230 years of production. "He was just carrying a lot of money?":rolleyes:

[Quartus]

"...until proven guilty."


I didn't say he is a hero. I said he is innocent.

[Jim March]

Hey, we're all at risk here!

How many of you wash your own clothes? How many of you keep cash in your pockets?

Exactly. We could all get busted at any moment, just for one simple mistake.

:eek:

[Silver Bullet]

:p

[cordex]

Hmmm ... maybe I need to start a new thread:
"What gun would you carry when transporting more than twice the GNP of Jamaica?"

[Cal4D4]

Party money for the weekend. That Peruvian marching powder don't come cheap.:rolleyes:

[Master Blaster]

Even the richest men in the world dont carry 8 Billion dollars in negotiable securities in a suitcase, Note even the Sultan of Brunai, or Bill Gates has that much cash on hand.

Lets see who would

International Drug dealers (maybe the top two in the world)
Sultan of Brunai, Maybe a Saudi Sheik, Russian Maffia, or Saadam Hussein?????

Why would you carry $8 Billion in liquid securities????????

To Buy a small country, Several Nuclear Weapons, Two freighters loaded with Cocaine or Heroin??

You could buy 3 Oil refineries. People who buy those use banks to transfer the money.

This is Bazaar

[Silver Bullet]

More likely it's 8 million, and the press bungled the story a bit.

[Soap]

Master Blaster-

Because it's yours and you can do whatever you damn well please with your own property.

[Quartus]

The press bungle a story?!?!? :what:


Say it isn't so!



:D


Occam's Razor would sugges that your theory is likely true.

[Silver Bullet]

Or maybe it was 8 billion of whatever the Iraqi currency is, kamelchips or something, worth about $2000 American.

[Derek Zeanah]

Oh, hell. I say good on 'im.

You know, JFK's daddy made his money in alcohol back during prohibition. I ain't got no problem with that, either.

There are a number of ways he could have made large amounts of money; many of them could be done outside of the United States.

If he's running poppy-seed derivatives from one non-US country to another, should we care? What if he's been picking up excess Soviet hardware during the Afghanistan thing and finding buyers for it?

Hell, I don't care what it was. As long as he wasn't out collecting money for assassinations or something, I'm happy for him.

As for his "fair share," how do you define that, exactly? I'm generally turned off by the idea that the fed.gov has a moral right to the product of my labor, especially when I consume so little of the "benefits" I'm required to pay for. I still pay "my fair share" in taxes (self-employed, even), but resent it.

I wonder if I could get the number of his "investment manager..." :D

[Bergeron]

Something to be careful of here:

1 American "million" = 1 German "billion"
1 American "billion" = 1 German "trillion"

Perhaps instead of 5 American billion euros stuffed into a suitcase, Mr. Johnson had 5 American million euros stuffed into a suitcase.

Ugghh, language barriers can make communication so imprecise.

Why don't we all just use scientific notation instead?

That way, no matter what nation we resided in or what langauge we spoke, we could agree on if Don Johnson had 5 x 10^6 euros or 5 x 10^9 euros

[Quartus]

And 6 MILLION would not be a stretch for a Hollywood type at all.


Was he probably dodging some taxes?


Innocent until proven guilty.

[Ledbetter]

Johnson is suspected of running his own money-laundering operation, customs authorities in Germany, who are investigating the incident, confirmed yesterday.

You're not innocent until proven guilty except in America, as I recall. He's in for an interesting time. :eek:

As I said before, when we know more we'll know what it was about. Anybody got a figure in numerals?

[rock jock]

Hell, I don't care what it was. As long as he wasn't out collecting money for assassinations or something, I'm happy for him.
I suppose if he was buying Russian surplus plutonium for al Queda, that wouldn't bother you either, huh? Your moral compass must spin like a top.

[2dogs]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/eo/20030312/en_celeb_eo/11434

A Billion-Dollar Nash Bridges?
1 hour, 21 minutes ago

By Joal Ryan

A case for Berlin Vice? Maybe not.



Don Johnson is said to be suing mad over a tabloid report out of Germany that said the actor had come under investigation for a reported $8 billion border stop right out of Miami Vice. Or Nash Bridges.


Johnson, who starred on both TV cop shows, was the subject of a routine checkpoint search as he drove into Germany last November from Switzerland.


Officials confirm to the Associated Press that documents were found in the car, although the same officials won't say what the documents were. Others haven't been as circumspect: The New York Post claims bonds, credit notes and securities, stashed in a suitcase, and worth a staggering $8 billion, were seized. Johnson's spokesman, Elliot Mintz, describes the papers as "résumés" and "bank statements" not belonging to the actor, that were to be used to drum up investors for a movie project.


As for the portrayer of fashionable lawmen Sonny Crockett and Nash Bridges? He denies he's run afoul of der badge.


"None of these documents belong to me," Johnson tells the Post. "They're all legitimate papers and stuff from a passenger that was in the car. It had nothing to do with me."


Mintz says the notion of Johnson being the target of a criminal probe "came out of nowhere," although specifically, he says, it came out of the Berlin tabloid, BZ, which carried a report of the purported probe earlier this week.


"As far as Don was concerned, in November, when he was stopped [and asked to show his passport and ID], that was it," Mintz says. Johnson found the customs workers polite and professional, he says.


A spokesman for the German customs office confirms to the AP that they are looking over the papers found in the car Johnson was traveling in. "[But] there is currently no indication of illegal transactions," customs official Wolfgang Schmitz tells the wire service. "There is no criminal investigation and prosecutors are not involved."


In addition to tending to film business, Johnson was traveling to Germany to check out a new Mercedes-Benz, Mintz says.


In the wake of the BZ report, Mintz says, Johnson is checking out his legal options.


"He is after his attorneys to hire an attorney in Germany to go after the tabloid," Mintz says.


The 53-year-old Johnson starred as the stubbly, pastel-clad Crockett on Miami Vice from 1984 to 1989, and as the vest-wearing, titular investigator on Nash Bridges from 1996 to 2001.


The two-time ex of Melanie Griffith is currently wed to a former nursery schoolteacher. The couple welcomed their second child, a boy, last June.

[Jim March]

Well his criminal career is really taking off now.

He's been caught putting sodium chloride on an electric power cell!

:eek:

[2dogs]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030312/ap_on_en_tv/people_don_johnson_2

Germany Inspects Papers Linked to Johnson
Wed Mar 12, 2:11 PM ET


BERLIN - German investigators are examining documents found in Don Johnson (news)'s car that list transactions totaling $8 billion, a customs official said Wednesday.



Johnson's car was stopped for a routine check as he entered Germany from Switzerland in November with two other men, said Wolfgang Schmitz, a spokesman for German customs.


Officials photocopied the documents, but they did not seize them and allowed the former "Nash Bridges" star to continue his journey without formally questioning him, Schmitz said.


"There is currently no indication of illegal transactions," Schmitz said. "There is no criminal investigation and prosecutors are not involved."


He refused to give details on the documents.


German customs officials are still evaluating the copies — a time-consuming process because banks have to be contacted. U.S. authorities also were informed of the listed transactions in view of the sums involved, Schmitz said.


German customs officials regularly carry out checks on the border with Switzerland, which unlike Germany is not a member of the European Union (news - web sites) and is renowned for its strict bank secrecy laws.


Johnson, 53, also starred in the 1980s "Miami Vice" television series. His films include 1996's "Tin Cup," with Kevin Costner (news).

[12-34hom]

As Sonny Crockett once stated: On an episode Of Miami Vice.

There are no victims - only volunters.... ;)

I can get behind that statement.

12-34hom

[Bruce H]

He is from the United States. Germany currently doesn't like us very much. Government officials. Not that hard to figure out. Saddam could walk through with two suit cases full of euros and they probably wouldn't turn a hair.

[Quartus]

"documents ... that list transactions totaling $8 billion" is a leeetle ways from actually carrying $8 billlion, isn't it?


GUILTY!





:rolleyes:

[Derek Zeanah]

I suppose if he was buying Russian surplus plutonium for al Queda, that wouldn't bother you either, huh? Your moral compass must spin like a top.
:rolleyes:

If he was buying plutonium, I'd think he would be spending that kind of money, not collecting it.
Using your "moral compass," would you consider 1 contract killing more or less evil than selling fissionable materials to terrorists? Sounds like you're weighing that differently than I am. :scrutiny:

[Ledbetter]

Break it up, fight's over, nothing to see.

Don's neither a hero or a crook. Apparently he's a victim. How could he know they had border security? He's from this country.;)

[Sven]

Wow.

He could have pulled a Winona and claimed, "I'm studying for an upcoming movie role"

LOL

-sven

[Leatherneck]

:D

TC
TFL Survivor

[rock jock]

Sounds like you're weighing that differently than I am.
I'm not sure how you weigh anything, given the fact that you don't seem to be bothered much by organized crime and all the evils it entails (see your quote below).
You know, JFK's daddy made his money in alcohol back during prohibition. I ain't got no problem with that, either.

[Chris Rhines]

I'm actually a bit disapointed. I really was hoping that Sonny was skimming taxes or laundering money. But it's still a great cautionary tale...

- Chris

[Derek Zeanah]

I'm not sure how you weigh anything, given the fact that you don't seem to be bothered much by organized crime and all the evils it entails (see your quote below).
I think I just have a different take on it than you do. Prohibition has all kinds of interesting effects like increasing risk to producers/sellers, greatly increasing the price to consumers while lowering the available quality of the product, and offering enough of a profit motive to people willing to break the law that they do silly things like kill each other over "turf." There are negative impacts to society as well (like people robbing/stealing/killing to support their habit because it costs 100x what it would in a free market), but these are directly attributable to the legislation that made sale of the products illegal.

Note that the harm is caused by the illegality of whatever it is we're talking about. It's not associated with the production/sale of the items in particular. Organized crime is generally a bad thing. The way to eliminate it is to remove the profit motive though -- there are orders of magnitude less money to be made in "protection rackets" than there is in importing narcotics, for example. Wanna kill organized crime? Starve their money supply.

I don't see any moral prohibitions against making or selling alcohol, marijuana, opiates, or automatic rifles. In some instances I can see it as a moral good (selling arms to people being slaughtered by an oppressive regime, as an example; or selling marijuana to cancer patients/AIDS sufferers to increase their life expectancy and reduce their pain).

But I take it from your non-response that you agree that murder-for-hire ranks a little lower on the scale than providing fissionable materials to terrorists. ;)

[rock jock]

don't see any moral prohibitions against making or selling alcohol, marijuana, opiates, or automatic rifles.
Derek, legalization of anything undesirable in society (prostitution, drugs, etc.) is a totally separate issue from the atmosphere of lawlessness, and everything that atmosphere entails, while the undesirable thing is still illegal. I can't imagine that, no matter how much you support legalization of drugs, you would think drug lords and gang bangers are somehow benefitting society . These people are nothing but leeches and murderers and contribute to corruption and intimidation. That includes money launderers and JFK's father. The thugs who are at the top of these criminal enterprises are still scum, even if the product they are engaged in traffiking should be legalized at some point.

[CZ-75]

These people are nothing but leeches and murderers and contribute to corruption and intimidation. That includes money launderers and JFK's father. The thugs who are at the top of these criminal enterprises are still scum

Legalize it, and the bottom drops out of the market.

These folks go away overnight, or at least until they can find a different swindle, like cigarette, alcohol, or fuel smuggling to avoid federal and state taxes.

[ahadams]

Don Johnson's unique approach to money market refinancing aside, ladies and gentlemen there is another issue here. Past history has shown that lack of some effective (note that word) regulation, especially in areas which tend to contribute to general lawlessness, eventually leads to breakdown and anarchy followed by either externally or internally imposed totalitarian rule. There are no historical exceptions, especially after the 19th century; and we're in the big bad 21st century now folks, like it or not. Thus anarcho-libertarian dreamquests go right up there with socialist-pacifist dreamquests in the "sounds like a dictatorship in the making to me" category.

[Quartus]

Good point, adams.



The thugs who are at the top of these criminal enterprises are still scum, even if the product they are engaged in traffiking should be legalized at some point.


Why is that so hard for some people to understand? You know, this will come as a surprise to some, but you CAN be for legalizatoin and STILL be against the activities of such creeps.

I find it interesting that some who decry the "noone is responsible for their actions!" cry of the Liberals, still adopt the same mode when it comes to excusing the drug runners. "Well, if you'd just legalise it, then they wouldn't have a market! So it's YOUR fault that they do what they do!"


:rolleyes:

[Chris Rhines]

Past history has shown that lack of some effective (note that word) regulation... Ho-ho! We have a new winner in the straw-man argument category!

At the risk of hijacking yet another thread*, I'll just point out that there is a huge difference between internal regulation (i.e. agreements between individual users of a social, legal, or economic system) and external regulation (i.e. laws, coercive regulations.) External regulations tend to crowd out internal ones, and serve invarably to increase government power over the individual members of society. External regulations are also less efficent and almost always corrupt in application, which (now that internal regulation has been removed as an option) causes a hue and cry for more laws, more regulations, and thus more tyrrany. Handy.

Effective regulations are the cause of tyrrany, not a bulwark against it.

- Chris

*- (This thread is seized in the name of the Black Flag Liberation Front! Pilots, divert this thread to a discussion of non-coercive political systems!!!) :D

[rock jock]

Thus anarcho-libertarian dreamquests go right up there with socialist-pacifist dreamquests in the "sounds like a dictatorship in the making to me" category.
I agree, but reality is a hard thing to deal with for some people.

[Waitone]

Thus anarcho-libertarian dreamquests go right up there with socialist-pacifist dreamquests in the "sounds like a dictatorship in the making to me" categoryOuch!

[rock jock]

At the risk of hijacking yet another thread*, I'll just point out that there is a huge difference between internal regulation (i.e. agreements between individual users of a social, legal, or economic system) and external regulation (i.e. laws, coercive regulations.) External regulations tend to crowd out internal ones, and serve invarably to increase government power over the individual members of society. External regulations are also less efficent and almost always corrupt in application, which (now that internal regulation has been removed as an option) causes a hue and cry for more laws, more regulations, and thus more tyrrany. Handy.
Chris,

Assuming that you are right, you have only in effect stated what many on this board believe, i.e., that all societies tend towards, and eventually end up as, tyrannies. You may be right. Certainly the FF seemed to think so. BUT, this does not ignore the fact that, as ahadams points out:
Past history has shown that lack of some effective (note that word) regulation, especially in areas which tend to contribute to general lawlessness, eventually leads to breakdown and anarchy followed by either externally or internally imposed totalitarian rule.
I have come to a point in my political beliefs that I believe that Mr. Adams point and your own point are sadly, not mutually exclusive. IOW, we need a certain level of regulations as a society to survive, but in instituting such, we are following the irreversible road towards tyranny. To believe either is not true is to deny reality I think.

[Quartus]

Mr. Jock, you have summed up the FFs viewpoints nicely. They were not proponents of anarchy, as some modern "patriots" seem to think, nor did they doubt the inevitability of the trend toward tyranny.

They recognized that some government is necessary, and that all governments will tend to become corrupt and tyranical over time.

Those positions are not mutually exlusive.

I can even tell you where they got the idea!

(Check the Bible, Romans chapter 13, for a start.)

[hammer4nc]

Wow! Has this thread gone around the barn or what? Only a few more posts, and we'll have all the elements of a decent screenplay adaption of an Elmore Leonard novel...international movie producer, secretly laundering narco-cash, proceeds used to finance a neo-Joe Kennedy political dynasty that spans several generations (think sequels). Only, the new dynasty is based on anarcho-libertarianism, protestant biblical foundations, rather than catholic social democracy. Robert Altman, are you out there? This must also be a "movie within a movie"...I'm thinking a reprise of "The Player" on an international scale, with strong internet age technical plot twists. This is the script that might propel Don Johnson from B-pulp star to international mega super star! :D

[Quartus]

:D

[ahadams]

I think if nothing else this thread also demonstrates the Biblical and moral foundation on which the real new American Revolution is being founded. Isn't it interesting that one of the primary things we've all learned from the FF that went totally unstated so far is the neccessity of private arms?

[jimpeel]

He explained that what he actually had were bank statements and resumes of some businessmen he had approached on a business venture. When he was stopped at the German border, on his way to purchase a new Mercedes Benz, the border guards searched his briefcase. They asked if they could photocopy the papers as there are many people who transfer funds to Swiss banks, etc. He told them they could, signed a few autographs, and forgot about the incident.

All of this occurred back in November.

Last week, he says that a tabloid reporter reported that he was carrying eight billion dollars in negotiable instruments in his car. As a result of this story, a venture capital deal he has in the works has been threatened as the partners are backing off until this is cleared up. His bank, on the weight of the story alone and with no investigation ongoing, froze his bank account.

He is now considering a lawsuit against the reporter, his paper, and any and all media outlets which spread the false story. He stated that UPI and CNN refused to run the story uncorroborated and they will be left out of any lawsuit.

[2dogs]

Don Johnson denies laundering money
Sunday, March 16, 2003 Posted: 7:47 PM EST (0047 GMT)



They perpetuated this story of money laundering based on no evidence, based on no investigation.
-- Actor Don Johnson on accusations of money laundering


LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Actor Don Johnson says bank statements found in his car listing $8 billion in transactions weren't his -- and he is in no way involved in money laundering.

Johnson told CNN's Larry King on Friday that the papers, discovered by German customs officials in November when he crossed the border from Switzerland, belonged to potential investors with whom he was discussing a movie project.

The former "Miami Vice" and Nash Bridges" star said he might sue a German tabloid and other media that published stories alleging he was involved in illegal activities.

"They perpetuated this story of money laundering based on no evidence, based on no investigation, and it's caused me an unbelievable grief, unbelievable grief," he said, adding that banks closed two of his accounts because of the story.

"My son called me crying," said Johnson, 53. "It's been terrible. This has been one of the most difficult weeks of my life."

Johnson said he was returning to Germany from a meeting in Switzerland when the officials made a routine check of his car.

Customs spokesman Wolfgang Schmitz said the officials returned the papers after making copies and are continuing to review them. He said there was no indication of any illegal transactions.

Johnson said he thought nothing of the incident at the time.

"I signed some autographs, we joked around," he said of the time he spent with customs officials.




http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/16/don.johnson.ap/index.html

[Quartus]

Ah. Sounds like our first story came from the German equivalent of the National Enquirer.



:rolleyes:



If the success of trashloids like these aren't a sign of the decay of civilization, nothing is.

[Raymond VanDerLinden]

Quartus,

United States Constitution and Jurus Prudence, holds no sway in GERMANY. Why do we Americans seem to think the rules are the same everywhere?

Basicly In Germany you are innocent until charged.
In France you are Guilty until proven innocent
In italy you are Innocent unless Guilty and then you are elected to Parliment.
In Britain you are innocent until you are forced by the court to prove yourself guilty, failure to comply also proves your guilt.

You better thank the Heavenly Father you live in the USA and if you are not ready to defend it you won't have your rights much longer.

[444]

To repeat an earlier post, notice that every single one of the articles posted says that Johnson was found to have transactions of 8 Billion. None of them say 8 billion of what.
None of them say 8 billion US Dollars.

[Quartus]

Kumquats, 444! It was 8 billion kumquats! (http://www.dadecity.com/kumquat/)

Well, hey, they're smaller than oranges!

http://www.dadecitychamber.org/kumquat/images/thumb/IMG005.JPG

Seems it's a side job he picked up while on location with Miami vice!

:D


Mr. VanDerLinden, what have criminal law statutes got to do with a comment on the worth of tabloid journalism?

[444]

Well we all know that 8 Billion pesos, or 8 billion euros, or 8 billion yen, or 8 billion sheckels, or 8 billion rubles, or 8 billion pounds, or 8 billion US dollars arn't the same thing.
I am always suspicious of the news media and the fact that none of the articles specify what we are talking about makes me even more suspicious. Is this another sensational story similar to the ones that say someone had an arsenal of guns ?

[Raymond VanDerLinden]

I was reacting to your Second Post on this Thread.

Kind of a Pet peave of mine when people take our Constitution so much for granted that they think, or talk like, the rights we are free to enjoy, are practiced by countries all over the world. They are not free to enjoy thier God given Rights as we are. Kind of pushes my buttons when Americans seem to think that the freedom to invoke our God given Rights that so many Thousands have Died to attain and protect is a common thing around the world. =Rant Off=

I responded before I even read the rest of the thread and therefor came in a little :rolleyes: after the subject had changed.

[Quartus]

Gotcha Raymond. Typical dumb Dutchman. Shooting off mouth before checking target.



Like me. ;)



I'm from the Corner, myself. (3rd generation.) What's a Linden?

[twoblink]

Gun owner who wants to keep the money he makes..... DOUBLE WHAMMIE!

Did you see the democrats and what they showed?

it said "How much the Bush tax cuts will cost the government..."

See that? Your money is not your money, it's THEIR money. And having you KEEP more of what YOU MAKE costs them money. See that mentality???

I use to cryptography work for a lot of "rich" people who had bank accounts in Leichtenstein, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Turk and Caicos islands, Bahamas etc..

Having money isn't a crime, the government's attempt to steal it from you, is...

[AJ Dual]

LOL, if it was 8 Billion Italian Lira, he was on his way to buy a candy bar...

But seriously, Mom and dad came back from vacation there two years ago, and they had fun handing out 10,000 notes to everybody.

I think they were worth a dollar...

I suspect I know why Italy was so gung-ho on converting to the Euro. :D

[Quartus]

Sir VanDerLinden, I agree with your pet peeve. My second post was directed to folks on THIS board who had him drawn and quartered before any charges were filed. Americans ought to know better.


When I was in the Army, we went to Germany on a NATO gig for a month or so. We left a few soldiers there because they couldn't get it through their heads that they were on someone else's turf, and had to play by their rules. The black soldiers among us had a particularly hard time, because it wasn't uncommon to find bars or restaurants that had "No Blacks!" clearly posted in English. :what:


Didn't go over too well, for some reason. Some decided to stand on their "rights". Went to jail for their efforts.


:(