Transcript from episode of 60 Minutes Australia describing the actions taken by the J5 in Operation Atlantis

60 Minutes Australia – Episode Transcript

Below is a transcript of the entire 60 Minutes interview. Before you read the transcript I prepared a list of 46 false or deliberately misleading comments made by Nick Mckenzie, as well as misleading edits and out of context comments.

1. “Tax evasion is theft and the Australian government wants its money, and its willing to go to the ends of the earth to get it.”  This implies that stolen money it wants to get is on deposit in my bank. 60 Minutes had no proof of that.  It’s false.

2. “He loves bragging to the world about how much he knows about making money.” I can’t remember one time where I bragged to anyone about how much I know about making money.

3.   “But when he sat down to an interview the last thing he wanted to talk about was his offshore bank he co-owns in the Caribbean.”   This is a false statement in that it implies I had something to hide.  They leave out that they requested an interview about inflation and gold, not my bank.  So I preferred to talk about the topics they actually told me they wanted to discuss. 

4. Mckenzie said the bank had “hundreds of Australian clients”.   Hundred implies 200 or more.  I think we had fewer than 200 Australian clients. 

5. When I asked Mckenzie if he was making an allegation against my bank, he replied; “It’s not me that’s making the allegation, the authorities have. You know that well.” That was a lie. I did not know that well. I did not know that at all. To my knowledge not a signal authority had ever made allegation that my bank or anyone working for it had done anything wrong. Now its possible that authorities told him, or gave him the impress they had informed me of their suspicions, but there is nothing in discovery that evidences this. So if McKenzie will not reveal his source, there is no way for him to justify the statement that I knew I had been told by authorities that I was under suspicion. 

6. McKenzie said. “This story will cause alarm in the global banking industry and panic among banking clients.”  This may be true, but it shows they knew how damaging the story could be to the bank financially, yet they ran it anyway.  

7. Mckenzie said “Authorities have been examining allegations of tax evasion linked to serious organized crime.”  There was no evidence in discovery related to organized crime, serious or otherwise. In fact there was no evidence of any crimes being investigated.  

8.  Mckenzie said  “The money trail leads to the center of it all, the face of the bank Peter Schiff.”   There was no evidence of anything leading to me.  I was not at the center of anything, and my face was not on the bank’s website or any marketing material.  One of the former customers quoted in the Age article couldn’t even remember my name when asked about me.  

9. Three Minutes into the broadcast they show me walking out and saying no more questions.  But this happened 50 minutes into the actual interview.  The clip is offered to create the false impression that I refused to answer any questions on the bank, to make me look like I had something to hid, and was likely guilty. In fact, I think they used every clip where I told them I didn’t want talk about the bank.  But I kept answer their questions anyway and asked them to move on.  That’s what I had to tell them so many times that i didn’t want to talk about the bank. This was particularly unfair as the broadcast never disclosed that they lied to me to get me to do the interview, and ambushed me with questions about the bank.   

10. They showed John Chevis saying that there was no legitimate reason people would use my bank due to its high fees, so it must be attractive to criminals because we don’t do the type of due diligence that other reputable banks do.  But they knew from their own investigation that was false.  Chevis likely didn’t have any of the information that McKenzie had.  Plus, I told McKenzie all sorts of legitimate reason why people used my bank.  Those reasons didn’t make the cut in the 60 Minutes broadcast. Nor was Chevis likely aware of them.  

11.  They said that Simon Anquetil was one of the Australians using Euro Pacific.  That’s false as by the time of the Jan. 20th 2020 Day of Action, his account had long since been closed.  So he was not “using” my bank, even if he had used it in the past.  Also, the Cheves interview implied that Anquetil was actually using his account to commit his tax crimes or hide the proceeds of those crimes.  That is false.  He barley used his account at all as it was frozen so quickly by compliance.  Also, the application for Plutus Payroll, the company that actually committed the tax fraud, was rejected by the bank, as were four incoming wires from Plutus. The account Anquetil did have at my bank was for an unrelated company.

12.  Mckenzie said Darby Angel merely “started” an account at Euro Pacific Bank.  By saying started, it may mean he knew the account was never funded, but deliberately withheld that info from 60 Minutes viewers.  They mentioned Angel’s drug trafficking conviction without any reference to the fact that the conviction was over twenty years in the past, that the sentence was in suspended with no time served, and that its was a spent crime, meaning that under Australian law the bank had no access to that information.  So the fact that he may have had an account in no way impugned the customer vetting process of the bank. 

13.  Just after Angel’s drug trafficking conviction is mentioned, Mckenzie is shown asking  Chevis “why would a drug trafficker want to put their money in a Puerto Rican bank?” This question implies that Angel is still trafficking drugs, and that he is using my bank to launder and hide that money. But McKenzie knew how old the conviction was, and that it had likely been over 20 years since he “trafficked” in drugs, which was many years before he started, but never funded, his Euro Pacific bank account. 

14.  Mckenzie than tells and asks Chevis “the fact that multiple crooks, people with recorded criminal convictions for serious offending have bank accounts at Euro Pacific bank, what does that say about the bank’s compliance culture?”  That whole statement is a lie.  There were not multiple crooks with accounts at my bank.  So it said nothing about the bank’s compliance culture, which Mckenzie knew from his own investigation was very strict, yet he withheld that information from Chevis and the broadcast. 

15. Chevis is then shown responding “It suggest that they were waiving customers through without considering the risks they were depositing proceeds of crime in the accounts they were opening.    Mckenzie knew this was an untrue statement based on what he was told by former employees, customers, and referral agents. 

16.  Chevis is then shown saying  “I think Peter Schiff’s a character who likes to fly outside the rules a little.”  But there was no evidence that even suggested that I broke any rules.  

17. Chevis said Peter Schiff was operating in a manner that was intended to attract customers who were looking to either evade tax, or perhaps launder money.”   I was not operating in that manner at all, nor did I have any intention of doing so, and 60 Minutes had no evidence of either. 

18. Chevis also said  “there’s a significant risk that some of the gold held within the Perth Mint by customers of the Euro Pacific Bank may be held beneficially for criminals in other parts of the world.” They had no evidence of that, and it was not true. 

19. Mckenzie said  “Sources have confirmed that in early 2019, the Australian authorities were so concerned about Euro Pacific, they designated it as an Australian Priority Organisation Target. This means Australian police suspect the Euro Pacific Bank poses a grave, organized threat to the nation that must be confronted at any cost.”  In discovery there was no evidence of this ever having been confirmed by any source. So there is still no proof my bank was ever on this list. Even if it was, it was likely put there simply to support these false allegations, as no Australian criminals were using my bank. So how could it have been a grave threat to anything and what could possible justify paying “any cost” to go after a tiny bank in Puerto Rico that held about $1 million in deposits for a hundred or so law abiding Australians.

20. Mckenzie said. “Peter Schiff located the bank he co-owns, Euro Pacific, in Puerto Rico, partly because he knew it offered the kind of secrecy his clients wanted.”  That is a false statement.  That was not the reason, he had no proof that it was the reason, and I specially told him during the interview that it was not the reason.  I told him all the real reasons, but all of those reasons were edited out of the broadcast. 

21.  Mckenzie said “Just don’t ask him why any Australian would need to us his bank in the first place. But he did ask me, and I told him why they would.  This implies that I did not have an answer to that question or that I did not want to give him one as I knew the reason was to evade taxes or lauder money. 

22.  Then Mckenzie is show saying “The whole point of someone in Australia setting up an account in Puerto Rico is to avoid or minimize their tax is it not?” when I replied no and he then asks me “What’s the Reason.” But the broadcast didn’t include my answer.  I gave him multiple reason, but they edited the broadcast to imply that I did not.  

23.  McKenzie said. “Given the founder of Euro Pacific wasn’t forthcoming.”  That’s a lie.  I was forthcoming.  Just watch the complete unedited interview.  He said this to implied I lied and was hiding things. 

24. KcKenzie completely misrepresented the phone call with Patrick Flynn.  He did not recommend my bank for tax avoidance.  He told them how difficult it was to open an account at my bank, how long it took, and how vigorous my bank’s compliance was.

25. They completely misrepresented the Ogelvie interview.  They offered him as a whistle blower on money laundering and tax evasions.  He told them that he only worked in IT, and had no knowledge of, nor saw any tax evasion or money laundering.  He made it clear his criticism was of Anderson’s and Mark Anderson’s management styles.  It had nothing to do with compliance or any criminal activity. 

26. Mckenzie said “Mark Anderson didn’t show his face”  That’s a misleading statement as it implied he was in the office but refused to come out, or even show his face.  But he was not even in the building that day. It was during Covid and he was working from home. 

27. When Ogelvie is shown saying “These are unscrupulous people” the inference was his comment also applied to me.  Ogilvie made it clear that it did not. Also, he was not referring to financial crimes, but to the way they treated employees. 

28  Mckenzie said  “He only likes answering positive questions about the bank.”  That’s false I answered a lot of negative questions. Most were unfair questions. What I didn’t like was being lied to about what would be discussed during the interview and all of the unsubstantiated and false accusations he was making. In fact, the broadcast repeatedly showed me saying I don’t want to answer questions, yet left out all the times I did answer those questions. I was irritated that he kept asking me the same questions over and over, despite my having already answered and asked him to more on to the topics I was invited to discuss. 

29. McKenzie said  “the tax office had some good fortune when it was the recipient of a massive data leak. It revealed the secret transactions of thousands of customers of an offshore bank in Puerto Rico.  There was no evidence the tax office had information on thousands of transactions that involved my bank back in 2017.

30. Mckenzie said  “Peter Schiff claims he isn’t allowed to talk about the J5 action on the bank in January, but if he didn’t already know it, it must have alerted him to the fact that questionable figures, like Simon Anquetil, were using his bank.”  I didn’t just claim it, I have proof in that the Subpoena I got instructed me to keep the investigation of bank customers confidential.  Also, I had no idea questionable figures were using my bank, including Sinom Anquetil who had only used my bank briefly several years earlier, and was not using it at all at the time of this interview. 

31.  Mckenzie asked me “How can such a notorious crime figure be allowed to get through the front door of your bank?”  But he was not a crime figure at all when he “walked though the door.”  He didn’t even have a criminal record when we kicked him out of the door a few months after he opened his account.”  Mckenzie falsely offered Anquetil as proof that our customer vetting was so lax that even notorious crime figures had no problems getting accounts. In actuality, my bank’s closing his accounts for red flags years before the authorities caught up to him, was a testament to how good our compliance was.

32. Mckenzie said  “the bank trades in your name. The bank uses you as its key piece of marketing.”  Both of those statements were false. The bank did not trade on my name and I was not used as a key piece of marketing.  I helped market the bank during the first few years, but then stopped completely at the request of Mark Anderson, to disassociate myself from the bank.  This had more to do with my negative comments about the Federal Reserve, due to our having an account with the Fed.  Mark didn’t want to risk pissing them off, and losing the account. 

33. Mckenzie said  “I am putting to you that your bank has accounts for organized crime figures.”  This is a false statement.  At the time of this statement not a single organized crime figure had an account at my bank. 

34. Mckenzie asked “why is it that the tax authorities in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, America and the Netherlands all believe that your bank is facilitating tax evasion and serious organised crime?”   He said this to imply their suspicions meant I was guilty.  

35.  Mckenzie said “you do know the IRS has visited you this year, surely that was an indicator.”  to imply that I should have known the bank was doing something wrong.  But that was not true, and the IRS agents who came to my house never told me the suspected the bank of doing anything wrong.  They told me that because I asked them.  The agents told me that it was certain bank customers who were suspected to have done something wrong, not the bank itself.

36. He said. “I’m asking you. You run the bank. It’s your bank.”  He said this knowing I did not run the bank, as everyone they interviewed who worked for the bank told him that I did not run the bank.  That I had nothing to do with the running of the bank, which is exactly what I told him. He was told repeatedly that Mark Anderson ran the bank.  But he never asked to interview Mark Anderson. 

37. Mckenzie said “Is it safe to say it, the criminality, the alleged money laundering, the alleged tax evasion had to be, in your mind, of such a level to warrant that extraordinary action?“ The implication here was that the bank was committing crimes.  They had no evidence of that and no one at the bank was ever charged with committing a crime, let alone convicted. 

38.  When I asked Mckenzie if he had tired to open an account at my bank he replied “Yes, we have.”  That was a lie.  He never did.  They spoke to a referral agent who told them it would take 6-8 weeks to get an account open if they wanted to apply.  According to their discovery they never did. In fact, there is no record of anyone from Nine even contacting the bank. They only contacted Euro Pacific Asset Management, and were told we did not accept accounts from Australia. 

39  Mckenzie said that Patrick Flynn “promoted your bank because of the low taxes and secrecy.”  He didn’t do that.  he was prodded to talk about it, and then he mentioned there was no CRS reporting. I think he said there was no local tax, but he never promoted the bank to evade Australian taxes. 

40.  Mckenzie discussed that there was a possibility that some involved with the bank may face criminal charges.   Now that is not necessary false, as he said “possibility” and “may,” but he put that out there to imply the bank was involved in criminal activity.  It was not and no one associated with the bank was ever charged.

41. Mckenzie said “Peter Schiff is rarely lost for answers.” then showed me again refusing to answer questions on the bank.  But it was not because I was lost for answers.  It was because I already answered his questions many times and repeatedly asked him to move on. After 50 minutes I was done, and told him so.  But they deliberately created the false impressions that I was evasive and had something to hide. 

42. Mckenzie said  “Is it safe to say it, the criminality, the alleged money laundering, the alleged tax evasion had to be, in your mind, of such a level to warrant that extraordinary action?”  Again this is imply extreme criminality on the part of the bank.  The bank was not found to have committed any illegal acts.  They had no evidence that it did. 

43. McKenzie said “He leaves the final word to his wife.”  I did not leave any words to my wife.  I did not even want her to talk to him to Mckenzie.  She did that on her own, and had no intention of becoming part of the interview.  This was done to imply that I ran away like a coward because I was guilty, and left my wife to fight my battles.

44. Mckenzie said  “It may be many months before we find out exactly how many other Australians are stashing their dirty money in Euro Pacific Bank.”  No one was stashing any dirty money at Euro Pacific Bank, in Australia or anywhere else, and Mckenzie had no proof that anyone was. 

45. Mckenzie then said “You’re coming for them?” to which Day replied “We’re coming for them.”  This implied the investigation was nearly over, there was evidence of guilt, and we were about to be arrested.  Instead he told them it was too early to name the target, and more work needed to be done. In any event they never came for us at all.  OCIF eventually did for reasons that officially had nothing to do with the Atlantis Investigation. Unofficially I think the IRS got OCIF to shut down the bank under the pretext of net capital violations, so that it could pretend that the failed Atlantis Investigation was a success.

46. The broadcast ended with “following our interview with Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific itself announced the Perth Mint will end its association with the bank in the next two weeks. Westpac ceased its partnership with Euro Pacific in 2018. But won’t say why. This was meant to imply that The Perth Mint and Westpac stop doing business with the bank because it did something wrong. Those implications were false. 

THE ENTIRE TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:

[00:00:00] Nick McKenzie: While it’s a favorite grumble that we paid too much tax. Most of us obediently hand over our fair share, but not everyone. Each year, hundreds of millions of tax dollars deliberately goes missing. There might be a fine line between minimization and evasion, but make no mistake. This is theft and the tax office is sick of it. It wants its money. And as you’re about to see, it’s willing to go to the end of the earth, to. Operation Atlantis is a joint five nation investigation targeting the hiding places. Wealthy Australians used to stash vast sums of money. When it comes to contempt for paying income tax…

[00:00:43] Peter Schiff: So if we just settle it now for 5,000..

[00:00:46] Nick McKenzie: … There’s no greater hater than Peter Schiff. I mean, income tax is miserable. This business big shot has become a celebrity. Peter Schiff, Peter Schiff, chief economist, and global strategist of Euro Pacific. Thanks to his controversial [00:01:00] views on taxation and the economy.

[00:01:04] Nick McKenzie: All right. He loves bragging to the world about how much he knows about making money. 

[00:01:08] Peter Schiff: And I’m like, wait a minute. I mean, all I have to do is move to Puerto Rico. I don’t have to pay any federal income tax, 

[00:01:13] Nick McKenzie: but when he sat down for an interview, the last thing he wanted to talk about was the offshore bank. He co-owns in the Caribbean, a bank with hundreds of Australian clients. 

[00:01:24] Peter Schiff: Are you making an allegation against my bank? It’s not me. He’s making the allegation. The authorities have here. You know that? Well, no, then. If you wanna make an allegation against my bank, then you stand by it. And then, and then we’ll see if there’s any legal repercussions.

[00:01:36] Nick McKenzie: Tonight, 60 minutes, the age newspaper, the Sydney morning Herald and the New York times. This is the headquarters of rural Pacific bank in San Juan, Puerto Rico reveal how shifts bank. And around a hundred of its Australian customers are at the center of an enormous worldwide tax of Asian investigation.

[00:01:55] Will Day: There was certainly a feeling of excitement as we got to that really unprecedented level. 

[00:01:59] Nick McKenzie: [00:02:00] This story will cause alarm in the global banking industry and panic among clients. That’s because a secret Alliance of tax cops from five countries, including Australia have been examining allegations of money laundering and tax evasion. Linked to serious organized crime. Was there a feeling of nerves as well? There’s always a feeling of nerves as you’ll see the money trail shows us the secret tactics used by super wealthy Australians to Dodge tax. It’s been fantastic. And the best thing you ever, ever, ever did. And leads to the man at the center of it, all the face of the bank.

[00:02:38] Peter Schiff: to say that, oh, I’m facilitating tax evasion. Why 

[00:02:42] Nick McKenzie: I haven’t benefited one nickel. So why do you think these tax authorities are targeting you? Is it because of your celebrity status? Ask them, don’t ask me Peter, respectfully your banks at the center of the biggest tax evasion investigation in the world.

[00:02:55] Peter Schiff: Now these are fair questions. I’m not asking any more questions on the bank. Okay. That’s it. I’m done. I’ll rephrase the [00:03:00] question. There’s no more. No more questions.

[00:03:09] John Chevis: One of the best methods of avoiding either detection or having your money taken off you by the authorities is to move that money to another jurisdiction 

[00:03:19] Nick McKenzie: for most of his career. As a federal police detective John CHS has chased dirty money around the world. One of his great frustrations has been the ease at which Australian crooks and tax. Have been able to set up offshore bank accounts to avoid the tax man. 

[00:03:37] John Chevis: Every time you cross another border, it takes the police who are coming along behind you, perhaps several more months to try and track that money. 

[00:03:46] Nick McKenzie: After leaving the AFP, CHS began advising governments around the world on anti-money laundering two years ago, while conducting one of his investigations, he came across something strange. A bank in Puerto Rico being used by hundreds of Australians. It’s name Euro Pacific. What do you think is the real reason? So many Australians are banking offshore in places like the Euro Pacific bank in Puerto Rico. 

[00:04:14] John Chevis: You would have to question why someone would place their money in a jurisdiction. That’s so far away in a bank that doesn’t pay any interest in a bank that charges, uh, enormous fees for moving your money. And in a, in a bank that, uh, appears not to do, uh, the sorts of due diligence that, uh, many other reputable banks around the world do. 

[00:04:36] Nick McKenzie: The last thing John CHS would ever do is make anything easier for criminals, but he does want ordinary Australian taxpayers to see. How they’re being ripped off by wealthy crooks who avoid paying their share of tax by setting up accounts with offshore banks like Euro Pacific. 

[00:04:55] John Chevis: So you’ve got yourself a million dollars that you want to hide from the tax man. The first thing you do is find yourself a referral agent. That person will be a lawyer or an accountant who will help you set up a trust. And a company in an offshore jurisdiction that has access to a bank account, preferably in another offshore jurisdiction, like the say shells, those people are strangers to you, but they will put their name on the paperwork for you as owning the company and controlling it. Now, your say company gets itself a bank accounts. With a bank like Euro Pacific bank. Now that you have your bank account, you deposit your million dollars into it and you use it as you would use any other bank account. If the tax man ever comes asking, all they get from Euro Pacific bank is the name of a company in the say, shell. 

[00:05:58] Nick McKenzie: It’s as simple as it is irresistible for tax orders like Simon and Catel international enforcement sources have told 60 minutes. He was one of the Australians using Euro Pacific from 2014 to 2017 Anka tell engineered the biggest tax scam in recent Australian history ripping off more than 100 million. Why would the engineer of Australia’s largest tax fraud, want to bank with Euro Pacific bank? 

[00:06:26] John Chevis: He may want to bank there because he wants to store. Um, perhaps I gotten gains in a, uh, a location that is offshore so away from Australia, uh, thereby making it more difficult for Australian authorities to trace it. He may wish to store it there because he perhaps knows that, uh, Puerto Rico won’t share the taxation information with Australian authorities. Uh, he may have other reasons that, of which we’re not aware 

[00:06:53] Nick McKenzie: according to official sources, this man Darby angel also started an account with [00:07:00] the Euro Pacific bank angel claims to be a. Film financer running a multimillion dollar investment fund out of Dubai, but he’s also a convicted drug trafficker. Hi, we called angel, but he refused to comment publicly. Other than to say, he’d never heard of Euro Pacific. Why would a drug trafficker want to put their money? In a Puerto Rican bank. 

[00:07:24] John Chevis: Uh, if you can place, uh, your money in account that isn’t linked to your name, then the chances of having that, that money seized and taken from you, uh, is, is that much less 

[00:07:36] Nick McKenzie: the fact that multiple crooks people with recorded criminal convictions for serious offending have bank accounts that you’re a Pacific bank? What does it say about the bank’s compliance culture? 

[00:07:45] John Chevis: It suggests that that perhaps they were waving customers through without actually, uh, really considering the risk that those customers were gonna be placing proceeds of crime in the accounts that they were opening Americans who 

[00:07:58] Peter Schiff: live in Puerto [00:08:00] Rico, don’t have to pay federal income taxes on the money they earn from Puerto Rico, 

[00:08:03] Nick McKenzie: as well as plenty of curious, Australian references, one name kept coming up in Chavez’s investigation, Peter Schiff, the bank’s founder, and.

[00:08:14] John Chevis: I think Peter, Schiff’s a character who likes to fly outside the rules a little. 

[00:08:18] Peter Schiff: Why would the people want an income tax given the misery that we all suffer, uh, having to pay that tax. 

[00:08:27] John Chevis: It was fairly apparent, uh, that Peter Schiff was operating. In a, in a manner that was intended to attract customers who were looking to either of age tax or perhaps launder money.

[00:08:40] Nick McKenzie: GE says there should have been a red flag for any financial institution working with Euro Pacific bank. And so he was shocked to discover Australian bank Westpac was doing business with Euro Pacific until 20. The Perth min backed by the wa government was also a favored [00:09:00] partner offering the opportunity for customers to secure their funds in gold.

[00:09:05] John Chevis: I was very surprised to see that Perth min had signed up with Euro Pacific bank. I think there’s a significant risk that some of the gold held within the person in, by, by customers of the Euro Pacific bank may be held beneficially. Criminals in other parts of the world,

[00:09:25] Nick McKenzie: Perth min and Westpac’s links to Euro Pacific. Again, even uglier sources have confirmed that in early 2019 Australian authorities were so concerned about Euro Pacific. They designated it an Australian priority organization target. This means Australian police suspect Europe. Poses a grave organized crime threat to the nation that must be confronted at any cost.

[00:09:51] John Chevis: The fact that this particular bank has been marked as a priority target for Australian authorities who are [00:10:00] aiming to reduce the, uh, laundering of proceeds of crime at. And tax evasion is really significant. It’s, uh, a much simpler task to, to frisk someone and find a bag of cocaine than it is to unpick the method, uh, through which the proceeds of that those sales have been laundered.

[00:10:21] Nick McKenzie: Coming up, 

[00:10:22] Patrick Flynn: We’ve been working with them for about eight years, 

[00:10:23] Nick McKenzie: Spooking for business. 

[00:10:25] Patrick Flynn: Your customer that goes to them is a high risk customer, 

[00:10:28] Nick McKenzie: an Aussie lawyer, 

[00:10:29] Patrick Flynn: no reporting obligations, no tax obligations explains, there’s no risk. There’s absolutely zero risk 

[00:10:36] Nick McKenzie: of a far away bank. The whole point of someone in Australia setting up an account is to avoid or minimize their tax. San Juan Puerto Rico with its deep blue beaches is a tourist. A few days with the devil always, but recently it’s also become a magnet for bankers and the super rich, 

[00:11:08] Peter Schiff: there were significant tax advantages of my bank being in Puerto Rico. You effectively double your income by moving there practically. Wow. So because you’re not, you know, you’re not, you know, splitting your income with the government, 

[00:11:20] Nick McKenzie: Peter Schiff located the bank. He co-owns Euro Pacific in Puerto. Partly because he knew it offered the kind of secrecy his clients wanted, but for the bank to succeed, it needed international partners in Australia. It teamed up with Westpac and the Perth mint. 

[00:11:40] Peter Schiff: Well, I started with the Perth mint program, I think back in like 2002, it was backed up by a government of, you know, in Australia, uh, bank customers could. Uh, use the Perth meant as a, as a secure, uh, depository for their bullion. 

[00:11:56] Nick McKenzie: It’s the relationship shifts proud of. Just don’t ask him why any Australian would need to use his bank in the first place. The whole point of someone in Australia, setting up an account in Puerto Rico is to avoid or minimize their tax. Is it not? 

[00:12:10] Peter Schiff: So you’re saying, you’re saying to me that the only reason that anybody would use an offshore is to evade taxes?

[00:12:19] Nick McKenzie: Well, I’m asking you, you are the expert. Isn’t that a reason why many people use these banks to avoid, avoid paying taxes? 

[00:12:25] Peter Schiff: You, you, you, you, you don’t have to have an offshore bank, uh, to, uh, to not pay your taxes, but it 

[00:12:32] Nick McKenzie: helps. And it’s easy to arrange Australians wanting to minimize their tax used local lawyers and accountants who can quite lawfully recommend an offshore bank and help set up an. Given the founder of Euro Pacific wasn’t forthcoming. We decided to go undercover to find out how the bank is really sold to customers. 

[00:12:57] Patrick Flynn: I thought you were calling on signal. Hang on. Okay. [00:13:00] 

[00:13:00] Nick McKenzie: After a little digging, we came across Brisbane based lawyer, Patrick Flynn on the weekends. He can find him belting out rock tunes in a pub, but during the week he spooks the Euro Pacific bank in a.

[00:13:14] Patrick Flynn: We’ve been working with them for about eight years. What’s happened is it’s been a rush, a rush of international banks setting up in Puerto Rico in the last two years because it’s part of America technically, but it’s a tax Haven in so far as you can have a bank account in Puerto Rico. And if the bank pays you interest on that bank account, there’s no reporting obligations. There’s no tax obligations in America. There’s no risk. There’s absolutely zero risk of bank account information sharing. 

[00:13:41] Nick McKenzie: Flynn’s so upbeat about the bank. 

[00:13:43] Patrick Flynn: The typical customer that goes to them is a high risk customer. 

[00:13:48] Nick McKenzie: He BOS to potential clients. He has his own account with Euro Pacific. 

[00:13:53] Patrick Flynn: I set up a private foundation a couple of years ago to trade Forex and I opened bank accounts for both of those entities. At Euro Pacific Bank. So what personally got accounts there? It’s a totally private bank account. That’s the big advantage 

[00:14:05] Nick McKenzie: to find out what really happens inside the bank. We also track down former employee John Ogilvie in 2014. He was hired as Euro. Pacific’s it manager. 

[00:14:17] John Ogilvie: What I thought is we would develop into a proper company, um, with, you know, professionals and, you know, but it never, that never actually happened.

[00:14:28] Nick McKenzie: Why were people like Australians turning to Europe, Pacific bank to put their 

[00:14:32] John Ogilvie: money in. Well, it’s marketed to keep your money away from the tax authorities, someone who would behave so unscrupulous, I don’t think would have any qualms about, uh, you know, dealing with, with criminals or, or would money launderers in general or tax Dodgers. Um, yeah, they have no scruples. 

[00:14:53] Nick McKenzie: Ogilvy says he worked closely with the bank’s president and co-owner Mark Anderson. Very little is known about Anderson, except he’s a former bankrupt. The fact that probably explains why the bank’s other owner, Peter Schiff is the public face of Euro Pacific. 

[00:15:10] John Ogilvie: I didn’t know anything about his background other than he was, uh, Peter Schiff’s business partner who used to do, uh, trading with Peter Schiff. And I think they worked in Los Angeles together. That’s how they knew each other. 

[00:15:24] Nick McKenzie: Ogilvy was sacked after a disagreement with management. We couldn’t travel to Puerto Rico. So partnering with local, New York times, reporter Alejandra, Rosa. We visited the headquarters of the bank to try to ask Mark Anderson some questions.

[00:15:51] Nick McKenzie: Mark Anderson, didn’t show his face and security asked us to leave the building. Are you surprised that banks now at the center of an international tax evasion.

[00:16:00] John Ogilvie: I’m not surprised no. These are unscrupulous people. These guys could shut down the bank. Transfer it to wherever they. And you’ll never see him again. If I earn money in Puerto Rico.

[00:16:16] Nick McKenzie: Unlike Mark Anderson, Peter Schiff is easy to track down. 

[00:16:18] Peter Schiff: I get to keep a lot more of what I earn 

[00:16:20] Nick McKenzie: barely a week passes, where he isn’t talking about tax investing. And sometimes his bank 

[00:16:26] Peter Schiff: here in the United States, the government takes most of what I earned, 

[00:16:28] Nick McKenzie: but as we found out, isn’t that a reason why many use these banks to avoid paying taxes. He only likes answering positive questions about the bank. 

[00:16:37] Peter Schiff: Why don’t you ask me some other questions about the economy, about, you know, anything that I normally talk about, but if the only thing you want to do is talk about your Pacific bank, then I just really don’t have anything else to talk about. And I think we should just end the interview. 

[00:16:51] Nick McKenzie: What, what we’ve been told is Australians are hiding their profits. They’re making in Australia by setting up. Offshore structures and then using [00:17:00] your bank to hide their profits, sometimes their dirty profits. 

[00:17:04] Peter Schiff: Well, look, I seriously doubt that. So if they, if they certainly find that somebody, you know, they did taxes and put the money in my bank, it’s not because we help them. I mean, how many people in Australia do you think are not compliant with their taxes? I mean, how, what, what’s the number? 

[00:17:22] Nick McKenzie: Probably quite a few, but I imagine many of those 

[00:17:25] Peter Schiff: and I would bet if any of them. Are using my bank. It is a tiny fraction. It’s not my bank’s mission to administer the tax laws of Australia.

[00:17:38] Will Day: The tax man’s secret weapon truly are the best tax crime fighters.

[00:17:45] Nick McKenzie: And is this banker I’m not allowed to discuss it, feeling the heat. I’ll rephrase the question I’m done. That’s next 60 minutes in a secure location in Canberra. One of the most powerful law enforcement investigators in Australia has been working on a secret probe. 

[00:18:09] Will Day: We truly are amongst the best tax crime fighters in the. For Australia, that that is a relatively small country. We’re certainly punching above our weight 

[00:18:19] Nick McKenzie: will day is deputy commissioner of the tax office. He says it’s far too easy for Australians with the help of lawyers and accountants to Dodge tax or hide the proceeds of crime by moving their money offshore. 

[00:18:33] Will Day: You see it for sale in packages a little bit like a holiday package in different regions. And so what you would get in this package is a company in one country, maybe a bank account. In another country, maybe a trust in a third country. And you see that that funds transit through other countries before arriving at its it ultimate, uh, you know, destination 

[00:18:58] Nick McKenzie: In 2017, the tax office had some good fortune and it was the recipient of a massive data leak. It revealed the secret transactions of thousands of customers, of an offshore bank in Puerto Rico. How many Australians were using that Caribbean entity, which you targeted? 

[00:19:16] Will Day: We were concerned that there were, there were hundreds of Australian taxpayers, um, potentially, uh, involved in these arrangements. Good morning, Don. Thanks for joining us. Um, so early will 

[00:19:26] Nick McKenzie: they called on his secret weapon, an international task force of tax crime fighter. In United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and the UK known as the J five 

[00:19:38] J5 Representative: send a strong message around the world that we’re really serious in attacking the, you know, international tax evasion. 

[00:19:45] Nick McKenzie: The J five began sharing intelligence and quietly zeroed in on a bank in San Juan with dubious international customers, including hundreds of Australians, the investigation’s code name, Operation Atlantas.

[00:20:01] Will Day: There’s a buildup over a number of months and, and multiple meetings. We had a real sense of this being a watershed moment that it could really be a game changer 

[00:20:15] Nick McKenzie: on January 24. This year, operation Atlantis sprung into action investigators from around the world, including America’s. I. Began knocking on the doors of investors and customers of a bank. They vaguely described as an offshore institution, our tax office won’t name the bank, but we will, it was Euro Pacific co-owned by us business, celebrity, Peter Schiff. What happened on January 24 this year? 

[00:20:41] Peter Schiff: I don’t know what you’re referring to. Didn’t the IRS pay you a visit? I don’t wanna discuss all of these, uh, questions about the bank or what may or may not have. I’m just going to give you a final answer on the bank. And I’m gonna say that there is no problem at my bank. There is no proof, uh, that the bank is being used to facilitate any illegal activity. 

[00:21:07] Nick McKenzie: Peter Schiff claims he isn’t allowed to talk about the J five action on the bank in January, but if he didn’t already know it, it must have alerted him to the fact that questionable figures like Simon, an Cattel were using his. How could such a notorious crime figure be allowed to get through the front door of your bank? 

[00:21:26] Peter Schiff: Look, you’re asking me questions that I cannot answer, cuz I do not work at the bank. I’m not a compliance officer. I, you know, I have nothing to do with the daily operations of the bank, but the bank trades on your name, the bank uses, it’s not a topic that I really want to discuss.

[00:21:42] Nick McKenzie: I appreciate that the bank uses you as its key piece of marketing though. So therefore you have a responsibility don’t you? When the, if the bank goes out well, I’ve already told 

[00:21:49] Peter Schiff: you. I’ve already told you that there is that the allegations that you are, uh, referring to are false, I’m putting to you that your bank has accounts for organized [00:22:00] crime figures. I’m telling you that I don’t, that we don’t. Are you speculating or do you know. Shouldn’t the question be for you? No, 

[00:22:07] Nick McKenzie: no, you answer my question. No, I’m I’m the journalist here. I’m I’m asking the questions here, sir. No, no, but I, I choose what I answer. Well, Peter, why is it the tax authorities in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, America, and the Netherlands all believe your bank is facilitating tax evasion and serious organized crime.

[00:22:25] Peter Schiff: Well, I don’t know. Have you asked them? Because we’re not, I’m asking you, you run the bank. It’s your bank. No, no. You asked them we’re not facilitating tax evasion or organized crime or anything like it. 

[00:22:38] Nick McKenzie: We did ask Australia’s deputy tax chief, why the bank was pursued. Can you confirm that that target was suspected to be facilitating international money laundering? Yes, we, we were certainly looking at that target for that reason. Is it safe to say the criminality, the alleged money laundering, the alleged tax of. Had to be in your mind of such a level to warrant that extraordinary.

[00:23:00] Will Day: It’s a, it’s a very significant investment by 

[00:23:02] Nick McKenzie: all the countries involved. So have you then handed over the details sought by Australian, US, et cetera. Authorities, about your customer base to the tax authorities who targeted you and your bank this year. 

[00:23:15] Peter Schiff: I am not involved with a day to day operational bank. I don’t, I’m just gonna get out of this chair. If you’re gonna keep asking me these kind of questions. And in fact, if you think we’re doing something wrong, why don’t you try to open up an account at our. Go there under an assumed name and give us some BS and see if you can actually open up an account. I dare you. Well, Peter, we’ve tried to do that. Have you, have you tried to open up an account 

[00:23:37] Nick McKenzie: at our bank? Yes, we have. So we’ve gone to one of your referrers. 

[00:23:40] Patrick Flynn: It’s called Euro Pacific bank, correct? 

[00:23:42] Nick McKenzie: This bank referer promotes your bank because of the low taxes and secrecy.

[00:23:48] Peter Schiff: Well, if they’re, first of all, we don’t, none of the, none of the people who refer business to our. Our work for us. 

[00:23:56] Nick McKenzie: Peter Schiff is right that the Australian accountants and [00:24:00] lawyers promoting Euro Pacific don’t work for the bank, but they are key to its operations. This highlights a major flaw in Australia’s anti-money laundering regime. Former AFP officer John CHS says the government must pass new laws to force lawyers and accountants to report dodgy offshore transactions to. 

[00:24:23] John Chevis: I think it’s a bit of a tragedy, really everyone in the world who is involved in anti-money laundering knows that’s lawyers, real estate agents and accountants are well used by people who have illicit wealth to launder 

[00:24:38] Nick McKenzie: our nation’s deputy tax chief won’t name the bank while his investigation is ongoing, but he did confirm the possibility that some involved with the bank may face criminal charges.

[00:24:49] Will Day: Now there’s further inquiries that we need to undertake, but I would expect to see further tax and penalties raised as well as criminal investigations 

[00:24:59] Nick McKenzie: at his home. [00:25:00] An hour north of New York city. Peter Schiff is adamant. Authorities won’t find anything to implicate the bank. 

[00:25:06] Peter Schiff: No, nobody has told us that we’ve done anything wrong. Nobody. 

[00:25:10] Nick McKenzie: Well, you do know the IRS visited you this year. Surely that was an indicator. Hey, go 

[00:25:14] Peter Schiff: look, look, it, people could be investigated for all sorts of reasons. Doesn’t mean they did anything wrong. 

[00:25:20] Nick McKenzie: What did they say to you when they came, when the IRS came to your business to you this year? What, what did they tell you?

[00:25:24] Peter Schiff: Look, as they said, they didn’t say that we did anything wrong. What did they say? Um, look, I’m not, I’m not allowed to discuss it per that government. Peter Schiff is rarely lost for answers. I’m not asking any more questions on the. That’s it I’m done. I’ll rephrase the question. There’s no more questions. No more questions. That’s it. 

[00:25:43] Nick McKenzie: But when it comes to the bank…

[00:25:45] Lauren Schiff: What is this, Peter? All, this is ridiculous. This is, I don’t even know what they’re trying to do. 

[00:25:50] Nick McKenzie: He leaves the final word to his wife. 

[00:25:53] Lauren Schiff: Hi. What was the point of you asking what, what were you trying to get from this interview? 

[00:25:58] Nick McKenzie: Your, your husband’s bank is at the center of a major investigation, which we’re investigating. So they’re, they’re fair questions to ask. Peter’s a public person. He’s a media person. He’s running an international bank. That is the subject of a large investigation. 

[00:26:13] Peter Schiff: Just go away from them. 

[00:26:17] Nick McKenzie: Why should Australians care that that proportion of people are involved in that sort of activity? Why, why does it matter to anybody?

[00:26:23] Will Day: Well, I guess we, we never lose sight of the fact that tax crime is not victimless. A tax revenue is incredibly important to support aged care, uh, healthcare, uh, to provide welfare. Education and dis and disability support, I guess that’s important at any time, but even more so during a, a pandemic. 

[00:26:44] Nick McKenzie: Peter. It may be many months before we find out exactly how many other Australians are stashing their dirty money in Euro Pacific bank, but will day says the investigation is a potent reminder to anyone thinking [00:27:00] about dodging tax 

[00:27:02] Will Day: with the power of the J five behind our investigation. We do have the ability to lift a lot of rocks, to shine, a light in a lot of dark places you’re coming. We are coming for them.

[00:27:17] Nick McKenzie: The Perth mint and Westpac refused our request to explain why they dealt with Euro Pacific bank. Following our interview with Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific itself announced the Perth mint will end its association with the bank in the next two weeks. Westpac ceased its partnership with Euro Pacific in 2018.