Maverick Chua discussing the timeline to open an EPB account.

Maverick on EPB Account Opening Timeline

Maverick Chua discussing the timeline to open an EPB account.

This is a conversation between an unknown person (let’s assume it’s Charlotte Grieve), posing as a Malaysian lawyer who has clients looking to evade taxes using secret offshore bank accounts. Grieve spoke with a referral agent, Maverick Chua, who referred clients to a number of banks, including Euro Pacific Bank. What’s interesting is that this sting operation did not include any phone calls with the bank itself. Had she tried to get someone at the bank to help her clients evade taxes and hide money, they would have been completely shut down. For all I know, she did call the bank, but she illegally destroyed all the evidence so as not to have to produce it in discovery.

On page 10, Chua speaks about online complaints he’s come across regarding Euro Pacific Bank, particularly about how long it took to process transactions. That was due to the heavy AML vetting each transaction was subject to.

On page 11, Chua is asked, “How long would it take to open an account in Euro Pacific Bank?” He replied, “Probably, I think, well, I would say easily a safe duration to look at would be about three or four weeks.”

Grieve seemed surprised by how long it took and replied:

“Three weeks. What are the basic requirements that are required? Can you send me those documents?”

Chua replies with the following:

“Yes. Let’s say it’s a corporate account; we will need the full set of company documents, which includes the certificate of incorporation, share certificates, and the certificate of incumbency. Let’s say the company has been registered for more than a year—more than two years, then we need a certificate of good standing. And for personal documents, certified personal documents, either certified by a lawyer or a public accountant.”

Clearly, this conversation provided Grieve with more evidence of how strict the bank’s compliance was. Three to four weeks is a long time to get an account opened, which suggests a lot of KYC and AML performed during the process. Also, she was told about the extensive documentation that was necessary to open an account. Yet she deliberately created the false impression that the bank didn’t do any compliance and just looked the other way as criminals were waved in. Again this proves the entire investigation was a sham. All the evidence that contracted they pre-determined conclusion was ignored. The only evidence that supported their false conclusion had to be fabricated.