This is the press conference that announced the closing of Euro Pacific Bank. A heavily redacted reply to my FOIA request revealed that the IRS coordinated this press conference with OCIF over three moths in advance, and picked the date to fall on the four-year anniversary of the J5. So IRS Chief Lee lied when he said OCIF acted alone. The press conference was actually a PR stunt for the J5.
60 Minutes Australia first made public the false allegations of money laundering and tax evasion that ultimately doomed the bank in an Oct. 2020 broadcast that an Australian court has already ruled defamatory of Peter Schiff. In its defense 60 Minutes initially claimed its defamatory imputations were true, but then abandoned that defense due to lack of any evidence, and consented to a judgment of 550K, which exceeded the maximum amount for defamation under Australian law, plus paying my legal costs on an indemnity basis.
This press conference in-and-of itself proved their allegations were false long before the Nine Network was forced to admit they were false. The press conference also proves that the IRS lead J5 investigation, the largest tax evasion and money laundering investigation in world history, was a complete waste of taxpayer money. All it accomplished, thanks to the IRS having illegally and prematurely leaked the investigation to 60 Minutes,, was the unfortunate destruction of an innocent bank and the reputations of those running it. it took until June of 2023, a year after this press conference, for me to win my defamation lawsuit against 60 Minutes, with a final judgement not entered until Nov., five months later.
You will notice that IRS agent Lee admitted that as a result of their two year investigation, no criminal charges were filed against “the bank or those running the bank”. Yet he still implied the bank was guilty of crimes his own investigation confirmed the bank did not commit.
The OCIF Commissioner responded to a reporter’s question about whether the bank helped its customers launder money or evade takes by saying, “that is a conclusion that has not been made” and that the action against the bank “was not based on claims of money laundering or any financial crimes.” The OCIF Commissioner also said the bank was being closed in part due to its alleged “level of insolvency” and because the bank was “critically insolvent.”
However, the receiver OCIF appointed to liquidate the bank later confirmed that on the date the bank was placed into receivership it had millions in cash and cash equivalents in excess of what was owed to depositors.The bank also had no debt, made no loans, and had no past-due bills. So the bank was definitely not insolvent.
There was also a highly-qualified buyer committed to adding $7 million in additional capital that represented an alternative to liquidation. That buyer has since filed for a public listing on NASDAQ through merger with a SPAC. The deal values the combined company at over $900 million, with over $360 million in cash and no debt. This would have been a huge win for the Puerto Rican banking industry and economy had OCIF allowed the sale of the bank. Instead the bank was liquidated and everyone in Puerto Rico lost, especially me, as my personal loss was $25 million.
All of the press coverage that followed this press conference read that Euro Pacific Bank was closed due to allegations that it facilitated money laundering and tax evasion, even though the lack of indictments and the OCIF Commissioner’s exculpatory comments evidenced that the bank did not help its customers launder money or evade taxes.
On Sept 27th, less than three months following this press conference, Mark David Anderson, the bank’s president and co-founder, died of a heart attack at the age of 64. His underlying heart conditions likely resulted from the stress brought on by the collapse of the bank due to false allegations of tax evasion and money laundering.
As of Jul.. 30th, 2024, exactly 25 months following this press conference, no money has been return to any of the bank’s customer, despite 100% of those deposits being held in cash the entire time. Had OCIF not put the bank into receivership, it could have returned all customer deposits 25 months ago.