Don Johnson's BILLIONS OF DOLLARS episode...

[LordLindsey]

There are many, many articles that you will find written about this, and IT DID HAPPEN, so ask yourself why you don't know about this and what that says about the world of dirty money and how BILLIONS OF DOLLARS can be transferred with literal documents representing hundreds of millions of dollars each.  This is batshit crazy-world, people, and Don Johnson's BILLION DOLLAR CONTROVERSY opened-up a LOT of people's eyes to just how much money is hidden for whatever reason.

This is only ONE (1) article, so do a search and you will find even a TIMELINE of how Don Johnson's story changed to the conclusion that all of this was true and there was nothing more ever said or done about it; this is truly disturbing.

LINDSEY

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... n12581284/


Dirty money: a global scam; As Don Johnson, star of Miami Vice, faces
Sunday Herald, The ,  Mar 16, 2003   by Neil MacKay
ShareEmailDiggFacebookTwitterGoogleDeliciousStumbleUponNewsvineLinkedInMy YahooTechnoratiRedditPrintRecommend0ON November 6 last year, Don Johnson's black Mercedes left Switzerland and crossed the German border. Less than two miles later, just outside the town of Bietingen, it was stopped by customs officers.

The actor was not alone. His investment manager and personal assistant were in the car, along with an unnamed third man and a large leather suitcase, allegedly belonging to Johnson, filled with around (pounds) 5 billion in share certificates, cheques, credit notes and bonds. Johnson now faces a possible money-laundering investigation. It is a sharp role reversal. As Sonny Crockett in the 1980s cop show Miami Vice, Johnson busted drug-dealers, pimps, mobsters and racketeers laundering money in sultry Florida.

Leonhard Bierl from Germany's customs department says no charges have yet been filed but that US customs and tax officials had been informed. Customs officers claim Johnson was "worried whether American tax authorities would be informed" when he was stopped and searched. "That wouldn't have happened unless we were suspicious about why he had all these stocks and shares and so on with him," says Bierl. "This was a lot of numbers. A decision on whether to launch a criminal probe against him will come soon."

According to customs officials, Johnson was subdued but co- operative when they asked to search his luggage. The share certificates and other documents - which reportedly weighed several kilos - were photocopied and returned. Although Johnson denies the documents were anything to do with him, customs say that some were in his name. It is also said that large payments were made to Johnson, including cash drawn from the Union Bank of Switzerland and the Bank of Taiwan.

When asked by a customs official why he needed so many billions, Johnson allegedly replied that he was going to buy a car at the Maybach plant of DaimlerChrysler. That led one official to reply: "With that kind of money you could buy the factory."
Customs are still examining the paperwork - a process that could take some time given that every financial body and bank involved must be contacted. Four months after he was stopped and searched, Johnson is now enraged over the speculation that he was involved in money- laundering. "I was on my way to Germany to look at a car," he says. "None of these documents belong to me. They're all legitimate papers and stuff from a passenger that was in the car. It had nothing to do with me. Someone is going to get sued." Johnson's publicist has also denied any wrongdoing.

As well as Miami Vice, Johnson, 53, starred in another hit cop show, Nash Bridges. His film roles include 1993's Guilty As Sin, with Rebecca De Mornay. Last year he put six cars up for sale, including a silver Ferrari which was a present from the company's late founder, Enzo Ferrari, and in 2000 he sold the Beverly Hills mansion he had owned for 10 years for a cool (pounds) 1.8 million.

He has been treated at the Betty Ford Clinic for drug and alcohol abuse, as has his ex-wife Melanie Griffith. He is also being sued for $1m - or (pounds) 623,000 - by the City National Bank in Los Angeles.

Elliot Mintz, a publicity agent working for Johnson, says: "I spoke to Don and he has not spoken to anybody else about this matter. There is no truth in it. Don was stopped at the border by guards in November last year. He said they behaved in a very professional and courteous way, checked his papers and the papers of the people travelling with him, and then waved them through. Like most people, he does travel with credit cards, but he did not have $8bn with him at that time. It is utterly absurd."

German police routinely set up checkpoints on roads leading to and from banking havens in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg in order to crack down on money-laundering. These have led to dozens of arrests and millions of pounds in various currencies being recovered and confiscated. Whatever the truth about what went on in Bietingen, Europe is currently facing its worst-ever levels of international money-laundering. Across the world, money-laundering accounts for between 2% and 5% of the world's total economic output, according to the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering - a 31-member inter-governmental organisation under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In the UK the situation is even worse, with the cost of money-laundering running to around 10% of the nation's gross domestic product, or (pounds) 100bn a year, according to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS).

Nigel Morris-Cotterill, editor of the World Money Laundering Report, says it is almost impossible to get on top of the fight against money-laundering - which is essential to every criminal organisation on earth, from Glasgow gangs to al-Qaeda. "Consider this analogy," he says. "Pour a glass of water and release a drop of ink into it. Gradually the ink will mix with the water, dissolving to the point of invisibility." This is the problem, he says, police and banks face daily. "They know dirty money is in their system, but they cannot separate it from the clean money."