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Albania Central Bank Governor Arrested Over Theft Of $7 Million From Bank Vaults
About a month ago we mocked the Albanian central bank when reports emerged that "two employees" had been charged with the theft of some $6.6 million in cash from the bank's vaults. Specifically, back in July the arrests come five weeks after a worker at the central bank admitted to stealing money over the course of four years, taking new bank notes printed in Switzerland when they arrived at his workplace and replacing them with old books. As it turns out, since there is a central bank involved, there is once again more than meets the eye, and the story has since mutated into something far more grotesque than even we could imagine, with news coming out late last week and over the weekend that not only was the theft by "two employees" a misdirection, but that the guilty party was none other than the Albanian version of Janet Yellen, the governor of the central bank himself Ardian Fullani.
From Reuters:
Albania's central bank governor Ardian Fullani was arrested on Friday evening in his office on charges of abuse of office over the theft of 713 million lek (6.63 million US dollar) from the bank's vaults, the prosecutor's office told Reuters.
Fullani had refused to step down despite protests by citizens who started a petition to demand his dismissal. He had won a confidence vote in the supervisory board by a landslide. Fullani is the 17th bank employee to be arrested in the case.
Guess he has shared quite a bit of the nearly $7 million in CTRL-P proceeds with the supervisory board then. However, kickbacks or not, the disgraced money printer will find it next to impossible to print his way out of trouble now that the board appears to have changed its mind for whatever reason:
Albania's central bank board has proposed to parliament that governor Ardian Fullani be sacked after his arrest in connection with the theft of 713 million lek ($6.63 million) from the bank's vaults by an employee, the board said on Sunday.
Fullani's fellow board members argued he had "violated ethical rules and heavily damaged the interests of the Bank of Albania".
"We believe the absence of the governor does not create an institutional vacuum in the management of the institution since the law clearly enables the first deputy governor to take over the governor's competences," the board statement said.
But they had not problems with voting for Fullani a month ago: did the hush money kickbacks get clawed back?
Elisabeta Gjoni, the first deputy governor, will now be the acting governor.
Fullani was arrested on Friday evening on charges of "abuse of office" and the bank's inspector general, Elivar Golemi, was held too, the 19th person at the bank to be prosecuted over the theft.
The prosecutor's office said Fullani had failed to plug gaps in oversight at the treasury due to a lack of personnel and regulations, all of which had made the theft possible. He risks a seven-year jail sentence if convicted. A court in the capital Tirana ruled on Sunday that he should await trial in jail.
And this is where it gets hilarious:
Maksim Haxhia, Fullani's lawyer who met him in court on Sunday, told Reuters Fullani declared himself "absolutely innocent" of the charges.
Haxhia said the charge was a "dangerous precedent" and the order to await trial in jail was so tough it was "ridiculous".
"The head of an institution can never be held responsible when someone else has admitted a crime. We have an actual person admitting it. Why should the top director pay?," Haxhia said. "This is a very dangerous precedent," he told Reuters by phone.
Well, there is the open question of how much the scapegoat "admitting" to the crime was paid by the central bank head in order to take all the blame.
But we agree: it truly set a dangerous precedent when suddenly it becomes painfully obvious that even central bankers are subject to the same rules and regulations as everyone else.
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Execute him. Set the tone Albania.
wag the dog.......
Sorry Sorry Folks, There Is NO INDEPENDENT AUDIT Allowed Of The FED...
And watch for S&P breaking below 1990 you mooks!
Bad things happen when the minimum wage is so low. At $15 an hour, he would have had no reason to steal.
Well he ain't no Jon Corzine.....that's for damn sure.
Or Former Sec of the Treaure Paulson, who stole close to one Trillion dollars in TARP funds.
Had to wait a while for someone to point that one out.
This clown is a rank amateur compared to the real financial criminals.
at least you can trust the judges to ensure that lawnorder prevails
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaBe1bE9vIM&feature=youtu.be
What is the problem when you are dealing with central banks that institutionally print trillions of dollars from nothing and give them to market participants.
Yellin is safe. Steal millions go to jail. Steal trillions; be trusted.
Coinage Act of 1792
Penalty on Debasing the Coins
Section 19. And be it further enacted, That if any of
the gold or silver coins which
shall be struck or coined at the said mint
shall be debased or made worse as to the
proportion of the fine gold or fine silver
therein contained, or shall be of less weight
or value than the same out to be pursuant to
the directions of this act, through the
default or with the connivance of any of the
officers or persons who shall be employed at
the said mint, for the purpose of profit or
gain, or otherwise with a fraudulent intent,
and if any of the said officers or persons
shall embezzle any of the metals which shall
at any time be committed to their charge for
the purpose of being coined, or any of the
coins which shall be struck or coined at the
said mint, every such officer or person who
shall commit any or either of the said
offenses, shall be deemed guilty of felony,
and shall suffer death.
http://www.constitution.org/uslaw/coinage1792.txt
don't you mean, King Paulson, you jest
I have already audited the Federal Reserve.
I found: The Federal Reserve is an Unconstitutional foreign controlled criminal organization of fraud and counterfeiting.
An American without the right of "return'."
Just the tip of the Liceberg
When the bankers know the system will fall, they will rob, steal it blind !
S&L Crisis was petty theft compared to this world wide fleecing. But it was a "dress rehearsal" for how you blow up the real estate market. A little summer stock production so to speak.
http://online.barrons.com/news/articles/SB123940701204709985?tesla=y
A good look at what a difference 25 years makes on the definition of "criminal"
http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/17/hundreds-of-wall-street-execs-went-to-p...
Rubes.
Our bankers woul never do anything dishonest.
America, Fuck yeah!
We are exceptional 'cause we make the rules.
On the bright side, at least he didn't harvest any organs.
as far as you know
Game's up bitches. Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Those at the top know and are making their moves.
They promised him verbally that if he resigned, he'd be ok.
As soon as he resigned, he got arrested.
Intrigues, backstabbing. A couple of assassinations soon.
The world works via an invisible aristocracy. It works like this:
If they like you, they let you borrow money.
If they don't like you, they make you pay it back.
But I don't know about this Albania gov. Did he piss off the wrong people, was he too sloppy or did he try to bypass traditional protocol?
How much did Barclays pay Daniel "Minipuke" Plunkett to be the scapegoat for the FCA's gold fixing rap?
A small island in the Maldives perhaps...
Albania set the tone for the 21st century with the massive pyramid schemes set up in the mid-1990s by well connected crooks. After this news, someone should check the vaults of the Federal Reserve bank in downtown Manhattan for missing bricks of $100 bills and bars of bullion gold. Better yet, parole Bernie Madoff and have him look for any crooks, it take a thief to. . .
I was living in Albania in 96 when all that shit went down. Now I know what to expect here, it ain't pretty. A loaf of bread was equal trade for an AK.
I'd sure as hell like to do a Panamax Freighter load of that trade!
Guillotine the Fed!
replace with a robot.
When the Romans talked about barbarians, the Albanians were one of them, In Illycrium in Roman times.
Hardy soldiers though.
Augustus himself was schooled in Illiricum.
But, yes, soldiering is like national export
And they made a mean SKS !
And a lots of AK47s, lately shipped to Kurdistan via NATO
Oh great!
Now you're making me want to go back to the gun shop again.
There's a sweet Mosin M44 there with a laminated stock that's sooooo sexy..
Rope is reusable.
Waste not, want not.
Let us not forget the GREAT ALBANIAN Skanderbeg, one of the greatest generals EVER
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skanderbeg
wasnt he greek? his name is George and my understanding is that alabanians are muslims
No. He was albanian.
Albanians are albanians. Religion is not part of national identity, it is a personal choice.
Most people are agnostic, many atheists also
I am christian, but that is my choice
well, yes, you can ...
of course you can choose as an individual, but what i mean is what the people as a group are born into? and dont get me wrong, i do not have any prejudices against muslims ... people are people each religion has good ot bad ... just sayin'
People almost never take into account ethinicity.
It matters a lot.
Being born into muslim or christian family has little effect now.
We are christians but my brother married someone from muslim background. Totally irrelevant.
'Albanism' takes precedence over religion.
As Enver once said. " the religion of Albania is albanianism."
That was said during independence wars from ottomans.
Turks considered albanian muslim as turks and greeks considered albanian orthodox as greeks.
So, they came up with 'albanism' to make the distinction.
Gezuar!
:-) Gëzuar!
Gozer?
"Aim for the flat top!!!"
-akroyd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_tT-q8EF0
We should begrudge this guy a little "walking around money"?
Free Fullani! Free Corzine!
With that Albania qualifies for a full EU membership.
soon
The fact is thieves simply cannot trust an honest man.
With that Albania qualifies for a full EU membership.
Honorary membership because it appears to be easy to steal money from Albenia.
stupid fuck. instet robbing people (like in ciprus for exemple) he was robbing bank.
/s
You don't need the /s around here; we be suphisticated enuf to git the jist. ;-)
"...that not only was the theft by "two employees" a misdirection, but that the guilty party was none other than the Albanian version of Janet Yellen, the governor of the central bank himself Ardian Fullani."
Unpossible. All central bankers are the paragon of virtue and truthfullness. Just ask Greenspan, Bernanke et al.
$7 million?!? Sheeeeeeiit, das lunch money. Where's the rest?
that's because he was stealing mostly cash. Cash is quite bulky and difficult to steal... He's a real amateur compared to all the other bankers out there!
How was he stealing? From what I read, he was selling books.
There is never just one cockroach.
But there is usually just one refrigerator.
Listen. You (1+1) make a good "COMEDY TEAM"! Keep it up.
The Governor should have looted billions. After all, it's only printed money.
who is to say he hasnt?
all the article is saying, is that he is being accused of 6 million that doesnt exclude 1 billion.
the way these things works, is that usually people get accused of some petty, chump change .... where as the iceberg lies under the carpet .... just saying ... if someone is stealing and he got the keys and he has been in that position for 10 years or more ... well you guess it ... but with that kind of money comes power, connections or both simultenously...so a few peopl are in the game and usually cover each other ... WASP mafia so to speak
you dont believe these people got these jobs in order to serve the country do you?
Now that gives "creativ book-keeping" a face.....
What are you doing, Bohdi? You're breaking your own rules and taking too much time...you never go to the vault!!!
Ardian been partyin'.
7 mil? What an amatuer! Add a couple zeros and maybe the FR can draft him in to the majors.
I'm shocked, shocked I say to hear that a central banker is stealing. That's what they do for a living, steal peoples buying power by inflating away the currency.
Listen. "I'LL JUST PRINT SOME MORE IN THE MORNING".
right. how can they charge a CB for stealing when that is his primary job description.
This guy was just more direct. How much wealth did Bernank transfer?
They are still working on that number. You know how "they" are.
So, invade Syria?
Ardian, wake up you old-school fool. You’re a central banker for Christ’s sake. We don’t steal cash from vaults anymore. We counterfeit it, and call it QE.
Ben & Janet
This guy must have fell out of favor. A small fish. Another fall guy.
Thats nothing Ben Bernanke and his friends stole 16 Trillion USD and the American people dont even give a shit!
This guy wasn't trained correctly. This is not how bankers rob a bank.
If you want to legally rob a bank, buy one. Or set one up with all your buds! More fun!
and "A banking licence is only 500 bucks! Unemployed people should get themselves a banking licence. It's a licence to legally steal money!" - Max Keiser
Just had a quick look to try and find the video but I couldn't find it. Way past my bedtime so I can't look any longer. Anyone remember which episode?
err, obviously Albanian gov forgot how to do it right. He didn't get charged for stealing. He got charged for not stealing enough.
Wonder if the whole board was investing that graft into something that went tits up. He's the scapegoat?
Pretty soon, the albanian currency will be so weak that he will sneak back in and replace the books with currency
Albania is one terrible corrupt incompetent Muslim country (but I repeat myself) that Tony Bliar is working hard on to get into the EU.
A banker arrested for stealing a measly $7 million -- what the fuck -- talk about a guy with no friends!
Are we surprised?
Cenrtral Banker steals $7Million...
This is newsworthy? Are you kidding me???
Wouldn't even register on the Richter Scale of Fed Fraud.
It's newsworthy because he stole only $7 million.
he physically stole banknotes...im impressed..thats old school style - a modern banker would just hit ctrl P and then wire the amount
He is a bad Banker. He got caught!! Decent Central Bankers steal and don't go to jail.
I was in Ecadour about four years ago, Correa the socialist was voted in. The Central bankers-from the opposing party-there were two of them they took the equivalent of $4 billion American in the local curfrency and headed off to Switzerland with the loot. The local currency the Sucre (named after a previous Bolivian general I think) ; the new government switched immediately to the American dollar and the scoundrels were fucked.
However, when you use an American dollar they will give you back in change (they almost always 'didn't have any American dollars)in sucres, the banned currency. No one ever could give exact change and no one wanted the sucres back. They would except it in a pinch (to use on the next sucker 'gringo')but at a discount in goods.
Anyways, Cuenca on the last night there I took out my friends to a nice restaurant and met the owner of the restaurant; in the city of 500,000 2200 metres asove sea level 100 miles form the Pacific coast there wer 6 families that owned the valley (about two miles across, 5 miles long), the city. Four were Spanis, one was French and one was Jewish. They all had thier sectors of town .
When I got the change from my one hudred American dollar bill $83 dollrs and a generous tips-5 people, 5 steaks, wine , beers-I got 17 brand new sucres (they keep it at par with the US$), I mean really new (felt kind of warm) and shiny made out of a cheap tin it seems. I asked him, he told me they six families 'print up thier own sucres', (he said he could show me his 'printer' down in the basement) but try to deal primarily with touristsas they don't want to comptete with the smaller vendors on the street
A beautiful country, didn't seem violent, pretty-my buddy's place he bought for 110K nicest part of town by the river 5 th floor pentouse , well buit, 3 bedroom and $8 dolars a year in tax.
These people in the thirld world are looked down upon, but almost any of them could out think our EBT warriors in their sleep......