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From a West Virginia hilltop to Hong Kong, investigators follow secret money ...

25.05.13

Levin said the bank cooperated with the investigation and has implemented important changes -- such as increasing its number of compliance officers to 1,000 from 200 -- but added that it will need to continue making significant changes in addition... From a West Virginia hilltop to Hong Kong, investigators follow secret money [The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] By Andrew Conte, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. (c)2012 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa. ). Visit The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa. ) at www. A Senate committee plans to announce on Tuesday at hearings in Washington that the bank's lax controls created the potential for criminals to move money easily around the world, thwarting U. S. banking laws and exposing gaping holes in the... McClatchy-Tribune Information Services July 17--VIENNA, W. Va. -- The trail to Dr. Barton Adams' money ran from the wooded, dead-end street where he used to live above this Ohio River town to the British Virgin Islands, the Philippines and... "Some international banks have abused their access to our banking system," Levin said. , and opened Hong Kong bank accounts at HSBC and another bank in the company's name. A Tribune-Review investigation found that as much as half the world's economy flows through some 70 international jurisdictions that act as black holes, offering those who put their money there extensive privacy, tight security and low or no taxes. "It's become a massive international web, and what facilitates the existence of that massive international web is the international financial system," Lowe said. Top HSBC executives -- including Irene Dorner, president and CEO of its U. S. affiliate, HSBC Bank USA -- are scheduled to testify at the hearing. While Senate investigators tracked HSBC accounts to distant places such as Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh, federal prosecutors separately have linked the bank to Vienna and Brentwood Heights Street, where mostly two-story homes are cut into the top... The yearlong Senate investigation uncovered truckloads of cash worth $7 billion a year being brought across the Mexican border into the United States, incidents of Russians running $290 million in travelers checks through a Japanese bank and 2,000... Shutting down the flow of illegal banking would flush out tax cheats and break international crime syndicates and terror groups, said Heather Lowe, legal counsel at Global Financial Integrity, a Washington nonprofit that tracks hidden money. They charged his wife with opening accounts at HSBC in Hong Kong, one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations, in an attempt to launder $3. While the Senate report and hearing will focus on HSBC, weak monitoring by multinational banks in general allows criminals to move money at will, Sen. When criminals in the United States cannot deposit large amounts of money in this country without drawing law enforcement attention, they smuggle the illicit proceeds to other countries for deposit there, Levin said. The Senate investigation focused on HSBC Bank USA, with 470 branches and 4 million customers. As investigators looked at Adams' medical practice, they said his wife, Josephine, set up a shell corporation in the British Virgin Islands, called Keyfield Ltd. "Absolutely, criminals here are laundering their money in this way, and other ways as well," Levin said. That the investigations of HSBC stretch from rural America to banking centers in the Caribbean and Asia underscores the pervasive reach of the shadow economy, experts say. Prosecutors filed last week to dismiss obstruction charges against Adams but said they would proceed with his fraud trial scheduled to start in November. "We will apologize, acknowledge these mistakes, answer for our actions and give our absolute commitment to fixing what went wrong," the bank said in a statement. Prosecutors claim Adams set up a pain management clinic in Vienna and bilked millions from federal Medicare and Medicaid programs and private insurers by seeking duplicate payments, billing for ultrasound screenings and pain control injections... The Senate report faults regulators in the U. S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for not taking enforcement action against the bank for six years and for not doing enough once it acted. Other times, HSBC's foreign banks evaded U. S. safeguards by making 25,000 transactions worth $19. Adams, a doctor of osteopathy, has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering, and is expected to go to trial this fall. The Adams family, however, seemed different, said Julie Gyongyosi, 54, who lives next to the house the family once rented. Adams' wife and children rarely went outside the brown-brick home, and he had a habit of driving into his garage and shutting the door even before getting out, she said. On the day she was convicted, Ihlenfeld said in a statement that Josephine Adams had enjoyed a "luxurious lifestyle" at the expense of taxpayers. HSBC, headquartered in London and named after founding member, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. , chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said Monday. Accounts registered in secrecy jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands can hide their true ownership, investigators reported. Adams pleaded not guilty and maintains his innocence, said his lawyer Stephen Herndon. Investigators took a closer look at HSBC, too.

Source: Equities.com

Pittsburgh stars in First Sight game app [The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]

25.05.13

Pittsburgh stars in First Sight game app [The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] By Kim Leonard, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. (c)2012 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa. ). Visit The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa. ) at www. Images at the easiest levels have dashes underneath to identify the number of letters in the answer -- similar to "Wheel of Fortune. McClatchy-Tribune Information Services July 24--For three months, Jason Shurgot and Joe Blasko have devoted much of their free time to a self-taught crash course on how to develop a mobile phone app. Nights and weekends have been spent working on First Sight, the picture puzzle game with a Pittsburgh theme the two best friends since high school are turning into a downloadable app, or application, for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices. "We want our whole entire initial data base of images to be Pittsburgh so the world sees how beautiful it is," said Shurgot, a consultant with information technology company SDLC Partners LLC. Shurgot and Blasko created a company called Cazooie LLC to take their game idea from sticky notes to an app that can be played for free or purchased for 99 cents. Then, advertisements can appear along the bottom of the game screen, generating about a penny for Cazooie every time a player clicks on the ad, Shurgot said. Many of the photos on the game are familiar Pittsburgh scenes, such as the obelisk at PPG Place, Downtown. In the upper levels, "Eventually, it's just the picture with no dashes and the pictures become more specific -- instead of 'dog,' the answer might be 'Pomeranian,' " said Blasko, 30, of North Huntingdon, a structural engineer with Orbital... "This is something I've always wanted to do. We've always wanted to be in business together and create something," said Shurgot, 28, of White Oak. Maybe, but Shurgot and Blasko said their goal is to create a community of users who play the game and share photos. " Puzzles are tougher to solve in the upper tiers of the six-level game, and Shurgot and Blasko have added features such as a lose-a-turn "curtain" for the screen to help defeat an opponent. The Cazooie partners said they invested $15,000 to have the concept codified into a game suitable to run on mobile devices. Shurgot came up with a basic version of the game on paper in April, to help his three young nephews learn vocabulary skills. Players will be able to submit their own photos, for consideration as additional puzzles on First Sight. Starting with a photo that's nearly covered with squares of paper, two or more players take turns peeling away the squares. Players can buy or win "tickets" to trade for defensive cheats to help them win. By September, the plan is to have First Sight available for distribution on the Apple App Store and Google Play. First Sight nears its debut at a time when smartphones and other mobile devices are the fastest-growing segment of the consumer electronics industry. Friends and family members have been testing the game in a beta (test) version, but it's scheduled for a wider release online on Aug. The first player to identify what's in the photo wins. The paid version takes a player to higher skill levels. The Cazooie partners have been promoting the game on a website and Facebook, and have mailed out T-shirts to early fans. More importantly, when Cazooie is searched in Google or other search engines, little else pops up that is similar. Simple game apps can lead to big things. "It's a fun-sounding name," Blasko said.

Source: Equities.com