Cartoon

Internal Combustion

Written by SK Ashby

(Cartoonist - John Cole)

In other news, Trump is threatening to veto a government spending bill and shut down the government if he doesn't get funding for his fantasy border wall next week.

Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs reportedly told Congress that they will not repay veterans who did not receive full GI Bill benefits because of technical problems.

Finally, German authorities have raided Deutsche Bank's headquarters in Frankfurt in connection with a money laundering investigation.

While money-laundering suspicions stem from the 2016 disclosures known as the Panama Papers, the investigation covers the five-year period from 2013 to 2018, a spokeswoman for Frankfurt prosecutors said. The main suspects in the probe, focused on a unit in the British Virgin Islands that processed 311 million euros ($354 million) in 2016 alone, were two bank employees identified by their ages -- 50 and 46. One works in the anti-financial crime office. [...]

The officials said the Thursday raid wasn’t related to its role as a correspondent bank for money laundering at Denmark’s Danske Bank. Authorities seized documents and electronic files after more than six police vehicles, blue lights flashing, pulled up to Deutsche Bank’s main offices shortly before 9 a.m., in an operation involving about 170 officers. The home of one of the suspects was also searched.

The German lender may have helped clients in setting up offshore companies in tax havens. Money obtained illegally may have been transferred to accounts at Deutsche Bank, which failed to report the suspicions that the accounts may have been used to launder money, Frankfurt prosecutors said.

A brief reminder that Trump owes hundreds of millions of dollars to Deutsche Bank. Trump has been doing business with Deutsche Bank because no American banks would touch him after multiple bankruptcies.