Is Money Being Laundered thru Big Hollywood and Big Art

Wow! A "long lost DiVinci painting" has been discovered. Someone is going to "buy" it tonight for over $100,000,000.

Think about it......I mean, REALLY think about it.

She was one of 27,000 people, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Alex Rodriguez, Patti Smith and Jennifer Lopez, who flooded into viewing halls in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and New York for a chance to glimpse the highly anticipated treasure during the past few weeks.

On Wednesday night, someone will get the opportunity to own the painting, the only da Vinci in...

"Savior of the World"

The small piece depicts Jesus raising his right hand in blessing and holding a crystal orb, meant to represent the world, in his left. It’s one of some 16 known surviving paintings — including the “Mona Lisa” — by da Vinci, the master of the Italian Renaissance. The others are scattered throughout the world’s museums.

Billed by the auction house as “The Last da Vinci,” the painting spent centuries in obscurity until it was rediscovered in 2005 and underwent a six-year restoration and verification process.

A spiritual experience?

I wonder if Leonardo DiCaprio will be there to "bid" on it. He gets around, doesn't he? Malaysian Money Scandal

Anyway, money laundering seems to be a big topic right now. Maybe I'm seeing "dots" before my eyes....plus I was thinking about this discussion from 2015: Why Would Someone Pay $180,000,000 For A Single Painting?

Tonight's the Nite!

a reply to: queenofswords

Money laundering?

No.

More money in their pockets than they know what to do with?

Yes.

The shady art scene very well may be a slick vehicle for such activities.

What's a bunch of liberals want with a painting of Jesus anyways?

The film Idiocracy comes to mind. In the future everything will cost a hundred million dollars.

Its called hyperinflation.

a reply to: queenofswords

As to the title, yep. Money is also being laundered through the laundromat and car wash in your neighborhood, the KFC down the street, and pretty much every other place you can imagine.

The only thing that makes an American a criminal, is getting caught.

Don't cha know.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss.

Aren't the Podestas big art "collectors", too?

Actually, I read where the so-called big dollar art collectors are a fairly closed community, exchanging and trading among themselves.

Anyway....I just have to laugh about "the long-lost DiVinci" suddenly being discovered and being valued at well over $100,000,000. So curious about who will purchase it tonight.

originally posted by: queenofswords
Wow! A "long lost DiVinci painting" has been discovered. Someone is going to "buy" it tonight for over $100,000,000.

Think about it......I mean, REALLY think about it.

She was one of 27,000 people, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Alex Rodriguez, Patti Smith and Jennifer Lopez, who flooded into viewing halls in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and New York for a chance to glimpse the highly anticipated treasure during the past few weeks.

On Wednesday night, someone will get the opportunity to own the painting, the only da Vinci in...

"Savior of the World"

The small piece depicts Jesus raising his right hand in blessing and holding a crystal orb, meant to represent the world, in his left. It’s one of some 16 known surviving paintings — including the “Mona Lisa” — by da Vinci, the master of the Italian Renaissance. The others are scattered throughout the world’s museums.

Billed by the auction house as “The Last da Vinci,” the painting spent centuries in obscurity until it was rediscovered in 2005 and underwent a six-year restoration and verification process.

A spiritual experience?

I wonder if Leonardo DiCaprio will be there to "bid" on it. He gets around, doesn't he? Malaysian Money Scandal

Anyway, money laundering seems to be a big topic right now. Maybe I'm seeing "dots" before my eyes....plus I was thinking about this discussion from 2015: Why Would Someone Pay $180,000,000 For A Single Painting?

Tonight's the Nite!

Most certainly. The other area is super luxury real estate in NYC. Foreign buyers paying cash through LLCs and other other legal entities. A lot of the buildings in NYC with these $10-$100 million apartments are practically empty. The "owners" never set foot in them. They use the real estate purchase to get cash out of their countries viewing real estate as a safe asset to hide it. In fact, they recently had to pass some laws to prevent it from happening.

NYC Real Estate a Haven for Money Laundering

Since 2008, roughly 30 percent of condo sales in pricey Manhattan developments have been to buyers who listed an international address—most from China, Russia and Latin America—or bought in the name of a corporate entity, a maneuver often employed by foreign purchasers.

a reply to: queenofswords


Let's not forget "Books"!!! Notice how those in politics when they lose or get banished, they always seem to fall into a multimillion dollar book deal???

Is it a thank you and hush money?

OP watched the new 'get shorty' too?

great series, can't wait for season 2.

I've posted this in a few other threads...

Art in Embassies Program Gave Podestas, Jeff Koons, Rockefellers, Clintons, Marina Abramovic, Rothschilds and Alefantis access to a private shipping channel that could bypass airport security

50 years ago, the museum of Modern Art decided to spread “cultural diplomacy” by establishing a program whereby artworks could be spread around the world through American embassies. This matches similar exchange programs by the UK (GAC) and France (Foundation Pompidou, French-American Foundation). Hillary Clinton wrote an article for Vanity Fair celebrating the 50th anniversary of the program.

Make of it what you will.

Just throwing this in from an above link:

Additionally, DiCaprio has pledged to return any donations to his charitable foundation that are found to be illegally begotten; Low reportedly donated a $700,000 Lichtenstein sculpture at DiCaprio’s 2015 charity auction, and it’s hard to imagine that that was the full extent of his contributions to the foundation.

Hollywood A-listers
Big Art
Foundations

One Big Convoluted Formula for ML.

originally posted by: fiverx313
OP watched the new 'get shorty' too?

great series, can't wait for season 2.

It's great! Shot here in Tamalewood...Olaru12 had a tiny part....love that union scale!!!

If anyone wants to launder some money in any of my film projects, send me a PM and we'll talk.

originally posted by: olaru12
It's great! Shot here in Tamalewood...Olaru12 had a tiny part....love that union scale!!!

If anyone wants to launder some money in any of my film projects, send me a PM and we'll talk.

nice! i ate that show up, very well done. i already loved chris o'dowd, and this was a nice turn for him.

a reply to: introvert

Money laundering?

No.

You absolutely sure about that?

There are superyachts, percentage ownerships in formula one racing teams, and private space ventures used:

Sarawak Report has demonstrated how through these companies stolen 1MDB money was used to fund multi-million dollar payments for the purchase of the Topaz super-yacht attributed to the Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mansour, but used by KAQ and his circle of friends, including Jho Low and Leo di Caprio.
...
Another of the companies set up under KAQ’s Vasco Trust umbrella, managed by BPERE, was the Luxembourg-registered Mondrion, which bought a 25% share in the Italian Formula One racing team Scuderia Torro Rosso (STR) back in 2011.
...
Indeed, one of the biggest loss-making enterprises into which Aabar poured hundreds of millions of dollars was Richard Branson’s Virgin Glactica project, which has collapsed after recent test-flight disasters.

Source

Also related:

Malaysian money is also said to have funded DiCaprio’s pet project ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ having been funneled into its production company, Red Granite Pictures.

But DiCaprio isn’t the only one with a foundation under scrutiny; the Clinton Foundation, used by Hillary and Bill Clinton has long been a target for Republican criticism.

It has taken donations from politically troublesome parties like Saudi Arabia and the private military contractor known as Blackwater (now Academi).

Questions were raised about whether some contributors to the foundation had been given preferential treatment during Clinton’s time as Secretary of State.

Did Leonardo DiCaprio pull out of Hillary Clinton fundraiser

Here is an example of high end art being used to launder money:

According to the air bill slapped on the crate that arrived at Kennedy International Airport from London, an unnamed painting worth $100 was inside. Only later did federal investigators discover that it was by the American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and worth $8 million.

This painting, known as “Hannibal” after a word scribbled on its surface, was brought into the United States in 2007 as part of a Brazilian embezzler’s elaborate effort to launder money, the authorities say. It was later seized at a Manhattan warehouse by federal investigators who are now preparing to return it to Brazil at the behest of law enforcement officials there.

NYT

Another example: Actually, this looks like more detailed (and up to date) version of the story above:

“The art market is an ideal playing ground for money laundering,” said Thomas Christ, a board member of the Basel Institute on Governance, a Swiss nonprofit that has studied the issue. “We have to ask for clear transparency, where you got the money from and where it is going.”
...
In one current money-laundering case, United States authorities have accused Malaysian officials and associates in a civil complaint of converting billions of dollars of embezzled public funds into investments like real estate and art. Masterworks by Basquiat, Rothko, Van Gogh and others were purchased, many at Christie’s, according to a complaint filed by federal prosecutors. Later, a Cayman Island company owned by one of the accused launderers took out a $107 million loan from Sotheby’s in 2014 using some of those artworks as collateral, authorities say.

NYT

I'm also sure there is some private banker named Le Chiffre making it all happen...

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

You're getting it!

(If you are inclined, look at Scorcese and DeNiro's connections as well.)

No wonder DeNiro hates Trump's beacon shining a light on oh so much of the filth, corruption, and theft. (I might take some of this Hollywood stuff to the RATS section.)

originally posted by: queenofswords
a reply to: jadedANDcynical



No wonder DeNiro hates Trump's beacon shining a light on oh so much of the filth, corruption, and theft. (I might take some of this Hollywood stuff to the RATS section.)

That's a great idea! I can't think of a better way to fight filth, corruption and theft!!

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

You can post a few examples of money being laundered through many different avenues. I have not seen any evidence to suggest that it is a widespread problem, enough so to say "Big Hollywood" and "Big Art" is even a "thing".

In fact, your links prove that anything can be used to launder money.

originally posted by: introvert
a reply to: jadedANDcynical

You can post a few examples of money being laundered through many different avenues. I have not seen any evidence to suggest that it is a widespread problem, enough so to say "Big Hollywood" and "Big Art" is even a "thing".

In fact, your links prove that anything can be used to launder money.

It is hard to launder millions and tens of millions of dollars. It is very difficult to funnel that kind of money through a car wash or strip club. It is easier to do so through big ticket investments like hollywood films, art, real estate, etc. I don't think anyone is saying you can't money launder through other means, but a lot of people would be surprised at how much flows through innocuous industries like Hollywood.

originally posted by: introvert
a reply to: jadedANDcynical

You can post a few examples of money being laundered through many different avenues. I have not seen any evidence to suggest that it is a widespread problem, enough so to say "Big Hollywood" and "Big Art" is even a "thing".

In fact, your links prove that anything can be used to launder money.

Actually money laundering through art is quite wide spread. Just Google it....there have been books written about it, CNN has reported on it in China, etc...it works because there is no specific dollar value that can be placed on the art....its all about what someone will either pay for it or what the owner says it's worth.

And yes, I am one that thinks Tony Podesta has been doing this for a while.