Word: shells
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...crafty old politician can feel it in his bones. You see, if Tip did debate Frank McNamara, perhaps the predominately conservative Democrats of the district would realize that tired Tip still represents the machine-style politics of the old Democratic Party. Tip's political style is to play shell games with the money of society's productive members and pay for the exercise through inflation...
...money borrowed on international financial markets by Ambrosiano and its subsidiaries, in an attempt to strengthen his grip on the parent bank. During 1978-79 and in 1981, Ambrosiano and its subsidiaries raised about $1.2 billion. In these years the banks lent at least $800 million to low-capitalized shell companies in Panama, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. The shell companies, in turn, used about $400 million to buy stock in Banco Ambrosiano and other securities. All or part of yet another $400 million appears to have been funneled through these same companies to finance South American deals. By June...
...sentence this summer, Calvi continued to try to make new deals and extricate himself from the hole he had dug. Barely a month after his conviction, in fact, he asked the I.O.R.'s aid as he sought ways to help pay off the outstanding loans made by his shell companies. Though he had been convicted of a financial crime, Calvi was still made welcome at the Vatican bank and other banks. Marcinkus' defense is that he was newly reconfirmed as president of Banco Ambrosiano, and the bank's balance sheet was approved...
...I.O.R. supplied Calvi with "letters of patronage" (called comfort letters by bankers), documents stating that the shell companies were controlled, either directly or indirectly, by the I.O.R. By issuing such letters, the Vatican bank was in effect vouching for Calvi's creditworthiness. The letters do not legally obligate the Vatican bank to pay off debts of the companies in question. But the letters do, according to some banking officials, imply a moral obligation. Marcinkus did not sign the letters, but he has taken full responsibility for them...
...letters of patronage were issued. The liberating letter in effect negates the letters of patronage and relieves the Vatican bank of any responsibility for the companies in question. Yet this letter was never made known to the Ambrosiano Latin American banks that lent money to Calvi's shell firms. The liberating letter thus gives the arrangement between Calvi and the I.O.R. the appearance of a conspiracy to withhold essential information from the lending banks. The various letters suggest that Marcinkus allowed the Vatican's name to be used in a questionable way in order to influence the bankers...