Worst Bank Scenario – Video (English)
The Biggest Secret Worldwide Bank Fraud Revealed
Colluding to commit global collateral fraud
Since 2014, Dutch lawyer and whistleblower Hester Bais has been urging authorities to halt the massive international bank fraud in OTC derivatives and collateral shell games. As a result of their shenanigans, banks ended up under water on collateral to the tune of €200 billion in the Netherlands, €400 billion in Germany, €320 billion in France, €300 billion in the United Kingdom—and trillions of euros globally. Hester consistently reports her findings to authorities in the Netherlands and beyond, including the SEC (since 2018) and CFTC (since 2023).
In delving into this racket, Hester discovered an international, pre-crisis blueprint that, since 2007, has been rolled out by the likes of central banks, investment banks and asset managers such as Goldman Sachs, ING and BlackRock. After the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008, the G20 declared the start of a new multipolar “Bretton Woods 2.0”. Trillions of dollars in collateral have already been surreptitiously reused and centralized worldwide to mask the weakness of the banks. This centralization of collateral is the foundation for a new financial system based on distributed ledger technology, where, starting in 2024, leading currencies and crypto assets can be traded.
Sadly, the massive costs of today’s dysfunctional financial system will be largely passed on to the next generation. The story of Hester Bais has been chronicled by Wink Sabée.
Table of contents
Prologue 11
Introduction 20
OUR MOTIVES
Hester’s motives for writing this book 35
Wink’s motives for writing this book 39
PART 1 – BANKS AND THEIR SALES PRACTICES
Scene 1: Unexpected visit from the bank 45
Unjustified interest rate hikes 51
Hester’s memos: How it all got started 61
Milking Dutch business dry 67
Scene 2: And the farmer plowed on 72
An easy prey to outwit 78
Hester’s memos: ING summons 84
Scene 3: A day in the life of Theo Kocken 89
Cardano: a zero-sum game 99
Hester’s memos: Hester suspects fraud 108
PART 2 – THE YEARS PRECEDING THE CREDIT CRISIS AND THE CREATION OF INTERNATIONAL BANKING MODEL 2.0
Deregulation in the US, Europe follows suit 113
Banking Model 2.0: the business model until the credit crisis arrived 124
The risks of Banking Model 2.0 127
Balance sheet offsets and the collateral shell game 132
The role of securitization 137
The rise of CCPs 143
Stricter accounting rules 145
The “Secret” bank that runs the world 149
The end approaches 155
The eve of the credit crisis 157
PART 3 – TOWARD A NEW INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MODEL: BANKING MODEL 3.0
Introduction 165
Bretton Woods 2.0 168
Euro Summit encourages joint economic policies 171
Recommendations of the de Larosière Group turned out to be nothing but window dressing 174
Banking Model 3.0: pimping collateral 179
The repo market: the grease that keeps Banking Model 3.0 running 182
Commonalities shared by Banking Model 2.0 and Banking Model 3.0 186
PART 4 – WORST BANK SCENARIO: THE GREAT BANK FRAUD
Introduction 191
Hester’s memos 2012–2014: Removal of margin accounts 205
Digital Pandora’s Boxes 210
Hester’s memos 2014: Joining forces 214
The smoking gun: The illegally passed Royal Decree 222
Hester’s memos 2015 – Part 1: Zembla and margin monitoring requirements 231
The gap in SNS/Reaal’s balance sheet 238
Hester’s memos 2015 – Part 2: Victory in court and AFM hires Cardano 248
The secret pension fund CCPs 253
Hester’s memos 2016: AFM report misused 259
ING moves collateral management to Bank Mendes Gans 267
Discovery of major balance sheet restatements at ING 277
The core of the fraud 287
PART 5 – HESTER’S MEMOS 2017-2021
Hester’s memos 2017: E-mails regarding the “free perk” 293
Hester’s memos 2018 – Part 1: Merel van Vroonhoven reappointed as AFM Chair 297
Hester’s memos 2018 – Part 2: SEC Notification and ING’s “Houston settlement” with Dutch public prosecutors 303
Hester’s memos 2018/2019: Danske Bank and Arthur Docters van Leeuwen 307
Hester’s memos 2019: Merel van Vroonhoven leaves the AFM 317
Hester’s memos 2020: Ignoring the courts’ determinations of contractual misrepresentation 327
Hester’s memos 2021–2022: Rosenmöller the Fixer 339
PART 6 – THE WORLD’S POWER BROKERS
European monetary integration and the introduction of the euro 345
How liquidity shortfalls lead to higher government debts 348
The call for EU-Bonds and Draghi’s discount window 350
EU-Bonds: a fresh source of liquidity! 354
The European Stability Mechanism 356
The Capital Markets Union (CMU) 358
Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) 361
A broken market mechanism and the European debt union 363
Unelected accountants 366
Trust, they say, is hard-earned and easily lost 368
Conclusions 371
Epilogue 376
Acknowledgments 378
Glossary 385
List of Resources 391
APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Letter from EY to the IASB 397
Appendix 2: ING Group Annual Report 2007 407
Appendix 3: Modification of contracts and conditions at Rabobank, ING and ABN AMRO 409
Appendix 4: DNB’s refusal to provide text of risk notice 416