CHICAGO, Il—Although the 9/11 Commission and Federal Bureau of Investigation claimed they thoroughly investigated suspicious “put options” placed against the shares of United and American Airlines, as well as Swiss Re and Munich Re prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, they failed to investigate another set of suspicious financial transactions prior to 9/11.
According to Chicago financial sources, there were major cash transfers from the Extended Custodial Inventory Program, which involves Federal Reserve cash stored in private bank vaults, to other Federal Reserve branches and private banks prior to 9/11. Official internal Fed reports about the surge in cash transfers, which are so rare that there was only one other similar case just after the end of World War II, went ignored by Fed and Bush administration officials.
Specific pre-9/11 cash movements involving one billion dollars originated at the New York Fed and were received by the Miami branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. One of the private banks that received the Fed cash was Riggs Bank’s Miami branch. At the time of the transfer, the president and CEO of Riggs was Jonathan Bush, the uncle of President George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush. In 2004, Riggs paid a record $25 million fine for laundering money through accounts held by Saudi Arabia.
Federal Reserve officials ignored the billion dollar transfer to Florida. Some Fed sources said that the money may have been required to deal with a banking crisis in Argentina but they are skeptical.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
