The global arrests of seemingly disparate individuals and international probes of banking corporations have been adding up over the last two weeks to show a more common thread.

Deutsche Bank and Danske Bank have been at the center of these financial probes with investigators seizing hordes of documents.

A global money laundering operation appears to be investigators’ focus. Illegal dealing with Iran and Russia outfits — despite sanctions existing to bar the banks from doing business with these rogue actors — is the initial reason for these probes.

Now it appears the individuals on the other side of the dealings are very well-known American and European billionaires working at the urging of once powerful political leaders from the EU and US.

We will have to wait until Dec. 13 for US Attorney John Huber’s congressional update of his Clinton Foundation investigation. His testimony was pushed back due to the funeral of ex-president George HW Bush.

On Wednesday Sabrina Meng, CFO and daughter of the founder of Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, was arrested in Vancouver at the urging of the US Justice Department. The feds allege Huawei was dealing with Iran violating the sanctions.

That’s the initial charges, but it probably goes much deeper.

We also have Saudi leader Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s troubles appear to be wrapped up in this global financial upheaval. Whether he gave the order to kill Jamal Khashoggi as the initial charges have been made, will probably never be prosecuted and if charged will not be prosecuted.



Look at the fear and loathing in the stock market. The Dow plunges 800 points on Tuesday and appears to be looking at shedding another 500 points on Thursday’s open.

I am not buying the China tariff war as the culprit for this sell off. It appears that large selling by institutional investors, which cater to moneyed individuals. There appears to be a great need to be liquid at this time. The economic numbers being put out by the feds do not warrant a fear or panic in the market.

With great change, comes some pain and we may be at the beginning of something huge about to break.