GUATEMALAN CLOAKED FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

Created: 6/18/1954

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM RELEASE AS SANITIZED

Jure ly&li

Cloaked Financial Transactions

*

la an analysisomplex and successful Guatemalan transaction lorOGO which verefron Mew lork to Zurich and so cloaked as to arouse no suspicion aaone the US banks iorolTsd.

A continuing watch hu been placed on specific Individual accounts of Guatemalan nationals held in US hanks as well as the Hank of 'Juatenala accounts snd other Guatemalan Banks.

3* An item of consideratlo interest which will bear watching Id that tuo Hibornls National bank of how Or loans has on deposit to the crodlt of the xianeo de ouateaala atine certificateeposit cut.arch In ov.tr words, the Hank of Ouateaala has on deposit In the Hlbernl* national Bankinl Its currentccount. This deposit Is of interuet if only for its also snd the date on which It wassreh ly$ii, the sane tine thatOQQ cloaked dealabOTe took place. Because Itine deposit It cannot be withdrawn without some due notice, custcnarllyays, and we xpect notification of any action to be taken.

3

Chlef,S

s nentioned above

1

I

k

Distribution: Origddressee

I/AN' HQH/CIS

Transfer fromfederal to the Account ol uovtrreoont ol'r.iala on or about iiarch

Transfer to the AccountP.ankweb.

in Thousands

AaovrA in Thousands

U80

300

ISO

..CO

o

National

(New Orleans)

330

The National City Bank han reported no transfers on this

**> Tbe iiank of London and South Aatericaoreign bank which precludes direct access to their records.

o Aran jurchuses

iJuriiy., Ouatemalanusual,ano successful tranaacticn in which aboutwaa transferred out of tlic Hank of Ouatemalan account In the Federal Jin- of Now lork and probably remitted to the account of the Caechoslavakia National Bank in Switzerland.

It was unusual because thenvolved in this transaction alone was about five tlae 'Jie noraal ncnthly foreign exchange sales by

It was complicated in that the transaction was split up and funnelledseven Hew lork banka and one Hew Orleans bank with several sepsrate steps undertaker, in order to allay surp>lcion of any unusual transaction.

It was successful in tiiat tht cloaklm. attwipta succeeded In hiding the trueand nature of Uie tr ansae tion.

. the Bank of Ouateaalahe Federal Reserveof New York to transferO dollars from the

tnk of ustenalu account there to the Bank of uuatorcalavarious Uewnks one one Hew Orleans lisnk vs-.o rive days laterbanks were in

turn instructed to transferccount of tits Union -anque de Suisse iulntalned in ti.oee banks approximately equivalentubsequent report froa SeltBerlana statesin lata February" juateoala transferred Uio equivalent in dollars oiillion Swiss Inrchuatenala informed the Union banque de Milase that ^uatercala had drawn two checks on this snount. Although no such two checks are known to buvo been presented at the Union nanque,h two chocka totallingillion Swiss francs were pressn-.vd< Casohoslovak National Bank (probably the Statnl banka oeafcoslovenska, Tbe Caech Ststa Bank).

Original document.

---

---