'The Mechanism'.. The self-perpetuating FRACTAL financial process which enriches the corrupt.

Hey ATS,

This thread is written in response to myself having viewed the first season of a Brazilian drama describing high financial crimes which enriched the political elite of Brazil, both in corporations & in politics, a system which filters down to every arena of corruption known to man in modern society, all of which was eventually outed after more than eleven years of investigation & countless setbacks (due to corrupt officials preventing the forward momentum of that investigation - sacking officers unjustly, having people thrown off the case, launching investigations by internal affairs, refusing to issue several classes of warrant to procure evidence, sending the case to the supreme court where corrupt judges threw it out, and more). In the end, what was revealed was more than a simple case of corruption - what was revealed was a fractal pattern, a method of operating in a corrupt manner which could be scaled up or down almost infinitely, to accommodate whatever level of theft was occurring.

Ultimately, this Mechanism refers to a means of transferring wealth, initially in the form of public funds for nation-level infrastructure projects, into private pockets, via a cartelised set of operations perpetuated by a number of massive corporate engineering contractors. The way this was done was genius really, for its time (I guess it's been going on in some way since the seventies, in its existing form), though in sophisticated nations (I'm including Brazil in that count now that they exposed the Mechanism through their legal system in 2014) it is no longer possible for corrupt elements to operate so brazenly. That's why the Mechanism has been 'off-shored' to nations such as (drum roll please......) - Ukraine! Where, as you will know, President 'Big Guy' Biden & his warped son have established.. Hmm.. Several layers of financial chicanery, with which they are undoubtedly enriching themselves as we speak.

The Mechanism itself is rather simple when you get past the layers of obfuscation which intentionally make it difficult to perceive. It is hidden behind currency dealers, nested shell corporations, fake consulting firms, politically-appointed boards who allocate contracts, etc. It works like this:

1. Politicians appoint boards to launch contract tenders on behalf of a major publically-owned corporation. In Brazil's case, the company was 'Petrobrasil', a massive multifaceted organisation with fingers in many pies, including obviously petrochemical works & construction mega-projects for public infrastructure. Those boards set out the needs for each project, and the interested parties would put forward their bids.

2. The bids would come from a cartel of 13 massive engineering corporations. In reality only one bid would actually be genuine - they would have decided amongst themselves who would take on the project, that one would put forward a massively inflated bid, and the other twelve organisations would put forward equally inflated bids, all a bit lower than the one who had been decided ahead of time as 'the winner'. In reality it could be any number of companies involved, as long as they all operate in a cartelised manner, as described. Petrobrasil would of course be willing to charge vastly over the odds for the contracts, so that at every level the prices are inflated.

3. The funds were allocated to an account for processing all costs related to the project. A large subset of those funds then headed to a currency dealer, who would put forward payments to shell corporations disguised as consulting firms offering consulting services for the project. Naturally, those consulting fees would be massively inflated, and those funds would then be swapped around through various accounts using stooges to disguise who is actually controlling the money flow, until that money is sufficiently disguised that almost nobody would be able to tell where it had come from.

4. The over-inflated costs of the project per the bid from the contractor, which were duly paid by 'Petrobrasil', would then be paid back, under the table as bribes (through the network of shell companies to an overseas account, in places such as Switzerland or Liechtenstein) to the politicians (account in their own name) who were in charge of appointing the boards that regulate which Petrobrasil projects are allocated to which contractors.

This system is self-perpetuating - everyone who wants to play, can join in, as long as they're willing to be utterly corrupt, and never to snitch on anyone else involved in the rigged game. The system is so effective that at every socio-economic layer beneath the political elite, similar schemes are copied, orchestrated & operated in almost exactly the same manner, time & again, in nations all around the world. From the CEO of Petrobrasil (Pfizer?) & even the President/ Vice President/ Attorney General of Brazil, all the way down to the sewage repair team who operate 'cash in hand' so that the state-owned wastewater contractor doesn't have to waste resources coming to repair faults in the sewage network, yet can still take a cut from the outside company (a man & van team) that takes on the job instead of them. This example was used as a device within the writing of the show to emphasise the fractal nature of the system represented by 'the Mechanism' which was being utilised by the political & corporate elite of the nation state.

This Mechanism as described can be adapted to any industry, and I'm 100% confident that it is occurring in Ukraine at present with ties right back to the Biden family - but they will never 'do time', because all justice system agents who would have been involved in resolving a case of corruption of such magnitude, are all themselves bought & paid for agents of the Mechanism also. We can't objectively prove that with any ease, but the very fact that the Biden father & son team are still free agents involved in running the most powerful nation in the world largely implies that indeed it is true, all the pivot points in the justice system are involved at some level. They might not even receive their rewards while they are in their official role in the justice system, but rather they have accounts waiting to be activated when they retire & 'fortuitously' are asked to become board members & shareholders in pre-existing Mechanism corporations.

I believe that the brutal police activity in Australia in response to the 'Pandemic' was arranged through use of a similar 'promise to pay', which enabled all corruptible officers to be swayed by the promise of shareholder status in Mechanism corporations after they retire from the police, so as to encourage them to project brutal violence & persecution against their fellow Australian citizens - whereas any reasonable, non-corrupt officer would never consent to be involved in that behaviour. And that's the other incredible feature of the Mechanism - anyone who refuses to go along with the corruption is automatically ousted by being voted out, suspended for 'corruption' (setup), blackballed, never working in their chosen field ever again, whether that be politics, justice, engineering, etc.

One example in the UK of a project where the costs/bids have been massively over-inflated, where everyone is getting rich but nothing is getting done, where it is wildly over-budget & set to get worse, a useless project in itself? HS2 rail link - look it up!

Cheers.



FITO.

It's the same playbook used in Chicago for decades.

And Detroit.

And New York.

And Baltimore.

And...

originally posted by: Moon68
It's the same playbook used in Chicago for decades.

And Detroit.

And New York.

And Baltimore.

And...

and everywhere....Big town or small municipalizes, anyplace that gets govt. grants to create or maintain infrastructure.

It's not that hard to qualify to become a govt. contractor and bid on all sorts of contracts.

My stepfather had a contract to supply fuel to a military base and the research facility associated with the base. He was just a middle man between the govt procurement agency and oil companies. He made millions!! Capitalism/The Mechanism... fertile ground for corruption, nepotism, fraud, kickbacks, etc.

www.sba.gov...

originally posted by: olaru12

originally posted by: Moon68
It's the same playbook used in Chicago for decades.

And Detroit.

And New York.

And Baltimore.

And...

and everywhere....Big town or small municipalizes, anyplace that gets govt. grants to create or maintain infrastructure.

It's not that hard to qualify to become a govt. contractor and bid on all sorts of contracts.

My stepfather had a contract to supply fuel to a military base and the research facility associated with the base. He was just a middle man between the govt procurement agency and oil companies. He made millions!! Capitalism/The Mechanism... fertile ground for corruption, nepotism, fraud, kickbacks, etc.

www.sba.gov...

I'll give you big for this.

Just please don't confuse Free Market Capitalism with Crony Capitalism. They are 2 completely different entities and are incompatible with each other.

a reply to: Moon68

I agree, it's replicated all over the world, it's hard to know where it was first practiced, but whomever claims that particular ignoble 'honour', the TV show 'The Mechanism' which focused on the manifestation in Brazil, was the first time I saw it laid out in absolute detail, every phase of the process.

The reason it hasn't been widely exposed, I believe, is the artificial layering & cross-linking of shell corporations, hidden behind walls erected by lawyers & accountants employed by the various participants. I think if we break it down to its four basic components, as per the OP, as divulged by the producers of the show (& their forebears, the criminal justice professionals in Brazil), then the people would see it for what it actually is - it's a very simple con game, a rigged process which uplifts those willing to join in with the corruption, and pushes out all those who would rather buck the trend & stay honest.

Is there any way that we can perpetuate a knowledge of this system as it relates to the people & groups that make up the corrupt institutions in each nation in the developed world? Probably not - at least, not quickly - but if we find more ways to represent the FRACTAL PATTERN which is represented by the con game, in our creative works, as was done with 'The Mechanism' TV production in Brazil, then more of the common people get wise as regards to what is happening, and potentially those people then begin to demand that certain avenues are checked out when a corruption scandal suddenly blows up near them. Otherwise, what happens is what happened in Brazil for the first eleven years of the investigation - the investigators only catch small fry, and the small fry are protected, released without charge, or take plea deals in which they give up no real information on the real participants of the scam - because they're carrying the can for the financial elite. As a result, all the corrupt actors in the criminal justice system run interference against the investigators who cannot themselves be corrupted, until the corrupt ones find ways to push those investigators out of the investigation, or better still, under a bus!

As noted, this TV show did a fantastic job of elucidating the scam to someone (myself) who has zero aptitude for financial chicanery involving shell corporations, tenders, bids, caretlised operations, and so on. Until I watched this, I only understood bits & pieces around the peripheral of these concepts, but the TV show really opened my eyes. In this way, it is proven that art, when done properly & in good conscience, can shed significant light onto the darkened places where all the dodgy dealing is carried out. I now feel capable of understanding far better when I see these sorts of things.

As mentioned in the UK we have the HS2 rail link project - a totally unnecessary project, from a practical perspective. I believe these sorts of projects are set up entirely for the purpose of transferring public funds into the hands of private individuals & engineering (etc) corporations, lawyers & consulting firms, banks & financiers.

I think that the HS2 project could feasibly be termed a 'financial crimes MacGuffin' - a project devised entirely to skim money from the public purse into the private purses of corrupt individuals in a number of related fields. A MacGuffin is a device typically found in literature or the dramatic arts which is used to tie together the motivations of plot & characters, yet which in itself has no intrinsic value. It is typically defined as follows:

A MacGuffin is something that an entire story is built around and yet has no real relevance.
The pregnancy is kind of a MacGuffin: it motivates her to realize her feelings for the man who fathered the child.
The characters' literary obsession is ultimately a MacGuffin, since it's not what they do as a profession, but what they do with their lives, that the film is interested in.
A MacGuffin's importance is usually debunked or forgotten as the story unfolds.

SOURCE

MacGuffin - a great term, memorable, easy to yell at a council meeting or similar in protest at what is being done with public funds. MacGuffins, combined with scams based upon 'The Mechanism' FRACTAL pattern of malfeasance, are the preferred tools of the trade for corrupt politicians & corporations.

I believe we should be endeavouring to investigate more such scams - or at least to recognise when they are being covered up by those who are in pivotal roles within the fields of justice who are clearly influencing the investigation at pivotal points, by particular people in a position to directly influence the investigation &/or prosecution of a particular case. We all know that there are corrupt people in politics & corporate life, but we need to become more adept at spotting those who support them by acting as critical infrastructure pivots & supports within the larger conspiracy. Corrupt judges, prosecutors, police chiefs, even attorney generals - and so on. They take actions which seem illogical when viewed in the context of 'wanting to catch the criminals' - but this illogic is only real if one assumes they are acting honestly. If they are members of a Mechanism conspiracy, their actions are perfectly logical.

Cheers.


FITO.

originally posted by: Moon68

originally posted by: olaru12

originally posted by: Moon68
It's the same playbook used in Chicago for decades.

And Detroit.

And New York.

And Baltimore.

And...

and everywhere....Big town or small municipalizes, anyplace that gets govt. grants to create or maintain infrastructure.

It's not that hard to qualify to become a govt. contractor and bid on all sorts of contracts.

My stepfather had a contract to supply fuel to a military base and the research facility associated with the base. He was just a middle man between the govt procurement agency and oil companies. He made millions!! Capitalism/The Mechanism... fertile ground for corruption, nepotism, fraud, kickbacks, etc.

www.sba.gov...

I'll give you big

for this.

Just please don't confuse Free Market Capitalism with Crony Capitalism. They are 2 completely different entities and are incompatible with each other.

TY....I'm familiar with both "mechanisms" as a mfg, wholesale, retail establishment owner for the free mkt. and an above the line AD in the film industry...total crony in that it actually is "who you know"! Getting to know the Big Dogs has taken me years even with a degree. Now....livin the dream in both possible worlds.

What a long strange trip it's been!

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

I'd say it at least goes back to 1135 with the first papal monetary donation to the Order of the Knights Templar which established the first official line of credit banking system. Up to that point usury was strictly against church doctrine but this donation and blessing for the operation in addition to the Omne Datum Optimum, excluding the Order from laws other than those of the papacy itself including business ventures, laid the groundwork for the fractal patterns you are looking for.

The Gateway bridge in Brisbane was the first toll road there about 20 years ago. At the time the toll was introduced it was proclaimed that this toll would pay off the bridge in 5-10 years. That never happened and by intentional design from some reports. Now toll roads are all over the place, the south east coast of Australia is full of them, all automated camera tracking technology. The Macquarie bank is one in this mix making millions / billions, who really knows?

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

so that's why they also call it "currency"
thank you!