The Man Who Knew Too Much

Clearstream Banking S.A. (CB) is the custody and settlement division of Deutsche Börse, based in Luxembourg.

It was created in January 2000 through the merger of Cedel International and Deutsche Börse Clearing, part of the Deutsche Börse Group, which owns the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Cedel, established in 1971, specialized in clearance and settlement. In 1996 it obtained a bank license. In July 2002 Deutsche Börse purchased the remaining 50% of Clearstream International for €1.6 billion. Deutsche Börse's strategy is to be a vertical securities silo, providing facilities for the front and back ends of securities trading. In 2008 Clearstream contributed €489 million to Deutsche Börse's total Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) of €1.5 billion. It handled 114 million transactions, and was custodian of securities worth €10.6 trillion (Deutsche Boerse Annual Report, 2008).

In Révélation$ (2001), by investigative reporter Denis Robert and ex-Clearstream banker Ernest Backes, Clearstream was accused of being an international platform for money laundering and tax evasion via an illegal system of secret accounts (the "Clearstream Affair"). Robert has been repetitively sued by Clearstream company under Luxembourger and French laws, with various verdicts.

In Spring 2004, a "Second Clearstream Affair" began, which attracted more attention in 2006. Peripheral to the primary Clearstream Affair, it accused several French political figures (including Nicolas Sarkozy), industrial leaders, and members of the secret services of maintaining secret accounts at Clearstream, which allegedly were used to transfer kickbacks in a France–Taiwan frigates scandal. From September 21, 2009 to October 23, 2009, Robert is facing trial together with former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, retired secret service officer Philippe Rondot, former EADS manager Jean-Louis Gergorin, Imad Lahoud and Florian Bourges.

Accusations

In 2001, investigative reporter Denis Robert and Ernest Backes, an executive at Cedel until May 1983, published a book, Revelation$ in which they alleged Clearstream played a major part in the underground economy, was a main platform for money laundering for hundreds of banks, and "operated hundreds of confidential accounts for banks so they could move money undetected," according to Business Week.

Backes and Le Figaro were sued by Clearstream and found guilty of libel on March 29, 2004. Denis Robert was sued for libel and found guilty three times in appeal on 16 October 2008 (Judgment Paris Court of appeal, 2008, Oct 16)for the books Revelation$ and Black Box, as well as the documentary “Les Dissimulateurs” (The Deceivers). The court noted “despite the reality, Denis Robert persisted with his accusations; using insinuations, convenient short-cuts, and careless reasoning. This was evident in his assimilation of unpublished and secret accounts, non publication of accounts and double-entry bookkeeping, deleting data and fraud. Denis Robert was unable to provide sufficient evidence to back up misleading interpretations and thus assimilate unpublished accounts to secret accounts and present the clearing house (Clearstream) as presiding over a structure of dissimulation. He was sentenced to pay €1500 per case.

After the initiation of an investigation in Luxembourg which was closed in November 2004 after no evidence had been found of any wrongdoing (Luxembourg prosecutor's office, Nov. 30, 2004), on suspicion of money laundering, tax evasion, and other fraud, Clearstream's CEO, André Lussi, resigned (See below). This enabled Deutsche Börse to purchase the remaining 50% of Clearstream International in July 2002. According to some, such as Business Week, Lussi had opposed such a takeover.

more>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearstream