Everett Stern - Dark Money and Private Spies: The Everett Stern Story

Copyright 2022 Everett Stern

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Published by Everett Stern

ISBN: 978-1-64704-579-1 (eBook)

ISBN: 978-1-64704-578-4 (paperback)

Dedication

T his book is dedicated to every friend that has supported me through good times and bad. Without every hardship, challenge, success and accomplishment this book would not have been possible. A special thanks to my Angels Janet and Valerie.

Foreword

I am honored to write the foreword for this book about my friend and colleague, Everett Stern. At its core, this is a true -l ife story about how one man challenged an international corporate banking giant that was facilitating the movement of terrorist money around the globe. Everett paid a steep price in his personal and professional life. He then picked up the pieces of his life, worked hard, and formed and successfully developed a private security and intelligence companyone that he currently run s today.

On one level, this is the ultimate American success storya man who builds up his life, takes a principled stand on an important issue, gets knocked down, and then gets back up again and rebuilds his life to even greater levels of success. On a separate level, this is a story of how one person can make a significant difference on an important issue that is facing our country. We have a saying in our line of work: Many are called, few are chosen. Everett heard the call and not only answered it but did so in a singular and impressive fashion. While the US intelligence community was focused on the issue of how international and domestic terrorist groups were moving their money around to fund their terrorist operations after 9/11, we did not fully comprehend the level of complicity that many US and international banks and some of their selected officials had in terrorist money laundering effort. Everett was one of a rare handful of individuals who not only noticed that some of these big banks were wittingly moving funds from designated terrorist individuals and groups but took forceful and aggressive action to stop this illicit behavior, with the ultimate objective of trying to save innocent lives and make our country a safer place. When HSBC refused to change its practices despite Everetts discovery of illegal activity, he made the conscious decision to discreetly provide this information to the pertinent US authorities. In the end, HSBC was fined a record $1.92 billion. However, no officials were held accountableanother intriguing aspect of this storydemonstrating the apparent coziness between elements of the United States government and major banking and financial insti tutions.

I have a deep admiration and respect for Everett and the critical role he played in helping illuminate terrorist money laundering at a major international bank. Not many people on this planet would have the courage, fortitude, intelligence, and strong sense of morals and ethics to do what he did. He has remained true to his core beliefs and sense of justice, integrity, and doing what is right at his position as founder and CEO of his private security and intelligence company, Tactical Rabbit. Everett and Tactical Rabbit take on clients who have been wronged in some way and who need the capabilities and advocacy of his company to right an in justice.

I only wish that this country had more men like Everett who were willing to use their unique skill set to right what is wrong and to take principled, moral, and just stands on the myriad of threats and issues that face us here in the Homeland. I am humbled to call Everett both a personal friend and a professional colleague in this ongoing struggle against all forms of injustice and extremism. Please enjoy this true -l ife story of an unsung Americ an hero.

Bob Dougherty CIA ( Retired)

Contents

M odern -d ay mathematics and physics are defined by the concept of infinity. Even something that is defined by absolute boundaries is infinite. For example, calculus is based on the notion that an object can be divided up an infinite number of times, because you can always divide something in half no matter how small it is. I started thinking about the concept of infinity in relation to the disillusionment that American society faces. I have come to the conclusion that freedom and justice are defined by the facts, not absolutes. Not everyone is free. Justice does not always prevaila fact that has become my greatest mot ivation.

Ill be the first to admit that I thought HSBC Bank being brought to justice was an absolute. Unfortunately, we all know the reality of what happened in that money laundering scandal: the bad guys got away. There was no justice. No dove flew across the courtroom. This result begs the question: If the essence of America, in the form of freedom and justice, are not absolutes, then why should we believe in them?

Our founding fathers created the essence of American freedom and justice because they believed they were worth fighting for. No matter how many HSBC terrorist -f inancing bankers get away, no matter how many times our freedom is infringed upon or the justice system fails us, we must continue fighting for the American absolutes that will, by their very nature, never be absolute. It is the caring, the struggle, and the fight that make us American. Im proud to say that I cared, I struggled, and I fought for justice. Every victory brought an overwhelming sense of humility. Every loss prepared me for the next battle.

I started at HSBC on October 10, 2010. I was a man on a self -d irected mission to bring about justice. There was one problem, though: I had no idea how to do my job as an Anti -M oney Laundering Compliance Officer. But that wasnt going to stop me. All I needed to do was learn everything about how to uncover and track the money flows of terrorists and drug cartelsand my dad had ingrained in me from birth that I could teach myself anything with books. In preparation for my new job at HSBC, and throughout my tenure, I read. I read every morning before walking into work. And, at home, I sat at my little desk in my Delaware apartment and read. Once a day, I would even show my higher -u ps the books so they would see how much I was learning. But their response was less than p ositive.

Just focus on your job. Close more alerts, they would say, consistently blowing me off. It only made me try harder.

I went into this job with purpose and meaning, excited to make a difference. I had the responsibility to ensure terrorists did not launder money through the bank. But my exuberance was met with harsh res istance.

From day one, my direct supervisor hated me. There was zero training, so I chalked it up to her being annoyed with mistakes made by the new guy. I always asked her questions, raised numerous concerns, and wanted to escalate my alerts to Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). But she consistently blew me off and often boasted about how much experience she had as a debt collectorthe person who calls you to collect a debt when you default on your HSBC credit card. HSBC determined that she was the perfect fit to head the financial intelligence unit at the bank. I guess having twenty -f ive years of experience as a debt collector was just what HSBC wantedsomeone whose only real understanding of compliance was getting people to cough up a couple hundred bucks to pay off their couch. I cant fault her for taking the job as the Head of Financial Intelligence for the Correspondent Banking Division for International HSBC Wires; HSBC hired her for the same reason the executives I nicknamed Traitor and Burns hired meneither one of us knew what we wer e doing.