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| Oblique 1970s crime allusion |
" Gee, now I learned something. See, I had just assumed that the more someone pays for something, the more money it's worth. You know, I had two old cars, and one of them, the one I drive, it still runs, but darn if I can get someone to offer me anything for it. But my BMW 3.0 convertible, the one with the cracked windshield, missing the timing belt, and needing new plugs, I got offered a lot of money for that - more than $30 grand. So... Interpol... by your logic, there must be some criminal enterprise behind the BMW market... That's terrific. Thanks so much for that. "
This week, ("If used computer exports are outlawed") we examined the
simple and obvious inspection and purchase of used electronics (using our
Ghana buyer Wahab as an example), through the lens of Interpol's description of "
waste tourists" and "
organized crime."
The 2009 Interpol report,
Electronic Waste and Organized Crime, Assessing the Links (excerpt) teaches us that the more Wahab pays for the item, the more likely he's a criminal.
"Televisions
and monitors, for instance, can be bought for £2-£3 each and sold on
for twice that. ... This suggests a combination of premeditation and
organisation, as well as indicating the perpetrators’ awareness that the
waste shipment is illegal (i.e.organized criminal activity)"
Even the respected journal
E-Scrap News re-broadcast the Europol headline that the E-waste market is being cornered by criminals.
Meanwhile, this week's biggest news is the indictment of Executive Recycling Inc., Brandon Richter, and Tor Olson.
You hear the hum of regulators on motorcycles. Finally! Someone is going to arrest someone, and once and for all, set an example for "ewaste exporters"...
You will remember Executive Recycling from the
CBS 60 Minutes episode, Wasteland. That episode did a superb job of covering
one side of the story... they got a Polk Award for following the trail of ewaste to a place it didn't go, but finding another atrocious toxic mess, which maybe might have originated from another recycler, similar to Executive Recycling. How does this USA grand jury indictment compare to the Interpol's
new world order and "
criminalization of value?"
The USA grand jury indictment of Executive Recycling covers more than 15 counts. Those include fraud and generally misleading business practices. But there are also elements of the indictment which look disturbingly like the Interpol report... as if they are trying to come up with a crime proportional to the journalistic backlash. From the Executive Recycling indictment:
4. A significant portion of e-waste collected by the defendants ER, BRANDON RICHTER and TOR OLSON were Cathode Ray Tubes (“CRTs”). CRTs are the glass video display component of an electronic device, usually a computer or television monitor, and are known to contain lead.
Yes, the CRT tube has vitrified lead. My kids are watching
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on one, in my living room. There is no reference anywhere in the indictment as to whether the monitors ER sold were for scrap or refurbishment. I would
assume from the
photos taken inside of Executive Recycling containers that a lot of the tube glass could definitely NOT be reused. But the monitors circled by CBS in Hong Kong were probably going to a reuse factory. The indictment above seems to brush aside the nuisance of determining whether the CRTs were waste or remanufactured.
What is missing in the indictment is an allegation that ER is missing the 3 years of data showing the actual fate of every CRT sold, as required by EPA CRT rule. It is not illegal to sell commodities based on their metal content. If dictators start seizing any imports that contain lead, a whole lotta laptops and cell phones are going off line. and China may stop the import of cars from GM. An indictment that says "CRTs contain lead" is not clarifying.
The indictment includes references to a
wire transfer of $29, 982 from the Bank of China on behalf of Heng Tong Trading Company (also evidence of crime). That means ER sent
something of value in the containers - Copper coils?... Cigarettes? Drugs? Cash? Harley Davidsons? SOMETHING had value. Perhaps it was a "mixed bag". Perhaps more of the CRTs were working than we thought, or perhaps ER shipped so many containers that this is a trifling amount, and most of the contents was waste. Again,
record keeping is the moral of the story. The ominous mention of payment as evidence of "waste" transit is disturbingly like the Interpol NWO paper.
None of the detectives we are watching - EPA, Interpol, BAN - have really done their job if they insinuate that the TRADE itself and PAYMENT for goods is evidence of the crime. The Interpol report describes (in passive voice) how Chinese fishermen are involved in ferrying "waste" onto the mainland. Did the poor Chinese fishermen form a coop to pony up $29k as a favor to Executive Recycling?
