cambridge massachusetts to discuss creativity and intellectual property. there's a, were at the sixth and i historical synagogue and will washington, d.c. will hear from michael wolf talk about president trump. that's a look at some of the events will be covering this week. many are open to the public. they will air in the near future but tv, on c-span2. >> good evening. welcome to the books and books in florida. we like to call it the cultural part of south florida. please silence your cell phone. go to our webpage give us your

e-mail address we can alert you to what is going on at the bookstore. we do 60 events each month. visit us at all of our stores, our center, we have one in sunny land seem to be opening coconut grove. were happy to have doctor vanessa newman and blood profits. to introduce our author we have her friend and colleague, mr. russ down. [applause] >> thank you. it's a pleasure to be here. one of the reasons vanessa asked me to do this was because we are partners in her consulting company which does phenomenal consulting. this book is an example and result of that.

also, ramon is a like-minded individual was exiled down this country is a former mayor who is chased a through the threat of jail. i'm not venezuelan, although i ran the daily journal newspaper for many years in venezuela. about that from vanessa's grandfather was a leading industrialist who came to the country and help bill venezuelan and put people to work and give it hope. these two people are venezuela next sales and will eventually hopefully go back and help make venezuela great again. i think that's the important thing. both of them are intelligent in a shining example what venezuela

has lost. they're here giving us the benefit of their wisdom instead of in venezuela putting there was some to work to make that place the happiest place of the world. having said that, rather than take away a minute from the wonderful things vanessa will tell us what it introduce ramon. because mayor -- is a shining example of the future of venezuela. he will do the extra introduction for the intelligence author. [applause] >> thank you russ for your kind

words. i went to go into spanish if that's okay with you. >> [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language]

[speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language]

[speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language]

[speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language]

[speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language]

[speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language]

[speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language]

[speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language]

[speaking in native language] [applause] >> i'm going to speak into english that's okay. i can switch back. [speaking in native language] [speaking in native language] sue xrs that i was going t eak in english. because i wasistening to went into spanish. the trajectory of working on this book has been an unexpected adventure. i was nervous when it came out. is deeply personal.

that's what i call a professional autobiography. i originally wanted to write a geeky booklet, defense department electio language ande would destroy this dynamic and they would say nobody would read this thing. 200 a book that is technical or book that people will read. okay, i'll write a book that people will read. and for four years i was a member of the oecd, organization for economic cooperation and development under an advisory group and leader of the group encountering illicit trade. the big concern that it always starts with consumers.

we had all these divisions away had to bring together law-enforcement and what we really need to do is raise attention to this problem. and i said, i think i have a book. on the journey has been that we in some of our friends, and ross was deeply involved raising awareness of the goldman sachs transaction, the term was kicking around. at the time the book was at the publisher. so that's not in the book. but i think fine too. they've given us a lot of material. how it started and i got into. have a dr. in political philosophy and theories of justice.

the whole concept is that government should give people the right to lead a life that they have reason to value. they should give you the tools to lead a life with dignity. you can make money, get married, own a business, transacts stuff. become more leslie july with your individual values and dignity intact. what i saw venezuela early on and started writing about it in 99 and i was living in the united kingdom let's also the book, the guardian newspaper fetish publish this deputy editor about the revolution of this and how it was this great american imperialism western economics. and i thought, no it is in.

this is going to end in tears. their season the means of production. they're taking away everybody's rights to lead a life with dignity. i called them up angry and said i want to write an editorial in response. and i did that i kept at it. i ended up on tv a newsnight debating -- who was the ambassador of the venezuela to the u.k. we had became personal friends because i was in london there were not that many of us. if you came to my engagement party and dinners. he said i don't really like your boss at all. he said that's okay, so i said okay. now he is the number two in the

foreign ministry and is now appointed as ambassador to the un. as i started speaking a i got an invitation from the white house of columbia to come down and see the progress. i ended up in columbia first to see the wonders and then to see the reintegration program. that so i spent time in the jungles of colombia with guys with big guns and helicopters and everything else. was 60 other military and political commanders. i was a the only journalists. i was covering how you got these people to put down their weapons and reintegrate into society. i've never been in combat but

i've dealt with consequences of combat kids with their legs blown off from stepping on landmines. because they do that to protect the cocoa crops. then i go to a nut club in there singing the songs about other smuggling cocaine from colombia into venezuela with the protection of chaz. this was wayut tre but openly discussed in columbia. then i came back and i said,. [inaudible] i don't understand how our country is falling apart. are we taking all of the trash and then disrupting our own

country. so the story started with that. then i started pulling the thread on the relationship with hezbollah. went to lebanon and i wanted to know what the relationship was between venezuelan hezbollah. i wanted to fly to beirut and ask them. that is what i did. that worked. if you don't mind i'm going to reach your little section from that. the reason i want to read from that is because it was in the news lately that a political revealed how the obama administration have this information they're getting from people about the venezuelan regime and givingoney t hezbollah. and that was a hot topic when i came back from lebanon. many people were working on it.

then e-mails to not get returned because the administration policy was that they would make a deal with iran on the nuclear deal of those negotiating are also involved with drug trafficking. the problem is, that is now 30 million of my compatriots are in prison by a regime that will not let them go in there being starved. this is long-term consequence. those profits from the drug traffic will be inscribed on the bodies of my compatriots. so there will be volume two. then i decided after i was making noise which unfairly good at, got the attention of some corporations who said he seemed to have credibility. our goods are being smuggled.

was tobacco. i also did oil, big corruption case. and other issues like that. i traveled to doing a semester in warfare and , chasing them counterfeit counterfeit sporting-goods funding islamic groups in pama get to panama they said we don't speak spanish, we speak arabic in the free trade zone. who are you. i'll look at the time, i think i need to go home. what i realized this two things. how global the problem is and it's in sport gambling, people, money laundering through casinos for chinese triads.

tobacco funding the assad regime and russian covert operations. the world is so interconnected. when a receipt drug cc weapons and people. i was at the meeting and they said so, the connections between corruption and trade, what is the connection. there's never been a case of illicit trade without corruption. one thing i became concerned with. the books was originally titled prevents degree. originally what we see is wherever free trade grows so does illicit trade. so grievance to greed you saw terrorist groups becoming

involved in transnational organized crime. originally they were there i would start smuggling stuff because after by weapons. increasingly, the weapons are there to protect the money. and to protect that business. what's happened is this case of a criminal organization seizing an entire country. so, they move from terrorists grievance to greed is their motivation. the other thing examined in the book and was motivated for that working title was they take your personal grievance and in many cases i would see it in panama venezuela, they take your legitimate grievance of a group

they say, i'm here to liberate you. you angry people, i will represent you politically. put me in. any vote them in and that's the same thing being done. all they do, they take control over the foreign currency exchange and enrich themselves and exploit your grievance for their greed. this is where i realize i left my classes behind. but if i hold the book far enough behind. >> let me try without. this is about my landing in

beirut and meeting the shaken the kernel. he was supposed to be informing me about the connections between hezbollah. a day after atlanta, lee, who is the editor invited me to the christening of a child of his. there are maronite catholics. they were spread across the lemont even before the muslims. i talk about how i wanted to speak to somebody i said we told you to speak to him. his name i have been given aft dinner in new york. i did not answer. no wonder the americans have no idea what's going on. he's not even a real shake, he's a boss.

he was clearly a man many non- muslims new quite well and generated strong responses. we left the christening i called and give the cell phone number for him to call me back. the next day were standing on the sidewalk when his phone rang. it was the shake. hello i was referred to by a mutual friend. he spoke no english. -- he spoke no french and i spoke no arabic. the shake tell me where and when i should be at one oh. you know this place? the business district. i was in the back of a taxi with them he would not be joining me having his own interview to do. we would meet up at the end of the day.

i realized how would we know each other? i waited outside. i made myself obvious he would find me. i pulled up with a man who is rather different than the muslims of the neighborhood where same. same. i hesitated to get in. i had not anticipated this. get him he repeated i got in and he shut the door. we go to my house. he joe through streets that got increasingly -- who are more remote and poor. i do not think many foreigners made it to these parts. these things usually end badly in the youtube video i thought. we pulled up to the building and

he asked, it was dark inside all that was visible was a stair late stairway leading up. nobody would know how to find me. how would i escape? we arrived and he beckoned me to the sofa he made a call in arabic and not a word i could understand. okay i answered and waited. after 20 minutes a man in military uniform arrived introduced himself as a colonel. he would be our interpreter. how much he was translated the ideas and how much he was espousing his own would not be known. i asked him whether they had seen drugs or money coming in from south america, venezuela in

particular. money comes in, so much money, a room full of cash. i've seen it. he was likely boasting about his involvement in dark international matters. it was impossible to assess his honesty. but if he was feeling talkative i would keep asking. how about the colombian cocaine what did he know about that? hezbollah has always had a relationship with the that the election of this helped has below lot. the drugs that were flown were now industrial airliners with government protections. it was inevitable that south america cocaine traffickers we become increasingly popular. intelligence officials believe days to receive $200 annually, both of these sources have dried

up due to sanctions the criminal then began to talk about how they have spread. they have a relationship with north korea. . .

the book weaves a personal perspective of going through this and spoken to people and trying to find out what is really going on. my sense in writing it really is for us to understand what are the consequences of the choices that we make. particularly of the financial transactions, whether it's the blood bonds, bond, whether it's the counterfeit handbags whether it's the narcotics, whether it's it's -- you know i also have case of antimalarial drugs given to u.n. organizations that ended up through the ministry bonded in west africa. it was absolutely everywhere. a friend of mine who works with me was just down the street when two bombs went off in mogadishu funded partly by cigarettes coming out of dubai and you can

just swap your ak-47 for a carton of cigarettes. so it's been, what i wanted the form to understand our role on how interconnected we are in the world of commerce and causality. what also goes on the book and you'll have to read the rest of it, money may not buy happiness but it need not pay for misery so i hope that you will buy the book. you can have a tail as he read it which you probably need and i thank you so much for coming here this evening. help us also, help us by understanding these connections and corruption and how i say in the book it's actually the goal of organized crime groups and

terrorist groups to eat away at the governments that are supposed to protect them so the irony and what is particularly galling is they make all the ney by praying on us as consumers and as citizens and then they take their money and send it to london and new york or miami and geneva and countries where property rights are respected and where the rule of law will protect their money while they worked to destroy your rule of law and that is where the joke is ultimately on us. so thank you very much for coming and please buy the book. [applause] do we do questions or do you want to come up? come up with me.

so you know, get a peer. congressman leaves a. [applause] >> thank you everybody for coming. would you like to add something? >> do we have questions or should we entertain questions? lesson to entertain questions. you stay up here with me. >> it's not a question but a comment. [inaudible] the investigation into precisely and i haven't read your book but your book addresses it.

have you gotten a lot of attention? >> well, yes it's getting more and more attention especially after that. i think bloomberg is going to do something on it after the madness and christmas in the new year and "the daily beast" for whom i have written. i wrote for them a couple of times. they are also going to run an excerpt on the book and yeah so it's actually quite ironic that it hit the news, very good timing. it's a strange sensation to be writing about my work in this field triggered by basically my being angry about what i saw happening with my country which is really what started all of this off and it came out just as my country was sort of imploding

imploding. i'm a dual citizen. i'm also an american. this is not good for either of us. you know, please help so we will see. >> we have seen all these stories about money laundering and its related the book. and how can you deal and how will your book help the actual leaks and everything regarding, you know help these people to

drive all these equations. we also know a lot of companies also have deals as you said. we who work in the corporations can well you know have the same desire that you have to help because in the end you are in a corporation. >> i just want to add something as an answer to that. something about tensions. i am in favor of them.

when you ply ascension to the regime you are not only trying to increase a regime change in venezuela but also you were kind of protecting your institution. you don't want the bank involved with a regime that is not only killing its own people but involve the narcotics for example. sanctions to work sometimes in south africa for example. there were sanctions to sell weapons and an arms embargo. when you do that you also want your company, you don't want them to get involved witthose

regimes. when canada not only the u.s. but canada went forward with sanctions in venezuela that was a very legitimate concern because these guys are destroying our systems, our nation which help with their money and their assets to get the protections they are denying their own people. you have two questions. >> i'm not sure i really need them but your question is what can you do about that? make noise. i mean that's why i wrote the book because it gives me -- aside from people leading we

hope it gives me an excuse to give talks like this and to offer that perspective of seeing it in real time played out around the country, in our country and really just to make a lot of noise. it's amazing dealing with bombs, is that something you put on your card? maybe not anymore. but we lived through what happened. when we went to protest i went with a bunch of kids and the other interesting point we are the same age and we remember the days, what we call the days of the 4:30. today's exchange rate is

116 million to the dollar and that's in our lifetime. so we remember the good old days but the kids with whom i protested in front of goldman sachs are now 20 years old. they don't remember the good old days the way we do at all and they still reject it unilaterally which is amazing to me. there was the security of goldman sachs and the game with the dog with just a bunch of kids outside. they got bloomberg and they got "wall street journal" and they got the financial times. it was for a page of the paper the next day and we humiliated goldman sachs so that's the power to say if you give money

to these people these are the consequences. so really, and there's nothing illegal about it. really there's a great deal of power and raising consciousness of causality of how the choices we make impact the lives of others and i go into this because i used to -- with the asymmetric warfare counsel and i was the academic reviewer on counterinsurgency for columbia so i know a little bit about the subject. and you know i thought here we are spending all this money sending all these kids out to be alone up and i go in later and and -- the irony is you cut off the money. i always have this concern about

cutting off the funding as a counterterrorism tack tick and then i realized it was a much bigger problem that is everywhere and i talk about the neighborhood bank that is involved in those. >> aside from profiteering government in venezuela what is the role of cuba in the global arena in what you are talking about today? >> do you want to take that? >> i would just add something on top of that. [laughter] just to share with you what we know. of course involvement, the cuban involvement and recently something i know i went to a

military base to leave her a message and she had a clear mission and that was too delivered -- so when did the commanders of the military base, she went there and she took her daughter. her daughter was a former participant in venezuela so she explained to the guard she was going to talk to him because he was sponsoring her daughter to go to venezuela. it was the whole story so she managed to get it and she was there for an hour and she was not able to have the envelope. there was a cuban guy all the time.

when one of the guards took her to the office he was telling her listen you will see a guy. he is a cuban and he will never leave. she was there for an hour looking for an envelope and was not able to do that. she suggested to enter change phone numbers to be able to communicate regarding sponsoring her daughter and it was not possible. these guys said, he suggested to take his number. that's the kind of control these guys have over day-to-day venezuela. they are in the civil registry.

and basically the national system for identification. they are in the army, they are everywhere. there's no way to escape the influence they have on venezuelan affairs, no way. >> why do you think that is and there's traditional stories that they helped get him back into power. that's the story and the cubans can't run a country but they are very good at running an intelligence service. they were literally effectively command the military in all sectors of society. for those people who have asked for assistance and called those of us traders -- traitors we

have already been invaded. there is no sovereignty. we have been laboring under it for years. i want to say gary was my former boss. she was the head of the finance department which was our business and she taught me everything i have since forgotten about financial analysis. >> all the relions we based on -- and you were mentioning the risk will be a very important task to find out

all the bad money around the world that is financing terrorism around the world. is that enough and when do you see the changing of the pendulum? when is it time to change it? >> you mean in venezuela? >> the resolution, the reputational risk because you mentioned the money comes back to where the rule of laws protecting them. >> yale i don't know. i understand little about banking compliance in a way no friends of mine are executives at the banks. oh my gosh we spend a billion dollars a year in citibank's and

yet you still have all these transactions and the problem is you have 95% false positives. so you spend all your time muddling through this trash to find out people like me renting a holiday house. i'm just going on holiday to mexico or something, you know. so it's onerous. apparently ai is supposed to save the world when. early to save the world of banking. artificial intelligence. you are the banker. you are the one that should answer the question. okay, ham and then you.

[speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] >> transfer pricing. [speaking spanish]

>> the question is about banking secrecy revealed by the papers and he touched upon the morality of transfer pricing. my mentor who was my education adviser at columbia and now i'm a fellow at his program at yale on global justice, that is his wheelhouse. it's about the morality of corporations, making their money in one country taking the money out and moving it manipulating it. he is all over that and he had a book come out last year called global tax fairness which he edited and the answer that knits it all together and i don't think it's going to be that popular is norway which is the

world's do-gooders have made a proposal for radical financial transparency like no banking secrecy anywhere ever for anyone anyone. all corporations must enter their fincial statements where they made their money where was extracted and how much tax they paid and where they extracted the goods. i don't think it's very popular but that kind of solves the entire paradigm in one fell swoop. robert hansen, a banker. >> bitcoin is popular. your people that you are writing about, it's a dream for them. >> is also a dream for venezuelans for the

hyperinflation and the regime to exchange goods. there are people who want to raise government controls for very good reason, you know. so yeah. >> i think the issue of corruption, it's huge. i would say our attention is on the groups doing bad things but also very nice people wearing nice ties doing business with these guys and you have a

reputation that is very important. for the goldman sachs of this world to know it may be at good business idea that could make sense economically. it may be illegal or not illegal let's say by the carries a huge reputational risk and we need to unite. they are affected by their actions and we need to remind them of the risk about people like maduro. that is the scope of the work. then you have to buy the book and you have to sign it. >> your experience in dealing with hezbollah i working

compliance with money laundering and i've always been very curious about how maybe you noticed the link between venezuela and hezbollah. how did that connection began? >> a couple of other pages further in that section it says you know the colonel who knows how much is bragging, it's hard to tell. i know everything, i'm all-powerful so how much is true and how much isn't is hard to flush out but he brags. that's on page 83 or whatever. chavez was alive at the time. they brag that in their view

they thought they had enough control over venezuela that they would just create a way to advanced their interests. one of the things we are collaborating and is being produced because i've times i've seen an advance copy of it by a friend of mine but has spent the last year parsing out relationships between the venezuelan regime and middle eastern families and the blood ties and over time how they spread across the power structure of venezuela and he compares it to arabism. i haven't read the final draft. the project is a direct descendent of a pan arab project

that spread through the blood ties of various others who are directly related. there is a town and i can't remember his name, i'm sorry but there's a town in venezuela that has nearly 3000 living there and they are part of a clan and i don't know how much you understand about the middle east but it's really more like -- if you really understand the place that's really what's going on in those clans the venezuelans are charged with plans that are altered in venezuela and there is a sector that links to cross religious divides on the

regional landscape. so you have that horror show to look forward to so that ties and what they are. okay, gracias. [applause] >> thank you for coming. the books are for sale behind the counter. she will be sitting right over here signing them for you. thanks for coming tonight. thanks so much. [inaudible conversations]

up next on tvs "after words" tv "after words" former clinton administration official and georgetown law per esser peter edelman argues the courts are charging excessive fines and fees for crimes. he's interviewed by georgia congressman hank johnson. congressman johnson serves on the judiciary committee and is a member of the property