“Where does the Virgin Islands fit into all this?”
“The Virgin Islands, although it?s a U.S. territory, has its own revenue service. They don?t like the
Lepers, so they don?t cooperate with them.”
“The IRS can?t get the info on Virgin Island bank accounts, that it?” Stick asked.
“Exactly. And the bank account in the Virgin Islands is a mirror account of the corporate account in
Panama. So it?s possible to transfer money from a U.S. bank to a bank in the Virgin Islands and then
into a Panamanian corporation without the IRS knowing about it.”
“You think that?s what Tagliani was doing?”
“It could explain how the payoff accounts work. If there?s a Panamanian corporation on this list, it
could be a transfer account.”
“And the payoff would go straight through the computer and into the Panamanian bank account,
without ever showing up as a deposit,” Stick said, with a touch of wonder.
“And so could their skim,” I said.
“You think Seaborn knows about this Mirror Rule?” Stick asked.
“If he doesn?t we ought to have him jailed for incompetence. It?s international banking law.”
“Which means Seaborn?s involved.”
“That?s a little touchy right now. There?s nothing illegal about transferring money to Panama. But
there is if it?s IGG.”
Stick smiled. “The old ill-gotten gains. What would we do without them?”
“The question is, does Seaborn knew it?s a scheme to wash dirty money? Maybe not. He could be that
naive.”
“Well, if he didn?t know, he probably does now.”
“Right. And since we haven?t heard from him, we can at least assume that he might be withholding
information”
“Where the hell did you find all this out”
“I may not file reports, pal, but I sure as hell read them. This dodge is used a lot by the Mafia. Using
the bank?s computer to pyramid their accounts, now that?s a new wrinkle.”
A phone rang somewhere in the back of the house. Stick bolted, trying to catch it before it woke
someone up. He was too late. Lark stirred on the wooden bench, opened one eye, saw me, waved a
limp hand in my direction, and managed a feeble smile.
“Go back to sleep,” I said. “Stick arid I will hold the fort a while longer.”
Wrong again, Kilmer.
Stick came out of the kitchen with a crazy look in his eyes.
