Did you know that the banking industry that built modern Sioux Falls is pretty rock ‘n roll? Sioux Falls got back on the map in the 1980s by loosening up usury laws, allowing CitiBank to set-up shop and turning local business-boys like T. Denny to billionaires. How exactly did they do that? They threw out the rule book and let anything go. Kinda like being backstage at a Mötley Crüe show in ’82. Good times, mostly.
But sometime you wake up in the morning wondering who you’ve been drinking with. And that’s what The Pandora Papers did a few weeks ago. The guys at International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published a ginormous report on the shady wealth of the world, and South Dakota took the spotlight. If you didn’t know, Sioux Falls is a big hub in the international network of blind trusts, places to stash your money if you don’t want anyone to come looking for it. Think Swiss bank accounts, think the Cayman Islands. Yep, that’s us. We’ve got well over $350 Billion just sitting here, stashed away for some sheik’s rainy day.
It’s a tricky thing. On the one hand, it’s a can’t-miss business. Low-overhead, with easy money to be made charging these guys a fee for white-collar services and associated paper-pushing. On the other hand, we’re probably helping out a bunch of criminally-adjacent a**holes who should be paying taxes or decent wages or should otherwise not be engaged in the grey-zones of morally compromised activity.
As local journalism legend Patrick Lalley wrote for the The Washington Post:
“Ecuador’s president, Guillermo Lasso, moved assets here in 2017 after reports of questionable interests in a bank in Panama. Carlos Morales Troncoso was the president of Central Romana Corp., the largest sugar producer in the Dominican Republic. The company has long been accused of violating the human rights of its workers. Troncoso’s family — who has dual citizenship in the United States — opened a South Dakota trust in 2019. José “Pepe” Douer Ambar, a Columbian businessman who U.S. investigators said was laundering money for drug traffickers, opened his trust in 2014. All three are linked to a company called Trident Trust, which is owned by its employees — but whoever they are isn’t required to be disclosed.”
Do we really want to be in bed with these guys? Something to think about. One thing’s for sure – with this much money in play, the party’s long from over.