Working for the state bank in a former communist country does have opportunities to see many different sides to banking. Natasha worked in the private loans department but also oversaw a number of different loans for government supported infrastructure projects.
The country has joint ventures with companies from abroad where both sides bring something to the table. The state may bring land, buildings, people and money while the foreign companies typically bring expertise and equipment.
Well, it is not always possible to have warehouses full of new equipment sitting idle for these new ventures so it must be purchased. What often tended to happen was the state would offer a loan for the new equipment and then things could get setup. Well things didn’t always work out quite as planned. Usually the equipment came but it was late and in more than a few instances it was the equipment that did show up, was not new or it didn’t function. The foreign companies were both out of reach and in some cases no longer existed after they received their money.
I had never heard of such a behavior but the entire time that I was speaking with Natasha about this Zoltan was nodding his head in agreement. This was not a particularly new scam scheme and it even had a name in Slovakia. It was called tunneling.