EU - do you have any info about this type of bank account that makes it significant, other than it was numbered? For instance, were there only a thousand such accounts in existence, or did BoA discontinue their use after learning of heightened criminal use, anything more specific that would give weight to it? My thought is that if it was a common banking product, then Peterson having one drops off to an interesting footnote until more comes out.
This is a good question.
First off a numbered or "secret" account is one that allows the account holder to conduct banking activities with complete anonymity. This makes these types of accounts preferred by those trying to hide money from government authorities...wealthy business people, drug lords, terrorists and other perfectly law-abiding people who prefer to have a portion of their assets held in secret.
Numbered accounts are rare and used to only be offered by Swiss Banks. The thing is that in order to open a numbered bank account you had to meet a few criteria (things are somewhat different today). First, you needed to open the account with a large sum of money--nowadays north of $1 million would be the minimum. Second, You had to be willing to pay a premium for the account--no free checking here. Third, you had to open the account in person.
Mary Jean Fryar, the FBI agent who twice interviewed Sheridan and took his DNA sample, told me that the only reason someone opens a numbered bank account is to hide something from the authorities.
To the best of my knowledge, Bank of America has never offered numbered bank accounts. Theoretically they could have at one point in Singapore. This is because B of A used to operate in Singapore but left. Furthermore, they left before numbered bank accounts were allowed in Singapore. That is to say, although a law was passed and implemented in Singapore on January 1, 1971 that allowed for numbered bank accounts, the governing authority that implemented the Singapore law did not grant permission for numbered accounts to actually be offered for many years after the hijacking and B of A's dealings in Singapore.
If Sheridan is telling the truth about having a numbered or "secret" account that he opened in 1971 and living off its proceeds during his time in Nepal this is problematic for two reasons. One, where did the money come from to open the account? Two, he would have had to leave Nepal to open the account which blows the alibi he gave to the FBI which was that he did not leave Nepal during the 2 1/2 years he lived there, including the date of November 24, 1971.
