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Dear Secretary Bessent @SecScottBessent,
My name is Everett Stern. In 2010 I was a compliance officer at @HSBC. From a back office in New Castle, Delaware, I watched billions of dollars move to drug cartels, sanctioned regimes, and terrorist organizations. The enemies of the United States. I documented it, I escalated it, and when the bank would not act, I took it to the @FBI, the @CIA, and eventually the @SECGov.
The result was a $1.92 billion settlement. At the time, it was one of the largest in American history. It was also about five weeks of the bank’s profit. Not one banker was charged. Not one went to prison.
I paid a different price. I lost my career, my savings, and my place in the industry I had trained for. I was blacklisted. Every door in American finance closed at once. I slept on a camping cot in a 300 square foot apartment because I could not afford a bed, and I waited tables at @PFChangs to eat. I tell you this not for sympathy, but so you understand that I know exactly what it costs to do the right thing in American finance, and exactly how little the system does in return.
I made that sacrifice because I believed it would change something.
Yesterday, your department fined @BankofAmerica $1.2 billion for failing to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, some of it tied by your own findings to Chinese laundering networks, narcotics, and the southwest border, alongside 475 apparent sanctions violations touching Russia, Iran, and global terrorism. The bank admitted it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act.
Fourteen years after HSBC. A bank with “America” in its name. And once again, not one individual charged.
Secretary Bessent, I want to say plainly what I believe you already know. The fines are not working.
A fine is paid by shareholders, absorbed by the balance sheet, and forgotten by the next earnings call. Bank of America reported earnings this morning. Nobody who set the alert thresholds, nobody who decided the 2024 cease and desist could wait, nobody who chose the backlog over the law will lose a single thing they value. Their lives are untouched. That is the entire reason the behavior repeats.
This is money laundering. This is blood money. Money that reaches a cartel buys fentanyl that kills Americans. Money that reaches a terrorist organization buys the next attack. This country has fought a war on drugs and a war on terror for decades, at enormous cost in lives and treasure, and all the while we have allowed the financing to flow through institutions we charter and regulate. Cut off the money and we win. We have never seriously tried.
There is also a question of equal justice that I cannot let go.
Before I walked into the FBI building to report HSBC, I stopped in front of the Great Seal on the wall and read the words engraved beneath it: “Justice is the defense of our liberty.” I believed that. I still want to. But every day in this country, people go to prison for crimes that are nothing next to moving money for the people who want Americans dead. A suit, a title, and a corporate badge should not be a shield from the consequences that apply to everyone else. If a street dealer goes to prison for what he sells, the banker who moved the cartel’s money should be standing next to him.
I also want to raise something that is rarely said in these conversations. Why has no one inside Bank of America come forward the way I did? The answer is that everyone in American banking knows what happened to me, and to the whistleblowers who came after. The last person who spoke up is the only policy anyone believes. That is a culture problem, and it starts with leadership, in the banks and in the agencies that regulate them.
This is not a political issue. It has spanned administrations of both parties. It is a national security issue, and I am asking you to treat it as one.
Three things would change the math overnight.
Refer individuals for criminal prosecution. Not the analyst in the queue. The executives who set the thresholds and chose the risk. One banker in handcuffs would do more than every fine in Treasury’s history combined.
End “too big to jail.” An institution cannot be too big to fail and too big to jail at the same time. If it is the first, it must be held to a higher standard, not a lower one.
And if Bank of America will not act as America’s bank, review its charter. A national charter is a privilege granted on behalf of the American people. It should be conditioned on not moving money for the people trying to kill them.
Secretary Bessent, you said yesterday that these actions send a clear message that even the biggest institutions are not above the law. With respect, the institution was never the problem. The people inside it are above the law, and they know it. Until that changes, I will keep writing letters like this one, and the next bank will keep paying the next fine.
I gave up everything I had to stop this. I am asking you to use the power you have to finish it.
Respectfully,
Everett A. Stern
HSBC Whistleblower
Founder and Intelligence Director, Tactical Rabbit
sho-time retweeted
Before you go to bed tonight, remember this: Nothing kills you more than your own mind. Stop stressing over things you can’t control. Breathe. Let your mind rest. You’re going to be okay, I promise.
Uranium Term Prices Hit A Record... So Why Is Nuclear Getting Nuked? zerohedge.com/energy/uranium…
sho-time retweeted
A New York deli owner’s program has raised over $587,000 to reward kids for good grades.
Wail Alselwi, co-owner of Zack’s Finest Deli & Grocery in Staten Island, started ‘Grades for Grabs’ in 2023. Kids with an average of 90 or higher can get $100 and items from the store. He also rewards kids who improve their grades. Donations to a GoFundMe help fund the rewards.
[🎥: @islandock1 ]
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$UUUU , I told you some internal management adjustments were made @Energy_Fuels ... Basically, the local population's refusal to allow Vara Mada was mostly due to a lot of false promises by the old team.
They wanted schools and meals for their children as well as local infrastructure, training and jobs.
All these requests were addressed and Vara Mada got the 🟢💡from the local population.
Energy Fuels ($UUUU): The West’s Emerging Mine-to-Magnet Platform
A large disconnect exists between $UUUU's current share price and the vital domestic critical-minerals platform it is on the verge of completing. The market continues to value the equity as a cyclical commodity play levered to spot uranium prices, overlooking the strategic asset assembly underway. $UUUU is systematically constructing the Western world’s only integrated, non-Chinese ore-to-magnet critical minerals platform—an operational transformation positioned for an asymmetric multiple re-rating.
1. White Mesa's Unique License: An Unassailable Regulatory Moat
$UUUU built its operational baseline by producing roughly two-thirds of all domestic uranium mined in the US between 2017 and 2023. The critical catalyst occurred in 2012 when it acquired the US mining division of Denison Mines, securing ownership of the White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah.
Crucially, every other active uranium operation in the US extracts material via in-situ recovery (ISR) wellfields, which circulate liquid solutions underground to dissolve minerals into slurry. They lack crushing circuits or the legal permits to process bulk materials from outside sources.
White Mesa operates with the only active conventional uranium mill license in the US. It is the sole commercial industrial site in the country authorized by federal and state regulators to accept bulk radioactive raw materials, process them, and permanently store radioactive tailings on-site.
Replicating this operating license in today's regulatory environment would require over fifteen years of litigation and hundreds of millions of dollars, if permitting were even possible. It represents a virtually insurmountable barrier to entry.
2. The Radiological Moat: Unlocking Monazite Sand
High-performance permanent magnets depend fundamentally on monazite sand. Compared to standard bastnäsite ore mined by domestic peers, monazite carries thirty percent more light magnet materials and up to ninety-five percent more heavy rare earth elements—specifically the ultra-rare, high-dollar elements dysprosium and terbium.
However, monazite is naturally radioactive, carrying 5% to 10% thorium alongside natural uranium. Standard chemical refiners cannot legally touch it without committing severe environmental licensing violations.
White Mesa’s unique conventional license converts this regulatory obstacle into high-margin industrial cash flow:
Cracking & Digestion: Bulk monazite sand is dissolved and digested on-site in Utah.
Uranium Recovery: Uranium is recovered directly into commercial yellowcake for nuclear utilities.
Thorium Neutralization: Radioactive thorium is safely neutralized and retained inside the mill's existing, fully permitted containment cells.
Clean Intermediate: The byproduct is an unencumbered, high-purity rare earth concentrate ready for chemical separation.
3. Upstream Feed: Securing Low-Cost Global Ore
To ensure White Mesa operates at high utilization without spot-market vulnerability, $UUUU secured three captive, low-cost heavy mineral sands assets:
The Bahia Project (Brazil): A fully owned coastal deposit delivering captive monazite sand.
The Donald Project Joint Venture (Australia): Partnered with Astron Limited for up to 49% ownership, securing 100% of the rare earth offtake from a Tier-1 deposit rich in monazite and heavy-rare-earth xenotime.
Base Resources / Toliara (Madagascar): A strategic acquisition delivering the world-class Toliara asset (38-year mine life). Because titanium and zircon sales cover baseline operating costs, monazite is unlocked as an ultra-low-cost byproduct.
4. White Mesa: Expanding Capacity and Heavy Separation
Neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets require light rare earths—neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr)—for baseline magnetic strength. However, they strictly require the heavy rare earth elements dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb) to prevent demagnetization under the extreme operating temperatures of defense avionics, guided munitions, and electric vehicle drive units. While competitors can separate light rare earths, none possess the radiological permits or circuits to process heavy rare earth elements at commercial scale.
White Mesa is the only operational facility in the Western Hemisphere capable of separating both light and heavy rare earth elements on a commercial scale.
To meet surging Western demand, $UUUU is executing a massive, two-stage capacity expansion:
Phase 1 Baseline: Currently producing commercial-grade NdPr oxide at a rate of 1,000 tons per annum (tpa), with tier-one Japanese magnet manufacturers having formally qualified White Mesa’s separated Dy and Tb heavy oxides.
oxides. Energyoxides.Energy Fuels Inc
annually. Energyannually.Energy Fuels Inc
5. Downstream Integration: Completing the Loop with VAC
Separated oxide powder offers little strategic utility if it must be shipped back to China for reduction, metallization, and alloying into magnetic metal. $UUUU is bridging this critical midstream gap through planned domestic metallization and metal reduction capacity—backed by the US government's financing framework—and completing the chain through its definitive agreement to acquire Vacuumschmelze (VAC), the Western world's premier advanced magnetics manufacturer holding more than a century of proprietary patents, over a thousand corporate clients, and direct defense supply contracts.
Targeted to close in early 2027, the transaction connects White Mesa's expanded oxide output directly to VAC’s permanent magnet facility in Sumter, South Carolina:
Baseline Commercial Footprint: Sumter operates at an initial run-rate capacity of 2,000 metric tons of finished permanent magnets per year, backed by contracts with the Defense Logistics Agency.
Scale Capacity: Sumter is engineered to expand up to 12,000 metric tpa of finished sintered permanent magnets—directly absorbing the expanded oxide and alloy flows from Utah.
The Fully Allied Chain:
Mineral Sands (Madagascar, Australia, Brazil)⟶Cracking & Oxide Separation (White Mesa, UT)⟶Metal Reduction & Alloying (Domestic / Allied Lines)⟶Sintered NdFeB Magnets (Sumter, SC)
Result: A closed-loop, Western-controlled supply chain with zero Chinese touchpoints.
6. The Execution Calendar and Catalysts
Present: White Mesa produces commercial light rare earth oxides, while the Sumter plant manufactures finished defense and commercial permanent magnets.
Early 2027: Targeted closing of the VAC acquisition (an approximately $1.9B transaction funded via cash, equity issuance, and debt assumption), bringing the Sumter magnet lines, patent portfolio, and institutional client relationships under direct corporate control.
Late 2027: Commissioning of White Mesa’s dedicated heavy separation plant, commencing commercial-scale output of separated Dy and Tb oxides.
lines. Energylines.Energy Fuels Inc
To de-risk project execution, the US government's Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) issued a conditional financing commitment of up to $725 million in long-term (20 years), senior-secured debt at advantageous rates, directly funding the Utah separation circuits and domestic metal-alloy conversion capacity. Underscoring the institutional weight of the facility, Energy Fuels engaged Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC as its financial advisor (alongside Akin Gump as legal counsel) to structure and finalize the transaction.
7. The Nuclear Cushion: $200M+ in Liquid Inventory
Beneath this critical minerals platform, $UUUU carries a substantial liquid balance sheet hedge: approximately 2.26 million pounds of finished uranium inventory.
With spot uranium trading near $90 per pound, this stockpile represents over $200 million in near-cash value, providing a non-dilutive capital cushion to fund corporate runway and support acquisition integration while the rare earth expansions ramp up.
The Structural Inevitability Framework
I look at $UUUU through the same lens I view assets like PESI, LASR, LPTH, or HL. While each operates in a completely different domain, they share a rare common denominator: their strategic position is essentially inevitable.
The demand behind them isn't driven by consumer fads or discretionary spending cycles. It is dictated by non-negotiable physical and sovereign realities—statutory nuclear waste treatment mandates, semiconductor laser diodes and precision optics powering next-generation directed energy and missile guidance, structural physical silver deficits, and the national necessity of securing a domestic mine-to-magnet supply chain off Chinese soil. The Western world cannot simply walk away from these problems.
That does not eliminate execution risk—management must still hit commercial commissioning milestones, fund and build out specialized heavy-separation chemical plants, and integrate VAC's footprint. The distinction is that while typical commodity plays face both existential demand risk and operational risk, $UUUU's demand driver is a non-negotiable sovereign imperative. The market has priced the operational friction but entirely ignored the inevitability of the destination.
The Asymmetric Valuation Case
Cyclical commodity miners trade on volatile spot price realizations at low, single-digit cash flow multiples. Advanced defense contractors and critical technology suppliers command multiples in the mid-to-high teens.
$UUUU is not an ordinary commodity producer. It owns captive low-cost ore feeds, holds the only licensed radioactive bulk processing facility in the country, maintains a $200M+ liquid uranium reserve, and is moving to control domestic magnet fabrication in South Carolina.
Furthermore, geopolitical focus is intensifying: Western initiatives to ring-fence critical mineral supply chains will increasingly pivot institutional capital toward North America's processing chokepoints—where $UUUU controls the sole commercial heavy refining facility in the hemisphere. It is my opinion that once the market recognizes that $UUUU is the entire Western mine-to-magnet supply chain under a single corporate entity, the valuation reset will be explosive.
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#uranium 👇🏼
#uranium 📈
Uranium Awakens From Five-Month Slumber As UBS Warns Market Is "Tightening Structurally" zerohedge.com/commodities/ur…
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The most underrated skill you’ll ever develop is the ability to genuinely enjoy your own life. Not when you’ve finally made it. Now, while you’re still in the middle of the journey. We rush through the ordinary days, waiting for the big moments to finally feel alive. But your life is already happening in the slow mornings, the unfinished plans, the small wins no one else sees. Learn to be here for it. That’s the real skill.
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Invest in #uranium
BOFA SEES URANIUM RALLY CONTINUING
🔸BofA raised its 2027 uranium price forecast to $130/lb, implying ~52% upside from current spot prices.
🔸Bullish view is driven by tight supply, lower utility contract coverage (48% vs. 56% last year), and growing nuclear investment.
🔸U.S. plans include 400GW nuclear capacity by 2050, 10 new AP1000 reactors, and $2.7B for domestic enrichment.
🔸BofA maintained Buy on Cameco ($CCJ) but cut its PT 5% to $133 after higher 2026 cost guidance.
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This is happening at a high clip and powering the private markets.
The institutionalization of Collectibles is here.
And it is just getting started.
Great article from @Will__Stern 🎯
Can't read off your link without a slack account but found it elsewhere
thesneakernewsletter.com/p/t…
Świetne zestawienie pokazujące, jak w poszczególnych ogniwach łańcucha dostaw metali ziem rzadkich (REEs) wypadają spółki, które są szalenie istotne w kwestii uniezależniania się Zachodu od REEs z Chin.
Energy Fuels
USA Rare Earth
MP Materials
Lynas
Neo Performance
Źródło: @BidBird10
