English transcript

The first trial was about, basically, the band had lost its life savings, all of us

in Creedence.

The record company had gotten us into this offshore tax plan, and I'm saying this with

a smile because nowadays it just sounds so, you know, some guy comes walking up to you

and got a trench coat on a corner in New York City, hey buddy, you know, you're probably

going to avoid that guy.

But the record company was in this tax thing, and for all we knew, we were going to be paying

90% income tax, right?

I mean the tax laws are pretty stringent and pretty high.

Anyway, and so they offered us, or basically kind of ushered us into this plan, offshore

tax plan, and it would allow us to pay a lot less taxes, probably somewhere between 10%

and 20%, something like that.

So it was a huge financial savings for us.

I can tell you that the name of this particular thing, it was a bank in the Bahamas called

Castle Bank, and we had it checked out, I mean the people on our side in the band had

it checked out by our people, our own accountant, the bass player's father was an entertainment

lawyer and had a big firm, they, among other people, represented the Oakland Raiders.

So we thought they were pretty solid, and they checked it all out and said that it was

okay, it was legit.

So we did it.

But time went on, and it seemed to be not legit, to the point that somewhere in the 70s,

the bank disappeared and all our money in it disappeared.

So we sued.

Oh, Jesus.

Yep.

So here it is.

The bank was being used by the CIA to funnel money for covert military operations, including

those at Andros Island, a staging area for anti-Castro activities.

So you, they were stealing your money.

How?

I just found out, I don't know.

I just typed it in and went to the Wikipedia, and I was like, whoa, that's interesting.

So insane.

See, I didn't know any of that.

You didn't know until now?

Oh, I knew that now, or I suspect, yeah.

Did you know that up until now, or did you just find it out just now?

You could tell me a lot of things right now, and I'd say, oh, yeah, I guess I assumed all

that stuff was kind of happening.

But I didn't know it at the time in the early 70s when we, or late 60s when we got into

this thing.

It was actually 70s.

Do you know how anti-American that is?

The CIA stole from Creedence Clearwater Revival.

You know how fucking crazy that is?

That is so wild.

No, I didn't know that part.

The funny thing, the funny thing is, I had decided to get out of that plan, right?

I'd gone down to see my own people, my accountant, my attorney in Oakland, and told them, I just

want out of this thing.

I don't like the idea that you got to call, whenever I want some money, like an allowance,

you got to call up some bank account somewhere over there, and it takes some time, some few

days before I actually receive my money.

And it was starting to smell, it was starting this, and now we're talking 1975, 76.

And so I actually had the meeting, and I said, I want to be out of this plan.

I don't want, oh, I said, one of the things I said to the meeting of professionals, look,

take a shoebox, put all the money I've ever earned into the shoebox, and now hand me the

shoebox so I can see how much money have I earned, because I didn't know.

It was just going straight into this fund, right, into this Castle Bank.

But they couldn't tell me.

So I leave, I get down to the parking lot in the basement of this tall building in Oakland,

and I'm with the guy that runs my office, and I say, shit, we're going to have to have

another meeting, because even though I told him I want to get out of the plan, I didn't

stand up on the table and go, I'm ordering you and you and you get me out of the plan.

I realized they could weasel some more time until I actually pointed.

So the next week, I showed up and did that.

I'm ordering you, get me out.

Out of the plan, right?

Pretty quickly after that, a week or two, we hear that the bank has closed.

There's a telegram that apparently was sent on Valentine's Day, and the bank president

has died.

He died in a sauna.

Whoa.

I've seen that movie, you know, where Abbott and Costello, and the mob comes in, and they're

in those heat things that are up here, and the guy sticks a broom in the door so you

can't get out.

I mean, except that this was serious, and there will be no more withdrawals until this

thing is understood.

Resolved, right.

A bank president dies, you don't close the Bank of America.

Right.

You still can go get your money.

And so pretty quick after that, it all just disappeared in a puff of smoke.

They just stole the money.

Done.

Yep.

And it was the fucking CIA.

That is crazy.

That is so crazy.