Twelfth Bough

i run my own damn think tank

Archive for category Banks

linking Hezbollah into the TBA

Feb 22

Posted by A. Peasant in Banks, Corruption & Crime, Human Trafficking, Latin America, Lebanon, Mind-fucking, TBA | No Comments

1. Feds link 3 Miami-Dade businessmen to alleged Hezbollah front in Paraguay — Tri-Border Area. Narrative: Lebanon –> Hezbollah –> South American –>Terrorism against The West. Note US Treasury (ie: Goldman Sachs) ban, that will help tie to Iran. Note that the US just makes designations, and that is all that’s required. then the accused can fit into the pre-defined terrorist designated box by doing something as diabolical as “operating retail businesses” in a mall that the US government has unilaterally designated as a funding arm for Hezbollah, an organization with democratically-elected representatives in the Lebanese government. it’s just semantics.

Federal agents have arrested three South Florida businessmen accused of exporting video games and other electronic products to a shopping mall in Paraguay that allegedly served as a front to finance the terrorist group Hezbollah, according to federal authorities.  The Miami-Dade businessmen arrested late Thursday, Khaled T. Safadi, Ulises Talavera and Emilio Gonzalez-Neira, appeared in federal court Friday to face charges related to a Treasury Department ban on doing business with the black-listed militia and political organization based in Lebanon.

…According to an indictment, the three Miami-Dade businessmen are accused of exporting hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of PlayStation 2 video games and digital cameras to a shopping center called Galeria Page in Paraguay. The U.S. government has designated the mall as a funding arm of Hezbollah.

Galeria Page, located in Ciudad del Este, serves as a Hezbollah fundraising source in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, according to a Treasury Department press statement issued in December 2006. It is considered the central headquarters for Hezbollah members in the region.

Hezbollah members operate retail businesses in Galeria Page to support Hezbollah, according to the press release. Muhammad Yusif Abdallah, a manager of Galeria Page, paid a regular quota to Hezbollah based on profits he received from the mall, the statement says. In the Dec. 6, 2006, release, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the mall was part of a South American network that aided Assad Ahmad Barakat, who has been on the U.S. terrorist blacklist since 2004.

more @ miami dade news

2. more details from naharnet

The shopping center, Galeria Page in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, was included on the banned list in December 2006 along with owner Mohammed Yosusef Abdallah. Abdallah is described as a senior Hizbullah leader in a region of South America long considered a haven for counterfeiting, smuggling, piracy and other crimes….According to the indictment, the three men ran companies that used the Port of Miami to move goods including Sony Playstation video game consoles, digital cameras and other items that eventually wound up at the Paraguay destination. About $1 million in exports were identified by ICE, the FBI, Treasury officials and other investigators with Miami’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The men allegedly used fake invoices, false addresses and phony names to mask the true destination of the goods. The companies involved also were indicted. John Morton, assistant Homeland Security secretary for ICE, said the arrests will disrupt a network involved in “the illicit trade of commodities that support terrorist activities and ultimately threaten the national security of the United States.”(AP)

more @ naharnet


3. is the Tri-Border Area a “haven for counterfeiting, smuggling, piracy and other crimes” such as HUMAN TRAFFICKING? oh yes. indeed. it is also a haven for local, federal and international agencies, including lots of CIA people. Go Figure.

from my post on this area the other day:

A tourist destination, with beautiful hotels. Many tourists come to see the Igauzu falls. But hey, there’s really nothing to worry about because the place is crawling with feds and agency people, including CIA, on account of all the Arab terrorists there, so relax! Who would dare do any illegal trafficking with all these law enforcement people around?

Immigration officer Emilio Osses, who oversees one of the Argentine checkpoints in the area, said that contrary to popular belief, this is not the worst trafficking hotspot on Argentina’s border. He says that this tri-border area is heavily controlled — saturated with officers from at least eight local, federal and international agencies, including lots of CIA agents.
And it’s largely because of the intelligence community that there’s a lot of hype around the tri-border, he said. There is a large and important Arab population here, and it’s believed that the terrorist cells that bombed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires had support in this area.

“That’s why it has this stigma of terrorism, corruption, and illegal trafficking,” Osses said. “In reality, the tri-border area suffers from propaganda.” But Osses goes on to admit that there’s a lot of room for illegal trafficking here. In the high season, 30,000 people per day cross the triple border — and that’s just at the official checkpoints. Like any border, much more of it is uncontrolled.

Jesus God, Mr. Osses. Do you think there’s a connection between all those agency people and the trafficking?

more @ twelfth bough

their arrogance knows no bounds

Feb 19

Posted by A. Peasant in Banks, CIA, Corruption & Crime, Identities, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Mind-fucking, Mr. Bibi N. & Friends, NWO, Obama/Biden, Psychopaths, Terrorism, UK | No Comments

1. the UK knew in advance that Israel would use stolen UK passports for a hit. israel knew in advance that this little kabuki of the UK slapping israel’s wrist would have to take place and look believable.

The British MI6 intelligence agency was tipped off by Mossad that Israeli agents were going to carry out an ‘overseas operation’ using fake UK passports, the Daily Mail reported Friday morning.

According to the UK newspaper, a British security source quoted a Mossad agent as saying that “the British Government was told very, very briefly before the operation what was going to happen.” The source explained that the tip-off was not a request for permission to use British passports but more a ‘courtesy call’ to inform British security services that ‘a situation’ might blow up. “There was no British involvement and they didn’t know the name of the target. But they were told these people were traveling on UK passports,” he was quoted as telling the Daily Mail.

…The Daily Mail report came several hours after a 20-minute meeting in London between Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor and a senior British diplomat on Thursday, over the fake British passports apparently used in the assassination of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. The report hinted that Israeli intelligence chiefs understood British authorities would have to ’slap them on the wrist’ and reportedly added: “The British government has to be seen to be going through the motions.”


jpost: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=169139

2. daily mail story:

The Israeli agent rejected suggestions that intelligence-sharing between the two nations might be damaged.

He said Mossad was handling several sources within the UK Muslim community and added: ‘There is no question of jeopardising that information flow.’

The revelation of a ‘tip-off’ came after Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor was ‘invited’ to the Foreign Office and asked to co-operate fully with the inquiry into the forged passports by the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Some people think that Mossad, MI6 and the CIA are trying to destabilise Dubai.Dubai’s aim is to make money from helping Iran to beat sanctions.

“Now the Americans (or the Israelis – you can take your pick) want to turn Dubai into the Beirut of the Gulf. That was actually a headline last week – in The Jerusalem Post, of course – which painted Dubai as dangerous as it was economically calamitous.” (Robert Fisk: Passport to the truth in Dubai remains secret )

3. meanwhile, in the most brazen display of greed and hubris i think i’ve ever seen, 85 victims of Hizbullah sue Iran’s top banks

In the first such case, 85 American, Israeli and Canadian victims of Hizbullah rocket attacks have filed a lawsuit against Iran’s leading banks.
The suit, Kaplan v. Central Bank of Iran, was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. and seeks $1 billion in compensatory damages and an unspecified sum of punitive damages.

The plaintiffs, whose family members were killed or who were themselves injured by rockets fired at Israel by Hizbullah between July 12 and August 14, 2006, allege that Iran’s Central Bank and Bank Saderat provided the Shiite group with “over $50 million in financial support in the years prior to the attacks with the specific intent of facilitating Hizbullah terrorist attacks against American and Israeli targets,” the Israel Law Center, which helped bring the suit, said.

The plaintiffs rest their claims in part on an explicit October 25, 2007 finding by the U.S. Treasury that between 2001 and 2006 Bank Saderat transferred funds from the CBI via Bank Saderat, PLC in London to Hizbullah “to support acts of terrorism.”

naharnet

THIS IS STRAIGHT OUT OF THE JAMES WOOLSEY INTERVIEW AT HERZLIYA, AND HILLARY CLINTON’S SUBSEQUENT BABBLING ABOUT THE REVOLUTIONARY GUARD IN IRAN. IT ALL QUICKLY BECAME US POLICY IN ABOUT A WEEK’S TIME.

4. meanwhile, in a brazen insult to the world’s intelligence, the Ethiopian plane crash is officially caused by HUMAN ERROR. they give us the pilot’s last words. no mention of anything else he might have said up to that point. oh and the pilot ‘made a move’ that made him gradually lose control of the plane, and it remained intact until it hit the water.


A preliminary report said “human error” was the cause of the deadly Ethiopian Airlines plane crash into the Mediterranean Sea last month and that the last words the pilot said to his co-pilot: “We’re finished … God have mercy on us.”
Flight 409 bound for Addis Ababa crashed into sea off the coast of Naameh minutes after takeoff from Beirut airport early in the morning of Jan. 25, killing all 90 people on board.

Pending the outcome of the official report, which is to be announced by the Lebanese government sometime next week, the daily As-Safir on Friday uncovered outlines of the preliminary report.

As-Safir said the investigation team probing the plane crash incident retuned to Beirut from Paris on Thursday and handed over the report to Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

The plane’s two black boxes — data flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder – were separately retrieved among the wreckage and flown to France for analysis by BEA, a French agency that specializes in assisting with technical investigations of air crashes.

As-Safir quoted a reliable source at France’s Aviation Accidents Investigation bureau as saying that the cockpit voice recorder has revealed that the last words the pilot said were: “We’re finished … God have mercy on us.”

The pilot was speaking in Amharic, a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia.

Audio recordings revealed that the pilot asked the co-pilot to follow instructions by Beirut airport control tower, only to find out that his assistance either did not heed to the orders or did the opposite.

This prompted the pilot to take a move which made him gradually lose control of the plane, the voice recorder showed.

The report said the jet remained intact until it hit water.

Cabinet, furthermore, did not take any decision to close the file on the plane crash incident pending an official report from the Lebanese Army about the search for remains of the remaining victims.

naharnet

active narratives round-up

Feb 18

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Banks, Corruption & Crime, Drug Trafficking, Economy, Greece, India, Lebanon, Minerals, Nigeria, Palestinians, Russia, Terrorism | No Comments

1. world government: our masters in Brussels will use the Greek crisis to try to impose a single government across Europe

Now the Greeks cannot afford to stay in the euro and the Germans and French (and indeed to a lesser extent we British) cannot afford to see the Greek economy collapse.

For our masters in Brussels, this is a moment of great danger and of great opportunity. Their solution is simple. Not just a single currency and a single central bank, but a single finance minister administering a single tax and spending system, and a single government across the EU. Without that, either the Eurozone will shrink to a hard core of states around Germany and the Deutschmark will be reborn under the name of the euro, or the euro will cease to be.

more @ telegraph

2. justifying the need to control the internet: malicious software infects corporate computers

A malicious software program has infected the computers of more than 2,500 corporations around the world, according to NetWitness, a computer network security firm.

The malicious program, or botnet, can commandeer the operating systems of both residential and corporate computing systems via the Internet. Such botnets are used by computer criminals for a range of illicit activities, including sending e-mail spam, and stealing digital documents and passwords from infected computers. In many cases they install so-called “keystroke loggers” to capture personal information.

…“These large-scale compromises of enterprise networks have reached epidemic levels,” said Amit Yoran, chief executive of NetWitness and former director of the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security. “Cyber criminal elements, like the Kneber crew, quietly and diligently target and compromise thousands of government and commercial organizations across the globe.”

The company, which is based in Herndon, Va., noted that the new botnet makes sophisticated use of a well-known Trojan Horse - a backdoor entryway to attack - that the computer security community had previously identified as ZeuS.

more @ nyt

3. al qaeda in the palestinian camps in lebanon: 11 aq suspects charged with spying


A Lebanese military judge charged 11 suspected members of an al-Qaida inspired group with forming an armed gang and spying on the army and U.N. peacekeepers, a judicial source said. “Judge Samih al-Hajj charged 11 suspected members of Fatah al-Islam with forming an armed gang, spying on the army and UNIFIL troops (in southern Lebanon), and forging ID papers,” the source said, requesting anonymity.

If convicted, they could face the death penalty. Among those charged — several of them in absentia — are Abdul Rahman Awad and Abdul Ghani Jawhar, two Fatah al-Islam members accused of a deadly 2008 bus bombing in the northern city of Tripoli.

Fatah al-Islam, an obscure al-Qaida inspired group, fought deadly battles against the Lebanese army in the summer of 2007 in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared near Tripoli. …There have been widespread fears since the Nahr al-Bared battle that the group has switched its base to the highly volatile Palestinian camp of Ain el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese officials suspect that Awad, who is dubbed the “prince of Fatah al-Islam,” is holed up in Ain el-Hilweh, the largest of Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian camps. By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the camps, leaving security inside to Palestinian factions.(AFP)

more @ naharnet

4. escalating drug lords in Mexico: Russia ready to sell weapons to Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Mexico is interested in buying equipment and weapons from his country to combat drug trafficking and organized crime. At a joint press conference with Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa, Lavrov said that his country is expanding its weapons sales abroad and has increased the number of supply contracts it has in all regions of the world, a move that is “a purely economic question, not political.”

Regarding the volume of its arms sales, Russia is still “behind the United States, but we’re seeing certain rather serious progress,” Lavrov said. The Mexican government is interested in acquiring different types of weapons, “including helicopters for coastal monitoring,” and other equipment “to fight drug trafficking and organized crime, that I hope will help our Mexican friends to combat this scourge,” the Russian official said.

The United States is already supplying Mexico with arms and equipment for the drug war.

more @ la herald tribune

5. get the minerals in Africa, especially West Africa: African Minerals on track in Sierra Leone as 9.7 billion tonnes of iron ore discovered — largest deposit in the world. shorter: how lucky is Frank Timis?

Somewhere in London, deliberating on his success and probably a glass of ice-rock vodka in his hands, Frank Timis must be filled with excitement and accomplishment as his venture in Sierra Leone has started to yield results. Timis has invested faith and trust in his sense of discernment and has allowed his instinct which has proven time and again to be right, to take on a venture in a small West African country rich in minerals, that has become a second home for him. Timis has employed right judgement and his confidence in the mineral wealth of Sierra Leone may have finally paid off.  It is also a vindication for the country’s President Ernest Bai Koroma whose unwavering belief in African Minerals’ potential has not been disappointing.  I wonder what is going through Frank Timis’ mind as he reflects back on how risk can sometimes become your best financial asset.  But it all comes down to how risk is managed through effective implementation of business acumen that has been tried and trusted. Frank Timis must be a master in risk management that ensures successful outcome. The success of African Minerals in Sierra Leone can only go to open new frontiers for the company in other mineral resource potential areas across Africa. And his success in Sierra Leone will  also provide a model for other African Governments to use in order to open their doors to a man whose name has become synonymous with prosperity and mineral wealth.

more @ newstime africa

6. Niger & Nigeria, falling apart or being dismantled: gunfire erupts in Niger capital

NIAMEY (Niger) - MACHINE gun and heavy weapons fire erupted in Niger’s capital, Niamey, on Thursday and smoke was seen rising from the presidential palace, witnesses said, in what appeared to be an attempted coup.

There was no indication of who was involved, the witnesses said, though political tensions have risen in the uranium exporting nation in recent months over President Mamadou Tandja’s extension of his rule. An intelligence officer, who asked not to be named, said the violence was a coup attempt that the presidential guard was trying to put down. A member of Tandja’s entourage in the palace said that ‘for now everything is alright.’

The shooting started around 1200 GMT, witnesses said. A Reuters witness said soldiers were blocking the road near the Prime Minister’s office. Tandja drew widespread criticism and international sanctions after dissolving parliament and orchestrating a constitutional reform that gave him added powers and extended his term beyond his second five-year mandate, which expired in December.

Despite political turmoil and occasional Tuareg rebellions, Niger has attracted billions of dollars in investment from major international firms seeking to tap its vast mineral wealth, including France’s Areva and Canada’s Cameco. — REUTERS

straits times

7. terrorism and sports: police confirm terror threat to India-SA Jaipur stadium match


JAIPUR: Police have confirmed a terror threat to the first ODI match between India and South Africa to be played at the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur on February 21, following which security has been tightened. B.L. Soni, inspector general of Rajasthan police, said his force had intelligence inputs of the threat.  “We have terror inputs of the threat and beefed up security at Sawai Mansingh Stadium (the match venue),” he said.

Intelligence agencies had earlier warned about terror strikes during various sporting events to be held in the country this year including the Hockey World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. However, Home Minister P Chidambaram has assured all the visiting countries of foolproof security for the upcoming sporting events.

source

Woolsey offers advice for Bibi, a week later it becomes US policy

Feb 11

Posted by A. Peasant in Banks, CIA, Corruption & Crime, Iran, Israel, Mr. Bibi N. & Friends, Obama/Biden | No Comments

1. huh, look at that. ex CIA director James Woolsey gives some recommendations about how to handle Iran at the Herzliya conference…February 3. he suggests that no banks anywhere in the world can do any business with the Revolutionary Guard, which control about a third of the Iranian economy. that’s the idea… of course, big pharma can do business — that’s grandfathered.

2. lo and behold, a week later - February 11 - they happen! turns out the US is going after the Revolutionary Guard using their weapon of choice: BANKS. so the advice that Woolsey had for Bibi becomes the policy of Obama.

WASHINGTON - THE Obama administration narrowed in on Iran’s all-powerful Revolutionary Guard by imposing new sanctions on Wednesday on the force behind suspect nuclear work and urging the world to do the same.

It ordered a freeze on assets of an individual and four firms linked to the Revolutionary Guard - a unilateral US step toward what President Barack Obama has warned will be a ’significant regime of sanctions’ backed internationally.

The Treasury Department designated a Revolutionary Guard commander and four subsidiaries of a construction firm owned or controlled by the elite unit as ‘proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters.’

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the US is targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for its role in Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, alleged links to terrorism and crackdown on anti-government protests. The Revolutionary Guard, which has been hit by repeated sanctions in the past, is also a major business force in Iran.

Mr Crowley said US diplomats put ‘particular emphasis’ on the elite military branch when they consult with other powers about sanctions, but they were not yet ready to put a draft resolution on the table at the UN Security Council. ‘Our objective here is to try to put pressure on the government and those who are supporting its policies, without having undue impact on the Iranian people,’ Mr Crowley told AFP.

The United States has been consulting with Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany on Iran, but Beijing now appears to be the lone hold-out against sanctions and is calling for further negotiations. The six powers have been leading a multi-year effort to curb Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which the West fears masks a drive to build a nuclear bomb. Iran denies the charge, saying it is for peaceful use of energy. — AFP

Canada to use its G-8 presidency to press for Iran sanctions

OTTAWA - CANADA will use its G-8 presidency to press the club of world’s richest nations for more sanctions against Iran to try to curb its nuclear ambitions, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday.

‘Canada will use its G-8 presidency to continue to focus international attention and action on the Iranian regime’ and ‘work with its allies to find strong and viable solutions, including sanctions, to hold Iran to account,’ Mr Harper said in a statement.

‘It is time for Iran to end its defiance of the international community, suspend its enrichment activity and take immediate steps toward transparency and compliance by halting the construction of new enrichment sites, and fully cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency,’ he said.

Mr Harper’s announcement came as the US Treasury Department ordered a freeze on assets of an individual and four companies linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. US President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for a ’significant regime of sanctions’ against Iran for seeking to further enrich nuclear materials in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions actions.

In Moscow, the powerful head of Russia’s national security council, Nikolai Patrushev, said Teheran’s announcement that it had started work to produce 20 per cent enriched uranium cast doubt on its claims not to be pursuing weapons. Mr Patrushev indicated the Kremlin’s patience in trying to seek dialogue with Teheran was wearing thin. — AFP

source: straits times

ye poor olde unwitting money launderers

Feb 5

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Angola, Banks, Corruption & Crime, Money Laundering, Nigeria | No Comments

PROBLEM: MASSIVE SYSTEMIC AND ORGANIZED CORRUPTION BECOMING OBVIOUS.

REACTION: OH SHIT.

SOLUTION: ADMIT TO SOME OF IT AT MID-LEVEL (RULE OF LAW!!) AND TRY TO MOVE ON.

1. US report details money laundering

A suitcase containing $1 million in shrink-wrapped bills, hand-carried into New York by the former president of Gabon for his daughter to buy a Manhattan apartment. Purchases of a stretch Hummer H2 armored limousine and C-130 Hercules military transport planes for a civil war in Angola. And a shell company named Sweet Pink used to funnel millions of dollars into the United States from Equatorial Guinea.

These and other deals and money transfers took place in recent years because of inadequate controls on money laundering at large American banks and unregulated American lawyers, real estate agents and lobbyists, according to a Senate report released late Wednesday, Lynnley Browning reports in The New York Times.

The 325-page report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which will conduct a hearing on Thursday, sheds new light on how banks like Citigroup, Wachovia and Bank of America unwittingly shifted hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of African politicians, their relatives and associates.

…The report details how Teodoro Nguema Obiang, the son of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president of Equatorial Guinea, used lawyers, bankers, real estate agents and escrow agents, all Americans, from 2004 through 2008 to move more than $110 million into the United States, including $100 million through Wachovia and Citibank.

Mr. Obiang, the subject of a criminal investigation into charges of money laundering, bribery and extortion, also employed Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, a law firm now known as Sidley Austin, to help him buy a $38.5 million Gulfstream G-5 jet in 2005, the report says.

Janet Zagorin, a spokeswoman for the firm, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

The report says two American lawyers, Michael Berger and George Nagler, helped Mr. Obiang circumvent controls at the banks by setting up accounts for shell companies with names like Beautiful Vision, Unlimited Horizon and Sweet Pink, named on honor of the rapper Eve, Mr. Obiang’s girlfriend at the time.

more @ nytimes

2. Atiku, of Nigeria, in money laundering scandal

Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President, and his wife Jennifer Douglas, received and laundered over six billion naira in corruption money through several American banks, the United States Senate announced yesterday in Washington DC.

The revelation was contained in a 330-page report of the U.S. Senate’s permanent sub-committee on investigations, a part of the Homeland Securities and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee which investigated the use of offshore companies to bring what was called “dirty money” into the United States.

According to the report, in the eight years that Mr. Abubakar was vice president, “from 2000 to 2008, Mr. Abubakar and Ms. Douglas used a network of accounts at U.S. financial institutions to bring over $40 million in suspect funds into the United States, through multiple wire transfers supplied by offshore corporations located in Germany, Nigeria, Panama, the British Virgin Islands, and Switzerland.”

…A Munich court in 2007 found Siemens guilty of paying bribes to top Nigerian government officials in order to obtain four telecommunications projects, and fined the company $248million.

…The report detailed the profile of a totally clueless Ms. Douglas, cast merely as a money guzzling machine which had no notion of the sources and the health of the money she so enthusiastically helped to launder into the United States financial system.

“When her banks asked about these corporations, Ms. Douglas consistently told them that she was unfamiliar with the nature of the offshore corporations sending her money.”

When the banks became suspicious of her activities and decided to close her accounts, the former vice president’s wife simply closed the accounts and opened new ones in different banks, the committee found out. “Over time, as each financial institution began to ask questions about the offshore corporations sending her funds and decided to close her accounts, she opened new accounts at other financial institutions, at times with the assistance of her U.S. lawyer, Edward Weidenfeld.”

more @ next

3. HSBC, BOA moved “suspect”  Angola funds, study says

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) — Bank of America Corp. didn’t raise enough questions about how an Angolan arms dealer now in prison moved millions of dollars in “suspect” funds to the U.S., says a Senate report on corrupt foreign money entering the country.

HSBC Holdings Plc also gave an Angolan bank, Banco Africano de Investimentos, “ready access to the U.S. financial system” during the past decade although the bank failed to identify all of its owners and couldn’t provide written anti-money-laundering policies, the report said. Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil producer after Nigeria, has a history of corruption.

The report described weaknesses in the U.S. anti-money- laundering system that requires banks to raise red flags when foreign officials and their relatives and associates move money. It analyzed how such “politically exposed persons,” or PEPs, from four oil-rich African nations circumvented safeguards. One was Pierre Falcone, the Angolan arms dealer now in prison in France.

…BAI resisted repeated attempts by HSBC in the past decade to determine the exact ownership structure of the bank, according to the report. In all, HSBC couldn’t determine the owner of 19.5 percent of BAI’s shares, according to the report.

“HSBC takes compliance matters very seriously,” said spokeswoman Juanita Gutierrez in an e-mailed statement. “HSBC’s record demonstrates a commitment to vigorous enforcement and continuous enhancement of anti-money-laundering policies and practices.”

HSBC also conducted a business venture with Falcone in Angola through their joint ownership from 1997 to 2004 of Triang Ltd., a trucking operation that transported fuel for the Angolan diamond industry, according to the report.

more @ bloomberg


excitement always follows lev leviev

Jan 28

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Banks, China, India, Israel, Minerals, Oil, Oligarchs | No Comments

1. Lev Leviev tied to Chinese intelligence, business interests in Angola — Sonagol

The suspicions were spelled out in a report recently compiled by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which was established by Congress in 2000 in order to “monitor, investigate and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action.” The report noted, among other things, that the group of Chinese corporations has business ties with Israeli businessman and diamond magnate Lev Leviev.

Us ing the group, Chinese intelligence acquires oil and energy companies and other important assets in countries in Africa, Latin American, Southeast Asia, as well as in the United States. In this way it promotes Chinese national interests, increases its influence and guarantees the supply of raw materials - first and foremost oil - necessary for its economy.

…The Chinese companies are assisted in some of their international activities by the Angolan government, a rising economic power in Africa, and particularly its national oil company Sonangol. The report mentions three international businessmen connected to the Angolan-Chinese cooperation, with the help of a company called China-Sonangol, which is registered in Hong Kong. China-Sonangol is part of the 88 Queensway Group.

…One is Helder Battaglia, a Portuguese businessman with close ties to Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, as well as Chavez and Kirchner. Battaglia has varied investments in Angola, Congo and Latin America. The second is Pierre Falcone, a French businessman who was Arcadi Gaydamak’s partner, and together with Gaydamak was involved in supplying arms to the tune of about $800 million to Angola in the 1990s. Falcone, Gaydamak and others were recently convicted in a French court for illegal arms trade conducted in the ’90s. In recent years, Falcone moved the main center of his business to Beijing, and has become the person who opens Angola’s doors to China (for huge fees). Gaydamak is not mentioned at all in the report; it is known that he is at odds with Falcone and the two are embroiled in legal proceedings over the profits of the arms deal.

The third businessman mentioned in the American report is Lev Leviev, who was Gaydamak’s partner and who according to the report continues to have a strong standing in Angola, where he has mines, diamond polishing plants and a diamond trade company.

more @ haaretz

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145688.html

2. India, Angola agree to cooperation for hydrocarbon sector — there’s Sonagol again

Luanda (Angola), Jan 27: India and Angola on Wednesday said that the two countries will enter into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide an overarching framework for cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector.

…During the meeting a MoU was signed between ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL) and the National Oil Company of Angola namely, Sonangol, for cooperation in the exploration sector.

OVL, which is partnering Sonangol in their South Pars acreage in Iran, offered to enter joint venture operations in the existing deep-water blocks of Sonangol.

more @ newkerala.com

3. China-based Singapore firms rapidly collapsing amidst debt and fraud — time to buy some cheap assets?

Since late 2007, a spate of so-called S-chips - mainland companies listed on the Singapore exchange - have borrowed money then failed to repay the debts, with some becoming mired in fraud scandals….Not surprisingly, global investment banks have been involved in pushing the S-chips’ debt onto investors.

banks involved include Deutsche, Morgan Stanley.  - ed.

read more @ businessinsider


Nigeria corruption tentacles

Jan 24

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Banks, Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime, France, Nigeria, Oil | 1 Comment

1. Obasanjo breaks silence on Nigeria’s sick president — denies that he picked someone known to be an invalid

LAGOS, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) — Former Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo has said ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua showed a medical report that certified him fit to contest the 2007 Presidential election. Responding to questions at a media forum in Abuja, Obasanji said Yar’Adua had all the qualities of a good leader, at the time he was chosen as his party’s candidate for the election….“So, for people to say that I, Olusegun Obasanjo deliberately brought somebody who is an invalid to rule this country is the height of insult,” he stressed. “That I have put so much into this country in peace and in war and given this country to somebody who will run it down,” he asked. “No body picked Yar’Adua so that he will not perform, If I did that, God will punish me because I love this country so much and there is no reason why I should do that,” Obasanjo told his audience.

more @ chinaview

2.14 days to decide Yar’Adua’s fate

A Judge in the country, Justice Dan Abutu, has ordered the cabinet to pass a resolution on Yar’Adua’s fitness within two weeks after a former lawmaker brought a legal case against the government, saying his failure to transfer power was in breach of the constitution.

…The Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, said “If you take up a job, elected, appointed or whatever, and then your health starts to fail you and you will not be able to deliver, to satisfy the people you are supposed to serve, then there is a path of honour and path of morality. If you don’t know that, you don’t know anything. I will stop on that note,” he told a briefing in Abuja on Thursday. The ex-President is still an influential figure within the ruling party and his closeness to the Vice President means his influence over government could grow should he (the VP) take over.

more @ newstime africa

3. $350 M seized from Abacha’s son by Swiss authorities. unnamed Monaco intermediary penalized for abetting money laundering

Authorities in Switzerland have ordered the seizure of assets worth around $350m from Abba Abacha, son of Sani Abacha, ex-President of Nigeria. The order came as a result of a suspended custodial sentence emanating from a conviction of being a member of a criminal organisation. Abba, one of the sons of the late military dictator, has also been convicted for graft.

The investigation which started in 1999 was as a result of a request by the Nigerian government to the swiss authorities to recover an estimated $3 billion misappropriated by Sani Abacha during his four-year rule as Nigeria’s Head of State. The government of Nigeria has since recovered $700m form the Swiss. In a statement, the Geneva Canton’s justice office said “The first order of the sentence issued yesterday by the examining magistrate found that Abba Abacha, born November 9, 1968, son of the late General Sani Abacha, was guilty of participation in a criminal organisation,”

The Swiss authorities also confirmed that they had convicted an intermediary who is currently living in Monaco, for having been part of the criminal organisation run by the Abacha family. In a statement the authorities said “The person has also been ordered to pay the Canton of Geneva 10million Swiss Francs — which corresponds to illegal gains obtained from these culpable activities,” It seems the Abacha family used members of their family, close aides and business associates to transfer the money into different Swiss bank accounts.

source: newstime africa

4. World Bank president and uber-zionist NWO creep Zoellick to visit Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia for the African Union Summit, starting Tuesday.

5. it appears that some of the money in question, in the Swiss bank accounts, needed to be laundered because it came from Halliburton and KBR, to bribe Nigerian officials in the course of building a liquefied natural gas plant in Nigeria — NEXT Magazine, March 2009

At least three of our former presidents, Sani Abacha, Abdusalami Abubakar, and Olusegun Obasanjo, received millions of dollars in bribes from American and European contractors retained to build Africa’s first liquefied natural gas plant in Bonny, Rivers State, according to US law enforcement officials. Also enmeshed in the vast and formalized bribery scheme is a long line of ministers, bureaucrats, top politicians,state and local officials and former oil minister Dan Etete, according to American investigators.

This cast of characters, charged with running the affairs of 150 million people in the heart of Africa,received stacks of US dollar bills in briefcases and sometimes in bullion vans. In other cases they received their payoffs via electronic bank transfers involving such financial institutions as Citibank. In all, these eminent Nigerians accepted at least N27 billion in bribes from the oil services companies in exchange for billions of dollars in contracts to build our liquefied natural gas plant, US investigators say.

very comprehensive article at NEXT

6. timeline of Halliburton and Nigeria bribery scandal

1988: Dresser Industries acquires M.W. Kellogg, ten years before Dresser merges with Halliburton.

September 1994: M.W. Kellogg and three other companies form a partnership known as TSKJ, incorporated in Medeira, Portugal. Each partner owns a 25 percent equal share. Kellogg’s three other partners are Technip of France, Italy’s Snamprogetti, and Japan Gasoline Corp. The partnership submits a bid to Nigeria LNG to build a natural gas plant in Nigeria. Nigeria LNG is owned by the Nigerian government and Royal Dutch/Shell Group. TSKJ’s $2 billion bid is not immediately accepted even though it was 5 percent lower than a bid submitted by competitor, Bechtel Group, Inc.

November 1994: As TSKJ awaits Nigeria’s decision on the bid, Wojciech Chodan, an executive at Kellogg and later a consultant for Kellogg Brown & Root, meets with London lawyer Jefferey Tesler, who is known for his contacts and friendly relations with the Nigerian government, including its dictator Gen. Sani Abacha. During the meeting, they discussed channeling $40 million to Gen. Abacha through Mr. Tesler’s firm Tri-Star, based in Gibralter, Spain.

March 1995: TSKJ formally hires Mr. Tesler as agent; TSKJ’s bid has still not been accepted by Nigeria LNG. Mr. Tesler’s employment contract is signed by an M.W. Kellogg executive on behalf of the TSKJ partnership. Mr. Tesler had been working on behalf of TSKJ prior to March 1995 and the employment contract was given to Mr. Tesler as a reward for his prodding of Nigerian officials. The employment contract provided that Mr. Tesler would be paid $60 million if Nigeria awarded the construction contract to TSKJ. Mr. Tesler’s Tri-Star was contracted to receive at least $160 million in five agreements signed between 1995 and 2002, and the funds were directed to bank accounts in Switzerland and Monaco.

etc. more @ halliburton watch

7. December 2003: will the French indict Cheney? guess not….

One of France’s best-known investigating magistrates, Judge Renaud van Ruymbeke–who came to fame by unearthing major French campaign finance scandals in the 1990s that led to a raft of indictments–has been conducting a probe of the Nigeria deal since October. And, three days before Christmas, the Paris daily Le Figaro front-paged the news that Judge van Ruymbeke had notified the Justice Ministry that Cheney might be among those eventually indicted as a result of his investigation. …The suspected bribe money was mostly ladled out between 1995 and 2000, when Cheney was Halliburton’s CEO. The Journal du Dimanche reported on December 21 that “it is probable that some of the ‘retrocommissions’ found their way back to the United States” and asked, did this money go “to Halliburton’s officials? To officials of the Republican Party?” These questions have so far gone unasked by America’s media, which have completely ignored the explosive Le Figaro headline revealing the targeting of Cheney. It will be interesting to see if the US press looks seriously into this ticking time-bomb of a scandal before the November elections.

more @ dissident voice

8. June 2009: interview with Moshood Fayemiwo, Part 1 and Part 2

9. interview with Obasanjo — date unknown but probably March 2009

psychopath parlor games: i’ll trade you untold millions of poor brown people from 14 underfunded emergencies for one Andrew Hall

Jan 19

Posted by A. Peasant in Banks, Corruption & Crime, Evil, Mind-fucking | No Comments


January 2010: UN allocates 100 MILLION dollars to respond to 14 neglected crises

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) — The United Nations has allocated some 100 million U.S. dollars to respond to 14 ongoing but underfunded emergencies, ranging from Afghanistan to Yemen, the world organization announced Monday.

The single largest allocation of some 17 million dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) went to UN agencies and their partners in Ethiopia. The Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC) came second with approximately 16 million dollars.

Other recipient countries include Afghanistan, Kenya, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Yemen, Chad, Niger, Colombia, Eritrea, the Philippines and Haiti. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted in a news release that Haiti’s full funding needs are being re-evaluated in light of the tragic earthquake that struck the country last Tuesday.

Launched in March 2006, CERF is managed by OCHA and aims to speed up relief operations for humanitarian emergencies and make funds available quickly after a disaster, when people are most at risk.

July 2009: Bank Bonus Tab $33 billion

Nine banks that received government aid money paid out bonuses of nearly $33 billion [conspiracy math fact: 1 billion = 1,000 million - ed.] last year — including more than $1 million apiece to nearly 5,000 employees — despite huge losses that plunged the U.S. into economic turmoil….The nine firms in the report had combined 2008 losses of nearly $100 billion. That helped push the financial system to the brink, leading the government to inject $175 billion into the firms through its Troubled Asset Relief Program.

…Those on Wall Street argue they have to pay to keep talent.

…Citigroup — which received about 25% of the aid going to the nine banks — has the No. 1 pay recipient. Andrew Hall, who heads Citigroup’s energy-trading unit Phibro LLC, received $98.9 million in 2008, according to a government official. Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, by comparison, received more than $38 million last year.An early test for Mr. Feinberg will be the pay of Mr. Hall, whose profit-sharing contract with the bank could again entitle him to as much as $100 million, say people familiar with the matter.

it’s only money!

Jan 11

Posted by A. Peasant in Banks, China, Corruption & Crime | No Comments

1. huge real estate development firm misses payment

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — Tishman Speyer Properties LP and BlackRock Inc. will miss a bond payment today on debt from their $5.4 billion purchase of Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village apartments, the companies said in a statement.  “Today’s announcement has no immediate impact on tenant services or the day-to-day operations of the community,” Tishman and BlackRock said in a joint statement. Missing the payment puts the 80-acre property, Manhattan’s largest residential enclave, on course to become the second- largest default in a commercial mortgage-backed security, after the $4.1 billion default of loans backing Extended Stay America Inc. hotels last year, according to Fitch Ratings. Tishman and BlackRock’s monthly debt payments are $16.1 million, according to Adam Fox, senior director at Fitch.

read more @ businessweek

2. Singapore govt writes off many millions over Tishman default

THE Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has confirmed that it incurred losses from an investment in a prime New York property project after the American owners defaulted on a debt payment at the weekend.  GIC is believed to have written off over US$575 million (S$798 million) and it confirmed to The Straits Times that it ‘recognised the losses’ on its investment last year in Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, two enormous housing apartment blocks bought for US$5.4 billion. GIC did not reveal the exact losses it incurred. The owners, a venture led by Tishman Speyer Properties and a unit of BlackRock, missed a bond payment on debt amounting to some US$16 million on Jan 8 to its lenders, who have begun their default process. The Straits Times understands that GIC has written off the losses, which reports have estimated to be around US$575 million in debt and US$100 million to US$200 million in equity. Real estate investments made up 12 per cent of GIC’s asset mix as of its last report for the year ended 31 March 2009.

source: straits times

3. how does something this big miss a monthly payment of $16 million?

Tishman Speyer is one of the leading owners, developers, fund managers and operators of real estate in the world, having managed a portfolio of assets since its inception of more than 77,000,000 square feet (7,200,000 m2) in major metropolitan areas across the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Tishman Speyer’s properties include such well-known icons as New York City’s Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, and CitySpire Center. Internationally, Tishman owns São Paulo’s North Tower. They used to own London’s Millbank Tower and are still the property manager of the building. Their most recent project in London is the reconstruction of Fleetway House, now known as Nexus. In 2007 they sold the Lipstick Building in New York.

Since 2005 Tishman has been in three of the biggest real estate deals in United States history:

* Sale of 666 Fifth Avenue for US$1.8 billion the biggest single building deal in the history of the U.S.[1]
* Purchase of the MetLife Building for $1.72 billion which was the previous record.
* Purchase of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village for $5.4 billion, consisting of 80 acres (320,000 m2) of prime Manhattan land that includes 110 buildings and 11,232 apartments. It is the biggest single-property real estate deal up to this time in U.S. history.

from wikipedia

4. China economic growth to hit 9% this year: Deutsche Bank

BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) — China’s economic growth would hit 9 percent in 2010 with exports making bigger contribution to it, a senior economist said here Monday….Ma also said inflation and asset bubbles were the main challenges facing the country this year.

read more @ chinaview

China investing in:

regenerative medicine,

space observation,

Antarctic exploration It is the first time that China has built such an observatory in Grove Mountains, one of rare areas in the Antarctica where mountain peaks jut out from icecaps, hiding numerous ancient secrets about the Earth’s geological and climate changes, as well as its circling around the Sun.

5. China officials took US $50B

BEIJING - THOUSANDS of officials have fled China over the past 30 years with some US$50 billion (S$69 billion) in public funds, state media said on Monday, as the government scrambles to stem the tide of corruption. As many as 4,000 officials have disappeared, using criminal gangs, mainly in the United States and Australia, to launder their ill-gotten gains, buy real estate and set up false identities, the Global Times said.

read more @ straits times

6. Chinese graduate donates $8,888,888 to Yale

NEW YORK - A GRADUATE of Yale University from China has donated US$8,888,888 (S$12.4 million) to the college. Mr Zhang Lei, a successful investor who graduated from the Yale School of Management in 2002, made the ‘extraordinary and auspicious’ gift to help build a new campus for the business school, university president Richard Levin announced at a conference in Beijing last week, the Yale Daily News reported. Eight is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture. The gift from Mr Zhang, 38, is the largest donation on record from a young Yale graduate, the university newspaper said. The money will also be used to fund international scholarships and China-related activities at the university. Hailing from a modest background, Mr Zhang was raised in central China and came to Yale with little experience in the financial world, the paper said.

source: straits times

7. oh geez everything is returning to normal now, yeah, phew, hey if the central banks say so it must be true, huh?

BASEL (Switzerland) - EMERGING economies are driving a global economic recovery, the head of the ECB said Monday after central bankers concluded that the world economy was returning to normality. ‘At a global level … there is a confirmation of the progressive normalisation of the economy,’ European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet said on behalf of the central bank chiefs. During their first quarterly meeting of the year at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central bankers confirmed that a global economic recovery was underway.  ‘We are in the recovery mode, that is something that is very much due to the emerging economies,’ Mr Trichet said. Those economies had ‘demonstrated resilience,’ and were ‘very, very clearly in a more dynamic mode now,’ the ECB chief told reporters.

read more @ straits times

8. the easy way to make money: don’t pay people for their work. in fact, make them pay YOU for letting them work and gain experience.

Question: I passed the nursing board last year, but most vacancies—here and abroad—require some experience. To gain some experience, I’ve applied for the position of on-the-job trainee in several hospitals here in Metro Manila. But instead of getting paid for work done in this private hospital that accepted me, I pay them P3,000 every month to “train” me. And I’m not the only one. We are about 10 in this hospital. Isn’t this unfair? Is the Board of Nursing aware of this? What are you doing about this? – Katherine T., Valenzuela City.

inquirer

the trouble with money

Jan 7

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Banks, China, Corruption & Crime, Ukraine | No Comments

1. domestic politics imperil IMF deals in Europe, Ukraine

Almost all mainland Europe’s most exposed economies — notably Ukraine, Latvia, Hungary — hold major elections in 2010, meaning short-term political ends will likely take priority over meeting IMF requirements….If countries do not follow its prescriptions, the IMF will have to decide whether to walk away and risk letting them collapse and potentially default — which could spark a wider market rout — or become less stringent in its demands.

That in itself will likely come down to how the powers that dominate IMF board voting rights choose to play it. Many of these countries, such as Britain, are simultaneously facing demands from ratings agencies to make painful cuts themselves to square their ballooning budget deficits. Troubled emerging economies will likely feel hard done by and may even band together if richer countries are slow to tackle their own debt but continue to lecture weaker states.

read more @ kyiv post

2. surprise Chinese tightening signal hits copper

Copper fell from an 18 month high but has since steadied after China’s central bank unexpectedly made moves that traders say could signal the start of monetary tightening by the super power….The People’s Bank of China unexpectedly raised rates at a three-month bill auction, which traders said could signal the start of monetary tightening.

read more @ mineweb

3. global financial overhaul soon

WASHINGTON/LONDON - GLOBAL financial regulation has changed little since the 2008 banking crisis, but that won’t be the case much longer. US and EU authorities are expected to hammer out the final shape of a new regulatory order in 2010 that will fundamentally change how world banks and markets operate. Stricter limits on leverage and capital will emerge, leading eventually to slimmer profits for banks, policy analysts said. Formerly unregulated off-exchange derivatives markets will have to conform to new procedures. Lenders’ power to package and securitise mortgages and other forms of debt will face new limits, while hedge funds - once the darlings of high finance - will face new scrutiny.

read more @ straits times

4. counterfeit US dollars all over Africa

Counterfeit United States Dollars are in huge calculation in most African countries as hardly a month passes by without arrests. Tuesday morning, both Zambian and Zimbabwean authorities announced arrests involving huge sums of counterfeit notes.

In Zambia, police Tuesday arrested a 37 year old state security intelligence officer, suspected of being member of a larger group, for being in possession of nearly US $80,000 counterfeit notes. Richard Nzala, a constable in the Office of the President, was arrested and detained by the Drug Enforcement Commission when he attempted to sell off the counterfeits to unsuspecting people, reports say….He becomes the second security personnel to be arrested in recent months following the arrest of a Zambia Army soldier who was arrested for possessing over US$ 2.5 million dollars of counterfeit notes.

read more @ afrik.com