Begin forwarded message:
From: dasg...@aol.com
Date: February 24, 2009 8:03:40 PM PST
To: ramille...@aol.com
Cc: ema...@aol.com, j...@aol.com, jim6...@cwnet.com,
l...@legitgov.org, garyn2...@yahoo.com, rsit...@rawstory.com, t...@talkingpointsmemo.com
Subject: Stanford Stinks of Moneylaundering/Drug Trafficking/CIA ...
Bush Octopus?
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/www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5119012
Peru investigates Stanford for money laundering
Edited on Sat Feb-21-09 02:17 PM by seafan
Source: Reuters
LIMA (Reuters) - Peru has started an investigation to see if the local
unit of Stanford Financial Group engaged in money laundering, the
country's lead public prosecutor for such crimes said in an interview
on Friday.
Jorge Luis Caldas told Reuters that Peru's investigation would also
look into whether the company sold high-yield certificates of deposit
without a licence.
The CDs are at the core of what U.S. authorities have called an $8
billion (5.5 billion pound) "massive" fraud allegedly carried out by
Texas billionaire Allen Stanford and several of his companies.
Caldas disclosed the inquiry a day after Peru's securities regulator
suspended the operations of the local Stanford office for 30 days.
"We are going to investigate to verify if, in effect, there was money
laundering," Caldas said.
ABC News reported the U.S. FBI and other agencies have looked into
whether Stanford was involved in laundering drug money from Mexico's
drug cartel.
Peru is the world's No. 2 cocaine producer after Colombia, and
officials say Colombian and Mexican cartels work in Peru.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKTRE51J5BS2009...
FBI inquiry links Stanford to Mexican cocaine cartel, February 19, 2009
Past probes sought to tie Stanford to drugs, February 20, 2009
Authorities for years have investigated R. Allen Stanford, looking for
ties to organized drug cartels and money laundering, going back at
least a decade when the Texas billionaire’s offshore bank surrendered
$3 million in drug money, state and federal sources told the Houston
Chronicle Friday.
But no one has ever been able to make a criminal case.
Texas securities officials investigated, as did the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration and the FBI. But none found solid evidence
of a link between drug money and Stanford, who now stands accused of
running a multibillion-dollar fraud at his offshore bank in Antigua
and Houston-based brokerage firm.
In the late 1990s, according to court documents, operatives of the
Juarez cartel began opening accounts at Stanford’s Antigua-based bank
in an effort to launder money amassed under one of Mexico’s most
vicious drug lords, Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Together, they used
Stanford International Bank to open 10 accounts and deposit $3 million
— a small sliver of the cartel’s fortunes but enough to pique
authorities’ interest.
Now, more than a decade later, federal sources tell the Chronicle, any
alleged Stanford connection to drug cartels and their money could lie
buried in the paperwork gathered for the Security and Exchange
Commission’s civil inquiry.
After the FBI located Stanford in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area on
Thursday, February 19, and serving him with SEC papers for $8 billion
fraud, and without arresting him, IS ANYONE TAILING THIS MAN??
Remember former SEC attorney Gary Aguirre's testimony that an insider
trading investigation was squelched?
from 2007
In a December (2006) hearing of the Judiciary Committee, just before
Congress changed hands, Grassley and the panel's then-chairman,
Specter, uncovered further evidence of Justice Department collusion in
efforts to thwart congressional inquiry and intimidate whistleblowers.
This involved the unheard-of step of subpoenaing confidential
discussions between a whistleblower and congressional staff.
That hearing focused on charges, by former Securities and Exchange
Commission attorney Gary Aguirre, that an investigation into insider
trading by one of the largest hedge funds was squelched by SEC
officials. Aguirre had wanted to take testimony from a prominent Wall
Street figure, who was also a major fundraiser for President Bush.
When he pressed the point, he was not only prevented from doing so --
he was fired.
Jeb Bush's former business partner Armando Codina takes $255 Million
from FEC stock sale in buyout
from 2007
In another example, Tuesday’s purchase of Florida East Coast
Industries, a railway and real estate company, by Fortress Investment
Group, was preceded by soaring options trading almost a week earlier.
As many as 16,747 options contracts on Florida East Coast were traded
last Wednesday alone – almost 27 times the average daily trading
volume for April of just 623 contracts.
Trading in options to buy shares of Florida East Coast Industries Inc.
surged to the most ever last week before the railroad operator said it
will be acquired by private equity firm Fortress Investment Group LLC.
Let's not forget, Jeb Bush joined Lehman in 2007:
Did the SEC overlook Lehman insider trading?, February 23, 2009
Regulator Faces Fresh Scrutiny Over Trading Inquiry at Lehman,
February 22, 2009
Kucinich on Stanford Group Fraud: Who Told SEC to "Stand Down?",
February 21, 2009
The signs all point back to revelations such as this one:
Intelligence Czar Can Waive SEC Rules
May 23, 2006
President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John
Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to
excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and
securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a
brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was
opaque to the untrained eye.
Unbeknownst to almost all of Washington and the financial world, Bush
and every other President since Jimmy Carter have had the authority to
exempt companies working on certain top-secret defense projects from
portions of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. Administration officials
told BusinessWeek that they believe this is the first time a President
has ever delegated the authority to someone outside the Oval Office.
It couldn't be immediately determined whether any company has received
a waiver under this provision. .....
-----------
By Dawn Kopecki
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2006/nf20060523_2210.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily
Intelligence Czar Can Waive SEC Rules
Now, the White House's top spymaster can cite national security to
exempt businesses from reporting requirements
President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John
Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to
excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and
securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a
brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was
opaque to the untrained eye.
Unbeknownst to almost all of Washington and the financial world, Bush
and every other President since Jimmy Carter have had the authority to
exempt companies working on certain top-secret defense projects from
portions of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. Administration officials
told BusinessWeek that they believe this is the first time a President
has ever delegated the authority to someone outside the Oval Office.
It couldn't be immediately determined whether any company has received
a waiver under this provision.
The timing of Bush's move is intriguing. On the same day the President
signed the memo, Porter Goss resigned as director of the Central
Intelligence Agency amid criticism of ineffectiveness and poor morale
at the agency. Only six days later, on May 11, USA Today reported that
the National Security Agency had obtained millions of calling records
of ordinary citizens provided by three major U.S. phone companies.
Negroponte oversees both the CIA and NSA in his role as the
administration's top intelligence official.
FEW ANSWERS. White House spokeswoman Dana M. Perino said the timing
of the May 5 Presidential memo had no significance. "There was nothing
specific that prompted this memo," Perino said.
In addition to refusing to explain why Bush decided to delegate this
authority to Negroponte, the White House declined to say whether Bush
or any other President has ever exercised the authority and allowed a
company to avoid standard securities disclosure and accounting
requirements. The White House wouldn't comment on whether Negroponte
has granted such a waiver, and BusinessWeek so far hasn't identified
any companies affected by the provision. Negroponte's office did not
respond to requests for comment.
Securities-law experts said they were unfamiliar with the May 5 memo
and the underlying Presidential authority at issue. John C. Coffee, a
securities-law professor at Columbia University, speculated that
defense contractors might want to use such an exemption to mask secret
assignments for the Pentagon or CIA. "What you might hide is
investments: You've spent umpteen million dollars that comes out of
your working capital to build a plant in Iraq," which the government
wants to keep secret. "That's the kind of scenario that would be
plausible," Coffee said.
AUTHORITY GRANTED. William McLucas, the Securities & Exchange
Commission's former enforcement chief, suggested that the ability to
conceal financial information in the name of national security could
lead some companies "to play fast and loose with their numbers."
McLucas, a partner at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr
in Washington, added: "It could be that you have a bunch of books and
records out there that no one knows about."
The memo Bush signed on May 5, which was published seven days later in
the Federal Register, had the unrevealing title "Assignment of
Function Relating to Granting of Authority for Issuance of Certain
Directives: Memorandum for the Director of National Intelligence." In
the document, Bush addressed Negroponte, saying: "I hereby assign to
you the function of the President under section 13(b)(3)(A) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended."
A trip to the statute books showed that the amended version of the
1934 act states that "with respect to matters concerning the national
security of the United States," the President or the head of an
Executive Branch agency may exempt companies from certain critical
legal obligations. These obligations include keeping accurate "books,
records, and accounts" and maintaining "a system of internal
accounting controls sufficient" to ensure the propriety of financial
transactions and the preparation of financial statements in compliance
with "generally accepted accounting principles."
---------------
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5119012#5123688
Whaddya know: Stanford also owned 2 small Caribbean airlines: "Paging
Daniel Hopsicker", indeed.
Cannonfire reports:
Here's where it gets really interesting. Stanford also owned not one
but two airlines: Caribbean Sun Airlines, headquartered in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, and Caribbean Star Airlines, based in Antigua.
The two entities are, we are told, unrelated.
Man, this rabbit hole is infinite.
Many Florida connections to this jet with 4 tons cocaine on board that
crashed this week in Cancun., September 28, 2007
Update: Jet loaded with cocaine/heroin that crashed in Yucatan
September 24 linked to CIA. October 6, 2007
Bush Fundraiser Linked to CIA Cocaine Plane, October 29, 2007
FBI uncovers drug money-for-aircraft laundering scheme through Miami
bank (McCain connection), February 4, 2008
The DC 9 with 5.5 tons coke is part of this FBI case. Owner Royal Sons
is linked to Huffman, February 9, 2008
This pot is starting to boil.
There are a lot of dots to connect
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/aristide.htm
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's plane stopped for food and fuel on the
Caribbean island of Antigua on Sunday before departing for South
Africa, government and airport officials said, But a South African
official said there had been no recent contact with Aristide or any
offer of asylum.
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