-Caveat Lector- National City Bank (now Citibank) was founded by James Stillman and William Rockefeller. James Stillman had an interesting career in Texas prior to taking his father's blockade running money to New York to start the bank. As can be seen from the following excerpts, Citibank has long-standing ties with Mexico. Linda Minor from: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/web_fetch_doc?dataset=tsha.dst&db=handboo k&doc_id=4672&query=stillman STILLMAN, JAMES (1850-1918). James Stillman, son of Elizabeth Pamela (Goodrich) and Charles Stillman,qv was born on June 9, 1850, at Brownsville, Texas. He took over his father's financial and mercantile empire in New York, Texas, and Mexico in 1872 and turned it into the controlling interest in the National City Bank in New York and the most powerful force in the development of the Rio Grande valley. He greatly expanded the interests in Texas that he inherited from his father. His Texas holdings included the bonds of sixteen banks; control of land-development companies in the lower Rio Grande valley,qv Corpus Christi, and Kerrville; an interest in the Swenson Ranch; and, with the other three members of the "Big Four"- W. H. Harriman, Jacob Henry Schiff,qv and William Rockefeller-control of most Texas railroads. The Big Four served as directors under his chairmanship on the board, put together by Stillman, of the National City Bank. They controlled the Texas and Pacific, the Southern Pacific, the International-Great Northern, the Union Pacific Southern, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico, and the Mexican National, which ran from Corpus Christi to Mexico City and from the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico terminus on the border at Brownsville to the Mexican capital. In 1876 Stillman supported the successful Revolution of Tuxtepec, conducted by Mexican general Porfirio Díaz from Brownsville, which resulted in the overthrow of the Mexican government. Díaz's partisans called themselves the "railroaders." During the fighting Stillman purchased 100 percent of the riparian rights to the Rio Grande at Brownsville and up the river for an indeterminate distance. He sold two-thirds interest in those rights to the Mexican National Railroad in the 1890s. In 1880 Stillman, his employee Thomas Carson, who was the mayor of Brownsville, James Belden, and other Brownsville men received the concession from the Mexican president for the railroad to be built from Matamoros to Monterrey, where Stillman and Belden had large investments. During the twentieth century Stillman's enormous properties along the border were developed and sold by the American Rio Grande Land and Irrigation Company of Mercedes, a confidential subsidiary of the National City Bank. Although Stillman's interests became global and he held more than 20 percent of the stock in the world's largest bank, he retained his father's $200,000 share in George W. Brackenridge'sqv San Antonio National Bank throughout his life. He used that and his father's long ties with Brackenridge to develop property in West Texas and Mexico. His heirs expressed surprise when Brackenridge's will returned the $200,000 to them; they had apparently lost track of it. Stillman's two daughters married sons of his lifelong close friend William Rockefeller, the chairman of the board of the Standard Oil Company. Stillman died on March 15, 1918, in New York City. BIBLIOGRAPHY: John K. Winkler, The First Billion: The Stillmans and the National City Bank (New York: Vanguard, 1934). John Mason Hart ===== http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/web_fetch_doc?dataset=tsha.dst&db=handboo k&doc_id=4671&query=stillman STILLMAN, CHARLES (1810-1875). Charles Stillman, son of Francis and Harriet (Robbins) Stillman, was born at Wethersfield, Connecticut, on November 4, 1810. In February 1828 he went by way of New Orleans to Matamoros. In Mexico he developed a network of mercantile and industrial enterprises, including cotton brokerage and real estate firms, silver mines in Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, merchandise outlets, a shipping company that carried passengers and goods from the Gulf Coast up the river as far as Rio Grande City, and an off-loading, warehousing, and transportation company that carried goods to the Mexican interior as far as Guadalajara. Stillman and his partner, José Morell, established retailing outlets and founded one of the first textile factories at Monterrey. Stillman's Vallecillo mines, between Laredo and Monterrey, produced more than $4 million in silver and lead during the 1850s, and he sold their stock on the New York Stock Exchange. During the Mexican War Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy joined Stillman in the transport company hauling American troops up the river and supplying them. In the aftermath of the Mexican defeat Stillman purchased massive properties of the Garza grant north and northwest of Matamoros from the children of the first wife of José Narciso Cavazos. The sellers, however, had no legal right to make such a sale, since their father had remarried and the heirs of his second wife, led by the eldest son, Juan N. Cortina,qv inherited the land from their father upon his death. The excluded children of the first wife "sold" not only the family estates but also the ejido or community property of Matamoros, which was inalienable under Spanish and Mexican law. Nevertheless, Stillman started a town company to sell lots for as much as $1,500 each and named the place Brownsville. By 1850 a population of between 3,000 and 4,000 had concentrated there. Stillman later sold the enormous ranch property north of Brownsville to his partner Kenedy. The lands to the west of Brownsville were left to his son, James Stillman.qv As a result of land transactions and rising violence, many of the Mexicans fled south of the river and, led by Cortina, carried out a range war that continued for twenty-six years. In 1851 Stillman helped bankroll the attempted invasion of Mexico by José María Carbajalqv for the purpose of setting up the Republic of the Sierra Madre, which was to extend from Matamoros and Tampico inland to Monterrey, Saltillo, and Nuevo Laredo. Between 1862 and 1865 Stillman, King, and Kenedy transported Confederate cotton to Matamoros under contract for payment in gold. Stillman bought much of the cotton and sent it to his textile complex at Monterrey, but he sold even more of it in New York through his mercantile firm, Smith and Dunning. The United States government was a major purchaser. On one sale at Manhattan Stillman netted $18,851 on a gross of $21,504. His cotton buyers in Texas included George W. Brackenridge,qv and one of his major suppliers was Thomas William House.qv By the end of the war Stillman was one of the richest men in America. He concentrated his investments in the National City Bank of New York, which his son James later controlled, and supplied Brackenridge with $200,000 in the 1870s in order to establish the San Antonio National Bank. Stillman married Elizabeth Pamela Goodrich of Wethersfield, Connecticut, on August 17, 1849. He built a notable home in Brownsville in 1850 and lived in Brownsville and New York City until 1866, when he moved permanently to New York. He died there in December 1875. BIBLIOGRAPHY: LeRoy P. Graf, The Economic History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, 1820-1875 (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1942). Tom Lea, The King Ranch (2 vols., Boston: Little, Brown, 1957). Chauncey Devereux Stillman, Charles Stillman (New York, 1956). Stillman Papers, Harvard and Columbia University libraries. John K. Winkler, The First Billion: The Stillmans and the National City Bank (New York: Vanguard, 1934). John Mason Hart http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/web_fetch_doc?dataset=tsha.dst&db=handboo k&doc_id=4672&query=stillman -----Original Message----- From: Kris Millegan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Monday, November 08, 1999 10:03 AM Subject: [CTRL] OEN 11/8/99 > -Caveat Lector- > >from: >http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ >Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin >Grabbe</A> >----- >Money Laundering > > > > >Just don't ask John Reed about his hidden gold bars. > >WASHINGTON — Citibank, a U.S. banking powerhouse with operations spanning the >globe, is under Senate scrutiny for its handling of millions of dollars in >alleged drug money for a brother of a former Mexican president. > >The inquiry into activities of a unit of Citigroup Inc., the nation's largest >financial company, is shining a spotlight on the cloistered world of private >banking, which discreetly caters to the very wealthy. > >But, Senate investigators say, drug traffickers, corrupt officials and tax >evaders around the world are using private banking to launder their illicit >profits through the banking system. > >The abuses occur because private banking operations — which often require a >minimum deposit of $1 million — offer their clients secrecy with offshore >accounts, code names for account owners and shell companies, according to >investigators. > >The inquiry also is bringing one of the most powerful U.S. corporate executive >s, Citigroup Co-Chairman John Reed, to Capitol Hill. He is scheduled to >testify Tuesday before the Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee on >investigations. > >For a year, the subcommittee has examined the private banking activities of >New York-based Citibank — most notably its handling of alleged drug money for >Raul Salinas, the eldest brother of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who was >Mexico's president from 1988 to 1994. > >In money laundering, illicit profits from criminal activities pass through a >series of transactions to hide their origin and make them appear to be >legitimate business proceeds. > >The Senate investigation found that Reed, as the head of Citibank, failed to >take significant action in the early 1990s despite internal warnings that the >bank was failing to follow its own policies to prevent money laundering, said >a subcommittee investigator, speaking on condition of anonymity. >Reed was aware that Citibank's internal audits showed its private banking >operation was ignoring the control policies, the investigator said. > >Reed is expected to acknowledge in his testimony that bank oversight was lax >and that, as a result, key executives in the private banking operation were >replaced, rules were tightened and computer systems were improved for >monitoring the transactions of wealthy clients. > >Citibank also is more closely checking the backgrounds of foreign politicians >and other public figures before accepting them as private banking clients, >Reed is expected to tell the subcommittee. > >Citibank officials point to a report in January by Federal Reserve examiners >saying the private banking operation "has demonstrated that it is committed >to achieving its goal of changing the culture ... and creating a >well-integrated global risk management and internal control structure. >Significant progress has been made in correcting control deficiencies noted >at the prior inspection." > >The Senate investigators also have examined other suspicious foreign accounts >handled by Citibank's private bankers, who have offices in 30 countries and >offer services to some 40,000 clients with assets of $3 million or more. > >Citibank officials declined to comment directly on the Senate subcommittee's >investigation, which follows several other government probes. > >Raul Salinas was arrested by Mexican authorities in 1995 and imprisoned on >charges of masterminding the killing of a top ruling-party official. That >year the U.S. Justice Department began investigating Citibank's handling of >Salinas' money in an effort to determine whether the bank violated any laws. > >A report in December 1998 by congressional investigators found that Citibank >transferred as much as $100 million in suspected drug proceeds for Raul >Salinas in 1992-94. The report, by the General Accounting Office, Congress' >investigative arm, criticized Citibank for failing to check the source of the >money. > >The report found that Salinas' wife hand-carried checks to Citibank Mexico, >and they were transferred to Switzerland through a series of complex >transactions that hid their source. >Rumors abounded at the time that Salinas was linked to drug lords and had >dubious sources of income, but Citibank executives asked few questions when >the transactions were made, the report said. > >Citibank has said the report "contains errors of fact and interpretation." >The bank, which has denied breaking any laws, pledged its full cooperation >with law enforcement authorities. >In addition to Citibank, the Senate committee investigators have also looked >into an episode at BankBoston Corp. in which former bank executive Ricardo >Carrasco, a Uruguayan citizen, was accused of embezzling $73 million by >making fraudulent loans in private banking transactions. >Fox News, November 7, 1999 > > >Electronic Money > > >ECB Wants More Control Over Electronic Money > > >Oh, those anarchist electrons! > >The European Central Bank has intervened over key proposals to regulate >electronic money and is lobbying for a bigger say in financial services >regulation. > >However, an agreement on the proposals is expected to be struck today at a >meeting of European finance ministers despite the bank's reservations. The >ECB wants a bigger role in monitoring creation of electronic money. > >Finance ministers due to meet in Brussels today are expected to nod through >European Commission plans for supervising credit institutions that issue >electronic money. But Wim Duisenberg, ECB president, wrote to the Finnish >presidency of the EU last week saying that the bank had some serious concerns >about the issue and wanted more discussion. > >The Commission's proposals lay down a clear definition of electronic money >which can be used by consumers to buy goods over the internet. Electronic >money is monetary value stored on a chip card, or on a computer memory, which >is accepted as a means of payment. > >The Commission says a stable framework for regulating electronic money would >assist the growth of e-commerce and also make it easier for consumers to make >small payments in euros in other member countries without having to convert >national currencies. > >"Electronic money is not only the lifeblood of electronic commerce, but also >has the potential to replace a sizeable share of cash payments, notably >during the period before euro notes and coins are available," said Mario >Monti, commissioner responsible for the single market when the proposals were >made in July 1998. > >The proposals would allow issuers of electronic money to offer their services >throughout the EU as long as they complied with the rules set up by >supervisory bodies in their home country. > >The Commission's suggestions mean that issuers of electronic money would be >subject to reserve requirements imposed by the ECB as part of its monetary >policy measures. But if they do not offer other banking services, they would >be exempt from certain other banking supervision rules. > >Mr Duisenberg has said he would like to address the EU's finance ministers on >these issues. But Reijo Kempinnen, Finnish spokesman, said the ECB's concerns >were not likely to delay the proposals as ministers had agreed politically to >go ahead with them. However, they will still have to be discussed by the >European parliament, which could call for changes. >The Financial Times, November 7, 1999 > > >Digital Society > > >The Internet Takes Over the Stock Market > > >The near death experiences of traditional brokerage firms. > >Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance: the definitions of >Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, who achieved fame in the 1970s with her "five stages >of dying", is being dusted down for the new millennium. For John McKinley, >chief technology officer at Merrill Lynch, "Companies are going through the >same thing with the internet." > >The 750 delegates at the annual conference of the Securities Industry >Association were clearly in their final internet-induced death throes in Boca >Raton, Florida. The brokers, mostly over their denial, were either bravely >accepting the new world or hiding their depression. > >Speaker after speaker at the conference, which ended at the weekend, focused >on the technological changes in the industry. Traditional markets such as the >New York Stock Exchange are being threatened by the proliferation of >high-tech alternatives - the electronic communications networks (ECNs). That >is eroding the older exchange's price-setting power and putting pressure on >other areas such as speed of trade settlement. > >On the retail side, brokerages are being assailed by the rapid growth in >online trading. That, in turn, is affecting the pricing structure for >executing investor trades and turning attention to the importance of >providing - and charging for - good broker advice. > >The traditional industry groups are planning a variety of responses. The NYSE >announced it was forming its own ECN during the conference and also announced >some time ago its intention to go public. Merrill Lynch, said Mr McKinley, >had realised "our customers want instant gratification" and had invested in >ECNs. It was confident, he said, its online trading venture would thrive >because investors would still pay to tap into Merrill's vast research >resources. > >But there was an acknowledgment that their strategies might not be enough, >that no one knew where technology would lead. James Brinkley, the SIA's >incoming chairman, said: "Of all the inventions this century, more than half >will come in the last 15 years." > >Abby Joseph Cohen, the influential market strategist at Goldman Sachs, warned >delegates: "The technological shift is not yet over." She included her >discussion of technology under the section "what could go wrong" with the US >economy. > >Hank Paulson, her chairman and chief executive officer, was quite clear about >what could go wrong. The NYSE's plan to become a for-profit organisation put >its role as a regulator in a new light. While the large exchanges should >still be monitoring, for example, breaches of trading rules, he said there >might have to be some separate body between them and the Securities and >Exchange Commission to "come up with the rules and a regulatory mechanism". > >Mr Paulson also warned about fragmentation and the growth of the ECNs, saying: > "There is a fine line between competition and chaos." That theme was >continued by Arthur Levitt, the SEC chairman. Like a headmaster threatening >his unruly charges, he decried the lack of links between the exchanges and >hinted that as a result some brokers were able deliberately not to offer the >best prices to blindfolded investors. > >But David Pottruck called those arguments "the myth of fragmentation". He is >the president and co-chief executive officer of Charles Schwab, the company >that might legitimately claim to have written the "acceptance" chapter of the >five internet stages. For Schwab, whose 3m online customers trade $10bn >(£6bn) a week, up 500 per cent on just over a year ago, savvy Baby Boomers >are demanding the best prices already and forcing linkages between competing >exchanges. > >Mr Pottruck, who eschewed the internet buzzwords of others in favour of what >seemed a genuine understanding of the dynamics, expanded his Baby Boomer >theme. That post-war generation, he said, had already fundamentally altered >every market it had touched as it had aged. > >As that generation moved into its investor years, he said, it was affecting >the securities industry. It would continue to reject its parents' model, >aware of the "inherent conflicts" within Wall Street firms. He did not >believe the growth of information on the internet would allow companies to >hang on to research revenues for long. "Anyone who is a gatekeeper for >information should be looking over their shoulder." > >Mr Pottruck - "I don't think they invited me here to say the same things as >everyone else" - was told by a number of people after the speech that it was >the best they had heard. But it also left many of them questioning their >strategies for the electronic future. >The Financial Times, November 7, 1999 > > >Russian Follies > > >Are Russian Nukes Buried in the US? > > >The lost luggage in the FBI basement. > >WASHINGTON — A Pennsylvania congressman is warning the FBI that there may be >old, suitcase-size Soviet nuclear bombs buried throughout the United States. >So far, FBI agents have already combed through Brainerd, Minn., hoping to >discover secret stockpiles of everything from nuclear weapons to pistols, >radios, maps and currency, congressional sources told The New York Post. >"There is no doubt that the Soviets stored material in this country. The >question is what and where," Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., told The Post. >The FBI has refused to confirm that account, or to comment on the stories >that Soviet nukes may be floating around the country. >Weldon, an expert on Cold War Russia, says the former Soviet Union produced >132 suitcase-sized, 10-kiloton nuclear weapons, but hasn't fessed up to where >84 of them are, meaning they could have been sold to other countries or might >even still be stationed at secret sites in the U.S. >Right now, bombs could be laying in wait in upstate New York, California, >Texas, Montana and Minnesota, he said. He draws his conclusions from the >congressional testimony of KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin and nationalist >Russian Gen. Alexander Lebed. > >Weldon teaches a class on Russia at Widener University in Pennsylvania, and >has been to the country 19 times. > >FBI Director Louis Freeh admitted to the congressman two weeks ago that there >might hidden weapons caches in the U.S., but he's refused to perform anything >but a perfunctory search, Weldon said. > >The only way the FBI will be able to find these suitcase bombs is if Russia >hands over KGB files, Weldon said. Weldon said that until Russia agrees to >turn over KGB files on the location of the suitcases, it's highly unlikely >the FBI could find the stockpiles. > >"The administration is not asking the right questions," Weldon said. > >He says President Clinton doesn't want to rock the boat for ailing President >Boris Yeltsin, the administration’s strongest ally in the tumultuous former >Soviet Union. > >Two weeks ago, a former KGB agent and a British scholar both added fuel to >the reports of buried weapons when they testified to the House Armed Services >subcommittee on military research and development, which Weldon chairs. > >Col. Oleg Gordievsky, the highest-ranking KGB agent ever to defect, and >Christopher Andrew, a professor at Cambridge University and author of a book >about the KGB, both said that based on KGB documents and what's happened in >other NATO countries, they believe small nuclear bombs are buried in caches >across the United States. However, they said it wasn’t a certainty. >The KGB had standing orders to blow up power stations, dams, >telecommunications centers and landing strips for Air Force One in the event >of war, according to Russian experts, including Stanislav Lunev, a former >Russian military intelligence official who defected to the United States in >1992. > >There have long been accusations that the Soviets smuggled weapons and other >equipment with a military use into the United States during the Cold War. But >the charges finally seemed to be turning into a reality in September, when >prosecutors in Belgium confirmed that they had found three secret depots >filled with radio sets that had been buried in the 1960s. > >Steve Berry, an FBI spokesman, last Thursday told The Post the agency had "no >comment" about reports of possible suitcase bombs and buried weapons caches >in the United States. >But he acknowledged that FBI experts are familiar with the claims outlined by >Mitrokhin, who has passed scores of KGB documents to the West. > >On Oct. 22, Weldon and Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., sent Secretary of State >Madeleine Albright a letter alerting her to the charges by the KGB agents and >urging the administration to "aggressively pursue the Russian government to >identify all pre-deployed weapons sites in the United States, and ... >eliminate such remnants of the Cold War." > >Weldon said he will release her reply when he receives one. > >Fox News, November 7, 1999 > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >----- >Aloha, He'Ping, >Om, Shalom, Salaam. >Em Hotep, Peace Be, >Omnia Bona Bonis, >All My Relations. >Adieu, Adios, Aloha. >Amen. >Roads End > >DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER >========== >CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic >screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters >and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright >frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects >spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL >gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; >be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and >nazi's need not apply. > >Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. >======================================================================== >Archives Available at: >http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html > >http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ >======================================================================== >To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: >SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: >SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Om > DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
