WikiLeaks cables name UK banker as middleman in Kazakh corruption ring

[Joanne98]

Source: The Guardian

A British tycoon is identified by US diplomats as the man at the centre of one of America's worst recent corruption scandals, in which large bribes were allegedly handed over in the ex-Soviet state of Kazakhstan.

Robert Kissin, a UK banker and commodity trader, is alleged to be the key middleman who handled a $4m (£2.5m) secret payment.

According to leaked US diplomatic dispatches released by WikiLeaks, the cash was moved through a Barclays bank account set up in London on behalf of an offshore shell company registered in the Isle of Man, where true ownerships are easier to conceal.

The money was designed to help Texas oil services company Baker Hughes make corrupt payments to Kazakh state oil chiefs in return for a lucrative $219m contract, according to the company's subsequent admissions.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/12/wikileaks-british-banker-kazakh-corruption

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. If he's a UK banker, maybe the UK will actually prosecute?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. LOL!

[jberryhill]

6. They did. Did you read the story?

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. No, I didn't look at the link.

The SEC, then? Not bad.

[jberryhill]

9. Yes - the SEC prosecuted this years ago

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-77.htm

Baker Hughes Subsidiary Pleads Guilty to Three Felony Charges in Criminal Action Filed by Department of Justice; Criminal Fines, Civil Penalties and Disgorgement of Illicit Profits Total More Than $44 Million

Like most of the Wikileaks stuff, it is old and public news.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. OMG!

money laundering!

[Laughing Mirror]

5. This is deplorable

The Guardian needs to be arrested and shut down for disseminating this information.

[EFerrari]

8. Traitors!

[jberryhill]

10. Why? The SEC announced it at the time

Baker Hughes Subsidiary Pleads Guilty to Three Felony Charges in Criminal Action Filed by Department of Justice; Criminal Fines, Civil Penalties and Disgorgement of Illicit Profits Total More Than $44 Million

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-77.htm

[guzzie]

13. Not like the

Bribes paid by British Aero for Tyhpoon fighter jets to saudi arabia - locked dowen by blair baby, blair - corruption is only corruption till its sanctioned.

[seafan]

11. Very interesting. A Houston oil services company. During the Bush catastrophe.

WikiLeaks cables name UK banker as middleman in Kazakh corruption ring, 12 December 2010

.....

According to leaked US diplomatic dispatches released by WikiLeaks, the cash was moved through a Barclays bank account set up in London on behalf of an offshore shell company registered in the Isle of Man, where true ownerships are easier to conceal.

The money was designed to help Texas oil services company Baker Hughes make corrupt payments to Kazakh state oil chiefs in return for a lucrative $219m contract, according to the company's subsequent admissions.

After being found out, Baker Hughes eventually paid a total of $44m in penalties to the US authorities, following charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. At the time, in April 2007, it represented the highest-ever such penalty obtained in Washington by the department of justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and marked the beginning of a major US crackdown on overseas bribery.

.....

Looks like a pattern of criminal behavior by Baker Hughes.

Criminal Charges

In April, 2007, Baker Hughes pled guilty in U.S. federal court to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), including bribing oil-related industry officials in Russia, Uzbekistan, Angola, Indonesia, and Nigeria.<5>, Under the settlement, a unit of the Houston-based company pleaded guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for payments made between 2001 and 2003 to a commercial agent retained in 2000 in connection with a project in Kazakhstan. After bribes were paid, Baker Hughes was awarded an oil-services contract in a Karachaganak, Kazakhstan field that generated $219 million in revenues from 2001 to 2006.<6>

---LINK

Isle of Man. Hhmmmm.

[freshwest]

12. All this corruption

Is the reason we're in the middle east right now. We have plenty to do in this hemisphere without fooling around with that region. The links between western powers and royalty and these regimes is older than the USA. Business runs this country and we're just tools. Sorry.