Bush Crony In Homeland Security Tied To Financial Terrorism

[KittyWampus]

Well, I've sort of embellished the thread title... but all's fair in love and war.

Homeland adviser mum on ex-employer's financial terror links

The chairman of the nation's Homeland Security Advisory Council was helping to guide America's security strategy at the same time he was a top executive with an international banking firm that was investigated and eventually fined more than $100 million for cash transfers to rogue nations, including Iraq, Iran, Libya and Cuba, a Newsday investigation has found.

Joseph Grano Jr., 56, said he did not inform Bush administration officials, including Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, about the problems of Swiss banking giant UBS, where he worked until June, because he said it "is public record" and he wasn't required to do so.

He denied any wrongdoing and said he was unaware of the accusations against UBS until the Federal Reserve's May announcement of one of its largest fines ever -- for the bank's improper money transfers to "rogue" nations under U.S. economic sanctions and its "deception" in trying to cover it up.

Grano said he assumed Ridge and the administration already knew about the federal investigation of UBS, where Grano worked as one of the bank's senior-most executives after its $11 million merger with his old firm PaineWebber in January 2001. He simultaneously served on the advisory council and as an executive at UBS for two years.


http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-engran15,0,2569046,print.story?coll=ny-top-span-headlines