Scandal: Jonathan Bush

[TruthIsAll]

Inside the Mind of Gloria Brame: Media Covers Up Bush/Riggs ...
... The move solidified the relationship between Jonathan Bush and Riggs ... Riggs denies any connection between Bush and the ... domain, when reporting the scandal at Riggs ...
http://gloriabrame.typepad.com/inside_the_mind_of_gloria/2004/05/media_covers_up.html - 27k - Cached - Similar pages

TPJ.org
... Jonathan Bush was a Yale classmate of William Donaldson, George W. Bush's second chair of ... Bush Appointee Corportate or Campaign Scandal Corporate Welfare ...
www.tpj.org/docs/pioneers/pioneers_view.jsp?id=158 - 21k - Cached - Similar pages

TPJ.org
... Jordan was George W. Bush's personal attorney during an early scandal. ... tens of thousands of dollars from the Riggs bank account (see Jonathan Bush) of Saudi ...
www.tpj.org/docs/pioneers/pioneers_view.jsp?id=628 - 22k - Cached - Similar pages
< More results from www.tpj.org >

TalkLeft: Bush's Uncle is Head of Bank Fined in Money Laundering ...
... 80s." According to Public Citizen, the uncle Jonathan was a Bush Pioneer, having ... Between this latest scandal, Neil's S&L thievery, and questionable Saudi ...
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/006540.html - 19k - Cached - Similar pages

I Stole the Head of Prescott Bush! More Scary Skull and Bones ...
... of a young child to an Apache tribal official in an apparent attempt to hush up a potential Bush family scandal. ... (A message left at Jonathan Bush’s number in ...
www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=2947 - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

Webguild Sentinel Bush Family Hustle
... trust, yet his evasions about his own dealings and recent campaigning with brother Jeb immerse him within a family financial scandal of alarming ... JONATHAN BUSH. ...
www.webguild.com/sentinel/bush_family_hustle.htm - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

Top Bush Scandals of 2003, Part II
... Why hasn't this scandal been front-and-center on the networks and ... reveal if those funds came from her Riggs Bank account where Bush's uncle Jonathan is a ...
www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=18951 - 37k - Cached - Similar pages

GWB uncle mentionned in terrorist funding scandal
... GWB uncle mentionned in terrorist funding scandal « on: May 19, 2004, 05 ... drew attention yesterday to the fact that President Bush's uncle, Jonathan J. Bush ...
http://discuss.agonist.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=19607 - 28k - Cached - Similar pages

SKULL and BONES
... Arizona Republic, entitled ``Skull for Scandal: Did Bush's ... Post, the document which Bush attorney Endicott ... inappropriate for you, me or anyone ...
www.pa56.org/skullandbones.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

[bobthedrummer]

1. Kick

:dem:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. Riggs Bank Starts Exploring Possible Sale

Curious doings at Riggs:

Riggs National Corp. has hired an investment bank to seek out potential buyers for the company, after months of unprecedented internal upheaval and intense regulatory scrutiny of its banking relationships with foreign embassies.....

Riggs's stock price has risen since late April, when it disclosed deepening regulatory troubles related to its embassy banking division. Regulators earlier this month fined the bank $25 million for failing to comply with anti-money-laundering laws in its relationships with embassies, especially those of Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea......

The company has already announced, under pressure from regulators, that it plans to exit embassy banking and sell most of its European business and a unit in Florida. But after years of resistance to selling by Riggs's controlling shareholder and longtime chairman, Joe L. Allbritton, the board has given Lehman a mandate to explore a broader array of options, the source said.....

Allbritton, 34, addressing a group of about 50 people at the meeting and speaking publicly about the matter for the first time, sought to make a clear distinction between Riggs's regulatory failures and any connection to terrorist financing. "To my knowledge, Riggs has never been used to finance or facilitate terrorist financing," he said.....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61810-2004May27.html

[Octafish]

3. Kick to the pants of the BFEE!

They're getting worried folks.



"Hey! Turn that light out!"

[seemslikeadream]

4. Here something for you to read Mr. Fish!

Snazzy

Man held as a material witness in 9/11 probe deported to Yemen


By Kelly Thornton
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 26, 2004

Mohdar Abdullah, a former San Diego State student and material witness in the 9/11 terror investigation, was quietly deported to Yemen on Friday after spending almost three years in New York and San Diego County jails.

Abdullah and his friend and former cellmate, Omar Bakarbashat, were among the first Muslim immigrants in the nation to be detained after Sept. 11, 2001, and are two of the last to be released. Bakarbashat was deported to Yemen on Oct. 24.

"After lengthy negotiations, the government of Yemen issued a travel document for Abdullah and we were able to remove him back to that country," said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Homeland Security Department.

"He had been initially identified as a close associate of two of the deceased hijackers from San Diego, Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid al-Midhar," Mack said.

much more at:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20040526-9999-7m26deport.html

(NB: Going to Yemen will probably not be a punishment, just a way-point in eventual return to Saudi. Recap: One of the guys the princess appeared to be funding (Bandar). Held till now on material witness, i.e. no charge. Quitely removed from the country. See a pattern? I only caught this story through following-up on Riggs Bank scandal).

Edit, add this link for some recap:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4661093 /

and especially posts by seemslikeadream in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic...

saigon68

a lot going on


Under the radar

Viet-Nam ----- The unwilling-- Led by the incompetent-- To do the impossible---For the ungrateful !!!!


Just Me

2. Yup. And we won't know until after its "history", unfortunately.




I am so repulsed by these wicked people who hold themselves out as do-gooders,...as they always do,...have always done.

But, we are actually ahead of them, in so many ways, than we ever were before. They will be stopped.





http://www.paranoidlarry.com / http://www.globalresearch.ca / http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/index.jsp http://www.madcowprod.com / http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk / http://www.ndp.ca / http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com / "We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." George Orwell






seemslikeadream

10. let's do the background one more time


whosinpower
Bush's Uncle BUSTED !!!!!!


just read this on Yahoo......

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&e=14&u=/ap/riggs_b ...

snip - WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve (news - web sites) ordered Riggs Bank's parent company Friday to take steps to prevent money laundering after the bank was fined $25 million in connection with a probe into possible links to terrorism financing.


And guess who is the CEO???????

Washington, D.C., May 31, 2000 - Riggs Bank N.A. today announced that the Board of Directors of RIMCO, a wholly owned investment management subsidiary, has elected Jonathan J. Bush President & Chief Executive Officer and a Director, replacing Philip Tasho who resigned."

http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/may31_00.html


Pinochet and Riggs what a combo


from Snazz


Pinochet, who is now fighting arrest on kidnapping and murder charges in Santiago, has not clarified how he and his wife, Lucia, bhad $1,169,308 (around £730,000) in their account in the Riggs Bank in Washington on 1 March 1997. As commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, his annual salary in March 1997 was $16,000 (£10,000).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Pinochet_on_trial/Story/0,2763,409367,00.htm ...


Snazzy
LAT: U.S. Investigates Oil Firms' Deals in West Africa


THE WORLD
U.S. Investigates Oil Firms' Deals in West Africa

Sources say real estate purchase and leases in Equatorial Guinea may have improperly benefited the nation's president.

By Ken Silverstein, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have been looking into American oil companies' real estate dealings in Equatorial Guinea to determine whether they have improperly benefited the country's despotic ruler, according to sources familiar with the inquiries.

...

Investigators are trying to determine whether oil companies paid prices so far above the market rates that they violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars companies from bribing foreign government officials, sources told The Times.

Marathon Oil Corp. and ExxonMobil Corp. confirmed that company officials had met with Senate investigators, but would not provide details. Both firms said their dealings in Equatorial Guinea had been proper and lawful.

Interest in the land deals grew out of a money-laundering inquiry involving accounts held by Equatorial Guinea at Riggs Bank in Washington. The biggest account contained hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenues deposited by American oil companies operating in the country.

more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-oil22may22,1,88675 ...

British businessman accused of leading role in failed coup


Exclusive Investigation: Mercenaries held over Equatorial Guinea plot identify west London consultant as mastermind
By Paul Lashmar and Adrian Gatton
16 May 2004


A management consultant from west London has been accused of being one of the masterminds behind a plot to overthrow the government of the oil-rich African state of Equatorial Guinea.

The failed coup - strikingly reminiscent of Frederick Forsyth's mercenary tale The Dogs of War - came to light in March with the dramatic arrests of 67 soldiers of fortune at Harare airport in Zimbabwe. Now a witness statement seen by The Independent on Sunday names Greg Wales, 53, an accountant and management consultant, as a key organiser behind the plot.

He vehemently denies any involvement. But the government of Equatorial Guinea has confirmed to the IoS that it now wishes to interview Mr Wales, who has homes in Chiswick and Wiltshire and a history of business in Africa.

A statement on behalf of the state and President of Equatorial Guinea said yesterday: "The appropriate authorities are anxious to interview Mr Wales in view of his apparent involvement in the attempted coup d'état." British lawyers acting for the government have asked Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch to investigate Mr Wales's role. "We believe attempting a coup against an elected government by the use of force is an act of international terrorism and should be investigated as such," one lawyer said

more
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=521746

Mr du Toit claims that Mr Wales arranged much of the finance for the coup.


Mr Wales denies involvement in the coup. While he says he knows most of the key figures said to be involved in the failed plot, he stressed: "I was not involved in a coup. I do not even believe that there was a coup plot. This is all a deal between Mugabe and Obiang. If the government of Equatorial Guinea is saying I was involved then it is a joke."

But Mr du Toit identifies Mr Wales as a key organiser, in a statement seen by the IoS. It was signed in the presence of a British lawyer working for the government. In the statement he says: "The first person who I spoke to about the coup was Greg. I had not met him before. I do not know how he got my telephone number but this was probably through Simon Mann. I do not know his family name."

The IoS has confirmed that Mr du Toit had Greg Wales's personal mobile number in his notebook. Mr Wales is an old Africa hand and has been involved with Mr Mann over many years; Mr du Toit claims that Mr Wales arranged much of the finance for the coup.

At the time, Mr du Toit was based in Equatorial Guinea starting up businesses, including a deep-sea fishing project and an airfreight operation in partnership with ministers. In his statement he says: "He called me and asked me to meet him on 4 January 2004 in Sandton, South Africa. He said he had a business proposition for me ... I decided to see what he proposed."

more
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=521746


The weapons supplied to Nick Du Toit's customers


The alleged mercenaries, arrested in March, are to be extradited to Equatorial Guinea to stand trial for plotting the overthrow of the government there. The Harare authorities announced the extradition last week, not long after receiving legal documents from lawyers representing the arrested men outlining their defence to various minor charges laid against them in Zimbabwe.

A court case would have revealed that the parastatal Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) has been working for the past few years with a number of white South Africans in joint ventures to ship arms around the continent.

'There was no way he would have got involved in a coup'
The South African arms brokers, operating with offshore companies, registered in places like the Bahamas, were able to guarantee delivery of weapons "within 24 hours of payment being received, to anywhere in Africa," according to a source in Pretoria.

Once payment had been received, an aircraft would be dispatched from South Africa to Harare. It would load the weapons from military facilities at Harare airport and would then fly on to its final African destination, said the source
The weapons supplied to Nick Du Toit's customers could have come from three sources: The Zimbabwe National Army armouries; from weaponry captured by Zimbabwean troops in their involvement in the DRC or could be have been bought new.

more
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn20040508105453653C ...


Equatorial Guinea also involved in the Riggs bank scandal


but laundering money for the government (Obiang) and likely paying out the bribes from the oil companies.

LA Times story (somewhere odd) has good details: http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=43&num=11319&printe ...

That's the Jonathan Bush linked company that there were other stories about today and recently--funneling money from Saudi's to the West Coast 9/11 terrorist cell.

I don't yet get if or how the coup money would be related. Greg Wales doesn't google very well, for one. But naturally we have a Bush linked company doing something hokey with oil rich EG, so there's got to be more to it. From some reading today, I think the International arm of Riggs is based in Miami--maybe throw in some Jeb, Cubans, drugs or other crazy Florida stuff that always makes up a nice BFEE crime conspiracy. I'm catching a strong wiff of BCCI.



Mugabe to barter mercenaries for fuel


Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has struck a deal with Equatorial Guinea to extradite the 70 suspected mercenaries held in Harare to the oil-rich country in exchange for fuel worth US1.2-billion.

Official sources say Mugabe has agreed with Equatorial Guinea's President Teodora Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to hand over the mercenaries, accused of plotting a coup in the West African nation, on condition that he received a two-year supply of fuel.


The deal was first discussed at a meeting between Mugabe and Obiang in Pretoria on April 27.


Mugabe and Obiang were in South Africa to attend President Thabo Mbeki's inauguration.


"Initially, Mugabe did not want to send the suspects to Equatorial Guinea because he wanted to use them to gain cheap publicity and later to bargain for fuel," a source said. "Obiang had to send at least three teams to Zimbabwe to negotiate the extradition but Mugabe refused. It was only after Obiang accepted the fuel deal that he agreed."

more
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2004/05/16/news/africa/africa04.asp



Zim strikes detainees-for-fuel deal

author/source:Zimbabwe Independent
published:Fri 14-May-2004
posted on this site:Sat 15-May-2004


Deal entails US$50 million worth of fuel monthly for two years

Gift Phiri/Dumisani Muleya

In an unusual diplomatic arrangement, Zimbabwe has entered a US$1,2 billion deal to extradite the 70 suspected mercenaries currently held in Harare to Equatorial Guinea in exchange for fuel. Intelligence sources say President Robert Mugabe discussed the deal with his Equatorial Guinea counterpart, Teodora Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, at their initial meeting in Pretoria with South African president Thabo Mbeki on April 27. Mugabe and Obiang were in South Africa to attend Mbeki's inauguration. The three leaders are said to have met over the mercenaries' saga after Zimbabwe had earlier refused to send the suspects for trial in the oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. Sources said the meeting agreed in principle that Zimbabwe would extradite the suspected mercenaries on agreed terms and conditions. Mugabe and Obiang finalised the mercenaries-for-fuel arrangement at a meeting in Bulawayo the following day. The two leaders met at State House in the second city on April 28. After the meeting Obiang told journalists that they had been discussing the issue of the suspects' extradition. High-level sources said Mugabe agreed to extradite the suspected soldiers of fortune on condition Equatorial Guinea - the third largest oil producer after Nigeria and Angola in sub-Saharan Africa -would supply Zimbabwe with fuel.


more
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=9292


Business
Bank and African Oil State Ties Probed
By Ken Silverstein, LA Times 9/4/04
Apr 11, 2004, 07:50


A federal grand jury and a Senate subcommittee are investigating the relationship between a prominent Washington bank and a tiny, oil-rich West African state.

Investigators are scrutinizing hundreds of millions of dollars in accounts held at Riggs Bank by the government of Equatorial Guinea and its ruler, Brig. Gen. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Sources familiar with the probes said investigators were trying to determine whether any deposits into Obiang's personal accounts were the fruits of corruption and whether funds from a state account were diverted to the president or his family members.

The Times first reported on Riggs' relationship with Equatorial Guinea last year, which prompted the bank to conduct an internal investigation. Riggs subsequently dismissed Simon Kareri, a senior executive overseeing the Equatorial Guinea accounts.

In February, Riggs ordered Equatorial Guinea's government to withdraw all of its assets from the bank. U.S. government and banking sources said Equatorial Guinea has had difficulty finding another U.S. bank to take its money, and most, if not all, of its deposits are still held at Riggs.

"Riggs' security procedures detected questionable activities on the part of Simon Kareri," said Mark Hendrix, a bank spokesman. "Riggs turned the matter over to U.S. criminal authorities. Riggs is cooperating with authorities and, in light of the investigations, views it as inappropriate to comment further on these matters."

Snazzy

A lot to absorb here and research--bookmarked


Interesting but not surprising that whatever congressional inquiry is flying under the radar. The $25 million is nothing but a slap (Riggs has $6.4 billion in assets), as someone here pointed out. But the fact that Allbritton stepped down, and they are shutting down Miami and some of the other money laundering capabilities, suggests the shit has hit the fan.

Here's the guy who runs the London Riggs: Steve Pfeiffer (who googles better).

Bio: http://www.fulbright.com/site_map/FindAttorney/371.htm

I'd guess his operation would the point for paying out the British mercs. He's some sort of Africa specialist, former assistant to Sec of the Navy (and assistant CINC Europe and NATO muckty-muck) sometime around Regan. (Yale Law too).

Here's the Riggs 2002 annual report:
http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/annualreport2002.pdf

Lots of names worth checking out--I'm going to see what comes up with Juan Luis Toro, who ran the Miami international operation. I'll bet there's some connection to Haiti, Columbia/Venezuela and/or something more with 9/11.

Cool that we get a Walker involved and they have offices in the Watergate. "It's all the same fucking day, man" (--Janis J).


Snazzy

Saudi-ization of African oil


Same plan, different country. Take oil rich nation, find dictator who can be educated on siphoning off oil profits for his own personal wealth (to the further impoverishment of his people) and in exchange for preferential treatment of us companies.

Were they about to double-cross Obiang? His money was initially frozen in DC--it has now left. Was he just exiting to his Maryland mansion? Dunno, but this Riggs bank connection sure seems to be the follow-the-money thread to pull on Bushco for several different plots. Enough material here for a book.

For one, I'd like to ask someone who knows WTF, say an economist (can we get Krugman?), how an "Edge Act" bank functions, and what's up in Miami with international banking in general. How does that tie in with the export/import bank in DC and Riggs? The Edge Act is something about a bank that can only lend to foreign banks--that Jonathan Bush and Riggs in general could control such an entity while also engaging in other business like investments and domestic lending apparently violates the "Edge Act" (and a bunch of other regulations) and is partly why Riggs is dumping that portion of the business. I wonder whether there have been changes under Jeb that had led to Miami expanding the definitions of what's allowable into money laundering for oil and terror. The answer is: of course he did, just need to find that.

A complicated thread to pull--18 browser windows open so far! Like I found this great Newsweek Isikoff piece from April that I missed:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4661093


Among the payments that have drawn scrutiny, documents show, were $19,200 in checks between December 2000 and January 2003 from the Saudi Embassy to an Islamic cleric, Gulshair Muhammad al-Shukrijumah. The Florida-based imam has been on the FBI's radar screen for some time: he once testified on behalf of convicted terrorist Clement Hampton-El.

Hampton-El was convicted in trying to blow up the WTC the first time in '93. al-Shukrijumah is apparently still missing, also served as the blink sheik's interpreter and may have had a serious role in 9/11. So, it's not just the princess sending money to the West Coast cell.

(Another browser window has the odd factoid that the former head of Riggs international lending (Paul Cushman III) died with Ron Brown in '96. Wild. Kareri succeeded him.)

Plenty to run down here, although a tangent (or the opposite side of the coin) to the original news story in this post. Haven't come across anything that links Riggs to funding of the coup. Maybe it's more like switch dictators and get to keep the Riggs money.

seemslikeadream

Bush, the Saudi billionaire and the Islamists: the story a British firm is



MUST SEE: stories on Riggs National Bank -- note links to 2 of 19 hijackers in San Diego through wire transfer from Saudi Arabia. Jonathon Bush, George W. Bush's uncle, is a top official within the bank and the Motley suit brought by the 9/11 families has issued a subpoena of the bank's records. -KFH


Articles / Current News about 9-11
Date: Apr 02, 2004 - 04:25 PM
Publication of book cancelled as libel laws blamed for stifling free speech
David Leigh -- Wednesday March 31, 2004 -- The Guardian

A book investigating links between rich Saudis and US politicians has been suppressed by the giant publishing firm Random House because, it says, of growing "libel tourism" by wealthy foreigners, and exorbitant legal "success fees".

Libel lawyers are stifling free speech, the deputy chairman of Random House, Simon Master, said yesterday.

The UK publication of House of Bush, House of Saud, by the American writer Craig Unger, has been cancelled because Secker and Warburg, a Random House subsidiary, says it can no longer afford such risks.

The book focuses in part on the activities of a Jeddah-based Saudi billionaire, Khalid bin Mahfouz, who has been engaged in a war of words in the US, where there have been public accusations by officials linking him and others to funding received by Osama bin Laden.

more
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/print.php?sid=176


Hijacked bank

Questions also remain regarding the web of money transfers from Princess Haifa, Prince Bandar and the daughter of late King Faisal, some of which reached Nawaf Alhazmi and fellow terrorist Khalid Almihdar.Princess Haifa's bank account--the source of the funds which ultimately supported the alleged hijackers--was with Riggs Bank where Jonathan J. Bush, the brother of former President George H. W. Bush and uncle of President George W. Bush, is CEO, President and Director of Riggs' investment management subsidiary.

snip

After Al Bayoumi fled the U.S. to England in July, 2001--two months before the attacks, Princess Haifa's Riggs Bank checks were then sent to Osama Basnan, who with his wife Majeda Dweikat, were both later to be found in the U.S. illegally as a result of poor or suspicious State Department visa supervision.

Former FBI linguist Sibel Edmonds said she found evidence of espionage in both the State Department and the FBI in pre-9/11 translations of intelligence intercepts--which also warned about planes used as weapons well before the attacks.A federal law enforcement source said Basnan was a known "al-Qaeda sympathizer" who "celebrated the heroes of September 11" at a party after the attacks and openly talked about "what a wonderful, glorious day it had been," according to Newsweek.

Al Bayoumi and Basnan both befriended Alhazmi and fellow Saudi hijacker Khalid Almihdar after they arrived in San Diego, according to the sources; and the Riggs checks from Prince Bandar's wife helped the terroists pay rent and living expences in the months just prior to the attacks, according to reports. Newsweek said Al Bayoumi helped them obtain social security cards and helped them arrange for flying lessons in Florida--indicating dramatic evidence of the state of congressional internal security oversight.

Basnan was convicted of visa fraud and deported to Saudi Arabia on November 17, 2002. His wife Majida Ibrahim--who had also laundered checks from Riggs Bank--was deported the same day to her native Jordan for visa violations. (Washington Post, 9-24, 2002) Reasons were not given why the White House allowed the high profile suspects to leave the country on charges much less important than being implicated as an accessory to mass murder.

more
http://www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=53

Exclusive: New Questions About Saudi Money—and Bandar

Eric Draper / The White House


The White House is monitoring a joint FBI-Treasury Department probe into wire transfers overseas by Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, pictured with the president in August 2002
By Michael Isikoff
Investigative Correspondent
NewsweekApril 12 issue - A federal investigation into the bank accounts of the Saudi Embassy in Washington has identified more than $27 million in "suspicious" transactions—including hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to Muslim charities, and to clerics and Saudi students who are being scrutinized for possible links to terrorist activity, according to government documents obtained by NEWSWEEK. The probe also has uncovered large wire transfers overseas by the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. The transactions recently prompted the Saudi Embassy's longtime bank, the Riggs Bank of Washington, D.C., to drop the Saudis as a client after embassy officials were "unable to provide an explanation that was satisfying," says a source familiar with the discussions.



A Saudi spokesman strongly denied that any embassy funds were used to support terrorism and said Bandar chose to pull the embassy's accounts out of Riggs. The Saudis point out that an earlier FBI probe into embassy funds that were moved to alleged associates of the 9/11 hijackers has not led to any charges. The current probe, by the FBI and Treasury Department, is one of the most sensitive financial inquiries now being conducted by the government and is being closely monitored by the White House. The federal commission investigating 9/11 was also recently briefed on developments, sources say. U.S. officials stress that they have identified no evidence of any knowing Saudi aid to terrorist groups. But they express frustration at their inability to penetrate a number of large and seemingly irregular transactions. "There's a lot of money moving in a lot of directions—maybe not all that carefully," said one senior law-enforcement official. "Everyone wants to get to the bottom of it."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4661093 /


Our friend Dulcedecorum Sun Mar-21-04

Show me the money

Take Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mbasogo, a member of the same dictatorial ruling family that has ruled Equatorial Guinea since its independence from Spain in 1968. The dictatorship has been in power for about as long as Saddam held sway over Iraq. But Obiang is sitting on top of huge oil revenues and he is in tight with Bush's, Cheney's, and Condoleezza Rice's Exxon Mobil, Hess, and Marathon oil buddies in Houston and Dallas. Equatorial Guinea's oil revenues, estimated at $700 billion in 2003, keep Obiang in power. His son, Teodorino, spends a lot of time in Paris and Washington, where his dad just spent $3.5 million for two mansions courtesy of mortgages from Riggs Bank, where the African kleptocracy keeps much of its ill-gotten oil revenue.

It does not matter to the Bush regime that Obiang keeps his political prisoners in dark dungeons that would have made Saddam envious, or that Obiang executes opponents he finds particularly distasteful. Nor does it matter to Bush that Equatorial Guinea's children are dying from malaria, intestinal worms, and malnutrition because the Obiang dictatorship does not provide the country with adequate sanitation or medical care. The country's state radio recently pronounced that Obiang was God and that therefore he could kill anyone without accounting to anyone. It sounds a lot like Saddam. But in Obiang's case, he has the full support of Bush because Obiang is turning over his country's oil to the United States with himself getting enough money to buy Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and diamond-studded Rolex watches. Like Saddam with his son, Qusay, Obiang has designated his son, Teodorino, as his heir apparent.
http://www.newsinsider.org/madsta/saddam_is_captured_long_live_america ...

In June, Tony Blair is to host a transparency conference in London aimed at tackling the corruption that surrounds the exploitation of natural resources in developing countries. Equatorial Guinea is the only oil-producing country to have refused to attend, notes the piece. Equatorial Guinea has become a major oil and gas producer in the past 10 years, yet the 500,000-strong population remains in poverty.

Details of the Riggs Bank account have emerged after the country's ambassador, Teodoro Biyogo Nsue, who is President Obiang's brother-in-law, unwisely mentioned that oil revenue was held at Riggs during a presentation late last year at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

An investigation by the Los Angeles Times alleged that President Obiang is the account's sole signatory and more than $300 million of the country's energy earnings has been deposited in the account by oil companies active in Equatorial Guinea, including ExxonMobil and Amerada Hess. Alejandro Evuna Owono, a Guinean aide, denied to the LA Times that the government was secretive about oil revenue. "The IMF and the World Bank know national production figures, but we can use the money as we see fit," he said.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,date:05-12-2003~menuP ...

Simon P. Kareri, Vice President and Senior International Banking Manager, was promoted to Senior Vice President and Senior International Banking Manager. Kareri joined Riggs in 1994 as Vice President and African Caribbean Embassy Manager.
http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/jan25_01.html

Malabo has been abuzz with rumours of a coup for the past few weeks and the authorities here are convinced that the US intelligence service, the CIA, was aware of the rumours. They say that this might explain why, as we exclusively reported in our last issue, the Washington-based Riggs Bank told Obiang to close his account with the bank when he visited it in late February. One of the bank’s senior vice-president and senior international banking manager, the Kenyan-born Simon Kareri, who handled the account — which had $300m — was subsequently fired. Curiously, all the African-Americans who were associated with Kareri at the bank were also dismissed. A number of people were quizzed by the FBI who wanted to know all manners of things about Equatorial Guinea and especially about the country’s First Family, which minister was related to Obiang and which companies he owns.

FBI officers had also raided Kareri’s home Washington. They asked his Senegalese wife a lot of questions on Equatorial Guinea which she could not answer. The FBI officers made it clear to her that they were not after her husband but were interested in any files on Equatorial Guinea that he may have left at home. They then took away all the computers that were in Kareri’s home. At the time Kareri was in Malabo. Curiously, when he returned to Washington after the failure of the coup attempt he contacted the FBI expressing his willingness to be interviewed by him but they declined, saying that they saw no need to interview him. No court charges have been brought against him and he is believed to be seeking legal counsel and may sue Riggs Bank.

Malabo authorities find it ‘awfully suspicious’ that for the past two weeks, the bank had refused to unfreeze Equatorial Guinea’s funds. Apparently, they had recently decided that if there were to be a coup in Malabo they would freeze Obiang and his government’s accounts. This was not done with the Haitian government account when Haitian President Jean Baptiste Aristide was ousted the first time. He was able to have access to his government’s funds with the same bank.
http://217.199.168.239/040.html

The unmasking of the coup plot may also embarrass Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who has had several meetings with Moto recently, and was said by military sources to have been aware of the plot. Aznar is due to stand down ahead of national elections in the next few weeks.

The affair will also be a test case for South Africa's anti-mercenary legislation, given that much of the planning for the coup happened there and that most of the mercenaries were former South African soldiers.

President Obiang will doubtless try to use the failed coup to his advantage. His position has seemed to weaken in recent months, with the succession battle heating up and rifts developing within the country's tiny ruling clique. The latest blow to Obiang came late last month when he visited Washington D.C. in an attempt to resolve problems with his government's account at Riggs Bank. Obiang is the sole signatory on that account, which had a balance of more than US$600 million. The account has recently been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and an official at Riggs Bank has been interrogated by US agents.
http://africa-confidential.com/latestissue.asp

Tony Worthington:
At one time, America had little interest in Africa, but increasing amounts of oil are coming from it. We are in a new version of the great game in which the powers are struggling for resources. The Americans are trying to get out of reliance on Saudi Arabia and west Africa is the middle of an oil boom. I was astonished by the figures: 7 billion of an estimated 8 billion barrels of oil discovered last year were found off the west coast of Africa. West Africa now sends almost as much oil to the United States as Saudi Arabia. With that change comes military interest as well, but I do not have time to speak about that.

Nigeria is the worst case of a country discovering oil and experiencing misery. Following the discovery of huge oilfields, per capita income fell by 23 per cent. since 1975. I watched with interest when democracy took over in Nigeria, but I have seen no further signs of transparency. When we went to Nigeria, it was hard for politicians to find out what was going on. In Angola, more than $1 billion—about a third of state income—disappears each year and cannot be accounted for.

My favourite example of the relationship between the United States, its oil companies and African states is that of Equatorial Guinea. It is a tiny country of about 500,000 people—about a third the size of Northern Ireland—but it sits on oil. In Washington, almost within sight of the White House, there is a place called Dupont circle. There one will find Riggs bank, in which, it is alleged by the Los Angeles Times and corroborated by Global Witness, there is a bank account holding between $300 million and $500 million in the name of the President of Equatorial Guinea. That amount of money can only have come from Equatorial Guinea's oil resources, because oil represents 90 per cent. of its income. The dominant oil companies are Exxon and Chevron—American companies that reveal no information about their payments to that country. If they did, we would know about the route that the money followed. The President of Equatorial Guinea is

4 Nov 2003 : Column 758

therefore accused of huge money laundering in President Bush's neighbourhood bank, but there has been no sign of any attempt to find out whether that is the origin of the money.
The magazine, New Internationalist, ranks the world's regimes from one star to five star. Five star is "excellent"; one star is "appalling". It gives Equatorial Guinea one star, saying that all power rests in the presidency and that the president has no political vision beyond self-enrichment, self-aggrandisement and ruthless repression. No one in this place would achieve that record. We used to treat Equatorial Guinea as a pariah state. It is said that around one third of its people have fled. When it had elections last year, the leaders of the three opposition parties were locked up in jail and President Obiang got 99 per cent. of the vote. That gives us a clue that something is wrong. Even the US Department of Energy reports strong evidence of Government misappropriation of the oil funds that represent 90 per cent. of the country's income.
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd ...

And now, equal time with Mbob Mbodelango.

Madrid.- Feb. 26, 2004 .- The F.B.I. is investigating Teodoro Nsue Biyogo, former Ambassador of Equatorial Guinea in Washington and brother-in-law of President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
http://www.guinea-ecuatorial.org/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid= ...

There are daily flights between Dallas in Texas and Malabo. This is possibly the highest frequency of direct airline flights between the United States and Africa. These are commuter flights that bring drilling workers from Dallas.

The oil companies pay a hefty fee to Mbassogo for drilling oil. This is paid into Mbassogo’s personal bank account in the Riggs Bank in Washington, DC owned by Mbassogo. The citizens of Equatorial Guinea have no idea how much money is deposited in that bank account.

Ultimately the wealth is shared between the Mbassogo family and his cronies and the oil companies. The rest of the citizens of Equatorial Guinea are living in abject poverty.

Why is the Mugabe regime trying to show off? They have invited reporters into the seized jet. The Home Affairs Minister has made several press statements on the matter.

In fact, the entire ZANUPF machinery has climbed onto the bandwagon on blitzing the world with information about this case. Mugabe’s foreign minister Mudenge said the mercenaries should face even the capital punishment. As it turned out, the mercenaries are to be tried for lesser crimes.

The lawyer for the mercenaries has already been allowed to go and see the so-called mercenaries. The lawyer later said the men were being well cared for. He said their only complaint is they are being given TOO MUCH FOOD.
http://actzim.com/lfamar15.html

Thank you very much for your input, Mr. Mbodelango.
I am sure we will have occasion to call on you again.

Jonathan J. Bush (Jonathan James Bush) (1931- ) is an uncle to President George Walker Bush.
May 31, 2000: Riggs Bank N.A. today announced that the Board of Directors of RIMCO, a wholly owned investment management subsidiary, has elected Jonathan J. Bush President & Chief Executive Officer and a Director, replacing Philip Tasho who resigned. In addition, Henry A. Dudley, Jr. was elected Chairman.
"Mr. Bush will continue as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Bush & Co., an investment management company he founded in 1970, which Riggs acquired in 1997. Mr. Dudley, a 24-year veteran of Riggs, will continue to be responsible for all of Riggs Bank's investment management, trust and private banking business.
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Jonathan_J._Bush

According to several of those sources and others familiar with the account, more than $300 million of the country's energy earnings has been deposited in the account by international oil companies active in Equatorial Guinea, including ExxonMobil Corp. and Amerada Hess Corp. The money is under the direct control of Obiang, the sources say.
The arrangement has raised concerns at the International Monetary Fund, where officials have refused to provide assistance to Equatorial Guinea until Obiang accounts for his country's oil money and have urged him to transfer it to its home treasury.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/natres/oil/2003/0122gui.htm

From what I have been given to understand, the Riggs Bank may very well experience considerable difficulty in coming up with $300 million CASH. It is at times like these that an uncle might call on his nephew for assistance.



At Riggs, problems passed on with legacy
Joe L. Allbritton won control of Riggs Bank in 1981 and used it as a launching pad into Washington`s top business and political circles. He assiduously cultivated "The Riggs" cachet as the bank for foreign governments and diplomats and steadfastly refused to sell the institution even as most of his competitors sold out, The Washington Post reported. Riggs has cultivated the diplomatic community and one quarter of its $4 billion in deposits come from that source. "My pride in Riggs has been paramount in my activities," he said in an interview when he retired in February 2001. "And you know, if you have just enough money, you`ll do more for pride than you`ll do for money…. My object was to put Riggs in a position where it could be the survivor. It is that." But when he bequeathed Riggs to his son Robert after retiring, he also passed on Riggs`s long-simmering problems complying with banking secrecy laws. Most controversial has been the use of hundreds of millions of dollars in funds controlled by the Saudi embassy in Washington, as well as suspicious transactions involving officials of Equatorial Guinea.

http://www.diplomatictraffic.com/embassy_briefs.asp?ID=Americas


This has probably been posted before but lets read it again


The action followed the $25 million civil fine against the midsize Washington bank, which has a near-exclusive franchise on business with the capital’s diplomatic community. The fine, which had been expected, is the largest ever imposed on a financial institution for such violations, experts said.


The FBI and regulators have investigated, for possible connections to terrorism financing, large cash transactions in Riggs accounts controlled by Saudi diplomats.

The Senate Finance Committee chairman, Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa, recently asked the panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks to examine Saudi transactions at Riggs and FleetBoston Financial Corp.

“Riggs Bank deserves every penny of this huge fine,” Grassley said Thursday. “Banks have a patriotic duty, not to mention legal requirement, to report suspicious activity. When banks look the other way, they put our national security at risk.”

Grassley said members of the bank’s board of directors should be held to account.

The Treasury regulators had earlier accused Riggs of failing to comply with a law requiring banks to notify the government of suspicious transactions. The bank also had been classified by the comptroller’s office as a “troubled institution” for not complying fully with a July 2003 consent order under which it agreed to strengthen its anti-money laundering controls.

more
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4973033 /

FleetBoston Financial?????


BCCI trial puts Bank in dock

The trial is expected to last a year and potentially embarrassing questions are likely to be asked about what Ministers, civil servants and some of the City's top institutions knew about BCCI before it crashed. The Bank's most senior officials past and present will go into the wit ness box, and the court may also consider evidence from John Major, the former Prime Minister, and several former Chancellors.

Unwanted light may even be thrown on the intriguing relationship between BCCI and Britain's intelligence service.

It has long been claimed that MI6 used accounts at the secretive bank to pay sources and operatives around the world, and that BCCI channelled Western funds to Mujahideen fighters in the Eighties. Conspiracy theorists are watching closely too.

The creditors are led by accountant Deloitte, BCCI's liquidator. They range from East End market traders and local councils to the state of Abu Dhabi, which had become BCCI's principal shareholder by 1991, and is thought to have lost £2bn.

At the time of BCCI's demise, the headlines tended to focus on its long list of unsavoury customers: Manuel Noriega, Panama's military leader, Colombian drug barons and the Abu Nidal terrorist organisation among them.

more
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/economics/story/0,11268,1120347,00.html

emad aisat sana

BCCI total bill was just over $13.5 billion. UAE president Shaikh


Zayed copped approx $8 billion. Final bill still undisclosed because private litigation settlements not yet in public domain. London class action currently before the Royal Courts of Justice still ongoing until at least March 2005; final BCCI bill may then emerge.

Ex UAE ambassador to UK Mahdi Al Tajir believed to have lost $2 billion and been fined similar amount for knowingly allowing falsified accounts to remain unchallenged as late as 1989.

Tajir has gone to great lengths to excise from the internet all references to his business dealings with Andrew Fastow, Jeff Skilling and Kenneth Lay. Also business dealings with ex-Artoc Bank & Trust chief/shareholder Peter de Savary (ex business partner of Ambrosiano's Roberto Calvi)and Ednond Safra - the Monaco-based billionaire (Republic National Bank) whose unexpected death in a fire at his penthouse left his widow Lilly Watkins Safra a billionairess. Her previous exes also died in mysterious circumstances, including one who "comitted suicide" by shooting himself in the head, twice that is.

Snazzy

S&P Rating for Amerada Hess today


NEW YORK, May 18 - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that Amerada Hess Corp.'s (BBB-/Negative/A-3).... Rating stability depends on the company gaining government approval for development of its Northern Block G field offshore Equatorial Guinea during 2004....

http://www.forbes.com/markets/bonds/newswire/2004/05/18/rtr1375745.htm ...


Snazzy

Little more on that


In June, Hess plans to submit plans for a project off the coast of Equatorial Guinea to the local government. Hess has estimated it will take two years to start production at the West African project after the government approves the company's plans for an area known as Northern Block G.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2575993

Was thinking this whole thing could be two companies fighting over the oil. Or US Brits group vs France.

I also noticed that Logo Logistics (the company that bought the plane, maybe hired the mercs) is in the Channel Islands (Jersey), same as Riggs--but all kinds of squirrelly crap goes on there...


Foundation of the Friends of Equatorial Guinea and the United States

Edited on Sat May-15-04 09:38 PM by seemslikeadream
Kareri could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, did not return phone calls. Shapiro, a high-profile attorney based in Virginia, previously represented convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad.
Sources also confirmed that Riggs held accounts for Teodoro Biyogo Nsue, Equatorial Guinea's ambassador to the U.S. and Obiang's brother-in-law, and for Obiang's son, Teodorin Nguema Obiang.

The latter is a government minister but spends little time in the country. Housing and business records show that the son owns a $6-million home in Los Angeles as well as a music company in L.A. called TNO.

Armengol Ondo Nguema, Obiang's brother and the country's feared security chieftain, also held a personal account at Riggs. In correspondence obtained by The Times, Kareri referred to Nguema -- who is accused in U.S. State Department reports of employing torture -- as a "valued customer."
Kareri is close to Obiang and his family. Records show that he is also a board member of the U.S.-based Foundation of the Friends of Equatorial Guinea and the United States, whose aim is to promote stronger ties between the two countries. Other board members of the group include Equatorial Guinea's representative to the International Monetary Fund and the country's minister of justice.

Sources told The Times that Riggs' demand that Equatorial Guinea withdraw its funds reportedly occurred after a tense meeting in Washington among bank officials, Obiang, the FBI and several government representatives. An FBI official said the agency could not comment on an ongoing investigation.


http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=43&num=11319&printe ...


seemslikeadream "warbusiness" a little history to refresh my thoughts


"warbusiness"

Child soldiers wait in Bule for orders to move. When this photo was taken, they were the only defense forces in a 25-mile radius. Two days later they too pulled out, and Bule was attacked.


http://www.zwnews.com/warbusiness.doc

one tiny snip:

In April 2001, an MPRI representative met with the Pentagon’s regional director for Central Africa to discuss the company’s hopes of winning the contract to train Equatorial Guinea’s forces. “They may need our help or moral support,” Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski wrote in a memo on the meeting, obtained by ICIJ under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. She quoted the MPRI representative as saying that Equatorial Guinea was “the Kuwait of the Gulf of Guinea” and, in a briefing paper three months later, advanced that characterization to “a possible ‘Kuwait of Africa’ with huge oil reserves” that was “US-friendly for both investment and security reasons.” Kwiatkowski also noted in her April memo that the highest-ranking U.S. official to meet with Obiang when he visited Washington early in 2001 was an assistant secretary of agriculture – that after French President Jacques Chirac had spared time to meet with him.

Despite concerns about Equatorial Guinea’s human rights record, Obiang’s currency rose dramatically after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. When he visited the United States as it marked the first anniversary of the attacks, Obiang was among 10 African leaders to meet with President George Bush for talks on the prospect of war with Iraq and peace and development on the African continent.


ended up here because of this:

If you've been reading the news the last few days you may have noticed this odd and somewhat mysterious story of a US-registered cargo plane loaded with 64 "mercernaries" and various military equipment which was impounded

Sunday night at Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe "after its owners had made a false declaration of its cargo and crew."

When asked about it on Monday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "We have no indication this aircraft is connected to the U.S. government."

That seemed like a rather less than unequivocal response. And behind the scenes US government officials said they didn't believe the US government had any connection with this operation. But they wanted to make sure before saying anything definitive.

Now, if you look at the press accounts, what's caught people's attention is the US registry of the plane. Specifically, it's registered to a company called Dodson Aviation, which is based in Kansas.

Now, Dodson says they sold the plane to a "reputable" firm in South Africa about a week ago. "I think they were going to use it for charter flights," company director Robert Dodson told the Associated Press.

Now here's a little more detail.

Dodson Aviation of Kansas has a South African subsidiary, Dodson International Parts SA Ltd (According to their website, "Dodson International Parts SA (Pty) Ltd is the African division of United States based companies Dodson International Parts Inc. and Dodson Aviation. The company was established in 1998 and is based at Wonderboom Airport, Pretoria.") And it was from this subsidiary's hangar at an airport just north of Pretoria that the aforementioned mercenaries boarded the plane.

Now, here's where this gets a little murky.

I wanted to find out more about Dodson International Parts SA Ltd. What I found something out about was a company that sounded very similar: a South African company called Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts.

They're also in the airplane business.

Not exactly the same name. But remember, the South African company is the subsidiary of two American companies, Dodson Aviation and Dodson International. If these aren't the same company, or closely related companies, I'd figure they often get confused for one another.

In any case, here's what I found about Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts.

They come up in the December 2000 Report of the Panel of Experts to the United Nations on Sierra Leone, in the section of the report dealing with the arms trade.

Here's the section that caught my eye (italics added) ...

187. Fred Rindel a retired officer of the South African Defence Force and former Defence Attaché to the United States, has played a key role in the training of a Liberian anti-terrorist unit, consisting of Liberian soldiers and groups of foreigners, including citizens of Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Niger and The Gambia.
188. The panel interviewed Mr Rindel extensively. Rindel was contracted as a security consultant by President Charles Taylor in September 1998, and training started in November 1998. The contract included consultancy services and strategic advice to convert Charles Taylor's former rebel militia into a professional unit. The Anti-Terrorist Unit is used in Liberia to protect government buildings, the Executive Mansion and the international airport, and to provide VIP Security and the protection of foreign embassies. The numbers trained were approximately 1200. Because of negative media attention, Rindel cancelled his contract in Liberia in August 2000.

189. In 1998, ECOMOG identified a plane, registration number N71RD, owned by a South African company, Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts, as having carried weapons to Robertsfield in September of that year. The plane is a Gulfstream 14-seater business jet that cannot be used for arms transport, but there are other relevant connections. Fred Rindel was the owner of Dodson. The company was closed on 31 December 1998, but during the period under investigation, the plane was leased to, and operated by, Greater Holdings (Liberia) Ltd., a company with gold and diamond concessions in Liberia. The plane was used for the transport of the Greater Holdings' staff to and from Liberia.



Mr. Rindel's name came up earlier in 2000 in testimony at the UN Security Council by then-UN Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke in a discussion of Sierra Leone (italics added) ...

In regard to arms trafficking to Sierra Leone, Mr. Chairman, we remain concerned and I would like to add a few more items to the record. The principal Africa countries involved in arms trafficking to the RUF - though they deny it - include Burkina Faso, Liberia and Libya.
In 1999, planes landed in Ouagadougou, allegedly coming from the Ukraine, with several tons of small arms and ammunition. This incident, which the Ukrainians say has stopped, is one that we believe should be brought to the attention of your committee.

In regard to trafficking, arms brokers have played a vital role in keeping the RUF supplied with weapons and other military materiel. A well-known arms and diamond dealer in Sierra Leone, Zief Morganstein, in July 1999 arranged for a Continental Aviation-based charter out of Dakar to fly a shipment of small arms from Bulgaria to Sierra Leone. Last year the RUF received 68 tons of weapons from Bulgaria, which Morganstein may have helped arrange. There have been other connections between former government officials from South Africa during its Apartheid regime who now operate as private individuals, including Fred Rindel, the South African Defense Attache in Washington, who now works as a security consultant in Liberia and trains Liberian troops and RUF insurgents. There are other charges about other businessmen who are reportedly helping the Sierra Leone government coming from various countries around the world.



Now, I've scanned the news coverage of this and I haven't seen any mention of this seeming connection. So perhaps these are two utterly unrelated companies?

As of Tuesday the situation in Zimbabwe seems to be calming down, though now there are apparently fears in Equatorial Guinea that these mercenaries were somehow intended to assist a coup in that country. (No, I can't keep up either.) "Some 15 mercenaries have been arrested here," the country's Information Minister Agustin Nse Nfumu told Reuters. "It was connected with that plane in Zimbabwe. They were the advance party of that group."

Equatorial Guinea is next door to Gabon. And Joe Wilson used to be the US Ambassador there back in the day. So maybe he can make some sense of this. I can't. But I'd be very interested to talk to the investigators who put together that UN report and see if there's any connection between Dodson International Parts SA Ltd and Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com /

I just can not forget that Poppy's gold mining buddies Barrick



War is Golden for the Bush Administration
And the commodities connection? President Pretzel's relentless hissy-fit for war on Iraq has of course goosed the price of gold enormously--and that's set Bush Family coffers a-clinking. How so? In the waning days of his failed presidency, Bush I invoked an obscure 1872 statute to give a Canadian firm, Barrick Corporation, the right to mine $10 billion in gold from U.S. public lands. (U.S. taxpayers got a whopping $10,000 fee in return.) Bush then joined Barrick as a highly-paid "international consultant," brokering deals with various dictators of his close acquaintance. Barrick reciprocated with big bucks for Junior's presidential run. And in another quid for the old pro quo, last year Junior dutifully approved Barrick's controversial acquisition of a major rival. (Barrick is also one of the biggest polluters in America, by the way.)

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd02152003.html

The money behind Barrick is from Saudi arms dealer and Bush family friend Adnan Khashoggi, who was identified as conduit in the Iran-Contra conspiracy. In 1986 he was arrested and charged with fraud but failed to be convicted. In one of his last acts as president Bush pardoned Khashoggi's alleged co-conspirators, who were key members of Bush's own cabinet. As a result, no case could be made against Khashoggi – or against Bush himself.

http://www.penfield-gill.com/presentations/bush_the_elder.htm

Where was flight N4610 heading?

March 10 2004 at 08:11AM



They were 64 "heavily built men", mostly white. No, they were all black. No, only 40 of them were black.

The plane left South Africa illegally from Wonderboom airport, strayed into Zimbabwe airspace and was ordered down. No, the plane left the country legally, having filed a flight plan to Harare and then on to Burundi. No, the plane was headed for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The men on board were suspected of being mercenaries hired to overthrow Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. No, they were on their way to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. No, they were going to the eastern DRC to carry out security duties.

These are just some of the stories surrounding the flight of N4610, a Boeing 727-100 cargo plane that has been impounded in Harare.

And 64 - though some reports say there are 67 - of those who were aboard, whether they were white, black or a mixture, and whether they were mercenaries or honest men, are in Harare cells facing intense interrogation.

On Tuesday, a company named in connection with the flight disputed all the speculation, saying the "mercenaries" were in fact security people "going to eastern DRC".

They were stopping in Zimbabwe to pick up mining equipment, "Zimbabwe being a vastly cheaper place for such".

Charles Burrow, a senior executive of Logo Logistics which had chartered the Boeing 727 freighter, said via telephone from London that most of the people on board were South African and had military experience, but were on contract to four mining companies in the DRC. He declined to name the companies.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn20040310081125342C ...

Plane Did Stop At Grantley Adams - Thursday 11, March-2004

A UNITED STATES registered plane at the centre of controversy after being detained on Monday with 64 suspected mercenaries aboard by the Zimbabwean government did stop at Grantley Adams International Airport last Saturday morning.
Informed sources told the DAILY NATION yesterday that the aircraft, a Boeing 727 (100 series), with registration number N4610, landed in Barbados shortly after midnight for refuelling before leaving around 6:30 a.m.

Sources also indicated that the aircraft, which Zimbabwean officials alleged also carried military equipment, had arrived from the Hope Air Force Base in North Carolina, United States, before its stop-over in Barbados.

Further reports stated that the plane, originally a commercial PanAm Airways aircraft up until a week ago, was being operated by the American Air Force, but international Press reports stated it had been sold to a South African company.

http://www.nationnews.com/StoryView.cfm?Record=48033&Section=Local&Cur ..


If I gave you everything that I owned and asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride, and strip me of everything including my pride
But spirit is something that no one destroys
And the sound that I'm hearing is only the sound
The low spark of high-heeled boys

[seemslikeadream]

5. Just a little bit more

Corporate Mercenaries - Executive Outcomes Leads to Bush


Executive Outcomes is the most infamous mercenary company in operation today. Unlike traditional mercenary companies, it operates as the heavy partner in a web of related companies. Sandline international is such a sister company: 170 elite South African dogs of war were hired to crush the Bougainville freedom Fighters for $22m. Just another job for the likes of Sandline international? Paul Vernon investigates...

Set up in 1993 by Tony Buckingham and Simon Mannl <1>, Executive outcomes (EO) has worked in Asia, Africa and South America. Most of it's personnel are hired from South Africa.

Buckingham is the chief executive of Heritage Oil and Gas, which is now registered in the (tax-free) Bahamas. When EO was hired by the Sierra Leone government to crush people's revolt, Heritage received much of the payment in the form of mining rights. Sir David Steel MP happens to be a director of Heritage as well as a close friend of Buckingham. Recently Sierra Leone was thrown back into chaos with another military coup.

Eeben Barlow, the present CEO of Executive Outcomes, is a veteran of the Civil Co-operation Bureau, which allegedly assassinated antiapartheid activists. Barlow is the frontman for the group he told Newsweek (2) in February: "I'm a professional soldier. It's not about politics. I have a job to do. I do it." EO is thought to have a annual turnover of more that £20 million.

The South African government, with help from officials from the United Nations, has begun to draft proposals of legislation aimed to counter what officials called "the increasing frequency with which our soldiers-of-fortune are operating overseas".(7)

http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/magazine/issue4/cw4f8.html

Executive Outcomes ties lead to London and Bush
Executive Intelligence Review January 31, 1997, pp. 42-43
by Roger Moore and Linda de Hoyos

Exposes appearing on both sides of the Atlantic on the mercenary group Executive Outcomes, threaten to blow the lid off the British intelligence nexus already identified as responsible for the February 1986 murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, and for the current cataclysmic destabilization of Africa on behalf of circles associated with the Queen of England's Privy Council and Sir George Bush.
The exposes appeared in the French daily {Le Figaro} on Jan. 16, the {London Observer} on Jan. 17, and the February issue of the American magazine {Harper's.}
Executive Outcomes is the mercenary arm of a vast
network of British-South African corporations dealing in gold, diamonds, and oil, primarily, but not exclusively, in Africa, that come under the umbrella of Strategic Resources Corporation, headquartered in Pretoria, South Africa. Described universally as an ``advance guard of a corporate network that includes mining, oil, and construction companies,'' Executive Outcomes is active in 13 African countries, including Uganda. For its services, it demands a lien or franchise on the exportable raw resources, particularly mineral wealth, of the client country--in the same fashion as the British East India Company of the 18th and 19th centuries, which in turn functioned as the ``advance guard'' of the British monarchy.
Executive Outcomes was incorporated offshore, on the Isle of Man, in 1993, by Anthony Buckingham, a British businessman, and Simon Mann, a former British officer, the {Observer} reported, based on a leak to it from British intelligence. Buckingham is also chief executive of Heritage Oil and Gas, which in turn is linked to the Canadian firm Ranger Oil. Other firms operating out of the same headquarters in Chelsea Plaza 107, London, include Branch International Ltd. and Branch Mining Ltd.
Preliminary investigation by {EIR} has further determined that Executive Outcomes lies at the heart of the British monarch's raw materials cartels and secret intelligence operations, in conjunction with Bush's rogue apparat:
Through Sir David Steel, a former leader of the Liberal Party, Executive Outcomes and, presumably, its deployment, is a subsumed operation of the Queen's Privy Council. Steel is a close friend of EO's Buckingham, and is on the board of directors of EO's sister firm, Heritage Oil and Gas, according to {Le Figaro.} In 1977, Steel was inducted into the Privy Council, making him the youngest member of Britain's highest-level policy-making body.
The links between Executive Outcomes and Ranger Oil point to operational ties with the Bronfman family of Canada, whose scion, Edgar Bronfman of Toronto Broncorp, sits on the board of directors of Ranger. Recently, the Bronfman family merged its mammoth real estate firm, Trizec, with Barrick Gold, whose senior advisory board includes Sir George Bush. Barrick Gold is deeply involved in northeastern Zaire, where it has purchased 83,000 square kilometers of land. Zairean sources report that the so-called Zairean rebel Laurent Kabila is no more than a mercenary for Barrick and Anglo American Corp., sponsored by the British Crown-backed Ugandan and Rwandan militaries. Executive Outcomes, {Le Figaro} and other sources further verify, is deeply entrenched in Uganda, the key British marcher-lord state in the region.

http://www.aboutsudan.com/action/geopolitical/executive_outcomes.htm

Mercenaries aimed to topple oil-rich despot

The inside story of the ties that bind President Obiang and powerful American interests

By Paul Lashmar
14 March 2004

The tale of the 67 men of assorted nationalities now in a Zimbabwe jail accused of being mercenaries continued to unfurl yesterday like the plot of a lurid airport novel.

A bit too much like fiction, in fact, involving as it does a cast that includes the despotic leader of a little-known West African state, the Eton-educated son of an English cricket captain, fake passports, and a shadowy company registered in the Channel Islands that is linked to SAS old boys. All this, plus talk of CIA, MI6 and Spanish secret service activity, and a plane now impounded at Harare airport that contained equipment more suited to burglary than seizures of power.

SNIP...

But if who paid whom for what services has not yet been revealed, the intended target is not in doubt: President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, leader of a country whose lack of renown belies its strategic significance. And for "strategic" read oil. Not for nothing is this land known in US government circles as the "Kuwait of the Gulf of Guinea". Not without reason has President Bush welcomed President Obiang, a confirmed if not convicted corrupt despot, to the White House. He may be a despot, but as presider over an oil-rich state, he is their despot.

The sight and smell of oil is everywhere palpable in the port of Malabo. From here you can see the flames shooting into the night sky from the offshore oilrigs. Every day tens of thousands of barrels are extracted from huge crude oil reserves underneath the seabed off Equatorial Guinea.It is one of the oil-rich sub-Saharan countries that now supplies 15 per cent of American oil. Experts predict that the amount of oil the US receives from the prolific fields of Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Angola will double in the next five years. Hence the succour that American companies - and, since 9/11, the American government - have given to Obiang. Vice President Dick Cheney has said: "Along with Latin America, West Africa is expected to be one of the fastest-growing sources of oil and gas for the American market."

http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=501017&host=3&di ...


seemslikeadream

Jonathan J. Bush uncle to President George Walker Bush


Jonathan J. Bush (Jonathan James Bush) (1931- ) is an uncle to President George Walker Bush.

A Wall Street financier, Jonathan Bush pulled together two dozen investors to raise $3 million to help launch Arbusto. Among the investors was Dorothy Bush, George W.’s grandmother. At the same time, Jonathan Bush was lining up investors for Arbusto, he also was raising money for George H.W. Bush’s presidential explorations. Many of the funders were the same. <1>

Snazzy
WaPo: A Shift in Strategy for Riggs (Riggs Bank, J. Bush)


A Shift in Strategy for Riggs
Bank Struggles to Find Focus for Investment Advisory Business
By Terence O'Hara and Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 27, 2004; Page E01


Riggs Bank's slogan for much of the past 20 years -- "The most important bank in the most important city in the world" -- was intended to distinguish Riggs from the common run of banking.

This upper-crust vision of Riggs, cultivated by former chairman Joe L. Allbritton to attract Washington's unique class of moneyed demi-celebrities, guided many of the bank's strategic moves under his tenure.

One of these moves was the 1997 purchase of J. Bush & Co., a Connecticut money-management firm founded, owned and run by Jonathan J. Bush, the former president's brother and the current president's uncle, for an estimated $5.5 million.

...

Sources with knowledge of the matter, but who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that despite Bush family business and social ties to Saudi royals, Jonathan Bush had very little involvement in Riggs's banking relationship to the Saudi royal family. However, more than a year ago he did give some investment advice to a Saudi client connected to the embassy, the sources said.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58805-2004May26.html

(some more trickle about the new BCCI)

eridani

First class service for shitstains from around the world


http://www.guardian.co.uk/Pinochet_on_trial/Story/0,2763,409367,00.htm ...

The Chilean army and secret police have spent almost two decades secretly flooding Europe and the US with massive shipments of cocaine. The trafficking began during the 17-year dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and continues to this day, a year-long investigation for The Observer has established.

Pinochet, who is now fighting arrest on kidnapping and murder charges in Santiago, has not clarified how he and his wife, Lucia, had $1,169,308 (around £730,000) in their account in the Riggs Bank in Washington on 1 March 1997. As commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, his annual salary in March 1997 was $16,000 (£10,000).


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-oil22may22,1,88675 ...

Marathon Oil Corp. and ExxonMobil Corp. confirmed that company officials had met with Senate investigators, but would not provide details. Both firms said their dealings in Equatorial Guinea had been
proper and lawful.

Interest in the land deals grew out of a money-laundering inquiry involving accounts held by Equatorial Guinea at Riggs Bank in Washington. The biggest account contained hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenues deposited by American oil companies operating in the country.

http://www.davidsirota.com /


PRESIDENT BUSH'S UNCLE IS A CHIEF EXECUTIVE AT RIGGS BANK
According to the nonprofit Texans for Public Justice, Jonathan Bush is the President and CEO of Riggs Investment Management - a major arm of Riggs Bank. He is also the uncle of President George W. Bush. The President "credits the investors sent his way by this banker uncle as a key to his 'success' in the Texas oil industry in the early '80s." According to Public Citizen, the uncle Jonathan was a Bush Pioneer, having raised more than $100,000 for his nephew in 2000.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/8670766.htm

Riggs Bank has been fined $25 million by the Treasury Department for failing to detect and report tens of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions by foreign governments, particularly Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea.

On Friday, the Federal Reserve ordered Riggs' Miami operation, Riggs International Banking Corp., to hire an outside consultant to conduct a thorough review of the bank's transactions and money-laundering controls.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4661093


Among the payments that have drawn scrutiny, documents show, were $19,200 in checks between December 2000 and January 2003 from the Saudi Embassy to an Islamic cleric, Gulshair Muhammad al-Shukrijumah. The Florida-based imam has been on the FBI's radar screen for some time: he once testified on behalf of convicted terrorist Clement Hampton-El.

Hampton-El was convicted in trying to blow up the WTC the first time in '93. al-Shukrijumah is apparently still missing, also served as the blink sheik's interpreter and may have had a serious role in 9/11. So, it's not just the princess sending money to the West Coast cell.

http://www.911citizenswatch.org/print.php?sid=176

The UK publication of House of Bush, House of Saud, by the American writer Craig Unger, has been cancelled because Secker and Warburg, a Random House subsidiary, says it can no longer afford such risks.

The book focuses in part on the activities of a Jeddah-based Saudi billionaire, Khalid bin Mahfouz, who has been engaged in a war of words in the US, where there have been public accusations by officials linking him and others to funding received by Osama bin Laden.

http://www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=53

Al Bayoumi and Basnan both befriended Alhazmi and fellow Saudi hijacker Khalid Almihdar after they arrived in San Diego, according to the sources; and the Riggs checks from Prince Bandar's wife helped the terrorists pay rent and living expenses in the months just prior to the attacks, according to reports. Newsweek said Al Bayoumi helped them obtain social security cards and helped them arrange for flying lessons in Florida--indicating dramatic evidence of the state of congressional internal security oversight.

Basnan was convicted of visa fraud and deported to Saudi Arabia on November 17, 2002. His wife Majida Ibrahim--who had also laundered checks from Riggs Bank--was deported the same day to her native Jordan for visa violations. (Washington Post, 9-24, 2002) Reasons were not given why the White House allowed the high profile suspects to leave the country on charges much less important than being implicated as an accessory to mass murder.

seemslikeadream

BAC Florida hit with federal rebuke
Miami Herald (subscription), FL - 24 minutes ago
... Earlier this month, Riggs Bank of Virginia was fined $25 million by the Treasury Department for failing to detect suspicious transactions by the governments of ...

BAC agrees to cease & desist order
Coral Gables-based BAC Florida Bank has agreed to the issuance of a cease & desist order concerning operations that include its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday.

The FDIC said BAC agreed to the order March 16, "without admitting or denying the alleged charges of unsafe or unsound banking practices and violations of law and/or regulations."

The order requires BAC to develop and put into action a written plan for compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act by Aug. 3.

That law requires banks to report all cash transactions of $10,000 or more to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The order also requires BAC to not engage in any unsafe or unsound practices regarding the Bank Secrecy Act, the Treasury Department's Know Your Customer policies and in its monitoring of payable through accounts and master account holders.
http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2004/05/24/da ...

Internet Translation Service
Growing pressure for consolidation in the U.S. banking sector
Karl-Heinz Goedeckemeyer

The restructuring of the U.S. banking market is rapidly taking shape. With the mergers between Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial and between JP Morgan Chase and Bank One, consolidation has clearly gained momentum. In the wake of these mega-mergers, National City Corp and Provident Financial Group also amalgamated recently, along with Regions Financial and Union Planters Corp. Given the brighter business and market climate, the wave of mergers is expected to continue during the current year.

Thanks to these mergers, the financial giants Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America currently have total assets of around $ 3,200 billion. This means that there are now three banks in the U.S. each with a market capitalisation of over $ 100 billion. Internationally, only the HSBC Group can compete in this top league.
http://www.die-bank.de/index.asp?channel=121010&art=321&issue=052004

Riggs Bank Retrenching Foreign Operations
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL - Apr 30, 2004
... Banks mentioned as potential acquirers of Riggs are Bank of America (BAC), BB&T, Citibank, SunTrust and Wachovia (WB), all of which already have a retail ...

Newsweek in Nov. 2002 Reported that Princess Al-Faisal's Account was with Riggs -- Jonathan Bush's Bank

Michael Isikoff reported on 11/22/02: "Sources familiar with the evidence say the payments--amounting to about $3,500 a month--came from an account at Washington's Riggs Bank in the name of Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan... After Al Bayoumi left the country in July 2001--two months before the September 11 terror attacks--payments for roughly the same amount began flowing every month to Osama Basnan, a close associate of Al Bayoumi's who also befriended the hijackers." A visit to the Riggs website (www.riggsbank.com ) shows that "Jonathan Bush, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Bush & Co., Inc., founded the company in 1970... He is the son of the late Senator Prescott Bush and the brother of former President George Bush." Also, "J. Bush & Company manages assets for high net-worth individuals, corporate benefit plans and foundations" (Click on "Investments", then "Investment Advisors"). http://www.msnbc.com/news/838867.asp

__Riggs Bank Cited for Violating Money Laundering Laws

Kathleen Day reported for the WashPost on 7/16/03: "Federal bank regulators cited Riggs Bank for violating money-laundering laws, the bank said yesterday. The bank consented to an order from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency requiring Riggs to beef up its procedures for reporting potentially suspicious transactions under the Bank Secrecy Act. The law requires banks to report cash transactions of $10,000 or more. Riggs officials and regulators did not specify if the consent order was tied to any particular customer, or how many transactions Riggs failed to report over what time period. Sources said that in a separate but related investigation, the FBI continues a months-long probe into whether charitable contributions made by a Saudi princess with checks drawn on her Riggs account indirectly benefited two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn /...
Evidence builds for Bush family corruption
posted 05/10, by Donald Grbac (viewed 1340 times) | Scope : National
Popularity : 33 (35 encourage, 2 discourage)
Relevance : 43

Much has already been written about the Carlisle Group. Now we can add the Riggs Bank to the list. It seems the 9/11 terrorists received funding through Riggs Bank. Some of those funds were originally provided by Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi Ambassador Bandar Bin Sultan, and daughter of the late King Faisal. The President and CEO of Riggs Investment Management Company is none other than George W. Bush's uncle Jonathan Bush (according to The INN Report). By law, suspicious money transfers are required to be reported to the FBI. Riggs Bank did not follow regulations in this case. Even worse, in what appears to be a cover up, the Bush Administration is blocking investigations into this terrorist money trail.

In another story,

George W. Bush's brother was on the board of directors of a company providing electronic security for the World Trade Center, Dulles International Airport and United Airlines, according to public records. The company was backed by an investment firm, the Kuwait-American Corp., also linked for years to the Bush family.

The security company, formerly named Securacom and now named Stratesec, is in Sterling, Va.. Its CEO, Barry McDaniel, said the company had a ``completion contract" to handle some of the security at the World Trade Center ``up to the day the buildings fell down."

http://www.e-thepeople.org/article/31752/view

9215

Another bank with terrorist customers intimately linked to Jebby

DU discussion thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=sh ...

Note: Suntrust was involved in Iran-Contra as well.

More: http://www.geocities.com/new_world_order_2003/sun_trust.html

Jeb Bush and Suntrust bank in Florida. This shows a long and cozy financial relationship between Bush and SunTrust Bank and the link between SunTrust and hijackers. Also Bush resists tighter money laundering laws in wake of 9/11.

Suntrust Bank had bank accounts of four hijackers to pay for flight training:

Posted: 2001-11-23 17:16
The quote below is part of a long article on money laundering. The article cites money transfers from the United Arab Emirates to a bank in Florida that was connected to funding the flight training of the supposed hijackers....

"....An update on ICP's raising of S11 issues with regard to SunTrust: the Sarasota Herald-Tribune of November 14 reported that " Inner City also cites the fact that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers opened checking accounts at SunTrust offices, including one in Venice that was used to pay for flight lessons last year. The group said the bank failed to comply with proper money laundering and 'know your customer' practices by not noticing large international wire transfers into the accounts. The bank has said that none of those transactions were more than $10,000, the amount that triggers a report to the federal government." But regulators in the United Arab Emirates have acknowledged wire transfers as large as $70,000, to a bank in Florida they wouldn't name, but which is known to be SunTrust..."


"...And, seemingly unrelated, Florida banks and Florida governor Jeb Bush are opposing a proposed Internal Revenue Service regulation which would require banks to report on the interest earnings of "non-resident aliens." The U.S. is asking countries all over the world to follow its asset-freezing orders: but Florida banks and governor Jeb Bush are opposing much more limited reporting to other countries. "

Just think of how powerful Florida would become if it doesn't implement money laundering control measures, while the rest of the country and the world does? There won't be any competition! <http://www.innercitypress.org/finwatch.html >

Suntrust contributed approx. $160,000 to Jeb's campaign:

Note: Hilliard is the guy who ran the Venice Flight school where terrorists got their training.

http://www.opensecrets.org/fl/gets/st/contrib/fl622.htm
BUSH, JEB

Profile: Summary Data <../index/fl622.htm> - Geographic Totals <../geog/fl622.htm> - Sector Totals <../sector/fl622.htm> - Top Industries <../indus/fl622.htm> - Top Contributors
Top Contributors
REPUBLICAN PARTY OF FL </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=REPUBLICAN+PARTY+OF+FL> $1,621,985 SUNTRUST BANK SPECIA </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=SUNTRUST+BANK+SPECIA> $107,199 SUNTRUST BANK MONEY MARKET ACC </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=SUNTRUST+BANK+MONEY+MARKET+ACC> $65,966 BUSH, JEB </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=BUSH,+JEB> $10,577 STATE FARM INSURANCE CO </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=STATE+FARM+INSURANCE+CO> $5,700 HILLIARD FARM/HILLIARD BROTHERS OF FL </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=HILLIARD+FARM%2FHILLIARD+BROTHERS+OF+FL> $5,000 BANKERS INSURANCE CO </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=BANKERS+INSURANCE+CO> $3,000 ADELPHIA COMMUNICATIONS CORP </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=ADELPHIA+COMMUNICATIONS+CORP> $2,500 STERLING HEALTHCARE GROUP </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=STERLING+HEALTHCARE+GROUP> $2,500 REALTORS PAC </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=REALTORS+PAC> $2,000 SMITH, GRIMSLEY, BAU </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=SMITH,+GRIMSLEY,+BAU> $2,000 NUNIS, RICHARD A & MARY J </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=NUNIS,+RICHARD+A+%26+MARY+J> $2,000 KORMAN, HOWARD I JOY G & ALLISON B </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=KORMAN,+HOWARD+I+JOY+G+%26+ALLISON+B> $2,000 HUFTY, FRANCES & PAGE ARC </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=HUFTY,+FRANCES+%26+PAGE+ARC> $2,000 GL HOMES OF SILVER LAKES XXV </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=GL+HOMES+OF+SILVER+LAKES+XXV> $2,000 EASTON BABCOCK & ASSOCIATES </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=EASTON+BABCOCK+%26+ASSOCIATES> $2,000 DINANNO, JOSEPH & KATHRYN A & THOMAS </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=DINANNO,+JOSEPH+%26+KATHRYN+A+%26+THOMAS> $2,000 BLUE LAKE INC </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=BLUE+LAKE+INC> $2,000 BRAIN & SPINE CENTER NEUROSURGERY </super/asp/contrib.asp?thestateid=FL&theUltOrg=BRAIN+%26+SPINE+CENTER+NEUROSURGERY>


Bush Executive Center in SunTrust Business Plaza:

http://www.rollins.edu/news/Construction/Fall1999Construction.htm

Fall 1999 SunTrust Plaza & The Bush Executive Center

After just over a year of construction, the SunTrust Plaza is nearly completed. The finishing touches-including the paint, sidewalks, and signage-are now being added to Rollins’ newest business venture. The 1st tennant of the SunTrust Plaza, Restoration Hardware, will be ready for business as of June 17th. The Gap, Coldwell Banker with the newly-acquired Ann Cross Realty offices, and Merrill Lynch will follow suit in July and August, respectively. “We hope to have an occupancy of about 93% by the beginning of the 1999-00 school year,” said Vice President and Treasurer George Herbst.
As of June, we are 85% leased, but as the construction nears completion and the community becomes familiar with its newest neighbor, we foresee the signing of the remaining leases.” Thanks to generous donations from the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, Crummer alumnus Dennis Harward and others, the Bush Executive Center has become a reality. The dedication for the building will be held later this fall. Once completed and in full operation, the building will offer 5-6 new classrooms, including an audio/visual presentation room. Also, the Bush Center will feature a hand full of meeting rooms to be used for discussion / study, and will host more faculty offices. A redesigned lobby will connect the Executive Center with the existing Crummer building. Although some of the construction parking was diverted with the use of the parking garage, some spaces will return once the construction area is returned to its original state. The work area will be cleaned up by the end of the summer and people should expect the grass to return, as well as new sidewalks and various shrubbery. There will be an increase in the number of faculty offices. The two displaced faculty members will return from their temporary stay in the 1st floor of the Carnegie Building. The Center’s programs are designed to attract business leaders from around the country. The executive education classrooms will contain the latest teaching technology, including data ports, and video conferencing capabilities. The four-story building will only stand three-stories high, with one floor underground.

Bush and President of SunTrust in Florida Enterprise:
http://www.eflorida.com/content/images/90_june26.pdf

Jeb Bush directing people to SunTrust Bank info on friend and Cocaine:

http://www.citizenslaw.net/_politics/bush_cocaine_billy_preston.htm

follow these links to National security Archives links with original documents of US and cocaine trafficking.

Woods - Billy Preston Cocaine Connection?
--------------------------------------------
It was well-known in the yachting circles along the coast -- from Maine to Florida to Texas -- that the Bush kids, J.E.B. and George W. were cool. "Coming in to Los Angles with a couple of k" No problem. George W. would slap you on the back, and look the other way. J.E.B. would direct you to a bank -- like the SunTrust on the way to Coconut Grove..
During the Iran-Contra period from 1981-1987, Floridian John "Jeb" Bush was the White House contact to the Miami-based Contras. From the NSA archive as George Washington University comes this expose of their activities: Cocaine, Contras, Covert Ops <cocaine_contras_gwu.htm>.
From 1987-1989, while Florida Secretary of Commerce John "JEB" Bush was pushing the revitalizing of South Beach, legendary Rolling Stone guitarist, Ron Woods, (about whom the cocaine rumors swirl) opened Woodies On The Beach at Ocean Drive and 5th St. After considerable complaints from neighbors, enumerable electronic bugs by every investigator north of the Cape Horn, and an extraordinary number of Republican revelries, in 1989 the club closed.
Rumors and confirmations have long been circling around the Ron Woods, Billy Preston scene at the victory celebration bash in Washington, D.C. in 1988 following the election of George Bush as president. The Rolling Stone Anthology report:
This selection from The Rolling Stones, editor, Chris Charlesworth, Omnibook Press, ISBN 0.7119.3480.5 Anthology referring to January 21, 1989 reads: "Ron (Woods), along with Bo Diddley, Percy Sledge, Duck Dunn, Eddie Floyd, Willie Dixon, Chuck Jackson, Dr. John, Carla Thomas, Steve Cropper, Albert Collins, Billy Preston and Koko Taylor all celebrate Republican President-elect George Bush's victory on stage at the Convention Center in Washington, D.C. George Bush shows up to meet the musicians and be present with a signed poster and a guitar, then RNC Chairman Lee Atwater who organised the bash, strapped on a red guitar and played 'Hi Heel Sneakers'. Out of the 8,500 attendees, there were more black people on stage than in the audience." Billy Preston has been on the scene for a long, long time. Many of us recall our first encounter with him as a member of the house band on the hit rock 'n roll TV show, "Shindig!" in the mid-'60s. He was born in Houston, TX and raised mostly in Los Angeles. He began playing piano at age three. Starting on his mother's lap, he progressed to his first "solo" performance of "Mary Had A Little Lamb." By age ten, he was performing with Gospel great, Mahalia Jackson. At twelve, he made his first movie appearance as the young W.C. Handy in "St. Louis Blues." By this time, he had a musical hero, Ray Charles, whom he admired mostly from afar. During those years he played with such Gospel luminaries as James Cleveland, The Caravans and The Staple Singers. In the course of his Gospel touring he met Sam Cooke, a member of the Soul Stirrers at the time. He would eventually play secular music with Cooke and join the roster of Cooke's SAR/Derby labels. By the mid-'60s, in addition to his "Shindig!" duties, he recorded with his hero, Ray Charles. While on tour with Charles, he re-united with The Beatles whom he had met years earlier while touring England with Little Richard. Confused? OK, enough! Let him tell it. Billy Preston is here to take us logically through his life, including his hit-making years, right up to the present. These days you can find him weekly on the UPN network's "Good News," in addition to personal appearances. With special thanks to Bill Maxwell, The R&B Page is proud to present, via RealAudio, Billy Preston!
Source: <http://beatles.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa120197.htm >
Billy Preston sent to jail
Dateline: 12/01/97
He's shared stages with Sam Cooke and Mahalia Jackson. He's written songs for Joe Cocker. He was asked to join The Band, nearly asked to join the Beatles, and when he played the famous Concert For Bangladesh, he (unintentionally or not) upstaged none other than Bob Dylan.
And now he's in jail.
Definitely the most soulful "Fifth Beatle", and arguably the most talented, Billy Preston was sentenced recently to three years in jail for parole violations centering around his continued cocaine use. That's a tragedy on the order of James Brown's, Sly Stone's, and Rick James' incarcerations, for while Preston never reached their commercial heights, he can arguably be considered their artistic peer.

The Best of Billy Preston at CD Universe <http://www.cduniverse.com/programs/asp/albuminfo.asp?LC=7502+3205&cart ... >
Preston was/is a funk/blues/gospel powerhouse who catapulted to first-rank status as one of the few enjoyable things about the Let It Be debacle. His keyboard wizardry was responsible for a fair share of the groove of "Get Back" and the majesty of "Don't Let Me Down", among others. And when he unleashed his own "Imagine"-like statement of purpose, "That's The Way God Planned It", at the Bangladesh concert, he suddenly made Dylan and Hari seem obsolete, vaulting him into a string of classic Seventies funk'n'boogie hits like "Nothing From Nothing", "Will It Go 'Round In Circles", and instrumental synth freakouts like "Outa-Space" and "Space Race."
Unfortunately, like James, Rick, and Sly, Preston has had a monkey on his back: a genuinely good guy, Preston wasn't pinched on any violent account but just nabbed in an attempt to halt his abuses. Whether or not it's a good solution is another discussion entirely, but for now, you can send a few prayers out, and maybe get to know him a little better. Here are some links to explain his rise and fall.
The R&B Page Archive <http://www.rbpage.com/backissue24.html >
The best overview of Billy's fantastic career, featuring RealAudio interviews with Billy from Before Things Went Wrong.
Microsoft Music Central Discography <http://musiccentral.msn.com/Artist/Display/77139 >
Lists all of Billy's session work (and that's a lot).
Billy Preston Gets Back <http://www.rockvillage.com/rock/artist/archived/961107/index.html >
A more Beatle-intensive sort of biography. Is Billy on the Anthology? From RockVillage.
Billy Preston <http://theband.hiof.no/band_members/billy_preston.html >
From the official page of The Band. Billy rocking out with Rick Danko and Levon Helm? Yes
- --------------------------------------
It's not the drug use that's important -- but the hypocrisy exhibit by both -- they use, benefit and protect -- unless it serves their purpose to harass, extort, and incarcerate. Are we to believe the 25 year drug free story???

A Washington Bank, A Global Mess (Riggs Bank, the GOP and Terrorism)

mobuto

For those of you who don't live in Washington, the Riggs National Bank is controlled by the Houston-based Allbritton family, which has for decades been virtually synonymous with the Republican Party. They provide much better service than the national chains, which is why I have my accounts there, but then of course I don't receive the service afforded Saudi terrorists or African dictators. Joe Allbritton owns a media empire of local television affiliates, and is a longtime close, personal friend of George H. W. Bush.
---


EACH January, in honor of Gen. Robert E. Lee's birthday, a group of Washington's movers and shakers gather to rub elbows at the Alfalfa Club dinner. Wizened, impressive and until recently entirely male, the Alfalfa roster includes presidents, politicians, diplomats and business impresarios, all bound together by being either formidably influential or fabulously rich.

Attendees have included luminaries like Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States; Jack Valenti, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America; and others with surnames like Greenspan, Kissinger and Rehnquist. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made their first joint public appearance after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the Alfalfa gathering in 2002.

--snip=--

Until late February, Riggs managed $360 million worth of Equatorial Guinean accounts that federal investigators say were controlled by that country's dictator. The accounts were largely funded by proceeds from deals with Exxon Mobil, the oil company. Federal investigators say they are scrutinizing those accounts to see if they involve the proceeds of political graft or were used to bribe executives of any American companies, according to an individual with direct knowledge of the investigation. The problems with the Equatorial Guinean accounts also prompted the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last month to warn Riggs that it plans to label it a "troubled" institution, meaning that the bank would have to cede significant managerial authority to the government.

--snip--

Until the Sept. 11 attacks, Saudi officials often rolled into a Riggs branch on a Friday and withdrew millions of dollars for, say, a weekend splurge in London, according to individuals familiar with the transactions. Even after the attacks, when Saudi institutions were criticized by federal officials for possibly financing terrorism, it took Riggs more than a year to begin tightening its oversight. A year ago, the bank says, it cautioned the Saudis, as well as embassies from other countries, that the no-questions-asked era was coming to an end.

--continued--

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/business/yourmoney/11riggs.html

sam sarrha

and no chance of "RICO" showing up either i bet.

ultramega

Another "Ruthless dictator"? (Obiang)

Isn't this the kind of dictator whom we like to depose?

What is the difference between a good dictator and a bad dictator? One who does everything as Bush want's it, as opposed to one who considers selling oil in euros.

mobuto

There are good dictators as well


who do business with Riggs.

From the article:

Until the Sept. 11 attacks, Saudi officials often rolled into a Riggs branch on a Friday and withdrew millions of dollars for, say, a weekend splurge in London, according to individuals familiar with the transactions. Even after the attacks, when Saudi institutions were criticized by federal officials for possibly financing terrorism, it took Riggs more than a year to begin tightening its oversight. A year ago, the bank says, it cautioned the Saudis, as well as embassies from other countries, that the no-questions-asked era was coming to an end.

DulceDecorum

Saddam was a good dictator


The Shah of Iran was a good dictator.
Adolf Hitler was the best dictator,
but
Dubya may supersede them all.

Incidentally, up until Jonathan Bush of Riggs was told to part with all the money paid into Obiang's account (minimum 300 million CASH)
the president of Equatorial Guinea was a good dictator.
Now he is just "a gonad-eating cannibal."

cosmicdot

how many of Poppy's trustees were there? Albritton? Valenti?


Poppy Bu$h Presidential Library Foundation - Trustees
(do they all get an annual retainer fee?)

* Member of the Board of Directors

Don A. Adam
Bryan, Texas

Joe L. Allbritton
Washington, D.C.

Thomas Ludlow Ashley *
Washington, D.C.

Hushang Ansary
Houston, Texas

James A. Baker, III
Houston, Texas

Dexter Baker
Allentown, Pennsylvania

Perry R. Bass
Fort Worth, Texas

Sam Bamieh
San Mateo, California

Bruce Benson
Denver, Colorado

Griffin B. Bell
Atlanta, Georgia

Katherine E. Boyd
Hillsborough, California

Jack Blanton
Houston, Texas

Daniel B. Burke
New York, New York

Nicholas F. Brady
Easton, Maryland

Jonathan J. Bush
Killingworth, Connecticut

Governor John Ellis Bush *
Miami, Florida

Neil M. Bush
Houston, Texas

Marvin P. Bush
Alexandria, Virginia

William H.T. Bush
St. Louis, Missouri

Prescott S. Bush, Jr.
Greenwich, Connecticut

John T. Cater
Houston, Texas

James W. Cicconi *
Washington, D.C.

William P. Clements
Dallas, Texas

Tony Coelho
Alexandria, Virginia

Lodwrick M. Cook *
Los Angeles, California

Dan W. Cook, III
Dallas Texas

Mr. & Mrs. Earle Craig
Midland, Texas

Edwin L. Cox
Dallas, Texas

Trammell Crow
Dallas, Texas

Harlan Crow
Dallas, Texas

Barbara Fish Daniel
Houston, Texas

Walter Curley
New York, New York

William H. Draper
Atherton, California

Robert A. Day
Los Angeles, California

Nancy Ellis
Boston, Massachusetts

Archie W. Dunham
Houston, Texas

Max M. Fisher
Detroit, Michigan

William S. Farish, III
Versailles, Kentucky

Craig L. Fuller
McLean, Virginia

Laurie Firestone
Newport Beach, California

Richard L. Gelb
New York, New York

Brad M. Freeman
Los Angeles, California

C. Boyden Gray
Washington, D.C.

H. Laurance Fuller
Chicago, Illinois

Adele Hall
Shawnee Mission, Kansas

Preston M. Geren, Jr.
Fort Worth, Texas

Mr. & Mrs. Henry Hillman
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Michel T. Halbouty
Houston, Texas

Bobby Holt *
Midland, Texas

John M. Hennessy
New York, New York

Ray L. Hunt
Dallas, Texas

Eric Hilton
Los Angeles, California

Dorothy Bush Koch *
Bethesda, Maryland

Roy M. Huffington
Houston, Texas

Jack Laughery
Rocky Mount, North Carolina

Donald M. Kendall
Purchase, New York

J. Hugh Liedtke
Houston, Texas

Terri Lacy *
Houston, Texas

John H. Lindsey *
Houston, Texas

Kenneth L. Lay
Houston, Texas

Cary Maguire
Dallas, Texas

Carl H. Lindner, III
Cincinnati, Ohio

Frederic V. Malek
Washington, D.C.

Donald B. Marron
New York, New York

Louis Marx
New York, New York

Lynn Martin
Chicago, Illinois

Frederick D. McClure *
Dallas, Texas*

Elvis Mason
Dallas, Texas

G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery
Meridian, Mississippi

William A. McKenzie
Dallas, Texas

William P. Moss
Dallas, Texas

Robert Mosbacher
Houston, Texas

Edward N. Ney
New York, New York

Brian Mulroney
Canada (Honorary)

Gerald L. Parsky
Los Angeles, California

Fred M. Zeder
Rancho Mirage, California

Sigmund Rogich
Las Vegas, Nevada

Dan Quayle
Scottsdale, Arizona (Honorary)

Roy Ryu
Seoul, South Korea

Susan Porter Rose
McLean, Virginia

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Santa Monica, California

William A. Schreyer
Plainsboro, New Jersey

Peter Secchia
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Brent Scowcroft *
Washington, D.C.

Samuel K. Skinner
Chicago, Illinois

Melvin F. Sembler
St. Petersburg, Florida

Alex Spanos
Stockton, California

Joshua Smith
Potomac, Maryland

Robert H. Stewart
Dallas, Texas

Jacob Stein
Hicksville, New York

John H. Sununu
Washington, D.C.

Robert S. Strauss
Washington, D.C.

Robert Waltrip
Houston, Texas

Jack Valenti
Washington, D.C.

John F. Welch
Fairfield, Connecticut

Jerry Weintraub
Burbank, California

Richard D. Wood
Indianapolis, Indiana

Gary Winnick
Beverly Hills, California

Gordon Zacks
Columbus, Ohio

Stephen A. Wynn
Las Vegas, Nevada

John D. Macomber
Washington, D.C.

http://www.georgebushfoundation.org/bush/asp/OverView/Trustees.asp

mobuto

Well, Riggs bankrolled the Mexican-American War...

amandabeech

Well, "they" all had to go somewhere after BCCI closed.

Anyone know what's going on with the investigation in the U.K.?


Aafia Siddiqui (part of yesterday's terror alert)


Siddiqui, included in yesterday's scaremongering, lived with two people involved in Saudi transactions via Riggs.

Fleet also spotted suspicious money transfers totaling $20,000 from the Saudi government's armed forces account to a man who lived in the same Boston apartment as Siddiqui. His name is Abdullah Al Reshood and he has been questioned by the FBI, according to a source.

Reshood wrote a $20,000 check to another Saudi, Hatem Al Dhahri, who then wired $17,193 back to an account in Saudi Arabia controlled by Reshood. Al Dhahri lived at the same address as Siddiqui, Fleet noted in its report.

The Newsweek report also highlighted the role of Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C., in the transactions from Saudi Arabia. Riggs never filed any suspicious activity reports with the U.S. Treasury, prompting an investigation.

The Riggs accounts, according to Newsweek, showed a number of checks sent to flight schools and flight school students in the United States.

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNews/view.bg?articleid=483&format=


9215

BLAAAM!!!


Nice catch:

The Riggs accounts, according to Newsweek, showed a number of checks sent to flight schools and flight school students in the United States.

The bank I mentioned above, Suntrust, has some agreement to buy Riggs bank. I'll need to dig into that more.



UpInArms (1000+ posts) Fri May-28-04 01:35 PM
Original message
Riggs (Bank) Seeks Buyer After Government Fine, Executive Departures


http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a1mowiaKgTZk&ref...

May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Riggs National Corp. in the past month has paid a $25 million government fine, lost three executives and been labeled a ``troubled'' bank by regulators.

Now Washington, D.C.-based Riggs, with customers including the Saudi Arabian embassy, is for sale, people familiar with the matter said late yesterday.

Riggs, with a market value of $543 million, hired Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to help sell the company, the people said on the condition they not be named. The bank, accused by regulators of failing to enforce anti- money laundering rules, is contacting potential buyers such as Citigroup Inc. and Wachovia Corp., the people said.

A buyer would get a bank with 28 branches in Washington, 13 in Virginia and nine in Maryland, as well as offices in London, Berlin and Nassau in the Bahamas.

<snip>

Federal investigators concluded that Riggs failed to report suspicious transactions to banking authorities, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said earlier in the month. Riggs neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

...more...

http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/may31_00.html

Dudley Elected Chairman of Riggs Investment Management Subsidiary; Bush to Serve as President & CEO

Washington, D.C., May 31, 2000 - Riggs Bank N.A. today announced that the Board of Directors of RIMCO, a wholly owned investment management subsidiary, has elected Jonathan J. Bush President & Chief Executive Officer and a Director, replacing Philip Tasho who resigned. In addition, Henry A. Dudley, Jr. was elected Chairman.

Mr. Bush will continue as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Bush & Co., an investment management company he founded in 1970, which Riggs acquired in 1997. Mr. Dudley, a 24-year veteran of Riggs, will continue to be responsible for all of Riggs Bank's investment management, trust and private banking business.

Located in the nation's capital, Riggs Bank has 53 branches in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, as well as banking offices in Miami, London and Berlin.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58805-2004May26.html

A Shift in Strategy for Riggs

excerpt:

And, though Jonathan Bush briefly ran Riggs's investment advisory business during a management shakeup at the division in 2000, for the most part he has run his company as a distinct, wholly owned subsidiary of the bank, responsible for generating his own business and having limited interactions with select Riggs clients, Hendrix said.

"Jonathan Bush is very active, a very active manager," Hendrix said. He would not comment on details of Bush's business, but sources familiar with the company say J. Bush & Co. employs eight people and has about $200 million in assets under management. When Riggs acquired the company it had approximately $250 million under management. Riggs manages client assets of more than $6 billion, including trust accounts.

Jonathan Bush declined to comment.

seemslikeadream (1000+ posts) Mon May-24-04 05:56 PM
Original message
UPDATE 1-Bank of America says president to resign


Mon May 24, 2004 04:58 PM ET
(Adds quotes and details)
CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 24 (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp. (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) President Eugene McQuade plans to resign from the No. 2 U.S. bank and its board of directors effective June 30, the company said on Monday.

McQuade, 55, was a driving force behind Bank of America's $48 billion purchase of FleetBoston Financial Corp., completed on April 1. McQuade became Fleet's chief operating officer in 2002 and was previously its chief financial officer.

Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America's chief executive, said in a statement McQuade "felt it was time to pursue different challenges and a new chapter in his career." The business units that McQuade oversaw are being realigned.

McQuade is the most senior official from Fleet to leave the combined bank since the merger. Charles "Chad" Gifford, who had been Fleet's chief executive, became Bank of America's chairman.

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml ?
type=bondsNews&storyID=5240652

At Riggs, problems passed on with legacy
Joe L. Allbritton won control of Riggs Bank in 1981 and used it as a launching pad into Washington`s top business and political circles. He assiduously cultivated "The Riggs" cachet as the bank for foreign governments and diplomats and steadfastly refused to sell the institution even as most of his competitors sold out, The Washington Post reported. Riggs has cultivated the diplomatic community and one quarter of its $4 billion in deposits come from that source. "My pride in Riggs has been paramount in my activities," he said in an interview when he retired in February 2001. "And you know, if you have just enough money, you`ll do more for pride than you`ll do for money…. My object was to put Riggs in a position where it could be the survivor. It is that." But when he bequeathed Riggs to his son Robert after retiring, he also passed on Riggs`s long-simmering problems complying with banking secrecy laws. Most controversial has been the use of hundreds of millions of dollars in funds controlled by the Saudi embassy in Washington, as well as suspicious transactions involving officials of Equatorial Guinea.

http://www.diplomatictraffic.com/embassy_briefs.asp?ID=Americas



The action followed the $25 million civil fine against the midsize Washington bank, which has a near-exclusive franchise on business with the capital’s diplomatic community. The fine, which had been expected, is the largest ever imposed on a financial institution for such violations, experts said.


The FBI and regulators have investigated, for possible connections to terrorism financing, large cash transactions in Riggs accounts controlled by Saudi diplomats.

The Senate Finance Committee chairman, Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa, recently asked the panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks to examine Saudi transactions at Riggs and FleetBoston Financial Corp.

“Riggs Bank deserves every penny of this huge fine,” Grassley said Thursday. “Banks have a patriotic duty, not to mention legal requirement, to report suspicious activity. When banks look the other way, they put our national security at risk.”

Grassley said members of the bank’s board of directors should be held to account.

The Treasury regulators had earlier accused Riggs of failing to comply with a law requiring banks to notify the government of suspicious transactions. The bank also had been classified by the comptroller’s office as a “troubled institution” for not complying fully with a July 2003 consent order under which it agreed to strengthen its anti-money laundering controls.

more
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4973033 /


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic...








If I gave you everything that I owned and asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride, and strip me of everything including my pride
But spirit is something that no one destroys
And the sound that I'm hearing is only the sound
The low spark of high-heeled boys

[Octafish]

6. Behold some mighty posts that INDICT the BFEE

Thanks, seemslikeadream!



The power of DU is the power of the TRUTH!

[Octafish]

7. TPJ: Documents Bush criminality -- big time! HARKEN!

Robert W. Jordan
Occupation: Attorney
Employer: Baker Botts
Home: Dallas, TX

Corporate lawyer Robert Jordan specializes in dispute resolution and international business at Baker Botts, the Bush family’s insider law firm (see William Barnett). Jordan was George W. Bush’s personal attorney during an early scandal. While sitting on Harken Oil’s audit committee in 1990, director George W. Bush sold $848,560 in Harken stock (60 percent of his holdings)--just two months before the stock price tanked after Harken disclosed a $23 million loss to its shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated this suspicious stock sale after Bush reported it eight months late. Heading the SEC at the time was Richard Breeden, who was appointed by Bush’s father (Breeden and then-SEC General Counsel James Doty came from Baker Botts). On August 21, 1991 the SEC concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge Bush with insider trading because Harken’s internal and outside counsel reportedly approved the sale. The day after the SEC reached this conclusion, however, Robert Jordan belatedly provided the SEC with contradictory evidence. Namely, Harken’s external counsel at Haynes & Boone (see Michael Boone) sent Bush and other Harken directors a cautionary 1990 letter warning them not to sell Harken stock if they were aware of significant problems with the company. The date of that letter was one week before Bush unloaded his 212,140 Harken shares for $848,560. Bush used the Harken stock money to repay a loan he had taken out to invest in the Texas Rangers, an investment that made him a millionaire 15 times over in 1999 (see Tom Hicks). On September 12, 2001—the day after 11 suicidal Saudi terrorists attacked the United States, President Bush nominated Jordan to be Saudi ambassador. Ambassador Jordan generally kept a low public profile as the U.S. sought to keep Saudi oil flowing while distancing itself from a corrupt monarchy with financial ties to the terrorists. Ambassador Jordan praised Saudi cooperation with U.S. terrorism investigators in late 2001, when those same U.S. officials said Saudi cooperation was virtually nonexistent. Ambassador Jordan resigned in 2003, shortly after an Arabic newspaper reported that Jordan privately cited two princes whom the U.S. would prefer as the next Saudi king and crown prince. Jordan’s claim that he was misquoted failed to soothe the seething jealousies harbored by the Royal Family’s prodigious pool of spoiled offspring. Several weeks after Jordan’s allegedly undiplomatic comments, President Bush refused to declassify the section of a congressional report that discusses Saudi financing of the September 2001 attacks. At the time, the FBI was probing why tens of thousands of dollars from the Riggs bank account (see Jonathan Bush) of Saudi Princess Haifa flowed to the families of two Saudi students who subsidized two Saudi terrorists. Princess Haifa, daughter of the late King Faisal, is married to Saudi Arabia’s U.S. ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. Bush nominated James Oberwetter, a Hunt Oil executive (see Ray Hunt), to replace Jordan.

SOURCE:

http://www.tpj.org/docs/pioneers/pioneers_view.jsp?id=628