Report: Lobbyists helped launder millions

[cal04]

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/79609-report-lobbyists-helped-launder-millions

Washington lobbyists and lawyers helped launder millions of dollars for allegedly corrupt African politicians and their relatives, according to a two-year-long investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The report, to be released Thursday, is part of a push by the panel chairman, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), to strengthen anti-money laundering and anti-corruption measures, which aides suggest could be added to the financial regulatory reform package moving through Congress.

The report names a number of prominent foreign officials, including a former Nigerian vice president and the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president, as moving millions of dollars into the United States with little scrutiny.

Many have been at the center of corruption scandals in their own countries and have been under investigation off and on by law enforcement authorities around the world, including the U.S. Justice Department.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Levin said there were “significant holes” in American defenses against money laundering that must be reinforced to reduce corruption and other crimes, including terrorism.



U.S. Report Details Money Laundering
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/business/04bribe.html?hp

[thunder rising]

1. So there really is a Nigerian Finance Minister with millions of $ ... maybe I'll keep that email

[ddeclue]

5. DUZY OF THE WEEK!! DING DING DING WE HAVE THE WINNER!!

[seafan]

2. The beat goes on. And virtually nothing is done about it.

NYT, February 3, 2010: U.S. Report Details Money Laundering

.....

These and other deals and money transfers took place in recent years because of inadequate controls on money laundering at large American banks and unregulated American lawyers, real estate agents and lobbyists, according to a Senate report released late Wednesday.

The 325-page report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which will conduct a hearing on Thursday, sheds new light on how banks like Citigroup, Wachovia and Bank of America unwittingly shifted hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of African politicians, their relatives and associates.

.....

Tampa Tribune, May 2, 2008: Awaiting Sentence, 'Madam' Kills Self

TARPON SPRINGS - The woman known as the "D.C. Madam," who a jury convicted for running a Washington prostitution service that catered to the rich and powerful, hanged herself Thursday morning in a shed next to her mother's mobile home.

Authorities found the body of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, at the Sun Valley Mobile Home Park and pronounced her dead about 11 a.m. They found handwritten notes in a notebook describing her intent to take her life, and do not suspect foul play. Authorities did not release the content of the notes.

On April 15, a federal jury convicted Palfrey of money laundering, using the mail system for illegal purposes and racketeering. She reportedly made more than $2 million.

.....

Palfrey knew Vitter as "David from C Street," she said. At the time, Vitter had an apartment on C Street.

..... (link added)

Re: Sibel Edmonds testimony, September, 2005: An Inconvenient Patriot

.....

Another call allegedly discussed a payment to a Pentagon official, who seemed to be involved in weapons-procurement negotiations. Yet another implied that Turkish groups had been installing doctoral students at U.S. research institutions in order to acquire information about black-market nuclear weapons. In fact, much of what Edmonds reportedly heard seemed to concern not state espionage but criminal activity. There was talk, she told investigators, of laundering the profits of large-scale drug deals and of selling classified military technologies to the highest bidder.

.....

Robert Parry: How Rotten Are These Guys?, October 5, 2005


OpEd News: The Bush-DeLay-Indian Casinos Campaign Money Laundering Operation




Robert Parry: The Moon-Bush Cash Conduit, June 14, 2006


Robert Parry: Dark Side of Rev. Moon: Generation Next, September 8, 1997





“Evil flourishes when good men do nothing.” ----British statesman Edmund Burke

[defendandprotect]

3. kick

[starroute]

4. President Bongo of Gabon has been particularly dirty

The story cited in the OP mentions Bongo in passing -- but it doesn't say anything about his relationship with Jack Abramoff, whose front group GrassRoots Interactive got $9 million from Bongo. Abramoff's corrupt colleague, David Safavian, was a registered agent for Bongo at the same time.

Bongo is also reported to have been a client of both BCCI and the money-laundering Swiss American Bank in Antiqua (whose founder, Bruce Rappaport, was further entangled with BCCI, Rusian oligarchs, and former CIA Director William Casey.)

There's lots of really rancid stuff involved here, and this Times story reads more like a cover-up than an expose. It all has to do with the *really* seamy side of the Abramoff scandal, the part that hasn't even gotten out (largely because John McCain has been sitting on the documents and only releasing small "safe" snippets.) And judging by this Times story, it doesn't look like it will get out now, either.


On edit: Just glanced up and saw the end of Seafan's posts has links to both Abramoff materials and Robert Parry stories. Parry has been on top of a lot of this stuff -- see, for example, his story about Rappaport at http://www.consortiumnews.com/1999/092399b.html. (And gosh, that story also happens to be about the Times leaving out crucial details. Isn't it funny how that keeps happening?)

[seafan]

8. Yes, John McCain hid the Abramoff emails showcasing the dirty deals for Bob Riley in Alabama.

As the Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee **investigating** his friend Jack Abramoff.....


Jack Abramoff: John McCain’s other Lobbyist problem..., February 22, 2008


And this corrupt, sputtering, angry old coot still walks, unaccountable.


Thanks for that reminder, starroute.

[classysassy]

6. Their former masters

taught them well.It is really too bad the world court want go after the europeans that held africa in bondage for so many years,they stole the resources of that continent but no one has suggested reparation for africa,I wonder why?.

[DemoTex]

7. WTF is the PATRIOT Act for anyway, if not for shit like this?

:wtf: