Here's good story that has more twists and turns than a Tom Clancy novel. So if you have some time to play connect the dots, here we go.
Yesterday the FEDS seized an OIL COMPANY. For the first time ever they seized someone's wells. Believe it or not the name of this outfit is Shaboom Investments. Paul Hindelang was a major, major pot importer in South Florida. Hindelang did not have any operating control over the oil company but it was his drug proceeds that funded the company.
Well guess what, Paul Hindelang was also a business partner with Bill Simon, the fellow who ran for Governor of CA against Grey Davis in 2002. At the time Bill Simon was convicted, (it later got thrown out) of defrauding his estranged business partner Paul Hindelang, Jr., a convicted drug trafficker.
Turns out this Paul Hindelang fellow, who goes back to the Iran Contra days, sure is connected. Here's the next dot.
Last year, Bush hired James E. Sharp, a Washington attorney to handle the Valeria Plame case. Turns out that Sharp also represented his self-avowed “good friend” Joe Harry Pegg against a charge of conspiring to import marijuana in 1988 and 1989.
So now we can go back to the beginning of the story which started with Paul Hindelang. Hindelang and Joe Harry Pegg were partners way back in the good ol' days, when they were one of the biggest importers of pot in the US.
So we have one degree of separation between the president and the drug dealer in two different directions.
Bush --> Bill Simon --> Paul Hindelang
Bush --> James E Sharp --> Paul Hindelang
Sure is a small world.
Jan 25, 2005
MIAMI (AP) -- Federal agents seized a Phoenix-based oil company and more than three dozen Pennsylvania oil wells, along with trusts and bank accounts, as part of a wide-ranging money laundering investigation, authorities announced Tuesday in Miami.
U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents seized Shaboom Oil Inc., based in Phoenix, on Friday. The company, owned by a Panama-based company called
Shaboom Investments, forfeited 43 operating oil wells and mineral rights to 1,100 acres in the Allegheny National Forest in northwest Pennsylvania, authorities said.
Authorities said they seized $6.5 million in assets from several trusts and bank accounts in Monaco, part of more than $70 million forfeited in the investigation dating back to the early 1990s.
Larry Hammond, an attorney for
George Basch, who until Friday was Shaboom Oil's chief executive, declined comment.
ICE said it would work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to manage the seized company.
Federal officials said the impetus for the investigation was
Paul Hindelang, a California man who operated one of the nation's largest marijuana smuggling operations in the late 1970s.http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_OIL_COMPANY_SEIZED_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=state.shtmlAug 23, 2002
Bill Simon (Rep Candidate - GOV 2002): Exempt from Bush's "Zero Tolerance"?
Bush Fundraises for CA candidate riddled by corporate scandals — the same scandals affecting Bush
"The lousy part for the White House is having the president stand next to someone in the middle of a corporate fraud case two weeks after Bush signed a zero-tolerance corporate responsibility bill." — Anonymous GOP operative, as quoted in the Modesto Bee.
"If you lead a corporation, you have a responsibility to serve your shareholders, to be honest with your employees. You have a responsibility to obey the law and to tell the truth."
Simon-Led Firm Convicted Of Fraud
Simon's Firm Convicted of Defrauding Former Partner; Ordered to Pay $78 Million. In August 2002, California GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon, Jr.'s company was found guilty of defrauding an estranged business partner in a civil lawsuit and was ordered to pay $78 million in damages. A jury ruled that Simon's company,
William E. Simon & Sons, defrauded Paul Hindelang, Jr., a convicted drug trafficker, in a deal to take over Hindelang's pay phone company, Pacific Coin. The jury found that Simon's company hid its plans to expand and take Hindelang's company public against his wishes. Pacific Coin collapsed under the weight of the debt that Simon's company piled on it in its attempts to expand the pay phone service. Simon, co-chair of Simon & Sons, was not named as a defendant in the case and has said that he was not involved in the daily management of the firm.
http://www.democrats.org/news/200208230002.htmlThe cult of secrecy surrounding
President Bush’s newly retained lawyer in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case is so strong that the White House refuses even to confirm who
the president’s lawyer is.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters June 3 that the lawyer’s name was Jim Sharp, but refused even to confirm whether he is
James E. Sharp, a Washington attorney.<snip>
Sharp’s highest profile client was Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, a major figure in the
Iran-Contra scandal who helped Lt. Col. Oliver North accumulate untaxed wealth in overseas accounts.
Far lesser known, however, is a 1994 finding by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, where he engaged in “unethical and criminal activity” for pressuring a witness to commit perjury. The charge was leveled by one of Sharp’s witnesses when
he (Sharp) represented his self-avowed “good friend” Joe Harry Pegg against a charge of conspiring to import marijuana in 1988 and 1989.
http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/jim_sharp_bush_lawyer_secrecy.htmFeds Seize 280-Million In Drug Cash - (MIAMI) -- Federal authorities in Miami and Washington are claiming the largest-ever seizure of drug profits. A total of 280-Million dollars in cash and some property is being forfeited from Swiss bank accounts where the profits have been concealed for years. Prosecutors say the drug assets belonged to imprisoned drug trafficker Julio Nasser- David of Colombia... and former
South Florida drug importers Paul Hindelang and Joe Harry Pegg. Nasser-David's wife Sheila helped arrange the transfer of funds as part of her plea agreement on money laundering charges. Attorney General Janet Reno and the Swiss ambassador are signing a contract to split the seized profits between their countries.
http://www.agaphil.com/AuditingArticles/jacksonville.html