Dollars for Guinea: how palms were greased by oil - Riggs Bank

[seemslikeadream]

Now the view from Malabo harbour at night reveals the distant twinkle of the burn-off flames of the offshore drilling platforms. The discovery of large reserves of oil and gas hasn't made many of the 460,000 population better off. But President Obiang, the country's ruler for the past 30 years, and his circle are now immensely wealthy and had, until the Senate investigation, channelled their booty into Riggs' accounts. However, the sudden wealth has made the President a prime target for regime change, as the failed, financially driven coup led by former SAS officer and old Etonian Simon Mann has shown.

Nearly all of the money in the Equatorial Guinea accounts came directly from royalty payments from US oil companies. The Senate report said that Riggs may have allowed Equatorial Guinea, its largest customer, and the country's ruler to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenue into his personal accounts. At any one time, up to $700m was held in a complex web of 60 inter-related accounts.

"Oil companies operating in Equatorial Guinea may have contributed to corrupt practices in that country by making substantial payments to, or entering into business ventures with, individual Equatorial Guinea officials, their family members, or entities they control, with minimal public disclosure of their actions," the report concluded. "The nature of these transactions and the amount of money involved raise legitimate questions about these and other business dealings within the country."

The naked corruption of these once- secret arrangements has sparked a backlash against these American firms and will have ramifications for all Western companies operating in unstable Third World countries. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is carrying out informal investigations into at least three of the oil companies - Marathon Oil, Amerada Hess and ChevronTexaco - to see whether they broke anti-bribery laws and whether they committed securities fraud by failing to properly disclose disbursements made to a foreign government or official.

But the geopolitical implications are far greater. The US is hoping that the oil-producing countries of West Africa will provide at least 15 per cent of its oil imports within 10 years, reducing the nation's dependency on Middle Eastern and Russian oil supplies. West Africa is clearly identified by the US as an area that merits significant attention as an oil source, given its many large, untapped reserves, proximity to the US refining system and generally light-grade crudes.

more
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/story.jsp?story=558315

[emad]

1. More on money trail: SA federal authorities applying "to freeze

offshore trust fund accounts in the UK's Channel Islands" held beneficially in the name of Mark Thatcher's children:

Last night on the World Service radio a writer from Africa Economic Digest (a UK-based business publisher) said that there was to be a High Court application this week - maybe Monday - to freeze previously inaccessible offshore bank accounts held by Thatcher and his wife Diane in St Helier, Jersey in the name of their children that relate to payments of "up to $10 million" made during 1997 to 2000.

And that the money relates to "consultancy fees" sourced to business ventures partnered by Jeff Skilling!

And that Diane Thatcher's lawyers in Texas are to apply to the Jersey High Courts to block any attempt to freeze her personal accounts held there as well as those held jointly with her husband.

No information was given whether this was actual Enron money or ventures run as Skilling sidelines.

Nothing on the internet as yet or in the UK Sunday press but I thought it might be worth posting this.

Will post any link I find.

[seemslikeadream]

2. money relates to "consultancy fees" sourced to business ventures partnered

Jeff Skilling!

[emad]

3. Is Skilling keeping his fingers crossed in that pic?

Or are the cuffs still loose enough for a little thumb twiddling....?

[seemslikeadream]

4. Jeffrey Skilling: From Suit and Tie Executive to Bum

SKILLING BEFORE AND AFTER
The mystery of Jeffrey Skilling's disappearance two weeks ago has been solved. One of Enron's leading figures was found on the streets of Manhattan, begging for change, and dressed in ragged and filthy clothes. Two weeks on the streets has produced a beard and moustache, but otherwise Skilling was healthy.

What happened?! How did this symbol of expensive grooming, always in a suit and tie, end up as a filthy bum?

Enron's former CEO Jeff Skilling has always been known for his dapper appearance. Whether under the heat of congressional questioning or the assault of journalists, Skilling is always dressed to the nines, as a CEO should be. All that came to an end for the disgraced executive last week when one of the former Enron shareholders, now homeless, grabbed an unsuspecting Skilling in New York and forced him to swap clothes with him.

We caught up with a stunned Skilling today in Manhattan. "I was wearing a hand-tailored $3,000 business suit, a $200 Hermes silk tie, a Brooks Brothers shirt, monogrammed cufflinks, and thousand dollar Allen Edmonds shoes" whimpered Skilling, whose odyssey on the streets left a bewildered press corps wondering where he had gone. "NOW look at me! This is what that BUM did to me!"

more
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s8i6419

[emad]

6. Spoof treads fearlessly where internet libel lawyers dare not.....

NEW talent spoofing the spoof????

Must solve this mystery....

[emad]

12. More on possible Channel Islands moneylaundering:

Lawyers in Guernsey acting for Equatorial Guinea's President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, are seeking to discover the identities of those who allegedly bankrolled the coup attempt, and will seek details of payments made into the account of Simon Mann, who is said to have masterminded the plot. Among those said to have paid in to it is a certain J H Archer - prompting speculation it is Lord Archer, a claim he denies.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=559004

See Mondays's DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x805328

[Octafish]

5. If Oil Companies Grease Politicians in Equatorial Guinea...

...What makes you think they wouldn't grease a few in the Good Old USA?



"Heh heh heh. Yer kiddin', right?"

[seemslikeadream]

7. Equatorial Guinea, Chili.........Riggs, Citigroup

Riggs Investigators Find Possible Crimes, Washington Post Says

Riggs Investigators Find Possible Crimes, Washington Post Says
Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Riggs Banks investigators have discovered evidence of possible criminal activities by some former employees who managed accounts of ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, the Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter who refused to be identified.

The findings were referred to federal prosecutors, the Post said. Investigators found evidence that some of Pinochet's associates and family members moved large amounts of money through at least four other U.S. banks, including Citibank and Bank of America Corp., the Post reported, citing the people.

Spokesmen for Riggs, Bank of America and Citigroup Inc. declined to comment to the Post, the paper said. Specific actions that may have violated the law, and the number of former employees involved, weren't detailed, the Post said.

more
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=a2xu2iQZJw5c&refer=latin_america

[Octafish]

8. Smells Like Class Warfare. Ja.

And the rich are winning. Just like in NAZI Germany.

"Falsifying History and Ourselves": Anti-Democratic Propaganda in the Classroom

By John Spritzler
Aug 28, 2004, 14:20

EXCERPT...

HOW WORKING CLASS GERMANS FOUGHT THE NAZIS, AND HOW LIBERAL FOUNDATIONS LIE ABOUT IT

A popular course in the United States for middle and high school students about the Holocaust gives a false account of anti-Semitism and related events in Nazi-era Germany carefully designed to drive home the lesson that most people are prone to bigotry and are a dangerous force. The course, called "Facing History and Ourselves" (FHAO), is funded by liberal foundations and corporations (and in the past, grants from the U.S. Department of Education) and wealthy individuals. It reaches one million students a year in schools across the country. Foundations and corporate leaders support "Facing History and Ourselves" because it helps discredit the central idea of democracy -- that ordinary people are fit to rule society.

FHAO's main resource book, Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior, is a 576-page collection of short readings and questions carefully selected to convey a negative view of people by lying about the facts. Contrary to the views promoted by FHAO, the true facts about Germany during the Holocaust show that 1) working class Germans fought the Nazis; 2) anti-Semitism did not come from ordinary people; and 3) anti-Semitism was a weapon used by Germany's industrial and aristocratic elite to attack not only the Jewish minority but the entire working class.

GERMAN OPPOSITION TO THE NAZIS WAS WIDESPREAD

Facing History's discussion of resistance in Germany to the Nazis begins with an Einstein quote: "The world is too dangerous to live in—not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen." The "Facing History" account claims that only a few isolated individuals resisted Nazism. The truth is quite different.

When the President of Germany appointed Hitler Chancellor on Jan 30, 1933, the Nazis had just suffered a major defeat in the national election. It had become clear that the Nazis could not out-poll their main opponents, the working class Marxist parties. Additionally, Nazi storm troopers were being physically attacked by workers in industrial centers and small towns across Germany. The elite installed Hitler as Chancellor because they feared that working class power was getting out of hand, and they were desperate to find a political leader who could lead the upper classes in a ruthless war against the working classes. Standard histories of this period, such as William Shirer's classic The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, describe how this happened.

Every time Germans had a chance to vote for or against Hitler, the great majority voted against him. Hitler ran for President in March, 1932 and got only 30% of the vote; in the run-off election the next month he got only 37%, versus 53% for the incumbent Field Marshal von Hindenburg. Nazi electoral strength peaked on July 31, 1932 when Nazi rhetoric about representing all Germans and not special interest groups lured some voters away from the numerous small, special-interest conservative parties. The Nazis won 230 out of 608 total seats in the Reichstag (parliament). But their main foes, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Communist Party—both of which were led by Marxists and received mainly working class votes—jointly captured 222 seats in the same election. Voting records show that the richer the precinct, the higher the Nazi vote.

CONTINUED...

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_11314.shtml

Sounds eerily prescient.

[struggle4progress]

9. kick for Riggs

:kick:

[Snazzy]

10. Excellent read kick

:kick:

[Bo]

11. CIA SHILL