Lawful Path Forums

The American DoJ is investigating if the Deutsche Bank violated anti-money-laundering laws for the 1Malaysia Development Bhd. Fund (1MDB), which included help in raising $1.2 billion in 2014.

This is related to the multibillion-dollar fraud scandal with the Malaysian state investment firm 1MDB that toppled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and caused Goldman Sachs stock to tumble last year.
The DoJ said at least $4.5 billion was stolen between 2009 and 2014; and used to bribe government officials, including a slush fund controlled by former PM Razak, and buy hundreds of millions of dollars in luxury goods.

The investigation into Deutsche Bank was started after tips from former Goldman Sachs South-East Asia chairman, Tim Leissner.
According to the complaint, Deutsche Bank was involved with 1MDB from its start in 2009, when the bank facilited 1MDB’s first big deal, a joint venture with the Swiss PetroSaudi.

Prosecutors have focused on the role of one of Leissner’s former colleagues, Tan Boon-Kee, who worked with Leissner on business for 1MDB. She left Goldman Sachs to become Asia Pacific head of banking for financial-institutions clients at Deutsche Bank.
In 2018, Tan was reportedly forced to leave Deutsche Bank, after communication was discovered with Jho Low, the Malaysian financier that was described as the “central player” in the 1MDB scandal.

The Justice Department alleges that a group led by Low stole some $1 billion from the $1.8 billion contribution by 1MDB, but it isn’t clear what specific offences Deutsche Bank is accused of: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mala ... SKCN1U60CR


In Malaysia, criminal charges have been filed against Goldman Sachs for stealing $2.7 billion from the proceeds of 3 bonds worth $6.5 billion that it arranged for Malaysian 1MDB: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia ... fe/1767910

In 2012, Jonathan Taylor blew the whistle on the standard practice of bribing locals to get good deals by the Dutch multinational SBM Offshore.
As a result SBM Offshore was offered a sweetheart settlement by the Dutch prosecution office (OM) of 240 million euros and SBM sued Taylor in Monaco and the Netherlands for defamation.

From Monaco an extradition request was issued, leading to his arrest on 30 July 2020 and release on bail in Croatia (where he has remained since).
Jonathan Taylor foolishly hoped that the British Government would help a good Englishman like him (they really don't like people exposing corruption in the British isles), Taylor reacted naively, "I have been abandoned by my own government".

At the request of the British Ambassador in Croatia, Jonathan Taylor foolishly issued a written statement that he suffers from depression and suicidal tendencies. So then the Croatian cops came to "help" him, arresting him and forcibly injecting him with sedatives.
Taylor was released but is disappointed in the British Embassy, "Instead of helping me, they turn me over to the Croatian police and give me the worst 24 hours of my life".

How this Taylor fellow has ever earned a law degree is beyond my comprehension (in Dutch): https://www.nu.nl/economie/6128802/sbm- ... hting.html

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As of 6 April 2021, Jonathan Taylor has spent 252 days in legal limbo in Croatia solely for blowing the whistle in the public interest regarding widespread corruption that has resulted in investigations in the UK, the US, Brazil, Switzerland and the Netherlands and fines against SBM Offshore amounting to $827 million USD, as well as the conviction of two former CEOs for fraud-related offences. Taylor should not continue to be persecuted for an action that strengthens the public’s right to know, encourages lawful, transparent and fair business practices and reinforces European democracy.

https://www.corruptionanonymous.org/ope ... an-taylor/


The following is a good overview story on the SBM Offshore bribing scandal, and Jonathan Taylor (before he was detained in Croatia)...
SBM Offshore, in 1971 relocated from the Netherlands to the Principality of Monaco. SBM is the market leader in the sale and lease of Floating Production Storage and Offloading units (FPSOs), platforms which extract, process and store oil and gas at sea.

While working for SBM, Jonathan Taylor discovered that “The business model of SBM was simple. We got the orders by paying bribes”. SBM's management board secretly added appendices to contracts, and these additional clauses described huge bribes, "commissions" to third party agents.
On 31 January 2012, the whole scandal was exposed, when an American lawyer for Noble Energy, a business partner of SBM, calls SBM HQ about incriminating information on bribes that SBM paid in Equatorial Guinea from 2005 to 2011. About $275 million had been paid in "commissions" to agents in Brazil, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Malaysia and Italy.
In Angola, numerous bribes were paid to employees of state-owned oil company Sonangol.

Brazil immediately stood out. SBM Offshore earned 60% of its revenues from Brazil, with "current contracts" there worth at least 25 billion euros. In the same period, $139 million in commissions was paid to Julio Faerman, much of it going to Petrobras.
What made the news extra spicy was that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had been the chair of Petrobras’ Supervisory Board from 2003 to 2010, and many of the directors were appointees from her Workers’ Party.

Accountants from PwC and lawyers from De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek and US lawyer Tim Dickinson of Paul Hastings LLP were hired to cover-up the scandal.
A week after the phonecall from the American lawyer for Noble Energy, Jonathan Taylor saw his next-door neighbour, Jean Philippe Laurès, destroying a dozen bin bags of incriminatin evidence, “I walked in and found Jean Philippe at his shredder. I couldn’t believe my eyes. One of the directors was destroying evidence!"
De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek lawyer Marnix Sommsen explained that “we want to produce as little paper as possible [because] it might be discoverable at a later stage” and “Yes, there is a prohibition on bribes from a Dutch perspective… [but] that said, it is not enforced at all”.
That's the same corrupt law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek that while representing me in front of the Dutch Supreme Court, was pleading against me...

While in Brazil this became a genuine scandal, in the Netherlands this was simply covered up. Jonathan Taylor wasn't satisfied that the Dutch Public Prosecutor (OM) in banana monarchy the Kingdom of the Netherlands covered up the scandal with the 240 million dollar out-of-court settlement:

I had expected in a first-world country such as Holland that justice would prevail. But commercial interests apparently trumped the search for truth.
The OM knew about the size and severity of the corruption and it has allowed SBM to keep denying the corruption in Brazil. The OM is protecting SBM and is thereby complicit in not revealing price sensitive information.

https://www.vn.nl/the-cover-up-at-dutch ... ional-sbm/
(https://archive.is/irmSl)


Isn't it strange how the criminal activity of the Dutch SBM Offshore has been sold to the gullible public as corruption in Brazil, Angola and Equatorial Guinea?

Since 1997, Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras received bribes from the Dutch company SBM Offshore. Four pre-trial detention warrants were served, 2 of which were against former directors arrested in Operation Car Wash, Renato Duque and Jorge Zelada.
Former SBM representative in Brazil Júlio Faerman explained that he guaranteed "significant gains" for Petrobras while acting on behalf of the Dutch SBM.

Police also searched the offices and homes of respondents of oil prospecting company Petroserv. Petroserv received transfers of 3% to 5% of "games contracts" (bad translation of Portuguese?) from Petrobras and sent 1% of these "commissions" to companies abroad.
This money was laundered and then came back to Brazil as bribes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshoots ... n_Car_Wash

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Firestarter wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 4:39 pmMultiple high-risk shell companies and foreign financial institutions were used to launder money through the USA. More than $3.2 billion dollars involved shell companies and high risk transactions with foreign financial institutions through ABN AMRO NY.

The money laundering case against Dutch bank ABN Amro has been settled for 480 million euros ($574 million) - a fine of 300 million euros and 180 million euros as disgorgement.
The Dutch prosecution service (Openbaar Ministerie) claimed that "its investigation" into the criminal activities of 3 former board members was ongoing (yeah sure!).
The ABN Amro promised that by the end 2022 they have made changes to prevent money laundering (no need to check of course).

Danske Bank's Dutch CEO Chris Vogelzang, who previously served on ABN Amro's board, also resigned after being investigated in another money laundering probe by the Dutch authorities.

Even though the OM had already admitted that the responsible directors of the Dutch ING bank wouldn't be prosecuted after a similar settlement, a Dutch court in December 2020 released a statement stated that a criminal investigation into the role of former CEO Ralph Hamers would be started (yeah right!): https://archive.is/EObEk

It looks like Jonathan Taylor is another "limited hangout operation", being pushed into the spotlight with a "scandal" to cover-up even worse scandals, like the biggest bribing ring in the world - centered around Unaoil...


I was looking for more scandals involving the Dutch SBM Offshore. This appears to be a much larger bribery, money laundering scandal than the Petrobras Car Wash investigation.
The biggest (?) bribery scandal in the world, involves Unaoil that was headquartered in Monaco (just like the essentially Dutch SBM Offshore).
It involves the oil rich Iraq, whose infrastructure was completely destroyed through years of sanctions, and finished off in the 2003 bombing campaign to install a regime that's even more "democratic" than CIA-asset Saddam Hussein.

Unaoil won contracts for oil companies by paying bribes. Unaoil worked as an "agent" for major companies like Halliburton, Honeywell, KBR and FMC Technologies from the US; the Korean Samsung and Hyundai; British Rolls-Royce; MAN from Germany; and of course SBM Offshore.
Unaoil was SBM Offshore's agent in Iraq. Unaoil worked for SBM to secure contracts on the Iraq Crude Oil Expansion Project, to connect oil fields via pipelines with offshore terminals where large tankers could moor.

There are documents on the wheeling and dealing of SBM Offshore and Unaoil in Iraq between 2007 and 2012.
In November 2009, Unaoil's Basil al-Jarah wrote to his bosses in Monaco after meeting "Lighthouse". The codename for Dhia Jaffar al-Mousawi, at that time director general at the Southern Oil Company and "currently" (2016) deputy minister of petroleum affairs, who received millions of dollars in kickbacks over the years. Al-Jarah wrote that according to Dhia Jaffar al-Mousawi "It looks like the SPM job is heading to SBM".
On 9 February 2010 there is an email exchange between Unaoil employees Zaki Tackle and Steve Whiteley. In one of those strange coincidences, Whiteley had previously worked for SBM Offshore. Tackle writes that "Ivan" must push the "European chains" with the Iraqi Oil company. "Ivan" turned out to be Oday al-Quraishi, project director of the Southern Oil Company.

On 26 April 2011, the contract for the first 3 platforms was awarded to SBM. Later another 4 SPM’s were awarded to SBM.
SBM paid Unaoil $4,617,282 between 2005 and 2011. In April 2012, when they where covering up the Petrobras scandal after the Noble Energy call, SBM noted that Unaoil’s fees had been suspiciously high: https://www.vn.nl/unaoil-papers-sbm-offshore-leak-iraq/
(https://archive.is/PDCZM)


Unaoil was (and is?) led by its founder Ata Ahsani and his 2 sons, Cyrus and Saman.
Cyrus Ahsani is treasurer of Monaco’s Ambassador's Club, led by Prince Albert II of Monaco. The prince's close friend, Mike Powers, sits on Unaoil's advisory board for $50,000 a year. In 2018, that same Prince Albert rejected a request by the SFO to extradite Saman Ashani to the UK.
The same Prince Albert attended the 2005 Florida wedding of Donald Trump to Melania Knauss.

Banks in New York and London have facilitated Unaoil’s money laundering, while the Ahsanis also have a property investment business in central London.
Since 2007, Unaoil has been certified by "anti-corruption" agency Trace International...

Unaoil has been bribing politicians in Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Kuwait, and the UAE to win large contracts for its clients.
Its clients included: the British Rolls-Royce and Petrofac; from the US Halliburton, FMC Technologies, Cameron and Weatherford; Australia’s Leighton Holdings; and Samsung and Hyundai in Korean; Italian Eni and Saipem; German companies MAN Turbo (now MAN Diesal & Turbo) and Siemens; Indian giant Larsen & Toubro; and of course the Dutch SBM Offshore.

Unaoil’s clients in Iraq included Rolls-Royce, FMC Technologies, Cameron, Saipem, MAN Turbo, Weatherford, Australia’s Leighton Offshore and SBM Offshore.
Between 2004 and 2012, in Iraq Unaoil bribed the Deputy Prime Minister turned education minister Hussain al-Shahristani; Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi; Director General of the South Oil Company Dhia Jaffar al-Mousawi (who in 2015 became a deputy minister); and top oil official Oday al-Quraishi: https://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2 ... world.html


The UK's SFO wanted to prosecute Unaoil's executive Saman Ahsani, but his extradition from Rome (?) was blocked by Prince Albert of Monaco and the US DoJ (how could Albert and the US block his extradition from Italy?).
Ahsani had so much confidence in the US Department of Justice, that he fought being extradited to the UK, so he could get a lenient sentence in the US.

Tom Martin, who led the British bribery investigation into the Ahsani family and Unaoil, was a little too serious about getting Saman Ahsani prosecuted in the UK, so was fired because the Ahsanis (or maybe some of the big oil companies Unaoil was bribing for?) wanted him removed from the Unaoil case.

I find it inescapable that the U.S. agencies and the [Ahsani] defence team had the same reason for raising the complaints, namely that they wanted the claimant removed so as to prevent difficulty with their joint wish to have Mr Ahsani extradited to the U.S.

https://kfgo.com/2021/02/17/ex-uk-prose ... ment-case/
(https://archive.is/HIVTY)


I always thought that lying Donald promised to decrease the amount corruption with his "Drain the swamp" slogan.
Already in February 2017, US President Donald Trump repealed the Cardin-Lugar rule, under the Dodd-Frank Act, that forced oil companies to disclose payments to foreign governments to secure oil or mining deals (a.k.a. bribes, kickbacks, or commissions).

Trump and the oil companies claimed that it would be unfair competition if the oil companies in other countries could get their hand on lucrative deals, while America's oil couldn't bribe them just the same (if I understand correctly?).
And that this would create oil jobs in the US.

So now corruption is needed to create jobs? I thought that corruption enriches the lucky few and especially politicians in high places...
Repealing this disclosure rule wouldn't only apply to US companies, but also to foreign oil companies, so this couldn't make US companies more "competitive"!

It also seems strange to me that while paying bribes would still be illegal (I guess), corporations wouldn't have to report this.
I can see how this could benefit Saman Ahsani: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/14/trump-a ... s-say.html

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Firestarter wrote: ↑Fri Apr 23, 2021 7:47 pmIsn't it strange how the criminal activity of the Dutch SBM Offshore has been sold to the gullible public as corruption in Brazil, Angola and Equatorial Guinea?

Maybe it isn't surprising that worldwide bribing only led to a media hysteria in Brazil, if the objective was really to get the Workers Party of then Brazilian president, the Communist Dilma Rousseff, out of power.
Ironically Rousseff was ousted in an impeachment that was staged at the same time as the Car Wash operation, but for "breaking budget laws" (instead of taking Petrobras bribes).

It looks like Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato) was really a foreign US coup against the Workers Party led by the FBI! While this doesn't seem in violation of US laws (fighting "terrorism"?), it sure is in violation of the laws of the "independent" state Brazil.
When Brazilian prosecutors talked about an informal request to the FBI, prosecutor Paulo Roberto Galvão argued that a direct demand to the FBI would be better, since the American department had “full knowledge of the probes”, while Brazilian authorities did not.

Former Brazilian president Lulu commented:

We have been denouncing this collusion between the US Department of Justice and Car Wash for years. We have pointed out concrete facts, and they called them conspiracy theory. Now it is being brought up.

https://comitelulalivre.org/en/lula-abo ... -the-goal/
(https://archive.is/MA9dJ)

Unaoil was literally the "go-to" bribery fixer for a wide variety of energy companies. The countries where Unaoil engaged in bribery included “Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya and Syria”.
Unaoil's and the Ahsanis' illegal acts included “bid-rigging, paying kickbacks and laundering of the proceeds of the corrupt schemes” right up until 2016.

There were 25 companies identified that engaged Unaoil for corrupt acts. In addition, another 2 companies were named and several others were named in other news reports. This list of 27 companies included 2 which have previously admitted violating the FCPA - Rolls Royce and (of course) SBM Offshore.
While not identified, another Unaoil client, TechnipFMC also pled guilty to FCPA violations in the summer of 2019.

From other sources it appears that at least 30 companies have been tied to corrupt acts by Unaoil, but most of the media never bothered to investigate and report on which companies retained Unaoil and who worked with the Ahsani family.
I'm afraid that the author of the following article "forgot" to identify all of these "at least 30 companies": https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-u ... the-37732/
(https://archive.is/4WrKu)


From 2007 until 2010, Unaoil secretly worked for a cartel of South Korean companies to get their hands on $1.8 billion contracts from Algeria’s state-owned oil company Sonatrach. In one email a Unaoil executive wrote to Algerian oil officials:

Our friends... want to help us in this game ... This is by far the biggest opportunity they ever had and probably the last big one they can get. I don’t think they will give up.

Unaoil’s South Korean clients were awarded the contracts, and Unaoil received $16 million in commissions. One Algerian official received a cool $750,000.

Spanish firm Tecnicas Reunidas hired Unaoil to lobby for a $750 million Tunisian oil refinery deal. Their arrangement delivered 4%, or $30 million, to Unaoil.
A Unaoil executive explained the size of the fee:

Essentially, the fee amount is a key part of the agreement and very important to our partners in Tunisia. “The Tunisian end needs 2% min, if not then no deal. They state that Tecnicas Reunidas will get this single source [without a competitive tender], if this goes ahead.

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In 2004, Unaoil was working for Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR). KBR suspected foul play by another US corporation, the Marathon Oil Company to win a major contract from the Equatorial Guinea government. In 2004, Unaoil CEO Cyrus Ahsani passed a secret message from KBR to Mohamed Salaam, scion of a Lebanese oil clan.
In 2008, Mohamed Salaam and British special forces soldier Simon Mann were arrested, charged and convicted of plotting a coup to overthrow Equatorial Guinea’s brutal leader, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Mann told that Sir Mark Thatcher (son of former UK prime minister Lady of the Garter Margaret Thatcher) and oil man Ely Calil, were both part of the plot. Salaam was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Mann was sentenced to 34 years in jail but was already released in 2009: https://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2 ... frica.html
(https://archive.is/pP8xa)


On 30 July 2020, the British Stephen Whiteley and the British-Lebanese Ziad Akle, who had both worked as Unaoil's territory managers for Iraq while Whiteley was also previously employed by SBM Offshore, were sentenced to respectively 3 and 5 years in prison.
In March 2021, former sales manager for SBM Offshore, Paul Bond, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail for bribing public officials to win oil contracts in Iraq.

These sentences were issued in the UK for paying bribes in Iraq for the Dutch company SBM Offshore to clinch $1.7 billion worth of oil projects.
Unaoil’s former Iraq country manager, Iraqi-born Basil al-Jarah, admitted paying $17 million in bribes.

Brothers Cyrus and Saman Ahsani await sentencing in the US after pleading guilty to bribery in 2019 (still waiting?): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/ ... ibery-plot

The British Steven Hunter has also pleaded guilty.
The Australian Leighton hired Unaoil in 2010 and 2011 to pay millions of dollars in bribes for a slice of a $2 billion oil pipeline project in Iraq, to Iraqi officials including then deputy prime minister Hussein al-Shahristani and oil minister Abdul Karim Luaibi.

Another big Unaoil client is the Italian multinational ENI: https://avalanches.com/world_news/au/th ... 18_11_2020

The big corporations that hired Unaoil, include the infamous BP and Royal Dutch Shell.
If I understand correctly Unaoil worked for these gigantic oil companies in Iraq (maybe related to the Basrah Gas Company?): http://web.archive.org/web/202101261210 ... naoil.html


The frustrating thing about the Unaoil bribery scandal, is that I know that there's got to be a lot more, but I can't find it.
We can't even say that all the companies that hired Unaoil were corrupt, as it was TRACE certified.

So now several Unaoil clients have been charged over corruption charges (including SBM Offshore) and Unaoil was prosecuted for bribes in Iraq.
Unaoil also worked for Royal Dutch Shell in Iraq. But Shell isn't named as one of the companies involved in bribing and corruption in this regard. Another former Unaoil client is the Italian ENI (also in Iraq?) that also isn't often reported as implicated in the Unaoil bribing ring.
There is however another huge scandal that involves both Shell and ENI, but here Unaoil isn't mentioned...

In Italy, Royal Dutch Shell and Italian oil major Eni were charged for bribing former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete and its President Goodluck Jonathan.
Etete has been convicted for money laundering in Nigeria (in absentia?).

This was related to the 2011 $1.3 billion purchase of (part?) of the 500 billion dollars worth Nigerian oilfield OPL 245.
A March 2010 email forwarded to then-Shell CEO Peter Voser, shows that Shell knew a year before the deal was finalised that money would flow directly to Etete:

Etete can smell the money. If, at 70 years old, he does turn his nose up at [$1.2bn], he is completely certifiable and we should then just hold out until nature takes his course with him.

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In 2018, 2 middlemen in the OPL 245 deal, Nigerian Emeka Obi and Italian Gianluca Di Nardo, were sentenced to 4 years in prison for corruption by an Italian court.
The judge said Eni and Shell were fully aware the deal would result in bribes to Nigerian politicans and officials.

But then on 17 March 2021, the Italian court acquitted Shell and Eni of the corruption charges.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is disappointed in today’s ruling in Milan, but thanks the Italian prosecuting authorities for their tireless efforts.

It isn't quite clear to me why this court case over bribery in Nigeria, wasn't prosecuted in Nigeria, but now Nigeria "will continue to hold those responsible for the OPL 245 fraud accountable" and wants to prosecute Shell and ENI again in Nigeria: https://www.globalwitness.org/en/press- ... -on-italy/

Now that the evil Putin has invaded the innocent Ukraine, we ar all cheering for the blue and yellow flag, Ukrainians and president Zelensky in particular.


Just last year there were still stories on the blatant corruption by corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs and their puppet politicians.
One of the most interesting corrupt oligarch is one Ihor Kolomoisky, who not only financed the show business, politicial career of Volodymyr Zelensky, but also controlled the PrivatBank, that in turn owned the Burisma at a time that it hired a fellow named Hunter Biden...

On 5 March, none other than senile Joe's State Secretary Antony Blinken issued a statement designating Ihor Kolomoisky as ineligible to enter the US because of his "significant corruption".
The story is pretty bad as far as money laundering scandals go...

Zelensky’s childhood friend, Ivan Bakanov, was chosen as head of the security service that in 2021 started an investigation of the Indian giant ArcelorMittal, spearheaded by Kolomoisky, that owns steel plants in Ukraine.
We shouldn't feel too sorry over executive chairman of ArcelorMittal, Lakshmi Mittal, an "acquaintance" of Prince Charles of Britain, and business partner of Trump's Commerce Secreatry Wilbur Ross: https://seekingalpha.com/article/442662 ... elormittal
(https://archive.ph/UpsBC)


Here's the promised scandal...

In the 1990s, Igor Kolomoisky and Hennady Boholyubov founded PrivatBank, which became Ukraine’s largest financial institution and the vehicle they used to steal billions of dollars and launder it through US real estate.
The scheme started with people in a “Shadow Bank” generating millions in fraudulent loans for Kolomoisky. Those loans went to offshore shell companies controlled by the 2 partners in crime. To keep the money flowing, the “Shadow Banks” kept rolled out new loans to pay off the old ones.

Kolomoisky siphoned these billions of dollars from PrivatBank through a money laundering scheme, in which (once again!) Deutsche Bank played a key role. From 2007 to 2013, Kolomoisky transferred more than $750 million to the US, most of it was used to buy up Midwest properties.
Most of the loans were transferred to a Cyprus bank account of Pavanti Enterprises Ltd., a British Virgin Islands shell company; the money then transferred to Deutsche Bank in the US.
By the end of 2015, Kolomoisky and associates owned at least 22 large properties. The flow of Kolomoisky dollars into the US finally ended in December 2016, coincidentally at the end of the Obama presidency, when Ukraine regulators nationalized PrivatBank and accused it of widespread fraud.

Kolomoisky and associates left a trail of empty, boarded-up buildings, unpaid property taxes, dangerous factory conditions, and at least 4 steel mills that filed for bankruptcy, owing hundreds of millions of dollars,
Several employees were apparently seriously injured as a result of the dangerous factory conditions: https://www.occrp.org/en/the-fincen-fil ... ruin-in-us
(https://archive.ph/P8r6b)


For more information on Kolomoisky, Zelensky, and their ties to (among others) Ronald Lauder and pro-Putin Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk. They're so close that Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk's daughter Daryna.

Firestarter wrote:In 2020, Viktor Medvedchuk controlled 3 television news channels - 112 Ukraine, NewsOne, and ZIK - but he also owned 25% of 1+1 (that effectively launched Zelensky career), with the rest owned by Kolomoisky!

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And more information on Kolomoisky, and his connections to Burisma.

Firestarter wrote:Now it appears that Volodymyr Zelensky's sugar daddy Ihor Kolomoisky controlled Burisma through the PrivatBank. I haven't been able to confirm this beyond all doubt, but I find it all the more convincing as this was already reported in 2012.

https://www.lawfulpath.com/forum/viewto ... 517#p72517

I’ve previously posted about Hitler’s economic adviser Hjalmar Schacht and his close connection to Bank of England governor Montagu Norman:

Firestarter wrote:See Hjalmar Schacht (left) with his buddy Montagu Collet Norman, in around 1935.

viewtopic.php?p=5557#p5557


This is also an important topic in another 2 part essay on the criminal “Bank of England” by LaRouche associate Anton Chaitkin.
Another interesting topic in this context is the “right wing” economists associated with Prince Otto von Habsburg’s Mont Pelerin Society, that included Ludwig von Mises who, assisted by his young protégé Friedrich von Hayek, convinced the Austrian Chancellor Ignaz Seipel to implement Montagu Norman’s savage austerity program before the rise of Hitler.

Friedrich von Hayek proposed that, after WW II, an international strategy group should be set up to break the world away from government regulation, thus freeing private financiers to be “creative”.
It was Montagu Norman’s John Clapham who with Hayek started the new global propaganda unit to crush labour, destroy high-wage industry, privatise public services and deregulate banks. In 1947, Hayek, Von Mises and their associates started the Mont Pelerin Society to implement this agenda.
Directly after WW II, Attlee’s Bank of England Act took effect (Clement Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG 1956, UK PM 1945–1951).
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Instead, foreign capital fleeing from taxation or regulation, underworld proceeds, “hot money” of all kinds, should be lured into and sheltered in London and London-ruled offshore jurisdictions. Other countries would then open their doors to criminal money flows out of Britain. Most of the world would be a mafia zone, in which London financiers and their friends (many monarchs included) would be Lords of the Universe.

https://archive.is/hVjRZ


The second part of this essay on the “Bank of England” shows how deeply the Order of the Garter was involved in setting up this gigantic money laundering enterprise in the second half of the 20th century (of course Brexit was also staged for this very reason…).

George Bolton took advantage of Bank of England connections in the Caribbeans, to place himself “offshore”. In 1957, Bolton was appointed chairman of the BOLSA bank, while also a director of the Bank of England.
In 1958, Bolton started a joint project with his BOLSA and the Bank of Montreal (THE bank for the notorious Bronfman family), named the Bank of London and Montreal (BOLAM) based in the Bahamas.

On 1 January 1959, the Havana gambling casinos of US mob boss Meyer Lansky were destroyed by the Cuban “Revolution”. Lansky fled Cuba for the Bahamas, where he set up a new casino complex; and the Bahamas became Lansky’s most important money-laundering location.
In 1962-1966, the Bank of Montreal included Sam Bronfman on its board of directors, three decades after the Bronfmans and Meyer Lansky had formed “Murder Incorporated” hit squads to take over US organised crime. In 1966, Sam’s son Charles Bronfman was selected as a Bank of Montreal director.

Governor Cameron Cobbold (KG 1970) left the Bank of England in 1961 to become Royal Chamberlain, helping Queen Elizabeth II run her household. The money laundering project was mostly Elizabeth’s project, and that of her Privy Council. Rowland Baring (3rd Earl of Cromer, KG 1977) succeeded Cobbold as Bank of England Governor.
In 1966, Leslie O’Brien succeeded Cromer as Governor, after working for Montagu Norman and Cameron Cobbold at the Bank of England. Gordon Richardson (KG 1983) in turn succeeded O’Brien as Governor.

Keith Joseph was favourite to become PM for the Tories after the planned removal of the paedophile Edward Heath (KG 1992). Joseph ruined his chances by openly discussing the planned eugenics policies. On 19 October 1974 in Birmingham, Joseph warned about the huge number of children born to “unfit” parents:
“The balance of our population, our human stock is threatened”. They are born to mothers “in social classes 4 and 5” who are now producing a third of all births, “the nation moves towards degeneration”. To reduce its unfit classes in society, Britain should “extend birth-control facilities to these classes of people”.

Instead Margaret Thatcher (Lady of the Garter in 1995) was selected as conservative party leader in 1975. Guided by Harris and Hayek, and Sherman and Joseph at the Centre for Policy Studies, Thatcher led the radicalised Conservative Party to power in 1979.
In 1983, Robin Leigh-Pemberton (KG 1994) succeeded Gordon Richardson as Bank of England Governor. Leigh-Pemberton was a great favourite of the British Crown. Since the 1840s, his family had been managers of the Duchy of Cornwall, one of the estates to the British royal family.

Thatcher arranged the al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi King Fahd. This was far more than an energy-supply arrangement. Saudi oil shipments were to be sold “off the books” to build up the Saudi-British covert-operations capability, supporting radical Islamists who would stage terror that could then be used for geopolitical reasons.
By the end of Leigh-Pemberton’s Governorship, the City was laundering money for terrorists, drug cartels, insurrections, dictatorships and for the British secret services managing this organised terror.
The Bank of England was also responsible for the supervision of the gigantic BCCI scandal.

In 1997, Tony Blair (KG 2022) as PM for “New Labour” continued this permanent war agenda.
Under Blair the Financial Services Authority (FSE) was also created that was nominally in charge of regulating private banks, replacing the Bank of England as the official regulator. As FSA chief executives and board members were chosen from the very banks they should oversee, this was another guarantee to continue the massive fraud: https://archive.is/2GP6t


Also interesting is that from 2001 to 2007 the Dutch Tom de Swaan became a non-executive member of the board of the Financial Services Authority in the UK, while he was also a board member of the Dutch ABN Amro Bank.
In 2006, De Swaan began his non-executive career as a board member of Zurich Insurance Group, GlaxoSmithKline, DSM, Ahold and Van Lanschot Bankiers.

From 1986 to 1998, De Swaan had been a director of the Dutch central bank (De Nederlandsche Bank).
Tom de Swaan was appointed as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of (state-owned) ABN Amro Bank on 12 July 2018: https://archive.is/cVrtA

I’ve previously posted on some of the corruption by former French president Nicolas Sarkozy: viewtopic.php?p=70771#p70771

I’ve repeatedly posted about the Kazakh trio that is associated with Trump’s billionaire friend Tevfik Arif, and of course the Chabad-Lubavitch cult: viewtopic.php?p=4345#p4345


Apparently there was a “Kazakhgate” scandal orchestrated in Belgium and France that involved the Kazakh trio and president Sarkozy.
The affair started in 1997, when the Belgian Tractebel made a deal in Kazakhstan that involved bribes for the Kazakh trio that in 2001 were formally indicted by the Belgian justice department. The trio’s Patokh Chodiev and Alijan Ibragimov also have the Belgian nationality.

Then in October 2010, a 2 billion euros deal was announced by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and then president Sarkozy. This lucrative deal included the sale by France to Kazakhstan of 45 helicopters built by Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters) and also 295 trains.
Quickly rumours were circulating on “bribery of foreign public officials” and “money laundering” related to the deal, with a formal “investigation” started in France in early 2012.

The Tractebel case against the Trio was settled in Belgium for 23 million euro based on a law that was quickly rushed through parliament.
It is alleged that the then vice-president of the Belgian senate, Armand De Decker, was bribed to help to reform Belgium’s criminal law, rushed through Belgian parliament and enacted in April 2011 so that the Kazakh trio could settle the case before it went to court: https://kiar.center/judicial-probe-wide ... gate-deal/
(https://web.archive.org/web/20250102185 ... gate-deal/)


The story includes the theory that Sarkozy manipulated Belgian parliament for Chodiev (and his 2 trio partners in crime).
The accusation of bribery centres on a mysterious payment of 300,000 euros by Chodiev’s French attorney Catherine Degoul to a former advisor to Sarkozy, Jean-Francois Etienne des Rosaies. Des Rosaies was a childhood friend of the then grand chancellor of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta Jean-Pierre Mazery!
Reportedly Armand De Decker received another 734,346 euro from Degoul.
Catherine Degoul also paid 25,000 euro to princess Léa (not of Star Wars, but the widow of prince Alexander of Belgium): (in Dutch) https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazachgate


The main aspect of this media hysteria in Belgium doesn’t make sense, as the Kingdom of Belgium wouldn’t quickly approve some legislation to cover-up the corrupt deals of some Soviet-born oligarchs.
In reality it seems that “Kazakhgate” was pushed into the spotlight to cover-up that the French gigantic bank Société Générale (not to be confused with the Belgian bank with the same name) settled their criminal case, before the Kazakh trio, based on the same quickly rushed law…
Société Générale was investigated for fraud involving 20 Belgian companies in a money laundering and tax evasion scheme.

On 14 April 2011, the Belgian Parliament voted into law an amended Code of Criminal Procedure, to make it possible to settle a criminal procedure with the Public Prosecutor. Since the settlement payment is not a penalty, the transaction would not appear in the judicial register, which would completely clear the offender of the charges.

The first settlement based on this new law happened in Antwerp on 10 June 2011, between the Public Prosecutor and Société Générale.
The bank settled the fraud case for 40 million Euros.


This suggests that this law was amended to help Société Générale cover-up their crimes.
The CEO of Société Générale at the time was Frédéric Oudéa, a friend of French President Sarkozy. Didier Reynders, at the time Belgian Minister of Finance, was also a close friend of Sarkozy, and worked hard to solve the criminal investigation against Société Générale and get the new settlement legislation rushed through parliament: https://www.opensourceinvestigations.co ... w-belgium/
(https://archive.is/ArGeO)


Even though the crimes of Société Générale didn’t fit the criteria of the amended law it was settled anyway: (in Dutch) https://archive.is/12TRA