PROFITS OF DEATH -- INSIDER TRADING AND 9-11
by
Tom Flocco – Edited by Michael C. Ruppert
[© Copyright 2001. From The Wilderness Publications, www.copvcia.com
. All Rights Reserved. May be recopied, distributed or posted on the worldwide
web for non-profit purposes only as long as this Copyright statement appears
intact.]
FTW, December 6, 2001 -- On October 9th, FTW broke a story
on insider trading connected to the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center
that sparked worldwide controversy. In that story we reported how the Israeli
Herzliyya Institute for Counterterrorism had documented that unknown individuals
-- with accurate foreknowledge of the attacks -- had purchased an obvious
and unusually large number of “put” options on United and American Airlines
shortly before the attacks.
Additional companies hit hard by the insider trading included Axa Re(insurance)
and Munich Re as well as American investment giants Merrill Lynch and Morgan
Stanley.
Put options are essentially a bet that a stock’s price will
fall abruptly. The seller, having entered into a time-specific contract with
a buyer, does not need to own the actual shares at the time the contract
is purchased. Therefore, if a holder of the put option has a contract to
sell a stock such as American Airlines for (e.g.) $100 a share on a Friday
and the stock falls to $50 on Wednesday, they can purchase the stock, sell
it on Friday and double their money. The person on the other end of the contract
(the call) has an obligation to buy the shares at the agreed upon price.
The bank handling the transaction as a broker is the only entity knowing
the identities of both parties.
FTW also revealed that the A.B. Brown (Alex Brown) investment
arm of the banking giant Deutschebank/A.B. Brown had been headed until 1998
by the man who is now the Executive Director of the Central Intelligence
Agency – A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard. In fact, Krongard is but one name in a long
history of CIA interconnections to stock trading and the world’s financial
markets. We also discussed, in detail, the evidence indicating that the CIA
and other intelligence agencies monitor stock trading in real time for the
purpose of identifying potential attacks of any nature that might damage
the U.S. economy.
The original FTW story is located at:
http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/10_09_01_krongard.html
.
Critics of FTW’s initial story - not having read any of five
related stories dating back to an October 2000 piece on PROMIS software -
claimed that we had not made the links to establish culpability. But we knew
that the links were there, that our case was solid, and that new evidence
would not go undiscovered for long.
Now, investigative reporter Tom Flocco digs deep and
strikes pay dirt in a three-part series that reveals not only deeper links
between the CIA, Wall Street and the insider trades of 9-11, but also discloses
that a key executive at Deutschebank – an American – became, just weeks before
the attacks, a convicted felon. His crime: conspiracy to launder drug money
to arrange the purchase of U.S. weapons – in association with two Pakistanis
who also attempted to acquire nuclear bomb components – for use by Islamic
fundamentalist terrorists. – MCR
CIA Does Not Deny Stock Monitoring Outside U.S.
In a returned phone call from the Central Intelligence Agency, press
spokesman Tom Crispell denied that the CIA was monitoring "real-time," pre-September
11, stock option trading activity within United States borders using such
software as the Prosecutor‘s Management Information System (PROMIS).
"That would be illegal. We only operate outside the United States,"
the intelligence official said.
However, when asked whether the CIA had been using PROMIS beyond American
borders to scrutinize world financial markets for national security purposes,
Crispell replied, "I have no way of knowing what operations are [being affected
by our assets] outside the country."
Extensive media reporting confirms that investors at Deutschebank-Alex
Brown and other global financial entities may have profited from prior knowledge
of the attacks while purchasing disproportionate pre-attack put option contracts
on targeted U.S. airlines and related insurance or investment firms. All
of these firms suffered serious losses resulting from the September 11th
attacks and their stocks abruptly plummeted.
Confirmation that the CIA or other U.S. intelligence agencies were
monitoring financial markets and had seen these trades before the attacks
would have staggering implications for thousands of victims’ families.
The CIA official also declined to comment on the actual capabilities
of PROMIS. The highly technical software has been described as a system
that "interfaces with any database...as police can input an alleged terrorist’s
name or credit card, and the software will provide details of the person’s
movements through purchases...," according to an 11-10-01 Toronto Sun report.
The importance of PROMIS is that it is not only capable of interfacing
with a wide variety of data bases in different computer languages and then
integrating the data, but it has also been modified for intelligence purposes.
It has then been sold throughout the world by spy agencies through third
parties to clients such as banks and investment houses envious of its unique
capabilities. One key modification by agencies such as the CIA and Mossad
– not disclosed to most users -- is a secret “back door” that permits those
with the right codes to enter databases undetected, retrieve and/or alter
information, and leave without a trace. PROMIS has been extensively reported
as being used throughout the world’s financial markets because of its versatility
in facilitating international transactions.
Further clouding the issue of pre-attack stock screening by U.S. intelligence,
the Canadian daily revealed that U.S. police said many of the suspected terrorists
were apprehended (and detained) "through use of the state-of-the-art computer
software program PROMIS."
In March 2000, CIA director George J. Tenet told the Senate that Osama
bin Laden’s group (Al Q’aeda) was "embracing the opportunities offered by
recent leaps in information technology." A FOX News story and stories in
FTW disclosed in November that Osama bin Laden was believed to have the software.
The issue of CIA monitoring of stock trades follows on the heels of
wide reports indicating that investigators are carefully probing the insider
trading with its resultant profits, reported to be in the 10’s of millions
of dollars -- some of which a Deutschebank investor has yet to claim.
A promis is a promis
Crispell also declined comment when asked whether the Treasury Department
or FBI had questioned CIA Executive Director and former Deutschebank-Alex
Brown CEO, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, about CIA monitoring of financial markets
using PROMIS and his former position as overseer of Brown’s "private client”
relations. [Note: Krongard stayed with A.B. Brown to head “private client”
operations after it was acquired by Banker’s Trust in 1997. As Krongard was
leaving in 1998 to join the CIA as counselor to Director George Tenet, Banker’s
Trust was acquired by Deutschebank. Banker’s Trust had been previously criticized
by the U.S. Senate and regulators for money laundering. Krongard was
promoted to Executive Director at CIA in March 2001. - MCR]
Wide reports -- including a 9/28/01 story in the Asian Wall Street Journal
and a 10/1/01 story in The Guardian -- indicate that investigators are checking
Deutschebank’s alleged links to Saudi "private banking," terrorist bank accounts,
and $2.5 million in unclaimed United Airlines (UAL) put options profits;
however, no government acknowledgement had ever been given of CIA’s alleged
use of PROMIS software prior to the attacks.
In a recent phone conversation, when asked about alleged terrorist ties to
Deutschebank and potential pre-attack CIA trade monitoring via PROMIS, Treasury
Department spokesman Rob Nichols remarked, "This is clearly an interesting
line of questioning regarding conflicts of interest."
However, news searches indicate that no member of Congress has publicly questioned
whether wealthy terrorist-connected Saudi nationals participated in the private
client operations of Deutschebank-Alex Brown. Osama bin Laden and almost
all of the alleged 9-11 hijackers are of Saudi nationality. Also, no member
of Congress expressed public interest in asking Krongard about whether or
not the CIA affected "real-time" pre-attack trade monitoring using PROMIS
software at any location.
[Note: Under a program known as Echelon, the governments of the U.S., Britain,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand routinely circumvent prohibitions on domestic
electronic spying by having the agencies of the other governments do it for
them. - MCR]
Michael Ruppert, editor and publisher of From The Wilderness (FTW) newsletter
(www.copvcia.com), has been interviewed by both the House and Senate for
his expertise on illegal covert CIA operations. He said recently that, "It
is well documented that the CIA has long monitored such (suspicious or unusual)
trades -- in real time -- as potential warnings of terrorist attacks and
other economic moves contrary to U.S. interests."
Ruppert was the first to point out after 9-11 that CIA Executive Director
Buzzy Krongard has extensive past ties to Deutschebank-Alex Brown.
Ruppert added, "There is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions
in financial markets indicated specific [criminal] foreknowledge of the September
11 attacks...and the firm which was used to place put options on UAL stock
was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three position
at the CIA."
Ruppert also confirmed that two October 17 calls to the FBI resulted in spokespersons
declining to give their names after revealing that "the FBI has discontinued
use of the PROMIS software." Moreover, on October 24, Justice Department
spokesperson Loren Pfeifle declined to answer any questions about where,
when, or how PROMIS had been used and would only say, "I can confirm that
the DOJ has discontinued use of the program." This followed almost 17 years
of denials by the FBI and the Department of Justice -- in court and under
oath -- that they used the software at all in a law enforcement or intelligence
capacity.
Krongard’s current lofty intelligence community position, combined with his
prior leadership of a financial institution allegedly connected to terrorist
hijacker bank accounts [see Part II], suspicious UAL options contracts, and
"private banking" is so controversial that it has not as yet sparked any
official investigation. That said, the evidence is substantial enough to
potentially expose the prior-knowledge issue -- if Congress chooses to act.
And while Treasury Department official Rob Nichols agreed that unresolved
conflict of interest questions remain, the CIA Executive Director is still
currently charged with supervision of the U.S. intelligence investigation
of his former firm and its "private banking" operations.
Reuters has reported that Krongard "was [also] involved in setting up the
CIA experiment into investing in high-tech companies with the goal of acquiring
innovative technology for its own use."
Commenting on the CIA’s venture capital firm In-Q-Tel, started in 1999 to
encourage development of private-sector technologies for use in the intelligence
world, Krongard said on August 1, 2001 -- just 5 weeks before the Trade Center
attacks -- "I think In-Q-Tel’s a wonderful model...in accessing the capabilities
of the private sector."
On October 16, Fox News reported that, according to sources, accused Russian
spy and FBI agent Robert Hanssen sold high-tech PROMIS software to Russia,
and that Osama bin Laden allegedly purchased it from Russian organized crime
sources.
Fox reported that, "Government officials suspect bin Laden may have the highly
sophisticated U.S. government software that has been used by several other
governments, including the United States, for classified intelligence and
law enforcement information."
The admission by U.S. government officials that PROMIS was widely used by
a number of governments further blurs the pre-attack stock monitoring issue
since intelligence officials will likely continue to decline comment, save
for closed-door congressional oversight hearings or challenges by those victims’
families choosing to bypass settlements adjudicated by the Attorney General’s
office in favor of direct intervention by the courts.
The buck stops where?
Tom Crispell, the CIA official, was cooperative while attempting to maintain
intelligence confidentiality in the face of what he termed as "ongoing investigations
surrounding the Twin Towers tragedies by the CIA, FBI, Justice, and Treasury
Departments." However, this was in great contrast to an FBI spokesperson
who refused to offer either his first or last name, while declining comment
on any matter related to events of September 11.
During a series of calls, some spokespersons quickly attempted to defer and
deflect questions to another government agency, i.e. "We don’t deal with
that issue. Call the other [entity]."
However, many would agree, given the evidence, that the 9-11 terrorism is
closely linked to economic issues. President Bush has stated that this is
“economic warfare.” Yet few appear to be questioning an apparent paucity
of critical information sharing among key government agencies on the issue.
As U.S. investigators retrace the financial trails connecting the Twin Towers,
terrorist hijackers and their accomplices, many of whom may still be in the
country, evidence is being turned up by FBI, CIA, Justice, Treasury and NSA
that does involve global banking conglomerate Deutschebank-Alex Brown.
$2.5 million unclaimed UAL investor profits
For example, according to a 10-19-2001 Wall Street Journal report,
an unnamed investor purchased 2,000 United Airlines (UAL) put option contracts
through Deutsche Bank-Alex Brown on September 6 -- betting the stock would
shortly plummet. And USA Today reported that an individual purchased
810 UAL puts on August 6.
A Baron’s source claimed on 10-8-2001 that the pre-attack UAL order
placed through Deutsche Bank was for 2,500 contracts which were "split into
500 chunks each, directing each order to different U.S. exchanges around
the country simultaneously."
According to San Francisco Chronicle reporters Christian Berthelsen
and Scott Winokur a source familiar with the UAL trades said investors have
yet to claim $2.5 million in profits on contracts purchased before United
airliners crashed into a New York Trade Tower and a deserted Pennsylvania
field on September 11.
The Chronicle source also identified Deutschebank-Alex Brown as the
investment firm used to purchase some of the UAL options; and Rohini Pragasam,
a bank spokeswoman, declined to comment on the transaction.
The source (who requested anonymity) said, "Usually, if someone has
a windfall like that, you take the money and run. Whoever did this
thought the Exchange [NYSE] would not be closed for four days. This smells
real bad."
The German news weekly Der Spiegel revealed that Deutschebank also
handled accounts worth about $100 million for Osama bin Laden's family. These
were part of 10 accounts it suspected were linked to terrorists or terrorist
activities and which it later handed over to German authorities after the
attacks, according to a report in Britain’s The Guardian. But no further
comments have been forthcoming from the financial giant.
German Central Bank President Ernst Welteke said a study -- concerning
principal hijack subjects residing in Germany and unusual patterns in short-selling
of insurance, airline and other financial company shares -- pointed to "terrorism
insider trading" in those stocks.
The SEC Is Investigating
A phone interview with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) press
spokesman John Nester, of the Washington, DC office, revealed that the Commission,
“has already forwarded a general request to Deutschebank-Alex Brown and other
investment firms for unspecified information related to the suspicious put
option contracts placed prior to the attacks on the Trade Towers and the
Pentagon." But the spokesman declined comment regarding the identities of
complying banks or the contents of any information obtained.
Nester augmented his response by adding that "according to SEC Associate
Director of Enforcement Bill Baker -- who just spoke on a panel outside New
York last week -- our SEC probe is much broader than investigations made
by countries in Europe (who also lost citizens), many of whom have already
closed their financial investigations of investment banks like Deutschebank."
No results of those probes have been made public.
While the SEC media director said "the investigation is still ongoing
with no current conclusions," Nester (speaking for the SEC), had difficulty
explaining the job description of current New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
Executive Vice President for Enforcement, David P. Doherty. He would only
say that the NYSE "regulates itself as an SRO or self-regulating organization...."
This vague answer is all the more provocative because Doherty is a retired
General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Nester added, "The SEC has oversight responsibility regarding the NYSE,
and we are also working with Justice, Treasury, and the FBI, having set up
professional point men at each firm we are looking at -- so we don‘t have
to reinvent the wheel every time we call a company [related to the attacks]
to get an answer to a question."
The "reinvent the wheel" statement raised an eyebrow regarding the
level of corporate cooperation in the investigation, although Nester declined
to add further comment.
In Spite of CIA Ties the NYSE Is Little Help
When asked about the status of the investigation into the disproportionate
pre-attack stock option trades involving United and American Airlines, Merrill
Lynch, Marsh and McLennan Insurance, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bear Stearns,
and American Express, etc. -- all icons of American capitalism -- NYSE Communications
Director Ray Pellecchia said, "We don't even confirm that there is an ongoing
investigation."
"We report to the SEC as a matter of course," Pellecchia added. But
after being referred to as a "persistent piece of work," this writer asked
Pellecchia to discuss Doherty’s role in the investigations. He said,
"We stand by this statement."
And after pressing for information about what the NYSE is actually
doing to investigate the suspicious trades on behalf of thousands of victims’
families who may be concerned about the "prior-knowledge" issue, Pellecchia
still declined to confirm that Doherty's enforcement office had even sent
a report to the SEC.
When asked why so many former key CIA executives currently hold, or
have held in the past, top level executive management positions connected
in some way to the stock market via either the SEC, NYSE, or other investment
banking entities, Pellecchia replied tersely, "I am quite aware of Mr. Doherty's
background and experience."
Pellecchia also declined to discuss anything related to current CIA
Executive Director A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard and his past relationship with Alex
Brown.
Expecting Miracles?
Questions remain as to who will ultimately take center stage in investigating
conflicts of interest or the real-time monitoring of world financial markets
by U.S. intelligence entities to protect national security; let alone terrorist
ties to wealthy Saudi private clients at global financial institutions having
direct access (via correspondent banking relationships) to U.S. banks.
For while thousands of American families, victimized by terrorism,
still remain numb with grief, information is being advanced daily regarding
what could be described by some as casual, if not negligent, long-term, slipshod
governmental responsiveness to fundamental internal national security and
safety questions -- or worse.
Profits of Death Part II -- Trading with the Enemy
by Tom Flocco – Edited by Michael C. Ruppert
[Editor’s Notes – A disclosed in Part I and in previous stories by
FTW, an abnormal amount of “put” options – bets that a stock price would
suddenly fall – were placed on United Air Lines and American Airlines in
the days before the attacks of September 11 . These were only two of the
companies affected by the attacks which experienced highly suspicious trading
in their shares. In Part I we described how put options work. They are basically
futures contracts that obligate the “put buyer” to purchase the shares at
a price that might be well above the market price when the contract matures.
Heavy purchases of put options before a dramatic drop in a particular share
price are clear-cut indicators of criminal activity based upon insider trading.
Last month we identified the purchasing end of the contract incorrectly
as a “call.” That person, unhappily obligated to pay too high a price for
the shares, is better described as the “put buyer.”
Investigative journalist Tom Flocco also revealed dramatic
new links to the growing mountain of evidence that puts the Central Intelligence
Agency at the heart of America’s and the world’s financial markets. In particular
he showed that the firm which had handled many of the put option purchases
on United Airlines -- Deutschebank-Alex Brown -- was once headed by the man
who is now the Executive Director of the CIA, A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard.
I would like to thank and acknowledge British investigative journalist/writer
David Guyatt for first bringing to my attention, Krongard’s past relations
with Alex Brown.
Part II of this series is easily one of the most damning pieces
of investigative journalism that I have ever seen or participated in. In
it Tom Flocco will now reveal even darker direct connections between the
worlds of high finance, terrorism, and intelligence. And he will reveal some
names that will shock you. – Mike Ruppert]
Part II -- Trading with the Enemy
FTW, December 11, 2001 -- No member of Congress is publicly, as yet, questioning
the hazy areas of "private client banking" -- repeatedly described by the
U.S. Senate and Justice Department as being a vehicle for drug money laundering
-- and apparent conflicts of interest linked to documented 9/11-related insider
trading in United Air Lines stock. The trades were placed through one of
the world’s three largest pools of investment capital, Deutschebank-Alex
Brown.
This, in spite of the fact that there is mounting evidence of "real-time"
monitoring of stock market trades by intelligence entities (See Part I at
www.copvcia.com ). The recent indictment of a former Deutschebank executive,
Kevin Ingram -- who has since pled guilty to conspiracy to launder drug money
and arrange the sale of U.S.-made arms to individuals in Pakistan and Afghanistan,
where U.S. military personnel are currently at risk -- raises further alarm.
Although Ingram was not at Deutschebank when the insider trades were placed,
his history (as well as a star-studded cast of international financiers connected
to the CIA) reveals a frighteningly dark saga showing the degree to which
dirty money influences “the Street” and the world’s financial markets. It
also provides more evidence that the CIA knew of the September attacks in
advance.
Ingram is also an acknowledged former protégé of former Goldman
Sachs CEO and current New Jersey Senator, Jon Corzine who sits on the Senate
Banking Committee. He has also worked closely with another former Goldman
Sachs, CEO – Robert Rubin, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under
President Bill Clinton.
Related to Deutschebank-Alex Brown’s role as the broker for the UAL and other
suspicious trades, Ernst Welteke, President of the Bundesbank (Germany’s
central bank), said recently that a Bundesbank study pointed strongly to
"terrorism insider trading" in the days leading up to September’s carnage
in the U.S., according to the London Observer on September 23, 2001.
But reporter John H. Berlin also made the ominous prediction that "their
decision [to investigate] provided by far the most authoritative support
for persistent rumors that the terrorists could have funded their next strike
with huge [insider trading] profits from the [first] attacks." This seems
an unlikely proposition since experts acknowledge that attacks of the magnitude
of 9-11 take years to plan and perhaps millions of “up-front” dollars to
finance.
Other motives, such as generating funds for covert operations by the CIA,
have also not been ruled out. Nor has the possibility been excluded
that Deutschebank, which handled key but unquestionably suspicious transactions,
was generating money for itself by placing "put" options on United Airlines
and then putting the profits back into its own tills -- perhaps to "prop
up" poorly performing divisions at the global banking giant.
This last scenario is a possibility, given the fact that Deutschebank has
been demonstrated in Part I of this series to have intelligence links that
might have forewarned the bank of the attacks.
There is precedent for the "slush fund" theory, as Deutschebank’s U.S. affiliate,
Bankers Trust (BT) pled guilty to it in March 1999. BT diverted $19.1
million from "unclaimed" funds to prop up profitability at other units, according
to a May 30, 2001 New York Times report.
The revelations referred to the growing scope of BT’s misuse of unclaimed
client funds, and on the laxity of state and federal bank regulation of BT
by claiming "a closer look at the scheme reveals that it goes well beyond
the transgressions the bank owned up to."
And as the investigation was heating up, a high-ranking BT executive with
long-time intelligence ties had to be thinking that it was getting near time
to get out of Dodge City.
Times reporter Tim O’Brien said that it was the auditors at the NY State
Comptroller’s Office who uncovered BT’s diversion of funds after noticing
that BT’s unclaimed account dropped from $10.2 million in 1993 to only $3.9
million in 1994; so they started requesting documents which the BT executives
subsequently refused to provide.
According to analysis by lawyer Matthew Lee, executive director of Inner
City Press, it was not the primary regulators of BT -- the Federal Reserve
(Fed) and the NY State Banking Department (NYSBD) -- who discovered the fraud.
And O’Brien and Lee question why the limited-budget NY Comptroller’s office
detected the scam; and whether the Fed and NYSBD just swept their findings
under the rug to keep them out of the public eye.
The revelations led O’Brien to conclude that when the Fed became aware of
the scope of the Comptroller’s investigation and what was being turned up,
it ordered BT to find a merger partner (maybe even suggesting Deutschebank)
and then took the investigation out of the hands of the (uncontrollable)
NY State Comptroller.
Buzzy the Banker Joins the CIA
According to a CIA press release, in February 1998, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard,
former CEO of Deutschebank-Alex Brown (the nation’s oldest investment banking
firm) and Vice Chairman of the Board of Bankers Trust, left BT and the investment
banking community to join the CIA full time.
As a matter of fact, the Washington Post reported that Krongard helped engineer
the $2.5 billion BT merger with Deutschebank shortly before sliding over
to the intelligence side of the stage.
Buzzy (as his friends call him) had served a long-term "moonlighting" stint
as a "consultant" to a series of CIA Directors. He left his banking
position to become counselor to CIA Director George Tenet just 11 months
prior to the final $19.1 million guilty plea by BT, which was by then a subsidiary
of Deutschebank.
Given Krongard’s lofty intelligence and investment banking positions, there
are no reports available dealing with important questions concerning his
knowledge about such relevant issues as the disposition of "unclaimed" funds,
monitoring of global stock trades for national security purposes, and wealthy
"private client" operations -- let alone whether the developing investigation
into BT fraud had necessitated his , ”leaving town just ahead of the sheriff,”
as it were.
Yet Krongard has since risen to new heights, having received a March 16,
2001 Bush Administration promotion President George W, Bush to Executive
Director, the number three position at the intelligence agency.
Ingram’s Last Trade
On August 28, 2001, 14 days before the Trade Center attacks, former Deutschebank
senior bond investment trader Kevin Ingram, pled guilty in a $2.2 million
dollar money laundering conspiracy, resulting from a government sting operation
investigating the illegal sale of night vision goggles, Beretta machine pistols,
M-16 machine guns with silencers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars,
surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), TOW anti-tank missiles, and Stinger missiles,
according to court papers examined by the New York Post.
The next day, Alert Global Media, Inc., publishers of Money Laundering Alert,
reported that Ingram "pled guilty on August 28 to money laundering conspiracy
as part of an agreement [plea bargain] with the U.S. government, which will
drop other charges and receive Ingram’s testimony against two co-defendants
from Egypt and Pakistan.” Some published reports say that both of the other
defendants were from (current U.S. ally) Pakistan.
"Bin Laden has long-standing contacts with senior officials [of Pakistan]...,"
said Andrew Pearce of the Rand Institute in Washington. The Times of India
also reported on June 17, 2001 that one of three Pakistani middlemen working
illegally with Ingram asked undercover agents about the chances of obtaining
components for nuclear weapons.
Earlier (July 7) Associated Press reported that "Kevin Ingram, 42, an investment
counselor at the World Trade Center, was indicted June 28 on three counts
of trying to conceal at least $350,000 and one count of violating the Arms
Export Act."
"Ingram allegedly laundered $100,000 and $250,000 for federal agents, both
times taking a 9 percent cut before being asked to launder the $2.2 million,"
according to court papers examined by the New York Post in a June 15, 2001
report.
AP added that "Ingram is also named in two other counts...for trying to launder
$2.2 million in illegal arms sales. Ingram, out on $250,000 bond, faces a
maximum of 100 years in prison if convicted of all charges."
Arrested with Ingram were two New Jersey-based Pakistanis who had offered
to make a partial payment for the arms "in the form of heroin," also according
to both AP and the New York Post.
A September 29, 2001 Bloomberg News/St. Louis Post Dispatch report revealed
that Ingram had angered his judge in July by failing to disclose his Swiss
bank account. Bloomberg reported that the Swiss account contained $1,086,000
in cash and 75,800 shares of Carver Bancorp, Inc. worth $650,000.
"He was afraid of the implications, and he just panicked," attorney Richard
Lubin told U.S. Magistrate Judge Ann E. Vitunac at a bail hearing on July
10. Vitunac raised Ingrams’s bond to $1.25 million and ordered him jailed
two days later.
Curiously, however, given the terrorism that has transpired, federal agents
refused to divulge the name of the country that would have received the arms
according to court papers examined by the New York Post and others.
However, the documents confirmed that the defendants "referred to their foreign
arms buyer...as a well-known, former military official who wanted to partially
pay for the weapons with heroin."
On June 15, 2001, the New York Post, reported that experts said the most
likely buyers connected to the former Deutschebank securities trader and
the two Pakistanis were current U.S. ally Pakistan or Osama bin Laden.
The Associated Press reported on 12/1/01 that Ingram had been sentenced to
18 months plus two years probation and a $20,000 fine on the money laundering
charges in this case. All other charges were dropped in the plea bargain.
AP quoted Ingram as saying at his sentencing hearing, “I made a horrible
mistake and I did something wrong. I’m very sorry about it, sorry for my
family.” Ingram’s sentence will likely be served at a minimum security facility
in Fairton, New Jersey.
Interesting confirmation of the U.S. government’s familiarity with banking
operations connected to terrorist activities was revealed in an 11/16/01
AP story by Catherine Wilson. In describing events in a Florida prosecution
of Egyptians connected to Ingram’s case she wrote, “Numerous promised wire
transfers never arrived, but there were discussions of foreign bankers taking
payoffs to move the money to purchase weapons into the United States, said
[federal] prosecutor Rolando Garcia.” This is yet another clear indication
that intelligence agencies routinely monitor banking transactions in terrorist-related
cases. It has not been disclosed whether Ingram’s plea bargain produced testimony
in this case
In spite of these revelations, no reporter or government official has asked
or disclosed how many times Ingram had laundered money or completed arms
shipments before he was finally nabbed. The extensive array of military
hardware in the possession of the Taliban and al Q’aeda beg this question.
A "Trader’s" Powerful Friends
Deutschebank-Alex Brown’s role in brokering the insider trades that scream
foreknowledge of the attacks further provides a common denominator -- given
the activities and histories of key executives at the highest levels of the
world’s financial markets. Ingram’s history speaks of access to power and
financial policy making at the highest levels. Not only was he an associate
of Robert Rubin before Rubin left Goldman Sachs to become Clinton’s Treasury
Secretary, he has had ongoing relationships with Corzine, who also sits on
the Senate’s Subcommittee on Securities and Investment -- a subcommittee
which should be investigating the insider trading.
Prior to working for Deutschebank, Ingram was a highly placed executive with
the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Both Rubin and Corzine have served as
CEOs at Goldman. Rubin currently sits on the board of Citigroup -- a bank
which has been cited for drug money laundering by the U.S. government and
which (May 2001) purchased a Mexican bank (Banamex) which has now lost two
suits and one appeal over press reports that its former owner, Roberto Hernandez,
was a world-class drug money launderer. Hernandez currently sits on the board
at Citigroup as a result of the buyout. So too does former CIA Director John
Deutch. (See FTW: Vol. IV, No. 3 – May 31, 2001 or visit
www.copvcia.com
.)
Kevin Ingram joined Goldman Sachs in 1988 after a brief stint at Lehman Brothers,
and by 1992 was promoted to run Goldman’s Collateralized Mortgage Obligations
desk, overseeing all trading of mortgage and asset-backed securities, according
to the New York Observer. Mortgage trading has long been suspected of being
a vehicle for the laundering of “hot” money.
In Black Enterprise (BE) magazine’s 1992 "Top 25 Blacks On Wall Street,"
Ingram was said to have left his (nine-year) high profile Goldman Sachs treasury
securities and options desk position in 1996 to head Deutschebank’s U.S.
mortgage-backed securities department -- and ultimately their global securities
operations in 1998.
BE added that "at Deutschebank, Ingram and his team of 25 professionals structure
and issue securities for an international clientele, including...high net-worth
individuals. These deals can range from $1 million to several billion dollars."
No member of the House or Senate has even broached the subject of hearings
to question either Ingram or recent Deutschebank-Alex Brown Vice Chairman
and current CIA Executive Director A.B. Krongard as to whether they dealt
with any wealthy Middle Easterners or Saudis in particular. Almost all of
the September 11 hijackers were of Saudi nationality. Since both men had
high supervisory positions connected to the secretive "private client" operations
of Deutschebank, and Deutschebank handled the insider trades, this is an
obvious course of inquiry.
Ingram’s position at Deutschebank became tenuous when the bond market crashed
in 1998 and the protégé of Corzine and Rubin likely felt insecure.
The tumbling bond market combined with periodic absences where "he would
sometimes go incommunicado for days -- unusual for someone who ran a trading
desk and was responsible for open positions of $7 billion and more."
Deutschebank asked for his resignation in September 1999, according to the
New York Observer.
The Reverend Jackson to the Rescue
From Fox-TV News’ Bill O’Reilly to well-experienced citizen researchers with
monikers like "Uncle Bill, Alamo Girl, and John Huang2" (who post startling,
yet often under-publicized findings on grass-roots websites like Jim Robinson’s
"Free Republic"), evidence of "shakedowns" related to the race-card continue
to surface -- even when connected to terrorism.
Ingram turned to "Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Wall Street Project [for help with
the financial settlement of his resignation process]. The Wall Street Project
is a Rainbow Coalition-sponsored organization that pushes for increased minority
hiring on the Street," according to the New York Observer. And with the specter
of a racially-charged lawsuit looming, Deutschebank ultimately settled with
Jackson and Ingram for an undisclosed multi-million dollar figure in February
2000.
According to Observer sources, Ingram then made a contribution to Rainbow
Push of "around" $100,000 -- as a fiscal tribute to his benefactor.
The "Blind Trust" of a Senatorial Patron?
After the February 2000 Deutschebank settlement, Ingram moved on, raising
funds for a soon to-go-bankrupt dot-com company called TruMarkets. Astonishingly,
some of TruMarkets $30 million seed money came from the blind trust of Ingram’s
former Goldman Sachs patron, U.S. Senator Jon Corzine, according to the New
York Observer of 11/29/01.
But federal prosecutors and fellow Senators have never questioned whether
Corzine was aware that investigators had been targeting the former Deutschebank
executive at the same time regarding money laundering of illegal narcotics
proceeds (both drugs and cash) to support the unlawful purchase of U.S. arms
to sell to Muslim terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It is also a reach to wonder why Corzine -- who took office in January 2001
-- would not have been aware of a Federal banking investigation into dealings
with terrorists that had been engineered by a former associate to whom he
had been a mentor. It was during this period of time that an undercover agent
began holding a series of meetings with Ingram in which Ingram let it be
known that "funds coming in from arms sales needed to be laundered," again
according to the New York Observer.
Larger questions remain as to whether strings were pulled for Ingram by influential
individuals at a time when the prison population has exploded into a cottage
industry full of poor and middle class Americans convicted for possession
or use of small amounts of drugs. Most of these people -- like Ingram --
are minorities.
Neither Ingram nor his lawyer would comment or return calls. And no one has
successfully interviewed the prosecutors regarding decisions which influenced
what most would consider to be incredibly soft treatment, given the nature
of the charges and what happened on September 11.
That there is serious interest or enough courage to seek answers about prior
knowledge of the attacks from Deutschebank-linked key players and associates
under their supervision by America’s elected legislators is not even remotely
assured at present.
Profits of Death Part III -- ALL ROADS LEAD TO DEUSTCHEBANK
AND HARKEN ENERGY
ALL ROADS LEAD TO DEUSTCHEBANK AND HARKEN ENERGY, W’s OWN 1991 INSIDER TRADING
SCAM – THE MOTHER OF ALL ENRONS
by Tom Flocco and Michael C. Ruppert
Edited by Michael C. Ruppert
[Editor’s Notes – In Part I of this series FTW, thanks to
the brilliant research of Tom Flocco, demonstrated that the CIA has, in fact,
been involved in monitoring stock trades on world financial markets, and
that current CIA executives have had recent business relationships with firms
handling obvious insider trades connected to the attacks of September 11th.
Those connections ran directly into the heart of German financial giant Deutschebank.
In Part II we documented that a former Deutschebank executive, Kevin Ingram,
had recently been convicted on drug and money laundering charges that were
directly a result of attempts to arm Islamic terrorist groups. Now in Part
III, we conclude this series by revealing a devastating conflict of interest
in investigating these leads on the part of President George W. Bush by virtue
of his own past insider trading through Harken Energy in Bahrain and Kuwait.
The Administration’s apparently deliberate omission of key
mid-Eastern banks in these two countries from post 9-11 investigations suggests
clearly that the principal financial institutions of the countries where
Harken did business have something to hide which the Bush Administration
does not want to see the light of day – especially as potentially explosive
Enron investigations gather steam.
After our publication of Part II a number of careful FTW
readers were careful to point out that our description of “put” options was
oversimplified to the point of describing a short-sell, rather than the more
highly leveraged “put option.” We acknowledge this error but re-emphasize
that the point of these stories – which could easily be sidetracked into
lengthy and detailed discussions of the workings of financial instruments
– is not the trades themselves, but who might have made the trades, why they
made them and, most importantly, why the Bush Administration wants so desperately
to conceal information about them from the world. – MCR]
FTW, January 9, 2002 -- President George W. Bush may have personal reasons
for hampering investigations into insider trading connected to the attacks
of September 11th. There is substantial evidence suggesting that a detailed
investigation into Deutschebank’s connection to Islamic terrorists and 9-11
might reopen a mysteriously closed 1991 investigation of criminal insider
trading connected to Harken Energy, a Houston company where George W. Bush
served on the board of directors as a major stockholder with his some of his
father's key campaign contributors. On January 30, 1990 Harken, with a remarkably
unsuccessful history of drilling projects, signed major oil drilling contracts
with Bahrain. Five months later, Bush's company suffered an unexplained huge
loss of stock value just prior to the Gulf War -- but not before the future
president had already cashed out, making close to a million dollars selling
his own stock. Because of 9-11 leads suggesting the possible involvement
of certain Arab banks in financing the attacks, a conflict of interest exists,
clearly limiting how far the President would be willing to pursue the most
obvious leads. And U.S. government investigations since 9-11 have avoided
looking at key Middle Eastern banks in Bahrain and Kuwait already linked
to terrorist activities.
In fact, two banks located in Bahrain and Kuwait – The Faysal Islamic Bank
and the Kuwait Finance House – which had been listed in European reports as
having terrorist ties were glaringly omitted from George W Bush’s financial
crackdown after September 11th. [Source: The Inner City Press, 9-11-99.] Both
banks have correspondent relationships with Deutschebank.
In spite of mounting evidence of a number of connections between German
financial giant Deutschebank and the terrorist attacks of September 11 -
including previously documented links to insider trading based upon events
of 9/11 - no press agency or government entity is questioning why certain
banking institutions in Kuwait and Bahrain with deep financial ties to the
Bush family have been overlooked in the President’s supervision of a so-called
"worldwide crackdown on terrorist financing."
Reuters reported on 11-7-2001 that the Treasury Department added 61 additional
people and organizations to the President’s original Executive Order of September
23 -- including banks in Somalia and Nassau, The Bahamas. But mysteriously,
no banks in Bahrain, Kuwait, or Saudi Arabia were named in either the original
order or its expansion.
Moreover, the President’s lack of effective direction and oversight of terrorist
finance appears to be abetted and endorsed by the U.S. Congress.
Just 32 days before the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, a
Financial Times of Asia (FT) Wire-Business Line report linked Deutschebank
to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pakistani and Afghani
heroin smuggling, and money laundering of narcotics proceeds (8-10-2001).
Retired Pakistani intelligence chief Brig Imtiaz was jailed for eight years
on July 31, 2001 for laundering heroin profits -- for covert actions -- via
a CIA-linked drug smuggling cell, using Deutschebank and other financial entities
and properties.
Former State Department official Jonathan Weiner confirmed that Bahrain,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have been of little help
to federal officials regarding known terrorist funds moving back and forth
between those countries. Weiner made these statements in a National Public
Radio (NPR) interview on 11-21-2001.
Weiner told host Linda Wertheimer, "Since September 11th, all those countries
have frozen accounts or have looked in their banking systems for the money
of people associated with terrorist finance, [and] have gone through the entire
list provided by the United States."
He added that "country after country has announced, ‘we’ve looked for funds.
We’ve looked diligently. We’ve been ready to freeze some funds. We just haven’t
found anything.’ No money in the UAE, no money in Kuwait." Weiner then revealed,
"There is, I can tell, no money announced in Saudi Arabia, none announced
in Bahrain.
"Well, given that we know [that terrorist] funds came out of there and we
know [that terrorist] funds went back there, their inability to find funds
is pretty astonishing," said the former State Department official.
While 15 of 19 hijackers were Saudis, it is Bahrain and Kuwait’s strange
lack of assistance in ferreting out terrorist financial support and insider
trading evidence that raises questions, given their extremely close ties to
both Bush presidents.
The close financial relationships of both Bush 41 and Bush 43 (referring
to their respective presidencies) with government officials of Bahrain as
stockholders via Texas corporation Harken Energy, which had secured major
drilling rights came during the period when the elder Bush and his advisor
son were making U.S. military decisions prior to the Gulf War. Many Harken
investors were major campaign donors to Bush 41.
Current President Bush made his first million dollars as a result of a classic
insider stock trade--directly related to the sale of his stock in Harken.
Moreover, Bush’s oil stock sale was finalized immediately prior to Iraq‘s
invasion of Kuwait -- at the height of its share price -- before plummeting
days later on news of Iraq’s invasion.
George W. avoided prosecution, thanks to some "well-connected" lawyers,
and a soft investigation of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) violations
-- supervised by a presidential parent who pulled the strings with SEC enforcement
staff. This, as current and past Enron employees have now lost their pensions
as a result of illegal insider stock sales in the oil industry through another
company directly connected to the Bushes.
George H. W. Bush, the elder is a hero, an icon, with his picture in Kuwaiti
public buildings, and has been a regular visitor to Kuwait since U.S. the
Gulf War.
However, considering that Kuwait Finance House and Faysal Islamic Bank of
Bahrain are both correspondent banks with Deutschebank, questions remain as
to why President Bush would not place them on his list of banks under scrutiny
for terrorist ties, given the German bank’s many links to the 9/11 attacks
and the above revelations by a former State Department official.
BANKING ON TERRORISM
According to German news weekly Der Spiegel, Deutschebank handled accounts
for the bin Laden family worth $103 million British pounds (The London Guardian,
10-1-2001).
The New York Times (9-29-2001) added that FBI officials are "focusing more
than ever on Germany," and in particular, an apartment used by Mohamed Atta
-- considered the lead hijacker -- and Ramzi Muhammad Abdullah Bin Al Shibh,
who also shared the apartment with other hijackers. Fox News and the Washington
Post both reported on 1-2-2001 that Al Shibh wired $14,000 to Zacarias Moussaoui,
now in U.S. custody and referred to as the “20th hijacker.”
An American official said "It looks like it was organized in Germany...
there is clear evidence of meetings between Mr. Atta, Mr. al-Shehhi, and
Mr. Jarrah, three of the four suspected hijackers," according to the Times.
Mamoun Darkanzanli, a Syrian businessman whose bank accounts were frozen
after the attacks, has been implicated by American officials as an associate
of Osama bin Laden who took part in a 1996 attack on U.S. troops at the Khobar
Towers in Saudi Arabia. U.S. officials say currently jailed terrorist and
bin Laden’s highest ranking associate in U.S. custody -- Mamdouh Mahmud Salim
-- named Darkazanli as the co-signer of Salim’s bank account at Deutschebank
in Hamburg, also according to the Times. The bin Laden family, with whom the
Bushes have had long standing business deals through The Carlyle Group, was
later awarded the contract to rebuild the facility.
The New York paper reported that Deutschebank was also linked to Wadih el-Hage,
a naturalized American citizen from Lebanon who served as bin Laden’s personal
secretary at his Sudan office, and was named by prosecutors as also setting
up terrorist front businesses for bin Laden in Kenya during 1994.
El-Hage’s business card lists Mamoun Darkazanli’s current apartment as his
Hamburg address, while his confiscated address book lists Darkazanli’s address,
phone numbers and yet another Deutschebank account in Hamburg -- but not the
same account as Salim’s.
Investigators also suspect that Darkazanli was supporting bin Laden’s Al-Q’aeda
network financially, using Deutschebank as his supporting entity for terrorism.
According to the Asian Wall Street Journal (9-28-200), insiders familiar
with the family say the bin Ladens do most of their banking with the London
branch of Deutschebank and the Saudi National Commercial Bank; however, they
also use Citigroup, a bank long linked to drug money laundering and on whose
board of directors sit former CIA Director John Deutch and former Treasury
Secretary Robert Rubin. Rubin is also the former CEO of Goldman Sachs which
was once the home of convicted Deutschebank drug money launderer Kevin Ingram.
(See Part II).
DEUTSCHEBANK’S “CORRESPONDING” LACK OF INTELLIGENCE
Michigan Senator Carl Levin’s Minority Banking Report of February 2001 calls
correspondent banking the "gateway to money laundering," a financial technique
wherein illicit money is moved from bank to bank with "no questions asked,"
thereby cleansing funds prior to being used for legitimate purposes. Via correspondent
banking relationships, banks not licensed in the U.S. may gain access to
American financial markets by establishing a correspondent relationship with
banks that are. Deutschebank is licensed in the U.S. and maintained offices
at the World Trade Center. All U.S. Deutschebank records were destroyed in
the September 11 attacks.
An obvious question then is why none of these Middle Eastern financial institutions
have felt the sting of U.S. investigative wrath since the attacks.
In another curious disclosure, the FBI also says al Shamal Islamic Bank
-- Osama bin Laden’s personal bank -- headquartered in Khartoum, Sudan --
which the terrorist leader helped capitalize with $50 million in private
funds, "is being investigated by U.S. or overseas authorities." According
to U.S. News (10-8-2001), the Bureau won’t say which authority. President
Bush, however, has failed to place Osama bin Laden's al Shamal Islamic Bank
in his Executive Order -- freezing all of its correspondent transactions
with other banks of the world. [See
http://www.banking.state.ny.us/il01102a.pdf
]
This is especially strange, since the Washington Post (9-29-2001) reported
that a an unnamed bin Laden associate testified (at the U.S. trial on the
1998 African embassy bombings) that "$250,000 was wired from al Shamal Islamic
Bank directly into the bin Laden cohort’s Texas bank account -- where he used
it to buy a plane delivered to bin Laden... intended to transport Stinger
missiles...." Two months later, FT (11-29-2001) offered more information,
reporting that "The money was wired from the Wadi al Aqiq account at al Shamal
bank via Bank of New York to a Bank of America account held in Dallas, Texas
by Essam al Ridi. Al Ridi, an Egyptian flight instructor who met bin Laden
in Pakistan in 1985, flew the plane to Khartoum."
Congress has not sought to inquire as to whether bin Laden's Stinger missiles
were flown directly out of Texas, or how his fellow terrorists were able to
buy a plane in Dallas to illegally transport arms, or how a bin Laden associate
was able to become a Texas flight instructor -- let alone whether he taught
other terrorists how to fly airplanes in Dallas.
A Financial Times of Asia Wire story (8-10-2001) revealed that dirty money
profits for covert actions resulting from CIA-linked heroin smuggling (which
is a primary means of financing terrorist operations) through Pakistan and
Northern Afghanistan have been shown to find their way into the international
banking system. This was the role played by Kevin Ingram, formerly of Deutschebank
in New York as described in Part II of this series.
And while U.S. News (10-8-2001) reported that FBI officials say Deutschebank
is "being investigated by U.S. or overseas authorities," again the Bureau
will not say which authorities, indicating that the U.S. may not even be taking
a lead role in investigating the matter.
A spokesman for Deutschebank said it had provided investigators with information
on accounts linked to members of the bin Laden family (The Guardian, 10/1/01).
No further information has been made public.
Meanwhile, continued and current revelations indicate that negligence and
the "prior-knowledge issue" -- insider trading or otherwise - -will not go
away. An executive at a Pan Am flight school in Minnesota told Rep. James
L. Oberstar (D-MN) and Rep. Martin O. Sabo (D-MN) that he had discussed and
been questioned by an FBI agent on August 15 -- 27 days before the 9/11 attacks,
"warning that a Boeing 747-400, which [alleged terrorist Zacarias] Moussaoui
was seeking to learn how to fly, could be used as a bomb,’’ (Washington Post,
1-2-2002). But shockingly, the executive also told the lawmakers that
"it took between four and six telephone calls to find an [FBI] agent who would
help," according to a letter obtained by the Post.
In a Fox News interview hosted by Rita Cosby on 1-3-2002, political analyst
Dick Morris exposed more governmental negligence by reporting that President
Bush "used information provided by FBI wiretaps dating back to 1993 to determine
which terrorist-related bank accounts he would freeze in 2002," -- indicating
lengthy U.S. intelligence prior knowledge of terrorist financial transactions.
Fox’s revelation of the additional careless handling of critical pre-9/11
intelligence data may yet face scrutiny in three states via courtrooms of
victim families, despite congressional oversight silence -- and a quickly
legislated compensation statute making victim families promise not to sue
the government.
Given evidence of prior knowledge, insider trading, CIA ties, and other
financial relationships leading directly into Deutschebank (http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/12_06_01_death_
profits_pt1.html), the question is begged as to why "President Bush’s original
Executive Order [freezing assets] didn’t name any banks," (Washington Post,
9-29-2001). The President has the power to freeze American monetary
operations connected to global banks with institutions in countries refusing
to cooperate in his terrorist finance probe.
On December 31, 2001, a U.S. State Department Memo revealed that the president
again avoided dealing with middle eastern countries -- with close ties to
the Bush family -- by announcing that assets of 1 German and 5 Irish terrorist-linked
organizations had been frozen--but still no banks linked to the epicenter
of terrorist finances in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, or the United Arab
Emirates had been touched (http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/02010202).
THE CIA, TERROISM AND DRUG MONEY
Documented Russian organized crime connections to money laundering also
lead back to Deutschebank, Pakistan, and terrorist financing.
On September 5, 1999, the German newspaper Weld am Sonntag quoted Deutschebank
CEO Rolf Breuer saying that "It could be that we were abused as an intermediate
coordinating point" in the fast-developing Russian money laundering scandal.
Deutschebank and its U.S. affiliate Bankers Trust (BT) filed "suspicious transaction"
reports about Russian clients, as BT had "correspondent banking" relationships
with Russia’s Inkombank, which "allegedly had ties to organized crime," according
to USA Today ( 8-27-1999 ). Moreover, an Inner City Press story (9-11-1999)
also revealed that German magazine Der Spiegel quoted Breuer as admitting
that it was "possible" his bank was "misused" as an intermediary for money
laundering.
The FT Asia Wire report (8-10-2001) suggested that at least 30 Pakistan
Army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials, serving and retired
have accumulated wealth through heroin smuggling. In pervious stories, FTW
and other news agencies have thoroughly documented that the Pakistani ISI
is a creation and surrogate of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The FT report also revealed that "Pakistani residents are allowed to maintain
dollar accounts with no questions asked about the origin of the money and
about its liability for income tax." FT added that "the total amount of dollars
in private circulation since the military regime came to power was almost
equal to that in the Government coffers, if not more....[and] largely, if
not totally, derived from the heroin trade."
Additional direct CIA and Deutschebank ties to heroin smuggling and money
laundering were also revealed by the FT story. "In the 1980’s, at the instance
[sic] of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Internal Political Division
of the [Pakistani] Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), headed by Brig Imtiaz...
started a cell for the use of heroin for covert actions. This cell promoted
the cultivation of opium and the extraction of heroin in Pakistan as well
as in those parts of Afghanistan under Mujahedeen control for being smuggled
into the Soviet-controlled areas to get the Soviet troops addicted.
"After the withdrawal of the Soviets, ISI’s [Pakistani] heroin cell started
using its network of refineries and smugglers to send heroin to the West and
use the money to supplement its legitimate economy... After capturing power
on October 12, 1999, Gen. Pervez Musharraf had Brig Imtiaz, because of his
proximity to Mr. Nawaz Sharif, arrested and prosecuted for having assets
disproportionate to his known sources of income....He was convicted by a
court on July 31, 2001 (52 days before the 9-11 attacks), and jailed for
eight years.
"According to evidence produced in the court by the National Accountability
Bureau, Brig Imtiaz had foreign exchange bearer certificates worth $20 million,
a Pakistani rupee account in the Union Bank with a balance of Rs 2.13 billion,
a dollar account in Deutschebank with a balance of $19.1 million, five residential
houses, five commercial units and three shops. This huge wealth was allegedly
accumulated by him through heroin smuggling."
BAHRAIN, KUWAIT AND DEUTSCHEBANK – THE DOOR TO HARKEN ENERGY
According to attorney Matthew Lee of Inner City Press (ICP), after September
11, regulators in Luxembourg, former headquarters of the notorious Pakistani
Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), circulated a list of five
banks, in addition to President Bush’s U.S. Executive Order of September 23,
freezing the accounts of suspected terrorist-connected individuals and organizations.
In Part II of the Profits of Death series, located at: (http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/12_11_01_death_
profits_pt2.html) the U.S. government’s ongoing scrutiny of terrorist banking
was documented in an AP story by Catherine Wilson. The story provided clear
indication that U.S. intelligence agencies routinely monitor banking transactions
in terrorist-related cases. Wilson wrote about the current prosecution of
Egyptians in a case connected to former Goldman Sachs and Deutschebank securities
trader Kevin Ingram’s attempt to launder heroin and cash for the illegal sale
of weapons to Islamic terrorists. She added that "numerous promised wire
transfers never arrived, but there were discussions of foreign bankers taking
payoffs to move the money to purchase weapons into the United States..."
Moreover, the AP story never questioned how the federal agents knew the
names of particular banks and bankers, so as not to arouse suspicion on the
part of Kevin Ingram and the other Middle Eastern accomplices, because the
bankers had previously been "in-the-loop" of drug money laundering and illegal
arms sales.
The Bush Administration would necessarily have to be concerned if congressional
investigations of Deutschebank ties to Faysal Islamic Bank of Bahrain and
Kuwait Finance House started to dredge up and revive old financial investigations
into the 1991 probe of Harken Energy.
AN INSIDE TRADER DIRECTS PROBE OF INSIDE TRADERS – THE MOTHER OF ALL
ENRONS
One reason why the Administration has not frozen the assets of the two banks
in Kuwait and Bahrain with correspondent relationships with Deutschebank leads
directly to Harken.
The probe in question is tied to Bahrain and Kuwait, and directly involves
George W. Bush and SEC lawyers appointed by his father. According to
SEC records, on four separate occasions President George W. Bush disregarded
federal statutes by failing to file insider stock trade reports on a timely
basis, back-dating one trade by some four months. (Harken Energy SEC Abstract
Filing, transaction date: 6-22-1990; Oil stock sale made 41 days prior to
Iraq's attack on Kuwait -- $848,560 profit, filing date: 3-4-1991- 8 1/2 months
late and reported to the SEC two days after Gulf War was over on 3-2-1991;
Harken Energy SEC Abstract Filing, transaction date: 6-16-89, filing date:
10-23-1989 -- 17 weeks late.) [Sources: Wall Street Journal, 4-4-1991 and
9-28-99; Time, 10-28-1991; U.S. News, 3-16-1992; Associated Press, 10-28-94;
Houston Post, 10-18-1994.]
The younger Bush denied the charge of insider trading in spite of his positions
on the Harken Energy board of directors, audit committee, and stock restructuring
panel. He added that he had no idea Harken was going to get an audit report
full of red ink until weeks after he had made his stock sale.
During December, 1999 into January, 2000, journalist Tom Flocco’s former
research associate, Mario Calabrese, repeatedly called the SEC requesting
copies of George W. Bush’s original Harken Energy stock filings. After
some 3 1/2 weeks of calls made during the critical Florida Supreme Court and
U.S. Supreme Court arguments deciding the Bush-Gore election, SEC representative
Linda Thompson called Mr. Calabrese on January 14, 2001 to confirm that all
original Bush SEC documents had been destroyed. Thompson said that "the dates
you requested have all met their (6 year) retention time." It is possible
that copies are still available via major search engines.
The future president completed his key insider trade eight days before Harken
announced a $23 million second quarter corporate loss and about six weeks
before the invasion. Having just profited by nearly $1 million--representing
a 200 % insider windfall--George Jr. watched Harken stock take a nosedive
on the bad news. Thus, Harken Energy, a Houston oil company doing business
in Bahrain, wherein some of his father’s largest contributors also maintained
substantial stock positions, made George W. his first million which served
as seed money for his upcoming Texas Rangers deal.
The April 4, 1991 Wall Street Journal added that "Mr. Bush did not return
their phone calls seeking comment, and the Bush White House tersely said ‘It
doesn’t comment on the activities of the president’s children.’" Moreover,
the SEC also declined to comment, according to The New York Times. [3-9-92]
Neither the younger Bush nor the media made much of the blatant conflicts
of interest since the chairman of the SEC was Richard Breedon, former lawyer
with Houston firm of Baker and Botts. Breedon had served as deputy counsel
to Bush 41 when he was Vice President under Ronald Reagan.
Moreover, the SEC investigation of George W. was led by general counsel
James R. Doty who, according to a UPI report, mysteriously neglected to interview
any of the Harken directors --including the younger Bush -- regarding "enforcement"
oversight. Moreover, Doty had previously served as George W. Bush’s
personal lawyer Bush 43’s purchase of the Texas Rangers baseball franchise.
So, in the end, a future president--George W. Bush -- was cleared of insider
trade wrongdoing by his personal attorney and by his father’s counsel. That
said, the Bush Administration is currently keeping a low profile regarding
campaign contributors at Enron Corporation which participated in insider stock
sales that bankrupted the corporation while Enron employees were prohibited
from cashing in their Enron stock-based 401K plans as their value plummeted.
BUSH IN BAHRAIN – PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
In October 1991, Time Magazine questioned why the tiny country of Bahrain
would stake so much of its financial future on Harken Energy, which it labeled
an "obscure, money-losing company with no refineries and no experience in
offshore oil exploration." The magazine also noted that oil insiders
speculated that Bahrain’s rulers saw the arrangement as a way to gain influence
with the Bush Administration.
In January, 1991, The Village Voice reported a potential nexus regarding
foreign policy and personal financial interests as in 1990, the Bush Administration
signed an agreement with Bahrain that chose the small country as the permanent
principal allied base in the Middle East, although it was some 200 miles away
from the hostilities in Iraq and Kuwait.
The military base deal came right after Harken announced its January 30,
1990 joint oil-drilling venture with Bahrain, suggesting that the elder Bush’s
contributors and his son, the future President of the United States, were
involved in personal financial business involving Harken, while also making
decisions – including dispatching Ambassador April Glaspie to tell Saddam
Hussein that it’s actions vis a vis Kuwait were none of the U.S.’s business
– that led directly to the Gulf War.
And neither Bush let the press know that they had permitted Kuwait and Bahrain
to infuse $19.6 million in foreign cash to hire U.S. public relations firm
Hill & Knowlton to lobby Congress and the American people into a war frenzy
against Iraq.
A former U.S. ambassador to Bahrain, Sam Zakhem, funneled $7.7 million in
advertising and lobbying dollars through two front groups: Coalition for Americans
at Risk (a former front group for the contras in Nicaragua) and Freedom Task
Force. The Iran-Contra front group prepared and placed TV and newspaper ads
and had 50 speakers available for pro-war rallies and publicity events; however,
neither disclosed Bahrain as the source of the money. [Source: O'Dwyer's
Foreign Agent Registration Act Report, October, 1991 and "Flacking for the
Emir," by Arthur E. Rowse, The Progressive, October, 1991]
AN ILLEGAL PRIVILEGE TO “NOT” RELEASE DOCUMENTS
On March 16, 1992, U.S. News & World Report said that "according to
documents on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bush 43’s
position on the Harken (restructuring) committee gave him detailed knowledge
of the company’s deteriorating financial condition."
Spokesmen from Texas Gov. Ann Richards’ campaign said "Was this a real investigation,
or was it a whitewash of an insider stock sale by the son of the sitting president?"
UPI noted that "while Bush claims the [conflicted] SEC investigation absolved
him of illegal insider trading, he has refused to release the investigation
files."
The younger Bush has continued his practice of hiding family information
(which should be publicly available) to Congress and the American people.
On September 18 he asserted "Executive Privilege" in a proclamation refusing
to release his father’s vice-presidential and presidential papers as required
by law. This is a violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978. What
those documents might have revealed remains a mystery that only legal action
by families of the victims of 9-11 might disclose.
On December 20, 2001, Fox News analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano, quoted
Congressman Dan Burton, Chairman of the House Government and Reform Committee,
saying that "George Bush is abusing his power regarding executive privilege
in refusing to release documents." Burton (and other members of the House
Government Reform Committee are) attempting to acquire the elder Bush’s papers,
Vice President Cheney’s closed-door energy policy meeting papers and closed
FBI investigative reports of alleged wrongdoing in the Bureau’s Boston field
office. All requests have been denied by Bush and Cheney.
It does not seem likely that Chairman Burton will push for records that
may reopen Harken energy in the past or shed light on Enron in the present.
Only an as-yet nonexistent suit filed in civil court by families of the victims
of 9-11 would have the necessary legal clout to drag the records into court.
In the meantime all the profits of death remain hidden behind a wall of government
secrecy.
Tom Flocco is a freelance writer
and researcher. email:
[email protected] )
[© Copyright 2001. From The Wilderness
Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. May be recopied, distributed or posted
on the worldwide web for non-profit purposes only.]
Top