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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-05-04 11:11 AM
Original message
CyberNET widow was 'enforcer'
Edited on Sun Dec-05-04 11:14 AM by seemslikeadream
CyberNET widow was 'enforcer'
Sunday, December 05, 2004
By Ted Roelofs
The Grand Rapids Press

...

But VanSuilichem said Kotlarz-Watson was also entangled in most details of the firm's operation. "She knew exactly what was going on. She was in every day," she said. VanSuilichem recalled Kotlarz-Watson sat in on frequent closed-door meetings at CyberNET, then in Cascade Township. The computer firm later moved to 25 S. Division Ave., which was raided by federal agents Nov. 17 in a search for evidence of fraud.

Among other claims, an FBI affidavit said Kotlarz-Watson and key employee James Horton took part in falsifying computer servers to fool potential investors. She and her husband also racked up "hundreds of thousands" of dollars in credit card charges.

...

He went to prison for fleecing investors of $230,000 while working for E.F. Hutton in Washington D.C. In 1986, he and his mother, Geraldine Watson, were assessed a civil penalty of nearly $1 million for defrauding a California family by "forging signatures, falsifying documents" and other means.

...

By then, they were a team at CyberNET Engineering and were soon embroiled in litigation alleging fraud. John Straayer, who said he founded the firm, charged that Barton Watson falsely claimed he put $50,000 of his own money into the firm. He also charged that Kotlarz-Watson tried to get him fired when he went forward with the accusations.

...

Jo Anne Normile, director of CANTER, a nonprofit racehorse-saving organization based in Plymouth, recalled an encounter with Kotlarz-Watson several years ago. Normile said that Kotlarz-Watson approached her about joining their board but was told there were no openings. Not long after that, Normile discovered Kotlarz-Watson had bought the Internet domain name that CANTER was going to use and had it direct web users to Second Career Racehorses instead. When asked, she refused to give it up.

..
The volunteer, who asked that her name not be used, said Kotlarz-Watson rolled up early one morning in her BMW at the Great Lakes Downs race track near Muskegon. She thought her bargaining with the trainers and horse handlers would go better if she removed her gaudy diamond ring, the volunteer said. So she took it off.

more
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1102245336252750.xml

FBI investigating widow of CyberNET Group CEO
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1043672
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Minstrel Boy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-05-04 12:42 PM
Response to Original message
1. Vigilant firm avoided CyberNET
A New York financial company considered lending $1.1 million to help Cyberco Holdings acquire computer equipment and Herman Miller office furniture last year.

But First American Equipment Finance backed out after hitting roadblocks while trying to confirm the goods actually would be delivered.

...

The aborted deal is included in an affidavit describing the government's criminal investigation of Cyberco, also known as CyberNET, and its executives. Agents suspect fraud, money laundering and tax evasion in the use and pursuit of borrowed money.

...

First American was told that two vendors, Teleservices Group and Corporate Property Associates, would supply the equipment and furniture, the FBI said.

...

The lender didn't know they actually were shell companies affiliated with Cyberco/CyberNET executives Barton Watson, Krista Kotlarz-Watson and Horton.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1102088753289330.xml
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sattahipdeep Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-05-04 12:52 PM
Response to Original message
2. Corporate shell Remember Henry Kissinger
By Karl W. B. Schwarz
Dec 5, 2004

Many do not remember that Henry Kissinger was originally
slated to be the 9-11 Commission chairman until the public
uproar gave cause to head a different way. One of the matters
we have turned over to Eliot Spitzer's office is an evidence trail
indicating that the insurance on the World Trade Center (WTC)
was increased by 300 percent in June and July 2001 and one of
the three U.S. named beneficiaries of that windfall is one Henry
Kissinger according to the document trail uncovered by an
attorney. That may or may not prove out in court, but it is odd that
the name surfaces in a possible insurance scam on WTC and
he also was the first choice to head the 9-11 Commission
supposedly looking into the matter to find the truth.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_14235.shtml

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer stated:

The full extent of this complicated fraud is not yet known, but one
thing is clear: The mutual fund industry operates on a double
standard. Certain companies and individuals have been given the
opportunity to manipulate the system.

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/mutualfunds.html

BRANCACCIO: Well, I was reading one of your recent speeches, and you called my attention
to the 1940 Investment Company Act that said some very interesting things about the way
Boards of Directors are supposed to run mutual funds, for instance.

BOGLE: In its very preamble, you can't even get through page one of the Act without
reading this. And it says, in essence; that funds must not be organized, operated and
managed in the interest of their officers, directors, distributors, and managers and brokers.
But in the interest of their shareholders. The Act says very clearly a fund shareholder must
come first. And that is not happening in the mutual fund industry.

BRANCACCIO: Well, who knew? I guess even the Boards of Directors can fire the
management company if they feel that the people who run the mutual funds aren't doing a
good enough job.

BOGLE: Well, of course you're right, but you have to understand that a mutual fund is really
not much more than a corporate shell. Guess who appoints all the funds' officers and
employees? And there aren't many employees for funds. It is the management company
itself. The chairman of the board of the fund is usually the chairman of the board of the
management company.

You can imagine what kind of a fee negotiation that creates. And that is zero. And also, up
until a few years ago, the fund manager also appointed most of the directors. And so most
fund directors today have actually been appointed or selected largely by the investment
managers to those funds. So it's not an exercise in corporate democracy, it's an exercise in
conflicts of interest.

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript237_full.html#bogle

The latest focal point of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s scrutiny is the commercial
insurance industry. His investigation, starting with a lawsuit against Marsh and McLennan, the
largest insurance broker in the world, has grown to include more than a dozen companies.

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/insurancefraud.html

Prior to being in Iraq, Bremer was Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of Marsh Crisis Consulting Company, a crisis
management firm owned by the financial services firm Marsh &
McLennan. From 1989 to 2000, he was Managing Director of
Kissinger Associates, a strategic consulting firm headed by former
Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.

Bush to honor Bremer

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush will give the highest US
civilian honor to former Iraq overseer Paul Bremer
in a ceremony at the White House on December 14, 2004.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/12/20041202-17.html

:hi:

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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-05-04 03:31 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. He is being well taken care of
Edited on Sun Dec-05-04 03:32 PM by seemslikeadream



:hi:
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sattahipdeep Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-09-04 08:14 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. “100 Orders”
Edited on Thu Dec-09-04 08:43 AM by sattahipdeep
By Dahr Jamail
Journalist - Baghdad

Many of the vegetables in Iraq now have been
poisoned by Depleted Uranium . “We can’t
take any vegetables from the south now; the DU
makes them all lose their ripeness and become
poisonous for us.”

The struggles facing Abu Ahmed Al-Hadithi are a
direct result of Bremer’s Order number 12—former
US civil administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer
authored the “100 Orders,” which control the
Iraqi economy.

It must be noted that the Bremer Orders are illegal under international
law, because they violate the Hague regulations of 1907, which
illegalize the transformation of an occupied country’s laws.

....
While Iraqis struggle to survive, and unemployment is up to 70%
amidst the bloody occupation, foreign companies operating in Iraq are
posting record profits. Halliburton saw an increase of 80% in revenues
in the first financial quarter of 2004 compared to the same quarter
last year. This is primarily due to their operations in Iraq, where the
company received the lion’s share of reconstruction dollars from the
US government.

....
Bechtel, recipient of the second largest amount of contract funding in
Iraq, has seen a 158% increase in revenues generated outside of the
US since last year, which pulled the company out of a slump in this sector.

It's delicate confronting these priests of the golden bull
They preach from the pulpit of the bottom line
Their minds rustle with million dollar bills - Buffy-


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