WaPo: A Shift in Strategy for Riggs (Riggs Bank, J. Bush)

[Snazzy]

A Shift in Strategy for Riggs
Bank Struggles to Find Focus for Investment Advisory Business
By Terence O'Hara and Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 27, 2004; Page E01


Riggs Bank's slogan for much of the past 20 years -- "The most important bank in the most important city in the world" -- was intended to distinguish Riggs from the common run of banking.

This upper-crust vision of Riggs, cultivated by former chairman Joe L. Allbritton to attract Washington's unique class of moneyed demi-celebrities, guided many of the bank's strategic moves under his tenure.

One of these moves was the 1997 purchase of J. Bush & Co., a Connecticut money-management firm founded, owned and run by Jonathan J. Bush, the former president's brother and the current president's uncle, for an estimated $5.5 million.

...

Sources with knowledge of the matter, but who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that despite Bush family business and social ties to Saudi royals, Jonathan Bush had very little involvement in Riggs's banking relationship to the Saudi royal family. However, more than a year ago he did give some investment advice to a Saudi client connected to the embassy, the sources said.


....

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58805-2004May26.html

(some more trickle about the new BCCI)

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Ah one more hit

WAIT CODE ORANGE commign to a country near you

[eridani]

2. First class service for shitstains from around the world

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Pinochet_on_trial/Story/0,2763,409367,00.html

The Chilean army and secret police have spent almost two decades secretly flooding Europe and the US with massive shipments of cocaine. The trafficking began during the 17-year dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and continues to this day, a year-long investigation for The Observer has established.

Pinochet, who is now fighting arrest on kidnapping and murder charges in Santiago, has not clarified how he and his wife, Lucia, had $1,169,308 (around £730,000) in their account in the Riggs Bank in Washington on 1 March 1997. As commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, his annual salary in March 1997 was $16,000 (£10,000).


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-oil22may22,1,886753.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Marathon Oil Corp. and ExxonMobil Corp. confirmed that company officials had met with Senate investigators, but would not provide details. Both firms said their dealings in Equatorial Guinea had been
proper and lawful.

Interest in the land deals grew out of a money-laundering inquiry involving accounts held by Equatorial Guinea at Riggs Bank in Washington. The biggest account contained hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenues deposited by American oil companies operating in the country.

http://www.davidsirota.com/


PRESIDENT BUSH'S UNCLE IS A CHIEF EXECUTIVE AT RIGGS BANK
According to the nonprofit Texans for Public Justice, Jonathan Bush is the President and CEO of Riggs Investment Management - a major arm of Riggs Bank. He is also the uncle of President George W. Bush. The President "credits the investors sent his way by this banker uncle as a key to his 'success' in the Texas oil industry in the early '80s." According to Public Citizen, the uncle Jonathan was a Bush Pioneer, having raised more than $100,000 for his nephew in 2000.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/8670766.htm

Riggs Bank has been fined $25 million by the Treasury Department for failing to detect and report tens of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions by foreign governments, particularly Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea.

On Friday, the Federal Reserve ordered Riggs' Miami operation, Riggs International Banking Corp., to hire an outside consultant to conduct a thorough review of the bank's transactions and money-laundering controls.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4661093


Among the payments that have drawn scrutiny, documents show, were $19,200 in checks between December 2000 and January 2003 from the Saudi Embassy to an Islamic cleric, Gulshair Muhammad al-Shukrijumah. The Florida-based imam has been on the FBI's radar screen for some time: he once testified on behalf of convicted terrorist Clement Hampton-El.

Hampton-El was convicted in trying to blow up the WTC the first time in '93. al-Shukrijumah is apparently still missing, also served as the blink sheik's interpreter and may have had a serious role in 9/11. So, it's not just the princess sending money to the West Coast cell.

http://www.911citizenswatch.org/print.php?sid=176

The UK publication of House of Bush, House of Saud, by the American writer Craig Unger, has been cancelled because Secker and Warburg, a Random House subsidiary, says it can no longer afford such risks.

The book focuses in part on the activities of a Jeddah-based Saudi billionaire, Khalid bin Mahfouz, who has been engaged in a war of words in the US, where there have been public accusations by officials linking him and others to funding received by Osama bin Laden.

http://www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=53

Al Bayoumi and Basnan both befriended Alhazmi and fellow Saudi hijacker Khalid Almihdar after they arrived in San Diego, according to the sources; and the Riggs checks from Prince Bandar's wife helped the terrorists pay rent and living expenses in the months just prior to the attacks, according to reports. Newsweek said Al Bayoumi helped them obtain social security cards and helped them arrange for flying lessons in Florida--indicating dramatic evidence of the state of congressional internal security oversight.

Basnan was convicted of visa fraud and deported to Saudi Arabia on November 17, 2002. His wife Majida Ibrahim--who had also laundered checks from Riggs Bank--was deported the same day to her native Jordan for visa violations. (Washington Post, 9-24, 2002) Reasons were not given why the White House allowed the high profile suspects to leave the country on charges much less important than being implicated as an accessory to mass murder.

[seemslikeadream]

3. BAC Florida hit with federal rebuke

BAC Florida hit with federal rebuke
Miami Herald (subscription), FL - 24 minutes ago
... Earlier this month, Riggs Bank of Virginia was fined $25 million by the Treasury Department for failing to detect suspicious transactions by the governments of ...



BAC agrees to cease & desist order
Coral Gables-based BAC Florida Bank has agreed to the issuance of a cease & desist order concerning operations that include its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday.


The FDIC said BAC agreed to the order March 16, "without admitting or denying the alleged charges of unsafe or unsound banking practices and violations of law and/or regulations."

The order requires BAC to develop and put into action a written plan for compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act by Aug. 3.

That law requires banks to report all cash transactions of $10,000 or more to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The order also requires BAC to not engage in any unsafe or unsound practices regarding the Bank Secrecy Act, the Treasury Department's Know Your Customer policies and in its monitoring of payable through accounts and master account holders.
http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2004/05/24/daily25.html


Internet Translation Service
Growing pressure for consolidation in the U.S. banking sector
Karl-Heinz Goedeckemeyer


The restructuring of the U.S. banking market is rapidly taking shape. With the mergers between Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial and between JP Morgan Chase and Bank One, consolidation has clearly gained momentum. In the wake of these mega-mergers, National City Corp and Provident Financial Group also amalgamated recently, along with Regions Financial and Union Planters Corp. Given the brighter business and market climate, the wave of mergers is expected to continue during the current year.

Thanks to these mergers, the financial giants Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America currently have total assets of around $ 3,200 billion. This means that there are now three banks in the U.S. each with a market capitalisation of over $ 100 billion. Internationally, only the HSBC Group can compete in this top league.
http://www.die-bank.de/index.asp?channel=121010&art=321&issue=052004

Riggs Bank Retrenching Foreign Operations
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL - Apr 30, 2004
... Banks mentioned as potential acquirers of Riggs are Bank of America (BAC), BB&T, Citibank, SunTrust and Wachovia (WB), all of which already have a retail ...

Newsweek in Nov. 2002 Reported that Princess Al-Faisal's Account was with Riggs -- Jonathan Bush's Bank

Michael Isikoff reported on 11/22/02: "Sources familiar with the evidence say the payments--amounting to about $3,500 a month--came from an account at Washington's Riggs Bank in the name of Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan... After Al Bayoumi left the country in July 2001--two months before the September 11 terror attacks--payments for roughly the same amount began flowing every month to Osama Basnan, a close associate of Al Bayoumi's who also befriended the hijackers." A visit to the Riggs website (www.riggsbank.com) shows that "Jonathan Bush, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Bush & Co., Inc., founded the company in 1970... He is the son of the late Senator Prescott Bush and the brother of former President George Bush." Also, "J. Bush & Company manages assets for high net-worth individuals, corporate benefit plans and foundations" (Click on "Investments", then "Investment Advisors"). http://www.msnbc.com/news/838867.asp

__Riggs Bank Cited for Violating Money Laundering Laws

Kathleen Day reported for the WashPost on 7/16/03: "Federal bank regulators cited Riggs Bank for violating money-laundering laws, the bank said yesterday. The bank consented to an order from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency requiring Riggs to beef up its procedures for reporting potentially suspicious transactions under the Bank Secrecy Act. The law requires banks to report cash transactions of $10,000 or more. Riggs officials and regulators did not specify if the consent order was tied to any particular customer, or how many transactions Riggs failed to report over what time period. Sources said that in a separate but related investigation, the FBI continues a months-long probe into whether charitable contributions made by a Saudi princess with checks drawn on her Riggs account indirectly benefited two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
Evidence builds for Bush family corruption
posted 05/10, by Donald Grbac (viewed 1340 times) | Scope : National
Popularity : 33 (35 encourage, 2 discourage)
Relevance : 43

Much has already been written about the Carlisle Group. Now we can add the Riggs Bank to the list. It seems the 9/11 terrorists received funding through Riggs Bank. Some of those funds were originally provided by Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi Ambassador Bandar Bin Sultan, and daughter of the late King Faisal. The President and CEO of Riggs Investment Management Company is none other than George W. Bush's uncle Jonathan Bush (according to The INN Report). By law, suspicious money transfers are required to be reported to the FBI. Riggs Bank did not follow regulations in this case. Even worse, in what appears to be a cover up, the Bush Administration is blocking investigations into this terrorist money trail.

In another story,

George W. Bush's brother was on the board of directors of a company providing electronic security for the World Trade Center, Dulles International Airport and United Airlines, according to public records. The company was backed by an investment firm, the Kuwait-American Corp., also linked for years to the Bush family.

The security company, formerly named Securacom and now named Stratesec, is in Sterling, Va.. Its CEO, Barry McDaniel, said the company had a ``completion contract" to handle some of the security at the World Trade Center ``up to the day the buildings fell down."

http://www.e-thepeople.org/article/31752/view

[Snazzy]

5. Riggs BAC connection

http://www.fiba.net/board.asp

Florida International Bankers Association:

President
Thomas P. Noonan
BAC Florida Bank

Treasurer
Juan Luis Toro
Riggs International Banking Corp.

(Toro ran Riggs International--the one they are closing for the money laundering and terror funding and other good stuff like that. They hosted a Miami conference on money laundering in March. Good to have experts handy).

But more interesting probably is that BAC is the US subsidiary of Banco de America Central, Nicaragua. You can't have a good BFEE banking/money laundering scandal without it leading to Nicaragua, can you?

[Snazzy]

9. BAC Miami--more names for Google

(BTW--this is not Bank of America, although that's BoA's stock symbol. This is a huge Nicaraguan/CA bank.)

Officers

Chairman Carlos F. Pellas
Co-Chairman F. Alfredo Pellas, Jr.
Ernesto Cruz
President Thomas P. Noonan
Enrique Arguello
Jeff Gross
Marcello Correa
Robert C. Hill
Ramon Juncosa
Maria Yolanda Flores
Walter Carvalho
Fabio Fernandez
Jorge Alcalde
Pedro Soto
Jack Trufelli

Directors

Peter A. Conway
Ernesto Cruz
R. Bruce Cuthbertson
Timothy W. Davis
Thomas P. Noonan
Luis Parajon
Carlos F. Pellas
F. Alfredo Pellas, Jr.
Roderick N. Petrey
Frank Robleto
Fernando A. Tamayo
Stephen Freeman


------

The Pellas family owns Nicaragua apparently. Money from rum / sugar plantation, their banking control came into being after Ortega.

Jeb Bush has been particularly interested in Nicaragua, just like dad. Here's an op ed he wrote that was also published in their paper as an ad just before the election there:

In small letters above the headline: The Brother of the President of the United States (in blue) Massive Headline: GEORGE W. BUSH SUPPORTS ENRIQUE BOLANOS (blaring red)

"This November, Nicaragua will choose a new president. This decision rests where it should, in the hands of the Nicaraguan voting public. At the same time, we in Florida want the people of Nicaragua to know that they are not alone in making this decision.

"The elements which have made of Florida and the United States a place where exiles from diverse countries have found success - democracy, respect for law, transparency and confidence in public institutions - are being developed in many Latin American countries. Florida benefits when its neighbors adopt the successful formulas - free elections, open markets, the integrity of the public sector - which have produced such good results in our country.

"However, this formula for success is not automatic. Not everyone has the same commitment to these successful free institutions .... As I look at Latin America today, I'm reminded of the motto which is written above the entrance to the US National Archives: "The Past Is Prologue." The past is without doubt the key indicator of the future. In a world which has been transformed during the last decade through political and economic openings, it is inconceivable that a people would choose to return to a totalitarian past.

"The past and present of Daniel Ortega clearly indicate that he neither understands nor accepts the basic principles of freedom, democracy and the free market. Some say he has changed, that the years out of power have convinced him of the necessity for genuine democracy, for open markets, and for the maintaining of good relations with his neighbors and with the United States. This is what Ortega would want us to believe.

"Daniel Ortega is an enemy of everything the United States represents. Further, he is a friend of our enemies. Ortega has a relationship of more than 30 years with states and individuals who shelter and condone international terrorism.

"By contrast Enrique Bolanos is a man whose past promises a future of freedom. I knew him for the first time fifteen years ago, before the end of the Cold War, when freedom was not yet secured in many parts of the world. He spoke with clarity of purpose and with precision about the importance of democracy, of the free market, and of the absolute necessity to have a public sector with integrity. He not only spoke about these ideas but also defended them valiantly in the hostile and repressive climate created by the Sandinistas. Thanks to this experience, I can say that Enrique Bolanos will be an excellent leader for Nicaragua.

"To construct democracy is not easy. It puts a leader's commitment to the test as well as his will to hold to the true path. This is why Latin America needs people whose valorous past points to a promising future. Latin America needs leaders like Enrique Bolanos, people whose history shows a commitment to the construction of prosperous economies and solid democracies which are the necessary base for reinforcing bonds of brotherhood with Florida, just as with the whole United States of America.

Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida."

http://www.therationalradical.com/documents/jeb-bush-alert.htm

Same ad campaign: they also had a picture of Osama next to a picture of Ortega.

----

President Bush's brother, Florida's Governor Jeb Bush got into the act with a pre-election op-ed piece for the Miami Herald. Gov. Bush accused Ortega of having "a 30-year relationship with states and individuals who harbor and condone international terrorism." Bush promoted the candidacy of the Liberal Party's Enrique Bolanos, the 73-year-old conservative businessman and former vice president under Aleman, writing that Bolanos was "a man whose past indeed promises a future of freedom." The Washington Post reported that Gov. Bush's ringing endorsement was then reprinted in a full-page newspaper ad in Nicaragua under the headline: "Brother of the president of the United States backs Enrique Bolanos."

Other US officials accompanied Bolanos during the campaign, handing out bags of rice that were stamped "USA." While Bolanos dwelled on Ortega's so-called ties to "international terrorism," Ortega's campaign tried to distance itself from its radical past and concentrate instead on "the mounting allegations of corruption and spendthrift ways of the Aleman presidency," reported the Post.

http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=13833

The former president, Arnoldo Aleman (Bolanos was his VP), made off with $100 million when he left office, in prison there (? may be out), not extradited when US claimed we wanted to prosecute. Guess he wasn't the BFEE guy anymore. Where'd that money go? Miami bank accounts and real estate (in Key Biscane for one place). Several articles say "Miami bank accounts" but no names of banks.

---

Back to BAC:

Jeb and Noonan opened the last Florida International Bankers Conf. in November where they were pushing for Miami (or Coral Gables) to be the seat of the FTAA secretariat. An idea that Nicaragua happily endorsed.
http://www.forrelease.com/D20040217/fltu040.P2.02172004171815.01550.html

Roderick N. Petrey is one interesting director who googles. He runs the Collins Center, appointed by Jeb to investigate what went wrong with the 2000 election and apparently implement HAVA (i.e. Diebold). They claim to be non-partisan. Dunno.

http://www.collinscenter.org/press/press_show.htm?doc_id=104953
http://www.electionline.org/site/docs/pdf/fl.task.force.rpt.12.2002.pdf

Cuthbertson is on the bd of the Assoc. of Amer. Chambers of Commerce in Latin America: http://www.aaccla.org/about/board.asp

... more if/when I got it.

[struggle4progress]

4. BFEE!

:kick:

[daleo]

10. My sentiments exactly

n/t

[Snazzy]

6. Riggs National shopping for potential buyer-sources

Riggs National shopping for potential buyer-sources

Thursday May 27, 7:55 PM EDT

By Tom Johnson

NEW YORK, May 27 (Reuters) - Riggs National Corp. (RIGS), which has faced a series of federal investigations into some of its operations, has hired Lehman Brothers to seek a potential buyer, sources close to the situation said on Thursday.

The process is in the early stages and no definitive decision has been made to sell the entire bank, based in Washington, D.C., but several Mid-Atlantic institutions have been approached to gauge their interest in a deal, several of the sources said on condition of anonymity.

...

The agency specifically charged Riggs with failing to report tens of millions of dollars in withdrawals from accounts related to the Saudi Arabian embassy, and additional large sums withdrawn from Equatorial Guinea accounts and deposited into private accounts. Riggs did not admit or deny any wrongdoing.

The Federal Reserve this month also directed Riggs to hire an outside consultant to review its board's conduct in connection with the OCC investigations and asked Riggs to submit a written plan to strengthen its board's oversight.

...

Bank President Timothy Coughlin announced his retirement after 21 years with the bank late Thursday.


http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&news_id=reu-n27174521&feed=reu&date=20040527&cat=INDUSTRY

[Snazzy]

7. Riggs Nat'l says president Coughlin to retire

Riggs Nat'l says president Coughlin to retire

Thursday May 27, 6:29 PM EDT


By Jonathan Stempel

TORONTO, May 27 (Reuters) - Riggs National Corp. (RIGS), whose Riggs Bank unit was this month fined $25 million for having inadequate safeguards against money laundering, on Thursday said President Timothy Coughlin will retire from the company in mid-June.

The Washington, D.C.-based company made the announcement one month after a management shake-up in which Coughlin and Joe Allbritton, Riggs' chief executive for nearly two decades and its largest shareholder, decided not to stand for reelection to its board of directors. Allbritton is vice chairman.

Coughlin, who is in his early 60s, joined Riggs in 1983, and became president in 1992. He most recently also served as head of embassy banking. Riggs has long been considered the dominant force in diplomatic banking in the nation's capital.

Riggs did not say why Coughlin is retiring, and said its board will evaluate how best to fill his responsibilities. Riggs did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

....

http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&news_id=reu-n27165919-u2&feed=reu&date=20040527&cat=INDUSTRY

[Alerter_]

8. The Bush/Saudi Bank

Jonathan Bush's bank that makes money from the Wahhabist Saudi Arabian royal family, the Carlyle Group, Pakistan, drug dealers, and money launderers.

[Snazzy]

11. WaPo: Riggs Starts Exploring Possible Sale

Riggs Starts Exploring Possible Sale
President of Bank's Parent Firm to Resign
By Kathleen Day and Terence O'Hara
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 28, 2004; Page E01

...

Coughlin, through a Riggs spokesman, declined to comment. A source familiar with the matter, who would discuss the retirement only on the condition that he not be named, said Coughlin, 62, was not asked to leave the company but told board members he thought it was time to retire. He had relinquished his Riggs National board seat in April. He was paid $435,137 in salary and bonuses last year.

Coughlin was the number two executive at the company and serves on the boards of a number of local nonprofit and cultural institutions. Earlier this year he took on responsibility for Riggs's embassy banking division after it became the focus of regulatory scrutiny. Sources familiar with the matter, speaking on condition they not be named, said executive vice president and embassy banking head Raymond M. Lund was ousted early this year and is one of two Riggs officers subject to possible civil penalties for not adequately supervising their staffs.

...

The Senate Banking Committee and a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee each plan to hold hearings next week at which lawmakers expect to question bank regulators on whether federal oversight of Riggs has been effective enough. Some Riggs executives and board members worry such questions from Congress will pressure regulators to impose fines, as they have warned they might do, on some current and former Riggs officers. Although Joe Allbritton has not been warned he might be fined, according to sources familiar with the matter, continuing publicity about Riggs's regulatory lapses has caused federal regulators to reconsider that decision.

....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61810-2004May27.html