Bank 'ignored laundering laws' in handling dictator's accounts

[Snazzy]

Bank 'ignored laundering laws' in handling dictator's accounts
By Edward Alden in Washington
Published: July 15 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: July 15 2004 5:00

Riggs Bank, the US lender that serves most foreign embassies and missions in the nation's capital, failed to inform bank regulators that it was handling accounts worth tens of millions of dollars for Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, and for top officials in the African dictatorship of Equatorial Guinea, according to a report to be released today by Senate investigators.


The report says that Riggs maintained large accounts for Mr Pinochet long after a Spanish court in 1998 asked that such accounts be frozen.

In the case of Equatorial Guinea, the oil-rich African nation that has been accused of corruption and human rights violations by the US State Department, Riggs handled deposits and loans worth nearly $700m (€568m, £377m). Equatorial Guinea was Riggs' largest single customer until the accounts were closed in the past several months.

The report says that senior officials at the bank, including Joe Allbritton, the former Riggs chairman who headed the family-controlled bank for two decades, were aware of the accounts.

Senator Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, which carried out the 16-month inquiry, said the findings "are a sordid story of a bank with a distinguished name which blatantly ignored its obligations under anti-money laundering laws".

....

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373733601

[Snazzy]

1. NYT: Senate Panel Report Deplores Riggs Dealings

Senate Panel Report Deplores Riggs Dealings
By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN

Published: July 15, 2004

A Senate report scheduled to be released today draws a scathing portrait of money-laundering controls at the Riggs National Corporation, taking the banking company's management to task for failing to monitor suspect financial dealings involving Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, and senior officials of Equatorial Guinea, a West African country in the midst of an oil boom.

The report, prepared by the Senate subcommittee on investigations, offers an unusually detailed account of banking dealings since the mid-1990's that included suitcases stuffed with shrink-wrapped cash being walked through Riggs Bank's front door in Washington; offshore accounts set up to avoid regulatory scrutiny; millions of dollars wired worldwide with few questions asked about the money's origin; and questionable transactions involving three major oil companies.

The report said there had been an overly cozy relationship between Riggs and its federal regulators, and asserted that the bank's management was enamored of courting questionable clients and openly resistant to regulatory entreaties to close those clients' accounts.

...

"These two cases involving Obiang and Pinochet cry out for criminal prosecution," said Charles Intriago, publisher of the newsletter Money Laundering Alert. "It's not just regulatory violations; it's violations of the criminal laws of the United States. Where are the prosecutors?"

....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/15/business/15bank.html

[pfitz59]

2. Riggs connected to Bush via his uncle...

Did the Senate report mention that? NO...........

[Snazzy]

3. Allbritton is a * Pioneer too

And all of this was going on through Florida, where I suspect Jeb has something to do with it.

Haven't found the actual report online (still looking), but there is a hearing Thurs:

http://govt-aff.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&HearingID=189

Hoping it makes Cspan.

Witnesses

Panel 1
Lawrence I. Hebert , President and CEO , Riggs Bank N.A. , Washington, D.C.
Raymond M. Lund , Former Executive Vice President, International Banking Group , Riggs Bank N.A. , Washington, D.C.
R. Ashley Lee , Executive Vice President & Chief Risk Officer , Riggs Bank N.A. , Washington, D.C.
Simon Kareri , Former Sr. Vice President & Sr. International Banking Mgr. , Riggs Bank N.A. , Silver Spring, Maryland

Panel 2
Jennifer C. Kelly , Deputy Comptroller Mid-Size & Credit Card Bank Supervision , Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, U.S. Department of Treasury , Washington, D.C.
John Noonan , Former Assistant Deputy Comptroller, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency , U. S. Department of the Treasury , Washington, D.C.
Daniel P. Stipano , Deputy Chief Counsel, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency , U. S. Department of the Treasury , Washington, D.C.
Lester Miller , Examiner-In-Charge (Riggs Bank), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency , U. S. Department of the Treasury , Washington, D.C.


Panel 3
Andrew P. Swiger , Executive Vice President , ExxonMobil Production Company , Houston, Texas
Albert J. Marchetti , Vice President, International and Federal Relations , Amerada Hess Corporation , New York, New York
Steven P. Guidry , Central Africa Business Unit Leader , Marathon Oil Company , Houston, Texas

[Snazzy]

9. Here's the report

http://www.senate.gov/~govt-aff/_files/071504miniorityreport_moneylaundering.pdf

Also some witness statements at the address above for the Investigatons Sub-comm above.

Little bit of stuff for all sorts of BFEE scams and scandals here--Saudi 9/11 funding, oil company bribes in Africa, Pinochet, Bush Bro's (and uncles), off shore banks and suit cases of cash. Window into the $$$$'s.

CSPAN doesn't seem to be covering it.

Edit--the report avoids the Saudi's and the Bushes entirely. Just EG and Pinochet, looks like.

[Snazzy]

13. Jack Valenti also on bd.

(think that's him by the bulkhead, l)

It's all the same damn day you know.

[Octafish]

17. The "Wink."

Everything went according to somebody's plan.

Congressman Albert Thomas winks back at a quickly-smiling LBJ as he is being sworn in to be the next President of the United States on Air Force One while the grief-stricken Jackie Kennedy stands next to him.

Source: http://www.rense.com/general41/wew.htm

BTW: DU had the wink story up before Rense did. I just don't have it bookmarked.

[Snazzy]

15. Off shore co's set up by Deloitte & Touche, Bahamas

Ashburton Co. Ltd. and Althorp Investment Co.

This is for Pinochet, who clearly was somebody's buddy. They flew a Riggs guy down there (Chile) several times with stacks of $50k cashier's checks--$1.9M total. Went out of their way to get and cover-up his biz. Gotta be CIA/Bush Sr. crap.

Those companies might be related to this (offshore in Jersey):

http://www.ashburton.com/
http://www.ashburton.co.uk/

Too big a coincidence to not be--Pinochet's money was held by Riggs in the UK while he was under indictment by Spain. Riggs is in Jersey.

Althorp?

[seemslikeadream]

16. Snazzy

Ashburton Co. Ltd. and Althorp Investment Co.
All I see is retirement investment and retirement villiages, in New Zealand.

http://www.althorpvillage.co.nz/pricing.html

:shrug:


http://www.heathwallace.co.uk/clients.html

http://www.arcol.co.uk/pages/about-us.html ?
http://www.ashburton.co.uk/registrars/pricinginfo.htm

[Snazzy]

18. Does Pinochet have a thing for NZ?

Nah, English names. Althorp is where Diana is buried (the Spencer Estate), but I'm not going there. There was a Lord Althorp (yep, related to Diana) and a Lord Ashburton. Around Rev. war. Maybe a Royal history freak came up with the names (starting to remind me of Enron with these trust names).

Also two nearly adjacent streets in Blackpool, UK. Near Isle of Mann.

But the Ashburton offshore website--that's an England based business (Shropshire) with offices on Isle of Mann. Their whole thing is wealth management and tax avoidance, fits right in. Isle of Mann the other big UK tax haven (Jersey/Channel islands is where Riggs is/was).

Hmm, Thatcher gave a speech about Pinochet in Blackpool to the annual meeting of Tories, right around when these companies/trusts set up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk_politics/467114.stm

Was hoping this would lead to other banks or names. Guess Thatcher will do for now. Suggests anyway some UK bankers besides Riggs were involved in this arm of the octopus.

[Snazzy]

19. ah ha! South Africa

"Ashburton, the asset management division of FirstRand International Asset Management Limited"

Which brings us to:

http://www.firstrand.co.za/

2nd largest bank in South Africa. Originally mostly owned by De Beers, Anglo American Corp.

A step closer to seeing the link between the mercs, and the other side of BFEE exploitation, mining.

[UpInArms]

5. here's some regarding that bush link

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

excerpt:

A former Riggs executive knowledgeable about the J. Bush & Co. purchase, speaking on the condition he remain anonymous, said the company was exactly what Riggs was looking for at the time. Small enough for Riggs to buy outright, J. Bush & Co. had an investment focus -- on large, fast-growing companies -- that complemented Riggs's existing expertise in investing in undervalued stocks. The Bush name was a bonus, the former executive said, but not the main reason why Riggs bought the company.

Mark N. Hendrix, a Riggs spokesman, said an investment bank brought the company to Riggs's attention in 1997, at a time when Riggs was beefing up its private banking services for rich people. Others familiar with Riggs say Allbritton also was attracted by the politically famous name that Bush brought to the bank.

[Octafish]

6. Top Secret, you know.

The BFEE doesn't want anyone to know Prescott and the rest of his minion turds which "work" for the US Government to monitor the accounts of dictators -- and their ill-gotten wealth, whatever that may mean -- as patriots.

[Snazzy]

4. WaPo, Front page! Riggs Bank Protected Pinochet, Report Says

Riggs Bank Protected Pinochet, Report Says
U.S. Examiner in Case Said to Hide Details

By Terence O'Hara and Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, July 15, 2004; Page A01


Riggs Bank courted business from former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and helped him hide millions of dollars in assets from international prosecutors while he was under house arrest in Britain, according to a report by Senate investigators.

The report also says the top federal bank examiner in charge of supervising the city's largest bank kept details about Riggs's relationship with Pinochet out of the Riggs case file. That happened a few months before the examiner retired from the government and joined Riggs as a senior executive. The examiner, R. Ashley Lee, denied the allegations to Senate investigators.

The Senate report also said Lee recommended that the bank not be punished for failing to take steps designed to prevent money laundering.

The report, which includes the first account of Riggs's dealings with Pinochet, is the latest blow to an institution that once billed itself as "the most important bank in the most important city in the world." In May the bank agreed to pay $25 million in civil penalties for what federal regulators called "willful, systemic" violation of anti-money-laundering laws in its dealings with the embassies of Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea. Several other federal investigations continue into the bank's activities and Riggs has hired investment bankers to explore a sale of the company.

....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50222-2004Jul14.html


Edit: related story yesterday, good depth on the lack of efforts made by Bushco. to do anything about terror $$$ and money laundering

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48391-2004Jul13.html


---------

LA Times has it too:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-riggs15_jul15,1,3774928.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Gets into some good detail on the oil cos. The actual report comes out Thursday.

[seemslikeadream]

8. The men I met in Santiago were basically decent and humane

While I'm playing catchup this morning, a little history


A shared mission

Long before the burnings, Helms had established himself as one of Pinochet's chief advocates in the United States. Helms became a senator in 1973, the same year Pinochet led a military coup against President Salvador Allende. A Socialist who had been democratically elected in 1970, Allende had been targeted by a massive CIA destabilization campaign.


As several members of Congress accused the Chilean government of complicity, Helms vehemently objected. "The men I met in Santiago were basically decent and humane, and I would find it hard to believe that they would sanction anything of the sort," he told his Senate colleagues. "I found them to be men of impressive ability, motivated by high religious and philosophical principles and concern for their people." Helms suggested a "far more plausible" hypothesis for the bombing: that Letelier was a victim of left-wing assassins intent on making him a "symbolic martyr."


Members of the army squad, dressed in fatigues and wearing black face paint, beat the pair with rifle butts until they were immobile. At one point, a soldier pulled Quintana's pants down and sodomized her with a rifle barrel. The soldiers then doused Rojas and Quintana in a flammable liquid, probably gasoline, stepped back and tossed a Molotov cocktail to set them afire.

"When Rodrigo was killed, I was not able to mourn, to grieve--not because I didn't want to, but because I had to keep fighting, fighting the lies," De Negri says. "Pinochet denied that the army was involved in the crime and Jesse Helms was supporting that, even after there was so much evidence they couldn't deny it."
more
http://indyweek.com/durham/2001-05-23/

[DeepModem Mom]

7. kick

[Democat]

10. No mention of Bush's uncle, but other articles slam Edward's brother

Edward's brother gets a DUI and it is huge national news (even though the same media ignores Bush/Cheney DUIs.)

Bush's uncle helping run a pro-terrorist bank is totally ignored and hidden by the media.

Fair and balanced?

[UpInArms]

11. related article: Senators Outraged by Riggs Bank Officials

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&e=12&u=/ap/riggs_bank

WASHINGTON - Senators investigating Riggs Bank's operations said Thursday they were outraged by senior bank officials' failure to act while managers helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites) conceal his wealth, move funds and evade efforts under court order to seize his assets.

At a Senate hearing, testimony under oath by a Riggs executive concerning Pinochet's accounts conflicted with sworn written statements by federal regulators whom he formerly supervised. Sen. Carl Levin, D- Mich., said he wants the Justice Department (news - web sites) to investigate the discrepancy.

There is "a very direct conflict on a very critical point," Levin told R. Ashley Lee, executive vice president and chief risk officer at Riggs. Lee had been the lead examiner for Riggs at a Treasury Department (news - web sites) agency from 1998 until he retired in October 2002 and went to work for the bank two weeks later.

A former Riggs senior vice president who had managed the Equatorial Guinea accounts, Simon Kareri, invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self- incrimination at the hearing and refused to answer questions on the bank's handling of accounts held by officials of Equatorial Guinea.

A new report by the Senate Governmental Affairs investigative subcommittee says that Lee instructed agency staff who had looked into the Pinochet accounts not to put their examination memos or supporting paperwork into the agency's electronic files.

...more...

[tom_paine]

12. THERE ARE NO LAWS WHEN IT COMES TO BUSHFRIENDS!

Christ, when are people going to internalize that fact?

[seemslikeadream]

14. Some DU history on Riggs

Riggs and Equatorial Guinea

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=9558&mesg_id=11993&page=