Senate investigators grill Riggs officials

[seemslikeadream]

Washington, DC, Jul. 16 (UPI) -- A former Riggs Bank manager has given the silent treatment to U.S. Senate investigators trying to untangle apparently suspicious money transfers by a dictator.

Simon P. Kareri, who managed Riggs's West African business until he was fired in January, invoked the Fifth Amendment instead of answering senators' questions about accounts of Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the strongman of Equatorial Guinea, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Among questions asked of Kareri and others:

-- Why did Kareri haul a 60-pound suitcase filled with $3 million in plastic-wrapped cash to a Riggs's branch in the District of Columbia?

-- Why did the bank not report as suspicious activity the fact Obiang and his wife made cash deposits of nearly $13 million over a three-year period into their Riggs accounts?
more
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040716-065814-6002r.htm

[Don_G]

1. The Questions May Be Quietly Dropped

PNC agreed to buy the Riggs Bank today: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBD0DUDQWD.html

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. Nope. Not to go away too easily.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1672605

[seemslikeadream]

5. Thanks so much

for the reminder

[papau]

4. And Albertson was a great and good friend of Reagan/Bush

The "former" owner of Riggs will not spend a day in jail.

[seemslikeadream]

3. Chile Considers Probe of Alleged Pinochet Funds

Chile Considers Probe of Alleged Pinochet Funds, Reuters Says
July 16 (Bloomberg) -- The Chilean government might look into investigating accounts belonging to former dictator Augusto Pinochet that may have been kept secret, Reuters reported, citing President Ricardo Lagos.

Lagos said in a news conference that the government may set up a commission through different bodies to investigate the accounts if a U.S. Senate probe into Riggs Bank establishes that the bank helped Pinochet hide his assets, Reuters said.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=asBZvJs9s7Fs&refer=latin_america

[iconoclastic cat]

6. A question: What is PNC's connection to all of this?

I know that they're buying Riggs, but how else are they connected?

[seemslikeadream]

7. I don't know but I bet you find an answer soon

http://www.pncbank.com/

http://www.pnc.com/aboutus/corporate_profile.html

The PNC Financial Services Group is one of the nation's largest financial services companies with assets of $74.1 billion*. PNC has a diversified business mix, which includes a primary five-state regional banking franchise, specialized financial businesses targeted to companies and government entities, and leading asset management and processing businesses. The company's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the "PNC" symbol.

Assets $74.1 billion
Deposits $47.3 billion
Shareholder Equity $7.2 billion
Senior Executives James E. Rohr Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Joseph C. Guyaux President
William S. Demchak Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer
Primary Businesses Regional Community Banking Consumer and small business banking
Wholesale Banking Financial services for companies and government agencies
PNC Advisors Individual and institutional wealth management
BlackRock Publicly traded asset management firm
PFPC Global mutual fund processing services
Customers Approximately 2.1 million consumer and small business customers
Employees 23,500 in 33 states and abroad
Retail Locations PNC Bank branches 774 in 6 states
Brokerage Offices
- Hilliard Lyons
- PNC Investments
80 offices in 13 states
23 offices in 5 states
ATMs 3,600 machines in 39 states
Toll-Free Banking 1-888-PNC-BANK
Internet Address www.pnc.com
Headquarters 249 Fifth Avenue, One PNC Plaza, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Main Telephone [phone]
Media Relations Brian E. Goerke
Phone: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Investor Relations William H. Callihan
Phone: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

[seemslikeadream]

10. James E. Rohr sent a nice letter to bush right after 9/11

October 3, 2001

The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC 20052

Dear President Bush:

As chief executive officers of the nation's largest financial services firms, we are acutely aware that the tragic events of September 11 are having a negative impact on the U.S. economy. This tragedy has amplified the downward economic trend that existed before that date. We believe that this trend is reversible.

On behalf of the entire membership of The Financial Services Roundtable, we urge you to be proactive in stimulating growth and restoring the economic well being of the American people and the business communities.

The surest way to promote growth and mitigate the degree and duration of the downturn is to act promptly to implement an economic stimulus package. We respectfully request you to quickly and firmly stress the urgency for prompt enactment of a bipartisan economic stimulus package.

The time to act is now. Your timely and firm commitment will have a positive effect on the economy and the confidence of the American people. Delays only serve to increase the ultimate cost of the stimulus package.

The Roundtable membership believes that any economic stimulus package should include pro-growth initiatives targeted at American consumers and businesses.

The Roundtable and its member companies stand ready to assist the Congress and the Administration in addressing this temporary challenge facing America.
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:rX3l7zke0e8J:www.fsround.org/bushceoeconrelief.html+%22James+E.+Rohr%22+bush&hl=en

[iconoclastic cat]

12. This doesn't sound too partisan or anything;

is PNC a nice giant? I don't think Chimpy listened, though.

[seemslikeadream]

13. Senator Rick Santorum and James E. Rohr

Banking on Our Future Across America

On Thursday, December 11th, Operation HOPE concluded the 2003 “Banking on Our Future” Across America financial literacy tour in Washington, D.C. at Francis Junior High School.

Earlier in the week, "Banking on Our Future" Across America visited Philadelphia, PA with U.S. Senator Rick Santorum and James E. Rohr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PNC Bank and Baltimore, MD with U.S. Congressman Elijah Cummings and Joseph Haskins, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Harbor Bank of Maryland.

The grand finale was attended by Chairman Donald Powell, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), who served as the National Honorary Chairman and First Celebrity Banker-Teacher of BOOFAA 2003, Brian Roseboro, Acting Undersecretary for Domestic Finance for the U.S. Department of Treasury, and other high-ranking executives from some of the largest banks in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

http://www.operationhope.org/Epublications/December2003/default.htm

RAND Trustee James E. Rohr—chairman and chief executive officer of The PNC Financial Services Group—is also from Pittsburgh.
http://www.rand.org/news/press.03/01.27.html
PNC Financial Services
3/27/03

PNC restated its 2001 income by $155 MM under S.E.C. questioning, and five senior exectuives have since resigned. (The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 29, 2002 ) The S.E.C. found that PNC had moved $762 MM of debt off its books and into 3 special purpose entities, which allowed it to overstate its earnings by 52% in 2001. PNC's actions caused its stock value to drop 15% the day it restated. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 30, 2002)

S.E.C., Class action lawsuit
Click here to read Milberg's class action lawsuit
James E. Rohr: $9.8 MM (in 2001)
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:XX9ibRZQX7oJ:www.citizenworks.org/corp/corp-scandal.php+%22James+E.+Rohr%22+bush&hl=en

Thanks phoebe

more on PNC - a bank with its own dark past..


http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003/June/03_crm_329.htm

snip
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff of the Criminal Division and FBI Director Robert Mueller - all members of the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force - announced today that PNC ICLC Corp., a subsidiary of the PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will pay $90 million to a restitution fund and $25 million in penalties to the United States as part of a deferred prosecution agreement on criminal charges of conspiracy to violate securities laws.

A criminal complaint filed today at U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania charges PNCICLC with conspiracy to violate federal securities laws, a violation of 18 USC Section 371, by fraudulently transferring $762 million in mostly troubled loans and venture capital investments from PNCICLC to certain off-balance sheet entities, known as the PAGIC entities. In a separate agreement with the government, PNC - the seventh largest bank holding company in the United States - has pledged its complete cooperation with a continuing investigation into the PAGIC transactions entered into by PNCICLC in 2001.

In light of PNC’s remedial actions, its willingness to acknowledge responsibility for its wrongdoing, and its continuing cooperation in the criminal investigation of this matter, the U.S. government has agreed to defer prosecution on the criminal complaint for 12 months, and eventually dismiss the complaint if PNCICLC and PNC fully comply with the obligations set forth in the deferred prosecution agreement and the agreement on cooperation.

snip

The charges and the deferred prosecution agreement filed today arose from the transfer by PNCICLC, in the last three quarters of 2001, of $762 million in mostly troubled loans and venture capital investments from PNCICLC to certain off-balance sheet entities. According to the criminal complaint, PNCICLC intended the entitites receiving these assets to be regarded as Special Purpose Entities, or SPEs, under generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”).

[emad]

9. Via Carlyle Group??

Anybody know?

[emad]

8. Additional reporting from TheSpoof.com:

"Bush Bank helped Pinochet stash Enron $$$$$$$$$s"

Snip:


General Pinochet's personal references had been supplied by former President George Bush Senior whose glowing written assessment described him as a "notorious military leader accused of involvement with death squads, corruption, arms sales and drug trafficking," an epithet that virtually guaranteed him the bank's Tripe A Customer Credit Rating.

Jonathan Bush opened an account for him personally, helped him establish two offshore hell corporations in the Belize called Ashcroft and Aitken (named after UK Tory ministers who had formal postgraduate qualifications in money laundering and perjury at Supreme Court level), and then opened more accounts in the name of those hell corporations both here, in the UK and in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

and

"In 1998, when General Pinochet was arrested in London on charges of not committing enough crimes against humanity, a court issued a gagging order to protect his bank accounts. Jonathan Bush then quietly helped him move money from London to the United States," said Levin.

In March 1999, while Pinochet was still under arrest, the bank authorised the transfer of $16 million from a London account of Aitken to a new one in the United States, despite a court order to increase the amount by another $10 million. "Needless to say, the bank didn't alert law enforcement or the courts to his accounts," said Levin, because the money was earmarked 'George Bush Junior 2000 presidential campaign war chest'.

Commenting on this novel arrangement of electional fundraising, the General's attorney said: "We can't allow our financial systems to be misused by corrupt dictators, terrorists or other criminals who don't do business with the Bush family".

Story:

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i5826&rating=1

[seemslikeadream]

11. I like it!

thanks emad

but but but we're not done with the BCCI yet

[emad]

14. The 1981 edition of the Middle East Economic Digest Financial

Directory lists Jonathan Bush, James R Bath and Richard McGarragh Helms as directors/minority shareholders of BCCI Holdings, Luxembourg and Grand Cayman. The only known remaining copy of this directory in the UK is held at the British Library who for some reason won't loan it out or allow its photocopying - maybe because the original questionnaire supplying this information was written and signed off by BCCI's John Hilberry - the general manager who's affidavit is before the BCCI London High Court class action.......

There used to be a copy in the Library of Congress but I guess that got subpoeanaed by Bob Morganthau in 1990/1991 because it isn't even on their microfiche system any more.

[Old and In the Way]

15. There's that name again: James Bath

He sure gets around, doesn't he? Tell me again that the Bush family isn't connected to BCCI....

[struggle4progress]

16. kick

:kick: