RCMP OFFERS $50,000 REWARD FOR CANADIAN MONEY LAUNDERER WHO OPERATED FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in association with BOLO (Be on the Lookout for) Canada, has announced a CAD $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of CONG DINH, a reputed money launderer who allegedly moved millions of dollars in British Columbia, while a member of an organized crime ring. Dinh is a Canadian citizen of Vietnamese origin.

RAISE COUNTRY RISK ON IRAQ DUE TO TRANSFER OF IRANIAN MISSILES

 
Short-range Iranian missiles, reportedly including ballistic missiles, have been shipped into Iraq, where they are within reach of US military installations. Fears that Iran, its economy, and especially its currency, hurting badly from US sanctions,will take some sort of military action in the Middle East is more than sufficient cause to raise Country Risk for Iraq.

The apparent end of major hostilities with ISIS has stimulated international trade, but this new development could threaten the repayment of debt owed to international trading partners and banks abroad, as any military action would have a serious effect on commercial transactions. It is important to remember that Israel has begun attacking Iranian military facilities recently, and any action against US bases or camps, or allies of America in the region, would certainly result in American counter-strikes.

Therefore, unless and until Iran removes its missiles from Iraq, Country Risk assessments must remain elevated for that country.Compliance officers who are responsible for calculating Country Risk please govern yourselves accordingly.

CONVICTED HEZBOLLAH SPY ALI KOURANI SENTENCED TO 40 YEARS IN FEDERAL COURT IN NEW YORK

The Hezbollah "Sleeper Agent" Ali Kourani, who lived in the United States, and obtained two university degrees while becoming an American citizen, while conducting espionage and weapons procurement activities for Hezbollah's overseas branch, the Islamic Jihad organization, was sentenced to forty (40) years in Federal Prison for his illegal acts, by a US District Judge in New York.

Kourani, born in Lebanon, and who has previously been the subject of a story on this blog, (May 17, 2019) detailing his crimes and conviction, was also sentenced to five years of Supervised Release, and ordered deported after completion of his sentence. The US Attorney had requested a sentence of 110 years, the Guidelines sentence which is not mandatory for the Court, was reportedly thirty years.

Kourani, who conducted surveillance of American law enforcement and military sites, including 26 Federal Plaza in NYC, and who traveled to China to obtain precursor chemicals for explosives, was trained by Hezbollah in Lebanon. He is believed to be the first Hezbollah agent convicted  in the US for performing covert surveillance of American targets, and transmitting the intelligence, including images, in digital form, back to Hezbollah in Lebanon, in a traditional espionage role.

AMERICAN-BORN TERRORIST WITH AL-SHABAAB: $5m REWARD. INDICTED THIS WEEK IN US

COMPLIANCE OFFICERS: AVOID USING SMART TELEVISIONS FOR YOUR INTERNET SEARCHES

 
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently published an alert for consumers, warning them of the potential financial crime dangers that come with owning the latest generation Smart Television. These entertainment devices, which allow Internet access, are often equipped with microphones and facial recognition software, as well as programs that allow video chat.

The Oregon Field Office of the Bureau, in an article entitled Securing Smart TVs*, warns consumers that cyber criminals can easily penetrate Smart TV security, unless the user takes proactive steps to change default passwords, monitor and install all manufacturer updates and security fixes, cover the camera lens, and take all steps necessary to reduce the risk that their activities be monitored from outside. Having someone watch you in your bedroom should be enough to cause users to be concerned, especially since there is no privacy protection from the bulk sale of buyer's identities as  Smart TV owners by the manufacturer.

Why is this is of interest to compliance officers at international banks ? While it might be useful to use the 42" screen of a Smart TV to examine documents, social media images, and passport photos when conducting enhanced due diligence inquiries at work, unless you undertake the aforesaid measures to prevent money launderers and financial criminals from coming into your office, uninvited.

Just as compliance officers are curious about the strategies and tactics employed by financial criminals, they are also wanting to know about your policies and procedures, the identities of your staff, and even the identification of ongoing projects. Do not think this is paranoia; financial criminals have been attending, or attempting to attend, compliance seminars and conferences for decades, and counter-surveillance should be a priority in your office, lest one day you learn, too late, that sensitive internal information was used in a work-around that resulted in a successful money laundering operation being accomplished on your watch.

Therefore, unless you intend to be totally proactive, and use your IT division to bullet-proof that huge Smart TV, it is humbly suggested that you confine your Internet research to your personal computer.

A final note; when I served in Vietnam, during America's battles against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army, we had a small paper sticker affixed to our field radios; it read "Charlie is Listening." That means that Victor Charlie, phonetic language for the Viet Cong, was monitoring our communications at all times. As a compliance officer, do not think that your are not under observation; your opposition definitely knows who you are.  

___________________________________________________________________________
*https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/portland/news/press-releases/tech-tuesdaysmart-tvs 

GRENADA SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE LTD. KEPT PAYMENTS DESTINED FOR GOVERNMENT AS FEES

 
The project managers of the Grenada Sustainable Aquaculture project illegally retained fees and costs that were required to be remitted to the Government of Grenada. The evidence shows that GSA demanded that their investors wire transfer all of the funds necessary to obtain an CBI passport, as well as additional funds that were required to make an investment in the the project, to accounts in the UAE, and Singapore, and not to Grenada Government.

Instructions from GSA seen by this blogger confirm that investor payments due to Government for fees and costs were never forwarded from GSA Ltd. Subsequent to the project's failure, Government amended the regulations to insure that payments were to be routed through local accounts, and not permitted to be paid abroad.  

Given this new information, the eighteen million dollar ($18,000,000) figure, which is the estimate paid into GSA, to construct the aquaculture fisheries, must now be amended to include additional fees, stolen and illegally diverted by project managers, led by the Iraqi national, Soren Dawody., who has  a Swedish passport. Additionally, the insurance company that was set up to guarantee repayment to investors, in the sixth year of the project, was not paid, and therefore did not extend the promised coverage.

The Government of Grenada, six months ago, claimed that it opened an investigation into the project, which was never built, but there have been no reports issued, nor any document released. Inquiries made by the investors have failed to result in any information on investigation progress, if any.

ZHU HUA, MEMBER OF APT10 GROUP WORKING FOR CHINA, STOLE DATA FROM 12 COUNTRIES, INCLUDING US NAVY

AFTER MAJOR CORRUPTION FALLOUT, RAISE COUNTRY RISK ON MALTA

The bottom has fallen out of Malta's long-pending official corruption scandal. The case, which was spawned by embarrassing disclosures about senior government officials in the "Panama Papers, " exploded this week when a police sniffer dog, working for Customs,  found €210,000, on an individual linked to the Caruana Galizia contract assassination. Another individual was taken into custody, and began cooperating with local law enforcement, after receiving immunity from prosecution.

In short order, the following events occurred:

(1) Keith Schembri, the Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, was questioned by police, and thereafter submitted resignation from his post. He was named in the Panama Papers documents as having a shell corporation involved in corrupt activity.

(2) Konrad Mizzi, the Minister for Energy, also resigned. He was also named in the Panama Papers.

(3) The Minister for the Economy, Christian Cardona, also reportedly resigned.

(4) A prominent local businessman, Yorgen Fenech, was arrested when he attempted to leave Malta on his yacht; he has been charged in the Caruana bombing.

Given that the European Union has been extremely critical of late, regarding suspected money laundering activities, the Pilatus Bank scandal, and the dodgy Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program, compliance officers should take these recent matters in consideration, and raise Country Risk on Malta to a high level, warning any of their bank clients who trade with Malta of the situation, and checking to make sure that there is no financial exposure regarding Malta's often problematic local banks.

Compliance should also closely examine ALL Maltese passports presented at account opening, with particular attention to the place of birth of the holder, if it is outside of Malta, and whether the holder is fluent in Maltese. Otherwise, he is most likely a Russian or Iranian national posing as a Maltese, using a CBI passport.



 

AMERICAN KILLED BY AQAP IN YEMEN

NEW YORK COURT CASE EXPOSES HOW ILLEGAL CARIBBEAN CBI PAYMENTS FROM A NON-EXISTENT BANK WERE FACILITATED BY SWITZERLAND

We are all familiar with "brass-plate" banks, those that have no brick-and-mortar physical location, and also virtual banks, which only exist online but are duly licensed, but what about so-called phantom banks, those that do not even have a charter, but are moving money in illicit international commerce ? Enter the " Bank of Dominica," which does not exist, in any legal form, in Dominica, in Switzerland, where it is transferring illicit capital, or anywhere in the world. How is it that Switzerland allows it to move millions of dollars ?

The bank's name came up recently, when an Italian American businessman, Paolo Zampoli, who holds a diplomatic passport from the Commonwealth of Dominica, one of the five East Caribbean states that sell Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) programs, sued* Range Developments, a builder of CBI resorts, alleging that he was improperly denied a multi-million dollar finder's fee, due to him from the Cabrits Resort & Spa Kempinski Dominica. The Cabrits project was curiously built on national park land removed from park status. Did Zampoli facilitate that act we wonder ?

Zampoli alleges that Range completed, and opened, the project, without tendering payment to him of his fees, as required by a written agreement He states, in a sworn verified petition, that two Range officers, Mohammed Asaria, a Palestinian, and Kamal Shehada, a British national, received thirty million dollars each, from "a Bank of Dominica account in Geneva, Switzerland ."

 No such bank exists anywhere, and given the strict manner in which the Swiss Government severely restricts the use of the term "bank" to licensed financial institutions, how is it that such an unregistered and unlicensed entity was permitted to exist in Geneva, and to receive, and fund, illegal payments from Dominica's CBI program ? We note that Chinese purchasers of Cabrits are alleging that Range committed fraud, but this has not yet been confirmed.

The law in Dominica requires that CBI escrow deposits must be held by local banks, and all disbursements must have three signatures, none of which can be that of the prime minister. Both Swiss regulatory agencies, and whatever Swiss banks transferred the sixty million dollars to the UAE  officers of Range, should be investigated, to ascertain how a totally bogus "bank" was permitted to have accounts in local banks, as well as wire large amounts out of Switzerland. was FINMA asleep ? Which Swiss bank opened the accounts for a bogus bank ?

If you were wondering why the two $30m payments were illegal, Range Development sold 800 passports to investors, who paid Dominica $195m for real estate purchases, which is strange, because there were only 160 rooms sold, and even if the cost of constructing the hotel was double what is customary on the industry, say $44m, what happened to the other $150m ? Was it diverted into the Swiss bank accounts of corrupt senior Dominica officials ?

Dominica is presently in the middle of a crisis, after it was discovered that an estimated $1.2bn in CBI receipts is missing from the national treasury. The $60m represents an illegal diversion of Dominica treasury funds, and the transfers constitute money laundering.

Getting back to the ficticious "Bank of Dominica," we call upon FINMA, the Swiss financial markets regulatory authority, to open an investigation into the matter, and into the presence of illegal CBI funds, being CBI proceeds diverted into the hands of criminal conspirators engaged in CBI real estate construction projects. Perhaps they might want to speak to the Swiss bankers involved in this scandal, and close down all CBI accounts from the East Caribbean CBI states.

the relevant allegations from Zampoli's Petition appear below; you attention is directed to paragraph 14:

________________________________________________________________________
* Paolo Zampoli vs. Range Developments et al,  Index No. 156698/2019  (NY Sup Ct).

PHILIPPINE MORO NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT TERRORISTS WANTED FOR KILLING US SOLDIERS

FIFTEEN MONTHS LATER, INDIA'S MOST WANTED IS STILL GIVEN REFUGE IN ANTIGUA

 

The extradition, after ten years, of Antigua's former banking regulator, Leroy King, has again focused attention upon Mehmet Choksi, India's Most Wanted fugitive, who has been living a life of luxury in Antigua the past fifteen months, evading justice at home due to his Antigua CBI passport and citizenship. His attorney have filed multiple times in the local court system, thus far successfully evading extradition, and allowing him to cheat justice in India. His extended presence in Antigua reminds is that the Rule of Law there is often trumped by political influence, especially if the individual is affluent.

The Choksi case has now generated renewed attention, due to the fact that it has been belatedly disclosed that India and Antigua signed a treaty in 2000 that provides for extradition if their nationals. Antigua's government had thus far asserted that no such treaty right existed, which gave attorneys for Choksi free reign to attack India's right to remove an Antiguan national, and to interpose a number of defenses strictly for dilatory purposes.

Whether Choksi will also enjoy a decade of freedom in Antigua before he faces Indian justice we cannot say, but we will be monitoring the situation, as it directly affects Country Risk.

CONVICTION OF ATTORNEY WHO SOUGHT TO LAUNDER DRUG PROFITS FROM WATCHING "BREAKING BAD" AFFIRMED ON APPEAL

Sometimes, life imitates art; the conviction of an Ohio attorney who took money from a confidential informant, and planned to launder what he believed to be drug profits, using a technique he saw on the television program "Breaking Bad," was affirmed on appeal. Cleveland lawyer Matthew King, who sought to imitate television character Saul Goodman, and set up a sham corporation to launder the proceeds of crime, was convicted of three counts of money laundering and thereafter took an appeal to the Sixth Circuit.

The attorney never formed the front corporation, and later returned all the money to the CI. On appeal, the Court dismissed his legal arguments. We find the case of topical interest due to the blunt fact that the public, watching what are depicted as successful money laundering strategies and tactics, should be aware of the fact that, if a money laundering technique appears in the media, law enforcement certainly is aware of its use and any attempt to employ it in real life is not only illegal, it will most likely be discovered, and criminal prosecution result.

Readers who wish to review the complete text of the seven page Opinion in  USA vs. Matthew J King may access it here. 

LEST WE FORGET THE BOMBINGS

LACK OF GOVERNMENT ACTION AGAINST GRENADA SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE FRAUDSTERS WILL AFFECT FUTURE CBI BUSINESS

The Government of Grenada has reportedly been conducting an investigation of the GSA scandal for the past six months, but there is no evidence that anything has been done other than hold a press conference announcing the investigation. Meanwhile, the organizers of the scam have pocketed at least eighteen million US Dollars from foreign investors, burned their partners, suppliers and tradesmen who they contracted with to create and open the facility, and fled the scene, in a classic Caribbean "Take the Money and Run" scenario that has been repeated in Grenada, without any criminal consequences.

GSA appears to be no different from other Grenadian scandals, but the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passport and citizenship program, which approved GSA within the CBI framework, is currently under attack. GSA victims and creditors have blamed government for failure to conduct effective Due Diligence upon the program, which had no actual physical address, nor any record of prior experience in aquaculture projects. It remains an open question whether there is legal liability for gross negligence, though sovereign immunity law may apply. In that event, are senior official in
Grenada personally liable ?

PM Keith Mitchell

Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, obviously you are not going to find GSA manager Soren Dawody, an Iraqi national carrying a Swedish passport, in Grenada, or any of his partners, but charging them with a crime is the least government can do it demonstrate its resolve in the matter. To do anything less will drive prospective CBI applicants to other jurisdictions, thereby reducing much needed income for the government budget. Grenada's inaction will result in CBI business going elsewhere. Why not choose to do the right thing, and hold fraudsters accountable. Mr. Mitchell ?