WILL APPEARANCE OF CUBAN SPECIAL FORCES TROOPS IN SYRIA BLOCK CUBAN-AMERICAN NORMALIZATION ?

An unnamed US Government official has stated that Cuban Special Forces* and paramilitary troops have arrived in Syria, and will support the Assad regime in military operations. They may have arrived on board the Russian military transports that recently delivered Russian ground forces to Western Syria.

What effect these soldiers will have on the progression of normalization of Cuban-American diplomatic and commercial relations, and the lifting of sanctions, in unknown, but some members of the US Congress could move to freeze any further ties, and delay the lifting of the universal economic sanctions that are currently in place.

Though the United States has no regular ground troops in Syria, special operations troops, such as Navy Seals, Army Special Forces, and Delta, are believed to be working inside Syria. The potential consequence of any military action, between US forces and Cuban troops, cannot be ignored, particularly if there are casualties, and would probably deal a major setback to any ongoing efforts to normalize the Cuban-American relationship.

 Insignia of Cuban special operations units

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* Known as the Black Wasps. Their presence in Venezuela has been detailed previously on this blog.

PANAMA'S FINANCIAL CRIME VULTURES CIRCLE AROUND VLADIMIR KOKOREV

For those readers who have been following the pending extradition case, in the Republic of Panama, involving Vladimir Kokorev, facing money laundering charges in Spain, let me kindly update you on the most recent developments. The case is obviously of great public interest, but there are a number of aspects to the proceedings that deserve attention; Watch out for the vultures overhead.

(1) According to reliable sources close to the defendant, he has denied guilt. Unless there is clear & convincing admissible evidence, he may not be convicted. Some previous complex Spanish corruption cases have suffered from a deficiency in the level of proof offered by prosecutors. Do they have enough to get a conviction ? That remains to be seen.

(2) Mr. Kokorev, who is in poor health, which further deteriorated, when he was abruptly exposed to Panama's brutal, sub-standard prison conditions, is in no condition to be extradited at this time.

(3) The defendant may not ever leave his prison cell alive, for a similar high-profile extradition case, involving the Canadian Arthur Porter, resulted in an extraordinary delay in the proceedings, after which Porter died, while still in Panamanian custody, of terminal cancer. He did not receive adequate medical treatment, and the lack of medical care appeared to be intentional. Will procedural delays block his extradition indefinitely ? Porter's bank accounts were reportedly emptied after his preventable death.

(4) Kokorev is known to have substantial bank accounts in Panama's banks,  and those bankers have allegedly told those in command to delay, delay, and delay his extradition. Are they coveting his bank accounts also ? That is unfortunately how business is done in Panama, and since the court system is hopelessly corrupt, claimants may never go to trial on their efforts to collect their money.

(5) One of the businessmen that Kokorev dealt with was the American expat, Gary James Lundgren a/k/a Gary Lundgren. It is Lindgren's method of fraud to purchase real estate for his clients, using a bearer-share Panamanian corporation, and later tricking the client into assigning over all his right, title and interest to the realty. Lundgren's attorney,  Alcides Bartolo Peña Villar, pays corrupt notaries to attest to forgeries, and fraudulent documents, and Lundgren takes off with his now former client's property and assets. Will Lundgren steal Kokorev's real estate investments ? He may have already done so.

(6) The power structure in Panama has recently warned local journalists not to print any new articles about Kokorev, or there will be consequences. Clearly, its fraudsters intend to relieve Mr. Kokorev of his wealth.

The deck appears to have already been stacked against Vladimir Kokorev, and his assets appear to be the target of the Panama City vultures who prey upon vulnerable expats. Will he survive ?

HAMAS FUNDING TERROR ATTACKS IN ISRAEL THROUGH ITS FIELD HEADQUARTERS IN TURKEY

It may not be politically correct to discuss, due to the fact that Turkey is a NATO member, and an ally in the war against ISIS, but the payments for the teenage terrorists who are stabbing and shooting Israeli citizens, in daily attacks in Jerusalem and elsewhere, are coming from Hamas' foreign field headquarters, located in Turkey. Perhaps the fact that Turkey has refused to close down the Hamas operations center, after being asked, is so embarrassing to the US and the UK, that it has clamped down on any discussion of its terrorist payment pipeline in mainstream Western media. How can the Western democracies allow Turkey to subsidize a designated terrorist organization so openly ?

On this side of the Pond, there's another embarrassing aspect to the story: the money used, to pay off the families of these teenage terrorists, some of whom as are young as 13, originally came from banks in Panama. Money from Hamas' terrorist financing operations in the Western Hemisphere flow through Panama City banks, who practice willful blindness when it come to terrorist organizations repatriating drug profits and the proceeds of other crimes. How law enforcement agencies in the United States & Canada can allow Panama to openly move terrorist funds to the Middle East is beyond me; monitoring the traffic, with no arrests being made, is no way to run a counter-terrorism operation.  

ALERT: ST. LUCIA CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT ECONOMIC PASSPORT PROGRAM BEGINS 1/1/2016

If compliance officers at international banks don't have enough problems conducting enhanced due diligence investigations on all new customers who hold St. Kitts & Nevis and St. Vincent & the Grenadines passports, due to the problem economic passport programs operated by those island nations, now the Prime Minister of St. Lucia has announced that his nation will begin accepting applications for its own new Citizenship by Investment program. While official statements indicate that the St. Lucia program will be conducted with all due care, in screening the applicants, to insure that no "unqualified" individuals are accepted, the other programs operated by Caribbean countries have approved known criminals, individuals from sanctioned countries, and other high-risk applicants who should not qualify under any circumstances.

While it may seem inappropriate, prior to the actual opening of the St. Lucia Citizenship by Investment program, to regard it as a problem, the deficiencies in customer identification, as well as what can only be described as willful ignorance by program officers, and compliance staff, leave us no choice in any risk-based compliance program. We are all aware of the scandals of the recent past.

You can be assured that career criminals, as well as they money laundering advisers, are well aware of the upcoming St. Lucia program, and will seek to crash it, using well-documented front men, to obtain that prized passport from a Commonwealth of Nations jurisdiction. After December 31, you should regard any and all individuals presenting passports from St. Lucia as candidates for enhanced due diligence investigation. This includes diplomatic & official passports as well, for we must not forget the case of the individual who showed up in Canada, with a purchased St. Kitts passport, demanding to see the Prime Minister.

MURCIA TO PANAMA: RETURN TO ME MY DEPOSITS AND INVESTMENTS

David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzmán, the Colombian businessman who brought billions of dollars from his pyramid business to Panama, and invested much of it locally, has reportedly, through legal counsel, made a firm demand for the return of his assets. Murcia is believed to be a cooperating individual with US law enforcement agencies, and is no longer in Federal custody. Whether he is receiving assistance and support, in his quest to recover assets, from those agencies, is not known.

With respect to Panama, it is important to point out that Murcia was acquitted of all criminal charges filed against him in the Republic, meaning that he is not otherwise barred from seeking return of his funds and other assets. Also, while most Panamanians believe that he was extradited to Colombia, in truth and in fact, he was summarily, and without legal process, taken into custody, and flown to Colombia. In essence, he was expelled from Panama.

If you are wondering why, after his acquittal, he was removed from the country, you need only look at what happened to his investments, to know who was behind his expulsion: the banks where he had huge deposits, and the financial consultants who placed his money into real estate, luxury yachts, and other investments. These fraudsters quickly assumed control over his assets; many were held in bearer share Panamanian corporations, where the individuals in whom Mercia had placed his trust held the certificates of shares of stock. Quiet transfer was accomplished in private.

Now you know why Murcia is so angry; to illustrate just one of the cases, Murcia engaged the expat American businessman, Gary Lundgren, to purchase dozens of luxury condominiums, in both the residential and office categories. Lundgren converted these properties to his own use and benefit, after Murcia was abruptly removed from Panama.

 He employed his principal attorney, Alcides Bartolo Peña Villar, known in Panama as the Fixer*, to effectuate the transfers of title to Lundgren's control. This was grand theft, through fraud, plain and simple. Lundgren reportedly used the cash he held for Murcia to participate in the Financial Pacific/ Petaquilla Mine insider trading securities purchases, on behalf of many of the members of Ricardo Martinelli's cabinet. Murcia cash became seed capital for Panama's biggest securities fraud case in history.

Most Panama analysts believe Lundgren was one of the prominent businessman who prevailed upon then-President Torrijos to expel Murcia, and that much of Torrijos present holdings, in the Dominican Republic, were purchased with Murcia's cash. I leave it to you to connect the dots. Many of the banks where Murcia had accounts took his deposits, and his yachts and luxury cars were also stolen.

These are but a sampling of the details of the widespread theft of Murcia's Panama holdings. Will Murcia recover his money ? We cannot say, but it will be interesting to see Panama's elite fraudsters, like Lundgren, squirm, thinking of the nasty litigation certain to come.
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Peña is known to pay bribes to judges and prosecutors, to secure favorable rulings, or delays, in court proceedings, on behalf of his clients. He also is known to threaten physical harm to opponents of his clients, including Lundgren. Unfortunately, Panama has no system of discipline for attorneys, some of whom actually return to the practice of law after serving prison terms. In any other country, Alcides Bartolo Peña would be disbarred, and serving a long sentence in prison.

HONDURAS CLOSES, AND FORCES LIQUIDATION, OF SANCTIONED BANCO CONTINENTAL

The Government of Honduras has announced that Banco Continental, closed since it was listed as a Drug Kingpin, by the US Treasury Department, for engaging in drug money laundering, will undergo forced liquidation. When the United States froze the bank's US-based assets, its solvency dropped below the legal minimum, requiring that it be liquidated.

Account holders will be able to draw funds, up to the equivalent of USD$9000, by the country's banking regulator, the National Banking & Insurance Commission. Any bank client who had more than that on deposit reportedly will also be compensated at a later date.

The case has drawn international attention, due to the fact that it represents the first time that a financial institution was designated a SDNTK, or Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficking Kingpin, for engaging in drug money laundering. The denial of access to the US banking system, for any financial institution, is fatal, for the bank's clients are unable to have access to American banks, or its companies, or individuals. Naming a bank as a Drug Kingpin is public notice that the United States has evidence that the bank has a major role in the laundering of the proceeds of crime, specifically narcotics. 

PANAMA'S FUGITIVE EX-PRESIDENT ORDERED OUT OF PARAGUAY

Ricardo Martinelli, facing eleven different criminal charges in his native Panama, including human rights violations, insider trading, and massive corruption allegations, has been ordered by the Government of Paraguay to lave the country immediately. The former President of Panama has been living in an estate in Paraguay, that he covertly purchased while in office, since major corruption scandals broke in Panama. The fact that he was living in Paraguay, and not in Miami, as his supporters have long claimed, was well known in Panama City.

Reliable sources in the Republic of Panama state that Martinelli has approached the governments of Spain, and the United States, seeking asylum, alleging that the current Panamanian government has targeted him for purely political reasons, and that he is innocent of all pending charges. To date, neither government has responded to his requests.

There are also unconfirmed rumors that there is a reward, or bounty, offered for his capture, but whether there is a factual basis for this information is unknown. Over 150 families in Panama, both citizens and resident expats, were victimized by Martinelli's illegal telephone and Internet surveillance program, and they are demanding justice. Will the former president, now reviled in Panama, ever see the inside of a courtroom, to answer for his many crimes ? We cannot say, but his banishment from Paraguay makes that day seem a bit closer to reality. When Martinelli leaves the safety of his Paraguayan refuge, he becomes easier to catch.

TORONTO DOMINION BANK REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT PLEADS GUILTY IN $1bn ROTHSTEIN PONZI SCHEME

Frank Spinosa, the TD Bank Regional Vice President who authorities charge facilitated Scott Rothstein's massive Ponzi scheme, by writing bogus "Lock Letters," which falsely stated that investor profits were frozen, has entered a plea of guilty, and executed a plea agreement. Spinosa pled to a single count, meaning that his maximum sentence is five years in Federal Prison, and a $250,000 fine.

Was his signature on some of those letters forged by the individuals who worked with Rothstein, to perpetrate the Ponzi scheme, as the defendant claimed ? Inasmuch as the case will not now go to trial, that question will remain unanswered, as will any involvement of senior TD Bank executives in the fraud, if any. Did anyone at the executive level know that it was a Ponzi scheme, and when did they know it ?

The takeaway for compliance officers, from the Rothstein case: if you have a successful bank client, always check out whether he or she is really engaged in the business that is driving the financial success that the bank is profiting from. In this case, nobody apparently ever check to verify whether the Rothstein law firm had ever filed the hundreds of civil cases which gave rise to the sale of court settlements to the victims. The court dockets are a matter of public record, and anyone making inquiries would have seen immediately that the firm's caseload did not support the huge volume of money it was taking in.

OFAC SANCTIONS HONDURAS' BANCO CONTINENTAL UNDER KINGPIN ACT

Banco Continental SA, a major Honduran commercial bank, headquartered in San Pedro Sula, has been sanctioned under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, in connection with a major money laundering case brought in Federal Court, in the Southern District of New York. Members of the Rosenthal family, a prominent force in the Honduran business community, have been charged with money laundering for drug traffickers, and their corporate entities were also designated by OFAC. The bank was listed as an SDNTK.

The Treasury announcement accompanying the sanctions and indictments, explains why the bank was named:

"Today's announcement marks the first time that OFAC has designated a bank, pursuant to the Kingpin Act. Banco Continental SA has served as an integral part of the Rosenthal money laundering operations, and facilitated the laundering of narcotics proceeds for multiple Central American drug trafficking organizations.*"

Many compliance officers have felt, for many years, that merely imposing fines upon foreign financial institutions, for drug money laundering activities, is an insufficient deterrent to others. The Kingpin Act designation, which will effectively bar Banco Continental from the US banking system, is a powerful remedy that, in my opinion, should be employed whenever there is conclusive evidence that a foreign financial institution is a major player in a drug money laundering operation.

Please note that there are a number of other financial institutions in Latin America, and the United States, with similar names, and compliance officers are urged to immediately acquaint their staff with the details of the other banks, lest confusion result in a non-sanctioned bank's transactions be frozen, or  a Banco Continental wire transfer be approved.
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*Treasury Sanctions Rosenthal Money Laundering Organization

IS ARGENTINA'S EX-SPYMASTER HIDING OUT IN MIAMI ?

The Government of Argentina is seeking the former head of the Intelligence Secretariat (SI), the country's hybrid intelligence service, Antonio Stiuso, a/k/a Jaime, and has reportedly sought the assistance of the Government of the United States in locating and apprehending him. Some sources claim that Stiuso is living anonymously in Miami.

The SI, which seems to discharge the functions of both an intelligence agency, like the CIA, and a signals intelligence agency, like the NSA or GCHQ, was involved in the ongoing investigation into the AMIA bombing, reportedly conducted by agents of the Government of Iran. Stiuso's personal involvement, with Alberto Nisman, the government investigator, with his finding of a link between Iran, who allegedly sponsored terrorist acts in Argentina, and the President of that country, may have resulted in bogus charges being filed against him, causing him to flee.

Is the Government of Argentina seeking to suppress the truth about its relationship with Iran, and where does Stiuso fit in ? We hope that he comes out of the shadows long enough to tell us, for it may be that the Government of Argentina is seeking to frame him for Nisman's murder, in the classic "Kill the messenger" style of dirty Latin American politics.

RICHARD CHICHAKLI, DESIGNATED BY OFAC, SERVES HIS TIME UNDER STRICT CONDITIONS

If you were wondering why Richard Chichakli, who is appealing his Federal conviction for OFAC violations, is serving his sentence at the Federal Detention Center (FDC) in Miami, you are not the only one. Chichakli's case was in the Southern District of New York, and his appeal is in progress at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which is also in New York. So why does the Bureau of Prisons have him housed in Miami ?

An FDC is where inmates subject to pre-trial confinement, due to their risk of flight, or danger to the community, are confined. Also, witnesses being held for trial testimony, inmates who are at personal risk, for a variety of reasons, or inmates close to being released in the Miami area. It is not designed for one to serve his entire sentence. Chichakli is within two years if his release date, and his US citizenship, and lack of history of violence, all should have resulted in his institutional placement closer to his appellate attorney in New York. So why is he here in Florida, instead of somewhere in the northeastern United States ?

I suspect that his multiple pre-trial complaints, to the effect that the conditions of his confinement in New York prevented him from properly preparing for trial, might have something to do with it. Remember also that he was subject to "diesel therapy," a deliberately circuitous route to his final correctional destination, which results in multiple overnight stays in a number of county jails with primitive accommodations for transients.

 His attorney obviously cannot easily meet with his client, due to the fact that he was abruptly shipped, after sentencing, to the Miami FDC, in a move that an objective observer might see as a punitive BOP response to his vocal complaints to the Court, and to the Bureau of Prisons staff. We wonder why he is not sitting in a Federal Prison Camp, given his profile and history, and the short time remaining upon his sentence. Is it because he, like his co-defendant and partner, Viktor Bout, fell out of favor with the American intelligence community ?

  

FORMER PANAMANIAN MINISTER OF TOURISM TO BE INVESTIGATED IN FINANCIAL PACIFIC INSIDER TRADING CASE

Panama's Superintendent of Securities has requested a criminal investigation to be opened, against the former Minister of Tourism in the Martinelli Administration, Salomón Shamah. The case is the massive insider trading scandal involving shares of stock of Petaquilla Mine, traded through the Financial Pacific brokerage house. Martinelli, as well as most of his then-ministers, have been implicated by the former Superintendent of Securities, as well as the whistle blower, Mayte Pellegrini.

Shamah reportedly had his US Visa revoked several years ago, due to his reputed involvement in arms trafficking into Colombia, as he was accused of supplying the FARC & ELN, two specially designated global terrorist organizations. Shamah, a Colombian national, was a naturalized citizen of Panama. He has been linked to a powerful sector of Panamanian organized crime, and is known to be a close confidant of Ricardo Martinelli, for whom he allegedly laundered drug money. His appointment as Minister of Tourism, when he was not qualified for that position, occurred due to their relationship, and he has long been rumored to have engaged in corrupt activities, during his tenure as minister.    

MOTA MENDES, IN CHARGE AT PONZI SCHEME, B & C CAPITAL, INELIGIBLE TO ACT AS MANAGING DIRECTOR

Fernando Mota Mendes, the sole surviving officer at  B & C Capital, Ltd., now indicates that he is merely the "office manager," notwithstanding that he previously represented himself to be the Managing Director. He quickly changed his title when it was pointed out that, due to his prior bankruptcy, and pending and unresolved felony grand theft charges, he could not hold the position of MD under Cayman law.

The problem is, Mota Mendes is the sole officer left at the company whose total staff has now been reduced to a single clerk, plus Mota Mendes. How can anyone actually believe that he is not the MD, especially when he has been acting to defend B & C in a civil suit in Grand Cayman, and has executed affidavits in its behalf ? He is obviously illegally occupying the position of Managing Director, and his repeated self-serving statements about his title and duties untrue.

He should be removed from the premises, taken into custody, and B & C Capital Ltd., closed and placed into liquidation, with the books & records preserved, to facilitate the resolution of  the pending criminal investigations.

DID VENEZUELAN FIGHTER JETS TEST AMERICAN AIR DEFENSE READINESS OFF FLORIDA FOR RUSSIA ?

The FARC leader and his Venezuelan (PDVSA) transport

Although it was not covered by North American media, the Latin American press recently focused upon a disturbing event: When the leader of the FARC recently traveled to Havana, to continue the ongoing peace talks with the Government of Colombia, his route, and mode of travel, demonstrated that the Maduro regime in Venezuela is a staunch ally of the global terrorist organization. You may not like to read this, but it is the truth. A computer seized by Colombian armed forces in a raid revealed a $300m payment, made by Venezuela, directly to the FARC.

The FARC leader, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, alias Timochenko, first traveled out of Colombia, and into Venezuela, where he boarded a Beechcraft 1900 aircraft, owned by PDVSA, Venezuela's national oil monopoly, near the frontier, in an a restricted military area.You can clearly see the PDVSA logo and color scheme on the aircraft.

During his flight to Havana, Chacín was escorted by two Venezuelan Air Force Sukhoi 30 fighter jets. If you are wondering why he was protected by military aircraft, it is because he has been accused of supervising the manufacturing and shipment of tons of cocaine into North America. There is a $5m reward, offered by the United States, for any information leading to his capture. Considering that much of that cocaine transits Venezuela, en route the US & Canada, and senior members of the Government of Venezuela share in the profits, it is not surprising that Venezuela desires to protect Chacín, who has been accused of ordering torture, murder, kidnapping, and several other war crimes.

Venezuelan Air Force SU-30

Why did the North American media ignore this story ? Perhaps because the FARC is not the hot topic that it is in Latin America, where issues of inequality and rigid class structure are far more severe than in the United States & Canada. In any event, there is a non-public aspect to this story which should concern those who live north of the Rio Grande; the reported probe of North American airspace by Venezuela.

According to reliable sources, who are former senior officers in the US Air Force, those two Su-30 Venezuelan fighter jets, which are manufactured by Russia, intruded into the North American Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which is airspace close enough to the continental United States to be regarded as a potential national security threat. Unknown aircraft entering the ADIZ must be immediately identified, to rule them out as a military or terrorist threat.

That is what occurred, according to my sources, who stated that four US military aircraft were scrambled to meet a potential threat. Given that the ADIZ begins a distance north of Cuba, what were the Venezuelan fighters, who were allegedly serving as escorts to the FARC leader, doing north of Havana ?  Considering that both Russia and China have recently sent aircraft to test American response time, in a number of locations, the question persists: Was Venezuela testing the US, to see what the military reaction time was to ADIZ intrusions south of Florida, and was this operation carried out for the benefit of Russian intelligence agencies ? Perhaps President Maduro can enlighten us.

A DESPERATE GANG OF FOUR VIOLATE CAYMAN ISLANDS SECRECY LAWS

Lamb, Bateman, Buntain

The Cayman Gang of Four*, facing not only whistleblowers, who have exposed their fraudulent use of investors funds, in a massive trading scam, but victims who are initiating civil suits, and criminal prosecution, have resorted to publishing confidential information about their victims, violating the laws of Cayman Islands, and exposing them to additional criminal charges. They have not only made illegal disclosures that will result in additional charges, and prison time, but will make them, as investment professionals, pariahs in the Cayman Islands financial community.

Sharon Lexa Lamb, the former Dundee Bank Senior Vice President, has illegally published customer identification information regarding the victims, in an efforts to discredit them, and their claims. Details about specific bank accounts, the ownership of corporations, and other bank secrecy information, all of which may not be disclosed under the laws of the Cayman Islands, have been sent to multiple individuals, and entities, in a futile effort to interfere with victims' current banking relationships. She was assisted by Bateman & Company Managing Director, Fernando Mota Mendes.

 Efforts to conceal the source of this information have been detected,  but since the Gang of Four was in sole possession of this restricted financial data, they are the obvious originators of this criminal act. The victims have notified the appropriate Cayman Islands law enforcement authorities, and will be pressing criminal charges.

Sharon Lexa Lamb in Cuba

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* The Gang of Four are:
Sharon Lexa Lamb
Ryan Bateman
Derek Buntain
Fernando Mota Mendes