Monday, May 28, 2012

VENEZUELA ELITE GET CRAZY TAX | MONTE FRIESNER FINANCIAL NEWS |

THE EXCESS PROFITS TAX IS COMING TO VENEZUELA'S BANKERS

Contributed by Kenneth Rijock


If you paid attention to the professor in Economics class, you may recall a lecture on the Excess Profits Tax, also known as the Windfall Profits Tax, which is a corporate tax levied upon profits above a certain level. It has been enacted by national governments to claw back excess profits enjoyed during wartime production, or when demand outstripped supply to such an extent that prices skyrocketed to an astronomical level.

Excess Profits Taxes, which have been known to be as high as 95% of all profits over normal levels, are a method for governments to recover, for their population and national treasuries, obscene profits. When the next democratic government takes office in Venezuela, you can expect to see such a tax imposed upon those financial institutions, and their principal owners, for all the excess profits they have derived from exceptionally favourable arrangements that they have had with the Chavez government, in official contracts, and in their financial relationships.


This highly effective tax, which will effectively return wealth that rightfully belongs to the people of Venezuela, and the National Treasury, has been proposed by Venezuelan opposition leader, and former Anti-Drug Czar, Thor Halvorssen Hellum. Sr. Halvorssen, who was also a member of the Venezuelan diplomatic corps in a previous government, argues that the disgorgement of excess and illegal profits is the only way to secure economic justice for Venezuela, whose national wealth has been plundered by the so-called Bolivarian Elite, which includes those bankers close to the Chavez Government. He says the money is needed to rebuild Venezuela.

Ambassador Halvorssen is eminently correct; Venezuela will require massive repairs from the damages to infrastructure, the oil industry, the environment, and the private sector, wrought by the Chavez regime since 1999, and an Excess Profits Tax is a just and equitable way to fund it.


Also, since a large portion of those excess profits have been transferred out of Venezuela, assets of the Bolivarian bankers in other countries will be targeted to pay the tax assessments, which could be in the billions for some financial institutions and their principal shareholders. If, for the sake of argument, I were in the (theoretical) Office of Revenue Recovery for the next democratic Minister of the Treasury, the first three candidates for a new 2013 Excess Profits Tax would probably be:

Juan Carlos Escotet Rodríguez

Victor José de Vargas e Irausquín


I wonder how many Venezuelan bankers (and their lawyers) will go on the Internet tonight to see how the Excess Profits Tax might affect them, how it has been applied historically in the United States, and elsewhere, and to learn how little room there is to maneuver when it is assessed against you or your business; Happy landings, Bolivarian Elite.
 
Kenneth Rijock - Monday May 28, 2012



CRIMINALS ALSO CAN MANIPULATE THEIR PROFILES ON THE INTERNET

HOW CRIMINALS MANAGE THEIR INTERNET PROFILE


I have written a number of articles about how individuals that you would not want to meet on a dark street are manipulating the information about them on the the Internet through the use of "reputation management" companies. You may have seen some of their ads. Whilst they may provide a needed service to companies who are maliciously targeted by activists or radicals, they are also helping criminals hide the sordid truth about their misdeeds.

This is done by placing a large number of webpages on the Internet which will, due to the emphasis on relevance and up-to-date nature of the posting, push negative information to the rear of a multi-page search engine result. Since most individuals searching for information on a target often avoid the low relevancy results at the end, it greatly decreases the chances that they will struggle though to the end, and find that critical arrest, indictment, conviction, or civil judgment which is critical to a determination that the target is high-risk.

I think an illustration is called for, I will detail one that will show you how reputation management works, and how to evade its subtle tricks in your due diligence investigations.

Long-time readers of my work, whether they have read me when I wrote for Complinet, or World-Check, or as a guest journalist on several Latin-American websites, may recall that I have, in the past, covered the activities of  Ramiro Francisco Helmeyer Quevedo, a Venezuelan career criminal. For those who are not familiar with this individual, here's his record.


(1)  Helmeyer was engaged in trafficking narcotics to Canada, and he is still a wanted man there.
(2) Helmeyer was charged with a Federal weapons violation in the United States,* and after he fled the jurisdiction, he was also charged with escape.** Though he is known to have entered the United States recently***, it is assumed that he is using a bogus passport for that purpose.


(3) Helmeyer murdered a competitor in the narcotics trade, by throwing him out of an airplane at high altitude. He was sentenced to thirty (30) years' imprisonment for that crime, but later released by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, and thereafter employed as a senior inspector at that country's secret police, the National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, a/k/a DISIP, now known as SEBIN.
(4) Helmeyer's co-defendant in the murder, (and inseparable associate) Walter Alexander "Alex" Del Nogal, (also convicted) trafficked cocaine into Italy, for the Mafia , with Helmeyer. Del Nogal, who once escaped from a Swiss prison, where he had been confined on a drug charge, was later arrested in Milan on additional drug charges.

(5) Whilst with DISIP, Helmeyer is believed to have looted millions of dollars of public funds from PdVSA, Venezuela's state-owned oil company.
(6) Helmeyer exploded six bombs in downtown Caracas in 1992, as a terrorist act, designed to cause chaos in the local banking structure. He framed Venezuela's National Drug Czar, Thor Halvorssen Hellum, for those crimes, and his associates were responsible for imprisoning and torturing Halvorssen, who was later absolved of guilt and released.
(7) Helmeyer and Del Nogal ran the "SuitecaseGate" bulk cash smuggling pipeline, whereby dollars were smuggled into Argentina, including a $790,500 illegal presidential campaign contribution. Criminal charges were later brought against some of the conspirators in Miami.


(7) Helmeyer is a close associate of  high-ranking Venezuelan PEPs who have been sanctioned by the United States, and appear on the OFAC list, for narcotics trafficking and/or terrorist financial support activities. He is married to the Venezuelan actress, Mari Carmen Rigueiro .


(8) He is generally regarded as one of the most dangerous men in Venezuela, due to his prior activities, and his connections at the highest-levels of power in the Government of Venezuela.

He is attempting to clean up his criminal image on the Internet, and reputation management assistance has accomplished this by the following:

                                                  

(A) Posting multiple websites, with .net, .org, .biz, .info Internet suffixes, under his full name.
(B) Creating pages on all the social networking sites ( e.g. Twitter, Facebook, etc.) in English and in Spanish.
(C) Creating pages on business networking sites ( e.g. Linked-In).
(D) Creating a national & international news page. ( Why a criminal would think that readers would watch this is beyond me, but it is merely to clog the Internet with favourable copy).
(E) Building and posting sports pages.
(F) Photo pages.
(G) Pictorial pages of scantily-dressed females. ( is that supposed to distract Enhanced Due Diligence searchers, I wonder ?).
(H) All sorts of Internet garbage, all designed solely to choke the 'Net.

How to evade these tactics:

(1) Always search for MORE than just the name of the target. That will pull you past many of the Internet postings. Your search should specify the occupation,  the city/country of the target, his business name, anything that narrows the search.
(2) If there are certain fraudulent or criminal acts that are common to someone in the target's occupation, country of origin, or principal activity, add that to your name search. The object is to zero in on any terms which will focus the search results.
(3) Look for other terms that you can search for, other than the target's name, like all companies linked to him, his real estate, etc.
(4) Avoid search engines altogether; go to online public records databases, court databases, license and permit databases.

Remember, any routine Internet search may show negative results, due to a carefully crafted reputation management programme. Always look further, and use your imagination, all to avoid the pitfalls of Internet management manipulation.


__________________________________________________________________
* United States vs. Helmeyer, Case No.: 82-cr-00220 (ND GA).
** United States vs. Helmeyer, Case No.: 82-cr-00355 (ND GA).
***Is Wanted Terrorist Walking the Streets of Miami this Week ?

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

REPUBLIC OF PANAMA CONDUCTS BUSINESS WITH IRAN

SHOULD PANAMA BE DESIGNATED A STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM?

Contributed by Kenneth Rijock - Wednesday May 23, 2012


Panama is buzzing with the backstory behind last October's imposition of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators OFAC sanctions* against six Panamanian corporations, which have reportedly now been stricken from the registry of corporations by the Government of Panama.
 
It's not about the companies, which were attempts to crate fronts to evade international maritime sanctions against Iran's government-controlled shipping line, IRISL, it is all about the cast of Panamanian professionals and politicians  who were the organisers and facilitators creating those companies. Is this was Panama has come to now, a facilitator of WMD activities ? Isn't that the definition of state-sponsored terrorism ?

First, here are the Panamanian companies involved:

(1) Galliott Maritime, Inc.
(2) Indus Maritime, Inc.
(3) Kaveri  Maritime, Inc.
(4) Melodious Maritime, Inc.
(5) Mount Everest Maritime, Inc
(6) Rishi Maritime, Inc.
                                       
Now what's NOT in the OFAC SDN information regarding those sanctioned companies, all of whom listed their offices on the 14th floor of Torre Banesco in the Ocean Business Plaza Building.

(A) Who were the clients who requested that these companies be formed ? Certain Venezuelan nationals of Lebanese descent, working for the Government of Iran.

(B) How did these companies pass a Due Diligence check by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry ?  Perhaps because the Minister himself personally approved them. Someone should ask him about how he could approve obvious fronts.

(C) Who were the lawyers who formed these companies ? The Law Firm of Veleiro, Mihalitsianos & de la Espriella.  These lawyers are closely connected to Panamanian President Martinelli, as well as his sons Enrique and Ricardo junior, and are directors of companies controlled by the sons. One of the lawyers, a dual US-Panamanian citizen, actually was a former aide to US Speaker of the House John Boehner.

(D) Who were the original directors and bearer shareholders of these front companies ? VM & E of course. They immediately resigned their directorships upon learning of the OFAC sanctions. How thoughtful of them.

Did President Martinelli approve the formation of these companies ? How else did they get approval to open and operate bank accounts at Global Bank,  which Martinelli reportedly owns and controls.

Is it not time to aggregate all the Hezbollah, FARC, Hamas, MEK,  and IRGC operations that are not only allowed to flourish in the Republic of Panama, but are facilitated and encouraged, for profit, and consider Panama a de facto State Sponsor of Terrorism ? The government simply does not care to suppress either the activities of terrorist training camps, or their money launderers and fundraisers who work in Panama.

Don't wait for the United States to make that pronouncement (for I am sure that certain US intelligence services still find Panama the perfect money laundering venue for their own sordid activities), but consider all Panamanian contacts high-risk until proven otherwise through Enhanced Due Diligence. To do otherwise, you expose your bank, and perhaps yourself, to potential terrorist financiers.
The Republic of Panama is tortured with one scandal after another dealing with fraud, money laundering, bribes and of course the David Murcia Guzman legenf with President Martinelli at the Head of all of this. Now what will all the wonderful Jewish supporters and Israel think of Panama that knowingly supports Iran and their efforts of terrorism?

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Republic of Panama Haven for Iran & Hezbollah Corporations | Monte Friesner Breaking News |

FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner - Senior Advocate & Consulaire for WANTED SA ~

Tuesday May 22, 2012

USA TREASURY TIGHTENS SCRUTINY ON THE REPUBLIC OF IRAN SANCTIONS WITH REPUBLIC OF PANAMA |

In its latest action against Iran, the Treasury Department has sanctioned six new front companies connected to Iran’s official shipping line. The six companies, based in Panama, are part of an Iranian game of cat-and-mouse designed to hide Tehran’s ownership and mask its ongoing activities related to both proliferation and terrorism. 

The companies took ownership of the Iranian vessels after Treasury sanctioned their previous owners, working out of the Isle of Man, last November.  Over the past three years, the United States has now designated over 150 vessels, companies, entities and individuals related to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines ( IRISL).



“IRISL has not changed its conduct; instead it has tried to change its identity,” said Adam Szubin, director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.  “IRISL’s ships have been renamed, reflagged, repainted, and renamed again. It has repeatedly shifted the nominal owners of ships and modified shipping documents to conceal its activities.”

The action is part of a widening campaign by Washington to take tougher action against Iran, particularly after revelations about a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in the United States. The Obama administration is also pressing international allies to sanction key Iranian entities already designated by the United States, such as Iran Air, and to seriously consider taking similar action against Bank Merkazi, the Central Bank of Iran.



Some of these actions will be focused specifically on Tehran’s support for terrorism, leveraging the recent assassination plot in consultations with allies and international organizations.  Others will focus on other aspects of Iran’s illicit conduct, including its global proliferation activities and suppression of human rights at home.

The Iranian shipping line was originally designated under counter-proliferation powers (Executive Order 13382) for providing logistical services to Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics. But it has also been tied to Iranian state sponsorship of terrorism.  Investigation into the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires led prosecutors to look closer at several Iranian front companies, including some with links to its chief shipping line.

Treasury’s latest sanction on Oct. 27—which chronicles Iran’s effort to transfer ownership of IRISL entities from the Isle of Man to Panama—underscores how significantly Iran’s presence in Latin America has grown since the 1994 bombing, despite efforts to contain it.  It also illustrates how the United States began to focus on front companies Iran has created to hide its work. (Graphic about ownership transfer)

According to Argentinean prosecutors, a large number of individuals, front companies, cultural organizations, student groups and others collected information for the 1994 bombing that was then passed up the Iranian intelligence chain to senior officers through a variety of different communication channels.  These structures not only collected information but also provided logistical support at the behest of their case agents.

Investigators then focused on other Iranian outlets, such as its official shipping line and the Islamic Republic News Agency, which also provided cover for intelligence functions.  The shipping line never opened an office in Argentina, but IRISL vessels docked regularly at many Argentinean harbors. 

The purpose was to provide overtly legitimate entities controlled by the Iranian government “for purposes of carrying out illicit activities such as financing terrorist organizations; facilitating the movement of persons, documentation and information; espionage; logistics support, and so on,” according to the Argentine prosecutors’ report.
Abolghasem Mesbahi, a former senior Iranian intelligence official who defected to Germany, later told Argentine prosecutors about the set-up. “The cover businesses had two missions: generating income; and manipulating sources and providing them with ample cover,” he said. IRISL “is a shipping company that is managed by the Revolutionary Guard and that coordinates all of Iran’s illegal business activities.


This includes tasks such as transporting people illegally from one country to another, issuing false shipping documentation, or altering commercial documentation by changing the designation of the goods listed on the documentation. They also carry out kidnappings.”

Little attention was paid to these warnings about IRISL until its illicit activities came to light in 2008 in context of global efforts to disrupt Iran’s nuclear weapons program.  In September, the United States accused IRISL of being involved in illicit commerce. The State Department noted at that time that the U.N. Security Council identified IRISL’s involvement in “proliferation shipments."  

IRISL has also been implicated in shipping arms to terrorist groups, as in the January 2008 seizure of the Monchegorsk, an IRISL-chartered ship bound for Syria with components for mortars with powder, propellant, and shell casings for 125mm and 130mm guns.  Dutch customs began to label merchandise shipped by IRISL or Iran Air in the highest risk category and inspect any cargo they carried, while Britain banned British companies from doing business with the Iranian shipping line.


Other European countries recognized the threats posed by Iran’s use of front companies and cut-outs to facilitate illicit activities.  The Czech Security Information Service reported similar findings. In 2009, it determined that Iran used "mediating firms" in the Czech Republic to procure items that could facilitate the production of weapons of mass destruction.

According to the report, Iran orchestrated complex business channels in which companies from various countries fulfill only partial tasks without knowing the whole chain of suppliers and customers. 

In 2010, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1929, which focused on Iran’s missile and nuclear weapons programs and highlighted the illicit conduct executed by IRISL and Iran Air's cargo division.

There are over 73 Corporations incorporated in the Republic of Panama having a direct bearing from Venezuela structure on behalf of Hezbollah and the Republic of Iran and succeccfully conducting their business affairs on an everyday basis.
During the past 3 years many Lebanese living in Venezuela have created corporations using Bearer Shares to disguise the physical ownership and shareholders who many are also Panamanians in both Government and Private sector for direct business relationships with the Republic of Iran.
WANTED SA kindly thanks Toronto Sun, Canadian Press, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva,  and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.

WANTED SA states that the facts and opinions stated in this article are those of the author and not those of WANTED SA. We do not warrant the accuracy of any of the facts and opinions stated in this article nor do we endorse them or accept any form of responsibility for the articles.



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Saturday, May 19, 2012

KURDISTAN IS HAVEN FOR IRAN BUSINESS

IRAN EXPANDS SANCTIONS EVASION THROUGH IRAQI KURDISTAN

Saturday May 19, 2012


The Islamic Republic of Iran has greatly expanded its commercial transactions with the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, and is using those trade relations to evade and avoid international sanctions, with impunity. This information should stimulate compliance officers at EU and North American financial institutions to conduct Enhanced Due Diligence investigations on all bank client transactions with Iraqi Kurdish companies, including a requirement for a sworn statement that the Kurdish company is not trading for the purpose of an Iranian end user.
                                                                 Consul Hossani

A senior Iranian diplomat for the autonomous region, Consul General Seyed Azim Hossani, in a interview with local media,  gave these details:

(1) At least 500 active Iranian companies are conducting business in the Iraqi Kurdish Region.
(2) Whilst the reported volume of trade between Iran & Iraq is officially $7bn, a more accurate number is $10bn, and an estimated 70% is with the Kurdistan Region.

I often wonder when someone in authority in the US Treasury Department will wake up and take some measures to keep the Kurdistan Region from flaunting international sanctions. Thus far, nobody seem to have the political courage to criticise the Kurdish Autonomous Government.

Remember these statistics when you are examining the accounts of your customers that trade with the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Do not facilitate Iran sanctions evasion activity.


 

Thursday, May 17, 2012

WHY HAS BULK CASH SMUGGLING FROM CARACAS TO PANAMA STOPPED? Monte Friesner Breaking News |

FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner - Senior Advocate & Consulaire for WANTED SA ~

Thursday May 17, 2012

IS IT TIME TO RAISE THE “ALERT & COUNTRY RISK” FOR THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA |

With Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias reportedly near death, the private aircraft that routinely ferry millions of illicit US Dollars, accumulated by Venezuelan PEPs and drug-trafficking generals, to small airstrips in the Republic of Panama, (and on into those local banks in Panama City that ask no questions about Source of Funds), are not flying in this week. 



Either all the usual suspects are waiting for regime change, or they are short on cash at the moment. Consider this a strong signal to start paying close attention to Venezuelan domestic politics. Most experts expect a bloody civil conflict.


Since so much of Panama City's rapid growth can be attributed to Venezuelan "flight capital," where "investors" build office buildings and massive oceanfront residential apartment buildings, all without financing, is the building boom destined to crash ? If there is a stutter, consider whether you might want to raise Country Risk on the Republic of Panama.  Meanwhile, where are the PEPs and narco-generals warehousing their cash ?
WANTED SA kindly thanks Toronto Sun, Canadian Press, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva,  and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.

WANTED SA states that the facts and opinions stated in this article are those of the author and not those of WANTED SA. We do not warrant the accuracy of any of the facts and opinions stated in this article nor do we endorse them or accept any form of responsibility for the articles.



For Confidential Contact:
WASHINGTON, D.C.        1.202.787.3861 -
TOLL FREE FROM USA & CANADA:   1.888.255.1533 -
LONDON CENTRAL, UNITED KINGDOM (44) 207.993.6256 -
Or e-mail us:
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legal@wantedsa.com
comments@wantedsa.com 




Tuesday, May 15, 2012

USA HIDDING VIKTOR BOUT & HIS SECRETS FROM EVERONE IN USA

WHY WAS VIKTOR BOUT SENT TO SUPERMAX PRISON ?



Disregarding the recommendations* of the sentencing judge, that he serve his sentence in the New York City Metropolitan Area, the Federal Bureau of Prisons this week moved convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout to the most restrictive prison in the United States. Popularly known as "Supermax," it is the Alternative Maximum Facility (ADX) Florence, Colorado, home to Al-Qaeda terrorists, gang leaders, organised crime kingpins, escape risks, and individuals convicted of treason. It is believed to be escape-proof.




Bout, who is serving a 25 year sentence* for attempting to sell arms, including missiles, to the FARC, for use against US officials and military in Colombia, has appealed his conviction. It is assumed that the judge recommended that he remain in the New York area, so that he could confer with his attorneys during the pendency of his appeal.

The judge removed him from pre-trial solitary confinement, ruling** that he did not present a danger in General Inmate Population, and was critical of the Bureau of Prisons for placing him there for an extended period, given that he was confined under substandard conditions whilst fighting extradition in Thailand.



So, the question arises: why is the Bureau of Prisons treating Viktor Bout like a dangerous terrorist, when the judge found otherwise, and placing him in Supermax ? It has enraged government officials in Russia, who have stated that the case was purely political, and that he was entrapped by agents of the DEA. Is the United States making some sort of statement to Mr. Putin and the Government of Russia ?

This is not the way to get Russia to turn Richard Chichakli over to the United States; Richard is the Syrian-America CPA who is alleged to have been Bout's money launderer. He is a co-defendant in the FARC arms case in New York. We shall continue to monitor this case.
_____________________________________________________________________
*Viktor Bout sentenced to 25 years in American Prison
**Viktor Bout ordered transferred from Solitary Confinement

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Child Sexual Abuse Cases |Brooklyn, NY | Pedophilia Exposed in Religious Cult |

FROM THE JOURNALS & WRITTEN by Vladimir Joseph Feldman ~ Legal Correspondent for WANTED SA
Saturday May 12, 2012


SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN IS A RAPIDLY GROWING DISEASE IN ALL FAITHS & RELIGIONS AND IS BEING SECRETED & HIDDEN |

An influential rabbi came last summer to the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, with a message: his ultra-Orthodox advocacy group was instructing adherent Jews that they could report allegations of child sexual abuse to district attorneys or the police only if a rabbi first determined that the suspicions were credible.

The pronouncement was a blunt challenge to Mr. Hynes’s authority. But the district attorney “expressed no opposition or objection,” the rabbi, Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, recalled.

In fact, when Mr. Hynes held a Hanukkah party at his office in December, he invited many ultra-Orthodox rabbis affiliated with the advocacy group, Agudath Israel of America. He even chose Rabbi Zwiebel, the group’s executive vice president, as keynote speaker at the party.

Mr. Hynes has won election six times as district attorney thanks in part to support from ultra-Orthodox rabbis, who lead growing communities in neighborhoods like Borough Park and Crown Heights. But in recent years, as allegations of child sexual abuse have shaken the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, victims’ rights groups have expressed concern that he is not vigorously pursuing these cases because of his deep ties to the rabbis.

Many of the rabbis consider sexual abuse accusations to be community matters best handled by rabbinical authorities, who often do not report their conclusions to the police.

In 2009, as criticism of his record mounted, Mr. Hynes set up a program to reach out to ultra-Orthodox victims of child sexual abuse. Called Kol Tzedek (Voice of Justice in Hebrew), the program is intended to “ensure safety in the community and to fully support those affected by abuse,” his office said.

In recent months, Mr. Hynes and his aides have said the program has contributed to an effective crackdown on child sexual abuse among ultra-Orthodox Jews, saying it had led to 95 arrests involving more than 120 victims.

But Mr. Hynes has taken the highly unusual step of declining to publicize the names of defendants prosecuted under the program — even those convicted. At the same time, he continues to publicize allegations of child sexual abuse against defendants who are not ultra-Orthodox Jews.

This policy of shielding defendants’ names because of their religious status is not followed by the other four district attorneys in New York City, and has rarely, if ever, been adopted by prosecutors around the country.

Some sex-crime experts and former prosecutors said the policy contributed to a culture of secrecy in ultra-Orthodox communities, which made it harder to curb sexual abuse.

Mr. Hynes, through a spokesman, said he would not publicize information about specific accusations because he did not want to discourage victims from coming forward. But at least one ultra-Orthodox rabbi acknowledged asking him not to publicize these cases and said other rabbis had as well.

The number of sexual abuse cases involving children being prosecuted by Mr. Hynes’s office is up sharply. But an examination by The New York Times shows that some of Mr. Hynes’s claims about the Kol Tzedek program appear to be inflated.

Through an extensive search of court and other public records, The Times determined the names of suspects and other details in 47 of the 95 cases attributed to the Kol Tzedek program. More than half of the 47 seemed to have little to do with the program, according to the court records and interviews.

Some did not involve ultra-Orthodox victims, which the program is specifically intended to help. More than one-third involved arrests before the program began, as early as 2007. Many came in through standard reporting channels, like calls to the police.

While the 47 cases did include charges against camp counselors, yeshiva teachers and rabbis, they also included cases like that of a Borough Park cafe owner who was convicted of molesting a female Hispanic immigrant who worked for him.

At least three others were of ultra-Orthodox defendants who groped women on public transportation, including one Borough Park resident accused of placing his penis on a woman’s shoulder. The woman immediately called the transit police.

Mr. Hynes would not be interviewed for this article. He has never publicly opposed the ultra-Orthodox Jewish position that a rabbi must first determine that an accusation of child sexual abuse is valid before the authorities are notified.

His aides acknowledged that Rabbi Zwiebel informed him about Agudath’s position last summer.

“D.A. Hynes did meet with Zwiebel and told him he wouldn’t interfere with someone’s decision to consult with his or her rabbi about allegations of sexual abuse, but would expect that these allegations of criminal conduct be reported to the appropriate law enforcement authorities,” said Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for Mr. Hynes.

Prosecutors in the district attorney’s office emphasized that the Kol Tzedek program, which has a hot line, a part-time social worker and links to social service agencies, demonstrated that Mr. Hynes cared deeply about the issue.

“This is an incredible success,” said Rhonnie Jaus, chief of his sex crimes division. “I know how many cases we used to have before that. When I say a handful, I mean a handful every single year. It’s ridiculous the difference we have that I see with my own eyes between before the start of Kol Tzedek and now.”

Asked whether the office was exaggerating the program’s impact, she said all of the victims involved took advantage of the program’s services. “Our numbers are not inflated,” she said. “If anything, they are conservative.”

Still, some who have urged more aggressive prosecution said Mr. Hynes was too beholden to ultra-Orthodox rabbis for political support.

Rabbi Yosef Blau of Yeshiva University was one of the few victims’ advocates who attended the Hanukkah party in December.

“Basically, I looked around the room and the message that I got is: You are in bed with all the fixers in Brooklyn,” Rabbi Blau said. “Nothing is going to change, because these people, the message they got is:

These are the ones that count.”

Potential Conflicts of Interest

David Zimmer was 25 when he groped a 9-year-old girl in a garage in Borough Park, court  records said.

                                               

“She liked it,” he later told the police.

He then took two sisters there, ages 9 and 10. In August 1998, he was accused of raping the 10-year-old, according to court documents.

The police arrested Mr. Zimmer that year, but the case’s impact on the credibility of Mr. Hynes’s office resonates today.

Back then, prosecutors seemed in a strong position, with a handwritten confession from Mr. Zimmer. Initially charged with more than 24 counts of sex offenses, he pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse in the first degree and received five years’ probation.

Mr. Zimmer’s lawyer was Asher White, who is married to Henna White, Mr. Hynes’s longtime liaison to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Ms. White, an adherent of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement, makes $138,000 a year, more than most of Mr. Hynes’s prosecutors.

Ms. White organizes gatherings like the Hanukkah celebration, while overseeing the Kol Tzedek program. As a result, she has dual roles: she is supposed to encourage ultra-Orthodox victims to come forward despite opposition from some rabbis, even as she tries to maintain relationships with rabbis generally.

Ms. White and her husband declined to respond to questions about Mr. Zimmer’s case, or to disclose whether they had discussed it with each other. Prosecutors said Ms. White had no involvement, but entanglements like these have long raised questions about how Mr. Hynes handles prosecutions in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

Hopes that probation and treatment would lead to the rehabilitation of Mr. Zimmer were shaken when new accusations surfaced: A prosecutor this month told a judge that while working as a locksmith in recent years, Mr. Zimmer went into homes and repeatedly molested children who lived there. The police discovered that he had kept a diary detailing the many times that he had abused children, the prosecutor said.

He pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually abusing four girls, ages 6 to 10. He is being held on $1 million bond. Ms. Jaus said the original plea agreement was the best that the office could do because the victims’ parents did not want them to testify.

“I have never received any pressure to do anything in a particular case,” she said.

But the father of the first 9-year-old, who said he never knew about Mr. White’s involvement, said he would have allowed his daughter to take the stand.

“The district attorney’s office called me and said this guy’s not 100 percent normal, so they were going to give him probation,” said the father, who asked not to be identified to protect his daughter’s identity. “If they don’t want to prosecute, what are you going to do?”

Mr. Hynes often describes how, growing up in the only non-Jewish family in his building in Flatbush, he spent the Jewish Sabbath turning on lights for his Orthodox neighbors, who could not perform such tasks under Jewish law.

When he was the only non-Jew in a four-way Democratic primary in his failed 1994 bid for attorney general of New York State, he placed advertisements in Jewish publications signed by more than 150 Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders.

“I’m really the Jew in this race,” he joked to a reporter for The Jewish Week. Referring to his opponents, he said, “I probably know more Yiddish than they do combined.”

Mr. Hynes’s attention to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has translated into votes. In 2005, when Mr. Hynes eked out a 42 percent to 37 percent victory in the Democratic primary for district attorney, he won in a landslide in several ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. In one election district in Williamsburg that is filled with Hasidic synagogues, Mr. Hynes pulled in 84 percent of the vote, according to election records.

The relationship has not always been smooth. He angered many of his closest ultra-Orthodox Jewish supporters in 1999 when he charged Bernard Freilich, a popular rabbi, with intimidating a witness in a sexual abuse case. Rabbi Freilich was acquitted the next year.

“I never knew of cases in which Joe Hynes bowed to community pressure,” said Aaron Twerski, former dean of the Hofstra University School of Law, who had served with Rabbi Freilich as community advisers to Mr. Hynes. “He would listen, and if there were merit, he might rethink something, but Joe’s his own man.”
Brooklyn’s highly cloistered ultra-Orthodox Jewish community — by some estimates, more than 200,000 people, the largest outside of Israel — would present challenges for any prosecutor. Informing on a fellow Jew to a secular authority is traditionally seen as a grave sin, and victims who do come forward can face intense communal intimidation to drop their cases.

In part for this reason, of the roughly 1,200 cases Mr. Hynes’s sex crimes unit handles each year, few until recently involved ultra-Orthodox Jews, though experts said the rate of sexual abuse in these communities was believed to occur at the same rate as in society over all.

But even when Mr. Hynes’s office did bring cases, they often ended in plea bargains that victims and their families believed were lenient. The Jewish Week, in a 2008 editorial, described Mr. Hynes’s attitude toward these cases as “ranging from passive to weak-willed.”

Rabbi Zwiebel of Agudath Israel defended Mr. Hynes’s record. “The D.A. has made a conscious effort to be sensitive to the cultural nuances of the different communities that he works with,” said Rabbi Zwiebel, though even he believes the names of those convicted should be publicized for the safety of the community.
Outreach Program Formed

Mr. Hynes seemed to turn a page in 2009 when he announced the creation of Kol Tzedek.

The announcement came in the wake of criticism after a 2008 plea deal he made with Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a grade school teacher at a Flatbush yeshiva who had been the subject of sexual abuse complaints to rabbinical authorities for more than 30 years.

In the plea deal, which at least one victim’s father opposed, Mr. Hynes reduced two felony counts of sexual abuse to a single misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child. The rabbi received three years’ probation and was not required to register as a sex offender.

 “That case really got the advocacy movement rolling,” said Mark Appel, founder of Voice of Justice, an advocacy group unrelated to the district attorney’s program of the same name. “People were so angry.”
Mr. Hynes’s aides said they had made more than 40 presentations to community members promoting Kol Tzedek. And of the few cases that yielded convictions that The Times was able to identify, the outcomes were roughly similar to cases involving offenders who were not ultra-Orthodox. Still, the new effort has not quieted the criticism.

Marci A. Hamilton, a professor of constitutional law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, blamed Mr. Hynes for not speaking out against the ultra-Orthodox position that mandates that allegations must be first reported to rabbis. The position potentially flouts a state law that requires teachers, social workers and others to report allegations of sexual abuse immediately to the authorities.

She said Mr. Hynes was essentially allowing rabbis to act as gatekeepers.

“That’s exactly what the Catholic Church did, what the Latter-day Saints did, what the Jehovah’s Witnesses did,” said Ms. Hamilton, author of “Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children.”

Victims’ rights groups say Mr. Hynes has also failed to take a strong stand against rabbis and institutions that have covered up abuse, and has not brought charges recently against community members who have sometimes pressed victims’ families not to testify.

Ms. White, his liaison to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, said the district attorney had few options, in part because some victims declined to implicate those who threatened them, fearful that if they did, they would face even more pressure.

“I always feel so bad for those parents, because you watch the shock on their face when they find out that their child has been abused, and then they get all of the pressure,” Ms. White said.
Mr. Hynes’s refusal to publicize the names of people arrested through Kol Tzedek has deepened suspicions among victims’ rights groups, while winning praise from some rabbis.

“I think that’s where the rabbis put a little pressure on him,” said Rabbi Shea Hecht, an informal adviser to Mr. Hynes. “I know I went to speak to him about that. I said ‘Listen, you got to do the arrest, you go to do the investigation, but please don’t give out the names before we know if the man is guilty.’ ”

In response to a Freedom of Information request by The Times, Mr. Hynes’s office acknowledged that in the “vast majority of cases, the disclosure of a defendant’s name would not tend to reveal the identity of the sex-crime victim.”

But, the office said, because the ultra-Orthodox community is “very tight-knit and insular,” there is “significant danger” that disclosure would cause victims to withdraw cooperation, making prosecutions “extremely difficult, if not impossible.”

Several former prosecutors interviewed for this article said the policy seemed to make little sense.

“The idea is that the more information you give out, the more likely it is that victims might come forward with complaints,” said Bennett L. Gershman, a former Manhattan prosecutor who specializes in prosecutorial conduct at Pace University Law School. “So the idea that a prosecutor would conceal this kind of
information strikes me as illogical, and almost perverse.”

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Thursday, May 10, 2012

MASSIVE CREDIT & DEBIT CARD CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION BUSTED IN MONTREAL & TORONTO| Monte Friesner Financial News |

FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner - Senior Advocate & Consulaire for WANTED SA ~

Thursday May 10, 2012

ARABS & ASIANS MASTERMIND MASSIVE CREDIT CARD FRAUD IN CANADA |

The RCMP says it has dismantled a $100-million fraud ring that financed criminal activities abroad through the cloning of debit and credit cards.


The 61 arrest warrants in the Montreal and Toronto area make it one of the largest such busts in Canada. Suspects are accused of funneling money to Tunisia, Malaysia, Australia and Europe.

Canadian banks had complained in 2008 about clients whose accounts were being drained on a regular basis.

The RCMP says crooks would walk into a store near closing time and pick an opportune moment to unplug the point-of-sale terminal and replace it with a bogus unit.

The criminals would leave the area, download client-card information from the stolen units and replace them the following day.

The pilfered information would be used to manufacture bogus cards that could be used to drain a victim's account, say the Mounties.

Police took the unusual step of charging half of the suspects with gangsterism.

Most card-cloning busts in Canada have targeted loosely-organized local groups but RCMP Supt. Guy Pilon said this one appears to have a hierarchical organization divided into cells that answered to ringleaders.

"We were not confronted with a loose group of individuals," he told a news conference.
"(They are) a well-organized group of criminals who had the means ... and their criminal activities reached well beyond our borders."

The Mounties, aided by provincial and local police, fanned out Wednesday morning to make raids in Montreal and several bedroom communities to the north.

At least 45 people had been arrested as of mid-morning and a steady stream of suspects, mostly of Arab and Sri Lankan descent, were being booked in Montreal. Police plan to lay 368 charges including fraud and identity theft.

RCMP Sgt. Christian Lamarre told QMI Agency the operation caps a lengthy probe that included a series of raids in November 2010.

"(Back then we) carried out 34 raids, notably in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and even Vancouver," he said of the earlier operation.

WANTED SA kindly thanks Toronto Sun, Canadian Press, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva,  and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.

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