DID THE CAYMAN GANG OF FOUR STEAL MILLIONS TO COVER UP DUNDEE BANK'S UNREPORTED INSOLVENCY ?

Dundee Merchant Bank, a subsidiary of Canada's Dundee corporation, has been closed for more than a year, and it may have been quietly shuttered for a longer period. Though media announcements have stated that the was "in Liquidation, " such an action has neither been advertised, as required by law, nor has any court-ordered liquidation ever been filed or taken. This has been verified by independent  investigations, conducted in Grand Cayman. Any such claims about liquidation are totally bogus.

Though some individuals affiliated with the bank, when queried, have given some vague story about Dundee Corp. handling this mysterious liquidation, it has never occurred in the Cayman Islands, where it must occur. So why did a financial institution deceive the investing public ? Was it insolvent, and unable to refund client money to its depositors ?

In that case, why not take whatever money is left, and leave everyone believing that the $450m, which was supposed to be in the bank, was all transferred out, when in truth and in fact, a large portion of its deposits had already ben stolen by the Cayman Gang of Four*. After all, Dundee Bank President, Derek Buntain, and Senior Vice President, Sharon Lexa Lamb, were the ranking officers. Let the public think that the $450m thought to be properly on deposit had all been taken, when the truth may have been that much of it was already missing.

Perhaps the Ontario Provincial Police could look up Derek Buntain and ask him; he is living, not in his Prince Edward Island home, but in Ontario, at the home of one of his sons. Forget about asking Sharon Lexa Lamb, for she is locked up tight in a house, somewhere in Grand Cayman, worrying about when she will get the proverbial knock on the door, with an arrest warrant. Or should we ask Dundee Corporation, which has been busy, in recent years, selling off its assets and subsidiaries.

Our last question: where, o where, is the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority CIMA, in all this; Isn't it supposed to be supervising financial institutions with Cayman licenses.  Should not a licensed bank be open to the public, at the very least to give its depositors access to their accounts, e wonder.  Are there any financial gatekeepers worthy of the name on duty in the Caymans ?
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* the other two Gang members are Ryan Bateman and Fernando Moto Mendes

* From The Files of Andrei Slavenkov - Consulaire for WATED SA
  Written & Contributed by Kenneth Rijock

DID A RANKING OFFICIAL AT CIMA IMPROPERLY KILL ITS INVESTIGATION OF THE CAYMAN GANG OF FOUR ?

From the Files of Andrei Slavenkov - Netherlands
Written & Contributed by Kenneth Rijock
Dated: February 24, 2016

The Cayman Islands Monetary Agency, more commonly known as CIMA, has literally sat on its hands, regarding the theft of more than $450m, from Canadian retirees and pensioners, perpetrated by financial criminals known as the Cayman Gang of Four*. Eight months after it received documentary evidence of the massive fraud and theft of investor funds, CIMA has yet to interview any of the plotters, let alone refer the case to the authorities, for criminal prosecution.

After a few tentative steps, such as seeking forensic and compliance audits, from the Bateman Group. CIMA abruptly shit down any further inquiries. In truth and in fact, it has even declined to meet with victims, who were on Grand Cayman, seeking regulatory action on their plight. What could possibly have been the reason for this position ?

Reliable sources in the Cayman Islands know the answer; reportedly, the "ringleader" of the Cayman Gang of Four, Sharon Lexa Lamb, the cashiered Senior Vice President of Dundee Merchant Bank, has a close relationship with a certain CIMA officer, and Lamb prevailed upon that individual to quash the inquiry, permanently. Since this matter is under investigation, it may be inappropriate to name & shame that individual, but the time may come when circumstances demand that it be made public, especially if that individual decides to enter the private sector.

Ryan Bateman, Sharon Lexa Lamb, Derek Buntain

Whether the officer's action constitutes a crime, under the Laws of the Cayman Islands, I will leave to attorneys qualified in that jurisdiction to render an opinion, but it is certainly grounds for dismissal, with prejudice. The intentional failure, of a government official, to take action, for another, is just as much an example of corruption as accepting bribes and kickbacks.

Readers who have been wondering why CIMA seems to be little more than a "toothless tiger" in the face of major violations in the Cayman Islands, may now have their answer, regarding its consistent pattern of inaction.
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*The Cayman Gang of For are: Sharon Lexa Lamb, Fernando Moto Mendes, Derek Buntain,
and Ryan Bateman.

CAYMAN GANG OF FOUR MANAGING DIRECTOR FERNANDO MENDES HAD PROMINENT ROLE IN THEFT OF MILLIONS FROM INVESTORS

Fernando Moto Mendes, the current Managing Director of fugitive Ryan Bateman's group of companies*, has taken the position that he was only a minor player in the Cayman Gang of Four scandal, which involved the organized theft and diversion of over $400m in capital of Canadian retirees and pensioners. In truth and in fact, the documents uncovered thus far, controvert Mendes' public statements.

The receipts, for millions illegally diverted from Dundee Bank accounts, located in Butterfield Bank, in its Grand Cayman subsidiary, were all signed for by Mendes, in his capacity of Managing Director. Furthermore, Mendes' allegation that he was only the "office manager." have no basis in fact, and the evidence to date nowhere lists him as anything but MD. Funds of victims were delivered to him by Gang members Sharon Lexa Lamb and Derek Buntain, who were former Dundee officers.

Bateman, Lamb & Buntain

Mendes, whose "colorful" ( translation: fraudulent) past disqualifies him for any managing director position or title, has been allowed to remain at the Bateman Group, for several months, and the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), has failed to take any steps to remove him, or close up the Bateman Group, notwithstanding that CIMA has known about the massive fraud since August, 2015.

Some Caymanians are referring to CIMA's lack of response as regulatory malpractice, and wonder why  CIMA leadership has not been replaced by the government. At the very least, an internal investigation should be launched, to determine why CIMA has failed to respond to several fraud scandals that have roiled the Cayman Islands in recent years. In most cases, foreign investors never recovered their funds, and fraudsters, based in the Cayman Islands, were never prosecuted for either fraud or money laundering.
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* Bateman & Company Ltd.
   B & C Capital Ltd.
   Bateman Financial, Ltd.
   Note: Bateman formed companies, with the same exact name, save the suffix, in Panama, the Cayman Islands, and the UK, to facilitate illegal transfers of victim funds, to other jurisdictions.     
  

DID PANAMA THREATEN EUROPEAN SHIPPING TO GET OFF THE FATF GREY LIST ?

Rumors are running rampant in Panama, to the effect that the true reason the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed the Republic from its Grey List of uncooperative jurisdictions recently was not due to reforms in legislation, nor implementation of effective AML/CFT measures. The truth is that Panamanian diplomats contacted their opposite numbers in certain European countries, and made a direct threat, which would affect the commerce of those nations.

The threats, which appear to lie somewhere between extortion and blackmail, were a promise to delay, and even detain, shipping of those European countries entering the Panama Canal, whose delegates voted against Panama going off the Grey List, during the recent FATF Plenary in Paris. Given that diplomats are notoriously tight-lipped, one doubts whether any of them will actually, on the record, confirm the information.

Could this story be factually correct ? Remember what happened to that North Korean freighter seized and held by the Panamanian Government ? Panamanian nationalism is on the rise of late; let us just take the story with a grain of salt, but note that, in truth and in fact, Panama's AML/CFT is no better than it was when FATF originally placed Panama on its Grey List. It actually is worse, if the truth be known.

Therefore, let us consign the story to the dustbin of history, and see whether the Nicaraguan canal project suddenly obtains new financing from European financiers.

CAYMAN ISLANDS GOVERNOR AGAIN ORDERED TO RELEASE CORRUPTION REPORT

FROM THE - CHRONICLES of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA~

Published on February 18, 2016 With Authorisation of Caribbean News 

(L-R) The FCO’s Miami-based Law Enforcement Adviser Larry Covington, RCIPS Commissioner David Baines, and Head of the Caribbean and Bermuda Section of the FCO Tony Bates (courtesy of Cayman Prepared) GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (CNS) -- The acting information commissioner in the Cayman Islands has once again ordered a redacted release of the infamous Operation Tempura corruption report after reviewing the objections of the Governor’s Office, which has refused to release the documents for four years.  In his latest ruling Jan Liebaers revealed further twists and turns by the authorities, including a U-turn by the police commissioner over giving the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) access to records needed to conduct the reconsideration of the case, which the ICO was doing on the instructions of the court. Liebaers was also damning in his criticism of the poor arguments submitted by the governor’s representatives in an effort to keep a tight lid on the records. In yet another order to release the documents, which is likely to end up in the courts once again, Liebaers has rejected the governor’s desire for a blanket ban on the information getting into the public domain and pointed to significant weaknesses in the submission from her office over why the records should remain secret.  He described interpreting the governor’s arguments as “extraordinarily difficult because of the way they have been presented, which can only be described as disjointed, repetitive and at times illogical and even fraught with grammatical errors”. Liebaers added that the Governor’s Office “provided little in the way of a detailed legal analysis as to why the exemption” applied. He said the approach to their submissions was “illogical and haphazard”, as he once again warned public authorities that if they are called upon to argue exemptions under the Freedom of Information (FOI) law, their arguments should be supported by cogent and clear evidence “systematically and logically laid out”. He noted that the burden of proof rests on the “public authority to demonstrate how and why any exemption applies, and it is not up to the information commissioner to build the case for the public authority”, which the ruling reveals was the case in this hearing. “The lack of specific reasoning in the submission and the governor’s referral to the police commissioner for further information and evidence indicated to me that the Governor’s Office felt it was my responsibility to locate evidence, and build the case in support of their claim of the exemption in question,” he explained. The main issue the acting information commissioner had to consider in his second review was whether or not the records were now exempt from release because of an investigation by the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) into Martin Bridger (the lead investigator for Operation Tempura) for misconduct in public office and some six other alleged offences that relate in part to some of the issues considered in the complaint and the report. While Liebaers concluded that some of the information may relate to this investigation, he said much of the report could still be released with redactions without causing any possible future prejudice should Bridger ever be charged with any crimes and end up in court. In a lengthy and very detailed decision, the information commissioner revealed how he had been offered access to the case files in the ongoing and still rather mysterious probe that the RCIPS have begun into Martin Bridger after they dismissed his own complaints. But after the ICO had looked at the RCIPS investigation records for a few days, Police Commissioner David Baines changed his mind and began blocking the ICO’s access after he learned that Liebaers had also contacted Bridger as part of his review. As a result of the about-face, which Liebaers said was “inconsistent with the course of action explicitly agreed with the police commissioner”, he issued a formal order for access to the records under section 45 of the FOI law. But Baines accused the information commissioner of interfering with a police investigation and instructed that no further access to the records would be provided and made it clear he would fight Liebaers’ order in court. With communication broken down, no sign of the ICO getting to see the case files again and faced with the constantly shifting positions adopted in relation to potential exemptions from disclosure by the Governor’s Office, the commissioner put the ball back in the UK representative’s own court. He asked for them to justify their exemption argument regarding the probe. But with what he described as the poorly argued and sometimes nonsensical submissions and their clear misinterpretation of the last court ruling that had thrown the decision back to the ICO for reconsideration, Liebaers eventually concluded that there was no evidence to support any blanket exemption. He ruled again that the documents should be in the public domain, albeit with a number of redactions to protect any possible future proceedings involving Bridger. The controversial documents are now the longest withheld records subject to FOI request in the Cayman Islands. They consist of a complaint made by the legal advisor Martin Polaine and Bridger on the bungled internal police probe into corruption in the RCIPS, which resulted in a well-documented catalogue of costly lawsuits, and the report over why the complaints were dismissed. The records became the subject of an FOI request in February 2012 but the request was refused and so began the long battle for access.  From the very beginning the previous information commissioner, Jennifer Dilbert, was of the opinion the documents should be released but the Governor’s Office has fought tooth and nail for three years to stop the documents being made public and in particular getting into the hands of the media. While Operation Tempura is estimated to have cost the public purse well over $10 million, the lawsuits and continued fallout, as well as the four-year FOI drama have now added to that tab, which continues to be picked up by the Cayman Islands taxpayers.

* Monte Friesner – Lawyer becoming Consulaire for WANTED SA who was a former Money Launderer turned Financial Crime and Intelligence Analyst since 1996 and who has successfully exposed major Financial Crimes around the world; such as the Petaquilla Mine Inside Trading in Panama.

UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION REVEALS ROLE OF BRITISH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES IN MOVING SUSPECT MONEY

FROM THE - CHRONICLES of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA~ ~Reposted from the Credit of TCI News Now~ A new investigation from advocacy group Global Witness, shown recently on CBS’ 60 Minutes, showed the role that British overseas territories can play in facilitating the movement of suspect funds into the US.  Wearing a hidden camera, a Global Witness investigator met with 13 New York law firms, including the then-president of the American Bar Association (ABA), James Silkenat. Posing as an adviser to a foreign government official, the investigator asked the lawyers how to anonymously move large sums of money that should have raised suspicions of corruption.  In all but one case, the lawyers provided suggestions on how to get the money into the US without detection. In many cases, the lawyers suggested using companies or trusts from the overseas territories to move the money. The meetings were all preliminary; none of the law firms took the investigator on as a client.  John Jankoff, a partner at Jankoff and Gabe, was secretly filmed saying: “The first problem you have is you can’t bring the money into the US because the United States has an anti-corruption act. So you have to move the money to a neutral site, like the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, whatever. The money goes there, then they… you set up a corporation, [that] says I would like to buy a brownstone in New York.” Hugh Finnegan, James Silkenat’s colleague at Sullivan and Worcester, suggested that the minister set up an American LLC but that “pretty quickly you’d go offshore” and have the LLC “owned by somebody from the Cayman Islands or wherever”. Marc Koplik, a partner at Henderson and Koplik, and his colleague were secretly filmed suggesting that the fictitious minister use a Cayman Islands entity or a Bermuda trust company to hide his identity, and that he obtain a bank account in Gibraltar. “We’re making life easy for the criminal and corrupt, which in turn has devastating consequences for people all over the world. What’s needed is for information on who owns and controls companies, the so-called beneficial owners, to be out in the public for all to see,” said Rosie Sharpe, campaigner at Global Witness.  Montserrat is in the process of creating a public registry of beneficial owners. Gibraltar is required by the EU anti-money laundering directive to give access to beneficial ownership to anyone who can demonstrate a legitimate interest. Company ownership in the other overseas territories is still secret.  “The UK’s Overseas Territories say that their regimes are good enough to stop corruption and tax evasion, but this shocking investigation suggests that’s far from the reality. The UK government is holding an Anti-Corruption Summit in London this year: this must address the problem in the UK’s backyard of the overseas territories, as well as the city, if the summit is to be a success and for the UK to have any credibility as a world leader in fighting corruption,” said Joseph Stead, campaigner at Christian Aid.  This exposé comes as global momentum is building to clamp down on the abuse of anonymously-owned companies. The UK and EU are now taking concrete steps to give the public access to registers of company owners, which would make it much easier to identify the actual human being behind a company. The meetings took place in June 2014. James Silkenat responded to Global Witness’ approach for comment saying that he had acted properly, and that he had no intention of taking on its investigator as a client. During the meeting with the investigator, he said that he would need to find out more about the investigator and make sure that no crimes had been committed. He said that if crimes had been committed, they would have to report them.  The investigator said he was advising an African minister who had accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars, and wanted to buy a Gulfstream jet, a brownstone and a yacht. He deliberately posed as someone designed to raise red flags for money laundering, according to indicators set by the international community and enshrined in voluntary guidelines laid out by the ABA.  The investigator said he was from West Africa, a region prone to corruption; that he worked for a government minister, or “politically exposed person” as the jargon has it; and that he needed to conceal the person who was really behind the money. These are all things that should have sounded alarm bells for lawyers.  While most of the lawyers asked for some information about the minister, and his source of funds, only one lawyer refused to provide assistance during the meeting itself, and one followed up by email saying that he couldn’t work with the investigator. A number indicated that they would need to carry out more checks before they could do so. None of the lawyers broke the law or agreed to take on the investigator as a client. * Monte Friesner – Lawyer becoming Consulaire for WANTED SA who was a former Money Launderer turned Financial Crime and Intelligence Analyst since 1996 who has successfully exposed major Financial Crimes around the world; such as the Cayman Gang of Four.

PANAMA SUPPORTS & ENCOURAGES HEZBOLLAH TO LAUNDER MONEY THROUGH PANAMA \

FROM THE - CHRONICLES of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA~
~Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock ~

ARREST OF LEBANESE NATIONAL WITH $500,000 SUSPECTED OF BEING A HEZBOLLAH LAUNDRYMAN

The arrest in Panama of a Lebanese national, believed to be part of a team of money launderers working for Hezbollah, puts a spotlight on recent US Government sanctions against Western Hemisphere operations of the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) organization, thought to be sending hundreds of millions of dollars annually, to help fund its Middle Eastern activities. The money comes from narcotics trafficking, and other illicit activities.

Reliable sources in Colombia have indicated that the former Panamanian Minister of Tourism Salomón Shamah, a Colombian who is a naturalized Panamanian citizen, and a longtime reputed money launderer in Panama, is linked to the Hezbollah network. Shamah has lived in exile in Colombia since the entire Martinelli Cabinet was implicated in the Financial Pacific/Petaquilla Gold Mine insider trading scandal.

Salomón Shamah: was the money going to him ?

It is noteworthy that the suspect, identified as A. Khalifeh,who was in possession of $500,000, in cash, held a passport from Ghana. Money launderers frequently use identity documents from countries not known to be either tax havens, or countries known to be narcotics producers, or transit zones, to reduce the risk that they will be scrutinized. 

They often do not even speak the official language of the country they claim to be nationals of, which the weakness you can exploit as a compliance officer. Why does he hold a passport from a country he has no ties to ?

Perhaps the increased attention of late, on money laundering in material support of terrorism will cause compliance officers to remember that Panama is home to most of the organized Hezbollah money laundering in the region; the suspect was transiting through there, bound for Colombia. 

The fact that the Government of Panama allows Hezbollah to operate there, and to maintain an office, says a lot about the issue ; there is both Panamanian complicity in  infacilitating terrorist financing, and the passivity of US law enforcement agencies, who merely monitor it, without forcing Panama to shut it down.

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JASON COLLINS SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

FROM THE - CHRONICLES of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA~

~Contributed by FBI ~

Soddy Daisy Man Sentenced To Seven Years In Federal Prison For Child Pornography

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Jason Collins, 37, of Soddy Daisy, Tenn., was sentenced by the Honorable Harry S. Mattice, Jr., U.S. District Judge, to serve 85 months in prison, followed by a 15-year term of supervised release.

Collins pleaded guilty in August 2015, to receipt of child pornography.

Restitution was also ordered to some of his victims.

The indictment and subsequent conviction of Collins was the result of a year-long investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bradley County Sheriff’s Department, and Harriman Police Department.  

The investigation began when a Harriman Police detective was able to download images and videos from a Peer-to-Peer internet account belonging to Collins on three different dates over the course of three months.  These images and videos were of minors engaging in sexual activity.  

The FBI, along with an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Officer from the Bradley County Sheriff’s Department, discovered that Collins had more than 80,000 images and 300 videos on his computer and other electronic storage media.  

The images and videos were compared with those from known victims through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) database.  The NCMEC database found that the images belonged to 222 known victim series and the videos belonged to 90 known victim series.        

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. 

Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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DID THE BAHAMIAN GOVERNMENT ACCEPT DIRTY MONEY FOR OIL EXPLORATION LEASES ?

Questions persist about whether the $720,000, paid to the Government of the Bahamas, to begin the application process for oil exploration licenses, by a corporate entity controlled by the fugitive financier Ryan Bateman, of the Cayman Gang of Four, were the proceeds of criminal activities of Mr. Bateman, whose dodgy career reaches back several years, to his first venture in his native Alberta.

The Opposition in Nassau has posed some tough questions to government, about Bateman and his background, and unfortunately received no satisfactory answers. 

Given that Bateman absconded from a case in the Cayman Islands, where his bond was estreated, and that he is one of the primary suspects in the theft of $450m,  brazenly taken from the accounts of Canadian & American retirees, one wonders whether the money blinded government officials in Nassau to the need to conduct a due diligence investigation of Ryan Bateman.

Some sources, with knowledge of Bateman's "colorful" record of fraudulent ventures, have asserted that all his liquid assets were criminal proceeds, and can be traced back to victims who relied upon his integrity, with their investment capital. 

Whether the Bahamian oil exploration lease  agreements, or application fees, can be seized, or attached, by victims, or their attorneys, or by foreign prosecutors or attorneys general, is a distinct possibility; such actions could have a serious effect upon how the Bahamas conducts foreign investment in the future.

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CHINESE CASH COURIERS WITH PEP FLIGHT CAPITAL COMING TO A BANK NEAR YOU

FROM THE - CHRONICLES of  Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA~

~Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock ~

Multiple reports, verifying that a small army of cash couriers, seen transporting the maximum amount allowed by law ($50,000 or equivalent), out of China, should be a wake up call for Western compliance officers, for a large amount of this "flight capital" is believed to be owned by Politically Exposed Persons, (PEPs) and you can assume that it came from bribes, kickbacks, or unlawful compensation. 

The blame has been laid upon the fear that China's declining economy will deteriorate further, causing a fall in the value of the national currency. Much of the money being moved out of China is dollars, or another hard currency.

Some affluent Chinese are engaging (hiring) relatives or associates to each bring out the max, and some have been caught engaging in bulk cash smuggling, in prohibited amounts. The danger, for North American and EU banks, is that there is little trustworthy information available on exactly who is, and who is not, a mid-level PEP, in China. 

Therefore, one banks an individual who appears to be a small business owner, and it later turns out that he is the head of a government-owned company, or a general or flag rank officer in the military, or the managing director of a non-profit, or a charity.

This is just one more indicator to Western compliance officers that literally ALL new Chinese clients must be subject to enhanced due diligence, lest their PEP status is discovered too late to stop transfers of dirty money, laundered cash, or untaxed profits owed to the Government of China. Remember, China has a long list of those of it nationals that it wants returned to the Peoples' Republic, for crimes of one type or another.

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Read More On: www.wantedsa.com