NINE MONTHS FOR MONEY LAUNDERING, ON THE ISLE OF MAN, IS NO DETERRENT AT ALL

Let the punishment fit the crime; on the Isle of Man, that is not, apparently how the justice system works. A former fisherman, who confessed to moving what he believed to be drug money, out of the Isle of Man, and into the United Kingdom,  received a short nine month sentence, for his crimes, which involved sixty illicit transactions.

What is even worse is the fact that the judge opined that he received the sentence because he posed a moderate rick of reoffending. Taking someone out of circulation for such a short time, when you are worried he will return to money laundering, makes no sense. Also, how can one believe that such a sentence will deter others, who might be tempted to make such easy money this way ?

One more item: the other two defendants in the case got no prison time; one a suspended sentence, and the other, who cooperated, received community service. No wonder money laundering is out of control.

Contributed by Kenneth Rijock

Chronicles of Monte Friesner

HAMAS SUPPORTERS IN CHILE SUPPORT TERRORIST FINANCING

The Republic of Chile has the largest number of Palestinians, and individuals descended from Palestinian immigrants, outside of the Middle East. Conservative estimates range from 500,000 to 700,000. Many Chilean Palestinians are rabid supporters of Hamas, and this poses a serious problem for compliance officers at financial institutions located in North America, due to potential terrorist financing & funding issues, due to the serious civil penalties that are imposed for violations.

Ordinarily, we regard Chile as low threat, for Country Risk purposes. It is neither a drug producing, nor drug transit, country, and it is not a major money laundering destination, though I am aware that the free trade zones have been used as such, in the past.  It has a powerful business sector, and enjoys a close economic relationship with the United States.

The problem is that Chileans of Palestinian descent identify with Hamas, notwithstanding its status as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) organization. Palestinian organizations located in Chile repeatedly seek to interfere with trade between Israel and Chile; the recently sought to interfere with a visit, to Santiago, the capital, by two members of Israel's Knesset, the country's Parliament. Much of the anti-Israel agitation comes from local Palestinian NGOs.

These Palestinian organizations, which include the Palestinian Federation of Chile, the General Union of Palestinian Students, the Bethlehem Foundation, and the Palestinian Social Club, are well funded, as many descendants of the original immigrants have created successful businesses. They are not known to seek funding from the Middle East.

Most of the Chilean Palestinians are not Muslim, but Christian; their ancestors fled Muslim abuse and violence, as well as conscription into the Turkish Ottoman Army.  They should have no fond memories of their original family experiences, but they have apparently created a fantasy about where they came from, and now throw in their lot with the worst that Palestine has to offer - Hamas. Someone should tell them that Hamas has a history of abusing Christians in Gaza.

Therefore, you can expect many affluent Chileans of Palestinian descent to provide material support to Hamas, and those donations expose international banks, that handle funds from Chile, to possible terrorist financing risks. It is prudent for compliance officers to consider those risks, when accepting wire transfers whose ultimate destination might be Hamas, or to pay for goods and services that would benefit Hamas. If your bank clients engage in trade with Chile, or you have wealthy Chilean customers, keep the risk of terrorist financing in mind, when conducting due diligence. 

Contributed by Kenneth Rijock

Chronicles of Monte Friesner

WANTED SA - EXPOSES LAWYERS AT MOSSACK FONSCEA ABANDON SHIP, HIDE THEIR PAST ON THEIR RESUMES

This is our second article, naming current, and former, attorneys at the Panama City law firm of Mossack and Fonseca. We say former, because a number of the experienced lawyers at Mossack have not only jumped ship for other employment, some have gone so far as to delete any reference to the time they opened BVI corporations for corrupt PEPs, tax evaders, and drug traffickers at the law firm.

One former MF staff attorney told the press that he was only the Managing Director for a short while, that he had a minor role, and that he swiftly resigned, some time ago. A quick look at the ICIJ materials, however,showed him as the designated intermediary for many companies that were formed at MF.

After the end of the Second World War, German soldiers who had served in the Schutzstaffel, the SS, were designated as war criminals, and subject to punishment, by military tribunals. The Mossack Fonseca attorneys all participated in what many consider organized crime,  a racketeer-influenced criminal organization. They are all tainted, for their role in hiding their dirty clients, and their money, behind opaque bearer share companies, and counterfeit foundations. They do not deserve to lateral into  legitimate law firms, where they may be tempted to contact their old clientele, and endanger their new employers, with criminal activity, at a new location.

THIERRY ULMANN
SANDRO HANGARTNER
ANDREAS AVEBONI
RIGOBERTO CORONADO
ALEXANDRA KOURANY
AMAURI BATISTA
SARA MONTENEGRO
LUIS A QUIEL
AUSTIN CHEUNG a/k/a ZHANG XIAODONE

Contributed by Kenneth Rijock

Chronicles of Monte Friesner

FRAUDSTER GARY LUNDGREN ATTEMPTS, UNSUCCESSFULLY, TO BLOCK OUR ARTICLES ABOUT PANAMA WALL STREET

Gary Lundgren

If you have not yet read our article on the Panama Wall Street scandal, entitled "Panama's Securities Regulator Intervenes in Company linked to  Gary Lundgren", it is recommended that you review it. Hackers reportedly linked to the FINRA-disbarred American securities broker, Gary Lundgren, have been trying, without success to, deny access to that article, and others, using what is commonly known as a DDoS attack, where the hackers flood the website with requests to display the article.

The hack, as you can see if you access the article, through the link provided above, is an utter failure, but Gary Lundgren, the Panama City based fraudster, and vendor of bogus High Yield Investment Programs to unsuspecting American investors, and whose long criminal career we have extensively covered on this blog, will certainly try, try, try again.

Panama sources continue to report that Lundgren's grown children, ZacGary Lundgren, and James Lundgren, are assisting him in his illegal, unregistered, and fraudulent broker-dealer activities, working out of an unlicensed company in Panama City. They are also not licensed to sell securities in any jurisdiction.

ZacGary Lundgren

James Lundgren

Contributed by Kenneth Lundgren

Posted by Andrei Slavenkov

CAYMAN INSIDER SAYS GOVERNMENT ORDERED RCIPS TO IGNORE CAYMAN GANG OF FOUR $450m FRAUD FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES

A reliable local source in Grand Cayman, who has a contact inside the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), has asserted that he has been advised that a senior official in the Government has given a direct order to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, telling it not to charge any of the locally-based financial professionals, popularly known as the Cayman Gang of Four, with their $450m theft of securities and bank accounts of Canadian pensioners, in 2014 and 2015.

The source has learned that none of the foreign nationals are to be charged with the massive fraud, for purely political reasons. There has been serious scrutiny, by agencies of the United Kingdom, of the increasing amount of financial crime, and Cayman officials rightly fear possible intervention, at a number of levels. The local impact, of the UK action in the Turks & Caicos Islands, on Cayman, and other British Overseas Territories, should not be underestimated; Caymanians fear intervention, of some type, and are concerned that a prominent criminal case, involving Gang members Ryan Bateman, Derek Buntain, and Sharon Lamb, who are two Canadians, and a national from the Isle of Man, could further expose the Cayman Islands to UK action.

It is no accident that three of the most senior positions in the RCIPS have recently been given to law enforcement professionals from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, when promotion from within the ranks would have been more in line with the principles of community policing, where local officers, who come from, and therefore better understand the community they are working in, generally ascend to senior positions, through merit.

Rumors, emanating from other quarters, indicate that RCIPS management was bluntly told to conduct a thorough and extensive investigation, but not to proceed to indictment, which places political agendas before the protection of the public. One observer claims that the RCIPS will not charge any foreign national with financial crime, again to maintain a low profile for UK observers, and not to give them any excuse to interfere in what Caymanians view as purely internal affairs. Sharon Lexa Lamb was allegedly told to leave Grand Cayman, so that questions about her arrest would not be asked; Ryan Bateman was long gone, he having failed to return to face criminal charges. Derek Buntain is in hiding, somewhere in Canada, so there are no Gang members still residing in Grand Cayman.

Let us hope that you find all this as offensive as I do. 

Contributed by Kenneth Rijock

Chronicles of Monte Friesner

Posted by Andrei Slavenkov

DID LEON FRAZER COMPLIANCE OFFICER COMMIT PERJURY IN AFFIDAVIT ?

As the discovery phase, in the Canadian civil case styled Lawrence Heath, et al vs. Leon Frazer and Associates, Inc., unfolds, we have examined what appears to be a very disturbing document, filed in the case. It is an affidavit, containing information submitted by, and executed by, Leon Frazer's current  compliance officer, Alexander Adeniyi, that is sworn to be true, but this does not appear to be the case.

Perhaps a little background is in order; Lawrence Heath QC, a 90-year old retired Canadian lawyer, had his investments placed with William Tynkaluk, his personal financial advisor at Leon Frazer & Associates, Inc., an Ontario-based wealth management firm. The suit involves $10.2m, of the plaintiff's investments and cash, which is missing and unaccounted for. Leon Frazer had a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard the assets of the plaintiff.

The plaintiff's counsel sought to obtain copies of his accounts at Leon Frazer, in November 2015, and the firm's Chief Compliance Officer, Esida Selfo, represented and confirmed, both orally and in emails, that she had retrieved, from firm archives, 14 to 16 boxes of files and documents, pertaining to the plaintiff. Selfo assured counsel that it would be receiving copies of all documents.

Subsequently to the failure of Leon Frazer to produce the relevant documents and files, notwithstanding its prior repeated promises, and undertaking that it would comply, only a small number of documents were made available to counsel, and these were now represented to be the sum total of the files of the plaintiff. Obviously, this is not only a violation of discovery procedures, but verges upon Obstruction of Justice. The document produced do not even cover a fraction of the period during which the plaintiff held accounts at Leon Frazer.

Ms. Selfo's position, as Chief Compliance Officer at Leon Frazer, was terminated, allegedly due to her pregnancy, and counsels' efforts to secure the documents promised to them were answered then by a new employee (joined 2016), Alexander Adeniyi, who identified himself as her successor, and as the individual who would be handling the matter. Calls from counsel to Leon Frazer executives were universally ignored.

Chief Compliance Officer Adeniyi

Taking into account the facts that you have just read, explain how Compliance Officer Adeniyi then files a detailed affidavit, controverting his predecessor's statements, and claiming that she was mistaken, regarding the books and records, stated that the small quantity of records produced were the sum total of what the company found. In truth and in fact, the affidavit is obviously untrue, given the other verified information on hand, and is either perjury, or failure to conduct due diligence, if the facts were concealed from the compliance officer, by Leon Frazer, and he signed a sworn affidavit, containing material misstatements of fact.

Spoliation of evidence occurs when it is intentionally withheld, hidden, fabricated, altered or destroyed. I will let readers who are lawyers decide which category to place Leon Frazer & Associates in, but, clearly, there are issues of honesty and truth,  or the lack thereof.

We shall continue to follow the progress in the litigation, and report back to our readers upon all developments, as they occur, and are reflected in court filings.

____________________________________________________________________
* First, Leon Frazer staff stated that Ms. Selfo left her employment due to a serious illness; later, the allegation changed; it was stated that she left due to a pregnancy. The circumstances of her departure appear to be suspicious.  

Contributed by Kenneth Rijock

Posted by Andrei Slavenkov

REGIONAL CLONES OF ESTABLISHED NEWS RESOURCES MAY NOT BE TRUSTWORTHY

 

Most compliance officers conducting due diligence investigations rely extensively upon what they consider to be objective news sources for reliable information. these generally include establishment Western news publications, be they newspaper or newsmagazine.

This is not always true, however, when we rely upon sources that are spin-offs of the real thing. The authoritative Newsweek has been regarded as reliable source of information, but in 2015, the newsmagazine's ownership sold naming rights to a dubai-based Pakistani media mogul, who formed Newsweek Middle East*. The Middle East edition, which admittedly trades upon the international branding, and reputation of the parent, is something quite different: its staff is not practicing the objective journalism we require for compliance purposes. Several commentators have joined in concluding that the news coverage is slanted; if it's going to be like Al-Jazeera, it should not pretend to be something else.

Article about how the Gulf countries will not like if Americans can sue them for 9/11

This publication, specifically targeting for a regional audience, with local editorial staff, who describe themselves as having non-Western viewpoints, actually displays not only anti-American sentiments, in its news coverage, it has been known to favor specially designated global terrorist organizations. How does anti-Western sentiment figure into objective journalism.

Last week, a journalist described as being a senior editor was outed for giving a number of television news reports that, frankly, glorified Hezbollah. Her statements, collected over a period of time, and rebroadcast online, sounded like typical Hezbollah pro-Iran, pro-Syria propaganda. Furthermore,  Newsweek Middle East, while it carries a number of its parent's articles, censors, or, as they call it, "curates" the content for Arab audiences. One staff member confessed that the publication had to check local (UAE) law, before printing an article written by an individual from Israel. Do I really think I can get factual accuracy from a publication like this ?

Compliance officers do NOT wants news sources slanted to pander to a specific viewpoint, censored to remove any potentially sensitive or "objectionable" content, and supporting any sanctioned entity. You may want to draw a lesson from this story, and always check your sources carefully, to verify that you are actually accessing the information resource you want, and not its clone, successor, poser, or pretender; Always use the real McCoy.

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* Note how the "Middle East" portion of the magazine's name is conveniently lower case.

Contributed by Kenneth Rijock

Chronicles of Monte Friesner