James Quinn, on The Telegraph, has two stories today (here and here) on the conviction of the three former bankers - David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew - working at Greenwich NatWest, the investment banking arm of NatWest, now, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), who face 37 months each in jail after pleading guilty to fraud. They pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in return for the rest of the charges being dropped....
"... In a somewhat complex deal, the three men essentially bought shares in an offshore vehicle from NatWest, albeit without its knowledge, and each benefited to the tune of more than $2m.
As part of their plea agreement, the men have agreed to jointly repay the $7.35m owed to RBS, with Messrs Bermingham and Darby making an initial $500,000 payment, while Mr Mulgrew will make a smaller $250,000 payment."
They are also hoping for a transfer to a UK jail, and "the three men were pardoned from spending their time ahead of trial in Federal detention centre by then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, each was fitted with a bulky electronic tag, and ordered not to leave the southern districts of Texas."
Quinn provides a concise run-through of the "Statement of Fact" and an interesting analysis:
"But what is interesting in working through the court-approved 'Statement of Fact' is that while each man was guilty of breaking compliance rules within NatWest, and there were breaches of fiduciary duty aplenty, at no time did the three know that what they were doing would defraud NatWest.
In addition, and perhaps more importantly, at no time did any of the three defraud Enron, which was the driving force behind the DoJ's long-standing argument that the case should be heard on American soil in the first place."
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Asiavest Investigative Services considered Enron to be kids play in comparison to the daily frauds committed in the world of public companies. "Enron, in our opinion was not even close to the daily occurring criminal manipulation of public companies." {see here}
The Truthseeker website in the UK claims that John O'Neill (former FBI, and security chief at the WTCs on 9-11) had been investigating deals Enron had been making with the Taliban in Afghanistan; the National Enquirer {see also here, another blurb here}, claimed that Enron had at least 20 CIA staff on its payroll. {Note that the National Enquirer's complete photo archive and library collection were destroyed in the first anthrax attack.}
From the catbirdseat blog {not up on the 'net anymore} -- "Lawrence B. Lindsey, Bush's once top economic adviser, was an Enron consultant; Robert Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative, served on Enron's advisory council; I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's Chief of Staff, was a major Enron stockholder; Thomas White, Secretary of the Army, was an Enron executive for over 10 years and held millions of dollars in stocks and options when appointed; Karl Rove, chief White House political adviser, owned between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of Enron stock when he met with Ken Lay in the White House to discuss Enron's problems with federal regulators; and, until he was named Republican National Chairman, Marc Racicot {former Montana governor, and partner in Bracewell & Patterson} was Enron's Washington lobbyist.
"The legislation reducing government oversight of energy trading was muscled through Congress —— without a Senate committee hearing —— with the aid of U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas. Gramm was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over the legislation he co-sponsored, but he chose to bypass his committee, and the bill was quietly tacked onto a "must-pass" appropriations bill late in the session.... As a lame-duck chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Wendy Gramm {Mrs. Phil Gramm} exempted Enron and other energy futures traders from oversight in response to a request by Enron. At the time, Enron was a significant source of political funding for her husband. Five weeks later, she joined the company’’s board and served on the board’s audit committee..."
And, catbirdseat quoted from a Reuters report on CNN, Citigroup {currently being bailed out of their "subprime mortgage-related" financial woes by Abu Dhabi} faced a lawsuit from angry investors and "well-known distressed debt funds Angelo Gordon & Co. and Appaloosa Investment LP, who charged ... that Citigroup concocted a fraudulent scheme to raise billions of dollars from the sale of notes called 'Yosemite' securities. Citigroup, the investors said, then used the funds to make 'disguised' loans to Enron 'to reduce its own Enron credit risk, prop up Enron’s failing financial condition and generate significant fees in the process.' ... Charles Prince {now, the former CEO} said at the time, 'We feel very comfortable in saying that, with our advisers helping us, we have established a reserve that will cover all of our meaningful exposures.' Not only was Citigroup involved in the Enron scandal, but so were other financial giants - JP Morgan Chase, American International Group, AON, ... Canadian Imperial Bank Corp., Credit Suisse First Boston, Dresdner Bank, General Electric Capital, ... Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Wachovia Bank, and Deutsche Bank.
Note also that Qwest was involved in Enron - in 2001, Arthur Andersen approved a $500M swap of fiber optic capacity, which inflated both companies' revenues (with Joe Nacchio {currently, in litigation over "insider trading"} running Qwest at the time).
On November 13, Mary Flood had an article on the Houston Chronicle ("Prosecutors ask court to uphold Skilling conviction") {no longer up, possibly in its archives now} which discussed DOJ's reply to Skilling's appeal; and noted "Lay died six weeks after their four-month trial ended in convictions for both of them. Lay's record was later wiped clean." {Lay was a victim of a "heart attack".}
John Kelly (Pulitzer prize nominated journalist), former federal agent Rodney Stich, and DeepBlackLies (UK), all note the aftermath of CIA-front companies, those "in the know" in the companies, and the journalists investigating the companies: companies are "blown-up", those "in the know" at the companies are assassinated, and investigative journalists are discredited and/or reassigned.
