Riggs - "may have had ties to two Sept. 11 hijackers."

[fearnobush]

Riggs in May paid a $25 million penalty for failing to report suspicious transactions to regulators, and this week has come under scrutiny for possible dealings with Saudi diplomats who may have had ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers, Equatorial Guinea and former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Riggs plans to sell or shut its international banking unit before the purchase is complete, said PNC spokesman Brian Goerke.

And this nasty little quote:

`The money laundering and other issues -- that's something
specific to Riggs management, and that's being swept away,'' said Wendell Perkins, chief investment officer at Johnson Asset
Management, who helps manage $800 million, including the firm's
Small Cap Value Fund, which has Riggs as its top holding.

just a little out raged, well its just some small time bidness talk.

<http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=aKhRvtnmet70&refer=news_in>

[Snazzy]

1. try these

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/11.26A.newswk.911.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4661093/

Edit: Of course the current firestorm from the Senate investigation Comm. report--doesn't mention, specifically goes out of its way not to mention, Riggs + Saudis (or Jonathan Bush for that matter).

The redacted 23 pages in the original Congression 9/11 report are rumored to mostly have discussed these Saudi accounts at Riggs.

[DenverDem]

2. That's W's Uncle Jon's bank.

<http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/may31_00.html>

[Octafish]

3. Riggs ties to BCCI

As with Riggs (and likely many of the world's major banks) the BFEE used BCCI to launder money, grease terrorists, and fund Iraqi and Pakistani nukes. Here's some background:

The Complete Saudi Primer

EXCERPT...

THE BCCI-BUSH-SAUDI-TERRORIST NEXUS: The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), which was investigated by Congress in the 1980s, appears to be at the nexus of the Bush-Saudi connection. It's principal was Khalid bin Mahfouz, a man USA Today reported was among Saudi businessmen who, even after the U.S.S. Cole attack, "continued to transfer tens of millions of dollars to bank accounts linked to indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden." Under Mahfouz (who was later indicted for his actions at BCCI), the Wall Street Journal noted in 1991 that there was a "mosaic of BCCI connections surrounding Harken Energy" and "number of BCCI-connected people who had dealings with Harken — all since George W. Bush came on board." And according to U.S. officials who investigated the bank in the 1980s, "BCCI was the mother and father of terrorist financing operations." A secret French intelligence report "identifies dozens of companies and individuals who were involved with BCCI and were found to be dealing with bin Laden after the bank collapsed. Many went on to work in banks and charities identified by the United States and others as supporting al Qaeda."

WAS BCCI'S INDICTED PRINCIPAL A BUSH BUSINESS BACKER?: Author Kevin Phillips, a top Republican strategist under President Nixon, reported in his new book, "Bush made his first connection in the late 1970s with James Bath, a Texas businessmen who served as the North American representative for two rich Saudis (and Osama bin Laden relatives) - billionaire Salem bin Laden and banker and BCCI insider Khalid bin Mahfouz. Bath put $50,000 into Bush's 1979 Arbusto oil partnership, probably using bin Laden-bin Mahfouz funds." Also of interest: Former CIA Director James Woolsey testified to the Senate on 9/3/98 that Mafouz's sister was married to Osama bin Laden. And according to the conservative American Spectator, "Bush has given conflicting statements about Bath's investment in Arbusto, finally admitting to the Wall Street Journal that he was aware that Bath represented Saudi investors."

BUSH CAMPAIGN TIES TO THE SAUDIS: A 12/11/01 Boston Herald report found that "a powerful Washington, D.C., law firm with unusually close ties to the White House has earned hefty fees representing controversial Saudi billionaires as well as a Texas-based Islamic charity fingered last week as a terrorist front." The influential law firm of Akin, Gump, whose partners "include one of President Bush's closest Texas friends, James C. Langdon, and Bush fundraiser George R. Salem," has represented three wealthy Saudi businessmen – BCCI's Mahfouz, Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi and Salah Idris – "who have been scrutinized by U.S. authorities for possible involvement in financing Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network."


SNIP...

CONNECTION – JONATHAN BUSH AND RIGGS: Jonathan Bush, President Bush's uncle, was appointed CEO of Riggs Bank's investment arm in May of 2000, just months after his nephew secured the nomination for the presidency. At the time of the appointment, Jonathan Bush had already become a major financial backer of his nephew, rising to "Bush Pioneer" status by raising more than $100,000 for his nephew in 2000. The move solidified the relationship between Jonathan Bush and Riggs, which was originally initiated in 1997 when, according to American Banker newsletter, Riggs paid Bush $5.5 million for his smaller investment firm. That transaction, according to the NYT, "deepened links to the Bushes." While Riggs denies any connection between Bush and the accounts being investigated in the money laundering probe, Riggs President Timothy Lex told the Washington Times in 1997 that "there's a blurring of distinctions between banks, mutual-fund families, broker dealers and everything else across the board."

CONTINUED, PLUS SITE INCLUDES LINKS FOR REFERENCES IN ABOVE...

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=99415&printmode=1#3

[seemslikeadream]

4. Hijacked bank

Questions also remain regarding the web of money transfers from Princess Haifa, Prince Bandar and the daughter of late King Faisal, some of which reached Nawaf Alhazmi and fellow terrorist Khalid Almihdar.Princess Haifa's bank account--the source of the funds which ultimately supported the alleged hijackers--was with Riggs Bank where Jonathan J. Bush, the brother of former President George H. W. Bush and uncle of President George W. Bush, is CEO, President and Director of Riggs' investment management subsidiary.

snip

After Al Bayoumi fled the U.S. to England in July, 2001--two months before the attacks, Princess Haifa's Riggs Bank checks were then sent to Osama Basnan, who with his wife Majeda Dweikat, were both later to be found in the U.S. illegally as a result of poor or suspicious State Department visa supervision.

Former FBI linguist Sibel Edmonds said she found evidence of espionage in both the State Department and the FBI in pre-9/11 translations of intelligence intercepts--which also warned about planes used as weapons well before the attacks.A federal law enforcement source said Basnan was a known "al-Qaeda sympathizer" who "celebrated the heroes of September 11" at a party after the attacks and openly talked about "what a wonderful, glorious day it had been," according to Newsweek.

Al Bayoumi and Basnan both befriended Alhazmi and fellow Saudi hijacker Khalid Almihdar after they arrived in San Diego, according to the sources; and the Riggs checks from Prince Bandar's wife helped the terroists pay rent and living expences in the months just prior to the attacks, according to reports. Newsweek said Al Bayoumi helped them obtain social security cards and helped them arrange for flying lessons in Florida--indicating dramatic evidence of the state of congressional internal security oversight.

Basnan was convicted of visa fraud and deported to Saudi Arabia on November 17, 2002. His wife Majida Ibrahim--who had also laundered checks from Riggs Bank--was deported the same day to her native Jordan for visa violations. (Washington Post, 9-24, 2002) Reasons were not given why the White House allowed the high profile suspects to leave the country on charges much less important than being implicated as an accessory to mass murder.

more
http://www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=pri ...

[seemslikeadream]

5. Risk Management Regulatory Failures at Riggs Bank&UBS: Lessons Learned

June 2, 2004

I will now turn to the chronology of events surrounding the discovery that UBS had engaged in ECI transactions with OFAC-sanctioned countries and had concealed those transactions from the New York Fed.

On April 20, 2003, the Sunday New York Times reported that U.S. armed forces had discovered, in Baghdad, approximately $650 million in United States currency. According to the article, the wrapping on the currency indicated that it originated, in part, from the New York Fed. Upon reading this article, I sent an e-mail directing staff at the New York Fed to attempt to determine how currency bearing the mark of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York might have traveled from our offices to Baghdad. Around the same date, staff from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Board of Governors”) in Washington were contacted by the Treasury Department and asked to assist in tracing the same currency. Also at this time, staff at the New York Fed and other Reserve Banks received telephone calls from agents of the U.S. Customs Service seeking information regarding the discovered banknotes.

Within days, the New York Fed received serial numbers for a small sample of the banknotes found in Iraq. By April 24, 2003, our cash staff in East Rutherford, N.J., had determined, using serial number records, that the sampled notes were part of twenty-four shipments that had been sent from our offices to three of our ECI facilities: HSBC in London, Bank of America in Zurich and UBS in Zurich. Over the next few weeks, we received additional serial numbers from other samples of the discovered currency as well as serial numbers from samples of an additional $112 million that was discovered in Iraq shortly after the initial hoard. We successfully traced those serial numbers to the same three ECI facilities, as well as to HSBC’s ECI facilities in Frankfurt and London; to the Royal Bank of Scotland’s ECI facility in London; to a number of commercial banks in the United States and abroad; and to several foreign central banks.

In an effort to follow the currency trail further, in early May of 2003, we contacted each of the ECI operators, and one of the commercial banks that had done a large volume of relevant currency purchases, and asked them to provide us with information regarding the counterparties to whom they sold the identified banknotes. By the end of May, we had received responses from HSBC and Bank of America that included, for HSBC, specific counterparty information, and for Bank of America, more general country information, for the relevant shipments. No transactions with Iraq or any other OFAC-sanctioned countries were contained in these responses. Our investigative efforts to follow the trail of the currency discovered in Iraq are continuing.

http://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/speeches/2004/bax040602.html

[Octafish]

6. That's where DU comes in, seemslikeadream: DU can help Siebel Edmonds.

In addition to providing moral support, we can help her spread the message about the criminality on the part of Riggs Bank, BCCI, and the rest of the corrupted parts of Wall Street. Edmonds also has made a case against the criminal incompetence -- at best -- treasonous contempt -- most likely -- of the Crisco-Satanist John Ashcroft.

[donhakman]

7. Find out who will buy Riggs or merge with Riggs

and you could have quite an investment plan.

When the CIA bank of BCCI got caught the money had to go somewhere else, right? Well it did.

Check what Soros is doing and you can make a small fortune.

2 years ago George Soros said he was converting US dollars to Euros and now the dollar has lost 20% to the Euro. Inflation has not set in here yet so when you convert back to US dollars you have made $100,000 off of a $500,000 investment in 2 years.

Not bad.

[seemslikeadream]

9. 'Pinochet' bank to be sold

Riggs has long been an active bank in the diplomatic community.
Riggs Bank, which stands accused of helping the former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet evade efforts to seize his assets, is to be sold.
PNC Financial Services Group will pay $779m (£420m) in cash and shares for the bank's parent Riggs National.

The Federal Reserve recently told Riggs to do more to prevent money laundering.

In May, Riggs was fined $25m for allegedly failing to report suspicious transactions, some of which might be connected to terrorism financing.

Retrenchment

The fine was over Riggs handling of cash transactions in Saudi-controlled accounts that were under investigation by anti-terrorism officials.

Riggs has long been an active bank in the diplomatic community.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3900641.stm

[seemslikeadream]

8. Kareri brought the EG government account to Riggs,

Bank and African Oil State Ties Probed
By Ken Silverstein, LA Times 9/4/04
Apr 11, 2004, 07:50


Investigators are scrutinizing hundreds of millions of dollars in accounts held at Riggs Bank by the government of Equatorial Guinea and its ruler, Brig. Gen. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Sources familiar with the probes said investigators were trying to determine whether any deposits into Obiang's personal accounts were the fruits of corruption and whether funds from a state account were diverted to the president or his family members.

In recent years, Equatorial Guinea has emerged as sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest oil producer, after Nigeria and Angola. The country's economy is growing quickly, but most of its 500,000 people remain impoverished.

Equatorial Guinea's largest account with Riggs held hundreds of millions of dollars in oil earnings deposited by American companies active in the country, primarily ExxonMobil Corp. and Amerada Hess Corp. Although formally a state account, it is in effect controlled by Obiang, said multiple sources interviewed by The Times. Collectively, U.S. oil companies have invested about $5 billion in the nation's oil industry.Three sources familiar with the investigation said Obiang also had personal accounts at Riggs amounting to more than $10 million. Real estate records show that the bank helped Obiang purchase two homes in Maryland, including a $2.6-million mansion that was bought for cash in 1999.

Sources also confirmed that Riggs held accounts for Teodoro Biyogo Nsue, Equatorial Guinea's ambassador to the U.S. and Obiang's brother-in-law, and for Obiang's son, Teodorin Nguema Obiang.
The latter is a government minister but spends little time in the country. Housing and business records show that the son owns a $6-million home in Los Angeles as well as a music company in L.A. called TNO.


Kareri brought the Equatorial Guinea government account to Riggs, and it became one of the bank's biggest depositors. In 2001, Kareri was promoted to senior vice president.Kareri is close to Obiang and his family. Records show that he is also a board member of the U.S.-based Foundation of the Friends of Equatorial Guinea and the United States, whose aim is to promote stronger ties between the two countries. Other board members of the group include Equatorial Guinea's representative to the International Monetary Fund and the country's minister of justice.
more
http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=43&num=11319