Posted on 07/31/2002 8:02:31 PM PDT by LarryLied
Alleged mobster held for fixing Olympic skating ^
Posted by xp38
On Jul 31 11:18 PM with 20 comments
The Globe and Mail ^ | July 31 2002 | AP
New York — An alleged Russian crime boss was arrested in Italy on U.S. charges he tried to fix the pairs and ice dancing figure skating competitions at the Salt Lake City Olympics, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Wednesday. Alimzan Tokhtakhounov was arrested at his resort in Forte dei Marmi in northern Italy. . .
Google translation of "International Mail" article:
The journalist of investigation Vladimir Ivanidzé reveals that to the businesses of sales of weapons in Angola is added a diamond history. The principal actors would be Arcadi Gaïdamak and certain Lev Levaev, diamond cutter Israeli.
SOVERCHENNO SEKRETNO (extracted)
Moscow
At the beginning of spring 2000, a sensational news came to us from Angola: the government allotted to Lev Levaev [ called the "exceptionally gifted one of diamond", this ex-citizen of Ouzbékistan, today of Israeli nationality, was recently elected president of the Federation of the Jewish communities of the CEI, which represents the current hassidic ] the exclusiveness in the sale of diamonds of the country, cancelling all the agreements made previously, including with the national company Russian Alrosa.
But this company knew financial problems. At this point in time Levaev appeared, proposing investments: it acquired 18 % of the actions of the mixed company, and the good news of exclusiveness then fell.
Angolais did not explain the true reasons for this decision, but of the declarations to the press of civils servant who kept anonymity give a report on extreme pressures on behalf of Moscow, to which the government angolais had to yield. Who made pressure, concretely? Mystery! One can however imagine that a character very interesting called Arcadi Gaïdamak hides behind all this history.
Lately, this one likes to be described as "civil servant of the government angolais".
Six years ago, it had opened, in a Parisian agency of Barclay, accounts for Alimjan Tokhtakhounov, also known under the name of Taïvantchik [ Taïwanais, notorious godfather of the Russian Maffia ], of which it made renovate with its expenses the luxurious apartment, located in the most middle-class district of Paris.
Formerly suspected of being a "representative of the Russian crime organized in France" (as it is known as in documents of the French secret service transmitted in 1994 to the Senate and published then in the press), Gaïdamak became later an influential character in the entourage of Charles Pasqua.
It also arranged its relationships to the Russian tax police force, which, at the request of the French authorities, had tried to control its incomes. It then "settled" the question of the debt angolaise with regard to the Soviet Union [ brought back from 7 to 1,5 billion dollar ], sold weapons in Angola, for finally becoming "civil servant" of this country. In one of its recent interviews, Gaïdamak qualified "pure fabrication" the charges carried against him about traffics of weapons to Africa.
However, one speaks indeed about this Mister in a report/ratio of the British organization Global Witness. This report/ratio explains why the business of Gaïdamak - and Pierre Falcone - proceeded in close connection with the high military persons in charge for Angola. When this report was published, one of its authors invited me of London in order to know at which point Gaïdamak could be dangerous: it affirmed that this one had uttered very clear threats. As soon as it had troubles with the French police force, Gaïdamak, as by miracle, left captivity of the French pilots killed above Bosnia, obtaining even a medal for that.
Then, the members more for the Russian Maffia precipitated to offer their services to him in order to save the French hostages held in Tchétchénie. Finally, our "civil servant angolais" became partner of Lev Levaev within the large Israeli company Africa-Israel. To spring 2000, as one already said, Levaev saw oneself granting the exclusiveness in the sale of diamonds angolais.
When it is known that it is not so a long time it directed the Russian bank Rossiïski Kredit with Alexandre Livchits [ to advise financial of the president in charge of the question of the debt, interlocutor of the Occident ], one sees about who, in Moscow, made pressure on the government angolais. But they are only assumptions, and a palpitating history moreover.
Vladimir Ivanidzé
International Mail
18/01/2001, Number 533
Government Offered Secret Gem Deal (Kennedys and Democrat Donor Involved)
The Nambian | 7/26/02 |
Tangeni Amupadhi and Janine F Roberts
Posted on 07/28/2002 4:58 PM Eastern by LarryLied
LEADING American diamond merchant Maurice Tempelsman has offered to arrange a secret payment for Government if it entrenches the right of the De Beers cartel to buy all Namibia's diamonds. . .
Lazare Kaplan International, America's largest diamond cutter, is headed by Maurice Tempelsman, whose initial foray into diamonds came in Zaire, where he was a close friend of the tyrant Mobutu Sese Seko. In the 1960s Tempelsman hired as his business agent the CIA station chief in Kinshasa, Larry Devlin, who helped put Mobutu in power and afterward served as his personal adviser.
Tempelsman is best known as Jackie Onassis's longtime companion, but he's also a prominent player in Washington. He's doled out about $500,000 to the Democratic Party in the past decade, and during the Clinton years he was twice invited to state dinners and was one of a dozen executives who went on the President's 1998 trip to South Africa.
Lazare Kaplan has a long-term agreement to buy $ 100 million worth of gems per year from ALROSA, the Russian diamond monopoly that is rife with corruption and a fierce opponent of efforts to restrict the trade in conflict diamonds.
In the mid-1990s the US Export-Import Bank issued a $62 million loan guarantee to underwrite ALROSA's acquisition of mining equipment from Caterpillar. In March, the Ex-Im confirmed that it has approved a new, $200 million loan guarantee that will benefit Lazare Kaplan's diamond-cutting factories in Russia.
When senators of both parties questioned the special access granted big Democratic Party donors by the National Security Council, NSC boss TONY LAKE pooh-poohed the charges. But last week the NSC admitted that the month beore last year's presidential election, Lake did meet with MAURICE TEMPLESMAN, the deep-pocketed Democratic donor who was the companion of JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS.
Templesman, a diamond dealer with long experience in Africa, was seeking loans from the Export-Import Bank and loan guarantees from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for a multimillion dollar diamond deal in Angola.
After the meeting, a sympathetic Lake decided to intervene: he directed an NSC staff member, with approval from legal counsel, to call Ex-Im and OPIC. The message: Templesman's venture had "merit."
But TIME has obtained the text of a recent letter from Angola's ambassador in Washington that bluntly asks the U.S. to stop attempts to broker a diamond deal and, in an apparent reference to Tempelsman, criticizes similiar attempts by "private companies." The Angolan letter, as well as Administration maneuvers on behalf of Tempelsman, have raised concerns among senior G.O.P. legislators--concerns discussed with the State Department . . .
In an amazing development, the Israeli businessman, Lev Leviev, has signed a deal with the Angolan government under which he will buy the entire diamond production of Angola, which may be up to $1 billion per year.
It is not clear yet what will happen to the diamonds produced by Sociedade de Desenvolvimento Mineiro (SDM) in its Cuango Valley concession. At full production SDM is expected to produce up to $100 million of alluvial diamonds, and SDM is contracted to supply these diamonds to the diamond giant De Beers.
The other buyers of Angolan diamonds have been remarkably quiet on the issue of their formal closure, leading to speculation that they may be subcontracted by Sodiam to buy diamonds at their established offices throughout the country.
Clearly, some of the diamond buyers still have a good relationship with the Angolan government. During his visit to the United States at the end of January, President dos Santos met with Maurice Tempelsman who is Chairman of Lazare Kaplan International (LKI). ..
www.conservativeusa.org
Maurice Tempelsman, a diamond broker who served as an agent of influence for the Angolan Communist regime, secured the companionship of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who, for a number of years served as his mistress. Tempelsman was able to use this relationship, in combination with the Angolan oil payoffs to the Kennedy family to secure a completely pro-Communist Angolan policy by the new administration of Bill Clinton, which arranged for U.N. sanctions and follow-up U.S. sanctions on the anti-Communist UNITA freedom fighters led by Jonas Savimbi.
(note: Savimbi was assassinated last spring. Africa Confidential, a London news letter reported a Total Positioning System provided by Arkadi Gaydamak led to the murder of the man Ronald Reagan called a "freedom fighter.")
Google search result on "Tokhtakhounov":
courrierinternational.com- [ Translate this page ] ... Il ya six ans, il avait ouvert, dans une agence parisienne de la Barclay, des comptes pour Alimjan Tokhtakhounov, également connu sous le nom de Taïvantchik ... www.courrierinternational.com/numeros/ 533/053303402.asp?TYPE=archives - 23k - Cached - Similar pages
I don't think he's really Russian--at least not an Orthodox Christian Russian. "Alimzan (or Alimjan) Tokhtakhounov" sounds like a Central Asian muslim name to me. Can anyone with better knowledge of things Russian than I have help me out on this?
"Tokhtakhounov -- who U.S. officials say is either 62 or 53, was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and is a Russian citizen -"
Noticed none of the reports mention why the cops were after him.
The fact that he was born in Tashkent goes along with (but does not prove) my idea.
He may be a "Russian citizen" the same way we have muslim fifth columnists (including Albanian mobsters) and terrorist sleepers who are "American citizens".
Nobody knows how many diamonds are smuggled from Sierra Leone and Liberia. Estimates are from $25 million to over $100 million a year.
The books of the industry are a joke. The UK imports 41% of its rough diamonds from Switzerland. But Switzerland has no diamond mines and "officially" imports almost no uncut stones. Israel imports 89% of its diamonds from the UK, Switzerland or Belgium.
So nobody really knows where a large percentage of diamonds sold really come from.
Stoppit!
You're killing any possibility of a career in politics . . . or worse . . .
VRN
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