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In a compelling development stemming from an FBI raid conducted last year, a portion of the gold bars found in the residence of embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) have been identified as those stolen in a high-profile 2013 robbery. In September, Sen. Bob Menendez, the senior U.S. Senator from New Jersey and the former Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were indicted on bribery and corruption charges. In October, Bob Menendez was charged with acting as a foreign agent in a superseding indictment. Bob Menendez and his wife are under investigation for their involvement...

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tried to slam conservative media, claiming they will not report on the corruption investigation of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez. The Mexican president mistakenly claimed that conservative news outlets would provide cover for Menendez because he was a “Republican… from Texas.” The statements came during his Monday news conference where the Mexican politician briefly discussed the case. “These news outlets from the right, conservatives, are not going to say that they found gold bars,” Lopez Obrador said. “The Republican Senator, Bob Menendez from Texas, he has always been against us. They are not going to...

New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez has been under investigation for alleged corruption more times than anyone can count. Now it is happening again. Menendez and his wife are being investigated over claims that they accepted bars of gold in exchange for favors, otherwise known as a bribe. Will this be the time that the senator’s luck finally runs out? FOX News reports: Feds probing if Dem Sen Menendez or wife accepted gold bars worth hundreds of thousands from felon: report Federal investigators are probing whether Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez or his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of...

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) could face new corruption charges as prosecutors meet with lawyers to weigh a decision...A report earlier this summer found that another person caught up in the probe...has ties to the mob....Menendez's wife sold $400,000 in gold bars shortly before his office was facing a federal corruption probe.

More than $28,000 worth of gold bars discovered on Chinese nationally illegally entering the United States in Maine. MITY, Maine – While conducting operations near Amity, U.S. Border Patrol Agents from the Houlton Border Patrol Station apprehended a 36-year-old Chinese national who was found to have illegally entered the United States from Canada. On Tuesday, August 4, agents from the Houlton Border Patrol Station encountered a female subject who admitted to being a Chinese national illegally present in the United States. Agents were able to verify the location where she illegally entered the United States by matching foot prints belonging...

The story is shocking in exposing just how multi-faceted fraud is in China: capitalizing on pre-existing cronyism and connections with China's powerful army, the founder of Kingold was allowed to basically do anything he wanted, no questions asked, including counterfeiting over 83 tons of gold bars to get billions in funds to participate in China's housing bubble, only for a series of unexpected events to unwind the frauds one after another and expose the type of sordid scandal that is at the heart of most Chinese "enterprises" and business ventures.

LONDON (Reuters) - A forgery crisis is quietly roiling the world’s gold industry.Gold bars fraudulently stamped with the logos of major refineries are being inserted into the global market to launder smuggled or illegal gold, refining and banking executives tell Reuters. The fakes are hard to detect, making them an ideal fund-runner for narcotics dealers or warlords. In the last three years, bars worth at least $50 million stamped with Swiss refinery logos, but not actually produced by those facilities, have been identified by all four of Switzerland’s leading gold refiners and found in the vaults of JPMorgan Chase &...

Gold bars stamped with fake logos of major refineries have been circulated into the global market and landed in the vaults of JPMorgan Chase & Co. — part of a plot to launder smuggled or illegal specimens of the precious metal, according to a report. Bars worth at least $50 million stamped with the logos of Swiss refineries that did not produce them have been identified by all four of the country’s top gold refiners in the last three years, Reuters reported. They have been found in the vaults of JPMorgan, one of the major banks at the center of...

A reported 200 bars of gold and other precious metals have scattered across an airport runway in Russia after a cargo plane door broke off upon takeoff. Strong winds blew off the Nimbus Airline An-12 cargo plane door upon takeoff from Yakutsk Airport, airport officials told Interfax on Thursday.  After the incident, the plane crew made an emergency landing in a village airport some 12 kilometers from Yakutsk.

Obama Donor Helped Free Terrorist Behind Benghazi Attack January 8, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield The left is rushing to blame Bush for the Benghazi attack, now that the State Department is moving to name a former Gitmo detainee released by Bush as a key figure in the attack. But Gitmo detainees were released as part of a pressure and lawfare campaign by the radical pro-terrorist left. Including Obama’s backers. The left-wing organization that helped spring Qumu was the Center for Constitutional Rights. Last April, the group issued an indignant press release painting Qumu as a harmless victim and blasting those...

Nick at Sharelynx Gold, also known as Gold Charts "R" Us emailed an interesting chart last week showing gold drain at the New York Fed. Earmarked gold dropped 42 tonnes for the month of October as foreign countries repatriate their gold home. Here's a link to Earmarked Gold with a second chart that shows all Fed holdings. Gold Charts "R" Us has 1,000's of pages and over 10,000 charts on a subscription basis, but you can check out the site for free until December 14. Click on the first link at the top for a look. Where's the Gold Going?...

Tyler Durden 06/06/2014 Two years ago, stories of fake tungsten-filled gold coins and bars began to spread; it appears, between the shortage of physical gold (after Asian central bank buying) and the increase in smuggling (courtesy of India's controls among others) that gold fraud is back on the rise. As SCMP reports, a mainland China businessman, Zhao Jingjun, discovered that HK$270 million of 998kg of gold bars he bought in Ghana had been swapped for non-precious metal bars. What is perhaps even more worrisome, given the probe into commodity-financing deals and the rehypothecation evaporation; these gold bars were shipped to...

One of the biggest complaints about gold - always a parallel currency to paper, and soon to be serial, once the world shifts to a post-paper currency reality in which faith in infinitely creatable electronic paper money is finally destroyed - is that it would be an impractical medium of exchange, as the traditional denominations are so large one would be unable to trade one ounce (and certainly one bar) for every day needs. This is also one of the main reasons various retail investors prefer silver over gold. All this may be changing courtesy of Swiss refiner Valcambi which...

Master Sgt. Jay Phelps and Sgt. Teresa Burroughs hold the 25-pound block of gold they discovered in their office at FOB Speicher. Staff Sgt. Jesse C. Riggin Printer-friendly version TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, Feb. 7, 2006) – A unique challenge for two Soldiers arose recently with the discovery of a very special doorstop in the terrain team’s work space: a 25-pound block of solid gold. “I noticed it during the relief-in-place with the unit before us, sitting under the table in the office,” said Sgt. Teresa Burroughs, a terrain analyst in the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne...

Saddam's gold discovered in truck HILLAH, Iraq, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A routine Iraqi traffic stop has turned up what may be $90 million in gold bars in this town just over 50 miles south of Baghdad. While the financial haul is major, U.S. Marines helping to get this town back on its feet say something more valuable has come out of the episode: the notion that Iraqis can begin to trust their government. "It just shows you the character and integrity of the people will come up and surprise you," said Maj. Martin Casado, the operations officer for...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Gold-colored bars seized by US forces in Iraq appear to be melted-down shell casings made mostly of copper, rather than gold, the White House said in a report obtained yesterday.</p> <p>The US military announced the discovery of truckloads of the gold-colored bars in May.</p>

Deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein stashed a fortune worth more than 1.13 billion Swiss francs ($1.28 billion) in Switzerland, a Swiss newspaper said today. The business weekly Cash said the hoard included 300 kg of gold bars, which has a market value of Sfr4.5 million ($5.1 million), in an account with the gold refinery Metalor in Neuchatel. The Swiss National Bank also said Sfr386 million ($435 million) were lodged in Swiss accounts in Iraq's name, Cash reported. The Bank for International Settlements in Basle said it had frozen Sfr750 million ($845 million) belonging to the former Iraqi regime. The Metalor...

Tuesday May 27, 12:20 AMU.S. seizes gold bars in IraqBy Daren ButlerKIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops seized a truck laden with suspected gold bars worth up to $100 million (60.9 million pounds) at a checkpoint in northern Iraq, the second such find in four days. Major Kevin Petit said on Monday that soldiers found 999 bars under a tarpaulin in an old Mercedes on Sunday during a search near the oil city of Kirkuk and questioned the truck's three occupants. The driver had said he had been paid $300 to carry what he said were copper bars from Baghdad...

17:15 23May2003 RTRS-UPDATE 1-US seizes what may be $500 million in gold in Iraq (Add details, background) WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - American troops have seized what appears to be $500 million worth of gold bars from a truck in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Friday. The 2,000 40-pound (18 kg) bars were seized on Thursday at Qaim on the Syrian border in western Iraq by soldiers of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, the U.S. military's Central Command said in a statement. It said the bars could be gold and worth as much as $500 million, depending on karat...

WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. soldiers in Iraq seized what is believed to be some $500 million worth of gold during a routine vehicle search near the border with Syria, U.S. Central Command said. Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment stopped a Mercedes truck in Al Qaim Thursday and discovered 2,000 40-pound, 10-inch long ingots. The driver and passenger in the vehicle said they had been paid about $350 to pick up the truck in Baghdad and drive it to Al Qaim. They said they were told the bars were bronze. The truck, the two men and the...