Free Republic

Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis is raising money at a $6,600-a-head luncheon at the Yale Club in New York, hosted by former George W. Bush administration officials including William Heyman and Nick Sinatra.Heyman, formerly of Citigroup, was appointed director of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) by Bush, and sits on a Federal Reserve Bank of New York committee and the neocon Council on Foreign Relations. Sinatra, a real estate developer, was an associate political director at the Bush White House.DeSantis’s fundraising in New York is not just controversial for his association with these “GOP throwbacks”, as POLITICO describes them. He...

Today, during a deposition of the designated representative of the Bank of New York as Trustee for a Countrywide CWMBS securitization, the representative (who is an attorney and employee of the servicer Shellpoint) admitted under oath that MERS is not the true beneficiary of a Deed of Trust (DOT) despite claiming to do so, as the Beneficiary is the lender and MERS is not and was never the lender. The representative also admitted that the Substitution of Trustee filed by a law Firm and signed by Shellpoint (as a dba of New Penn Financial) contained a false statement that the...

Top brass flew to Baghdad with publicity-shy empowerment businessman Mzilikazi Wa Afrika, Jessica Bezuidenhout and Andre Jurgens Two of the ANC's most powerful officials travelled to Iraq with a controversial Johannesburg businessman just weeks before he landed a R1.2-billion state oil deal. Sandi Majali is one of about 270 people around the world who have been named in an alleged sanctions-busting scam involving oil from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime. The names appeared in Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organisation documents found after the fall of Saddam. Majali, 41, who heads the media-shy empowerment company Imvume Resources, has for the...

NEW YORK - Bank of New York Co. has agreed to take over Mellon Financial Corp. for stock valued at $17.6 billion in a deal that will create the world's largest securities servicing company and one of the biggest asset managers. The combination, which is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, combines two financial institutions that are deeply steeped in American history. New York-based Bank of New York was founded in 1784 by Alexander Hamilton, who went on to become the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury. Mellon Financial, meanwhile, has been around since its...

NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Calpine Corp. (CPN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has hired a high-profile restructuring team from Kirkland & Ellis to advise its board, the New York Post reported on Tuesday, citing parties suing the troubled power producer. Leading the advisory team are partners Richard Cieri and Jamie Sprayregan, according to lawyers for two parties that are suing Calpine. The Post said its sources acknowledged the hiring of Cieri and Sprayregan did not necessarily mean the cash-strapped company was considering a bankruptcy filing. More likely, the Post reported, they are advising the company on its alternatives if it...

Substantial sums of hard currency provided to Saddam Hussein from the sale of Iraqi oil allowed under United Nations sanctions have been laundered through banks around the world by a Russian Mafiya boss described in an MI5 report as "one of the world's top criminals." Despite that, Israel continues to allow Semyon Yukovich Mogilevich to travel openly on one of its passports. Even more remarkable, the MI5 description was reinforced by an investigation by Mossad. Its report concluded that Mogilevich is a "major criminal - but has taken great care to commit no crime against Israel." His supply of arms...