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U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) sent a letter to Bank of the West President and Chief Executive Officer Nandita Bakhshi pushing back on the bank’s decision to no longer conduct business with companies engaged in the exploration and production of coal, oil and natural gas. Bank of the West, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, has 23 branches with dedicated employees who work hard to serve communities and families across Wyoming. In his letter, Barrasso condemned the San Francisco headquarter’s attack on Wyoming’s communities and businesses that depend on fossil fuels for energy security, jobs and economic growth. “This misguided and...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tried Thursday to reassure European banks they won’t be penalized for conducting or facilitating business with Iran, as he worked to address Tehran’s grievance that businesses are still staying away despite the nascent nuclear deal. At an unusual meeting in London, the top U.S. diplomat joined Britain’s top commerce official to challenge what Kerry called “misinterpretations or mere rumors” about U.S. sanctions on Iran, the most sweeping of which were lifted in exchange for Iran rolling back its nuclear program. The list of banks whose leaders attended was a Who’s Who of powerful financial...

Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane ... No, it’s two planes! Two taxpayer-funded planes, that is. And on those two planes last Thursday were two occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, jetting across country to the same destination — L.A. Separate planes. Your money. Ready for the pain? You’re going to need a No. 2 pencil and scrap paper for this. Estimates are that Air Force One costs about $206,000 per hour to operate. You could go on Priceline right now and book a round-trip itinerary from Boston to LAX for between $500 and...

In the run-up to the 2012 election, a story surfaced about an Iraqi billionaire who managed to buy access to Washington policy makers while funding a Chicago Pay-to-Play scheme that helped produce a Governor, a U.S. Senator, and, ultimately, a President of the United States. The story was eight years in the making, yet despite the extent of his political influence, this Iraqi’s name remains widely unknown. He wants it that way. In fact, he has spent millions of dollars to hinder the reporting of his activities by the news media. The lack of attention paid to him, however, is...

Obama's Chilling Crew   By Andrew WaldenFrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Why is there so little media investigation of the financing behind Barack Obama’s early political sponsor—and now convicted felon—Tony Rezko?      The dual US-Syrian citizen Rezko--who assisted Obama in the purchase of his Chicago mansion--was heavily funded by loans from Iraqi-British ex-Baathist billionaire Nadhmi Auchi.  According to testimony at Rezko’s trial, Obama met Auchi at an April 3, 2004 event at Rezko’s home during Obama’s 2004 US Senate campaign.  The Times of London reports discovering, “state documents in Illinois recording that Fintrade Services, a Panamanian company, lent...

NEW YORK -- The Federal Reserve on Wednesday reluctantly opened the books on its monumental campaign to save the financial system in the midst of the recent crisis, revealing how it distributed some $3.3 trillion in relief. The data revealed that the Fed's aid was scattered much more widely than previously understood. Two European megabanks -- Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse -- were the largest beneficiaries of the Fed's purchase of mortgage-backed securities. The Fed's dollars also flowed to major American companies that are not financial players, including McDonald's and Harley-Davidson, through unsecured short-term loans. The measure, initiated in Jan....

May 29, 2008 By Andrew Walden (Hawai'i Free Press) Nadhmi Auchi, seen here with the Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich (middle) at a 2004 Chicago dinner in Auchi's honor arranged by Antonin Rezko (potentially, right)[1]. All three men have been convicted of corruption related charges (Auchi 2003, Rezko 2008, Blagojevich 2009).[2] “A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser (dual US-Syrian citizen Tony Rezko) just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses. The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi,...

<p>Fox news ran stories last night based on some of the things we were tracking right here in this post. Here is their on line story.</p> <p>As unfinished as my research is, I feel compelled to release what I've found so far as the story cannot wait any longer.  I am not looking for a scoop on anyone or anything, but at the same time I don't want anyone thinking I made this stuff up after the fact either.</p>

Barack Obama appears to have personally benefited from funds originating in Saddam Hussein's regime. It's a complicated connection, but one that deserves the consideration of Americans voters. Two similar figures, Nadhmi Auchi and Antoin S. "Tony" Rezko, served as the intermediaries. Both are Middle Eastern males of Catholic Christian heritage who left Baathist dictatorships for Western cities (Auchi from Iraq to London, Rezko from Syria to Chicago). Both became successful businessmen who hobnobbed with politicians and promoted Arab interests. Both have been convicted of taking kickbacks and both stand accused of other shady dealings. Auchi, born in 1937, is the...

The financial system could face a meltdown of 1929 proportions unless US politicians succeed in their efforts for a $700bn rescue scheme, experts added. The warning came as Republicans and Democrats met in Washington for a rare weekend debating session to attempt to seal agreement on the contentious plan, aimed at preventing a long-lasting recession in the US. Officials close to Paulson are privately painting a far bleaker portrait of the fragility of the global economy than that advanced by President George W Bush in his televised address last week. One Republican said that the message from government officials is...

PARIS, Jan 1 (Reuters) - BNP Paribas was France's top M&A adviser in 2006 for the second year running, ahead of U.S. rivals Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, a report by financial newspaper L'Agefi said on Monday. L'Agefi said BNP Paribas advised on 50 deals during the year worth a total 119.1 billion euros, a record for the French bank. Goldman Sachs advised on 20 deals worth 112.4 billion euros and Merrill Lynch 23 deals valued at 99.4 billion euros. Both BNP Paribas and Goldman Sachs advised on one of the biggest deals of the year -- steel producer Mittal's...

Millions of American investors, as well as their pension funds, mutual funds and other institutions, have unsuspectingly invested their hard-earned wealth in foreign companies that aid and abet the Islamofascist theocracy in Iran. If you are reading this article, you’re probably one of those unsuspecting investors. You may not directly own shares of corporations that do business in and with the Islamic Republic of Iran, but chances are your 401K, mutual fund portfolio or public pension system is invested in such companies. Congratulations. A portion of your money is going toward arming and training Hezbollah terrorists, sheltering members of Al...

Since 2004, the IMF has taken the lead in administering a package aimed at greatly easing Congo's debt burden--a move more likely to help Mr. Sassou-Nguesso's government than the people who live under it. Debt relief has a nice ring, plays well at charity rock concerts, and keeps the IMF busy. The irony is that that for the people of Congo--as opposed to the regime-- the most useful debate may be inspired not by the poverty professionals, but by the likes of private creditors, who far from offering official aid or debt forgiveness are seeking to collect on Congo's old...

In reviewing the career of French diplomat Jean-Bernard Mérimée, two key moments stand out. In June 1995, Mr. Mérimée, then France's ambassador to the U.N., announced he was largely satisfied with the progress Iraq had made on disarmament and wanted sanctions lifted sooner rather than later. And this week, a French investigative magistrate brought Mr. Mérimée in for questioning on an allegation that he took a bribe from Saddam in the form of 11 million barrels of oil. So now we know what French officialdom means by the word "multilateralism": One part involves speechifying about the need for international "consensus"...

Toronto-- In the true life stranger than fiction category, Cantor Fitzgerald Securities and its subsidiary eSpeed network are one for the books. Cantor Fitzgerald’s New York office, on the 101st-105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 685 employees in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks–more than any other employer. Its e-Speed electronic bond-trading network lost 125 souls. Happily for the disciples of "Kyoto Mo" (Canadian Maurice Strong), who argues that global climate change is driven by anthropogenic gases emitted by inhabitants of the Anglosphere, a six-member eSpeed carbon-credit trading team escaped death. Their annual one-day fishing trip had to...

UN probes Wheat Pool Payments of $23.15M made in oil-for-food scandal congressional hearing told Steven Edwards CanWest News Service Saturday, April 30, 2005 UNITED NATIONS -- The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool has emerged as one of the companies involved in Iraq oil-for-food deals now under investigation by a U.S. congressional committee probing the United Nations aid program, which Saddam Hussein manipulated to skim off billions of dollars for himself. The focus on the company comes as the UN announced Friday it had discovered a staff-rule violation by Canadian businessperson and international diplomat Maurice Strong, whose long record at the world body...

Next up in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal is a trip down the money trail, by way of the French bank tapped by the United Nations — in cahoots with Saddam Hussein — to handle the main escrow account of the graft-laden U.N. program. Tomorrow, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing delving into some of the oil-for-food banking details. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican of California who will lead the hearing, expects that with some of the material due to be disclosed, "heads will turn." At the United Nations itself, heads have already been rolling, as...

BNP Paribas, the bank associated with the Oil-for-Food scandal, is doing brisk business in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s golden state. According to its website, "BNP Paribas acts as the sole agent for the State of California’s economic recovery bonds, the largest municipal bond sale in the United States." Active in the municipal bond market for over 10 years, BNP is providing credit enhancement and liquidity support for the State of California’s sale of $2.97 billion of variable-rate Economic Recovery Bonds ("ERB’s"). The bank also boasts that it will be a proud partner of San Francisco in financing the rebuilding of the...

Inside Iraqi Corruption Charles R. Smith Tuesday, March 29, 2005 John A. Shaw is a curious example of Washington politics gone mad. Shaw is a veteran government employee who served inside the White House under Presidents Ford, Nixon and Reagan and was an associate deputy secretary in the Department of Commerce. In 2001, Shaw was appointed by Bush Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld to head the newly formed Office of International Technology Security. In this post, Shaw began the difficult task of reforming government controls over the export of sensitive technology to foreign countries. In 2003, Shaw began investigating allegations of...

Newly released documents from the Bush administration show that a former member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle has resurfaced inside the new Iraqi government, bringing charges of corruption, bribery and bid-rigging. As a result, millions of U.S. aid dollars and billions in Iraqi government funds have disappeared in an ongoing scandal that is poised to engulf Baghdad and Washington. Worse still, a leading candidate for the top elected post in Iraq has also been implicated in the report as having taken "payoffs" in order to rig a major government cell phone contract. According to a May 2004 U.S. Defense Department...