The Bush family does not care for the recent disclosures of documents and other inside information on WMR that point to their close business connections to the Saudis, Bin Ladens (Osama included), and various front companies, and brass plate "folding tent" shell corporations around the world. Now they can add "Kazakhgate" to the growing list of scandals and criminal activity involving themselves and their closest business associates.
More details concerning illegal Bush enterprises are coming out in the trial of former lobbyist for the oil industry and the Kazakhstan government, Jim Giffen, a New York investment banker. Giffen was indicted for bribing Kazakhstan government leaders with some $84 million in return for lucrative oil drilling rights for Amoco, Mobil, Phillips Petroleum, and Texaco in the years immediately following the fall of the USSR and the independence of Kazakhstan under the rule of Nursultan Nazarbayev, a former Soviet Communist Party leader. Giffen also represented the interests of Chevron in the former USSR. Kazakhstan's Tengiz oil fields rank among the world's largest reserves.
Giffen is accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits American businessmen from bribing foreign officials. However, Giffen's attorneys are contending that their client's actions and those of his bank, Mercator, were carried out with the knowledge and encouragement of the CIA under then-director Robert Gates. Gates' nomination as director by President George H. W. Bush in 1991 survived a bitter battle that saw 31 Senators voting against Gates' confirmation (an additional five did not vote). It was then-Senate Intelligence Committee staff director George Tenet who shepherded Gates' nomination through the Senate, ensuring him the support of former President Bush after George W. Bush's 2000 selection as President. Tenet was the highest-ranking holdover from Clinton to Bush. The elder Bush was said to have pressed his son to keep Tenet on board at the CIA for Tenet's help in ensuring Gates' confirmation at a time when independent counsel Lawrence Walsh was bearing down on George H. W. Bush for his role in the Iran-contra scandal and the BCCI and Savings & Loan collapses. Gates was Deputy Director of the CIA under Bill Casey during the height of the Iran-contra scandal and was fully involved with the principal players, including Oliver North and Richard Secord.
Following the pattern of Bush family oil and other enterprises around the world, U.S. oil companies, through accounts allegedly set up by Giffen and his associates, paid bribes into accounts of Nazarbayev, his Oil Minister Nurlan Balgambayev, and other Kazakh officials. Balgambayev's accounts were under the names Orchard Holdings of Newton, Massachusetts; Giffen's under Condor Capital Management and Denlay Associates of the British Virgin Islands; Samal Balgambayeva's (Bagambayev's daughter) under the name Brisa, Inc.; a joint Giffen-Balgambayev account under the name NTC International; Mobil's under the name Alqi Holdings Ltd. of the British Virgin Islands; Nazarbayev's under the name Orel Capital, owned by Semreck Foundation of Liechtenstein, a Nazarbayev trust. Other secret accounts were established in Bank Indosuez (now Credit Agricole Indosuez) and Credit Suisse accounts in Switzerland and Bahamas. Hovelon Trading SA of the British Virgin Islands was a controlling operation for Denlay Associates. Other companies involved in the bribery scandal include Vaeko Europe Ltd. and Nichem Energy Ltd., both owned by an American citizen named Friedhelm Eronat, Berkut Holdings Ltd. and Balicar. Giffen reportedly coordinated his Kazakh oil activities with Gates, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, and Secretary of State James Baker.
You get a good idea of why the Bush cabal wants to shut this guy up :wink:
More details concerning illegal Bush enterprises are coming out in the trial of former lobbyist for the oil industry and the Kazakhstan government, Jim Giffen, a New York investment banker. Giffen was indicted for bribing Kazakhstan government leaders with some $84 million in return for lucrative oil drilling rights for Amoco, Mobil, Phillips Petroleum, and Texaco in the years immediately following the fall of the USSR and the independence of Kazakhstan under the rule of Nursultan Nazarbayev, a former Soviet Communist Party leader. Giffen also represented the interests of Chevron in the former USSR. Kazakhstan's Tengiz oil fields rank among the world's largest reserves.
Giffen is accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits American businessmen from bribing foreign officials. However, Giffen's attorneys are contending that their client's actions and those of his bank, Mercator, were carried out with the knowledge and encouragement of the CIA under then-director Robert Gates. Gates' nomination as director by President George H. W. Bush in 1991 survived a bitter battle that saw 31 Senators voting against Gates' confirmation (an additional five did not vote). It was then-Senate Intelligence Committee staff director George Tenet who shepherded Gates' nomination through the Senate, ensuring him the support of former President Bush after George W. Bush's 2000 selection as President. Tenet was the highest-ranking holdover from Clinton to Bush. The elder Bush was said to have pressed his son to keep Tenet on board at the CIA for Tenet's help in ensuring Gates' confirmation at a time when independent counsel Lawrence Walsh was bearing down on George H. W. Bush for his role in the Iran-contra scandal and the BCCI and Savings & Loan collapses. Gates was Deputy Director of the CIA under Bill Casey during the height of the Iran-contra scandal and was fully involved with the principal players, including Oliver North and Richard Secord.
Following the pattern of Bush family oil and other enterprises around the world, U.S. oil companies, through accounts allegedly set up by Giffen and his associates, paid bribes into accounts of Nazarbayev, his Oil Minister Nurlan Balgambayev, and other Kazakh officials. Balgambayev's accounts were under the names Orchard Holdings of Newton, Massachusetts; Giffen's under Condor Capital Management and Denlay Associates of the British Virgin Islands; Samal Balgambayeva's (Bagambayev's daughter) under the name Brisa, Inc.; a joint Giffen-Balgambayev account under the name NTC International; Mobil's under the name Alqi Holdings Ltd. of the British Virgin Islands; Nazarbayev's under the name Orel Capital, owned by Semreck Foundation of Liechtenstein, a Nazarbayev trust. Other secret accounts were established in Bank Indosuez (now Credit Agricole Indosuez) and Credit Suisse accounts in Switzerland and Bahamas. Hovelon Trading SA of the British Virgin Islands was a controlling operation for Denlay Associates. Other companies involved in the bribery scandal include Vaeko Europe Ltd. and Nichem Energy Ltd., both owned by an American citizen named Friedhelm Eronat, Berkut Holdings Ltd. and Balicar. Giffen reportedly coordinated his Kazakh oil activities with Gates, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, and Secretary of State James Baker.
You get a good idea of why the Bush cabal wants to shut this guy up :wink: