Kryon Berlin Tour & Seminar - Berlin, Germany, Sept 17-22 2019 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Kryon Berlin Tour & Seminar - Berlin, Germany, Sept 17-22 2019 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)
30th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Council of Europe (CoE) - European Human Rights Court - founding fathers (1949)

Council of Europe (CoE) - European Human Rights Court - founding fathers (1949)
French National Assembly head Edouard Herriot and British Foreign minister Ernest Bevin surrounded by Italian, Luxembourg and other delegates at the first meeting of Council of Europe's Consultative Assembly in Strasbourg, August 1949 (AFP Photo)

EU founding fathers signed 'blank' Treaty of Rome (1957)

EU founding fathers signed 'blank' Treaty of Rome (1957)
The Treaty of Rome was signed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, one of the Renaissance palaces that line the Michelangelo-designed Capitoline Square in the Italian capital

Shuttered: EU ditches summit 'family photo'

Shuttered: EU ditches summit 'family photo'
EU leaders pose for a family photo during the European Summit at the EU headquarters in Brussels on June 28, 2016 (AFP Photo/JOHN THYS)

European Political Community

European Political Community
Given a rather unclear agenda, the family photo looked set to become a highlight of the meeting bringing together EU leaders alongside those of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Britain, Kosovo, Switzerland and Turkey © Ludovic MARIN

Merkel says fall of Wall proves 'dreams can come true'


“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."
"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)




"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Friday, November 30, 2012

Several HSBC staff leave amid laundering probe: report

The Daily Star, AFP, November 30, 2012

A woman leaves an ATM of an HSBC branch in Hong Kong on July 30, 2012.
 (AFP PHOTO / Philippe Lopez)
                              
GENEVA: Several employees at the HSBC bank in Geneva have left "by mutual agreement" after the unravelling of a 100 million euro ($130 million) drug and money laundering ring in France and Switzerland, Swiss daily Tribune de Geneve reported Friday.

While it remained unclear how many workers had left, one of the employees to go was the eldest brother of no fewer than three suspects accused of involvement in the ring, including the main suspect for Switzerland operations Meyer Elmaley, the daily said.

"He is not suspected of any involvement (in the money laundering probe)", said the man's lawyer, Marc Bonnant, adding that it was his client's idea to leave HSBC's Supervisory Executive Committee to protect against any question of wrongdoing.

"He wasn't even questioned by police," the lawyer said, adding that his client, whose name was not given, had gone to live in Israel but was still working with HSBC before French and Swiss police cracked down on the ring on October 10.

HSBC, which declined to comment on the development to AFP, has also come to a similar arrangement with other employees in a bid to protect its reputation, the lawyer added.

Two of the former HSBC executive's brothers -- one of them a former HSBC colleague -- are being held in Swiss custody over their involvement in a drug and money laundering racket Paris says legitimised at least 100 million euros.

A third brother is being held in France in connection with the same case.

According to reports, the two brothers held in Switzerland are suspected of laundering cash through a Geneva-based finance company, with the possible unwitting participation of French tax evaders.

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Nobel peace laureates call for Israel military boycott over Gaza assault

Letter with 52 signatories including artists and activists also denounces US and EU 'complicity' through weapons sales

guardian.co.uk, Chris McGreal in Jerusalem, Wednesday 28 November 2012

A man looks at the ruins of a Hamas police station destroyed by an Israeli
air strike in Gaza City. Photograph: Oliver Weiken/EPA

A group of Nobel peace prize-winners, prominent artists and activists have issued a call for an international military boycott of Israel following its assault on the Gaza Strip this month.

The letter also denounces the US, EU and several developing countries for what it describes as their "complicity" through weapons sales and other military support in the attack that killed 160 Palestinians, many of them civilians, including about 35 children.

The 52 signatories include the Nobel peace laureates Mairead Maguire and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; the film directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach; the author Alice Walker; the US academic Noam Chomsky; Roger Waters of Pink Floyd; and Stéphane Hessel, a former French diplomat and Holocaust survivor who was co-author of the universal declaration of human rights.

"Horrified at the latest round of Israeli aggression against the 1.5 million Palestinians in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip and conscious of the impunity that has enabled this new chapter in Israel's decades-old violations of international law and Palestinian rights, we believe there is an urgent need for international action towards a mandatory, comprehensive military embargo against Israel," the letter says.

"Such a measure has been subject to several UN resolutions and is similar to the arms embargo imposed against apartheid South Africa in the past."

The letter accuses several countries of providing important military support that facilitated the assault on Gaza. "While the United States has been the largest sponsor of Israel, supplying billions of dollars of advanced military hardware every year, the role of the European Union must not go unnoticed, in particular its hefty subsidies to Israel's military complex through its research programmes.

"Similarly, the growing military ties between Israel and the emerging economies of Brazil, India and South Korea are unconscionable given their nominal support for Palestinian freedom," it says.

The letter opens with a quote from Nelson Mandela: "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

The other signatories include John Dugard, a South African jurist and former UN special rapporteur in the occupied territories; Luisa Morgantini, former president of the European parliament; Cynthia McKinney, a former member of the US Congress; Ronnie Kasrils, a South African former cabinet minister; and the dramatist Caryl Churchill.


Related Articles:



The Jewish-Palestinian Declaration (1997)

UN recognizes Palestine as non-member observer state

NO voters:

US
Israel
Czech Republic
Panama
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Naura
Palau



“… Let us talk about the swords: When you hear the word sword, the first thing that occurs to you is battle. The Bridge of Swords is a battle and we told you that as well. Swords are metaphoric and they mean many things, so let us describe the things we mean them to say to you.

Number one: They are indeed a weapon in a battle. There is a battle coming. "Kryon, does that mean there's going to be a war?" Potentially, yes. Right now we will tell you that the Middle East cooks itself. You've noticed, haven't you? What do you know about the Middle East, dear one? Let's start examining things for a moment. What energy did you grow up in? What was the energy of the Middle East? In the '40s, what was the energy? With the establishment of the state of Israel, you built a wall of hate, both sides. The wall was so thick that the children of both sides were taught to hate one another as soon as they were able to understand the language. They were told who their enemies were. Now, where were you then?

Some of you weren't here yet. By the time you arrived, in your youth, were you aware of the Middle East? Not particularly. "What's the hatred about?" you might ask. What if I told you it's about a family feud? Two sons of a Jewish master are involved. One founded the Arabs and one remained a Jew. They don't want to hear this, but they are all Jews. (Don't tell them this.)

If you look at the lineage, it's pretty obvious and yet it's a complete and total set-up for either solution or war. The set-up would have this world ending in a conflagration that would have been brought about by this hatred. That's in the prophecy of Nostradamus and your scripture, but it is no longer the prophecy of the planet. Yet the hatred still exists. The hatred is as great today as it was then, but where was all the terrorism 40 years ago? It was isolated.

Those in Israel and Palestine and surrounding areas took the brunt of it, but now it's seemingly everywhere - and you're worried. Why would this be? The answer is that the old energy was happy to have this hatred contained, for it would keep it going and never involve outsiders. Outsiders tend to bring unwanted light to the party. Suddenly, the whole earth is involved and can see the entire scenario before them. The old guard wants war, just like all the eons before them. The ones on the bridge are holding the light and showing the earth how to cross. Even many younger ones in Israel and Palestine and Iran are holding light! It's all around the old guard and they are furious, for they are losing the "battle of hatred." …”



9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

Pussy Riot videos banned online by Russian court

Deutsche Welle, 29 November 2012



A court in Moscow has deemed videos of the band Pussy Riot performing its 'punk prayer' inside a cathedral as "extremist," saying they should be ban from the web. Two band members are in prison for the act in February.

The decision from the court in the Russian capital on Thursday said the video, which was recorded in February during Pussy Riot's protest performance (pictured above) against then-presidential candidate Vladimir Putin, should be removed from all websites.

The Reuters news agency quoted Judge Marina Musimovich as saying that the video "had elements of extremism."

"In particular there are words and actions which humiliate various social groups based on their religion," she added.

Two of the members of Pussy Riot are serving two-year sentences in work camps after being convicted of hooliganism and inciting religious hatred. A third bandmate is serving a suspended sentence.

Jailing the members of Pussy Riot drew widespread criticism from abroad. US and European leaders described the sentences as excessive, and some expressed the view that the women had been punished as part of a crackdown on opposition figures in Russia.

mz/ipj (Reuters, dpa, AP)

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Nuclear lobbyists wined and dined senior civil servants, documents show

Office for Nuclear Development officials received hospitality from industry representatives at luxurious restaurants and clubs

guardian.co.uk, Leo Hickman, Wednesday 28 November 2012

The Lancaster hotel in London, where Mark Higson, the chief executive of the OND,
 was entertained by a nuclear plant construction company, weeks after the office's
creation. Photograph: Rex Features

Senior civil servants responsible for ensuring the building of the UK's new fleet of nuclear power stations have been extensively wined and dined by nuclear industry lobbyists, documents released under freedom of information reveal.

A hospitality register (.zip) released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) show that the three most senior officials at the Office for Nuclear Development (OND) have received hospitality from nuclear industry representatives on dozens of occasions since the office's formation in September 2009. Many of the meetings have taken place at some of London's most luxurious restaurants, hotels and private members' clubs.

Mark Higson, the OND's chief executive, received his first hospitality in the role just a few weeks after the office's creation with a dinner at the Lancaster hotel in Kensington hosted by Westinghouse, the US nuclear plant construction company, and the Nuclear Industry Association. In the intervening period up to last month, Higson and his colleagues Hergen Haye and Stephen de Souza separately accepted hospitality from a range of companies with a vested interest in the nuclear industry, including Babcock, EDF, Areva, and GE Hitachi, as well as a range of industry consultants and trade associations.

In the year between June 2010 and June 2011, Higson received hospitality on four separate occasions from KPMG, the global financial consultants. The hospitality included two dinners at the five-star Berkeley hotel, which hosts Marcus Wareing's two-Michelin star restaurant where the tasting menu costs £98 a person.

The period covered a time when KPMG was working for companies with a potential key stake interest in the UK's nuclear industry, as well as advising investors in the nuclear industry. In July 2010, KPMG published a report commissioned by RWE npower which said that unless the government raised the carbon "floor price", large utility companies would not deem it economic to invest in the UK's new nuclear sector.

Other venues for hospitality enjoyed by the OND's senior officials include the Reform Club, the Cavalry and Guards Club, the Royal Horseguards hotel, the RAC Club, Roux at Parliament Square, the Naval & Military Club, 1 Lombard Street and the Cinnamon Club.

In 2008, Higson was among the civil servants criticised by Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, for "entirely inappropriate behaviour" after the Independent of Sunday reported that civil servants working in the nuclear consultations and liabilities unit at the now disbanded Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform had enjoyed hospitality paid for by nuclear industry representatives at venues such as the Ritz, Royal Ascot and the Café Royale. At the time, Higson headed the unit.

According to its website, the OND provides "advice to ministers on regulatory decisions" and "focuses on removing potential barriers to investment, and signals clearly to the industry the serious intent of the government to push forward nuclear new build". It adds that it is "facilitating new nuclear investment in the UK, by enabling new nuclear to make the fullest contribution it is capable of, with no public subsidy, and with unnecessary obstacles removed".

A Decc spokesman told the Guardian: "The government has made it clear that nuclear should be part of the UK's energy mix. Decc officials work closely with industry to bring on new investment in nuclear as well as renewables and oil and gas. All hospitality is accepted in line with Cabinet Office policy."

Asked why so many of the meetings take place at such luxurious venues, the Decc spokesman said: "Industry meetings are hosted at our offices as well as at external events. The choice of location for external events is a matter for the hosting organisations." He added that such meetings are considered to be "informal" and that, as a result, minutes of conversations are not kept by the department. Ministers are not routinely informed of the meetings, he said, as all hospitality is recorded in accordance with Cabinet Office policy.

Craig Bennett, the director of policy and campaigns at Friends of the Earth, said: "It is the worst kept secret in Whitehall that the energy bill due out on Thursday is almost entirely being done to rig the market in favour of nuclear power. The so-called contracts for difference are all about providing not-so-hidden subsidies for nuclear. What the taxpayer should be asking is whether this succession of lavish hospitality has resulted in lavish subsidies for nuclear."

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Dutch Minister freezes nuclear plant application

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) SoulsMidpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) (Text version) 

“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much….”


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Russians profit from Britain's offshore secrecy

The UK's approach has attracted many post-Soviet billionaires, including some on the run

The Guardian, David Leigh, Harold Frayman and James Ball, Tuesday 27 November 2012

Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov used a BVI company to buy the most
 expensive flat sold in London, at One Hyde Park. Photograph: Sergei
Supinsky/AFP/Getty

Britain's friendly regime of offshore secrecy has tempted an extraordinary array of post-Soviet billionaires to descend on London, sometimes to the sound of gunfire.

Vladimir Antonov fled permanently to Britain after his father, Alexander, was gunned down in a Moscow street in 2009. Another associate, German Gorbuntsov, narrowly survived a volley of shots in London last March.

Offshore Secrets
When Antonov bought a luxury yacht in Antibes, the Sea D, he was careful to register its ownership to an anonymous British Virgin Islands (BVI) entity, Danforth Ventures Inc.

He also found funds to try to take over the ailing Swedish car manufacturer Saab, though he did not take control. He did succeed for a while in owning the even more ailing Portsmouth football club.

Antonov is currently on bail in Britain. Lithuanian authorities are trying to extradite him for allegedly looting their collapsed bank Snoras, which he denies.

The allegation that oligarchs exploit Britain's offshore secrecy regime to shift assets out of their own countries is not an uncommon one. One refugee from the law is the Kazakh billionaire Mukhtar Ablyazov, who was allegedly last seen in February heading out of London on a coach to France. Ablyazov has been sentenced to 22 months in jail for contempt of court as the BTA Bank in Kazakhstan attempts to pursue his maze of offshore assets. The bank's lawyers claim Ablyazov has made off with £4bn using BVI and Seychelles companies, nominee directors and layers of front men. Ablyazov denies it.

These billionaires justify their use of British-controlled secrecy jurisdictions because they say they must protect themselves from corporate predators and political enemies in their home countries.

Another fleeing oligarch, the Georgian Badri Patarkatsishvili – a partner of fellow exile Boris Berezovsky– was found dead in 2008 in his Surrey mansion. Patarkatsishvili's business manager, Eugene Jaffe, managed £500m of the Georgian's assets from a central London office through a BVI company, Salford Capital Partners. Jaffe's company was owned in turn by an opaque BVI trust he set up called Montana River.

The wild-west financial landscape of post-Soviet Russia has attracted at least one entrepreneur from the British Isles to exploit the possibilities of the BVI secrecy regime. We have traced BVI entities used in Russia by the man once known as the richest in Ireland, the property developer Seán Quinn. He expanded into schemes for shopping malls in Moscow and Kiev.

He has now declared himself bankrupt and has received an Irish jail sentence for contempt, as the now state-owned Anglo Irish Bank seeks to recover what it says is a missing £2bn.

Other post-Soviet financiers have used Britain's secret offshore facilities for widely different purposes. The London-based Latvian oil trader Evgeny Tikhonov set up an entity in the BVI to hide a total of $2.4m (£1.5m) that his employer, Shell, subsequently convinced a British civil court he was wrongly skimming off from fuel deals. He was, however, acquitted of criminal charges over this.

The fund manager Igor Tsukanov, another arrival in the fashionable west London area of Notting Hill, kept funds in the BVI that will have apparently legally sheltered them from Russian taxes.

Dimitry Sergeev, a mobile phone games entrepreneur from Novosibirsk, whose firm was BVI-registered, faced a potentially costly dispute with a small Manchester supplier over some allegedly unpaid invoices. A source there said: "We decided it was too difficult to bring a legal action in the BVI." Sergeev did not comment.

Undoubtedly the most flamboyant post-Soviet beneficiary of Britain's offshore secrecy regime is Rinat Akhmetov, the richest man in the Ukraine. From a base in the coal-mining Donetsk region, he has personally acquired industrial assets estimated to be worth £11bn. He shifted £136m out of the former Soviet republic in 2007, in order to buy the most expensive flat sold in London, at One Hyde Park.

Asked why he hid behind a BVI company, his company spokesman in the Ukraine said it was "for internal structuring reasons". He added: "Water Property Holdings Limited fully paid all taxes and charges … as required by applicable laws in the UK. This includes payment in February 2011 of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) at a rate of 4% which amounted to £5.467m."

Legal use of BVI entities to disguise Russian movement of funds into British companies, also appears to be widespread. In one example we have unearthed, a British-registered firm, Pennard Chemicals Ltd, with an address at rental offices in Cannon St in the City of London, has had declared revenue over the last 3 years of more than 100 million euros, described as commission on unspecified Russian deals. Pennard Chemicals named director, The Hon Andrew Moray Stuart, with an address in Mauritius, is one of the sham nominees the Guardian/ICIJ research has identified. The shareholder, Imex Executive Ltd, is a BVI entity set up by a Moscow incorporation agency. In turn, its sham nominee directors include Jesse Hester in Mauritius and a sham nominee shareholder, Brenda Cocksedge. These nominees sell their names, without exercising genuine control or ownership. The real owner, according to company records we have seen, is named as Ivan Kovlachuk.

Offshore secrets

Guardian team: David Leigh, Harold Frayman and James Ball.

The project is a collaboration between the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) headed by Gerard Ryle in Washington DC. Guardian investigations editor David Leigh is a member of ICIJ, a global network of reporters in more than 60 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories that cross national boundaries. The ICIJ was founded in 1997 as a project of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington DC-based non-profit.

Related Article:


Monday, November 26, 2012

Norwegian police apologize for deportations of Jews

Deutsche Welle, 26 November 2012


Norwegian police have apologized for the first time over their role in arresting and deporting over 700 Jews while under German occupation during World War II. The prime minister apologized earlier this year.

The statement came on Monday, the 70th anniversary of the first deportation of Jews, when 532 people were sent to the Auschwitz death camp.

"Norwegian police officers participated in the arrest and deporation of Jews," said police chief Odd Reidar Humlegaard.

"It is fitting that I express my regret for the role police played in the arrest and deportation of these completely innocent victims," he added.

Norway's role

German forces occupied Norway from April 9, 1940 to May 8, 1945. Norway's leader during the occupation, Vidkun Quisling, ordered the registration of Jews in 1942, and the state was complicit in their deportation.

After the war, individual members of the Norwegian police were convicted of varying crimes, including torture and executions.

Norway's government acknowledged its role in the affair in 1998 and paid approximately $60 million (46 million euros) to Norwegian Jews and Jewish organizations for lost property.

The state controversially did not issue a full apology at the time, but in May of this year Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg made a formal apology.

"I could say it was about time, but it was good to hear," said 89-year-old Samuel Steinman, the only surviving Norwegian Jewish deportee.

Deportations during the war

Of the 772 Norwegian Jews and Jewish refugees deported to Nazi concentration camps, only 34 survived the war.

The Jewish population of Norway increased from 1,700 before the war to 2,100 by 1942, as refugees from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia fled mainland Europe.

dr/pfd (dpa, Reuters)

Canada's Mark Carney to head Bank of England

France 24, AFP, 26 November 2012 

Mark Carney speaks at a press conference in Mexico City earlier this month.
 Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer on Monday named Mark Carney, chief of the
Bank of Canada, as the new governor of the Bank of England.

AFP - Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer on Monday named Mark Carney, the current chief of the Bank of Canada, as the new governor of the Bank of England.

"I can tell parliament and the public that the next governor of the Bank of England is Mark Carney," Chancellor George Osborne told MPs.

"He is quite simply the best, most experienced and most qualified person in the world to be the next governor of the Bank of England."

Carney, 47, who is currently governor of the Bank of Canada and chair of the global Financial Stability Board, will take over from Mervyn King, who has lead the BoE since 2003 and will step down on June 30.

He comes from outside Europe, but in his role at the FSB has been involved in dealing with some of the fallout from the global financial crisis and fighting the eurozone debt crisis.

Britain is not a member of the eurozone, but is deeply concerned that the thrust of European Union policies to reform finance threaten the City of London.

Osborne described Carney as "the outstanding central banker of his generation with unparallelled expertise in financial regulation" who has helped steer Canada through the global financial crisis.

Carney, who intends to take on British citizenship, will serve as BoE governor for a five year term and stand down at the end of June 2018.

"He will bring a fresh perspective," Osborne told parliament. "He has got what it takes to help bring families and businesses through these incredibly challenging economic times.

"My responsibility was to get the best for Britain, and with Mark Carney we've got that."

The announcement took markets by surprise because the bookies' favourite had been current deputy governor Paul Tucker.

Carney will succeed King, 64, under whose watch the British central bank played a vital role in stabilising world financial markets following the 2007/2008 global financial crisis.

The governor leads the Bank of England, an independent body which sets interest rates and has pumped out billions of pounds under its radical quantitative easing policy since 2009 in order to stimulate economic growth.

Carney takes the helm with the BoE due to take over banking regulation from Britain's Financial Services Authority (FSA) next year, as part of a regulatory overhaul aimed at avoiding a repeat of the devastating financial crisis.

The appointment also comes amid a series of damaging scandals that have rocked London's financial district and sparked fresh concerns over the banking sector's conduct.

Aside from Carney and Tucker, other candidates in the running were believed to be FSA chairman Adair Turner, Santander UK chairman Lord Terence Burns, and John Vickers, who chaired the government's recent Independent Commission on Banking.




JPMorgan's Dimon's aggressive style may hurt bank cause

(Reuters) - Masters of the universe are not always so masterful after all.

Jamie Dimon, CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co., 
poses for  a portrait in his office in New York, in this photo
taken December 22, 2010. (Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

(Jamie Dimon is "In Containment" according Archangel Michael)


SB: It’s my guess that you do not speak about a person in containment, say, without their permission, as with John Roberts and Jamie Dimon. Am I correct in that hunch?

AAM: That is absolutely correct.

Even in containment, we do not override or disregard — let us put it that way, because we are already overriding them — we do not disregard what they in their heart wish the human collective to know.

SB: Can you tell us for what purpose John Roberts and Jamie Dimon would allow their cases to be discussed?

AAM: They have volunteered on a soul level to allow their beings to be disclosed simply because of the impact and the signal of hope that it can offer for so many.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Offshore secrets revealed: the shadowy side of a booming industry

A worldwide research effort in collaboration with the Guardian/ICIJ reveals the real people behind these anonymous companies



James Ball travels to the tiny Caribbean island of Nevis searching for Sarah Petre-Mears,
 who on paper controls more than 1,200 companies scattered around the Caribbean, the
Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and the UK itself Link to this video


The existence of an extraordinary global network of sham company directors, most of them British, can be revealed.

The UK government claims such abuses were stamped out long ago, but a worldwide joint investigation by the Guardian, the BBC's Panorama and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has uncovered a booming offshore industry that leaves the way open for both tax avoidance and the concealment of assets.

Offshore Secrets
More than 21,500 companies have been identified using this group of 28 so-called nominee directors. The nominees play a key role in keeping secret hundreds of thousands of commercial transactions. They do so by selling their names for use on official company documents, using addresses in obscure locations all over the world.

This is not illegal under UK law, and sometimes nominee directors have a legitimate role. But our evidence suggests this particular group of directors only pretend to control the companies they put their names to.

The companies themselves are often registered anonymously offshore in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), but also in Ireland, New Zealand, Belize and the UK itself. More than a score of UK agencies sell offshore companies, several of which also help supply sham directors.

One British couple, Sarah and Edward Petre-Mears, who migrated from Sark in the Channel Islands to the Caribbean island of Nevis, have sold their services to more than 2,000 entities, with their names appearing on activities ranging from Russian luxury property purchases to pornography and casino sites.

In 1999, the government claimed Britain's sham director industry had been "effectively outlawed" after a judge, Mr Justice Blackburne, said the court would not tolerate "the situation where someone takes on the directorship of so many companies and then totally abrogates responsibility". But our findings show this has failed to be policed.

These nominee fronts conceal a wide variety of real owners, including those that are perfectly legal, from Russian oligarchs to discreet speculators in the British property market. Their only common factor is the wish for secrecy. Some of the owners we have identified include:

• Vladimir Antonov, the London-based billionaire Russian purchaser of Portsmouth FC, who is currently fighting an extradition request from Lithuania, where he controlled a bank. He denies wrongdoing.

• Yair Spitzer, a north London software engineer who bought and sold London flats. He said: "We were advised by UK accountants that this structure … was perfectly legal."

• The Hackmeys, a wealthy Israeli family, one of whom used a BVI company to buy a £26m London office block. Their spokesman said: "The deal was introduced by a [confidential] joint venture partner who set up the deal and structure."

• Nicholas Joannou, whose Armstrong Group sold shares from an address in Berkeley Square, central London. The Guardian was unable to contact him.

• SP Trading, which was linked in 2009 to a Kazakh businessman and an arms to Iran scandal. The nominee directors in Vanuatu turned out to have no knowledge of the company's true activities. They told us there were "very few cases of misuse by clients".

In a parallel investigation Monday's Panorama on BBC1 is due to show a company formation agent offering to assist its undercover reporter to escape tax. The agent, James Turner, of Turner Little in York, offers nominee directors in Belize and says: "They won't even know that they were a director, they just get paid."

A representative of a second company, Atlas Corporate Services, is asked for maximum confidentiality. He explains that many of its nominees are not even aware of how their names are being used. Jesse Hester, who runs Atlas Corporate Services from Mauritius, is seen assuring a potential client that the UK is unlikely to catch up with him. "Tax authorities don't have the resources to chase everybody down … They reckon it's probably the same rough odds as probably winning the lottery," he says.

The revelations launch a week-long series onthe Guardian site designed to strip away anonymity from offshore companies, the most shadowy aspect of the UK's financial industry. The British Virgin Islands are a particularly successful hideaway, thanks to the exceptional secrecy on offer. This Caribbean territory, which is ultimately controlled by the UK, has sold more than a million anonymously-owned offshore entities since launching itself in 1984 as a tax haven.

The purchasers are often people who, for a variety of reasons, some perfectly legitimate, do not wish to advertise what they are doing with their wealth.

But a worldwide research effort has been launched this year by the ICIJ. It aims to identify, country by country, thousands of the true owners.

The Guardian has collaborated with the ICIJ, a non-profit organisation, to analyse many gigabytes of the British data. This week we intend to reveal the names of more owners. We do not suggest criminal wrongdoing by them. Among those we have contacted, not all go so far as to employ nominee directors. Some insist they have done nothing improper, and are merely taking advantage of legitimate tax breaks or the opportunity for privacy. Critics say, however, that the islands' system can be open to abuse because of its lack of transparency.

Gerard Ryle, the director of the ICIJ, said: "We are applying specialist software to crunch through literally hundreds of thousands of offshore entities to look for patterns. We are marrying our findings with old-fashioned shoe leather and interviews from key insiders who can provide further context on this little known and loosely regulated world. We are satisfied that the information we have is authentic."

Ryle believes the ICIJ's global project, when it is completed next year, will haul into the open a shadowy financial system estimated to conceal the movement around the world of trillions of dollars.

Offshore secrets

Guardian team: David Leigh, Harold Frayman and James Ball.

The project is a collaboration between the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) headed by Gerald Ryle in Washington DC. Guardian investigations editor David Leigh is a member of ICIJ, a global network of reporters in more than 60 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories that cross national boundaries. The ICIJ was founded in 1997 as a project of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington DC-based non-profit.


Ex-first lady Bruni backs gay marriage, models for Vogue

The Daily Star, AFP, November 25, 2012

Carla Bruni (AFP)
                             
PARIS: Former French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy backed controversial plans for France to legalise gay marriage in an interview with Vogue that sees the 44-year-old return to her supermodel roots.

In an interview appearing in the magazine's December issue with a 20-page photo shoot reminiscent of Bruni-Sarkozy's time as a top model in the 1990s, she admitted she disagreed with her husband on the question of gay marriage and adoption.

"I am rather in favour of gay marriage and adoption, I have a lot of friends -- women and men -- who are in this situation and I see nothing unstable or perverse in families with homosexual parents," she said.

French President Francois Hollande, who defeated Sarkozy in a May presidential election, is pushing plans to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption despite fierce opposition from Catholics and rightwing groups, including most of Sarkozy's UMP party.

Bruni-Sarkozy refused to answer questions about her husband's future political career, saying only: "It was a beautiful adventure, but today I just want to go back to being a citizen like any other."

Bruni-Sarkozy, a model and singer whose fourth album will be released next spring, married the divorced Sarkozy in 2008.


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