Day: January 13, 2019

13^th January 2019

ISRAELI ARRESTED IN BULGARIA OVER BRIBERY SUSPICIONS IN GUATEMALA

Y Net News on 13^th January reported that Israeli national Azaria Levi, 70, a senior official in SBI Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Shikun & Binui real estate, was arrested in Bulgaria at the request of Guatemala.  Several of its employees were arrested in 2018 for suspected bribery and levi is suspected of giving $6.1 in bribes to government officials.

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5445784,00.html

BBC PODCAST: THE HISTORY OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS

A BBC Radio 4 programme examines the motivation of chemists like Dr Fritz Haber, who first encouraged the German military to deploy chlorine gas in WW1 for the sake of “The Fatherland” and of Dr Gerhard Schrader, who, in his hunt for an effective pesticide, accidentally discovered a new class of lethal nerve agents for Nazi Germany.  It asks how science educators can prepare young chemists for the moral hazard posed by this particular class of weapon.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0001zwz

PROPERTY AGENCY BOSS ARRESTED IN HONG KONG FOR ALLEGED FRAUD IN US

Factwire on 13^th January reported that Hong Kong police have arrested 5 people from one of the largest Hong Kong real estate agency specialised in overseas properties, including its managing director, after at least 28 people in Hong Kong accused the company of mislead them into buying derelict houses at inflated prices in the US.  Between 2012 and 2015 Premier Capital sold nearly 600 homes at 7 residential developments across Houston to investors in Hong Kong and mainland China, who paid around $340 million in total.  Investors were offered to buy foreclosed luxury houses at prices ‘lower than construction costs’, with the promise of guaranteed 16% rental return for the first 2 years.

https://www.factwire.org/single-post/2019/01/13/Property-agency-boss-arrested-for-alleged-fraud-in-US

INDIA: RUNAWAY DUBAI PRINCESS ‘SWAPPED’ FOR BRITISH ARMS DEALER

Stuff in New Zealand on 13^th January claimed that Christian Micehl, a British arms consultant at the centre of a bribery scandal over a helicopter deal in India, was exchanged for a runaway Dubai princess in a quid pro quo extradition.  Michel was extradited from the UAE to India.  He was exchanged for Princess Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, the daughter of Dubai’s ruler, who was intercepted by the Indian Navy during her attempt to flee the UAE in a yacht last year.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/109894146/runaway-princess-swapped-for-british-arms-consultant

RUSSIA: MAMMOTH HUNTERS PROBE PERMAFROST FOR ‘ETHICAL IVORY’

On 11^th January, Rferl published a video report saying that, in Russia’s remote Sakha-Yakutia region, the frozen ground is studded with the remains of prehistoric mammoths.  Their tusks are worth a fortune to traders in China, where the sale of elephant ivory was banned in late 2017.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-siberia-yakutia-mammoth-ivory/29703761.html

NOW A MEMBER OF AML BODY FATF, HAS ISRAEL TRULY CLEANED UP ITS ACT?

The Times of Israel carried an article on 13^th January posing this question.  It says that Israel was blacklisted 16 years ago, and despite joining FATF new immigrants can bring in unreported income for 10 years and vast scams go unprosecuted.  It also mentions ghost apartments (apartments that remain empty for most of the year) in the country, sales of very high-end cars, and only mild punishment for offenders, as well as complaints from other countries over lack of co-operation.  Furthermore, up to 25% of the economy is “off the books”.  Israel, it says, also appears to continue to turn a blind eye to Israel’s semi-underground investment scam industry, which defrauded victims all over the world out of billions, and also serves as a conduit for criminals to move their money around the world under the guise of online trading.  A critic is quoted as saying that there are certain branches of large Israeli banks that have developed a reputation among newcomers for looking the other way.  It also touches on an entire “high-risk payment processing” industry that has popped up that allows criminals and shady online actors to get their ill-gotten gains into the global payments system by masking and disguising their identities so that credit card companies and banks perceive them as legitimate.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/now-a-member-of-anti-money-laundering-body-has-israel-truly-cleaned-up-its-act

FUGITIVE ITALIAN MILITANT ARRESTED IN BOLIVIA

RTE on 13^th January reported that Cesare Battisti, a former Italian communist militant sought by Rome for 4 murders in the 1970s, has been arrested in Bolivia where he faces extradition to Brazil and then likely to Italy.

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2019/0113/1022921-cesare-battisti

WE’LL HELP WITH RUSSIA SANCTIONS FALL-OUT, GERMAN MINISTER TELLS BUSINESS

Customs Today on 12^th January reported that the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said Germany will try to protect German and European companies from some potentially “massive collateral damage” if Washington levies further sanctions against Russia.  Maas was speaking at a new year reception of the German Committee on East European Economic Relations, an industry group.

http://www.customstoday.com.pk/well-help-with-russia-sanctions-fall-out-german-minister-tells-business/

MALAYSIA: NATIONAL FINANCIAL CRIME CENTRE TO BE FULLY OPERATIONAL BY JUNE

On 12^th January, Customs Today reported that the National Financial Crime Centre (NFCC) is expected to be fully operational by June this year, said National Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption Centre (GIACC) director-general Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed.  The NFCC, which is one of the initiatives under the National Anti-Corruption Plan 2019-2023 (NACP), will act as a task force whereby all relevant agencies will work from one place and look at the same target criminal activities.  The NFCC, will comprise several agencies including the Royal Malaysian Customs, Immigration Department, Bank Negara Malaysia, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Companies Commission of Malaysia, Inland Revenue Board and Royal Malaysian of Police.

http://www.customstoday.com.pk/national-financial-crime-centre-to-be-fully-operational-by-june/

2 ARRESTS IN NEWRY FOLLOWING HMRC RAID OVER “MULTI-MILLION POUND” FUEL FRAUD

The Newry Times on 13^th January reported that a suspected fuel laundering plant was dismantled and 45,000 litres of fuel seized, along with specialised equipment thought to be being used in the laundering process.  The plant had the potential to produce in excess of 10 million litres of illicit fuel a year, with the potential loss of £6.5 million in revenue.  A HMRC spokesman is quoted as saying that HMRC now believes that criminals are now experimenting with processes that carry a risk of explosion as they seek to defeat fuel markers.

http://newrytimes.com/2019/01/13/two-arrests-in-newry-following-hmrc-fuel-fraud-raid

CONVERTING MERCHANT SHIPS TO MISSILE SHIPS FOR THE WIN

The US Naval Institute has published an article saying that the US Navy wants and needs more capability to ease the strain on its slowly growing fleet, a strain amplified by global great-power competition, and the pace of the 30-year shipbuilding plan as envisioned falls short.  The article proposes that the Navy should acquire and arm merchant ships, outfitting them with modular weapons and systems to take advantage of improving technology and shipping market conditions while providing capability more rapidly and less expensively than traditional acquisition efforts.  It could convert readily available merchant hulls into missile-armed Navy ships.  Options mentioned include IMO–compliant double-hull tankers and container ships, and either type probably could accommodate tactical ballistic missiles in addition to ship-launched cruise missiles.  Container ship conversion into a “missile merchant” would be easier and probably less costly if VLS modules were housed in special boxes or stacked in container cells.  The article says that the Navy should start experimenting with the concept immediately.

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2019-01/converting-merchant-ships-missile-ships-win

On 13^th January, an article in the Times of Malta in which the Dean of the Faculty of Law is quoted as saying that the judgment handed down by the court makes good law; it is the law itself which makes bad law.  A “Catch 22” situation is said to exist where you need an in genere inquiry (where anyone, and not just the police or Attorney General, can request a magisterial investigation) to investigate, find and confirm the existence of proof that may be used for a future prosecution of a crime; but, in order to get an inquiry going you need to provide the type of proof that would normally be found and obtained by the in genere inquiry itself.

https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20190113/local/blame-the-law-not-the-judge-dean-of-faculty-of-laws.699081

The Observer on 13^th January published an article which says that Albanian organised criminal syndicates who, according to the NCA, are consolidating power within the UK criminal underworld and on their way to a near total takeover of the country’s £5 billion cocaine trade.  It says that the story of how Albanians came to conquer the UK’s cocaine market is a lesson in criminal savvy; the value of making friends with the world’s most dangerous mafias (particularly the ‘Ndrangheta and the absolute threat of violence.  The article says that Liverpool as the only part of England not routinely selling Albanian-sourced cocaine – saying not only has the Merseyside port its own direct access to South America, but its turf is jealously guarded by the city’s own criminal gangs.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/13/kings-of-cocaine-albanian-mafia-uk-drugs-crime

VoA on 13^th January reported that landlocked Chad and the Central African Republic have dispatched senior customs officials to Cameroon to look into allegations of corruption in the Atlantic Coast port of Douala.  Importers complain of high levels of corruption, red tape and overpriced services are driving them away from one of Africa’s largest harbours.  An example is quoted where, to take a car out, an importer needs no fewer than 25 stamps before paying $2,000 to customs officials for a 5- to 10-year-old car. Removing a car from the port at times takes 2 to 3 weeks.  More than 2,000 containers are said to have been stuck in Douala for the past 2 months.

https://www.voanews.com/a/chad-car-threaten-to-abandon-cameroon-port-blame-corruption/4740780.html

The Arab Weekly on 13^th January reported that the discovery of 2 attempts, less than a month apart, to smuggle Turkish-made guns into Libya triggered hostile reactions over suspicions of Ankara’s support to extremists.  On December 18^th, Libyan customs officers discovered 3,000 Turkish-made 9mm Beretta-style handguns and 2.3 million rounds of ammunition in 2 containers that had been delivered on a cargo ship from Turkey, said to contain building materials and flooring.  On January 7^th, customs officials found more than 20,000 8mm Turkish handguns hidden in a container delivered from Turkey said to contain children’s toys and household goods.  The article says that even without these 2 incidents, hostility to Turkey (and Qatar) is growing.  Turkey has, with Qatar, become a sanctuary for numerous Libyan Islamist or quasi-Islamist political figures also fuelled hostility, including Abdulhakim Belhaj, the head of Libya’s al-Watan Party and owner of its pro-Islamist TV station Al Nabaa, which operates out of Turkey.  Perception of Libya’s history as a neo-Ottoman province, also appears to be building public suspicion and antagonism towards Turkey.

https://thearabweekly.com/suspicions-interference-libya-fuel-hostility-towards-turkey