A Riggs Bank internal investigation has uncovered signs of money laundering by bank employees, including efforts in 2003 to help Argentine naval officers hide $3.8 million in cash to prevent seizure by investors after the Argentine government defaulted on bond payments.
The investigation by a small team of former Secret Service agents hired by Riggs last year also discovered that efforts by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to hide millions of dollars at Riggs go back to 1985, nearly 10 years earlier than previously known. Pinochet came to power in a 1973 coup and instituted several years of bloody repression. He resigned after a 1989 election, but he remained commander-in-chief of the armed forces until 1998.
The Riggs investigation discovered that efforts by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to hide millions of dollars at Riggs go back to 1985, nearly 10 years earlier than previously known. (Martin Thomas -- AP)
_____Special Report_____
• Pinochet and the Law
Previous accounts have described the bank's close relationship with Pinochet and what appear to be attempts to hide his assets from federal prosecutors. But the bank's own investigation, according to sources familiar with its findings, turned up detailed information about the lengths the bank went to accommodate the former dictator, whom bank officials referred to by code names including "Red Fox" and "APU." The sources agreed to speak only on the condition that they not be identified since the investigation is continuing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63814-2004Nov19.htmlLast week, the BBC and the Guardian reported that BAE Systems, the world's fourth-largest defense company, paid approximately $2 billion to an Saudi account in the now-defunct Riggs Bank controlled by Bandar as part of Britain's largest-ever defense deal. That purchase, known as al-Yamamah, brought Britain over $80 billion in Saudi money in return for BAE-manufactured aircrat in 1985, and has been a fruitful target for UK scandal-watchers ever since. Tony Blair personally scotched an investigation by his government's Serious Fraud Office into the alleged kickbacks in December, and he reaffirmed that decision last week when the Bandar allegations broke, saying, "I don't believe the investigation would have led to anywhere except to the complete wreckage of a vital interest to our country."
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003416.phpPRINCE BANDAR BIN SULTAN BIN ABDULAZIZ AL-SAUD, EXECUTIVE POLICY ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT
Good afternoon. I am His Royal Highness Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. I serve America in the important dual role of longtime Bush family investor and official spokesman for the dictatorial Islamist monarchy that produced Osama bin Laden and fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers. As a regular overnight guest in both the White House and Bush private residences in Crawford and Kennebunkport, I take great pains to selflessly dictate the President's thinking on American policy matters large and small – and have been a particularly valuable advisor in the war against eroding petroleum profits. Today I have magnanimously consented to endure simulated questioning by infidel rabble such as yourself. Let this commence now.
http://www.whitehouse.org/ask/bandar.asp Gee, does all of this have anything to do with Blair plotting with Bush to invade Iraq? Could Bandar be a piece of the puzzle behind the invasion for profit?
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