The Miami Review
NORIEGA DEFENSE SCORING POINTS(snip)
THE LAUDERDALE SMUGGELER
Max Mermelstein, a convicted drug smuggler from Fort Lauderdale who testified after the professor, was savaged on cross-examination by Rubino.
For more than a day, Michael P. Sullivan, the assistant U. S. Attorney who heads the government's team, questioned Mermelstein about his business, propping up enlarged photographs of dozens of drug dealers and drug equipment for the jury to ponder. Mermelstein, wearing suit and tie, discussed his connections to the Medellin cartel in a businesslike fashion---how he had visited drug lord Jorge Ochoa at a Colombian hacienda, which he described as "a beautiful property" with a chicken hut, paved runway and bullfighting ring. He testified that be brought "pretty close to 56 tons" of Colombian cocaine into the United States, and that a half-dozen other "flight groups" were in the smuggling business.
But he mentioned Noriega only once, saying that he had never met the former dictator but had once seen a general ledger of cartel drug business in 1983 that "had Noriega's name on top of it."
On cross-examination, Rubino---speaking forcefully and loudly---depicted Mermelstein as someone who has admitted committing worse crimes than those Noriega is charged with.
MURDER IN A VAN
Mermelstein---who spent just two years and 21 days in jail and received a $250,000 bonus for cooperating with the government on one drug case---acknowledged on the stand that he helped plan the contract murder of drug informant Barry Seal in Louisiana. Another time, a man whom he called his "compadre," Rafael Cardona, murdered someone in his van, Mermelstein testified.
(snip)
http://www.frankrubino.com/art_03.htmWho Has to Care About the BSA and WhyUnder the Bank Secrecy Act, a wide range of businesses are defined as “financial institutions,” making them subject to the anti-money laundering regulatory requirements issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury under 31 CFR Part 103 (the federal “Money Laundering Laws”). But other—sometimes similar—entities do not fall within the definition and the BSA does not apply to them.
The BSA classifies the following businesses as “financial institutions:”
Banks, thrifts and credit unions.
Securities and commodities brokers or dealers.
Currency exchange houses.
Casinos (including tribal casinos) and “card clubs,” in which card players compete with each other.
Issuers, redeemers or cashers of checks, travelers checks, money orders or similar instruments.
Money transmitters.
Postal systems.
The Treasury has not, however, exercised its authority to extend these regulatory requirements to these businesses:
Insurance companies.
Dealers in precious metals, stones or jewels.
Pawnbrokers.
Loan or finance companies.
Travel agencies.
Dealers and sellers of automobiles, airplanes, boats and other vehicles.
People who close and settle real estate transactions.
Federal, state or local government agencies with duties or powers similar to financial institutions.
When financial institutions report suspicious activity to the government, however, a “safe harbor” available under the BSA protects them and their employees against their customers’ civil claims.
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http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/jun2001/abel.htmWhich also brings up this link
$9bn money laundering ring broken
50 arrests across Europe as police smash Russian mafia operation
The Europe pages - Observer special
Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Sunday June 16, 2002
The Observer
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,738337,00.htmWhich has " Florida Trading, based in Taunton"
Owned by Marc Rich
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A11509-2001Mar1¬Found=true(I think the link has be stoped but found it here
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/rich.htmCheney Aide Helped Rich's Legal Case
By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 2, 2001; Page A12
The person largely responsible for key legal arguments cited in Marc Rich's successful pardon application is not Jack Quinn, President Bill Clinton's former White House counsel. It's I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a longtime Rich lawyer who is now chief of staff for Vice President Cheney.
Since 1985, when he left the State Department and was recruited by former Nixon White House counsel Leonard Garment, Libby spent countless hours reviewing legal documents and interviewing witnesses in a search for cracks in the government's tax evasion indictment of Rich, according to sources. "He spent the next two years traveling around the world," said a person familiar with his work.
He traveled to England, New York, Texas and California, and met with Rich in Switzerland at least eight times to discuss the case, the sources said.
(snip)
It's all about the spooks, the money and the coverups