Wayne Madsen: Cha Ching (Lemme too close to Coingate)

[AtLiberty]

"Cha Ching" From ¢¢¢ to $$$: How the Bush Crime Syndicate Funneled Foreign Cash Into the U.S. Political System

Florida Investigator Who Got Too Close to Florida "Coin Gate" Silenced by Jeb Bush's Gangsters

Story Unfolding

Wayne Madsen

FLORIDA PANHANDLE, June 10, 2005 -- Experienced federal investigators, acting independently, have discovered a covert funding channel used by the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney campaigns and the administrations of Jeb Bush in Florida and Bob Taft in Ohio to illegally funnel foreign and other questionable money into Republican coffers.

Ever since the brutal death of Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) investigator Ray Lemme in July 2003, the focus of investigators in Florida and Georgia has been on the political scandal Lemme was uncovering. After his official investigation of contract fraud, money laundering, illegal immigration, and election fraud was shut down on orders of Jeb Bush, Lemme continued to investigate the use of FDOT to launder cash for the Bush Brothers and their allies. Lemme's focus was on the use of the Florida turnpike system to launder cash for the Jeb and George W. Bush campaigns. It was an investigation that would ultimately lead to Lemme's body being discovered in a motel room bath tub in Valdosta, Georgia. A two-state police cover up of Lemme's death, threats directed at Florida and Georgia investigators, and a virtual media blackout indicates that the GOP administrations of Jeb Bush and Georgia's Sonny Perdue wanted the Lemme story to go away -- and fast.

The reason for the cover-up of Lemme's reported "suicide" is simple. Investigators have now discovered that foreign cash, including Chinese, Saudi, and Nigerian money, was laundered via the biggest state-run cash cow in Florida -- the Florida Turnpike system. Because most of the transactions involving Florida's toll roads involve cash and huge amounts of it, it was easy for foreign and other questionable money to be laundered via FDOT.

Lemme had reportedly become aware of the use of FDOT to commit criminal acts. Valdosta, where Lemme went to meet a still unknown source, is a key center for international organized criminal activity, including illegal foreign worker smuggling, involving close political allies of George W. and Jeb Bush...

For rest of story, click:

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/scoops/Lemme.htm

[fooj]

1. Doesn't sound like Madsen is very far off the mark!

peace.

[seemslikeadream]

2. What an interesting date this is

Flashback: From Dec. 6. 2004 article "Texas to Florida: White House-linked clandestine operation paid for "vote switching" software," Wayne Madsen, Onlinejournal.com:

note the date here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x123856


Manhattan's veteran District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is on the verge of penetrating a major conduit for foreign money into the Bush family network and the American political system that parallels the campaign finance scandals in Ohio and Florida. Morgenthau's investigation of the notorious Sam and Charlie Wyly brothers of Texas, the billionaires who spearheaded the Swift Boat disinformation campaign against John Kerry and a similar distortion effort against John McCain in 2000, is focused on a Wyly-controlled Isle of Man off-shore account tied to the Bank of America. In 1989, George H. W. Bush dispatched a Houston attorney to the Isle of Man to take charge of the secret Bush accounts. One of the accounts was Five Star Trust, a multi-billion dollar account used by the Bushes as a covert off-shore money tranche for their political and business purposes.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/scoops/Lemme.htm

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/120104Madsen/120104madsen.html

Maybe just maybe Madsen didn't deserve the trashing he got here. Maybe just maybe there were a couple people now tombstoned who didn't want Madsen's info to be seen as credible. They sure worked very hard to discredit and silence people here who only wanted to find the truth.

[salvorhardin]

21. Nope

I don't think so. Mr. Madsen does that well enough on his own.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/030305Madsen/030305madsen.html

Have a nice day. :hi:

[emad]

29. Madsen trail points to the iffy Guckert/Gannon smell. Reagan/Bush1

were both implicated in a male whore ring in the 1980s that was alleged to have been vital to the communications network in the Al Yammamah Saudi oil scam led by Thatcher.

From memory, a male sex escort offshoot of the Children of God pedophile cult which ran a brothel based in Hampstead, North London and operated during the Thatcher administration years 1979-1990 was empirical to the communications circuit that former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Defence Procurement Minister Jonathan Aitken ran when the deal was negotiated.

The Al Yammamah oil/arms scandal papers are still covered by a UK Ministry of Defence D Notice (press gagging order). Initial media reports in the summer of 1990 - just a few months before Thatcher was kicked out of officer by her own party - hinted that the Saudis had managed to get hold of a small number of nuclear weapons in mid-1989 after protracted deals involving the male sex escort ring dubbed 'The Velvet Hand' that was used by bent UK spooks, cops, military intelligence officers reporting via Aitken to Thatcher. And that these weapons were bought from Soviet military personnel in the Ukraine.

Also from memory, I think it was Putin who was cited as the mastermind of this scam and that some press reports said he ran the Soviet and Asian phanalges of The Velvet Glove.

I'm going to check up in my press cuttings files to see if there is more about this. Seem to remember that there were a total of three covert UK and US military ops in August 1990 to take back the nuclear weapons from the Saudis and cover up the trail.

Will post more when I have found the relevant papers.

[seemslikeadream]

22. Wayne Madsen and Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

Covert Action in Africa: A Smoking Gun in Washington, D.C.

Rayburn House Office Building
Friday, April 6, 2001
10:00am - 12:00 noon

.....

Prepared Statement of Wayne Madsen
WHAT A DIFFERENCE AN ELECTION MAKES: OR DOES IT?

Wayne Madsen is an investigative journalist who has written for The Village
Voice, The Progressive, CAQ, and the Intelligence Newsletter. He is the
author of Genocide and Covert Activities in Africa 1993-1999 (Lewiston, NY:
Edwin Mellen, 1999), an expose of U.S. and French intelligence activities in
Africa's recent civil wars and ethnic rebellions. He served as an on-air
East Africa analyst for ABC News in the aftermath of the 1998 U.S. embassy
bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Mr. Madsen has appeared on 60 Minutes, World
News Tonight, Nightline, 20/20, MS-NBC, and NBC Nightly News, among others.
He has been frequently quoted by the Associated Press, foreign wire
services, and many national and international newspapers.

Mr. Madsen is also the author of a motion picture screen play treatment
about the nuclear submarine USS Scorpion. He is a former U.S. Naval Officer
and worked for the National Security Agency and U.S. Naval
Telecommunications Command.

I wish to discuss the record of American policy in Africa over most of the
past decade, particularly that involving the central African Great Lakes
region. It is a policy that has rested, in my opinion, on the twin pillars
of unrestrained military aid and questionable trade. The military aid
programs of the United States, largely planned and administered by the U.S.
Special Operations Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), have
been both overt and covert.

ACRI, ACSS, and the covert programs all involve the use of private military
training firms and logistics support contractors that are immune to Freedom
of Information Act requests. More troubling than these overt problems are
those that involve covert assistance to the Rwandan and Ugandan militaries.
Sources in the Great Lakes region consistently report the presence of a
U.S.-built military base near Cyangugu, Rwanda, near the Congolese border.
The base, reported to have been partly constructed by the U.S. firm Brown &
Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, is said to be involved with training RPF
forces and providing logistics support to their troops in
the DRC.

The increasing reliance by the Department of Defense on so-called Private
Military Contractors (PMCs) is of special concern. Many of these PMCs -- once
labeled as "mercenaries" by previous administrations when they were used as
foreign policy instruments by the colonial powers of France, Belgium,
Portugal, and South Africa -- have close links with some of the largest
mining and oil companies involved in Africa today. PMCs, because of their
proprietary status, have a great deal of leeway to engage in covert
activities far from the reach of congressional investigators. They can simply
claim that their business in various nations is a protected trade
secret and the law now seems to be on their side.

more
http://muhammadfarms.com/Covert_Action_in_Africa.htm

[Botany]

3. Good God ...... the bush family makes Don Corleno's family look .....

..... small time. The Toledo Blade had an article on line yesterday AM that
the quoted Congressman Brown (D) Lorain, OH that the coingate scandal
"calls into doubt the outcome of the election." Within an hour that atricle
was down and NO references to it could be found anywhere!

We might need a revolution and some people's trials for these crooks.

Ray Lemme got up one morning and drove 100 or so miles to a hotel that
he had checked into the night before and committed suicide ........

[AtLiberty]

4. Then let's go to the mattresses!

[Botany]

5. we might have to

...... My country has been taken over by evil.

btw for any freeper reading this ..... check it out for yourself .....
facts is facts ......

and for the Rove shit who is reading this ...... I would love for you
to come and get me ....... but you won't yourself because you are
a punk!

[mod mom]

8. Here is the DU link on the story removed from the Blade:

/www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1535033&mesg_id=1535033

[Unforgiven]

14. There's your proof!!!!!

why would he do that?

[harmonyguy]

17. Link to 'missing' article

"Within an hour that atricle was down and NO references to it could be found anywhere!"

Kaptur alerts colleagues of unfolding scandal
Brown says illegalities put presidential election in question
By STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITER

"I think the George Bush campaign raised a lot of illegal money in Ohio," Mr. Brown said. "That puts the election in some question. I know these people stop at nothing and I know their incompetence kept a significant number of people from getting to vote."

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050609/NEWS09/506090443

[mod mom]

6. Noe of Coingate fame was on the Board of the Ohio Turnpike. hmmmh!

[mod mom]

9. PS. I AM NOT DEPRESSED AND WOULD NEVER LEAVE MY FAMILY!

We need to spread this story around!

[burythehatchet]

12. this story is sooooo juicy

For example, did you know that Noe's coin investment company had their coins appraised BY A COMPANY THAT NOE ALSO OWNS? So Noe appraised his coins ridiculously high, and then he "OOPS" lost them.

[AtLiberty]

26. Losing valuable coins is so fishy...

They should be in safe deposit boxes.

Then again, they shouldn't have been purchased in the first place.

The story that a lot were lost in the mail is beyond crazy. No one in their right mind would mail such valuable parcels unless they could be insured for the full amount.

[donkeyotay]

32. Oh yeah, and the other Ohio fund scandal, MDL

was Garrison was RRZ in previous incarnations of some of the same players. RRZ's biggest client from 1986 to 1992 was the PA Turnpike Commission.

But it seems that Republicans now prefer pensions and other public funds. Blackwell was also on a commission reviewing "soft money" in financial management. That term refers, if I understand it correctly, to fees that financial managers simply remove before passing on the profits or appreciation to the client. So, even if you can find out how much is charged in "hard" fees, you'd have to be a forensic accountant to find out what the real costs are.

I ate my tinfoil hat. There's no messenger too woolly and no plot too off-the-charts to not consider now.

[autorank]

7. Oh boy! Wayne Madsen. This one rocks. Thanks At Liberty

[Unforgiven]

10. Now

I know why all the toll collectors were canned and replaced with private contractor(s). This way there would be no oversight to any of the huge amounts of cash that tolls collects and could easily be used to launder illegal money.

Thanks for sharing this item.

Got any more recent?



On Edit this is huge, at least on a local/state level. Please keep kicked!!!!

[peacetalksforall]

16. More than that - they want to privatize all the highways...article back

aways that I didn't pay much attention to, but only considered in relation to Big Brother watching everyone use the highways...never even considered money laundering. It's perfect.

[Unforgiven]

20. Yep

perfect cover! Corrupt,evil,Bastards!!

[KoKo]

11. Madsen "back on track???" .....good read. n/t

[mod mom]

13. A moderator on General Discussion-Politics said wouldn't believe

anything written by Madsen. Could someone fill me in.

[WhoWantsToBeOccupied]

15. I have no idea what that moderator was complaining about

I remember reading some of Madsen's stuff six or eight months ago and finding it interesting. He asked DUers a question about private companies involved in electronic voting with ties to specific foreign countries, and I sent him an email with something I had seen. He struck me as a brave guy searching for truth. And I believe he has past associations with the CIA and Dartmouth.

Some might have speculated that he was trying to lead us down a rathole.

It's certainly possible. But I am very intrigued by what he is suggesting. There are many weird, weird stories about Jeb's Florida that no one has ever refuted to my satisfaction. They're so weird and disturbing that you would think they would be easily refuted, yet they have not been. And there do seem to be plenty of weirdos linked to the Bush family over the years. This latest story does seem plausible, esp. because it seems to link with the weird stories coming out of Ohio now.

[AtLiberty]

18. Tell her that it was Madsen who "found" Clint Curtis...

...and the Tom Feeney/Yang connection. Clint Curtis was asked to testify before Dem Judiciary Committee members.

I wish Madsen would hire a good editor.

[LightningFlash]

19. Live on Bradshow radio Bob Fitrakis....

Describing illegal campaign donations, Blackwell & Bush had illegal access to tabulators, Kerry was hiding the truth, some corrupt lawyers, much more.

http://www.bradshow.com/

[kster]

24. REALLY

.....................

[kster]

23. I wou;d believe what Wayne Madsen

has written,so long as it is verified.

[bobbieinok]

33. he had lots of articles on probs with 2004 vote........and then NOTHING

from my perspective, he got me really excited that the lid was going to blow off the entire stolen election.........and then I was just left hanging, with no final results.......the whole thing sort of just blew away in a fog

granted, I didn't follow this story every day, so others may have a very different opinion

[AtLiberty]

25. Given the erosion of mainstream news...

...and the crap they churn out, some of us are too harsh on Madsen.

He *does* need a good editor, I admit. I like his raw style, but his stuff needs to be tightened.

[Carolab]

27. Earl Durden's family and company in Panama City FL

have sure been busy donating

http://www.campaignmoney.com/finance.asp?pg=1&type=in&criteria=Durden&prevpage=2&cycle=04

[Carolab]

28. More on this from FTW

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/050305_world_stories.shtml

[pgh_dem]

30. cash cow...hmm, kinda like the Ohio Workers' Comp fund?

The big thing people gotta wonder about money laundering is who is picking up the clean laundry?

We know Tom Noe in Ohio was running at least part of the drycleaning operation for GOP money...but who was getting paid? And what for?

I'm wary of Madsen though...everything he writes immediately becomes a conspiracy too far-fetched...makes you wonder about what color certain herrings are.

For example, you research a theory that NORAD blew it big time on Sept 11, 2001. You make a good strong case based on location, time of notification, etc etc...then you throw in a secret hooded cloaked club called the McSpookymen who are moles within NORAD...

You get the point...belabor the truth with some egregious falsehood, and everyone looks at the falsehood...and NOBODY looks back at who fashioned the falsehood. Remember the TANG docs? Remember when they caught the person who forged military documents? Oh yeah, nobody even looked for the forger...

A truism: If facts get out of our control, we can influence your attitude by telling the truth out of the mouths of the widely reviled.

[glitch]

35. We know it's standard operating procedure with disinfo, straight from .

the manual: mix some aliens in with the truth so that the truth is easily discounted with "oh, that's from that lizard guy, you believe that!?"

Too bad their manual was leaked and too many know their tired old tricks now.

But they are still useful, because they show us what they don't want us looking at.

Although these people are so creepy and stunted, they probably do have a lot of secret clubs, complete with hoods.

So I still read Madsen, either way.

[mod mom]

31. The OH Turnpike Commission on which Tom Noe served, also includes a state

senator and state representative. The state Senator is Jeffry Armbruster (R-Lorain) who said during a Common Cause Lobbying Day meeting that the real fraud in "04 election was drunks being pulled out of bars to vote, and if I really wanted to investigate fraud, I would be advocating breathalyzers for voting.

I KID YOU NOT!

Also when talking about students problems in voting he brought up how Oberlin students voted against based on one issue, drilling in Lake Erie so why should he address their rights. He was more than a one issue candidate.

Now...wouldn't it be nice to follow the money through the turnpike commission and nail these guys?

[Unforgiven]

34. Yes

it would be sweet to see these thugs along with Jeb, go down and go down hard.

[LightningFlash]

36. Wow it can't get more obvious!

Drunks being pulled off the streets to vote? He needs to be investigated, my god.

[mod mom]

39. You know those 5 hour lines were just full of staggering drunks! nt

[Zan_of_Texas]

37. Hey mod mom -- anyone -- give me more on Armbruster!

Documented, please, if you have any documentation.

[mod mom]

38. Ask and you stall receive (JUICY INFO!)...

Since he was a member of the Ohio Turnpike Commission, I started looking into information on Jeffrey Armbruster. I found some disturbing article regarding his personal finances, including:

Two Companies Run By State Senator File For Bankruptcy
Reported by: A.P.
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
Photographed by: 9News
11/6/04 10:56:23 PM

Two companies headed by a state senator who operates gas stations and convenience stores in the Columbus and Cleveland areas have filed for bankruptcy.

State Senator Jeffry Armbruster, a North Ridgeville Republican, is president of Armbruster Energy Enterprises and chief executive of Pinzone Armbruster Inc., both of Westlake in suburban Cleveland.

The filing comes after Shell Oil halted gasoline sales at 18 of Armbruster's central Ohio locations.

The stations were back in full operation Friday night.

Court records show the companies owe $43,753 in delinquent state taxes and $9,879 in lottery tickets.

http://cincynow.com/news/2004/local/11/06/armbruster.htm
**************

Two companies owned by state senator file for bankruptcy: “The companies run stores and gas stations as part of relationships with Shell, True North Energy and Marathon.” (ShellNews.net) 7 Nov 04
 
Associated Press
 
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Two companies headed by a state senator who operates gas stations and convenience stores in the Columbus and Cleveland areas have filed for bankruptcy.
 
State Sen. Jeffry Armbruster, a North Ridgeville Republican, is president of Armbruster Energy Enterprises and chief executive of Pinzone Armbruster Inc., both of Westlake in suburban Cleveland.

snip

Court records show the companies owe $43,753 in delinquent state taxes and $9,879 in lottery tickets. Armbruster Energy Enterprises also owes Shell Oil $198,722, according to court documents.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10117191.htm?1


I also started looking into his 2002 race and found out this information:

2002 State Senate General Election-District 13
 

Total

Armbruster 47,857

Morano 47,485

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/results/index.html

Although this race was very close, I could not find any information that the election was contested, although I did find an Ohio Report from Gongwer News Service dated Nov 19, 2002, suggesting that provisional ballots were being examined. I can not find the results of the provisional ballots from this close race (372 vote difference out of 95,342).

[mod mom]

40. this guy is a find, check this out:

Conflicted Senator
Jeffry Armbruster was the watchdog who didn't care to watch.
By Sarah Fenske
Published: Wednesday, September 4, 2002


 

Jeffry Armbruster, stalwart defender of no-bid contracts.



Printer friendly version of this story
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State Senator Jeffry Armbruster's timing couldn't have been worse.

The executive director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission, Gino Zomparelli, spent August and September of last year reveling in perks from the companies feeding at his toll-funded trough. He and his family enjoyed Browns tickets courtesy of National City Bank, Indians tickets from Independence Excavating, and 11 nights of dining and entertainment with his good friends at the architecture/engineering firm of HNTB Corp.

But Armbruster thought Zomparelli needed more power, not less. On September 27, the North Ridgeville Republican introduced a bill allowing the commission to ink contracts of up to $50,000 without competitive bidding, a 500 percent increase over the current threshold -- and a great way to give the schmooze-susceptible Zomparelli even more discretion in spending turnpike money.

Armbruster says he offered the bill at the behest of commission lobbyist Patrick Patton. "I said to Pat, 'If you have this prepared, why not have a debate?'"

www.clevescene.com/issues/2002-09-04/news/news.html

[Zan_of_Texas]

41. Thanks!

Yeah, he is sumpin to be proud of, eh?

[emad]

42. Wayne Madsen.....anybody know if this is a pen name?

Did Wayne Madsen once write under the name Peter Truell????

Author of:

"False Profits: The Inside Story of Bcci, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire"

"Bcci: The Inside Story of the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire"


and subsequently reported on the Washington Post circa 1992?????
just a thought......