BANKING
The Bush-Riggs Connection
The decision last week by federal regulators to fine Riggs Bank $25 million for a "willful, systemic" violation of anti-money-laundering laws is raising new questions about whether the Bush administration's ties to powerful moneyed interests is unduly influencing U.S. foreign and national security policy.
Riggs Bank is headed by longtime Bush family friend Joe Allbritton, employs President Bush's uncle Jonathan as a top executive, and other executives have been financial donors to the Bush campaign. The bank is at the center of a controversy, according to the Wall Street Journal, for failing to monitor "tens of millions of dollars in cash withdrawals from accounts related to the Saudi Arabian and Equatorial Guinean embassy," including "suspicious incidents involving dozens of sequentially numbered cashier's checks and international drafts written by Saudi officials, including Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan." Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) "said members of the bank's board of directors should be held to account for failing to exercise their watchdog role over Riggs's operations" and said refusal to follow money laundering laws "allows terrorists to funnel their blood money through the system."
CONNECTION – JONATHAN BUSH AND RIGGS:
Jonathan Bush, President Bush's uncle, was appointed CEO of Riggs Bank's investment arm in May of 2000, just months after his nephew secured the nomination for the presidency. At the time of the appointment, Jonathan Bush had already become a major financial backer of his nephew, rising to "Bush Pioneer" status by raising more than $100,000 for his nephew in 2000. The move solidified the relationship between Jonathan Bush and Riggs, which was originally initiated in 1997 when, according to American Banker newsletter, Riggs paid Bush $5.5 million for his smaller investment firm. That transaction, according to the NYT, "deepened links to the Bushes." While Riggs denies any connection between Bush and the accounts being investigated in the money laundering probe, Riggs President Timothy Lex told the Washington Times in 1997 that "there's a blurring of distinctions between banks, mutual-fund families, broker dealers and everything else across the board."
CONNECTION - ALLBRITTON-BUSH LINK: Allbritton, who said during the federal probe that he was stepping down from Riggs's board, also was close to the Bush family. As the NYT reported, he (along with Riggs client Saudi Prince Bandar) was a financial backer of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, with National Journal noting he contributed between $100,000 - $250,000 to the project. And there also appears to be a personal bond with the current President Bush: As the 2/15/01 WP noted, "When President Bush climbed out of his limousine on Inauguration Day at the corner of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, he spotted Allbritton, waved and said, 'Hey Joe, how are you doing?'" That might have something to do with the fact that, according to the 11/7/2000 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Allbritton-owned TV station KATV in Little Rock broke 39 years of precedent and publicly endorsed Bush in the 2000 presidential election. The station, which is the biggest in the state, proceeded to air its endorsement 10 times throughout Arkansas, and refused to give equal time to Democrats "who asked for the time to present an alternative to the station's endorsement."
SNIP...
ACTION - HIDING INFORMATION THAT COULD BE DAMAGING TO RIGGS: Newsweek reported that checks to "two Saudi students in the United States who provided assistance to two of the September 11 hijackers" may have come "from an account at Washington's Riggs Bank in the name of Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan." This, and other details, were reportedly part of the bipartisan House-Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the Saudi money flow after 9/11. Yet, instead of allowing the committee's final report to be published in full, "Bush administration officials, led by Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, have adamantly refused to declassify the evidence" surrounding the transactions.
ACTION – RESUMING RELATIONS WITH SORDID RIGGS CLIENT: Riggs's fines were also in relation to its business with Equatorial Guinea – the oil-rich West African country headed by brutal dictator Gen. Teodoro Obiang. As the LA Times notes, though the country's offshore oil fields "generate hundreds of millions of dollars, there are few signs of the petroleum boom" there, and the Guinean ambassador admits "the country's oil funds are held in an account at Riggs Bank" controlled by the dictator. But while the IMF and other international institutions have refused to do business with the regime until it accounts for its country's financial resources, the Bush administration "initiated a political thaw with the Obiang regime" in late 2001, "authorizing the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Equatorial Guinea, which had been closed six years earlier, in large part due to the country's horrific human rights record." The move came even though "there's been little, if any, improvement" on human rights.
CONTINUED (with lots o' links from the above)...
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF... Bank with close ties to Bush administration engulfed in scandal
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=775366NEW details of Thatcher coup plot: London Evening Standard
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=728495Du Toit admits meeting Thatcher
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=775943'Petroleum lures dogs of war to Africa'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=775315BBC News: Thatcher charged
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=775499Margaret Thatcher's Son Released on Coup Plot Charges (Update2
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=775803Exiled leader in Spain denies any link to coup attempt
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=781763Financiers conspired to overthrow oil-flush African government
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=771532Mark Thatcher: The money trail
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=780222Thatcher case twist as list of alleged coup backers vanishes
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=780346WaPo: Allbritton Loses Riggs Bank (front page, day 3)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=691609E Guinea 'coup plot' verdict due + update/result
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1023049I feel like a corpse in a river, says Mark Thatcher as he faces court...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1020857Thatcher to face coup questions
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1018687Phone links Thatcher to alleged plot
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1008002There was no coup plot, says Du Toit
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1001670Thatcher to be tried in absentia
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=994305Britain knew in advance of Equatorial Guinea coup plot: report
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=987556Tories Demand Answers on 'Coup Plot'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=991361Mandelson faces questioning over 'link' to coup plot
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=975777Legal Woes Cut Into Bottom Line at Riggs
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=974861Mugabe flies to Equatorial Guinea (coup plot latest)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=964525Despots, Deposits & Directors - Riggs Bank
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=924033SABC asks to broadcast Thatcher court case
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=926588Spain calls on EU to warn Equatorial Guinea - Riggs Bank
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=899574Britain accused of failing to investigate Africa coup
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=901850Pentagon link to Guinea coup plot
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=867591