Greg Palast on the Battle to End Vulture Funds

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/11/143205

GREG PALAST:George Bush has flown into the meeting of G8 leaders tonight. Near the top of the list of problems - poverty in Africa. But activists worry that G8 nations aid for Africa is being seized by vultures. In February, News Night exposed the activity of “Vulture Funds.” These vultures figured out how to get their hands on the money our governments give to help out Africa, and put it in their own pockets. They do it by buying up old loans made to the poorest countries just before the loans are effectively written off. Then the vultures sue for ten times what they pay for the loans. We tracked down one of them in Virginia - Michael Francis Sheehan - also known as Goldfinger .
…aren’t you just profiting of the good work of people. We're trying to save lives by cutting the debt of these nations.

MICHAEL SHEEHAN: Well, there was a proposal for investment. That is all I can talk about.

GREG PALAST: Goldfinger paid just three million dollars for some old Zambian debt, but eventually sued Zambia for 55 million. Worldwide, Goldfinger and fellow “Vultures” are suing desperately poor people for more than two billion dollars. Our expose sparked an international reaction. The next morning, the News Night report was rebroadcast in America .

GREG PALAST: After watching our News Night piece two very angry congressmen marched right into the White House and demanded the President do something.

CONGRESSMAN: I was outraged. Just simply outraged to hear this shocking broadcast. It infuriated me. It made me angry. It, uh, was just on my mind, I couldn't even hardly focus on what the President was saying.

GREG PALAST: Congressman Donald Payne surprised the President by the issue. He was joined by one of the most powerful men in Congress - John Conyers.

JOHN CONYERS:I brought this matter up to President Bush in the White House. I asked him about “Vulture Funds” and did he know that some of the poorest nations were being taken advantage of in this highly immoral, ruthless scheme. And he said he was interested in knowing more about these “Vulture Funds” operations. And he said we would get to work on it right away.

[Ilsa]

1. Bush* will probably contact his trust advisor about getting some of that action. nt

[ladym55]

2. Greg Palast was on Randi Rhodes today

talking about the Vulture funds. It's quite the racket. And shockingly the big winners in the Vulture Funds are BIG Republican donors--especially for Rudy Guiliani. And * had to face very cranky EU leaders on this issue this week.

Another ugly aspect of life under Bush.

[Selatius]

3. This reminds me of the scene in the movie Wall Street with Michael Douglas as Gecko:

"Well, I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me Mr. Cromwell as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak. Well, ladies and gentlemen we're not here to indulge in fantasy but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company! All together, these men sitting up here own less than three percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than one percent. You own the company. That's right, you, the stockholder. And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

...

Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents. The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much."

-- Gordon Gecko, Wall Street

[Jillian]

4. Thanks for posting this!

I was listening to Randi today when she was talking about this.
OMG.

[ConsAreLiars]

5. It was an important update to his previous BBC/DN! expose.

And a tribute to the importance of the non-corporate media. Anyone who fails to watch/listen Democracy Now! is missing a chance to see/hear what a free press might look/sound like.

In this case, also a chance to learn how capitalist vultures feed off the weak and dying.

Palast will be on Mike Malloy's show tomorrow.

The show also included the photo at this link - http://moosar.blogspot.com/2007/05/photo-that-led-to-suicide.html - which is as emblematic of how capitalism works as anything. Don't look if you don't want to see what the monsters who rule the world are doing. And if you think you can stand even more reality than that, look at the photojournalism of James Nachtwey http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/ and click on Famines for a start.

[Decruiter]

6. I do love Mr. Palast, he is unrelenting. He never, ever stops.

Thank you Greg, the morning I got to meet you in your PJ's in Austin in September of 2003, I will never ever forget.

If only, if only we had about oh just maybe 100 more of you this nation just might be able to make it.

You are a true PATRIOT! You will be in the history books, archives or whatever they will call it in the future. You will be there.

[magellan]

7. Reps Payne and Conyers confronted Bush** on this back in February

Here's a link to that DN! transcript: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/16/1548232&mode=thread&tid=25

Since then, "Goldfinger" Sheehan won his case in the British Court in April, and Zambia was ordered to pay the debt.

However, because of the methods of persuasion he used to collect the debt, "Goldfinger" may find himself on the wrong side of the fraud division of the USJD. They were alerted two months ago.

So Bush**'s promise to "work on it right away" appears as empty as all his other promises. Or maybe he DID work on it and that's why there's been no discernible action against "Goldfinger" Sheehan.

[Jim Lane]

8. Question about how this works

The story says that the vulture funds buy up the debt just before it's going to be written off. I assume the debt is held by banks, which sell it to the vultures. If the creditor on such a debt has a good claim, that a British court will enforce, why do the banks sell to the vultures? Why don't they just bring the suit themselves?

Not that this would work out any better for the people getting shafted, but I can't help wondering. I'd have trouble believing that big international banks don't bring these suits because of their innate human decency.

[whirlygigspin]

9. Rudy is now toast

This is the most disgusting,revolting,enraging story...I am furious.

[OregonBlue]

10. The MSM will never report it or at least not Rudy's involvement.

[ellacott]

11. I also have doubts the MSM will report this also

Hopefully we'll be proven wrong. As Randy said yesterday, they are going to go after Conyers now. You had that push poll campaign by J.D. Hayworth against Conyers and then the Fox incident when they used Conyers picture with the story about the indicted congressman in New Orleans.

[OregonBlue]

12. I hope if they go after Conyers the entire Congressional Black Caucus comes down on them big time.

[bobthedrummer]

13. kick

[bobthedrummer]

14. "VULTURE FUND CERBERUS Weighing Bid for Chrysler" started by KoKo01 3-11-2007

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x389295

[bobthedrummer]

15. Kick

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. VIDEO..2 Part Interview of Palast with Randi Rhodes

Part One http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dvkz1YqrvWM
Part Two http://youtube.com/watch?v=1zRg9LeWmH8&mode=related&search=

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

17. EMAIL from Palast

Randi Rhodes and Greg Palast Hunt Giuliani's Favorite Vulture
by Greg Palast
June 20, 2006

"Can't he make a living in a more reputable, less disgusting way, say, in child pornography?"

Randi Rhodes is asking you, Mr. Singer. And we're still waiting for the answer.

Paul Singer is a vulture. And a billionaire. And, with his underlings at Elliott Associates, the number one sugar-daddy donor to the presidential campaign of Rudy Giuliani, dropping $168,400 so far and, according to secret campaign documents, committed to raise $10 million for Rudolf the Great, Emperor of 9/11.

So who is this bird of prey Singer who holds Rudy in his beak?

Unlike feathered predators, Singer preys on the living. Singer figured out a way to siphon off funds intended for debt relief to some of the poorest countries in the world. Nice guy.

And by the way, I didn't come up with the moniker "vulture." Just about everyone, from the new Prime Minister of Britain to the World Bank, calls Singer and his ilk "vultures."

Here's how a vulture operation works. The vulture fund buys up the debt of poor nations cheaply when it is about to be written off and then sue for the full value of the debt plus interest -- sometimes more than ten times what they paid for it. Singer, for example, paid just $10 million for Congo Brazzaville's debt and is now suing for over $400 million.

Singer knew he'd turn a 1000%-plus profit on his $10 million investment with George Bush's help.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Help support the Palast Team's investigations, including
their research on 'Vultures' by making a tax deductible
donation to the Palast Investigative Fund today.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Bush convinced the US Congress to forgive the money Congo owes the US taxpayer, but once the US taxpayer forgives Congo's debt, the vulture, Singer, swoops in with lawyers to claim, "Congo now has the money to pay ME."

But wait a minute - the debt money given up by US taxpayers wasn't supposed to go to Rudy's predator Singer. In fact, the US Constitution provides power to the President to stop vultures from suing a foreign country in a US court if the President states such a private lawsuit interferes with America's foreign policy.

Singer, by suing Congo for the taxpayer money meant for debt relief and medicine, is interfering with US foreign policy. Yet Bush has done nothing.

While the President has made big speeches about debt relief for Africa and has even had his picture taken with a Bono, he won't get in the way of Singer's talons. One wonders if the President is influenced by Mr. Singer's strong support for debt relief, that is, debt relief for the Republican Party. The world's top vulture has become top donor to the GOP in New York.

Singer's not alone. He's joined in tearing at the flesh of the Congo's poor by a Washington operator named Michael Francis Sheehan. Sheehan is also known as "Goldfinger."

Besides joining Singer in attacking Congo, Goldfinger has also taken a piece of the debt relief earmarked for AIDS medicine for Zambia. Goldfinger paid $4 million for the right to collect on Zambia's debt - and just won $22 million from Zambia in a UK court, half that nation's debt relief. Goldfinger was able to seize that money because, he boasts in an email, he secretly paid $2 million to the "favorite charity" of Zambia's president. (That former President, Frederick Chiluba, is now under arrest for taking bribes ... but Goldfinger can still collect his pound of flesh.)

Want to hear more about Rudy's and George's favorite financial predators? About Chiluba's taste in shoes (he spent one million dollars in a single shop)? About Goldfinger and the man who hold the mortgage on President Giuliani? Go here and listen up: Greg Palast with Randi Rhodes - hunting the Vultures.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

18. Kick! eom

[bobthedrummer]

19. .