Corruption is Everywhere > Ukraine Attempts to Diminish Influence of Oligarchs; JPMorgan and Crooked Oil Deals; Hunter Biden's Influence Peddling

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Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. President Zelensky appears to be attempting to rectify that situation by reining in the oligarchs. If he is successful, the west should consider following suit.

Ukraine passes sweeping new ‘anti-oligarch’ law, critics say restrictions

will be used to target Zelensky’s political opponents

23 Sep, 2021 15:35

Members of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev, Ukraine. © AFP / YURY KIRNICHNY

Ukraine’s parliament has voted through a flagship bill that its proponents say will clip the wings of well-heeled tycoons attempting to exert control over the country’s lawmakers and set up a new register of purported oligarchs.

On Thursday, deputies in the Verkhovna Rada backed the proposals, designed to reduce the omnipresent role money plays in Kiev’s political and public life. The new law is intended to help “prevent threats to national security associated with the excessive influence of persons with disproportionate economic and political weight in public life,” whom it describes as “oligarchs.”

Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, which has been behind a series of decisions to sanction opposition-supporting businesspeople and target anti-government news outlets in recent weeks, will establish a list of those it deems to fall into the new category.

Wealthy citizens will fall foul of the rules and face inclusion in the register if they meet three of four conditions, including having influence over the media, participating in public life, receiving funds from monopolistic companies, or having income of over a million times the country’s annual living wage. Those deemed to be oligarchs will be barred from donating to political parties and funding campaigning.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the law is just the first step in cracking down on wealthy political figures. “This is about creating a cornerstone for countering the influence of oligarchs,” he said when the bill was unveiled in June.

However, critics have expressed concern that the law will not be applied equally to all those who meet the criteria and, instead, could be leveled solely at those critical of Zelensky’s government. Vladimir Bruter, a Moldovan political scientist who works with the International Institute for Humanitarian and Social Research and is a member of Russia’s influential Valdai Discussion Club think tank, told Moscow’s Izvestiya newspaper there were serious risks of officials using it to abuse their power.

“This is an instrument to apply pressure to those the authorities don’t want,” he said. According to Bruter, Kiev will be able to designate political opponents as oligarchs and effectively bar them at will from politics. “The attempt to create some kind of Ukrainian definition of what an oligarch is deserves every condemnation,” he added.

Earlier this year, Kiev’s officials ordered the arrest of the leader of the country’s largest opposition party, wealthy businessman Viktor Medvedchuk. Prosecutors have refused to disclose details of the allegations against him, but they are believed to relate to financial interests in Crimea. Medvedchuk has said his arrest amounts to “political” persecution, and has accused Zelensky of trying to establish a “dictatorship.”

A number of Russian-language television channels belonging to one of the opposition leader’s fellow party members, tycoon Taras Kozak, were also shuttered under orders from the National Security and Defense Council. Kiev claims the issue is “not about free speech,” but instead about countering supposed Russian influence, despite their content being made domestically for Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Almost all of those living in the country have a command of the language, and at least a third say they speak it as their native language at home.

JPMorgan facing oil bribery probe in Brazil – media

23 Sep, 2021 07:00

© Reuters / Mike Segar

An investigation is underway in Brazil into whether JPMorgan Chase took part in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme, dating back to 2011, involving state-run oil company Petrobras.

Anything Petrobras is involved in is likely to have a certain stench about it.

That’s according to an exclusive report by Reuters, which cited court documents and anonymous law enforcement sources. The documents include email messages between alleged co-conspirators, witness testimony, and bank records.

Police are reportedly looking into purchases of roughly 300,000 barrels of Petrobras fuel oil by JPMorgan in 2011. They aim to determine if the banking giant secured shipments of Petrobras fuel at artificially low prices by routing bribe payments to employees on Petrobras’ trading desk through a network of middlemen. They also want to find out if the alleged bribery continued in subsequent years, the sources said.

Among the court documents is witness testimony from a former Petrobras fuel trader named Rodrigo Berkowitz, who refers to two fuel cargoes that were sold to a JPMorgan unit.

Petrobras said in an email to Reuters it has "zero tolerance in relation to fraud and corruption." However, US and Brazilian authorities have alleged that some Petrobras traders took bribes from counterparties for more than a decade through 2018. In return, those traders allegedly purchased fuel at inflated prices or sold it at a discount.

In 2020, JPMorgan agreed to pay more than $920 million and admitted wrongdoing to settle US market manipulation probes into its trading of metals futures and Treasury securities.

Hunter Biden sought $2 million annual retainer from donors to

help get Obama-Biden admin to unfreeze Libyan assets – media

23 Sep, 2021 23:57

FILE PHOTO: Hunter Biden is shown speaking by video feed at the Democratic National Convention

in August 2020. © Reuters

President Joe Biden’s son Hunter reportedly tried to shake down Democrat donors for a $2 million annual retainer and “success fees” to help persuade the Obama-Biden administration to unfreeze up to $15 billion in Libyan assets.

Hunter Biden sought the fees in 2015, after the donors requested his help on freeing up assets that the Obama-Biden administration had frozen before Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi was murdered by NATO-backed rebels in 2011, Business Insider reported on Thursday.

The media outlet cited recently obtained emails, including one in which the donors discussed Hunter Biden’s influence as the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden. “Since he travels with dad, he is connected everywhere in Europe and Asia where MQ [Gaddafi] and the LIA [Libyan Investment Authority] had money frozen,” donor Sam Jauhari told his associate, Sheikh Mohammed al-Rahbani. “He said he has access to highest level in PRC [China], he can help there.”

Jauhari, who backed Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign, and al-Rahbani reportedly have business interests in the Persian Gulf. Al-Rahbani, who is chairman of Saudi Arabian manufacturer SAFID, was accused of trying to illegally give $850,000 for then-President Barack Obama’s January 2013 inauguration through a straw donor.

Business Insider said it appears that Hunter Biden’s Libya deal was never consummated.

Hunter's References

In one of the emails, Jauhari said he had met with Hunter Biden, whom he referred to as “#2 son” (the vice president’s eldest son, Beau, died later that year). “He wants to hire his own people,” the donor said. “It can be close circle of people for confidentiality. His dad is deciding to run or not.”

He also noted the Biden family’s connections with the UN World Food Program and members of the Obama-Biden Cabinet, including then-Secretary of State John Kerry.

However, Jauhari also cited some drawbacks to hiring the vice president’s son: “His negatives are that he is alcoholic, drug addict, kicked out of US Army [actually the US Navy Reserves] for cocaine, chasing low-class hookers, constantly needs money, liquidity problems and many more headaches.” He suggested that al-Rahbani meet with him in London or Switzerland “to decide next steps.”

The Business Insider story marks the second time this week that a mainstream media outlet has dished dirt on the Biden family’s alleged influence-peddling. Politico on Tuesday promoted a newly released book written by one of its reporters, who independently verified several key emails on a laptop that Hunter Biden had left at a repair shop in Delaware.

Ironically, when the New York Post released a bombshell report in October 2020 detailing the Biden family’s alleged influence-peddling in Ukraine and China – citing the same emails – Politico was among the mainstream media outlets that tried to discredit the article as “Russian disinfo.”

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Brazil Police Arrest 11 Amid Bribery Investigation of Oil Traders

Corruption is Everywhere - Definitely in Brazil

By Renzo Pipoli

Brazilian police said Wednesday it's investigating $31 million in alleged bribing by multinational oil traders,

and has arrested 11 people. Photo by Marcelo Sayao/EPA-EFE

UPI -- Brazilian police said Wednesday it's investigating up to $31 billion in alleged bribes to officials of state oil company Petrobras by some of the largest multinational oil traders, and has arrested 11 people.

Among the companies named are Vitol, Trafigura, Glencore, Chemium and Oil Trade and Transport, Folha de Sao Paulo reported Wednesday.

The names of the arrested include representatives of Trafigura in Brazil, as well as Petrobras officials in Houston, Folha's report said.

"They are giants in the market of trading and commodities commercialization," delegate Filipe Pace told the newspaper.

The alleged bribing would have occurred between 2011 and 2014, according to the report.

Just three multinationals, Vitol, Trafigura and Glencore are suspected of paying $15 million during those years to win favor in oil trading or leasing fuel tanks, Folha reported.

A Petrobras official told Folha the company is cooperating with authorities and has been recognized as a "victim" of the crimes by judicial authorities. Petrobras is the "most interested" party in the investigations, the company said.

A Trafigura spokesperson told UPI company officials "do not comment on legal matters."

Separately, Vitol told UPI the company "has a zero tolerance policy in respect of bribery and corruption" and will always cooperate with authorities in any jurisdiction in which it operates.

The other companies named did not immediately reply to other requests by UPI.

The scheme allegedly included variations so that prices were increased by as little as 1 cent per barrel. But given the large volumes, it added up to several millions, investigators say.

The website of the Brazilian federal police reported the information of the investigation, but had not published names of the companies involved or of the people detained.

Police said they're executing 27 searches, in addition to blocking assets of the suspects.

Brazilian Judge Heading Corruption Probe Dies in Suspicious Plane Crash

Teori Zavascki was leading Operation Carwash, a corruption probe 

that has already taken down several high-ranking government

officials and was expected to investigate several more

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki died in a plane crash Thursday night when the small plane he was in crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Foul play was immediately suspected by many because of Zavascki's role in the Operation Carwash corruption probe, which already has brought down several high-ranking officials in the Brazilian government. Photo by Fernando Bizerra Jr./European Pressphoto Agency

By Stephen Feller 

(UPI) -- A Brazilian Supreme Court justice was killed Thursday in a plane crash, with some in Brazil suggesting the crash was not an accident because of his leadership in a corruption probe that has already taken down several powerful politicians.

Justice Teori Zavascki was killed when the Beechcraft King Air C90 went down in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Brazil between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on Thursday night for unknown reasons.

Officials were still searching for much of the plane, but had pulled three bodies from wreckage and confirmed Zavascki was on the plane. With Zavascki on the plane was Carlos Alberto Filgueiras, owner of the Emiliano hotel chain, and the pilot, Osmar Rodrigues. News outlets also reported a woman died in the crash, but had not identified her.

Zavascki, appointed to the Court in 2012 by impeached former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff last year, was known for making bold moves against government corruption.

Acting President Michel Temer declared three days of national mourning to honor Zavascki as a "modest tribute to someone who has served the judiciary, the courts and the Brazilian people so well."

In Brazil, where the Supreme Court handles corruption cases involving government officials, Zavascki was leading Operation Carwash, an investigation into money laundering that involved the government-owned oil company Petrobras and the arrest of several high-ranking government officials.

Operation Carwash centered around billions of dollars in bribes paid to Petrobras for hiring specific construction firms at much higher rates than necessary. The probe already has led to the impeachment and arrest of Brazil's former speaker of the house Eduardo Cunha and led to Rousseff's impeachment. Temer and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (are also being investigated).

The investigation, involving at least 6.4 billion reais ($2.63 billion) in bribes for contracts with state-run enterprises, has led to the jailing of dozens of senior executives and threatens to batter the ruling coalition of President Michel Temer. Sydney Morning Herald

Recently, Zavascki was reviewing evidence from a $2.1 billion plea deal involving the construction company Odebrecht, which reportedly implicated dozens of Brazilian politicians as having been paid off -- fueling suspicion the plane crash was not just an accident.

Mr Zavascki's plane crashed into the sea in heavy rain. BBC

Lauro Koehler, who saw the crash, said the plane appeared to be making to sharp a turn just before it crashed, "but the plane kept curving, to the point that my wife screamed, 'It's going to crash!' Then the place dropped into the sea.

Sounds innocent enough. Where there is heavy rain there is often microburst winds which can flip a plane pretty quickly. It does, however, look awfully suspicious in its timing. It will be somewhat telling when we see who replaces Zavascki and how he/she conducts the investigation.

Roberto Veloso, president of the Association of Federal Judges, Marcio Anselmo, a federal investigator in the corruption probe, and Luciana Genro, leader of the Socialism and Liberty Party, all called for an immediate investigation into the crash. Genro noted it was suspicious that Temer, implicated in the probe already, will name Zavascki's replacement.

"This 'accident' needs to be thoroughly investigated," said Anselmo in a since-deleted Facebook post after Zavascki's death was confirmed.

Huge loss: Analysis by Daniel Gallas, BBC News, Rio de Janeiro

In Brazil's tumultuous times, where political divisions are running deep in virtually every institution, it is hard to find truly independent voices.

But Judge Teori Zavascki was arguably one such voice. The Petrobras investigation gained much credibility when he was appointed to oversee the case in the Supreme Court.

A few days from now, the court will start analysing the plea bargain deals struck with 77 executives from Odebrecht, a construction company that admitted corrupt deals with Petrobras.

This has the potential to be the most explosive moment in the long-running Petrobras case, as new revelations are expected to be made against top politicians.

Without Judge Zavascki at the helm of this process, Brazil's Supreme Court will have an extra challenge in convincing the public it can resist pressure from the powerful.

It just drives me crazy to think that billions of dollars are slipped under the table to already wealthy people when Brazil has hundreds of thousands of children who have to sell themselves to perverts in order to get enough money to keep from starvation. There will be a reckoning one day!