Corruption is Everywhere - Certainly in Cristina's Argentine Government,
Credit Suisse & Siberian elections
FILE PHOTO © Claudio Santisteban / Global Look Press
Charges have been brought against former Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner, who now stands accused of being the head of an “illicit organization” involved in bribery and money laundering.
The decision was made by Judge Claudio Bonadio, who leads the case, and published by the official judicial news agency on Monday.
The new charges come as part of the so-called ‘corruption notebooks’ case, which focuses on an alleged wide-scale bribery operation totaling some $160 million. The scheme has allegedly involved top Argentinian politicians and businessmen.
The judge has demanded Kirchner’s parliamentary immunity be lifted in order to place the former president under arrest.
The “illicit organization” collected bribes in exchange for public work contracts, according to the indictment. More than a dozen people have already been arrested for their alleged involvement in the corruption scheme. They include businessmen and former government officials who served under Kirchner’s administration.
Kirchner herself is currently serving as a senator, a post that grants her immunity from being prosecuted. She has repeatedly denied the accusations of being involved into any illicit activities.
Will they be looking into Cristina's possible role in the murder of Alberto Nisman? That would open a can of worms.
Credit Suisse lambasted by financial watchdog
over FIFA money laundering
© Fabrice Coffrini / AFP
Switzerland’s financial supervisor FINMA says one of the country’s largest banks, Credit Suisse, failed to properly oversee its anti-money laundering procedures for FIFA, as well as Brazil’s and Venezuela’s state oil companies.
According to the regulator, the banking multinational showed serious “deficiencies” in its attempts to counter illegal financial activities when dealing with soccer’s ruling body FIFA, Brazilian oil corporation Petrobras, and Venezuela's state energy company PDVSA.
“To combat money laundering effectively, every relevant department within the bank must be able to see all the client's relationships with the bank instantly and automatically,” FINMA said, adding that some progress had been made so far.
The financial regulator said Credit Swiss rewarded a star private banker who breached compliance regulations with high payments and positive reviews instead of disciplining him. A banking source identified the manager as Patrice Lescaudron, who was jailed for five years in February, according to Reuters.
“The identified shortcomings occurred repeatedly over a number of years, mainly before 2014,” the watchdog said. “An above-average number of faults were discovered in business relationships opened by the former group subsidiary Clariden Leu AG.
“FINMA identified deficiencies in the anti-money laundering process, as well as shortcomings in the bank’s control mechanisms and risk management,” the statement reads.
The Swiss watchdog will reportedly appoint an independent auditor to monitor the banking giant’s control and risk-management procedures and anti-money laundering measures. The current regulation doesn’t let FINMA fine the banks that it supervises or force them to disgorge profits.
In response, the Zurich-based multinational said the probe had discovered “legacy weaknesses,” stressing that it had already acted to improve compliance.
“Implementing a culture of compliant growth at Credit Suisse is our highest priority and it is an individual and collective responsibility that we take extremely seriously,” the bank said. “We will continue to work closely with FINMA to complete the changes that are underway and implement additional measures.”
Switzerland’s second-biggest bank behind UBS also fell short in terms of its obligations to tackle alleged corruption while managing “a significant business relationship” with a politically exposed person, according FINMA.
Candidates trade rigging accusations as polls in
Russia’s Far East almost end in a draw
Votes are being counted by a local elections committee in Russia's Primorsky Krai. © Vitaly Ankov / Sputnik
Election officials in Primorsky Krai Region are checking complaints by candidates of violations in the run-off gubernatorial polls after a preliminary count gave victory to the incumbent governor by an extremely narrow margin.
Preliminary results show that the Communist candidate, Andrey Ishchenko, lost to the incumbent governor Andrey Tarasenko by only around half a point – 49.55 percent against 48.06 percent.
This tentative result was unexpected, as Tasarenko garnered almost twice as many votes as Ishchenko in the first round of elections. It was even more striking as the Communist challenger appeared to be leading the run-off race throughout the day, and only started to lose the advantage in the closing phases.
The secretary of the regional elections commission told reporters that the final result of the run-off elections would be announced before September 22. The head of the federal Central Elections Commission, Ella Pamfilova, told RIA Novosti that she was not excluding the possibility that the results of Sunday’s polls could be canceled in some districts or even in the region as a whole, if complaints of violations prove to be true.
Complaints of rigging and manipulation were made by both sides. Ishchenko accused his opponent of rewriting voting protocols in four major cities in the region: Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Ussuriysk and Artyom. A representative of Tarasenko’s election HQ retaliated with similar accusations, telling reporters that monitors had reportedly registered violations in favor of the Communist candidate in Vladivostok and Ussuriysk. The violations allegedly included attempts to bribe voters and obstruct the ballot count.
Ishchenko went on hunger strike on Monday in protest against the alleged voter fraud.
The Local Public Chamber said that the rigging accusations came a surprise to them, as they had registered no such violations in the run-off polls.
An exit poll conducted by the Expert Group think tank also indicated victory for Tarasenko by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent.
In the first round of elections that was held on September 9, incumbent governor Andrey Tarasenko got almost double the number of votes accrued by the Communist contender – 46.57 percent to 24.64 percent. However, as none of the candidates got over 50 percent of vote, the run-off election was announced.
In the latest regional parliamentary elections, the United Russia Party took a clear lead by beating its closest competitors, the Communists, by almost 20 percent in the party ticket voting. United Russia's lead in the single-mandate constituencies was even more impressive, as its candidates won in 14 districts, while the Communists gained majority support in just three.
