gv: we could also offer a long list of right wing propaganda
articles and books to counter much of the so-called selected
works, i.e.- slanted left-wing propaganda which is listed below.
But what is the point? Is this now a political forum in which
people endlessly push their version of history? We all agree
that people and their governments are corrupt. Now you are
urging "action" that sounds more like counteraction based
on ideology of what we think should be. That is basically more
conflict. How is that stepping out of the net of corruption?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Selected Works" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 11:56 AM
Subject: 4. Terrorism. USA, the State Organized Crime, and the Banks. Just a
little bit.
> BACKGROUND:
> Smug theorizers are supporting their crimes through
> naiveness and inaction, unaware of what is really
> going on in the world, trapped in the lies of corrupt
> mass media, unconcerned with the slavery and
> starvation of billions of human beings.
>
> To awake to these facts and to step out from this
> net of corruption is our last hope.
> -------------------
>
> Gary W. Potter, Professor, Criminal Justice and Police Studies
> Eastern Kentucky University
>
> (Extracts):
>
> Governments often engage in smuggling (arms and drugs), assassination
> conspiracies, terrorist acts, and other crimes in order to further their
> foreign policy objectives.
>
> IRAN: The CIA engaged in a massive conspiracy to overthrow the
> democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh, in 1953
> (Beirne and Messerscmidt, 1991: 258-259; Prados, 1986; Simon and Eitzen,
> 1986). Following his election, Mossedagh had nationalized several
> foreign-owned oil companies. His government had offered compensation to
the
> oil companies. But the Eisenhower administration was not tolerant of any
> independence by foreign leaders and began a campaign to overthrow the
> Mossedagh government and replace it with the monarchy of Shah Reza
Pahlavi.
> In return for U.S. support for the coup d'etat, the Shah promised U.S. oil
> companies control over 50 percent of Iran's oil production. After removing
> the democratic government in Iran and placing the Shah in power, the CIA
> helped create, train, and finance SAVAK, a vicious secret police force
loyal
> to the Shah. SAVAK arrested over 1,500 people a month during the Shah's
> reign. On June 5, 1953, SAVAK murdered about 6,000 Iranian citizens in one
> day (Simon and Eitzen,. 1986: 158). Torture was frequently used on
> prisoners, and Amnesty International declared, "No country in the world
has
> a worse record in human rights than Iran" (Beirne and Messerscmidt, 1991:
> 258).
> While American oil companies and arms merchants profited from the Shah's
> reign (Iran purchased $17 billion in military equipment from the U.S.),
the
> ultimate costs of the coup can only by calculated by considering the
impact
> of the 1979 Islamic revolution which replaced the Shah's regime. The
> government of the Ayatollah Khomeni which took over was virulently
> anti-American, heavily engaged in the sponsorship of terrorism,
responsible
> for the seizure of American hostages, and part of a bizarre conspiracy
> involving U.S. intelligence during the Reagan administration.
>
> GUATEMALA: Fresh from its dubious success in Iran, the CIA intervened in
the
> internal affairs of Guatemala the following year. In 1954 the CIA
> orchestrated a military coup which removed the democratically elected
leader
> of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, from power (Beirne and Messerchmidt, 1991:
259;
> Herman, 1982: 176). Arbenz was committed to democracy and had received 65
> percent of the vote in Guatemala's election. His crime, however, was that
he
> favored land reform. Guatemala was a country in which 3 percent of the
> landowners owned 70 percent of the agricultural land. After his election
> Arbenz nationalized 1.5 million acres of arable land, including land owned
> by the U.S.- based United Fruit Company. United Fruit insisted that the
> government act against Arbenz, and the CIA financed a rebel "army" in
> Honduras. On July 8, 1954, Arbenz fled the country. The U.S.- sponsored
> dictator immediately canceled the land reform program, ended literacy
> programs, fired teachers, ordered the burning of "subversive" books, and
> broke up the peasants' agricultural cooperatives. For the next 30 years,
> Guatemala was ruled by a vicious military dictatorship which had been
> imposed on the citizens and was propped up by U.S. military forces.
>
> CUBA: In 1959, Fidel Castro overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.
> Batista had been friendly to U.S. corporations and to U.S. organized crime
> interests who had run massive gambling, prostitution, and narcotics
> operations out of Havana (Beirne and Messerschmidt, 1991: 259-261; Kruger,
> 1980; Hinckle and Turner, 1981). Once again, the Eisenhower administration
> elected to use the CIA to try to resolve the problem. As a first step, the
> CIA began to train anti-Castro Cuban exiles in terrorist tactics in what
was
> known as "Operation 40." Operation 40 involved terrorist attacks on Cuba,
> attempted assassinations of Cuban leaders, and an alliance with organized
> crime figures Sam Giancana, Santo Trafficante, and Johnny Roselli in a
> series of assassination plots against Castro himself.
> In April, 1961, the CIA-trained Cuban exiles attempted an invasion of Cuba
> at the Bay of Pigs. The invasion was a military disaster, and much of the
> military force was captured or killed. The failure of the Bay of Pigs
> invasion forced a change in tactics against Cuba. Operation 40 was
replaced
> by JM/WAVE, an operation involving some 300 CIA agents and 4,000-6,000
Cuban
> exiles. JM/WAVE engaged in a series of terrorist attacks on Cuba,
targeting
> sugar and oil refineries and factories. It also continued the
assassination
> campaign begun earlier under Operation 40.
> In 1965, JM/WAVE was disbanded, as a direct result of the discovery that
its
> aircraft were engaged in narcotics smuggling, leaving thousands of
> highly-trained, politically fanatic Cuban exiles in place in the United
> States. The "blowback" from JM/WAVE was considerable. Some of these CIA-
> trained exiles turned to terrorism, engaging in 25-30 bombings in Dade
> County, Florida, alone in 1975 and assassinating diplomats around the
world
> (Herman, 1982). Other JM/WAVE participants, having been trained in
smuggling
> techniques and violence by the CIA, turned to organized crime, creating
> large gambling syndicates in New Jersey and Florida and forming the
> infrastructure for massive cocaine trafficking by Cuban and Colombian
> organized crime groups.
>
> CHILE: In 1972 the CIA targeted yet another democratically- elected
> government for overthrow, presumably as part of America's overall foreign
> policy commitment to democracy around the world. This time the target was
> the elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende. (Beirne and
Messerschmidt,
> 1991: 263; Simon and Eitzen, 1986). In 1970 Allende had been elected
> president, and immediately IT&T. which had significant mining investments
in
> Chile, and the CIA worked to destabilize the economy and his government.
> Their plans did great damage to the Chilean economy but failed to bring
the
> Allende government down. In 1973, the tactics changed when the CIA
conspired
> with the Chilean military to overthrow Allende in a coup d'etat. Allende,
> along with 30,000 Chilean citizens, was killed in the coup. The democratic
> institutions Allende had created were dismantled, and General Pinochet, a
> man who saw himself as the successor to Adolph Hitler, began an
> unprecedented regime of repression. The Pinochet regime incarcerated over
> 100,000 Chileans and murdered another 20,000.
>
> OPERATION CONDOR: In one of the most disturbing examples of
state-organized
> crime involving the U.S. government, the CIA, along with secret police
> agencies from six Latin American countries, entered into a conspiracy to
> identify, monitor, and assassinate political dissidents in those
countries.
> The terror campaign was orchestrated by Pinochet's secret police, the
DINA,
> but was abetted by the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil,
Paraguay,
> Uruguay, and the United States. Hundreds of people were abducted and
> murdered during Operation Condor (Herman, 1982).
>
> U.S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCY COLLABORATION WITH ORGANIZED CRIME:
> Active alliances between various organized crime groups and the U.S.
> government can be traced, at least, to World War II, when the Office of
> Naval Intelligence asked new York organized crime figures Meyer Lansky,
> Albert Anastasia, and "Lucky" Luciano to assist them with
> counter-intelligence operations on the New York waterfront:
> Such escapades allegedly began during World War II when the underworld
> figures in control of the New York docks were contracted by navy
> intelligence officials in order to ensure that German submarines or
foreign
> agents did not infiltrate the area. It was thought that waterfront pimps
and
> prostitutes could act as a sort of counter- intelligence corps. The man
> whose aid was sought for this purpose was Lucky Luciano; he was reportedly
> quite successful in preventing sabotage or any other outbreak of trouble
on
> the New York docks during the war. Despite his arrest and conviction for
> compulsory prostitution in 1936, Luciano was granted parole and given
exile
> for life in 1954 in exchange for the aid he provided from his prison cell
> during the war (Simon and Eitzen, 1993: 81).
>
> THE CIA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA:
> Links between U.S. intelligence agencies and drug smugglers occurred at
> least as early as the 1950s. The CIA provided direct support to Kuomintang
> (Chinese Nationalist) opium growers in Thailand and Burma. Ostensibly this
> aid was given in the hope that these small scattered armies would someday
> attack Communist China. The CIA set up two front-companies to provide air
> support for the Kuomintang opium trade - - Civil Air Transport and Sea
> Supply Corporation. These companies supplied military aid to the
Nationalist
> Chinese and flew their opium out of the Golden Triangle to Thailand or
> Taiwan. CIA assistance for these opium-growing warlords was largely
> responsible for the explosion of heroin addiction in the United States in
> the 1960s when the number of known addicts grew from about 65,000 to over
> 500,000 (McCoy, 1972; Kwitny, 1987). The world's largest opium merchant,
> Chang Chi-fu, has operated for several decades as a CIA "client." Another
> Golden Triangle heroin czar, Li Wen-huan, has been given direct financial,
> military, and logistical assistance by the CIA. A third major heroin
> traffickers Lu Hsu-shui was protected from a DEA investigation on orders
> from the CIA (Mills, 1986).
> During the Vietnam War, the CIA supplied, financed, and supported a
renegade
> Laotian army made up of members of the Hmong (or Meo) tribe. General Vang
> Pao commanded this 36,000 man secret army in a war against the Pathet Lao
in
> an attempt to disrupt North Vietnamese supply routes to Viet Cong
guerrillas
> in South Vietnam. Vang Pao's army was under the command of veteran CIA
> officers and was totally supplied, financed, and equipped by U.S. funds.
As
> part of his "assistance" to U.S. intelligence, Vang Pao's army carried out
a
> brutal assassination program of village leaders. Vang Pao's Hmong
tribesmen
> were traditionally opium poppy farmers. The war interfered with their
opium
> trade, so the CIA supplied them with aircraft from a CIA proprietary
company
> called Air America to transport their opium from the Laotian hills to a
> massive CIA base at Long Tieng, Laos. At Long Tieng, Vang Pao had
> established a massive heroin refinery. DEA's Far East regional director,
> John J. O'Neill, said, "I have no doubt that Air America was used to
> transport opium" (Kwitney, 1987: 51). Some of the Laotian heroin was
> transported to South Vietnam, where it was sold to U.S. troops, 20% of
whom
> came home addicted to heroin.
>
> THE CIA IN SOUTHWEST ASIA:
> In the 1980s the CIA also began operations in support of the Mujahadeen, a
> fundamentalist Moslem group of rebels fighting Soviet troops in
Afghanistan.
> Like his Nicaraguan "freedom fighters" (discussed below), Reagan's
> Mujahadeen allies financed their war through drug trafficking, in this
case
> heroin. Mujahadeen leaders supervised the growing of the opium poppy and
> with the assistance of the CIA, which had reopened trade routes to supply
> the Mujahadeen with weapons, smuggled the drug onto the world market. The
> net result of CIA assistance to the Afghani rebels was that the areas of
> Afghanistan and Pakistan they control had become "the world's leading
source
> of heroin exports to the United States and Europe" by 1986, according to a
> State Department report.
>
> THE CIA AND MONEY LAUNDERING IN FLORIDA AND THE CARIBBEAN BASIN:
> CIA associates in the Caribbean, including the paymaster for the ill-fated
> Bay of Pigs invasion, played key roles in the operations of Castle Bank, a
> Florida money laundry for organized crime's drug money. Another Florida
bank
> with strong intelligence-community connections, the Bank of Perrine, has
> been used by Colombians to launder money from their burgeoning cocaine
> business. In the early 1970s, the CIA and organized crime played a key
role
> in establishing and operating the World Finance Corporation, a
Florida-based
> company involved in laundering drug money and supporting terrorist
> activities (Lernoux, 1984).
>
> US, CRIME, AND THE BANKS:
>
> The Nugan-Hand Bank:
> Much of the opium profits from CIA involvement with drug traffickers in
the
> Golden Triangle were laundered through the Nugan Hand Bank in Australia. A
> network of high-ranking U.S. military officers and intelligence officers
had
> links to the Nugan-Hand Bank, which was charged by an Australian
commission
> of investigation with narcotics trafficking, gun-running, money
laundering,
> and massive fraud (Kwitny, 1987, New York Times, March 8, 1987). In his
> investigation of the Nugan- Hand Bank, Jonathan Kwitny charges that the
bank
> laundered billions of dollars, helped finance the heroin trade in the
Golden
> Triangle and engaged in tax fraud and theft (Kwitny, 1987: 76). Who were
the
> officers of this "heroin" bank? The president of Nugan-Hand was retired
U.S.
> Admiral Earl F. Yates. Its legal counsel was former CIA director William
> Colby. Consultants for the bank included former deputy CIA director Walter
> McDonald; former National Security Council advisor Guy Parker, and Andrew
> Lowe, one of Australia's largest heroin traffickers.
>
> The Bank of Credit and Commerce International:
> The close relationship between the U.S. government, the financial
community,
> and organized crime is nowhere clearer than in the activities of the Bank
of
> Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) (Kappeler, Blumberg, and Potter,
> 1993: 237-238). BCCI was the seventh-largest privately owned bank in the
> world. It had over four hundred branch offices operating in seventy-three
> countries. Among its many criminal activities was the laundering of at
least
> $14 billion for the Colombian cocaine cartels; the facilitating of
financial
> transactions for Panamanian president Manuel Noriega and international
arms
> merchant Adnan Khashoggi; the funneling of cash to the contras for illegal
> arms deals and contra-backed drug trafficking; and the assisting of
> Phillipine President Ferdinand Marcos in transferring his personal
fortune,
> accrued through corruption and graft, out of the Philippines.
> Despite the enormity of BCCI's crimes and its vital role in drug
> trafficking, the U.S. Justice Department was more than reluctant to
> investigate. In fact, the Justice Department had complete information on
> BCCI's drug and arms operations and its illegal holdings in the United
> States for over three years before it even initiated an inquiry. Perhaps
the
> reluctance of American law enforcement to interfere with such a major
> organized crime entity can be explained by the proliferation of what some
> have perceived as BCCI's "friends" in the U.S. government holding high
> office.
>
> CUBAN ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS:
> When the Cuban dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by Fidel
> Castro in 1959, U.S. intelligence agencies began a massive covert
operation
> to remove Castro from power. To assist in military and terrorist attacks
on
> Cuba, the U.S. government recruited former Batista allies in the Cuban
> refugee community in the U.S. and members of organized crime. Organized
> criminals had a major stake in Cuba. Prior to the revolution, they had
> operated in a partnership with Batista which had made Havana a major haven
> for gambling, prostitution, and drug trafficking. After the revolution
> organized crime figures were imprisoned and/or exiled from Cuba, thereby
> costing organized crime millions of dollars in illicit revenue.
> At first the CIA, anti-Castro Cubans, and the mob collaborated on plans
for
> an invasion of Cuba by Cuban refugees. The clandestine army created for
this
> purpose was known as Brigade 2506 and was placed under the direction of
> Manuel Artime, an anti-Castro Cuban leader in Miami. In 1962, Brigade 2506
> launched a disastrous invasion at the Bay of Pigs. With their invasion
force
> shattered and defeated, the CIA and its allies turned to other tactics to
> destablize the Cuban government.
> The anti-Castro Cubans were reorganized in several secret operations whose
> main objective was to conduct acts of terror aimed at Cuba. Oil refineries
> and sugar refineries were bombed, sugar shipments poisoned, and the Cuban
> infrastructure disrupted through terrorist attacks. But the public
> participation of Batista allies and organized crime figures in these
efforts
> were a source of major embarrassment to the U.S. government. In the early
> 1970s, the anti-Castro terror campaign was called off when one of the
planes
> being used by the anti-Castro Cubans crashed in California with several
> kilos of cocaine and heroin abroad (New York Times, January 1, 1975).
>
> ORGANIZED CRIME, THE CIA AND THE SAVINGS AND LOAN SCANDAL:
> The savings and loan scandal of the 1980s has been depicted in a myriad of
> ways. To some, it is "the greatest ... scandal in American history"
(Thomas,
> 1991: 30). To others it is the single greatest case of fraud in the
history
> of crime (Seattle Times, June 11, 1991). Some analysts see it as the
natural
> result of the ethos of greed promulgated by the Reagan administration
(Simon
> and Eitzen, 1993: 50). And to some it was a premeditated conspiracy to
move
> covert funds out of the country for use by the U.S. Intelligence Agency
> (Bainerman, 1992: 275). All of these depictions of the S & L scandal
contain
> elements of truth. But to a large degree, the savings and loan scandal was
> simply business as usual. What was unusual about it was not that it
> happened, or who was involved, but that it was so blatant and coarse a
> criminal act that exposure became inevitable. But with its exposure, three
> basic but usually ignored "truths" about organized crime were once again
> demonstrated with startlingly clarity:
> There is precious little difference between those people who society
> designates as respectable and law abiding and those people society
> castigates as hoodlums and thugs.
> The world of corporate finance and corporate capital is as criminogenic
and
> probably more criminogenic than any poverty-wracked slum neighborhood.
> The distinctions drawn between business, politics, and organized crime are
> at best artificial and in reality irrelevant. Rather than being
> dysfunctions, corporate crime, white-collar crime, organized crime, and
> political corruption are mainstays of American political-economic life.
> It is not our intent to discuss the unethical and even illegal business
> practices of the failed savings and loans and their governmental
> collaborators. The outlandish salaries paid by S & L executives to
> themselves, the subsidies to the thrifts from Congress which rewarded
> incompetence and fraud, the land "flips" which resulted in real estate
being
> sold back and forth in an endless "kiting" scheme, and the political
> manipulation designed to delay the scandal until after the 1988
presidential
> elections are all immensely interesting and important. But they are
subjects
> for others' inquiries. Our interest is in the savings and loans as living,
> breathing organisms that fused criminal corporations, organized crime, and
> the CIA into a single entity that served the interests of the political
and
> economic elite in America. Let us begin by quickly summarizing the most
> blatant examples of collaboration between financial institutions, the mob,
> and the intelligence community.
>
> US, CRIME, AND BANKS:
> First National Bank of Maryland:
> For two years, 1983-1985, the First National Bank of Maryland was used by
> Associated Traders, a CIA proprietary company, to make payments for covert
> operations. Associated traders used its accounts at First National to
supply
> $23 million in arms for covert operations in Afghanistan, Angola, Chad,
and
> Nicaragua (Bainerman, 1992; 276-277; Covert Action 35, 1990).
> The links between the First National Bank of Maryland and the CIA were
> exposed in a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court by Robert Maxwell, a
> high-ranking bank officer. Maxwell charged in that suit that he had been
> asked to commit crimes on behalf of the CIA. Specifically, he charged that
> he was asked to conceal Associated Traders' business activities, which by
> law he was required to specify on all letters of credit. Maxwell alleged
> that he had been physically threatened and forced to leave his job after
> asking that his superiors supply him with a letter stating that the
> activities he was being asked to engage in were legal. In responding to
> Maxwell's lawsuit, attorneys for the bank state that "a relationship
between
> First National and the CIA and Associated Traders was classified
information
> which could neither be confirmed nor denied (Bainerman, 1992: 276-277;
> Washington Business Journal, February 5, 1990).
>
> Palmer National Bank:
> The Washington, D.C.-based Palmer National Bank was founded in 1983 on the
> basis of a $2.8 million loan from Herman K. Beebe to Harvey D. McLean, Jr.
> McLean was a Shreveport Louisiana businessman who owned Paris (Texas)
> Savings and Loan. Herman Beebe played a key role in the savings and loan
> scandal. Houston Post reporter Pete Brewton linked Beebe to a dozen failed
S
> & L's, and Stephen Pizzo, Mary Fricker, and Paul Muolo, in their
> investigation of the S & L fiasco, called Beebe's banks "potentially the
> most powerful and corrupt banking network ever seen in the U.S."
Altogether,
> Herman Beebe controlled, directly or indirectly, at least 55 banks and 29
S
> & L's in eight states. What is particularly interesting about Beebe's
> participation in these banks and savings and loans is his unique
background.
> Herman Beebe had served nine months in federal prison for bank fraud and
had
> impeccable credentials as a financier for New Orleans-based organized
crime
> figures, including Vincent and Carlos Marcello (Bainerman, 1992: 277-278;
> Brewton, 1993: 170- 179).
> Harvey McLean's partner in the Palmer National Bank was Stefan Halper.
> Halper had served as George Bush's foreign policy director during the 1980
> presidential primaries. During the general election campaign, Halper was
in
> charge of a highly secretive operations center, consisting of Halper and
> several ex- CIA operatives who kept close tabs on Jimmy Carter's foreign
> policy activities, particularly Carter's attempt to free U.S. hostages in
> Iran. Halper was later linked both to the "Debategate" scandal, in which
it
> is alleged that Carter's briefing papers for his debates with Ronald
Reagan
> were stolen, and with "The October Surprise," in which it is alleged that
> representatives of the Reagan campaign tried to thwart U.S. efforts to
free
> the Iranian hostages until after the presidential election. Halper also
set
> up a legal defense fund for Oliver North.
> During the Iran-Contra Affair, Palmer National was the bank of record for
> the National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty, a front group run
by
> Oliver North and Carl "Spitz" Channell, which was used to send money and
> weapons to the contras.
>
> Indian Springs Bank:
> Another bank with clear connections to the CIA was the Indian Springs Bank
> of Kansas City, Kansas (Bainerman, 1992: 279-280; Brewton, 1993: 197-200).
> The fourth largest stockholder in Indian Springs was Iranian expatriate
> Farhad Azima, who was also the owner of an air charter company called
Global
> International Air. The Indian Springs bank had made several unsecured
loans
> to Global International Air, totaling $600,000 in violation of the bank's
> $349,00 borrower limit. In 1983 Global International filed for bankruptcy,
> and Indian Springs followed suit in 1984. The president of Indiana Springs
> was killed in 1983 in a car fire that started in the vehicle's back seat
and
> was regarded by law enforcement officials as of suspicious origins.
> Global International Air was part of Oliver North's logistical network
which
> shipped arms for the U.S. government on several occasions, including a
> shipment of 23 tons of TOW missiles to Iran by Race Aviation, another
> company owned by Azima. Pete Brewton, in his investigation of the Indian
> Springs bank collapse was told that FBI had not followed up on Indian
> Springs because the CIA informed them that Azima was "off limits" (Houston
> Post, February 8, 1990). Similarly the assistant U.S. Attorney handling
the
> Indian Springs investigation was told to "back off from a key figure in
the
> collapse because he had ties to the CIA."
> Azima did indeed have ties to the CIA. His relationship with the agency
goes
> back to the late 1970s when he supplied air and logistical support to
EATSCO
> (Egyptian American Transport and Services Corporation), a company owned by
> former CIA agents Thomas Clines, Theodore Shackley, and Richard Secord.
> EATSCO was prominently involved in the activities of former CIA agent
Edwin
> Wilson, who shipped arms illegally to Libya. Azima was also closely tied
to
> the Republican party. He had contributed $81,000 to the Reagan campaign.
> Global International also had other unsavory connections. In 1981, Global
> International made a payment to organized crime figure Anthony Russo, a
> convicted felon with a record that included conspiracy, bribery, and
> prostitution charges. Russo was the lawyer of Kansas City organized crime
> figures, an employee of Indian Springs, and a member of the board of
Global
> International. Russo later explained that the money had been used to
escort
> Liberian dictator Samuel Doe on a "goodwill trip" to the U.S.
> Global International's planes based in Miami were maintained by Southern
Air
> Transport, another CIA proprietary company. According to Franck Van Geyso,
> an employee of Global International, pilots for Global International
ferried
> arms into South and Central America and returned to Florida with drugs.
> Indian Springs also made a loan of $400,000 to Morris Shenker, owner of
the
> Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, former attorney for Jimmy Hoffa, and close
> associate of Nick Civella and other Kansas City organized crime figures.
At
> the time the loan to Shenker was made, he, Civella, and other Kansas City
> mobsters were under indictment for skimming $280,000 from Las Vegas'
> Tropicana Casino.
>
> Vision Banc Savings:
> In March, 1986, Robert L. Corson purchased the Kleberg County Savings and
> Loan of Kingsville, Texas, for $6 million, and changed its name to Vision
> Banc Savings (Bainerman, 1992: 280-281; Brewton, 1993: 333-351). Harris
> County, Texas, judge Jon Lindsey vouched for Corson's character in order
to
> gain permission from state regulators for the bank purchase. Lindsey was
the
> chairman of the Bush campaign in 1988 in Harris County and later received
a
> $10,000 campaign contribution and a free trip to Las Vegas from Corson
> (Houston Post, February 11, 1990).
> Corson was well-known to federal law enforcement agents as a "known money
> launderer" and a "mule for the agency," meaning that he moved large
amounts
> of cash from country to country. When Corson purchased Vision Banc, it had
> assets in excess of $70 million. Within four months it was bankrupt.
Vision
> Banc engaged in a number of questionable deals under Corson leadership,
but
> none more so that its $20 million loan to Miami Lawyer Lawrence Freeman to
> finance a real estate deal (Houston Post, February 4, 1990). Freeman was a
> convicted money launderer who had cleaned dirty money for Jack Devoe's
> Bahamas-to-Florida cocaine smuggling syndicate and for Santo Trafficante's
> Florida- based organized crime syndicate. Freeman was a law partner of
> CIA-operative and Bay of Pigs paymaster Paul Helliwell. Corson, in a
> separate Florida real estate venture costing $200 million, was indicted on
a
> series of charges.
>
> Hill Financial Savings:
> Vision Banc was not the only financial institution involved in Freeman's
> Florida land deals. Hill Financial Savings of Red Hill, Pennsylvania, put
in
> an additional $80 million (Brewton, 1993: 346-348) . The Florida land
deals
> were only one of a series of bad investments by Hill Financial which led
to
> collapse. The failure of Hill Financial, alone, cost the U.S. treasury
$1.9
> billion.
>
> Sunshine State Bank:
> The cast of characters surrounding the Sunshine State Bank of Miami also
> included spies, White House operatives, and organized criminals
(Bainermann,
> 1992: 281; Brewton, 1993: 310- 312, 320-323). The owner of the Sunshine
> State Bank, Ray Corona, was convicted in 1987 of racketeering, conspiracy,
> and mail fraud. Corona purchased Sunshine in 1978 with $1.1 million in
drug
> trafficking profits supplied by Jose Antonio "Tony" Fernandez, who was
> subsequently indicted on charges of smuggling 1.5 million pounds of
> marijuana into the U.S.
> Among Corona's customers and business associates were Leonard Pelullo,
Steve
> Samos, and Guillermo Hernandez-Cartaya. Pelullo was a well-known associate
> of organized crime figures in Philadelphia, who had attempted to use S & L
> money to broker a major purchase of an Atlantic City Casino as a mob
> frontman. Pelullo was charged with fraud for his activities at American
> Savings in California. Steve Samos was a convicted drug trafficker who
> helped Corona to set up Sunshine State Bank as a drug money laundry. Samos
> also helped set up front companies that funneled money and weapons to the
> Contras. Guillermo Hernandez-Cartaya was a veteran CIA operative who had
> played a key role in the Bay of Pigs of invasion. He also had a long
career
> as a money launderer in the Caribbean and in Texas on behalf of both the
CIA
> and major drug trafficking syndicates.
>
> Mario Renda, Lender to the Mob:
> Mario Renda was a Long Island money broker who brokered deposits to
various
> savings and loans in return for their agreement to loan money to phony
> companies (Brewton, 1993: 45-47; 188-190; Pizzo et al. 1989: 466-471).
Renda
> and his associates received finders fees of 2 to 6 percent on the loans,
> most of which went to individuals with strong organized crime connections
> who subsequently defaulted on them. Renda brokered deals to 160 Savings
and
> Loans throughout the country, 104 of which eventually failed. Renda was
> convicted of $16 million from an S & L and for tax fraud.
> Renda also served CIA and National Security Council interests as a money
> broker helping arrange for the laundering of drug money through various
> savings and loans on behalf of the CIA. He then obtained loans from the
same
> S & L's, which were funneled to the Contras. An organized crime-related
> stockbroker, a drug pilot, and Renda were all convicted in the drug money
> laundering case.
>
> Full-Service Banking:
> All told at least twenty-two of the failed S & L's can be tied to joint
> money laundering ventures by the CIA and organized crime figures
(Glassman,
> 1990: 16-21; Farnham, 1990: 90-108; Weinberg, 1990: 33; Pizzo, et al.,
1989:
> 466-471). If the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s reveal anything,
> they demonstrate what has often been stated as a maxim in organized crime
> research: that corruption linking government, business, and syndicates is
> the reality of the day-to-day organization of crime. Investigations of
> organized crime in the United States, Europe, and Asia have all uncovered
> organized crime networks operating with virtual immunity from law
> enforcement and prosecution. Chambliss' study of organized crime in
Seattle
> exposed a syndicate that involved participation by a former governor of
the
> state, the county prosecutor, the police chief, the sheriff, at least 50
law
> enforcement officers, leading business people, including contractors,
> realtors, banks, and corporation executives, and, of course, a supporting
> cast of drug pushers, pimps, gamblers, and racketeers (Chambliss, 1978).
The
> Chambliss study is not the exception but the rule. Other sociological
> inquires in Detroit, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York have
all
> revealed similar patterns (Albini, 1971; Block, 1984; Block and Chambliss,
> 1981; Block and Scarpitti,1985; Jenkins and Potter, 1989; 1986; Potter and
> Jenkins, 1985; Potter, 1994). As Chambliss comments:
> In the everyday language of the police, the press, and popular opinion,
> "organized crime" refers to a tightly knit group of people, usually alien
> and often Italian, that run a crime business structured along the lines of
> feudal relationships. This conception bears little relationship to the
> reality of organized crime today. Nonetheless, criminologists have
> discovered the existence of organizations whose activities focus on the
> smuggling of illegal commodities into and out of countries (cocaine out of
> Colombia and into the United States and guns and arms out of the United
> States and into the Middle East, for example); other organizations,
> sometimes employing some of the same people, are organized to provide
> services such as gambling, prostitution, illegal dumping of toxic wastes,
> arson, usury, and occasionally murder. These organizations typically cut
> across ethnic and cultural lines, are run like businesses, and consist of
> networks of people including police, politicians, and ordinary citizens
> investing in illegal enterprises for a high return on their money.
>
>
>
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