-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Political Corruption The Ick that Sticks More graft at the White House and Commerce. It looks like Hillary Clinton's top political strategist, Harold Ickes, has once again moved from the frying pan into the fire. John Huang, the Democratic National Committee money-man who helped raise $2 million for the Clinton-Gore re-election efforts, is reportedly prepared to tell Congress of yet another Ickes financial outrage. Huang will testify that, in 1995, then-deputy White House chief of staff Ickes asked him to raise money for the re-election campaign of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.). The problem is that Huang was then an official at the Commerce Department - and the Hatch Act prohibits supervisors from asking subordinates to make political contributions or do partisan political work. To that end, the congressional committee unanimously voted to give Huang immunity in return for his testimony. On top of that, The Post's Brian Blomquist and Gregg Birnbaum reported Sunday that Ickes has repeatedly flouted federal lobbyist-disclosure law requiring him to identify his clients and how much they're paying him. After being ignored for more than a year, officials have referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney in Washington. In an administration rife with ethically challenged officials, Ickes has consistently been at the top of the list. He initially lost out on an administration job over allegations linking him to mob-controlled labor unions. He was also connected to Arthur Coia, long-serving president of the Laborers International Union of North America and heavy Democratic contributor. Earlier this month, Coia, identified by the FBI as an organized-crime associate, copped a plea on fraud charges - conveniently avoiding a trial at which Ickes and other administration officials would likely have faced some embarrassing questions. Despite his role at the center of the now-notorious 1996 Clinton-Gore fund-raising apparatus, Ickes was spared a full-scale independent counsel investigation when Janet Reno, America's "hear no evil, see no evil" attorney general, declined to authorize a probe into charges that Ickes lied to Congress about his role in helping the Teamsters while the union was a potential hot source of campaign cash. With Harold Ickes in charge, "Clinton for Senate" is bound to be as sleazy and corrupt as the Clinton White House. The New York Post, November 3, 1999 Money Laundering Swiss Focus on Russian Government Bribes It's a good thing American politicans are honest. ZURICH, Nov 2, 1999 -- (Reuters) Geneva's top prosecutor said his office was investigating payments to people linked to Russia's government as part of money laundering probes. "For us, this is about an investigation into payments to people with close or more distant association with the Russian government who could not immediately justify them (the payments)," Bernard Bertossa said in an interview with the daily Tages-Anzeiger published on Monday. "But I am not revealing sums, names or banks," he added. However, he said, it could not be ruled out that some individuals under scrutiny by his office might also be tied to a U.S. probe into money laundering allegations concerning the Bank of New York . U.S. authorities are investigating charges of massive money laundering through the Bank of New York. Three defendants have been indicted for allegedly transmitting about $7 billion through accounts at the bank. "In the current phase we are trying to unravel the different strands to get an overview of what happened in Switzerland," Bertossa said, adding that the Bank of New York probe primarily affected New York and London, not Geneva. Little has surfaced in Switzerland on tangible links to the U.S. case apart from a trickle of revelations on frozen accounts. It emerged last month that Swiss banks, under new laws obliging them to report suspect funds, had frozen 26 million Swiss francs ($17.2 million) that may be tied to the case. SWISS SAY MANY COMPANIES BEING PROBED Geneva prosecutors are probing charges that Swiss construction company Mabetex paid the Kremlin bribes to win renovation contracts. They are also looking into alleged money laundering linked to a list of 24 Russian politicians, businessmen and their family members. Mabetex and the Kremlin deny the charges. The Kremlin and Russian politicians have said the allegations are politically inspired ahead of elections this year and next. Bertossa said Mabetex was one of many companies being investigated. He also said it was likely some financial institutions in Switzerland had been infiltrated by individuals seeking to launder substantial sums with dubious provenance. "This hypothesis is likely in certain cases we are currently investigating. I cannot go into details," Bertossa said. He said he was also frustrated by what he saw as a different approach to the investigation by authorities in Zurich and abroad: "There have rarely been cases in which the Zurich authorities spontaneously offered to take over a part of the investigations." Hansruedi Mueller, a Zurich public prosecutor who handles cases such as money laundering and organized crime, told Reuters he could not understand Bertossa's remarks, saying his canton investigated every report of money laundering. "We were never under the impression that there was a problem on his (Bertossa's) part concerning the canton of Zurich. He never said anything of the sort," Mueller told Reuters. Bertossa said his policy of investigating every case of suspected money laundering was also hampered by difficulties in obtaining supporting evidence from abroad. Reuters, November 2, 1999 Derivatives Eurex is World's Biggest Derivatives Exchange Is CBOT becoming a has been? Eurex, Germany's derivatives exchange, last month traded four times as many contracts as Liffe, its London-based rival, in a dramatic reversal of performance just 18 months ago. Eurex, the product of last year's merger between the Frankfurt and Zurich-based exchanges, is now comfortably the largest derivatives exchange in the world, having traded a record 300m contracts since January. The previous annual record was set by the Chicago Board of Trade at 280m in 1998. With a turnover of 34m contracts last month, Eurex traded almost double the volume of the CBOT, previously the largest exchange in the world. The volume traded came to about 80 per cent of the combined turnover of Liffe, the CBOT and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Eurex was the fourth largest exchange in the world by volume of turnover until mid-1998. It was also the only exchange to buck the trend of declining month-on-month volumes in advance of the transition to the new millennium. "Eurex is now the Goliath and Liffe is now the David," a US banker said. Analysts said Eurex had managed to defy the overall fall in volume occurring in the exchanges with the help of activity generated by the launch of the euro. By abolishing 11 currencies, European monetary union created a larger pool of liquidity in the benchmark euro-denominated contracts, which are dominated by German instruments. Liquidity has shrivelled in French, Italian and Spanish derivatives based on government bonds. At a turnover of less than 1m last month, the future on the 10-year French government bond on Matif, the French exchange, was dwarfed by turnover on its German counterpart in Frankfurt, which hit 12m. Hugh Freedburg, chief executive of Liffe, yesterday warned that volumes were likely to fall further during the next few months. The drop in activity comes at a difficult time for Liffe, which is making its final transition from floor-based to screen-based trading during the next fortnight. "As we approach the year-end, we expect to see a decline in volumes generally as activity drops across all markets ahead of Y2K," Mr Freedburg said. At just 8m contracts last month, turnover on Liffe was almost 30 per cent down on October 1998. The combined turnover in all Liffe's products, which includes futures and options on commodities and equities and bonds and interest rates, was lower than the turnover on the future on the 10-year German government bond, Eurex's most popular contract. The Financial Times, November 3, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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