The Curious Case of Felix Sater

Newsweek

"Russia has made seven abusive attempts to have me arrested since 2013 on politically motivated charges. If Russia is allowed to take over Interpol, it is like the mafia taking over global law enforcement," Browder told Newsweek.

But Bill, there is an acclaimed award-winning Russian filmmaker who is well-known for being anti-Putin who doesn't believe your story.

www.imdb.com...


Andrey Nekrasov IMDB
I mean, here's the storyline of his 2004 film Disbelief, according to IMDB Source



But, alas, there always must be another plot twist, right? Because this isn't a fictional spy thriller. This is messy. This is real-life. Wait for it... on pure instinct, I had gone back to Disbelief on IMDB after reading about his other films in 1997 and 2001 it stated, and finding nothing of further interest. I scrolled down to read reviews on Disbelief and find only one. It's just kind of a doozy to be out there like that, from almost 13 years ago (Dec 2006). I'm skimming it and not finding anything exciting... until I get to the last sentence, or point this reviewer is making. He obviously hated the movie. Once you see the name Berezofsky, and I knew I'd seen it somewhere before.


I'd read the name in countless articles like these Newsweek [3.7.19] - A little over two weeks from when Mueller would announce the investigation was over...

Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch who owns the British football club Chelsea, sold his stake in Russia's Channel One Television station, according to reports.

VTB Capital, an investment branch of the Kremlin-owned VTB Bank that reportedly offered to finance Trump Tower Moscow when then presidential candidate Donald Trump was pursuing the development project, purchased Abramovich's remaining 20 percent stake in Channel One. The news of VTB's new ownership stake in Channel One was reported widely in the Russian media. VTB is a majority state-owned bank that operates as one of Russia's largest lenders. The bank has been under U.S. sanctions since 2014, after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and started backing pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country. The bank has since hired D.C. lobbyists to advocate for its removal from the sanctions list, but its efforts have been unsuccessful.

Further down

Berezovsky and Abramovich had been locked in a protracted court battle in which the former accused the latter of pressuring him to sell his shares of the Russian oil firm Sibneft and sought billions of dollars in damages. In 2012, Berezovsky lost the case to Abramovich. Berezovsky lived in self-imposed exile in Britain until 2013, when he was found dead in his bathroom with a noose around his neck. Police determined that the death was a suicide, but investigators later suggested that they would re-open the investigation to look for potential foul play.

If you recall, he's also the guy stated in the 9/11 Commission Report v2008 discussed a bit earlier. So you don't have to go back, here you go...


Here's what is fascinating to me. You really have to read this revised 9/11 report (link again here
from pages 215 starting around here


to this on page 216


all the way to this again on p. 224 to see the full details.


But I'll briefly summarize that it states the Russia privatization in the 1990s, of certain years Sater was there with a "telecom company" Russia was being robbed by these privatizations being set up in foreign firms names with other shell companies tied to them which masked ownership and much of that money went to the West. Not Russia. The money given in Sept 1991 with gold used as collateral would have been coming due in Sept 2001, though I haven't made the time to read the document in full to understand how all of the dots connect in that report. I think the main idea to get here is a Mafia link connection to Bush and rogue KGB agents aligned to Bush along with certain rogue CIA had established their own network of funding source through a hidden Russia privatization of companies.

So what does this mean for what we now think of this seemingly "anti-Putin" filmmaker possibly once being funded by this Russian Berezovsky who died in 2013 in a bathtub with a noose around his neck? Perhaps nine years prior when was openly against Putin also, and living in Britain in 2003-04 when the film would have been made.

Well, since he was against Putin too, I'm not sure it matters. We also know Nekrasov's funding for the 2016 Magnitsky film was from explicitly West mainstream media funding. They really wanted this Magnitsky propaganda film to get more countries to adopt the Act in the West, it would seem. They were not pleased with the end result of the film.

Wikipedia

At the eleventh hour, the premiere was canceled. The New York Times said threats of libel suits from Bill Browder accusing Nekrasov of defaming both him and Magnitsky had accompanied the cancellation.[5] Nekrasov blamed two last-minute interventions. The first was from MEP Marieluise Beck, unhappy because Nekrasov refused to remove her interview segment from his film. The second objection, which Nekrasov considered decisive, came from the film's principal sponsor, German public television broadcaster ZDF.[12][14] Along with its French public television subsidiary Arte, ZDF also shelved the film a few days before its scheduled telecast.

He also credibly talks about losing friends and really debating whether he should just create what he had set out to in the first place which was this perfect plot in Browder's story, or tell the whole story and let the public decide. Which is what he ultimately decided to do, turning his film into what was an interesting watch.

I think Browder is part of a criminal enterprise group being used to push this Act on a global scale, but if this were the case why would Trump have the 2016 Act passed and then use this Act in an Executive Order on Human Trafficking?

There's still some kinks to be sorted out.

A Financial Times article from March 2013 Source

In 2013, Hermitage closed its Russian fund which in 2005, had over $4 billion in assets under management. In 2013, the fund was evaluated as having less than $60 million in assets. Closing the fund led to a dispute between investors and HSBC which was a manager and trustee of the fund.

I read the FT source article to better understand what was being reported in 2013 when this was sourced. It's behind a paywall so I'll summarize.

It states the Hermitage Fund, which is from the Bill Browder Hermitage Capital, is an HSBC-backed company which had operated as a private entity within Russia but not as a citizen of Russia, and made a lot of money during this 1996-2005 period before Browder left Russia. But the point was HSBC became involved in this kind of diplomatic war with the Kremlin over the death of Magnitsky. Referring to him as one of their lawyers when it's been pretty well established for me after watching the Magnitsky film he was a brilliant accountant and mathematician working for Hermitage Capital, not as a lawyer.

The article then reiterates it was one of the largest portfolio investors in Russia with $4 Billion in assets under management at its height in 2005, but has been hit by redemptions by shareholders and the legal entanglements of its chief advisor, Mr. Browder. As they were closing their doors, the fund is now "reckoned by insiders to have at most $60m in assets."

Since Aug 2013, the FT article stated HSBC Holdings, being both manager and trustee of the Fund, had been disputing with investors who wanted to withdraw their money but were being told they couldn't because HSBC will not tell them how much a share is worth. It was in Aug that HSBC ceased issuing valuations of the fund.

Where this got kind of murkier was HSBC said it was also trying to determine whether costs associated with a lawsuit against Mr. Browder would be borne out of the fund. The letter which had been sent stated

HSBC declined to comment on Tuesday.

However, in a January letter from HSBC to Mr Enneking, seen by the FT, HSBC said that was it trying to ascertain whether costs associated with a lawsuit against Mr Browder were to be borne by the fund. It had stated “Until this determination is made it is not appropriate to process any fund subscriptions and redemptions at the 17 Aug 2012 net asset value, and the fund must therefore remain suspended,”.

The retort was from Tim Enneking, chairman of Altima Asset Management in Moscow, who accused HSBC of “holding us all hostage for no good reason”, adding that he did not see why the fund should expect to incur any costs associated with Mr Browder’s legal problems.

The article also mentioned which I hadn't yet, that the film showed the Russian policeman implicated by Browder in Magnitsky's death was suing Browder for libel. Not usually the actions of a corrupt Russian officer who wants to avoid scrutiny.

So yeah, Nekrasov made another movie between (2004) Disbelief and the (2016) Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes. It came out in 2007 regarding the polonium poisoning of Litvinenko, as the anonymous review had posted back in 2006 he would be, with Berezovsky's funding. The Berezovsky who was found in his bathtub dead with a noose around his neck six years after Litvinenko's poisoning. If you want to check out that Nekrasov movie, details are here
www.amazon.com...=share_ios_movie


1990s - Russian privatization money is flowing to the West; not to Russia; Bill Browder is the largest foreign investor in Russia with his Hermitage Capital Fund in cahoots with HSBC
1996-98 - Sater is in Moscow getting in close with Russian businessmen, former military and intelligence officials during this "lawless capitalism" period
1998-2000 - Sater comes back to the U.S. from Moscow with information on Stinger missiles, Osama bin Laden telephone numbers and all prior to 9/11; turns state evidence against Mafia crime families and signs first cooperation agreement (we know of) with Andrew Weismann, who turns up assigned to Mueller's investigative team almost two decades later (2017)
2001 - 9/11 happens; Gold as collateral for Russia privatization loans were coming due from Sept 1991; Sater is working at Trump Tower/Bayrock somehow; still hasn't had to go to court to answer for his part in the $40mil pump and dump stock scam
2002-08 - Sater doing Bayrock deals with Trump brand; money tied to people and banks tied to Mafia individuals or suspected money launders; Sater's first negative article regarding his ties to the mob is printed Dec 2007
2005-09 Hermitage Capital is allegedly under investigation in Russia for making billions in profit there and not paying taxes in Russia or anywhere; Hermitage Capital reportedly hires Sergei Magnitsky as an accountant (not a lawyer as described); Sergei whistleblower story leading to arrest/death in prison cell in Moscow; Browder not allowed into Russia and later prosecuted in absentia; Browder ends up in Britain
2009-12 - Russian President Medvedev and US President Obama establish "Russian Reset" period which leads to Skolkovo, multiple large high-tech partnerships between US/Russia on important technological research like A.I., Robotics, cutting edge medicine, space technology, etc.; 2010 - US arrests/deports Russian spies close to Hillary Clinton; Browder successfully lobbies Congress for Magnitsky Act after Sergiei's death in Russian prison in 2009, passing Act in 2012; multiple Russians are sanctioned
2013 - Preet Bharara brings forth first Magnitsky Act case against Prevezon Holdings, who is represented by lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, purporting their company had received a smaller portion of the money flows from the $230 million tax refund scam committed against Hermitage Capital; Dr. Carter Page passing binders of documents with microrecorders in them to suspected Russian spies; Trump holds Miss Universe pageant in Moscow despite some criticism
2014 - Viktor Yanukovych ousted from Ukraine, flees to Russia, he was Putin's candidate of choice back in 2004 before the Orange Revolution also took place; Manafort had been lobbying on his behalf since 2005 being paid by Oleg Deripaska; Russian annexation of Crimea, report on BBC about Putin wanting casinos built in Crimea; Felix Sater appears to be the CS-1 giving the Russian spies tours of casinos in Atlantic City and passing them docs regarding sanctions
2015-16 - Sater/Cohen working Russia Moscow World Tower deal trying to use VTB bank which was sanctioned; Cohen getting upset when it is no longer VTB bank; Prevezon case still ongoing; Agalarovs from the Miss Universe pageant contact Trump Jr regarding alleged dirt on H. Clinton, don't specify it has to do with Magnitsky related Prevezon Holdings court case; Infamous Trump Tower meeting takes place same week Magnitsky Act film casting serious doubt on Browder's tale is shown at the Newseum in Washington, DC. The Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya states in this meeting Browder through shell companies has contributed $400k through connections with Ziff Brothers to DNC/Hillary campaign; Kushner is so confused and annoyed he reportedly leaves the meeting after 5-10 minutes because they mostly discuss the Magnitsky Act and related adoptions and admit they cannot track the money further after hitting US

So I wanted to look at Veselnitskaya's testimony to see what she said regarding Browder:

Natalia Veselnitskaya Testimonial


She goes on to state how her name was relatively not well known until Bill Browder through direct and indirect efforts made her name well known through her June 9 meeting with Donald Trump Jr, "who then was neither the son of a
US President, nor was he the son of a single presidential candidate from the Republican Party."

She then talks about Browder's testimony where she states he lied on July 27, 2017 to the Senate Judiciary Committee.


She then goes on to write:

Magnitsky had never been a lawyer, nor had he ever investigated or reported a theft of $230 million US from the Russian treasury; he had never been arrested for that, nor was he asked to rescind his testimony; he was never beaten and he did not die of beatings and torture, including beatings and torture for his alleged refusal to rescind the allegations that he had never made, at least not until after he was arrested.

After 10 months in his court-imposed custody, Magnitsky (who had been interrogated 9 times and 12 times had appealed to the court regarding his detention (each two months before the court of first and second instances) had not mentioned anything of the kind that could resemble the wordings Browder repeatedly (more than 10 times) used in July 2017 at the meeting of the Senate Committee: "uncovered a USD 230 million tax fraud, testified against corrupt police officers who put him under arrest for that. ") on October 14, 2009, read to investigator Silchenko a previously concocted statement he had received electronically, which, four months prior to that, had been spoken about by his employer, William Browder, in New York, at the Senator Cardin's Helsinki Commission meeting. One month later Magnitsky died.

The criminal case concerning a theft of 5.4 billion roubles (which is about 217 not 230 million dollars) from the Russian treasury was not initiated based on reports submitted by Magnitsky or anyone else from among Browder 's employees, and it had been investigated by the Russian law-enforcement authorities before Magnitsky's arrest.

Magnitsky was never interrogated under that case nor was he prosecuted under that or any other criminal case other than the one under which both him and Browder were accused of conspiring, in 2001, to commit tax fraud involving false recruitment of people with disabilities and without appropriate education in the capacity of financial analysts of Hermitage Fund. And if Browder, who has been absconding from law enforcement authorities since 2008, and has been under investigation since 2004, had a real desire to get Magnitsky released fi'om custody, nothing would have prevented him from paying his past due taxes in the amount of approximately $19 million USD that were detected by the tax authorities as early as 2003 and 2005 and were found to be fraudulent tax evasion by courts held with participation of Browder's employees and the case would have been closed in compliance with the Russian laws.

Browder, however, chose a different tactic. In May 2008, he hired a US lobbying firm of Jonathan Winer, a former assistant to the US Secretary of State, and went to Congress to lay down the groundwork required to obtain immunity for himself and attack the entire Russian system. And when Magnitsky, who was getting ready for trial, and after reading for the record the statement that was delivered to him on an electronic medium by an unknown person died in the pretrial detention facility, Browder and everyone behind him who had theretofore been silent about him acquired at least an opportunity to use Magnitsky 's death to turn him into a martyr and to create a picture of all consuming corruption in Russia in case someone in the USA decides to start investigating the real facts of their illegal actions and crimes they may have committed against the American people.

I have named these people before and I will name them again: William Browder, and a group of unidentified individuals from the American corporation ZIFF Brothers who in 2007 profited approximately US$] billion from the criminal activities committed in the territory of the Russian Federation, including, as it became known later4, 66 million shares of the Russian gas giant having concealed from the USA controlling authorities the entire story of the high yield investing in Russia.

I sent this information to the investigation authorities and the Russian General Prosecutor's Office in October 2015 and was prepared to provide this information, alongside all the details and supporting documents, to any US politician or journalist, including Mrs. Clinton, which I have always spoken about as well, including in all my written comments and video interviews and which was not broadly covered by mass media.

She then went on to state, surprisingly, that she never fought against the sanctions in regards to the Magnitsky Act, and that her client Denis Katsyk, and Prevezon Holdings, were not even on the "Magnitsky Lists" or have any frozen assets.


She also states:

The Russian Human Rights Council had not determined Magnitsky was beaten and tortured in prison. But Browder and Magnitsky Act conclusions impose the preliminary report of the Human Rights Council under the President of Russia as evidence that Sergei Magnitsky was beaten and tortured in prison. However, the report clearly states that it is not a report by the Presidential Council, but it expressed the preliminary opinion of the Council's working group, which is still subject to finalizing, because "a comprehensive investigation by the competent authorities of all the circumstances of Magnitsky 's death has not completed." One of the members of the Working Group, Kirill Kabanov, stated under oath in the US that the preliminary report by the working group (and Borschev's report quoted in it) have been prepared for the most part based on unverified material provided by William Browder and his lawyers, some of which were full of errors, for instance, Magnitsky was called a lawyer therein, or claimed to be a whistleblower. He further stated that "since then the Human Rights Council has collected additional information" and "at the moment, the Human Rights Council can't say what will be their conclusions regarding the facts after obtaining more evidence."

I'm tired to I'm going to wrap it here for the night. I'll try to add more soon.

I want to clear up one mistake I made I found last night looking over Michael Cohen's first testimony from Feb. I didn't want to read his testimonies yet because I'm not sure how much stock one can put in them. Based on his history of being caught in lies. Here's what is noteworthy and interesting, though, regarding what he states about knowing Sater in this first testimony. He states they weren't lifelong friends from the age of 17. They knew each other sort of as kids, then didn't see each other for 25 years until they both end up back working with Trump on the Russia Moscow Tower deal that became part of the Mueller investigation.

Q: And did you know Mr. Sater personally before 2015?
A: I did.
Q: And what was the nature of your relationship?
A: I knew Felix Sater when I was around 17 years old, socially.
Q: And did there come a time when you entered into a business relationship with Mr. Sater?
A: With Mr. Sater? No, I was never in business with Mr. Sater.
Q: Okay. Did you ever conduct business with Mr. Sater?
A: Yes.
Q: Okay. Prior -
A: So just - I want to be clear, though, because there's a lot of misconception about my relationship to Felix Sater. We did not grow up together. I don't even know where Felix grew up. I know he was married. He's got, I think, three daughters. I couldn't tell you any of their names. I've never actually had dinner with him and his wife. From the time I saw him at 17, because there was just a group that I knew that knew him, I didn't see him again for 20 years until Trump, when he was involved in the Trump SoHo project. So this whole story about Felix and I being lifelong friends is just not true.

In his later testimony, here's what he stated regarding Sater having to leave previously (2015) due to negative press regarding his background.

What was more interesting to me than finding out the clarification from Cohen he and Felix weren't life long friends, but similar to the hacking situation lawsuit, whereas he knew Cohen in the past and used that tie-in to source this Moscow tower deal with Russia right at the time AFTER we see him (likely) as the CS-1 in the Buryakov case giving tours of casinos to Russian spies.

2013 - Carter Page binders w/ recording devices; strong Navy background - likely military intelligence asset
2014 - (Aug) FBI CS-1 giving casino tours, likely Sater;
2015 - (Jan) 3 Russian spies arrested; Sater reaches out to I.C. Expert to source a deal engaging Cohen regarding building the largest tower in Moscow; negative press reporting later prompts Sater to be kicked out of Trump Tower; Trump later this year announces candidacy









Does everyone get cookies?
Here's the article Cohen refers to
ABC News Story from Dec 2015

Sorry here's the Michael Cohen testimony link this is sourced from here

Starting around page 151, I believe, Cohen starts going through all of the Felix Sater/I.C. Expert contacts which took place while working on Trump Tower World Moscow, or whatever it was going to be called. He basically states he has no idea if the meetings Sater discussed in the emails took place, what Sater's relationship was to VTB Bank (he didn't know), and that Sater always translated when there was any discussions with Rozov from I.C. Expert and he can't be certain he was even speaking to Rozov himself, though he was told he was.

Before I go further on to clarify the Cohen/Sater relationship and then get back to my train of thought on connections with the Magnitsky Act... I don't want to rush through it and not point out what's peculiar.

On the bottom of p. 153, we see questioning start by someone whose name is redacted, asking again about Sater. There have been no other redacted names of questioners from the majority or minority but for some reason this person is not-to-be-named. I'm growing weary of screen clipping so I'm going to clip what's important and suggest reading it in full context.

There's more questioning regarding Sater and then we hit p. 155 and 3/4 of the page appears to be missing, not redacted. By p. 156 another redacted name for the questioner, could be same person. They are trying to nail down the timelines of when Cohen is aware Sater was working at Trump Tower with/for Trump and/or Bayrock. Cohen is saying as far as he knows, having not known Sater since high school, then reconnecting with him at a bbq in 2006 and hearing about Trump SoHo and Felix's involvement with that, Sater was working with Trump since the early 2000s at least and thought Sater was moved from the commercial space of the Bayrock office in the Trump Tower building to the 26th floor two offices down from Trump himself around or after 2006.





It's hard to wrap your mind around, I know. So it looks like this.
1998 - 2000 - Sater has signed cooperation agreement with Andrew Weismann and is hunting down bin Laden and Stinger missiles and turning over intel on potential assassinations yet somehow ends up being set up with a cushy job working for a Kazakhstan real estate developer Tevfik Arif who gives Sater this job at Trump Tower
2000 or 2001 - Depending on what source, Bayrock is formed somewhere in here
2001 - 9/11 attack; Bayrock has commercial space at Trump Tower in this timeframe. Sater is quoted in interview as driving to work in NY when we know he worked for Bayrock and seeing the smoke; and then being pumped by his FBI handlers to go dig up more intel
2002 - No Trump Bayrock deals
2003 - Trump Bayrock licensing deal in AZ ends up falling through
2004 - No Trump Bayrock deals
2005 - U1 deal with Kazakhstan and Urasia Energy/Frank Giustra; no Trump Bayrock deals but LOI for Trump Moscow deal which falls through
2006 - Trump SoHo deal starts; Trump moves Sater up to 26th floor around this timeframe; Sater has met Khrapunovs around this timeframe
2007 - Trump SoHo development; U1 merger with Urasia Energy during "uranium bubble"; Sater meets oligarch Muhktar Ablyazov at the Ablyazov-Khrapunov wedding in Sept; by Dec article regarding Sater comes out regarding mafia ties background with old pump and dump scheme
2008 - Sater leaves Bayrock later in this year amid lawsuits and news reports of his criminal past; Trump SoHo opens successfully
2008 - 2010 - Sater is split from the scene of Trump world and working on ?/not sure
2010 - 2014 -Sater reportedly returns to Trump Tower and continues work there even as his cover as an informant for the government during the pump and dump scheme is known, prior to this he was John Doe under seal
2014 - Sater giving tours to Russian spies and handing over documents on sanctions
2015 - Russian spies being arrested; Trump announcing candidacy for President; Sater-Cohen starting work on Trump Tower Moscow deal; Sater kicked out of Trump Tower after ABC News article regarding their ties; Sater is complaining to Cohen about ignoring that Trump said he didn't really know Sater because they have "bigger fish to fry" which is an odd reference to make for a real estate deal

It seems like those questioning Cohen in this transcript were pretty interested in nailing down when/where/how/why of Sater-Trump relationship. I think it's interesting with all of the public information regarding Sater available from 2010 when he's back in Trump Tower, or even prior to that before Trump SoHo, he's allowed in with Trump. He claims to have barely known Sater, yet even with all of the press articles I can find from 2007 on through 2015, it's only this last article in Dec 2015 that causes the Trump family to have Sater leave the building. Trump is becoming the Republican primary candidate.

Because I'm no longer in the mood for Magnitsky Act and this will be a meandering thread regardless, let's continue on now with a book published in August of 2010 titled The Last Circle written by an investigative reporter Cheri Seymour.

While this thread is 90% fixated on Felix Sater, it is the underlying criminal network, this Mafia or The Octopus as I have now seen it referred to which he can be connected which is also the point of this thread. So while this may not appear to be tied to any of this at first, be patient with me. I'll get there as quickly as possible.

These will all be excerpts taken from the book The Last Circle with pages notated as to their numbering on a Kindle mobile device. www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?keywords=the+last+circle&qid=1562637286&s=gateway&sr =8-1
Cheri Seymour - Author Amazon Profile

Cheri Seymour has worked as an investigative reporter, newspaper editor, private detective and author of books. ark-roundtable.com...

Keep in mind throughout this thread we are referring to a complex criminal international network. Their reach appears everywhere, even in a rural town in Yosemite Valley.

Finding Antony Sutton's books in the late '80's finally gave me some perspective on what my former-OSS/G2/CIA father had originally told me some twenty years earlier about a hidden world behind the curtain: of intelligence agencies, secret societies, war, propaganda, the drug trade, unlimited budgets, and the attending undercurrents of corruption. Hubris plumped for a fall.

The fact that Cheri Seymour, a reporter for a small newspaper in a remote idyllic community on the doorstep of the majestic Yosemite Valley became part of numerous attempts to expose this malfeasant malignancy, demonstrates the breadth, depth, and scope of the rot within our civic institutions.
- Kris Milligan
Publisher, Trine Day, 8/18/2010

[142]

Journalist Danny Casolaro's death was like a stone hurled into a pool of water. Ever expanding circles of shock waves rippled from the epicenter in Washington, D.C. to the furthest reaches of the nation's consciousness. When the last circle wave crashed upon the West Coast, its psychological effects prompted California journalists to seek answers to what had been contained in Casolaro's files, stolen on the eve of his death. This book attempts to follow the trail of his investigation which he termed 'The Octopus'."

[153]

"Just prior to his death on August 10, 1991, Casolaro ecstatically told friends he would be traveling to Martinsburg, VA to bring back the head of the Octopus. Instead, his body was found in a blood-filled bathtub at a Martinsburg hotel, his wrists slashed deeply ten or twelve times. No papers were found in his hotel room or in his car, though he was known to cart an accordion style file folder everywhere he went. The room was cleaned and his body was embalmed before relatives were notified; authorities had assumed it was a suicide."

[164]

"... Casolaro's notes at home confirmed that he had traced the tentacles of his Octopus back to a CIA 'Old Boy' network that had begun working together in the 1950s around the Albania covert operations. Reportedly, these men had gotten into the arms and drug trade back then and had continued in that business ever since."

[194] ("He" is RCMP investigator Sean McDade in this excerpt)

"He said a meeting had been held in December 1999 at the Los Alamos facility in New Mexico which was attended by the heads of the intelligence divisions of the U.S. [CIA], Britain [MI6], Israel [Mossad], and CSIS [Canadian Security Intelligence Service] relative to questions about upcoming Y2K computer problems. The topic of discussion was labeled 'Unique Elements.' The meeting had been called after a glitch was found in the British computer system which caused the loss of six months of 'historical case data.'

A source who attended the Los Alamos meeting had suggested to McDade that it appeared all four allied countries shared the same computer system, possibly PROMIS, presumably because PROMIS was the only system developed years ago which could be mutually integrated by these allies. McDade had been told by another source that the Israeli Mossad may have modified the PROMIS software so it became a 'two-way backdoor', thus allowing the Israelis access to top U.S. weapons secrets at Los Alamos and other installations. He hinted that the Israelis may now possess all the nuclear secrets of the United States. This was four months before Associate Press reported in June that hard drives and discs containing nuclear secrets were discovered missing at Los Alamos."

[285-296]

"Like a many-tentacled octopus, this ties in with what John Cohen, a House Judiciary Committee investigator on Inslaw, said about the theft of the PROMIS software: 'You see, I've had a side theory about why PROMIS was taken. It was that PROMIS could be modified to track money laundering. And it could be used as an active information gathering, or an active moving software program that can go into other databases. And it could be modified to control hundreds of accounts and move money through the international banking system.'

Cohen added, 'What a lot of people don't realize is that there are two international banking systems. There's CHIPS and SWIFT. And the word Swift Chips has been spread throughout this whole [Inslaw/PROMIS] investigation. CHIPS is a referral to the Clearing House Interbank Payment System and its European counterpart, SWIFT. And they do $2 billion dollars worth of banking transactions a day. And if one was able to move accounts through there, you could move money invisibly around the world...' "

For my own personal interest reading this book to understand how it connected to this whole saga, even I was a little surprised to see/read mention of Ted Gunderson in this book.

As part of her research and early into the book, she reaches out to Ted. Let's briefly cover a high-level summary of his history.

This Ted Gunderson
1951 - Joined FBI under Hoover
1977 - Appointed Head of the Los Angeles FBI; served 26-27 years with the FBI retiring sometime between '77 and '78
1979 - One of handful interviewed for FBI Director position; position went to William Webster
1980 - Became defense investigator for a Green Beret doctor named Jeffrey R. MacDonald, convicted in 1970 of murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters - had become certain MacDonald was innocent
***Gunderson received affidavit confession from Helena Stoeckley who claimed she was involved in the murders which
were perpetrated by a Satanic cult of which she was a member
1990 - Involved in investigating the McMartin preschool case, he contacted new owners of the school before it was going to be torn down and hired archeologist with crew to search the school underground for the tunnels the young children (ages 2-4ish) described a being taken through from this preschool for ritual abuse
1995 - At a Dallas conference, Gunderson warned the audience regarding proliferation of secret occultist groups, danger posed by New World Order, shadow government controlling U.S> government, and there was a widespread network of groups kidnapping children and infants, subjecting them to ritual abuse/human sacrifice

Spotify Ted Gunderson Speaks to Audience Before His Murder

Ted Gunderson was also mentioned as part of another book I've read which was written by former Senator John DeCamp on The Franklin Coverup, so yes, I was surprised to be reading this book from this author stating she calls him in regards to research for her book following Danny's death in his bathtub

[684]

"Unknown to me at the time, I had taken a quantum leap in the direction of the Octopus when I contacted Ted Gunderson. The mystery of the Mariposa coverups would soon be divulged through an associate of his, a former member of 'The Company' in nearby Fresno, CA."

Through Gunderson, the author gets a phone call from Michael Riconosciuto from prison who is there on a drug charge. He explains to her his role within Wackenhut and the PROMIS software.

[737]

"Tell me about Wackenhut."
"It's a security corporation headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida. Wackenhut provides security for the Nevada nuclear test site, the Alaskan pipeline, Lawrence Livermore Labs, you know, all the high security government facilities in the U.S. They have about fifty thousand armed security guards that work for minimum wage or slightly above."
"On the other hand, on the Wackenhut board of directors, they have all the former heads of every government agency there ever was under Ronald Reagan and George Bush: FBI, CIA, NSA, Secret Service, etc.
"You know, they've got retired Admiral Stansfield Turner, a former CIA director; Frank Carlucci, former CIA deputy director; James Rowley, former Secret Service director; Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, former acting chairman of President Bush's foreign intelligence advisory board and former CIA deputy director. Before his appointment as Reagan's CIA director, the late William Casey was Wackenhut's outside legal counsel..."
I interrupted him, wanting to know where he fit into the picture?
"Well, I served as Director of Research for the Wackenhut facility at the Cabazon Indian reservation in Indio, California. In 1983-84 I modified the PROMIS computer software to be used in law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide. A man named Earl Brian was spearheading a plan for worldwide use of the software, but essentially the modified software was being pirated from the owners, Bill and Nancy Hamilton."
I asked, "So how did that cause your arrest?"
Michael was articulate but his story was becoming complicated. He continued. "I signed an affidavit for the Hamiltons stating that I had been responsible for the modification. The House Judiciary Committee on Inslaw was investigating the theft of the software and I was afraid I would be implicated since I had performed the modification. Eight days later, in an attempt to discredit my testimony, I was arrested for allegedly operating a drug lab."

The author had researched Michael Riconosciuto and found out he was a child prodigy. One area where this comes full circle is regarding Inslaw, who developed the PROMIS software. I'm going to go ahead and unleash that little tie right now before moving on to what is next which seemed important in The Last Circle book.

Inslaw Inc

Inslaw Inc is an information technology firm which developed the famous PROMIS software. A bankruptcy court determined INSLAW was defrauded of its intellectual property rights. Hillary Clinton was the intellectual property lawyer for the company that illegally marketed the software worldwide. Mary Jacoby, wife of FusionGPS founder Glenn Simpson, is the daughter of a major investor in the company Hillary Clinton represented that marketed the stolen software.

Yeah, that would be Jon Jacoby. Isn't it surreal to see Hillary Clinton and Glenn Simpson (through his wife) connected even way back when to this software which went worldwide? And can be used to hide money?

Sigh.

[780]

"For three months, Riconosciuto called daily from Pierce County Jail in Tacoma, Washington. At his request, I attached a tape recorder to my phone and unraveled a complicated web of illegal overseas arms shipments, espionage, CIA drug trafficking, biological warfare development, computer software theft, money laundering, and corruption at the highest levels of government."

Interestingly, the title of the book Danny Caloraso would have written if he hadn't been found dead in a bathtub in a hotel with his wrists slashed was "Behold, A Pale Horse." Another book published with the same name lacking the comma later this year (Dec 1991) by a Bill Cooper. It was regarding top secret documents, JFK assassination, war on drugs, secret government, UFOs

[822]
Author goes into Wackenhut Corporation History

1954 - George R. Wackenhut along with 3 former FBI Special Agents formed company in Miami to provide investigative services to business and industry
1955 - Second company formed to apply same philosophy to physical security problems
1958 - Companies were combined under name Wackenhut Corporation, a Florida company
1960 - Established headquarters in Coral Gables, FL
1962 - Operations extended from FL to CA and Hawaii
1966 - Company goes international and public; joined American Stock Exchange by 1967

[854]

"Because Indian reservations are sovereign nations and do not come under federal jurisdiction, Wackenhut International had formed a partnership and entered into a joint business venture with the Cabazon Indians to produce high-tech arms and explosives for export to third-world countries. This maneuver was designed to evade Congressional prohibitions against U.S. weapons being shipped to the Contras and middle-eastern countries."

Another strange coincidence would again be where the author of this book is referencing Neil Bush. Remember him? Sater worked with/for him for awhile.

[945] (summarized then excerpt)
Author is describing how Bill Turner, Danny's friend and confidante, had met him before he left town (ending up dead) in the parking lot of a Sheraton hotel to take papers to him. Two sealed packages he had been keeping for Danny in the safe at his house, along with giving Danny a packet of Hughes Aircraft papers belonging to Turner. He had been let go from Hughes for "whistleblowing."

"Turner later noted to reporters that he was 'scared #less' about information he had seen connecting Ollie North and BCCI. 'I saw papers from Danny that connected back through the Keating Five and Silverado [the failed Denver S&L where Neil Bush had been an officer]', he said."

Then crazily, the author references (who else but) Adnan Khashoggi
[966]

"To his friend Ben Mason, Danny showed a 22-point outline for his book. Included in the information he shared with Mason were papers referring to Iran-Contra arms deals. Photocopies of checks made out for $1 million and $4 million drawn on BCCI accounts held for Adnan Khashoggi, an international arms merchant and factotum for the House of Saud, and by Manucher Ghorbanifar, an arms dealer and Iran-Contra middleman, were presented.

[976] Author is referring and quoting a letter document from 1985 from the DOJ written by William Bradford Reynolds, Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division, to William F. Weld, United States Attorney in Boston, Massachusetts, advising Mr. Weld that the PROMIS(E) software was being provided to an Arab Sheik for resale and general distribution.

"Dear Mr. Weld:
As agreed Messrs, Manichur Ghorbanifar, Adnan Khashoggi, and Richard Armitage will broker the transaction of Promise software to Sheik Klahid bin Mahfouz for resale and general distribution as gifts in his region contingent upon the three conditions we last spoke of. Promise must have a soft arrival. No paperwork, customs, or delay. It must be equipped with the special data retrieval unit. As before, you must walk the financial aspects through Credit Suisse into National Commercial Bank. If you encounter any problems contact me directly.
Sincerely, WM. Bradford Reynolds
Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division

[986]

"Adnan Khashoggi's sister, Samira Khashoggi Fayed, was the mother of Dodi Fayed, an Egyptian multi-millionaire film producer who was romantically involved with Diana, Princess of Wales. In the early hours of August 31, 1997, the couple died in a car crash in a Paris underpass."

[1754]

"Most of Danny's drafts focused on the Southeast Asian heroin connection, CIA drug money used to finance the Contras, and the ability of terrorists to send missiles containing dangerous chemicals and biological diseases into the U.S.

One typewritten draft entitled 'Behold, A Pale Horse' described an 'international cabal [in Southern California] whose freelance services covered parochial political intrigue, espionage, sophisticated weapon technologies that included biotoxins, drug trafficking, money laundering, and murder-for-hire that emerged from an isolated desert Indian reservation...

According to Danny, the cabal continues today, 'its origins spawned thirty years ago in the shadow of the Cold War.'"

[1776] (summarized)
Six months after Casolaro's death, Riconosciuto is still contacting author daily and using her as intermediary to try to contact Treasury or anyone at FinCen who will talk to him about his trade for information to go into the Witness Protection Program. On his behalf, the author Cheri Seymour contacted a BATF (Bureau Alcohol Tobacco Firearms) agent because they fall under Treasury. Michael called the agent collect from jail while Cheri sat there in his office and the agent listened to his story politely and ran a check on him. She left and later received a phone call from the agent who told her in strong terms to "get out of this" while she still could. He told her she would end up getting subpoenaed as a witness if she didn't stop her investigation. He told her sometimes people ended up killed or committed suicide when they got involved with Riconosciuto or Robert Booth Nichols.

[2820] Author is quoting recording from another conversation she had with Riconosciuto calling her from jail, about the technology (bio) being developed at the Indian reservation.
Riconosciuto to Seymour:

"You look at Cytotoxic T-Lymphocytes. You go ask any medical professional what they're doing on the leading edge of research there? What the full implications to humanity are, ok?"

[2834]

"It would have been Hitler's wet dream. It's selective to such a degree that it's awesome. With the appropriate genetic material, you can wipe out whole segments of humanity. There's no stopping it.

You can very specifically wipe out disease cells, cancer cells. Look at the patents. Look at Immunix Corporation, look at the patent portfolios on Bio-Rad.

Where this author's research investigation gets more interesting on the technology side is a few paragraphs I'm going to summarize here versus quote. In February of 1993, she is contacted by a Scott Lawrence who is an internal affairs agent for U.S. Customs headquartered in Boston who was conducting an inquiry into the whole Inslaw, Peter Videnieks, Wackenhut affair. He had flown from Boston to CA to interview both Michael Riconosciuto and his wife Bobby as well as other witnesses associated with the Inslaw case. Someone he wouldn't name to her had told him to reach out to her. She provided him with Riconosciuto's affidavit regarding drug-related information on The Company and Robert Booth Nichols' connection to Michael Abbell at the DOJ and the Cali Cartel. He also took her verbal statement on recording under oath and left with an armload of documents but continuing reaching out to her after that day. In September of 1993, a little over six months later she gets a phone call from him that he just interviewed Robert Chasen, the former Executive VP of the Systems and Services Group of Wackenhut in Coral Gables. At the time he was still senior consultant at the Florida facility but was allegedly dying of cancer and weighed less than 100 pounds when the interview took place. He had once been Commissioner of Customs in Washington, D.C. so he felt a rapport with the U.S. Customs internal affairs agent interviewing him and spoke candidly about his experience with Wackenhut in Indio.

Of significance, was Chasen's confirmation of the horrendous properties of the "virus" which he encountered at the Indio facility. He said "Wackenhut was running amuck." Robert Nichols and Peter Zokosky had attempted to sell the biological warfare technology (developed in cow uteri) through Wackenhut, using Robert Frye, VP of the Indio facility as the front man. According to Chasen, Frye went behind his [Chasen's] back in facilitating the project; when Chasen learned of the project, he shut it down. (Chasen supervised the Indio facility from Coral Gables) Because of the project underway at the Indian reservation, he chose to never set foot on the property.

a reply to: ucanthandlethetruth

Going to drop a couple of links to some other ATS threads that are relevant, interesting, and provide further context:

PRISM, PROMIS, Politics, and Pia -- the mummified woman found dead in Pontiac, Michigan - by MotherMayEye

Pia Farrankopf was dead in her garage for five years. She worked for a company with deep ties to some major scandals involving illegal government spying. She was reported to have argued with her former boss at Alltel. She installed core banking systems linked with a major banking spy scandal. She work for many years with Obama's uncle -- and he may have even been her boss at some point and traveled with her to install Systematics core banking systems across the globe. And, someone with an interest in voter fraud is the best lead in a criminal investigation…

- MotherMayEye

And

PROMIS Inslaw Clinton Systematics FusionGPS all related...is this the missing link? - by Vasa Croe

So....where does FusionGPS come in? Well, they have been deeply involved in recent stories on Russia obviously....they are an intelligence gathering company.

FusionGPS is owned by Glenn Simpson. Glenn is married to a woman named Mary Jacoby. Now how odd would it be for them to have a connection to the direct involvement of Jackson Stephens acquisition of Systematics? Very odd....yet here it is....

- Vasa Croe

I know you've got a lot more to go to add to this thread, but thought you (and anyone else who might be about) would be interested in the information in both of the above-linked threads.

Hmmmm. I’m getting ready to show how Robert Maxwell reportedly sold PROMIS, and how Bill Browder from the whole Magnitsky thing worked for Maxwell. Then Maxwell’s history, death, and how his daughter Ghislaine Macwell now ties to Jeffrey Epstein who appears to have been running a sex trafficking business of some kind while laundering, er, I’m sorry, managing ?’s money. It isn’t known whose money Epstein manages. I need to touch on all this next, but first I need to go read these threads. lol

Thanks JAC!

Alright. I still have to get through the last of what matters/may matter from this book, The Last Circle.

(cont.)

Chasen acknowledged the biological technology introduced by Nichols and Zokosky, saying it had been presented to him as something that could 'create anything from chicken soup to long range missiles.' When he learned of the properties of the technology, he halted it immediately. When pressed for further details, he added reluctantly, 'It was the kind of thing your mind erases.'"

Interestingly, Cheri Seymour, the author, finally got up the nerve to ask Mr. Robert Booth Nichols for an interview.
Here's an excerpt from that I found noteworthy.

CS: Ted Gunderson gave me a huge manual on The Octopus...
Nichols: In my opinion, to research anything of that magnitude you are looking at - it would require a lot of money and a lot of travel and a lot of patience. I don't think Ted Gunderson knows anything, personally. He's domestic. It's not his area.
CS: Did you operate a telex company with him during the Olympic Games?
Nichols: Absolutely not. A telex company. Absolutely not. Oh, jeez. Did you ask Ted Gunderson that?
CS: Well, no, I didn't...
Gunderson: Well, you can't be shy. You have to ask questions, or else how do you know?
CS: What did Danny Casolaro spend so much time on the phone with you for?
Nichols: Danny used to ask me different things. But Danny was more into the names in Paris and Switzerland and -- Danny was investigating the whole international situation. You have to spend a lot of money and do a lot of traveling. Danny had said to me that he had a whole agenda worked out, you know, where he was going to go and who he was going to see. And I mean it literally was a global trip...

Here's what she had to do next to meet Nichols in person.
[3234]

At noon we arrived at Nichols' Sherman Oaks apartment building. Littman punched in #68 and spoke briefly to Nichols, who buzzed the door open. At Nichols' apartment, #103, Littman pointed out the electronic security system on the front door, then at the last moment, instructed my husband to wait in the van. We owned a 1991 Chevrolet conversion, so he napped and watched television the rest of the afternoon. Towards the end of the five-hour meeting, Nichols invited him up for coffee and cake.
Peter Zokosky and his wife (former Mayor of Indio), Robert Booth Nichols and his wife, Ellen, were present inside the apartment. Littman had previously warned me that the apartment was electronically wired to detect any listening devices I might be wearing on my body. I said I had none.
Littman had also warned me that I would be seated on a couch next to a stuffed lion which had a tape recording device (bug) under its tail. Sure enough, when I entered the apartment, I was seated on a white couch near the lion. A giant anaconda skin hung stretched across the wall. European and African relics decorated the apartment. It was instantly obvious that Nichols and his wife didn't live in the apartment, it was a meeting place.
Nichols smoked cigarettes and as a result, kept the upstairs windows in the apartment open, allowing a cool February breeze to flow through the apartment. Nerves, and the cool air induced me to keep my light coat on during most of the interview. At first, Peter Zokosky, a friendly, congenial man, did most of the talking. As the conversation warmed up, Nichols entered intermittently, then took over completely.
A formal gourmet luncheon was served of curried soup, salmon and turkey finger sandwiches, wine and home-made strawberry cake. Ellen Nichols was the perfect hostess, but rarely said a word.

[3266]

Regarding Danny Casolaro, Nichols and Zokosky both insisted that Danny had been 'murdered'. Danny's book research had progressed to a point where he was looking overseas for answers and Nichols had offered to direct him to certain connections that would have completed his investigation.
Nichols confirmed that he was privy to Danny's findings on a regular basis, but chose not to elaborate on the content of his last conversation with Danny.
I continued to press him for information on the "cause' of Danny's death; what had he discovered that caused him to be murdered? Nichols responded defiantly that he knew why Danny died, but he said "no journalist or investigator had done enough work to be deserving of that information yet."
It was not until the end of the meeting, when we had established a tentative rapport, that Nichols offered to take me to Europe, as he had Danny, to find the answers to my investigation of the Octopus. But he stressed it would be very expensive and I would be gone for several months. I remember the probing look on his face as he made the offer. I had nodded slowly, stating I would give it some thought. I wondered fleetingly if he was trying to recruit me into the CIA? Or create a new Manchurian candidate?
Regarding the stolen PROMIS software, Nichols said he believed Michael Riconosciuto had been contracted by the government to "derail" Bill Hamilton at Inslaw. According to Nichols, Michael did have the PROMIS software codes. Allegedly, Peter Zokosky's "brother" sold copies of the software to Israel. Zokosky nodded in agreement at that statement.

Here's one part I found pretty interesting.
[3287]

While we were on the subject of drugs, I took the opportunity to question Nichols' involvement. I led in by describing the drug situation in Mariposa county, adding that the entire country seemed to be economically dependent on the drug trade. Nichols nodded in full agreement, then noted that Europe's economy was completely dependent on drug money. Without drugs, banks and whole countries would collapse financially.

[3331] The documents being referred to are docs she and Michael Riconosciuto's wife had driven out to his trailer to get where Michael had been hiding them.

I did not openly confront Nichols at his apartment about the above documents, but asked him if he had sold or facilitated the research of specific biotechnology to the Japanese? Nichols adamantly denied any involvement in such research.
When I rephrased the question, and he realized I knew about the MIL agreements, he admitted that he had in fact facilitated the research of methodology and induction of cytotoxic T-Lymphocytes through "five offshore research institutes." But, he added that the research was "classified" by the sponsoring governments and "secret" and he could not discuss it.
When I pressed for the names of the sponsoring governments, he clammed up. Had I known more about the technology at the time, I would have pointedly questioned him about the properties of the virus, but in retrospect, my ignorance opened doors that otherwise wouldn't have been opened.

Here's where things got more interesting for her, the author.

At one point during our conversation, and completely out of context with what we were discussing, Nichols played a video tape of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The southern wall of Nichols' apartment contained a six-foot-wide screen on which I watched a blown-up enlarged, slow motion "uncut" version of the famous Zapruder film.
I watched what appeared to be the standard media version of the film, seen so many times in film clips over the years, but then Nichols slowed the camera even more, and on the six-foot screen, I observed the driver of the limousine turn to his right, first looking at Connolly, then at Kennedy. The driver's left hand came over his right shoulder, and he was holding a long barreled gun. Smoke and a bullet emerged ever so slowly across the screen into Kennedy's head, blowing brain tissue into the air as he fell back against the seat.
Stunned, I watched Jacqueline Kennedy open her mouth in horror as she glanced at the driver, then try to climb over the back seat of the car.
Littman and Zokosky and I stared at the scene in silence, unable to believe what we were seeing. Nichols then changed the tape and showed what he described as the "media" version, the driver continued to drive, unflinching, as the shots rang out. Then the scene switched to the back part of the limousine.
At this point, Nichols stopped the frame and pointed with a stick at a tree in the background behind the limousine. From the middle of the tree to the ground, there was no trunk, just air. The top part of the tree was growing in air!
I demanded that my husband be allowed to see the film. I felt I must have been hypnotized. When he arrived, he viewed both films up close, in slow motion, and saw the same thing. Nichols played both tapes backwards and forwards as often as we demanded, until the memory of it was burned forever into our minds.
I assumed the video has been tampered with. I asked Nichols where he had obtained the original "un-cut" version? He would not say. I had no idea at that time that his FIDCO partner, Clint Murchison, Jr's father had had instant access to the Zapruder film immediately after the assassination in Dallas, Texas.
Nichols studied me for the longest time, then walked over to the window and lit a cigarette. He finally commented that the CIA can cover up anything it wants, even a president's murder. He wanted to show me the power of the Octopus. "Nothing is as it appears to be," he said.
Somehow, that statement rang true. He then noted that he'd read my first book, the one I had sent him, then handed me a book entitled, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate. He told me to read it, appraising me silently. Inwardly, I recalled a conversation with Ted's live-in partner [name withheld by request], in which she related a conversation she'd had with Ted after a dinner engagement with Nichols. Nichols had reportedly stated to Ted that he headed a 200-man assassination team. Ted's partner had been too frightened to elaborate on this conversation, but had pointed out that Nichols once worked in the MK-Ultra (Manchurian Candidate) program during the Vietnam War. This program was part of the "Phoenix Project." Interestingly, numerous publications had mentioned that Earl Brian had also participated in the Phoenix Project during the war.
Nichols' sister was allegedly a professional hypnotherapist, and Nichols himself was reportedly trained in the art of hypnotism. According to Riconosciuto, they all called themselves "The Chosen Ones," wore skull and crossbones rings, and shared a common interest, if you could call it that, in the old German SS occultism, its tribal and inner circle rites.

[3631]
Author lists known deaths tied to Michael Riconosciuto
- Mary Quick
- Paul Morasca; Michael's former partner
- Michael May, visited Riconosciuto in jail two weeks before Danny's death
- Dennis Eismann, lawyer Michael tried to hire
- Danny Casolaro; introduced to The Octopus through Michael Riconosciuto

I should note a lot of these events are taking place in 1992 and she didn't publish this version of the book until 2010. But it looks like from the book's copyright versions were published in 1994, 2000, 2009, and this version from 2010.

Here's another interesting part I want to note here. Indicates there still were good people working to rid out this infestation, let's call it that, back in 1992 when Bill Clinton was President. The author is talking to John Cohen, who was the head of the House Judiciary Committee Investigation into the Inslaw/PROMIS case.

After much coaxing, I finally agreed to send him some sort of an affidavit. I was working as a reporter for the local newspaper and didn't have time to put together a detailed report, so I simply attached a notarized cover sheet to "Vortex" and mailed it off to him with a few supporting documents.
On October 28, 1992, Cohen called back. He was very excited about Vortex. "There's some great information here," he observed. "You did a very good investigative job, I have to commend you on that. I realize it's only a fraction of everything you have. What you have done, you have put the pieces of the whole thing together. Little bits and pieces of things I have known about, that I had theorized about, you have found the answers to those specific questions." I explained to Cohen that I planned to publish a book on the subject and his professional opinion was valuable to me.
He added, "You've done some good investigative work here. It puts me in a position to say, "Yeah, this stuff is good, and this is some stuff you may want to get out. In fact, I can put myself out as being available to these media people to be an inside source, for background only, which would also add credibility to your project."
Cohen hesitated, seemingly uncomfortable with what he was about to say. He drew a deep breath, then proceeded. "You are actually a key witness to this thing now. And you might want to consider talking to a couple of the honorable law enforcement people that are still working on this. I do know there are currently some FBI investigations that are in place on this... "
Cohen hesitated again, gathering his thoughts. "... There has been some coordination on this." He waited for a response, a signal that I understood what he was trying to say. I said I understood.
"It's been unofficial, but there has been some coordination. So I'd like to know whether... maybe it would even keep you out of the limelight, whether you would mind, as long as I talk about it and clear it with you first..."
Cohen was leading up to something, but having trouble getting to the point. "... There is a certain sharing of information. Some of the leads and some of the stuff [in Vortex] (pause) ... Because I'll tell you, one of the biggest hits (pause) ... I always felt that there was a narcotics connection in this ...
I laughed aloud. Cohen continued ... "regarding international narcotics distribution. And I've sort of made my expertise in my years in law enforcement, international narco-terrorism, the weapons-dope connections in the intelligence agencies..."
I could only say, "Yes, yes, yes."

to be continued

[3714]

"... And when I was in Los Angeles I did a lot of undercover work with Colombians, where I worked international narcotics conspiracies with DEA and FBI and, being a local police officer, I didn't really get caught up in their systems, I just made some great contacts in these agencies. But I also learned quite a bit about Southeast Asian heroin and the rise of the Medellin Cartels and the other Cartels in Latin America."
"Yes." By then, I know Cohen had grasped the significance of the information Michael Riconosciuto had attempted to trade to the FBI, as well as Danny Casolaro's fatal inquiry about Mike Abbell of the DOJ and his connection to Gilbert Rodriguez and Jose Londono of the Cali Cartel.
Cohen continued ... "And I also ran into quite a few law enforcement professionals who were pretty irritated because of the intelligence agency, drug dealer connection."
"Yes. Right."
"Well, the thing that is interesting is, one of the most interesting things in the whole report, was the article on The Company."
"Yes."
" ... Because that immediately answered, or confirmed, what my suspicions had been. And I know the exact, right channel to push to get this thing hooked up. And he's a big-time ... (pause) See this is a very good time for people like us, who are out for purposes of good, to ... (pause) You see ... right now the FBI is in a war with the Department of Justice. So, the time is ripe to feed this stuff to the right people." (I would later learn in early 2001 that the "war" between the FBI and the DOJ was the entire key to the Octopus story).
I agreed that the drug operations needed to be cleaned up, because the drugs were filtering into the smaller communities. But, thinking of Mariposa, I added that there were law enforcement people involved in the drug trade.
Cohen agreed. "I'm very careful with whom I deal with. And I think when these people contact you, you'll be somewhat surprised."
Reluctantly, I said, "OK, I will work with them."
Cohen concluded by saying, "You said some real interesting things. I like the section where you said 'Bob Nichols runs Glen Shockley, Glen Shockley runs Jose Londono.' Now that corroborates some information that I got in the past which talked abot one of the reasons PROMIS was stolen. You see, I've had a side theory about another reason why PROMIS was taken. And it was that PROMIS could also be modified to track money laundering."
"Oh, absolutely."
"... And it could also be used as an active information gathering, or an active moving software program that can go into other databases. And it could be modified to control hundreds of accounts and move money through the international banking system."
I interjected. "This is what Michael Riconosciuto was trying to trade to the FBI and to FinCen ..."

*****
I'm tired. Hopefully I'll have some free time tomorrow to get further along.

While there is no way I can capture everything important in this lengthy book from awhile ago, her investigation for the book leads the RCMP Canadian agent and another law enforcement officer looking into Abernathy murders which seemed related to contact her and arrange a visit to her home. They wanted to go through all of the documents she had obtained from Michael Riconosciuto, the guy once deemed a "national treasure" because of his prodigy, who had worked on this Indian reservation for Wackenhut.

Their 8-month investigation was terminated not long after they returned to Canada with the docs obtained from the book's author. This was the reach of the Octopus tentacles, so the officer Todd did what is normally never done: confided in the author their whole investigation should anything happen to her (and/or the other Canadian RCMP agent McDade).

Sean and Sue subsequently interviewed Michael Riconosciuto, their shared witness, during Easter 2000 at the Federal Corrections Center at Coleman, Florida, in addition to dozens of other case-related witnesses, journalists, and investigators who had preceded them. Sean called it the "Spookloop." Their combined eight-month investigation also took them into the hallowed halls of law enforcement agencies nationwide, where, with hindsight as an advantage, they harvested the dossiers of related probes dating as far back as the 1980s.
On August 26, 2000, detective Sue Todd called me to discuss the abrupt closing of the RCMP investigation. She said the Toronto Star newspaper had reported on Friday, August 25, that the RCMP National Security Division was investigating the use of the PROMIS software for spying by the United States and Israel.
As a result of this exposure, some high-ranking officials from CSIS and RCMP had conducted an internal meeting in which they apparently decided to shut down the PROMIS investigation. After eight months of intense work, both Todd and McDade were not only disturbed by what they had learned about the Octopus's far-reaching tentacles, Sean had told me that he was being monitored or surveilled by an Israeli Mossad agent, this according to Sean's source at RCMP. I don't know if Sue was aware of this, or not?
Nevertheless the longest phone conversation in my life began on that day, August 26, at approximately 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., then picked up again from 5:00 p.m. until approximately 10:47 p.m. The conversation comprised a total of approximately 10 hours. Todd said if anything happened to her as a result of her investigation, and the RCMP findings, she wanted me to publish what they learned. I readily agreed to that.
I did not take this lightly, because Sue Todd was not easily rattled. Before she reached the rank of homicide detective, she had been a police officer for more than 15 years and prior to that had worked on a California Department of Justice/Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement Task Force as an undercover narcotics officer. She had served as an intelligence consultant for numerous state and federal law enforcement agencies and held numerous certificates in specialized training. In her spare time, Sue liked to race her Corvette up to maximum speed, when she could. This was not a woman who shied away from danger.
Today, Todd is alive and well. However, she and McDade shared their findings with me throughout their investigation with the full understanding that at the conclusion of their probe, that data would be included in The Last Circle book. And what a prodigious exploration it was--
The following information was derived from the above phone conversation, and from my own follow-up work to validate the data provided to me that day. The RCMP investigation began as follows: Through a mutually shared Canadian source, John Belton (a banker who claimed he lost a great deal of money regarding the sale of PROMIS to Canada, and alleged that his bank financed the purchase of PROMIS from Earl Brian), McDade and Todd had been brought together and ultimately joined forces in their respective investigations.
Later in 1996, in an unrelated scandal, Earl Brian was indicted, arrested, and convicted on ten of thirteen counts of falsifying company finances during 1989 to obtain $56 million in bank loans. At the time of the alleged fraud, Brian was the chairman of two companies specific to the charges: United Press International and Financial News Network. He was then sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison, but was free on bail during his appeal. On October 14, 1998, a federal appeals court upheld his fraud convictions. Brian soon entered prison. The following year, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his case. (He was released n November 1, 2002, after having served his complete sentence.
Sue had followed a long and tangled road to discover that the Abernathy murders were not connected to Michael Riconosciuto; whether he knew them or not was irrelevant. A former reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle had told her that the Abernathys in Hercules, father and son, were murdered because the father "was holding documents for Michael Riconosciuto." And of course, the connecting factor to McDade's investigation was also Michael Riconosciuto, who claimed to have installed a back door, or Trojan Horse, in the PROMIS software which RCMP was allegedly in possession of.
In the end, the two investigators did solve the mystery of PROMIS and RCMP, but not the Abernathy homicide. Essentially, the former reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle who had originally provided Sue in May 1997 with the lead that Neal Abernathy was holding documents for Michael Riconosciuto had been misinformed, and so her homicide investigation of the Abernathy execution-style murders in Hercules was being closed as well.
Nevertheless, Todd and McDade's joint 8-month investigation produced results beyond anyone's wildest expectations relative to the Octopus. Anyone who had observed the RCMP investigation up close in the United States would have realzied that the pattern of witnesses who were questioned by the Mountie, the information for which they were asked and which they provided, revealed that the alleged theft of the PROMIS software was not, in fact, always the focus of the investigation, but rather how the software had come to be used. McDade and Todd clearly focused on drug trafficking and money laundering, and Michael Riconosciuto was at the top of their list.
Riconosciuto was a scientific genius, but he also had familiarity with drug operations worldwide and had secretly provided Sean and Sue with information relating to Ben Kalka's arrests in California, in which 900-1000 lbs. of methamphetamine and $1 million in cash had been seized in Kalka's possession. It's important to point out that in the beginning, few investigators of the Octopus saga ever realized the significance of the drug angle, but in the end they always discovered that it was a key piece to the puzzle.

(to be continued)

Ben Kalka's San Francisco defense attorney, Chris Cannon, explained that the chemical precursors necessary to make that much meth would require all the precursor sold in one year in the United States on the open market. And that was just one shipment. Riconosciuto told Mr. Cannon that he had records that would prove that the precursors Kalka used to make the drugs were provided by the U.S. government. Riconosciuto told investigators McDade and Todd that [name withheld] Chemical Company was cooperating with the FBI and reporting all the chemicals that Riconosciuto ordered for his chemical companies in Washington State. Riconosciuto then provided the precursors to Ben Kalka.

Further on, [5655]
(summarized then excerpt)
Ben had been a bit player in the San Fran drug world off and on for most of his life, but by the time of his arrest in 1982, he'd become a major supplier of meth on the same streets. Feds had set Kalka up in a sting, but he'd produced 8,000 lbs. of drugs worth $10 million using ingredients the federal agents had arranged for him to buy before ending the sting. A chemist friend had asked him to find a barrel of phenyl acetic acid, a key precursor for the manufacture of meth. Kalka had a contact at a chemical company who first refused to help him, saying the sale of it was too highly tracked. A week later, this contact had called Kalka back to say he could get Kalka a semi-truck load of the chemical precursor weighing 25,000 pounds. All Kalka needed was the money - $250,000. What Kalka didn't know was the contact had become an informant for the government after being busted for the sale of the very precursors Kalka had bought. Kalka was hooked by now. He set up a partnership with Paul Morasca, another drug dealer, to get the money, and began his search for the last ingredient he would need. He reached out to Michael Riconosciuto for help. Keep in mind this all took place before Riconosciuto ended up arrested on his own drug charge. Unbeknownst to Kalka, Michael's background included shadowy connections with various U.S. intelligence agencies.

[5679]

Even so, Kalka wonders today why the FBI didn't track him down once the methamphetamine began hitting the streets. The agency maintains it eventually stumbled across Kalka's drug enterprise during another undercover operation.
Soon, he had produced what might have been the largest batch of methamphetamine produced in this country.
And it was all with chemicals supplied with the help of federal agents.
When he was finally arrested, Kalka gave the government $1 million and 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine, all that remained of the 8,000 pounds of the drug he'd produced, in exchange fro a promise that he would serve no more than 10 years in prison.

[5691]
Remarkably, at this point the author is talking about a discovered file in the San Fran Police Dept from 2000, which was in regards to investigating money laundering ties to the Cabazon reservation in the early 80s. It's kind of surreal to me I'm reading this book in early 2019, making Morasca's 1982 death around 37 years ago. Yet this case links to an Indian Cabazon reservation used for money laundering with software PROMIS tied to the mafia and PROMIS tied to a law firm Hillary Clinton used to work for and Fusion GPS Glenn Simpson's wife Mary Jacoby, the daughter of Jon Jacoby, who was highly invested in this software company and players relevant today. That is a long time gap!

In 2000, Detective Eddy Erdelatz, a former San Francisco police inspector, provided a valuable lead about an obscure file, long forgotten at the San Francisco Police Department, which opened a window back in time to what was going on at the Cabazon reservation in the early 1980s. The file was labeled the "Paul Morasca Homicide Investigation File - Case No. 82-1052505" and it had never been computerized, so unless you knew it existed in the police department archives, it was essentially inaccessible unless you walked into the police department and signed for it. Only law enforcement personnel could access the file, it was unavailable to the public.
In 1981, Detective Erdelatz had investigated suspected drug trafficking and money laundering, then investigated Paul Morasca's gruesome homicide in January 1982 and placed a comprehensive report within the file relative to Philip Arthur Thompson's suspected connections to the murder.
It is noteworthy that the Morasca murder occurred just six months after the June 29, 1981 execution-style triple homicide of former Cabazon Tribal Council vice-chairman Fred Alvarez and his friends, Ralph Boger and Patricia Castro in Rancho Mirage, California.
As of August 2000 only one law enforcement officer had accessed the Morasca file in a decade, but the contents of the 1980s file, consisting of a thousand pages of police reports from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, Riverside County D.A.'s office, and Indio Police Department, along with numerous other agencies in California, became significant not only to Sue Todd and the RCMP investigators, but to future investigators in the years to come; it was instrumental in solving a 28-year old homicide case.
Morasca had been chosen to manage the Cabazon Casino shortly before his murder, so this might explain why the Cabazon-related investigative reports had been inserted into the Morasca file in San Francisco. Many of the Alvarez triple-homicide reports, including those written in Riverside relating to the Octopus, no longer existed in Riverside twenty years later, so it was fortunate that someone inexplicably inserted them into the Morasca file for safekeeping.
Within the huge file, was a report entitled, "Interim Overview --," dated February 1982, which included a document from the Indio Police Department dated August 21, 1981, relating to the investigation of the Cabazon Indians in Indio, California. This document included a surveillance report in which Cabazon Administrator Dr. John Phillip Nichols was observed visiting and meeting with various La Cosa Nostra underworld figures such as Tommy Marson, a known Gambino family associate who lived in a sprawling mansion in Rancho Mirage near Indio in the 1980s. Other alleged mobsters mentioned in the report included Vincent Caci Bologna, Anthony Fratianno, Daniel Magano, and other LCN figures.

[5964]

The following is taken from Kelly O'Meara's notes: Riconosciuto had also purportedly been working on the CRYPTX software, a powerful data security/encryption program, and the TRELLIS software, before he assertively became involved with PROMIS and the Cabazon/Wackenhut weapons proposals. Ben Kalka was allegedly involved in the CRYPTX project also in 1981-82.
Sue said, "We got further than anyone else ever got in this case ... Nobody outside of law enforcement will ever know what we found because no one in law enforcement can ever tell anyone what they found." "Who controls the flow of money controls countries. PROMIS was tailored by Riconosciuto for banking and money laundering," she added. She also believed that ECHELON has PROMIS in it and there is a treaty between the U.S. and Canada to share the data from that spy apparatus.

[5974]

I subsequently obtained a detailed 12-page "Memorandum for the Files" document relating to the Indo-China Project which discussed some U.S. Customs Internal Affairs findings during their far-ranging investigation. The memorandums outlined a dark tale of U.S. intelligence activities dating back as far as World War II when the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of the CIA) was conducting secret intelligence operations against the Nazis on the European continent. A major international money laundering infrastructure was involved, and a European-wide "private" intelligence network running through Britain, Germany, Monaco and other points with very close ties to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to the report.
Of particular interest to me was one Memorandum dated 5/3/91 which stated that one official closely related to the former Reagan administration appeared to be "in the middle of a major heroin transaction involving the Gambino family, dirty elements of the U.S. and British intelligence and others --"
The report said that a UK-German-Japanese consortium which handled the off loading of containers from ships in New York were on the mob payroll and were used to smuggle drugs into the United States.

If our current drug crisis in many Western countries which has grown worse, not better, over decades is due to governments banks financial institutions and intelligence agencies having to be part of this illicit international money laundering network and partnering with world criminal networks or "the mob" which is helping to allegedly prop up world economies, we are all in a world of hurt.

There was an article published by reporter Kelly Patricia O'Meara with Insight magazine on Jan 29, 2001. It was titled "Nothing is Secret." Link

The article goes on to explain PROMIS was the "universal bridge to the forest of computer systems. It allows covert and undetectable surveillance, and it and its related successors are unimaginably important in the new age of communications warfare."

Another excerpt from the Insight article ... more than one presidential administration will be exposed for their knowledge of the PROMIS software transactions. He said that high-ranking Canadian government officials may have unlawfully purchased the PROMIS software from high-ranking U.S. government officials in the Reagan/Bush administrations, and he further stated that the RCMP has located numerous banks around the world that have been used by these U.S. officials to launder the money from the sale of the PROMIS software."

Last one ... Insight was able to confirm that there was indeed a December 1999 meeting at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the topic was, indeed, code-named UNIQUE ELEMENTS.

Longer excerpt from older Insight article from 2001

It is important to note that the alleged theft of PROMIS software was well investigated. However, no investigation by any governmental body, including the U.S. House Judiciary Committee which made public its findings in September 1992, the Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc. completed in September 1993, confirmed that any agency or entity of Canada had obtained and used an illegal copy of the Hamiltons' PROMIS software.
A Justice Report commissioned by Attorney General Janet Reno concluded the same but did confirm that a system called PROMIS was being used by Canadian agencies but claimed that this system was totally different - it was just a coincidence that the two software programs had the same unusual name and spelling.
So what happened over the course of 10 years to lead the RCMP's top national-security investigators to probe the matter anew and to do so with such secrecy throughout the United States and Canada? Why would McDade, by all accounts a seasoned and well-respected Mountie, tell whopping tales to so many people, including not only Bill Hamilton but strangers Seymour, Todd, and others?
The answers may be found in the pattern of people who were questioned by the Mounties. The information for which they were asked and which they reportedly provided, may reveal that the alleged theft of the breakthrough PROMIS software was not, in fact, the focus of the investigation, but was secondary to how the software has come to be used.
In August 2000, McDade told the Toronto Star's Valerie Lawton and Allan Thompson, "There are issues that I am not able to talk about and have nothing to do with what you're probably making inquires about," which centered on PROMIS. Was the Mountie revealing the level he had unguardedly revealed to Seymour and friends?
Surprisingly, McDade did not focus his investigation on interviews with government officials who were involved with the PROMIS software. Rather he focused on people who claimed to have knowledge of the purported theft, many of whom also have been connected to other illegal activities, including drug trafficking and money laundering. And Michael Riconosciuto was at the top of McDade's list.

Then further down, last excerpt

Today, that evidence is in the hands of foreign agents - our neighbors up north in Canada. When questioned about the magnetic tapes, the RCMP would neither confirm nor deny that they were in its possession. Michele Gaudet, the RCMP spokesman, did tell Insight that the investigation is ongoing and it is very much about the PROMIS software - software that may or may not involve back-door entrance into the most secret computer systems in the Western world.

If you're interested enough in the story, I suggest reading the very long 4-part 2001 Insight article in full.

Back to the book. Perhaps one of the oddest things I gleaned from the book was the fact this Robert Booth Nichols linked to Riconosciuto was understood by Zokosky to work for the NSC, doing contract work for the NSA/NSC, but occasionally for other government agencies, but also worked for Ross Perot at various times.

[6341]

Peter Zokosky said John Vanderwerker and Glenn Shockley worked for the CIA. Both were involved with the Wackenhut/Cabazon "Joint Venture." He said Meridian International Logistics (MIL), of which he was a board member with Robert Booth Nichols, was a "front company." It was used for the purpose of "funneling money to pay the board of directors of MIL." The payments amounted to "five figures."
Kelly asked, "Where did the money come from?" Zokosky said it came from the NSA. He explained that the NSA does not have to account for money. The NSA makes a "profit." He alluded that some of the money came from drug profits. He said he was told that the "only people that get busted [for drugs] are those that don't have a distribution territory."
Discussion ensued about drug economies worldwide. He said drugs are called "gold" and used as currency worldwide. "Real gold takes up space and is difficult to transport. Payments are made for arms with drugs. Drugs are a business at the highest levels of corporations because there is a huge market and demand for drugs."

[6437]

At my home on February 15, 2001, I answered a knock on my door. An individual was standing there with an innocuous bound accordion file brought from Washington, D.C. I have assigned a code-name for this individual as "Source" to protect this individual's identity. Source said the documents had been obtained from the House Judiciary Committee on Inslaw archived files. The files were the result of a 3-year investigation by the Committee relative to Inslaw's claim that the U.S. Department of Justice stole Inslaw's enhanced PROMIS software under the direction of Attorney General Edwin Meese.
Source noted that the documents involved a lot more than the stolen software by the DOJ. They indicated that the Mob was controlling the DOJ. Source had been given access to the documents stored at the National Archives in Suitland, Maryland. Someone in government had ordered the Judiciary Committee files delivered to his/her office and allegedly in the dead of night, source and another person had been given access to the Judiciary files.
Source explained that only Judiciary Committee members are allowed access to these documents. They are reports written by the investigators who worked for the Judiciary Committee and they contain information provided to the investigators by FBI agents, U.S. Attorneys, DEA agents, and other government and law enforcement people.
Source had been allowed to view and copy all 37 boxes of documents, but due to time constraints, had made copies of only two boxes. The two boxes were labeled or code-named "John Cohen-Personal" and they contained statements from and memorandums/reports of conversations with Thomas Gates, Marvin Rudnick, Richard Stavin and others relating to the FBI wiretaps of Robert Booth Nichols, Eugene Giaquinto and others associated with MCA Corporation. Included in the boxes were copies of the FBI wiretap tapes. Everything in those two boxes was copied, including the wiretap tapes, according to source.

[6586]

... the first known public reference to The Octopus can be found in Dan Moldea's 1986 book entitled, Dark Victory, in which Moldea aptly named MCA "The Octopus." In the forward of his book, Moldea quoted Ralph Salerno, New York Police Department in 1967 as saying, "Organized crime will put a man in the White House someday - and he won't know it until they hand him the bill."

I need to get to bed but I'm almost done with what I needed to document from this book as far as the tentacles of the mob and the repeating of certain names tied between the 9/11 Commission Report v2008, this book, and even players tied to the Russian investigation from the previous US presidential election. All to allegedly prop up world economies with drugs, other illegal activities, likely human and sex trafficking, all through laundering of this money through worldwide banks and financial institutions.

Hopefully I'll have time to add more tomorrow.

So, MCA was referred to as The Octopus as late back as 1986 by another author. What does this mean? Well BCCI is referenced a LOT throughout The Last Circle. As linked to MCA, who had links to the mob or Mafia through a figure named Salvatore James Pisello. The movie picture industry.

[6597]

---One of the industry's giants was being represented by a mobster [Salvatore James Pisello]. How deeply had the industry been infiltrated? Four years after the convention there's still no answer to that question. But there's a new question: Why has the Justice Dept. dropped its investigation of the ties between Pisello and MCA?
Last December, according to sources in the Justice Department, the Los Angeles prosecutor who had started the investigation was called back to Washington and told by top officials of the Strike Force against Organized Crime to eliminate MCA from the probe. David Margolis, the strike force's chief, and Michael DeFeo, his deputy, told Marvin Rudnick, the prosecutor, that he could pursue a tax case against Pisello, who had earned about $600,000 in income from his dealings with MCA, but that he couldn't call several of MCA's executives as witnesses nor could he try to determine the exact nature of Pisello's relationship with MCA.
The action raises a host of troubling questions and has prompted a preliminary investigation by a House subcommittee. While spokesmen for the Justice Dept. and MCA refuse to comment on the case, the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee has interviewed witnesses in an attempt to determine if hearings are warranted and whether Justice Dept. officials acted properly in killing the investigation.
The case is certainly worth examining. Why, for instance, when the entire record industry is under the scrutiny of grand juries in at least five cities, would one major record company [MCA] be exempted from investigation? Why would a supposedly reputable business get involved in a series of apparently unprofitable deals with a man of dubious background?
One element of the case makes the whole matter even more curious: the names of some of MCA's high-placed friends. These include Robert Strauss, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and an MCA board member; Howard Baker, a former U.S. Senator and a former MCA board member; and Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States and once one of MCA's most important clients. [On Feb 27, 1987 Howard Baker resigned from MCA's board and became Reagan's chief of staff].
Interviews with industry sources and law enforcement officials, court documents, and MCA's own records indicate that there's an unusual relationship between the Mafia figure and the Fortune 500 company -- a relationship that seems to be just the sort of thing that the Justice Dept. is supposed to investigate.
In another excerpt, Moldea wrote:
--- For 22 of the years that Ronald Reagan pursued a career in show business, MCA was his talent agency. Lew Wasserman, the company's chairman, represented Reagan during the actor's early days in Hollywood. The late Jules Stein, MCA's founder and a longtime political supporter of Reagan's, negotiated the sale of Reagan's California properties at hugely inflated prices. In fact, MCA's help in the real estate transactions made Reagan a millionaire. Wasserman is a major contributor to and sits on the board of the Reagan presidential library, along with Attorney General Edwin Meese and seven others. He's helping to raise $80 million to build it.
So the biggest question of all, and another one that's still unanswered, is: Did someone do a favor for Reagan's pals?
So the official head of the Octopus resided in the U.S. Department of Justice, supported by an out-of-control presidential administration, its tentacles comprised of a cabal of "old Boy" cronies, true believers, who held that the end justified the means in their obsession to quell the expansion of communism in neighboring countries and throughout the world. They gave corruption a new meaning as they stampeded through the Constitution, cowboyed the intelligence community, blazed new trails into drug cartels and organized crime, while simultaneously growing new tentacles that reached into every facet of criminal enterprise. The theft of high-tech software (PROMIS) for use in money laundering and espionage, illegal drugs and arms trafficking in Latin America, exploitation of sovereign Indian nations, were just a few of these enterprises.
What could be more demoralizing to those men and women who serve and protect, than to capture on tape (actual voice recordings), members of the Gambino and Bufalino crime families, in collusion with the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney General, the highest law enforcement authority in the nation, arranging the shutdown and sealing of an FBI investigation of MCA in order to facilitate he largest sale in U.S history to the Japanese?

I think it's important to stop going through the book at this point and add additional context, so one understands more clearly where all of this is going.

In what may seem out of the blue and derailing, I promise it is not. Here's a more current 2017 article about who else but Muhktar Ablyazov. Recall this guy linked to Sater who allegedly stole billions from BTA Bank/Nazarbayev?

This was behind a paywall, so again I am covering the subscription so these details can get pieced together and documented. While I probably shouldn't quote this directly, it's so tempting. I want this detailed word-for-word but I better not. I'll do what I can. Financial Times

Ablyazov arranged a meeting in 2009 with the head of an international private intelligence agency, Arcanum. The FT article describes Ablyazov at the time as having been one of the rare Kazakh elite who dared to cross their president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. They also describe him for some reason as a "chess-playing billionaire" and the man he was meeting was none other than Ron Wahid, the guy who headed the company Arcanum Global. Ablyazov told the reporter, "I saw the spies around me and wanted to hire a group to counter what the spies were doing." The Arcanum name is latin for "secret" and his intelligence agency is much the same. Mysterious, yet the article states Wahid likes to show his political connections, with signed photographs in his Knightsbridge offices of him with three U.S. presidents.

Arcanum was started in 2006. This article for some reason wasn't published until 2017 regarding this meeting Ablyazov had with Wahid, and on FT of all places. Where only certain swaths of the population subscribe or even care to read. What's interesting about Wahid as the article states is he is part of a "booming industry" of superstar spies extending from CIA contractors to masters of propaganda, some of his staff purportedly holding above top secret clearances with the U.S. government. For hefty fees, a company like Arcanum will extract disseminate and/or often manipulate information to suit a client's agenda and/or when necessary, target the client's enemies. This industry is concentrated in the West, because that's where the money is.