Black Money a serious blow to BAE and others

Black Money a serious blow to BAE and others

www.pbs.org

This story does not have a snippet its a video its about 1 hour in total lengh but it includes things that have been mentioned on ats for years. This video is ground breaking material about money laundering blackmail sellouts of large firms and lobbies inside and outside the U.S.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Please take the time to devote at least 1 hour to sit down and view this material if you have not already. PBS did something extra ordinary in this film I havent seen this kind of reporting sense the DOJ case with Sibel Edmonds and the impact its going to have regarding prince bandar and the saudi royal family.

I have spoken many times about information the DOJ has and the FBI have that if they sat on it would bring down there Agencies this is one of those instances.

If this topic ever gets investigated to the fullest degree its over the FBI doesnt know yet what exactly its stepped into as far as its investigation into this but take the time to view the whole thing because PBS just may get a gag order to stop broadcasting after this.

It might be a good idea to mirror it too.

Falcon


www.pbs.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Not to chastise your efforts in bringing this light, but a minor synopsis of the video wouldn't hurt...

People's attention spans on here aren't terribly high.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b0ee53097fc1.jpg[/atsimg]


Yes. Yes. True.

How about the black money that is being created by the federal reserve? Why isn't that mentioned in the said article?

What's this about? Money from illegal enterprises? Or money from the black community?

Synopsis...synopsis...synopsis...

Ok, so I watched the first 20 minutes. My initial reaction is ho-hum. Not because it isn't important or wrong, but because you will never do away with bribery especially when it comes to those huge multi-billion dollar contracts.

Corruption and all...it's inevitable.

[edit on 9-4-2009 by TheComte]

"Over the past two years, the U.S. government has collected almost a billion and a half dollars in fines in foreign bribery cases," says Mark Mendelsohn, the Department of Justice prosecutor in charge of more than 100 ongoing cases, one of which culminated in a record seven-year prison term for the former CEO of a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corp., and another which ended in a record $800 million fine against the German giant Siemens. "There's a whole world of conduct that rarely sees the light of day."

In Black Money, FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman investigates this shadowy side of international business, shedding light on multinational companies that have routinely made secret payments -- often referred to as "black money" -- to win billions in business.

"The thing about black money is you can claim it's being used for all kinds of things," the British reporter David Leigh tells Bergman. "You get pots of black money that nobody sees, nobody has to account for, ... you can do anything you like with. Mostly what happens with black money is people steal it because they can."

Leigh knows. In his groundbreaking reporting for The Guardian newspaper, he helped uncover one of the biggest and most complicated cases currently under investigation -- a story involving a British aerospace giant, the Saudi royal family, and an $80 billion international arms deal known as Al Yamamah, or "The Dove" in Arabic. "If there was one person who was the main man behind this arms deal, it turned out it was the U.S. ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan," says Leigh.

.

It all started back in 1985, when the charismatic Prince Bandar was put in charge of acquiring new fighter jets for the Saudi Arabian air force. The Israeli lobby in Congress reportedly stood in the way of the United States making a deal with the Saudis, so President Ronald Reagan sent Bandar to the British. The prince approached a willing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and they sealed the massive deal between the United Kingdom, BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace) and the Royal Saudi Air Force.

Rumors swirled that billions in bribes had changed hands to secure the deal, but British officials denied wrongdoing. "Of course there is suspicion, and of course people are entitled to be suspicious," says Lord Timothy Bell, who was involved in the deal from the beginning on behalf of the Thatcher government. "But as far as I'm concerned, if the British government ... and the Saudi government reached a sovereign agreement over an arms contract that resulted in a tremendous number of jobs in Britain, a great deal of wealth creation in Britain, ... and enabled Saudi Arabians to defend themselves, ... I think that's a jolly good contract."

But then, as a growing, international anti-bribery movement -- led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- spread, Britain signed onto a binding treaty. Soon after, a whistleblower came forward with documents and firsthand knowledge of alleged corrupt payments. Peter Gardiner, a high-end travel agent in London, laid bare the details of how he provided luxury services for Saudi Prince Turki and his family -- charter airplanes for massive shopping sprees, the purchase of expensive cars and extravagant honeymoon trips -- all paid for by BAE Systems. "It's the lifestyle that many people would like to have if they could afford it," says Gardiner. "It's a little bit beyond that of a film star, because you've got the diplomatic passport with it."

Gardiner took his allegations first to The Guardian's Leigh, and then to the British agency that investigates white-collar crime, the Serious Fraud Office, which began an investigation. That probe would turn up evidence of huge payments from the Al Yamamah funds to bank accounts controlled by Prince Bandar in Washington, D.C.

As the investigation grew, the Blair government was pressured by the Saudis and by Prince Bandar himself, who went to 10 Downing Street and threatened to end cooperation with the British in the fight against terror if the investigations into Al Yamamah continued. "The expression was, 'You know, there's going to be a lot of people dead on the streets,'" a senior British fraud prosecutor tells Bergman of the Saudi threats that ultimately led to the shutting down of the British BAE investigation. "If we go forward with an investigation into these accounts in Switzerland, we may find we're not going to be able to do what we can do to stop terrorism."

There was widespread frustration among corruption fighters about the British capitulation, and fears that the fledgling international anti-bribery movement would be undermined. Soon thereafter, the U.S. Department of Justice began its own investigation into BAE's worldwide network of suspicious payments. The case is now being watched closely by countries around the world interested in seeing whether the United States is willing, in a depressed economy, to press forward with an investigation and possible legal case against a company like BAE Systems, whose major client is the Pentagon, and which currently employs some 40,000 American workers. For its part, BAE says that it is cooperating with the investigations.

Black Money includes exclusive interviews with current and former prosecutors involved in the cases against BAE Systems, as well as with Prince Bandar's legal representative on this matter, former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

Parallel to the documentary, FRONTLINE and its international newsmagazine FRONTLINE/World have launched The Business of Bribes, an unfolding online investigation. The site offers breaking news stories, as well as in-depth interviews with middlemen, prosecutors, whistleblowers and former presidents, detailing the stories behind some of the largest bribery investigations in corporate history.

OH and here is the link to that.

www.pbs.org...

Well just watched it and I put it right up there with Money Masters. Thank you for the link OP very enlightening video. But I doubt many will watch it. We wouldn't have much much to chat about on here once people knew the truth. We'd be beating a dead horse over and over. We live in a corrupt world and that will not change.

The prince at the end alluded to the fact that he learned to be corrupt but didn't want to say who had taught them. I would imagine it would either be US or England. I guess you need look no further than the military arms Saudi has. That was always something in the back of my mind when I was there for Desert Storm, Saudi has one of the best armed militarizes yet they really played no part in the defense of their own country. It was a very opportune time for US as peace had broke out and 1000's of people were being paid to leave the Military. It all seemed very odd at the time. Well I guess we should all be glad for jobs no matter how we get them.

We just watched this on DVD.
I guess I'm surprised this is the first I heard about this scandal.
I'm not surprised that bribery exists at--probably--all levels of government.

There's another thread about this subject....from 2007
www.abovetopsecret.com...