- [© Copyright 2001. From The Wilderness Publications,
www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. May be recopied, distributed or posted
on the worldwide web for non-profit purposes only as long as this Copyright
statement appears intact.]
[Editor s Notes A disclosed in Part I and in previous stories by FTW, an
abnormal amount of put options bets that a stock price would suddenly fall
were placed on United Air Lines and American Airlines in the days before
the attacks of September 11th. These were only two of the companies affected
by the attacks which experienced highly suspicious trading in their shares.
In Part I we described how put options work. They are basically futures
contracts that obligate the put buyer to purchase the shares at a price
that might be well above the market price when the contract matures. Heavy
purchases of put options before a dramatic drop in a particular share price
are clear-cut indicators of criminal activity based upon insider trading.
Last month we identified the purchasing end of the contract incorrectly
as a call. That person, unhappily obligated to pay too high a price for
the shares, is better described as the put buyer.
Investigative journalist Tom Flocco also revealed dramatic new links to
the growing mountain of evidence that puts the Central Intelligence Agency
at the heart of America s and the world s financial markets. In particular
he showed that the firm which had handled many of the put option purchases
on United Airlines -- Deutschebank-Alex Brown -- was once headed by the
man who is now the Executive Director of the CIA, A.B. Buzzy Krongard.
I would like to thank and acknowledge British investigative journalist/writer
David Guyatt for first bringing to my attention, Krongard s past relations
with Alex Brown.
Part II of this series is easily one of the most damning pieces of investigative
journalism that I have ever seen or participated in. In it Tom Flocco will
now reveal even darker direct connections between the worlds of high finance,
terrorism, and intelligence. And he will reveal some names that will shock
you. Mike Ruppert]
Part II -- Trading with the Enemy
FTW, December 11, 2001 -- No member of Congress is publicly, as yet, questioning
the hazy areas of "private client banking" -- repeatedly described
by the U.S. Senate and Justice Department as being a vehicle for drug money
laundering -- and apparent conflicts of interest linked to documented 9/11-related
insider trading in United Air Lines stock. The trades were placed through
one of the world s three largest pools of investment capital, Deutschebank-Alex
Brown.
This, in spite of the fact that there is mounting evidence of "real-time"
monitoring of stock market trades by intelligence entities (See Part I
at www.copvcia.com). The recent indictment of a former Deutschebank executive,
Kevin Ingram -- who has since pled guilty to conspiracy to launder drug
money and arrange the sale of U.S.-made arms to individuals in Pakistan
and Afghanistan, where U.S. military personnel are currently at risk --
raises further alarm. Although Ingram was not at Deutschebank when the
insider trades were placed, his history (as well as a star-studded cast
of international financiers connected to the CIA) reveals a frighteningly
dark saga showing the degree to which dirty money influences the Street
and the world s financial markets. It also provides more evidence that
the CIA knew of the September attacks in advance.
Ingram is also an acknowledged former protégé of former Goldman
Sachs CEO and current New Jersey Senator, Jon Corzine who sits on the Senate
Banking Committee. He has also worked closely with another former Goldman
Sachs, CEO Robert Rubin, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under
President Bill Clinton.
Related to Deutschebank-Alex Brown s role as the broker for the UAL and
other suspicious trades, Ernst Welteke, President of the Bundesbank (Germany
s central bank), said recently that a Bundesbank study pointed strongly
to "terrorism insider trading" in the days leading up to September
s carnage in the U.S., according to the London Observer on September 23,
2001.
But reporter John H. Berlin also made the ominous prediction that "their
decision [to investigate] provided by far the most authoritative support
for persistent rumors that the terrorists could have funded their next
strike with huge [insider trading] profits from the [first] attacks."
This seems an unlikely proposition since experts acknowledge that attacks
of the magnitude of 9-11 take years to plan and perhaps millions of up-front
dollars to finance.
Other motives, such as generating funds for covert operations by the CIA,
have also not been ruled out. Nor has the possibility been excluded that
Deutschebank, which handled key but unquestionably suspicious transactions,
was generating money for itself by placing "put" options on United
Airlines and then putting the profits back into its own tills -- perhaps
to "prop up" poorly performing divisions at the global banking
giant.
This last scenario is a possibility, given the fact that Deutschebank has
been demonstrated in Part I of this series to have intelligence links that
might have forewarned the bank of the attacks.
There is precedent for the "slush fund" theory, as Deutschebank
s U.S. affiliate, Bankers Trust (BT) pled guilty to it in March 1999. BT
diverted $19.1 million from "unclaimed" funds to prop up profitability
at other units, according to a May 30, 2001 New York Times report.
The revelations referred to the growing scope of BT s misuse of unclaimed
client funds, and on the laxity of state and federal bank regulation of
BT by claiming "a closer look at the scheme reveals that it goes well
beyond the transgressions the bank owned up to."
And as the investigation was heating up, a high-ranking BT executive with
long-time intelligence ties had to be thinking that it was getting near
time to get out of Dodge City.
Times reporter Tim O Brien said that it was the auditors at the NY State
Comptroller s Office who uncovered BT s diversion of funds after noticing
that BT s unclaimed account dropped from $10.2 million in 1993 to only
$3.9 million in 1994; so they started requesting documents which the BT
executives subsequently refused to provide.
According to analysis by lawyer Matthew Lee, executive director of Inner
City Press, it was not the primary regulators of BT -- the Federal Reserve
(Fed) and the NY State Banking Department (NYSBD) -- who discovered the
fraud. And O Brien and Lee question why the limited-budget NY Comptroller
s office detected the scam; and whether the Fed and NYSBD just swept their
findings under the rug to keep them out of the public eye.
The revelations led O Brien to conclude that when the Fed became aware
of the scope of the Comptroller s investigation and what was being turned
up, it ordered BT to find a merger partner (maybe even suggesting Deutschebank)
and then took the investigation out of the hands of the (uncontrollable)
NY State Comptroller.
Buzzy the Banker Joins the CIA
According to a CIA press release, in February 1998, A.B. "Buzzy"
Krongard, former CEO of Deutschebank-Alex Brown (the nation s oldest investment
banking firm) and Vice Chairman of the Board of Bankers Trust, left BT
and the investment banking community to join the CIA full time.
As a matter of fact, the Washington Post reported that Krongard helped
engineer the $2.5 billion BT merger with Deutschebank shortly before sliding
over to the intelligence side of the stage.
Buzzy (as his friends call him) had served a long-term "moonlighting"
stint as a "consultant" to a series of CIA Directors. He left
his banking position to become counselor to CIA Director George Tenet just
11 months prior to the final $19.1 million guilty plea by BT, which was
by then a subsidiary of Deutschebank.
Given Krongard s lofty intelligence and investment banking positions, there
are no reports available dealing with important questions concerning his
knowledge about such relevant issues as the disposition of "unclaimed"
funds, monitoring of global stock trades for national security purposes,
and wealthy "private client" operations -- let alone whether
the developing investigation into BT fraud had necessitated his, leaving
town just ahead of the sheriff, as it were.
Yet Krongard has since risen to new heights, having received a March 16,
2001 Bush Administration promotion President George W, Bush to Executive
Director, the number three position at the intelligence agency.
Ingram s Last Trade
On August 28, 2001, 14 days before the Trade Center attacks, former Deutschebank
senior bond investment trader Kevin Ingram, pled guilty in a $2.2 million
dollar money laundering conspiracy, resulting from a government sting operation
investigating the illegal sale of night vision goggles, Beretta machine
pistols, M-16 machine guns with silencers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers,
mortars, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), TOW anti-tank missiles, and Stinger
missiles, according to court papers examined by the New York Post.
The next day, Alert Global Media, Inc., publishers of Money Laundering
Alert, reported that Ingram "pled guilty on August 28 to money laundering
conspiracy as part of an agreement [plea bargain] with the U.S. government,
which will drop other charges and receive Ingram s testimony against two
co-defendants from Egypt and Pakistan. Some published reports say that
both of the other defendants were from (current U.S. ally) Pakistan.
"Bin Laden has long-standing contacts with senior officials [of Pakistan]...,"
said Andrew Pearce of the Rand Institute in Washington. The Times of India
also reported on June 17, 2001 that one of three Pakistani middlemen working
illegally with Ingram asked undercover agents about the chances of obtaining
components for nuclear weapons.
Earlier (July 7) Associated Press reported that "Kevin Ingram, 42,
an investment counselor at the World Trade Center, was indicted June 28
on three counts of trying to conceal at least $350,000 and one count of
violating the Arms Export Act."
"Ingram allegedly laundered $100,000 and $250,000 for federal agents,
both times taking a 9 percent cut before being asked to launder the $2.2
million," according to court papers examined by the New York Post
in a June 15, 2001 report.
AP added that "Ingram is also named in two other counts...for trying
to launder $2.2 million in illegal arms sales. Ingram, out on $250,000
bond, faces a maximum of 100 years in prison if convicted of all charges."
Arrested with Ingram were two New Jersey-based Pakistanis who had offered
to make a partial payment for the arms "in the form of heroin,"
also according to both AP and the New York Post.
A September 29, 2001 Bloomberg News/St. Louis Post Dispatch report revealed
that Ingram had angered his judge in July by failing to disclose his Swiss
bank account. Bloomberg reported that the Swiss account contained $1,086,000
in cash and 75,800 shares of Carver Bancorp, Inc. worth $650,000.
"He was afraid of the implications, and he just panicked," attorney
Richard Lubin told U.S. Magistrate Judge Ann E. Vitunac at a bail hearing
on July 10. Vitunac raised Ingrams s bond to $1.25 million and ordered
him jailed two days later.
Curiously, however, given the terrorism that has transpired, federal agents
refused to divulge the name of the country that would have received the
arms according to court papers examined by the New York Post and others.
However, the documents confirmed that the defendants "referred to
their foreign arms buyer...as a well-known, former military official who
wanted to partially pay for the weapons with heroin."
On June 15, 2001, the New York Post, reported that experts said the most
likely buyers connected to the former Deutschebank securities trader and
the two Pakistanis were current U.S. ally Pakistan or Osama bin Laden.
The Associated Press reported on 12/1/01 that Ingram had been sentenced
to 18 months plus two years probation and a $20,000 fine on the money laundering
charges in this case. All other charges were dropped in the plea bargain.
AP quoted Ingram as saying at his sentencing hearing, I made a horrible
mistake and I did something wrong. I m very sorry about it, sorry for my
family. Ingram s sentence will likely be served at a minimum security facility
in Fairton, New Jersey.
Interesting confirmation of the U.S. government s familiarity with banking
operations connected to terrorist activities was revealed in an 11/16/01
AP story by Catherine Wilson. In describing events in a Florida prosecution
of Egyptians connected to Ingram s case she wrote, Numerous promised wire
transfers never arrived, but there were discussions of foreign bankers
taking payoffs to move the money to purchase weapons into the United States,
said [federal] prosecutor Rolando Garcia. This is yet another clear indication
that intelligence agencies routinely monitor banking transactions in terrorist-related
cases. It has not been disclosed whether Ingram s plea bargain produced
testimony in this case
- In spite of these revelations, no reporter or government
official has asked or disclosed how many times Ingram had laundered money
or completed arms shipments before he was finally nabbed. The extensive
array of military hardware in the possession of the Taliban and al Q aeda
beg this question.
A "Trader s" Powerful Friends
Deutschebank-Alex Brown s role in brokering the insider trades that scream
foreknowledge of the attacks further provides a common denominator -- given
the activities and histories of key executives at the highest levels of
the world s financial markets. Ingram s history speaks of access to power
and financial policy making at the highest levels. Not only was he an associate
of Robert Rubin before Rubin left Goldman Sachs to become Clinton s Treasury
Secretary, he has had ongoing relationships with Corzine, who also sits
on the Senate s Subcommittee on Securities and Investment -- a subcommittee
which should be investigating the insider trading.
Prior to working for Deutschebank, Ingram was a highly placed executive
with the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Both Rubin and Corzine have served
as CEOs at Goldman. Rubin currently sits on the board of Citigroup -- a
bank which has been cited for drug money laundering by the U.S. government
and which (May 2001) purchased a Mexican bank (Banamex) which has now lost
two suits and one appeal over press reports that its former owner, Roberto
Hernandez, was a world-class drug money launderer. Hernandez currently
sits on the board at Citigroup as a result of the buyout. So too does former
CIA Director John Deutch. (See FTW: Vol. IV, No. 3 May 31, 2001 or visit
<http://www.copvcia.com/www.copvcia.com.)
Kevin Ingram joined Goldman Sachs in 1988 after a brief stint at Lehman
Brothers, and by 1992 was promoted to run Goldman s Collateralized Mortgage
Obligations desk, overseeing all trading of mortgage and asset-backed securities,
according to the New York Observer. Mortgage trading has long been suspected
of being a vehicle for the laundering of hot money.
In Black Enterprise (BE) magazine s 1992 "Top 25 Blacks On Wall Street,"
Ingram was said to have left his (nine-year) high profile Goldman Sachs
treasury securities and options desk position in 1996 to head Deutschebank
s U.S. mortgage-backed securities department -- and ultimately their global
securities operations in 1998.
BE added that "at Deutschebank, Ingram and his team of 25 professionals
structure and issue securities for an international clientele, including...high
net-worth individuals. These deals can range from $1 million to several
billion dollars."
No member of the House or Senate has even broached the subject of hearings
to question either Ingram or recent Deutschebank-Alex Brown Vice Chairman
and current CIA Executive Director A.B. Krongard as to whether they dealt
with any wealthy Middle Easterners or Saudis in particular. Almost all
of the September 11 hijackers were of Saudi nationality. Since both men
had high supervisory positions connected to the secretive "private
client" operations of Deutschebank, and Deutschebank handled the insider
trades, this is an obvious course of inquiry.
Ingram s position at Deutschebank became tenuous when the bond market crashed
in 1998 and the protégé of Corzine and Rubin likely felt
insecure. The tumbling bond market combined with periodic absences where
"he would sometimes go incommunicado for days -- unusual for someone
who ran a trading desk and was responsible for open positions of $7 billion
and more." Deutschebank asked for his resignation in September 1999,
according to the New York Observer.
The Reverend Jackson to the Rescue
- From Fox-TV News Bill O Reilly to well-experienced citizen
researchers with monikers like "Uncle Bill, Alamo Girl, and John Huang2"
(who post startling, yet often under-publicized findings on grass-roots
websites like Jim Robinson s "Free Republic"), evidence of "shakedowns"
related to the race-card continue to surface -- even when connected to
terrorism.
Ingram turned to "Rev. Jesse Jackson s Wall Street Project [for help
with the financial settlement of his resignation process]. The Wall Street
Project is a Rainbow Coalition-sponsored organization that pushes for increased
minority hiring on the Street," according to the New York Observer.
And with the specter of a racially-charged lawsuit looming, Deutschebank
ultimately settled with Jackson and Ingram for an undisclosed multi-million
dollar figure in February 2000.
According to Observer sources, Ingram then made a contribution to Rainbow
Push of "around" $100,000 -- as a fiscal tribute to his benefactor.
The "Blind Trust" of a Senatorial Patron?
After the February 2000 Deutschebank settlement, Ingram moved on, raising
funds for a soon to-go-bankrupt dot-com company called TruMarkets. Astonishingly,
some of TruMarkets $30 million seed money came from the blind trust of
Ingram s former Goldman Sachs patron, U.S. Senator Jon Corzine, according
to the New York Observer of 11/29/01.
But federal prosecutors and fellow Senators have never questioned whether
Corzine was aware that investigators had been targeting the former Deutschebank
executive at the same time regarding money laundering of illegal narcotics
proceeds (both drugs and cash) to support the unlawful purchase of U.S.
arms to sell to Muslim terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- It is also a reach to wonder why Corzine -- who took
office in January 2001 -- would not have been aware of a Federal banking
investigation into dealings with terrorists that had been engineered by
a former associate to whom he had been a mentor. It was during this period
of time that an undercover agent began holding a series of meetings with
Ingram in which Ingram let it be known that "funds coming in from
arms sales needed to be laundered," again according to the New York
Observer.
Larger questions remain as to whether strings were pulled for Ingram by
influential individuals at a time when the prison population has exploded
into a cottage industry full of poor and middle class Americans convicted
for possession or use of small amounts of drugs. Most of these people --
like Ingram -- are minorities.
Neither Ingram nor his lawyer would comment or return calls. And no one
has successfully interviewed the prosecutors regarding decisions which
influenced what most would consider to be incredibly soft treatment, given
the nature of the charges and what happened on September 11.
That there is serious interest or enough courage to seek answers about
prior knowledge of the attacks from Deutschebank-linked key players and
associates under their supervision by America s elected legislators is
not even remotely assured at present.
- Tom Flocco is a freelance writer and researcher. TomFlocco@cs.com
-
- Previous stories in this series:
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- - Part I of this series is located at: http://www.copvcia.com/stories/dec_2001/death_profits_pt1.html
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