Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Keiser Report №38: Markets! Finance... Goldman Sachs!
Click this link ..... http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=11716
愛爾蘭‧火山灰夢魘再現‧英國也關閉機場
（愛爾蘭‧都柏林）愛爾蘭航空當局表示，受到新一波來自冰島火山灰的影響，將取消週二（5月4日）上午所有進出愛爾蘭的航班。而英國當局週一（5月3日）晚間也宣佈，因為火山灰的安全考量，關閉對蘇格蘭西北部領空，週二將把關閉範圍擴大至北愛爾蘭。
這是自從4月22日以來，英國和愛爾蘭首度關閉機場，引發新一輪空中交通大混亂恐慌。
兩國官員都表示，新警報預料不會影響飛越愛爾蘭上空的英國或歐洲航班，或歐洲最繁忙的空中樞紐——英國希思羅機場。
冰島埃亞菲亞德拉冰蓋的火山4月噴發後，歐洲大部份領空關閉了一週之久，歐洲政府、航空當局和監管機構召開緊急會議，才決定重新開放領空。
愛爾蘭民航局（IAA）週一宣佈，由於火山噴發可能帶來危險，當局決定週二上午6時起到中午12時關閉機場，在愛爾蘭起飛或降落的航班將停飛。
與此同時，英國民航局（CAA）週一下午5時關閉了蘇格蘭西北部的外赫布里底群島領空，以免受到火山灰影響。
歐洲航運管理協調機構指出，4月15至21日期間，歐洲多達10萬個航班被取消，估計逾千萬旅客行程受影響。據估計航空業虧損高達17億美元（約馬幣54億5000萬令吉）。
智利‧6.4級地震‧未發海嘯警報
（聖地亞哥）智利南部週一（5月3日）晚發生里氏6.4級地震，但國家緊急辦公室（Onemi）官員表示，強震未有造成破壞。
美國地質勘探局指出，震央位於特木科西北109公里，震源深度10公里。
智利海軍表示，當局未發出海嘯警報。
智利中南部2月27日發生里氏8.8級大地震，造成數百人死亡。當地許多城鎮被摧毀，林業和鋼鐵工業也遭到重創。
美國‧田納西州洪水波及鄰州‧大淹水22人死數千逃
（美國‧田納西州、納什維爾）上週末一場暴風雨，導致整個田納西州與鄰近數個州屬大淹水，目前死亡人數已增至至少22人，此外，也迫使數千人逃離家園和酒店。
坎伯蘭河氾濫，迫使著名旅遊勝地納西維爾的酒吧與夜店關門停業，1500名旅客撤離奧普里蘭酒店，學校與商店也都停課竭業。
當地降下逾30公分的豪雨，有食水處理廠因淹水關閉，納西維爾市長迪安因此呼吁居民節省用水。
公路被淹沒和破壞
田納西緊急管理處官員馬歇爾指出，此州中部和西部“有許多街道和高速公路被洪水淹沒，許多公路也遭到破壞”。
納什維爾周圍地區，許多購物中心被浸在水中，包括國家公共電台大樓也無可倖免，導致電台被迫停播。
官員表示，田納西州14人喪生，其中一人在龍捲風中喪命。肯塔基州2人死亡、鄰近的密西西比州有6人喪生。
白宮透露，美國總統奧巴馬已經跟田納西州州長布雷德森和肯塔基州州長貝希爾通電話，他保證會儘快提供協助予受災地區，同時對死者家屬表示哀悼。
除了對抗洪水和暴風，密西西比州官員也疲以防止墨西哥灣的漏油漂流到當地。
緊急管理處發言人普雷斯利說：“我們正在應付3個大災難。”
中國‧遊客抱怨看不懂英國館‧發言人促請細細體會
（中國‧上海）很多遊客頂著烈日、排長隊，擠著看完上海世博會英國館後，卻抱怨“看不懂，不值”，更有遊客不禁大聲抱怨：“排這麼久的長隊，結果甚麼都沒看到！”
英國館新聞發言人路易士回應，他們想展現的是人與自然的和諧理念，“這需要細細體會。”
路易士說，大家如果是想來看互動項目可能會失望，“我們想展示的是人與自然的和諧理念，這需要細細體會。”
命名為“種子聖殿”的英國館主展廳，展覽主題是在繁忙的都市中造出一塊供人們“鬧中取靜”、“清修獨思”的去處，因此廳中本無展品。
英國館的主題是種子，外觀像一朵蒲公英，由6萬根壓克力管組成，管子底部放著900種、26萬顆瀕臨滅絕、稀缺種子，提醒世人保護自然，保護生物多樣性，提高人類面對氣候變化的應變力、創造力和恢復力。
新加坡‧疑商人女友借阿窿沒還債‧154戶收冥鈔追債紙條
（新加坡）為了一名神秘女郎，154戶家庭收到冥鈔被詛咒！
宏茂橋5道第602座組屋的居民，週一（5月3日）開信箱時都收到百元冥紙鈔，信封內還附上一張追債紙條，寫上欠債人的住家門牌。警方證實接獲報案，目前正在調查。
據悉，被追債的是住在此座組屋的商人，他被指幫女朋友做擔保，阿窿找不到他的女友，要他出面還債，還牽連整座組屋的居民。
陳女士（55歲）收到冥鈔後馬上撥《晚報》熱線投訴。“真的很生氣，無端端被人詛咒，真是大吉利是。”
記者根據追債字條上的地址，找到40歲的商人梁先生。也收到詛咒冥鈔的他說，他沒有欠阿窿，更不認識甚麼神秘女人，幾名鄰居收到冥鈔上門問他時，他只能無奈地表示歉意。
新加坡‧吳作棟：明年期滿後‧不更新首份水供協議
（新加坡）新加坡國務資政吳作棟表示，當新加坡與馬來西亞第一份水供協議於明年期滿後，新加坡將不更新這份協議。
他說，由於新加坡不懈努力地追求水供自給自足這一目標，所以新加坡在這條道路上已有長足的進展。
“當大馬與馬來西亞第一份水供協議明年期滿後，我們將不更新這份協議。到2061年第二份水供協議到期時，即使沒有同大馬更新水供協議，我們也可完全自給自足。”
繼續提高新生水產能
他說，新加坡接下來將繼續提高新生水產能，使新生水日產量到了2020年，可在現有基礎上增多可裝滿136個奧林匹克泳池的34萬1000立方米，以滿足到時國內40%的總用水需求。
他週一（5月3日）為坐落在樟宜的第5座新生水廠主持開幕式時指出，作為國家四大水喉之一的新生水，不僅讓新加坡合上了用水的循環，展示水的回用如何形成一個滿足用水需求的可持續解決方案的一部份，也使新加坡在這個過程中成為大型水回用工程的領先者。
耗資逾億造新生水廠
新生水廠耗資1億8000萬元建造，是新加坡規模最大的新生水廠，它每天高達22萬8000立方米的產量，使新加坡新生水總產量提高15%。如果加上另外四座分別建於勿洛、克蘭芝、實裡達和烏魯班丹的新生水廠，新加坡新生水產量將可滿足全國30%的總用水需求。
負責這座新生水廠的設計、建造、擁有和經營合約的是勝科工業（Sembcorp）。
對於新生水對新加坡的重要性，吳作棟說，它除了體現提昇新加坡對水供的韌性，也為新加坡一些晶 圓廠和煉油公司提供其工業所需的不含化學雜質的用水，為促進國家經濟增長發揮關鍵作用。事實上，新加坡工業對新生水的需求已從2003年每天1萬8000 立方米，猛增15倍至目前的27萬3000立方米。
他指出，氣候變化使水資源短缺的威脅更為嚴峻，世界各國也因人口增長與經濟發展不斷增加對水的需求，這些變化都促使世人更加意識到水再利用的潛能，進而接受回用水作為一種可行的長期水務解決方案。
新加坡‧5月16日有天象奇觀‧“月掩金星”26年後重現
（新加坡）馬來西亞、新加坡、香港及中國廣東省等地方的人民，可在5月16日（週日）晚上7時37分開始，觀賞“月掩金星”的天象奇觀。
所謂的“月掩金星”，就是月球圍繞地球轉動時，轉到地球和金星之間的位置，變相把金星遮掩。通過肉眼來看，就仿佛看見月亮旁邊的金星，慢慢躲在月亮後面。
據香港天文學會表示，繼1984年後，“月掩金星”的奇觀今年將再次出現，估計整個過程歷時大約25分鐘。
最好提早10分鐘觀賞
觀星者到時會看見金星慢慢貼近月亮，不到1分鐘，月球就會完全掩蓋金星，直到晚上8時1分月亮移開後，金星又會從月亮周邊“走”出來。。
香港天文學會發言人余先生指出，由於地區不同，“月掩金星”出現的時間可能相差一至2分鐘，因此觀星者最好提早10分鐘就預備觀賞。
若錯過須等到2023年
他表示，一旦錯過這次的“月掩金星”，就得等到2023年，才能再次觀賞此天象。
“月掩金星”屬於月掩星的天象，而月掩星的現象，因月球與地球的距離較近，並將某些天體遮擋，因此每時每刻都在發生。
BP Offering $5K In Quick Cash To Poor Fishing Community in Alabama; State AG Asks Them To Stop
This is certainly an effective way to get the American public on your side. Yes, paying off poor people to sign off on their rights is really a thoughtful and generous public relations gesture:
Alabama Attorney General Troy King said tonight that he has told representatives of BP Plc. that they should stop circulating settlement agreements among coastal Alabamians.
The agreements, King said, essentially require that people give up the right to sue in exchange for payment of up to $5,000.
King said BP's efforts were particularly strong in Bayou La Batre.
Close to 30 percent of Bayou La Batre residents (the so-called "Seafood Capital of America" and home to the fictional Bubba Gump shrimp in "Forrest Gump) live below the poverty line. They are people to whom $5000 is indeed a lot of money, and it's of course very kind of BP to offer them a token something for the long-term destruction of their livelihood and environment - especially after the battering they took from Hurricane Katrina. Who knew that BP was a company run by a veritable Mother Theresa?
The attorney general said he is prohibited from giving legal advice to private citizens, but added that "people need to proceed with caution and understand the ramifications before signing something like that.
"They should seek appropriate counsel to make sure their rights are protected," King said.
Vitamin D in pill form may cut breast cancer risk
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women's dietary intake of vitamin D and calcium doesn't seem to influence their risk of breast cancer, before or after menopause, new research from Canada shows. But the findings do suggest that taking vitamin D in supplement form may be protective against the disease.
Given these new findings on vitamin D supplements, "it looks promising for vitamin D," Laura N. Anderson, one of the study's authors and a doctoral student at Cancer Care Ontario in Toronto, told Reuters Health. "We certainly need more research done in this area," she said.
Some prior studies have suggested that vitamin D may reduce breast cancer risk. Breast cells have receptors for vitamin D, Anderson noted, raising the possibility that the nutrient could help regulate the division and proliferation of these cells; there's also growing evidence that vitamin D could help protect against other types of cancer.
When it comes to diet and supplements, vitamin D and calcium often go hand in hand, she added. Vitamin D is necessary for calcium absorption, so women who want to keep their bones strong as they age are advised to take both; also, many calcium-rich foods, like milk, are enriched with vitamin D.
Anderson and her team sought to separate out the effects of vitamin D and calcium on breast cancer risk by surveying 3,101 breast cancer patients and 3,471 healthy controls about their intake of food and supplements.
The researchers found no relationship between overall vitamin D intake and breast cancer risk; nor was there any association between overall calcium intake and risk of the disease.
However, women who reported taking at least 400 international units of vitamin D every day were at 24 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer.
The findings are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Right now, Anderson noted, health authorities in Canada, the US and other countries are looking at revising the current recommendations on vitamin D intake upward, given that it looks like higher intakes of the vitamin D may be more beneficial.
Further research is needed, she and her colleagues conclude, to investigate the relationship between bigger doses of vitamin D and calcium and breast cancer risk.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online April 14, 2010.
BP CEO: ‘It wasn’t our accident’ but we’ll clean spill; Liability waivers were ‘misstep’
British Petroleum is warned to stop distributing oil spill settlement agreements
The CEO of British Petroleum told NBC's Meredith Vieira that his company wasn't responsible for creating the oil spill but they are responsible for cleaning it up. And he told ABC that liability waivers that fishermen were being asked to sign was an "early misstep."
Tony Hayward said on Monday's Today show, "It wasn't our accident, but we are absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it up, and that's what we intend to do."
The rig that exploded on April 20 and then sank was run by another company, Transocean, he reminded viewers. That rig, he said, "was run by their people, their processes."
Hayward added that the failure of the rig's "blow-out preventer" — a device that should have shut off the well when the rig exploded and sank — was "unprecedented in our industry."
"What has failed here is the ultimate safety device on a drilling rig," he said, "There are many barriers of protection that you have to go to before you get to this. It isn't designed to not fail."
Reuters notes that "Hayward also said the company was preparing for a 'worst case scenario' that it would need to contain the spill for two to three months."
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told "Good Morning America" today that it was unacceptable for BP to ask fishermen it hired to help with the cleanup of the Gulf oil spill to sign waivers that would limit the company's liability.
"I'm looking into that right now." she said. "I was just alerted to that and if that in fact is the case, that is a practice we want stopped immediately."
BP CEO Tony Hayward told "GMA" this morning that the company has already put a stop to the practice.
"That was an early misstep George, frankly. We were using a standard contract. We've eliminated that," Hayward told George Stephanopoulos.
Alabama Attorney General Troy King said Sunday night that he has told BP they should stop circulating settlement agreements among coastal Alabamians, the Mobile Press-Register reports. King reportedly said the agreements stipulate that residents will give up their right to sue the company in exchange for a payment of up to $5,000.
"People need to proceed with caution and understand the ramifications before signing something like that," said King, who noted that he is prohibited from giving legal advice to private citizens. "They should seek appropriate counsel to make sure their rights are protected."
The Press-Register reports that BP spokesman Darren Beaudo responded, "To the best of my knowledge BP did not ask residents of Alabama to waive their legal rights in the way that has been described."
This video is from NBC's Today Show, broadcast May 3, 2010.
Tax on Oil May Help Pay for Cleanup
Gerald Herbert/Associated Press
The spill began after an explosion last month on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. When well-insured companies have a spill, the government can try to recover the money spent from a reserve fund.
WASHINGTON — The federal government has a large rainy day fund on hand to help mitigate the expanding damage on the Gulf Coast, generated by a tax on oil for use in cases like the Deepwater Horizon spill.
Up to $1 billion of the $1.6 billion reserve could be used to compensate for losses from the accident, as much as half of it for what is sometimes a major category of costs: damage to natural resources like fisheries and other wildlife habitats.
Under the law that established the reserve, called the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, the operators of the offshore rig face no more than $75 million in liability for the damages that might be claimed by individuals, companies or the government.
The fund was set up by Congress in 1986 but not financed until after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska in 1989. In exchange for the limits on liability, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 imposed a tax on oil companies, currently 8 cents for every barrel they produce in this country or import.
The tax adds roughly one tenth of a percent to the price of oil. Another source of revenue is fines and civil penalties from companies that spill oil.
The result is a rainy-day fund, which over the years has been used mostly for spills that exceed the liability caps by relatively small amounts. But the trust fund managers have warned that a single big spill could make a sizable dent in the reserve.
The money is also used to prepare for spills, including anticipatory measures like stockpiling oil containment booms. And Congress can use money from the fund to reimburse the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for their spill-related expenses.
“The idea behind creating it was that we wouldn’t have to wait on money to clean up an oil spill,” said Michael C. LeVine, the Pacific senior counsel for Oceana, an environmental group.
A federal supervisor at the scene of a spill can authorize states to spend up to a quarter-million dollars on the spot.
The president can authorize up to $50 million a year without Congressional approval.
When a rich and well-insured company like BP is responsible for the spill, the government will seek reimbursement of what it spends on cleanup from the company and its insurers.
Experts say the fund is invaluable in spills involving smaller companies, which may not have money for cleanup, or in cases where the identity of the responsible party is not instantly clear.
But damages in oil spills can run to big money.
“One billion dollars sounds like a lot of money, but it really might not be,” said Mr. LeVine, who is based in Juneau, Alaska.
Companies that lose business — fishermen who cannot fish, or hotel owners who cannot rent out rooms — can seek damages. So can governments that see tax revenues decline.
A count made by the Department of Homeland Security last August found that since 1991, there had been 51 instances in which liability exceeded caps.
In most years it was a handful; in 1999 there were 11, because of a typhoon in American Samoa that wrecked eight fishing vessels that spilled oil.
Numerically, cargo vessels and fishing vessels are the biggest culprits, but oil tankers and barges cause the most dollar damage.
The fund’s single largest expense so far came after a tanker in the Delaware River, the Athos I, spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil in 2004.
Money can be sought by the states for expenses like restoration of a damaged wetland or compensation for loss of use of a resource.
Payments are limited by the amount actually on hand in the fund; if this spill depletes the trust fund, it might take time to replenish it for future use.
The balance was projected to rise to about $1.9 billion from the current $1.6 billion — but that was before the spill.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 4, 2010
An article on Saturday about the response by BP America and the federal government to an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico misstated a provision in a pollution law passed a year after the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. The law, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, stipulates that “each responsible party for a vessel or a facility from which oil is discharged” is liable for cleanup costs. It does not state that the owner of a rig or a vessel is automatically responsible for the costs. An article on Sunday about an oil tax fund that helps pay for damages from oil spills repeated the error about the cleanup costs and it misstated part of the name of a federal agency responsible for coastal and deep ocean waters. It is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, not the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 2, 2010, on page A31 of the New York edition.
What a washout! First the rain... then the SLEET as May Bank Holiday comes to a chilly end
Sleet, hail, single figure temperatures, soaking rain.
Yes, that was the Bank Holiday weekend. Now brace yourselves for even colder weather as 'monsoon May' continues with a chill that may even bring frost.
Forecasters say that the mercury could fall as low as 3c overnight for much of the week with more rain to follow the torrential downpours of Saturday and Sunday.
Chilly: A couple stroll on a decidedly grey Bournemouth beach in Dorset yesterday. Frost was forecast over much of England and Wales last night
Barren: The cloudy weather left Bouremouth beach almost deserted, a far cry from how it looked for much of last month
It will do little to lift the spirits of those who were soaked over the miserable weekend.
The worst of the weather was in the East and hilly areas of the North, where temperatures struggled to get into double figures.
South-West England and Wales fared better, with longer bright spells. But the highest temperature, recorded in St Athan, near Cardiff, was still only 13.3c (56f).
Hundreds of people gathered in the rain in Bath yesterday to set a new world record for the largest number of people to dance along to the Gene Kelly classic Singing In The Rain. The attempt, which saw 234 people take part, was overseen by adjudicators from the Guinness Book Of World Records
Enlarge 
Brightening the day: One of the 234 people who sang Singing In The Rain in Bath yesterday
At this time of year, temperatures of around 15c (59f) can normally be expected in northern England and 17c (62.6f) in the South.
The uninspiring temperatures followed heavy rain earlier in the weekend.
Parts of the Cotswolds were drenched by more than two inches of rain on Saturday night and Sunday morning - half the average for the month - while London had an inch-and-a-half in the same period.
The start of 'monsoon May', as it has been dubbed, was in stark contrast to last month, which turned out to be the third driest April in a century.
Met Office forecaster Andrew Sibley said: 'You won't remember the Bank Holiday weekend, that's for sure. Most of the showers weren't particularly heavy but they were of nuisance value if you got caught out in them.'
Gordon Brown found himself a victim of the changeable conditions as he faced heavy sleet in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, yesterday.
Another Met Office forecaster, Charles Powell, predicted the miserable week ahead, saying: 'There is even a chance of overnight frost as evening temperatures fall to between 3c and 5c.
'And towards the end of the week an easterly wind will bring a cold breeze over from the Continent.'
Enlarge 
Washout: People walk past palm trees yesterday on the promenade at Southend, Essex
Enlarge 
Beach huts stand empty at Southend yesterday beneath overcast skies
'Hypocrite' Harman and her family's inheritance tax dodge on £750,000 estate
Harriet Harman was accused of 'hypocrisy' yesterday for attacking Tory plans to cut inheritance tax although her own family exploited loopholes to shelter their fortune from the levy.
The Labour deputy leader was revealed to be one of the beneficiaries of a trust set up in her father's will designed to reduce the amount of tax she would eventually pay on his estate.
Miss Harman has repeatedly railed against the Tory proposal to raise the inheritance threshold substantially, describing it as a 'tax cut for the wealthiest estates'.
But documents show how her father attempted to use complex tax avoidance loopholes to protect some of his fortune from the Inland Revenue.
Harriet Harman's family have exploited loopholes to shelter their fortune from the tax levy
John Bishop Harman, a surgeon who died in 1994, set up a trust designed to minimise the amount his children would pay in tax on his £750,000 estate.
He created a 'nil-rate-band discretionary trust', a structure used by wealthy families at that time.
It allows one spouse to transfer assets up to the value of the inheritance tax threshold to a trust when he or she dies, and name the chosen heirs as beneficiaries.
The remaining estate passed on to the surviving spouse is correspondingly smaller, limiting the tax liability to the children on their death and effectively doubling the inheritance tax threshold.
One expert said the family would have had to go 'out of their way' to draw up the then little-known arrangement.
The Conservatives claimed it undermined Miss Harman's 'class war' attacks on their proposals to lift the inheritance tax burden.
Tory chairman Eric Pickles said: 'Harriet Harman's hypocrisy is breathtaking. You need to judge Labour not on what they say, but on what they do.'
Let us pray: Gordon Brown at the Church of the New Testament in Streatham yesterday
Tax experts said that the rules changed in 2007, since when couples have been allowed to transfer their inheritance tax allowances - making trusts of the kind Mr Harman set up redundant.
Miss Harman's mother Anna is still alive, aged 91, and would now be able to use her late husband's tax allowance when making a will even if he had not set up the trust.
But had the inheritance been passed on before 2007, Miss Harman and her siblings would have benefited by thousands of pounds.
Mark Spragg, an expert in probate at Keystone Law, said of the trust scheme: 'Not everybody would have known about it at the time. It wasn't widely publicised by the Revenue.
This was something people thought up as a good idea. It was an avoidance scheme when it came out - it was obviously a bit of a tactic.'
John Bishop Harman was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons who lived and practised on Harley Street. His sister was married to the celebrated aristocrat, the Earl of Longford.
He died in May 1994 and left his estate to Anna, an heiress to a paper manufacturing firm, and his four children as beneficiaries of the trust fund. The children stand to benefit when their mother dies.
The house where Miss Harman grew up, 108 Harley Street, was sold in 1990, for an undisclosed amount. Similar properties sell today for upwards of £15million.
Dr Harman's will shows he left £758,472 to his wife - which would have been the value of stocks, shares, and cash rather than any properties owned by the couple.
Miss Harman, who is tipped as a potential 'caretaker' leader for Labour if Gordon Brown quits after a defeat in Thursday's general election, has attacked Tory plans for inheritance tax several times.
Under the current system, when someone dies the estate is liable for inheritance tax if the value is more than £325,000.
That £325,000 is now transferrable between couples, even if they die in different years, so in practice a husband and wife would actually have a combined threshold of £650,000.
The Tories have pledged to increase this to £1million, or £2million if transferred between couples.
A spokesman for Labour's deputy leader said: 'Miss Harman's father's will was a matter for him. Her mother is still alive and her financial arrangements are private.'
A source close to Miss Harman said she had not benefited from any income drawn from the trust.
My bizarre chat with Gordon, by 'bigot' widow
The pensioner who Gordon Brown called a bigot has revealed that he invited her to meet his family in Downing Street as part of a desperate attempt to persuade her to pose for pictures with him.
Gillian Duffy described an excruciating 40-minute conversation with the Prime Minister in which he repeatedly begged her to make a public act of forgiveness in front of the cameras.
Mrs Duffy, 66, a lifelong Labour voter, bluntly told Mr Brown that she would not be voting for him following his insult, which was caught by a live microphone.
'I said, "I'm sorry for you Gordon, because you have more to lose than me. I'm very sorry that this has happened, but it's you who's going to lose out, not me".'
Gillian Duffy: called a 'bigot' by Gordon Brown on the election campaign
But Mr Brown persisted, even asking if Mrs Duffy would like to meet his wife Sarah and family at Downing Street. She said: 'He asked, "Have you met Sarah?" Well, how would I have met his wife?
'Then he asked, "Do you ever come down to London? If you ever come down you must come to Number Ten and meet me and Sarah".
'Well, I just looked at him. I didn't like to say it, but all I could think was, "I don't think you'll be there".'
The exchanges came last Wednesday, after Labour's election campaign was thrown into disarray when news of Mr Brown's extraordinary gaffe broke.
Interviewed by the Mail on Sunday, Mrs Duffy told how behind her closed front door Mr Brown made a series of grovelling apologies and tried to persuade her to reward him with a public act of forgiveness.
'He wanted me to go outside with him and shake hands in front of all the cameras, but I didn't want that fuss.'
She said what hurt her most was the dismissive way in which he referred to her as 'that woman'.
She added: 'I'm not "that woman". It's no way to talk of someone, that, is it? As if I'm to be brushed away. Why couldn't he have said "that lady"?'
Mrs Duffy, a widow, travelled at the weekend to Canada for a holiday with friends arranged long before her confrontation with the PM. She had arranged a postal vote, but decided not to use it.
The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Californians: Executive Summary
Analysis of the latest Census data indicates that California's illegal immigrant population is costing the state's taxpayers more than $10.5 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. Even if the estimated tax contributions of illegal immigrant workers are subtracted, net outlays still amount to nearly $9 billion per year. The annual fiscal burden from those three areas of state expenditures amounts to about $1,183 per household headed by a native-born resident.
This analysis looks specifically at the costs to the state for education, health care and incarceration resulting from illegal immigration. These three are the largest cost areas, and they are the same three areas analyzed in a 1994 study conducted by the Urban Institute, which provides a useful baseline for comparison ten years later. Other studies have been conducted in the interim, showing trends that support the conclusions of this report.
As this report will note, other significant costs associated with illegal immigration exist and should be taken into account by federal and state officials. But, even without accounting for all of the numerous areas in which costs associated with illegal immigration are being incurred by California taxpayers, the programs analyzed in this study indicate that the burden is substantial and that the costs are rapidly increasing.
The more than $10.1 billion in costs incurred by California taxpayers is composed of outlays in the following areas:
- Education. Based on estimates of the illegal immigrant population in California and documented costs of K-12 schooling, Californians spend approximately $7.7 billion annually on education for illegal immigrant children and for their U.S.-born siblings. Nearly 15 percent of the K-12 public school students in California are children of illegal aliens.
- Health care. Uncompensated medical outlays for health care provided to the state's illegal alien population amount to about $1.4 billion a year.
- Incarceration. The cost of incarcerating illegal aliens in California's prisons and jails amounts to about $1.4 billion a year (not including related law enforcement and judicial expenditures or the monetary costs of the crimes that led to their incarceration).
State and local taxes paid by the unauthorized immigrant population go toward offsetting these costs, but they do not come near to matching the expenses. The total of such payments can generously be estimated at about $1.6 billion per year.
The fiscal costs of illegal immigration do not end with these three major cost areas. The total costs of illegal immigration to the state's taxpayers would be considerably higher if other cost areas such as special English instruction, school feeding programs, or welfare benefits for American workers displaced by illegal alien workers were added into the equation.
While the primary responsibility for combating illegal immigration rests with the federal government, there are many measures that state and local governments can take to combat the problem. Californians should not be expected to assume this already large and growing burden from illegal immigration simply because businesses or other special interests benefit from being able to employ lower cost workers. The state must adopt measures to systematically collect information on illegal alien use of taxpayer-funded services and on where they are employed. Policies could then be pursued to hold employers financially accountable.
The state could also enter into a cooperative agreement with the federal government for training local law enforcement personnel in immigration law so that illegal immigrants apprehended for criminal activities may be turned over to immigration authorities for removal from the country. Similarly, local officials who have adopted "sanctuary" measures that shield illegal aliens from being reported to the immigration authorities should be urged to repeal them.
In Defense of Salt
We've all watched as death row inmates, after having spent years in prison for crimes they did not commit, are released after exculpatory DNA evidence proves their innocence. This all too frequent scenario is what led Ron Paul to rightfully change his mind about the death penalty, despite the fact that his convictions are so well thought out, so solid, that he very rarely has to change his views about something so important.
One has to wonder how many common criminals are convicted with faulty evidence and testimony, with or without malicious intent. In these cases the stakes are rarely high enough to warrant the attention given to the lifers, or deathers as it were. Wouldn't we all love the opportunity to come to the aid of even one such innocent target of malicious state prosecution?
Well the opportunity is here and the victim is salt.
Our society loves to hate a villain and our politicians will seize any opportunity to exploit that hatred. These villains provide politicians with the opportunity to ride the wave of popularity, sauntering into town with a heroic swagger like John Wayne to put the bad guy behind bars where he belongs. Our heroes ride into town on our television screens along with their posse of assistants, calling out the villain and his accomplices, usually business owners, because as we all know, anyone who owns a business amasses great wealth using nefarious means at our expense.
In the case of food, the health Nazis have issued all manner of ill-informed proclamations, attempting to encourage us all to eat as they do based on limited information and simplified and/or biased interpretations of it. One thing that politicians don't know how to do well is where to draw the line. They want to use the popular bans on cigarettes as templates for intrusions on our freedom of choice wherever they can, but they haven't yet learned that while banning cigarettes will find plenty of support as smokers are in the minority, they will find a public mobilized against them when they start slamming the bars on our friends.
What happens when a politician doesn't know what he's talking about? He advocates things like banning salt in restaurants. According to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, "salt and asbestos are not good for you." He said, "modern medicine thinks you shouldn't be smoking if you want to live longer. Modern medicine thinks you shouldn't be eating salt, or sodium."
Apparently Mayor Bloomberg is not familiar with the fact that the National Academy of Sciences recommends that Americans consume a minimum of 500 mg/day of sodium to maintain good health. In fact, sodium chloride is one of the 12 daily essential minerals. As far as I am aware, there is no minimum recommendation for asbestos consumption.
Mayor Bloomberg isn't alone in his ignorance. One of mainstream society's problems is its seeming inability to ferret out the good from the bad, or even that there is often plenty in between. We love to parrot the concept of "everything in moderation," yet we have difficulty applying it unless someone in authority stands up and tells us to. Our mindfuls seem to be about the size of our mouthfuls. Anything that cannot fit into a soundbite is too complex for the simplest among us, toward whom most of our information is geared. Since there is a correlation between salt and hypertension, all salt must be bad. The difference is that the average person can live his life in blissful ignorance without wielding the power to enact laws that govern the rest of us based upon it.
Our bodies cannot create salt and without salt we die
Our bodies are approximately 60 percent water, some of it within our cells and some without our cells. Salt controls the amount of water in our bodies and it maintains the critical balance between our cells and body fluids. Salt also aids in the contraction of muscle tissue and serves as a vital ingredient of blood plasma and digestive secretions. According to a University of California study, our bodies regulate our sodium content, ensuring that serum sodium levels remain within a certain range at all times. We lose sodium with our sweat and waste and without replacing it our bodies attempt to redistribute it in less than optimum ways.
Before the extreme result of death, it may serve us well to find out what happens to our bodies when we withhold or restrict such a vital nutrient: an eight-year study of a New York City hypertensive population found that those on low-salt diets had more than four times as many heart attacks as those on normal-sodium diets. Could it be that since the heart is a perpetually active muscle, constantly contracting and relaxing from birth until death, that removing one of the aids to muscle contraction may impede its effective operation? The fact is, some of the draconian recommendations for salt use have just as dramatic effect as a pharmaceutical intervention. Just don't tell that to the FDA or we may find salt classified as a drug.
The ways in which the human body needs and uses salt are far too numerous to be covered in one short article. Nevertheless, if we decide that salt is good, we should ideally be choosy about the type of salt that we pick. Natural salt cannot be directly replaced with processed salt. Like many other sources of nutrition, it is the co-action of all the constituent parts that performs the complete function of the food. Unfortunately as in so many areas of food and our health, the good is that which we have subsisted on for millennia and the bad is that which we process for the convenience of products that are "trouble-free." We can reasonably expect that the foods we buy that contain sodium will contain the processed form, so the salt that we add at home should be a minimally processed natural form.
FDIC Shuts Seven More Banks at a Cost of Over $7 Billion See full article from DailyFinance:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation closed seven more banks on Apr. 30, bringing the total to 64 for the year. The day was particularly expensive, costing the agency just over $7 billion.
According to the FDIC website, the banks were Frontier Bank (Everett, Wash.), National Banks (Butler, Mo.), Champion Bank, (Creve Coeur, Mo.), CF Bancorp (Port Huron, Mich.), Westernbank Puerto Rico (Mayaquez, Puerto Rico), R-G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico (Hato Rey, Puerto Rico), and Eurobank (San Juan, Puerto Rico).
Frontier Bank's shuttering will be particularly expensive, costing the insurance fund that protects bank depositors $1.37 billion.
FDIC's Shaky Finances
The health of the FDIC's funds depend on the pace of bank closures, which will certainly top 200 this year. If the agency runs out of money, it has nowhere to turn to but the U.S. Treasury -- another way of saying taxpayers will be on the hook. Last November, the agency brought in $45 billion by having the banks under its umbrella pay their fees through 2012. At that time, the FDIC said it was about to run out of money -- the $50 billion it had before the crisis began was gone.
The bank closures are a repercussion of the wave of losses that hit large banks, which were aided by the Troubled Asset Relief Program fund. Most of the banks being closed now are medium-size or small banks that have exposure to commercial and residential mortgages. Many of the properties they made loans for are going into default, and this damaging process is expected to continue.
The $45 billion seemed like a lot when the FDIC raised it. It doesn't seem very much now.
According to the FDIC website, the banks were Frontier Bank (Everett, Wash.), National Banks (Butler, Mo.), Champion Bank, (Creve Coeur, Mo.), CF Bancorp (Port Huron, Mich.), Westernbank Puerto Rico (Mayaquez, Puerto Rico), R-G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico (Hato Rey, Puerto Rico), and Eurobank (San Juan, Puerto Rico).
Frontier Bank's shuttering will be particularly expensive, costing the insurance fund that protects bank depositors $1.37 billion.
FDIC's Shaky Finances
The health of the FDIC's funds depend on the pace of bank closures, which will certainly top 200 this year. If the agency runs out of money, it has nowhere to turn to but the U.S. Treasury -- another way of saying taxpayers will be on the hook. Last November, the agency brought in $45 billion by having the banks under its umbrella pay their fees through 2012. At that time, the FDIC said it was about to run out of money -- the $50 billion it had before the crisis began was gone.
The bank closures are a repercussion of the wave of losses that hit large banks, which were aided by the Troubled Asset Relief Program fund. Most of the banks being closed now are medium-size or small banks that have exposure to commercial and residential mortgages. Many of the properties they made loans for are going into default, and this damaging process is expected to continue.
The $45 billion seemed like a lot when the FDIC raised it. It doesn't seem very much now.
CMKM/CMKX $3.87 TRILLION LAWSUIT GOES 'MAINSTREAM'
CMKM DIAMONDS AND THE $3.87 TRILLION LAWSUIT YOU DIDN'T HEAR ABOUT
• UNLESS YOU FOLLOW WORLD REPORTS IN WHICH CASE YOU READ IT HERE FIRST
•* CMKM GOES MAINSTREAM WORLDWIDE AND IN GERMANY
Tim Barello has reported to us from New York [9th April 2010]: 'Following a tremendous impact from Monday's RT broadcast (which was seen in over 100 nations, and has since been reproduced and viewed many times over online) and the accompanying Examiner.com article, we can now note that CMKM has gone mainstream in Germany, via ARD, a major German broadcaster.
Link: http://boerse.ard.de/content.jsp?key=dokument_426752
• We have re-dated this report, which was originally posted on 31st March 2010. The Editor is working on reports addressing the accelerating unravelling of the Fraudulent Finance crisis, revolutionary examples of the collapse of the Rule of Law, and the George H. W. Bush I regime's attempt to grab the Falkland Islands by activating its long-term Nazi assets in Argentina in 1982.
• Like everything else this personification of the Evil One does, that grabitisation ploy collapsed.
MISPRISION OF FELONY: U.S. CODE, TITLE 18, PART 1, CHAPTER 1, SECTION 4:
‘Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some Judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both’.
'Seeing what's at the end of one's nose requires constant effort'. George Orwell.
SECURITIZATION IS ILLEGAL UPDATE: In the Subs/Books Update panel immediately below the NEWS panel that you are currently viewing, you will see an announcement concerning publication of Economic Intelligence Review, Volume 12, Numbers 7 & 8. If you press that announcement text and open up the panel, you will see the contents list for the new [2010Q1] issue of E.I.R., including a breakdown of the Chapter Headings for the detailed analysis showing that Securitization is illegal. See our NEWS report dated 10th March 2010 for summaries of some of the data from this analysis. We understand that the report has created uproar in certain corridors of corrupt power.
• Please be advised that the Editor of International Currency Review and associated intelligence services cannot enter into email correspondence related to this or to any of the earlier reports.
• BOOKS: Edward Harle Limited has so far published FIVE intelligence titles: The Perestroika Deception, by Anatoliy Golitsyn; Red Cocaine, by Dr Joseph D. Douglass, Jr.; The European Union Collective, by Christopher Story; The New Underworld Order, by Christopher Story; and The Red Terror in Russia, by Sergei Melgounov. All titles are permanently in stock. We sell books DIRECT.
• ADVERTISEMENT: Details of the INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION software offered by this service in conjunction with a donation can be accessed immediately: See the Home Page World Reports Limited serials catalogue by clicking World Reports Limited and scrolling to foot of page. Scroll to the foot of THIS page to read our extended Ad. for the INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION.
• OUR PHONE SYSTEMS HAVE NOW BEEN CLOSED DOWN:
Due to incessant Psy-Ops harassment by the Cheney/Biden/NSA criminal operatives, we have had to close down our telephone connections. On returning to the London office, the Editor found 13 obscene messages from the paid USG maniac on our London voicemail overnight 30-31 March, and the USG maniac started up again shortly after noon UK time on 31st. All our telephone connections have therefore been severed and will remain severed and out of service until further notice. As previously noted, we must be doing something right, or these brainwashed sickos in urgent need of brain surgery wouldn't have been doing this non-stop since February 2008.
• Note: Although we were advised that this is a Cheney/Biden/NSA harassment offensive, we bear in mind that it could be a DVD operation. That would make sense, given Bush Sr.'s links with DVD, and his close association with Dr Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor of Germany, as a partner in Deutsche AG (formerly Barrington Investment Group) and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev*. It would also make sense given that this operation started in February 2008, with the Wanta 'switch'.
• If this is a DVD operation, the US authorities have done NOTHING TO TERMINATE IT, so they are complicit in this illegal harassment and in the STEALING OF OUR COMMUNICATIONS.
• We can be contacted as normal via email or fax, and via the CONTACT US facility below.
* Gorbachev's KGB/Oligarch associate, Lebedev, who has just lifted some of the stolen funds held in Deutsche AG to bail out the second-rate, loss-making UK newspapers The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, is now presiding over a full-frontal attack on The Queen's finances in The Independent. This is NOT A COINCIDENCE and represents a new dimension of the ongoing attack on the British Monarchy, which is also being openly assisted by the corrupt German-Jewish Pope Ratzinger, whose contribution so far has been to 'invite' disillusioned clergy, bishops and members of the Church of England into his reprobate church, as a means of helping to destroy the Church of England, of which The Queen is Head. If they can destroy the Church of England, they remove a key prop from beneath the Monarchy. The Pope's cynical offensive against the Church of England, like the Gorbachev/Lebedev offensive against The Queen's finances, is a DVD operation. The KGB/GRU collaborate with DVD at the highest level, as previously reported by this service.
• MAIN CMKM REPORTS PUBLISHED HERE: SEE ARCHIVE:
• 09 January 2010: Text of the CMKM/CMKX lawsuit against the S.E.C.
Case Number CV10-00031-JVS (MLGX): See also Report dated 7th January 2010
• 29 January 2010: Service of CMKM/CMKX $3.87 trillion suit vs. S.E.C.
Biggest lawsuit in world history: The Phantom Shares giga-scandal
• 02 March 2010: S.E.C. Phantom shares fraud: New Intelligence
Latest developments following the blowing of the cauldron lid
• You can also access the CMKM/CMKX text at: http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/paKdda
REPORT BY TIM BARELLO, EXAMINER.COM, NEW YORK, STARTS HERE:
Tim Barello writes to us from New York City: This article is currently the #1 article on the entire NY hyperlocal site, meaning that hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of unique viewers are seeing it right now at:
http://www.examiner.com/x-9341-Manhattan-Headlines-Examiner~y2010m3d30-CMKM-Diamonds-and-the-387-trillion-lawsuit-you-didnt-hear-about
The link we provided works, but you musn't include the period at the end of the sentence!!!!!:
http://www.examiner.com/new_york
Editor's Note: Tim has done a first-rate job of summarising the essential points of the CMKM Case for the general reader.
S.E.C. COMMISSIONERS AT RECEIVING END OF WORLD'S BIGGEST-EVER LAWSUIT
As the United States continues to fracture in every way imaginable, most citizens are unable to keep up with the never-ending hodgepodge of government corruption. Each day, a new larger-than-life scandal emerges, and in the short mind span of news media, there is always a bigger and better story to chase. Right now, the hot button issue for mainstream news outlets is healthcare reform, and its myriad implications for our society; this doubtlessly ensures the aforementioned media will continue to overlook unprecedented accusations brought forth in a recent $3.87 trillion lawsuit against U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary L. Shapiro, as well as several other current and former SEC commissioners, among others.
This Bivens action suit represents the largest fraud case in world history, and was filed in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, on January 8th by Pasadena attorney Al Hodges; in his complaint, made on behalf of CMKM Diamonds shareholders, Hodges alleges that:
• [Complaint paragraph 31] During the period of June 1, 2004 through October 28, 2005 a total of 2.25 Trillion “phantom” shares of CMKM Diamonds Inc, was sold into the public market through legitimate brokers, illegitimate brokers and dealers, market makers, hedge funds, ex-clearing transactions and private transactions” The sales of the majority of such shares were at all times known to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Defendants herein”.
• [Complaint paragraph 32] At some date prior to June 1, 2004 the Securities and Exchange Commission in concert with the Department of Justice of the United States, together combined with Robert A. Maheu and others to utilize CMKM Diamonds, Inc. for the purpose of trapping a number of widely disbursed entities and persons who were believed to be engaged in naked short selling of CMKM Diamonds Inc. stock and cellar boxing the company.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, with assistance from the Department of Homeland Security, believed and developed evidence that said short sellers were utilizing their activities to illegally launder moneys, wrongfully export moneys, avoid payment of taxes, and to support foreign terrorist operations.
To fulfill the plan to criminally trap such wrongdoers, the Securities and Exchange Commission, with assistance from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security:
(a) Assisted in and approved the retention of Roger Glenn, an ex-SEC trial attorney and drafter of Sarbanes-Oxley, to join CMKM Diamonds Inc. for the purpose of verifying claims value, increasing authorized shares of stock to 800,000,000,000, and supervising from the inside of the company;
(b) Encouraged the company to expand its promotional activities, assisted in the set up of the “racing activities” of the company, and underwrote a substantial portion of the cost of such activities;
(c) Consented to, facilitated, and supported the sale of certain company claims to several foreign corporations;
(d) Consented to, facilitated, and supported the conferences between Robert A. Maheu and his associates on the one hand, and the wrongdoing short sellers on the other, all for the purpose of settling the potential liability of said wrongdoers with consent of the U. S. Government and a representation of no criminal prosecution for such illegal sales;
(e) Consented to, facilitated, and supported the declaration of dividends payable by the company to each common shareholder of CMKM Diamonds, Inc.
(f) Consented to, facilitated, and supported the distribution of shares of CIM, a private company owned by Urban Casavant, as a stock dividend, including consent and approval of distribution of said shares to holders of more than 1.4 Trillion shares of CMKM Diamonds, Inc. common stock.
Based on these assertions, CMKM was used by the U.S. government as part of a covert sting operation – unbeknownst to shareholders – to apprehend criminals for their offenses. However, instead of prosecuting most of them, restitution deals were apparently cut:
• [Complaint paragraph 34] During the period from March, 2004 through August, 2006, on behalf of CMKM Diamonds, Inc. Robert A. Maheu, with assistance from others, negotiated a settlement with the illegitimate brokers, dealers, market makers, hedge funds, and other persons and entities that had engaged in naked short selling of CMKM Diamonds Inc. stock and cellar boxing the company. In exchange for a U. S. Government promise of no prosecution for such sales, the wrongdoers each promised to pay negotiated amounts to a frozen trust for disbursal at a later time.
• [Complaint paragraph 35] Plaintiffs herein are informed and believe, and based thereon allege, that other moneys have been collected for the benefit of the shareholders of CMKM Diamonds, Inc. from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, from the United States Government, and from the sale of additional assets including consent to enter into joint venture agreements with other companies holding mineral claims in Saskatchewan, Canada. Plaintiffs herein are further informed and believe, and based thereon allege, that said moneys, collected for the benefit of shareholders have also been placed in a trust or are otherwise now held in trust by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and the United States Treasury.
Therefore, the crux of this complaint – and the massive fraud allegedly committed by the SEC (and Department of Justice) – is as follows:
• [Complaint paragraph 36] Plaintiffs herein are informed and believe, and based thereon allege, that at all times mentioned, the Securities and Exchange Commission reserved unto itself the sole and absolute discretion to determine when moneys collected pursuant to the scheme set forth above would and could be released for distribution.
• [Complaint paragraph 37] Demand for release of said moneys has been repeatedly presented to the Securities and Exchange Commission without result. Agents and employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice have represented repeatedly that the release of moneys for distribution was imminent, and/or would occur within several weeks, and/or would occur within less than a month. Each of said representations have been made knowing them to be false, and at the specific direction of the named Defendants. These actions of withholding distribution of said moneys, without compensation and without due process of law, amount to a taking of the property of the individual Plaintiffs and of all similarly situated.
During the timeframe referenced above, CMKM was registered as a publicly traded diamond and gold mining company. By 2005, concrete evidence detailing fraud within the company emerged; in addition, it became publicly apparent that CMKM also sold, at the very least, hundreds of billions of unregistered shares – a practice often referred to as naked short selling – to third parties.
Eventually, the SEC moved to delist CMKM stock, whose value never exceeded one penny per share, in accordance with Section 12(j) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. After several administrative proceedings, CMKM stock was ultimately deregistered in October 2005.
In September 2006, Floyd Norris, chief financial correspondent of The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, caught wind of the CMKM scandals, and began to report on some elements of the criminal fraud that ravaged CMKM’s estimated 40,000 shareholders.
Norris has reported on more than one occasion that at least 259 billion shares of unregistered CMKM stock was sold; however, per the SEC’s 2008 action against CMKM, the agency itself acknowledges that as many as 622 billion shares of “purportedly unregistered stock” was sold by the company over a 20 month period.
So, how did Hodges initially determine that at least 2 trillion unregistered shares were sold?
[Complaint paragraph 25] A frequently asked question (FAQ) page was added to the web site [CMKMTaskForce.com] on the evening of November 4, 2005 and in response to a question about the degree of naked shorting of CMKM stock, the Task Force [consisting of Robert A. Maheu, Donald J. Stoecklein and Bill Frizzell] indicated that “Credible information indicates the number of naked short shares is potentially as high as 2 Trillion shares”.
‘QUITE A CASE’
Several weeks ago, I spoke with Al Hodges, a practicing attorney with four decades of experience, to find out more about this extraordinary case, and moreover, to determine from him exactly how he calculated his clients’ potential damages to be nearly $4 trillion – a figure many observers have openly scoffed at.
Almost immediately, I could not help but ask why the 'mainstream' media has not fairly reported on this case; frankly, given the scope of accusations, one would assume that, at the very least, Floyd Norris and The New York Times would have some interest in thoroughly examining the merits of this action; instead, Norris has essentially brushed off Hodges' allegations as being baseless.
It’s not that Hodges and his associates haven’t tried to attract the media’s interest; in fact, on this side of the Atlantic, all the major dailies, including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have all been informed of the suit.
Their respective editorial staffs – with the exception of Floyd Norris – have utterly decided to ignore it. In the United Kingdom, efforts have also been made to attract mainstream media interest. Veteran financial intelligence Editor and Publisher Christopher Story FRSA – an investigative specialist that focuses on covert government operations and scandals – has personally reached out to The Daily Telegraph’s International Business Editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, with whom he is acquainted, to notify him about Hodges’ case. To date, Pritchard has failed to respond to Mr. Story, who has authored a number of articles (1) – and other published commentary – in The Daily Telegraph over the course of his near 50-year-career.
Hodges noted that Story, publisher of International Currency Review, and several other serials, is “subscribed to by every intelligence operation in the world”.
If intelligence agencies are reading about CMKM, then why isn’t the mainstream press covering this case? Hodges prudently observed that “they’re not going to touch it” (2).
MAINSTREAM MEDIA WON’T COVER ISSUES TIED TO COVERT OPERATIONS? (EVIDENTLY NOT)
“They* used the shareholders without their consent to perform this ‘sting operation’ for National Security interests, and it wouldn’t have worked the way it worked if they had disclosed it”, he continued. [*: The Government, i.e. the Intelligence Power: Ed.].
“On the other hand, it isn’t right to bury a company and put them out of business for the purpose of trapping people who are using the company to cheat the government, to line their own pockets, and to fund their operations against the United States”.
As noted above in complaint paragraph 34, and per Hodges, a deal was eventually reached with the aforementioned criminals; they paid the government restitution for documented illegal actions, and in turn, were offered immunity from prosecution.
“Rob Maheu had all these people in a big room in Las Vegas, and made [an] offer to them”, he said.
“Every person, organization and representative in that room stepped up, and either transferred money while they were there, or agreed to transfer money upon some further schedule” to avoid indictment. Hodges also said: “I have a witness who was there, who saw it, and part of the 2.25 trillion phantom shares is documented by that person’s observations of how many shares were represented in that room”.
HOW MUCH MONEY DID THE FEDS REALLY COLLECT FOR RESTITUTION?
“People are going to laugh and titter about the amount of money that is being claimed, but understand the context of the lawsuit”, he said, before concluding: “We are not asking the Government to pay us $3.87 trillion: what we’re asking is for them to release the funds that have been collected for us”. Thus, the implication is that this sum also incorporates substantial punitive damages. Note: Mr Hodges confirmed to the Editor of this service on his return to London on 30th March that the lawsuit proceeds and will be prosecuted, which is causing the individual S.E.C. personnel extreme angst, as can be imagined (3).
In the end, Hodges believes the U.S. Government is going to settle the case before it actually moves to trial. On this possibility, he said, “I think its in the process of happening as we speak”.
Based on these explanations – and the recent scandals and assertions that have surfaced about the SEC – I believe the mainstream media is doing the public a great disservice by not properly examining Hodges’ CMKM case.
The same conclusion must also be drawn about Christopher Story’s reports on the criminality that is undermining international efforts to refund the U.S. dollar, which is dangerously close to losing its status as the world’s global reserve currency...but that’s touching on a whole other can of worms…or is it?
Notes and References:
(1): In Paul Johnson’s article “Unions, Pensions, and Financial Responsibility: The British Experience” published in the Journal of Labor Research, Volume 2, Issue 2 (1981) pp. 292, 294, 295, 296, he highlights Christopher Story’s authoritative research, as published in The Daily Telegraph on 30 April, 31 August and 1 September 1976, as well as on 4 September 1978.
(2): During the Editor's stay in New York (16th to 30th March), he held conversations with a number of 'connected' people. One such impeccable source he has known personally for two decades has confirmed the Editor's statement that 'there's an intelligence cell in every press room'. She replied:
'That's absolutely correct'. (One method of obtaining such information is to reach a conclusion and then to put that conclusion to the contact for assessment. If the information is accurate, the usual consequence is that the information will be confirmed. They can confirm or deny, but can't 'inform').
(3): Telephone call placed by the Editor to Mr Hodges on his return to the London office on 30th March, at about 11:00pm UK time.
LIST OF U.S. STATUTES, SECURITIES REGULATIONS AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF WHICH THE CRIMINALISTS, ASSOCIATES AND ALL THE MAIN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REMAIN IN BREACH:
LEGAL TUTORIAL: The Steps of Common Fraud:
Step 1: Fraud in the Inducement: “… is intended to and which does cause one to execute an instrument, or make an agreement… The misrepresentation involved does not mislead one as the paper he signs but rather misleads as to the true facts of a situation, and the false impression it causes is a basis of a decision to sign or render a judgment”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Hauppauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
Step 2: Fraud in Fact by Deceit (Obfuscation and Denial) and Theft:
• “ACTUAL FRAUD. Deceit. Concealing something or making a false representation with an evil intent [scanter] when it causes injury to another…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
• “THE TORT OF FRAUDULENT DECEIT… The elements of actionable deceit are: A false representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth, and with intent to induce reliance thereon, on which plaintiff justifiably relies on his injury…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Deceit’.
Step 3: Theft by Deception and Fraudulent Conveyance:
THEFT BY DECEPTION:
• “FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT… The hiding or suppression of a material fact or circumstance which the party is legally or morally bound to disclose…”.
• “The test of whether failure to disclose material facts constitutes fraud is the existence of a duty, legal or equitable, arising from the relation of the parties: failure to disclose a material fact with intent to mislead or defraud under such circumstances being equivalent to an actual ‘fraudulent concealment’…”.
• To suspend running of limitations, it means the employment of artifice, planned to prevent inquiry or escape investigation and mislead or hinder acquirement of information disclosing a right of action, and acts relied on must be of an affirmative character and fraudulent…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., 'Black’s Law Dictionary’, Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Concealment’.
FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE:
• “FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE… A conveyance or transfer of property, the object of which is to defraud a creditor, or hinder or delay him, or to put such property beyond his reach…”.
• “Conveyance made with intent to avoid some duty or debt due by or incumbent or person (entity) making transfer…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., ‘Black’s Law Dictionary', Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Conveyance’.
U.S. SECURITIES REGULATIONS OF WHICH INSTITUTIONS ARE IN BREACH [SEE REPORTS]:
All securitisation is illegal under US and Common Law: see report dated 10th March 2010.
• NASD Rule 3120, et al.
• NASD Rule 2330, et al
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3040
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and SEC Rule 15c3-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3110
• SEC Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and Procedural Rule 8210
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 2330 and IM-2330
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-5
• NASD Systems and Programme Rules 6950 through 6957
• 97-13 Bank Secrecy Act, Recordkeeping Rule for funds transfers and transmittals of funds, et al.
U.S. LAWS ROUTINELY BREACHED BY THE CRIMINAL OPERATIVES AND INSTITUTIONS:
• Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act
• Anti-Drug Abuse Act
• Applicable international money laundering restrictions
• Bank Secrecy Act
• Crimes, General Provisions, Accessory After the Fact [Title 18, USC]
• Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act
• Economic Espionage Act
• Hobbs Act
• Imparting or Conveying False Information [Title 18, USC]
• Maloney Act
• Misprision of Felony [Title 18, USC] (1)
• Money-Laundering Control Act
• Money-Laundering Suppression Act
• Organized Crime Control Act of 1970
• Perpetration of repeated egregious felonies by State and Federal public employees and their Departments and agencies, which are co-responsible with the said employees for ONGOING illegal and criminal actions, to sustain fraudulent operations and crimes in order to cover up criminalist activities and High Crimes and Misdemeanours by present and former holders of high office under the United States
• Provisions pertaining to private business transactions being protected under both private and criminal penalties [H.R. 3723]
• Provisions prohibiting the bribing of foreign officials [F.I.S.A.]
• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act [R.I.C.O.]
• Securities Act 1933
• Securities Act 1934
• Terrorism Prevention Act
• Treason legislation, especially in time of war.
• BEWARE OF MALICIOUS IMITATIONS: It has come to our notice that certain websites have been in the habit of copying reports from this site, attributing the reports to the Editor of this service, but at the same time AMENDING AND INSERTING TEXT NOT WRITTEN BY THE EDITOR.
• This is a very old, malevolent US counterintelligence DIRTY TRICK.
Therefore, you should be advised that the GENUINE ORIGINAL REPORT is, by obvious definition, accessible ONLY FROM THIS WEBSITE. If you come across an article elsewhere that is attributed to the Editor of this service, you should refer to the ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE and you should bear in mind that the illegally duplicated article may contain text that was NOT written by the Editor of this service, but which was inserted for malicious purposes by counterintelligence.
Likewise, although we haven't yet had time to elaborate this issue, we have taken drastic steps around the world to close off the malicious piracy of our books. One technique used by several disreputable sites (in the United States, the Netherlands and Switzerland) is to copy our title(s) and (a) to display an image of the front cover WITHOUT THE ISBN DATA at the top of the cover; and (b) to DELETE THE COPYRIGHT PAGE. In so doing, the criminal pirates proclaimed that they knew perfectly well that they were/are engaged in theft and can be prosecuted for stealing copyright.
• Please be advised that the Editor of International Currency Review and associated intelligence services cannot enter into email correspondence related to this or to any of the earlier reports.
We are a private intelligence publishing house and have no connections to any outside parties including intelligence agencies. The word ‘intelligence’ on this website and in all our marketing material is used for marketing/sales purposes only and has no other connotations whatsoever: see ‘About Us’ on the red panels under the Notes on the Editor, Christopher Story FRSA, who has been solely and exclusively engaged as an investigative journalist, Editor, Author and private financial and current affairs Publisher since 1963 and is not and never has been an agent for a foreign power, suggestions to the contrary being actionable for libel in the English Court.
ADVERTISEMENT: INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION
YOU CAN ORDER THIS DIRECT FROM THIS WEBSITE. Summary:
Press Internet Security Solution or go to the World Reports Limited serials catalogue and scroll down until you come to this product. Then proceed through the simple and ultra-safe ordering procedure [Visa or MasterCard only]. Send a donation as you order this RECOMMENDED solution.
NON-U.S. INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION CD AVAILABLE: FAR BETTER THAN NORTON ETC
It has now been established that the National Security Agency (NSA) works with/controls Microsoft, Norton, McAfee, and others, in pursuit of the Pentagon's vast BIG BROTHER objective, directed from the 'highest' levels (not the levels usually referred to) which seek to have every computer in the world talk direct to the Pentagon or to NSA's master computers.
This should come as no real surprise since the cynical spooks even assert this 'in-your-face' by advertising 'INTEL INSIDE', which says exactly what it means. More specifically, NSA have made great strides in this direction by having a back door built into Microsoft VISTA. Certain computers, especially those labelled with the logo of the 'fully collaborating' firm Hewlett Packard, have hard-core setups which facilitate the remote monitoring and controlling of personal computers by NSA, Fort Meade. We now understand that if you are using VISTA* you MUST NOT enable 'file and printer sharing' under any circumstances. If you say 'YES', so to speak, to 'file and printer sharing', your computer becomes a slave at once to NSA's master computers. DO NOT ENABLE SHARING.
Unfortunately, this abomination is so far advanced that this may not be the only precaution that needs to be taken. As long as Microsoft continues its extensive cooperation with NSA and the NSC (National Security Council), the spying system which assists the criminalised structures, and thus hitherto the Bush-Clinton 'Box Gang' and its connections, with their fraudulent finance operations, NSA may be able to steal data from your computer. The colossal scourge of data theft is associated with this state of affairs: data stolen usually include Credit Card data, which the kleptocracy regards as almost as good as real estate for hypothecation purposes. Even so, you can make life very much more problematical for these utterly odious people by NOT USING U.S.-sourced so-called Internet Security and anti-virus software. Having been attacked and abused so often, we offer a solution.
We use a proprietary FOREIGN Internet Security program which devours every PC Trojan, worm, scam, porn attack and virus that the National Security Agency (NSA) throws at us. We are offering this program (CD) to our clients and friends, at a premium. The program comes with our very strong recommendation, but at the same time, if you buy from us, you will be helping us finance ongoing exposures of the DVD's World Revolution and the financial corruption that has been financing it.
The familiar US proprietary Internet Security programs are by-products of US counterintelligence, and are intended NOT to solve your Internet security problems, but to spy on you and to report what you write about, to centralised US electronic facilities set up for the purpose. You can now BREAK FREE from this syndrome while at the same time helping us to MAINTAIN THE VERY HEAVY PRESSURE UPON THE CRIMINALISTS WE HAVE BEEN EXPOSING, by ordering this highest quality FOREIGN (i.e., non-US) INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION that we have started advertising on this website. This offer has been developed in response to attacks we have suffered from the NSA nerds who appear to have a collective mental age of about five years, judging by their output.
• To access details about the INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION, just press THE LIVE LINK YOU HAVE JUST READ, or else press SERIALS in the red panel below. This opens up our mini-catalogue of printed intelligence publications. Scroll right down to the foot of that section, where you will see details of this service. When you buy this special product, you will also, as we clearly state above, be paying a special premium by way of a donation to help us finance these exposures.
The premium contains a donation for our exposure work and also covers our recommendation based on the Editor's own experience that this INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION will make your Internet life much easier. The program has an invaluable 'Preview before downloading' feature.
• It is suitable for PC's but not for Mac computers. As with all such programs, the License is renewable at a modest fee annually. This is done on-line in the usual way [with the supplier direct].
• UNLESS YOU FOLLOW WORLD REPORTS IN WHICH CASE YOU READ IT HERE FIRST
•* CMKM GOES MAINSTREAM WORLDWIDE AND IN GERMANY
Tim Barello has reported to us from New York [9th April 2010]: 'Following a tremendous impact from Monday's RT broadcast (which was seen in over 100 nations, and has since been reproduced and viewed many times over online) and the accompanying Examiner.com article, we can now note that CMKM has gone mainstream in Germany, via ARD, a major German broadcaster.
Link: http://boerse.ard.de/content.jsp?key=dokument_426752
• We have re-dated this report, which was originally posted on 31st March 2010. The Editor is working on reports addressing the accelerating unravelling of the Fraudulent Finance crisis, revolutionary examples of the collapse of the Rule of Law, and the George H. W. Bush I regime's attempt to grab the Falkland Islands by activating its long-term Nazi assets in Argentina in 1982.
• Like everything else this personification of the Evil One does, that grabitisation ploy collapsed.
MISPRISION OF FELONY: U.S. CODE, TITLE 18, PART 1, CHAPTER 1, SECTION 4:
‘Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some Judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both’.
'Seeing what's at the end of one's nose requires constant effort'. George Orwell.
SECURITIZATION IS ILLEGAL UPDATE: In the Subs/Books Update panel immediately below the NEWS panel that you are currently viewing, you will see an announcement concerning publication of Economic Intelligence Review, Volume 12, Numbers 7 & 8. If you press that announcement text and open up the panel, you will see the contents list for the new [2010Q1] issue of E.I.R., including a breakdown of the Chapter Headings for the detailed analysis showing that Securitization is illegal. See our NEWS report dated 10th March 2010 for summaries of some of the data from this analysis. We understand that the report has created uproar in certain corridors of corrupt power.
• Please be advised that the Editor of International Currency Review and associated intelligence services cannot enter into email correspondence related to this or to any of the earlier reports.
• BOOKS: Edward Harle Limited has so far published FIVE intelligence titles: The Perestroika Deception, by Anatoliy Golitsyn; Red Cocaine, by Dr Joseph D. Douglass, Jr.; The European Union Collective, by Christopher Story; The New Underworld Order, by Christopher Story; and The Red Terror in Russia, by Sergei Melgounov. All titles are permanently in stock. We sell books DIRECT.
• ADVERTISEMENT: Details of the INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION software offered by this service in conjunction with a donation can be accessed immediately: See the Home Page World Reports Limited serials catalogue by clicking World Reports Limited and scrolling to foot of page. Scroll to the foot of THIS page to read our extended Ad. for the INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION.
• OUR PHONE SYSTEMS HAVE NOW BEEN CLOSED DOWN:
Due to incessant Psy-Ops harassment by the Cheney/Biden/NSA criminal operatives, we have had to close down our telephone connections. On returning to the London office, the Editor found 13 obscene messages from the paid USG maniac on our London voicemail overnight 30-31 March, and the USG maniac started up again shortly after noon UK time on 31st. All our telephone connections have therefore been severed and will remain severed and out of service until further notice. As previously noted, we must be doing something right, or these brainwashed sickos in urgent need of brain surgery wouldn't have been doing this non-stop since February 2008.
• Note: Although we were advised that this is a Cheney/Biden/NSA harassment offensive, we bear in mind that it could be a DVD operation. That would make sense, given Bush Sr.'s links with DVD, and his close association with Dr Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor of Germany, as a partner in Deutsche AG (formerly Barrington Investment Group) and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev*. It would also make sense given that this operation started in February 2008, with the Wanta 'switch'.
• If this is a DVD operation, the US authorities have done NOTHING TO TERMINATE IT, so they are complicit in this illegal harassment and in the STEALING OF OUR COMMUNICATIONS.
• We can be contacted as normal via email or fax, and via the CONTACT US facility below.
* Gorbachev's KGB/Oligarch associate, Lebedev, who has just lifted some of the stolen funds held in Deutsche AG to bail out the second-rate, loss-making UK newspapers The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, is now presiding over a full-frontal attack on The Queen's finances in The Independent. This is NOT A COINCIDENCE and represents a new dimension of the ongoing attack on the British Monarchy, which is also being openly assisted by the corrupt German-Jewish Pope Ratzinger, whose contribution so far has been to 'invite' disillusioned clergy, bishops and members of the Church of England into his reprobate church, as a means of helping to destroy the Church of England, of which The Queen is Head. If they can destroy the Church of England, they remove a key prop from beneath the Monarchy. The Pope's cynical offensive against the Church of England, like the Gorbachev/Lebedev offensive against The Queen's finances, is a DVD operation. The KGB/GRU collaborate with DVD at the highest level, as previously reported by this service.
• MAIN CMKM REPORTS PUBLISHED HERE: SEE ARCHIVE:
• 09 January 2010: Text of the CMKM/CMKX lawsuit against the S.E.C.
Case Number CV10-00031-JVS (MLGX): See also Report dated 7th January 2010
• 29 January 2010: Service of CMKM/CMKX $3.87 trillion suit vs. S.E.C.
Biggest lawsuit in world history: The Phantom Shares giga-scandal
• 02 March 2010: S.E.C. Phantom shares fraud: New Intelligence
Latest developments following the blowing of the cauldron lid
• You can also access the CMKM/CMKX text at: http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/paKdda
REPORT BY TIM BARELLO, EXAMINER.COM, NEW YORK, STARTS HERE:
Tim Barello writes to us from New York City: This article is currently the #1 article on the entire NY hyperlocal site, meaning that hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of unique viewers are seeing it right now at:
http://www.examiner.com/x-9341-Manhattan-Headlines-Examiner~y2010m3d30-CMKM-Diamonds-and-the-387-trillion-lawsuit-you-didnt-hear-about
The link we provided works, but you musn't include the period at the end of the sentence!!!!!:
http://www.examiner.com/new_york
Editor's Note: Tim has done a first-rate job of summarising the essential points of the CMKM Case for the general reader.
S.E.C. COMMISSIONERS AT RECEIVING END OF WORLD'S BIGGEST-EVER LAWSUIT
As the United States continues to fracture in every way imaginable, most citizens are unable to keep up with the never-ending hodgepodge of government corruption. Each day, a new larger-than-life scandal emerges, and in the short mind span of news media, there is always a bigger and better story to chase. Right now, the hot button issue for mainstream news outlets is healthcare reform, and its myriad implications for our society; this doubtlessly ensures the aforementioned media will continue to overlook unprecedented accusations brought forth in a recent $3.87 trillion lawsuit against U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary L. Shapiro, as well as several other current and former SEC commissioners, among others.
This Bivens action suit represents the largest fraud case in world history, and was filed in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, on January 8th by Pasadena attorney Al Hodges; in his complaint, made on behalf of CMKM Diamonds shareholders, Hodges alleges that:
• [Complaint paragraph 31] During the period of June 1, 2004 through October 28, 2005 a total of 2.25 Trillion “phantom” shares of CMKM Diamonds Inc, was sold into the public market through legitimate brokers, illegitimate brokers and dealers, market makers, hedge funds, ex-clearing transactions and private transactions” The sales of the majority of such shares were at all times known to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Defendants herein”.
• [Complaint paragraph 32] At some date prior to June 1, 2004 the Securities and Exchange Commission in concert with the Department of Justice of the United States, together combined with Robert A. Maheu and others to utilize CMKM Diamonds, Inc. for the purpose of trapping a number of widely disbursed entities and persons who were believed to be engaged in naked short selling of CMKM Diamonds Inc. stock and cellar boxing the company.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, with assistance from the Department of Homeland Security, believed and developed evidence that said short sellers were utilizing their activities to illegally launder moneys, wrongfully export moneys, avoid payment of taxes, and to support foreign terrorist operations.
To fulfill the plan to criminally trap such wrongdoers, the Securities and Exchange Commission, with assistance from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security:
(a) Assisted in and approved the retention of Roger Glenn, an ex-SEC trial attorney and drafter of Sarbanes-Oxley, to join CMKM Diamonds Inc. for the purpose of verifying claims value, increasing authorized shares of stock to 800,000,000,000, and supervising from the inside of the company;
(b) Encouraged the company to expand its promotional activities, assisted in the set up of the “racing activities” of the company, and underwrote a substantial portion of the cost of such activities;
(c) Consented to, facilitated, and supported the sale of certain company claims to several foreign corporations;
(d) Consented to, facilitated, and supported the conferences between Robert A. Maheu and his associates on the one hand, and the wrongdoing short sellers on the other, all for the purpose of settling the potential liability of said wrongdoers with consent of the U. S. Government and a representation of no criminal prosecution for such illegal sales;
(e) Consented to, facilitated, and supported the declaration of dividends payable by the company to each common shareholder of CMKM Diamonds, Inc.
(f) Consented to, facilitated, and supported the distribution of shares of CIM, a private company owned by Urban Casavant, as a stock dividend, including consent and approval of distribution of said shares to holders of more than 1.4 Trillion shares of CMKM Diamonds, Inc. common stock.
Based on these assertions, CMKM was used by the U.S. government as part of a covert sting operation – unbeknownst to shareholders – to apprehend criminals for their offenses. However, instead of prosecuting most of them, restitution deals were apparently cut:
• [Complaint paragraph 34] During the period from March, 2004 through August, 2006, on behalf of CMKM Diamonds, Inc. Robert A. Maheu, with assistance from others, negotiated a settlement with the illegitimate brokers, dealers, market makers, hedge funds, and other persons and entities that had engaged in naked short selling of CMKM Diamonds Inc. stock and cellar boxing the company. In exchange for a U. S. Government promise of no prosecution for such sales, the wrongdoers each promised to pay negotiated amounts to a frozen trust for disbursal at a later time.
• [Complaint paragraph 35] Plaintiffs herein are informed and believe, and based thereon allege, that other moneys have been collected for the benefit of the shareholders of CMKM Diamonds, Inc. from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, from the United States Government, and from the sale of additional assets including consent to enter into joint venture agreements with other companies holding mineral claims in Saskatchewan, Canada. Plaintiffs herein are further informed and believe, and based thereon allege, that said moneys, collected for the benefit of shareholders have also been placed in a trust or are otherwise now held in trust by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and the United States Treasury.
Therefore, the crux of this complaint – and the massive fraud allegedly committed by the SEC (and Department of Justice) – is as follows:
• [Complaint paragraph 36] Plaintiffs herein are informed and believe, and based thereon allege, that at all times mentioned, the Securities and Exchange Commission reserved unto itself the sole and absolute discretion to determine when moneys collected pursuant to the scheme set forth above would and could be released for distribution.
• [Complaint paragraph 37] Demand for release of said moneys has been repeatedly presented to the Securities and Exchange Commission without result. Agents and employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice have represented repeatedly that the release of moneys for distribution was imminent, and/or would occur within several weeks, and/or would occur within less than a month. Each of said representations have been made knowing them to be false, and at the specific direction of the named Defendants. These actions of withholding distribution of said moneys, without compensation and without due process of law, amount to a taking of the property of the individual Plaintiffs and of all similarly situated.
During the timeframe referenced above, CMKM was registered as a publicly traded diamond and gold mining company. By 2005, concrete evidence detailing fraud within the company emerged; in addition, it became publicly apparent that CMKM also sold, at the very least, hundreds of billions of unregistered shares – a practice often referred to as naked short selling – to third parties.
Eventually, the SEC moved to delist CMKM stock, whose value never exceeded one penny per share, in accordance with Section 12(j) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. After several administrative proceedings, CMKM stock was ultimately deregistered in October 2005.
In September 2006, Floyd Norris, chief financial correspondent of The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, caught wind of the CMKM scandals, and began to report on some elements of the criminal fraud that ravaged CMKM’s estimated 40,000 shareholders.
Norris has reported on more than one occasion that at least 259 billion shares of unregistered CMKM stock was sold; however, per the SEC’s 2008 action against CMKM, the agency itself acknowledges that as many as 622 billion shares of “purportedly unregistered stock” was sold by the company over a 20 month period.
So, how did Hodges initially determine that at least 2 trillion unregistered shares were sold?
[Complaint paragraph 25] A frequently asked question (FAQ) page was added to the web site [CMKMTaskForce.com] on the evening of November 4, 2005 and in response to a question about the degree of naked shorting of CMKM stock, the Task Force [consisting of Robert A. Maheu, Donald J. Stoecklein and Bill Frizzell] indicated that “Credible information indicates the number of naked short shares is potentially as high as 2 Trillion shares”.
‘QUITE A CASE’
Several weeks ago, I spoke with Al Hodges, a practicing attorney with four decades of experience, to find out more about this extraordinary case, and moreover, to determine from him exactly how he calculated his clients’ potential damages to be nearly $4 trillion – a figure many observers have openly scoffed at.
Almost immediately, I could not help but ask why the 'mainstream' media has not fairly reported on this case; frankly, given the scope of accusations, one would assume that, at the very least, Floyd Norris and The New York Times would have some interest in thoroughly examining the merits of this action; instead, Norris has essentially brushed off Hodges' allegations as being baseless.
It’s not that Hodges and his associates haven’t tried to attract the media’s interest; in fact, on this side of the Atlantic, all the major dailies, including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have all been informed of the suit.
Their respective editorial staffs – with the exception of Floyd Norris – have utterly decided to ignore it. In the United Kingdom, efforts have also been made to attract mainstream media interest. Veteran financial intelligence Editor and Publisher Christopher Story FRSA – an investigative specialist that focuses on covert government operations and scandals – has personally reached out to The Daily Telegraph’s International Business Editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, with whom he is acquainted, to notify him about Hodges’ case. To date, Pritchard has failed to respond to Mr. Story, who has authored a number of articles (1) – and other published commentary – in The Daily Telegraph over the course of his near 50-year-career.
Hodges noted that Story, publisher of International Currency Review, and several other serials, is “subscribed to by every intelligence operation in the world”.
If intelligence agencies are reading about CMKM, then why isn’t the mainstream press covering this case? Hodges prudently observed that “they’re not going to touch it” (2).
MAINSTREAM MEDIA WON’T COVER ISSUES TIED TO COVERT OPERATIONS? (EVIDENTLY NOT)
“They* used the shareholders without their consent to perform this ‘sting operation’ for National Security interests, and it wouldn’t have worked the way it worked if they had disclosed it”, he continued. [*: The Government, i.e. the Intelligence Power: Ed.].
“On the other hand, it isn’t right to bury a company and put them out of business for the purpose of trapping people who are using the company to cheat the government, to line their own pockets, and to fund their operations against the United States”.
As noted above in complaint paragraph 34, and per Hodges, a deal was eventually reached with the aforementioned criminals; they paid the government restitution for documented illegal actions, and in turn, were offered immunity from prosecution.
“Rob Maheu had all these people in a big room in Las Vegas, and made [an] offer to them”, he said.
“Every person, organization and representative in that room stepped up, and either transferred money while they were there, or agreed to transfer money upon some further schedule” to avoid indictment. Hodges also said: “I have a witness who was there, who saw it, and part of the 2.25 trillion phantom shares is documented by that person’s observations of how many shares were represented in that room”.
HOW MUCH MONEY DID THE FEDS REALLY COLLECT FOR RESTITUTION?
“People are going to laugh and titter about the amount of money that is being claimed, but understand the context of the lawsuit”, he said, before concluding: “We are not asking the Government to pay us $3.87 trillion: what we’re asking is for them to release the funds that have been collected for us”. Thus, the implication is that this sum also incorporates substantial punitive damages. Note: Mr Hodges confirmed to the Editor of this service on his return to London on 30th March that the lawsuit proceeds and will be prosecuted, which is causing the individual S.E.C. personnel extreme angst, as can be imagined (3).
In the end, Hodges believes the U.S. Government is going to settle the case before it actually moves to trial. On this possibility, he said, “I think its in the process of happening as we speak”.
Based on these explanations – and the recent scandals and assertions that have surfaced about the SEC – I believe the mainstream media is doing the public a great disservice by not properly examining Hodges’ CMKM case.
The same conclusion must also be drawn about Christopher Story’s reports on the criminality that is undermining international efforts to refund the U.S. dollar, which is dangerously close to losing its status as the world’s global reserve currency...but that’s touching on a whole other can of worms…or is it?
Notes and References:
(1): In Paul Johnson’s article “Unions, Pensions, and Financial Responsibility: The British Experience” published in the Journal of Labor Research, Volume 2, Issue 2 (1981) pp. 292, 294, 295, 296, he highlights Christopher Story’s authoritative research, as published in The Daily Telegraph on 30 April, 31 August and 1 September 1976, as well as on 4 September 1978.
(2): During the Editor's stay in New York (16th to 30th March), he held conversations with a number of 'connected' people. One such impeccable source he has known personally for two decades has confirmed the Editor's statement that 'there's an intelligence cell in every press room'. She replied:
'That's absolutely correct'. (One method of obtaining such information is to reach a conclusion and then to put that conclusion to the contact for assessment. If the information is accurate, the usual consequence is that the information will be confirmed. They can confirm or deny, but can't 'inform').
(3): Telephone call placed by the Editor to Mr Hodges on his return to the London office on 30th March, at about 11:00pm UK time.
LIST OF U.S. STATUTES, SECURITIES REGULATIONS AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF WHICH THE CRIMINALISTS, ASSOCIATES AND ALL THE MAIN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REMAIN IN BREACH:
LEGAL TUTORIAL: The Steps of Common Fraud:
Step 1: Fraud in the Inducement: “… is intended to and which does cause one to execute an instrument, or make an agreement… The misrepresentation involved does not mislead one as the paper he signs but rather misleads as to the true facts of a situation, and the false impression it causes is a basis of a decision to sign or render a judgment”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Hauppauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
Step 2: Fraud in Fact by Deceit (Obfuscation and Denial) and Theft:
• “ACTUAL FRAUD. Deceit. Concealing something or making a false representation with an evil intent [scanter] when it causes injury to another…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
• “THE TORT OF FRAUDULENT DECEIT… The elements of actionable deceit are: A false representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth, and with intent to induce reliance thereon, on which plaintiff justifiably relies on his injury…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Deceit’.
Step 3: Theft by Deception and Fraudulent Conveyance:
THEFT BY DECEPTION:
• “FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT… The hiding or suppression of a material fact or circumstance which the party is legally or morally bound to disclose…”.
• “The test of whether failure to disclose material facts constitutes fraud is the existence of a duty, legal or equitable, arising from the relation of the parties: failure to disclose a material fact with intent to mislead or defraud under such circumstances being equivalent to an actual ‘fraudulent concealment’…”.
• To suspend running of limitations, it means the employment of artifice, planned to prevent inquiry or escape investigation and mislead or hinder acquirement of information disclosing a right of action, and acts relied on must be of an affirmative character and fraudulent…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., 'Black’s Law Dictionary’, Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Concealment’.
FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE:
• “FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE… A conveyance or transfer of property, the object of which is to defraud a creditor, or hinder or delay him, or to put such property beyond his reach…”.
• “Conveyance made with intent to avoid some duty or debt due by or incumbent or person (entity) making transfer…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., ‘Black’s Law Dictionary', Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Conveyance’.
U.S. SECURITIES REGULATIONS OF WHICH INSTITUTIONS ARE IN BREACH [SEE REPORTS]:
All securitisation is illegal under US and Common Law: see report dated 10th March 2010.
• NASD Rule 3120, et al.
• NASD Rule 2330, et al
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3040
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and SEC Rule 15c3-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3110
• SEC Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and Procedural Rule 8210
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 2330 and IM-2330
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-5
• NASD Systems and Programme Rules 6950 through 6957
• 97-13 Bank Secrecy Act, Recordkeeping Rule for funds transfers and transmittals of funds, et al.
U.S. LAWS ROUTINELY BREACHED BY THE CRIMINAL OPERATIVES AND INSTITUTIONS:
• Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act
• Anti-Drug Abuse Act
• Applicable international money laundering restrictions
• Bank Secrecy Act
• Crimes, General Provisions, Accessory After the Fact [Title 18, USC]
• Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act
• Economic Espionage Act
• Hobbs Act
• Imparting or Conveying False Information [Title 18, USC]
• Maloney Act
• Misprision of Felony [Title 18, USC] (1)
• Money-Laundering Control Act
• Money-Laundering Suppression Act
• Organized Crime Control Act of 1970
• Perpetration of repeated egregious felonies by State and Federal public employees and their Departments and agencies, which are co-responsible with the said employees for ONGOING illegal and criminal actions, to sustain fraudulent operations and crimes in order to cover up criminalist activities and High Crimes and Misdemeanours by present and former holders of high office under the United States
• Provisions pertaining to private business transactions being protected under both private and criminal penalties [H.R. 3723]
• Provisions prohibiting the bribing of foreign officials [F.I.S.A.]
• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act [R.I.C.O.]
• Securities Act 1933
• Securities Act 1934
• Terrorism Prevention Act
• Treason legislation, especially in time of war.
• BEWARE OF MALICIOUS IMITATIONS: It has come to our notice that certain websites have been in the habit of copying reports from this site, attributing the reports to the Editor of this service, but at the same time AMENDING AND INSERTING TEXT NOT WRITTEN BY THE EDITOR.
• This is a very old, malevolent US counterintelligence DIRTY TRICK.
Therefore, you should be advised that the GENUINE ORIGINAL REPORT is, by obvious definition, accessible ONLY FROM THIS WEBSITE. If you come across an article elsewhere that is attributed to the Editor of this service, you should refer to the ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE and you should bear in mind that the illegally duplicated article may contain text that was NOT written by the Editor of this service, but which was inserted for malicious purposes by counterintelligence.
Likewise, although we haven't yet had time to elaborate this issue, we have taken drastic steps around the world to close off the malicious piracy of our books. One technique used by several disreputable sites (in the United States, the Netherlands and Switzerland) is to copy our title(s) and (a) to display an image of the front cover WITHOUT THE ISBN DATA at the top of the cover; and (b) to DELETE THE COPYRIGHT PAGE. In so doing, the criminal pirates proclaimed that they knew perfectly well that they were/are engaged in theft and can be prosecuted for stealing copyright.
• Please be advised that the Editor of International Currency Review and associated intelligence services cannot enter into email correspondence related to this or to any of the earlier reports.
We are a private intelligence publishing house and have no connections to any outside parties including intelligence agencies. The word ‘intelligence’ on this website and in all our marketing material is used for marketing/sales purposes only and has no other connotations whatsoever: see ‘About Us’ on the red panels under the Notes on the Editor, Christopher Story FRSA, who has been solely and exclusively engaged as an investigative journalist, Editor, Author and private financial and current affairs Publisher since 1963 and is not and never has been an agent for a foreign power, suggestions to the contrary being actionable for libel in the English Court.
ADVERTISEMENT: INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION
YOU CAN ORDER THIS DIRECT FROM THIS WEBSITE. Summary:
Press Internet Security Solution or go to the World Reports Limited serials catalogue and scroll down until you come to this product. Then proceed through the simple and ultra-safe ordering procedure [Visa or MasterCard only]. Send a donation as you order this RECOMMENDED solution.
NON-U.S. INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION CD AVAILABLE: FAR BETTER THAN NORTON ETC
It has now been established that the National Security Agency (NSA) works with/controls Microsoft, Norton, McAfee, and others, in pursuit of the Pentagon's vast BIG BROTHER objective, directed from the 'highest' levels (not the levels usually referred to) which seek to have every computer in the world talk direct to the Pentagon or to NSA's master computers.
This should come as no real surprise since the cynical spooks even assert this 'in-your-face' by advertising 'INTEL INSIDE', which says exactly what it means. More specifically, NSA have made great strides in this direction by having a back door built into Microsoft VISTA. Certain computers, especially those labelled with the logo of the 'fully collaborating' firm Hewlett Packard, have hard-core setups which facilitate the remote monitoring and controlling of personal computers by NSA, Fort Meade. We now understand that if you are using VISTA* you MUST NOT enable 'file and printer sharing' under any circumstances. If you say 'YES', so to speak, to 'file and printer sharing', your computer becomes a slave at once to NSA's master computers. DO NOT ENABLE SHARING.
Unfortunately, this abomination is so far advanced that this may not be the only precaution that needs to be taken. As long as Microsoft continues its extensive cooperation with NSA and the NSC (National Security Council), the spying system which assists the criminalised structures, and thus hitherto the Bush-Clinton 'Box Gang' and its connections, with their fraudulent finance operations, NSA may be able to steal data from your computer. The colossal scourge of data theft is associated with this state of affairs: data stolen usually include Credit Card data, which the kleptocracy regards as almost as good as real estate for hypothecation purposes. Even so, you can make life very much more problematical for these utterly odious people by NOT USING U.S.-sourced so-called Internet Security and anti-virus software. Having been attacked and abused so often, we offer a solution.
We use a proprietary FOREIGN Internet Security program which devours every PC Trojan, worm, scam, porn attack and virus that the National Security Agency (NSA) throws at us. We are offering this program (CD) to our clients and friends, at a premium. The program comes with our very strong recommendation, but at the same time, if you buy from us, you will be helping us finance ongoing exposures of the DVD's World Revolution and the financial corruption that has been financing it.
The familiar US proprietary Internet Security programs are by-products of US counterintelligence, and are intended NOT to solve your Internet security problems, but to spy on you and to report what you write about, to centralised US electronic facilities set up for the purpose. You can now BREAK FREE from this syndrome while at the same time helping us to MAINTAIN THE VERY HEAVY PRESSURE UPON THE CRIMINALISTS WE HAVE BEEN EXPOSING, by ordering this highest quality FOREIGN (i.e., non-US) INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION that we have started advertising on this website. This offer has been developed in response to attacks we have suffered from the NSA nerds who appear to have a collective mental age of about five years, judging by their output.
• To access details about the INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION, just press THE LIVE LINK YOU HAVE JUST READ, or else press SERIALS in the red panel below. This opens up our mini-catalogue of printed intelligence publications. Scroll right down to the foot of that section, where you will see details of this service. When you buy this special product, you will also, as we clearly state above, be paying a special premium by way of a donation to help us finance these exposures.
The premium contains a donation for our exposure work and also covers our recommendation based on the Editor's own experience that this INTERNET SECURITY SOLUTION will make your Internet life much easier. The program has an invaluable 'Preview before downloading' feature.
• It is suitable for PC's but not for Mac computers. As with all such programs, the License is renewable at a modest fee annually. This is done on-line in the usual way [with the supplier direct].
A Disgusting Little Email Making the Rounds on Wall Street
This hideous little piece of class warfare is supposedly making the rounds on Wall Street today. Its Us-Vs-Them theme is sickening. The lobbies of JPMorgan and several other banks were flooded with protesters downtown yesterday, I'm guessing that this was written by a frustrated Wall Streeter in response to the populist uprising.
Here goes:
"We are Wall Street. It's our job to make money. Whether it's a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn't matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn't hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone's 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I've never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.
Well now the market crapped out, & even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.
Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you're only going to hurt yourselves. What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We're going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We're used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don't take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don't demand a union. We don't retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that.
For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We're going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I'll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5k extra a summer, thank you very much.
So now that we're going to be making $85k a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Wrong! Guess what: we're going to stop buying the new 80k car, we aren't going to leave the 35 percent tip at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We're going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours.
The difference is, you lived off of it, we rejoiced in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but it's really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat a**es land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.
We aren't dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply…will he? and will they?"
TOLEDO ACTIVISTS OCCUPY FORECLOSED HOME
TOLEDO ACTIVISTS OCCUPY FORECLOSED HOME
Contact: Lance Crandall 419-309-7040; email: lcranda1@gmail.com
5947 Fremont Pike, Stony Ridge OH. just outside Toledo Ohio
On Monday May 3rd, Keith Sadler a former UAW Autoworker (who lost his job) of Stony Ridge will be evicted from his home. But unlike many in a similar situation, Mr. Sadler intends to resist his foreclosure and stay in his home illegally.
"I am resisting this eviction through non-violent civil disobedience," states Sadler. "It's time to make a stand against this corrupt system."
Alongside Sadler stands a group of community members from the Toledo Foreclosure Defense League, a Northwest Ohio coalition of housing activists. TFDL is also joined by the national group Take Back the Land based out of Miami, Florida.
Sadler, along with the Toledo Foreclosure Defense League, will be peacefully occupying the foreclosed home by sealing themselves inside until the foreclosure is called off and a moratorium on all foreclosures is enacted.
"Housing is a human right. While banks are being bailed out, people are being thrown into the streets. The time has come to take back our land and our communities," said Sadler.
Following Sunday's press conference May 2nd at 6pm, activists will lock themselves inside until their demands are met.
Rally begins at 8:00AM-6:00PM Monday morning May 3rd at 5947 Fremont Pike, Stony Ridge OH. just outside Toledo Ohio
Live music at NOON!
Sponsored by Take Back the Land and Moratorium Now!
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090520/NEWS02/90...
Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History
An accident is defined as "an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss". Our aim is to list the top 10 most expensive accidents in the history of the world as measured in dollars.
This includes property damage and expenses incurred related to the accident such as cleanup and industry losses. Many of these accidents involve casualties which obviously cannot be measured in dollar terms. Each life lost is priceless and is not factored into the equation. Deliberate actions such as war or terrorism and natural disasters do not qualify as accidents and therefore are not included in this list.
#10. Titanic $150 Million
The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most famous accident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 10 most expensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and was considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over 1,500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg and sunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 million to build ($150 million in today's dollars).
#9. Tanker Truck vs Bridge $358 Million
On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truck containing 32,000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany. The tanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off the A4 Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed the load-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 million and the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $318 Million.
#8. MetroLink Crash $500 Million
On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst train crashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles. It is thought that the Metrolink train may have run through a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging. Wrongful death lawsuits are expected to cause $500 million in losses for Metrolink.
#7. B-2 Bomber Crash $1.4 Billion
Here we have our first billion dollar accident (and we're only #7 on the list). This B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Investigators blamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused by moisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a sudden nose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21 ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history. Both pilots were able to eject to safety.
The crash was captured on video. It shows one B-2 Bomber successfully taking off followed by the B-2 Bomber which crashes. The crash starts at 2:00
#6. Exxon Valdez $2.5 Billion
The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relation to the world's biggest oil spills, but it was a costly one due to the remote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopter and boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship's master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and the ship crashed into a Reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.
#5. Piper Alpha Oil Rig $3.4 Billion
The world's worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, it was the world's single largest oil producer, spewing out 317,000 barrels of oil per day. On July 6, 1988, as part of routine maintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which were essential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were 100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, the technicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 PM that same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gas pumps and the world's most expensive oil rig accident was set in motion.
Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed in flames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in $3.4 Billion in damages.
#4. Challenger Explosion $5.5 Billion
The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failed to seal one of the joints, allowing pressurized gas to reach the outside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload of liquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing the Space Shuttle was $2 billion in 1986 ($4.5 billion in today's dollars). The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lost equipment cost $450 million from 1986-1987 ($1 Billion in today's dollars).
#3. Prestige Oil Spill $12 Billion
On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying 77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, Spain. Fearing that the ship would sink, the captain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them to take the ship into harbour. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captain tried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but they too ordered the ship away from their shores. The storm eventually took its toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half and releasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea.
According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board, the total cleanup cost $12 billion.
#2. Space Shuttle Columbia $13 Billion
The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthy shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of the wings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttle was $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today's dollars. $500 million was spent on the investigation, making it the costliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search and recovery of debris cost $300 million.
In the end, the total cost of the accident (not including replacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
#1. Chernobyl $200 Billion
On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliest accident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggest socio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area of Ukraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affected by the disaster. The death toll attributed to Chernobyl, including people who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125,000. The total costs including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation to victims has been estimated to be roughly $200 Billion. The cost of a new steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost $2 billion alone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operators who violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safety requirements needed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)