Intermeet - A Possible Spanghero II ??

International meat brokers and traders came into the spotlight recently when the story of the ‘Horsemeat Scandal’ broke and filled the newspapers for several weeks.

Spanghero, which has since been renamed La Lauragaise, was identified by the French government as the main player in the horsemeat scandal that saw mislabelled products sold in several European countries. The French government believes that the sale of horsemeat labelled as beef went on for six months and involved about 750 tonnes of meat.  Spanghero imported meat from Romania and sold it on to another company, Comigel, which made frozen ready meals at its factory in Luxembourg.

The widening scandal has raised questions about the complexity of the food industry's supply chains across Europe, which can often include shadowy companies and sole traders based in virtually unregulated territories and using tax havens and offshore companies as vehicles for their trade.

One could ask oneself why certain structures exist.

Take for instance the case of a Polish national fronting an offshore company incorporated as say, Intermeet Commodities Ltd (Trading). Intermeet has Russian sales manager reachable by mobile phone only in St. Peterburg. In addition, Intermeet has a ‘care of’ address in Monaco - say care of Monaco Poaching & Strategies, a company that for one reason or another might not be able to offer a banking services via its own banking connections.

Transat Maritime SAM would be an ideal company for Intermeet’s frontman to approach.

Transat could use its sway with its existing bankers, who already provide banking facilities with barely a hint of due diligence, to help ‘Intermeet’ set up its much needed bank account(s).

All that has to happen now is that Frontman and Sales Manager embark on their meat brokering activities in and around Europe with the Offshore/care-of/Monaco vehicle becoming part of the entangled European and International Meat Supply Circles.

And no one pays to much attention – Until another scandal breaks

The Gokal Year-End Daisy Chain

PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Like Father (and Mother), Then....Like Son

After Tanks and Gun-Running Captains of the High Seas (sea previous posts), the next generation of Transat Maritime SAM 's Nominee Directors has of course to cut their teeth on something a little smaller....

So SMALL ARMS seems rather fitting.

Here, a rather cautious Beneficial Owner of  MILANRY INVESTMENTS LTD sends instructions for the Sham Directors to hold a meeting of the Board of Directors authorising his son to purchase shareholdings on behalf of the company.  The Sham Director of course do as they're requested.  That's how they earn their money.

The gentleman is also kind enough to provide a copy of the Minutes of the First Meeting of Directors to remind everybody who's who.

Then one might of course ask oneself the question 'what does the company TEKSON RESEARCH and TECHNOLOGY do?'

Well that can easily be found on the internet, and the following three links will describe their activities respectively as 1) Small Arms Ammunition, 2) the design and industrialization of fuses for a number of ammunition types, and 3) Manufacturing of  Defense Systems.

http://www.salespider.com/bw-6835310/tekson-research-technology-sa

http://www.asdsource.com/source_detail/6935/TEKSON_Research-Developement_SA.htm

http://grc.bizdirlib.com/m/zh-hant/node/63899

One wonders if the Compliance Officers at any of the banks where Transat Maritime SAM's directors try to open accounts for their 'clients' really do their homework on the "Know your Client" front.

One wonders how the Monégasque authorities would view such an arrangement.

Heaven Knows........  It'll probably be guidance systems for EXOCET MISSILES from Sweden next !!!

The Road of Angels - Part I - Devils in Their Midst

This is a road in the tranquil town of Sainte-marthe-sur-le-lac, in the leafy suburbs of Montreal, Quebec.

Its burgeoning and flourishing population (one of the fastest growing in Quebec) enjoy life in a much sought after suburb.  Rail and road links to Montreal, reasonably priced new housing, a more secure and peaceful environment offers commuters and young families the perfect alternative to the more expensive ares of Laval and Montreal.

Life is good, for the Good people of Sainte-marthe-sur-le-lac, as one can see reflected in the community's own website.

Little do the residents of this peaceful community realise that in the centre of their community, in the aptly named Rue de Anges, there resides a deep and dark secret - Devils in their midst. Amongst them are strangers, come from afar -  the mysterious and mystical Principality of Monaco - that casually managed to procure properties as cash buyers.

What was their business, that managed to thrive to such an extent that it could afford them those possibilities?

Is it just coincidence that the name TRANSAT links this municipality (many residents are employees or a locally based airline company), that Canadian airline making regular flights between Montreal and the Cote d'Azur being AIR TRANSAT, and a company with it's offices on the Boulevard des Moulins in Monte-Carlo, Monaco (TRANSAT MARITIME SAM)?

....................

CORRUPTION - Cash on the sofa

A Translation generated by  : 

CORRUPTION

Cash on the sofa

From Schmitt, Jörg

A former top official of the Athens Defense reveals how he was bribed for years - allegedly by German arms companies.

The day before Christmas Eve took Antonios Cantas to end his great confession - if not entirely voluntary. Less than a week before the former top officials of the Defense Ministry in Athens had been arrested.Investigators had discovered a secret million on account of Cantas the bank Julius Baer in Singapore. Now the 72-year-old had unpacked for four days, on alleged accounts, clients, middlemen.

Around 13 million U.S. dollars bribe for a dozen defense contracts will have conceded armor in the Athens of Defense between 1992 and 2002 claims to be the former head of the Directorate important for arms purchases. Even a former minister stressed Cantas difficult.

What the matter makes this country so explosive: Cantas named in his testimony also weapons deals with German firms, where he was allegedly greased.

He claims to have received 1.5 million euros alone for defense procurement to Rheinmetall AG of a Greek middleman, so the lucrative business on-air missiles and a lot of electronics for the modernization of submarines actually after Germany went - what the company denies. The Bremen office is investigating for weeks in the cases.

Cantas told investigators in the days before Christmas Eve, but also from a billion deal Munich armorers Krauss Maffei Wegmann (KMW), who had already caused a stir once almost ten years ago (Spiegel 6/2004). It involves the sale of 170 battle tanks of the type "Leopard 2" to Greece, which was negotiated between 1996 and 2003. Volume: 1.7 billion euros.

Cantas explained that he had at that time been as chief arms buyer against business - too expensive. The "benefit was not in proportion to the cost." However, the then Minister of Defence Giannos Papantoniou've seen otherwise. Then he had one day, it was in December 2001, received a visit from Thomas Liakounakos. The Athenians Industrial had long been acting as an intermediary for the KMW predecessor, the former Mannesmann subsidiary Krauss Maffei AG. Cantas knew him from earlier arms deals.

Liakounakos have made it clear to him that he "should not have any problems with the 'Leopard make 2'-procurement". Then, it is according to former officials, had got up and gone his opponent - and have had a travel bag are on the sofa. "When I realized it, I went to the door and called after him. You forgot your bag" But Liakounakos've just answered tersely: "I have not forgotten, it's for you."

Cantas want to have then opened the bag and found in bills worth of 600 000 euros: "From then on I was no longer a concern prior to the procurement."

KMW bribes in the billion-dollar business with Greece always denied. "We got the job because of the better price and better technology," it said so far in management.

But there are doubts that in the shop all approached with the right things. Because Liakounakos, the man with the bag full of cash is the business partner for decades tank builder. And he has collected large sums of money to help KMW to pull the "Leopard" business with Athens on land. But also to bribe decision makers such as Antonio Cantas?

A possible trail leads to the Boulevard des Moulins in Monaco (Transatmaritme SAM to be precise whose administrator are Peter Coleridge and Sandra Colerdige). There resided the International Barter & Offset Service Corporation (Ibos) (Directors Peter & Sandra Coleridge): a shell company that was founded in the fall of 1999 in the Caribbean palm and tax haven Nevis and has since resided in a law firm in the Principality - without its own office, without their own telephone number. Savoury: Cantas claimed Liakounakos have also offered him a bribe to let discreetly run on shell companies at a law firm in Monaco when he would recite no more objections to the "Leopard 2" program in the Ministry. So the statement of the former officials.

From the perspective of the Monegasque KMW Ibos apparently possessed great influence in Athens. Because the mailbox company closed in advance of the Panzer decision a million contract with the armorer.

According to contract Ibos should help organize the information required by Athens offsetting transactions in the amount of four billion euros - that is to find, for example, Greek suppliers for the project to build maintenance facilities for the tanks or to provide military technical knowledge.

Behind Ibos but should ultimately be Liakounakos and his company Axon.And who is considered one of the most influential power brokers, if you wanted to make arms deals with Athens in the past decades. Hardly a defense deal in which the Industrial his fingers had not in the game, whether in tanks, helicopters or airplanes. Liakounakos had need the contacts that arms companies such as KMW.

Officially, KMW has a collaboration with Liakounakos in the tank deal never denied. The relations between the crafter and the very wealthy Greeks, who has invested his Axon Group also in the health sector and in the construction industry should go back to the eighties, as Krauss Maffei, the first "Leopard 1" sold tanks to Athens.

No wonder, therefore, that the arms company including sale of the successor model sat on the Greek businessman. For the counter transactions, the so-called offset, is a close coordination with the Greek government have been necessary, says a former KMW Manager. "We have taken the help of Liakounakos to complete."

Really just for that? Should the Athens prosecutor to find out that Liakounakos has officials Cantas actually bribed, threatened KMW in Greece possibly damages in the billions.

Liakounakos denies ever having paid bribes. And KMW explained upon request, to have him and his Axon Group only paid for it, "to provide a comprehensive range offset benefits". For axon had "received adequate remuneration" a.

Payments to the mailbox company Ibos want KMW not have done. They had "let the contract with Ibos in 2001, prior to the conclusion of the supply contract 'Leopard 2' expire '. Of the 600 000 euros, the Liakounakos should have left to the top officials Cantas that it had "no knowledge". We undertake its partners take "strictly lawful to behave."Nevertheless, KMW will now be examined externally in case.

Meanwhile, the Munich prosecutor has opened an investigation procedure. The investigators want to first obtain Cantas' statement - and then possibly roll up the circumstances of the tank deals again, if that is not time-barred.

The Munich investigators were KMW years ago on the track. On 8November 2004, the then chief prosecutor August Stern at the business number 562 AR 67291/04 a request for assistance sent to Athens.Whether one is "the understanding of whether payments by the company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann" have and what you know about an "International Barter & Offset Service Corporation".

At the time, Athens refused the help. This time, the Munich-based hope for more cooperation from their Greek counterparts.

DER SPIEGEL 2/2014

KORRUPTION - Bargeld auf dem Sofa

 

Von Schmitt, Jörg

Ein früherer Spitzenbeamter des Athener Verteidigungsministeriums enthüllt, wie er jahrelang bestochen wurde - angeblich auch von deutschen Waffenfirmen.

Den Tag vor Heiligabend nutzte Antonios Kantas, um seine große Lebensbeichte zu beenden - wenn auch nicht ganz freiwillig. Knapp eine Woche zuvor war der frühere Spitzenbeamte des Athener Verteidigungsministeriums verhaftet worden. Fahnder hatten Millionen auf einem geheimen Konto von Kantas beim Bankhaus Julius Bär in Singapur entdeckt. Nun hatte der 72-Jährige vier Tage lang ausgepackt, über vermeintliche Konten, Auftraggeber, Mittelsmänner.

Rund 13 Millionen Dollar Schmiergeld für ein gutes Dutzend Rüstungsaufträge will der frühere Leiter des für Waffenkäufe wichtigen Direktorats Rüstung im Athener Verteidigungsministerium zwischen 1992 und 2002 nach eigenen Angaben kassiert haben. Sogar einen früheren Minister belastete Kantas schwer.

Was die Sache hierzulande so brisant macht: Kantas nannte bei seiner Vernehmung auch Waffen-Deals mit deutschen Firmen, bei denen er angeblich geschmiert wurde.

So will er allein für Rüstungsaufträge an die Rheinmetall AG von einem griechischen Mittelsmann 1,5 Millionen Euro erhalten haben, damit die lukrativen Geschäfte über Luftabwehrraketen und jede Menge Elektronik für die Modernisierung von U-Booten tatsächlich nach Deutschland gingen - was die Firma bestreitet. Auch die Staatsanwaltschaft Bremen ermittelt seit Wochen in den Fällen.

Kantas erzählte den Ermittlern in den Tagen vor Heiligabend aber auch von einem Milliarden-Deal der Münchner Waffenschmiede Krauss Maffei Wegmann (KMW), der vor knapp zehn Jahren schon einmal für Aufregung gesorgt hatte (SPIEGEL 6/2004). Es geht um den Verkauf von 170 Kampfpanzern vom Typ "Leopard 2" an Griechenland, der zwischen 1996 und 2003 verhandelt wurde. Volumen: 1,7 Milliarden Euro.

Kantas erklärte, er sei als oberster Rüstungseinkäufer seinerzeit gegen das Geschäft gewesen - zu teuer. Der "Nutzen stand nicht im Verhältnis zu den Kosten". Doch der damalige Verteidigungsminister Giannos Papantoniou habe das anders gesehen. Daraufhin habe er eines Tages, es sei im Dezember 2001 gewesen, Besuch von Thomas Liakounakos erhalten. Der Athener Industrielle sei schon lange für den KMW-Vorgänger, die damalige Mannesmann-Tochter Krauss Maffei AG, als Vermittler tätig gewesen. Kantas kannte ihn von früheren Rüstungsgeschäften.

Liakounakos habe ihm klargemacht, dass er "keine Probleme bei der 'Leopard 2'-Beschaffung machen sollte". Dann, so behauptet der Ex-Beamte, sei sein Gegenüber aufgestanden und gegangen - und habe eine Reisetasche auf dem Sofa stehen lassen. "Als ich es merkte, ging ich zur Tür und rief ihm nach: Du hast deine Tasche vergessen." Doch Liakounakos habe nur lapidar geantwortet: "Ich habe sie nicht vergessen, sie ist für dich."

Kantas will daraufhin die Tasche geöffnet und darin Scheine im Wert von 600 000 Euro gefunden haben: "Von da an trug ich keine Bedenken mehr gegen die Beschaffung vor."

KMW hat Schmiergeldzahlungen bei dem Milliardengeschäft mit Griechenland stets bestritten. "Wir haben den Auftrag des besseren Preises und der besseren Technik wegen bekommen", hieß es dazu bislang im Management.

Doch Zweifel sind angebracht, dass bei dem Geschäft alles mit rechten Dingen zuging. Denn Liakounakos, der Mann mit der Tasche voller Bargeld, ist seit Jahrzehnten Geschäftspartner des Panzerbauers. Und er hat große Summen kassiert, um KMW zu helfen, das "Leopard"-Geschäft mit Athen an Land zu ziehen. Aber auch, um Entscheidungsträger wie Antonios Kantas zu bestechen?

Eine mögliche Spur führt nach Monaco in den Boulevard des Moulins. Dort residierte die International Barter & Offset Service Corporation (Ibos): eine Briefkastenfirma, die im Herbst 1999 in der karibischen Palmen- und Steueroase Nevis gegründet wurde und seither in einer Kanzlei im Fürstentum ansässig war - ohne eigenes Büro, ohne eigene Telefonnummer. Pikant: Kantas behauptete, Liakounakos habe ihm auch angeboten, Schmiergeld diskret über Briefkastenfirmen bei einer Kanzlei in Monaco laufen zu lassen, wenn er im Ministerium keine Einwände mehr gegen das "Leopard 2"-Programm vortragen würde. So die Aussage des früheren Beamten.

Aus Sicht von KMW verfügte die monegassische Ibos offenbar über großen Einfluss in Athen. Denn die Briefkastenfirma schloss im Vorfeld der Panzer-Entscheidung einen Millionenvertrag mit dem Rüstungsbauer.

Laut Kontrakt sollte Ibos helfen, die von Athen geforderten Gegengeschäfte in Höhe von vier Milliarden Euro zu organisieren - also beispielsweise griechische Zulieferer für das Projekt zu finden, Wartungsanlagen für die Panzer zu bauen oder wehrtechnisches Wissen zu liefern.

Hinter Ibos aber soll letztlich Liakounakos und seine Firma Axon stehen. Und der gilt als einer der einflussreichsten Strippenzieher, wenn man in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten Waffengeschäfte mit Athen machen wollte. Kaum ein Rüstungs-Deal, bei dem der Industrielle nicht seine Finger im Spiel hatte, egal ob bei Panzern, Hubschraubern oder Flugzeugen. Liakounakos hatte die Kontakte, die Rüstungsfirmen wie KMW brauchen.

Offiziell hat KMW eine Zusammenarbeit mit Liakounakos bei dem Panzergeschäft nie dementiert. Die Beziehungen zwischen dem Waffenbauer und dem schwerreichen Griechen, der mit seiner Axon-Gruppe auch im Gesundheitssektor und in der Bauindustrie investiert hat, sollen bis in die achtziger Jahre zurückreichen, als Krauss Maffei die ersten "Leopard 1"-Panzer an Athen verkaufte.

Kein Wunder also, dass der Rüstungskonzern auch beim Verkauf des Nachfolgemodells auf den griechischen Geschäftsmann setzte. Für die Gegengeschäfte, das sogenannte Offset, sei eine enge Abstimmung mit der griechischen Regierung nötig gewesen, sagt ein ehemaliger KMW-Manager. "Dafür haben wir die Hilfe von Liakounakos in Anspruch genommen."

Wirklich nur dafür? Sollte die Athener Staatsanwaltschaft herausfinden, dass Liakounakos den Beamten Kantas tatsächlich bestochen hat, drohen KMW in Griechenland womöglich Schadensersatzklagen in Milliardenhöhe.

Liakounakos bestreitet, jemals Schmiergelder gezahlt zu haben. Und KMW erklärt auf Anfrage, man habe ihn und seine Axon-Gruppe nur dafür bezahlt, "umfangreiche Offset-Leistungen zu erbringen". Dafür habe Axon eine "angemessene Vergütung erhalten".

Zahlungen an die Briefkastenfirma Ibos will KMW nicht geleistet haben. Man habe "den Vertrag mit Ibos 2001, vor Abschluss des Liefervertrags 'Leopard 2', auslaufen lassen". Von den 600 000 Euro, die Liakounakos dem Spitzenbeamten Kantas überlassen haben soll, habe man "keinerlei Kenntnis". Man verpflichte seine Partner ausdrücklich, "sich strikt rechtmäßig zu verhalten". Dennoch will KMW den Fall nun extern untersuchen lassen.

Unterdessen hat die Staatsanwaltschaft München ein Prüfverfahren eingeleitet. Die Fahnder wollen sich zunächst Kantas' Aussage beschaffen - und dann die Umstände des Panzer-Deals eventuell noch einmal aufrollen, falls der nicht verjährt ist.

Die Münchner Ermittler waren KMW schon vor Jahren auf der Spur. Am 8. November 2004 hatte der damalige Oberstaatsanwalt August Stern unter der Geschäftsnummer 562 AR 67291/04 ein Rechtshilfeersuchen nach Athen geschickt. Ob man "Erkenntnisse über etwaige Zahlungen durch die Firma Krauss-Maffei Wegmann" habe und was man über eine "International Barter & Offset Service Corporation" wisse.

Damals verweigerte Athen die Hilfe. Diesmal hoffen die Münchner auf mehr Kooperation seitens ihrer griechischen Kollegen.

DER SPIEGEL 2/2014

 

Arms to Iraq......

So what are the sort of clients that the directors of Monaco's Transat Maritime SAM, Peter and Sandra Coleridge, have in their portfolio.

Well the likes of Mr Heiko Luikenga.

The Coleridges 'looked after' Luikenga's money for years using the umbrella of an offhsore comany called Anchor Navigation Limited.  This money being placed in banks such a Republic National Bank of NY, Safra, Barclays and ING Monaco.

Strangely enough for an 'Offshore Wizard', Coleridge has even been known to use Berenberg Bank in Hamburg, Germany for his schemes !!  As if the management of a Bank in Germany would be silly enough to agree to harbour accounts in the name of Offshore companies. Same goes for a French based bank such as BPCA.  They're offshore for a reason.

  

Even for running the accounts of a St. Petersburg based ticketing agency that is trying to pretend it's an Offshore structure - GLOBE TRAVEL LIMTED... and not fully liable to taxation in Russia.

8 Arrested in Scheme to Sell Arms to Iraq

March 28, 1992|PAUL RICHTER | LA TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON — Six former high-ranking officials in the Polish government and two Southern California men have been arrested in a U.S. Customs Service sting operation for allegedly trying to sell $96 million worth of arms to Iraq, federal officials said Friday.

The alleged international arms ring was uncovered by customs agents posing as front men for the Iraqi government, authorities said.

The Poles, who included a former third-ranked general in the Polish army and two former deputy Cabinet ministers, were arrested at a Frankfurt hotel March 10 as they signed the $96-million deal to ship the agents 4,000 grenade launchers, 1,000 portable antiaircraft missiles and 73,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, authorities said.

The plot's reputed mastermind, Ronald James Hendron, 51, of El Toro, and its alleged financier, Jehmin Lah, 44, of Newport Beach, were apprehended in New York City a day later as they flew in from Europe, officials said.

"Our goal was to find people willing to sell arms to the Iraqis," said Tanya Hill, the assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn who is prosecuting the case. "We found some."

Such weapons sales are illegal under U.S. and German laws, and the arrests dramatize Western concerns that the financially strapped former Soviet Bloc countries have been stepping up sales of arms--one of their few easily negotiable commodities--to developing countries.

Not all the weapons were conventional arms: Hendron promised the undercover agents that he could provide uranium, bomb triggers and even nuclear bombs, according to federal court complaints.

Hendron, who describes himself as a licensed international arms dealer, denied any wrongdoing in a lengthy interview with The Times. He said the deal, as planned, was to send arms legally to the Philippines, not to Iraq.

He said once meetings began between the undercover agents and his group, the agents changed their story, and said the arms would be going to Iraq.

Hendron said that it was the undercover agents who demanded that the East Bloc officials supply nuclear weapons, including a nuclear bomb, but that they had never intended to do so.

Arrested in Germany were Jerzy Napiorkowski, deputy minister of finance in the last Polish Communist government; Wojciech Baranski, former deputy chief of staff in the Polish army; Jan Gorecki, a former Polish diplomat in Washington; Zbigniew Grabowski, former director of the Polish technology office; Jerzy Brzostek, former deputy minister of the Polish Housing Ministry; and Rajmund Szwonder, general manager of the Lucznik armament factory in Radom, Poland. The factory is the largest manufacturer of Kalashnikov assault rifles in Eastern Europe.

U.S. officials have filed papers seeking to extradite the six to face export-law violation charges in the United States. The story of the sting, pieced together through documents and interviews, was also detailed in today's editions of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's largest newspaper.

In January, 1991, customs agents made their initial contact with Hendron, who told them that his El Toro-based company could provide a variety of weapons from East European sources. This contact led to eventual introductions to several Polish arms firms, including an arms broker called ATS, a manufacturer called Radom Group that was selling Kalashnikov assault weapons and a third concern, called Urbil, that offered a range of hardware.

In November, Hendron allegedly placed a $43,000 order for a "trial shipment" of 100 Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles to demonstrate that he could deliver the weapons.

The rifles were shipped from Bulgaria through Rotterdam to New York, where they arrived in wooden crates that identified them as "technical equipment." They were seized by customs inspectors.

But the shipment was only the prelude to the far bigger deal that the undercover agents hoped to complete with the arms dealers at the Frankfurter Hof hotel two weeks ago.

Most of the arms for the final deal were to come from weapons stocks that the Soviet army had built up in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

The arms dealers planned to send the shipment with papers that described the cargo as bound for the Philippines.

Hendron's business partner in Poland, a Polish-born American named Stan Kinman, and other arms dealers introduced the undercover agents to a German sea captain, Heiko Luikenga, whom they said they had used "many times in past deals," according to court papers.

Two Polish arms dealers at the meeting promised "that the ship would incur no interference because the highest levels of Polish government were involved in the transaction," documents show.

Prosecutor Hill declined comment when asked about evidence that any officials of Poland's current government were involved in the case. Officials of the Polish Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment.