Goldman Sachs caught committing fraud again

I finally tuned in to the Lang and O’Leary Exchange last night. It was filled with news about bank fraud here, bank fraud there. It was astounding. Goldman Sachs has been caught committing fraud again but the SEC aren’t going to press charges.

Why is that? Because they are Obama’s largest campaign contributors? Or is it because Henry Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs became the US treasury secretary under George W. Bush. Maybe because Don Regan, former Merrill Lynch CEO was caught on video telling president Ronald Reagan to hurry up as seen on Michael Moore’s movie Capitalism a Love story.

So Goldman Sachs gets caught committing fraud again and the SEC doesn’t press chargers. What good are they then? Why do they prosecute the small fish but not the big fish. That doesn’t solve anything. It is a colossal conflict of interest when criminals take high places in government and become the president’s largest campaign contributors. Clearly they are getting away with murder.

The ironic thing about the Lang and O’Leary Exchange is Kevin O'Leary’s heartless capitalism. Amanda Lang points out the obvious conflict of him doing business with Communist China in one of their commercials. He boldly responds with I’m a great Communist as long as I can make a buck off of it. Realizing that it was the big banks and large corporations that funded the communist revolution in the first place, that statement is all too true. The rich criminals took over the social revolution to make sure it wouldn’t happen.

Since we were just talking about commodities fraud they reported that Germany has stopped trading some commodities and asked if that was a wise step for other countries to follow since it has shown to over inflate the price of goods. What a great idea.

Then they talked about how JP Morgan was being sued again for fraud. Last year they paid a $153 million settlement to answer charges that it defrauded investors who bought mortgage securities sold just before the nation's housing market collapsed. They sold a collateralized mortgage obligation in 2007 to ensure that it could get credit-scarred mortgage securities off its books.

Turns out in this new case they are being sued by the second largest bank in Israel. Don’t get me started on the banks in Israel. When I was around 20 I went on a working holiday around the world. I toured Egypt, worked on a kibbutz in Israel. It was awesome. That was before everyone and their dog had a credit card. Back then I didn’t have a credit card I had mutual funds. My parents would withdraw some of my money for me and wire it to me wherever I was.

When I arrived in Israel they said the bank told them they wouldn’t wire money into Israel and that it was one of the few countries they wouldn’t do it in. I was socked. Why on earth not? They implied some kind of problem with corruption. I thought that was nonsense. Israel is safe and technologically advanced proceed with the money wire.

Unfortunately it wasn’t as easy as that. It’s a good thing I was working on a kibbutz that paid for my room and board. Each week on my day off I would call the bank and ask if the money transfer was in yet and each week I got the same answer, no not yet. This went on for a ridiculous amount of time and I started getting suspicious. My parents confirmed that they had sent the wire long ago.

I asked them to get all the details, date, transaction number and so forth. After they sent that to me I contacted the bank and got the same answer. No it’s not here yet. I was upset and said are you sure? Because this is the day it was sent on, this is the transaction number and this is the day it was received by your banks. Oh Mr. such and such. Yes here it is. It’s been here all along waiting for you. Why haven’t you come by to pick it up? I said I’ve been calling every week and you said it wasn’t there.

Vancouver's Ancestral Spirit

Still several stories to catch up on but I’m going to pause and restate the obvious. You don’t have to be a tree hugging vegan to care about the environment or to love your home. I rode out to the north shore last night and as I was crossing the second narrows bridge it felt like I was entering the holy land. Seymour to the right, then Grouse, then Cypress, with the Lions tucked in between, then Horseshoe bay. The mountains, the water. It’s all very peaceful. Ambleside. Lighthouse park.

When I was at the Vancouver Occupy I met a girl from Ireland. As we stood talking a tourist came up to us and asked where we were from. I said I’m from Surrey but she’s from the Holy Land. The lady nodded and said ah, Israel. I squinted and said no, Ireland. It depends on where you’re from as to what’s holy. A lot of people refer to Ireland as the holy land. Yet I keep saying that this land is our home now and that makes it holy too. In more ways than one. First because it’s our home. Second because of the vast nature that engulfs us.

I stopped at White cliff for the sunset. Climbed down to the beach and there were two young guys sitting on a bench playing guitar. Now that’s what I’m talking about I said as I walked past. It was awesome. I pulled out the camera and took a video clip as one of them started playing Wish You were Here by Pink Floyd. You can barely hear the guitar and singing in the background but it doesn’t get any better than that.

Then I rode over to third Beach at Stanley Park passed the Pauline Johnson memorial near Siwash Rock. Quite, peaceful, small groups with lanterns on the beach at night. It was awesome. No doubt Kelowna is awesome on the beach at night too. That reminds me, I do have another Kelowna tale to tell.

Prospect Point has changed. That big wind storm took out several trees right on the coast and now you can actually see the water from there. There was a line up of trailers parked in Stanley Park just past Prospect Point. Who knows what they’re filming now but it’s nice to see the film industry active here. I remember Theatre in the Park and Baird on the Beach. Passed by 2nd Beach and remembered the huge bamboo in the forest between Lost Lagoon and 2nd Beach. It’s easy to miss. I remember flying two string kites at Vanier park and taking the passenger ferry to Granville Island.

If someone owns a home and they put a plot of time and effort into landscaping it, no one would then want someone to dump a load of garbage on their lawn. Protecting the environment isn’t just for eco terrorists. Protecting the environment is like protecting your children. Failing to do so is irresponsible. Vancouver is not as nice as Rio but it’s all we have. We need to be good stewards of that which has been entrusted to us.

The Ron Paul Revolution Lives

I’m driving home from the grocery store today and I look up and see the car in front of me has this large bumper sticker that says Ron Paul Revolution. I smile and look up and there’s another large bumper sticker above it that says Infowars.com. Beside that is another large bumper sticker that says 9-11 was an Inside Job. Even the frame to hold the license plate said infowars.com.

I was gonna honk and give the big thumbs up but when I pulled up beside the car it was a hot young girl driving so I just drove off not wanting to look like a pedophile. I will say it was nice to see. There is nothing more attractive then a woman with a brain and an opinion. There is nothing more inspiring than seeing educated youth willing to stand up for their beliefs. Maybe there’s hope for this world after all. The Vancouver 9/11 Truth Movement have an information booth outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on the 11th of each month from around noon to dusk.

Turns out you can buy Ron Paul Revolution T-shirts. He has a popular blog too.

One of his critics, Paul Constant at The Stranger likened Ron Paul to an "ancient high-school civics teacher" who "puffs up" at the notion of the Constitution as a "living document.” Holy crack pipes batman, what does Paul Constant think the constitution is, a dead document? Now that is sad. Clearly we do need a Ron Paul Revolution to support, sustain and preserve the sacred Constitution.

You can get Ron Paul Revolution bumper stickers and shirts at Cafe Press.

Delta cop sued over sexual assault

I saw this in the paper and thought it was bizarre. Another cop accused of a sexually related offense. Wonderful. When you say the word sexual assault the first thing that comes to my mind is what do you mean – grabbing an ass or actual rape because there’s a huge difference. Don’t get me wrong, grabbing someone’s ass is totally inappropriate. It’s just very different than rape.

This case involves the accusation that there were multiple sexual assaults. The Vancouver Province is reporting that an outside police investigation found that allegations of corrupt practice, discreditable conduct and neglect of duty against Robert Wesley Johnston had been proven. Johnston has been suspended without pay since March 23, 2011.

Now the officer is being sued by the victim in civil court. The writ claims there were several sexual assaults, one of which Johnston allegedly committed on Jones at a Delta police office on Annacis Island, after arranging to have another officer stand guard outside at the time. Here’s the confusing part. The other officer stood guard while he had consensual sex or committed rape because there is a huge difference. To think that he stood guard while the other officer committed rape is astounding. That would involve more than discipline, it would involve criminal charges.

It all started when the officer responded to a domestic abuse call when he told the victim if the man bothers her again she can call him. It’s hard to imagine any cop would go into a domestic abuse situation and commit rape. It is conceivable he could have become too emotionally involved in the case.

I am most certainly not claiming the victim wanted to be raped. That is the whole problem with our complaint process. I’m just trying to figure out what really happened because these are very serious allegations. A police officer committing rape is serious. A police officer was accused of raping another female officer during the security for the Vancouver Olympics.

The Delta officer was accused of showing another officer a naked picture of the victim on the phone that the victim sent him because he asked her to. He asked her to send him a picture of her naked and she did. OK so what’s up with that? Did he blackmail her into so doing or did she willingly send it to him?

Clearly, the number of inappropriate sexually related activities involving the police lately has revealed the force to be a very unprofessional outfit. That in itself does need to be dealt with. Yet raping someone is off the hook. If that is the case, then criminal charges need to be laid. One has to wonder if she had an affair with the officer and ended up deciding to go back to her abusive boyfriend.

Meanwhile back on the ranch, two Vancouver Police officers are being investigated will face an external investigation into allegations they neglected their duty by failing to warn a Surrey murder victim she was at risk of being killed.

On Nov. 22, 2005, 21-year-old Tasha Rosette was discovered by her sister stabbed to death, five days after a confidential informant told police her boyfriend claimed he intended to kill the young woman, who was four months pregnant with his child and had a three-year-old daughter.

Const. Craig Bentley, working with the gang unit at the time, received the tip and told his supervisor Staff Sgt. John Grywinski, but the two decided to continue investigating it before notifying Rosette. I’m not sure why they would delay in issuing the warning. Normally the gang task force is very prompt with that.

This week Frank Bucholtz from the Surrey Leader wrote about how the sentence handed down to former RCMP Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson is a disgrace. He’s the cop that was involved with the airport taser incident and then killed a 21 year old motorcyclist a year later in a motor vehicle accident where he had been drinking. He bragged about getting off of a DUI by leaving the scene and taking some shots. He did exactly that and Frank Bucholtsz is right. The sentence he received is a disgrace.

Five from Surrey accused of major stock scheme

Well, it looks like Surrey criminals are moving up in the world and setting their sights on bigger pies in the stock market. Deregulation opens the door to stock fraud. To protect our pensions from criminals we need to reexamine deregulation.

The provincial securities regulator is alleging five people manipulated share prices of a company and profited by $7 million in the scheme. The company is OSE Corp, an Ontario company, whose shares are traded on the TSX-V and has a head office in Delta. This corporation is involved in the exploration and production of oil and gas in Ontario (Canada) and in Texas and Montana (USA). Seemingly it was another fake oil and gas company involved in the same old pump and dump. Those people bought the $2 stock that was just about worthless. It's trading now for eight cents. History continues to repeat itself.

Stock Fraud watcher David Baines from the Vancouver Sun has written about it.

State securities regulators around the country warn that oil and gas investment scams are alive and well. High oil prices have created a heightened interest in investments in energy-related business ventures. As more and more people invest in oil and gas securities, the likelihood of oil and gas fraud scams goes up dramatically. Fast talking brokers can trick investors into putting their money in non-existent companies or into buying overpriced stocks.

Clearly criminals are very much involved in the stock market. This is what's creating financial crisis in Greece and around the world, not the desire for affordable housing and affordable medical.

Texas sees spike in oil and gas fraud

Financial Crimes Report to the Public



The fraud is two fold. First we have individuals price fixing fake or over inflated pump and dump stocks. Then we have the huge banks and corporations like Goldman Sachs doping the same thing on a much larger scale going unpunished.

It’s also related to the creation of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2000. It is outside the US and operates free from the constraints of US laws. The exchange was set up to facilitate "dark pool" trading in the commodities markets. Billions of dollars are being placed on oil futures contracts at the ICE and the beauty of this scam is that they NEVER take delivery, per se. They just ratchet up the price with leveraged speculation using your TARP money. This year alone they ratcheted up the global cost of oil from $40 to $80 per barrel.

One blog reader related it to the NASDAQ water index‏. Criminals inflating the price of commodities just because they can make a buck off it at the public’s expense. I’ve heard of the water crimes blog but it’s a bit hard for me to follow. The bottom line is this commodity exchange scam is bleeding us dry.

The Global Oil Scam: 50 Times Bigger than Madoff

Whale Wars and the G20

Yesterday a friend at work told me the police are looking for a Canadian Activist. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you? An activist? What did the guy do, oppose Harpers Communism? He smiled, nodded and said when he heard they were looking an activist I was the first person he thought of.

Turns out they are looking for an environmentalist featured on the Whale Wars TV series who used to work with the Canadian coast guard in Vancouver. Obviously, I don’t support violence. If anyone uses violence to enforce their political views they should be held accountable to the law. Yet the founding fathers used violence to uphold their political views. That’s what the American Revolution was all about. OK that was different, but was it really?

Blowing up oil pipelines full of oil would be very wrong. God knows those dirty piplene are leaking enough on their own. I think we’d be hard pressed to find an environmentalist who would do such a thing. Blow up a pipeline to damage the environment. Blowing up a pipeline before it’s finished perhaps but not when it’s full of oil. That would defeat the purpose of protecting the environment. Don’t forget, Greenpeace all started in Vancouver. We do care about the environment here.

Yet the activist Interpol is looking for has been accused of using violence in the whaling industry to protect the whales. What kind of violence? Is he shooting people? No, he’s throwing things on the decks of whalers and throwing things in the water to screw up their propellers. Well that’s not really violence. Now Interpol is on a man hunt as though he was some kind of terrorist. I’m actually surprised they used the term activist not terrorist. Being an activist isn’t a bad thing. It’s a charter right and a moral duty.

Captain Paul Watson reminds me of Captain Jack Sparrow. Big Brother claims he calls himself a captain even though he isn’t licensed as such. Wait till I tell ye, if he is on a vessel and he is in charge of it, he is it’s captain.

Interpol saying they are looking for a Canadian activist is a bad precedent. It implies they are looking for someone because of their political views which clearly crosses the line. Likewise, a group of protestors from the G20 summit in Toronto are suing the Toronto Police for politically profiling them and unlawful arrest.

Although parts of the statement of claim sound a bit strange, the whole idea of political profiling is a very real concern. Harper kicking out that university student from one of his rallies because she posted a picture of herself with some other candidates on facebook is a prime example. Warrantless surveillance and the Vicki Leaks bill that gives the police power to spy on someone who isn’t accused of committing a crime is another.

The G20 summit in Toronto was a huge concern that was plagued by extremism. One one hand we saw trouble makers vandalizing and looting. That was wrong and upsetting. There was a great video clip posted on youtube where a concerned citizen tackled a kid who stole some dvds from a store and returned the dvds telling the kid not to steal. It was priceless.

Unfortunately, the next day the police kicked the cat and started arbitrarily arresting people who were not seen committing acts of violence but were politically profiled and arrested for lawful assembly which is a huge concern. Protesting with a sign is a sacred right. Vandalizing and looting is not. It really is that simple.

Letting the police or the government politically profile people is a huge concern. First they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the environmentalists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an environmentalist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak up.

Blackwater still doing dirty business

Today the Vancouver Province is reporting that Training Canadians costly for Blackwater. Guess what. Blackwater is still training Canadian soldiers. In 2011 $2.4 million Canadian tax dollars were spent on mercenary training at the privatized military institution with a very bad reputation. So bad they had to change their name. Three times.

First it was Blackwater. They acquired a very bad reputation in Iraq and Afghanistan for killing civilians as well as arms dealing. They claimed that because they were military the civil or criminal courts couldn’t touch them for war crimes. At the same time they argued that since they were civilians, the military could not discipline them either. After the founder, Eric Prince was accused of murdering whistleblowers he changed the name of the company to Xe and moved to the United Arab Emirates. Now he's still operating under another name and still sucking up Canadian tax dollars. That is criminal.

Democracy won’t sway pipeline fate

Today’s absurdity comes right out of the horse’s mouth. Well one end at least. Stephen Harper claims Politics won’t sway pipeline fate. What he really means is democracy won’t. Politics is the problem. The Reform party talked about giving MP’s free votes and encouraging MPs to poll their electorate and vote on issues how their constituents want them to vote. What a fairytale that would be. Stephen Harper has gone as far away from this principle as physically possible.

Stephan Harper adapts the adage, Big Brother knows best. We decide then we spend your tax dollars on advertizing brainwashing you into believing we were right. Case in point, HST commercials. Attack adds when there isn’t even an election on. Attack adds against the Liberals after they were wiped off the face of the earth in the last election. Robocalls tricking people not to vote has nothing to do with democracy and polling the electorate. It is fraud.

As soon as BC gets vocal enough on the Northern Pipeline scandal that even Christy Clark starts to express concerns, Stephen Harper changes the rules and says BC has no say. He and his cabinet does. Then he has the arrogant audacity to claim politics won’t sway the pipeline. Science will decide. That is a bold faced lie. Money will decide not science. And it’s not money for the country it’s money in the pockets of corporate executives who contribute to his political campaign.

"Here's a government that has gutted the environmental assessment process and the [National Energy Board] process, so that politics trump science, trying to tell British Columbians that well, in fact, science will play a bigger role than politics. It's clearly not the case," Peter Julian.

"We think it's obviously in the vital interests of Canada, and in the vital interests of British Columbia," Harper said following an announcement in Vancouver. “We think.” First of all we don’t care what you think. You are elected to do as you’re told not to rob us of our say. It’s not in the vital interest of BC when we say we want a fair share of the revenue for taking the environmental risk and they say that is ridiculous. Clearly it’s not in our economic interest when you say our desire to have a fair share of the revenue is ridiculous.

Clearly it’s not in Michigan or Wisconsin’s best interest when we see the ongoing environmental impact from an ongoing problem of Enbridge pipeline leaks resulting from long term bad maintenance and bad safety standards. When we deregulate the banks, criminals commit investment fraud and rob it. When we deregulate the oil industry, criminals take short cuts on safety and maintenance to save money and make more profit at the expense of the environment and the public. Not just the general public but other business ventures as well.

Giving the profits from our oil to a Huston Based company doesn’t economically benefit Canada. Letting our oil industry be bought out by Communist China is even more as absurd. If the oil industry was nationalized in Canada like it is in Mexico, then Canada would receive some benefit from a pipeline. Yet it’s not. We give those criminals a monopoly to regularly raise the price of gas at the pump as much as they want. There is no free market here. It’s a monopoly. Our tax dollars are feeding that monopoly so the elites can get obscenely rich at the expense of the taxpayer. Stephen Harper likes to do a lot of name calling but mirror mirror on the wall, who’s biggest flaiming Communist of them all? Stephen Harper is. Don’t you forget it.

The Vancouver Province ran this editorial cartoon on August 9 2012.



This week the Surrey Leader ran a Raeside cartoon about a leaky oil pipline with Christy Clark saying the royalty cheque is in. Clearly I'm not the only one concerned about Harper's abandonment of democracy in the BC decision.

Harper’s Clone Army: The Drone Wars have began

Never mind George Lucas. This is a page right out of George Orwell. Remember how Stephen Harper recently made all those drastic cuts to the military to offset, not pay for, the cost of his fleet of insider trading jets? He cut their pensions, their benefits, their support counseling. He even cut the Coast guard in Vancouver. He even raised the age of everyone’s retirement. Now Harper wants to spend $1 billion to buy a drone army. I kid you not.

Anyone familiar with the Star Wars saga understands not only the dangers of false flag attacks but also the dangers of creating a clone or in this case a drone army. Soldiers have brains and consciences. Drones don’t. Don’t you think it might be a bit of a concern that after creating a drone army, that your enemy will find some kind of radar jamming equipment to steal your drones from you and use them against you?

Wouldn’t it be easy for a corrupt government or a corrupt government “agency” to use drone attacks on their own people? The Guardian ran a very interesting article about Obama’s drone wars and the normalization of extrajudicial murder. They hit the nail on the head. That is exactly what this is: extrajudicial murder.

It’s bad enough we are torturing prisoners without legal representation or a fair trial in CIA black prison sites all over the world. Now we are cutting the red tape and murdering people without a fair trial. That is destroying the Constitution.

Recently we read the headline U.S. drone aircraft strike kills 12 suspected militants. Killed 12 suspected militants. Killed. Suspected. Murder without trial. Who suspected they were “militants” the CIA? The same ones who said they knew Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction when they in fact did not. So now, instead of invading a country and inspecting their WMD by force, now we can just kill them without a trial. That is inherently wrong. Gaddafi was executed without a trial. So was bin Laden.

In addition to the concern about extrajudicial murder, we also have the real, problem of operator error and the murder of innocent civilians. This is happening more and more. So what do we do? We increase the use of drone attacks. Under who’s direction? The CIA. After Hilary Clinton apologized for the civilians killed in US drone attacks in Pakistan, the CIA has stepped up drone attacks in North Waziristan in recent weeks.

The CIA are the ones in charge of this drone army we are building for them. The CIA is a criminal organization whose primary source of funding is arms dealing, drug trafficking, money laundering and investment fraud. They have absolutely no public accountability. We want to build them a drone army? Are we on crack? Can we not see how insane this really is?

Then there’s the crash test dummy problem. Another headline claims Drone-crash increases spur safety rules call. Internal federal documents show crashes by unmanned aerial vehicles are increasing the number of accident investigations undertaken by the military's flight-safety branch. They don’t even report drone crashes to the public.

Meanwhile back on the ranch, a plan to transform a remote south-eastern Alberta community into a world centre for testing commercial drone aircraft is getting off the ground. The plan is to use the restricted civilian airspace zone as a selling point this November at the Unmanned Systems Canada convention in Ottawa, where corporations from around the world will be gathering to talk drones.

Corporations from around the world will gather to talk about drones. Gee, how many drones does this corporation want to buy to protect it’s corporate interest? This is what the drone wars are really about: Harpers Corporate Communism. It’s time Canada found a conservative party. Harper is very much on the wrong road. Creating a drone army in not the way to go.

This is refuse the cruise times a thousand. A private corporation is mandated to make a profit. Making and selling drones for profit removes any public accountability or any moral variables. Since Blackwater has been relocated and renamed to Xe and is still a mercenary army utilized by the agency, how many drone armies to we want to build for them to sell to the highest bidder?

Harper says he wants them to protect the arctic. No he doesn’t He wanted them after the invasion of Libya. He’s just using that as an excuse because Col. Paul Maillet, an aerospace engineer, said Harpers pal’s F-35 does not meet the needs of the government's First Defense Strategy, a key pillar of which is Arctic sovereignty.

"How do you get a single engine, low-range, low-payload, low-maneuverability aircraft that is being optimized for close air support to operate effectively in the North?" he asked. Maillet called the F-35 a "serious strategic mismatch" to Canada's military needs, and suggested the Royal Canadian Air Force would be better off purchasing a fleet of F-18 E/F fighters.

Committing to purchase a plane that is still in development is financially perilous, Maillet said, adding that the planes are likely to cost much more than $25 billion. Maillet said a competitive bidding process was never held - the decision coming from an "old boys' club of air force generals and politicians."

Standard Chartered and HSBC's Fall Guy

Here’s an interesting progression. A blog reader just sent me a link to an article about Standard Chartered being accused of money laundering in Iran. Seemingly they made millions off transactions in the billions. But wait, when we hear the term money laundering, we instantly think of laundering drug money. Yet that doesn’t seem to be what this is about. It appears this is about doing business with Iran which was legal prior to November 2008 when the Treasury Department banned them because the US put sanctions on Iran.

So the issue appears to be doing business with a country the US has placed on sanctions. Kind of a double standard like how we can bend over backwards doing business with Communist China but put sanctions on Cuba. It’s all very blurred. Rick Perry railed against companies doing business with Iran. At the same time his largest campaign contributor was doing exactly that.

Over the last couple of weeks, global banks have fallen under the scrutiny of regulators, particularly given their overseas operations. In mid-July, HSBC was accused by a Congressional subcommittee of having lax anti-money laundering policies, which ultimately exposed the U.S. financial system to “a wide array of money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing.”

Now we’re getting to the interesting part. HSBC’s involvement with laundering drug money. A US Senate committee report claims that Mexican drug cartels laundered millions through HSBC. Well. At least they said sorry.

Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about the Vatican bank. The interesting thing is that the Vatican Bank isn’t the only one tied to intelligence agencies. So is the HSBC. It’s a good read so it is. It reminds us of the BCCI.