FILM – Putin’s New Soviet System – A MUST SEE !

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Cybercrime – FBI Blackshades Remote Access Tool Private Sector Bulletins and Domain List

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

FBI Private Industry Notification: FBI led takedown of “Blackshades Remote Access Tool” purchasers, developers Download
FBI Liaison Alert System #R-000029-MW Download
Blackshades Domain List Download XLSView TXT

(U) On 13 May 2014, FBI NY initiated a coordinated takedown focusing on individuals who purchased the Blackshades malware. Field offices across the United States, as well as foreign partners, engaged in subject interviews, searches, hardware seizures, and arrests. The FBI seized the primary domain utilized to purchase Blackshades products.

(U) Impact

(U) Blackshades has several products marketed for $5 to $40 USD, most of which are malware. These products include Blackshades Remote Access Tool (RAT), Blackshades Password Recovery, Blackshades Stealth, Blackshades Fusion, Blackshades Commander, Blackshades Crypter, and Blackshades Virtual Private Network (VPN). The most popular and versatile product sold by Blackshades is the Blackshades RAT. These are purchased as “off the shelf” products with a wide variety of features that allow a cyber criminal to use as they desire. Once the victim computer is infected, common uses for Blackshades include: access to victims’ computers; theft of passwords and credentials; key-logging ability; and Distributed Denial of Service attacks.

(U) Prior to the coordinated actions, two subjects associated with the Blackshades organization were arrested. Alex Yucel was identified as the developer of the Blackshades malware. Yucel not only wrote software code behind the malware, but also was responsible for improvements and updates to the malware and control of the Blackshades server. Yucel was arrested by Moldovan authorities in November 2013 and is currently awaiting extradition to the United States. Michael Hogue, a known seller and “customer service advisor” in the Blackshades organization was arrested in June 2012 and subsequently pled guilty to the charges against him.

(U) How Blackshades Connects to Victim’s Computers:

(U) In order for a connection to be established, the malware on a victim computer must know the IP address and listening port on the command and control computer. Given that many users have a dynamic IP address controlled and assigned by their Internet Service Provider, the malware is programmed to call to a unique domain names created by the Blackshades user. The Blackshades user associated this name with their IP address using any domain hosting service of their choice. In this manner, when the malware calls to the established domain, standard DNS protocols will route the malware to the Blackshades user’s IP address.

(U) The FBI is providing approximately 13,600 domains used by Blackshades users, which have been observed receiving status updates or have participated in previous attacks. These URLs are located within the United States and worldwide. The FBI is distributing these indicators to enable identification of Blackshades infections on their networks. The FBI has high confidence that these indicators were involved in past Blackshades related activity. The FBI recommends that your organization help victims identify and remove the malicious code.

Notes on Domain List: Computers infected with Blackshades may make DNS queries for these domains and attempt to connect to the corresponding IP addresses (usually on destination port 3080, 3333 or 4444). Disclaimer: these domains may be used for legit traffic.

FBI-BlackshadesAlert-1

Putin tells Russian American Spy KGB Joke – Video

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

The Secret List of Off-Shore-Companies, Persons and Adresses, Part 147, SINGAPORE,

Become a Patron!

Click on the entries to get more infos.

 

Officers & Master Clients (4918)

Offshore Entities (1788)

 

 

✌️SHARE

👉THE ONLY WEBSITE WITH THE LICENSE TO SPY!
https://berndpulch.org
https://berndpulch.org/about-me/
👉JOIN @ABOVETOPSECRETXXL
https://t.me/ABOVETOPSECRETXXL
gab.com/berndpulch
gettr.com/user/berndpulch
https://truthbook.social/berndpulch
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdoKPR_qNWDyJwtCK484A6A
https://rumble.com/c/c-1227213
👉JOIN @ABOVETOPSECRETXXL
Subscribe to https://t.me/ABOVETOPSECRETXXL

SUPPORT US AND Become a Patron!
https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=54250700
(Paypal, Apple Pay, Venmo, Visa, Master Card, Discover, JCB, Diners Club, 3DS)
Bitcoin: bc1q2ku4m6j5hmay36gdp7k2penr66wxzc7mchcaed
Ethereum: 0xC0198713e0049260cbe788DEd449FEc290Bf21b7
Ripple: rfoQ7LytJNCAPj8BwP7PZfd1oFPrsN6kZv
USDT: 0xC0198713e0049260cbe788DEd449FEc290Bf21b7
USD Coin: 0xC0198713e0049260cbe788DEd449FEc290Bf21b7

Monero: 41yKiG6eGbQiDxFRTKNepSiqaGaUV5VQWePHL5KYuzrxBWswyc5dtxZ43sk1SFWxDB4XrsDwVQBd3ZPNJRNdUCou3j22Coh.USDT: 0xC0198713e0049260cbe788DEd449FEc290Bf21b7

True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you kindly to give back.

God Bless You!

Five Killers Convicted in Brutal Murder of Russian Journalist Anna Politkovskaya

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Five men were convicted Tuesday in Moscow in the 2006 execution-style murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Politkovskaya, a crusading reporter for the liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta who worked almost full-time on documenting allegations of human rights violations in the breakaway province of Chechnya, was 48 when she was gunned down in the elevator of her apartment building in October 2006.

The murder raised worldwide questions about freedom of speech and of the press under Russian President Vladimir Putin — especially after three of the defendants were initially acquitted in 2009. The Supreme Court overturned those acquittals and ordered a new trial.

A jury in Moscow City Court returned guilty verdicts Tuesday against three Chechen brothers — Rustam, Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov — Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, their uncle, and Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former Moscow police officer.

It found Gaitukayev guilty of planning and organizing the murder.

Khadzhikurbanov and two of the Makhmudov brothers, Ibragim and Dzhabrail, were acquitted in the 2009 trial.

A sentencing hearing was set for Wednesday, at which prosecutors are expected to seek life in prison.

The men’s lawyers said they would appeal.

You be the judge. Help us hold illegal and corrupt judges and attorneys make accountable.

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Mountaga Bah fought to save his home from foreclosure in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and lost.  Now, he has the opportunity to reopen the case, due to a conflict of interest uncovered in a Center investigation. (Jared Angle) 

Dear Reader, Imagine — in order to save your home from foreclosure, you must win a legal battle against the banking giant, Wells Fargo. You lose the case. Then you discover one of the deciding judges owned stock in the bank. Would that feel like justice to you?

This scenario is a reality for a Maryland resident, and is just one example of many conflicts of interests discovered in a recent Center investigation, Juris Imprudence.

We looked at the three most recent years of financial disclosures filed by 255 appellate court judges and discovered 24 cases where judges owned stock in a company with a case before them.

Thanks to your support of this time-consuming work, our journalists were able to shine a light on injustice. But we need your help to continue.

Help us hold the justice system accountable
Please click here to make a gift

Your support creates real impact. When the Center notified the judges of our findings, 16 judges sent letters to the parties in all of the cases we discovered, admitting to the mistake. These letters are the first step in possibly reopening the cases and giving people a chance at a fair trial.

Federal appellate court judges are incredibly influential. They can strike down or uphold a president’s healthcare law, change how the Internet works and determine how universities admit students. Their decisions affect us all. That’s why I’m confident that you will donate to our 2014 Annual Fund and invest in our ability to hold these powerful figures accountable. 

Take a stand for justice

Click here to donate to our 2014 Annual Fund

As a nonprofit newsroom, we depend on supporters like you. Investigations like this require huge investments of time and resources, meaning other news outlets ignore these stories. But not the Center — our reporting is rigorous, fiercely independent and made possible by your generosity.

Please consider a donation and join one of our Giving Circles to receive benefits like special recognition on our website and annual report, and access to our exclusive Watchdog Webinars.

Thank you for your support!

Best personal regards,

William E. Buzenberg
Executive Director

The best way to show your support is by becoming a Monthly Donorso you can help sustain our work through out the year. It’s easy, convenient and means the world to us.

Ungedecktes Geld ist der grosse Betrug unserer Zeit

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Video – Yuriĭ Shevchuk and Putin (uncensored version)

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

The Secret List of Off-Shore-Companies, Persons and Adresses, Part 141, SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES,

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Click on the entries to get more infos.

 

Officers & Master Clients (12)

 

Urteil wird Suchmaschinen-Terror der STASI-GoMoPa brechen

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Das aktuelle Urteil in Sachen Google wird bei Anwendung den Suchmaschinen-Terror der alten STASI-Clique der GoMoPa und deren  IM , Partner und Auftraggeber stoppen. Das ist das Urteil:

 

Das Urteil des Europäischen Gerichtshofs (EuGH) hat das Zeug, das Internet zu verändern. Es räumt den Europäern das Recht ein, von Google vergessen zu werden. Dies kann eingeklagt werden, wenn die Ergebnisse der Suchmaschine das Recht auf Privatsphäre verletzen. Experten erwarten eine Klagewelle.

Das Urteil aus Luxemburg fiel überraschend aus. Das vorausgegangene Gutachten, dem das Gericht sonst oft folgt, hatte unter Verweis auf die Meinungsfreiheit ein Recht auf das Vergessenwerden bestritten. Nun aber erklären die Richter eindeutig: Ein Suchmaschinenbetreiber ist für die von ihm aggregierten Suchergebnisse verantwortlich (Rechtssache C-131/12).

Im Umkehrschluss heißt das: Google und im Prinzip auch andere Betreiber, können dazu verpflichtet werden, Links auf Webseiten zu löschen. Dies gilt aber nur unter der Voraussetzung, dass die Suchergebnisse das Persönlichkeitsrecht verletzen, also sensible persönliche Daten ausspielen, die das Recht auf Privatsphäre tangieren.

Was das bedeutet, lässt sich am Beispiel des konkreten Falles erahnen, der gegen Google vor Gericht gezogen war. Der Spanier Mario Costeja González hatte geklagt, weil Google bei der Eingabe seines Namens bis heute einen für ihn unangenehmen Artikel ausspielt: Darin berichtet eine katalanische Tageszeitung über die Pfändung seines Hauses im Jahr 1998.

Der Kläger befand, dieses Kapitel in seiner Biographie habe sich inzwischen vollständig erledigt und verdiene keine Erwähnung mehr. Der Ärger ist nachvollziehbar. Das Suchergebnis ließ zweifellos Costeja González zweifellos in einem ungünstigen Licht erscheinen.

Ein spanisches Gericht hatte den Fall zur grundsätzlichen Klärung an den EuGH überwiesen. Dessen Urteil lässt Costeja González nun hoffen.

Google, die Krake

Zur Begründung seiner Entscheidung verweist das Gericht auf die EU-Datenschutzrichtlinie. In ihr sind die Mindeststandards für den Datenschutz geregelt, ausformuliert durch die Mitgliedstaaten. Dabei spielt auch die sogenannte Verarbeitung personenbezogener Daten eine Rolle, aus denen sich beispielsweise Persönlichkeitsprofile herstellen lassen.

Fraglich blieb lange, ob auch Suchmaschinen wie Google Daten verarbeiten. Die Betreiber argumentierten, man verweise doch nur auf ohnehin im Netz verfügbare Informationen. Nun aber stellt der EuGH fest: Auch ein Suchmaschinenbetreiber für die Verarbeitung von Daten verantwortlich. Pointiert formuliert: Die Richter sehen in Google die Datenkrake, die durch die Ansammlung von Informationen das Gesamtbild über eine Person und ihr Leben herstellt.

Wörtlich heißt es in einer Mitteilung zum Urteil:

“In seinem heutigen Urteil stellt der Gerichtshof zunächst fest, dass der Betreiber einer Suchmaschine , indem er automatisch, kontinuierlich und systematisch im Internet veröffent lichte Informationen aufspürt , eine “Erhebung” von Daten im Sinne der Richtlinie vornimmt, Daten, die er dann mit seinen Indexierprogrammen “ausliest”, “speichert” und “organisiert”, auf seinen Servern “aufbewahrt” und gegebenenfalls in Form von Ergebnislisten an seine Nutzer “weitergibt” und diesen “bereitstellt”.

Zur Begründung heißt es weiter: Mit der Eingabe eines Namens bei einer Suchmaschine könne ein Nutzer “ein mehr oder weniger detailliertes Profil der gesuchten Personen erstellen”. Dies sei ein Eingriff in die Rechte der Person. Die Ergebnisse seien nichts anderes als eine Verarbeitung von personenbezogenen Daten.

Das EU-Recht verlange daher einen Ausgleich zwischen den Interessen der Nutzer und denen der betroffenen Person. “Wegen seiner potenziellen Schwere kann ein solcher Eingriff nicht allein mit dem wirtschaftlichen Interesse des Suchmaschinenbetreibers an der Verarbeitung der Daten gerechtfertigt werden”, heißt es.

Experten erwarten eine Flut an Beschwerden

Experten gehen davon aus, dass Verbraucher Google nun mit einer Flut an Löschanfragen überschwemmen. “Das Urteil hat das Potenzial, die Funktionsfähigkeit von Suchwerkzeugen erheblich einzuschränken und damit auch die Auffindbarkeit von Inhalten im Netz zu beeinträchtigen”, schrieb in einer Reaktion Rechtsanwalt Thomas Stadler, ein Experte für Internetrecht.

Google teilte zu dem Urteil mit: “Dies ist ein sehr enttäuschendes Urteil für Suchmaschinenbetreiber und Online-Verleger.” Das Unternehmen hatte in dem Verfahren argumentiert, es sei laut EU-Datenschutzrichtlinie nicht verantwortlich dafür, dass personenbezogene Daten auf den jeweiligen Webseiten gemäß der Richtlinie verarbeitet werden.

Google könne nicht einmal zwischen personenbezogenen und anderen Daten unterscheiden. Deshalb könne auch eine nationale Datenschutzbehörde die Suchmaschine nicht verpflichten, bestimmte Informationen aus ihrem Index zu entfernen.

 

Der für Google zuständige Landesdatenschutzbeauftragte von Hamburg, Johannes Caspar, rät den Bürgern, nach dem neuen Urteil des Europäischen Gerichtshofs gegen Google frühere Einträge löschen zu lassen. Caspar sagte unserer Redaktion: “Wir können die Bürger nur auffordern, ihr Recht auf informationelle Selbstbestimmung eigenständig zu verfolgen. Es kann damit gerechnet werden, dass sich viele Betroffene an Google wenden werden, um für sie belastende Einträge aus früheren Zeiten tilgen zu lassen. Wir gehen davon aus, dass Google dies auch konstruktiv im Sinne des Urteils umsetzt.”

Putins KGB Palast-Entourage enthüllt

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Es ist einsam geworden um Präsident Putin in seiner Residenz Nowo-Ogarjowo bei Moskau, seiner „Festung“, die er offenbar nur noch ungern verlässt. Selbst alten Weggefährten misstraut der Ex-KGB-Oberstleutnant inzwischen. Direkten „Zugang zum Körper“, wie in Russland der direkte Draht zum Präsidenten genannt wird, haben vor allem sechs alte Vertraute in Schlüsselpositionen, mit Geheimdienst- und KPdSU-Hintergrund. Sie formieren sein Bild von der Welt. Die meisten dieser mächtigen Männer sind so unscheinbar, dass man sich ihre Gesichter nur schwer merken kann und sie auch kaum auffallen würden – genau das war Teil ihrer Ausbildung beim KGB, wie einer von ihnen, Sergej Iwanow, einst verriet: „Uns wurde eingebläut, in der Menge nicht aufzufallen“ Des weiteren lernten sie beim KGB demzufolge, „viel zu reden, ohne dabei etwas zu sagen.« FOCUS Online stellt Putins „Politbüro“ vor.

Sergej Iwanow – Hartes „Hinkebein“ aus dem KGB-Kader

KGB, Kreml, Russland, Moskau, Sergej Schojgu, Igor Setschin, Alexander Bastrykin, Nikolaj Patruschew, Alexander Bortnikow, Sergej Iwanow

Kreml-Insider sagen dem 61-Jährigen nach, dass er sich insgeheim für den besseren Präsidenten halte  und es ihn ein wenig schmerzt, dass mit seinem Kameraden Putin ein früherer Oberstleutnant das Land führt – und er als General nur die zweite Geige spielt. Die beiden lernten sich in Petersburg als junge KGB-Offiziere kennen. Als Chef der allmächtigen Präsidialverwaltung ist der passionierte Angler und Kartenspieler heute mächtiger als etwa Premierminister Medwedew, der kaum etwas zu sagen hat im inoffiziellen Machtgefüge. Der Mann mit dem Kreml-Spitznamen „Hinkebein“ spionierte einst als KGB-Agent in London – auch das ein weitaus prestigeträchtiger Posten als Putins Stelle in der der DDR in Dresden. Nicht zuletzt aufgrund der West-Erfahrung gilt Iwanow, der englisch und schwedisch spricht und britische Krimis liebt, als der geschliffenste und weltläufigste Mann in Putins „Politbüro“; Ex-US-Außenministerin Condoleezza Rice bezeichnete ihn als „hart und misstrauisch, aber zuverlässig“

Heute erzählt der farblos wirkende Pragmatiker nicht ohne Stolz, dass Putin fast täglich mit ihm spricht, telefonisch oder persönlich – im heutigen Russland ein Ausweis von größter Wichtigkeit. Sohn Sergej (33) ist Aufsichtsratschef der staatlichen Rosselchosbank und Vorstand der Gasprombank. Sohn Alexander (36) ist Vizechef der staatlichen Vneshtorgbank. Er tötete bei einem Autounfall 2005 eine Fußgängerin; die Behörden stellen das Verfahren gegen ihn ein, ermittelten dafür gegen den Schwiegersohn des Opfers. Berichterstattung über den Vorfall wurde mit Waffengewalt unterbunden; am Tag nach dem Unfall zeigte sich Vater Iwanow bestens gelaunt bei einer Fußballfeier; spätere klagte er, wie belastend der Unfall für seinen Sohn gewesen sei.

Alexander Bortnikow – Der Mann fürs Grobe

KGB, Kreml, Russland, Moskau, Sergej Schojgu, Igor Setschin, Alexander Bastrykin, Nikolaj Patruschew, Alexander Bortnikow, Sergej Iwanow

Kremlin.ru

Der Chef des Geheimdiensts FSB gilt als Putins Mann fürs Grobe. Schon vor dem Aufstieg in den Chefsessel erledigte er bei dem KGB-Nachfolger nach Angaben von Insidern ohne Murren die besonders heiklen Aufgaben für seinen Oberbefehlshaber mit Präzision, Verschwiegenheit und ohne erkennbare Anzeichen von Skrupeln. Der 63-Jährige mit der hohen Stirn und den stechenden Augen gilt als die unbekannteste und verschlossenste Figur aus Putins innerem Macht-Zirkel. Er soll Putin gegenüber persönlich die Verantwortung dafür übernommen haben, dass Präsidenten-Darsteller Medwedew von 2008 bis 2012 im Kreml nicht Spaß an der Rolle findet und plötzlich nach der wirklichen Macht im Land greift. Selbst die Reichen und Mächtigen in Moskau sprechen seinen Namen mit größter Vorsicht aus – niemand will ihn zum Feind haben.

 

Mit seinen Berichten, die für Putin jeden Tag die erste Lektüre sind, entscheidet Bortnikow was ins Blickfeld des Staatsfelds gerät und bestimmt damit ganz wesentlich seine Weltsicht. Über seine Kindheit und Jugend ist so gut wie nichts bekannt; an seiner Ex-Hochschule, dem Eisenbahn-Ingenieur-Institut in Petersburg, hieß es auf Nachfragen über ihn nur, man solle sich an die Pressestelle des Geheimdiensts wenden. Mit 24 Jahren ging Bortnikow zum Leningrader KGB. In der Moskauer Zentrale überstand Bortnikow unter Putin mehrere Säuberungswellen, die fast alle seine Kollegen aus dem Amt spülten. Bortnikows Sohn Denis (39) ist Direktor bei der VTB-Bank-Gruppe.

 

Nikolaj Patruschew – Die immer ernste Büroklammer

KGB, Kreml, Russland, Moskau, Sergej Schojgu, Igor Setschin, Alexander Bastrykin, Nikolaj Patruschew, Alexander Bortnikow, Sergej Iwanow

Dem Sekretär des russischen Sicherheitsrates sagen Spötter nach, er habe die Ausstrahlung einer wandelnden Büroklammer. Der 62-Jährige Schiffbau-Ingenieur und KGB-Offizier war von 1999 bis 2008 Chef des KGB-Nachfolgers FSB. Er stammt ebenso wie Putin aus Sankt Petersburg. Anfang der 90er-Jahre war er dort beim KGB für die Bekämpfung von Wirtschaftskriminalität zuständig und lernte dabei Putin kennen, der als Vize-Bürgermeister den Außenhandel kontrollierte und im Zentrum einer großen Korruptionsaffäre stand. Auch über Patruschew selbst soll wegen illegaler Handelsgeschäfte ins Visier der Staatsanwaltschaft geraten sein; das jedenfalls behauptete der Ex-KGB-Offizier Alexander Litwinenko, der 2006 in London einem Anschlag mit dem hochradioaktiven Polonium zum Opfer fiel; der britische Geheimdienst vermutete hinter diesem Anschlag Patruschews FSB.

Als Putin nach der Wahlniederlage seines Chefs und kurzer Arbeitslosigkeit 1996 nach Moskau wechselte, folgte ihm Patruschew wie ein Schatten durch die Institutionen. Der 62-Jährige gilt als braver Befehlsempfänger ohne eigene Ambitionen und ausgeprägte Meinung. Putin soll vor allem seine absolute Loyalität schätzen. Auf die Frage nach seinem Hobby antwortete der Freizeit-Volleyballer einst: „Meine Arbeit.“ Der stets ernste Beamte meidet die Öffentlichkeit; nach Erinnerung von Klassenkameraden scheute er bereits als Kind Kameras und blieb schon in der Schule lieber im Hintergrund. Patruschews Sohn Andrej (32) ist Vize-Chef eines Gasprom-Unternehmens, Sohn Dmitri (36) ist Vorstandsvorsitzender und Mitglied des Aufsichtsrates des staatlichen Geldhauses Rosselchosbank.

Alexander Bastrykin – Vor ihm zittern die Kremlkritiker

KGB, Kreml, Russland, Moskau, Sergej Schojgu, Igor Setschin, Alexander Bastrykin, Nikolaj Patruschew, Alexander Bortnikow, Sergej Iwanow

Kremlin.ru

Der 60-Jährige Studienfreund von Putin ist als Leiter des Untersuchungskomitees – eine Art russisches FBI – der oberste Ermittler in Russland. Der gelernte Jurist und Dozent machte in Leningrad Karriere in der kommunistischen Jugendorganisation Komsomol und später in der KPdSU. Für Aufmerksamkeit sorgt der Chefermittler vor allem durch seinen unermüdlichen Einsatz gegen Kreml-Kritiker. Der Regimegegner und Blogger Alexej Nawalny wies nach, dass Bastrykin eine Aufenthaltsgenehmigung für Tschechien hatte, dort eine Firma besaß – was russischen Beamten per Gesetz verboten ist – und über diese eine Immobilie erwarb, die er in seiner Steuererklärung nicht aufgeführt hatte.  Bastrykin beschuldigte Nawalny daraufhin, ein US-Agent zu sein; der Blogger geriet ins Kreuzfeuer der seiner Behörde. Als seine Untergebenen die Ermittlungen einstellten, beschimpfte Bastrykin sie öffentlich. Nawalny wurde wegen angeblicher Wirtschaftsverbrechen in erster Instanz zu fünf Jahren Haft verurteilt; später setzte ein Gericht die Strafe zur Bewährung aus ; heute hat er Hausarrest und Internetverbot.

Bastrykin gilt als impulsiv und aufbrausend. 2004 soll er einen Hundebesitzer vor seinem Haus mit seiner Pistole geschlagen und ihm gedroht haben, ihn zusammen mit dem Tier zu erschießen. 2012 ließ Bastrykin den Chef vom Dienst der kritischen Zeitung „Nowaja gaseta“ nach kritischen Berichten in ein Waldstück fahren und drohte ihm dort, er könne ihn umbringen, verscharren, und werde dann selbst die Ermittlungen leiten. Die Zeitung verlor bereits sechs Journalisten durch Morde, darunter auch Anna Politkowskaja.  Bastrykin bestritt die Vorwürfe zunächst; nachdem der Vorfall im Ausland große Schlagzeilen machte, entschuldigte er sich für seine „emotionale Explosion“.

Igor Setschin – Putins „Siamesischer Zwilling“

KGB, Kreml, Russland, Moskau, Sergej Schojgu, Igor Setschin, Alexander Bastrykin, Nikolaj Patruschew, Alexander Bortnikow, Sergej Iwanow

Der verschlossene Ex-KGB-Mann und Dolmetscher hatte im Kreml lange Zeit den Spitznamen „Putins Siamesischer Zwilling“. Schon Anfang der 1990er Jahre, als der heutige Präsident in Petersburg als Vize-Bürgermeister für den Außenhandel zuständig war, residierte der grimmige 53-Jährige in seinem Vorzimmer und kontrollierte mit „Radarblick“, so ein Zeitzeuge, wer Zutritt zu seinem Chef bekam. Zuweilen verwechselten Besucher außerhalb der Amtsgemächer den stets gut gekleideten Sekretariats-Vorsteher mit seinem Chef – ein Fehler, der für die Business-Pläne verheerend war. Als neuer Kreml-Chef installierte Putin den alten Petersburger Vertrauten wieder in seinem Vorzimmer, im Range eines Vize-Präsidialamtschefs – womit er an einer Schlüsselposition saß, die nach Ansicht von manchen Insidern wichtiger war als das Amt des Premierministers. Von dem extrem öffentlichkeitsscheuen Ex-Geheimdienstler existierten lange Zeit nur unscharfe Fotos.

Im Vorzimmer entwickelte der „Graue Kardinal“  wie sein Chef ein Faible für Russlands Rohstoffe. Er gilt als der Kopf hinter der Festnahme des Oligarchen Michail Chodorkowski und der Zerschlagung von dessen Jukos-Konzerns. Seine Tochter ist mit dem Sohn des damals federführenden Generalstaatsanwalts verheiratet. Das Jukos-Erbe gehört inzwischen  zum Rosneft-Konzern, dessen oberster Chef Setschin heute ist. Nach seinem Wechsel aus dem Kreml in das Unternehmen kühlte die Beziehung zu Putin etwas ab. Setschins Ex-Frau, mit der er weiter gute Beziehungen pflegt, ist erfolgreiche Multi-Unternehmerin; sein Sohn arbeitet bei ihm im Konzern.

Sergej Schojgu – Das Fossil aus der Ära Jelzin

KGB, Kreml, Russland, Moskau, Sergej Schojgu, Igor Setschin, Alexander Bastrykin, Nikolaj Patruschew, Alexander Bortnikow, Sergej Iwanow

Kremlin.ru

Der 58-Jährige mit dem breiten Gesicht und Dauergrinsen fällt aus dem Rahmen in Putins engster Umgebung: Er und sein Chef kennen sich nicht aus Petersburg, Schojgu liebt die Öffentlichkeit, er strotzt vor Kraft, und statt durch Unauffälligkeit fällt er durch bodenständiges Charisma auf. Der gelernte Ingenieur und Funktionär der Kommunistischen Partei  ist ein Überbleibsel aus seiner anderen politischen Epoche – und wird deswegen scherzhaft als „Putins Fossil“ bezeichnet: Er machte schon unter Putins Vorgänger Boris Jelzin Karriere, als er den Katastrophenschutz aufbaute. Auf den Bildschirmen war er als Notretter im Kampfanzug zwei Jahrzehnte allgegenwärtig. Durch seine Hilfe bei politischen Katastrophen erwarb sich der Mann aus Tuwa, einer buddhistisch geprägten russischen Teilrepublik an der mongolischen Grenze, das Vertrauen des KGB-Manns Putin. Im  Jahr 2000 wurde Vorsitzender der neu gegründeten Kreml-Partei „Einheit“, als die noch als Himmelfahrtskommando galt. Im April 2012 schickte ihn Putin als Gouverneur in die Moskauer Oblast, das skandalerschütterte Umland der Hauptstadt, wo er endlich für Ruhe sorgen sollte. Sieben Monate später musste er das wichtige Verteidigungsministerium übernehmen.

Schojgu, der in seiner Freizeit gerne Holz schnitzt, gilt als grobschlächtiger Pragmatiker und Freund einfacher Sprache. Zuweilen verwunderte er mit Vorschlägen wie seiner Initiative von 2009, „Verneinungen des Sieges der UdSSR im Großen Vaterländischen Krieg“ als Straftat zu verfolgen. Schojgu, nach dem in seiner Heimat eine Straße benannt ist, war in mehrere Korruptionsskandale verwickelt, die ihm aber allesamt nichts anhaben konnte. Seine Frau ist erfolgreiche Unternehmerin.

Am 9. Mai erschien Boris Reitschusters Buch „Putins Demokratur – Ein Machtmensch und sein System“ in stark erweiterter und aktualisierter Auflage im Verlag Econ Berlin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych – The Movie

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

 

The film about Viktor Yanukovych and his residence in Mezhygirya

The film about the veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan who is on a waiting list to get a flat from the state for 21 years

The film about the village in Poltava Oblast with no bus connection and the efforts of its residents to overcome this problem

The film about Ukrainian everyday injustice and corruption

Inside Corrupt Viktor Yanukovych Villa Виктора Януковича Video

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

The Secret List of Off-Shore-Companies, Persons and Adresses, Part 138, SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS,

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Click on the entries to get more infos.

Officers & Master Clients (101)

Offshore Entities (203)

Listed Addresses (55)

Der Putin/KGB/STASI-GoMoPa-Witz des Tages: “Snowden, erzählen Sie uns ALLES über die schreckliche Überwachung!”

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

“Es gibt kein Verbrechen, keinen Kniff, keinen Trick,
keinen Schwindel, kein Laster, das nicht von Geheimhaltung lebt.
Bringt diese Heimlichkeiten ans Tageslicht, beschreibt sie,
attacktiert sie, macht sie vor allen Augen lächerlich.
Und früher oder später wird die öffentliche Meinung sie hinwegfegen.
Bekannt machen allein genügt vielleicht nicht –
aber es ist das einzige Mittel, ohne das alle anderen Versagen…”
Joseph Pulitzer(1847-1911)

The Edward Snowden Video Games

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

http://youtu.be/J8R4kEfyTkM

Corrupt Chinese Money – Die geheimen Reichtümer der korrupten China-Kommunisten enthüllt

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Leaked Records Reveal Offshore Holdings of China’s Elite

offshore leaks china
Illustration: Tim Meko

Files shed light on nearly 22,000 tax haven clients from Hong Kong and mainland China.

Note: A Chinese version of this story is available here

Close relatives of China’s top leaders have held secretive offshore companies in tax havens that helped shroud the Communist elite’s wealth, a leaked cache of documents reveals.

The confidential files include details of a real estate company co-owned by current President Xi Jinping’s brother-in-law and British Virgin Islands companies set up by former Premier Wen Jiabao’s son and also by his son-in-law.

Nearly 22,000 offshore clients with addresses in mainland China and Hong Kong appear in the files obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.  Among them are some of China’s most powerful men and women — including at least 15 of China’s richest, members of the National People’s Congress and executives from state-owned companies entangled in corruption scandals.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, UBS and other Western banks and accounting firms play a key role as middlemen in helping Chinese clients set up trusts and companies in the British Virgin Islands, Samoa and other offshore centers usually associated with hidden wealth, the records show. For instance, Swiss financial giant Credit Suisse helped Wen Jiabao’s son create his BVI company while his father was leading the country.

The files come from two offshore firms — Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and BVI-based Commonwealth Trust Limited — that help clients create offshore companies, trusts and bank accounts. They are part of a cache of 2.5 million leaked files that ICIJ has sifted through with help from more than 50 reporting partners in Europe, North America, Asia and other regions.

Since last April, ICIJ’s stories have triggered official inquiries, high-profile resignations and policy changes around the world.

Until now, the details on China and Hong Kong had not been disclosed.

The data illustrates the outsized dependency of the world’s second largest economy on tiny islands thousands of miles away.  As the country has moved from an insular communist system to a socialist/capitalist hybrid, China has become a leading market for offshore havens that peddle secrecy, tax shelters and streamlined international deal making.

Every corner of China’s economy, from oil to green energy and from mining to arms trading, appears in the ICIJ data.

Xi Jinping and Wen JiabaoXi Jinping and Wen Jiabao: relatives appear in ICIJ’s data.

Chinese officials aren’t required to disclose their assets publicly and until now citizens have remained largely in the dark about the parallel economy that can allow the powerful and well-connected to avoid taxes and keep their dealings secret. By some estimates, between $1 trillion and $4 trillion in untraced assets have left the country since 2000.

The growing onshore and offshore wealth of China’s elites “may not be strictly illegal,” but it is often tied to “conflict of interest and covert use of government power,” said Minxin Pei, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California. “If there is real transparency, then the Chinese people will have a much better idea of how corrupt the system is [and] how much wealth has been amassed by government officials through illegal means.”

Top-level corruption is a politically sensitive issue in China as the country’s economy cools and its wealth gap continues to widen.  The country’s leadership has cracked down on journalists who have exposed the hidden wealth of top officials and their families as well as citizens who have demanded that government officials disclose their personal assets.

In November, a mainland Chinese news organization that was working with ICIJ to analyze the offshore data withdrew from the reporting partnership, explaining that authorities had warned it not to publish anything about the material.

—————-
READ: HOW WE WORKED TO REPORT THIS STORY SECURELY IN CHINA
—————-

ICIJ is keeping the identity of the news outlet confidential to protect journalists from government retaliation. Other partners in the investigation include the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, the Taiwanese magazine CommonWealth and the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The ICIJ team spent months sifting through the files and the leaked lists of offshore users. In most cases, names were registered in Romanized form, not Chinese characters, making matching extremely difficult. Many offshore users had provided a passport as well as an address when they set up their companies, which made it possible to confirm identities in many but not all cases. Some suspected princelings and officials in the files could not be confirmed and have not been included in this story.

Along with the China and Hong Kong names, ICIJ’s files also include the names of roughly 16,000 offshore clients from Taiwan. ICIJ will continue to publish stories with its partners in the next few days and will release the Greater China names on its Offshore Leaks Database on Jan. 23.

Who’s Who in China’s Offshore Circles: Tap to see where the money goes

Graphic: Chris Zubak-Skees. Illustrations: Jesús Pérez. Photos: AP, Ming Pao, Angélica Rivera de Peña (CC BY-SA), World Economic Forum (CC BY-SA) and White House. The Red NobilityThe WealthyDeng JiaguiBrother-in-law of President Xi Jinping Wen YunsongSon of former Premier Wen JiabaoLiu ChunhangSon-in-law of former Premier Wen Jiabao Hu YishiFirst cousin once removed of former President Hu Jintao Li XiaolinDaughter of former Premier Li Peng Wu JianchangSon-in-law of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping Che FengSon-in-law of a former central bank governorWang ZhiSon of a former vice presidentWang JunSon of a former vice presidentFu LiangSon of one of ‘Eight Elders’ of the Communist Party Yeh Shuen-jiNephew of one of PRC’s founders Wang JingjingGrandaughter of a former vice presidentSu ZhijunGrandson of one of best-known PLA commandersMa HuatengCo-founder of Internet giant TencentYang HuiyanChina’s richest womanZhang XinCo-founder of property developer SOHO China Zhang ZhidongCo-founder of Internet giant TencentShen GuojunChairman of Yintai GroupJia YuetingChairman of web video giant Leshi Huang GuangyuJailed founder of GOME appliances chainDu JuanGOME executive and wife of founder Lu ZhiqiangChairman of OceanwideLi JinyuanChairman of Tiens GroupDai ZhikangFounder of Zendai Investment Group Du ShuanghuaChairman of Rizhao Holding Group Ma JianrongChairman of Shenzhou InternationalWen YiboFounder of Sound GlobalShi ZhengrongFounder of solar-panel maker SuntechZhou ZhengyiJailed Shanghai property developer

Princelings go offshore

China’s Politburo Standing Committee is the all-powerful group of seven (formerly nine) men who run the Communist Party and the country. The records obtained by ICIJ show that relatives of at least five current or former members of this small circle have incorporated companies in the Cook Islands or British Virgin Islands.

China’s “red nobility” — elites tied by blood or marriage to the current leadership or Party elders — are also popularly known as “princelings.” Ordinary Chinese have grown increasingly angry over their vast wealth and what many see as the hypocrisy of officials who tout “people-first” ideals but look the other way while their families peddle power and influence for personal gain.

The leaked offshore records include details of a BVI company 50 percent owned by President Xi’s brother-in-law Deng Jiagui. The husband of Xi’s older sister, Deng is a multimillionaire real estate developer and an investor in metals used in cell phones and other electronics. The records show the other half of Excellence Effort Property Development was owned by yet another BVI company belonging to Li Wa and Li Xiaoping, property tycoons who made news in July by winning a $2 billion bid to purchase commercial real estate in Shenzhen.

Since taking over as the Communist Party’s top official in 2012, Xi has sought to burnish his image with an aggressive anti-graft campaign, promising to go after official corruption involving both low-level “flies” and high-level “tigers.” Yet he has crushed a grassroots movement that called for government officials to publicly declare their assets. Wen Jiabao, who stepped down as premier in 2013 after a decade-long tenure, also styled himself as a reformer, cultivating an image of grandfatherly concern for China’s poor.

The ICIJ offshore files reveal that Wen’s son Wen Yunsong set up a BVI-registered company, Trend Gold Consultants, with help from the Hong Kong office of Credit Suisse in 2006. Wen Yunsong was the lone director and shareholder of the firm, which appears to have been dissolved in 2008.

Bare-bones company structures are often created to open bank accounts in the offshore firm’s name, helping obscure the relationship to the real account owner. It isn’t immediately clear from the documents what Trend Gold Consultants was used for. A U.S.-educated venture capitalist, Wen Yunsong co-founded a China-focused private equity firm and in 2012 became chairman of China’s Satellite Communications Co., a state-owned firm that aspires to be Asia’s largest satellite operator.

ICIJ made repeated attempts to reach Wen Yunsong and other individuals named in this story. Only a few responded. Wen was among those who did not. Citing confidentiality rules, a Credit Suisse spokesman said the bank is “unable to comment on this matter.”

The ICIJ files also shed light on the BVI’s previously unreported role in a burgeoning scandal involving Wen Jiabao’s daughter, Wen Ruchun, also known as Lily Chang. The New York Times has reported that JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid a firm that she ran, Fullmark Consultants, $1.8 million in consulting fees. U.S. securities regulators are investigating the relationship as part of a probe into the bank’s alleged use of princelings to increase its influence in China.

Fullmark Consultants appears to have been set up in a manner that obscured Wen Ruchun’s relationship to the firm, the ICIJ files indicate. Her name does not show up in any of the incorporation documents in the ICIJ data, though a ‘Lily Chang’ is CC’d in one August, 2009 email correspondence about the company. Her husband Liu Chunhang, a former Morgan Stanley finance guru, created Fullmark Consultants in the BVI in 2004 and was the sole director and shareholder of the firm until 2006, the same year he took a government job at the agency that regulates China’s banking industry.

Liu transferred control of the company, the ICIJ files show, to a Wen family friend, Zhang Yuhong, a wealthy businesswoman and colleague of Wen Jiabao’s brother. The Times reported that Zhang also helped control other Wen family assets including diamond and jewelry ventures.  

The ICIJ files show that offshore provider Portcullis TrustNet billed UBS AG for a certificate of good standing for Fullmark Consultants in October 2005, indicating a business relationship between Fullmark and the Swiss bank. In response to ICIJ’s questions, UBS issued a statement saying its “know-your-client” policies as well as procedures to deal with politically-sensitive clients are among “the strictest in the industry.” Liu and Zhang did not respond to ICIJ’s requests for comment.

A 2007 U.S. Department of State cable passed along a source’s tip that Premier Wen was “disgusted with his family’s activities,” and that “Wen’s wife and children all have a reputation as people who can ‘get things done’ for the right price.” The cable, part of the Wikileaks document dump, reported that Wen’s kin “did not necessarily take bribes, [but] they are amenable to receiving exorbitant ‘consulting fees.’ ”

The records also include incorporations by relatives of Deng Xiaoping, former Premier Li Peng, and former President Hu Jintao.

China experts say that the growing wealth and business interests of the princelings, including offshore holdings, are a dangerous liability for the ruling Communist Party but that people in leadership positions are too involved to stop it.

“What’s the point of running the Communist Party if you can’t get a couple billion for your family?” said Steve Dickinson, a China-based American lawyer who has investigated fraud cases involving BVI companies. “The issue is enormous and has tremendous significance for China, and the fact that everybody dances around it and doesn’t want to talk about it is understandable but scandalous.” 

China embraces offshore

The story of China’s involvement with the offshore world begins with paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s deepening of economic reforms in the early 1990s. 

Laws reorganizing China’s economy drove many Chinese offshore because they were written with state-owned enterprises in mind, not fledgling ventures like the entrepreneur trying to “market the latest iPhone app,” according to Don Clarke, a China specialist at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C.

Western bankers, accountants and investors wary of doing business on strictly Chinese terms also pushed the offshore model.

“It was us, the foreigners, that imposed this,” said Rocky Lee, head of the Greater China corporate law practice of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. “It had to do with the foreign investors’ general discomfort with Chinese rules and regulations.”

Other factors — including tightened capital controls within China as a result of the 1990s Asian debt crisis — also nudged Chinese offshore. Many had flocked to Hong Kong, then still a British territory, to incorporate businesses. As the 1997 handover back to China approached, though, Hong Kong itself began to look risky and many companies sought more far-flung offshore destinations.

The British Virgin Islands became a favorite haven for Chinese wanting to move businesses and cash offshore.

China’s tax regime favored foreign investment, helping fuel the push to incorporate in the BVI and other offshore centers. Some Chinese manufacturers, for example, reduced their taxes by a maneuver known as “round-tripping” — setting up subsidiaries outside the country, then selling their products at low cost to the subsidiaries, allowing the parent companies to avoid taxes by showing little or no profits inside China. The offshore entities in turn resold the goods at profitable markup — then slipped the profits back to the parents as untaxed “foreign investment” from the BVI or Hong Kong.

Today 40 percent of the BVI’s offshore business comes from China and other Asian nations, according to BVI authorities.

Every corner of China’s economy, from oil to green energy and from mining to arms trading, appears in the ICIJ data

Frank Savage, the BVI’s governor from 1998 to 2002, says the islands helped cultivate the relationship by persuading Chinese authorities that they were a “well-regulated territory with a robust and sound legal system.”

Critics of the offshore system, though, see the BVI in a different light — as a “no-questions-asked” haven for shadowy dealings. Tax Justice Network, an advocacy group, says BVI offshore entities have been linked to “scandal after scandal after scandal” — the result of a corporate secrecy regime that creates an “effective carte blanche for BVI companies to hide and facilitate all manner of crimes and abuses.”

Among the important Chinese who went offshore in the late 1990s was Fu Liang, the son of Peng Zhen, one of the “Eight Elders” of the Communist Party and a top leader of the National People’s Congress in the 1980s.

Offshore Leaks records show Fu — who has invested in yachting clubs and golf courses on the mainland — controlled at least five offshore companies established in the BVI between 1997 and 2000. He used one of them, South Port Development Limited, to acquire a Philippines hotel in 2000.

TrustNet, the offshore services provider, helped Fu set up some of his offshore companies. By 2000, Trustnet was among the offshore services firms that were making an all-out drive to sign up clients from China, doing marketing meetings at the Shanghai offices of what were then known as the “Big 5” accounting firms: KPMG, Ernst & Young, Pricewaterhouse, Deloitte & Touche, and Arthur Andersen.

The audit firm now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers helped incorporate more than 400 offshore entities through TrustNet for clients from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the ICIJ records show. Swiss banking giant UBS helped set up more than 1,000 offshore structures via TrustNet for clients from those three markets.

UBS Hong Kong helped Yang Huiyan, China’s richest woman, with an estimated net worth of US$ 8.3 billion, establish a BVI company in 2006. Yang, who inherited a real estate fortune from her father, did not respond to questions about her offshore company, Joy House Enterprises Limited.

The following year the Swiss bank referred another Chinese real estate billionaire, Zhang Xin, to TrustNet. Zhang, founder of Soho China, a company that has reshaped much of the Beijing skyline, recently made headlines by buying a $26 million Manhattan townhouse.  Through a representative, Zhang declined to answer questions about her BVI company Commune Investment Ltd., a name similar to that of her exclusive boutique hotel outside Beijing, the Commune by the Great Wall.

Li Jinyuan, a business tycoon and philanthropist with a net worth estimated at $1.2 billion in 2011, was director of seven BVI companies that PricewaterhouseCoopers helped incorporate between 2004 and 2008. According to the ICIJ files, the BVI companies appear to be connected to his Tiens Group conglomerate, which has interests in biotechnology, tourism, e-commerce and real estate.

In a 2005 marketing memo marked “strictly private and confidential,” TrustNet staffers were encouraged to improve ties with Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. They courted Credit Suisse and UBS with wine and cheese sessions. On the mainland, where foreign banks were restricted, they took a different tack: “In Shanghai, we will target international law firms and accounting firms,” the 2005 memo says.

The marketing campaign paid off. The number of companies TrustNet set up for clients in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan tripled from 1,500 to 4,800 between 2003 and 2007.

The TrustNet clients who incorporated companies during this period include two current delegates to the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature.

Wei Jianghong, who represents Anhui province in the legislature while serving as chairman of state-owned Tongling Nonferrous Metals, was a director of Tong Guan Resources Holdings, a BVI company set up in 2006. Tongling used Tong Guan to invest $10 million in a $50 million copper processing project in Chile in 2007.

Another delegate with offshore holdings is Ma Huateng, the founder of China’s leading online chat company, Tencent. Ma is worth $10 billion and is ranked No. 5 on Forbes’ list of billionaires in China. In 2007, he became director of TCH Pi Limited in the BVI with fellow Tencent founder Zhang Zhidong.

A spokeswoman for Ma said TCH Pi is a Tencent company that “has nothing to do with [Ma or Zhang] personally,” but the firm doesn’t show up in Tencent corporate filings, and its purpose isn’t clear.

Profits and corruption

Things have changed dramatically for China since it first dipped its toe into the offshore world. The country is wealthier and offshore centers serve increasingly as channels not only for capital that “round-trips” out of the country and back again, but also for overseas investment and accessing markets for metals, minerals and other resources.

Defenders of China’s offshore push say the offshore system has helped boost the country’s economy.

“I think we should face the reality, which is that Chinese capital is flowing out. I think it’s actually a beneficial thing,” said Mei Xinyu, a researcher at China’s Commerce Ministry. “Of course I support the idea that a company should incorporate in its host country. But if the host country can’t provide the right environment, then incorporating the company in an offshore center is actually a practical choice.”

With markets in China often hamstrung by red tape and government intervention, incorporating offshore can smooth the way to do business, said William Vlcek, author of Offshore Finance and Small States: Sovereignty, Size and Money.

There’s also evidence, though, that many Chinese companies and individuals have used offshore entities to engage in illicit or illegal behavior.

In September Zhang Shuguang, a former high-level Chinese railway executive, pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the wake of allegations that he’d funneled $2.8 billion into offshore accounts. An internal government report released by the Bank of China revealed that public officials — including executives at state-owned companies — had embezzled more than $120 billion out of China since the mid-1980s, some of it funneled through the BVI.

Portcullis TrustNet helped state-run shipping giant Cosco incorporate a BVI company in 2000. Among the numerous directors of Cosco Information Technology Limited were current Cosco Group chairman Ma Zehua and Song Jun, an executive who would stand trial in 2011 for embezzlement and bribery. After Cosco sent Song to help oversee a Qingdao subsidiary in 2001, he set up a fake BVI joint venture partner and used it to siphon millions from the building of Qingdao’s gleaming Cosco Plaza, prosecutors said. State news service Xinhua said he embezzled $6 million, took $1 million in bribes from a Taiwanese business partner and purchased 37 apartments in Beijing, Tianjin and Qingdao with his ill-gotten earnings. His trial was adjourned but no verdict was publicly announced.

China’s corruption-plagued oil industry — which recently has been the target of criminal investigations that have led to the suspension of key oil executives — is a big player in the offshore world. China’s three big state-owned oil companies, which are counted among the largest companies in the world, are linked to dozens of BVI firms that show up in the ICIJ data.

Former PetroChina executive Li Hualin, who was dismissed in August after coming under investigation for alleged “serious violations of discipline”, often a party shorthand for corruption, was the director of two BVI companies, the ICIJ files reveal.

While some of these offshore firms are disclosed in corporate filings, several others linked to individual executives — including Zhang Bowen of PetroChina’s natural gas distribution arm Kunlun Energy and Yang Hua of China National Offshore Oil Corporation — appear to operate in the dark, and their purpose is not clear. PetroChina and CNOOC did not respond to ICIJ’s repeated requests for comment.

Other scandal-tainted Chinese who have used the BVI to do business include Huang Guangyu, once China’s richest man. The ICIJ records show that he and his wife Du Juan set up a maze of at least 31 BVI companies between 2001 and 2008 as they built the largest consumer electronics retail chain in China.

The husband, Huang, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2010 after Chinese courts convicted him of insider trading, bribery and stock price manipulation. Du Juan was convicted of related charges but was released from prison in 2010 after serving a brief time.

While Huang is in prison and many of his assets are frozen, his business empire survives through his offshore network of companies. In 2011, one of his BVI firms, Eagle Vantage Assets Management, made a bid for a retired British aircraft carrier that Huang wanted to turn into a luxury shopping mall (the Brits in the end decided to scrap the ship).

He still owns more than 30 percent of Gome, his electronics retailer, via two companies in the BVI, Shining Crown Holdings and Shine Group.

Offshore’s future

As concerns grow about the wealth of corporate oligarchs, government officials and their families, some Chinese have braved the government’s anger by raising questions about corruption.

A grassroots group, the New Citizens Movement, uses the Internet and small demonstrations to press for greater transparency. “How can you fight corruption if you don’t even dare to disclose your personal assets?” the group’s founder, legal advocate and activist Xu Zhiyong, wrote last spring.

The government’s response has been swift. It has arrested Xu and detained more than 20 other members of the group, indicting some for “disturbing public order” or “illegal assembly,” charges frequently used to silence dissidents.

The government has also cracked down on foreign media that have focused attention on the gap between wealth and poverty in China. After The New York Times and Bloomberg News reported on the onshore assets of China’s princelings, the government blocked their websites and delayed approving visas for their journalists.

After years of inaction, the U.S., the U.K. and international organizations have begun pushing reforms that, they say, would reduce offshore abuses. China has been less aggressive in pressing for changes in the offshore system.

Big loopholes in tax laws have allowed Chinese individuals to operate with relative freedom offshore. They weren’t required to report their foreign holdings.

“Chinese policy makers didn’t envision individuals absconding with that much money,” Lee, the Beijing-based corporate lawyer, said.

Now mainland authorities are moving to get a handle on the flow of private wealth offshore. New rules that went into effect Jan. 1 require Chinese to report their overseas assets.

How aggressively China joins global efforts to reshape the offshore system may have a big impact on the current push for reform. Just as China has become an increasingly important player in the global economy, it has also become more important as a supplier of clients to the market for offshore accounts and companies.

A 2013 industry-sponsored poll of 200-plus bankers and other offshore professionals found that “China-related demand” is the key driver in the offshore market’s growth. The chief of a BVI offshore services firm said in the survey: “China is the most important location for client origination for business in the next five years.”

Der PUTIN/KGB/STASI-Witz des Tages: “Old Habits Die Hard !”

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

“Es gibt kein Verbrechen, keinen Kniff, keinen Trick,
keinen Schwindel, kein Laster, das nicht von Geheimhaltung lebt.
Bringt diese Heimlichkeiten ans Tageslicht, beschreibt sie,
attacktiert sie, macht sie vor allen Augen lächerlich.
Und früher oder später wird die öffentliche Meinung sie hinwegfegen.
Bekannt machen allein genügt vielleicht nicht –
aber es ist das einzige Mittel, ohne das alle anderen Versagen…”
Joseph Pulitzer(1847-1911)

 

Der Journalistenmord an Putins Geburtstag

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Es ist ausgerechnet der Geburtstag des Präsidenten Putin, als in einem Moskauer Mietshaus der Mörder zuschlägt: Fünf Mal schießt er auf jene Frau, die es gewagt hatte, die Obrigkeit herauszufordern – mit Geschichten, die doch nur eine Seite ihres Landes beschreiben.

Putin beim Judo-Training. Putin beim Judo-Training.(Foto: picture-alliance/ dpa/dpaweb)

Es sind Geschichten der Willkür, der Korruption, der Brutalität. Sie handeln von Menschen wie dem ehemaligen Elektriker Wladimir Smola, der seit einem Bombenangriff auf sein Haus auf einem Massengrab lebt und den Verstand verloren hat. Oder von dem 17-jährigen Anton Berdnikow, der schwer verletzt wurde, als ihn Omon-Kräfte abschleppten und in einem Keller zusammenschlugen.

Bilderserie

Über all dies schrieb Anna Politkowskaja bei der kremlkritischen Moskauer Zeitung “Nowaja Gazeta” – und es sollte sie das Leben kosten. Vor genau fünf Jahren, am 54. Geburtstag des damaligen Präsidenten , schoss sie ein Mörder im Treppenhauses ihres Hauses mit fünf Kugeln nieder, .

Politkowskaja, die im Westen vielfach ausgezeichnete Journalistin, hatte sich ein Vergehen zuschulden kommen lassen: Sie wollte nicht schweigen. Trotz wiederholter Morddrohungen und einem Giftanschlag, trotz steter Anfeindungen durch die Behörden schrieb sie immer wieder eindringlich über die Missstände in Russland, über die Hölle des Tschetschenienkrieges, über Gewaltorgien der russischen Miliz und über Städte, die es eigentlich nicht gibt. Nun sind ihre letzten Reportagen erstmals auf Deutsch erschienen in dem Buch “Die Freiheit des Wortes. Letzte Berichte aus einem gefährdeten Land.”

Generäle verdienen an Särgen

Ramsan Kadyrow nannte Poltikowskaja eine Feindin, die dafür bezahlen werde. Ramsan Kadyrow nannte Poltikowskaja eine Feindin, die dafür bezahlen werde.(Foto: picture-alliance/ dpa)

Während das Russland unter dem Ex-Geheimdienstler Putin vom Westen hofiert wurde, schaute sie auf die andere Seite des Riesenreichs. Über Jahre bereiste sie Tschetschenien und sprach mit den Opfern des dortigen Krieges, die ausgebombt und bedroht ihr Dasein fristeten. Auch die Profiteure des Terrors beschrieb sie: Ölbarone, die prächtig von illegalen Bohrlöchern auf den “Wunderfeldern” leben, und Moskauer Generäle, die an jedem Sarg aus dem Kaukasus verdienen. Als sie einen der größten Kriegsgewinnler, , besuchte, war sie froh, mit dem Leben davonzukommen. Ihr Interview mit Tschetscheniens Herrscher von Putins Gnaden in dessen geschmackloser Festung, in der jedes Möbelstück mit Preisschildern bestückt war, gehört zu den gruseligsten Schilderungen in dem nun veröffentlichten Band.

Doch Politkowskaja schrieb nicht nur über das Chaos im Kaukasus. Vielmehr prangerte sie Missstände aller Art an, sei es im Gesundheitssystem, in Waisenhäusern oder sogenannten Filtrationspunkten, in denen die Miliz zu “Spezialmaßnahmen” gegen Oppositionelle griff. Mit klaren Worten geißelte sie das “System Putin”: “Das Land lässt sich aufs Neue von Menschen lenken, die allein in Kategorien der Provokation denken können”, heißt es in einem ihrer Artikel. Für sie gibt es ein Russland der bewaffneten uniformierten Sicherheitskräfte, die “mit der Macht verwachsen” sind. Und: alle Übrigen. Unausweichlich laufe alles auf den Zusammenstoß der zwei Welten hinaus. “Dann ist nur eins von beidem möglich. Entweder weichen wir vor ihnen zurück und sie kröpfen uns. Oder wir zwingen sie, nach unseren Regeln zu leben. Eine dritte Variante gibt es nicht.”

Anna Politkowskaja wich nicht zurück. Doch anderthalb Jahre, nachdem sie dies geschrieben hatte, fand eine Nachbarin sie ermordet im Hausflur. Mit ihr wurde eine der der raren kritischen Stimmen, die in Russland beharrlich gegen Putin und die Bande der Geheimdienstler aufbegehrten, zum Schweigen gebracht. Ihre Botschaft aber bleibt – ebenso wie ihre Artikel, die kaum etwas von ihrer Aktualität eingebüßt haben.

 

Quelle: NTV

Glenn Greenwald – Wie die Cyber-STASI das Internet zur Reputations-Zerstörung einsetzt

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations

 

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/

Putin, KGB, Warnig, STASI und die STASI Seilschaften in Wirtschaft/Medien wie wohl “GoMoPa”

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Nachfolgend eine vertrauliche Info eines Informanten zu den geheimen Verbindungen zwischen Putin, seinem STASI-Busenfreund Warnig alias “Arthur”, Gazprom, Northstream und STASI-Seilschaften wie wohl “GoMoPa” und deren aktuelle Agenten und IM.

 

The new Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian metal giant UC Rusal is German Matthias Warnig. He was elected unanimously on October 1, although he has been in the management of the company only since June 15. This candidature was proposed by Oleg Deripaska, and this nomination has been won by the oligarch in his conflict with minority shareholders Viktor Vekselberg and Leonard Blavatnik. The position of chairman in UC Rusal is the next in the business career of the German in Russia. Warnig is also the managing director of Nord Stream, the chairman of the board of directors in Transneft, the monopolist operator of Russian oil pipelines, he also serves in the boards of oil giant Rosneft, VTB Bank and Bank Rossiya (whose owners are close friends of Putin, notably with Yuri Kovalchuk). Warnig is also the head of Gazprom Schweiz, which imports gas from Central Asia in which function the company has replaced scandalous RosUkrEnergo. The main task of Warnig in UC Rusal will be to mediate in shareholders’ conflict and inform Putin about the situation in the strategic company.

Who is Matthias Warnig? The German newspapers “Stern” and “Focus” and also “The Wall Street Journal” reported that he had been an intelligence operative for the East Germany’s Ministry for State Security. The former Stasi man was employed in – to use his own words – “industrial espionage.” He was also active in Dresden in 1989. Then he met young KGB officer Vladimir Putin.

According to his declassified Stasi file, Warnig had codename “Arthur” and he began working for the GDR Ministry for State Security in 1974. Warnig was a member of the Stasi Felix Dzherzhinsky brigade and attended its intelligence school. He rapidly rose in the ranks of intelligence and was awarded a number of medals for his services. The file shows that on October 7, 1989 Warnig was awarded 9 gold medals by Erich Fritz Emil Mielke, the head of Stasi. By this time his rank was that of Captain. What did he do to deserve so many decorations? The files list a number of targets “Arthur” was assigned to spy upon. The report he submitted in May, 1987 contains documents about the energy business in West Germany. In other report dated December, 1987 he analyses the policies of business management in the West. The others targets were biotech research in the West, computer technology and many other reports mainly dealing with industrial espionage.

The most important point in Warnig’s career, however, was a meeting with KGB Lieutenant-Colonel Vladimir Putin in Dresden. According to German press reports, the two men were allegedly collaborating on recruiting West German citizens to work for the KGB, according to Warnig’s former colleagues. Warnig has denied this allegation.

Close relationship with Putin has proved to be the key for future career of the German officer. Warnig eventually became the head of the Russian division of Dresdner Bank. After that, the Moscow office of Dresdner Bank enjoyed a lucrative contract with Gazprom and Rosneft. In 2004-05, the bank played important role in destroying Khodorkovsky’s business empire. Dresdner Bank advised on the Rosneft-Yukos “merger”. It also lent Rosneft money to secure its stake in the Siberian production arm of Yukos –Yuganskneftegaz – reported “The Independent” on January 1, 2005. Nowadays Warnig serves as a Northstream high rank office, a Gazprom VIP. There are hidden links to the infamous STASI network of Gomopa as well as to it’s suspected agents in media and finance industry.

The Moscow Times über Putin, KGB und STASI-Verflechtungen

Become a Patron!
True Information is the most valuable resource and we ask you to give back.

Stasi Files Shed Light on Putin’s KGB Past

Unknown

DRESDEN, Germany — The East German secret police had a favor to ask of their KGB comrades: Could the Soviet Union recruit a man who lived next to a German Communist Party guesthouse in Dresden and ask him to spy on visitors there?

“Comrade V.V. Putin to accomplish this,” a Soviet official scribbled by hand on the secret 1987 letter from the Stasi, referring to KGB agent, now president, Vladimir Putin.

Later, another Russian note suggested the recruitment did not go ahead: “To be returned, unaccomplished.”

Whether Putin failed or whether his KGB bosses later simply refused the mission is unclear. Another handwritten Russian note says curtly the document is to be destroyed: Unichtozhit.

Yet the letter survived. It was one of hundreds of pages of previously unpublished documents obtained by Reuters on KGB-Stasi activities in the Dresden area from Germany’s vast archives of Stasi material. They cover 1984 to 1990, when Major Putin was a junior member of a small team of 10 to 15 KGB agents in Dresden, East Germany.

In keeping with the protocol of the times, the letters are mostly between the top Stasi and KGB officials, and Putin is rarely mentioned by name. But the documents give insight to the cloak-and-dagger world where he lived much of his adult life.

No Dial Tone

One rare instance when Putin himself wrote to the local Stasi head, General-Major Horst B?hm, concerned a KGB informant who worked in East Germany’s state wholesale trade enterprise.

The man’s “telephone connection was mistakenly cut off in March 1989,” Putin wrote, seeking to fix the problem.

“Considering that our informant was a former member of the police who support us, the People’s Police headquarters applied to the post office to get a phone line,” he wrote. “Nonetheless, there are still problems in solving this.”

Subsequent notes show the phone line was installed days later, lightning speed in a country where it could take years or even a lifetime to get a telephone.

The informant’s name and why he was of interest to Putin remain a mystery. The name is blacked out in the document, which was obtained under German freedom of information rules from the agency overseeing the Stasi archives.

Brotherly Tensions

The files also reveal tensions between Putin’s office and the Stasi, especially when the KGB tried to recruit Stasi agents without their bosses knowing.

In one 1989 instance, two plain-clothes Soviet agents sought to recruit a German Stasi informant working at the Hotel Bellevue, then the baroque Saxon city’s top hotel and a magnet for important foreign visitors. The KGB agents deceived the man into believing that the Stasi knew about their recruiting effort.

“I am asking that no further talks and measures with people who are actively working for us be undertaken,” B?hm wrote in a stiff complaint to Putin’s boss, KGB General Vladimir Shirokov. “It is not possible for GDR [East German] citizens, as planned reservists for the People’s Army, to receive official training from Soviet military intelligence for wireless communications.”

The files do not tie Putin to the incident, but they were issued in response to a request for documents on the Russian president and on KGB activities in Dresden during his time as an agent there. Intelligence experts said recruiting of agents was a central focus of Putin’s work in the small KGB branch office.

“In each district of East Germany there were small groups of KGB agents, usually led by a general,” said former Stasi foreign intelligence chief Markus Wolf, who did not know Putin.

“They comprised 10 to 20 staff who had contacts with the local State Security [Stasi] administration and also [Stasi] Department 15 on operations targeted at the West.

“They also had a few people who had the task of working against the West. Putin presumably worked only with informants inside the GDR, probably scientists, teachers and so on.”

Horst Jehmlich, the top assistant to B?hm in Dresden, said that Putin’s local efforts were part of the East-West struggle.

“His activities were directed against the West, gathering information about the economy, politics and the military,” Jehmlich said last year. “He came to us when he needed a connection to a business or to a factory or to police.”

Occasionally, Putin did rise above anonymity. In February 1988, the file shows, Stasi boss Erich Mielke signed a decree awarding him a bronze National People’s Army service medal.

Mielke said the medal was “in recognition and appreciation of your service in the struggle for peace, in defense of our socialist homeland and proletarian internationalism in years of fraternal cooperation between the GDR’s Chekists [secret police] and the Soviet security organs against the common enemy.”

Nice language perhaps. But most of the 37 other Soviet agents named that day received higher-ranking gold and silver honors.

‘Brothers in Arms’

A year before, according to the file, Putin was one of 13 KGB agents at the festive “Brothers in Arms” ball at Stasi headquarters, close to the Dresden apartment he shared with wife Lyudmila, to mark the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution.

B?hm took a somber tone in his address that evening, as a copy of his secret speech, preserved in Putin’s Stasi file, shows.

“To implement a long-term policy of intensive rearmament and confrontation, the imperialist [Western] secret services have stepped up their activities to obtain any information that is or might be significant for further action against the GDR and the other socialist states,” he said.

“Just on the eve of this jubilee, a spy for the U.S. secret service, resident in Dresden, was uncovered and arrested,” B?hm told Putin and the other spies present. “The information obtained by this spy clearly served the planning and preparation of a military first strike.”

Whereas Putin was soon to make a rapid ascent in Russian political life after leaving Dresden, B?hm, the ruggedly handsome embodiment of Stasi power, would have a different fate. In 1990, apparently distraught at the collapse of East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he took his own life.

Yet all that was far in the future and unimaginable on that festive evening on the banks of the Elbe.

Putin, whose fluent command of German impressed many of his Stasi counterparts and has opened doors for him more recently with German Chancellor Gerhard Schr?der, was awarded a gold medal of honor from the German-Soviet Friendship Society, and then the secret agents drank a toast of Soviet brandy.

Dancing continued past midnight.

“Alcohol was standard at such events as we tried to make conversation easier to learn things from the Soviets,” Thomas Mueller, a Stasi agent in Dresden who knew Putin, recollected in an interview this month. “At the same time, they were trying to find out things from us.”

Hostility to Troops

But Mueller said that despite the attempts at good cheer, there were often difficulties in relations officially — and even in internal Stasi documents — called “fraternal.”

“There were tensions, as there are in any family,” he said at his home in Dresden, where he is now unemployed.

The Stasi files chronicle a series of East German complaints about the behavior of Soviet soldiers in the Dresden area, part of the huge occupying army there since the end of World War II.

Experts say Putin’s lack of traces in the Stasi files show that he was a successful spy.

The files record that one soldier sold a grenade for 30 Deutsche marks, others sold pornography or blue jeans, often to get money for vodka. Soldiers stole vegetables from private gardens. One broke a store window to take chocolate Easter bunnies.

Quite what was the connection to Putin himself is not clear, though former officials say the regional KGB office would have dealt with frictions between Soviet troops and local police.

“There is a strained relationship between some of the public and members of the Soviet military,” B?hm wrote to the KGB in a blunt 1986 letter after a series of thefts and rowdy incidents. “In connection with the use of alcohol, there is the danger of uncontrolled behavior and outbreaks of violence.”

Sometimes the Soviet soldiers took more drastic action. In 1986, three Soviet soldiers escaped to West Germany, setting off a full-scale search and investigation, the Stasi file shows.

On another occasion, the arrival of a Soviet troop transport train in 1989 set off a near-riot when youths leaving a disco jeered at the soldiers, some of whom then raised their rifles.

The end result was a Stasi request, just months before the fall of the Berlin Wall was to change life forever, to ban big troop transports when German crowds were likely to be around.

All these episodes are in the Putin-related file prepared by the German government, but he is named in only a few documents.

Sometimes the files between the East bloc’s two great spy agencies, in retrospect at least, are somewhat comical. One long series of letters on file seeks contact details for a man in West Germany and ends when a Stasi officer writes to say he has finally tracked him down — in the West Berlin phone book.

In a 1988 case, the KGB asks the Stasi to accommodate three visiting KGB officials free of charge because the seemingly all-powerful Soviet agency was low on funds. Another time, the KGB asked the Stasi to provide 1,200 free tickets for soldiers to watch Dynamo Dresden play visiting Spartak Moscow at soccer.

But many documents are deadly serious, even during a time of improved East-West relations in the Mikhail Gorbachev glasnost era.

Ahead of the arrival of U.S. officials implementing the latest arms control agreements, the Stasi and KGB sprang into action to assure that the visitors’ rooms and telephones would be bugged and a series of informants were put on alert.

Bungled Final Mission

The released Stasi files do not detail Putin’s last major mission in Dresden after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, that of recruiting a ring of agents to continue to spy for Moscow after the coming reunification of East Germany with the West.

Johannes Legner, former spokesman for the agency overseeing the Stasi files, said the spy ring collapsed after one of the recruits from the Stasi went over to West German counterintelligence, the BND. Soon after, in 1990, Putin quietly returned home. Within a decade he was in the Kremlin.

Since becoming president more than a year ago, Putin has shown his continued faith in the KGB, where he worked for 16 years. He has named a former KGB man who served in East Germany as his foreign intelligence director, and the steely head of his national Security Council, Sergei Ivanov, is a key adviser.

Experts say Putin’s lack of clear footprints in Dresden and in the Stasi files itself is a sign he was successful spy.

“In espionage, you want to know everything about the outside world without drawing attention to yourself,” ex-Stasi officer Mueller said. “One should not reveal much of one’s personality, lest it reveal weaknesses that should be kept in the dark.”