Crooks Again

[Wor111]

Gaydamak unlikely to return to Israel for fear of France extradition.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124180.html

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull


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Arrest warrant issued for alleged Ponzi schemer. October 28, 2009.

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) -- An arrest warrant was issued for a Jewish South African businessman who is alleged to have duped investors in a Ponzi scheme.

Barry Tannenbaum is alleged to have defrauded investors out of $1.61 billion. ...

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/10/28/ ... zi-schemer

[Wor111]

We're all Gaydamak. (Snips)

It's hard to think of anyone more than the fugitive from Moscow who better represents Israelis' hidden aspirations and the way our country and society operates.

Gaydamak was sentenced in absentia in Paris to six years in prison for illegal arms trafficking. He made most of his money from the brutal civil wars in Angola and the Congo, where he recruited two former heads of the Mossad and retired officers from the Israel Defense Forces. But it's not just this dubious Israeli partnership that paints Gaydamak blue and white. Respectable Israel is also a huge weapons exporter, the fourth largest in the world, and sells its wares to anyone who can afford them without any discrimination based on morals or form of government.

Gaydamak thought he could fool everyone all the time. Israel does too. We drag out the occupation, cover up what happened in Gaza, hide what happened in the Second Lebanon War, build more and more in the settlements, deceive everyone forever. But just as with Gaydamak, it can't work all the time and doesn't fool everyone. The world is starting to ask questions and lose its patience. We have already been tried in absentia.

We fell in love with him immediately. Why? Because he fulfilled what most of us dream of: Making lots of fast money, whatever its source, and showing it off to everybody. A yacht from Angolan blood money, a mansion in Caesarea from his dubious Russian deals.

Who doesn't dream about all that? In a country where only power and money talk, Gaydamak was a welcome guest and focus of admiration. We also loved his display of wealth; worshipping the wealthy has long become a ritual. Open the (too) numerous business newspapers and see who the real cultural heroes are, our wealthy lords. Gaydamak was one of them.

He fulfilled another secret dream of many: He had dual citizenship, Israeli and French. Between you and me, who doesn't want a second passport? He also won our hearts with his ostentatious demonstrations of charity. A tent city on the banks of the Yarkon River, an instant city for refugees in Nitzanim. Our "give me" culture loved it. It also loves pouring huge sums into sports and its vanities. That's what Gaydamak did. He bought Beitar Jerusalem and was a king for a moment. ....

The French court put an end to all that. The dream shattered and the hero who not long ago was mentioned in the polls for prime minister has turned into a fugitive from justice. It seems Israel will also need such outside intervention to be healed and redeemed. Until then, goodbye Arcadi, see you soon Gaydamak, and prepare for the next national hero.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124455.html

[Wor111]

Israel was all too willing to sell out for Gaydamak's billions. (Snips)

.... Gaydamak is not the only Jewish tycoon in recent years who tried to change the course of Israeli politics and society by force of his money. Casino owner Sheldon Adelson has poured millions into a new free newspaper, Yisrael Hayom, currently the second-highest circulation paper in the country, with a singular agenda - pushing Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister and, once there, keeping him in power. Angolan diamond dealer Lev Leviev, by offering free teaching assistants, managed to get secular primary schools around the country to teach a Lubavitch-inspired Orthodox curriculum of Jewish studies. Israelis woke up to the threat Leviev posed to them only recently, when his real estate empire went into free fall. The pensions of millions, which had been recklessly invested in his bonds, are now in jeopardy.

But it is not just the financial risk, or the still greater PR damage caused to Israel in the years that it harbored a criminal wanted by Interpol; the ease with which these billionaires have been allowed to acquire influence is a sign of a sick society, ready to sell out its values for a fistful of funny money.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124666.html


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Criminals allegedly tried to hack sports betting computers. (Snips)

... The aim of the criminal organization in question, which was later identified by the police as the one headed by Ze'ev Rosenstein, was to tap into a database of some 400,000 subscribers to the Toto lottery, which is managed by the Betting Council, and access their names and addresses as they were relayed to the mainframe computer. The program the criminals had prepared would have allowed them to threaten the subscribers or obtain their winnings by other means. ...

The Betting Council says that over the past three years, there have been at least four instances in which individuals won large sums of money that were then taken by criminals who are well known to police. ...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124681.html


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UN report: Israeli company dealing in 'blood diamonds' from Ivory Coast. (Snips)

.... Blood diamonds are stones whose trade supports rebels in civil wars against legal governments, wars whose victims are hapless civilians. Israel is a senior member of the Kimberly Process, meant to eliminate the trade in blood diamonds, which flourished in Africa in the 1990s. Since the Kimberly Process was instituted, each diamond now receives a document attesting to its legitimate origin. Nonetheless, the process has not completely eliminated trade in blood diamonds, which account for about four percent of world diamond sales. ...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124668.html


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U.S. court: Would-be Israel spy to remain in jail before trial. (Snips)

.... A judge on Thursday ordered a U.S. space exploration scientist suspected of passing classified information to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer to stay behind bars. ...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124602.html

[Wor111]

Ethics Committee looked into Harman flap.

WASHINGTON (JTA) --- The U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee reportedly subpoenaed law enforcement agencies for intercepted communications between U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and a suspected "Israeli agent." ....

The "agent" allegedly agreed to help Harman secure her continued leadership on the Intelligence Committee ...

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/10/29/ ... arman-flap

[Wor111]

Aussie businessman accused of fraud flees home. -- November 11, 2009

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) -- A Jewish businessman accused of defrauding investors of $1.7 billion reportedly has left his home in Sydney fearing for his safety.

South African-born Barry Tannenbaum has “relocated to what he perceives to be a safer location,” ...

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/11/11/ ... flees-home

[Wor111]

Man who made billions off Madoff scheme wills fortune to (Zionist?) charity.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1127418.html

[Wor111]

Rubashkin convicted on 86 charges. November 12, 2009

(JTA) -- A jury convicted Sholom Rubashkin, the former owner of an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse, of 86 out of 91 fraud charges.

The 12-person jury decision on Thursday in Sioux Falls, S.D. likely means that Rubashkin, 50, will spend the rest of his life in prison; ....

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/11/12/ ... 86-charges

[Wor111]

Israelis in Florida fall victim to fraud scheme

Jewish lawyer Scott Rothstein suspected of running Ponzi scheme to tune of $1 billion.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 97,00.html

[Wor111]

G.A.’s Savior Is the Russian Oligarch ‘Who Got Away’.

... Nevzlin, 50, erasing his past as a Russian oligarch who just narrowly escaped jail, convicted in absentia last year in a Moscow courtroom to life in prison for ordering the murder of five people. A recent article about him in Forbes magazine — which estimated his wealth in 2004 to be $2 billion — was headlined, “The One Who Got Away.”

Israel, which has refused repeated attempts to extradite him to Russia ....

Now, with a very visible onstage handshake with the Israeli prime minister and a visit with President Obama at the White House as one of 50 invited guests during the G.A., Nevzlin is effectively positioning himself to become a philanthropic force in the United States, as well. ...

http://www.forward.com/articles/119191/


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Merkin Seen as Enabler for Madoff

J. Ezra Merkin, the scion of a prominent family known for its generous support of Modern Orthodoxy, has emerged as a key link between a constellation of Orthodox institutions and Bernard Madoff, the Jewish financier now under house arrest for masterminding an alleged $50 billion fraud. ...

http://www.forward.com/articles/14749/


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Solomon Dwek: The Rabbi's Son at the Center of the Corruption Probe.

No one could have predicted Solomon Dwek’s spectacular second act. Dwek, the son of a prominent Syrian rabbi, was disgraced in 2006 after bouncing a check for $25 million. He was charged with bank fraud and forced into bankruptcy after his real-estate business went bust. ...

http://www.forward.com/articles/110612/

[Wor111]

Israelis prominent in online illegal drug sales. (Snips)

Israelis and former Israelis are behind many of the world's Internet sites that sell counterfeit or other illegal drugs involved in pharmaceutical crimes, providing useless or dangerous products to people who think they are getting the real thing. ....

Illegal factories abroad and in Israel almost always function in very unsanitary conditions ...

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