Canadian cops collected cocaine, 47 guns, 18 vehicles and black-market Viagra, and arrested 27 people after pre-dawn raids across the greater
“We are shocked by the extent of the criminal enterprise that we have uncovered in this investigation,”
The case began two years ago, when
Since various doings in
But
In recent months, the European Commission froze funding for all EU aid programs that started running before
In a recent interview with the Dnevnik daily, EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Danuta Huebner said that the government's handling of the road fund issues "will be a test for
(Deputy PM Meglena) Plugchieva, who was appointed in April to coordinate the distribution of EU funds, said the decision Wednesday to suspend the projects was "a result of the self-control measures undertaken by the government."
In an enormous overhaul of its judiciary, Mexico will allow public, adversarial-style trials, and prosecutors will be able to hold organized crime suspects for 80 days without charge. Suspects will also be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Instead of judges behind closed doors ruling guilt or innocence based on written evidence, the constitutional reforms, signed by President Felipe Calderon last week, foresee lawyers arguing it out in public court. But it’s not clear when the law will come into effect throughout the country: courts have until 2016 to implement the statute.
Egardo Buscaglia, an adviser to the United Nations and an academic at Mexico's Autonomous Technological Institute, paints a catastrophic scenario if Mr. Calderon does not begin an unprecedented crusade against narcotics links to legal business and politics.
“Unless this happens, the organized groups simply allocate more money to corruption and violence in order to protect themselves,” says the analyst, who points out that in a business worth tens of billions of dollars a year, they can afford to. “What then happens is their networks expand both vertically and horizontally.”
Just how high up corruption has already gone was laid bare by the assassination in Mexico City in May of Edgar Millan, the operational brains behind some of the offensive's biggest arrests. Mr. Millan was killed as he entered his parents' apartment building by a hit man who not only knew the police chief's top secret movements in advance, but also had a copy of the key.
Mortgage Fraud Crackdown
Here in the
That money is about the same amount -- $1 billion – that homeowners and other borrowers in the
The scams are varied. One
Obviously the arrests of these tricksters are to be applauded. But one blog on Retail Banking Strategies, despite its yawn-inducing name, had some pointed and intelligent things to say about who’s really to blame in these fraud cases:
All the elements you’ve heard about in the worst cases of fraud were there: straw buyers, collusion by appraisers, false documents from compliant CPAs, etc. But, as bankers, what really struck us was how easy the scheme was to detect — and yet the lending banks, including some of the largest and best respected in the country, were so obviously negligent in performing even the simplest due diligence that it seemed at times they were virtual co-conspirators.
Just one example: a dummied up paystub from an out of town corporation would have been easily detected by a telephone search (no listing), web search (not there) or check of business licenses (never heard of them). Yet a leading bank welcomed this newcomer, gave them a multi-million dollar mortgage based on an artificially inflated appraisal, and then a home equity loan for almost all the remaining (non-existent) value. And with the bona fides established by one bank, these fraudsters went to another financial institution, showed their first month’s bank statement from the competition (entirely composed of proceeds from the no-equity home equity loan), and had these new bankers virtually fall over themselves offering even more loan services in order to win the relationship from the competition. Then they went to another bank….well, you get the picture. And this is just one of the inventive schemes we uncovered.
Corruption Round-up
In “who will police the police” news, two high-ranking Russians in the country’s organized crime and terrorism taskforce have themselves been arrested on suspicion of extorting €1.5 million from a bank vice-president. Major Dmitry Tselyakov and Major Alexander Nosenko were arrested earlier this month for allegedly extorting the money through Lithuanian intermediaries from Pyotr Chuvilin, vice-president of Incredbank and general director of the Spartak football club. Officials told the press that the charges were related to the two majors’ former jobs, when both men worked in the
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will end up in court on corruption charges after all, though last week his allies had tried to get the case thrown out. Berlusconi is accused of paying his co-defendant, British lawyer David Mills, at least $600,000 in 1997 in exchange for false testimony in two Berlusconi trials in the 1990s. Both men deny the charges. The judge on the case has continued to hold hearings, though Berlusconi has requested to have the judge removed on grounds of political bias. But there’s more going on: Berlusconi’s friends in the Senate last week approved an amendment mandating that trials for alleged crimes committed before mid-2002 be suspended for a year. Most lawmakers in the center-left opposition walked out of the session; leading center-left figure Emma Bonino called the decisions a “dark page in the history of the republic.” Berlusconi said it was needed to ease the pressure on a clogged judiciary, which can take years to complete a trial.
A head of a state-run Chinese bank is under investigation for corruption, reports AP. The China Development Bank stated in a report for a financial daily that the bank’s vice-president, Wang Yi, had been detained and subject to a probe by the Communist Party and its judicial departments. Little else is known about the case, as the bank’s statement only made mention of “Comrade Wang Yi’s severe disciplinary violations,” which the press reported as a Chinese code phrase for alleged corruption. China also fired a dozen officials for dereliction of duty and misuse of earthquake relief on Monday, and gave administrative reprimands to 43 local officials for their behavior in the wake of the May 12 earthquake in
Canada Busts Guns-for-drugs Ring
Published: 26 June 2008
By Beth