MAPPING THE COVERT CONNECTIONS

To appreciate the subtleties of how the diversion of this particular “portal” into Project Hammer may have occurred, it is instructive to look at the connections and associations of the principal players.[24]

Ecoban: In addition to Ecoban Limited in London, there was the affiliated Ecoban Finance Limited that conducted business out of an address on Third Avenue in New York City. A one time President and CEO of Ecoban Finance Limited in New York was Jim Demitrieus who more recently was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Ixnet/IPC which was acquired by Global Crossing in June 2000. Global Crossing was one of the US firms that recently suffered a spectacular collapse together with Worldcom, Enron and the accountancy firm Arthur Andersen. All were subjected to a welter of media attention for what was believed to have been unparalleled insider trading activities by senior executives.

Earlier in his career, Demitrieus “served as senior vice president and chief operating officer of the Commodity Division of Drexel Burnham Lambert, Inc. responsible for the precious metals, energy products, foreign exchange trading subsidiary and institutional brokerage division.” Of interest here is the little known fact that Drexel, Burnham, Lambert, New York, was a recipient of gold bullion from Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in January 1984. It is not clear from Mr. Demitrieus’ available Vitae if this was the same time period he was the senior vice president of Drexel’s bullion business, but I am informed this is probably the case. Before that, Demitrieus“ held senior level financial positions with Freeport McMoRan, ITT and Arthur Andersen.”[25]

Significantly, Freeport McMoRan, back in the days when it was Freeport Sulphur, positively heaved with CIA and elite heavy-hitters - not to mention persistent whispers of its involvement in the recovery of plundered gold stashed in Indonesia where Freeport had the largest copper minin included such luminaries as Augustus “Gus” Long, the chairman of Texaco who has “done prodigious volunteer work for Columbia Presbyterian Hospital" – which has been described as a “hotbed of CIA activity.”[26] Meanwhile, perhaps one of the best-known directors was Dr. Henry Kissinger, who was appointed to the board in 1995.

Another director was Robert Lovett, who has been described as a “Cold War architect” and had been an executive at the old Wall Street bank of Brown Brothers Harriman. He also served as Undersecretary of State, Assistant Secretary of War, and Secretary of Defence. He was a best friend of Chase Manhattan Bank Chairman (and Warren Commissioner), John J McCloy.

The Chase Manhattan and Citibank connection (note these are the exact same two banks that were to issue the Project Hammer documentary letters of credit) to Freeport was further enhanced by the board appointment of Godfrey Rockefeller - brother of James Stillman Rockefeller who was appointed Chairman of Citibank (then known as First National City Bank or FNCB for short) in 1959. Godfrey Rockefeller was a one-time trustee of the Fairfield Foundation that financed a variety of CIA “fronts.” Meanwhile, Stillman’s cousin, David Rockefeller, was chairman of Chase Manhattan and regarded as the “goliath of American banking.”[27]

By a strange coincidence of fate it was Robert Lovett and John J McCloy, who together with Robert B. Anderson, formed Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson’s team of financial experts concerned with tracking WWII gold looted by the Axis powers. Indeed, Lovett and McCloy were responsible for negotiating the secret agreement hidden behind the Bretton Woods Agreement concerning the establishment of the “Black Eagle Trust” that was to make use of plundered WWII bullion in the post war years.[28]

As connections go, there can be few that dovetail in to this story so comprehensively as that of the late David Alexander Harrison III – a lawyer, investment banker and philanthropist, who died in June 2002. Twelve days after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbour, Harrison signed up for military service and served on General Douglas MacArthur’s staff in the Philippines. Reaching the rank of captain, he was discharged in August 1944. He began his business career at Freeport Sulphur Co, in New York and in 1947, joined the law firm of White & Case in New York City, where he practised corporate law. In 1961, he joined the Wall Street investment bank of Reynolds & Co - which later became part of Morgan Stanley – where he was made a partner.[29]

Earlier, we noted that General Edward Lansdale, a CIA (and formerly OSS) operative had been strongly linked to the 1963 assassination of President John Kennedy. He was also a key player in the Black Eagle gold trust. We also observed that Colonel Henry Crown, of the Empire State Building, also had links to Lee Harvey Oswald, who is officially held responsible – as the “lone gunman” - for JFK’s murder. Crown is also further linked to the Black Eagle gold trust. These two unusual “associations” - black gold and the JFK assassination - likewise extend to Freeport Sulphur (now Freeport McMoRan).

According to the JFK assassination investigation files of New Orleans District Attorney, Jim Garrison, Freeport Sulpher’s then Vice President, Charles A. Wight, flew to Cuba to set up an import deal for Cuba’s Nickel ore to a Canadian front corporation. Accompanying Wight on this flight was Clay Shaw, suspected by Garrison to have been the key figure in Kennedy’s slaying. Piloting the Freeport Sulphur aircraft was David Ferrie – a CIA contract agent and also a key Garrison suspect.[30] David Ferrie meanwhile, frequently piloted aircraft carrying narcotics and was, as early as 1957, a paymaster to Barry Adler Seal - who would later become the biggest drug smuggler in American history. Ferrie was also a mentor to Lee Harvey Oswald.[31]

Prior to his appointment to the Freeport Sulphur board of directors, and chairman of its Executive Committee, Charles Wight was a Vice President of the Bankers Trust Company.[32] Wight plainly was a significant player in a number of events, including apparently, an assassination plan of a head of state. A Garrison memo noted an interview he had conducted with a James J. Plaine of Houston, Texas, in which Plaine said was contacted by Freeport Sulphur’s Mr. White (later identified as Charles Wight), regarding a possible assassination plan for Cuba’s Fidel Castro.[33] Fidel today, Jack Kennedy tomorrow perhaps?

Freeport Sulphur was, in fact, an enclave of the fabulously wealthy Whitney family, and John Hay “Jock” Whitney, the heir to the family fortune, had significant ties to both the OSS and the CIA. During WWII, “Jock” was “…temporarily detailed to ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan of the OSS…” and was second cousin to CIA staff officer Tracy Barnes, regarded in the Agency as the “Golden Boy” of CIA director Allen Dulles.[34] Jock Whitney was also a lifelong friend of “…William H. Jackson, who briefly served as second in command at the newly formed CIA as Deputy Director under Walter Bedell Smith.”[35] Whitney’s pro-British perspective eventually led him to being appointed US Ambassador to London in 1957.

The name Whitney – although not part of the same family line as the “rich” Whitney’s – occurs elsewhere in this story. Although Santa Romana told people that he worked for the OSS during the war, because it was easier to explain things this way, the fact is that he worked directly for then Colonel (later General) Courtney Whitney, MacArthur’s closest friend and in charge of a secret military group of Filipino soldiers trained in Australia and then sent on clandestine missions behind Japanese lines in the Philippines.

After the war, and following MacArthur’s ignominious sacking as commander of allied forces in Korea by President Truman, Texan oil millionaire H L Hunt backed MacArthur’s bid to become the next US president. Hunt, who was reported to be the richest man in the world at that time shared the rabid anti-communist – even pro fascism – of many of MacArthur’s closest (and former military) aides including General Courtney Whitney, General Bonner Fellers and General Charles Willoughby.

This association between MacArthur and Hunt is not without significance, for it is now widely accepted that H L Hunt was deeply involved in the assassination of President John Kennedy.

In my earlier essay, The Spoils of War,[36] I noted that General Willoughby was a member of a secret right-wing group, called the Shickshinny Knights of Malta (as distinct from the official Roman Catholic Sovereign Military Order of Malta). I also noted that Brigadier General Erle Cocke who proclaimed himself to be a Malta Knight in his 67-page Project Hammer affidavit, was probably a Shickshinny knight since his name does not appear on the membership roll of the official Order.

This conclusion is supported by the fact that General Cocke during the Korean war acted as a liaison officer between General MacArthur’s staff and the staff of General Marshall.[37]

This “black gold” constellation of connections extends to a range of momentous political events including, as we have seen, the JFK assassination. It also very likely extends to Nixon’s Watergate as well. For example, another senior MacArthur aide, General Marquat, was placed in charge of a secret post-war slush fund - composed of recovered gold and other war loot – that was used to help rebuild Japan as well as fund a range of anti-communist activities.

This was called the “M-fund” – and has been held to be so secret that it is usually denied to exist (as usual).

One of those engaged in later negotiations regarding this fund was General Alexander Haig – Nixon’s last White House chief of staff.[38] Haig has been named as a principal “plotter” in the plans to force Nixon’s resignation in the wake of Watergate. He is also a Knight of Malta, albeit during Eisenhower’s Administration, handed over direct control of this fund – now valued to be in excess of $500 billion - from the MacArthur/Marquat clique to certain members of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democrat Party. This was in exchange for a promise that it would be covertly used to further Nixon’s political career – specifically to get him elected president.

A number of those deeply implicated in Watergate were also involved in the JFK assassination.[40] And Alexander Butterfield, who was in charge of the tapes and taping system in Nixon’s Oval Office – the recorded conversations of which led directly to Nixon’s fall from power - was also a former career intelligence officer in Asia with a deep knowledge of Nugan Hand Bank officer, Bernie Houghton.[41] Nugan Hand Bank, it will be recalled, not only laundered narcotics money but also laundered Marcos gold out of the Philippines to Australia – and quite probably also to those controlling Golden Triangle opium production.

Midland Bank: When looking at MidAval’s parent, Midland Bank Group International Trade Services (MiBGITS), one could do worse than read the very informative book by former Arms company Chairman, Gerald James, entitled “In the Public Interest.” James recounts numerous chilling accounts of Her Majesty’s intelligence service MI6 deep involvement with MiBGITS special defence unit. Included are details of Stephan Kock, who James claims to have been a former head of the Foreign Office’s so called assassination squad, Group 13. Another intelligence-connected individual named in James’ book is Sir John Cuckney, who was a non-executive director of Midland Bank from 1978 until 1988 and was responsible for having formed the defence unit in the first place. Gerald James and his munitions company Astra, also had dealings with, and a private account at, MidAval.[42]

Kock’s boss at Midland was Comte Herve de Carmoy, a Frenchman and a leading light on the Trilateral Commission. He left Midland in 1988, to take up the position as the most senior executive of Belgium’s massive transnational company, Societe Generale. He was replaced as head of Midland International by John Louden who had an unfortunate speech impediment and who was a multilingualist – leading wags in the bank to say of him that he could stutter in seven languages. De Carmoy’s departure was followed by both Cuckney and Kock following what Gerald James describes as “funny practices” relating to a loss of £100 million involving all three.[43]

Although a similar amount to the MidAval’s Project Hammer transaction, this sum of £100 million cannot have been the same money for two reasons. Firstly the Hammer amount was in dollars and not pounds and was discounted at approximately 4% over the prevailing one-year interest rate (LIBOR). For US banks of the standing of Chase & Citibank at that time, a market rate of perhaps one quarter of one percent – or at most, one half of one percent was applicable. Four percent was unheard of by a very long shot indeed. Secondly, at least a year separated the two movements of money.

Even so there are notable connections between the MidAval CEO, Ian Guild, and Herve de Carmoy (who was known in the bank as “Herve the Swerve”). Firstly, de Carmoy was Guild’s overall boss. Secondly, shortly after de Carmoy moved to Societe Generale, a valued employee of MidAval (also a Frenchman referred to in-house by the affectionate nickname of “Froggy”) left MidAval employment to take up the post of Chef du Cabinet at the specific invitation of de Carmoy.

Thirdly, Guild and the other two senior executives – plus some other staff – left Midland in 1990 to form IndoSuez Aval Limited. IndoSuez Bank was directly owned by Societe Generale and negotiations between de Carmoy, his Chef du Cabinet – the former MidAval employee - and the three senior MidAval executives had been ongoing for almost a year before satisfactory terms were settled.

Following the take over of Midland Bank by HSBC, MidAval had its name changed to HSBC Forfaiting Limited. It was dissolved in February 2000. Former staff had long since scattered to the four winds.

IndoSuez Aval Limited is likewise now defunct.

Peter Seaman:In addition to being the President and Chairman of Nantucket Holding Company, Peter Seaman was a successful businessman and involved in a number of other enterprises. These included an entity called Harbour Fuel Holdings Co, Inc of Westchester County in which Seaman was a partner with attorney Stuart Root. Both Root and Peter Seaman were clients of attorney Kenneth C. Ellis. Root was a director of another firm called Bowery Advisors Subsidiary Corporation, which was registered in Florida with a principal mailing address of Kenneth C. Ellis “care of” the Southeast First National Bank building located at Biscayne Boulevard, Miami. Seaman had a residence in Greenwich, Connecticut where, by another odd coincidence, his next-door neighbour was Citibank’s John Reed.

Following his close association with Dan Hughes in setting up of the MidAval Hammer deal in October 1989, Seaman thereafter refused to ever speak with Hughes again. Whether it was caused by guilt for diverting Hughes commission or some other factor that caused this extraordinary vow of silence, we shall never know. Peter Seaman died taking all his secrets with him.

Oswald Howe Jr: Dan Hughes attorney throughout the Hammer deal and the subsequent years of investigation was Oswald (Ozzie) Howe Jr., of the Miami law firm of Mershon, Sawyer, Johnston, Dunwoody & Cole – whose offices were located in the Southeast Bank building at the Southeast Financial Center. According to Dan Hughes, it was Howe who introduced him to Southeast Bank and that Howe did a lot of real estate work for the bank. Interesting real estate work appears to have been one of Howe’s specialities in fact, as we shall shortly see.

Hughes also feels that his ongoing Hammer related law case would be a great deal more effective if several vital documents had not mysteriously disappeared from Howe’s office. In any event, Mershon, Sawyer, Johnston, Dunwoody & Cole is now defunct and Howe practices law and is the senior partner for Howe, Robinson & Watkins LLP, in Miami.

As a Florida attorney, Oswald Howe has registered numerous business entities. One of the more interesting is the 1983 registered, Hines Florida Club Corp, with an address at 2800 Post Oak Boulevard, Houston, Texas. This is an entity of Gerald D. Hines, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, a multi-billionaire and the largest real estate developer in Houston as early as 1965. Another Hines entity located at the same address – which incidentally is a building owned by Hines, is City Club of Miami Inc.

This entity was registered by Howe in 1983, notably in the middle of the Iran Contra era. In this case, however, the Florida registration record shows the owner and developer as “Gerald D Hives” rather than Gerald D. Hines. Spelling errors seem to appear with uncommon frequency when it comes to Hines. Howe’s registration of Hines Florida Club Corp, mentioned above – has Hines listed of “Gerald D Hineo.” Such typographical errors are said to be an old CIA trick to camouflage paper trails, according to some investigators.

Deeper research shows a connection between Hines and the Phoenix real estate developer Del E Webb, who owned the New York Yankees until 1965. Webb’s business entity, the Del E Webb Development Corporation was fingered, in an investigation following the death of an Arizona journalist, Don Bolles, for being an “active business partner with organized crime for three decades.” Webb’s corporation had been the developer of the Las Vegas, Flamingo Hotel, owned by mobsters, Bugsy Siegal and Meyer Lansky.

Author Anthony Summers, revealed that Webb was protected at “the highest levels” by former FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover. Moreover, Webb’s further mob connections also extended to Chicago power broker, Col. Henry Crown who we met earlier in this essay. Indeed, so close were the Crown-Webb connections that one former Webb executive revealed that he had to be interviewed by Crown before the Webb Corporation would hire him.[44]

Gerald Hines also built and owns 2700 Post Oak Boulevard in Houston (not a million miles away from S. West Oak Drive which is owned by G. H. Bush). This was the home of many oil companies, including Buttes Gas & Oil Co on whose board of directors sat Kermit “Kim” Roosevelt II, the grandson of president Theodore Roosevelt. Kermit’s background is as wild as it is disturbing.[45]

Kim was with the OSS during WWII, and served in the most secret of all OSS posts, Cairo, as a cryptographer. In this role he would almost certainly have come into contact with Allen Dulles, the Swiss based OSS operative and later a director of the CIA. Kim also joined the CIA, officially as Dulles Near & Middle East expert, but was in fact a clandestine operator par excellent. His “activities” included the overthrow of Iran’s Mossadecq, who was replaced by the CIA choice, the Shah of Iran in 1953. The Shah’s name would later appear on a bank of England Obligation certificate in the amount of $5.45 billion, with the code “Theheran Memorial King.”

By 1954, Kim was working closely with leading Nazi war criminals. This particularly included Otto “Scarface” Skorzeny – who had earlier been hand-chosen by the Nazi hierarchy to secretly transport nazi gold, other plunder and key Nazi assets to safety in Latin America and elsewhere around the world prior to the fall of Berlin in 1945. Kim’s association with Skorzeny focused on the failed plan to topple Egypt’s president Nasser using elements of the fascist-leaning Muslim Brotherhood.

By 1957, Kim was working for Gulf Oil which, by 1959, owned a 20% slug of George Bush’s Zapata operations that was later used by Cubans in the aborted Bay of Pigs fiasco aimed at toppling Cuba’s Fidel Castro. With Gulf Oil, he continued his speciality work as he had done in the CIA; Kim was a prolific arms dealer. In the 1960’s he established a consulting company and recruited Adnan Khashoggi – another prolific arms dealer - to serve as an agent for US defence contractors, Northrup and Raytheon, who Kim was representing via his consulting firm.

It is more than likely that Kim first met Khashoggi in 1962, when King Faisal secretly commissioned the twenty-seven year old Adnan, to act in an unofficial capacity to strengthen ties with the US and western nations. In this capacity, Khashoggi was to act as the ears and eyes of the Saudi royal family, acquire arms, invest to win friends and bring his charms and the Kingdom’s money to exert influence where required.

Interestingly, 1963 was the year of issue of a Union Bank of Switzerland Trust Note in the amount of Swiss Francs 92.625 billion in the (as usual) misspelled name of Adnan Kasogi. This obligation note bears the “Special Code: Panama Fusse King” and almost certainly formed part of the Santa Romana Black Eagle loot.

Kim’s relationship with Khashoggi resulted in a close relationship he also had with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz – to whom we shall return later. Kim was also a crony of multi-billionaire financier, Sir James Goldsmith, who owned a stake in Canadian gold mining company Barrick Resources. Kim’s associations extended to organised crime and Las Vegas hotels on the one hand, and on the other, extended deeply into the CIA – arguably two heads of the same beast, but in any event these Siamese-twin associations reveal Kim Roosevelt to have been a classic covert operator of considerable distinction.

The foregoing are just some of the more interesting “threads” that fan out from an investigation of Oswald Howe. Additional research is being conducted as we speak.

Southeast Bank:Southeast Bank N A., was declared insolvent on 19th September 1991. It exists no more. Over the years it could boast some famous, if not infamous clients – but one suspects that such boasting was the last thing the bank’s board of directors had in mind. One such account “holder” was Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos who used his henchman and former law school classmate, Roberto Benedicto to front for him. In addition to being appointed by Marcos as the Philippines Ambassador to Japan, he was also a signatory on Marcos’s Credit Suisse accounts and was clearly content to be used by Marcos as a catspaw to hide his money and gold bullion.[46] Benedicto died in May 2000, following a heart attack.

Other illustrious clients of Southeast Bank over the years have included criminal luminaries as Licio Gelli and Michele Sindona, named by author Luigi DiFonzo’s, in his book “St. Peter’s Banker.” DiFonzo reveals that $34 million “lost” money of Robert Calvi’s collapsed bank, the Banco Ambrosiano, was traced to the Banco Ambrosiano subsidiary in Nassau, where it was withdrawn and the funds smuggled to two Miami banks – one of these being the Southeast First National Bank (of Miami) account number 18221465.[47]

Bankers Trust: Bankers Trust International – a subsidiary of Bankers Trust – was the other Miami bank named in the book “St. Peter’s Banker” as having funds stolen from Banco Ambrosiano deposited with it. According to the books author, Luigi DiFonzo these funds were deposited into account number 001050018 that was also controlled by Licio Gelli and Michel Sindons (i.e., Sindona).

IN 1982, Ferdinand Marcos arranged via his right-hand man, General Fabian Ver to transfer 50 tonnes of gold bullion to Switzerland – shipped via two 747 aircraft on charter. The charter aircraft were arranged by an individual using the name Ron Lusk who had been retained by Ver to deliver the gold to Bankers Trust, Zurich.[48]

Bankers Trust is also of considerable interest for other reasons too. Firstly, readers will recall that Dan Hughes caused two Sight drafts to be issued in favour of Bankers Trust for the collateral commitment relative to the Chase and Citibank debenture instruments, an activity which, as we have already seen, caused General Erle Cocke to believe kicked-off the Project Hammer programme in a big way.

Secondly, the lawyers and investigators who were building a lawsuit for Dan Hughes and other clients cheated out of their money were quietly negotiating with the Central Intelligence Agency in an attempt to settle privately and quietly out of court. According to Dan Hughes, these negotiations were taking place with the office of Buzzy Krongard, the then No. 3 man in the CIA hierarchy. By profession Krongard is a banker and had formerly been the chairman and CEO of investment bank, Alex Brown Inc.

In September 1997, Krongard engineered the merger of Alex Brown with Bankers Trust and became the vice chairman of the board of directors of Bankers Trust. A few months later in January 1998 he was recruited as a “counsellor” to CIA boss, George Tenet. In March 2001, he was promoted to Executive Director, making him the No. 2 man of the spy agency.

But the strange coincidences don’t end there. South African intelligence operatives, Rolf van Rooyen and Riaan Stander, [49] who are both deeply enmeshed in the Project Hammer story, were working closely with Gregory Serras, the President/CEO of the San Diego brokerage firm of Vanguard Capital. This involved discussions for Vanguard to act on their behalf on the Private Placement of Argentinean government approved debenture instruments that formed part of a trading programme that van Rooyen and Stander had been working on. In a signed letter, Serras – acting on behalf of his bank, Morgan Stanley & Co – requested confirmation that the debentures in question were “legal securities authorised and approved by the government of Argentina…”

Vanguard appear to change their banking relationships from time to time. At the time Serras was in contact with van Rooyen, their relationship was with Morgan Stanley & Co. Today it is with the Bank of New York, Inc – itself no stranger to front-page scandals involving money-laundering activities for Russian crime syndicates and political figures.[50]

Of interest is the fact that Vanguard was earlier affiliated with Buzzy Krongard’s old firm, Alex Brown - which had changed its name following the take over of Bankers Trust by Germany’s Deutsche Bank - to Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown Inc. It is now Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

The fact is that when it comes to the fraternity of banking, one can often disregard the supposed rivalry that is said to exist, because incestuous relationships are commonplace. In the past, at least, the big banks owned significant chunks of each other’s stock, whereas nowadays they just tend to merge together. Take for example the Bank of America, whose second largest stockholder was J P Morgan. In third place was Citibank.

Meanwhile, Citibank’s larges stockholder was J P Morgan which in December 2000 merged with Chase Manhattan to form the all powerful J P Morgan/Chase.[51] Bankers Trust was a J P Morgan creation from day one.

White & Case:No doubt by sheer coincidence alone, the Marcos account at Southeast Bank held by Roberto Benedicto was a “White & Case Trust” account (number 018-410191). It may also have been mere coincidence that Peter Seaman’s and Stuart Root’s attorney Kenneth C Ellis – who was the registered addressee at Southeast Bank building for the Bowery Advisors Subsidiary Corporation – is also listed on the White & Case website as a Partner of that firm who specialises in financial matters and who now works out of their Singapore office.

UBS Lugano:One of the more flamboyant financiers of recent decades undoubtedly is Italian, Florio Fiorini, the former director of finance of the Italian state-owned oil company, ENI. Fiorini is best known for his failed attempt to rescue Roberto Calvi’s bankrupt private bank, Banco Ambrosiano – an affair that also involved mafia financier Michel Sindona and, of course, Licio Gelli, the Grandmaster of the secret Masonic lodge P2, that was a de facto parallel government of Italy.

Unlike others, Fiorini spilled the beans in two books he wrote while in Champ Dollon prison in Switzerland for “fraudulent bankruptcy.” Of the many secrets Fiorini revealed in his books, one of the most explosive was the now infamous “Conto Protezione,” or protection account, used to launder profits derived from a myriad insider dealing activities by some of the largest and most prestigious banks and transnational corporations in Europe. A significant slice of the profits were paid to what Fiorini amusingly described as the “starving of the parties” – or in plain words kickbacks paid to the various political parties.

The administrator of the secret kickback account numbered 633369 was a member of P2 and a former Minister of Justice of disgraced Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, who went by the name of Claudius Hammerings – and if one deletes the last four letters of his name… coincidence throws up the word “Hammer.”[52] Readers will by now have guessed that the account was held at UBS Lugano.

Fiorini’s name also appears prominently in the story of the looting of MGM, the famous Hollywood film studios by Italian mafia “thug” Giancarlo Paretti. The MGM affair was an event that almost brought France’s state-owned bank, Credit Lyonnais crashing to its knees and, without intervention and an infusion of considerable sums of money from the French taxpayer, France’s once proud bank would have folded.

This is not the place to recount the MGM/Credit Lyonnais story, but it is of passing interest only to note that Credit Lyonnais recruited attorney Charles Meeker, to join MGM as president to handle negotiations with Paretti. Prior to joining MGM, Meekers was with the law firm of White & Case.[53] Following a warrant issued by France, Paretti was eventually arrested and cuffed by federal agents in a conference room in the downtown Los Angeles office of White & Case.

Credit Lyonnais has also been deeply involved in Black Eagle gold transactions. In one transaction I am familiar with, a large block of bullion was to be purchased by a representative operating on behalf of Credit Lyonnais Rouse Limited, London, the precious metals trading arm of the bank.[54]

It is also interesting to note that UBS Lugano was not only the bank of choice for those running the secret insider trading Protection Account, but it was the bank of choice for former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The numerous confidential accounts he had at that bank have been dubbed the “Mother” money laundering account for the Marcos family by Marcos gold investigator, Reiner Jacobi.[55]

But the UBS connections don’t end here. The Honorary Chairman of UBS (now part of the Swiss Bank Corporation group) is Nicholaus Senn, who was also the chairman of the enormous transnational corporation, Compagnie Financiere Richemont AG, until his retirement in September 2002. Senn was also the senior partner of the Swiss based international law and consultancy firm of Senn, Christians and Letemeyer, which coincidentally, acted for the late Baron Arndt Krupp.

In particular, Carl Letemeyer and Nicholaus Senn worked hard on behalf of the Krupp Estate in regard to the Krupp Heritage & World Peace Foundation (Singapore) that received a legacy of US$97 billion from Baron Krupp. This was a cash gift. According to documents I have in my possession, Krupp’s “secret” properties and businesses did not form part of this legacy.

However, the most interesting fact is that prior to his death, Baron Arndt Krupp controlled some of the Santa Romana “Black Eagle” fund assets. Of the $97 billion gifted, $47 billion were on deposit in account nmber 4 77 22 P with the trust department of the Standard & Chartered bank, London.

Indosuez:is one of those banks that are barely visible but which consistently circle the waters of black gold and Project Hammer - like a prowling shark with just the tips of its fins showing. For example, in one bullion transaction being negotiated by Dr. A Konig a the Swiss representative of Rolf van Rooyen’s Eastcorp Syndicate, the nominated closing bank for the transaction was Indosuez, Lugano - where Eastcorp Holdings maintained an account.

This is in addition to the migration of some MidAval staff to Indosuez following their involvement in the Project Hammer trading programme outlined earlier. With the closure of Indosuez Aval, a rump of former MidAval employees (now unfortunately ex-Indosuez Aval as well), including MidAval’s former CEO, found a new berth for their abilities. This was at Standard & Chartered Bank in London. Standard Bank Nominees, meanwhile, is the second largest shareholder of Oppenheimer’s Anglo-American, with a stake of 11.74%.[56]

While the hidden connections of the Hughes “portal” into Project Hammer are vital to understanding how the world of parallel finance operates, there were still deeper “rhythms” at work. An examination of these leads to the companies, people and intelligence assets that sit at the heart of the so-called Anglo-American relationship.