Some politicians choose a “blind trust” to shield them from any knowledge of their assets. But Corzine put J. Christopher Flowers, a former associate from Goldman Sachs, in charge of his financial portfolio.
HOW CORZINE PROFITED FROM PUBLIC OFFICE Principles of Jon's so-called "blind trust" led the lucrative takeover of the troubled Japanese Shinesi bank. Then-US Sen Corzine used the power of his office to approve a tax treaty providing a special exemption from Japanese taxes on investment profits. Braindead Corzine said he was **not aware** of and did not **benefit** from the special provision.
(Waiting for hysterical laughter to die down)
THE SHINESI DEAL UP CLOSE Nancy Martori Dunlap, Esq, is Corzio's hand-picked trustee overseeing his vast assets, including his "blind trust." Dunlap and James I. Black, Esq, execute financial decisions made by Corzine's pal----Wall Street's J. Christopher Flowers-----the man who decides where to invest Corzine's fortune--Flowers is the man who led the Shinesi Bank takeover. He and Jonny made a bundle of money.
Corzine’s private investment apparat:
JSC Investments (registered in supersecret Delaware as he pursued public office)
JSC Investments Officers:
Nancy Matori Dunlap, Esq
Jib Black, Officer, Esq
J. Christopher Flowers (makes investments for Corzine--led the Shinesi Bank deal)
Jon S Corzine Foundation
1 Gateway Center Suite 1102
Newark, NJ 07102
PHONE: 212-558-3948
Address used for Corzine election TV ads.
Hercules Partners LLC
Same address as Jon S Corzine Foundation
Gov Corzine/Treasry Secy Abelow‘s investment vehicle--disbanded b/c the Wall Street geniuses did not know it was illegal for state officials to partner.
Corzine registered these investment vehicles as he pursued public office:
JSC Investments (Corzine registered Nov 1999 w/ Delaware Division of Corporations)
Wiley's (Corzine registered Aug 2002 w/ Delaware Div of Corp)
East Beach (Corzine registered Oct 2004 w/ Delaware Div of Corp)
Corzine's TPG-Axon hedge fund was launched Feb 2005 as a $2.8 billion joint venture between TPG and Dinakar Singh, a former G/S trader who worked under Corzine.
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Here's how the G/S Wall Street predators operate:
COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU Mother Jones magazine circa Feb 2007 reported on the activities of Mark Florian, Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs' municipal finance division. According to the report, Florian was traveling to statehouses across the US to convince state officials that selling state assets would be "mutually beneficial." One of the scams involved "monetizing state roads. NOTE WELL: Monetizing means G/S bonding (AKA taxpayer debt)----which earns $billions for G/S til the end of time.
Then-NJ Gov Corzine (ex-Goldman head) stationed Goldman Sachs functionaries in state government as the issue of road monetization surfaced. Corzine hired four G/S buddies, including G/S alumnus Bradley Abelow as state Treasurer. Corzine took a road show across the state to sell the monetization deal. However, monetizing NJ roads hit a large pothole and collapsed like a flat tire---b/c taxpayers were onto the G/S bonding-debt scam.
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REFERENCE Goldman Sachs opened an office in Princeton NJ 2006 when Corzine was elected governor (the better to loot the NJ Treasury).
Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund Partners
701 Mount Lucas Rd
Princeton, NJ 08540-1911
G/S Hedge Fund Partners advertises it has $2 billion and seeks investments in traditional infrastructure sectors including transport infrastructure such as "monetizing" toll roads, airports and ports as well as "monetizing" regulated gas, water and electrical utilities.
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Can the Joyce Foundation produce records on how they spent tax-exempt money? Oh, nevermind. The IRS, SEC, FBI, Congressman Issa, Sen Grassley, and the GAO can find out (/snix).
=================================================
REFERENCE: the IRS has targeted "foundations" as the locus classic for money laundering and tax evasion. The biggest foundation fraud is one tax-exempt writing checks to another tax-exempt---the way these crooks siphon off tax-free money for themselves......... and perhaps for politicans like Obaba.
Common tax-exempt insider transactions involve:
(1) loans, the (2) sale, (3) exchange or (4) leasing of property to non-profit officers and others;
Falsified reporting of "excess benefit transactions" and executive pay on the official Form 990.
And infamous tax-exempt scheme siphoned off mmillions through fraudulent accounting entries for “administrative fees” and for “maintenance fees” that were paid to phantom recipients, then illegally converted, and laundered.
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L/E should scrutinize this foundation, and might consider:
(a) conspiracy to defraud the IRS, and evade US banking laws,
(b) international money laundering,
(c) conspiracy to commit money laundering, and,
(d) aiding and abetting the preparation of false federal/state income tax returns.
Authorities might examine the tax-exempt's receipts to falsely verify bogus charitable contributions (kickbacks) and multiple conspiracies and transfers of funds as part of a money-laundering conspiracy.
Audits might show off-the-books bank accounts that were accessed solely by insiders, and that tax-exempt funds were used in various illegal schemes that might have integrated:
(1) money laundering,
(2) tax evasion (stolen money is taxable),
(3) violations of US banking and currency laws,
(4) conspiracy to commit wire fraud,
(5) commercial bribery in various financial schemes,
(6) establishing secret offshore bank accounts outside the purview of the IRS and US banking laws,
(7) fraudulent and casual accounting practices,
(8) non-existent financial oversight,
(9) having a hidden financial interest in companies doing business with SPLC,
(10) putting phantom employees on the payroll (money laundering).
Graver violations, in connection with fraudulent uses of tax-exempt monies for personal and political purposes that might include: felony charges for first-degree tampering with public records, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, fourth-degree grand larceny, first-degree falsifying of business records, defrauding the government, and colluding with publicly-funded agencies to conduct illegal activities by engaging in the facilitation of illegal conversions and currency frauds.
Falsifying tax-exempt records for the purposes of money-laundering, offering false instruments for filing, and engaging in mail and computer fraud, illegal structuring of cash transactions and collusion in multiple
More here:
(no links)
FINANCIAL REPORTS SHOW CORZINE ALL OVER MAP
Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ) - Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Author: PETE McALEER Statehouse Bureau
EXCERPT
CORZINE’S FORTUNE
Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s assets include ownership or part ownership in: Buenos Tardes, a Mexican restaurant in New York; a personal aircraft; his brother’s bicycle shop in Illinois; residential apartments in Arizona, Texas and Georgia; a Netherlands bank; a biotechnology company with a focus on agriculture; a private equity firm invested in Japanese markets; warehouse space in Dallas and Houston; a Colorado ranch.
//
Corzine vote aided investment deal - Tax break followed takeover of Japanese bank
Record, The (Hackensack, NJ) - Thursday, September 15, 2005
Author: By JOHN P. McALPIN and CLINT RILEY, TRENTON BUREAU
U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine voted to give himself and a select set of fellow millionaire investors a lucrative tax break from their controversial takeover of a Japanese bank.
Corzine cast that vote in March 2004 as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was considering a complex tax treaty between the United States and its closest Pacific Rim ally. The vote was unanimous.
The treaty included a narrowly crafted clause that gave a tax break to an exclusive group who had invested in failing banks subsidized by the Japanese government. It saved Corzine and his partners millions of dollars in tax payments.
Corzine, now the Democratic nominee for governor, had no idea he was voting on a treaty that gave him, his partners and other investors favorable treatment, campaign spokesman Tom Shea said. Corzine has no direct control of his finances and is focused on his duties as senator and candidate above all else, Shea said.
“He sees the finances once a year when he gets the disclosure forms or tax returns,” Shea said. “It is just not where his focus is in life right now and hasn’t been since he started running for the Senate [five years ago].”
The senator’s vote involved a package of bills that included the Japanese treaty, appointments and major aid measures to India and developing countries pushed by Corzine, Shea said. Corzine could not back out of voting on the package because he supported those relief efforts, Shea said.
The tax exemption was singled out in testimony and a summary of the treaty was prepared for the Foreign Relations Committee before the vote. The chief of staff for a top congressional tax panel urged Corzine’s committee to take a closer look at the “special provision.”
“The committee may wish to consider whether this ... is warranted,” George Yin, of the Joint Committee on Taxation, testified less than two weeks before the vote. The full Senate ratified the treaty in a voice vote several weeks later.
Before the full Senate voted, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., told lawmakers that the treaty had been thoroughly reviewed by the Foreign Relations Committee. “Officials from the Department of Treasury briefed the committee extensively on the impact of the treaty on business relations between the United States and Japan,” Lugar said.
Government watchdogs said Corzine’s treaty vote is a serious breach by any ethical standard.
(snip)
Senator is mum
Corzine, through his campaign, declined repeated requests for an interview to explain his vote and financial stake in Shinsei Bank. The campaign would not disclose how much Corzine still owns in the bank, what shares he sold or how much he has earned on the deal.
Corzine initially invested $5 million to $25 million in the buyout, according to the broad income ranges reported on financial disclosure forms filed with the U.S. Senate in 2000. A year later, Corzine and his wife, Joanne, reported their combined investment in the bank was worth between $6 million and $30 million.
The size of the reported stake has since dwindled. Corzine, who divorced in 2003, reported in May that he individually controlled a stake ranging from $2 million to $10 million. He also has invested in two firms that likewise have a stake in the bank.
Corzine’s disclosure forms do not indicate any sale of shares by the end of 2004.
But securities records from a major sale of Shinsei Bank stock by its initial investors in February reveal that Corzine-controlled JSC Investments LLC sold more than 840,000 shares, earning him approximately $5 million.
Roots in banking crisis
The investment has its roots in the Japanese banking crisis of the late 1990s, when several national banks failed or were on the brink of collapse after years of making faulty loans.
A reeling Japanese government, under pressure from the United States, sought international investors to help avert a complete meltdown of the country’s economy. The Japanese government took the politically risky step of allowing a major Wall Street firm, Goldman Sachs & Co., to assist it in finding private investors in early 1999 to buy Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan Ltd. At the time, Corzine was a partner and co-chairman of Goldman Sachs.
Around the same time, several former Goldman partners helped form a consortium of investors, including Corzine, to purchase Long-Term Credit Bank for $1.2 billion.
The buyout group was led by Wall Street financier Timothy Collins of Ripplewood Holdings, a New York City-based private equity fund, and J. Christopher Flowers, a former Corzine underling at Goldman Sachs. Flowers is a billionaire bank buyout and mergers specialist.
Flowers now makes all of Corzine’s personal investment decisions and holds a financial stake in some of the same investments as the senator, according to Corzine campaign officials.
The new owners, who renamed the bank Shinsei (”New Life”) Bank Ltd., had a powerful advantage: The Japanese government committed an estimated $63 billion to keep the bank afloat. That reduced the investors’ risk and was crucial in making it one of the most profitable bank buyouts ever, financial experts said.
“This may be the most profitable private equity deal of all time,” David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm, said in published accounts after Shinsei Bank’s initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange last year.
The unprecedented foreign investment provoked a national scandal.
The Japanese public was outraged when the bank, with the government’s approval, began demanding immediate payment on the bad loans, forcing major retailers and other companies to collapse.
Anger escalated when it was disclosed that the foreign investors would escape paying Japanese taxes on profits when they took Shinsei public last year.
People in Japan were so angry that government officials enacted a special 20 percent tax on foreign investors. Some began to refer to it as the “Shinsei tax.”
As the scandal mushroomed, U.S. and Japanese officials were renegotiating the tax treaty for the first time in 33 years.
Among the treaty’s new features was broad language giving Japanese officials the ability to tax American investors of publicly subsidized bank bailouts. Also inserted was a narrow exemption for those who invested in the buyouts between 2000 and March 2004, when the treaty was ratified. The exemption applies to investors in four buyout deals, including Shinsei.
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