Posted on 03/19/2010 5:09:25 PM PDT by Cindy
Note: The following text is a quote:
Hassan Nemazee Pleads Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to $292 Million Bank Fraud
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that HASSAN NEMAZEE pleaded guilty today to charges of defrauding Bank of America, N.A. ("BofA"), Citibank, N.A. ("Citibank"), HSBC Bank USA, N.A. ("HSBC"), and a longtime friend and business associate of a total of more than $290 million in loan proceeds. NEMAZEE entered his guilty plea before United States District Judge SIDNEY H. STEIN in Manhattan federal court.
According to the superseding Information, filed today, to which NEMAZEE pleaded, other documents filed in this case, and statements made during NEMAZEE's guilty plea:
From 1998 to 2009, NEMAZEE obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from BofA, Citibank, and HSBC. To obtain the loans, NEMAZEE misrepresented to the banks that he owned hundreds of millions of dollars in collateral, in the form of securities and other assets, which he did not own. In fact, NEMAZEE used fake documents, including account statements, to show his supposed ownership of the collateral. The documents also contained forged signatures of persons associated with the Westminster Securities Corporation ("Westminster"), the brokerage firm at which NEMAZEE claimed to hold these assets, as well as Westminster's clearing firm.
The fake account statements and other documents that NEMAZEE provided also contained telephone numbers, supposedly for Westminster and its clearing firm, assigned to "virtual offices" that NEMAZEE himself had established or to a cellphone that NEMAZEE obtained. NEMAZEE created at least two "virtual offices" in Manhattan that held themselves out, at his direction, as being associated with Westminster and its clearing firm.
NEMAZEE represented to BofA that the loans were for, among other things, making investments, purchasing partial interest in a private plane, and purchasing two luxury apartments in Manhattan. One of the loans from BofA, a $100 million line of credit, was guaranteed by NEMAZEE's longtime friend and business associate, who pledged a multimillion-dollar home in Colorado as collateral on the loan, not knowing that the collateral that NEMAZEE was pledging did not exist. As of August 2009, NEMAZEE owed approximately $142 million to BofA and $74.9 million to Citibank.
In August 2009 -- when Citibank began to ask questions in order to verify the existence of the purported collateral that NEMAZEE had pledged for the Citibank loan, and after Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") had interviewed NEMAZEE about the Citibank loan -- NEMAZEE drew down on a line of credit that he had fraudulently obtained from HSBC earlier in 2009 and used those funds to pay Citibank the $74.9 million that he owed.
NEMAZEE was able to continue the fraud for longer than a decade by, among other things, making partial repayments on his borrowings from BofA with proceeds of his fraud on Citibank and making partial repayments on his borrowings from Citibank with proceeds of his fraud on BofA.
NEMAZEE used the proceeds of his fraudulent schemes to, among other things: purchase an apartment and land in Italy; make monthly maintenance payments on a Park Avenue apartment; pay for the upkeep of a 12-acre property in Katonah, New York; make personal donations to the election campaigns of federal, state, and local candidates, political action committees, and charities; and make various other investments.
NEMAZEE, 60, of Manhattan, faces a maximum of 30 years in prison on each of the three counts of bank fraud and one count of wire fraud to which he pleaded guilty. Each count also carries a maximum fine of $1 million or twice the gain or loss resulting from the crime.
As part of his guilty plea, NEMAZEE agreed to forfeit his interest in various real properties, corporate entities, hedge funds, securities accounts, bank accounts, a 2008 Maserati Quattroporte, and a 2007 Cessna aircraft.
NEMAZEE is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge STEIN on June 30, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. NEMAZEE's brother-in-law, SHAHIN KASHANCHI, 46, of Telluride, Colorado, is separately charged in an Indictment with aiding and abetting NEMAZEE's bank fraud by manufacturing the fake account statements and other documents that NEMAZEE used to defraud BofA, Citibank, and HSBC. His case is pending.
United States Attorney BHARARA praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Mr. BHARARA stated: "NEMAZEE orchestrated an elaborate shell game to defraud three major banks, scamming them to the tune of $290 million to finance his posh life and create a reputation as a political kingmaker. Working with our partners at the FBI to investigate and end schemes like NEMAZEE's is central to this Office's mission of aggressively policing white-collar crime."
This case was brought in coordination with President BARACK OBAMA's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, on which Mr. BHARARA serves as a Co-Chair of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group. President OBAMA established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.
This case is being prosecuted by the Office's Complex Frauds Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys DANIEL W. LEVY and MICHAEL D. LOCKARD are in charge of the prosecution.
The charge and allegations contained in the Indictment charging KASHANCHI are merely accusations, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
alias: Hassan al’Fraood
...orchestrated an elaborate shell game to defraud three major banks, scamming them to the tune of $290 million to finance his posh life and create a reputation as a political kingmaker. Working with our partners at the FBI to investigate and end schemes like NEMAZEE's is central to this Office's mission of aggressively policing white-collar crime.I'm sure he's really sorry. Thanks Cindy.
Hmmm...looks like there will be a low mileage Maserati Quattroporte coming up for gov’t auction. Nice auto.
Would you buy one?
I love corvettes,,,but I think my taste has matured now.
The guy donates stolen money to elect Democrats.
Big Dem Donor Nemazee Indicted In Alleged $292 Million Scheme
Apparently not enough, though.
whoa
The guy is an interesting character.
Unknown if this will get any press coverage.
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/nemazee/index
Yep, interesting.
With all the talk about billions of dollars for this and trillion(s) for that or the other thing over the years I think we lose touch with how much money $292 million really is!
Yes, I understand.
The best visual is to think of $292 million all in $1 bills.
That would be a real shock to see that.
I agree. Thats why I would never buy a red one.
....;-)
Giggling...ditto.
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2475369/posts
Our Ponzi Nation: Nemazee, Big Donor to the Dems, Pleads Guilty
WSJ ^ | Mar. 19, 2010
Posted on March 20, 2010 8:12:34 AM PDT by nuconvert
-excerpt-
(Hassan) Nemazee, a New York businessman and one-time prominent Democratic fundraiser admitted Thursday that he bilked three banks out of $ 292 million in loans. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and three counts of bank fraud at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan. Click here for Chad Bray’s story on Dow Jones Newswires; here for the NYT story; here, here and here for previous LB posts on Nemazee.
Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan had alleged that Nemazee obtained hundreds of millions of loans from Bank of America, Citigroup and HSBC Holdings between 1998 and 2009.
-excerpt-
Nemazee, who was involved in various presidential campaigns and once served as finance chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was initially charged criminally in August 2009 related to a loan he fraudulently obtained from Citibank.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2477327/posts
Obama, Clinton Money Man Guilty Of Major Fraud Scheme
Judicial Watch ^ | 03/19/2010
Posted on March 22, 2010 4:26:27 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan
The shady Iranian fundraiser who for years donated lucrative sums to top Democrats—including the president, vice president and secretary of state—has pleaded guilty to a major bank-fraud scheme that could land him in jail for nearly two decades.
Disgraced Democratic money man Hassan Nemazee admitted this week that he defrauded three financial institutions out of nearly $300 million in loan proceeds by falsifying documents and signatures to show he had hundreds of millions of dollars worth of collateral. The Ivy League-educated crook then used the proceeds to donate big bucks to the campaigns of federal, state and local candidates.
Among them are some of the nation’s best known and most powerful Democrats, including Secretary of State and former New York Senator Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Nemazee was actually the national finance chairman of Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential campaign as well as John Kerry’s in 2004.
The corrupt “investment banker” went on to raise more than half a million dollars for Obama after Clinton’s primary defeat and donated the maximum ($50,000) allowed to the new president’s inauguration committee. Less than a year ago Nemazee hosted a $28,500-a-head fundraiser for Obama in his luxurious Upper East Side New York penthouse.
When Nemazee was criminally charged last fall, top Democrats scrambled to return his tainted money and there is plenty floating around the coffers of the party’s elite. For nearly a decade Nemazee was a key figure in Democratic fundraising circles, donating and gathering hundreds of thousands of dollars. Nemazee was so well-connected that in the late 1990s Bill Clinton nominated him to be a U.S. ambassador in Argentina though the position never materialized.
Another top Democratic fundraiser, admitted Chinese swindler Norman Hsu, is in jail for fraud. Hsu raised nearly $1 million for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and substantial sums for party leaders like New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and California Senator Dianne Feinstein. Clinton was so tight with Hsu that a voicemail recording of her praising Hsu was presented as evidence in federal court. In it she repeatedly thanks Hsu for his support and tells the one-time fugitive she’s never seen anybody who has been more loyal and more effective.
Thanks to Piasa for the ping to these posts.
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2477327/posts?page=10#10
To: Conservative Coulter Fan
SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 Monday : (NY : HASSAN NEMAZEE HAS BEEN INDICTED) NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hassan Nemazee, a fund-raiser for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, has been indicted for defrauding Bank of America, HSBC and Citigroup Inc out of more than $290 million in loan proceeds, U.S. prosecutors said on Monday.
The announcement follows last month’s indictment of Nemazee, head of a private equity firm and an Iranian American Political Action Committee board member, on one count of defrauding Citigroup’s Citibank.
The new indictment adds allegations that he defrauded two other banks, Bank of America and HSBC Bank USA, in a similar fashion by falsifying documents and signatures to purportedly show he had hundreds of millions worth of collateral.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
-————— “U.S. charges Obama fund-raiser in $290 million fraud,” Reuters, by Grant McCool
Posted on Monday, September 21, 2009 7:25:18 PM by South40
10 posted on March 22, 2010 10:05:43 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan; Cindy
SEPTEMBER 23, 2009 WED : (REPORT : DEMOCRAT FUNDRAISER NEMAZEE PLEADS ‘NOT GUILTY’ -—See HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW KASHANCHI, BANK FRAUD, CITIBANK, BANK OF AMERICA, HSBC, IRAN, HILLARY CLINTON, OBAMA, JOHN KERRY) Many of the fake documents used by a leading Democratic Party fund-raiser to defraud HSBC and Citigroup Inc were made by his brother-in-law, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday. Authorities arrested and charged Shahin Kashanchi, brother-in-law of indicted fund-raiser Hassan Nemazee, who donated to the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other leading Democrats over the years.
Nemazee pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court to defrauding a total of three banks — Bank of America was the other — out of $292 million in loan proceeds.
“Based on e-mail traffic between Kashanchi and Nemazee, Kashanchi was regularly producing what Kashanchi referred to as the ‘normal quarterly statements’ for one of the non-existent collateral accounts, among other things,” the office of the U.S. Attorney in New York and the FBI said in a statement.
“Kashanchi would simply create phony account statements designed to look like real account statements, but bearing account numbers for accounts that did not exist and reflecting balances that purported to establish Nemazee’s great wealth.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...—————U.S. Charges Accomplice Of Democratic Fund - Raiser (Worth saying again “Democratic Fund - Raiser”) ny times ^ | 9/25/2009 | reuters Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 5:12:29 PM by tobyhill
11 posted on March 22, 2010 10:11:45 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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