Bernard Madoff, the Mafia, and the Friends of Michael Milken(ponzi,hedge fund,naked shorts)

Deep Capture ^ | 02/03/09 | Mark Mitchell

[TigerLikesRooster]

Bernard Madoff, the Mafia, and the Friends of Michael Milken

February 3rd, 2009 by Mark Mitchell

In 2005, Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com and future Deep Capture investigative reporter, began a public crusade against illegal naked short selling (hedge funds and brokers creating phantom stock to manipulate stock prices down). He said, over and over, that the crime was destroying public companies and had the potential to trigger a systemic meltdown of our financial markets.

Soon after, I began to investigate a network of short sellers, journalists, and miscreants. I concluded that many of the people in this network were connected to two famous criminals – “junk bond king” Michael Milken and his associate, Ivan Boesky. I also began taking a close look at the Mafia’s involvement in naked short selling.

In my last installment (click here to read), I described some of the strange occurrences that attended this investigation. Where the story left off, I’d recently been threatened in a bookstore, and then ambushed by three thugs who told me to stay away from this story. My unwitting employer had been bribed by short sellers, Patrick had been told by a U.S. Senator that his life was in danger, and a Russian matryoshka doll had appeared on the desk of an offshore businessman.

Inside this matryoshka doll was a slip of paper marked with the letter “F”…

* * * * * * * *

Soon after receiving the matryoshka doll, the offshore businessman invited Patrick Byrne to a greasy spoon diner in Long Island. Over the previous year, the businessman had provided Patrick with some information about the naked short selling scam, and the hope was that he might have something more to say.

But that day at the diner, all he had was a message.

[TigerLikesRooster]

This article certainly advances intriguing story. Even if half of it is true, it is big. I wonder how much of this is credible? Part of it, half of it, all of it?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Wiseghy]

I sort of remember this guy. The press played him up like a total nut job.

Must suck to be Cassandra.

[Arguendo]

Given that it’s on Patrick Byrne’s website, probably very little.

[Righting]

Why did you - arguendo - come to freerepublic? we find little in your posting that would suggest you are in 'our community'.

[J Aguilar]

It is striking how well Mario Puzo described European politics in the Godfather, part III; a film on which I often read comments from Americans telling that it is boring.

As the film describes, the worst Italians are not the Southern Sicilian gunmen (who share the public opinion blame), but the Northern puppeters, the ones who really pull the strings.

Take also into account that the Russian “mafia” is not other thing that the old KGB playing capitalism...

[jas3]

Byrne is a nutjob. If he ran a company that actually made money, instead of destroying capital, he wouldn’t have to worry so much about the shorts. Naked shorting was a problem, but nothing compared to the problem of shareholders giving money to kooks like Byrne to destroy.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Yes, Mafiya is the reincarnated KGB.

[Tainan]

Who is this "we" you refer to? Is there some sort of 'Star Chamber Tribunal' in existence here that I am not aware of?

And your comment inspired me to do something I very rarely do...go look at a posters past posts. In the posting history of 'Aguendo' I see nothing to substantiate your comment. Solid logic with a grasp of busines principles displayed. Although, I'm not buying his "profile" veracity for a NY minute...;)

[Stepan12]

Michael Millikin was no criminal, but a benafactor.

Those inside trader prosecutions were cheap witch hunts. The prosecution was given a chance to present its case at the Fatico hearings and it showed they had practically nothing on Milliken.

Millikin's mistake was trying to show the government that what he did was not illegal or immoral instead of treating the government charging him as the bunch of crooks that the were and are. His brother had been urging him to use the latter tack at court and it's a pity Millikin did not listen to him.

[Liz]

Many savvy Wall Street insiders figured Madoff was laundering Billions from the Russian mob. When he confessed, Bernie said he flim-flammed $50B but investigators could only find $17-30B---difference is the Ruski's. Probably why Bernie is walking around---the ruthless Ruskis want to know where Bernie hid their money. Once he tells all, he can say his prayers behind bars.

Madoff was running a money-laundering operation to get mob money out of the US to offshore accounts. Seems his investors were in on the game and figured if Bernie was helping the Ruskis steal, they oughta make a few bucks on it......out of sight of the taxman and US banking laws.

The FBI has fingered the Russian mob in all kinds of frauds---billion-dollar staged auto accidents, billion-dollar Medicare/Aid fraud, billion-dollar insurance and securities fraud, ID theft, sex crimes, child porn......you name it.

===========================================

REFERENCE----EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE TRI-STATE JOINT SOVIET-EMIGRE ORGANIZED CRIME PROJECT. RUSSIAN-EMIGRE CRIME IN THE TRI-STATE AREA

Gangsters from the former Soviet Union have established a strong and abiding presence in the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania region, engaging in a wide array of crimes that range from sophisticated financial frauds to narcotics trafficking to murder.

Evidence also shows that members of disparate Russian-emigre crime groups here have the potential to develop into one of the most formidable organized crime challenges to law enforcement since the advent of La Cosa Nostra.

These are among the key findings of the Tri-State Joint Soviet-Emigre Organized Crime Project, a cooperative research and investigative effort launched four years ago by four agencies in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania - the New York Organized Crime Task Force, the New York State Commission of Investigation, the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation and the Pennsylvania Crime Commission.

Investigative agents and staff from these agencies conducted the project in conjunction with criminal justice experts from Rutgers University. The Project's report presents the first comprehensive public assessment of the threat posed to this region by criminal elements emanating from within the former Soviet Union.

The report catalogues the history and growth of Russian-emigre crime networks, from their core base in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn to their current reach well beyond the New York metropolitan area into the counties of central New Jersey and the suburbs of Philadelphia.

One of the most troubling aspects is evidence of links between individuals here and criminal elements in the former Soviet Union, a phenomenon that lends a disturbing and complex international dimension to this emerging domestic law enforcement problem.The range of criminal and illicit activities linked to these groups is impressive.

The Project report details Russian-emigre involvement in a variety of highly sophisticated frauds and confidence schemes, financial crimes, including money laundering, counterfeiting and securities fraud, narcotics trafficking and an assortment of vice crimes.Russian-emigre criminals are no strangers to violence either.

THE NATURE OF RUSSIAN-EMIGRE CRIME

Crimes of Deception

Motor Fuel Tax Fraud

Insurance and Entitlement Fraud

Confidence Schemes

Counterfeiting

Violent Crimes

Homicide/Attempted Homicide

Extortion and Kidnapping

Drug Trafficking

Money Laundering

Vice Crimes----Regpay, a Florida credit card processing company operated by Byelorussians, was nailed for processing online child porn payments. NOTE Minx, Belarus, once a constituent republic of the Soviet Union (independent since 1991) is the country of origin of many of these predators now thieving on US soil.

--SNIP--PDF LONG READ http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:Ahm0dOHcKHEJ:www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/russian.pdf

[Liz]

The illegal naked short selling network consisting of hedge funds and brokers (who were creating phantom stock to manipulate stock prices down) included two famous criminals – “junk bond king” Michael Milken and his associate, Ivan Boesky.

Boesky was apparently deeply religious---and took to wearing in his Wall Street office-----a prayer shawl ritualistically worn by Orthodox religionists.

But Boesky's "religious act" became an object of ridicule on Wall Street.

Boesky became a laughing stock when it was revealed he was a crook---a religious crook---but a crook nonetheless.

[jsh3180]

Here’s an interview with a guy named Bud Burrell. It’s called “Crime of the Century” and is about naked shorting.
Burrell has an impressive resume, with his history, one would tend to believe what he has to say.
It’s a long interview, almost an hour, but well worth it.

http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2008-0712-2.asx

[Just mythoughts]

bttt so many things flood my mind regarding how New York City, became the center of gravity of mob rule, and the rest of US in fly over country could only sit back and observe... Where was ‘law and order’, say in 2000 in New York City? This much mob money floating around could not have been that hidden.

[RummyChick]

There is a man in prison, I forget his name, who conspired with FBI agents to get info so he could short stocks ..and he had ties to
C A I R

[Esther Ruth]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1785427/posts

[Arguendo]

Why are you such a fan of Patrick Byrne? It's hardly a mainstream conservative position.

Or do you know absolutely nothing about Byrne and naked short selling (can you even define it?), and you simply followed me here from the other thread to attack me? Incidentally, this violates the posting guidelines here, which you should realize if you're so in to the Free Republic community you claim to defend?

[Arguendo]

Thanks.

And you’d be surprised... I’ve met more Jewish Republicans from Manhattan than I knew existed. :)

[Liz]

Thanks for posting the link----nice surfing.

December 14, 1999
FBI Tracked Alleged Russian Mob Ties of Giuliani Campaign Supporter
The Center for Public Integrity | December 14, 1999 | BY Knut Royce
FR Posted on 02/15/2007 9:40:59 AM PST by Liz

WASHINGTON A prominent commodities trader who acknowledges a business history with a reputed Soviet Bloc crime figure and a notorious arms dealer has been one of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's top campaign supporters.

Commodities trader Semyon (Sam) Kislin and his family also lavished thousands of dollars in contributions to Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, to the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign, to former Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and to a number of state and city politicians. Kislin sits on the New York City Economic Development Board.

Kislin is not alone among emigres from the former Soviet Union who have successfully established themselves in the United States while law enforcement agencies, particularly the FBI, track their alleged associations with organized crime. The Center for Public Integrity has obtained confidential law enforcement documents detailing the activities of dozens of the emigres, but authorities rarely make cases and still less share the intelligence outside their departments.

A 1996 Interpol report claims that Kislin's firm, Trans Commodities, Inc., was used by two reputed mobsters from Uzbekistan, Lev and Mikhail Chernoy, for fraud and embezzlement. And a confidential 1994 FBI intelligence report on the Brooklyn, N.Y., mob organization headed by Vyacheslav Ivankov, the imprisoned godfather of Russian organized crime in the United States, lists Kislin as a "member/associate" of Ivankov's gang. It claims that his company co-sponsored a Russian crime boss and contract killer for a US visa and asserts that he was a "close associate" of the late notorious arms smuggler Babeck Seroush, who later settled in Russia. --SNIP--

LINK http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1785427/posts

[GOPJ]

I wonder if anyone in the MSM has the b-lls to pick this up and investigate it?

CBS's 60 Minutes loves to expose their impression of wrong doing ( someone NOT part of the liberal orthodoxy) - I wonder if they have what it takes to look into this... ummmm, don't hold your breath guys - 60 minutes is like the bully that only goes after easy targets.

O'Reilly will pick it up - or Hannity...