Macron’s 350 seats in National assembly
23 June, 2017
Faced by Macron’s 350 seats, conservative Républicains and their centrist allies had their worse ever score with 130 seats (against 229 in the last Parliament).
[May 9 Russian hacking shows Macron offshore accounts? ]
French prosecutors are to open a probe into the campaign of president-elect Emmanuel Macron. French cyber police will lead the investigation after documents purporting to show off-shore bank accounts were released online. Mr Macron has vigriously denied all allegations relating to bank accounts. Said to be a hoax
[May 8 Co-Habitation – Penelope and Brigitte ]
Who has more fun politics? Brigitte accused of hair extensions, veneers and cosmetic surgury
Tiphaine
Brigitte Marie-Claude Trogneux, was married to a banker named André-Louis Auzière and has three children and seven grandchildren, with him. Her 30-year-old daughter, Tiphaine Auziere, is a lawyer and also works on her stepfather, Emmanuel Macaron’s campaign. At her first campaign event, Tiphanie praised Emmanuel, calling him an “intelligent man” with an “exceptional personality.” Brigitte’s eldest child, Sebastien was born in 1975, which makes him two years older than his stepfather. Brigitte’s youngest daughter, Laurence, is the same age as Emmanuel, and were actually in the same class.
France’s center-right party, seeking to rebound after the defeat of its presidential candidate, said on April 26 it could share power with Emmanuel Macron if he is elected, as pollsters predict, on May 7.
Macron, a 39-year-old centrist, is tipped to comfortably win a runoff vote against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, but the political movement he created a year ago faces a huge challenge in the follow-up legislative election in June.
With Macron and his “En Marche!” movement at risk of being in a minority in parliament, the center-right party, The Republicans, hopes to secure enough National Assembly seats to demand a government role despite the defeat of its presidential contender Francois Fillon, eliminated in a first-round vote on April 23. president cannot do much without parliamentary support in France, since the office is less independently powerful than in the United States.
“Cohabitation,” is a particular feature of French government, under which it is possible that the president (who is elected directly) belongs to one party, and the prime minister belongs to the other. Although this confuses people from other countries, French citizens quite like it, as it creates a kind of domestic balance of power.
[April 25 Enter Brigitte Macron, the cougar?]
17 and 40
Who has more fun politics?
French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron is married to Brigitte Macron. As Brigitte Marie-Claude Trogneux, the now 64-year-old is the daughter of a family of chocolatiers, an organizer who is one of the masterminds behind the movement’s rise. Trogneux eventually separated from her husband with whom she has three children. In 2007, the two Macrons were married . Critics of the presidential front-runner frequently refer to his wife using the term “cougar” — a not exactly flattering word that describes older women seeking relationships with younger men.
[April 23 No French President Fillon ]
Fillon finished close behind the front-runners with 19.9 percent suppot and Fillon – a former prime minister – received some last-minute public endorsements from former President Nicolas Sarkozy and former Prime Minister Alain Juppe.
Fillon beat both of them in the primary vote to stand for the Republicans party, but his campaign has been hit by a series of allegations and charges of financial irregularities during his time as a government official and minister.
[February 1 Fun in horse race]
Who has more fun politics?
What started last week as a page three article in Le Canard Enchaine (it was not even on the front) now has a serious chance of bringing down the man seen as favourite to be the next French head of state. Mr Fillon’s wife Penelope was paid hundreds of thousands of euros in taxpayers’ money for a fictitious job as parliamentary assistant to her husband and his replacement.. So a new method for choosing a replacement candidate would have to be devised. Many eyes are turning to Alain Juppe, the runner-up in November’s primary.
Last week Mr Juppe said there was no way he would let himself be considered again as a candidate – but that was then.
“What is striking to me is how little help there is being directed at Fillon from his fellows in the party,” says Cecile Cornudet. “It doesn’t look good for him.”
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy is no doubt watching closely, and other senior Republican figures are also being mentioned, such as Francois Baroin, Laurent Wauquiez and Xavier Bertrand. Marine Le Pen, French far-right National Front (FN) party president, too is embroiled in corruption allegations, after the European parliament demanded she start repaying around €300,000 it says were wrongly paid to legislative aides and her bodyguard
[December 8 2016 DSK “a dimension outside the system” in second place as left candidate ]
December 7 2016
The former IMF chief is back on the podium from left presidential candidates. According to a survey, 37% of French see him as a good candidate.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is back on the list of best candidates left for 2017, second only Manuel Valls in a ViaVoice poll for Liberation published Thursday December 8. To the question whether each of the nine tested individuals would make a good or a good candidate “for the left in the 2017 presidential election,” 47% of respondents put the head Manuel Valls. DSK reached 37%, ahead of Ségolène Royal (32%), Martine Aubry (28%), Arnaud Montebourg (24%). François Hollande gets only 23%.
Among supporters of the left, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (45%) but ranks only 5th place, preceded by Manuel Valls (67%), Martine Aubry (62%), Ségolène Royal and François Hollande (56% each) . “Data for Dominique Strauss-Kahn are particularly unexpected,” notes political analyst Francois Miquet-Marty on behalf of ViaVoice. According to him, for DSK assets “a dimension outside the system, including during the trial proceedings; in contrast, the image of competence reinforced this time in the heart of the system “, and that” a determination, a perceived strength. ”
Moreover, Nicolas Sarkozy is designated by 28% of the sample as the winner of the presidential election if the were held today (23% for Marine Le Pen, only 9% for Hollande). 63% of respondents disapprove of the present policy (19% approve, 18% did not respond). 34% think that the right would be better that the Socialists if it was in power, and 28% believe that the National Front as it would do better.
Survey conducted online June 23 to 26 among a sample of 1,002 people representative of the French population aged 18 and over. Quota method.
[February 9 Alain Juppé ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy in polls ]
Alain Juppé is married to Isabelle Juppe (Bodin-born Legrand) is a former journalist who has long worked for the Lagardere media group. A Digital Specialist ,”The digital Woman in 2007″ .
Former French Prime Minister Alain Juppé will win The Republicans party nomination to run for president in 2017, beating Nicolas Sarkozy, according to a poll from Ipsos published in daily newspaper Le Monde February 8.
Forty-four percent of the respondents who are “certain” to vote in the party’s primary elections said they would choose Juppe, compared with 32 percent for Sarkozy, Ipsos, which conducted the survey with the Cevipof political institute, said. While former President Sarkozy may win more votes among party followers, The Republicans’ primaries will be open to all voters, which could allow Juppe to take the lead, the survey shows. France’s two-round presidential elections will be held in May 2017 and The Republicans’ primaries will be held in November. Sarkozy has vowed to slash taxes and pare back public spending if he is elected French president in 2017, as the former leader begins his campaign for nomination.
President Francois Hollande would lose the first round of the 2017 presidential election if either Sarkozy or Juppe win The Republicans’ primaries, according to a poll.
DSK – Comité de soutien
[December 1 2014 Hollande in Dakar row; Paparazzi did not snap Gayet, 5 staff fired ]
On November 29 at the meeting in the Senegalese capital Dakar, Hollande said “all human beings should be allowed to choose their leaders”.
Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said the French leader should not “decide what will happen in African countries concerning their political future”.
She added: “It’s a ‘Made in France’ democracy, and in Rwanda we find that shocking.”
Five members of Francois Hollande’s personal staff have lost their jobs after photos were taken of the president and his ‘secret’ lover at the Elysee Palace.
Taken last month, they showed the 60-year-old Socialist with Julie Gayet, the 42-year-old TV actress.There was no possibility of paparazzi having got into the highly secure presidential home in Paris, prompting the speculation that the pictures were taken by staff.
‘Five were immediately placed in the frame, and they are the ones who have been moved on to other duties,’ said a governmental source in Paris.
He said investigators did not know the exact person who had taken the snaps, so all five were ‘being let go’.
[November 29 Sarkozy elected party leader of UMP; Gayet is pictured at Elysee
Say three times:Gayet à l’Elysée
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected party leader of UMP, gaining 64.5% of the vote. More than 150,000 party members – over 50% – voted in the election [ November 28] Sarkozy faces two internal challengers for the country’s main opposition party, the conservative UMP’s primary in 2016 to choose the party’s 2017 presidential candidate: former prime ministers Alain Juppe and Francois Fillon. Neither is running in the elections November 28,29.
[November 3 Sarkozy: Alain Juppé has become the main obstacle to the political return of Nicolas Sarkozy]
Alain Juppé is married to Isabelle Juppe (Bodin-born Legrand) is a former journalist who has long worked for the Lagardere media group. A Digital Specialist ,”The digital Woman in 2007″ .
A survey highlights the new popularity of Alain Juppe, who has become the main obstacle to the political return of Nicolas Sarkozy as the candidate in the 2016 primary of the UMP for the presidential election in 2017. The Mayor of Bordeaux in fact exceeds the former president of the Republic in popularity with supporters of the UMP, with 76% of good opinions, compared to 71% for Nicolas Sarkozy. The other potential contenders for the investiture of 2017 are far behind. A survey by polling group LH2 in October showed Alain Juppé, for the first time beating Sarkozy in the run-off due next year for the presidential ticket of their UMP party.
Alain Juppé, a prime minister under center-right French President Jacques Chirac and a senior minister during the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, said on August 20 that he would seek to become president in 2017. In 2004, he was forced to put his political career on hold, when a court sentenced him to one year of ineligibility for public office, in addition to a 14-month suspended prison term for having illegally helped militants within his party collect monthly payments from the Paris city hall. At the time, Mr. Juppé acknowledged errors and negligence but said he had never sought to violate the law.
In a brief statement, Jacques Chirac , the former president of the Republic is supporting former Prime Minister candidate in the primary of the UMP for the presidential election in 2017.
“I always knew that Alain Juppe would have an appointment with you his fate and that of France.” Few things could I do more fun, for me- even for him, especially for our country (…) If I had the energy, I would have already booked my place, even a small, at its HQ.”
[July 23 UMP supports Sarkozy despite indictment ]
Atlantico survey published July 17 shows that UMP supporters support Nicolas Sarkozy. Indeed, the former head of state grew by 6 points compared to June 2014, despite his indictment and the Bygmalion case.
[July 17]
Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira: Her rhetorical style is a cross between gospel and opera and, with a voice like Billie Holiday
Questioned on the first indictment of Nicolas Sarkozy and attacks of the former Head of State against the judiciary, Christiane Taubira wished to recall that “everything is justiciable remedies, it is possible to challenge a decision. At this stage, Mr. Sarkozy has the opportunity to enter the investigating chamber. ” Nicolas Sarkozy has he been humiliated? “It is easy to imagine that a custody unpleasant [but] if the judges have reason to believe that custody is necessary, they do whatever the defendant, and the rule of law ” . regard to very strong criticism by Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister of Justice believes that “it carries a subjective assessment. If the law has not been complied with, there are remedies (…).
[July 13]
Under arrest
Le Monde newspaper published extracts from telephone calls in which Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly tells Mr Herzog – who has also been charged with corruption – he will help out Judge Azibert in return for the information.
The conversations apparently took place in February on a mobile phone Mr Sarkozy bought using a false name because he knew his calls were being tapped.
Judge Azibert has already been charged with illegally passing on information in relation to an enquiry into money being received by billionaire L’Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt.
In another part of the phone tapes, Mr Sarkozy is also heard saying he will meet with Michel Roger, Monaco’s chief of government.
Mr Sarkozy later discovered that his phone was being bugged, and so did not end up sorting out the job for the judge, it
http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2014/07/12/pourquoi-nicolas-sarkozy-est-mis-en-examen-pour-corruption_4455913_823448.html
[July 1]
Happy 58th Birthday, Nick, January 28 2013
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been held in police custody for questioning over suspected influence-peddling,Sarkozy had a secret phone registered under an assumed name and it was conversations with his lawyer Herzog, recorded on that device, which triggered the probe, and that he was tipped off that his mobile phone had been tapped by judges looking into the alleged financing of his 2007 election campaign by former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy got a friendly judge to try to influence the outcome of confidential legal deliberations related to the Bettencourt case in return for support securing a lucrative post in Monaco.
They also imply he had a mole in a senior position who tipped him off about a planned police raid on his offices. Such interference in the judicial process is regarded as “influence peddling” in French law and carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. The ex-president was accused of “abuse of someone in an impaired state” in the case involving L’Oreal cosmetics fortune heiress Liliane Bettencourt, and was cleared last year of taking Bettencourt’s money when she was too frail to know what she was doing.
[March 6]
Lawyers for former President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni announced that they would file a complaint for invasion of privacy for privacy after the release of recordings made by former presidential adviser Patrick Buisson . An interim (emergency procedure) will “soon” filed in the High Court of Paris. Referred to the civil justice aims to stop “a manifestly ilicit” emergency and thus prevent further broadcasts excerpts or transcripts from such recordings. Substantive proceedings may nevertheless be the result. Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife cannot accept that the remarks, made in a private capacity , have been recorded and are distributed without their consent , the confidentiality of private conversations constituting also one of the foundations of a democratic society, “wrote Thierry Herzog and Richard Malka lawyers in a statement. By this procedure, the couple “decided to continue by way of interim relief which will soon be before the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris, capturing, recording and dissemination of some of their statements, in violation of Articles 226-1 and 226-2 of the Criminal Code, “they said. Both items are designed to achieve the intimacy of private life by recording words or images without the consent of the persons concerned and the preservation of such records and the fact of wearing or leave to inform the public. These facts are punishable with one year’s imprisonment and a fine of € 45,000
facts are punishable with one year’s imprisonment and a fine of € 45,000
Mary-Kate Olsen, 27, and Olivier Sarkozy , the half-brother of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and French banker, 44 are engaged. “Mary-Kate’s family thinks Olivier is the best thing to happen to her,”
Olsen won’t have a hard time adjusting to motherhood, either. She’s already close to Sarkozy’s two children Julien, 12, and Margo, 10, from his previous marriage to Charlotte Bernard.
On March 3, 2008, he was appointed Co-head and Managing Director of the Carlyle Group’s Global Financial Services Group. Olivier Sarkozy is based in New York City and is a member of the Board of Directors of BankUnited. They share a US$6 million townhouse in New York City.
The couple was joined by Sarkozy’s daughter as they headed out to dinner in the West Village
The fast set
123 East 10th Street – East Village, New York Olivier Sarkozy, the half-brother of former French president-slash-casanova Nicolas, is already selling off his 19th-century East Village rowhouse at 123 East 10th Street, which he bought last August for $6.25 million. Dubbed a “love nest” for him and much-younger girlfriend Mary-Kate Olsen, the Frenchman picked up this 1854 five-bedroom, four-bathroom house at 123 East 10th Street?designed by James Renwick of Grace Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral fame?because it was old. (Insert joke about their 17-year age difference here.) Signs, a.k.a. the tabloids, report that, even after a year of dating, the couple is still canoodling all over the city, so perhaps he’s trading it in for a more modern residence. The handsome red-brick home with multiple parlors, eight fireplaces, original parquet floors, detailed moldings, and a garden is listed for $6,995,000.
123 East 10th Street – East Village, New York Erected in 1854 by James Renwick, one of the most famous American Architects of his time, amongst Grace Church, St. Patricks Cathedral and other internationally acclaimed projects, 123 East 10th stands out as one of the most exquisite Row Houses built. This house remains to be as attractive and architecturally significant today as it was almost two centuries ago. The home boasts at least five bedrooms and currently only four bathrooms but can easily accommodate more of each. An old world layout with a double parlor greets one with a lovely grand entrance and can accommodate multiple sitting rooms.
to Paris
USD $81,000
Exit Hotel Bristol, M-K & Ashley
Elizabeth Olsen on Tuesday (March 4) in Paris, France.
[September 9 2011]
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
(Comité de soutien de Dominique Strauss Kahn communiqué) Dominique Strauss-Kahn will not be the primary candidate of the Socialist Party for President of the Republic of 2012! DSK Club regrets to announce that DSK has taken an irrevocable decision in view of the impediment that has retained a New York court because of a hasty and prejudice that have played against him …! Being a man of responsibility and duty, he agreed to step back from his position as DG of the IMF to protect the institution he has reformed and put his candidacy aside to allow the socialists to debate calmly and prepare an alternative to the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy! see DSK Club site
FLDS SNAP fraud case: Lyle found in Yankton S.D.
23 June, 2017
Sioux Falls
A federal grand jury has issued a new indictment against Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints polygamous sect leader Lyle Steed Jeffs. Jeffs has been charged with a new felony count for failure to appear. Prosecutors filed the charge in federal court in Salt Lake City on June 21.
pawned Leatherman tools
Bishop Lyle Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was living out of his car for two weeks before his arrest in Yankton, South Dakota, an FBI official said June 15.
A polygamous sect leader’s life on the run came to end June 14 after he hocked a couple pairs of pliers at a pawn shop in a small South Dakota town the day before.
Lyle Steed Jeffs sold the Leatherman multitools for $37 at River City Treasures and Pawn in Yankton, South Dakota, on June 13 using his last name as his first name, said owner Kevin Haug. Jeffs, he said, handed over his actual ID and filled out the form to complete the deal.
“That was Lyle’s master plan to avoid capture was telling that my first name’s my last name, I guess,” Haug said.
Haug wasn’t in the store at the time but said his employee thought Jeffs was “acting strangely” and Googled his name after he left. Jeffs came up wanted.
[December 22 2018 guilty plea by John Waxman]
John Waxman
Speaking softly, John Wayman agreed to plead guilty to a single count of food stamp fraud.
“Has anyone offered you any inducements or threatened to get you to plead guilty?” Judge Stewart asked.
“No,” Wayman replied.
“Is it your intention to plead guilty of your own free will?”
“Yes.”
Wayman admitted that between 2011 and 2016, he knowingly facilitated Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to non-beneficiaries. Federal prosecutors have charged 11 FLDS members with food stamp fraud and money laundering charges, accusing them of ordering followers of the Utah-based polygamous church to hand over SNAP benefits to leaders, to do with as they wish. The feds allege the scheme exceeds $12 million in taxpayer dollars.
But under the deal, Wayman gets released from jail immediately and has to pay no restitution. He also doesn’t have any probation and a $100 fine. The feds have also agreed not to indict him for any other crimes that they may be aware of. Federal prosecutors defended their plea bargain offer, saying they believe it sends a message to the “culture of fraud” within the FLDS community, resolves the religious freedom issues and obtains guilty pleas. They also appeared to acknowledge some difficulty in obtaining a plea deal.
“It’s a very unique case that has unique legal issues,” assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Lund told the judge.
Plea deals have been offered to other defendants in the case, with one already notifying the government he will accept it.
[December 12]
Kimball Dee Barlow
Kimball Dee Barlow will enter a guilty plea of a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud as a misdemeanor, Attorney Rudy Bautista says. The terms from there are, in addition to pleading to that, there would be no incarceration.
Lyle Jeffs is accused of escaping home confinement in june. The FBI has said he used olive oil to slip out of a GPS monitoring device. A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to his arrest
Lyle Jeffs is the brother of imprisoned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sex assault related to underage “marriages.”
August 30 Lyle Jeffs,SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS ]
Lyle Jeffs [FBI]
On August 29,, the FBI announced the agency is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Lyle Jeffs, 56, who might try to change his appearance, is considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached.
Date(s) of Birth Used January 17, 1960, January 19, 1960
Place of Birth Utah
Hair Brown
Eyes Brown
Height 6’1″
Weight 210 pounds
Sex Male
Race White
Nationality American
NCIC W136539035
Reward:
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Lyle Steed Jeff
SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS
Submit a Tip:
If you have any information concerning this person, please contact your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.
Field Office: Salt Lake City
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wcc/lyle-steed-jeffs
[August 9 Short Creek FLDS reorganized ]
Nephi Jeffs
Warren Jeffs has named a new bishop of Short Creek, replacing one brother, Lyle, with another, Nephi.
Warren Jeffs noted in his lengthy instructions to Nephi that each of Short Creek’s recent bishops had failed: “Each one has had the great sin of finding comfort in women’s attention,”
[March 8 FLDS towns will pay $1.6 million in civil rights trial
Colorado City camera
In a civil rights trial, the jury reached a verdict on its fourth day of deliberations, and awarded $2.2 million to six residents eligible for damages. But the towns will only have to pay $1.6 million because lawyers negotiated a settlement over that part of the case.
The judge will now decide what other punishments to impose. Federal authorities could ask for the Colorado City Marshal’s Office to be disbanded and for its duties to be handed over to local sheriffs. Federal attorneys describe the local police force and FLDS Church’s security operation as paranoid entities that worked to violate the rights of nonbelievers. Witnesses for the government said church security spied on people with cameras placed around the towns and positioned themselves to keep an eye on who was arriving.
The former head of church security described elaborate cloak-and-dagger efforts taken to avoid scrutiny from outside law enforcement, such as using “burner” cellphones, encrypted radios and driving 40 miles to make phone calls out of fear that a local cell tower was being monitored by investigators.
[March 1 FLDS : only one defendant, Kimball Dee Barlow, 51 at large ]
Church leaders arrested
On February 26, a judge in Salt Lake City ordered defendant John Clifton Wayman, 56, detained, finding that he presented a risk to flee. Seth Steed Jeffs, 42, of Custer, S.D., appeared February 29 in a federal court in South Dakota, where a judge ordered him to remain in custody , too, and to be transferred to Utah by federal marshals. As of February 29, only one defendant, Kimball Dee Barlow, 51, had not been apprehended or surrendered.
February 26 SNAP fraud indictments in Colorado City, Ariz.
Prosecutors believe leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints diverted funds from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and ordered church members to use the benefits to place goods in a communal storehouse to later be distributed among church members.
A two-count indictment charges 11 leaders and members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS Church) with conspiracy to commit Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The defendants include leaders of the church.Charged in the indictment are Lyle Steed Jeffs, age 56, John Clifton Wayman, age 56, Kimball Dee Barlow, age 51, Winford Johnson Barlow, age 50, Rulon Mormon Barlow, age 45, Ruth Peine Barlow, age 41, and Preston Yates Barlow, age 41, all of Hildale; Seth Steed Jeffs, age 42, of Custer, South Dakota; and Nephi Steed Allred, Hyrum Bygnal Dutson, age 55, and Kristal Meldrum Dutson, age 55, all of Colorado City.
The indictment alleges that in March 2015, using SNAP fraud proceeds, Kimball Barlow signed a check for $16,978 to Orchid’s Paper Products Company for the purchase of paper products. During the period May 31, 2013, through September 22, 2014, the indictment alleges Ruth Barlow signed five checks totaling $13,561 made payable to John Deere Financial. The SNAP fraud proceeds were used for installment payments on a 2013 John Deere load tractor. SNAP fraud proceeds were also used for 16 checks totaling $30,236 payable to Ford Motor Credit for installment payments on a 2012 Ford F-350 purchased by Winford Barlow about Sept. 29, 2012.
The violations included in the indictment are especially egregious since they allege that leaders of the conspiracy directed others to commit crimes, for which only certain people benefited,”
[February 8 federal jury trial against Colorado City, Ariz. and Hildale, Utah ]
This turn of the century family portrait was taken close to the time Joseph F. Smith succeeded Lorenzo Snow as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints in October 1901. Besides Levira, with whom he had no children, Joseph had five other wives and forty-eight children. His wives are (L to R seated by Joseph): Mary Taylor Schwartz (married, 1884, seven children); Edna Lambson (married 1871, ten children); Julina Lambson (married 1866, thirteen children, including Joseph Fielding Smith—top row, center); Sarah Ellen Richards (married 1868, eleven children); Alice Ann Kimball (married 1883, seven children); circa 1904
PHOENIX (CN) – The former chief marshal of two towns run by a fundamentalist Mormon sect testified February 3 that he looked the other way when men in Colorado City, Ariz. and Hildale, Utah took underage girls as their “spiritual wives.”
The Department of Justice sued the twin towns in 2012, claiming they denied non-church members police protection, water and housing. The towns are dominated by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose leader, Warren Jeffs, is serving life in prison for sexually assaulting 12- and 15-year-old girls, whom he called his spiritual wives.
A federal jury trial against the two towns began in January and is expected to last through the end of February.
The government accuses the Colorado City Marshal’s Office of selectively enforcing “laws and regulations against non-FLDS individuals on the basis of religion.”
[September 16 2015 Floods catch 16 near FLDS center ]
Hildale • Washes divide Hildale, Utah, and adjoining Colorado City, Ariz. A big one, called Short Creek Wash, is supposed to act like a big drainage ditch and runs at almost a 45-degree angle through the community.
Smaller washes connect to Short Creek Wash. At about 5 p.m. Monday, 16 people — women and children — were caught when water rushed from one of those smaller washes into Short Creek Wash.
[March 24 2013 FLDS home covered in surveillance cameras]
read
Colorado City camera
The twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., known collectively as “Short Creek” and home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is covered in surveillance cameras.
“Our idea was to stop the underage marriages, and I think we’ve done that,” said Gary Engels, a Mohave County investigator who spearheaded the crackdown. “But, if anything, the community has become a lot more closed to society. The people have become a lot more paranoid. map
[March 17]
Willie Jessop, ex-FLDS activist
Willie Jessop, former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, walks down the hallway following a hearing Tuesday, March 5, 2013, in Salt Lake City. A 3rd District Judge has given initial approval for the eventual creation of a board of trustees to take over homes and property belonging to a polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs on the Utah-Arizona border. Judge Denise Lindberg approved the plan during a hearing Tuesday morning in Salt Lake City. Her approval is not a final decision, but rather permission to explore this option. Any action is pending the Utah legislature paying $5.7 million it owes in professional fees to a trust created in 2005 to handle the properties Willie Jessop, said he’s confident a board can be created that does what’s best for everybody.
“There is enough compassionate people in the community that understand the importance of protecting their neighbors’ interests, even if their neighbor is required to answer them nothing,” Jessop said.
[February 14]
Second Ward fundamentalist Mormons
Members of the fundamentalist Mormon group in Centennial Park are behind the new grocery store off of AZ Highway 389 and say they will allow anyone to shop there.
The Centennial Park group broke away from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the mid-1980s and has prospered with a pro-business and welcoming mind-set.
The FLDS-controlled CMC Food Town, the only grocery store in Colorado City and its twin city of Hildale, Utah, abruptly closed in November. The towns’ lone hardware store and RadioShack also closed.
FLDS Church leader Warren Jeffs, 57, is imprisoned in Texas on convictions of sexually assaulting two underage girls.
Even while behind bars, Jeffs is said to still release edicts to his followers, including recent strict food restrictions and many believe he is behind the closing of the stores.
Controlling food is just one more way for Jeffs to control his people and punish outsiders as only FLDS faithful are allowed to get food from what’s called the Bishop’s Storehouse.
“You can only survive off the storehouse,” Knudson said. “There are absolute two societies now. If you are not in with them they don’t even talk with you.”
Humanitarian groups have been concerned over the closing of the grocery store and welcome the news of the new store in Centennial Park.
“This is great news,” said Paul Murphy, spokesperson for the Utah Attorney General’s Office. “People have literally been bringing truckloads of food into this area making sure families are fed.” On 13 May 1984 the portion of Johnson’s followers who were dismissed or left on their own, held their first Priesthood Meeting just outside of town. They named their group the “Second Ward” in contrast to those following Johnson, whom the Centennial Park group refers to as the “First Ward.” Initially they met in the home of Alma Timpson.
By 27 September 1986, the Centennial Park group had built a meeting house and later, in 2003, a charter school was built for the town’s growing elementary-age population.
Most of this group lives in Centennial Park City, Arizona (36°57′21.96″N 112°58′59.64″W), a town approximately 3 miles (5 km) south of the twin communities of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah,[1] with a small number living in the Salt Lake Valley.
[February 6]
Ruby Jessops, children and sister
[January 22]
PHOENIX (AP) _ Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne says there is an ongoing criminal investigation into a polygamous sect along the Utah-Arizona border.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ leader, Warren Jeffs, is jailed in Texas for life after being convicted of sexually assaulting two of his underage brides.
A 26-year-old woman who claims Jeffs forced her into marriage at age 14 has now fled the group. She says she and her six children were held against their will for years.
Horne says her allegations of forced underage sex, among other things, are part of the ongoing case, but he declined to provide details.
Jeffs was convicted in Texas after similar allegations were leveled against him and others following a 2008 raid on an FLDS ranch in Texas.
Ruby Jessop escape from Colorado City, Ariz. along with her six children ages 2 to 10.
“ She went to court in Kingman and got a court order to bring her children out. I talked to her for a bit his morning. The kids were huddled around a TV, which they have seldom if ever seen before. “
[October 11,’11]
Some wives of Warren Jeffs
The woman had been living with her parents, and ran to the home of Willie Jessop, former spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who currently supports a rival seeking to replace Jeffs as prophet..
Washington County sheriff’s deputies helped one of the wives of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs leave the sect’s home base community along the Utah-Arizona border Monday.
The sheriff’s deputies helped diffuse what had become a standoff with FLDS men outside Jessop’s office, after a manhunt was launched, the woman was taken to a shelter. Deputies arrived on a ‘keep the peace’ call at about 3pm.
She asked for assistance in leaving the community,.
They are looking into allegations she was held against her own will and even drugged.
Seán FitzPatrick with his daughter Sarah
Seán Fitzpatrick was once head of the country’s biggest bank, Anglo Irish, which ended up requiring a €30bn (£26bn) government bailout and sent the country cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund for support. Fitzpatrick had pleaded not guilty to 27 offences under the Republic’s 1990 Companies Act. These include 22 charges of making a misleading, false or deceptive statement to auditors and five charges of furnishing false information in the years 2002 to 2007. after the longest criminal trial in Irish history, a judge ordered the jury to acquit him on all charges. Taoiseach Enda Kenny joined opposition parties in the Dáil in criticising the ODCE’s handling of the investigation. Kenny said if a government minister had performed as badly as some ODCE officials they would be sacked. Fitzpatrick’s resignation came amid controversy over hidden loans. For eight years Fitzpatrick concealed from auditors loans totalling €87 million that he had borrowed from Anglo Irish (by transferring them temporarily at year-end). Fitzpatrick conceded that this behaviour was inappropriate but denied any illegality, though he did resign as Anglo Irish Chairman. In 2014 he went on trial over allegations that he attempted to prop up Anglo’s share price, charges on which he was acquitted. Fitzpatrick went on trial for a second time for allegedly misleading auditors over details of Anglo Irish’s lending. He was acquitted, again, in May as the case against him collapsed. The ODCE stressed that the judge’s criticisms, whilst valid, refer to incidents and practices that occurred in 2009, and that subsequent changes had been made.
[June 2 2015 Delta National Bank & Trust Co.: banker to the FIFA guys ]
Aloysio De Andrade Faria, a 94-year-old billionaire with an affinity for Arabian horses
A small private bank controlled by a reclusive Brazilian billionaire shows up more than two dozen times in U.S. prosecutors’ corruption charges against world soccer officials. It’s hardly the bank’s first brush with scandal.
Delta National Bank & Trust Co. has had at least three previous run-ins with authorities on two continents over the past 15 years, including when Brazilian lawmakers probed its role as the banker for a scandal-tinged head of national soccer. In 2003, Delta pleaded guilty in the U.S. to failing to report transactions linked to a Colombian drug cartel.
Even so, Delta, with U.S. assets of $467 million, continued operations from its offices in Manhattan, Miami and Geneva. Some of that business, U.S. prosecutors alleged last week, included processing millions of dollars in bribe payments from a Sao Paulo-based sports marketing business to soccer officials affiliated with FIFA. Delta wasn’t named as a defendant or accused of any wrongdoing in a 47-count indictment released by the Justice Department.
Delta’s U.S. regulator, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, is now investigating the bank’s role in those transactions, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named because the probe is ongoing.
Delta was established in the 1980s by Aloysio De Andrade Faria, a 94-year-old billionaire with an affinity for breeding prize milk cows and Arabian horses. Faria has built a business empire that includes Sao Paulo-based Banco Alfa de Investimento SA, Faria has maintained ties to Delta through a Cayman Islands investment company, according to a recent Federal Reserve document and a former employee. Aloysio de Andrade Faria is a Brazilian banker; In May 2015, his net worth was estimated at US$2.8 billion. A pediatrician by training, Aloysio shared his medical interest with the financial business sponsored by his father.
Hollande to Julie’s loft in a trendy district
19 June, 2017
Finished with the Elysee! François Hollande organizes his new life with Julie Gayet . The former president elected to move to the home to the actress, a loft in a trendy district of eastern Paris. In this couple almost like the others, it is madame who leaves the dog when gentleman leaves to the office. A life, this time, normal, far from the golden cage of the Castle.
June 29 2015 Julie Gayet attends official ceremony ]
François Hollande and Julie Gayet attended the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of General de Gaulle’s appeal of June 18,. The entourage of the head of state insisted that Julie Gayet was present “as the granddaughter of Alain Gayet, the Liberation companion” At the ceremony of Mont Valerien, actress accompanied her parents and her grandfather, Alain Gayet, 92, hero of Liberation. She was in the gallery, not at the side of the head of state
[April 23 Julie Gayet, now the châtelaine]
chatelaine: the mistress of an elegant or fashionable household. 1845, from French châtelaine “a female castellan; wife of a castellan; mistress of a castle or country house;” fem. of châtelain, from Old French chastelain “owner and lord of a castle, castellan, nobleman,” from chastel (see chateau ).
[February 15 “Same terrorist targets “, says French President Francois Hollande, at the Danish embassy in Paris]
Like it or not, Julie Gayet is the natural extension of François Hollande, even if it appears there is no official link.
“It was the same targets that were chosen by the terrorists”, said Hollande, speaking on a visit to the Danish embassy in Paris. “We see there is a link that doesn’t show there is a network but does show the terrorists are determined to hit what we are, what we represent, the values of freedom, of law, of protection that every citizen — whatever his or her religion — should have,” the president added.
[January 5 Socialists win because of “perfect” response of Francois Hollande to the terror attacks.]
“In ‘Merci pour ce moment,’ Valérie is the embodiment of a woman’s struggle to scream the truth,” said movie Producer Saïda Jawad. Trierweiler’s book details the reporter’s seven year relationship with the French president, including his year-long affair with actress Julie Gayet.
Frederic Barbier, the Socialist candidate at the by-election in Doubs, eastern France, who won 51.4% of the vote, said his victory over Sophie Montel, National Front, had been helped in part by the “perfect” response of France’s leaders to the terror attacks.
[January 25 Sanctions ‘must stop now’, Francois Hollande expects a resolution to Ukraine crisis]
Valérie Trierweiler’s bestseller on Hollande relationship to be made into film. Romarin films is currently seeking French and international co-producers. Trierweiler’s book was widely panned in France as a poorly written, self-pitying and vulgarly prurient invasion of the French president’s private life. Despite the furore, initial sales surpassed Fifty Shades of Grey.
Willem Dafoe is of French, German, English, Irish, and Scottish descent.
The French president today called for the lifting of the West’s economic sanctions on Russia, saying: ‘Mr Putin does not want to annex eastern Ukraine. He has told me that.’
Saying the sanctions ‘must stop now’, Francois Hollande said he was expecting progress on a resolution to the Ukraine crisis at international talks in Kazakhstan in 10 days.
[December 6 Hollande one of the first Western leaders to visit the Russian president since his annexation of Crimea]
Julie Gayet at Beirut Film Festival
Updated Dec. 6, 2014 1:15 p.m. ET French President Franaçois Hollande stopped over in Moscow on December 6 for a surprise meeting with Vladimir Putin to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, becoming one of the first Western leaders to visit the Russian president since his annexation of Crimea.
[No0vember 6 Hollande keen to deal with oil-rich Canada]
The photos that surfaced November 6 are the first time Gayet has been caught on camera coming out of the Elysee palace. The magazine said the photographs were taken on Oct. 30, on the actress’ return to Paris after taking part in Tokyo Film Festival.
French President François Hollande on November 3 addressed the Canadian federal parliament as the two countries prepare for a new trade pact.
Officials say Hollande, the first French President to visit Canada in 25 years, is keen to show that France, which already has close ties to French-speaking Quebec, is also interested in stronger ties with English-speaking Canada, particularly the oil-rich west.
[September 3 Valérie Trierweiler’s expense account revealed = riposte: she tried suicide]
In 2013. Valarie served as France’s first lady
Valérie Trierweiler cost the French taxpayer €481,900 (£381,000) in 2013 as France’s “first lady”, according to an official audit.
The revelation in a report by the court of auditors prompted Trierweiler’s son Léonard to spring to her defence as it raised fresh comparisons with the lavish spending of her predecessors in the Elysée Palace, the wife and former wife of Nicolas Sarkozy.
The audit of palace spending in 2013 found that Trierweiler’s staff of five cost €396,900. The travel expenses of the former partner of President François Hollande, for official duties and journeys linked to humanitarian work, were put at €85,000.
She also had four bodyguards, whose costs were not quantified in the report by the court of auditors, which was released on Tuesday evening, as well as grace and favour offices in a palatial Paris mansion.
Valérie Trierweiler made suicide bid in the Elysée Palace after Gayet affair revealed.
François Hollande was forced to wrestle sleeping pills from the hand of his furious lover Valérie Trierweiler as she tried to commit suicide following the collapse of their relationship.
French actress Julie Gayet, whose affair with President Francois Hollande made headlines worldwide, on September 2 won a privacy case against a photographer who snapped her in her car.
Julie Gayet attends the Opening Ceremony and ‘Birdman’ premiere during the 71st Venice Film Festival at Palazzo Del Cinema on August 27, 2014 in Venice, Italy.
[August 14 Francois Hollande celebrates his birthday with family]
Another beach, another dump
Valerie Trierweiler
Francois Hollande’s affair with the actress Julie Gayet appears to be over after she was seen on holiday with Pierre Puybasset, manager at Financial Exchequer, Paris, and he went off on a break alone.
Valerie Trierweiler, 49, had to leave the Elysee Palace when Mr Hollande’s secret affair with Miss Gayet, a 42-year-old actress, was made public.
[June 28 Valerie Trierweiler decorations at Presidential summer residence removed]
a riposte to Hollande travels…no limo now, takes the subway, March 1]
VALÉRIE TRIERWEILER:Her traces erased from the Fort of Brégançon. François Hollande did not retain the changes made by the former first lady at the summer residence of the Presidents in the South of France …. “These acquisitions have now disappeared, recovered by the Office of National Furniture with crockery, linen and furniture of the garden, ”
[February 12]
swimwear photo brings writ
Valerie Trierweiler, former partner of French president Francois Hollande in Mauritius But Hollande ain’t seen nothing yet — wait until Trierweiler, a journalist known for her quick, acid tongue, gets her turn at the mike.
Fouille-merde: Valerie Trierweiler after Hollande: Valerie Trierweiler, former partner of French president Francois Hollande, has issued a writ against French Closer magazine for publishing pictures of her in her swimwear while on holiday in Mauritius
Judge Anne-Marie Sauteraud however said Ms Trierweiler “could not ignore that by bathing in a two-piece swimsuit on the beach of the official presidential retreat, she risked being photographed”.
But France is there when it counts
[January 31]
Julie Gayet in the French film by Bertrand Tavernier, “Quai d’Orsay”.
President Hollande has a date with President Obama in Washington on February 11. His good friend Julie Gayet has a date in Paris with the Cesar Award ceremony on Feb. 28.
Julie Gayet is nominated for the French ‘Oscar’. Actress Julie Gayet, 41.,a supporting actress in Bertrand Tavernier’s Quai d’Orsay, a comedy about life at the French foreign ministry, has been nominated for a Cesar, the most prestigious prize in French cinema. Ms Gayet has been keeping a very low profile, although friends have been saying she has no intention of trying to become the next first lady.
Guardian: “Gayet co-stars as a vampish policy adviser on Africa who will reportedly stop at nothing to gain an advantage over her rivals.”
Variety: “Arthur finds himself sabotaged for sport by one colleague (Julie Gayet, as the seductive policy advisor on Africa)”
Le Monde: ” The other members are also tasty, especially … Julie Gayet (Councillor Africa ).”
And as if that were not enough, Julie Gayet will compete with … Marisa Borini , mother of Carla Bruni (!) for her role in A castle in Italy
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is an Italian-French singer, songwriter and former model. She married the then President of the French Republic Nicolas Sarkozy in February 2008. Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy believes he can capitalise on the fallout from Hollande’s decision to end his relationship with former first lady Valerie Trierweiler following the revelation of his affair with actress Julie Gayet.Sarkozy, who divorced his second wife Cecilia and started living with former supermodel Carla Bruni during his time in office, has been reluctant to say too much about the saga in public. In private however, Sarkozy has reportedly been rubbing his hands with glee over a scandal that he believes will do further damage to his rival’s standing, particularly with women voters turned off by the curt 18-word statement Hollande used to announce the end of his relationship with Trierweiler.
[June 29]
During her two-day visit to India on behalf of the French charity Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger) she visited a slum and witnessed a feeding program for malnourished children.She told AFP during the India trip that she would like to extend her humanitarian work – ‘‘especially towards poor children’’.The 48-year-old, who is still employed as an arts writer by the French magazine Paris Match, said she planned to continue charity work rather than returning to her previous role as a political journalist.
In May 2012, during the hard-fought elections for France’s National Assembly, when Trierweiler, a heavy Twitter user, tweeted her support for a candidate who was running against Ségolène Royal, the mother of Hollande’s four children, with whom he lived for many years (and whom he finally left for Trierweiler). Royal lost the race, dashing Hollande’s hopes for having her as an ally in the fractious parliament.
Though Trierweiler tried hard to make amends for her mistake in subsequent posts, the tweet was never forgotten. As the months went on, the doubts about her emerged at odd moments. While Hollande was on a visit inside France one day, a woman in the crowd bluntly told him, “don’t marry Valérie Trierweiler, we don’t like her,” leaving the president speechless; the video of the scene played heavily on French TV
[January 25]
France’s first lady, Valerie Trierweiler, sent a farewell message January 25 via Twitter to staff at the presidential palace, a move that comes after President Francois Hollande reportedly announced the couple is splitting up. “All my gratitude goes to the extraordinary people at the Élysées. I will never forget the devotion or emotion at the time of leaving,” she wrote.
Valerie and Michelle
Valerie Trierweiler has already met the Obamas
Ms Trierweiler is travelling to India on January 26 support of the work of the French charity Action Against Hunger. . Her second marriage was to Denis Trierweiler, a sub-editor at Paris Match magazine, and a writer and academic. This marriage produced three children and divorce proceedings took three years (2007-2010).
[January 24]
Newly elected president Francois Hollande poses with children in front of his home on May 7, 2012 in Paris, one day after the announcement of the first official results of the French presidential second round. Flora Hollande, Daughter;Thomas Hollande,Son;Julien Hollande,Son;Clémence Hollande,Son [Mr Hollande had a Catholic upbringing and had his four children christened but never married.]
Mobilier National, which is responsible for furnishing the official palace of the Republic and the various presidential residences denied published items, saying: ” The National Furniture opposes categorically denied the rumor circulating on the internet regarding a supposed destruction of furniture at the Elysee Palace. This rumor is based on totally false elements . ”
[January 21]
Hollande, who has four children from a previous relationship with fellow Socialist politician Segolene Royal, has reportedly been advised to be a “bachelor president” while the public digests the news of the affair.
“If there must be a split, it must be dignified and elegant regarding Valerie Trierweiler,” one of Hollande’s advisers reportedly told French newspaper Le Figaro Monday. “And above all, Julie Gayet mustn’t instantly move into the Elysee.” Then again…
[January 19]
Collapsed and humiliated, she found herself caught between her huge distress and his impetuosity, her questions about her future and her anger. Today, Valérie Trierweiler is perhaps at the end of a path. She was attracted to the lure of power. She learned she acted, she suffered, she knows hardness and cruelty of public life.
Valérie Trierweiler left Saturday the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, where she stayed for eight days. Story of a difficult week.
More than a week cloistered in a room of the Salpêtrière, surrounded by guards and nurses, with her iPhone for company! Very dejected, voltage at half-mast, she dined on the ham-shells of the hospital, not the little delicacies of the Elysee. She saw almost no one except her son, the youngest, everyday, her mother and brother from time to time.
Tuesday from her bed she watched the press conference of the President of the Republic on the mini-screen of her iPhone, because her room had no TV or iPad. This is not to say that she was disappointed by the necessity he had to evade the problem. She thought for a moment to attend this conference. The doctors have dissuaded. Too weak. No need to vanish amid flashes and microphones.
Thursday, Valérie Trierweiler told her son she wanted at all costs to leave the hospital to resume her life. She was better. But curiously, late Friday morning, her son was no longer welcome at his bedside. Conspicuously absent, she seemed asleep very deeply. His son explodes, concerned with the physician. She was told that her mother needs rest.
The previous evening, Thursday 21 am at 15 hours, Francois Hollande, who still remains her official companion visited her for half an hour. They did not jumped into each other’s arms, that is no longer there. He told her he “needed time”. This is why they have agreed for her to stay at La Lanterne “pending.” Waiting for what? This is the problem.
With 19 months to run in as undefined First Lady under the eyes of French and under the scrutiny of the world press, with many public appearances, with the drivers, assistants, bodyguards, dresses fashion function, it will be difficult descending into everyday life. Become anonymous? Impossible! Valerie never wanted to let go of her original job: Articles for Paris Match. An anchor. A kind of insurance? The apartment on rue Cauchy in the 15th where the couple lived before the election is in the name of Francois Hollande. He will have his home in it? Imagine the anxiety.
It will take time, years, to collect the most violent shock of his life: the deception of the man who was his companion for 8 years. The worst: read in the press that the story with Julie Gayet had begun before the election … Valerie oscillates between depression and rage.
WHY THIS HOSPITAL?
Upon publication of pictures of “Closer” after a tough call – confessions – with François Hollande, she would have taken some sleeping pills, just to find some respite from a sleep that could not, she may be swallowed a tablet too. But it is not the mother of three boys, hardworking, very rooted in reality that will make a suicide attempt. The next day she wakes up in the Elysée, nauseous, unwell, it would be worse. “Services” the Elysee advised her to be hospitalized, to create distance.
Ideally, the Presidency wished not to publicize her hospitalization but Valérie Trierweiler wasfirm that the information leaked. Contrary to what you read, Ségolène Royal has never gone to visit Valerie at the Salpetriere, she let go, telling a confidante that “Francis did not know howto be true.” Sex is a dividend of power? Or just a taste for the secret love? At the Elysee, they already tried to turn the page …
Eight days, Valerie finds herself alone to handle everything. Collapsed and humiliated, she found herself caught between her huge distress and his impetuosity, her questions about her future and her anger. Today, Valérie Trierweiler is perhaps at the end of a path. She wasattracted to the lure of power. She learned she acted, she suffered, she knows hardness and cruelty of public life. A lock needs to turn slowly regain a foothold …
January 12]
‘First Lady’ has blues
The Elysée Palace said that Ms Trierweiler, 49, had suffered a “severe case of the blues” last Friday after Closer published an article about the alleged affair with Julie Gayet. She was taken to a Paris hospital and is expected to remain until January 12.
[January 10]
‘Around New Year’s Day, French President Francois Hollande, a helmeted head of state, joined Juliet Gayet, the actress, at her apartment, where he has got into the habit of spending the night,’ Closer wrote on its website. Hollande routinely drives through Paris on his scooter to spend the night with his 41-year-old mistress.
[July 18 2011]
Anne Mansouret is an elected local official for the Socialist party
According to a report by the French magazine L’Express, Mansouret recently revealed to the special prosecutor investigating Tristane’s case that she had a very real, very messy reason for advising her daughter as she did: her own sexual past with DSK.
Mansouret told the prosecutor that she had a single, violent sexual encounter that took place in the OECD building in Paris, where DSK worked as special advisor to the organization’s Secretary General. L’Express in french a Socialist Party politician, François Hollande, took an interest in the matter. according to Le Nouvel Observateur
Investigators interviewed Tristane Banon’s mother, Anne Mansouret July 13, who said she collected her daughter from the scene of the alleged assault in a state of shock. Anne Mansouret is an elected local official for the Socialist party, and has said that senior members of the party were made aware of the assault.
Rooney Mara ‘Una” gets U.S. distribution
4 June, 2017
Rooney Mara-Ben Mendelsohn Pic ‘Una’ Lands At Swen As Company Launches U.S. Arm
20 January 2017 7:51 AM, PST | Deadline | See recent Deadline news »
Exclusive: Swen, already an established distributor in Latin America, is launching its U.S. arm in a big way, snagging rights to Una, the drama that stars Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn and Riz Ahmed based on David Harrower’s provocative Olivier-winning play Blackbird.
[October 16 2016 “Una” screened October 9 at London FF]
Rooney Mara-Ben Mendelsohn Pic ‘Una’ Lands At Swen As Company Launches U.S. Arm
20 January 2017 7:51 AM, PST | Deadline | See recent Deadline news »
Exclusive: Swen, already an established distributor in Latin America, is launching its U.S. arm in a big way, snagging rights to Una, the drama that stars Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn and Riz Ahmed based on David Harrower’s provocative Olivier-winning play Blackbird.
Though it may push boundaries too far for some audiences, it boldly ventures into unexplored territory to address uncomfortable topics and reveal a complexity of character not often attempted on the big screen.
Una does not have a UK release date yet.
September 12 “Una,” Rooney Mara, Canadian Premiere ]
Rooney Mara in Una
‘Una’ Review: Mara and Mendelsohn Are Captivating in Sexual Abuse Drama | TIFF 2016
BY MATT GOLDBERG While the film doesn’t always succeed in playing against expectations (especially near the end as the story seems as lost as Una with how to proceed), it forces the audience to sit with tough questions even when we think we already know the answers.
Rating: B+
Una does not currently have a U.S. release date.
[September 8]
UNA, starring Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara (Carol) and Ben Mendelsohn (upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) will be premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival as a Special Presentation.on September 11, 2016.
Directed by multi-award winning stage director Benedict Andrews, UNA is the cinematic adaptation of the Olivier Award-winning play ‘Blackbird’ (staged in Broadway early 2016), written by David Harrower, who also adapted the script with Benedict Andrews.
This official still of the film features Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn. The film also stars Riz Ahmed (Jason Bourne).
When a young woman (Mara) unexpectedly arrives at an older man’s workplace (Mendelsohn), looking for answers, the secrets of the past threaten to unravel the new life he has created for himself. Their confrontation will uncover buried memories and unspeakable desires. It will shake them both to the core.
The film’s crew includes The Lobster DoP Thimios Bakatakis, Macbeth composer Jed Kurzel, Macbeth production designer Fiona Crombie, The Selfish Giant editor Nick Fenton as well as costume designer Steven Noble and hair and make¬up designer Jan Sewell, who both worked on The Theory of Everything.
The film is produced by Jean Doumanian and Patrick Daly alongside WestEnd Films. It is backed by Creative Scotland, Film4 and WestEnd Films, which is also handling world sales.
Robbie Allen, Senior Screen Executive at Creative Scotland, said: “We’re really pleased that Una will premier at Toronto. It provides the ideal platform to launch the international screenwriting career of David Harrower, one of Scotland’s most celebrated playwrights. We’re proud to support David with this film adaptation of his award-winning and acclaimed stage-play, Blackbird.’
[June 13 Blackbird/Una: Michelle Williams and Rooney Mara choose the same rôle ]
UK broadcaster Film4 has boarded finance on the drama Blackbird, WestEnd Films is handling international sales and will co-produce alongside August: Osage County producer Jean Doumanian and Patrick Daly.
http://www.westendfilms.com/films/current/una-aka-blackbird
Lead actress in a play: Jessica Lange, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”. Lange beat out Laurie Metcalf in Misery, Lupita Nyong’o in Eclipsed, Sophie Okonedo in The Crucible, and Michelle Williams in Blackbird.
[April 25 ]
Grosses – Week Ending 4/24/2016
Show BLACKBIRD This Week Gross $371,241 Last Week Gross $414,556 Diff $ $-43,315
Potential Gross $892,260 Gross % Potential 41.6% This Week 64.0% Last Week 62.4%
[March 24]
Blackbird is bringing in less than half of its gross potential each week. In the last reported week of box office figures, the week ending March 13, 2016, Blackbird brought in $411,984, which represents 46.55% of its gross potential. With a top ticket price of $248.00, the average paid admission was $63.20, and the audience was filled up to an average of 80.4%. Ben Brantley from The New York Times was lukewarm in his response to Blackbird, declaring that the work itself is immensely powerful but that this production only occasionally reaches its full potential. He called the production “fitful” and compared to acting to an earthquake “seismometer,” calling the satisfaction level of watching the performances “low.”
[March 16 ]
Rooney Mara gets second nomination for Best Actress Oscar
Black Bird limited engagement opened March 10. The limited engagement is scheduled to continue through June 12.
Watching Williams work is like seeing a figure from a documentary perform a fictional reënactment of her own life. She shifts between the two realities—what’s true in the world and what’s true onstage—without ever losing sight of her partner. She has control and, even more interesting, no control over where the role carries her. –New Yorker
Review: Michelle Williams soars with Jeff Daniels in Broadway’s disturbing ‘Blackbird’ –NY Daily News
As played with devastating rawness by Williams, she is alternately viperish, vengeful, sarcastic, bizarre, and desperate to reconnect. …Williams’s transparency is such that you take in both images, and many others, as a kind of flickering of the soul: terrifying, hard to square, but inarguably true. –Vulture
Williams is more stylized in her delivery, but there’s no doubt that she is fully experiencing her character’s anguish. Her performance calls attention to itself, but never in a gratuitous way. –LATimes
Her performance as Una is mannered to the point of distraction. It’s as if the sexual abuse her character suffered 15 years ago has caused not only a speech impediment but uncontrollable physical spasms that now affect her walk, gestures, and facial expressions.
As a film actress, Williams can be subtle and nuanced. On stage, she’s the opposite: showy and contrived. The result is an imbalance in performances that seriously undermines the drama between an unrepentant offender and his lost victim. -The Wrap
Williams has been nominated for Academy Awards three times, including one for her performance as Marilyn Monroe in My Weekend With Marilyn [Won Golden Globe]
[February 10]
Blackbird, David Harrower’s hard-hitting two-hander, began previews in Blackbird on February 5, with two shows at the Belasco. The wrenching drama may prove a hard sell to Broadway audiences, but it also stars two bonafide film stars in Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams, who will probably aid its fortunes. It performed well out of the gate, filling 91 percent of the seats and taking in 66 percent of its potential box office. Average ticket price was $84.14.
[January 15]
Three-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams will play Una in David Harrower’s scorching play ‘Blackbird’ about an encounter between Ray, a male business executive, and Una, the woman he seduced 15 years earlier, when she was 12 years old, opening on Broadway in the spring.
Jeff Daniels will re-create the role he played in the 2007 Manhattan Theatre Club presentation of the 90-minute drama. Also revisiting the play is director Joe Mantello, who staged the earlier production. Michelle Williams recently appeared on Broadway opposite Alan Cumming in Cabaret.
Blackbird will play an 18-week limited engagement at the Belasco Theatre beginning February 5, with opening set for March 10.
Spring also has been mentioned as the release date for the Benedict Andrews-helmed film of the play, also adapted by Harrower and starring Rooney Mara (Carol) and Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline). The film is being produced by Jean Doumanian, a frequent Rudin co-producer. Eager to keep the critical momentum from Carol trucking along – for which she won the coveted actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in May – Rooney Mara’s next picture is for Benedict Andrews’ “intense, unflinching” love drama, Una. Previously titled Blackbird up until a recent switcheroo, the film marks the directorial debut for Andrews, who has carved out a career working on stage drama up until this point.
In the film, Mara – known for eye-catching turns in David Fincher’s The Social Network and English-language Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – stars opposite Ben Mendelsohn as a young, wide-eyed woman. Attracting the attention of Mendelsohn’s Ray, Mara’s humble protagonist shows up into his life unannounced, digging up past memories that he believed to have been long buried in the sand. What follows is a passionate, yet illicit affair, one which leaves Ray in jail and Mara’s Una on the search for answers.
[March 10 Michelle Williams’s Suite Francaise opens in U.K.[
expressive delicacy of Michelle Williams’s headlining performance.
handsomely crafted, sincerely performed wartime weeper.
Entertainment One releases “Suite francaise”in the U.K on March 13; 2015 in the U.S
[November 7 2014 Is Michelle Williams’s Suite Francaise coming out this year?]
Michelle Williams’ World War II romance “Suite Francaise” had a “world premiere” at the American Film Market along with 90 other movies, November 5-11.
[August 28]
While it may be easy to get lost in the loveliness of her gown, the Amazing Spider-Man actress also mesmerized us with a new shorter hairstyle. Her hair was inches longer when she arrived in Venice the day before with a shoulder-skimming bob. Then, for the event, Stone had chopped off inches of her auburn locks into a textured choppy ‘do.
Posted on: July 22nd, 2014 by Roundabout
We are pleased to announce that 3-time Academy Award nominee & Golden Globe winner, Michelle Williams has extended her acclaimed run as “Sally Bowles” in Cabaret on Broadway through November 9, 2014.
Posted on: August 20th, 2014 by Roundabout
We are thrilled to announce celebrated film star & Golden Globe nominee Emma Stone will join the cast of the Tony Award-winning Cabaret and make her Broadway debut starring as “Sally Bowles” from November 11, 2014 through February 1, 2015.
May 19, 2013 The Weinstein Company has pre-bought the U.S. rights to the Michelle Williams-starrer Suite Francaise, which starts shooting in June. 27 June, 2013 TF1, Entertainment One, the Weinstein Company and BBC Films have announced the start of principal photography on $20m (€15m) feature Suite Française, which is being shot in Brussels and Paris.
July 23, 2014 I also hear that Suite Française with Michelle Williams [a fictional account of the German occupation of France] will not be boarding a vaporetto. There’s been speculation surrounding Stephen Frears’ Lance Armstrong project. The director has a long track record in Venice with The Queen and Philomena big hits, but it looks like it’s not ready. Was Suite Francaise one of the films that was confirmed as being moved to 2015 or is that still us speculating? The Weinstein Company has settled on release dates for a number of their films going into the fall. Saul Dibb’s “Suite Francaise” is likely out of the running for 2014. August 7, 2014 Do we even know if Michelle Williams’s Suite Francaise is coming out this year? There’s been absolutely zero talk about that film. It may be a dud.
The Berlin Film Festival, will be held from Feb. 5 through 15, 2015.
[June 22 Shia LaBeouf had to be put in a face mask because he kept spitting at the show Cabaret]
Shia LaBeouf was charged by police with criminal trespass and two counts of disorderly conduct, and apparently threatened police and other guests at the show Cabaret during intermission. He allegedly told police officers at the Midtown precinct, “Fuck you. I’ll fuck you up.” Police also apparently had to put him in a face mask because he kept spitting.
LaBeouf in a ripped shirt a block away from the theater, was chasing after a man who appeared to be homeless. LaBeouf was stumbling inside the theater in the bar, and feeding a woman a strawberry from her own plate. Shia LaBeouf is an American actor and director who has a net worth of $25 million. The show is an in place, right?
[June 11]
CABARET
(STUDIO 54) 06/08/2014
This Week’s Gross $762,132
Last Week’s $765,328
GrossDiff $-3,196
$Potential Gross $984,920
% of Potential 77.38%
CABARET
(STUDIO 54)
Gross week of May 11: $783,761
Gross last week $628,491
Difference $155,270
Gross potential $977,240
Difference 80.20%
[April 25]
Looking good, Sal; love the platinum bob. But why so uptight? Don’t forget what you always said: “Life is … .” Uh, what was it you said again?
Only after her death in 1973 was Isherwood prepared to reveal that the inspiration for Sally came from Jean Ross, who in 1931 as a nineteen year old nightclub singer, who shared a lodging house with him.
NYT The most conspicuous difference in this production is the bright blond actress portraying Sally, a role imperishably created for the Roundabout by Natasha Richardson. The promiscuous, hard-partying Sally is now embodied by a very brave Michelle Williams, who doesn’t look all that happy to be there. I’m assuming that’s more a matter of character interpretation than of personal discomfort, but it does put sort of a damper on the festivities.
Since Ms. Williams’s Broadway debut is the biggest news in this revival of Joe Masteroff, John Kander and Fred Ebb’s oft-reprised 1966 musical, let’s linger on her. As you probably know, she’s a fine screen actress, and very good onstage, too, as I can testify, having seen her in productions of “The Cherry Orchard” and Mike Leigh’s “Smelling a Rat.”
Given that she played Marilyn Monroe in the 2011 film “My Week With Marilyn,” for which she received an Oscar nomination, Ms. Williams obviously knows about wrestling with the ghosts of sexy performances past. But for some reason, she has chosen to tamp down any evidence of spontaneous sensuality.
With a lockjaw Mayfair accent that sometimes has her talking literally out of the side of her mouth and a sustained air of high tension, Ms. Williams’s Sally brings to mind more an anxiously slumming heiress out of Evelyn Waugh than the exuberantly hedonistic Sally of Christopher Isherwood’s “The Berlin Stories,” on which “Cabaret” is based (along with John Van Druten’s play “I Am a Camera”). Mr. Mendes sees Sally as a quicksilver upper-middle-class Chelsea girl, happily escaping her past below Though never previously known as a singer or dancer, Ms. Williams does just fine with her musical chores here. (And don’t forget that even though she was played by a top-form Liza Minnelli in the 1972 screen version of “Cabaret,” Sally was never meant to be very talented.)
Leading the Kit Kat girls in nightclub production numbers like “Don’t Tell Mama” and “Mein Herr” with a shiny, metallic vibrato, Ms. Williams comes closer to evoking the musical style of the Depression than any Sally I’ve seen. And for her climactic performance of the show’s title song, she has the shouty power and shell-shocked stare of someone who’s seen the future and knows that it’s terrifying.
But this Cassandra-like aspect is implicit in her performance from the beginning. That means that it’s harder than usual to credit her seduction of the cautious, bisexual Clifford Bradshaw (Bill Heck), who falls for her and the town of Berlin because they’re so much damned fun.
Lee Radziwill & daughter-in-law Carole. Lee’s son Tony married journalist Carole in 1994 and he died of a rare form of cancer five years later
[March 29]
Mendes then
Mr. Mendes sees Sally as a quicksilver upper-middle-class Chelsea girl, happily escaping her past, not the madcap, belt-it-all-out American that Ms. Minnelli brought to life. ”I wanted somebody English, I wanted somebody mercurial, and fair, and effervescent,” said Mr. Mendes, who is co-directing the show with the American choreographer Rob Marshall. ”She believes in her potted dreams of stardom but, most important, she is not a successful singing star. She cannot control her voice. It always seemed odd to me that Liza should be singing in a little dive. She’s a Broadway star.”
Mendes now
[March 25]
Preview Date: March 21, 2014
Alan Cumming reprises his Tony Award-winning turn as the Emcee in this new staging of Sam Mendes’ revival of Kander and Ebb’s musical, featuring. three-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams (‘My Week with Marilyn,’ ‘Brokeback Mountain’), making her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles. Based on Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, ‘Cabaret’ takes audiences to Germany in 1929, to the decadent world of the Kit Kat Klub, where an American writer meets the free-spirited English cabaret singer, as the Nazi movement is on the rise around them.Venue: Studio 54
Cast: Alan Cumming as the Emcee, Michelle Williams as Sally Bowles, Linda Emond as Fraulein Schneider, Danny Burstein as Herr Schultz, Bill Heck as Cliff, Aaron Krohn as Ernst, Gayle Rankin as Fraulein Kost, Benjamin Eakeley as Herman, Leeds Hill as Bobby, Dylan Paul as Victor, Evan D. Siegel as Hans, Kaleigh Cronin as Lulu, Andrea Goss as Frenchie, Kristin Olness as Helga, Jessica Pariseau as Texas and Jane Pfitsch as Rosie; Also Will Carlyon, Caleb Damschroder, Kelly Paredes and Stacey Sipowicz
[September 10 2013]
Starring Michelle Williams and Matthias Schoenaerts, “Suite Francaise” tells the story of a romance that blooms between a French villager and a German soldier during the German occupation in France in the 1940s.
The film was directed and written by Saul Dibb, best known for his work on “The Duchess,” and also stars Kristen Scott Thomas, Sam Riley, Ruyth Wilson, Margot Robbie, Alexandra Maria Lara and Eileen Atkins. Alexandre Desplat wrote the score, while Xavier Marchand produced the movie on behalf of eOne alongside Romain Brémond from TF1 DA. Michael Kuhn and Andrea Cornwell also served as producers from Qwerty Films, while Harvey Weinstein served as an executive producer alongside BBC Films’ Christine Langan.
Michelle Williams 2009
Only after her death in 1973 was Isherwood prepared to reveal that the inspiration for Sally came from Jean Ross, who in 1931 as a nineteen year old nightclub singer, who shared a lodging house with him.
Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty) and Rob Marshall’s (Nine and Chicago, the films) Tony-winning production of Cabaret. Three-time Academy Award® nominee Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn, Brokeback Mountain, , 33. September 9, 2013 ) will be making her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles.
The venue was the last home of the show, which ran for more than 2,000 performances from 1998 to 2004. It won the Tony Award in 1998 for best musical revival.
Dateline NBC, March 21, featured a story on the murder of Kalispell native Nicole Waller.
Investigators believe Johnston, a native of Fairview, killed Waller and put her body in a barrel. Then, according to his cellphone records, he lied about his whereabouts on the day Waller went missing and turned off his phone for three hours to prevent law enforcement from tracking him.
A witness testified during Johnston’s trial that during that time he helped Johnston move Waller’s car, and others said Johnston asked them to make fake social media posts from Waller’s account to make it look like she was still alive.
Prosecutors said the last time anyone heard from Waller was when she contacted her family on Valentine’s Day 2013 saying she was breaking up with Johnston and returning to Kalispell.
Waller’s body was never found
June 11 2015 ]
Cody Johnston, 36, was found guilty of deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence at trial. The trial was anticipated to last eight days, but a verdict was pronounced after just three days of testimony.
Jurors determined that Johnston had killed Nicole Waller, 31, during a visit she made to see him at his home near Sidney. Prosecutors believe the murder occurred on Valentine’s Day.
Waller’s body has never been found.
“It’s extremely difficult, it’s a small victory,” said Waller’s sister Carmen Keibler.. “we still don’t have Nicky, we cant give her a funeral. All we have is to know that he got convicted. A lot of mixed emotions today. I’m heartbroken because this is a man my family knew, a person that has a wife and kids. It’s destroyed a lot of lives, not only for my family but also his family.”
[June 2015 Nicole Waller still missing unlike Sherry Arnold]
]
two years since anyone has seen or heard from Nicole Waller; the mother of three mysteriously vanished on February 14th, 2013 while driving from Fairview to Kalispell, Montana.
Nicole Waller
Nicole Waller
Name: WALLER, NICOLE YVONNE
Aliases: WILLIS, NICOLE YVONNE
Gender: FEMALE
Date of Birth: 05/22/1981
Race: WHITE
Hair Color: BROWN
Eye Color: HAZEL
Height: 5′ 0”
Weight: 165 LBS.
Incident Information
Date of Last Contact: 02/14/2013
Age Now: 33 YEARS
Other Reported Dates of Birth:
Investigating Agency: FLATHEAD COUNTY SHERIFF,(406) 758-5610
[February 12 2014
On Valentine’s Day 2013, 32-year-old Nicole Waller packed her car in Fairview – on the Montana-North Dakota border – and headed home to see her three young children in Kalispell.
She never made it back to them.
Waller’s 1999 Ford Expedition was found the same day on the side of U.S. Highway 2 near Poplar – only about an hour’s drive from where she started her journey.
Inside the car, officers found her children’s guinea pigs – still caged – and her clothes and other belongings.
But there was no sign of Waller.
Agent Mark Hilyard with the Montana Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation said foul play is suspected in the disappearance of Nicole Waller,
[March 23 2013]
FBI finds Sherry Arnold body in Williston, 50 miles from her home
The remains of Ms Arnold, a high school maths teacher who disappeared in Sidney, Montana during a morning run more than two months ago, were buried outside Williston, North Dakota.
The recovery effort started on Tuesday in western North Dakota about 50 miles from Sidney, and the body was found by the FBI early on Wednesday.
The location of the body across the state line from where the alleged kidnapping occurred means there could be federal charges against the two suspects in the case, Michael Keith Spell, 22, and Lester Van Waters Jr., 47, both of Parachute, Colorado.
[March 22] By the early morning hours of March 21, 2012, special agents had recovered the physical remains of a female. While a positive identification has not been made at this time, it is believed the remains are those of Sherry Arnold of Sidney, Montana. Further efforts to verify the identity of the remains are currently underway by law enforcement. After a positive identification is made, a news release will be issued. Due to the ongoing investigation, no further details about the case can be released at this time.
Ms. Arnold went missing Saturday, January 7, 2012 at approximately 6:30 a.m. while on her morning run in Sidney, Montana.
FBI
One of the alleged murderers
French Subs now in Brazil’s “Operation Car Wash”
21 May, 2017
French financial prosecutors have launched an investigation into a 6.7 billion euro ($7.5 billion) 2008 contract between naval supplier DCNS and Brazil that included the sale of five submarines..
The investigation, started in October last year, concerns potential “corruption of foreign officials” and is linked to a Brazilian inquiry dubbed Lava Jato, or Car Wash, that was initiated in 2015 to investigate alleged bribery involving hundreds of politicians and public figures.
In the current climate, where Asian countries are buying submarines from is nearly as important as the fact that they doing so—so that Australia’s decision last year to choose French contractors over the Japanese, for instance, was seen as a win for Beijing and a blow to Tokyo.
[February 2 New Justice Justice Edson Fachin]
Lula da Silva
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-crash-idUSKBN1532WH
Justice Edson Fachin was chosen by random electronic selection from among a group of five of the court’s 10 members and will take over the corruption cases from Justice Teori Zavascki, who died in a plane crash two weeks ago.
[October 16 2016]
Report Zavascki, Minister of the SFC (Supreme Federal Court), gave authorisation, October 6, for Operation Lava Jato to be split into several targeted investigations. He agreed that one of these would specifically focus on the role ex-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva may have played in the alleged corruption scandals.
One part of the investigation, so-called the “Quadrilhão” (“The Big Gang”), looks in particular at the political nucleus involved in the Petrobras corruption scheme. In response to a plea by Brazil’s Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot, SFC Minister Zavaski divided the trial into four separate investigations.
[February 25 2015 HSBC Swiss accounts: $110m belonged to individuals linked to Brazil’s “Operation Car Wash” ]
Lily Watkins Cohen Monteverde Bendahan Safra
Brazil haslaunched an investigation into whether accounts included in the files are linked to a major corruption scandal which in recent months has engulfed the Brazilian government and state-owned oil company Petrobras.
Analysis of the files indicates that 11 accounts held at HSBC Suisse between 2006 and 2007, which in 2007 had deposits totalling in excess of $110m (£71m), belonged to individuals linked to the investigation, known as “Operation Car Wash”.
Separately, Brazil’s tax authority said on February 13 it would probe 6,600 undeclared accounts with HSBC’s Swiss private bank linked to Brazil.
[February 14 Link between HSBC Swiss accounts, Petrobras scandal and Lily Safra?]
Operation Carwash . Police and prosecutors believe Petrobras contracts were overinflated and the cash either creamed off for personal use or paid off to political parties, including the Workers Party of newly re-elected President Dilma Rousseff. So far more than 40 people have been detained over their involvement in the scandal, which is known in the country as “Operation Car Wash.”
The second source said that “there is a clear link between ‘Operation Car-Wash’ and the HSBC Swiss bank accounts.” He declined to elaborate further and Reuters could not independently verify his account
HSBC’s Swiss unit was largely acquired as part of its purchase of late Brazilian-Lebanese financier Edmond Safra’s Republic New York Corp and Safra Republic Holdings. HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) bought Republic New York Corporation and its sister company Safra Republic Holdings for $10.3 billion (£6.3 billion) – In 1972 Safra used the $40M of capital that he accumulated from dealings in Italy to buy into a small Geneva finance house and, propped up by the assets of his wife, the former Brazilian heiress Lily Monteverdi. The business was eventually to expand and grow into the Trade Development Bank, a large private and trade finance bank, The Safra Group, which comprises a number of European private banks and Safra National Bank of New York, Republic’sTDB French operations and London-based banknote business were sold back to Safra. Safra left 50% of his assets to several charities, with the remainder divided up between his family members and wife who received $ 800 million
Aug 9 13 HSBC Private Bank International has charged Safra National Bank of New York for allegedly poaching seven bankers liable for $4 billion in private banking assets and attempting to steal clients. HSBC has sued Safra and five of the former HSBC bankers, who provided wealth management services for HNW clients in Central America, for allegedly conspiring to help Safra build a Latin American private banking business to compete directly with HSBC. HSBC said that Manuel Diaz and Jose Ortega, presidents of the bank’s Latin American private banking business based in Miami, had been talking with Safra since May 2013, about helping the competitor build a Latin American business. According to the lawsuit, Ortega and six other employees resigned between July 15 and July 31 and Safra has met 11 HSBC employees to offer them a job with a better compensation package. The lawsuit also names former HSBC bankers Jorge Hine, Jessica Valera and Diana Saludes as defendants along with Diaz and Ortega.
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