Rielle Hunter’s book caper

[April 5 JOHNNY REID “JOHN” EDWARDS: Back in court ]

 

Edwards and Frances

 

Formr U.S. senator and Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards’ return to the courtroom as a lawyer ended with a settlement and a mistrial.
The family of Kaiden Gaymon also sued the hospital, and Edwards said both sides reached a $13 million settlement that should help the boy get treatment for his health problems.

 

[April 27 2014  ‘Bunny’ dies: not guilty of campaign law violation]

At Bunny Mellon ’s funeral, the service was open to the public, so it was impossible to determine if former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.), was welcome or if this was another stop on the Edwards Redemption Tour. Edwards and his eldest daughter, Cate, arrived too late to be seated in the church and were directed to a side building, where they joined the overflow crowd. After the service ended, Edwards stood near the gravesite, then worked the crowd. Published: March 28

[March 18]

Bunny with Jackie

In his 2012 memoir, “Dropped Names,” actor Frank Langella, a longtime friend of Rachel “Bunny” Lowe Lambert Mellon, wrote candidly about the Edwards episode. “ ‘Well I suppose it’s my own damn fault,’ she told me, ‘he was so attractive. White shirt, white pants, sleeves rolled up. And you know I’m weak on good looks.’ ”
Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, the Listerine fortune heiress who married arts patron and philanthropist Paul Mellon, was a confidante of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and redesigned the White House Rose Garden, died March 17 at her home in Upperville, Va. She was 103. Rachel Lowe Lambert was born in New York on Aug. 9, 1910, into a family that had made its fortune producing Listerine mouthwash. Her father, Gerard, was president of the Gillette Safety Razor Co. Her paternal grandfather, chemist Jordan Lambert, was the inventor of Listerine, which was later marketed by her father. Her mother, Anne Elizabeth Parkhill, related to GHWB, GWB, “thomas walker” “Bush” At 101, she found herself improbably drawn into the legal battle of John Edwards, the former U.S. senator and presidential aspirant charged with violating campaign finance laws.

Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, was tried in 2012 on charges that he took nearly $1 million in illegal campaign contributions from wealthy donors to support his mistress, Rielle Hunter, and conceal her from voters during his 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Prosecutors attributed more than $700,000 to Mrs. Mellon and $200,000 to Texas lawyer Fred Baron.

Mrs. Mellon, who was not accused of breaking any laws, was entranced by the charismatic Edwards and wanted to help his quest for the presidency after he was criticized during the campaign for having a $400 haircut, according to witnesses in the case. Edwards dropped out of the race in January 2008.

On May 30, 2012, a federal jury in Greensboro, N.C., acquitted Edwards of one charge, and the judge declared a mistrial on the remaining five charges. The Juj.   stice Department later decided not to retry him on the five charges.

[May 31 2012]

Waiting for Edwards jury to adjourn for weekend on May 18

John Edwards and Rielle Hunter

In UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v.JOHNNY REID EDWARDS, IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA, A federal jury of four women and eight men in Greensboro, North Carolina, today found Edwards not guilty of one count of violating campaign finance laws. On that charge, the government alleged that in 2008 Edwards knowingly accepted more money from campaign donor Rachel “Bunny” Mellon than was allowed by law and the judge declared a mistrial on the five other charges. [May 18]The prosecution and defense had given their closing arguments on May 17. The government retold its case, moving chronologically just like it did when presenting evidence on its side of the case. They asked the jury to use common sense when deliberating, in considering if Edwards was unaware of this entire effort.
Defense attorney said there is an important difference between a wrong and a crime. John Edwards committed an offense against his family but broke no law. He has committed a sin but no felony. He was a bad husband who tried desperately to hide his affair. He is not guilty of campaign finance violations. The other main thing that Lowell did today was really continue his assault on the prosecution’s key witness Andrew Young. The jury were taking notes for really the full four hours, a lot of eye contact with some of the lawyers. They were nodding at times with the d.      efense attorneys, not sure what that means, whether they’re just following along or in agreement, but they were nodding along.
The defense team rested May 15 without calling the two-time Democratic presidential candidate or his one-time mistress to the witness stand, The defense rested after less than three days of testimony. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin May 16, and the jury is expected to start deliberations on May 17.

In violation of Title 2, United States Code, Sections 441a(a)(1)(A), 441a(f), and 437g(d)(1)(A)(i) and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2. Edwards is charged with knowingly and willfully accepting and receiving contributions in excess of the limits of the Election Act, and other crimes

 

FLDS SNAP fraud case: memory loss about crimes from Lyle’s accidents?

Sioux Falls

 

Lyle Jeffs’ public defender Kathryn Nester said a three-story fall onto concrete her client suffered in the mid-1990s and a car accident he had in 1998 may have left Jeffs with memory problems and wants him to receive a neurological exam and an MRI.
Nester said she does not think a professional will deem Jeffs incompetent to stand trial, but she wants to be able to explain to a jury why her client can’t remember key moments that relate to the crimes alleged by prosecutors. The first accident happened in 1997 when Jeffs fell three stories at a construction site, hit his head on concrete and rocks and was left unconscious, Nester said in a court filing. Doctors said he suffered traumatic brain injuries and could experience a personality change, the documents said.

A year later, Jeffs was in a car accident in the Salt Lake City area that left him unconscious with cuts on his forehead and required treatment for traumatic brain injuries, Nester said court documents.

Nester told the judge she is trying to obtain complete medical records about both accidents but said it’s difficult since they happened some long ago. Some records may have been destroyed, she said, justifying her request for a new neurological exam for Jeffs.

 

[July 17 Lyle’s trial to begin Sept. 18 ]

Lyle Jeffs entered a not guilty plea in federal court Salt Lake City July 10 on charges related to food stamp fraud and failure to appear in court.
Judge Wells scheduled a two-week trial to begin Sept. 18 for the matter to be heard in federal court. Wells ordered Jeffs jailed pending trial. Jeffs could face up to 10 years in prison on a failure-to-appear charge filed after his arrest.
The two other felony counts of benefits fraud and money laundering carry possible 5- and 10-year sentences.

Only one member of the FLDS, one of Jeffs’ nieces attended.   Last year, 20 to 30 people, including Jeffs’ sons and at least one of his plural wives, would attend his hearings.

Eleven co-defendants resolved their cases by pleading guilty to felony or misdemeanor charges. All avoided jail time or paying restitution.

 

[June 23 Lyle found in Yankton S.D. ]

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.

$1M for mental health from Tipper Gore

Al Gore

 

June 26, 2017—Today, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) announced the nationwide expansion of their flagship teen program, Ending the Silence, due to a generous gift from Former Second Lady of the United States, Tipper Gore. Meanwhile, the mother-of-four says she was motivated to bring her activism back into the public eye in part because of what she describes as President Trump’s and Republicans’ “heartless” efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Former Vice President Al Gore’s sweet Senate pension is mere lunch money next to the wealth Gore accumulated after he left the vice presidency. He logged lucrative time on the lecture circuit (contracts obtained by the Smoking Gun put his fee at $100K; other estimates run higher). He took an advisory job at Google in 2001, before its stock skyrocketed, and in 2003 joined the board of Apple, which came with generous stipends and stock options. He helped found an investment company, which then partnered with a Silicon Valley venture-capital firm. Current TV, the cable channel he founded in 2005, isn’t doing badly either. Fast Company magazine recently estimated his net worth at $100 million.
AUG. 15, 2014 He has filed a lawsuit against the Middle Eastern media group Al Jazeera, accusing it of fraud and breach of contract in its $500 million purchase of Mr. Gore’s Current TV cable channel.

The dispute centers on Al Jazeera’s refusal to turn over “tens of millions of dollars” remaining in an escrow account and still owed to the selling shareholders of Current TV, according to a statement from David Boies, the lawyer representing Mr. Gore and a Current TV co-owner, Joel Hyatt, who are suing on behalf of all the selling shareholders.

“Al Jazeera America wants to give itself a discount on the purchase price that was agreed to nearly two years ago,” Mr. Boies said. “We are asking the court to order Al Jazeera America to stop wrongfully withholding the escrow funds that belong to Current’s former shareholders.”

Al Jazeera America shut down on April 12, 2016, citing the “economic landscape and the highly competitive nature of the American media market, as reasons to shut down the channel. After use by three networks since 1994, the channel space folded after Al Jazeera failed to sell it to another network. The magnitude of Al Jazeera America’s error can be seen in the success of its independent digital-only spin-off AJ+, which operated on a tiny fraction of the budget but generates astronomical social media “ratings” and video views. Most of its short, punchy and anything-but-sober videos received more views than AJAM’s prime-time programs did in a week.

Yet Trump’s ascendance could wind up doing a very big favor for “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” Al Gore’s winning and impassioned, stirring and proudly wonkish follow-up to “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Tipper Gore photographer

 

 

[June 1 2010 Tipper Gore separates ]
Tipper Gore is a professional photographer who in 1996 published “Picture This: A Visual Diary,” which she called “a personal photographic representation of life as wife of the vice president.”

Read more:

Bangladesh Swift Caper used bank below bridal shop

 

Maia Deguito takes her oath prior to the start of the Philippine Senate probe.

The Swift attack began the day before, the last day of the workweek in Bangladesh. Sums ranging from $6,000,039.12 to $30,000,039.12 went zipping from the New York Fed through Citibank, Wells Fargo, and the Bank of New York-­Mellon to a series of accounts at the branch, which sits below a bridal shop. Kim Wong, president of Eastern Hawaii Leisure, which operates a number of VIP rooms in Manila-area casinos, including the Solaire, testified that he’d set up Jupiter Street branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp accounts along with Ding’s business partner, Gao, and the Jupiter branch manager at the time, Maia Deguito.
All the accounts created at the RCBC branch lay dormant until Friday, Feb. 5, 2016.

 

 

[March 29 NORTH KOREAN responsibility in Bangladesh Bank’s SWIFT theft? ]

“We are very close to it.”

FBI believes North Korea was responsible for the heist $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the New York Federal Reserve last year.

U.S. prosecutors were building potential cases that would accuse North Korea of directing the heist, and would charge alleged Chinese middlemen.

[December 12]

“Bangladesh Bank’s SWIFT network was made insecure by some bank employees in connivance with some foreign people,” Dhaka police investigator said. “They knew what they were doing.”

He said investigators were now trying to find out how the mid-ranking officials were connected to the hackers and whether they benefited financially from the heist. Asked if the officials would be arrested, Alam said: “We are very close to it.” $81 million was successfully transferred purportedly for payments in relation to Bangladeshi infrastructure projects, including bridges, a power station and the Dhaka metro to four fake accounts in a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) (RCB.PS) in the Philippines. A dollar account is opened at RCBC in the name of William So Go, who denies involvement. Funds transferred via that account and via Philrem, a remittance company: About $29m then made its way into accounts held by Bloomberry Resorts and $21m to Eastern Hawaii Leisure Company, with another $31m delivered in cash by Philrem to an individual by the name of Weikang Xu, described by one Bloomberry representative as a “junket agent” organising trips for gamblers. The four RCBC accounts that initially received funds were frozen, as well as the accounts of Eastern Hawaii; Kam Sin Wong, one of the signatories to the account of Eastern Hawaii; Mr Go, and his Centurytex Trading business. On February 29 the story of the scam was broken by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.Cyber security experts do not think such inside persons would have been essential for a crime that could have been committed from outside by sophisticated criminal hackers from eastern Europe or elsewhere.

[March 12 $81 million stolen by hackers, an internal investigation is ongoing ]

Bangladeshi Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith March 8 accused Federal Reserve Bank of New York of “irregularities” that led to the unauthorized transfer of $100 million from the account of Bangladesh central bank. The funds had been stolen by hackers and some had been traced to the Philippines. The money was converted into pesos and deposited through a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.in the account of an unidentified Chinese-Filipino businessman who runs a business flying high net worth gamblers to the Philippines. Four requests to transfer a total of about $81m to the Philippines went through, but a fifth, for $20m, to a Sri Lankan non-profit organisation was held up because the hackers misspelled the name of the NGO, Shalika Foundation, leaving $81 million unaccounted for. Initially, the Sri Lankan transaction reached Pan Asia Banking Corp, which went back to Deutsche Bank for more verification because of the unusually large size of the payment, a Pan Asia official said.
Hackers misspelled “foundation” in the NGO’s name as “fandation”, prompting a routing bank, Deutsche Bank, to seek clarification from the Bangladesh central bank, which stopped the transaction, one of the officials said. The hacking of Bangladesh Bank happened sometime between 4-5 February, over the Bangladeshi weekend, which falls on a Friday, the officials said. The bank’s offices were shut.
You have to admit that stealing a hundred million bucks — and attempting to steal almost a billion — is pretty impressive! And all they needed was a SWIFT code. It makes all that hard work in heist flicks like “Ocean’s 11” and “The Italian Job” seem pretty silly by comparison.

The ECB had to resort to negative deposit rates to scare European banks into taking cash out of the Eurosystem and putting it to work elsewhere. Maybe when a hundred million bucks vanishes into thin air from under the nose of the U.S. central bank, it will have an even greater effect!

 

[October 30 2013 Fines for corporate wrongs cost of business?   Brother Circle gangster apparatchiks and Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza group ]

Ken Shinoda – Yamaguchi Yakusa

Executive-suite alterations, docked pay and company fines need to be paired with criminal prosecutions

A consumer finance company affiliated with Mizuho, made at least $2 million in small loans to buyers with links to Japan’s organized crime syndicates without properly vetting their backgrounds. The syndicates use the loans to help finance their activities.

Mizuho Bank, which bought and bundled these loans from its affiliate, found gangster-linked loans on its books in 2010 but failed to inform the authorities, according to a report by outside lawyers appointed by the bank to investigate the case.
But the lawyers said they could find no evidence that Mizuho officials intentionally tried to hide the loans from investigators.

Mizuho’s management instead simply “failed to appreciate the gravity of collaborating with organized crime,” Hideki Nakagomi, who headed the panel of lawyers, said on Monday. He acknowledged that many officials at the bank had told the investigators “they did not remember what happened.”

Mizuho, based in Tokyo, announced late on Monday that its president and chief executive, Yasuhiro Sato, would keep his job, though he and 53 other current and past executives will take a pay cut for up to six months. Mr. Sato also serves as president and chief executive of the bank’s parent, the Mizuho Financial Group.

“I apologize from the bottom of my heart,” Mr. Sato said at a news conference, bowing deeply in front of cameras. “I take very seriously the fact that we find ourselves in this situation.”

The group’s chairman, Takashi Tsukamoto, who plays a mostly advisory role at Mizuho, will step down.

The scandal has done little damage to the company’s stock, which actually rose 2.45 percent on Monday after news of the report.

The shady lending came to light after the Japanese banking regulator, the Financial Services Agency, censured Mizuho last month over its handling of the loans. The loans underscore how organized crime groups continue to draw money from the financial system here despite efforts to shut them out.

Used-car loans have long been known to be part of illicit fund-raising schemes run by gangsters. In one often-used method, gang members conspire with a dealer to buy a car — like a slick, black Mercedes-Benz of the type favored by gangsters here — for a far higher amount than the usual asking price, then apply for a used-car loan to cover the inflated price. The scheme gives gangsters access to easy financing; the car can be sold or fitted with new license plates so it can be used to apply for further loans, according to local news reports.

Members of organized crime groups are not supposed to have such access to financing from big banks like Mizuho as a result of a 1991 law that made money-laundering illegal. Since then, the Japanese authorities have bolstered rules requiring that banks more vigorously scrutinize potential clients to check for any ties to organized crime. Mizuho said its loan officials typically checked applications against its nationwide database of known members of organized crime groups and their associates.

But the auto loans in question, about 230 transactions totaling about $2 million, were made by the Orient Corporation, a much smaller consumer financing company affiliated with Mizuho that carried out far less stringent background checks on potential buyers, the report from the outside panel said. Last week, an investigation by the daily Mainichi Shimbun said used-car loans from Orient, known as Orico, were typically approved in about 15 minutes with minimal identification checks that were conducted by fax.

Mizuho periodically bought up bundles of these loans from Orico and did not stringently check each loan, the report said. When some gangster-linked loans came to light during a routine internal inspection, Mizuho instructed Orico not to give further loans to those gangsters. But it did not cut off existing loans or inform the authorities.

The bank initially said that knowledge of the matter went only as far as the bank’s compliance officers but later acknowledged that Mr. Sato and other members of Mizuho’s board had been aware.

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. President Yasuhiro Sato gave up six months of pay for failing to stop loans made to yakuza crime syndicates. Takashi Tsukamoto will also forgo a half year’s compensation and give up his role as chairman of Mizuho Bank Ltd., keeping his post at the parent company.
Pain, Shame
No leading bank executives have been jailed since the global financial crisis. The largest lenders are so big that criminal charges could threaten the global economy, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a Senate hearing this March, saying that made it “difficult for us to prosecute.”
Executive-suite alterations, docked pay and company fines need to be paired with criminal prosecutions, according to Jennifer Taub at Vermont Law School.
“You have to have some kind of pain,” she said, “and some kind of shame.”

[earlier]
The US has targeted organised crime by freezing the financial assets of two groups – Japan’s Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza group and the Brothers’ Circle.
The Brothers’ Circle (f.k.a. Family of Eleven; f.k.a. The Twenty) is a Transnational Criminal Organization, multi-ethnic criminal group composed of leaders and senior members of several Eurasian criminal groups largely based in countries of the former Soviet Union

The Department of the Treasury said it was also freezing the assets of key members, including Yamaguchi-gumi leaders Kenichi Shinoda.and Kiyoshi Takayama

Identifiers

KHRISTOFOROV, Vasily Alexandrovich (a.k.a. KHRISTOFOROV, Vasiliy; a.k.a. “VASYA”; a.k.a. “VOSKRES”), Murjan 6 Sector, Tower D01-T03.1, Apartment 401, Dubai 39409, United Arab Emirates; DOB 12 Mar 1972; POB Gorky Oblast, Russia; National ID No. 76481815 (United Arab Emirates); Passport 63-7186356 (Russia) (individual) [TCO]

KOLBAYEV, Kamchybek Asanbekovich (a.k.a. KOLBAEV, Kamchibek; a.k.a. KOLBAYEV, Kamchy; a.k.a. KOLBAYEV, Kamchi; a.k.a. KOLBAYEV, Kamchibek; a.k.a. “KAMCHI BISHKEKSKIY”; a.k.a. “KOLYA-BISHKEKSKIY”; a.k.a. “KOLYA-KYRGYZ”), Bahar 1 Sector, C09-T02 Tower, Apartment 3203, Dubai 31672, United Arab Emirates; Volokolamskoye Shosse, House 15/22, Moscow, Russia; DOB 3 Aug 1974; alt. DOB 1 Jan 1973; POB Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan; citizen Kyrgyzstan; Passport A0832532 (Kyrgyzstan) expires 17 Mar 2009 (individual) [SDNTK] [TCO]
LEONTYEV, Vladislav Vladimirovich (a.k.a. LEONTIEV, Vladislav; a.k.a. LEONTIEV, Vlantislav; a.k.a. LEONTYEV, Vyacheslav; a.k.a. LEONTYEV, Vadim; a.k.a. LEONTYEV, Vadik; a.k.a. “BELOBRYSYY”; a.k.a. “BELYY”), Al-Fattan Building, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; DOB 5 Jul 1971; POB Gorky, Russia; alt. POB Caracas, Venezuela; National ID No. 60229551 (United Arab Emirates); Passport AB4065216 (Greece); alt. Passport H2214925 (Ghana); alt. Passport C1602418 (Venezuela) (individual) [TCO]

MANUYLOV, Aleksandr Leonidovich (a.k.a. MANUILOV, Alexander; a.k.a. MANUYLOV, Alexander; a.k.a. “SASHA SAMARSKIY”); DOB 3 Mar 1962; POB Russia; Passport 3056306 (Russia) (individual) [TCO]
RAKHIMOV, Gafur Akhmedovich (a.k.a. RAKHIMOV, Gofur-Arslonbek; a.k.a. RAKHIMOV, Gafur-Arslanbek Akhmedovich), The Meadows, Villa Number 64, Sheikh Zayed Road, near Emirates Hills, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; DOB 22 Jul 1951; POB Tashkent, Uzbekistan; National ID No. 03101200302034752 (United Arab Emirates); Passport CA1804389 (Uzbekistan); alt. Passport CA1890392 (Uzbekistan) (individual) [TCO]
SHAYBAZIAN, Lazar Gurgenovich (a.k.a. SHAYBAZYAN, Lazar); DOB 1 Apr 1966; Passport CA2485930 (Uzbekistan); alt. Passport CA2179793 (Uzbekistan) (individual) [TCO]

SHINODA, Kenichi (a.k.a. TSUKASA, Shinobu); DOB 25 Jan 1942; POB Oita Kyushu, Japan (individual) [TCO]
TAKAYAMA, Kiyoshi ; DOB 5 Sep 1947; POB Tsushimasi, Aichi Prefecture, Japan (individual) [TCO]

ZAYTSEV, Aleksey Alekseyevich (a.k.a. ZAITSEV, Alexei; a.k.a. ZAYTSEV, Alexey); DOB 7 Sep 1965; POB Leningrad, Russia; National ID No. 74914883 (United Arab Emirates); Passport 63-4604880 (Russia); alt. Passport 4103417473 (Russia); alt. Passport H2029462 (Ghana) (individual) [TCO]
YAMAGUCHI-GUMI (a.k.a. ROKUDAIME YAMAGUCHI-GUMI; a.k.a. SIXTH YAMAGUCHI-GUMI), 4-3-1 Shinohara-honmachi, Nada-Ku, Kobe City, Hyogo, Japan [TCO]

Libor out; SONIA in?

Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, says that work must “begin in earnest” on shifting to an alternative index to Libor, saying the end of 2021 would offer time to ensure a smooth transition.The BoE has already been refining its overnight sterling funding rate SONIA, which is based on actual transactions, and which the central bank administers itself, as the substitute for Libor. At least six bankers on both sides of the Atlantic have been sent to prison for manipulating Libor, although some in the United States are still awaiting sentencing.

 

[July 22 Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase settle yen Libor and Euroyen Tibor cases; “London Whale”; charges dropped ]

U.S. prosecutors have decided to drop criminal charges against two former JPMorgan Chase & Co derivatives traders implicated in the “London Whale” trading scandal that caused $6.2 billion of losses in 2012.

In seeking the dismissal of charges against Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout, the Department of Justice said it “no longer believes that it can rely on the testimony” of Bruno Iksil, a cooperating witness who had been dubbed the London Whale, based on recent statements he made that hurt the case.

Prosecutors also said efforts to extradite Martin-Artajo and Grout, respectively citizens of Spain and France, to face the charges have been “unsuccessful or deemed futile.”

Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim in Manhattan asked a federal judge for permission to drop charges that included securities fraud, wire fraud and falsifying records. Martin-Artajo and Grout were indicted in September 2013.

–

 

 

Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) have agreed to pay a combined $148 million to end private U.S. antitrust litigation claiming they conspired with other banks to manipulate the yen Libor and Euroyen Tibor benchmark interest rates.

The preliminary settlements, totaling $77 million for Deutsche Bank and $71 million for JPMorgan, were detailed in filings late Friday July 21 in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, and require a judge’s approval.

They followed similar settlements last year with Citigroup Inc (C.N) and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) totaling $23 million and $35 million, respectively.

 

January 17 U.S. Libor antitrust actions may proceed ]

The U.S. Supreme Court on January 17 allowed private antitrust lawsuits brought by investors including big U.S. cities accusing major banks of conspiring to manipulate the pivotal Libor benchmark interest rate to move forward. The justices rejected an appeal filed by a group of banks including Bank of America Corp(BAC.N), Deutsche Bank AG(DBKGn.DE), UBS AG(UBSG.S) and JPMorgan Chase & Co(JPM.N) of a May 2016 ruling by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed various lawsuits against them to proceed. The appeals court reversed a lower court judge’s dismissal of investors’ antitrust claims against the banks.   The private litigation is separate from Libor rigging probes that have resulted in roughly $9 billion of sanctions worldwide, including $2.5 billion against Deutsche Bank in April 2015. Several bank affiliates have pleaded guilty to criminal charges, and more than 20 people have been criminally charged.

[May 3 2016 Alaska Electrical”banging the close” case settled ]

Alleged illegal activity including the execution of rapid trades just before the rate was set each day, called “banging the close,” causing the British brokerage ICAP Plc (IAP.L) to delay trades until they moved ISDAfix where they wanted, and posting rates that did not reflect market activity. Settled is a private U.S. lawsuit accusing them of rigging an interest rate benchmark used in the $553 trillion derivatives market.

Under the settlement, payments would include $52 million from JPMorgan; $50 million each from Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and RBS; $42 million from Citigroup and $30 million from Barclays.
Alaska Electrical Pension Fund et al v. Bank of America Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 14-07126. The settlement made public on May 3, which requires court approval, resolves antitrust claims against Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Barclays Plc (BARC.L), Citigroup Inc (C.N), Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S), Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS.L).

[April 15 Deutsche Bank AG settles London Gold Fixing conspiracy ]

John Cryan, the British former chief financial officer of UBS

April 14 Deutsche Bank AG agreed to settle U.S. lawsuits accusing it of conspiring with other banks to manipulate gold and silver prices at investors’ expense, court papers show.

The settlements were disclosed in letters filed in Manhattan federal court by lawyers representing investors and traders who accused Deutsche Bank of violating U.S. antitrust law.

Terms were not disclosed, but both settlements will include monetary payments by the German bank. Deutsche Bank also agreed to help the plaintiffs pursue claims against other defendants.The plaintiffs accused Deutsche Bank of conspiring with Bank of Nova Scotia, Barclays Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Societe Generale to manipulate prices of gold, gold futures and options, and gold derivatives through twice-a-day meetings to set the so-called London Gold Fixing.

They also accused Deutsche Bank, HSBC and ScotiaBank of a similar conspiracy to manipulate silver prices by rigging the daily Silver Fix.

UBS AG was also accused in both lawsuits of conspiring to exploit metals prices.The cases are In re: Commodity Exchange Inc Gold Futures and Options Trading Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 14-md-02548; and In re: London Silver Fixing Ltd Antitrust Litigation in the same court, No. 14-md-02573.

[June 2015 John Cryan, British former chief financial officer of UBS CEO of Deutsche Bank ]
“It is categorically false that pressure from regulators [known as BaFin,] was a factor in the decision of the co-C.E.O.s to step down early,” Michael Golden, the spokesman, said in an email. He pointed out that Mr. Jain would not receive about 15 million euros in pay he would have been entitled to if he had been fired. Mr. Jain will leave at the end of June while Mr. Fitschen will remain another year.

Sunday 7 June 2015 14.36 EDT Anshu Jain will leave Deutsche Bank at the end of this month, with Jürgen Fitschen staying on until the bank’s annual meeting in 2016. The surprise move of the joint chief executives of Deutsche Bank came just over a month after Deutsche was fined a record $2.5bn (£1.7bn) for rigging Libor, ordered to fire seven employees and was accused of being obstructive towards regulators in their investigations into the global manipulation of the benchmark rate. John Cryan, the British former chief financial officer of UBS, will replace Jain as co-chief executive. When Fitschen departs he will not be replaced, leaving the 54-year-old Briton in sole charge.

[June 5 Deutsche Bank AG and its role in Ruble flight]

Deutsche Bank CEO Juergen Fitschen dances with Friederike Lohse

Transactions involving stocks bought by Russian clients in rubles through Deutsche Bank, and simultaneous trades through London in which the bank bought the same securities for similar amounts in U.S. dollars allowed Russian clients to move funds out of Russia “without properly alerting the authorities,” Deutsche Bank AG ithinks this may have involved about $6 billion over more than four years.
The Bank of Russia approached Deutsche Bank in October asking the firm to examine the stock-trading activities of some clients in the country, said one person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The German lender is analyzing data from 2011 through early 2015, and has alerted Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority, the European Central Bank and Germany’s Bafin of the investigation.

Since 2006, , Russian individuals have sent nearly $200 billion out of the country—or more than 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product for 2013. And the flow of cash accelerated, up from $5.9 billion in the first quarter of 2013 to $13.4 billion in the third quarter of 2014.

[April 23 Germany’s largest lender by assets will book a profit and “near record revenues” for the first quarter, despite LIBOR fine]
Deutsche Bank AG’s alleged involvement in rigging of foreign-exchange markets, is likely to involve an even higher fine than the Libor investigations. Deutsche Bank is also being probed for alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on countries such as Iran and over high-frequency trading.
Deutsche Bank will agree to plead guilty to manipulation and acknowledge that its internal monitoring systems were insufficient to prevent the manipulation of Libor. Deutsche Bank is nearing a settlement fine of more than $2.15 billion with British and American regulatory authorities. The bank is subject to 180 regulatory investigations and faces 1,000 lawsuits with a claim value of more than €100,000 each, Deutsche Bank has paid more than €5 billion over the past two years for settlements and fines stemming mostly from the financial crisis. Annual revenue 2014 $47.30 B

 

 

[November 17 2014 JPM legal costs reserve $5.9 billion: possible 2006 Mortgage Operations problem]

Mortgage operations post-election caper ot DOJ?

“The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase’s Worst Nightmare”
Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as “massive criminal securities fraud” in the bank’s mortgage operations.
Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, she’s kept her mouth shut since then
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106#ixzz3IOZStO6H

President and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, James “Jamie” Dimon

Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into foreign exchange trading by JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPMorgan’s filing came on the same day that HSBC set aside $1.6 billion for legal costs, some of which is earmarked for an ongoing investigation into that bank’s foreign exchange trading business by U.K. regulators. JPM might need as much as $5.9 billion to cover losses beyond reserves for legal matters, up $1.3 billion from the end of June, and the most since since mid-2013. In October, Citigroup — another bank in settlement talks with regulators — slashed its previously-reported third-quarter profits in order to factor in an additional $600 million in legal costs. Large banks, especially in Europe, have taken billions of dollars worth of hits to their profits in the third quarter to deal with expected legal costs stemming from investigations into foreign exchange manipulation. RBS set aside $640 million, Deutsche Bank has had a $1.1 billion legal charge, and Barclays has had a $800 million charge.

“Credit Default Swaps Investigations and Litigation. In July 2013, the European Commission (the “EC”) filed a Statement of Objections against the Firm (including various subsidiaries) and other industry members in connection with its ongoing investigation into the credit default swaps (“CDS”) marketplace. The EC asserts that between 2006 and 2009, a number of investment banks acted collectively through the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (“ISDA”) and Markit Group Limited (“Markit”) to foreclose exchanges from the potential market for exchange-traded credit derivatives. The Firm submitted a response to the Statement of Objections in January 2014, and the EC held a hearing in May 2014. The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) also has an ongoing investigation into the CDS marketplace, which was initiated in July 2009.
Separately, the Firm and other industry members are defendants in a consolidated purported class action filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of purchasers and sellers of CDS. The complaint refers to the ongoing investigations by the EC and DOJ into the CDS market, and alleges that the defendant investment banks and dealers, including the Firm, as well as Markit and/or ISDA, collectively prevented new entrants into the market for exchange-traded CDS products. Defendants moved to dismiss this action, and in September 2014, the Court granted defendants’ motion in part, dismissing claims for damages based on transactions effected before the Autumn of 2008, as well as certain other claims.
Foreign Exchange Investigations and Litigation. DOJ is conducting a criminal investigation, and various regulatory and civil enforcement authorities, including U.S. banking regulators, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) and other foreign government authorities, are conducting civil investigations, regarding the Firm’s foreign exchange (“FX”) trading business. These investigations are focused on the Firm’s spot FX trading activities as well as controls applicable to those activities. The Firm continues to cooperate with these investigations and is currently engaged in discussions with DOJ, and various regulatory and civil enforcement authorities, about resolving their respective investigations with respect to the Firm. There is no assurance that such discussions will result in settlements.”

In 2013, JPMorgan paid over $20 billion in settlements, fines, and compensation to settle investigations into mortgage securities trading, its massive “London Whale” derivatives loss, and its relationship with Bernie Madoff. JPMorgan’s lawyers accepted the $1.7 billion penalty, stemming from two felony violations of the Bank Secrecy Act for turning a blind eye to the Ponzi scheme run by Bernard L. Madoff. The bank also agreed to pay $350 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, accepting the agency’s only offer,

[October 31 $6.5 to $35B may be collected from banks in forex investigation]

Major U.S. and European investment banks this month boosted to as much as $6.5 billion their collective war chest/reserves for settling with global regulators who are investigating allegations of collusion and manipulation in the  of the $5 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.   Earlier this year, banking research firm Autonomous put the worldwide total at around $35 billion.

October 8 U.S. prosecutors expect Banging the close action soon]
U.S. prosecutors are pressing to bring charges against a bank for currency-rate rigging by the end of the year, and actions against individuals will probably follow in 2015, according to people familiar with the probe. are looking into allegations that traders shared data about orders with people at other firms using instant-message groups with names such as  `€œThe Cartel`€ and  `The Bandits  Club.`

One focus is whether dealers sought to move the WM/Reuters benchmark rate in their favor by pushing through trades before and during the 60-second windows when the benchmark is set at 4 p.m. in London each day, a process known in the industry as “banging the close.”
[March 14 European Commission fines over banging the close]
https://screen.yahoo.com/new-york-times/currency-fix-banging-close-065950331.html

[December 4 2013]
A record total of 1.71 billion euros ($2.3 billion) on December 4 was awarded for rigging financial benchmarks. The penalty is the biggest yet to be handed down to banks for rigging the benchmarks used to determine the cost of lending, one of the most brazen violations of conduct since the financial crisis. It is also the highest antitrust penalty ever imposed by the Commission, the EU’s competition regulator. The other banks penalized are Societe Generale, JPMorgan and brokerage RP Martin. Deutsche Bank received the biggest fine of 725.36 million euros. The European Commission said it would continue to investigate Credit Agricole, HSBC, JPMorgan and brokerage ICAP for similar offences.

 

[Earlier] Standard Chartered has put one of its senior forex traders, Matt Gardiner on leave. Richard Usher,J P Morgan chief currency dealer in London, and Citi’s Rohan Ramchandani also went on leave after regulators probing forex manipulation started investigating traders’ use of an instant-message group. [October 29] The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the manipulation of foreign exchange rates, a top federal prosecutor said on October 29, in the first public acknowledgement of such a probe in the United States. Criminal and antitrust authorities have an “active, ongoing investigation” into the possible manipulation, Mythili Raman, the acting head of the department’s criminal division, said. [October 7] Swiss authorities said they were investigating whether financial institutions had colluded to manipulate foreign exchange markets. Traders could potentially influence exchange rates by pushing through large orders exactly at the right time. If those suspicions are proved correct, it could result in yet another embarrassing reputational scandal, not just for individual banks but also for the integrity of the global financial sector. The $4.7-trillion-a-day (CHF4.2 trillion) currency market, the biggest in the financial system, is also one of the least regulated, according to experts. Even the smallest movement in exchange rates could affect the value of investments made by institutional investors, including pension funds. Finma, said it was investigating several Swiss banks but did not name them. The agency also said it was cooperating with authorities in other countries and that banks outside the country were also suspected. UBS is fourth among global banks in currency trading, according to Euromoney. Credit Suisse is a relatively minor player, with 3.7 percent of the currency market vs. 10.1 percent for U.B.S. The largest currency trader globally is Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, with 15.2 percent of the market. The probes come after reports that dealers at banks pooled information through instant messages and used client orders to move benchmark currency rates. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority said that month it was reviewing the allegations. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also been reviewing potential violations of the law with regards to foreign currency markets, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. Authorities around the world are investigating the alleged abuse of financial benchmarks by the firms that play a central role in setting them. [August 28] In the space of 20 minutes on the last Friday in June, the value of the U.S. dollar jumped 0.57 percent against its Canadian counterpart, the biggest move in a month. Within an hour, two-thirds of that gain had melted away. The same pattern — a sudden surge minutes before 4 p.m. in London on the last trading day of the month, followed by a quick reversal — occurred 31 percent of the time across 14 currency pairs over two years. For the most frequently traded pairs, such as euro-dollar, it happened about half the time, the data show. The recurring spikes take place at the same time financial benchmarks known as the WM/Reuters rates are set based on those trades. Fund managers and scholars say the patterns look like an attempt by currency dealers to manipulate the rates, distorting the value of trillions of dollars of investments in funds that track global indexes. The recurring spikes take place at the same time financial benchmarks known as the WM/Reuters (TRI) rates are set based on those trades. Now fund managers and scholars say the patterns look like an attempt by currency dealers to manipulate the rates, distorting the value of trillions of dollars of investments in funds that track global indexes. In June that dealers shared information and used client orders to move the rates to boost trading profit. The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is reviewing the allegations, a spokesman said. “We see enormous spikes,” said Michael DuCharme, head of foreign exchange at Seattle-based Russell Investments, which traded $420 billion of foreign currency last year for its own funds and institutional investors. “Then, shortly after 4 p.m., it just reverts back to what seems to have been the market rate. It adds to the suspicion that things aren’t right.” Authorities around the world are investigating the abuse of financial benchmarks by large banks that play a central role in setting them. Barclays Plc (BARC), Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG (UBSN) were fined a combined $2.5 billion for rigging the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, used to price $300 trillion of securities from student loans to mortgages. More than a dozen banks have been subpoenaed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission over allegations traders worked with brokers at ICAP Plc (IAP) to manipulate ISDAfix, a benchmark used in interest-rate derivatives. ICAP Chief Executive Officer Michael Spencer said in May that an internal probe found no evidence of wrongdoing. Dralers at banks, which dominate the $4.7 trillion-a-day currency market, may be executing a large number of trades over a short period to move the rate to their advantage, a practice known as banging the close. Because the 4 p.m. benchmark determines how much profit dealers make on the positions they’ve taken in the preceding hour, there’s an incentive to influence the rate, DuCharme said. Dealers say they have to trade during the window to meet client demand and minimize their own risk. [April 2013] The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) recommended April 25 in its latest annual report to Congress that policymakers “promptly” identify other interest rate benchmarks that could replace the London Interbank Offered Rate, which the council said was “unsustainable in the long run.” The lending gauge, known as Libor, comprises a set of rates used to price financial instruments worldwide and is based on self-reported borrowing costs for unsecured loans between banks. The regulators’ call to move from a regime in which banks self-report their borrowing costs to one anchored in actual, observable transactions would shake up the current underpinnings of the financial system. The recommendation is the first of its kind for FSOC, a collection of regulators ranging from the Federal Reserve to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was formed after the financial crisis to spot risks. [March 23] Bank of America Corporation; Bank of America,N.A.; Barclays Bank PLC; British Bankers Association; BBA Enterprises, Ltd.; BBA LIBOR, Ltd; Citigroup, Inc.; Citibank, N.A.; Cooperative Centrale Raiffeissenboerenleenbank,B.A.; Credit Suisse Group AG; Credit Suisse International; Deutsche Bank AG; HSBC Holdings PLC; HSBC Bank USA,N.A.; J.P.Morgan Chase & Co.; J.P. Morgan Chase,N.A.; Lloyds Banking Group,PLC; HBOS PLC; The Norinchukin Bank; Royal Bank of Canada; The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC; The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC; The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd; UBS Ltd; Westlb AG; and Portigon AG. read more

Rooney Mara in GoPro “Song to Song”

Malick is employing the same audiovisual vocabulary as in his previous three films (with a few refinements, including the widespread use of tiny GoPro cameras), and he’s dealing with a lot of tried-and-true Malickian themes and situations. [Ebert]

 

[June 4 ‘Una” gets U.S. distribution ]

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

http://www.playbill.com/article/blackbird-starring-jeff-daniels-and-michelle-williams-ends-broadway-run

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.

FLDS: Guilty although their wives are officially declared as friends.

Winston Blackmore, pictured in 2008, has an estimated 145 children

 

Blackmore and Oler are from Bountiful in southeastern BC, a religious community of about 1,500 people founded in 1946.
Both are former bishops with a breakaway Mormon sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). Mr Blackmore was excommunicated from the FLDS in 2002 and replaced by Mr Oler. The Canadian religious leaders have been found guilty of practising polygamy by the Supreme Court of British Columbia (BC).
The trial heard Winston Blackmore, 61, married 24 women. His former brother-in-law James Oler, 53, married five.
They were both charged with one count of polygamy. Each face up to five years in prison.

[September 14 2013 New construction in South Dakota ]

FLDS Custer County, South Dakota construction site

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) is constructing on its property located on Farmer Road in Custer County, South Dakota.
Custer County Sheriff Rick Wheeler was told by Ben “Ed” Johnson, the person in charge at the FLDS compound, that it is to be a milking barn, but after seeing photos of the project, Wheeler suspects it is something else. What that something else is, he doesn’t know.
Dave Green, Custer County planning director, sees a similarity between this structure and one at the FLDS Yearning For Zion (YFZ) compound in Eldorado, Texas. That structure is the size of a stadium and shaped like an amphitheatre in which it it has been rumored that a 30’ statue of FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs with a small child will be placed.
Green notes that the packing materials in which the statue was delivered to the YFZ compound is identical to packing materials seen in the photo shown here.
Although Green is concerned about what the FLDS may be constructing in that area, as there is no formula for dealing with an amphitheatre — should that be what it turns out to be —that structure isn’t Green’s main concern at the present time.
What concerns him are the two new buildings in progress in the lower right and lower center of the photo.
After the FLDS completed part one of the road project on 20 Mile Road, it was eligible to receive two building permits. Part two of the road project has also been completed— and completed very well, Green notes — but no building permits have been applied for, nor given.

[January 7]

Young women leaving FLDS church

A brewing battle between the FLDS church and the state of Texas was put on ice Friday when government attorneys discovered they didn’t actually serve the right people with the right court documents.
Texas attorneys moved to take control of the church’s Yearning for Zion Ranch on Nov. 27 when they filed a 91-page seizure warrant. The warrant alleged that the ranch functioned as a remote base for molesting children. According to Attorney General of Texas spokeswoman Lauren Bean, the case documents were served on Warren Jeffs, who is in prison, and his brother Issac Jeffs while he was visiting Warren. A copy of the documents also was taped to the gate at the ranch. Earlier this week, both sides agreed to give FLDS attorneys until Friday to respond to the allegations, which amounted to a civil lawsuit.
But by Friday, no one had filed a response from the FLDS.
Dan Gerson, who represents the FLDS in the case, confirmed Friday that he had not filed a response.
But Bean said the Friday deadline no longer applied after lawyers from her office learned that the correct people had not been served. Bean explained that at some point attorneys learned that rather than the Jeffs brothers, they actually needed to serve an “unknown possessor” of the ranch. Bean did not have information about the unknown possessor’s identity or how attorneys learned the correct party hadn’t been served.
However, that party had finally been served by Friday, Bean said.
As a result of the confusion, FLDS attorneys now have until Jan. 28 to respond to the state’s attempt to seize the ranch.

[December 13]

FLDS United Effort Plan trust, which was taken over by the state in 2005.

With Jeffs out of the picture, the UEP he once controlled is now in control of the State of Utah. Attorneys General for Utah and Arizona want to give the power back to the community where it belongs, but no one from the FLDS community is willing to discuss the issue with the state leaders. Jeffs is instructing his followers not to cooperate. Even the Mayor and city council members failed to show up at the important meeting.

The options presented by the state leaders to give the trust back to the FLDS include: 1) Nominating a new board of trustees. 2) Dissolving the trust and distributing the assets, this option had the most support from the mostly apostate FLDS who attended the meeting. 3) Dissolving the trust and liquidating the assets. 4) Negotiate a new arrangement.

Information from the meeting will be provided to Third District Judge Denise Lindberg in Utah who will ultimately determine the fate of the trust.

[October 11]
The decision by Utah’s Supreme Court upholds its own 2010 ruling that the three years the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints waited to challenge the state takeover was too long. It also bars the case from being heard by other state judges.

[June 6]Two polygamous sect property trust issues No immediate deadline was set for opinions on the issues, though there is an Aug. 1 deadline on the unpaid-bill question.

The Utah Supreme Court heard arguments June 6 on two issues related to the United Effort Plan trust, which was taken over by the state in 2005.

1 » Whether justices’ 2010 decision dismissing an FLDS challenge to the takeover should prevent any other courts — including a federal judge who later ruled the takeover was illegal — from considering the case. The answer could determine if the trust stays in state hands or goes back to the sect.

2 » If the state of Utah should pay more than $5.5 million in unpaid bills owed to the accountant who has been managing the trust and his employees.

Ex-FLDS spokesman wins default judgment

A former spokesman for the polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs has won a default judgment in a civil lawsuit accusing church leaders of burglarizing his office as retribution for speaking against the imprisoned leader.

A 5th District Court judge awarded Jessop and his business nearly $30 million after leaders Lyle Jeffs and John Wayman failed to respond, according to an order issued Monday.

Jessop said the leaders orchestrated a break-in to take back evidence he’d been using to coordinate Warren Jeffs’ defense and to trash the building. He broke with the leadership shortly before Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15, who he took as plural wives.

“It went from being a religion … to being really nothing more than a cartel,” Jessop said.