Transatlantic corruption probes to increase

GOOD. It is clear that the British Government simply refuses to touch corruption in any shape or form, just look at how it treated BAe. I quote:

British companies suspected of corruption will face more co-ordinated transatlantic probes such as the landmark investigation that led to the UK arms maker BAE Systems paying a near-record fine, the head of the Serious Fraud Office has warned.

Richard Alderman defended the contentious deal and said the SFO expected to strike similar “global settlements” in coming cases in which it was working with the US Department of Justice and other agencies.

The closer involvement of the US – with its wider international reach, tougher powers and harsher punishments – heightens the threat to companies but may be seen by some as an admission that big business still feels it has little to fear from British prosecutors.

…..

But lawyers specialising in fraud cases say that, for all the joint US-British cases coming through, London still needs to do much more to demonstrate it can work independently of Washington in tackling big companies and individual executives

Shameful on us Brits that we cant even clean up after ourselves. And for these guys who are defending their dealing of the BAe case, let me ask one thing, do they think invisible men did the corrupt dealings that they think a fine will be enough. WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE DEALS? NAME THEM, CHARGE THEM, CONVICT THEM AND CHUCK THEM INTO JAIL.

they are criminals and we let them off. May they rot in hell. Hate these corrupt bastards.

BAe escapes corruption deal – showing Labour is also corrupt

So British Aerospace escapes by just paying £286m in fines to the governments in the USA and UK. There will be no further investigation. There will be nobody who will be charged with actually being corrupt. This British Company went about selling its wares in Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, the Czech Republic, South Africa and Hungary. And all these places, they went and crapped all over normal rule of law, bribed and did illegal things. I dont care that much about USA, they already have got good anti corruption measures, but here? Not even ONE person has been convicted under the prevention of corruption act.

This, to me, shows that Labour is corrupt through and through, otherwise why would it accept this bargain? And I find it extremely stupid of this government to do this. I actually think that the government is illiterate and stupid. Yes, seriously deficient in its thinking. Let me go further. I do not think that the government is merely incompetent, this government is actually stupid and whoever has been taking decisions on this matter (presumably this goes up to Gordon Brown), is actually a moron. Unable to comprehend basics of law enforcement or proper judicial matters. What is the point of fining the company when the fine will end up being paid by either the tax payer (through more expensive defence equipment) or the shareholders (through lesser dividends) or Joe public through lower quality goods. Who were the actual people who committed this crime? The sales guys, the sales directors, the auditors, the directors of the company, the senior managers who signed off this deal? they are walking away with the bonus elements and salaries. So not even one person was found guilty. It was a victimless crime. Ha! Absolutely moronic.

And our international reputation is shot, we are now going to slide even further in the rankings of transparency international. Gordon Brown and his cohorts can send their kids off to other countries, but our kids have to grow up listening to how Gordon Brown has helped in sliding our country down the rankings for total corruption perceptions index. We are 17th off the top in the world and even in Europe, we are 12th from the top. What the hell?

What is to stop these corrupt guys and company from doing it again? Oh! they have setup "an ethics board”. Yes, that would be about as use as a wet paper towel against a missile.

This just confirms my feeling, that the current Labour government is not only corrupt at best, but actually mentally deficient and stupid at worst. Do I want frikking idiots running my country? NO!

British Government and corrupt practices

It has been days since the Court said that the Serious Fraud Office has "seriously" erred in stopping the fraud and corruption case against BAE for allegedly bribing various Saudi people. Now, who from the government have you heard  saying anything about this case?

This government is very quick to pronounce on everything and everybody under the sun, but not on this. So what gives? (besides the fact that Gordon Brown usually hides and bottles out whenever there is a problem, and wakes up months after the problem is screaming for attention. He met with the British banks months after the wholesale markets problem was identified)

I will tell you what gives! It means that the government knows there is something wrong in this bargain. I have been tracking this for some time now and I am positive that BAE has indeed paid bribes. Why do I think that? Well, see here. The American Justice Department is on the case and I quote:

Another US official said the justice department had concerns that approval could hamper an investigation into whether BAE violated US laws by allegedly bribing Saudi officials over a previous arms deal known as Al-Yamamah. BAE has denied any wrongdoing.

If everything was tickety boo and overboard, why on earth would the Justice Department express concerns about it? It is, after all, not just a banana republic and a tin pot dictator we are talking about. We are talking about, oh!, sorry, a banana republic after all.

What people do not realise is the damage this step has done to the country's internal political and social consistency. For a political government in the form of ministers to interfere with an independent body - which is answerable only to Parliament - is critically insane. This has violated the basic structure of the checks and balances built into our society. Between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, this finely balanced and widely admired system of checks and balances has been tampered with.

For those who think that this is a problem for another country and is  just the normal cost of doing business in those countries, no, it is not. Bribing a corrupt Saudi Prince means that each and every Saudi and Saudi Arabian resident is paying that bit more for those planes, because that excess money could have been used to build some roads, fund some scholarships, pay for some nurses...

It also means that the Saudis think that the Brits agree and accept corruption and bribery. So if they think so and bribe one of the incorruptible British Member of Parliaments, I suppose that would be fine, no? After all, if its acceptable for the Brits to bribe a member of the Saudi Government, it should be also acceptable for the Saudis to do the same, no?

When will these people in government understand that corruption drives away good money and ruins the governance of a country  resulting in decaying the country from inside? Perhaps never, because if they wink and nudge at the BAE corruption, then they are also corrupt. For further details, see Transparency International and the OECD Anti Bribery Convention which the OECD have signed AND ratified.

Shameful!

Technorati Tags: BAE,United Kingdom,Corruption,Bribery,Saudi Arabia.

The SFO to appeal against it being called spineless idiots

So now the SFO will appeal against the judgement that their call to drop the corruption inquiry against BAE and Saudi Arabia, eh? This is what the judges said

Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Sullivan said in the ruling: "We fear for
the reputation of the administration of justice if it can be perverted by a
threat. "No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to
interfere with the course of our justice."

What does Tony Blair and Gordon Brown do?

Gordon Brown, through his spokesman, has made it clear he was completely
behind his predecessor, Tony Blair, in wanting the inquiry dropped after the
Saudis warned they could stop supplying intelligence to the security services if
the investigation continued.

Wonderful, Gordon Brown, its great to see that you are standing up for justice, transparency and the rule of law.

And the new DG, what does he say?

The judgment of the divisional court raises principles of general public
importance affecting, among other things, the independence of prosecutors and the role of the court in reviewing a prosecutor's evaluation of the public interest in a case like this. The court itself has commented that the issues raised in this case are important points of public interest.

Welcome to the real life, Mr. Alderman, your independence was crucially compromised when you and your organisation cowardly refused to stand up to these Labour incompetent idiots and force justice to take place. THAT was your job and you fell down, and now you are appealing against the fact that somebody said so?

Wonderful, I can well see how appealing your organisation will be to your people. Next time I meet somebody from the SFO, this is what I will tell him, so you work for that cowardly supine organisation? That organisation which protects corrupt companies? So what makes me think that you are worthy of my tax dollars to protect the country from fraud and corruption? Nothing.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

And BAe gets caught up in another corruption scandal

So now we have a clear cut situation that a Tanzanian minister took bribes for the purchase of a BAe radar system. And he is the fourth Tanzanian minister to resign in the past few weeks.

How amazing, have you heard of any BAe officials in the dock? or having to resign? How does it feel to all the Brits to know that Tanzania is more emphatic in clearing corruption than the Brits? Hang your head in shame, all you bloody ministers and BAe who have dragged the reputation of this country into the gutter.

Apparently UK officials are investigating. Investigating, my ass, it will go down the same way as that of the bloody Saudi deal. Here's a question for you, BAe has been bribing people for the past very many years. How many officials have been prosecuted? HA!

I want heads to roll publicly, I want people who have actually given, approved and were in charge in BAE to be publically prosecuted for theft and corruption. Make a bloody example of these merchants of death and corruption. Disgusting. Spitting on them is being nice to them.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

SFO unlawful in ending BAE probe

This is excellent news. We want to expose these thieves and robbers. What national security is actually being served by pandering to these poxy corrupt rulers? Sod it, they raise terrorists and then they want money so that they will tell us about their terrorists?

I do hope they go ahead and re-open the inquiry and somebody's head must roll.

what cheek!

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Documentary evidence of Saudi and British Corruption

If you have the time, take a gander through this list of files which the Guardian has collected.

How perfectly horrifying to see that British taxpayers and citizens have been caught up in this web of lies, deceit and corruption which these pus filled diseased government has spread across this fair land.

Read and be determined to throw out these corrupt politicians next time they face the wrath of the citizenry who do not want to be associated with corrupt Saudi's nor Corrupt bureaucrats/politicians. Punish them the only way that they will really hurt, by exposing their squalid underbellies to the sunlight!

Absolutely disgusting! Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, you are to blame!

Technorati Tags: Corruption,BAE,Saudi Arabia,United Kingdom

BAe again in the corruption spotlight - this time in South Africa

His Eminence, Thabo Mbeki, is accused of having his hands completely dirty in the South African Arms Deal Bribe Scandal. BAe, the company which is already accused of being corrupt in a variety of other cases, is neck deep in this issue.

Read and Fulminate!

Mbeki 'blocked investigation into £1.5bn BAE arms deal'

President Thabo Mbeki blocked a parliamentary investigation into alleged bribery by BAE Systems and other weapons firms in South Africa's biggest ever arms deal, according to a former MP who was driven out of the ruling African National Congress for spearheading the inquiry.
Andrew Feinstein, the former ranking ANC member of parliament's public accounts committee, says the presidency killed off its investigation, pressured the auditor general to change a report criticising the £1.5bn deal to buy planes from BAE as "flawed", and stymied an inquiry by the director of public prosecutions into whether the ruling party accepted bribes to fund its election campaigns.

In a new book, After the Party, Feinstein, a Cambridge-trained economist, for the first time reveals the extent to which Mr Mbeki was directly involved in stopping his committee's investigation in 2001. Feinstein has since moved to London and is cooperating with an investigation by Britain's Serious Fraud Office into £75m in payments made to the former defence minister, Joe Modise, senior officials in his office and others in South Africa at the time BAE won a contract to supply planes at nearly twice the price of a rival bidder.

Feinstein said investigators working with his committee uncovered evidence that Modise received at least 10m rand (£740,000) in bribes from BAE and a German weapons firm but that there was paperwork to suggest up to 35m rand (£2.6m) in illegal payments to the former defence minister, who has since died.

"Other key government players in the deal are alleged to have received millions in bribes," Feinstein writes. "In addition, speculation has refused to go away that the ANC received millions of rands from the successful bidders, money that was probably used in our 1999 election campaign."

Feinstein said his committee's investigation initially had support from powerful ANC figures, including the speaker of parliament and the director of public prosecutions. But that fell away as the investigation progressed and the presidency grew increasingly concerned to the point of "apoplexy".

The first pressure to curb the probe came from the ANC's chief whip, Tony Yengeni, who became "intimidating". ANC members of the committee were called before party leaders including Essop Pahad, a minister and longstanding friend of Mr Mbeki, who "launched into a ferocious diatribe". "Who the fuck do you think you are, questioning the integrity of the government, the ministers and the president?" he said, according to Feinstein.

Other ANC members of the committee were called in by Mr Mbeki and "effectively told who they could and could not investigate". Feinstein said one senior party official told him not to embarrass the ANC because some of the bribes funded its election campaign.

"The situation was out of control. I was being bullied into accepting the leadership's line, and if I didn't it would be clear that I was a traitor with an agenda of my own," he wrote. Yengeni sacked Feinstein as head of the ANC delegation on the public accounts committee and told other members that "the ANC, from the president downwards, will now exercise political control".

"The ANC went to such extreme lengths to prevent an unfettered investigation into the deal because they needed to conceal corruption involving the head of procurement in the defence force at the time of the deal, at least two senior ANC leaders and probably the party itself," he writes.

Yengeni was later convicted of accepting bribes from a German arms manufacturer, after the press exposed the dealings, and sentenced to four years in prison. He was released after just four months. The final public accounts committee report proved to be a whitewash which said there was no evidence of irregularities.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

The Head of BAE - the British Company accused of massive corruption resigns

GOOD!

I am only sorry that he did not leave under a legal cloud but left on his own. People who lead corrupt companies should be ostracised! Because they sully and dirty the image of the country and make it worse for their citizens and other British firms.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

BAE again in the crosshairs of a corruption probe

BAE has been in the news and there is something about arms and Defence companies which just leads them to corruption. And not only that, they lead others into corruption as well!. Disgusting! And now they are in the cross-hairs relating to a £28 million military radar system sale to Tanzania. Both the British Serious Fraud Office and the Tanzanian Prevention of Corruption Bureau are on the case.

Have you seen where Tanzania is on the map? Look at its neighbours, most of them wont be able to fly a kite, forget about armed aerial or missile attack. what the heck do they need that huge expensive radar system for? I will tell you why, because they paid 30% of the contract value to an agent who brokered the deal.

Thieves, corrupt maggots, may the fleas of 1000 camels infest your armpits!

Technorati Tags: Corruption , Tanzania , UK , BAE

US 'plans huge Saudi arms deal'

BBC NEWS | Americas | US 'plans huge Saudi arms deal'

also Israel is very upset about it. I wonder why? I mean, who in the name of all that's holy, will ever operate all these very expensive equipment? Not the Saudi's themselves. If Iran ever attacks, you will find the planes and buses all filled with panic stricken saudi's, heading east or north east at a rapid clip. Remember what happened when Iraq attacked? You think I am joking? I am not, the ordinary saudi was extremely bitter about the going ons of the royals and the army. At one shot, almost the entire governing layer of Saudi Arabia had buzzed off. So if Iran attacks, it will be the Americans and Brits who will have to back again to save its butt. Again, the stupidity comes through. The Saudis are basically paying billions for equipment which they dont know, dont want, dont need, cant operate so that they have an insurance policy from the Brits/Americans for an event that the west is engineering. The ironies and stupidities are so many that it has a certain unique beauty of its own.

Also check out something that I had written before on what the Saudi usage of British equipment and comments made by British technicians operating the Al Yamamah contract.