PEP ... FORMER US ATTORNEY ADMITS MONEY LAUNDERING

This month Sam Currin (UID 451053), a former leading public figure in North Carolina, agreed to plead guilty to money laundering in a massive securities fraud scheme, in addition he pleaded guilty to failing to disclose income to the IRS as well as a charge of obstructing justice. Currin started his career as a federal prosecutor and in 1984 he became a Superior Court judge, in 1996 he was elected state chairman of the Republican Party, a position he held until 1999. Currin, it is reported laundered US$1.45 million on behalf of one of his clients. A man more used to putting people behind bars could now face as much as nine years in federal prison for this crime. Take a look at the Display Graph of his profile to reveal his associates.

EXTORTION CONSPIRACY TRIAL UNDERWAY

Over ten years ago Puerto Rican political office holders Rene Vazquez-Botet, (UID 124814) Marcos Morell-Corrada (UID 125248) and Jose Granados-Navedo (UID 124811) are alleged to have demanded more than US$2 million from suppliers who were trying to secure contracts on the Superaqueduct construction project. In April 2004 Granados Navedo pleaded guilty to receiving more than US$150,000 in the scam. In February this year, the USDOJ accused the presiding US District Court Judge Juan Perez-Gimenez of deliberately delaying proceedings. It was revealed that Perez-Gimenez and the two on trial Morell-Corrada and Vazquez-Botet are all members of the political party the New Progressives. At the end of September the trial finally commenced with a new judge and jury selection. World-Check's researchers have monitored the situation and updated the profiles accordingly. In September World-Check's team updated almost 16,000 profiles and created over 12,000 new ones.

AIRLINE PROCUREMENTS OFFICER ASSETS FROZEN

Michael McKnight, (UID 217076) is the former procurement officer for the South African national airline SAA. He and his wife Gillian (UID 217077) as well as co-accused and friend Mervyn Reynolds (UID 217079) have recently had assets of over 21 million rand frozen by the state. Their trial is due to start in November for their alleged involvement in government tender manipulation amounting to nearly R6 million. McKnight has been in the World-Check database since 2004. Make sure you keep abreast of developments by using the News-Check functionality, which trawls hundreds of thousands of news sources, to bring news related to your search directly to your desktop in just a matter of seconds.

BRIT PLEADS GUILTY TO UK/US TERROR PLOT

This month a London man Dhiren Barot (UID 245042) pleaded guilty in a British court to conspiracy to commit murder. Barot it emerged had plotted to carry out terror attacks in the UK and also across the Atlantic on key US targets. These attacks included a ‘dirty bomb’ project, a plan to blow up cars packed with explosives and inflammable materials in underground car parks in Britain. His intention was also to hit the world’s largest financial institutions. His chosen US targets included the New York Stock Exchange, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Following his guilty plea the judge ordered all other charges to lie on file. Others allegedly associated to the conspiracy to carry out a terror campaign will face trial in early 2007.

Istiada Oemar Sovie (UID 507207) is the wife of one of the most wanted men in South East Asia, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist, Joko Pitono alias Dulmatin (UID 89101). This month Sovie was arrested on the Philippines island of Jolo, she has however, refused to divulge any information concerning the whereabouts of her husband and she will remain in military custody for the time-being. Pitono has been in World-Check since November 2002, although he appeared on a number of other sanctions listings he was only added to the OFAC two-and-a-half years later in May 2005.

Iraqi citizen, Yassin Muhiddin Aref (UID 245044) has been in World-Check since 2004 when he was arrested in New York. He and co-accused Mohammed Mosharref Hossain (UID 245045) have been on trial in New York accused of money laundering, conspiracy and giving material support to the Pakistan based terror organization Jaish-I-Mohammed. This month they were both convicted and are to be sentenced in February next year.

There is a well-known expression “Don’t Cry Wolf”, which is told to children to deter them from telling lies, for Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones (UID 273136) those words are particularly poignant. In 1998 after entering the USA illegally he was deported back to Mexico. He later joined a Chinese run gang who were involved in smuggling people across the border into the USA. It is reported that Quinones fell out with the organization and decided to exact his revenge. To do this Beltran Quinones made a number of telephone calls to authorities claiming that two Iraqis and four Chinese nationals were planning to detonate a nuclear device in Boston. The ‘false statement’ understandably caused uproar in the USA, Mexican authorities detained Quinones soon afterwards in Mexicali, and a month later he was extradited to face charges in the US. In May he pleaded ‘no contest’ to providing false information. His punishment was dished out last month and for telling lies, he will now spend the next three years behind bars in a federal facility in the US before being deported to his native Mexico.