PEP ALERT ...SENTENCED FOR ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN FUNDING

Charles Pasqua (UID 8314) the former French Minister of the Interior (1993-1995) and current member of the Senate has been handed an 18 month suspended sentence for forgery, illegal funding of his campaign and breach of trust during the 1999 EU elections. Pasqua is no stranger to controversy and has in recent years been named in the Iraq Oil for Food scandal. Pasqua also reportedly survived an investigation into corruption during his tenure as Interior Minister and an alleged scandal involving the selling of arms to Angola without Governmental clearance. In November 2007 his son Pierre-Philippe Pasqua (UID 75562) was sentenced to 2 years, one year suspended, and fined €300,000 for concealment in a bribe investigation. Check out father and son’s profiles to see who they are linked to and the Display Graph to see the secondary and tertiary levels of associates.

Susan Gail Ray (UID 832049) was sentenced in March 2008 to 10 years behind bars after she pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering. Ray was accused of defrauding the company she worked for out of more than US$6 million over a five year period. Ray worked as a comptroller and systematically inflated the payroll and then transferred the excess into her personal accounts. Some of the money was used to purchase a ranch and horses in Texas and more to purchase property in Florida which has reportedly been frozen by authorities. Not all the money stolen has yet been accounted for and reports suggested that Ray’s assets had been placed in the names of others. World-Check advises its users to conduct regular screening of its entire client database.

ALLEGED INVESTMENT FRAUDSTERS ARRESTED

This month Paul Robert Gunter (UID 823326) and his daughter Zibiah Joy Gunter (UID 823327) were arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for an international fraud which is estimated to have run into the tens of millions of dollars. The duo were charged with mail, wire and securities fraud and money laundering. The arrest was part of a joint operation between ICE, the US Attorney Office in Florida and the City of London Police. The Gunters had allegedly used more than 50 publicly traded shell companies between 2005 to date to perpetrate their fraud. World-Check monitors the ICE site and profiles are key worded in the database to assist our clients.

DRUG SMUGGLERS TO SPEND 30 YEARS BEHIND BARS

This month Victoria Baptist (UID 542164) and two of her co conspirators Alex Portocarrero (UID 826952) and Jamie Fletcher (UID 542165) were sentenced to a total of 30 years in jail. The three were found guilty of an international conspiracy to smuggle a reported £3.5 million worth of cocaine into the British Isles, from South America some of it via the Netherlands. The cocaine was impregnated into camping gear and the drug extracted in a laboratory situated at a London address. World-Check doesn’t just list PEPs and watch listed individuals and entities it also provides intelligence on many other heightened risk categories such as narcotics and human traffickers and organized crime to name but a few.

Money from Iran and Venezuela destined to provide financial support for the FARC, and for other radical leftist groups seeking to topple democratic Latin American governments, is being funnelled out of Venezuela, and into Central America, in a complex scheme that cleverly hides its illicit origins. The seizure recently of a large amount of cash hidden in a FARC safe house in Costa Rica was a rare glimpse into the use of that country as a key stopover for money en route to the FARC. There is much more going on under the radar regarding the use of that country's financial structure for terrorist financing of the FARC's hemisphere-wide operations. …read more

This month a military tribunal has postponed the verdict of a group of 40 Muslim Brotherhood (UID 149062) members who are standing trial in Egypt. The number three in the organization and reported main financier Khayrat el-Shater (UID 544321) is one of the charged. The group was initially charged with money laundering and terrorism, it is reported that these charges have since been reduced to ‘belonging to a banned group and having anti-government literature.’ The military court has ruled that the verdict will have to wait until after local elections have taken place.

In February 2008 three individuals were arrested by Philippine authorities on suspicion of being members of a suspected Al Qaida sleeper cell. Jordanians Khalil Hasan Al-Alih (UID 825396)and Walid Abu Aisem (UID 825395) and Indonesian Bae Haki (UID 806045) are accused of planning to bomb Western embassies in the capital Manila. Reports state that they were also conspiring to bomb the airport and an army base. Haki, it has been alleged, is a member of Jemaa Islamiyah (UID 57652).

This month Sri Lankan authorities indicted the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran (UID 2666), and five others for the 2005 assassination of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman (UID 39791), Charles Master (UID 821673), Komadi Manimekalai (UID 821674), Muttiah Sahadevan (UID 821675) and Arokiarajah Arokianathan (UID 821676) were charged with conspiracy and aiding and abetting. Warrants of arrest were issued for the accused and the trial date was set for April 2, 2008.

A member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who is allegedly the head of the European youth wing has been arrested. Nedim Seven (UID 567899) was reportedly detained by Italian authorities at Rome airport as he prepared to travel to Armenia. Seven was allegedly using a counterfeit diplomatic passport. World-Check Online users can check the authenticity of international travel documents including copies thereof with our integrated Passport-Check, in addition this application runs a simultaneous search through our database to ascertain if the individual is listed.

World-Check continues to warn its client of heightened risk ahead of the regulatory and sanctioning bodies. Check out our latest Press Releases to read more. Take time out to read the latest installment of Kenneth Rijock's "Confessions of a Money Launderer" which is published every Wednesday.

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