Here are 3 items:
1. open letter from Scientology Church Hamburg, Inc. to Interior Senator Wrocklage concerning Mrs. Caberta and Mr. Minton
2. one of the attachments to these letters (items 1 and 3) concerning investment banker Robert Minton and the Nigeria connection
3. open letter from Scientology Church Munich, Inc. to the Evangelical State Church in Berlin-Brandenburg concerning Mr. Gandow and Mr. Minton
[As usual the following are unofficial translations from the German to English which may not be 100 percent accurate. If you think you see an error, please feel free to respond to this post either on the news group or directly by e-mail to the from address.]
Scientology Church Hamburg, Inc.
[contact info]
5.27.2000
Agency of the Interior
Mr. Interior Senator Wrocklage
OPEN LETTER
SUBJECT: EMPLOYEE OF THE HAMBURG INTERIOR AGENCY PAYS COURT TO INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CRIMINAL AND NOW ALSO WANTS TO DISTINGUISH HIM
Dear Mr. Interior Senator Wrocklage,
As you are surely aware, the employee of the Hamburg Interior Agency Mrs. Ursula Caberta officially invited the American "investment banker" Robert Minton to a press conference in the name of the city, and, indeed, it was on April 6, 2000 in the large conference hall (room 105) of the Hamburg Interior Agency. The invitation was issued on April 3, 2000 officially from the press and information center of the Agency for the Interior (ATTACHMENT 1, Invitation of the Press and Information Center of the Interior Agency).
It was obvious that Mr. Minton was proudly presented by Mrs. Caberta to the journalists present as a "multi-millionaire" and as an "intrepid combatant against Scientology" and that she paid court to him. It can also be assumed that Mrs. Caberta has quite deliberately withheld from you as the presiding Interior Senator, your press center and also the journalists present at the press conference the background and the real "merits" of Mr. Minton. Yet this unbelievable scandal has not yet nearly reached its high point: above that, Mrs. Caberta would like to grant Mr. Minton on June 3, 2000 in Leipzig in her own convened ceremony an "alternative Charlemagne Award" for his "merits for human rights." In the associated internet announcement, Mrs. Caberta appeared once more as the official representative of the free Hanseatic City of Hamburg. This farce then took on a completely significance, since on June 2nd in Aachen the "International Charlemagne Award, Aachen," renowned for 50 years, is to be awarded to the American President Bill Clinton. As you can see from the text for the announced "alternative award," the foundation of cynicism cannot be outdone and is an incredible insult to the foreign head of state. Minton's merits were said to make him a "more worthy award winner" than President Clinton (ATTACHMENT 2, Internet text "Alternativer Karlspreis 2000")
For a better life in a difficult world Scientology is an applied religious philosophy
page 2
As a matter of fact, Mr. Minton can produce "merits," but which clearly identify him only as "white-collar criminal," an international commercial criminal and money-launderer, who has robbed needy people who are living in poverty in one of the poorest countries in the world of an astronomical amount of millions.
In the enclosed summary you will find presented in great detail with what inconceivable criminal energy Minton, whom Mrs. Caberta masked in Hamburg as a harmless, honest man, acted. (ATTACHMENT 3 - Summary)
In complicity with ex-military dictators and notorious human rights violators in Nigeria he defrauded dozens of banks in Europe and in the USA with illegal money-laundering deals which had been covertly developed through cover companies and strawmen. But more than anything else, he defrauded the people suffering from horrible need in Nigeria exclusively to satisfy only his craving for profit. Full of cynicism and disregard for human dignity, Minton himself asserted that he had made "only" several tens of millions dollars of profit by doing this. Doubt of his assertion is appropriate, since over 12 billion marks disappeared in the fraudulent deals into murky channels.
For weeks reports have been regularly appearing on this in the English and African media which have been bringing more new details about Minton's fraudulent business to the light of day (ATTACHMENT 4 - list of sources). We will be happy to put any of the sources listed at your disposal.
For Mr. Minton would have been at his visit to Hamburg on April 6 the Interior Agency already the right starting point, to be sure for the forwarded to the subordinate state criminal investigative office. The Interior Agency would have been the right place for Mr. Minton's visit to Hamburg on April 6, but he should have been routed down to the subordinate state criminal investigation office. In character, the ARD broadcast on its April 5th programming an impressive documentary entitled "The Nigeria Connection." "Rosy times for the Nigeria Connection" were revealed in that program. "Not just in Holland. Because since then the only investigative group in Hamburg has been dissolved." (ATTACHMENT - excerpt from the ARD transcript)
In the meantime, investigations are being initiated in the Nigerian Senate and Minton's bank accounts in Austria, Switzerland and England have been officially confiscated, and just the day before yesterday and yesterday, the American Congress has also gotten involved in this dark chapter with a hearing on Nigeria. Therefore the summary and the list of sources on this scandal has to be expanded almost daily.
The by any regards fanatic activism of your employee, Mrs. Caberta, has now reached a point where we can only implore you to take the following steps in order to be able to avoid - possibly international - damages to the reputation of your agency and to the Hanseatic City of Hamburg:
1. Dismiss Mrs. Caberta with no notice. She has not informed you or the public about Mr. Minton's international fraudulent business, and honored him in the Interior Agency
page 3
The Interior Agency would be better off tracking down and locking up criminals instead of honoring them as models with a human rights award.
2. Decisively distance yourself, as part of the Interior Agency, from the criminal action of Mr. Minton and give back to the state criminal investigative office the means to investigate such wrongdoers and put them under arrest. Have millions of this type of fraud money been deposited in Germany? Do everything possible in your area of responsibility so that Minton will be forced to give back his illegally acquired fraudulent millions to the Nigerian people, so that the money can be used for social welfare institutions within the country.
We ask for your answer by this coming Tuesday, the 30th of May.
Cordially,
/signature/
Frank Busch
Attachments:
ATTACHMENT 1 - Invitation of the Press and Information
Center of the Interior Agency
ATTACHMENT 2 - Internet text "Alternativer Karlspreis 2000"
ATTACHMENT 3 - Summary
ATTACHMENT 4 - list of sources
ATTACHMENT 5 - excerpt from the ARD transcript
[ATTACHMENT 3]
Summary
As of May 26, 2000
"INVESTMENT BANKER ROBERT MINTON AND THE NIGERIA CONNECTION
ON THE TRAIL OF AN UNSCRUPULOUS CHEAT OVER 12 BILLION MARKS DISAPPEARED IN MURKY CHANNELS MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN HUNGER AND POVERTY WHILE AT THE SAME TIME A RUTHLESS CON MAN ROBS THE NIGERIAN PEOPLE OF ASTRONOMICAL SUMS IN CRIMINAL, INTERNATIONAL FRAUDULENT DEALS
In spite of rich deposits of oil, Nigeria is among the poorest of countries in general - not only in Africa, but worldwide. Unimaginable luxury for a few military dictators and poverty for the over 100 million people characterized the land on the Gulf of Guinea until the recent past. Nigeria holds 12th place on the world list of countries supplying oil, but with an average monthly salary of 30 marks, the Nigerian are in 13th place of the world list of the poorest countries. (source: Stern, 18.04.1996).
Just until recently violence, murder, terror and corruption ruled the land. Even international protests in 1995 could not prevent the military dictator of the time, Sani Abacha, from having Ken Saro-Wiwa, civil rights activist and recipient of the alternative Nobel Prize, executed in 1995. His crime: he had protested against the destruction of the Nigerian Delta by the ruthless demolition of oil camps. (source: Stern, 09.11.1995).
Abacha was said to have done away with several billion marks and cached the money away in foreign bank accounts. (source: Stern, 01.01.1996)
Dubious Abacha bank accounts holding millions, for example with the Swiss Credit Suisse bank institution and bank account closings made headlines in April 2000. (sources: Sonntagszeitung, 02.04.2000, SonntagsBlick, 16.04.2000 and New York Times, 05.04.2000). The same with Abacha billions at a Luxemburg daughter company of the Warburg Bank, which is resident in Hamburg (sources: Bild, 18.05.2000 and Hamburger Morgenpost, 20.05.2000)
In the same way, Nigeria acquired a great reputation worldwide as a stronghold of international business fraud, which with the country is still suffering today. Total estimated losses according to the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation in 1995: 90 million marks (source: Stern, 09.11.1995).
Also the ARD was recently deeply involved with this problem in a documentary "Seeking ... The Nigeria Connection," and it also reported on the victims of fraud from Germany whose existence had been destroyed by criminal acts directed from Nigeria (source: ARD, 05.04.2000).
But there are serious efforts by people from Nigeria to restore the country's reputation and oppose these criminal deals and the plundering of Nigeria. One of them is ex-soccer star John Fashanu (37) who lives in Nigeria and in England. For three years he had been investigating fraudulent business in the environment of former military despots in Nigeria and he has summarized the results in a report which has been causing a stir last month in the English and African media. (sources: AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL, 31. March 2000, THE SUNDAY TIMES, 2. April 2000, AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 3. April 2000, NEW NATION, 10. April 2000, SUNDAY TRIBUNE, 16. April 2000, THE NEWS, 17. April 2000, PUNCH, 19. April 2000, AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 28. April 2000, AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 3. May 2000, AGENCE FRANCE PRESS 14. May 2000 und AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 17. May 2000)
A new and completely essential conclusion of the investigation:
As to the person of "investment banker" Robert Minton, who operates from Boston, it is now possible for the first time to prove how the Nigerian people, a large number of credit banks of the country and even the former military despots themselves were massively bilked out of astronomical sums by criminal international fraudulent deals. Over 12 billion marks disappeared through over 200 foreign bank accounts and Minton was the one pulling the strings, who literally made a fortune from the poverty and hunger of the people in Nigeria.
How did the criminal deals take place?
Flash back to 1988 - 1993 in Nigeria:
Abacha's predecessor, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida ruled the country in these years. Today he is looked upon as the richest, living ex-dictator in the world. The amount of his fortune in 1997 was put at 450 billion naira (the state currency of Nigeria), converted, about 10 billion marks. Until the middle of 1993, Babangida was a military despot in Nigeria. The country had a windfall of cash by delivering crude oil in the Gulf War. But of the 12.4 billion dollars realized, none of it appeared in the state budget nor did the indigent populace see a trace of it. The state budget, for example, only recorded high deficits for 1990 and 1991. These procedures are not new. As early as 1995, the German media was also reporting on the money dealings from Nigeria's oil industry: a part of the profits went to bank accounts for "special purposes." It can be seen from the calculations of the Nigerian National bank that, for example, that 18.3 million dollars were "charged" for the presidential television and videorecorder. Altogether 6.1 billion dollars disappeared. (source: Stern, 23.11.1995)
But that was not even the object of Fashanu's investigations: the since deceased president of the national bank of Nigeria, Abdulkadir Ahmed, contrived international money-laundering transactions and organized a gigantic international fraud with the unscrupulous American businessman, Robert Minton. Through a network of cover companies which the "investment banker" had constructed, dozens of banks were defrauded of billions through covert buy-backs of Nigerian foreign debt. Minton availed himself of several accomplices and procured illegal insider knowledge for profit maximization in his criminal deals. He hoarded up astronomical sums of millions which were rightly due to the people in Nigeria. It involved a fraud in the amount of at least 12 billion marks which was disguised and diverted through more than 200 different bank accounts.
The monies for the deals - which at first were channeled through the Minton company with the characteristic name of "Growth Management Limited (GML)" London - were received by Minton through the national bank of Nigeria or put at the disposal of the national oil company, Nigerian National Petrolium [sic] Cooperation [sic]. Then they were channelled to the London branch of the Austrian state bank. But since, too much was going on in London for the Nigerian's taste and, yes, the credit bank was not supposed to guess which country was behind the debt buy-back deal, cover companies with fanciful names in Panama and America were founded in cooperation with Minton:
The "Greenland Holdings Incorporated" in Panama and "Shamrock Financials" und "Triolet" in the USA. Other banks were also used for the covert money-laundering of the dirty ["schwarz"] money from Nigeria to Minton. Among those named were the Federal Reserve Bank (New York), the Morgan Guaranty (New York) and the Bank of International Settlement (Basel).
Then the money was forwarded through the "Greenland Holdings Incorporated" in Panama to Swiss and Austrian bank accounts, among others, in order to continue disguising the real origin.
Minton then used his various cover companies or employed middle men for the illegal deals. First it was made clear to the credit banks that in view of the uncertain political situation and political future in Nigeria it would naturally be better for them to write off their debts at a decreased amount, and that way they would at least see a portion of their investment returned, instead of no money at all.
In an article entitled "Barclays, the big loser," an English magazine reported in detail in April how such a criminal deal of Minton's occurred in 1991 with the English Barclays Bank. The bank bore 300 million dollars of the Nigerian debt. Minton bought it up for 80 million dollars - and in doing so also turned his Nigerian financial backers into defrauded fraud men. Namely, he sold them the Nigerian debt write-off at Barclays - according to Fashanu's findings - at double the price (source: PUNCH, 19. April 2000). Minton, who appeared as an innocent, harmless man, made about 160 million marks profit on this deal alone.
Minton approached other deals more forcefully. He paid banks 10 cents on the dollar for Nigerian debt write-offs and sold them back to the unsuspecting Nigerians for 45 centers.
But Minton was greedy and was not at all satisfied with that. He perfected his criminal business with illegally acquired insider knowledge so that this was fully without risk for him and he could cram into his pockets yet more millions which were rightfully due to the people in Nigeria. He worked with an old accomplice with whom he had worked out similar deals in the 1980s in Turkey. This man maintained a close relationship to the Chase Mannhatten [sic] Bank, which was officially commissioned to record all the details of Nigeria's debt write-offs. That is where all the valuable, confidential insider information was available. Equipped with this insider knowledge, Minton had his acquaintances function as strawmen with the "Turan-Corp" company in order to pull off 43 more covert buy-backs of Nigerian debt write-offs from unsuspecting creditor banks. It has not yet been determined how many millions or billions of dollars Minton robbed from Nigeria's population. In the meantime - as a result of Fashanu's investigations - Minton's bank accounts in Austria, Switzerland and in London have been frozen (source: AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 28. April 2000)
Today Minton mimes an honest man whose background is clean as a whistle. In doing so he has gotten more and more involved in an entanglement of cynicism and lies to justify his scandalous business.
There is absolutely no doubt that - quite apart from the moral aspect of his complicity with a military dictator at the expense of the people in one of the poorest countries of the world - his deals were quite obviously illegal and criminal:
The debt buy-backs were carried out covertly, yet according to international agreements, the despots in Nigeria at the time were obligated to treat all creditor banks the same. Minton used insider knowledge and deliberately deceived the creditor banks. Above that he made himself a principal to unknowing victims of fraud.
Today Minton sanctimoniously maintains the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund has "silently agreed" to the deals. In the meantime there is factual evidence whereby Minton conspired with other people from financial circles and banks in order to pull off his financial manipulations (source: AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 3. May 2000).
The peak of Minton's cynicism and disregard for human dignity, for which he did not use one dollar of his own money in his criminal deals: he said he had "only made several tens of millions of dollars profit, not hundreds of millions or even billions (source: AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL, March 31, 2000). How many kindergartens, hospitals or other desperately needed welfare establishments could have been built with this money for the impoverished populace is not a question which is easily answered.
In the meantime the Nigerian Senate has formed an international initiative to investigate the giant fraud and get back the money stolen from the Nigerian people (source: AGENCE FRANCE PRESS, 14. May 2000 und AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 17. May 2000).
A hearing on Nigeria took place on May 25 in the American Congress. During that hearing, the President of the Nigerian Democratic Movement was heard as an expert witness. He present the American State Department and the tax authorities with extensive documentation of the criminal money-laundering activities in which Robert Minton played a key role between 1988 and 1993 (source: AMERICAN CONGRESS, May 25, 2000, testimony page 3)
SOURCE MATERIAL USED:
ON NIGERIA
1.Stern, 18.04.1996 2.Stern, 09.11.1995 3.Stern, 01.01.1996 4.Sonntagszeitung, 02.04.2000 5.SonntagsBlick, 16.04.2000 6.New York Times, 05.04.2000 7.Bild, 18.05.2000 8.Hamburger Morgenpost, 20.05.2000 9.ARD, 05.04.2000 10.Stern, 23.11.1995OPEN LETTERON ROBERT MINTON
1.AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL, 31. M=E4rz 2000 2.THE SUNDAY TIMES, 2. April 2000 3.AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 3. April 2000 4.NEW NATION, 10. April 2000 5.SUNDAY TRIBUNE, 16. April 2000 6.THE NEWS, 17. April 2000 7.PUNCH, 19. April 2000 8.AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 28. April 2000 9.AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 3. Mai 2000 10.AGENCE FRANCE PRESS, 14. Mai 2000 11.AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, 17. Mai 2000 12.AMERIKANISCHER KONGRESS, ANH=D6RUNG ZU NIGERIA, Aussage Seite 3, 25. Mai 2000
Scientology Church
Germany, Inc.
Beichstrasse 12, Munich, [contact info]
Evangelical State Church in Berlin-Brandenburg Mr. State Bishop Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Huber [address]
Munich May 29, 2000
Representative of the Evangelical State Church in Berlin-Brandenburg wants to distinguish international commercial criminal
Dear Mr. State Bishop Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Huber,
Your church has done much in many ways to be of service to common understanding and through assistance projects to the Third World.
Yet now an unbelievable scandal is looming which will inflict incalculable damage to the credibility of your efforts if it is not handled in a timely manner.
At the center point of this scandal is your employee, Mr. Thomas Gandow, sect commissioner, as an official representative of the Evangelical State Church in Berlin-Brandenburg:
Mr. Gandow would like to give an "alternative Charlemagne Award" to the American "investment banker," Mr. Robert Minton, on June 3, 2000 in Leipzig in a ceremony convened for that reason. He distributed a press release to the public on May 26, 2000 with the help of the "Evangelical press service" in Berlin to that effect, which resulted in an insignificant article in the Berlin daily newspaper "taz" (ATTACHMENT 1 - tax of June 27, 2000). It can be assumed from that that you and the Evangelical Press Service have not been informed as to the true background on Mr. Minton.
In an internet announcement on the "Alternative Charlemagne Award," Mr. Gandow appeared as an official church representative and gave his office "Heimat 27" as a contact address. The "distinction" takes on an entirely different significance because the "International Charlemagne Award, Aachen," renowned for 50 years, is being awarded to President Bill Clinton on June 2nd in Aachen.
For a better life in a difficult world
page 2
As you can see from the text for the announced "alternative award," the foundation of cynicism cannot be outdone and is an incredible insult to the foreign head of state by an representative of your state church. Minton's merits were said to make him a "more worthy award winner" than President Clinton.
In the foundation for the award, it said under the heading "Model?":
"Even the opinions in Aachen vary widely as to whether Bill Clinton is generally an appropriate award winner. We have the opinion that there are other people who are better suited than Bill Clinton to be honored for their efforts to promote freedom of opinion and a democratic style of life. That is because President Clinton has ... not made such a model out of himself.
Then it is presented that Robert Minton would have been more worthy candidate to receive the International Charlemagne Award than U.S. President Bill Clinton, because he had, "through his activities, clearly promoted the matters of Democracy, freedom of opinion and the freedom of conscience. The person which is worthy of this award, is Bob Minton." (ATTACHMENT 2, Internet text "Alternativer Karlspreis 2000")
As a matter of fact, Mr. Minton can produce "merits," but which identify him more as a "white-collar criminal," an international commercial criminal and money-launderer, who has robbed needy people who are living in poverty in one of the poorest countries in the world of an astronomical amount of millions.
In the enclosed summary you will find presented in great detail with what inconceivable criminal energy Minton, whom is masked as an honest man presented as a "human rights activist" and "model," acted. (ATTACHMENT 3 - Summary)
In complicity with ex-military dictators and notorious human rights violators in Nigeria he defrauded dozens of banks in Europe and in the USA with illegal money-laundering deals which had been covertly developed through cover companies and strawmen. But more than anything else, he defrauded the people suffering from horrible need in Nigeria exclusively to satisfy only his craving for profit. Full of cynicism and disregard for human dignity, Minton himself asserted that he had made "only" several tens of millions dollars of profit by doing this. Doubt of his assertion is appropriate, since over 12 billion marks disappeared in the fraudulent deals into murky channels.
For weeks reports have been regularly appearing on this in the English and African media which have been bringing more new details about Minton's fraudulent business to the light of day (ATTACHMENT 4 - list of sources). We will be happy to put any of the sources listed at your disposal.
For Mr. Minton, a special investigative unit with the criminal investigative police who are engaged with solving international crime, would have been the right place for him to start in Germany. In the meantime, investigations are being initiated in the Nigerian Senate and Minton's bank accounts in Austria, Switzerland and England have been officially confiscated, and as recently as June 26, 2000 the American Congress has also gotten involved in this dark chapter with a hearing on Nigeria.
page 3
Therefore the summary and the list of sources on this scandal has to be expanded almost daily.
The fanatic activism of your employee, Mr. Gandow, has now reached a point where we can only implore you to take the following steps in order to be able to avoid - possibly international - damages to the reputation of your church and and your involvement to help the Third World:
1. Dismiss Mr. Gandow with no notice. He has not informed you or the public about Mr. Minton's international fraudulent business, has paid court to him, and now wants to distinguish him by power of his office.
2. Decisively distance the Evangelical State Church in Berlin-Brandenburg from the criminal action of Mr. Minton and ensure that no representative of your church takes part in distinguishing a man who has enriched himself from the want and poverty of the Third World in the most criminal way and has harmed the poorest people of the world.
Since the award is supposed to take place as early as June 3, we ask for your answer tomorrow.
Cordially,
Sabine Weber
Vice President
of the Church[sic] of Scientology Germany, Inc.
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Unofficial translations of German media, For non-commercial use only Recent events - http://cisar.org/trnmenu.htm Informational publications http://members.tripod.com/German_Scn_News Over 1200 articles sorted by date http://cisar.org/sortdate.htm
