A bit of light relief from France

JulieW · Mar 20, 2013

After all this Cyprus stuff I needed a laugh, and lo and behold - the financial elite at play.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...me-Cahuzac-resigns-after-tax-fraud-probe.html

Jrme Cahuzac, France's budget minister, has resigned after being placed under formal investigation for tax fraud and money laundering.
Mr Cahuzac, a cabinet heavyweight, had been tasked with fighting tax evasion. He is now under investigation for holding a secret Swiss bank account.

The resignation is an embarrassment and a blow to President Franois Hollande as his government seeks to redraft deficit reduction plans to maintain fiscal credibility with France's euro zone partners. Mr Cahuzac was responsible for making drastic government spending cuts.

He had repeatedly dismissed as "crazy" a report in December by French investigative news website Mediapart that he held an undisclosed account at the Swiss bank UBS until the start of 2010.

"I have never had an account in Switzerland or any other place abroad," he said at the time.

Mediapart alleged that Mr Cahuzac closed the account just days before becoming president of the National Assembly finance committee. He then "discreetly" paid a trip to Geneva to shift the undisclosed sums to "another tax haven in Asia", it claimed, citing "sources informed of the operation".

It had released a recording of a telephone call in which a male voice it said was Mr Cahuzac can be heard saying: "What bothers me is that I've still got this account open at UBS. UBS is not necessarily the most hidden of banks."

The public prosecutor said police laboratory tests showed the voice was "probably" that of Mr Cahuzac and that three witnesses had recognised his voice.

"In other words, the result of our analysis reinforces the hypothesis that Jerome Cahuzac is the unidentified speaker," the office of the Paris prosecutor said in a statement.
Click to expand...

Mr Cahuzac said that he was "innocent" and denounced what he called "slanderous accusations".

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSo0duY7-9s[/youtube]

AngloSaxon · Mar 20, 2013

Socialist government finance minister: "Let them eat cake!"

JulieW · Mar 21, 2013

Punchlines galore

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/20/christine-lagarde-flat-raided-police

Police have searched the Paris home of the head of the International Monetary Fund as part of a fraud investigation centred on a supporter of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Christine Lagarde's flat was raided along with that of her office manager and the home of businessman Bernard Tapie, a former politician, actor, singer and television celebrity.

The IMF chief has been the subject of preliminary investigations for "complicity in the embezzlement of public funds", since 2011, when Tapie was awarded 284m of public money in compensation in a financial dispute while she was economy minister.

The search came hours after the French government was rocked by a separate scandal after the budget minister Jrme Cahuzac was put under criminal investigation amid claims he hid money from the French taxman in a secret Swiss bank account. Lagarde and Cahuzac have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

Lagarde's lawyer, Yves Repiquet, said Wednesday's searches would vindicate his client. "They will serve to establish the truth and will contribute to the exoneration of my client of any criminal wrongdoing," he told Reuters.

The accusations against Lagarde centre on her role in what is known as the Tapie Affair, a row that has rumbled for two decades, which ended when she made a controversial decision to refer the businessman's dispute with the public bank Crdit Lyonnais to arbitration. Critics say she abused her authority. Investigators are looking into whether Tapie was given a secret deal in return for supporting Sarkozy during his successful 2007 presidential election campaign.

Tapie, who specialised in picking up and resuscitating bankrupt companies, bought Adidas in 1990 for 243.9m using a loan from a sister company of Crdit Lyonnais, a part state-owned bank and partner in his company Groupe Bernard Tapie.

After being offered a government post in 1992 by the then Socialist president, Franois Mitterrand, he was ordered to sell the group, including the jewel in its crown, Adidas, the sportswear brand of which he was a major shareholder. Crdit Lyonnais was given the job of selling it.

Tapie, who used to own Olympique de Marseilles football club and was found guilty of match-fixing, later sued Crdit Lyonnais over its handling of the sale. He lost his case in the country's highest court, but had been appealing against the decision when Lagarde intervened.

Critics say the case should never have been referred for private and binding arbitration because public money was at stake, and that Tapie received considerably more than he would have been awarded by a court. There is no suggestion Lagarde profited personally.

Lagarde, who had ignored objections from colleagues, defended her decision, saying it was "the best solution at the time".
Click to expand...

JulieW · Mar 21, 2013

p.s.

Lagarde, who had ignored objections from colleagues, defended her decision, saying it was "the best solution at the time". There are concerns that Lagarde, who replaced disgraced Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the IMF after he was arrested on charges of sexual assault, later dropped, could be forced to resign if she is formally put under investigation.
Click to expand...

but she has powerful friends

Christine Lagarde - new IMF chief and the Chicago/Obama connection
Since Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund has been ousted over a sex scandle - there was someone waiting in the wings to take over. And that person was Christine Lagarde.

(here is what the IMF does)
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Christine Lagarde was employed by the Chicago law firm of
Baker & McKenzie and became the company's first female chairman in 1999. She later went on to become France's Finance Minister (she is a French national).

It seems that Ms Lagarde is also friends with Bernadine Dohrn - the very same Bernadine Dohrn that is the wife of US terrorist Bill Ayres who launched Obama's political career.

(Bernadine Dohrn)
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

(Bill Ayers)
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

It also seems that Bernadine Dohrn knows Michelle Obama because of their work for the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. Both worked there in the late 80's

The Obama administration whole heartedly endorses Ms Lagarde for the position of IMF chief

[link to abcnewsradioonline.com]
Click to expand...

AngloSaxon · Mar 21, 2013

Good investigative insight there. Anyone who knows Bernadine Dohrn is not the be trusted, much less put in charge of billions of $$ of other peoples' money.

Roswell Crash Survivor · Mar 21, 2013

"another tax haven in Asia" - its either Singapore or Hong Kong.

Clawhammer · Mar 21, 2013

Really?...surely this is an "Onion" story?

JulieW · Mar 21, 2013

Clawhammer said:

Really?...surely this is an "Onion" story?
Click to expand...

If only.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/imf-re...orporations-enter-the-french-government/24895

Although this element is not included in her official biography, Mrs. Lagarde was a member of the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) [3]. She co-presided over the Action USA/UE/Poland commission of this think tank along with Zbigniew Brzezinski [4] and, in particular, she was in charge of the USA-Poland Defense Industries working group (1995-2002) and issues regarding the liberalization of Polish exchanges. However, in those positions, she represented the US interests to the detriment of those of France's foreign trade, the sector that she currently heads in the French government [5]. As a lawyer of the Baker & McKenzie law firm, Christine Lagarde worked in favor of the interests of Boeing and Lockheed-Martin to the detriment of the interests of Airbus and Dassault.

In 2003, Christine Lagarde became a member, also in the CSIS, of the Commission for the Expansion of the Euro-Atlantic Community along with her friend Brzezinski and different personalities such as the former director of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Renato Ruggiero, and Stuart Eizenstat, former special ambassador for the restitution of religious assets in Central Europe. This commission was in charge of potential investments in Poland, Latvia, Romania, Czech Republic and Hungary.

A man played a key role in each of those commissions: Bruce P. Jackson, founder of the US Committee to Expand NATO, who represented the interests of the aircraft manufacturing company Lockheed-Martin, of which he was a vice-president. Thanks to the relations made in the commissions presided over by Christine Lagarde, Jackson signed the contract of the century: the sale, in April 2003, of 48 F-16 Lockheed-Martin jet fighters to Poland for 3.5 billion dollars.

The transaction caused great dismay in Europe as the Polish government was paying with the European Union's funds for the preservation of its agricultural sector.
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

A bit of light relief from France

JulieW Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

AngloSaxon Active Member

JulieW Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

JulieW Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

AngloSaxon Active Member

Roswell Crash Survivor Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

Clawhammer Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

JulieW Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

A bit of light relief from France

JulieW Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

AngloSaxon Active Member

JulieW Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

JulieW Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

AngloSaxon Active Member

Roswell Crash Survivor Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

Clawhammer Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

JulieW Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

Share This Page

Useful Searches