http://thekomisarscoop.com Reports & Analysis by Investigative Journalist Lucy Komisar Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:39:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/the-real-aig-scandal-how-the-game-is-rigged-at-wall-streets-casino/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/the-real-aig-scandal-how-the-game-is-rigged-at-wall-streets-casino/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:36:24 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/26/the-real-aig-scandal-how-the-game-is-rigged-at-wall-streets-casino/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/the-real-aig-scandal-how-the-game-is-rigged-at-wall-streets-casino/feed/ 5 http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/01/finance-us-treasury-nominee-failed-to-halt-bond-scam/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/01/finance-us-treasury-nominee-failed-to-halt-bond-scam/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:31:13 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/01/19/finance-us-treasury-nominee-failed-to-halt-bond-scam/ The New York Fed under Geithner's presidency has failed to stop massive naked short selling of U.S. Treasury bonds that threatens the stability of the market and sale of the bonds. Ironically, the scam, enabled by a lack of regulation at the behest of Wall Street brokerage houses, makes it more expensive for the U.S. to bail out those same financial institutions.]]> http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/01/finance-us-treasury-nominee-failed-to-halt-bond-scam/feed/ 3 http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/10/courter-to-leave-idt-nyse-threatens-delisting-stock-in-free-fall/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/10/courter-to-leave-idt-nyse-threatens-delisting-stock-in-free-fall/#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:29:48 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/10/06/courter-to-leave-idt-nyse-threatens-delisting-stock-in-free-fall/ From alleged kickbacks to Aristide to a company that's tanking. Jim Courter, the former New Jersey Republican Congressman who quit as a McCain national finance co-chair after IDT, the global telecommunications company he heads, was fined $1.3 million by the Federal Communications Commission, now has much bigger problems. IDT announced Friday that Courter will quit the company. IDT’s filing with the SEC the same day shows the company in a free fall. Its stock is tanking, and the New York Stock Exchange has threatened to delist it. The FCC fine imposed for IDT’s failure to file its contract with Haiti was first reported by the author in July. The contract revealed that IDT was sending Haiti fees to a Turks & Caicos shell company instead of to a Haiti Teleco account. A whistleblower charged kickbacks. The company said Courter would leave as CEO when his contract expires next October. In the meantime, his 2009 salary will be paid entirely in stock, which he cannot cash in till his departure. That could mean paltry pickings. IDT stock has fallen to 69 cents from more than $24 in 2004 and $1.93 in June. IDT could be in for some more trouble with the FCC if a new administration decides to enforce its regulations. According to FCC responses to Freedom of Information Act requests, IDT has never filed its contracts with any of the 140 major international carriers to which it claims to supply service. This violation could bring fines of $7,000 a day for each case, but the agency has given the company a pass on obeying its rules.]]> http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/10/courter-to-leave-idt-nyse-threatens-delisting-stock-in-free-fall/feed/ 2 http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/off-the-trail/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/off-the-trail/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:34:14 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/15/off-the-trail/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/off-the-trail/feed/ 0 http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/mccain-trailblazer-burned/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/mccain-trailblazer-burned/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:54:02 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/14/mccain-trailblazer-burned/ The FCC hits James Courter's IDT with a $1.3M fine for a cloudy deal in Haiti. IDT, the New Jersey telecommunications outfit run by one of John McCain's top fundraisers, Jim Courter, was fined $1.3 million by the Federal Communications Commission for failing to file a contract for telephone service to Haiti in 2004. Courter, a former New Jersey Republican congressman, is one of 20 McCain national finance co-chairs, and joined the campaign in February 2007. He's a "Trailblazer" for McCain, meaning he raised at least $100,000. The IDT PAC has contributed $84,850 in 2008. IDT’s work with Haiti has been put under scrutiny since a former employee, Michael Jewett, then IDT's manager for the Caribbean, sued the company. His suit claims he was fired when he balked at negotiating a scheme that routed a portion of the company's long distance revenue from Haiti calls to a shell company, Mount Salem in the Turks & Caicos, which he was told was owned by then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. ]]> http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/mccain-trailblazer-burned/feed/ 0 http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/10/french-finance-minister-not-sufficiently-aware-of-frigates-case/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/10/french-finance-minister-not-sufficiently-aware-of-frigates-case/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:26:10 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/10/23/french-finance-minister-not-sufficiently-aware-of-frigates-case/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/10/french-finance-minister-not-sufficiently-aware-of-frigates-case/feed/ 0 http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/08/corruption-another-lead-in-siemens-bribery-probe/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/08/corruption-another-lead-in-siemens-bribery-probe/#comments Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:53:21 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/08/30/corruption-another-lead-in-siemens-bribery-probe/ There they could seek information from Clearstream, the international financial clearing house, that might tell them how Siemens moved so much money and where it went. That is because Siemens has the unusual status of being one of only four non-financial companies among 2,500 Clearstream members. It gained membership on the insistence of a former CEO who was fired after a scandal. ]]> http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/08/corruption-another-lead-in-siemens-bribery-probe/feed/ 1 http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/08/siemens-has-a-13-billion-bribe-fund-did-it-move-payoffs-through-clearstream/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/08/siemens-has-a-13-billion-bribe-fund-did-it-move-payoffs-through-clearstream/#comments Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:42:35 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/08/15/siemens-has-a-13-billion-bribe-fund-did-it-move-payoffs-through-clearstream/ It moved money through a network of front companies, mostly in offshore Liechtenstein and the United Arab Emirates. Siemens is being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as by public prosecutors in Germany and Italy. How did Siemens officials move so much money about? Investigators ought to take a look at Siemens’ transactions through Clearstream, the international financial clearing house in Luxembourg, whose clients do not undergo the same due diligence scrutiny that regular banks apply. Siemens is one of only four non-financial companies (out of 2500) with Clearstream accounts. Here -- published for the first time -- are listings of Siemens' Clearstream accounts for 1995, 2000 and 2001. ]]> http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/08/siemens-has-a-13-billion-bribe-fund-did-it-move-payoffs-through-clearstream/feed/ 0 http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/05/politicizing-the-justice-department-bush-takes-a-page-from-his-father/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/05/politicizing-the-justice-department-bush-takes-a-page-from-his-father/#comments Mon, 28 May 2007 03:51:52 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/05/27/politicizing-the-justice-department-bush-takes-a-page-from-his-father/ Bush had a strong reason to want Justice to block pursuit of the case: the CIA used BCCI for its "black ops," including funneling some of the $2 billion Washington sent to client Osama bin Laden and running money for the illegal Iran-Contra operation. ]]> http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/05/politicizing-the-justice-department-bush-takes-a-page-from-his-father/feed/ 0 http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/04/questions-linger-about-bushes-and-bcci/ http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/04/questions-linger-about-bushes-and-bcci/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:54:27 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/04/04/questions-linger-about-bushes-and-bcci/ Critics dismissed that as an invention. They were wrong. There was a link, but not the one Bush was selling. The link between Hussein and Bin Laden was their banker, BCCI. But the link went beyond the dictator and the jihadist -- it passed through Saudi Arabia and stretched all the way to George W. Bush and his father.]]> http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/04/questions-linger-about-bushes-and-bcci/feed/ 2