by Ganesh Sahathevan
Christopher Pyne,the Australian minister in charge of the DCNS/Naval Group Australian submarine project has become the target of allegations concerning his sexual activities.
While these allegations have only just been brought to the attention of the Australian public the matter of Pyne's sexual activities are believed to have been known at least in government circles for at least the past decade.
While Australia's political reporters (dubbed the Canberra Press Gallery) have decided to keep the matter hidden from public view it cannot then be assumed that Pyne has not been the subject of surveillance ,and consequently compromised, by any number of foreign intelligence agencies. The media's determination to keep matters quite would have made their jobs that much easier.
The matter of Pyne's sexual activities became public after his Twitter account was hacked. As Defence Industry Minister, Mr Pyne usually uses his Twitter account to discuss military hardware or sometimes to promote his media appearances.
That he has been compromised must be assumed.
END
END
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Did Goldman Sachs SSG Unit fraudulently under price 1MDB bonds? Does this explain Turnbull's refusal to investigate ANZ/AMBank
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Malcolm Turnbull when he was chairman at Goldman Sachs. Now he runs the country.
First ,from Zerohedge, quoting Bloomberg:
Now see :
The Wall Street bank helped 1MDB, which was founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in September 2009, raise $6.5 billion in three bond sales in 2012 and 2013 to invest in energy projects and real estate to boost the Malaysian economy.
Goldman Sachs alumnus Malcolm Turnbull runs the country; others the US Treasury
First ,from Zerohedge, quoting Bloomberg:
Alex Turnbull, a former executive director of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s special situations group, is planning a Singapore-based hedge fund, said people with knowledge of the matter.Turnbull, son of Australian Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, will be the chief investment officer of Keshik Capital Pte, said the people who asked not to be identified as the information is private. The fund, which will be focused on Asia with the flexibility to invest globally, may start as early as January and will invest in equity and credit, including convertible bonds, they added.Keshik is at least the third hedge-fund startup tapping Asian opportunities in recent years involving a former member of the Goldman Sachs unit that invests in distressed debt and companies with its own capital. The Special Situations Group, known as SSG, is part of Goldman Sachs’s investing and lending operation, which generated $4.3 billion of pretax earnings last year(2013), the most of the New York-based bank’s four business segments.His reward: starting "his" own hedge fund, Keshik Capital, at the ripe old age of about 31, not even a decade out of college.
Now see :
The Wall Street bank helped 1MDB, which was founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in September 2009, raise $6.5 billion in three bond sales in 2012 and 2013 to invest in energy projects and real estate to boost the Malaysian economy.
.
Then see, from the NY Times:
Jack Blum, a lawyer who led corruption investigations for several Senate committees, said that Goldman should have done a thorough investigation of what 1MDB was doing with the money that the bank helped it raise and move around the world, especially given the history of corruption in Malaysia.
“It is a very serious problem when a company is making a hell of a lot of money out of something and everybody in the place says, ‘I don’t know about it,’” Mr. Blum said.
Mr. Blum said that assigning legal blame in situations like the 1MDB case was generally hard because it would be difficult to prove that Goldman executives knew what was going to happen with the money before it happened.
END
Reference
Goldman Sachs's Lloyd Blankfein & Tim Liessner: Which is the greater sin, writing a reference for employment at a competitor ,or knowingly buying sovereigns as junk?
Goldman Sachs alumnus Malcolm Turnbull runs the country; others the US Treasury
Friday, November 17, 2017
Malaysian Government tries to distance itself from Crown Prince MBS,hints at closer ties with Qatar-1MDB Saudi "donation " story likely factor
by Ganesh Sahathevan
left to right – Tarek Obaid, Prince Turki and Najib Razak – the three named Shareholders of the 1MDB PetroSaudi Joint Venture meeting a month before the deal on the yacht Tatoosh.
There was no need for Deputy Foreign Minister Reezal Merican to have made these comments against Saudi Arabia,and in support of Qatar:
"Malaysia will ensure good relationships with any country. After ties soured between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, we remain in good contact with both. If there are allegations that because of Malaysia's good relationship with Saudi Arabia we are not allowed to have a healthy relationship with Qatar ... that's not the policy that we practice.
"Recently, Malaysia received a visit from the Emir of Qatar (Sheikh Tamim Hamad Al Thani) and several substantive agreements were achieved during the visit,"
We have always been pragmatic. When the time comes for us to call a spade a spade, we will do that,” Reezal said in his winding up of the Supply Bill at the committee stage here today.
It does look as if the Najib administration is taking measures to ensure the elephant that is the 1MDB theft remains somewhat hidden, even despite all this that has just occurred:
Al-Waleed's money laundered via Tabung Haji -TH denial contradicted by Al-Waleed's company
Adding to the Deputy Minister's comments are comments from an official from the Religious Department ,which reports directly to PM Najib,demanding that the proposed King Salman Centre for International Peace in Putrajaya, the administrative capital ,be scrapped.
Crown Prince Mohamad Bin Salman is scheduled to officiate at the opening of the Centre in the coming year.
END
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Twitter account of Christopher Pyne, Australian minister in charge of submarine contracts hacked
First see
And now:
Pyne is compromised, if not by the dirty tweet by the hack
Christopher Pyne’s Twitter headache has once again laid bare the perils of social media for people in positions of power. The Defence Industry Minister accuses hackers of hijacking his official Twitter account and blames them for the “like” on an explicit gay porn tweet. However, that claim in itself raises some red flags.
For a senior cabinet member, especially one in charge of the defence industry, to have his Twitter account compromised shows a glaring lack of knowledge about staying secure on social media. If the account was indeed hacked then it shouldn’t have happened so easily, says Nigel Phair from the University of Canberra’s Centre for Internet Safety.
“What makes it worse is how dismissive (Pyne) was about the thing in his tweets, saying that he was asleep at 2am when it happened, making it out as if it wasn’t his fault,” Phair told The Australian. “It was quite a throwaway remark.”
A Twitter account, like most things on the internet, is relatively simple to hack. More often than not, the number one culprit is an easy-to-guess password and our tendency to use it to access multiple services.
An investigation into the alleged hack will reveal the password Pyne and his staffers have been using to access the account. It’s unlikely to be a robust one. Passwords are routinely stolen using phishing attacks, where a user clicks on a malicious attachment or an email. Hackers then use the passwords to target accounts. They also rely on sophisticated code breakers to break passwords.
In fact, passwords by themselves are no longer sufficient to stay safe on the internet.
Security experts point to two-factor authentication (2FA) as a default deterrent.
The technology, now widely offered by most internet platforms, requires the account holder to type in a code that’s different every time they login. The code is usually sent to the user by SMS or generated by a special app on the user’s phone.
Twitter introduced 2FA in 2013 but it’s unclear whether Pyne and his staffers were using the technology. Two-factor authentication is being increasingly used in corporate circles but its use in public agencies remains limited.
Labor and Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi have called for an investigation but there’s no word on whether the Australian Signals Directorate or the special adviser to the Prime Minister on cyber security, Alastair MacGibbon, will be brought in for the job.
And whether the hacker can be caught is doubtful.
Phair says this should be a wake-up call for Canberra and the Turnbull government, which has been banging the cybersecurity drum rather loudly over the past year.
“They need to learn the absolute basics of information security,” Phair says. “They have a greater responsibility as an elected politician. There are no briefings given to politicians with regards to their personal social media accounts. It’s not so much about the tweet; it’s the fact that an account of a senior politician can be so easily compromised.”
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Saudi anti-corruption committee will want to know if AMBank-ANZ accounts are being used to launder stolen money: Prince Turki's arrest a bad omen.
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Malaysia's PM Najib and other Malaysian Government officials have been more than happy to confirm this report,and to confirm that the money is from various Saudi royals:
Money from Saudi royals ,and apparently the Finance Ministry, all into Najib's private accounts at AMBAnk-ANZ ,and now this , reported on this blog yesterday:
Najib & Rosmah's Prince Turki arrested for corruption
Malaysia's PM Najib and other Malaysian Government officials have been more than happy to confirm this report,and to confirm that the money is from various Saudi royals:
LINTON BESSER: The Malaysian government says Najib Razak has returned more than US$600 million dollars he received in 2013 and closed two of his accounts.
But Four Corners has established that three new accounts were opened in the prime minister's name and the money just kept on pouring in.
In June 2014, for example, the bank was notified of another 50 million British pounds that was to be wired into the prime minister's name. There were also a series of cash deposits that raised money laundering alerts here inside the bank.
A high-level source has shown Four Corners the Malaysian prime minister's bank accounts. The banking documents reveal an extraordinary and steady flow of money between 2011 and 2014.
By June 26, 2012, the bank records show deposits worth US$75 million from a Saudi prince, US$80 million from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Finance and another US$120 million from a shell company in the British Virgin Islands.
On the 21st of March, 2013, the prime minister received US$620 million from a different company registered there. Four days later, the same donor deposited another US$61 million.
By the 10th of April, 2013, the prime minister had received more than US$1 billion.
Najib & Rosmah's Prince Turki arrested for corruption
left to right – Tarek Obaid, Prince Turki and Najib Razak – the three named Shareholders of the 1MDB PetroSaudi Joint Venture meeting a month before the deal on the yacht Tatoosh.
ANZ is going to have to answer to the Saudis.
END
See also
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