Reverse Mergers: Americans Caught in Chinese Investment Scams

The China Hustle

Directed by Ted Rodstein (2018)

Film Review

This documentary exposes a recent scam which some 400 small Chinese companies used so-called “reverse mergers” to list their companies on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) – a move enabling them to attract American investors.

At preset, the Chinese government bans direct foreign investment in China’s businesses. However between 2006 and 2012, two enterprising US investment banks (Roth and Rodman and Renshaw) enlisted small Chinese companies to enter into “reverse mergers.” Locating legally registered US companies that had ceased operations, the two banks recruited Chinese companies to legally “merge” with the defunct companies. This, in turn, enabled the Chinese companies to register on Wall Street and sell shares to US investors.

A pattern emerged, in which Roth and Redman and Renshaw obtained high accreditation ratings from their auditor (Deloitte) and aggressively promoted the stocks. Then they sold their holdings just before they collapsed – reaping hundreds of millions in profits.

Becoming suspicious, Dan David, co-founder of the due diligence firm Geoinvesting, became suspicious and went to China to visit some of these companies. In every case, he found they were exponentially overstating the size and volume of their operations, as well as the revenue they generated.

He first took his findings to the investment bankers at Roth and Redman and Renshaw, then to the SEC (which is theoretically responsible for preventing this type of fraud) and finally to Senator Pat Toomey. The latter was part of the Senate committee investigating n the potential risk China posed to the US economy.

When it became obvious there was no other way to end the fraud being perpetrated on US investors, David began collapsing the share price the companies he investigated by short selling* their stocks.

In this way he ended 40 reverse merger scams by shutting down the companies.

Before the massive fraud came to public attention, public pensions funds lost more than $14 billion in reverse merger scams, with private investors losing $20-50 billion. Rodman and Renshaw was eventually forced into bankruptcy.

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* Short selling involves the sale of an asset that the seller has borrowed in order to profit from a subsequent fall in that asset’s price. It commonly has the indirect effect of driving the share price down.

 

A Look at Biased BBC Reporting of Alleged Chinese Maltreatment of Uighurs

By Tony Cartalucci

Global Research, July 14, 2019

China’s recent building-spree of schools in its underdeveloped and remote region of Xinjiang – in a saner world – would be good news. But for editors at the BBC it is being depicted as sinister and dystopian.

The BBC’s article, “China Muslims: Xinjiang schools used to separate children from families,” attempts to depict boarding schools – a concept popular in the UK itself – as a “form of internment” and “cultural re-engineering.”

The BBC’s article claims:

China is deliberately separating Muslim children from their families, faith and language in its far western region of Xinjiang, according to new research. At the same time as hundreds of thousands of adults are being detained in giant camps, a rapid, large-scale campaign to build boarding schools is under way.

The “new research” conducted by the BBC is admittedly not even being done in China itself. The BBC admits:

China’s tight surveillance and control in Xinjiang, where foreign journalists are followed 24 hours a day, make it impossible to gather testimony there. But it can be found in Turkey.

“Testimony” gathered in Turkey – one of the nations that used to support US efforts to fuel radicalism and separatism in Xinjiang in the first place – is accompanied by satellite photos taken from outer space of vacant lots in Xinjiang being transformed into newly built schools complete with football pitches and jogging tracks.

The images are only proof that China is building schools in Xinjiang. Not of any of the claims being made by the BBC of “internment” or “cultural re-engineering.” The inclusion of the images is meant to serve as convincing stand-ins where actual evidence of the BBC’s otherwise baseless accusations should be.

The BBC Omits the Real “Cultural Re-Engineering” in China’s Xinjiang 

The BBC has been one of the leading voices promoting claims of Xinjiang “concentration camps,” “one million Muslims” being detained, and now the “internment” of children in schools.

The BBC – however – has been relatively quiet for years over genuine cultural re-engineering taking place in Xinjiang – funded by the United States, Saudi Arabia, and abetted by nations like Turkey and even the UK itself through its propaganda and political support of such efforts[…]

 

via China Building Secular Schools for Muslims in Xinjiang Province. Western Media Critique

Is Turkey Now “Officially” an Ally of Russia? Acquires Russia’s S-400 making Exit from NATO Imminent?

Turkey is taking delivery of Russia’s S 400 missile defence system. What this signifies is that Turkey and Russia are now “officially” allies. The first shipment of the S-400 landed in Ankara on July 12, according to Turkey’s Ministry of Defense. (see image below)

Two more shipments are due, with the third delivery of “over 120 anti-aircraft missiles of various types… [scheduled] tentatively at the end of the summer, by sea.”

Reports confirm that the “Turkish S-400 operators will travel to Russia for training in July and August. About 20 Turkish servicemen underwent training at a Russian training center in May and June, …”(CNN, July 12, 2019)

How will the US respond?

In all likelihood, Erdogan’s presidency will be the object of an attempted regime change, not to mention ongoing financial reprisals directed against the Turkish Lira as well as economic sanctions.

What is unfolding is an all out crisis in the structure of military alliances. Turkey cannot reasonably retain its NATO membership while at the same time entering into a military cooperation agreement with the Russian Federation […]

via Is Turkey Now “Officially” an Ally of Russia? Acquires Russia’s S-400 making Exit from NATO Imminent? — © blogfactory

JFK’s Executive Order 11100 Abolishing the Federal Reserve

 

by John P. Curran

“Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution specifically says that Congress is the only body that can “coin money and regulate the value thereof.” The US Constitution has never been amended to allow anyone other than Congress to coin and regulate currency. So what’s the Federal Reserve?

In 1910 Senator Nelson Aldrich, then Chairman of the National Monetary Commission, in collusion with representatives of the European central banks, devised a plan to pressure and deceive Congress into enacting legislation that would covertly establish a private central bank. This bank would assume control over the American economy by controlling the issuance of its money. After a huge public relations campaign, engineered by the foreign central banks, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was slipped through Congress during the Christmas recess, with many members of the Congress absent. President Woodrow Wilson, pressured by his political and financial backers, signed it on December 23, 1913. The act created the Federal Reserve System, a name carefully selected and designed to deceive. “Federal” would lead one to believe that this is a government organization. “Reserve” would lead one to believe that the currency is being backed by gold and silver. “System” was used in lieu of the word “bank” so that one would not conclude that a new central bank had been created.

In reality, the act created a private, for profit, central banking corporation owned by a cartel of private banks. The Federal Reserve Bank, a.k.a Federal Reserve System, is a Private Corporation. Black’s Law Dictionary defines the “Federal Reserve System” as: “A Network of twelve central banks to which most national banks belong and to which state chartered banks may belong. Membership rules require investment of stock and minimum reserves.” Privately-owned banks own the stock of the FED. Who owns the FED? The Rothschilds of London and Berlin; Lazard Brothers of Paris; Israel Moses Seif of Italy; Kuhn, Loeb and Warburg of Germany; and the Lehman Brothers, Goldman, Sachs and the Rockefeller families of New York. Did you know that the FED is the only for-profit corporation in America that is exempt from both federal and state taxes? The FED takes in trillions of dollars per year tax free! The banking families listed above get all that money.

The FED basically works like this: The government granted its power to create money to the FED banks. They create money, then loan it back to the government charging interest. The government levies income taxes to pay the interest on the debt. On this point, it’s interesting to note that the Federal Reserve Act and the sixteenth amendment, which gave Congress the power to collect income taxes, were both passed in 1913. The incredible power of the FED over the economy is universally admitted. Any one person or any closely knit group who has a lot of money has a lot of power. Now imagine a group of people who have the power to create money. Imagine the power these people would have. This is exactly what the privately owned FED is!

An often overlooked aspect of John F. Kennedy’s attempt to reform American society involves money. Kennedy apparently reasoned that by returning to the Constitution, which states that only Congress shall coin and regulate money, the soaring national debt could be reduced by not paying interest to the bankers of the Federal Reserve System, who print paper money then loan it to the government at interest. He moved in this area on June 4, 1963, by signing Executive Order 11110 which called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than the traditional Federal Reserve System […]

via JFK’s Executive Order 11100 Abolishing the Federal Reserve

The Implacable Desertification of Planet Earth

Human Wrongs Watch

By Baher Kamal

Yet another under-reported human-made disaster: the relentless desertification of Planet Earth that may make uninhabitable some regions like the Middle East, endanger food security, aggravate climate crisis, and force more and more millions of people to flee.

But before listing the main causes and consequences of this mounting threat, you should know that, according to the UN, desertification does not refer to the expansion of deserts, but rather the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, primarily as a result of human activities and climatic variations.

Now, alerting against such a disaster, specialised world bodies, like the UN, have just reported on the occasion of the 17 June 2019 World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, that as much as 24 billion tons of fertile land are lost… every single year.

Moreover, degradation in land quality is responsible for a reduction in the national domestic product of up to eight per cent… also every single year.

Among other consequences, desertification, land degradation, and drought will increase forced migrations, and worsen the growing climate crisis.

The World Day, which raises awareness of international efforts to combat desertification, was established 25 years ago, along with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification(UNCCD), the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management, the UN explains.

Three key issues

Running under the slogan “Let’s Grow the Future Together”, the 2019 World Day focuses on the following three key issues as reported by the UNCCD in relation to land: drought, human security and climate.

• Land and Drought — By 2025, 1.8 billion people will experience absolute water scarcity, and two thirds of the world will be living under water-stressed conditions – when demand outstrips supply during certain periods.
  A complex and slowly encroaching natural hazard with significant and pervasive socio-economic and environmental impacts that to cause more deaths and displace more people than any other natural disaster;
• Land and Human Security — By 2045 some 135 million people may be displaced as a result of desertification.
  Achieving land degradation neutrality -by rehabilitating already degraded land, scaling up sustainable land management and accelerating restoration initiatives- is a pathway to greater resilience and security for all,
• Land and Climate Change — Restoring the soils of degraded ecosystems has the potential to store up to 3 billion tons of carbon annually.
  The land use sector represents almost 25 per cent of total global emissions. Its rehabilitation and sustainable management is critical to combating climate change.

‘It isn’t just about sand’

Ibrahim Thiaw, the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, said there are only three things all people need to know about the World Day to Combat Desertification:

• It isn’t just about sand,
• It isn’t an isolated issue that will quietly disappear; and
• It isn’t someone else’s problem

[…]

via The Implacable Desertification of Planet Earth — DESERTIFICATION

COVER-UP: ‘Epstein’, Protected Because He Is a Spy?

The Smoking Man
Source – ahtribune.com–

“…Epstein’s contact with the Israeli intelligence service may have plausibly come through his associations with Ghislaine Maxwell, who allegedly served as his key procurer of young girls. Ghislaine is the daughter of Robert Maxwell, who died or possibly was assassinated in mysterious circumstances in 1991. Maxwell was an Anglo-Jewish businessman, very cosmopolitan in profile, like Epstein, a multi-millionaire who was very controversial with what were regarded as ongoing ties to Mossad”Did Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein Work for Mossad? – By Philip Giraldi 

The extent of Israeli spying directed against the United States is a huge story that is only rarely addressed in the mainstream media. The Jewish state regularly tops the list for ostensibly friendly countries that aggressively conduct espionage against the U.S. and Jewish American Jonathan Pollard, who was imprisoned in 1987 for spying for Israel, is now regarded as the most damaging spy in the history of the United States.

Last week I wrote about how Israeli spies operating more-or-less freely in the U.S. are rarely interfered with, much less arrested and prosecuted, because there is an unwillingness on the part of upper echelons of government to do so. I cited the case of Arnon Milchan, a billionaire Hollywood movie producer who had a secret life that included stealing restricted technology in the United States to enable development of Israel’s nuclear weapons program, something that was very much against U.S. interests. Milchan was involved in a number of other thefts as well as arms sales on behalf of the Jewish state, so much so that his work as a movie producer was actually reported to be less lucrative than his work as a spy and black-market arms merchant, for which he operated on a commission basis.

That Milchan has never been arrested by the United States government or even questioned about his illegal activity, which was well known to the authorities, is just one more manifestation of the effectiveness of Jewish power in Washington, but a far more compelling case involving possible espionage with major political manifestations has just re-surfaced. I am referring to Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire Wall Street “financier” who has been arrested and charged with operating a “vast” network of underage girls for sex, operating out of his mansions in New York City and Florida as well as his private island in the Caribbean, referred to by visitors as “Orgy Island.” Among other high-value associates, it is claimed that Epstein was particularly close to Bill Clinton, who flew dozens of times on Epstein’s private 727.

*(Alex Acosta (L) Jeffrey Epstein (R))

Epstein was arrested on July 8th after indictment by a federal grand jury in New York. It was more than a decade after Alexander Acosta, the top federal prosecutor in Miami, who is now President Trump’s secretary of labor, accepted a plea bargain involving similar allegations regarding pedophilia that was not shared with the accusers prior to being finalized in court. There were reportedly hundreds of victims, some 35 of whom were identified, but Acosta deliberately denied the two actual plaintiffs their day in court to testify before sentencing.

Acosta’s intervention meant that Epstein avoided both a public trial and a possible federal prison sentence, instead serving only 13 months of an 18-month sentence in the almost-no-security Palm Beach County Jail on charges of soliciting prostitution in Florida. While in custody, he was permitted to leave jail for sixteen hours six days a week to work in his office.

Epstein’s crimes were carried out in his $56 million Manhattan mansion and in his oceanside villa in Palm Beach Florida. Both residences were equipped with hidden cameras and microphones in the bedrooms, which Epstein reportedly used to record sexual encounters between his high-profile guests and his underage girls, many of whom came from poor backgrounds, who were recruited by procurers to engage in what was euphemistically described as “massages” for money. Epstein apparently hardly made any effort to conceal what he was up to: his airplane was called the “Lolita Express.”

The Democrats are calling for an investigation of the Epstein affair, as well as the resignation of Acosta, but they might well wind up regretting their demands. Trump, the real target of the Acosta fury, apparently did not know about the details of the plea bargain that ended the Epstein court case. Bill and Hillary Clinton were, however, very close associates of Epstein. Bill, who flew on the “Lolita Express” at least 26 times, could plausibly be implicated in the pedophilia given his track record and relative lack of conventional morals. On many of the trips, Bill refused Secret Service escorts, who would have been witnesses of any misbehavior. On one lengthy trip to Africa in 2002, Bill and Jeffrey were accompanied by accused pedophile actor Kevin Spacey and a number of young girls, scantily clad “employees” identified only as “massage.” Epstein was also a major contributor to the Clinton Foundation and was present at the wedding of Chelsea Clinton in 2010 […]

via COVER-UP: ‘Epstein’, Protected Because He Is a Spy? — RIELPOLITIK

How Einstein Set Back Quantum Mechanics Three Decades

Einstein’s Quantum Riddle

Directed by Jamie Lochhead (2019)

Film Review

This fascinating documentary tries to explain, in ordinary language, the scientific principles behind quantum mechanics the and the apparently bizarre theory of quantum entanglement. The latter was a mathematical theory first put forward by Danish physicist Neils Bohr in 1927.

Quantum mechanics, which is the study of subatomic particles, shows that 1) very small particles behave more like energy than mass and 2) all you can really know about them is the probability they will be found in specific locations or possess specific properties.

Quantum entanglement refers to the ability of paired subatomic particles to affect each other over great distances. Largely because the father of relativity Albert Einstein rejected it, quantum entanglement fell out of favor until the 1960’s. This was when experimental physicists John Bell and John Clauser first developed methodology to test its validity.

Humankind’s understand of quantum mechanics made possible the development of lasers and the transistors and disk drivers essential to running personal computers.

Scientists are using quantum entanglement to develop quantum computers that run on “qubits” and are capable of exponentially faster processing than super computers or even networks of supercomputer.

Google Labs leads this work in the US. However China, which has recently launched a quantum communications satellite, is far and away the world leader in this area.

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*A qubit is a two-state quantum entangled mechanical system. An example would be a polarized photon (an elementary particle or quantum of light) that ceases to be entangled if a hacker tries to hack it.