George Soros Enmeshed in Bribery Scandal

[American_Jihad]

George Soros Enmeshed in Bribery Scandal​

November 8, 2012
By Arnold Ahlert

Billionaire financier George Soros has enmeshed himself in a growing bribery scandal in the West African country of Guinea. A government committee backed by Soros is investigating Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR), the mining component of Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s business empire. The government is probing how BSRG won rights to develop iron ore mining blocks in the Simandou region of the nation. In turn, the company has accused the government of Guinea of seeking to “illegally seize” its assets.

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George Soros Enmeshed in Bribery Scandal

 

[LAfrique]

George Soros Enmeshed in Bribery Scandal​

November 8, 2012
By Arnold Ahlert

Billionaire financier George Soros has enmeshed himself in a growing bribery scandal in the West African country of Guinea. A government committee backed by Soros is investigating Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR), the mining component of Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s business empire. The government is probing how BSRG won rights to develop iron ore mining blocks in the Simandou region of the nation. In turn, the company has accused the government of Guinea of seeking to “illegally seize” its assets.

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George Soros Enmeshed in Bribery Scandal

I had expected to see a long list of Westerners involved in crooked activities in Africa and in other developing nations. Care to explain your very short list?

 

[waltky]

The plundering of African minerals and resources...

Kofi Annan: Africa plundered by secret mining deals
10 May 2013 - Tax avoidance, secret mining deals and financial transfers are depriving Africa of the benefits of its resources boom, ex-UN chief Kofi Annan has said.

Firms that shift profits to lower tax jurisdictions cost Africa $38bn (£25bn) a year, says a report produced by a panel he heads. "Africa loses twice as much money through these loopholes as it gets from donors," Mr Annan told the BBC. It was like taking food off the tables of the poor, he said. The Africa Progress Report is released every May - produced by a panel of 10 prominent figures, including former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Graca Machel, the wife of South African ex-President Nelson Mandela.

'Highly opaque'

African countries needed to improve governance and the world's richest nations should help introduce global rules on transparency and taxation, Mr Annan said. The report gave the Democratic Republic of Congo as an example, where between 2010 and 2012 five under-priced mining concessions were sold in "highly opaque and secretive deals". This cost the country, which the charity Save the Children said earlier this week was the world's worst place to be a mother, $1.3bn in revenues. This figure was equivalent to double DR Congo's health and education budgets combined, the report said. DR Congo's mining minister disputed the findings, saying the country had "lost nothing". "These assets were ceded in total transparency," Martin Kabwelulu told Reuters news agency.

The report added that many mineral-rich countries needed "urgently to review the design of their tax regimes", which were designed to attract foreign investment when commodity prices were low. It quotes a review in Zambia which found that between 2005 and 2009, 500,000 copper mine workers were paying a higher rate of tax than major multinational mining firms. Africa loses more through what it calls "illicit outflows" than it gets in aid and foreign direct investment, it explains. "We are not getting the revenues we deserve often because of either corrupt practices, transfer pricing, tax evasion and all sorts of activities that deprive us of our due," Mr Annan told the BBC's Newsday programme. "Transparency is a powerful tool," he said, adding that the report was urging African leaders to put "accountability centre stage".

Mr Annan said African governments needed to insist that local companies became involved in mining deals and manage them in "such a way that it also creates employment". "This Africa cannot do alone. The tax evasion, avoidance, secret bank accounts are problems for the world… so we all need to work together particularly the G8, as they meet next month, to work to ensure we have a multilateral solution to this crisis," he said. For richer nations "if a company avoids tax or transfers the money to offshore account what they lose is revenues", Mr Annan said. "Here on our continent, it affects the life of women and children - in effect in some situations it is like taking food off the table for the poor."

BBC News - Kofi Annan: Africa plundered by secret mining deals

 

[American_Jihad]

The plundering of African minerals and resources...

Kofi Annan: Africa plundered by secret mining deals
10 May 2013 - Tax avoidance, secret mining deals and financial transfers are depriving Africa of the benefits of its resources boom, ex-UN chief Kofi Annan has said.

Firms that shift profits to lower tax jurisdictions cost Africa $38bn (£25bn) a year, says a report produced by a panel he heads. "Africa loses twice as much money through these loopholes as it gets from donors," Mr Annan told the BBC. It was like taking food off the tables of the poor, he said. The Africa Progress Report is released every May - produced by a panel of 10 prominent figures, including former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Graca Machel, the wife of South African ex-President Nelson Mandela.

'Highly opaque'

African countries needed to improve governance and the world's richest nations should help introduce global rules on transparency and taxation, Mr Annan said. The report gave the Democratic Republic of Congo as an example, where between 2010 and 2012 five under-priced mining concessions were sold in "highly opaque and secretive deals". This cost the country, which the charity Save the Children said earlier this week was the world's worst place to be a mother, $1.3bn in revenues. This figure was equivalent to double DR Congo's health and education budgets combined, the report said. DR Congo's mining minister disputed the findings, saying the country had "lost nothing". "These assets were ceded in total transparency," Martin Kabwelulu told Reuters news agency.

The report added that many mineral-rich countries needed "urgently to review the design of their tax regimes", which were designed to attract foreign investment when commodity prices were low. It quotes a review in Zambia which found that between 2005 and 2009, 500,000 copper mine workers were paying a higher rate of tax than major multinational mining firms. Africa loses more through what it calls "illicit outflows" than it gets in aid and foreign direct investment, it explains. "We are not getting the revenues we deserve often because of either corrupt practices, transfer pricing, tax evasion and all sorts of activities that deprive us of our due," Mr Annan told the BBC's Newsday programme. "Transparency is a powerful tool," he said, adding that the report was urging African leaders to put "accountability centre stage".

Mr Annan said African governments needed to insist that local companies became involved in mining deals and manage them in "such a way that it also creates employment". "This Africa cannot do alone. The tax evasion, avoidance, secret bank accounts are problems for the world… so we all need to work together particularly the G8, as they meet next month, to work to ensure we have a multilateral solution to this crisis," he said. For richer nations "if a company avoids tax or transfers the money to offshore account what they lose is revenues", Mr Annan said. "Here on our continent, it affects the life of women and children - in effect in some situations it is like taking food off the table for the poor."

BBC News - Kofi Annan: Africa plundered by secret mining deals

Isn't that the same cocksucker that did the oil for food scandal...

 

[American_Jihad]

State Department
Lawmakers probe US funding for Soros groups, left-wing causes in Europe

By Adam Shaw

Published February 17, 2017
FoxNews.com

Video:

George Soros' alleged meddling in European politics has caught the attention of Congress.

Concerns about Soros' involvement most recently were raised by the Hungarian prime minister, who last week lashed out at the Soros "empire" and accused it of deploying "tons of money and international heavy artillery."

But days earlier, Republican lawmakers in Washington started asking questions about whether U.S. tax dollars also were being used to fund Soros projects in the small, conservative-led country of Macedonia.

Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., led a group of House lawmakers in writing to Ambassador Jess Baily -- an Obama appointee -- demanding answers. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also expressed concerns about USAID money going to Soros' Open Society Foundations as part of a broader concern that the U.S. Embassy has been taking sides in party politics.

“I have received credible reports that, over the past few years, the US Mission to Macedonia has actively intervened in the party politics of Macedonia, as well as the shaping of its media environment and civil society, often favoring groups of one political persuasion over another,” Lee said in his letter.

Together, the concerns reflect growing conservative pushback against Soros' operations in Europe.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban last week ripped the Hungary-born billionaire's "trans-border empire." Orban has been one of the central European voices speaking out against the push by E.U. leaders to absorb Syrian refugees and has been criticized for his hardline stance.

Soros' Open Society Foundations -- one of the billionaire's biggest groups operating across the globe -- fired back, saying Orban was trying to deflect attention from other issues.

“The Open Society Foundations for over 30 years have supported civil society groups in Hungary who are addressing profound problems in education, health care, media freedom and corruption," Laura Silber, the organization's chief communications officer, said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Any attacks on this work and those groups are solely an attempt to deflect attention from government inability to address these issues."

The group's stated goal is “to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens” but critics claim it's a front for Soros’ hard-left political maneuverings.

Former Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski says Soros has a "decisive influence" on his country’s politics.

“If it were not for George Soros behind it with all the millions he pours into Macedonia, the entire network of NGOs, media, politicians, inside and out ... the economy would be stronger, we would have had more new jobs,” he said in a recent interview with Macedonia’s Republika newspaper.

Macedonia, while small, is a broadly conservative country. It has a flat rate tax of 10 percent, a small-government philosophy and a ruling conservative party (VMRO-DPMNE) that has greeted the election of President Trump warmly and pledged to work with him.

Lee’s staff recently met with Macedonia lawmakers, who also passed on a white paper from a citizen’s initiative called “Stop Operation Soros” which alleges U.S. money has been funding hard-left causes in the country -- including violent riots in the streets, as well as a Macedonian version of Saul Alinsky’s far-left handbook “Rules for Radicals.”

...

After violent left-wing activists rioted at Berkeley in protest of a lecture by Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, The Daily Caller reported that the main group behind the protests -- Refuse Facism -- was backed by The Alliance for Global Justice -- which in turn is backed by The Tides Foundation, a Soros-funded group.

Soros also has donated to Media Matters and has been a major financial contributor to the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank founded by Podesta.

Lawmakers probe US funding for Soros groups, left-wing causes in Europe