Fracking money launderer - Lord Green of Hurstpeirpoint

[Tony Gosling]

Wonder how much he's paid Bell Pottinger so far 
to keep this looking so squeaky clean?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Green,_Baron_Green_of_Hurstpierpoint

Public Fracking meeting this evening in Wells
How could Fracking affect Somerset?
http://www.frackfreesomerset.org/upcoming-events/
A public meeting with a panel of stakeholders to answer your questions.
7 – 9pm Tuesday 25th September 2012, Wells Town Hall
Are you concerned about how hydraulic fracturing 
could affect Somerset? This is an opportunity to 
ask questions & listen to speakers both for and 
against fracking and its potential affects on 
communities and ecosystems across Somerset.
For more information or to request a space on the 
panel please email: info at frackfreesomerset.org

Three lords and one Baroness – frackings vested interests inside government
Posted on September 24, 2012 by fred
http://frack-off.org.uk/three-lords-and-one-baroness-frackings-vested-interests-inside-government/
http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=21568
The House of Lords is emerging as a powerful 
pro-fracking advocate inside government.
Three Lords – Lord Green, Lord Howell and Lord 
Browne – and one Baroness – Baroness Hogg – each 
have financial interests in the fracking 
industry. And each holds either ministerial or 
executive rank at some of Whitehall’s most 
powerful departments: the Foreign and 
Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Treasury and the Cabinet Office.
Below we take a look at these peers and their activities:

Foreign Office minister Lord Green also works for 
BASF who make fracking chemicals and provide services to the fracking industry
Foreign Office Minister promotes shale gas worldwide
While Energy Minister Ed Davey is reticent about 
fracking at home, FCO Minister Lord Green is 
shouting it from international rooftops. Green’s 
department has been promoting shale gas in 
Poland, Lithuania, China, Bulgaria, Mexico & the 
Ukraine – including through British embassies – 
whilst blithely ignoring findings from 
government-commissioned reports in the UK.
Green is a non-executive director at BASF, a 
German chemicals conglomerate that produces 
chemicals used in fracking (Google translate this 
page) and services to the fracking industry. 
These interests in BASF do not appear on his 
interests on the parliament.uk website.
As part of the FCO, Green heads UK Trade & 
Investment (UKTI). In Lithuania UKTI recently 
invited people to register on their website in 
order to receive more details about forthcoming 
license tenders. It also offered advice and 
translation services for potential frackers.
For enthusiastic frackers in Bulgaria, UKTI 
invited interested parties to a networking event, 
offering international speakers as well as 
representatives from the European Commission. 
Here UKTI in Mexico City reports on a Prime 
Minsterial business trip to discuss on shale in Mexico.
In China the British Embassy in Beijing issued a 
briefing paper “Can Shale Gas do for China What 
It Has Done for the US?” Ukraine and Poland also 
have the FCO’s attention, while Twitter followers 
are also subjected UKTI tweeting their shale gas exploits worldwide.

Baroness Hogg is a director at BG Group, who 
expect to earn nearly $300m from fracking operations in the US this year.
Treasury director’s fracking company earns $283 million this year
Baroness Hogg, a non-executive director at the 
Treasury, is also a non-executive at BG Group, 
who own substantial fracking interests in the US. 
BG’s expected revenues from US fracking is 
expected to top $283 million this year alone.
Hogg’s company also holds a stake in Scottish fracker Dart Energy.
Hogg also works at Treasury, an an enthusiastic 
backer of new UK gas. Her influence on her boss, 
Chancellor George Osborne, is clear. He recently 
wrote to energy secretary Ed Davey, demanding “a 
statement which gives a clear, strong signal that 
we regard unabated gas as able to play a core 
part of our electricity generation”. No vested interests there, then.

Lord Howell is a gas lobbyist. He is also 
Chancellor George Osborne’s father in law
Osborne relative joins the party
Working alongside Lord Green at the FCO (see 
above) is Lord Howell. Howell is not simply a gas 
lobbyist – he is also Chancellor George Osborne’s father-in-law.
As a FCO Minister Howell has been 
enthusiastically promoting UK investment in Polish shale gas.
In early June, Howell met the Polish economy, 
treasury and foreign affairs ministers in Warsaw. 
He also talked with a the Chief National 
Geologist about “facilitating UK low carbon 
investment in Poland with particular emphasis on shale gas and nuclear”.
As well as being a minister Howell also works for 
the British Institute of Energy Economics, a oil 
and gas lobbying group. Sponsors include Baroness Hogg’s BG Group.

Lord Browne is a director of UK fracker 
Cuadrilla. His inside the Cabinet Office allows 
him to mould how departments function
Lord Browne – the fracking Czar
The ex-head of BP is a predictable supporter of 
unconventional gas. As director of Cuadrilla, the 
UK’s biggest fracking company, Lord Browne has a 
direct financial incentive to push hydraulic 
fracturing. Handy, then that he also works in the 
Cabinet Office, the nerve centre of government decision making.
Browne has recently come to the aid of the UK 
fracker, probably investing a further $20m to add to his existing $40m holding.
One of Browne’s principal roles is to appoint 
executives to government boards. In this he has 
been remarkably successful. In a recent report, 
Browne reports he has created 59 such positions. 
See here for a list of these appointees.
Browne’s role is to mould departments to think 
the same way he does. In the above report he 
complains: “some Boards still face significant 
issues around prioritisation and agenda setting, 
quality of information, engagement by junior 
Ministers and calibre of secretariat support.” To 
remedy the malaise Browne trains minsters and 
civil servants at his “Major Projects Leadership Academy“.
To add to the financial conflicts of interest of 
executive members of the Whitehall establishment, 
the oil and gas industry’s support also includes 
secondments, whereby fifty people inside 
government are paid by the oil and gas industry.
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Lord Green 'regrets' HSBC scandal but still refuses to answer questions
Trade minister breaks silence over money 
laundering scandal that took place while he was running the bank
Jill Treanor, City editor -  The Guardian, Tuesday 24 July 2012 19.30 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/24/lord-green-hsbc-scandal
Lord Green, former chief executive and chairman 
of HSBC and now the trade minister. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
The trade minister, Lord Green, has broken his 
silence over the HSBC money laundering scandal, 
saying he regretted the long-running incident 
that took place while he was running the bank. 
But he is still refusing to take questions on the controversy.
Labour has repeatedly called on Green to answer 
questions on what he knew about US Senate 
findings that HSBC laundered money for Mexican 
drug barons and possibly even terrorists.
On Tuesday the bank's former chief executive and 
chairman conceded that he shared the "regret" 
expressed by the bank for the incident. The 
scandal is likely to result in a fine of at least $1bn (£650m).
But his refusal to turn up to the Lords – which 
is still sitting – did not satisfy Labour. The 
Opposition leader of the House of Lords, Lady 
Royall, called on Green to come to the house on 
Thursday to "dispel" the questions being posed about his ministerial role.


HSBC 'sorry' for aiding Mexican drugs lords, rogue states and terrorists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/17/hsbc-executive-resigns-senate
Executive quits in front of US Senate as bank 
faces massive fines for 'horrific' lapses that 
resulted in laundering money for drugs cartels and pariah states
Dominic Rushe in New York - The Guardian, Tuesday 17 July 2012 18.29 BST
US senators hear humiliating apologies from 
executives from HSBC, Europe's biggest bank Link to this video
Executives with Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, were 
subjected to a humiliating onslaught from US 
senators on Tuesday over revelations that staff 
at its global subsidiaries laundered billions of 
dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and pariah states.
Lawmakers hammered the British-based bank over 
the scandal, demanding to know how and why its 
affiliates had exposed it to the proceeds of drug 
trafficking and terrorist financing in a 
"pervasively polluted" culture that persisted for years.
A report compiled for the committee detailed how 
HSBC's subsidiaries transported billions of 
dollars of cash in armoured vehicles, cleared 
suspicious travellers' cheques worth billions, 
and allowed Mexican drug lords buy to planes with 
money laundered through Cayman Islands accounts.
Other subsidiaries moved money from Iran, Syria 
and other countries on US sanctions lists, and 
helped a Saudi bank linked to al-Qaida to shift money to the US.
David Bagley, HSBC's head of compliance since 
2002, and who had worked with the bank for more 
than 20 years, resigned before the committee.
"Despite the best efforts and intentions of many 
dedicated professionals, HSBC has fallen short of 
our own expectations and the expectations of our regulators," he said.
The bank has been under investigation for nearly 
a decade, and faces a massive fine from the US 
justice department for lapses in its safeguards. 
Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn, who conducted 
the hearing, said the permanent subcommittee of 
investigations had examined 1.4m documents as 
part of its review and thanked the bank for its co-operation.
The bank has apologised for its lapses and said 
reforms had been put in place. Paul Thurston, 
chief executive of retail banking and wealth 
management, who was sent in to try and clear up 
HSBC's Mexican banking business in 2007, said he 
was "horrified" by what he found.
"I should add that the external environment in 
Mexico was as challenging as any I had ever 
experienced. Bank employees faced very real risks 
of being targeted for bribery, extortion, and 
kidnapping – in fact, multiple kidnappings 
occurred throughout my tenure," he said.
The committee had released a damning report on 
Monday, which detailed a collapse in HSBC's 
compliance standards. The report showed 
executives at the bank has consistently warned of 
problems. At its Mexican subsidiary, one 
executive had warned the bank was 
"rubber-stamping unacceptable risks", according 
to one email gathered by the committee.
HSBC's Mexican operations moved $7bn into the 
bank's US operations, and according to its own 
staff, much of that money was tied to drug 
traffickers. Before the bank executives 
testified, the committee heard from Leigh 
Winchell, assistant director for investigative 
programs at US immigration & customs enforcement. 
He said 47,000 people had lost their lives since 
2006 as a result of Mexican drug traffickers.
The senators highlighted testimony from Leopoldo 
Barroso, a former HSBC anti money-laundering 
director, who told company officials in an exit 
interview that he was concerned about 
"allegations of 60% to 70% of laundered proceeds 
in Mexico" going through HSBC's affiliate.
"In hindsight," said Bagley, "I think we all 
sometimes allowed a focus on what was lawful and 
compliant rather than what should have been best practices."
Levin and Coburn directed particular ire at a 
Cayman Islands subsidiary set up by the Mexico 
division of HSBC. That bank handled 50,000 client 
accounts and $2.1bn in holdings, but had no staff 
or offices. Money from the Cayman Islands was 
used to buy planes for Mexican drug traffickers, 
said the senators. Bagley said those accounts 
were all now in the process of being closed.
"Forget hindsight," said Levin. "Is there any way 
that should have been allowed to happen?"
"No, senator," said Thurston.
Levin repeatedly said that HSBC must have been 
aware of the problems. "This is something that 
people knew was going on at the bank," he said.
Bagley and Thurston said that HSBC's compliance 
had been fragmented and that oversight had been 
poor. They said that had now been changed. The 
bank has now adopted a global compliance 
structure and doubled the amount of money it is spending on oversight.
"Criminals operate globally and if we are to 
combat them and stop them from accessing and 
abusing the financial system, we must look at 
issues from a global perspective. Institutions 
which operate internationally, like HSBC, will be 
targeted by these criminals, and our experience 
in Mexico vividly demonstrates that you are no 
stronger than your weakest link," said Thurston.
While much of the hearing focused on Mexico, the 
senators also slammed the bank for dealings in 
Iran, Syria, Cuba, and other countries on US 
sanctions lists. HSBC executives continued to so 
business with Al Rajhi Bank in Saudi Arabia, even 
after it emerged that its owners had links to 
organizations financing terrorism and that one of 
the bank's founders was an early financial benefactor of al-Qaida.
While Coburn was unsparing of his criticism of 
HSBC, he thanked the bank for its co-operation 
and said there were issues at other institutions 
including Citigroup, Wachovia and Western Union.
But the report comes at a highly sensitive moment 
for British banks in the US. Following Barclays 
fine in the Libor-interest rate scandal and the 
massive losses at JP Morgan Chase's London 
offices US politicians have become increasingly 
critical of the UK's financial services sector.
At a recent hearing into the JP Morgan losses, 
Carolyn Maloney, a Democratic representative from 
New York, said: "It seems to be that every big 
trading disaster happens in London."

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"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic 
poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
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Fear not therefore: for there is nothing covered 
that shall not be revealed; and nothing hid that 
shall not be made known. What I tell you in 
darkness, that speak ye in the light and what ye 
hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. Matthew 10:26-27

Die Pride and Envie; Flesh, take the poor's advice.
Covetousnesse be gon: Come, Truth and Love arise.
Patience take the Crown; throw Anger out of dores:
Cast out Hypocrisie and Lust, which follows whores:
Then England sit in rest; Thy sorrows will have end;
Thy Sons will live in peace, and each will be a friend.
http://tinyurl.com/6ct7zh6  
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