Riggs Directors on 2 Boards Share Personal Ties to Allbritton

By Terence O'Hara
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 17, 2005; Page E10

...

The one person who made them amusing was Joe L. Allbritton, the bank's largest shareholder, who dominated nearly all aspects of the company for more than 20 years until his resignation from the board in 2004. Board meetings would be held around a 30-foot polished wood table in the main board room of Riggs's granite-hewed Corcoran Branch, across the street from the U.S. Treasury.

"One thing prided himself always in was his relation with foreign embassies and foreign governments," Calvin Cafritz, chairman of the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, who was on the Riggs board in the 1990s, told the Style section of The Washington Post last year. "That was business he fostered himself. He flew all around the world in the Gulfstream, meeting with heads of state. He would tell people at the meetings about meeting with such and such a leader in such and such a country."

...

None of the past or current directors agreed to speak on the record for this story.

Of the current 10 members of the Riggs corporate board, seven are considered independent in the sense that they are neither major shareholders nor executives. Yet six of those seven have personal or business ties to Allbritton or Riggs, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents and sources with knowledge of the directors' relationships with the Allbritton family. Business ties between directors and the banks they oversee are unusual in the industry. The corporate board is responsible for overall direction of the company, including corporate governance

Jack Valenti, former president and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America and one of Washington's best-known lobbyists, has known Allbritton for more than five decades and been a Riggs director since soon after Allbritton bought control of the company. Valenti was involved in one of Allbritton's early Texas savings-and-loan deals in 1950s Houston. The two men, now in their eighties, met as teenagers at their Houston high school and have remained close friends. Valenti "has not allowed his relationship with Mr. Allbritton to influence his duties as a director of Riggs," he said through a spokesman.

Steven B. Pfeiffer, a partner in the law firm Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, has long done legal work for Riggs and other Allbritton family interests, including Allbritton Communications Co., the family's chain of television stations. He met Joe Allbritton in 1983, when Pfeiffer ran Fulbright & Jaworski's London office. He is now chairman of the District-based law firm's executive committee, its highest post. Pfeiffer was also involved in the creation of Riggs's now-closed international business -- the focus of the bank's money-laundering troubles -- and chairman of the Riggs executive committee. Last year he earned more than $110,000 for his work on the board and for serving as chairman and managing director of Riggs Bank Europe, according to Riggs's most recent proxy statement.
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14114-2005Jan16.html

With Bush in office, the next four years are going to be steep in graft and cronyism.

The voluminous record of the directors' actions compiled by the Senate subcommittee, released recently, contains only one report of a board member openly challenging Riggs management. Christopher Meyer became a Riggs National Corp. director in late 2003 after leaving his post as British ambassador to the United States. He joined the board just at the time the OCC began to express concern about Riggs's Equatorial Guinea accounts. At a Jan. 21, 2004, meeting, Meyer said Riggs should get rid of the country as a customer, citing well-known corruption of the country's ruling family.

Minutes of the board meeting show that Hebert assured Meyer and the rest of the board that its dealings with Equatorial Guinea were not a problem. However, a month later, in February, Riggs's security and compliance chief David B. Caruso uncovered a potential fraud by and a number of suspicious transactions in the accounts. Those discoveries ultimately would lead the OCC to notify Riggs on March 2 that it intended to fine the bank.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14112-2005Jan16_3.html

Fortunately for him it was not Carlyle he joined.

...

A director, speaking on the condition he not be identified, said he considered Riggs "Joe's bank." In his view, since Allbritton controlled 40 percent of it, Riggs was his to run as he pleased within the reasonable limits of federal regulation and shareholder interest. The director added that many Riggs bank and holding company directors did not recognize that there was a huge money-laundering risk involved in international and embassy banking. Those views were echoed by other board members and executives and advisers to Riggs directors.

Several Riggs executives and advisers said that may have been part of Riggs's oversight problem. For example, the corporate board did not necessarily directly receive information about OCC examinations. According to minutes of board meetings, several directors of Riggs's corporate board felt they had been left out of the loop when they learned of the OCC's findings about Riggs's money-laundering lapses in 2002. Several corporate board members expressed surprise upon learning, in July 2004, that Pinochet had been a client of the bank, despite the bank board having been briefed on an OCC examination of the Pinochet accounts in late 2002 and early 2003, according to sources.

...

"Mr. Marshall, what does the laundry committee do?" Allbritton asked.

Laughter can then be heard on the tape as the compliance chief likened the committee to a popular brand of detergent.

"The appropriate acronym is the Tide committee," Marshall answered. Marshall then said, "The money-laundering deterrence committee has the unique pleasure of ensuring we have appropriate controls are in place to make sure we are not dealing with inappropriate individuals using the bank inappropriately for money laundering."

...


"It was like a two-by-four right between the eyes," one person present said.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14112-20...

:hi:

thus by yesterday's Sunday Times magazine:

"He was a professional filter for Blair's shaky ideas. He turned overemotional thoughts into calm positions."

January 16, 2005

Interview: Washington posting
By Andrew Stephen
Who's the linchpin in Blair and Bush's special relationship? The British ambassador to the US, Sir David Manning. Just don't call it poodleism

Snip from:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1429448,00.html

POODLE's Riggs stooge dumped in DC for the same whitewash job as this man, Sherard Cowper Coles

does in Riyadh.

I'll be watching



Daily Appointments Schedule
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC

September 10, 2001

SECRETARY OF STATE POWELL:
9:15 a.m. Keynote Address for Foreign Affairs Day Ceremony.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
10:35 a.m. Attend The President’s Bilateral with The Honorable John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia, at the White House.
(MEDIA TBD BY WHITE HOUSE)

P.M. DEPART ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE EN ROUTE LIMA, PERU

DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE ARMITAGE:
9:30 a.m. Meeting with Sir David Manning, Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG), Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
10:30 a.m. Meeting with Pierre Moscovici, Minister-Delegate for European Affairs of France.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
11:30 a.m. Attend The President’s Working Lunch in honor of The Honorable John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia, at the White House.
(MEDIA TBD BY WHITE HOUSE)

THERE WILL BE A DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
(at approximately 1:00 p.m. w/Philip Reeker)


http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/appt/2001/4851.htm

There's so many of them.

Bush to Serve as President & CEO


Dudley Elected Chairman of Riggs Investment Management Subsidiary; Bush to Serve as President & CEO

Washington, D.C., May 31, 2000 - Riggs Bank N.A. today announced that the Board of Directors of RIMCO, a wholly owned investment management subsidiary, has elected Jonathan J. Bush President & Chief Executive Officer and a Director, replacing Philip Tasho who resigned. In addition, Henry A. Dudley, Jr. was elected Chairman.

Mr. Bush will continue as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Bush & Co., an investment management company he founded in 1970, which Riggs acquired in 1997. Mr. Dudley, a 24-year veteran of Riggs, will continue to be responsible for all of Riggs Bank's investment management, trust and private banking business.

Located in the nation's capital, Riggs Bank has 53 branches in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, as well as banking offices in Miami, London and Berlin.
http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/may31_00.html


:hi:

Of course, including the Saudi Princess involved in funding 911.

Saudis hire some of the toniest U.S. law firms to defend them against the landmark $1 trillion lawsuit on behalf of the victims of 9-11. So why is the plaintiff’s counsel ecstatic? Plus, new heat on radical imamNewsweek Web ExclusiveApril 16 - After months of working below the radar, a huge U.S. legal team hired by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has sprung into action and begun a major counteroffensive against a landmark lawsuit seeking $1 trillion in damages on behalf of the victims of the September 11 terror attacks.

THE OPENING DEFENSE SALVO in what promises to be a bruising legal battle was fired last week when a trio of lawyers from Baker Botts, a prestigious Houston-based law firm, filed a motion on behalf of Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi defense minister. The motion attacked the 9-11 lawsuit as a “broadside indictment of Saudi government, religion and culture.” It also argued that, as the third-ranking official of a foreign government, their client is immune from any U.S. legal action and that he should therefore be dismissed from the case altogether.

But in laying out their arguments, Sultan’s U.S. lawyers also presented highly detailed new evidence of the Saudi government’s role in funneling millions of dollars to a web of Islamic charities that are widely suspected by U.S. officials of covertly financing the operations of Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups.

Backed up by stacks of court affidavits and copies of cancelled checks, the Baker Botts team openly acknowledge in their brief that Sultan has for the past 16 years approved regular payments of about $266,000 a year to the International Islamic Relief Organization—a large Saudi charity whose U.S. offices were last year raided by federal agents. Sultan also authorized two additional grants totaling $52,000 to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, another Saudi-based group that has drawn the scrutiny of U.S. antiterrorism investigators.

Sultan authorized these payments as the head of two Saudi government councils, one of which, the “special committee” of the Council of Ministers, gives him sole power to disburse funds that further the “national and foreign policy of Saudi Arabia.” As such, the lawyers write, the payments are “clearly an official act” and therefore outside the scope of U.S. courts.
more
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3067906

Federal regulators fined the Riggs National Corporation, the parent company of Riggs Bank, $25 million yesterday for failing to report suspicious activity, the largest penalty ever assessed against a domestic bank in connection with money laundering.
The fine stems from Riggs's failure over at least the last two years to actively monitor suspect financial transfers through Saudi Arabian and Equatorial Guinean accounts held by the bank. The accounts are still being scrutinized as possible conduits for terrorist funds or for the proceeds of graft.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040514/ZNYT01/405140301

Move Indicates Criminal Charges Likely Against Ex-Riggs Executive
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1140957

The Spook Bank More on the Riggs-CIA connection.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1140100

The CIA and Riggs Bank
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1134101

Riggs Negotiating Settlement With Justice Department
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1123141

U.S. Seeks Assets of Ex-Riggs Executive
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1106319

Newsmaker of the year: Riggs Bank
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1101406

Chile’s ex-dictator Pinochet tied to multi-million-dollar payoffs
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1063422

Legal Woes Cut Into Bottom Line at Riggs
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=974861

Despots, Deposits & Directors - Riggs Bank
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=924033

Written by queen mudder

Soremount Castle, Northern Ireland, Monday 17 January - (Rioters) In a seminal landmark announcement, the Provisional IRA has finally agreed a multi-million ££££ deal to publish its controversial arms decommissioning photographs in Halo! magazine in a bold bid to break the deadlock in the Irish peace process.

...

It is understood that additional front-end fees of approximately 10% on top of this sum may be payable to the US-based Riggs Bank following its worldwide success with other peace process luminaries such as General Pinochet, the conspirators of the Equatorial Guinea coup plot and various members of the Thatcher family. A cameo appearance in the Halo! twenty page four-colour spread by Riggs CEO Jonathan Bush is said to potentially greatly enhance the magaznine's future foreign publishing rights in other global peace process states such as North Korea and Cuba.

Commenting on the exclusive arrangement that the Provos have agreed, a PR negotiator said that both parties had gone to great lengths to avoid any common industry pitfalls such as being plagiarised or upstaged by the competition - a reference, no doubt, to rival magazines 'Hell!' and 'Heil!' which were threatening to scupper the move and publish their own satelitte-camera generated images ahead of Halo!'s deadline of tomorrow.

Movie rights to the historic move are also said to be in the pipebomb......pipeline, that is, and more announcements are expected later this week.

Rioters understands that Tony Blair has privately requested that the magazine's scheduled normal publishing date of Thursday 20 January is moved to the following day "in order not to confuse voters on either side of the Atlantic" as they book their ringside seats for the inauguration ceremonies of President George Bush Jr, whose uncle Jonathan is the Riggs CEO at the centre of the Halo! deal.

More details are expected to emerge tomorrow.

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s1i7243

rate it!

some arcane technological mystery....