Nexus - 0901 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

Associate Director and Treasurer of the forfait- ing (an arcane banking term meaning "to dis- count without recourse") division of a major international bank. David is married with three children and now pursues a career in journalism, writing for a variety of media and researching and producing factual material on a wide range of associated subjects. This is his ninth article for NEXUS, the most recent ones published in 8/01 and 7/05. In addition to his feature writing, David has prepared background papers on Anti- Personnel Electromagnetic Weapons for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was a contributing member of ICRC's SIrUS Project that sought to define criteria for judging "abhorrent weapons", and has written for the World Development Movement on his "insider's knowledge" of international weapons financing. He has been a consultant on Swiss and UK TV documentaries exposing the threat of non-lethal weapons and Britain's weapons trail to Indonesia. He is presently assisting the US-based law firm Easton & Levy in its lawsuit against the Vatican for the restitu- tion of the Nazi Croatian Treasury which was illicitly transferred to the Vatican and else- where at the end of World War Il. David has recently completed an in-depth investigation into the black market of gold and has published it as an electronic book, The Secret Gold Treaty, available through his home page www.deepblacklies.co.uk. Harbor King" respectively.’ These have been the subject of a legal wrangle between Santa Romana's heirs and Citibank's John Reed. The fact that the gold held by Citibank and others may not have been in the name of the Central Intelligence Agency or the Federal Reserve—but, rather, was in Santa Romana's name—may have been all Citibank needed to wriggle out of a poorly crafted question. Continued next issue... President Ferdinand Marcos, who was at one time Santa Romana's attorney. According to Santa Romana's widow, her husband gave Marcos a limited Power of Attorney for use solely in the Philippines, since he travelled abroad regularly. It seems that Marcos somehow made use of this to gain control over Santa Romana's gold and other assets. It also appears likely, based on docu- ments in this writer's possession, that con- siderable quantities of gold once held by Santa Romana were later placed under the control of former CIA covert operator Major-General Edward Lansdale. However, these assets were lodged with the Union Bank of Switzerland. Again, it is worthy of note that they were placed in Ed Lansdale's name, not in the name of a US Government agency. These assets are very clearly off the books. Large quantities of gold held by Citibank remained in the account names of Severino Garcia Sta. Romana and José Antonio Diaz de la Paz (the latter being a well-known alias for Santa Romana) under reference codes "Fanerst King Fisher" and "Burgst Endnotes 1. Other terms that have been used are: Credit Enhancement Business; and Capital Accumulation & Structured Debt Programs. 2. Others involved believe this sum represents a part of the fallout from the Jacobe transaction, and not Hammer. 3. This information is drawn from a letter dated December 20, 1995, from C. E. (Jim) Brown (the second husband of Santa Romana's widow, Luz), addressed to the US Justice Department. Sta. Romana also used J. Antonio Diaz as another alias. In fact, he used many different names and entities to conduct his business. About the Author: Following a 28-year career in investment banking (member, AIBD) based in the City of London, David Guyatt's last position was NEXUS = 83 Project Hammer: Covert Finance and the Parallel Economy Continued from page 38 DECEMBER 2001 — JANUARY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com