Nigerian whizkid steals $1.1 million from 150 American bankers

[I Love Nigeria]

November 5, 2009
Seven Dead and 20 Injured in Shooting at Fort Hood
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009...gewanted=print
Filed at 3:54 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army says seven people were killed and 20 wounded in a pair of shootings at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

An Army spokesman at the Pentagon says the shootings began about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at a personnel and medical processing center at Fort Hood.

The spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Banks, says two shooters were apparently involved. There is no word yet on who they were, nor on identities of the dead.

Banks says the second incident took place at a theater on the sprawling base.

He says it is too soon to tell whether there is any link to battle stress or repeated deployments. The Army is suffering a record high suicide rate and other signs of stress from fighting two wars.

[Auspicious]

+

Give it up already, ILN, and stop pretending like you are helping anyone see what they already know (about the fact that there are bad eggs everywhere). When you cry as hard as you are, some of us begin to doubt your motives and suspect if there is anything more behind your overtly aggressive campaign - like, for example, if you are doing it to put yourself out there as one who loves Nigeria more than any other Nigerian.

It is unfortunate that the kid has a Nigerian identity but that's just the way it is. It is a newsworthy event that even our vibrant home-based news outlets will not ignore, talk less of the carvenous media giants elsewhere that report anything that zoom past their pointed white noses, small or large. And, since we all have names, origins and backgrounds, we are naturally identified by these factors - for good, or for evil.

Unfortunately, for those of us who can afford to be honest with ourselves, our Nigerian origin happen to have earned a particular notoriety for vices as the one that kid was caught for. That is a fact, not an exergerration. Worse still, there's hardly any truly commendable effort to stop the practice, but encouragement to do bad abounds. To deny this reality or point at others when confronted by it amounts to playing the Ostrich.

Were our system of the enforcement of law to rise to a level that can be considered to be at par with the ones seen in countries as the United States, we will be far better off than we are today - we would be deemed lucky. So your pointing at others who are doing FAR better than we are doing in combating bad in their society is as pointless as it is a misplacement of priorities. Let's forget America and focus on us!

Auspicious.

[I Love Nigeria]

Auspicious I do not know your experience... my experience has exposed me to the practice here... such that when Bernie Maddoff still $70 Billions no one enquires about his race, heritage and religion etc

But... the garden variety voyeurs on Xanax and Prosac get their hard-on, as soon as a Nigerian is mentioned in the in penny pinching with light fingers...

I abhor all criminality... BUT... when persons like you seek to castigate 150 million people due to the aberrant or anti social misconduct of one .... you deserve to be reminded of what the facts are... and besides... 419 is a section of the applicable laws in Nigeria which seeks to punish Advance Fee Fraud... and you claim nothing is being done? US highest court held that Nigeria is blameless where gullible thieves expect their cats to give birth to chickens! Those who seek to reap what they have not sowed and where they have not sowed

I insist that Bernie Maddoff is Nigerian! ditto Jeff Skilling, Ken Lay etc

OR Auspicious should say, that virtues and vices have universal quality to them... and repeat it one hundred and fifty million times for all Nigerians castigated and demeaned by your sweeping ... over-broad and unfounded generalizations against Nigerians who are working hard, law abiding and decent.... and I am one of them.... I certainly do not know about you Auspicious Do you do anything legitimate for a living?

[Rose]

Originally Posted by I Love Nigeria

Auspicious I do not know your experience... my experience has exposed me to the practice here... such that when Bernie Maddoff still $70 Billions no one enquires about his race, heritage and religion etc

You better not mention it.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by I Love Nigeria

Auspicious I do not know your experience... my experience has exposed me to the practice here... such that when Bernie Maddoff still $70 Billions no one enquires about his race, heritage and religion etc

Ask Yourself, ILN:

1. What's the point..? Why would the Americans ask for Bernie Maddoff's heritage when everybody knows he's American of Jewish heritage in HIS OWN COUNTRY?

2. Would the Nigerian press make any issue of Bode George's nationality and his ethnic background in his own country during his arrest and subsequent prosecutorial proceedings, when the fact is easily established?

3. Were a Benonoise or an Ugandan or Chinese to commit a crime of assault and battery in Nigeria, won't it be NATURAL that the nationality and heritage of such alleged criminal be an attention-grabber, given that he is a foreigner?

Originally Posted by I Love Nigeria

..I abhor all criminality... BUT... when persons like you...

You will do yourself a lot of good to mind your language when you address an Auspicious Person like myself, OK?

Go on, I'm listening..

Originally Posted by I Love Nigeria

..seek to castigate 150 million people due to the aberrant or anti social misconduct of one .... you deserve to be reminded of what the facts are... and besides... 419 is a section of the applicable laws in Nigeria which seeks to punish Advance Fee Fraud... and you claim nothing is being done? US highest court held that Nigeria is blameless where gullible thieves expect their cats to give birth to chickens! Those who seek to reap what they have not sowed and where they have not sowed

I insist that Bernie Maddoff is Nigerian! ditto Jeff Skilling, Ken Lay etc

I really feel this is a waste of time, but I'll say this much:

When you have proven WHERE, HOW and WHEN I have deemed "150 million people" guilty of the sins of a few..

When you have shown HOW my position (that rampant and virtually uncontrolled vices as "419" have practically over-run our society, so much so we cannot trust ourselves as much as we trust outsiders) - how my saying such amounts to an indictment of everyone of our 150 million fellow citizens..

When you have submitted to me HOW my stating that we see more of encouraging these vices overwhelmes anything being done to stop it (with little or no consequences for those who are caught) - how such statements amounts to an untruth in your opinion..

When you have shown all that and more, come back and talk to me. Maybe we'll talk more

In the meantime, you need to learn not to indulge in convenient obfusication of issues when debating issues.

We need to learn how to do honest debates with ourselves.

And, again, making excuses for our failings will NEVER free us of the stigma that a relatively large minority of our fellow citizens have earned us through their vices.

NO HONEST NIGERIA will dare claim that any responsible war is being waged against graft and other financial crimes in Nigeria - NONE!

It is one thing to promulgate laws and promise heaven on earth, it is another thing to enforce it like others are doing elsewhere, from the Accra to London and Washington.

It is an insult to the sensibilities of honest Nigerians to claim that whatever we have in the enforcement of law and deterrent of crime compares in any way to what those people have over there.

Bernie Madoff would likely spend the rest of his life in jail.

Bode George got what?

May forgive us of our deliberate on unintended sins.

PLEASE NOTE:

Originally Posted by I Love Nigeria

.. I certainly do not know about you Auspicious Do you do anything legitimate for a living?

Well let me know, Mr. Adujie:

If you wish to engage in open or hidden ad-hominems,

I just might have a place for you to wallow in it all you want till you have your fill.

Just don't come back complaining that somebody did what-not to your name and honor.

Auspicious.

[Ednut]

ILN just in case you missed this reported from your NYC area I guess.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fourteen people were charged with fraud and conspiracy in a dramatic widening of an insider trading scandal that has ensnared hedge fund managers, top Silicon Valley executives and a bevy of white-shoe advisers.

In complaints that read like scripts for the TV series "The Sopranos," prosecutors alleged suspects dropped off bags full of cash, used prepaid cellphones to dodge wiretaps, and used nicknames such as "the Greek."

"As we allege, some of the defendants -- taking a page from the drug dealer's playbook -- deliberately used anonymous, hard-to-trace, prepaid cellphones in order to avoid detection by law enforcement," federal prosecutor Preet Bharara told a news conference.

"When sophisticated business people begin to adopt the methods of common criminals, we have no choice but to treat them as such," he said.

The latest charges involve some of the same companies and individuals implicated in the Galleon Group insider trading scandal that broke three weeks ago. It was not clear whether the illegal networks were linked.

"People will probably ask just how pervasive is insider trading these days? Is this just the tip of the iceberg?" Bharara said. "We don't have an answer to that yet but we aim to find out."

In the largest branch of the investigation unveiled on Thursday, Zvi Goffer, manager of New York-based trading firm Incremental Capital, was accused of leading an insider trading ring that netted $11 million.

Prosecutors said they had uncovered illegal profits of more than $20 million -- on top of the $20 million that authorities say was pocketed by the Galleon group.

The Galleon case is already the biggest hedge fund insider trading scheme in Wall Street history, and in Thursday's complaint one of the suspects admitted to years of insider trading apparently overlapping with his time at a former job at SAC Capital, perhaps the nation's best-known hedge fund.

Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of the Galleon Group and accused mastermind of an illegal insider trading operation, is free on $100 million bail. On Thursday, he lost a bid to get bail reduced, although a U.S. magistrate judge did ease restrictions on his travel within the United States.

BACK ON THE BEAT?

The Galleon case is turning into one of the biggest insider trading rings since the Ivan Boesky scandals of the 1980s. The Boesky case capped off a gilded age for Wall Street and ultimately brought down Drexel Burnham Lambert. The current case follows last year's financial meltdown that erased fortunes on Wall Street and Main Street alike.

The aggressiveness of the investigation came in marked contrast to years of failure by U.S. regulators to spot the massive Ponzi scheme masterminded by Bernard Madoff.

"The regulatory cops are saying in a very loud voice, 'we're back on the beat,'" said Michael Holland, founder of Holland & Co in New York.

Participants with access to inside information, including a lawyer, a former Moody's analyst and an executive with a wireless networking firm, were charged with leaking confidential information about takeovers and other activities.

Prosecutors introduced a new group of suspects on Thursday, including Goffer, who previously worked at Galleon, and Michael Kimelman, an Incremental Capital co-founder who was a former Sullivan & Cromwell merger and acquisition attorney.

Participants with access to inside information, including a lawyer, a former Moody's executive and an executive with a wireless networking firm, were charged with leaking confidential information about takeovers and other activities.

The basis of the scheme was to make trades using insider information on upcoming mergers, some of it gathered from a lawyer at the firm of Ropes & Gray, Arthur Cutillo, who was arrested.

Calls recorded by law enforcement officials were littered with nicknames, like the Greek and the Rat, and jokes about getting information from a guy fixing a pothole. Current and past targets were code-named the Hilton Hit and the Apple.

"Someone's going to jail, going directly to jail, so don't let it be you, OK?" Goffer said, according to a criminal complaint. "That's a ticket right to the (expletive) Big House.

ATHEROS COMMUNICATIONS LINK

Also arrested were Jason Goldfarb, an attorney; Craig Drimal, who worked in Galleon's office; and Emanuel Goffer -- Zvi's brother -- and David Plate, both also associated with Incremental Capital.

The complaints allege Zvi Goffer, 32, paid sources for inside information. He provided his tipsters with prepaid cellphones so they could minimize the chances of getting caught when passing along tips, the complaint said.

Zvi Goffer worked at Schottenfeld, a New York-based broker dealer, for nearly all of 2007, the complaint said. He moved to Galleon in 2008, where he worked for about eight months before quitting to start Incremental Capital.

It was not the first time Schottenfeld was alleged to have been caught up in trading on deal rumors. A former trader at the firm settled SEC charges that he spread a false rumor that private equity firm Blackstone Group LP was trying to cut its proposed price for Alliance Data Systems Corp.

The deal eventually fell apart because of regulatory issues.

Zvi Goffer's scheme involved shares of network equipment maker 3Com Corp, telecom equipment maker Avaya Inc and drugmaker Axcan Pharma Inc, according to the complaint.

Separately, prosecutors charged Deep Shah, a former employee of ratings firm Moody's Corp, and Ali Hariri, a vice president at wireless networking chipmaker Atheros Communications Inc, with leaking confidential information as part of insider trading schemes.

Hariri, 38, was arrested in San Francisco, while Shah, 27, resides in India, prosecutors said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined comment on whether prosecutors would seek Shah's extradition.

Moody's spokesman Michael Adler said Shah had not worked at the company since 2007.

"Moody's has strict policies against divulging confidential information, and any alleged wrongdoing by an individual at Moody's would be an egregious violation of Moody's policies and values," he said, adding that the ratings agency fully supported the probe and would do whatever it could to help.

Another five individuals who were previously charged have pleaded guilty to insider trading charges, prosecutors said, including current or former executives of hedge funds S2 Capital and Spherix Capital LLC. Also pleading guilty was Roomy Khan, a convicted felon and former Intel employee cited as a cooperating witness in the Galleon probe.

Ali Far, the founder of Spherix, a California-based hedge fund, and Richard Choo-Beng Lee, its former president, have admitted to engaging in illegal insider trading for many years, according to their cooperation agreements.

In the case of Lee, the agreements suggest that he engaged in illegal insider trading while working at Steven Cohen's SAC Capital, the Connecticut-based hedge fund.

SAC did not immediately response to a call seeking comment.

(Writing by Steve Eder and Christian Plumb; Additional reporting by Anupreeta Das, Steve Eder and Dan Wilchins in New York and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; Editing by John Wallace, Gary Hill)

[oguzie j.j.]

I have said it a million times, Nigerians are not different from other citizens of the world.
We have our good , our bad , and our ugly but i indeed know for sure that our good's far out number our bad's and ugly's.
All I know is that the Nigerian renaissance is near. Be part of it in your own little way. Only be steadfast and uncompromising.

[anonimi]

Originally Posted by oguzie j.j.

I have said it a million times, Nigerians are not different from other citizens of the world.
We have our good , our bad , and our ugly but i indeed know for sure that our good's far out number our bad's and ugly's.
All I know is that the Nigerian renaissance is near. Be part of it in your own little way. Only be steadfast and uncompromising.

i guess you omit the fact that being good and not pointing out teh bad and ugly to the extent of reporting them to law enforcement authorities amounts to also being bad and ugly.
evil prevails when good men choos e to remain silent.
how many Madoff's or Ken Lay's relations went demonstrating in his support like we had for Bode George and Ibori (women even went naked in Kaduna)
Rather most of us will say the guy don breakthrough, he is smart and would want to get our own favours/cut from him and that is teh bane of our society.

[purple]

Why is Adeyemi robed in the toga of 'whizkid'? The bobo na ogboju ole (career criminal). He may not have made out like the bandit Madoff, he was surely on his way, but for this inconvinient arrest .