The "Asset Search News Roundup" for this week describes suspected asset concealment schemes with cross-border elements in Israel, Singapore and the Philippines:

  • On January 11 The Jerusalem Post reported that a New York grand jury is considering indicting U.S. businessman Morris Talansky.  The article explained that Mr. Talansky is suspected of money laundering, tax evasion and bribery arising from financial transfers to Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.  As a United Press International article indicated, Prime Minister Olmert was accused of laundering money from Mr. Talansky and secretly transferring it to Israel.  
  • The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking forfeiture of about $3 million dollars part of an alleged scheme to conceal bribe monies paid to the son of the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh.  Based on a U.S. Department of Justice press release and /or The Daily Star,  the $3 million involves bribe proceeds parked in financial accounts in Singapore.  The bribes were supposedly transferred through U.S. financial institutions and allegedly used to influence the award of Bangladeshi public works contracts. 
  • Former priest Rodney Lee Rodis is appealing his recent Virgina state court embezzlement conviction, according to "Pinoy ex-priest in US appeals embezzlement conviction".  Mr. Rodis was earlier convicted in federal court on related charges for a fraud and money laundering scheme.  In his federal case, Mr. Rodis pleaded guilty to defrauding two rural churches / the Catholic Diocese of Virginia.  Among other things, Mr. Rodis had concealed his ill-gotten gains by transferring them to relatives in the Philippines and purchasing upscale waterfront property there.

Copyright 2009 Fred L. Abrams