Obama Justice Department Decapitates Gun Industry: FBI Arrest 21 Gun Industry Executi

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Obama Justice Department Decapitates Gun Industry: FBI Arrest 21 Gun Industry Executives in Las Vegas to Attend Gun Show



Illinois Gun
Infowars.com
January 22, 2010

What?s being touted as the largest single investigation and prosecution against individuals in the history of the Justice Department?s enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act occurred Monday in Las Vegas.

The individuals arrested are executives and employees of military and law enforcement products companies that were in Las Vegas to attend the 2010 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (Shot show) and are charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
The indictments allege that the defendants engaged in a scheme to pay bribes to the minister of defense for a country in Africa but the alleged sales agent was in reality an undercover FBI agent.
The defendants allegedly agreed to pay a 20 percent commission to a sales agent who the defendants believed represented the minister of defense of an African country in order to win a portion of a $15 million sale to outfit the country?s presidential guard.
The Las Vegas Sun is reporting the names of those arrested and the location of their companies as being;
Daniel Alvirez and Lee Allen Tolleson, Bull Shoals, Ark., Helmie Ashiblie, Woodbridge, Va., Andrew Bigelow, Sarasota, Fla., R. Patrick Caldwell and Stephen Gerard Giordanella, Sunrise, Fla., Yochanan Cohen, San Francisco, Haim Geri, North Miami Beach, Fla., Amaro Goncalves, Springfield, Mass., John Gregory Godsey and Mark Frederick Morales, Decatur, Ga., Saul Mishkin, Aventura, Fla., John and Jeana Mushriqui, Upper Darby, Pa., David Painter and Lee Wares, United Kingdom, Pankesh Patel, United Kingdom, Ofer Paz, Israel, Israel Weisler and Michael Sachs, Stearns, Ky., and John Benson Wier III, St. Petersburg, Fla.


http://www.efoodsdirect.com/index.html?aid=13&adid=25
One name on the list, Amaro Goncalves is reported to be a vice-president of sales for Smith & Wesson (SWHC)

According to reports the arrest did not take place at the SHOT show but the FBI did use the show as an oportunity to bring all of the people together in one place for arrest.
Needless to say with the recent incident involving the BATFE and the Texas Gun Show, this action by the Justice Department and the FBI is causing concern and confusion for patroits and gun owners nation wide.
David Codrea of the Gun Rights Examiner is asking ?why the mass arrests here and now??
One of the main comments from bloggers is ?what?s wrong with paying a commission.?
Since the election of Obama the main question for gun owners as been, ?when will Obama come after the guns??
It looks like that question has been answered!
Links of interest
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jan/19/fbi-arrests-21-las-vegas-foreign-bribery-case
http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m1d21-Whats-going-on-with-SHOT-Show-sting?#comments
http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m1d21-What-is-the-Foreign-Corrupt-Practices-Act
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_05/b4165000370242.htm

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FBI arrests 21 in Las Vegas in foreign bribery case

FBI arrests 21 in Las Vegas in foreign bribery case

FBI arrests 21 in Las Vegas in foreign bribery case
By Steve Kanigher (contact)



The FBI arrested 21 people Monday in Las Vegas in what is being described as the largest single investigation and prosecution against individuals in the history of the Justice Department's enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Those individuals and another person arrested in Miami are executives and employees of military and law enforcement products companies who were indicted for engaging in schemes to bribe foreign government officials to obtain and retain business, the Justice Department announced today.

In connection with the FBI's undercover operation, 16 indictments were unsealed today. The indictments were returned on Dec. 11 by a grand jury in Washington.

All 21 of the individuals arrested in Las Vegas had been attending the 2010 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show and Conference, which runs from today through Friday at the Sands Expo & Convention Center. All were arrested off-site at an undisclosed location in the city, federal authorities said at a press conference held in Washington.

"It just happened that we had the opportunity to bring them all together at one time at one place," Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI's criminal division said.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of ther Justice Department's Criminal Division said that while Las Vegas is a convention center city, the fact that all the individuals converged on Las Vegas is not a negative reflection of the city. He simply chalked it up to a locale that hosts conventions for a variety of industries.

"As one person said in my office, this is one case where what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas," Breuer said.

The investigation involved roughly 150 FBI agents who executed search warrants throughout the country. London police also assisted in the investigation.

"The fight to erase foreign bribery from the corporate playbook will not be won overnight, but these actions are a turning point," Breuer said.

U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips, who represents the District of Columbia, added: "Corrupt payments to foreign officials to obtain or retain business erode public confidence in our free market system and threaten to undermine foreign governments."

The indictments allege that the defendants engaged in a scheme to pay bribes to the minister of defense for a country in Africa. The scheme was part of the undercover operation, with no actual involvement from any minister of defense.

As part of the undercover operation, the defendants allegedly agreed to pay a 20 percent commission to a sales agent who the defendants believed represented the minister of defense in order to win a portion of a $15 million deal to outfit the country's presidential guard.

In reality, the sales agent was an undercover FBI agent.

Those who were indicted and the location of their companies included Daniel Alvirez and Lee Allen Tolleson, Bull Shoals, Ark., Helmie Ashiblie, Woodbridge, Va., Andrew Bigelow, Sarasota, Fla., R. Patrick Caldwell and Stephen Gerard Giordanella, Sunrise, Fla., Yochanan Cohen, San Francisco, Haim Geri, North Miami Beach, Fla., Amaro Goncalves, Springfield, Mass., John Gregory Godsey and Mark Frederick Morales, Decatur, Ga., Saul Mishkin, Aventura, Fla., John and Jeana Mushriqui, Upper Darby, Pa., David Painter and Lee Wares, United Kingdom, Pankesh Patel, United Kingdom, Ofer Paz, Israel, Israel Weisler and Michael Sachs, Stearns, Ky., and John Benson Wier III, St. Petersburg, Fla.

The maximum prison sentence for the conspiracy count and for each FCPA count is five years. The maximum sentence for the money laundering conspiracy charge is 20 years in prison.

These cases are being prosecuted by Assistant Chief Hank Bond Walther and Trial Attorney Laura N. Perkins of the Criminal Division?s Fraud Section, and Matthew C. Solomon of the U.S. Attorney?s Office for the District of Columbia. The cases were investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office squad that specializes in investigations into FCPA violations.
 

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Big Shots Go Down at Gun Show

Big Shots Go Down at Gun Show

Big Shots Go Down at Gun Show

FBI arrests in a bribery scandal may leave the firearm industry wounded

By Paul Barrett
The setting was Las Vegas, but no one was expecting fireworks at this year's Shot Show, the annual gun industry trade convention. Sure, sales of firearms and ammunition rose in the wake of Barack Obama's victory, as Second Amendment buffs?fearing a Democratic Administration would push new restrictions on weapon ownership?rushed to stock up. Yet what the industry calls the "Obama stimulus" had already started to tail off by the time gun marketers converged on Las Vegas.
Then the feds crashed the party. The FBI used the convention to round up 21 industry executives who allegedly fell for an undercover sting in which they agreed to pay illegal kickbacks to the defense minister of an African nation. In exchange, the small arms marketers thought they were securing the opportunity to sell millions of dollars in weapons and body armor. Unfortunately for them, they were transacting business with FBI operatives posing as middlemen, according to indictments unsealed by a federal judge in Washington. A 22nd suspect was picked up in Miami. "This is one case where what happens in Vegas didn't stay in Vegas," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer at a news conference.
One of the men arrested in Las Vegas was Amaro Goncalves, a vice-president of sales for Smith & Wesson (SWHC), the largest U.S. manufacturer of handguns. A federal grand jury alleged that Goncalves agreed to pay a 20% kickback to clinch the sale of 1,825 pistols for use by the presidential guard of the African government (the name of the nation is not revealed in the court filings). Goncalves and the others stand accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribery in seeking overseas business.
Goncalves' employer has not been charged, and neither has any other company. Smith & Wesson said in a written statement that it has "no information beyond what has been reported" and is "prepared to cooperate fully with law enforcement."
"Obama Stimulus" Fizzles

The arrests created a stir among attendees at the Shot Show. The FBI gave the organizers no warning and caught everyone by surprise, says Mark Thomas, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the show's sponsor. But Thomas denies the raid cast a pall over this year's proceedings. "It's business as usual," he says.
The gun industry still faces the fizzling of the Obama sales rally. While Smith & Wesson and competitors such as Sturm Ruger (RGR) and Glock reported strong financial results in 2009, many executives expect a cooling off in 2010, especially in sales of semiautomatic rifles, which had surged last year.
Reliable statistics are hard to come by in an industry where many players are private companies, but one set of data confirms that a shift is already under way. The federal government reported that mandatory criminal background checks, which gun retailers must carry out in advance of a sale, dropped 7.6% in December, to 1.41 million, from the previous year. "Things are getting back to normal, meaning they are slowing down," says Cameron Hopkins, a gun marketing consultant based in suburban Las Vegas who attended the Shot Show. "The good times never last forever."
 

Chadman

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Since when is bribing government officials an acceptable practice for any corporation? You really think that an arms company - or group of arms companies - paying off officials to gain favor to sell their products is an acceptable practice? I would hold both the corporations and official(s) responsible, and as for "rounding them up" it just makes practical sense - it's done against all kinds of crime scenarios, not just gun companies.
 

Hard Times

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What will you do when they come for you ... bad boy , bad boy .:scared
I guess the G- men :SIB will take it from your cold dead hands and your last words will be ... remember RUBY RIDGE :thefinger
 

Hard Times

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Well I see you got up on the wrong side of bed this morning, hope you win a bet or two, nothing like cold hard cash to make a gambler feel better .
The stuff you put out here, 'you know the posting of good info', is good for a few but most will never get IT.
Some will wait for Rush or Glenn the dough boy Beck to give them the nod on what to do or what to think .
So fucking sad .
 

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HT,

I am doing very good the last few days

My guy GAVE ME 25-1 on the Jets to win the AFC before the playoffs started

50 bucks, told me to hold on the 50, it was a waste of money, but he will give me the play anyways :mj07: :142smilie :00hour

The Collie TD was a Prop Bet for me :00hour +160
 
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