Shawn Helton
21st Century Wire
The United States Department of Homeland Security has begun looking into the seizure of hidden assets owned by blacklisted Russians that have become the subject of Ukrainian sanctions ordered by the West.
This is the latest attempt by those in Washington DC to put a hangman’s knot around Russia under the guise of humanitarian intervention and this time they’ve employed one of their favorite pet-agencies, namely the DHS. Homeland Security is operating in unison with the United States Treasury Department to aid in financially-induced, western-guided color revolution that erupted into chaos this past winter, an event that has framed Russian leadership as the perpetrators of violent activity within the country, giving the West the impetus to impose harsh sanctions.
Frozen assets and failed policy
The items that have been sought by the US government agency include ‘shiny toy’ seizures of helicopters, large homes, mega-yachts, high-priced artifacts, planes – as well as accessing bank accounts and investments.
According to a report this week by Bloomberg.com, “The U.S. government has blacklisted 19 companies and 45 political and business leaders, including four it designated as members of Putin’s inner circle.”
Assets are said to be frozen by the US Treasury, as agents from the Homeland Security’s Foreign Corruption Investigations Group are working in tandem with other US intelligence analysts to determine who may or may not be taking a pro-Russian stance on the situation in Ukraine.
The problem here is that it was already revealed back in late February in an article appearing on 21st Century Wire, by geopolitical researcher and author F. William Engdahl, that the West had already begun pressurizing Ukraine, helping to oust the Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovich for reportedly rejecting a $15 billion deal in debt relief offered by the EU, which was then subsequently followed by the deployment of a NATO Gladio-style organization stirring up violence in the region:
“According to these sources, UNA-UNSO have been involved (confirmed officially) in the Lithuanian events in the Winter of 1991, the Soviet Coup d’etat in Summer 1991, the war for the Pridnister Republic 1992, the anti-Moscow Abkhazia War 1993, the Chechen War, the US-organized Kosovo Campaign Against the Serbs, and the August 8 2008 war in Georgia. According to these reports, UNA-UNSO para-military have been involved in every NATO dirty war in the post-cold war period, always fighting on behalf of NATO. “These people are the dangerous mercenaries used all over the world to fight NATO’s dirty war, and to frame Russia because this group pretends to be Russian special forces.”
This current stranglehold to seize assets by the West seems to be a political balloon that lacks any legitimacy or credibility, especially when it appears that Washington DC itself has played the central role in the revolt and collapse of the elected Yanukovich government in Kiev. The DHS seizures appears to reveal the growing encroachment made by Western policy designers, which reflects a very heavy-handed approach designed to support its ‘neocontainment’ policy regarding Russia. Remember, there were also reports back in March about the transfer of 33 tons of gold out of Ukraine taken into US custody – an event which was blacked-out by US media outlets.
While we’re on the topic of credibility in the West, this week it was also revealed that Hunter Biden, son of US vice President Joe Biden, was named as being on the board of directors at Burisma Holdings, a company that owns several Ukrainian oil and gas companies, such as Esko Pivnich and Pari. Here is how Hunter describes his new position on Burisma’s own website, as reported by Moscow Times:
“I believe that my assistance in consulting the company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and government responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”
This story comes right on the heels of the growing scandals that have plagued the Obama administration in recent years such as the Bengahzi cover-up and IRS emails that targeted conservatives. In addition to this, media distortion has been at an all-time high lately, as propaganda regarding terror outfit Boko Haram appears to be ‘Konyesque’ in scope, with all its #hashtag Hollywood veneer, linked to US intelligence agencies, as well as having sourced funding by Al Muntada Trust out of London.
Perhaps the most disturbing example of Western policy failure is in its attempt to exude control over Ukraine by force, were the horrific reports coming out that – people had been burned alive in Odessa and the deployment of some 400 para military mercenaries were sent to exacerbate an already volatile situation created by the West’s proxy war with Russia.
IMAGE: Frozen Real Estate – Russian owned luxury apartments located in the financial district in New York allegedly named as assets in a $ 230 million dollar money laundering scheme in 2008 implicating Hermitage Capital Management Fund.
The Western Proxy: Magnitsky, Khodorkovsky
In 2008, Sergi Magnitsky, a lawyer and auditor for Hermitage Capital Management Fund, was being investigated for his part in an apparent tax-evasion scam. While being held in a pre-trial detention center in Moscow, he reportedly died from heart failure in 2009. There were widespread reports of beatings and abuse suffered by Magnitsky prior to his demise but according to Russian officials the cause of death was not from a violent attack as suggested by Hermitage’s head and founder, William Browder. It turns out that Browder had been convicted for his role in the same tax fraud scheme and sentenced to nine years. Browder left Russia in 2006 after authorities put pressure on him about his criminal activity. Much of the investigation into Magnitsky’s death was influenced by Hermitage’s own documents – which were later proven false by police.
With the help of US government NGOs, Browder is believed to have crafted a media campaign about Magnitsky’s abuse, helping to facilitate an NGO response via the State Department to eventually bring tighter sanctions against Russia and its leaders, significantly aided by a bipartisan bill in 2012 passed by the Senate called The Magnitsky Act.
Many believe this Senate Act, as well as other Western guided operations, were the catalyst for the tension we see in Russia today.
IMAGE: Sergi Magnitsky (Photo credit UPI)
The US State Department funded NGO Freedom House, operating under the guise of a ‘human rights’ think tank, one that boasts of democracy designers such as Zbigniew Brzezinski and Donald Rumsfeld as former members, both well-known insider policy ‘change agents’ linked to much of the destabilization we’ve seen throughout the Middle East since the late 70’s. Freedom House then decided to get in on the propaganda campaign seemingly exploiting Magnitsky’s death.
Global researcher and author, Tony Cartalucci, offered his thoughts on the subject in an article entitled, Wall Street vs. Russia:
“Another Freedom House statement, provided on their own website, again calls for the “Sergei Magnitsky Act” are made to leverage their false claims of human rights abuses to sanction and begin bringing down Russia’s leadership. The statement is signed off not by noted humanitarians, but by notorious Neo-Cons Eric Edelman, Jamie Fly, Robert Kagan, Kramer himself, and Stephen Rademaker, a corporate lobbyist at the notorious Podesta Group and a “foreign policy adviser” for Mitt Romney.”
Controlling Russian oil
There has been other evidence of US meddling in Russia. Former oil baron of the Yukos Oil Company in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, reportedly was used by the West to create infrastructural problems within Russia through the Carlyle Group. He even started a Russian foundation echoing George Soros’s group the Open Society, called the Open Russia Foundation, listing Henry Kissinger and Jacob Rothschild on its board. He was later caught trying to buy an election using his wealth to challenge Putin to become President. It was also said that behind the scenes he was looking to change the oil business in Russia, specifically parties that could own oil in Russia. The West crafted a different version of events following his arrest to garner public support against those in power within Russia.
This is how the West exudes its power over other countries by selling distortions to promote its failing policies. This is reflected in the sweeping executive order Obama recently signed regarding Ukrainian sanctions.
Read Bloomberg’s report below…
(Photo credit: bayardandholmes)
U.S. Agents Start Hunting for Sanctioned Russians’ ‘Shiny Toys’
Prashant Gopal
Bloomberg
The Department of Homeland Security has begun a search for planes, yachts, mansions and other U.S. belongings of Russians facing Ukraine-related sanctions.
Agents are looking for “shiny toys” that wealthy Russians on the sanctions list likely have hidden behind layers of shell companies, as well as their bank accounts and investments, said John Tobon, who heads the agency’s financial investigations division in Miami. The U.S. government has blacklisted 19 companies and 45 political and business leaders, including four it designated as members of Putin’s inner circle.
Any assets traced to blacklisted Russians will be frozen by the Treasury Department, which enforces sanctions, Tobon said. Agents from Homeland Security’s Foreign Corruption Investigations Group, including forensic accountants and intelligence analysts, are working on the case, along with other branches of the federal government, he said.
“This is the equivalent of the U.S. Treasury throwing up a bat signal — it’s all hands on deck and here is your mission,” Tobon said. “The challenge comes to trying to find an asset that somebody is deliberately trying to hide.”
Freezing the assets could “translate quickly into political pressure” on Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Neil Shearing, chief emerging market economist for Capital Economics Ltd. in London.
READ MORE UKRAINE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Ukraine Files
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