Nazarbayev and the CIA case of the middle man

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://oilandglory.com/labels/Nazarbayev.html

The latest from the federal courtroom hosting the foreign bribery case of uber-middleman James Giffen is that only his lawyers can examine files disgorged from the Central Intelligence Agency. Unless the CIA grants specific permission for a requested document, Giffen himself cannot look at the classified material.

That’s from a decision issued by federal Judge William Pauley in New York. The ruling was handed down June 5th, but I haven’t seen it published anywhere. At the time of Giffen’s 2003 arrest, it was the biggest U.S. foreign bribery case since the law was enacted in 1977.

The 68-year-old Giffen has a long history of business in the Soviet Union and then Kazakhstan. Starting in 1969, he stood as a middleman in deals between American businesses and Soviet enterprises. In 1987, he introduced Chevron to Mikhail Gorbachev, leading to the company’s eventual acquisition of the supergiant Tengiz field in Kazakhstan, its single-biggest oil property. After the Soviet collapse, he cozied up to Kazakhstan leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, becoming his main oil adviser and, for a time during the late 1990s, the go-to middleman for any major oil deal in the Central Asian country.

Six years ago, that world came tumbling down when Giffen was arrested at JFK. The charges are that, as Nazarbayev’s consultant, he channeled some $80 million in payments from American oil companies to European bank accounts held by the Kazakh president and other leading Kazakhs.

As discussed last month, the CIA documents represent Giffen’s last line of defense. He claims that the entire time he was working with Nazarbayev, he was also briefing U.S. intelligence agencies. As effectively a U.S. intelligence asset, Giffen says, he believed his actions were approved by the U.S. But to prove his case, he argued that he required access to classified documents.

The case has been stalled until now over the documents — most of the time, the CIA simply refused to cooperate with the prosecution; now it is cooperating, but it doesn’t want Giffen himself to have automatic access to the classified documents.

In April, Judge Pauley sided with the CIA’s position, as channeled through the prosecution. Giffen’s lawyers asked him to reconsider; the argument went that Giffen himself might notice aspects of the documents that his lawyers wouldn’t.

Pauley ruled against Giffen. The next hearing is Sept. 23d. William Schwartz, Giffen’s lawyer, declines to comment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Giffen

James H. Giffen is an American businessman and an authority on American-Soviet trade. He is the founder and chairman of Mercator Corporation. He is the prime accused in the $80 million Kazakhgate bribery scandal, the largest US investigation ever into an overseas bribery case.

Giffen has had ties to the USSR dating back to the 1970s. After graduating from college, he worked for a subsidiary of Armco Steel, developing a relationship with Armco boss and future US commerce secretary C. William Verity, Jr. During the Cold War, Giffen was instrumental in setting up the multi-company American Trade Consortium (including large corporations such as RJR Nabisco, Chevron, Eastman Kodak, Johnson & Johnson and Archer Daniels Midland) to negotiate entry into the Soviet market with representatives of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhgate

Kazakhgate refers to the scandal surrounding James Giffen, an American businessman and former advisor of Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev. According to US prosecutors, Giffen allegedly paid $78 million in bribes to Nazarbayev and Nurlan Balgimbayev, former Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, to secure contracts over the Kashagan oil fields for Western companies in the 1990s. James Giffen was arrested in 2003 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York while attempting to board a plane to Paris, though in doing so it was later learned he was in no way attempting to flee the country. He had a return ticket and it was a normal planned business trip. He was charged by the US attorney’s office of the Southern District of New York with violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1974 and with money laundering. He was carrying a Kazakhstani diplomatic passport, though dual citizenship is not allowed by the laws of Kazakhstan. The attorney’s office also charged J. Bryan Williams III, a former Mobil executive, with tax evasion relating to kickbacks from Mobil’s business in Kazakhstan.

According to the federal bribery charges, Giffen is accused of creating Swiss bank accounts and transferring $20 million, paying tuition at exclusive boarding schools for family members of Kazakh officials, and buying millions of dollars in jewelry. Giffen’s lawyers assert that Giffen was acting with the full knowledge and approval of the US government. Giffen has requested access to classified information at his trial to back up his claims. The government has opposed the revelation of classified information. He faces up to 88 years in prison if he is found guilty on all charges and only 4-7 years if he is found guilty only on tax evasion charges.

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav040803.shtml

Prior to merchant banker James Giffen’s indictment for allegedly engaging in corrupt transactions with top Kazakhstani officials, legal counsel for Kazakhstan repeatedly sought assurances from US justice officials that President Nursultan Nazarbayev would not be implicated in the case, according to a letter obtained by EurasiaNet. The letter also suggested that pressing ahead with the Giffen case could result in the deterioration of US-Kazakhstani bilateral relations.

The nine-page letter, dated September 9, 2002, is addressed to US Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson and is signed by Reid H. Weingarten, an attorney for the Washington, DC, law firm of Steptoe & Johnson. In it, Weingarten, writing “on behalf of his client, the Republic of Kazakhstan,” seeks Thompson’s intervention in what was at the time a grand jury investigation focusing on possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by Giffen, who is chairman of the merchant bank Mercator Corp.

Ultimately, Weingarten’s letter did not succeed in swaying the criminal investigation, which the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) describes as “ongoing.” On March 30, authorities arrested Giffen and subsequently indicted him on charges of making more that $78 million in illicit payments to “two senior officials of the Republic of Kazakhstan in connection with six separate oil transactions,” according to a press release issued by the US Attorney’s office, SDNY. Mercator brokered many of Kazakhstan’s most lucrative oil deals with Western conglomerates.

Weingarten’s letter was written several days after US Judge Denny Chin issued a ruling September 5, 2002, that allowed the grand jury investigation to proceed. In the note, Weingarten complains that unspecified offers of “the Republic’s cooperation in return for reasonable accommodation by the prosecutors have been rejected by the US Attorney for the SDNY and the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division.” The letter goes on to cite “the significant geopolitical implications of the investigation” in an attempt to justify the need for Thompson’s intervention.

Attorneys for Kazakhstan were apparently concerned that Nazarbayev, or other top Kazakhstani officials, would be explicitly named as targets of the grand jury investigation, or possibly even indicted, the letter indicated. Weingarten wrote that on two occasions – on July 27, 2001 and on March 18, 2002 — he met with SDNY prosecutors, seeking an effective guarantee that Nazarbayev would not be indicted.

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so our mate from kazakhstan was up to some funny business earlier this century..the involvement of the worlds biggest energy companies is not surprising..they will do anything to get their hands on resources..and they didnt want nazarbayev indicted..thats for sure..giffen was the middle man in these bribes..taking the money from the companies to the kazakhstan officials..same old game..

401

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~ by seeker401 on July 23, 2009.