Posted originally on Feb 18, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |
QUESTION #1: I wrote an article entitled Trump’s Man in Germany; Thou Shalt Not Covet Another Man’ Wealth…..yet and in this article I mentioned you and posted the documentary done on the injustice in your imprisonment. Tonight I have reviewed all the court documents I could find on your case and it is quite apparent to me that there is a huge discrepancy between what the prosecutors accused you of and what the CFTC alleges happened through Republic Bank Trading Operation. You were basically accused of conspiracy yet I cannot find any information that would conclude you did any of the trading on your clients account.
Phil
QUESTION #2: Anna Paulina Luna represents you. Why has she not demanded that the House Judiciary Committee investigate your case when she went to bat for the rapper?
PY
ANSWER: I was NOT managing money for the Japanese. I was buying their portfolios of distressed Japanese stocks and issuing up to a 10-year note to repay at their original cost, covering their losses. The portfolios were down on average 40% in yen. Under Japanese law, you did not have to report investments mark-to-market. You reported a loss only when taken. The Japanese MOF (Ministry of Finance) approved a bailout. They had to review and approve each and every portfolio that I bought. You cannot issue a note in yen without government approval. Each account in the United States was in my name – not a client.
I bought the portfolios with a NOTE in yen that can ONLY be issued with government permission. I would then sell the portfolio, taking the loss for the client, so they did not have to report such devastation. I then converted the cash to dollars and invested in Fannie Maes becoming perhaps the largest invester earning 8% annually, which doubles your money with interest in less than 10 years. The computer also showed the yes would crash so I could revover losses with interest and currency. I was making money of the currency and the interest. Even Republic’s audit showed I was very conservative – opposite of the allegations. The futures were hedging yen at times.
Mark Pittman of Bloomberg News had just written an article on what we were doing in Japan, bailing out companies by buying their portfolios at cost, just a couple of months before. To cover up what the government did, Bloomberg removed Mark from covering my case, deleted all the evidence of what we were really doing, violating, I believe, my civil rights in conspiracy with the government, just as techs did with COVID. Bloomberg would NEVER report the truth. They supported the government in every possible way. I saw how corrupt Bloomberg News really was. This is a letter from Mark Pittman’s wife. Bloomberg even threatened her for using Mark’s stationery to let me know he had died. We use to publish daily reports on Bloomberg. They erase all our previous reports on Blomberg.
My Japanese clients believed that the Japanese government conspired with the US government to shut down our forecasting because we had “too much influence” since in March that year I had forecast that the LDP would lose the election in Japan for the first time since WWII and that forecast was correct. My clients did not believe the Financial Supervisory Administration could make a decimal error turning $1 billion into $10 billion when they audit all financial companies in Japan. That was a lot of money back then since Republic National Bank was bought by HSBC for $10 billion.
In the 1996 New York Magazine ran the story Republic National Bank and Edmund Safra funneling money into Russia entitled the Money Plane. Here is the Congressional Record concerning the issue. Money Plane Congressional Record, Volume 142 Issue 19 (Tuesday, February 13, 1996)
Hermitage Capital Management was a partnership between Edmund Safra and Bill Browder who previously was the right-hand man of Robert Maxwell, the father of Ghislaine Maxwell who was linked to Epstein. Robert Maxwell was part of the club and was linked to Mossad of Israel. They supported the coup to overthrow Gorbachev and was cutting a deal that all Jews in Russia coup then flee to Israel. The coup failed and Yeltsin came to power. Maxwell lost about £200 million on one of the failed market manipulations and he was going to have to testify, which would have exposed the CLUB so he conveniently fell off his yacht and drowned. Bill Browder then went into partnership with Safra still focused on Russia.
Safra was linked with Boris Abramovich Berezovsky and allegedly Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky, the media tycoon. As the plot was laid out by Russian sources, Yeltsin was convinced to take $7 billion from the IMF funds to refurbish the Kremlin – a staggering amount of money. The funds were wired to a largely unknown company in Switzerland. The wire was steered through Bank of New York and as soon as it was made, Safra had his bank run to the Feds and report that Bank of New York had just conducted a money laundering event. The Feds ran in wide-eyed and of course announced their action to the world before thoroughly investigating the allegations of Safra. I had a personal meeting with Dov Schlien president of Republic National Bank in March 1999 where he asked me to invest $10 billion offering a letter of credit guarantee. I sent an email to Tokyo explaining the offer to our office there with my recommendation to reject it.
It was at this time that THE CONSPIRATORS threatened Yeltsin with exposure of his theft of $7 billion on the world stage. The demand was to appoint Berezovsky as the new President of Russia and for Yeltsin to step down and not run in 2000. Yeltsin, realizing he was set up, turned to Putin who nobody had heard of. As the story goes, Putin promised to take care of everything if Yeltsin appointed him instead, Yeltsin resigned on December 31, 1999, after Safra was killed on December 3rd in Monaco. The Presidential elections were held in Russia on the 26th of March 2000 formally electing Putin.
Berezovsky and Gusinsky fled Russia with their assets confiscated with the former gaining political asylum in Britain and the latter taking off to Israel.I even had a meeting with the Assistant US Attorney in NY in April 2000 about this mess because they ran into huge problems with the whole Bank of New York alleged $7 billion Money Laundering. They could not get any cooperation from the Russian government.
It was Edmond Safra’s Republic National Bank then ran to the US Government in August 1999 and informed them that the Bank of New York had just wired $7 billion to Switzerland in a money laundering scam. The US authorities ran in immediately. The wire was sent to Mabetex, which was the Swiss based company ran by Kosovo/Swiss entrepreneur Behgjet Pacolli who claimed to have the contract to refurbish the Kremlin. He became President of Kosovo in 2011. The Bank of New York broker Lucy Edwards pleaded guilty but did no jail time because she “cooperated” with the government. At her sentencing, the Judge simply asked who was the $7 billion money laundering for? She replied it was a “ransom” for a Russian businessman. The Judge did not bother to even ask any names. The classic cover-up as if anyone would ever pay $7 billion ransom.
Giving the bank the benefit of the doubt, after asking me to invest $10 billion to take over Russia funding Hermitage Capital Management, and I rejected, warning them Russia would collapse, all I can assume is that, receiving this letter, they perhaps judged me by themselves and presumed I took the $10 billion and put it elsewhere. They stole the $1 billion that was there, ran to the government, and said they had no idea where the money was. That would be true concerning the $10 billion. The Federal Reserve went back and asked for clarification because that would be like $100 billion today. Only then did the Japanese FSA, 13 days later, send a correction letter reducing it to $1 billion as if this was an honest decimal error. The bank could not then say sorry, return the $1 billion, and tell the government they had no money whatsoever.
I met with the Receiver, Alan Cohen, and told him the bank stole the money. He said, “We believe the bank.” It is impossible to get $1 billion out of a bank and then say nobody knows where it went. That can only be done by wire. My lawyer, who they removed, Richard Altman, said “You should have run to London.” They would have had to put on a real case to get you back. The accounts were at Republic NY Securities in Philadelphia – NOT New York at Republic Bank. When my case was brought in NYC, my lawyer said of shit. NY practices law differently from any other court in the USA. Boy, did I discover how corrupt they really are.
The government looked at these transactions in dollars and constructively ignored the fact that they were yen transactions. They say the note had a 4% interest rates and looking at it in dollars, they then assumed I paid them 20% instead of 4% and concluded I was OVER PAYING my clients to get more money. They called it a Ponzi scheme, without understanding anything about cross-currency transactions.
When the bank pleaded guilty, suddenly, the government prosecutor Richard D. Owens told a separate court that the transactions were in yen. Yet in my case, he was using dollars. Normally, a receiver gathers the assets to repay the victims. In my case, I had a $400 million profit because the dollar rose and the yen fell from 120 to 68 yen to the dollar. They went to my clients asking them to sign a complaint against me looking that I paid them less dollars than I received. My clients were befuddled and said they were fine since the transactions were in yen, and I had redeemed $2 billion at that point. They then actually told the court I manipulated the Japanese yen to make them “THINK” they made money, since nobody would sign a complaint.
My lawyer pointed out that there were no complaints from any client, only allegations from the bank that stole the money. There was no crime whatsoever on my part. Just these idiots failing to understand the FOREX markets. It was that claim that I manipulated the yen to make my clients think they made money that even opened the eyes of Gretchen Morgenson at the NY Times. She said not even the central banks can do that. These people were prosecutors who did not understand foreign exchange at all.
Death in Monaco _ Vanity Fair 2000
Edmund Safra was killed, I believe buy the CIA, in Monaco. I also knew Dominick Dunne who investigated Safra. He told me that there were bullets found in his body and was being covered up. He also told me he was at a restaurant in Paris and someone walked up and threatened him to be careful what he writes about. They plant to be the head of Russia was Boris Berezovsky, who they claimed committed suicide, but his body guard said he was killed by MI6. Everyone involved was killed, except Bill Browder.
On April 27th, 2000, these government attorneys then realized everything was a lie. I had invoked a speedy trial, trying to get to a jury, and they were not about to let that happen. The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution explicitly guarantees the right to a public trial. They illegally closed the court, altered the transcripts to hide that fact, and threw out the press. The Associated Press was thrown out and reported the illegal “closed hearing,” where they then threw out all my lawyers. They added “some wondering if he can get a fair trial.” This is the Associated Press questioning if an American can get a fair trial in the United States!
When Richard Altman said he would defend me for free, Judge Owen then turned to the government and asked if they were investigating him as part of my conspiracy. They said, of course, lying to the court again. They he could not represent me if he were a co-defendant. No charges were ever filed against Richard.
I had later met a VP of one of the major newspapers in NYC, not Bloomberg, and he told me that when the judge illegally closed the court, threw the Associated Press out, and altered the transcript to hide that fact, they knew I was innocent. And we have the audacity to criticize China or Russia on human rights when they do whatever they want to hide what they have done. Worse yet, not a single member of Congress will dare to ask for an investigation, fearing they will then target them.
They first tried to create a contempt claiming I went to the office, got past their guards, stole all the evidence that proved me guilty, their guards chased me through the parking lot, I assume carrying unknow number of boxes, and I got away. My lawyer, Richard Altman, was a personal friend. He called me and asked if I was crazy, and told me the allegations, and we have a contempt hearing tomorrow. I told him I was in NYC and to call the security company because I would have had to swipe an access card twice to get in. They told him nobody went into that office.
I believe the government was illegally tapping my lawyer’s phone when we went to court, as the Judge is entering the room, the government jumps up and claims there was a mistake. The dribble went on and on, and finally claimed that someone moved boxes from one room to another, but nothing was stolen. Judge Owen then says they dropped the charges, and I was “in good shape.” But when I got the transcript, the 20-minute dribble and outrageous explanation that guards chased me through parking lots was all removed.
When I asked what happened to the transcript, I was told that in NYC, the Judge can alter the court records. If I did that, it would be 5 years in prison.
Transcript after transcript was being altered. Being pro se, I did not have to comply with the same rules as a lawyer. I filed a motion to recuse Judge Richard Owen. When I went to court that day, hundreds of people came. I asked what was going on. The lawyers said it’s you. I asked me? They said, “You cannot accuse a federal judge of committing a felony.” I replied, you all say they do that. He then said, “Yes, but you cannot accuse the judge.” Judge Owen understood I knew what I was doing. A lawyer has to provide a list of witnesses you will call, and the judge has to approve them BEFORE they testify. As pro se, I did not have to comply with these rules. He saw hundreds of people there and had no idea I was going to start calling witnesses.
Judge Owen got scared. He said he altered the transcripts, but he did not recall altering anything material. He refused to recuse himself. I appealed, and of course, the court of appeals claimed they never got it, and I was out of time to appeal. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that judges were altering transcripts. They claimed they lacked the power to tell judges to obey the law. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals refused to ever review anything. The outright violation of law and international human rights meant nothing to any court.
I did an interview with the Japanese Press and asked them to report that the bank stole the money and that they had been coming to New York to file a lawsuit against the bank, or they would never see a dime. They did as I directed. I then met with the lead counsel representing the Japanese, and he said I am terribly sorry for what they are doing to you. You are “collateral damage.” I said, yes, I know. We agree to help each other since we were on the same side.
The government then escorted HSBC into the criminal court to put a Gag Order on me to prevent me from helping my client against the bank. The law demands you MUST help the victims recover their losses. Nothing matters in New York City. It is a vile, corrupt legal system that should be razed to the ground and start over. Since it is a statutory court and ONLY the Supreme Court is constitutionally established, Congress can order the closure and begin anew. But nobody has the guts to reform and make sure citizens actually have constitutional rights.
The prosecutors lied to the courts and me. They seized my company, and I argued that under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Statute, the companies were entitled to a lawyer. Judge Owen denied that motion and said there was NO Civil Asset Forfeiture, and the government remained silent, for they were using a third court to which I was never served to seize all assets, claiming it was a fraud when it was not. Ethically, they should have informed the court that there was a third court and did not deny the companies any lawyers. If they told the truth, the receivership keeping me in contempt was illegal since the SEC could not seize the assets with a receiver that was PREVIOUSLY seized by the DOJ.
I only found out about that after the bank pleaded guilty, since the receiver handed my notes to the bank to redeem, as the Bank then pocketed the $400 million profit I had, and I have suspected everyone got a piece of the action. The bank redeemed the notes at $606 million, keeping my profit of $400 million. The receiver handed them my notes, and the deal was that they had to make all my clients whole. They did, and kept my $400 million profit.
Since all my clients were repaid, legally, I should have been released. The receiver then stood up and claimed that there was another fraud, but there were no charges. So the judge kept me in prison for another 5 years with absolutely no charge of anything. New York became no different than a banana republic.
They then wanted to fire all my employees, 240 in total, and stop all the forecasting, I believe, at the request of the Banks and hedge funds who lost billions on Russia. Even Soros and Bessent lost $2 billion on Russia. Bessent then left Soros.
A client offered to rent the company to keep the forecasting going. They refused and demanded that I turn over the source code to Socrates. With the receiver Alan Cohen being hired by Goldman Sachs directly to their board after getting all the recorded tapes from transactions that would have exposed the bankers inviting me to join in manipulations, I was not about to handover the source code. It would die with me.
I objected to turning over all the tapes, but the judge pretended they might lead to assets they knew the bank stole. Amazingly, the receive Alan Cohen then magickly becomes a board member of Goldman Sachs but continued as the receiver no runn8ing my company from the boardroom of Goldman Sachs.
They protect the banks in NYC, which is why no bankers are ever personally charged for anything, no matter how they blow up the economy routinely. When I asked a lawyer why no bankers are charged, he said: “You don’t shit where you eat!”
Since the tapes were EXCULPATORY, I was supposed to get copies. When I asked for them, the SEC then claimed that all the evidence in my case was destroyed in the World Trade Center attack. Even the court-appointed lawyer said they have to drop the case now since they claim the files are all gone. Naturally, they never follow the law.
I made a motion before Judge McKenna to compel the government to explain what I was even being charged with. He ordered the government to respond. They went to Chief Judge Michael Bernard Mukasey, and he took my case away from Judge McKenna and sent it to Judge John F. Keenan, who immediately overruled Judge McKenna and said that the motion is denied. He denied all discovery requests and made it clear this was a kangaroo court. The docket sheet was sealed so I cannot even see how they moved my case. Under Due Process, I should have the right to be heard. That was never even an option.
I was told to plead guilty to a conspiracy and face 5 years, or they would imprison me for 120 years. The deal was that I was to be given a Form B pleading, where you get credit for time served. They made it sound like once I pleaded, I would get to go home with the credit for the 7 years of contempt toward the 5-year sentence. Judge Kenan was ruthless. At the start of the hearing, he changed the terms and claimed he did not have the authority to give credit under a Form B pleading, where you get credit for time served. “Form B” is informal shorthand for a specific motion under a section of the U.S. Code (like 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b), which concerns credit for prior custody).
The government wrote the script, and I was not allowed to speak in my own words. The judge’s ultimate role is to determine, based on this entire conversation, that your plea meets the strict legal standards of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11. While the judge will ask you many questions, there is a critical moment where you must speak directly. This is your opportunity to explain to the court why you are guilty. The judge is not just a passive participant; they are the gatekeeper responsible for ensuring your plea is valid. If the judge is not satisfied with any part of the process, they can reject the plea.
Then Judge Kennan went out of his way to accuse me of stealing the idea of Pi for my model from a movie that did not even come out until 1998. They do not even give a shit and expect the press to write whatever they say because they hold the scepter of power. They were claiming notes I sold from 1989 were based on a model I took from a movie 10 years in the future.
I had no restitution since my clients were made whole by the Bank after stealing my $400 million profit in those notes.
The CFTC wanted $30 million in an account to take as a fine. But then the Supreme Court ruled that if you were denied the use of your funds to hire a lawyer of choice, the conviction is AUTOMATICALLY overruled. Because of the Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. 140 (2006), holding that a trial court’s erroneous deprivation of a criminal defendant’s choice of counsel entitles him to reversal of his conviction. There was $30 million in an account that the CFTC wanted as a fine until the Supreme Court ruled that the denial of the use of funds for counsel of choice is an automatic reversal of all proceedings. T, now they freaked out. The client had already been paid. To this day, I believe they just stole the money and have never provided any accounting.
This is a letter from the court-appointed forensic accountant. The Receiver Alan Cohen, Tancred Schiavoni, SEC, and CFTC, withheld exculpatory evidence and refused to ever provide anything to the court-appointed accountant. On the limited review he was able to do on the documents that had been submitted to the court, he concluded I was the victim of the Bank. The number of error trades stuffed into my accounts, I assumed they were parking their bad trades using my money. But after another journalist asked if they were laundering money through my accounts, “as they were doing in Madoff,” made me realize these were not errors. If the error trade was put back to the same account, then it would be an error, but if it went to a different account, then it was money laundering.
I assumed that they were trying to fund their takeover of Russia, still using my accounts, calling them errors. One prosecutor, Brian Coad, clearly wanted to go after the bank. I believe he saw what was going on. In the Court of Appeals, he told my lawyer Thomas Sjoblom directly, “We know he did not steal any money.” Richard D. Owens, the head prosecutor, I believe, removed him from my case because he disagreed.
In prison, the man in charge of the law library was Oliver Brown. At first, we butted heads and said all you rich guys are the same in here. Only after the 18 month civil contempt sentence was up, they spoke to the US Attorney, not the Receiver, SEC, or CFTC, who were just the front for the contempt. It was the prosecutor who was using three courts against each other. Oliver Brown came to me after the 18 months were up, and I should have been released. They conceded I was probably innocent and that they were just trying to break me.
I sued the SEC, assuming they barred me from the industry. They told the court I was NOT barred and I could apply any time I wanted. The District Court ignored all the pleadings, including an affidavit from Oliver Brown stating they were just trying to break me. The court ignored all the evidence and said I was not barred, so the case was dismissed.
But there are TWO IMPORTANT pieces here. (1) Oliver Brown stated that the civil contempt was really being directed by the DOJ and not the parallel civil court. (2) They had to be illegally tapping my lawyer’s phone. Marcus Vetter, who was filming the movie for Oliver Brown, then the DOJ showed up at his door to intimidate him the day before, not to be in the movie. How did they know when the filming would take place?
They went as far as to kill this movie to covertly break into Marcus’s studio in Germany and steal the footage. Marcus has a backup, so the movie appeared. His deal with Netflix was suddenly cancelled, no doubt after they got a phone call.
The film was shown in Europe and even in Canada as well as Asia. It was banned in the United States. So much for FREE SPEECH or anything whatsoever that is supposed to make the United States different from other nations. It’s all propaganda. This is the country they ask people to defend with their lives in battle. It is all to ensure that the US government always wins.
To make this even more bizar, during the 2007-2009 Crash & Great Recession, Congressman Walter Jones who was on the House Financial Services Committee, came to me for help since I was always on the opposite side of the table from the NY boys. Here I am helping during the Great Recession against the bankers and some directs the prison to cut off my communications and throw me in the hole. This letter was sent to the Warden. The head of the secret police who what the police in prisons, comes to take me out of the hole and is kissing my ass. By the time he takes me back to the camp, I meet with the Counselor and he says “You have a lot of juice!” When I asked why was going on, he said there was a Congressional investigation as to who and why the put me in the hole to cut off all communications. Everyone was throwing the Warden under the bus.
Any lawyer who looks at this shakes their head. You just can’t make up this stuff, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The CFTC took all the lawyers away, then moved for default judgement claiming I failed to respond. I stood up and cited the Supreme Court that a corporation cannot be represented pro se (by the individual). When I said your former law clerk, Alan Cohen, is the receiver, and they should have answered. He refused to ever defend the companies. Judge Owen was so pissed off, he called me a legal terrorist for it was probably the first time in his career that he ever had to deny a government motion.
They tried to kill me, but after being in a coma for 3 days, to their dismay, I survived.
Anna Paulina Luna
05:12
I have been asked by many why Luna hasn’t done something to correct this government outrage. While I know that she does know what they did to me, I believe it is the staff who are never really loyal to the person they serve. They are typically intermediated by outside sources and make sure any suggestion never actually reaches the congressman in question. That issue with Tory Lanez was Hollywood whereas I am in a different league.
I believe NOBODY will dare have this case reviewed because it was all about the regime change in Russia and the US interference in their 2000 election that resulted in blackmailing Yeltsin, who then turned to Putin. After all, Yeltsin had the US Neocons on one side and the Russian Neocons making an impeachment motion, trying to take Russia back to the USSR. Putin was neither an oligarch nor a communist. This is why the American Neocons hate him personally so much, because he even seized all the assets of Hermitage Capital Management, the company they wanted me to put in $10 billion.
The accountant for Hermatage Capital Management, which Putin seized that was operating the whole Russian scheme, was most likely killed to prevent him from telling the truth what was going on. It was John McCain who sponsored the Magnitsky Act. There was the controversy with Trump Jr. in the Trump Tower Meeting where some Russians were trying to tell him the truth about the Magnitsky Act. One of the lawyers who was on my case participated in that meeting. My case is so intertwined with national security I am lucky to still be alive.
It was John McCain who personally handed the fake Russian dossier on Trump paid for by Hillary to James B. Comey. It just so happened that James Comey was the lead prosecutor on my case and had to have approved of what they were doing. I believe that Comey was part of the deal for when he questioned Hillary the in the FBI, he took no notes. That does not happen. I believe that Hillary blamed Putin for interfering in the 2016 election assuming it was pay back for the 2000 attempt to impose regime change in Russia. She created the whole RussiaGate story. That was all proven to be a fraud upon the country by the Special Prosecutor that never existed and the Democrats were fined for the fake dossier. The Hill wrote that the people involved behind RussiaGate should be prosecuted. Nobody ever was. Welcome to the real America where Justice is reall spelled – “Just Us.”
Centinel2012 