Former Uranium Transportation Company President Indicted on 11 Counts Related to Foreign Bribery, Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme


U.S. authorities believe from at least 2009 to October 2014 Mark Lambert (pictured below left) and other company executives, including Daren Condrey, conspired to bribe Vadim Mikerin, an official at the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation subsidiary (TENEX), in order to secure contracts for transporting nuclear fuel.

Daren Condrey plead guilty in June 2015 to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and wire fraud. Condrey likely flipped on his former partner, Mark Lambert.  [Mr. Condrey is awaiting sentencing, according to the Justice Department.]

(U.S. Dept. of Justice) […] Mark Lambert, 54, of Mount Airy, Maryland, was charged in an 11-count indictment with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to commit wire fraud, seven counts of violating the FCPA, two counts of wire fraud and one count of international promotion money laundering. 

The charges stem from an alleged scheme to bribe Vadim Mikerin, a Russian official at JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation and the sole supplier and exporter of Russian Federation uranium and uranium enrichment services to nuclear power companies worldwide, in order to secure contracts with TENEX.

The case against Lambert is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the District of Maryland.

According to the indictment, beginning at least as early as 2009 and continuing until October 2014, Lambert conspired with others at “Transportation Corporation A” to make corrupt and fraudulent bribery and kickback payments to offshore bank accounts associated with shell companies, at the direction of, and for the benefit of, a Russian official, Vadim Mikerin, in order to secure improper business advantages and obtain and retain business with TENEX.

In order to effectuate and conceal the corrupt and fraudulent bribe payments, Lambert and others allegedly caused fake invoices to be prepared, purportedly from TENEX to Transportation Corporation A, that described services that were never provided, and then Lambert and others caused Transportation Corporation A to wire the corrupt payments for those purported services to shell companies in Latvia, Cyprus and Switzerland.

Lambert and others also allegedly used code words like “lucky figures,” “LF,” “lucky numbers,” and “cake” to describe the payments in emails to the Russian official at his personal email account.  The indictment also alleges that Lambert and others caused Transportation Corporation A to over-bill TENEX by building the cost of the corrupt payments into their invoices, and TENEX thus overpaid for Transportation Corporation A’s services.   (read more)

Are Police Acting Like Thugs Because Judges Refuse to Defend the Constitution?


Teacher Deyshia Hargrave was questioning the school board how they can vote to give the superintendent a raise when school employees have not gotten a raise in years. A policeman from the parish Marshal’s Office told her to leave the room. He shut down her freedom of speech to even ask a question in a respectful manner.  He ordered her to step outside, pushed her to the ground, and then arrested her dragging her out in handcuffs.

The question this presents is why are police officer lacking any training about human and constitutional rights. Far too many seem they believe they are supreme in their authority and need not answer to anyone. This evolves because judges are not defending the constitution as a whole. There are no checks and balances anymore. What happened to “We the People” in this modern day?

Judge Throws Out Gov’t Case Against Bundy


The pressure has to be so great in this land to ever obtain any justice. In the case of the rancher, Bundy, the government has been on a crusade to imprison him if not outright murder him to uphold their supreme authority to ignore the Constitution.

A U.S. Federal District Judge Gloria Navarro dismissed all charges against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, his two sons and another man on Monday after accusing prosecutors of willfully withholding evidence from Bundy’s lawyers. Judge Navarro cited “flagrant prosecutorial misconduct” in her decision to dismiss all charges against the Nevada rancher and three others. She wrote: “The court finds that the universal sense of justice has been violated.”

This is what is called a Brady Violation. Rarely will any federal judge actually dismiss a criminal complaint of the government on a Brady Violation – perhaps one in a million, if that. They have also crafted “harmless error” analysis to basically say you would have been convicted anyhow so rights do not matter.

Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court which established that the prosecution must turn over all evidence that might exonerate the defendant (exculpatory evidence) to the defense. The prosecution failed to do so for Brady and he was convicted. Brady challenged his conviction, arguing it had been contrary to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Prosecutors hate to ever turnover anything that will defeat them in court. In United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667 (1985), the Supreme Court effectively overrule Brady by applying Harmless Error analysis meaning you have the burden to prove now that the evidence withheld WOULD HAVE changed the verdict. And who does the analysis? A judge of course and never the people.

In order for the Bundy charges to be thrown out, there must have been a lot of posturing behind the curtain. The government can always appeal and the likelihood of an appellate court overrule the district court is 100%. So what took place was to a large extent political. They wanted to get this off the table. Bunday spent 700 days in prison.

TIME is more than Money – It is EVERYTHING


TIME is more than just money; it’s absolutely everything and then some! Personal opinion just utterly fails because we are all human. Markets routinely do what the majority never expects. That is their function. They mutate like a virus always changing its genetic code to defeat medicine, or in this case, traders. Back on November 30th, 2017, I explained on the private blog: “We must respect that exceeding the November high now in December on a sustained basis, points to a January high. If we pull back, then January will be a low and then watch out for a sharp rally into March.”

TIME is the very fabric of the universe and probably the most misunderstood element of all. In physics, the relativity of simultaneity is the concept that baffles many. The question becomes, do two distant events actually take place simultaneously? Therefore, the question whether two spatially separated events occur at the same TIME is recognized to be far from absolute. It is “relative” depending on the observer’s reference frame. This becomes incredibly important in terms of forecasting the world markets.

To grasp what our model is really doing one must look at TIME and EVENTS more in the perspective of turning points – not specific events. Once you understand we are forecasting turning points on the TIME horizon, not specific events, you will begin to make a leap forward into a new world of understanding TIME.

Specific events on the horizon become easy for forecast based upon the trend in motion relative to TIME. When trends reach that events horizon in time, then a specific high or low is easily ascertained. Right now, we are in the throes of a major breakout and a characteristic of Vertical Markets has been what we call the Cycle Inversion process. Normally, turning points unfold in opposite pairs. So a November high would traditionally be followed by a January low. Merely exceeding the November high on a closing basis during December identified the continued rally into the next target being January 2018 warning we were (1) dealing with a Cycle Inversion, and (2) a Vertical Market that is going to be very difficult to trade for most people.

It is paramount that we understand how Vertical Markets function.

In Massachusetts – they Arrest You for failure to Renew a Dog License


Believe it or not, the town of Westminster in Massachusetts arrests people for failing to renew a dog license. The municipality issued an arrest warrant for Brian Vincent for not renewing his dog license. The town officials do not deny using the criminal procedure to collect fees. They claim that all proper procedures were followed when handling the issue of failing to renew a dog license. The police justify arresting citizens who fail to renew a pet license stating that “many years ago rabies was an issue and people in the state and the community wanted to make sure animals are registered” according to the Sentinel & Enterprise News. Once they pass something “many years ago” why give up that revenue even when the former justification vanishes.

The more governments become abusive all to get their hands on other people’s money, our most precious right, LIBERTY, is revoked for anything they can dream of. When government becomes abusive and takes the liberty of people for fines, no less non-violent offenses, it loses its ultimate authority to government historically. It simply becomes a waiting game to see how far they go which will spark the uprising as has always taken place throughout record history. The American Revolution was – No Taxation Without Representation. We no longer have a representative government or they would never act in such a manner.

COUNTERPARTY RISK



COUNTERPARTY RISK

QUESTION:  In regard to counterparty risk when purchasing exchange traded funds or notes: With European banks being under capitalised due to the excessive risk undertaken due to the EU regulations regarding bailouts, how can we measure the threat of each counterparty which has backed each ETF. Would it be safer to consider only ETFs with US counterparties, or is just another risk we have to take on board. Do we avoid these types of instruments in favour of choice companies.

JB

ANSWER: If you wish to use ETF’s, as they are extremely cheap and liquid, the large US names such as Vanguard, State Street etc. are available. We often write to hold the physical share certificate as the same as holding tangible assets but realize it is very difficult to take delivery.

The flow of capital to the US will obviously support US names at the expense of European. However, because of the size of the issue and Europe being the second largest economy on the planet, no-region will be without risk. CDS for the USA traded from 6 cents to 52 cents during the financial crisis, not because of potential default, simply because it was re-priced against every other sovereign! Simply holding US Dollars or considering a basket of currencies is another way of limiting risk from your core currency.
Please be aware that Armstrong Economics cannot provide personal guidance and all investment decisions should be undertaken using of an independent financial advisor.

Underwater Volcanoes Contribute to Warming Deep Water


 

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I read you Maya Report and found it fascinating how volcanic eruptions in the ocean are polarized to where the North Pole is at that time. Now we have people trying to claim that the heat from global warming is being hidden stored deep in the oceans. It seems once more these people ignore the fact that there are underwater volcanoes erupting more so now than before. Is that a true statement?

HEJ

ANSWER: Oh yes, that is correct. There have been attempts to measure the heat generated from underwater volcanic eruptions. They attempted that off the East Pacific Rise, which is a point in the ocean floor where continents move apart. This is where magma contained in the Earth’s core to rise to the surface and spew from underwater volcanoes. This data was part of what was supplied to me to run through our model to determine the cyclical nature of how the poles flip. The volcanic activity underwater is rising and no doubt has an impact on the temperature. There have been attempts to linked volcanism to tiny shifts in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, as well, that occur every 100,000 years. These shifts may trigger ice ages and warm periods, both of which affect global sea levels. That, in turn, would increase or suppress volcanic activity it is believed.

Nevertheless, the Global Warming crowd claims the oceans are getting warmer down deep and that must be from mankind. Once more, they take the results and fit it to a predetermined conclusion.

Dormant/Extinct Volcano Erupts for First Time in Recorded History


Another dormant volcano has suddenly awakened erupting in a rather spectacular fashion, spewing lava for the first time in known history, It sent an ash cloud 2.1 kilometers into the sky. This ancient volcano on Kadovar Island, which is northeast of Papua New Guinea, has been dormant throughout hu8man history until January 5th, 2018.  It began to erupt at around noon, local time. The volcanic island is about 24 kilometers from the northern coast of mainland Papua New Guinea. Our model is also showing that there will be a rise in volcanic activity as we move into 2024. We previously warned: “If we see a series of volcanic eruptions in the VEI 6 category or greater within 2018, expect to see a very sharp turn down in temperature and Global Cooling will take on rapid change going into 2024.” It is truly fascinating how this correlates to the change in the energy output of the sun

Snow in the Sahara Desert – 3rd Time in 37 years


Last year, the snow appeared in Spain wiping out the crops and causing rationing of vegetables. This year the snow went down even further and crossed into Algeria covering the desert. So while the Global Warming people are desperate to explain weather as caused by humans, we are ignoring the cycle of the sun which has caused ice ages and warming periods long before 1850. As the Dail Mail has reported, that up to 16 inches of snow has fallen on the Sahara desert. This is the third time in 37 years (8.6 x 4.3) that Algeria has even seen snow cover the desert. This is perfectly aligned with the 8.6-year cycle for the region.

It appears to be right on schedule since Socrates is pointing to a rise in food prices by the time we move into the peak of the next Economic Confidence Model 8.6-year wave – 2024.35. The satellite images from NASA show what took place. This is not just a small storm. Europe has been hit with the cold stretching down to the extremes where they have relied upon food during the winter season.

As we move into these last two wave formations, we will also have climate change on top of sovereign debt and pension crisis. It is reaching the point that whatever can go wrong, seems to be lining up.

Extreme Volatility in Weather – Part of Climate Change?


QUESTION: It is crazy hot here in Sydney the exact opposite of the extreme cold in the north. Is there an explanation at all for this?

ANSWER:  Most people do not realize that the climate is actually “polar opposites.” Both the Arctic (North Pole) and the Antarctic (South Pole) are cold because they don’t get any direct sunlight.  However, though the North Pole and the South Pole are “polar opposites,” they both get the same amount of sunlight but there is a major difference. The South Pole is a much colder than the North Pole and this also contributes to the difference in climate experience around the globe.

The Arctic is ocean surrounded by land whereas the Antarctic in the South is in fact land surrounded by ocean. Consequently, the ocean under the Arctic ice is cold, yet the water is still warmer than the ice! So the ocean warms the air which it cannot do in the South. Antarctica is dry despite the ice. Under the ice and snow, you find land with mountain ranges, not ocean. As with any mountain range, the higher you go, the colder it gets. The actual average elevation of Antarctica is about 7,500 feet (2.3 km).

The extreme heat in Australian, reached 47c (116f), is more akin to the Middle East in summer. I went trekking through the valley of the Kings in Egypt when it was 50c (122f) and I was the only one out and about while everyone stayed in the hotel. As the energy output of the sun collapses, we will witness growing extremes in different regions. The last time it was this hot in Sydney goes back to the 1930s during the Dust Bowl people in the USA. The cycle in extremes appears to be 86 years so this is on target. Australia is dry and ripe for wildfires the same as we see in California. This will contribute to the decline in food supply globally.