It's been revealed a New Zealand financial services company chaired by Jim Anderton's deputy Matt Robson tried and failed to get a lightning ex parte injunction Download Copy to prevent last Friday night's TGIF Edition from going out.
Documents filed in the court attempt, and served on Investigate magazine editor Ian Wishart last night, disclose WSD Global Markets Limited was knocked back in its attempt Friday, by the High Court's Justice Harrison, who ordered WSD to formally notify Investigate and TGIF of the gagging attempt.
However, the matter has been set down for another hearing tomorrow in a bid to prevent TGIF Edition from running part two of its investigation into Wall Street Banking Corporation and its NZ affiliate WSD Global Markets Ltd, which is chaired by Robson.
The court documents disclose Robson played a key role in trying to gag the newspaper.
In his own confusing affidavit , Robson admits that New Zealand's Serious Fraud Office compelled his company to front up with documents held in its Auckland office that were relevant to an investigation of sister company WSBC, yet Robson inexplicably then denies knowing of any criminal investigation into the transactions involving WSBC.
Robson, a former lawyer, appears to be unaware that the Serious Fraud Office investigates possible financial crimes. The details of the Serious Fraud Office notice, which Robson kindly annexed to his affidavit, reveal they concern exactly the same transactions detailed in the latest TGIF Edition, specifically a 2007 money laundering ring busted by the CIA, MI6, and the intelligence agencies of UAE and India.
Significantly, WSD admits holding records in Auckland in relation to a Kumar Trading Company, whilst a Times of India report associates Kumar Trading with "confessed" al Qa'ida money launderer Naresh Chandra Jain.
Robson's affidavit also appears to conflict in places with that of a WSBC Cook Islands executive, adduced in the same injunction attempt against TGIF.
The court proceedings tomorrow are a bizarre case of deja vu for Investigate editor Ian Wishart, who famously won a massive legal battle against Cook Islands tax haven bank European Pacific in 1994, allowing a TVNZ documentary on the winebox deals to go ahead.
Legal experts spoken to by TGIF give Matt Robson's gagging attempt "no chance" of success this time around, either.
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Vintage stuff !
Both the continued scumbaggery in offshore banking and the mewling, wide-eyed gallop for injunctions against dawning reality , )
Congratulations to Investigate for unearthing just how utterly rotten global financial systems are, even in our own backyard.
Or, perhaps, especially in our own back yard. Point of clarification? Would Wishart care to comment on the fact that his neocon mates like ACT Party apologists are the sort of coves who also use tax havens, not infrequently for fraudulent purposes?
Witness, whither, the Winebox?
And would he also care to comment on the fact that so-called nanny states, caring for the future of their citizens, cause a hell of a lot less damage than their free market fundamentalist friends?
Meantime, here's a link to an Independent story on a more modern multibillion fraud.
Making ample use of the US-led "war on terror" -war profiteers do not even have to make use of 'free' markets - free being a relative term given their recent multitrillion dollar losses - they just sign up for 'no-bid' contracts and wait for the dosh to roll on in , )
http://avaiki.blogspot.com/2009/02/war-fraud-may-hit-us125m.html
. . .
Posted by: jason brown | February 17, 2009 at 08:59 PM
U are oke
Posted by: Hendri, S.ST | February 25, 2009 at 10:42 PM
Just noticed this. As reference for the future (and because you are a journalist, so it might well come up), I would note that the verb form of injunction is "enjoin". Injunct is not a word.
Posted by: Graeme | March 25, 2009 at 02:03 PM
Hi Graeme. My first reaction was "you're dead right", which prompted me to wonder why I'd lizard-brained the usage of injunct in this way.
I was relieved to see the verb to injunct has been creeping into legal and journalistic usage since the 19th century, however, more often in the US but apparently now in Britain as well. It is recognised by the Oxford and Merriam-Webster.
I can only presume my own usage in this way began with the endless legal briefings I've enjoyed on defamation etc and it stuck in my mind.
I haven't heard enjoin used for quite a while now.
There is a debate about this linguistic development here:
http://www.vocaboly.com/forums/ftopic4337.html
Posted by: Ian | March 25, 2009 at 02:23 PM
Ian
Can you update us on the involvement of Richard Worth MP in this situation?
Or does his status as NATIONAL Minister automatically make him squeaky clean?
Ha Ha Ha !
Posted by: peter | April 06, 2009 at 07:59 PM
Ian
Is it true that the Serious Fraud Office has investigated this outfit and given them a clean bill of health?
Do you conveniently agree with this, and therefore Richard Worth and Matt Robson are exonerated?
Or do you disagree, in which case Richard Worth and Matt Robson may have more yet to answer.
I know you will want to have it both ways somehow!!
Posted by: peter | April 07, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Peter, I don't think Worth or Robson have done anything illegal at all, and have never suggested they have.
The Serious Fraud Office has, however, not given a clean bill of health to anyone involved in this investigation, so claims to the contrary constantly being made fly in the face of what the SFO is saying publicly.
I can't speak for those who continue to make such claims, nor for their wisdom in making them.
It is a matter of public record that WSBC Bank had a customer between 2001 and 2007 which turns out to have been a front company for a major Middle Eastern heroin trafficking operation with ties to crime boss Dawood Ibrahim and terror group al Qa'ida.
It is a matter of public record that there ongoing investigations by international law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including NZ's SFO, into the money laundering networks used.
It is a matter of public record that WSBC Bank is claimed, by its CEO, to be owned by a family trust whose beneficiaries are the children of the majority shareholder of WSD Global Markets Ltd.
Posted by: Ian | April 07, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Ian
It seems you were in Robson Robson Robson mode until you found out who other players were!
And speaking of Richard Worth, here is the latest?
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/5482885/richard-worth-final-warning/
You had better get on to this story Ian, unless you want to see Richard Worth disappearing without your customary boot up the backside!
Or is this really just a National Party Supporters site, masquerading as a kind of flat earth society and witch hunt.
Posted by: peter | April 07, 2009 at 04:12 PM
Ian,
could you explain the reason for that recent piece published regarding Mr Patel. It had the distinct feel of a right of reply/retraction story published as a result of threats of legal action
Posted by: rndm | April 10, 2009 at 10:37 AM
It's no secret we've been in a legal scrap with WSD Global Markets and WSBC Bank. We covered it extensively in TGIF Edition.
It became apparent, early on, however that WSD's directors had misfired on what our story was actually alleging and their court papers were all over the place.
I could see there was some genuine hurt, so we wrote to them warning that they were about to lose the main injunction hearing (even their QC conceded this) and after seeing their statement of claim that there was an extremely high likelihood that they would lose the defamation case as well, but only after much money had been expended all around.
After pointing out their weaknesses, I told them I was more than happy to run a right of reply, but that we would continue to do our own investigations and publish them, along with a clarification of what we were not alleging.
The essence of our story remains untouched...and we remain free and have continued to publish stories that we considered newsworthy.
Posted by: Ian | April 10, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Well Ian, you seem to have backed out of it with some vestige of dignity. Do we reallly expect to hear anything more?
As for "an extremely high likelihood that they would lose the defamation case as well", clearly there was not a strong enough likelihood for you to proceed anyway!!
This looks suspiciously like a back down to me.
I suppose the scalp of an ex politician like Matt Robson needs to be weighed up against the scalp of a current National minister. The outcome has been predictable in my opinion.
Posted by: peter | April 13, 2009 at 08:05 PM
Peter, it wasn't up to me to "proceed". I let WSD's lawyers know some bullets I would be firing if I had to (which have not been publicly detailed and which further weakened their case substantially), and they chose the sensible option.
At the end of the day, spending a million dollars on a court case only to lose it is Quixotic. I wasn't after Robson or Worth's scalps.
I know for a fact that you haven't read all the stories we've written on WSD and WSBC, so your comment regarding this being a 'back down' is being made from a contextual vacuum.
As every reader of this blog knows, I have never censored someone's comments on the grounds of politics or even if they were personal attacks on me, because I'm in favour of robust debate. Our decision to run a clarification and right of reply is entirely consistent with my approach here - and you of all people should appreciate that fact, Peter.
Posted by: Ian | April 13, 2009 at 08:23 PM
Ian .. Thanks for confirming my understanding of your position. If the next step would have been risking a million dollars then you have truly burned out on this item.
In the meantime read what Glynn Cardy has to say about Easter. He is like Richard Randerson - exploring the Christian/Agnostic interface and really finding there is not much difference between the two in this modern age.
0000000000000000000
Glynn Cardy: Let's celebrate the humanity of religion
4:00AM Thursday Apr 09, 2009
Glynn Cardy
For many Christians, Easter is a time to gather in churches and remember the founding story of their faith. Photo / The Oamaru Mail
Christians are once again about to celebrate their festival of Easter. There will be processions through streets following a cross.
There will be dawn services on hilltops. They will gather in churches to hear beautiful music and remember the founding story of their faith.
Easter, however, is not just important to Christians - it is a symbol for all who value freedom. One way of understanding the death and resurrection of Jesus is with the motif of freedom. Jesus was a free man.
Free in his mind and spirit. Those affronted by freedom killed him.
The resurrection celebrates that freedom actually can't be killed. When freedom is repressed it goes underground, only to emerge later in the lives and actions of others.
The spirit of freedom is more powerful than all the machinations and weapons of human control and repression. This is one way of understanding the hope celebrated at Easter. It is the hope upon which our modern Western world has been built.
The Bible contains within it a deep belief in the value of freedom. The founding story of the Hebrew nation, the escape from servitude in Egypt, is one of freedom. This parable, remembered in the ritualised history of both the Jewish Passover and the Christian Last Supper, extols the values of risk, rebellion, and freedom.
The early Christians understood Jesus as leading them into a new liberty - freedom from enslavement to the written word of the Jewish law.
As the story of the Exodus led in time to an institutional religion with rules and regulations, so the ministry of Jesus and his followers led in time to an institutionalised religion of power, control, and a surfeit of rules.
In the 16th century Martin Luther broke free of that religion and suggested that access to God is possible without ecclesiastical brokers. Yet the freedom of the Reformation was also in time curtailed by another form of bondage - enslavement to the written word of the Bible.
Despite the biblical support for the value of freedom, for most of the last 2000 years it was firmly believed in the Christian world that people were not meant to be free.
Rather they were meant to be subject to authority - subject to God the Supreme Ruler in the heavens and subject to the king who ruled under God on earth.
People were not even meant to be free to have their own thoughts, let alone express them. Freedom of expression is still today looked upon with suspicion and often antagonism by many political and religious authorities.
Yet the freedom of people to think for themselves and publicly express those thoughts led to the opening up of the modern world and to a whole series of emancipations.
First there came freedom from absolute monarchy and the advent of democracy. It is sobering to remember that before the 18th century, Christianity was wedded to the upholding of the royal power structures in society, and any attempt to overthrow them was regarded as a direct assault on the "will of God".
Secondly, there came the affirmation of basic human rights. Gradually over the last two centuries there has come the abolition of slavery, the rejection of racism, the emancipation of women, and the acceptance of gay and lesbian people. All these wonderful and hard-fought for changes pitted their proponents against conventional Christianity.
Thirdly, there has simultaneously been a steady erosion of belief in a supernatural Supreme Being whose revealed will was not to be questioned. No longer is there unquestioning acceptance of a being who dwells above and beyond the earth, and can direct the affairs of earthlings. Humanity in relation to this God was required to be dependent and subservient.
Belief in this being has broken down due to the tools of literary and historical analysis being applied to sacred writings like the Bible and revealing, along with the spiritual insights, the errors and prejudices of those who wrote them.
It has broken down because people have learnt that leaders and institutions are fallible and have used such a God to preserve their power. It has broken down because people have had the temerity to ask questions and expect a response.
Some would argue that the journey towards freedom - including democracy, human rights, and questioning of a Supreme Being - is dangerous and needs to be controlled. Others would argue that the future of spirituality is contingent upon freedom.
Spirituality in the Western world is increasingly not finding its sustenance in adherence to texts, creeds, and rules, but in discovering the essence of truth within each person and context.
Likewise, spirituality is increasingly discarding an unquestionable God-father and finding an incarnated God, indivisible from humanity, that critically engages with perceptions of truth.
* Archdeacon Glynn Cardy is vicar of St Matthews-in-the-city, Auckland.
Posted by: peter | April 14, 2009 at 08:28 PM
Following contribution of rndm (above), I was reading April 2009 Investigate and noticed the stroppiness at the origins of this thread had given way to something else - it looked something like a retraction as rndm notes.
As rndm says, the extensive "right of reply" you gave to Mr Patel, plus the tone of your article, seemed to be quite a back down.
Were people like Mr Patel, Matt Robson and Richard Worth happy about this?
The linkage between WSD and WSBC appears to have been disproved.
Is this a case of an old favourite song of mine:
"Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word?"
Posted by: peter | April 21, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Ian,
I am verey sure this female is Patels sister. She says below in Francesc Web under Fanatasy story. dated 23-09-2010.
http://www.fxstreet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55026
But she has failed to read your comments in 2009. which you may pl pass it to Francesc. for her understanding & awakening.
Ms. Fatima Writes,
I doubt if some the forum members are ridiculing the investigative agencies, the regulators and the governmental systems in the Cook Islands!!. The forum members perhaps ignore the fact that this story has originated in the imaginative canvass of an infamous journalist in New Zealand who later retracted this fantasy story through the same web magazine and also apologized when a defamation case against him was moved in the court.
Ian has replied in 2009 as below,
it wasn't up to me to "proceed". I let WSD's lawyers know some bullets I would be firing if I had to (which have not been publicly detailed and which further weakened their case substantially), and they chose the sensible option.
At the end of the day, spending a million dollars on a court case only to lose it is Quixotic. I wasn't after Robson or Worth's scalps.
I know for a fact that you haven't read all the stories we've written on WSD and WSBC, so your comment regarding this being a 'back down' is being made from a contextual vacuum.
After pointing out their weaknesses, I told them I was more than happy to run a right of reply, but that we would continue to do our own investigations and publish them, along with a clarification of what we were not alleging
Posted by: Ron | October 03, 2010 at 08:00 AM
Ron
Thank you for reviving this story - I was going to search for it. What is going here and who is involved?
Posted by: Peter | October 03, 2010 at 11:12 AM
Ron, as I've said before, you need only to point them towards our ongoing coverage that clearly showed companies in the Wall Street family had been used by organised crime and terrorists and were under FBI, DEA and Indian police scrutiny.
I gave Wall St a right of reply, but it never changed the core of the story.
In my opinion the men behind Wall Street companies, including Riaz Patel, have shown business practices that investors should steer clear of.
Posted by: Ian Wishart | October 03, 2010 at 01:45 PM
You could do worse than read the DEA story in this link to TGIF:
http://issuu.com/iwishart/docs/tgif6march09
Posted by: Ian Wishart | October 03, 2010 at 01:47 PM
It is funny to read, in another WEB site, a few guys who profit from Riaz Asgar Patel through his newly floated companies, seems to think all is well & fine. He sounds, if he thinks the world is Square, he wants rest all to think like him. Looks he has a biased view of Religions as he quotes in his write up as “INFIDELS" The guys have no clue how tricky & treacherous could be the promoters of WSBC. He means if he says the Earth is square , then we all should agree to it & say it is not spherical shaped. He wants us to say like him the Sun goes around the Earth & not other wise. What an IB is this, writing a shallow lecture which has no merit to console. I feel this IB should have another IB watching him. I feel & wonder. He writes like a kid, to say people are jealous and so on. People are not jealous but people have been cheated & hurt by WSBC/Riaz Asgar Patel’s, who ever ignorantly dealt with him/them. Who cares the writer weather he is an IB or not, cant there be a suspected questionable IB? Double Agent, Milking both ways, & making hey while the sun shines. Such happenings are nothing new. What difference does it make when he sees his pocket is full playing through Riaz Asgar Patel’s. If he is so knowledgeable & authoritative, can he tell all of us, how Riaz Asgar Patel did not cheat us & now through a CA Concern of NZ is now trying to regularize the fraud with some funny Excel Spread sheet, to suppress, hide and conceal fraud done to us in 2000/2001 by WSBC, while Riaz Asgar Patel was in DUBAI, as the CEO of WSBC Cook island & With his father at WSEC doing all this, then after a while disappeared & received his Citizen ship in NZ. since 2005. I was told by Ajmal Bashir, one of the WSBC Managers hired by Riaz Patel, about Patel’s under world connection in 2001, to silence me & not to publish the WSBC Fraud. I had passed this information to Riaz Asgar Patel’s friend then when he visited Dubai from USA too. I do not know true or false but it was told to me in 2001 for sure by Mr. Ajmal Bashir, I find nothing new in hearing it repeatedly.
Mr. Riaz Asgar Patel, presently a NZ Citizen & the promoter of WSBC Cook Island has deliberately flouted, violated 100% or more USA Govt. Securities boards Statutory, mandatory LAWS & the same has been now supported by another NZ Citizen & his firm for wages from WSBC. Wages could be quite attractive & mind boggling who knows.
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Posted by: Ron | October 05, 2010 at 05:03 AM
The SFO in NZ has cleared WSD GLOBAL Markets Ltd., RIAZ PATEL and related companies of any wrong doing and has closed its investigation. This is a perfect example of the Truth prevailing and finally the blackmailers and people that have consistently lead a smear and hate campaign against the company and its principles have EGG in their faces. It is unfortunate that the various blogs and forums over teh web were used to maliciously damage the companies reputation. However, in the end all that is restored. This is the 2nd SFO investigation into the company's affairs which has been closed and company and its principals cleared.
This post has been written from NZ by a concerned resident of NZ as I just coudnt figure out why so many web blogs and forums were targetting them until I did my own research and it wasnt long before I could find out the facts that there was massive hate and smear campaign led against these people culminating from disgruntled staff and business associates.
Marissa
Posted by: Marissa torcato | April 22, 2011 at 12:44 AM