Sales scam taints the 'Teflon President'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Observer

Sales scam taints the 'Teflon President'
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
The Observer, Sunday December 7 2008

Once one of South America's most popular leaders, President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia has become embroiled in a hugely damaging scandal concerning a pyramid scam. The affair is denting his support and threatening his campaign to change the constitution so he can seek re-election for a third term.

The collapse of a series of pyramid schemes involving perhaps as many as 4 million out of 44 million Colombians has significantly reduced popular support for a controversial figure credited with driving leftist guerillas out of the cities and back into the countryside.

The sheer scale of the scandal has had consequences for the country's economy and politics and now the President's family after it was revealed that two of Uribe's sons were friends with one of the figures behind the worst of the scams.

According to the Washington Post last week, the Attorney General's office has reported that an estimated $1bn (£700m) has been lost in four southern states alone.

At the centre of Uribe's difficulties is the figure of David Murcia, a pony-tailed 28-year-old former travelling salesman, who set up DMG Group Holdings, described as a complex mixture between a pyramid scheme and a money-laundering vehicle.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/07/colombia-avara-uribe-pyramid-scam

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http://www.semana.com.nyud.net:8090/photos/Generales/ImgArticulo_T2_51152_200821_164323.jpg

David Murcia

http://www.eltiempo.com.nyud.net:8090/colombia/justicia/IMAGEN/IMAGEN-4678878-1.jpg

http://www.cambio.com.co.nyud.net:8090/paiscambio/745/IMAGEN/IMAGEN-3761229-2.jpg

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1 week ago: An investor of DMG financial group from Putumayo department, protestst for
the arrest of DMG president, David Murcia Guzman, and for the closure of the entity, on
November 25, 2008. Around 600 investors arrived yesterday in Bogota to demand the released
of Murcia. The Colombian government ordered the arrest of the company's leaders since
authorities suspect that DMG -- with 52 branches -- is a massive machine to launder profits
from drug trafficking. According to Colombian authorities there are 200 "pyramids",
fraudulent structures that offer profits of up to 300% in few months, using the money
invested by new clients until they go bankrupt. Yet, in three years of investigating, they
have been unable to prove it.

[PSPS]

1. What do you expect? Uribe is another "loyal bushie" so one would assume he's a criminal thug.

His lifeless body should be swinging from a lamp post.

[Peace Patriot]

2. The word "teflon" seems to attach to criminal presidents.

They used it to describe Reagan, who colluded in the horrible massacre of TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Mayan villagers in Guatemala, in the 1980s, as well as thousands in other U.S./Reagan-instigated horrors, in Nicaragua and other countries.

It is a self-affirming word--"teflon"--convincing the corpo/fascist media, who use it, that it's okay to ignore the horrors, such as Reagan's massacres, or the Savings & Loans lootings, or the rewrite of the tax code to favor the rich. They cover up Reagan's responsibility; then they call it "teflon" if people are ignorant of his crimes.

In Uribe's case, it caused the corpo/fascist media not only to look away from the basis of his power--rightwing death squads and the horrible murders of thousands of union leaders, small peasant farmers, political leftists, human rights workers, journalists and by-standers (youths, lured by job offers, killed and dressed up as guerrilla fighters, to up the Colombian military's "body count" to impress the ghouls running our government)-- but also to look away from the falsity of polls and votes in Colombia. If anyone who raises his or her head in opposition can get it whacked off, polls and votes can't be anything but false. Fear rules the land.

Reagan had "teflon" because the corpo/fascst press (and our own party leaders) conspired to hide his terrible crimes from the American people. Uribe had "teflon" for similar reasons--intimidation of journalists, and lies by the corpo/fascist press, there and here, and the lies of our government (including some Democratic leaders).

Not "teflon." Lies. Propaganda. Blindness.

[No Elephants]

4. According to the ads, nothing sticks to Teflon. So, when no charges or accusations stick to

someone, that person is said to be made of Teflon. "Teflon" has been used to describe such diverse creatures as Mafiosi and Presidents, including Clinton. IMO, the ultimate Teflon President has been Dummya; and I blame the 2007 Congress for some of that.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Uribe’s son linked to money laundering

Uribe’s son linked to money laundering
Web posted at: 12/7/2008 8:42:5
Source ::: .AFP

BOGOTA: President Alvaro Uribe’s son, Jeronimo, had a business relationship with DMG investment group, which is under investigation for a pyramid and money laundering scheme used by drug traffickers, Cambio weekly said Friday.

Uribe’s sons, Jeronimo and Tomas, own the “Salvarte” arts and crafts firm that in December 2006 participated in the opening of DMG’s Body Channel on television, Cambio said.

Jeronimo Uribe told the magazine he had a “small business relationship” with DMG public relations officer Daniel Angel when he delivered 15 costumes worn by models hired for the channel’s opening ceremony. He said he did not ask for “any payment.”

The Uribe brothers Friday wrote Cambio denying the story, saying: “at no time did we have a business relation with Mr Daniel Angel nor with the television company Body Channel. The story the magazine has published is false.”

More:
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Americas&month=December2008&file=World_News200812078425.xml
Agence-France Presse

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Proud dad with his sonny boys, Tomás y Jerónimo

http://www.cmi.com.co.nyud.net:8090/Imgaleria/jeronimouribe.jpg http://www.calibuenanota.com.nyud.net:8090/fotos_notas/jero.jpg

Jerónimo Uribe

http://www.entretenete.com.nyud.net:8090/images/jetsetportada2208.jpg http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/0aqX0yC3ZNghY/340x.jpg

Tomás Uribe

[Judi Lynn]

5. Colombia Reels After Investment Schemes

Colombia Reels After Investment Schemes
Scandal Has Riveted Residents, Shaken Economy and Damaged Uribe's Standing

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, December 5, 2008; Page A17

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The pied piper was a gangly, long-haired entrepreneur whose remarkable success story seemed to augur well for those who invested in his get-rich scheme. David Murcia, 28, had gone from being a traveling salesman making $130 a month to living in a luxury high-rise, driving a Ferrari and forging ties with government officials.

Investigators now say Murcia ran a secretive, hydra-headed enterprise -- part pyramid scheme, part money-laundering business -- that provided investors with returns of up to 300 percent in just a few months. His company, DMG Group Holdings, along with 250 other pyramid schemes nationwide, attracted hundreds of thousands of working-class people starry-eyed with promises of an easy payday.

But DMG and the others -- including the now-infamous DRFE, whose initials stood for "Fast Money, Easy Cash" -- soon collapsed, and Murcia and his associates are in jail. The attorney general's office said that perhaps as many as 4 million people in a country of 44 million lost money, an estimated $1 billion in four hard-hit southern states alone.

The ensuing scandal has riveted this country, shaken the economy and damaged the so-called Teflon president -- Álvaro Uribe -- like nothing before. A weekend poll on Uribe's governance showed that 77 percent of Colombians surveyed in the country's south believe that things are going badly, and support for his reelection bid is wavering.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/04/AR2008120403545.html

[MiniMe]

6. Damn you, I read the thread title and thought you were talking about *

How disapointing that you weren't :hi: