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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (11970)	8/8/2003 10:15:33 AM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

SPARRING PARTNERS By CHRISTOPHER BYRON August 8, 2003 -- When undefeated middleweight contender Jermain ("Bad Intentions") Taylor steps into the ring for an ESPN 12-rounder in Little Rock, Ark. tonight, many of the key figures in the Lancer hedge fund scandal will be glued to their TV sets. That is because several of the fund's top officials and business partners hold private stakes in what appears to be a Lancer-affiliated company put together to manage Taylor's career as a prize fighter. The Lancer group, which operated out of swanky offices on Park Avenue and claimed more than $1 billion of assets under management, was shut down last month by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which charged it with a variety of fraudulent activities over a three-year period. Now some unexpected ties to the world of professional sports are beginning to surface, through a company known as World Class Boxing LLC. World Class holds a multi-year contract to manage the professional prize-fighting career of Taylor, a bronze-metal winner in the 2000 Olympics. Documents reviewed by The Post show that World Class Boxing LLC was set up in the spring of 2000 with Lancer's managing director, Michael Lauer, as its largest shareholder, and with two other Lancer officials - Eric Hauser and Martin Garvey - holding additional, although smaller stakes. Other large investors included a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., businessman named Stephen Harrington, and a New York investment broker named William Hunnicutt. Still other investors include shell companies in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland. It is unknown whether any Lancer money itself flowed into World Class Boxing, although sources in the case say that the company's business affairs have been conducted principally out of Lancer's Park Avenue offices. And the presence of Lancer was felt in other ways, as well. At the time of the hedge fund group's collapse, Lancer's combined portfolios showed roughly $55 million worth of investments in Harrington's companies. Harrington - the second largest investor in World Class behind Lauer himself - told The Post he personally knew very little of World Class's current activities, but that he had invested in the LLC as a favor to Lauer.

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (11970)	8/8/2003 10:15:45 AM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

FBI Uncovers International Bank Fraud Scam James Donahower New York 14 May 2002, 21:34 UTC Listen to James Donahower's report (RealAudio) Donahower report - Download 259k (RealAudio) In New York Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI announced that they have uncovered a sophisticated international scheme to defraud major banks out of more than $600 million. The alleged scheme was simple enough. Four men, Narenda Kumar Kastogi, Anil Anand, Manoj Nijhawan and Udhay Shankar, told various banks that they needed loans to finance metal trades involving parties in India, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. They provided the banks with all of the paperwork for such trades. But the loans were false. Neither the buyer in the trade, nor the seller, nor the metal itself, existed. U.S. Attorney James Comey explains how an official at J.P. Morgan Chase, one of the "victim" banks, caught onto the scam. "An alert representative of that bank who got suspicious took a walk one day and went to check out an outfit called 'Island Metals', which was allegedly one of the suppliers, one of the sellers of metal that had received $1.2 million in Chase money," he said. "What he found was a nondescript Manhattan office building, a door with a peep-hole in it, and a tiny little sign that said "Island Metals" on it. Not the kind of entrance way that Chase officials expected to find for someone who had $1.2 million of their money." The U.S. Attorney's office says that the defendants would sometimes use loans from one bank to pay the debts owed to another bank. The banks include the China Bank Trust, the Hypo Vereins Bank and the Dresdner Bank Lateinamerika. One of the men charged is a naturalized U.S. citizen. The other three are Indian nationals with permanent legal residency. The men will be charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud, and face penalties of up to five years' imprisonment and $250,000 in fines. Prosecutors say the investigation will continue as they pursue other conspirators in the international scam.