|
How Montreal's Power Corp. got caught up in Oil for Food fiasco
 Long article on the interconnections, intermarriages, and machinations of Power Corp, Canadian governments past and present, the UN, France, and Paul Volker. Here is a sample paragraph:Just a month before the Canada Free Press revealed that Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, is a member of Power Corp.'s international advisory board—and a close friend and personal adviser to Power's owner, Paul Desmarais Sr.—a U.S. congressional investigation into the UN scandal discovered that Power Corp. had extensive connections to BNP Paribas, a French bank that had been handpicked by the UN in 1996 to broker the Oil-for-Food program. In fact, Power actually once owned a stake in Paribas through its subsidiary, Pargesa Holding SA. The bank also purchased a stake in Power Corp. in the mid-seventies and, as recently as 2003, BNP Paribas had a 14.7 per cent equity and 21.3 per cent voting stake in Pargesa, company records show. John Rae, a director and former executive at Power (brother of former Ontario premier Bob Rae), was president and a director of the Paribas Bank of Canada until 2000. And Power Corp. director Michel François-Poncet, who was, in 2001, the vice-chairman of Pargesa, also sat on Paribas's board, though he died Feb. 10, at the age of 70. A former chair of Paribas's management board, André Levy-Lang, is currently a member of Power's international advisory council. And Amaury-Daniel de Seze, a member of BNP Paribas's executive council, also sat on Pargesa's administrative council in 2002. Posted by: trailing wife 2005-03-10 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=58491 |