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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Democratic Fundraiser Charged in Citigroup Fraud |
| 2009-08-26 |
| The U.S. attorney in New York on Tuesday charged a New York investor and major Democratic fund-raiser with a $74 million scheme to defraud Citigroup. Hassan Nemazee, 59, was charged with one count of bank fraud, and faces up to 30 years in prison plus a fine. His lawyer Marc Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Nemazee was a national finance chair of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, and a supporter of John Kerry's run for the White House in 2004. He typically donates more than $100,000 annually to Democratic political candidates, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Charles Schumer, and sits on the board of the Iranian American Political Action Committee. Bill Clinton, when he was president, nominated Nemazee to be U.S. ambassador to Argentina. Prosecutors said Nemazee, the chairman and chief executive of Nemazee Capital, sought to induce Citigroup's banking unit to lend up to $74 million based on fraudulent and forged documents suggesting that he had hundreds of millions of dollars of accounts available as collateral. They said Nemazee also provided Citigroup with fake references so that when the bank would try to confirm details about his accounts, it would actually be contacting him. The scheme lasted from December 2006 to this month, the prosecutors said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Hassan's mistake was not adding 2 or 3 zeroes to the amount. Then the federal govt would have bailed him out. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-08-26 20:46 |
| #1 he didn't eat at Taco Bell, but did try the "Run for the Border™". The FBI was not amused or unaware |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-08-26 19:13 |