The degradation of Greece, and its citizens, over the past two years is more than obvious. It began with "Money exists", as well as the line Greece is a corrupt nation, and a George Papandreou who was so hungry for power, that he literally sold his soul -and especially Greece- to the banking elite. We also stand by the opinion that the overall image George Papandreou gave the world about Greece, harmed our country to such an extent that it will take years, if not decades, to correct. That is why it makes perfect sense to us that organizations such as E.N.D. (End the National Debt) exist. We have featured several stories about this organization and their intentions, over the last few weeks but we only highlighted the news, HellasFrappe never conducted its own investigation into this case because quite simply we believed from day one that an offer like this was too good to be true.
But over the last few days we were very active, and have collected a lot of information that may -or may not- put and end... to END. But before we do that it would be wise to view the video report (below) by Makeleio, which was broadcasted on late on Friday night and where reporter Stefanos Chios dedicates at least half of his show to this subject. Some of his guests include sources from the Omogenia, who have conducted their own investigations on this subject and that and bring even more information to light.
So here goes: The incredible announcement by the End the National Debt organization (E.N.D.) for a 600 billion dollar loan to Greece definitely dominated the blog sphere throughout the week. So much so that the the mainstream picked up on the story and it basically dominated most of the panel discussions, as well as was the number one topic of discussion in most forums as well.
Almost instantly reporters, television personalities, as well as the ruling elite, called it a scam. Some even went as far as digging into the past of each member and bringing out their dirty laundry -which we find unprofessional-, while others even spoke about shady Soros backed "NGO's". Generally everyone was a little numb on the subject because let's face it, it is a lot of money and like we said earlier, it does sound too good to be true!
So HellasFrappe decided to conduct its own survey. The best place to start investigating this story, in our opinion, would be at the Bank of Montreal, where the organization claims to have deposited these funds. After checking out some of our sources HellasFrappe discovered that the Bank of Montreal does not have deposits worth 600 billion dollars. In fact the amount of its deposits that the Bank of Montreal holds total no more than 150 billion dollars and this includes its original capital as well as its deposits and/or reserves. Secondly, if the Bank of Montreal had this sort of capital, then it would of not acted "surprised" when this issue was brought to its attention, and most importantly it would not have announced that it plans to take legal action against all those who dared to implicate its name in this issue.
The documents that apparently were issued by the bank were in fact released by a private company or the “Federal Stock Transfer & Custody Agent” Co. This company supposedly manages billions of US Dollars, but there is no official email registered by the company, other than an electronic address that is connected to a chat room service on aol.com.
Then the next place to investigate would be Toronto. Here the Ambassador of Greece to Canada Mr. Dimitris Azemopoulos was quoted by the state news agency of Greece as saying that the deposit slips of the nonprofit group E.N.D. was never endorsed by the Consulate General in Toronto. So obviously, that puts and end to E.N.D. on that statement as well.
In the US, the FBI and the Federal Treasury issued a warning about potential "scammers" who claim to be billion-dollar bond holders. Also, some reports said that the FBI has already launched an investigation into this case. Again, this does not mean that the capital does not exist, but seriously would the FBI launch an investigation based on a hunch? Or would it launch an investigation based on solid evidence? (C'mon get real!)
In Greece, the Finance Ministry totally ignored the whole issue, noting that it never received such information so there is not much to quote on what the government's reaction to all of this news was.
At the same time, the Greek American tycoon John Katsimatidis (a very wealthy and very serious man), told the Athenian and Macedonian News Agency that this was all a scam.
And while all of this was occurring the chairman of the Committee for Greeks Abroad at the Greek Parliament, Mr. Adonis Georgiadis, filed a legal complaint with the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Mr. John Tentes, on the whole issue. In the legal action, Mr. Georgiades states that the information presented by the organization E.N.D. is obsolete and/or false, arguing that the offense of false news has been committed with the aim of misleading public opinion. Finally he also speaks about conspiracy scenarios which aim at creating tensions between between Greece, the US and Canada. The complaint is now to be forwarded to the District Attorney in Athens.
Scam Set Up Via IBOEs?
So now that we covered who said what, it is time to find out how was this "scam" -if it is a scam as everyone claims- was actually set up.
An incredible investigative report appeared on the GreekNews earlier in the week. The author indeed recognizes that the document, which was presented by END's president Mr. Emanuel Lambrakis, and which was also published on zougla.gr -as evidence- does indeed show a signature of a public notary, by the name is Gregory McGregor, and an endorsement, as being authentic, by the Consulates of Greece and Cyprus in Toronto, Canada. But, adds the author, this does not in any way prove that 650 billion dollars actually exists.
The author, who conducted his own investigation, questions whether this document is connected to a separate report it featured a few days earlier concerning International Bills of Exchange (ΙΒΟΕ). In his view, a good way to con people into thinking that you have large sums of money, without really having the capital, is through the IBOE method. The authenticity of the money in this case is only realized when the money is liquidated.
According to him, the first step would be to open a custodian account and following this, statements with the nominal value will be given to the holder of the account. Then these staements can in return be used to con anyone into thinking that the money actually exists. The author also says that most investors who use such "securities" know that they have no value, but they need these types of statements because if they are caught then they can always declare that they believed the statements were of value.
The author also says that if (and this is a BIG if) the capital is in the form of IBOE's then the E.N.D. organization should have a chest full of papers because in most cases IBOE's are usually issued at 500 million dollars a pop.
But all of this of course is just the author's hypotheses and does not in any way prove -or mean- that the bonds are not authentic and the money does not exist.
More tangible proof is needed in order to prove that they are fake. Right?
He then says something else that is pretty interesting. E.N.D. according to him, has referred to them being US Treasury bonds, and the author asks if this were true then why is there no UCC1 and UCC3 listed? According to him, this is an important item that proves their authenticity, so in all reality the credibility of the statements that were shown is questionable. IBOEs he adds, are essentially private contracts and are not traded on the markets.
HellasFrappe is not involved in asset management and/or investments, so all this "market talk" as well as how deposit slips of this sort are determined for their authenticity is basically Chinese to us. We need more proof. The above information, in our opinion might be well investigated, but nonetheless goes by a "what if" philosophy and is basically just a hypothesis from an author who sounds like he did an incredible investigation. It does not prove that the money does not exist and it does not prove if this whole thing is a scam to begin with.
More tangible proof and a more comprehensive way to understand things is needed so we dug into the subject a little more.
Following his rift with the president of the E.N.D. organization on live TV at the beginning of the week, Mr. Andonis Georgiadis posted the following three-page document on his Twitter account. He then forwarded the same file to the Supreme Court, to the MPs of the Greek Parliament, to the President of the Greek Parliament, to the Prime Minister of Greece as well as to the Ministers of Finance and Economy.
Here are the documents
If you look closely at the photos you will notice that the account bears the name "SOVEREIGN DEMOCRACY OF ELLAS", ie "sovereign democracy of Greece" and shows that 600 billion dollars have indeed been deposited in the name of the Greek Republic. You will also notice that it contains a due date, meaning that this amount can be liquidated as of August 2014. It also shows how this capital can be acquired once the conditions by the applicant are made, ie the End National Debt organization which is based in New York.
Hunting Down The Nonexistent END Organization
We spent hours upon hours on the Internet trying to find some sort of information on this organization and every single path led back to the mysterious shares of the bank d'Orient. Although Lambrakis specifically says in the video below to George Papadaki on ANT1 that the money does not involve the Banque d'Orient, we found another video which was broadcasted a year earlier which proves the exact opposite!
First listen to what he tells Papadaki when asked if the bonds that Mr. Artemis Sorras holds are connected to the Banque d'Orient case -at the beginning of the video or at 20 seconds into the video-.
Now listen to what he told reporter Makis Triantafyllopoulos in an interview that is dated Sep 19, 2011, during a discussion that even included Mr. Nikos Lygeros (geopolitical analyst, professor). The juicy parts begin at 17 minutes into the video. At 26 minutes into the video Lambrakis begins speaking live to Triantafyllopoulos and at 28 minutes into the video he clearly says that 4 of these Banque D'Orient shares were donated by the Sorras family to the E.N.D. organization in the framework of eliminating the Greek debt!
In order to understand who Artemios Sorras, and the “Bank of the Orient”, commonly known as the "Banque d ‘Orient" is, and what this case is about, then the best thing to do would be to read an article we published here on HellasFrappe one year ago by clicking here.
Loan To Alabama
And here is where it begins getting a little funny. The Logios Hermes news site (link below) published another document late on Wednesday which shows that the organization has already made a five billion dollar offer to the US State of Alabama so that it can help it to avoid formal bankruptcy. The documented is dated August 16, 2012 and filed through attorneys brand Barcley, Platt & Schmidt, LLP based in New York. The news site says it contacted the firm to investigate if the data was authentic and much to its surprise it is!
The offer is from the banking firm Diamond & Diamond, located in Toronto, Canada (516-18 Wynford Dr, Torondo, Ontario) and the benefactor of the fund is Mr. Artemis Sorras. The offer is addressed to various state officials in Alabama, one of which is the Mayor of Birmingham. The article in Logios Hermes then shows a series of documents featuring the 5 billion dollar offer from Mr Sorras that contain a symbolic rate 0.5% in interest to the state. Here are the documents:
On the last page of the offer, you will see note the signature of Mr Sorras and a witness (Mr John -Ioannis- Alexander). You will also notice another page of the document with the stamp of the Diamond & Diamond bank. You will also clearly notice the signatures of the chief executive of the banking firm, an endorsement certifying the authenticity of the signature and a stamped seal from the bank on house approved credit!
The documents appear to be authentic to us and they look like they contain the required information -but then again we here at HellasFrappe do not know much about bank credit papers therefore we are easily tricked-.
Interestingly they indicate that the US Secretary of Treasury will be in charge of this payment. (Hmm...)
Conclusion :
Simple: If the money does not exist then the US Treasury can easily -and should- launch an immediate investigation. Following this they should order the Attorney General of New York to arrest Mr. Artemios Sorras for fraud against the American government. Let's face it, if it is a scam in its entirety, then its key players will embark on a never ending judicial battle with the authorities, especially Mr. Sorras! Because quite simply American, Canadian and generally the Western judicial system does not operate much in the way it does in Greece, meaning that in these countries -which are better organized- if you do the crime... Then make no mistake about it... It is immediate imprisonment.
So the question remains... is this the end to E.N.D.? We here at HellasFrappe believe that there is more to this story than meets the eye. The investigative reports on iefimerida, on the GreekNews and on Makeleio were indeed very informative, but they did not present the proof needed in order to shut this case once and for good. They were based on a "what if" theory and an accusation that this issue is being used by the government so that it can "kill" the anti-Memorandum block and force Greeks to accept the austerity measures that are to be implemented as a result of the Memorandum (Yes believe it or not folks the issue also became political...!).
That is why we are continuing with our investigation, and we promise to produce a follow-up story in the next few days where we will discuss all possible conclusions.
References
Greek News IBOE - http://www.greeknewsonline.com/?p=22205#more-22205
Greek News IBOE - http://www.greeknewsonline.com/?p=22089
Loan To Alabama - http://www.logiosermis.net/greece/
iefimerida documents - http://www.iefimerida.gr
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