Obviously these officials did not come to Athens to get briefed on SYRIZAian baptismal terms, but rather on the opportunities that can rise from the interim Memorandum (oops agreement) that was signed at the recent Eurogroup in Brussels and how they can capitalize on various Greek industries. According to the article, these opportunists were looking to find lady luck in areas such as corporate restructuring, recapitalization of credit institutions, reorganization of bankrupt businesses, real estate, tourism and energy. "
Unlike Greek voters, adds the article, these financial vultures did not hear hardliners press on about "paused privatizations" or the sale of "red loans" (some terms commonly used by the government over the past few weeks in order to retain face with their supporters).
Heading the list, according to "To Ethnos", were well known names such as: Soros Fund Management (manages funds 28 billion. dollars), Green light Capital (managed funds 5 billion. dollars), Tudor Capital (managed Chapters 6 billion. dollars), H2O (manages funds 11 billion. dollars), VR Capital (managed funds 3 billion. dollars), Millennium Management (manages funds 23 billion. dollars), Paulson & Co (manages funds 22.8 billion. dollars), Standard Life (manages funds of 195 billion. pounds).
Let's focus on some of the names (or bad boys) on this list (which until recently were described by SYRIZAians as "vultures" and used by the so-called far left party to criticise the previous conservative government). As you will see, these are the creme de la creme of bad boys in the hedge fund world... and -as expected- they are all out to capitalize heavily on Greece's woes.
Soros Fund Management, LLC - Soros Fund Management is the primary adviser for the Quantum Group of Funds; a family of funds dealing in international investments. The company invests in public equity and fixed income markets worldwide, as well as foreign exchange, currency, and commodity markets, and private equity and venture capital funds. The company is reported to have large investments in transportation, energy, retail, financial, and other industries. Geroge Soros is known for saving George Bush Jr from a 1990 bankruptcy. Soros still works with Bush Sr in the Carlyle Group a powerful financial organization & international weapons dealer controlled by the Rothschilds who own Vickers Munitions. Soros has been equally active in many changes of governments throughout the world including the overthrow of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze in 2003 a devout Orthodox Christian. Soros has also directly and provocatively financed anti-Hellenic organizations (or shady NGO's) that have determined themselves as "Macedonian" in Northern Greece (meaning FYROManian).
At the same time (and as noted in many other articles from HellasFrappe in the past) he finances (or financed) the Indymedia website which is home to the Leftist anarchy movement (which we also know is part of SYRIZA as well). OSI and Soros have contributed thousands to the far-left Independent Media Center, or Indymedia, known as an "independent news gathering collective," whose servers were seized by US federal law enforcement agencies. The action was apparently related to an investigation into international terrorism, kidnapping or money laundering. Basically Indymedia is a global participatory (anarchist) network that reports on political and social issues. The Greek chapter is also well known for publishing statements made by terrorist organizations, and believe it or not it overtly applauds violence as a political tactic. The site is also known as a paramilitary website, which apparently encourages hatred against anything and any one that is considered conservative, liberal or basically tips towards the Right (in other words anyone who is not a Leftist is targeted). As such the website follows the movement of the Golden Dawn party as well as many other ordinary people who make (or have made), the mistake of expressing Greek nationalist ideals.Who detests Greek nationalist ideals? Or nationalist ideals in general? Aside from Kissinger, there is always George Soros. Indymedia is funded by the Tides Foundation, which supports a slew of radical leftist organizations, and which has received millions in donations from George Soros’ Open Society Institute.
Furthermore, Soros has apparently also financially supported "Turkish" and/or "Cham" organizations that are vying to claim land from the Hellenic State (in order to further the dream of the "Great Albania" and the "Ottoman Empire"). An interesting move from this anti-Hellenic warmonger is that he is the main sponsor of CDRSEE. It is operated by his NGO called “Center for Democracy and Reconciliation of South East Europe” and maintains an office in Ano Poli in Thessaloniki. The first project CDRSEE undertook was the Joint History Project (four books of common Balkan history). Costas Carras one of the Board members of CDRSEE, among other books thanks the US State Department for assisting the publication of the books (Note that the State Department funded a US $100.000 a study of the “Relevance of the Smyrna Catastrophe”). The books distort historical truth and serve the claims of FYROM. At the same time they openly challenge the Hellenic cultural dimension and historical continuity of Macedonia and promote the alleged existence of a separate, Macedonian ethnic entity. The project has been also funded in part by Coca-Cola and believe it or not... the (Simitis clan-run) National Bank of Greece! Basically the main aim of the project is to impose the abolition of the term "Ottoman" from Greek textbooks. (Remember what former MP for the DIMAR party Maria Reppousis attempted to do? Guess who was backing her....)
In 2012 he openly warned EU leaders that the Eurozone had entered a fatal phase that might possibly lead to its final breakup.He then presented the creation of a “Solidarity Fund” destined especially for immigrants in Greece. It entails the financing of building constructions which are destined to refugees being sheltered in Greece. The first installments have been made by Soros himself, while a significant amount is already gathered and administered under the auspices of Raul Wallemberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, established in Sweden. In his speech in Berlin Soros put special emphasis on the fact that Greece is a country “in humanitarian need”. It should make one wonder why Soros puts such emphasis on the immigrants and ignores locals that are equally encountered with similar poverty issues. Also why is Soros not establishing his foundation in Greece to self-monitor developments, but decides to keep its siege in Sweden? This is certainly something that needs to be also questioned.
Soros also apparently helped arrange the visit of SYRIZA’s left-wing radical coalition leader Alexis Tsipras to the US, during which the Greek politician became acquainted with influential representatives of American political "establishment". There Tsipras received a distinct “go ahead” to “rule”. Greek analysts see in Soros' interest in Greek left-wing radicals another hidden motive. SYRIZA has been actively collaborating for long time with nongovernmental organizations in Greece, funded by Soros. The coalition of left-wing radicals actively supports sexual, ethnic and religious minorities. Many call the policy of this party anti-national as its leaders deny the genocide of Greeks in Asia Minor and stand for territorial concessions for Greece’s neighbors. The SYRIZA coalition is a consistent opponent of preserving the Church's influence on Greek society. It supports the removal of chaplains from the army, opposes the funding of priests' salaries from the state budget, and demands full separation of the Church from the state. Read more about Tsipras trip to the US click HERE.
The warning signs that Finance Minister Yianis Varoufakis is a “Trojan horse” for the global bankers are abundant. First, Varoufakis served as an economic adviser to the failed PASOK government of George Papandreou, the man who first put Greece on the road to draconian austerity measures. Varoufakis now claims that he was ardently opposed to Papandreou’s deal with the “Troika” but no one will ever know how much the now-anti austerity finance minister agreed to while he was advising Papadreou on the proper course of action to settle Greece’s enormous debt problem. Varoufakis is also a close friend and co-author of American economist and fellow University of Texas professor James K. Galbraith, the son of the late “eminence grise” of American economists, John Kenneth Galbraith. The later's ties to the global banking elite are exemplified by his guest scholar position at the elitist Brookings Institution in Washington. In other words, although Tsipras’s biography suggests a bona fide leftist, Varoufakis’s background indicates that Greece’s new finance minister is at home and comfortable with the banker elites who carved out Greece’s national soul with a sharp blade of austerity cuts to social security, public health, and other basic public services. More HERE.
Paulson & Co. - Another vulture fund that was present at this secret meeting, includes the Paulson & Co. investment company. According to Reuters this firm had invested in the collapse of the US mortgage system, and gained more than 1 billion US dollars as a cause of this criminal act. Let us not forget that this company also spread the American financial crisis globally and was even accused of doing so by US authorities (unfortunately its founder John Paulson was never charged). The company is an investment management firm, established by its president and portfolio manager, John Paulson. It specializes in "global merger, event arbitrage and credit strategies", the firm had a relatively low profile on Wall Street until its hugely successful bet against the sub prime mortgage market in 2007. Today it is headquartered in New York with offices in London and Hong Kong, the company operates as a partnership, managing eight hedge funds as of 2013. It has approximately 120 employees and $18 billion in assets under management. Paulson has been criticized in the ABACUS investment for paying Goldman Sachs $15 million to put together what was a collection of "toxic" sub prime securities with his help (creating "the concept" of the "ethically challenged `synthetic` securities") to be sold by Goldman to long investors so that Paulson could bet against it, a process critics complained was "sleazy", or the work of those lacking a "moral compass", though not illegal. Paulson at the time replied that they "were not involved in the marketing of any Abacus products to any third parties," and that "Paulson did not sponsor or initiate Goldman's Abacus program." In April 2010, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Goldman Sachs over the ABACUS Synthetic CDO (see above) alleging Goldman had (mis)represented the assembler of the mortgage package underlying the CDOs as an objective third party (ACA Management), when in fact a "short" standing to reap great financial benefit in the event the CDO's default (Paulson & Co.) had a major role in assembling the mortgage package. Quite interestingly... Paulson also has a long track record of investing in distressed debt, bankruptcies and restructurings. The 2008-2009 financial crisis resulted in a record high level of defaults and bankruptcies across numerous industries, and Paulson was a large investor in many of the largest and most prominent ones, including the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and liquidation.
Green Light Capital - A third company that was present as well includes the Green Light Capital. Its founder, David Einhorn, American hedge fund manager, specializes in the management of overdue debts (how quaint...). The remarkable thing about this company is that it had miraculously "predicted" the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and had sold its entire stock of shares prior to the collapse. Obviously this move did not rise from a gifted sense of the markets, but from what some believe was inside information. Speaking about insider information (a term we got accustomed to here in Greece when George Papandreou was in power) the U.K. Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined Einhorn and Greenlight Capital US $11.2 million for trading on inside information in January 2012. The FSA claimed Einhorn obtained information on the Punch Taverns Plc (PUB) equity fundraising by a broker representing the company prior to public knowledge of the event. Over the following days, Einhorn sold more than 11 million shares, avoiding a 29.9% stock price collapse and subsequent loss of about £5.8 million. Einhorn called the fine "unjust" and "inconsistent with the law" but said he would pay it "rather than continue an arduous fight". The fine was the second largest levied on an individual in the history of Britain’s Financial Services Authority.
Millennium Partners - In 1989, American hedge fund manager and billionaire, Israel Englander started Millennium Partners with Ronald Shear - whom he knew from his time at the American Stock Exchange - with $35 million in seed money (including $5 million from Englander himself and another $2 million from the Belzberg family). The firm got off to a rough start and Shear left in 1990. Since then, Englander has grown Millennium into a $20-plus billion dollar (under management) enterprise by using investment strategies like statistical arbitrage (quantitative analysis); fundamental long-short pairing; merger arbitrage (taking advantage of price differentials between a buy-out target company's stock price and bid price) and convertible arbitrage (taking advantage of price differentials between a company's stock price and convertible bond or stock warrant price). At any given time, Millennium holds thousands of investment positions and makes over 2 million trades on an average day. At the end of 2013, Millennium had 1500 employees in more than 12 offices around the world.
Standard Life - Standard Life plc is a long term savings and investment business, with headquarters in Edinburgh and operations around the globe. It has 1.5 million shareholders in more than 50 countries and over 6 million customers. In January 2006, Standard Life were accused of smearing a policy-holder, Michael Hogan, who was not happy with the way the company was being run. An e-mail sent to Standard Life executives and advisors (which was disclosed under the Data Protection Act) revealed an attempt to discredit him. In March 2007 the company announced it would cut 1,000 jobs in an attempt to save an additional £100 million per year in costs. One month later it was highlighted in the company's annual report that three of Standard Life's top executives (Sandy Crombie, Keith Skeoch and Trevor Matthews) were awarded more than £5 million in pay. A Standard Life spokesman defended the awards, citing the leadership's efforts in turning round the company's fortunes. In February 2014, Standard Life announced that it may move parts of their operations outside Scotland in the event of Scottish independence, if it was necessary to do so.
VR Capital Group - VR Capital Group Limited operates as a hedge fund manager. The Company is a leading alternative asset manager specializing in global emerging markets and distressed securities. According to the newspaper Ta Nea, a 810-square-meter property in London’s Holland Park, was purchased some time ago by hedge fund manager Richard Deitz and his wife Marina Nacheva. It should be noted that Deitz is the Founder, President and Director of VR Capital Group Ltd. In his article Three steps to put Greece on the road to sustainability which was published by the Greek daily Kathimerini in August 2012, we quote Deitz as confessing that he speculates on specific markets to find investment opportunities: “As a hedge fund manager with more than fifteen years of experience in sovereign defaults and restructurings (and a track record of finding investment opportunities in these events), including Greece, I believe that Greek solvency could be re-established with minimal cost to its European partners if the official sector embraces a constructive and creative three-step approach.”
H2O Asset Management LLP - H2O Asset Management LLP is a privately owned investment manager. According to Reuters this company has played one currency against another. It is operated by Bruno Crastes, a French fund manager specializing in absolute return/global bond strategies and CEO of H2O AM LLP. In 2010 he co-founded H2O AM LLP with Vincent Chaillley, focusing on liquid absolute return strategies. He was nominated "Best global bond manager of the past five years" in June 2013 with a performance of 89.71% vs. 33.65% for the peergroup. In December 2014, he arrived second in the Top 100 European fund managers ranking of l'Agefi Suisse. He is currently acting as CEO of H2O AM and Vincent Chailley as CIO. Significant shareholders of H2O AM LLP include Natixis Global Asset Management and H2O’s employees.
London Diversified Fund Management: London Diversified Fund Management, once a high flyer among fixed income hedge funds with $5 billion under management, took a severe blow as the global financial crisis struck and the U.S. in particular was hit with a crisis in the housing market. JPMorgan's LDFM’s London Select Fund is managed by David Gorton. Quite interestingly, Gorton’s career began 24 years ago at Chemical Bank, where he reportedly started out as a bond trader, specialised in forward rate agreements, and became joint head of Eurobond trading. Later on he spent three years at Chemical Bank. Gorton appears to have gone to HSBC where he continued to specialise in forward rates agreements, before being promoted to Chief Dealer for the US, responsible for all rates risk, in 1992. And (SURPRISE SURPRISE he is a former CIO at an internal fund with JPMorgan). Gorton made his first hedge fund move in 2002, back in the days when banks could still run funds of their own with impunity, JPMorgan hired him as chief investment officer to run its London Diversified Fund. Gorton and his team were successful, allegedly making 550m a year for the bank.
Tudor Capital: Paul Tudor Jones II is the founder of Tudor Investment Corporation, a private asset management company and hedge fund. As of March 2014, he was estimated to have a net worth of US $4.3 billion by Forbes Magazine and ranked as the 108th richest American and 345th richest in the world.With this financial success he founded the Robin Hood Foundation. In the documentary "Trader" Jones is seen as a young man predicting the 1987 crash, using methods similar to market forecaster Robert Prechter. Although the video was shown on public television in November 1987, few copies exist. On the Internet, bids for the video start at US $295. According to the video's director, Michael Glyn, Jones had requested in the 1990s that the documentary be removed from circulation. In the video, Jones can be seen huddled over a graph, comparing the market’s peak in 1987 with a previous high in 1929. As Elliott Wave theory would have it, the two market tops may have been 60 years apart but the herdlike exuberance of investors pushing stocks ever upward was the same. On Oct. 5, 1987, Prechter, then and now the best-known proponent of the theory, told his subscribers to sell. While the rest of Wall Street counted its losses, Jones, at age 32, returned 200 percent for his investors that year and drew a payday of an estimated $100 million for the year, an almost unheard-of sum at the time. This obviously controversial video (which shows how these hedge fund gurus manipulate the markets for their gains) has surfaced from time to time on different video sharing and torrent sites, but has often been taken down shortly thereafter due to copyright claims.
...and others
(Editor's Note: Frappers should not be shocked about these meetings. We are just simply relieved -and finally feel vindicated- that the mainstream media picked up on SYRIZA's link to Soros, JP Morgan and other such hedge fund vultures. HellasFrappe has in the past revealed these links through countless articles -especially that of its link to Soros- but we were always accused by some of our readers of supporting 'conspiracy theories'. Now that this relationship is finally confirmed and being exposed by the mainstream media, and now that it clearly proves that SYRIZA has the same friends as George Papandreou once did, it should make some of our critics rethink about their decision on January 25th 2015. Why? Because their score is something that is going to affect all of us... as well as be paid by all of us. Is the term "duped again" too harsh?)
References in Greek - To Ethnos, Logos Erimis, RealJewNews, rferl, Patrides, gulagbound, Taxalia, HellasFrappe 1, pravoslavie,
Company profiles from: Wikipedia, Bloomberg, Financial Times, New York Times,
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