First of all, I want to apologize to our readers in being so slow in getting the story up about the Panama Papers and what they revealed about Mexican Businessman Juan Armando Hinojosa Cantú, described as Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s “favorite contractor.”
I started working on this story last Sunday, the 3rdof April, the day the leak went public. I spent between 30 and 40 hours this week researching, reading new stories and writing as more information was made public.
About 6AM this morning as I was writing the last few paragraphs that would have it ready to publish disaster struck. The whole “text box” with the draft went blank. The story was gone. I tried to retrieve it and even contacted Google and asked the question on the web as to how to retrieve it. No luck.
In my opinion, the real stories to be gleaned from the Panama Papers is in the details. That is what I tried to do in my story – where the leaks came from, the dates of the offshore transfers in relation to pending scandals, who the major players were (including Hinojosa’s mother and mother-in-law) , possible motivations for the offshore transfers to secret bank accounts, etc.
Rather than try to re-write my story, what I am presenting today is mostly excerpts from what I consider some of the best stories that in effect give a summary of what Panama Papers is and some of the material that deals with possible corruption in Mexico.
It should be emphasized that in none of the material that I have read would be proof that Hinojosa Cantu committed any crime. But taken in context of his relationship, both business and personal, raises some eyebrows and is evidence that justifies further investigation.
I am confident that from the 11 ½ million files constitute Panama Papers there will be much more to report that will be of interest to our readers. Next time I will write the stories in such a manner that I know I have a backup.
The following are excerpts from the International Coalition of Investigative Journalist (ICIJ) that give a summary of the Panama Papers and material about Armando Hinojosa Cantu:
"A giant leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records exposes a system that enables crime, corruption and wrongdoing, hidden by secretive offshore companies.
"Behind the email chains, invoices and documents that make up the Panama Papers are often unseen victims of wrongdoing enabled by the shadowy offshore industry.
“A massive leak of documents exposes the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders. The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.
. The cache of 11.5 million records shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.
They also include at least 33 people and companies blacklisted by the U.S. government because of evidence that they’d been involved in wrongdoing, such as doing business with Mexican drug lords, terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or rogue nations like North Korea and Iran.
The leaked data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015. It allows a never-before-seen view inside the offshore world — providing a day-to-day, decade-by-decade look at how dark money flows through the global financial system, breeding crime and stripping national treasuries of tax revenues.
The leaked data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015. It allows a never-before-seen view inside the offshore world — providing a day-to-day, decade-by-decade look at how dark money flows through the global financial system, breeding crime and stripping national treasuries of tax revenues.”
Excerpts from ICIJabout Armando Hinojosa and EPN ties.
“Juan Armando Hinojosa, who has been called Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's "favorite contractor," runs a well-connected business empire that secured at least $750 million in business with government
Controversy broke out when it was revealed in late 2014 that first lady and former soap opera star Angélica Rivera was in the process of buying a $7 million mansion for the presidential family that was built by one of Hinojosa's companies and registered under the name of the firm.
After controversy, a complex offshore network was created to hold about $100 million
Throughout the summer and fall of 2015, not long after the controversy over the Casa Blanca, Mossack Fonseca helped Hinojosa create three trusts to take over accounts worth approximately $100 million previously held in banks. Hinojosa was the primary beneficiary of the trusts, nominally controlled by his mother and mother-in-law. His wife and children were named beneficiaries in the event of his death . His network was complex, with nine entities set up in three different jurisdictions — New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
DD: This graphic from the ICIJ shows the complexity of his offshore operation;
Though Forbes was not part of the ICIJ group, Forbes has a excellent story that summarizes the Hinojoso Cantu material. Hereare some excerpts from that story that was written by Dolia Estevez.
"Proceso, Mexico’s leading weekly magazine, reported that Hinojosa, a wealthy entrepreneur whose company, Grupo Higa, won multimillion-dollar contracts from the State of Mexico when Peña Nieto was its governor, secretly shuffled $100 million through banks and shadow companies.
"According to Proceso, Mossack Fonseca, in collaboration with the Mexican branch of the law firm D’Orleans & Bourbon Associates, helped Hinojosa and his wife set up a series of shell companies on behalf of family members—including their respective mothers who are in their 80s–in New Zealand. Hinojosa and his wife then “donated” millions of dollars to the shell companies, which acted as beneficiaries of a foundation in Holland.
The firms were aware that the $100 million was just a “small part” of Hinojosa’s wealth, Procesoreports. In July 2015, an advisor with D’Orleans, Bourbon & Associates in Miami, sent an “urgent” email message to a Olga Santini, director of Mossack Fonseca’s branch in Florida.
“Please note that we have been working together with the advisor of a very high profile client for some time and we envision that we will be appointed to assist in the restructure of his patrimonial vehicle outside his country of residence.
The structure would involve:
(1) Transfer of six (6) companies—four (4) BVI and two (2) Nevis from current provider (Trident);
(2) Appointment of nominee director & nominee shareholder for the above mentioned companies;
(3) Formation of three (3) NZ Trusts—which will be the beneficiaries of a Dutch foundation (STAK) and subsequent settlement of assets (portfolio accounts in four banks—JP Morgan, UBS, DB and MS—of circa USD 100M) owned by the before mentioned six (6) companies.
(4) Once the transfer is complete, dissolution of the six (6) companies,” reads the email.
nsfer is complete, dissolution of the six (6) companies,” reads the email.
The author of the email added;
“This is only a small part of the client’s portfolio and we see great potential of (sic) growth as he is one of the most prominent business man (sic) in Mexico. Unfortunately due to his success and high profile, he has quiet (sic) a number of people whom greatly dislike him and unfortunately, there is a great deal of negative publicity surrounding the client.“
"According to Proceso, Hinojosa began transferring his wealth in March of 2015, a week after Peña Nieto ordered the investigation of himself Pena Nieto appointed one of cabinet ministers to conduct the investigation.
Finance Minister Luis Videgaray, Hinojoso, and Virgilio Andrade
DD: In a e hour long press conference where reporters were throwing rotten tomatos at him (speaking figuratively, not literally) he minister, (federal comptroller Virgilio Andrade) reported his investigation showed that neither his boss EPN nor Andrade's good friend Minister of Finance Luis Videgaray (who had also bought a house from Hinojoso) had done nothing wrong and there was no corruption involved in the sale and purchase of either house. It kind of reminded me of Nixon's "I am not a crook" speech, but EPN didn't have the nerve to do it himself - he had a subordinate do it for him.
Mexico’s Service of Tax Administration, the country’s equivalent of the IRS, said Monday that it would review the information on the Mexicans mentioned in the Panama Papers to determine if there was evidence of tax evasion.
Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from an El Debate article
Subject Matter: The Flores Twins, El Chapo Guzman, DEA Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required
The Flores twins made a pact with the DEA to give evidence, they also contributed to the capture of 54 Capo's, reveal documents.
Reporter: El Debate Investigations, Laura Sanchez
Margarito and Pedro Flores are the same size, they speak alike. Both have slightly tilted left eyebrow and nostrils as if they inhale air deeply. They are so alike they can only be distinguished by finger prints.
For that afternoon in 2008, when Pedro spoke with Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, he had to clarify that it was not with him, that Chapo had met a few weeks before in the mountains of Sinaloa. That was his twin, Margarito. The narco trafficker most sought in the world gave out a large "oh" of realization.
The confusion was born when both decided to cut their hair to almost bald, and both had a diamond in their left earlobe. Or when Margarito shaved the fledgling mustache that made him stand out a little bit from Pedro.
Authorities of the Justice Department considered that success of the Flores brothers, starts in their identical DNA. In declarations, the same agents of the DEA recognize no differences with exactness.
Pedro and Margarito were 33 years old when El Chapo took the place of the mythical prohibition era gangster of the epoch of prohibition. Al Capone, as "Public enemy number one of Chicago", in accordance with the DEA, thanks to the fact that they turned into the persons in charge of accommodating the Sinaloa Cartel in this city.
Its not without reason, that the Sinaloa Cartel are considered by the United States Government as the biggest drugs trafficking organization that has ever existed in the city.
A large part of the lives of the Flores brothers is a mystery: the United States authorities decided to classify whatever archive that spoke of their past.
But El Universal had access to more than 500 judicial documents that permitted to know how the twins were introduced the Sinaloa Cartel to Chicago and how, later, they contributed to the capture of 54 narco traffickers in the United States associated to this criminal group, in addition to becoming key to the capture of El Chapo in Mexico, transformed into undercover DEA informants.
"The Flores brothers were capable of achieving this result that in another manner would have been impossible: they are the conversations recorded that they sustained with El Chapo Guzman; in that moment he was the most sought after man in the world", that can be read in one of the pages of the documents of the Federal Attorney of the North District of Illinois.
Since their incursion into the business, they inundated drugs onto the streets of Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington. In only seven years they achieved the introduction to the United States of more than 60,000 kilos of cocaine, and amassed a fortune that the authorities clarified as: thousands of millions of dollars.
But the effect of the Flores brothers was more devastating than and overdose of the cocaine attributed to them, facilitated the Sinaloa Cartel permeation into the streets of Chicago. They became the leading distributors of the criminal organization.
Culturally, they popularized the idolatry of the Mexican narco traffickers, of their Saints, pistols coated with gold, the taste for Texas wide brimmed hats and cowboy boots: converting part of Chicago into "Little Sinaloa".
The Rise Pedro and Margarito learnt the difference in packaging of heroin, marijuana and cocaine since they were young. Their father Margarito Flores, a Mexican migrant, sold in the 1980's small quantities of drugs (gramero). It was apparently from their father that the Flores twins inherited their business, and their father introduced them to representatives from the Sinaloa and the Beltran Leyva Cartels. The twins first met El Chapo in the sierras of Sinaloa in 2005.
The Sinaloa Cartel sold them large shipments of heroin and cocaine on credit. They received the drugs at the frontier and transported them to Chicago, guarding the loads in a safe house. In the city a team of workers unloaded and packaged the contents, ready to be distributed to the barrios.
Witnesses produced by the Attorney of the North District of Illinois detailed that only from 2005 to 2008 the twins co-located to the streets of Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, 1500 kilos of cocaine monthly. Their earnings were found to be more than a thousand million dollars.
Hidden In 2008: the Flores twins took the decision that would change the status quo in the United States: they voluntarily entered into a pact with DEA agents.
In exchange for not spending life in prison, they agreed to deliver evidence that would allow authorities to build charges against the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel; six months after they converted into undercover agents. In this fashion, the Government of the United States knew the voices of Joaquin Guzman and Ismael Zambada, and his son Vincente Zambada.
They recorded conversations with the Cartel heads. The agreement culminated in the capture of 54 narco traffickers associated to the Sinaloa Cartel. In total, they made 74 recordings and their testimony was presented to the Mexican Government in order to solicit the extraditions of Vicente Zambada and Joaquin Guzman.
Vengeance On the 27th of June of 2015 the twins were paraded in front of Judge Ruben Castillo to hear their sentences. Castillo, of the judges most emblematic of Chicago, who sentenced the high powered narco traffickers to up to 20 years, starting his discourse he said that the Flores twins were his most devastating case and with precedent: "how did this pair of youngsters convert into the most important drug traffickers since the founding of Chicago?".
They created a highway of drugs. That afternoon he sentenced them to 14 years in prison, and because of a previous agreement they had made with the United States Government he could not sentence them to prison in perpetuity.
But his final discourse contained a dose of reality for the Flores twins: " I am not going to leave you in prison for life, but in reality you already have a life sentence. You and your families, for the rest of your lives are going to have to look over your shoulders, and you are going to be asking if the vehicle or motorbike that is at your side is coming for you. You will ask if some of them are coming to kill you. In every moment, when you start your car you will be wondering if it will explode, and this will be for the rest of their lives."
The twins dismantled the operational base of the Sinaloa Cartel in Chicago. In 2009, in full judgement they paid for their treachery: the vehicle of Margarito, their father, was located in the desert of Sinaloa, in the windshield was a message for the twins: "you keep silent or we send you his head", their father is still a missing person.
The scars that the Flores twins left are still raw and unhealed. According to The Commission for Crimes, in Chicago the Sinaloa Cartel actually has 100,000 gang members in its service.
April 5, 2016- During the beginning of this week, narco-mantas (narco-banners) were hung on a pedestrian bridge. The message was directed between organized crime groups.
The Cartel Del Noroeste (CDN) confirms the war that had been launched previously by their opponents, the Gulf Cartel (CDG), had finalized and warned that they will recover municipalities in Zacatecas. Now the CDN responds with the narcomanta stating that they are ready to start and continue the war for the plaza as well as reporting on corrupt officials who are in collusion with organized crime, and that they are also going after them.
According to unofficial sources, the CDN required to request reinforcements to other states and municipalities in Zacatecas where they still have a presence to fight and to go against the CDG, the latter which uploaded a video to social networking sites showing a shocking video that was recorded in first person depicting them attacking an armed commando of the CDN with rifles. The shootout shook throughout Ojocaliente a few days ago. The white Ford that the CDN were traveling in was shot at by the CDG which is recovering much of the south of Zacatecas. They are seen as the leaders throughout the area. With the video they showed their opponents such as Los Zetas, the CDN, and others, to not occupy the areas and regions of theirs. But the CDN doesn’t lower their guard and launched new attacks, and now with these narcomantas, it shows that the violence is expected to rebound again like in previous years where it didn’t let up.
Just 72 hours ago in Tacoaleche, another unidentified armed commando was attacked by another armed group with bullets, which left various men injured, leaving some fleeing to be treated in community hospitals in the region, the municipal police can’t go up against the heavily armed convoys; it requires the help of the PEP (State Preventative Police), SEDENA (Secretariat of National Defense), or SEMAR (Mexican Navy), who are suitable for this type of combat.
The CDG maintains its leadership in Zacatecas, occupying most municipalities, followed by the CDN who are advancing from the north, as well as Los Zetas who didn’t separate to form the CDN, who occupy some places in the north and south, as well as the center, to a lesser extent. The CJNG (Jalisco New Generation Cartel) is present in the southern region, near Jalisco and some municipalities in the central north.
The narco-message was left on the bridge located near the technical high school José Vasconcelos, on 5 de Mayo Avenue, at the southern entrance of the municipality.
An anonymous report alerted security forces of the municipal police, who upon arriving at the scene, cordoned off the area.
The narco-manta read:
“This is a friendly call to all citizens of Calera. Roberto de Santiago also known as ‘Pinqui’ or ‘Picoro’. Along with “’El Fachas’ and company, they are the ones who kidnap and charge quotas in Calera. Aren’t you tired of these shits? But now we are going to do the favor of disappearing them. ‘Picoro’ the other time you fell in Plateros, you were released because the Gulf Cartel has the ministerial police bought, as well as the lawyer Reveles. But now your problems are going to end. Fucking golfos and poli-golfas. Be on alert, we are here. Atte. ‘El Comandante 47’”
Source: AccesoZac
Info from:ntrzacatecas, periodicomirador, periodico7dias, zacatecasnews, notimexagencia, agenciasinfomex, newszac
The preachers, who belong to the Hamas-controlled Wakf (Islamic trust) Ministry in the Gaza Strip, enter schools and ensure, through the exorcism rite, that the children are repentant and faithful to Islam.
These are the children who are later recruited as "warriors" in the jihad against Israel and the "infidels."
The Gaza City school video captures on camera the Palestinian leaders' brainwashing and abuse of their own children.
Now the peace process in the Middle East awaits an exorcism of its own.
Three boys cry as they undergo an exorcism ritual at the Al-Nil School in Gaza City, performed by preachers belonging to the Hamas-controlled Wakf (Islamic trust) Ministry.
Hamas has spent years poisoning the hearts and minds of Palestinian children. The Islamist movement is now trying a new brainwashing tactic: exorcism.
The practice, which aims to cast out "demons" that might have wormed their way into the children's souls, has shocked many Palestinians.
This newest Hamas-perpetrated child abuse was exposed in a video that was leaked to Palestinian social media. The cruelty of the behavior has caused an uproar among Palestinians.
The video shows hysterical children in the company of exorcising preachers belonging to the Hamas-controlled Wakf(Islamic trust) Ministry in the Gaza Strip. This humiliating and invasive rite is being practiced at the Al-Nil School in Gaza City.
The preachers belong to a group called The Ship of Missionary Salvation. They enter schools in the Gaza Strip and ensure, through the exorcism rite, that the children are repentant and faithful to Islam.
A massive leak of confidential documents from a Panamanian law firm shines a light on how elites across the world use offshore shell companies in order to hide their assets, in some cases facilitating corruption and money laundering.
