Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Bradley Arant Law Firm Has Deep Ties to Bank That Laundered Money for Mexican Drug Cartels


Large banks have been in the news lately for various forms of misconduct, from rate fixing to money laundering. But the press largely has ignored the law firms that represent banking scoundrels.

Birmingham-based Bradley Arant is one such law firm. We've already shown that Bradley Arant has a penchant for representing bad actors. One is Campus Crest Communities and its CEO, Ted Rollins, who has a documented history as a child abuser, based on his conviction for the assault of his 16-year-old stepson. Another is London-based HSBC, which recently was exposed as a source of international money laundering for a variety of criminal enterprises.

But our research shows that Bradley Arant's ties to unsavory conduct are deeper--and hit much closer to home--than most Alabamians probably realize. That is largely driven by Birmingham's long-time status as one of the nation's top 10 banking centers.

One bank with deep roots in Birmingham has a history of moving dirty money for Mexican drug cartels. And what local law firm is deeply intertwined with that bank? Public records show that it's Bradley Arant.

Officials for Wachovia Bank admitted in 2010 that they helped move $378.4 billion for Mexican drug cartels. Wachovia, which was purchased by Wells Fargo in 2008, paid $160 million in fines and penalties, and according to Bloomberg, that amount is less than 2 percent of the bank's $12.3 billion profit for 2009.

Wachovia had roots in Charlotte, and Wells Fargo is based in San Francisco, so where is the Birmingham connection? Well, that goes back to SouthTrust Corporation, which once was known as one of our city's "Big Four" banking institutions.

SouthTrust had $53 billion in assets and branches in nine states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia) when it merged with Wachovia in 2004. Wachovia was experiencing deep losses in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis when Wells Fargo plucked the bank off the scrap heap at a bargain-basement price of $12.8 billion.

If you live in Birmingham, or any of the other locations once served by SouthTrust, you started to notice Wachovia signs being replaced by Wells Fargo signs in 2009, the year the transition launched.

Throughout the SouthTrust/Wachovia/Wells Fargo mating dance--when Birmingham was hemorrhaging banking jobs--Bradley Arant had its dirty hands in the pie. And it looks like there was plenty of dirt go around.

Public documents show that Bradley Arant has been entrenched for years in the SouthTrust/Wachovia/Wells Fargo troika, which we now know was built in part on a foundation of money laundering with some of the globe's most vicious criminals.

What kind of company has the sprawling bank been keeping over the years? Bloomberg shines light on that question in a July 2010 article titled "Wachovia's Drug Habit." From reporter Michael Smith:

Since 2006, more than 22,000 people have been killed in drug-related battles that have raged mostly along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border that Mexico shares with the U.S. In the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, 700 people had been murdered this year as of mid- June. Six Juarez police officers were slaughtered by automatic weapons fire in a midday ambush in April. . . . 
Behind the carnage in Mexico is an industry that supplies hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines to Americans. The cartels have built a network of dealers in 231 U.S. cities from coast to coast, taking in about $39 billion in sales annually, according to the Justice Department. . .  
Wachovia is just one of the U.S. and European banks that have been used for drug money laundering. For the past two decades, Latin American drug traffickers have gone to U.S. banks to cleanse their dirty cash, says Paul Campo, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s financial crimes unit.

Did Bradley Arant have concerns about jumping in bed with a bank that helped fund murderous drug lords? Sure doesn't look like it. Let's consider a small sampling of evidence from public records:

* Bradley Arant represents SouthTrust before its acquisition by Wachovia;

* Bradley Arant represents SouthTrust in its $14.3 billion sale to Wachovia;

* Bradley Arant represents Wachovia in the sale of branches with $600 million in deposits;

Those deals came before news broke about the SouthTrust/Wachovia/Wells Fargo ties to drug trafficking. Did Bradley Arant distance itself once that news hit the press? Heck, no.

In a lawsuit styled Wells Fargo v. Enviromate LLC, we learn that Bradley Arant still is involved with one of the dirtiest banks on the planet. Bradley Arant lawyers Glenn Glover and Thomas Griffin filed the complaint on Wells Fargo's behalf in May 2011. James Hancock, a U.S. judge in the Northern District of Alabama, entered partial summary judgment in Wells Fargo's favor roughly two months ago.

Individuals and entities with ties to Bradley Arant sure do tend to prevail in Alabama courts, don't they? Gee, I wonder why that is. Could it be that ties to massive amounts of Mexican drug money help buy lots of clout in Alabama's "justice system"?

And isn't it interesting that Alabama citizens seem blissfully unaware that SouthTrust/Wachovia/Wells Fargo and Bradley Arant have connections to drug trafficking? Of course, there probably is a simple explanation for that. If you go to al.com and do a search for "Wachovia and drug cartels," it turns up nothing about the bank's ties to money laundering. It appears the story went unreported in Alabama, where the bank has a major presence and at least one-third of its roots are planted.

The story will not go unreported at Legal Schnauzer. We've been examining the tentacles of SouthTrust and Bradley Arant to determine exactly where they lead in the Birmingham community. It turns out they reach into some very interesting places.

(To be continued)

15 comments:

baju muslim modis layali said...

Great post,I really like your article

Anonymous said...

Golden West Financial, owned by Herbert and Marion Sandler. Herbert Sandler a lawyer with credentials from New York "law."

Golden West Financial becomes World Savings. World Savings is the NEG AM KING of American "finance."

FRAUD. The "money" was virtual credit for the "banksters," circa 1907.

World Savings: Wachovia.

Wachovia: Wells Fargo.

The changing of the drug cartels in the U.S. has been via the "banks," since World War II.

WWII was such a lucrative transference of wealth from the "middle classes," then, as well.

Civics, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor recently spoke about our schools in serious need of "civics."

In a word, duh.

Today through Friday, Aug. 3, 2012, stand for our dear friends the Siegelman family!

Look at this:

The Colorado "Batman Shooter". De-mystifying Mass Murder in America

Taboo Question: What were the brain-altering psych drugs that the Batman Shooter might have been taking or withdrawing from?

Finally, to read my recent Duty to Warn column entitled:

“Many Psychoactive Drugs are Strongly Associated with Violence” see: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2012/04/05/long-term-treatment-with-antidepressant--

­­­­­­­Dr. Gary G. Kohls is a retired physician who has painfully witnessed (in his practice of holistic mental health care) the soul- and psychic devastation of war, domestic violence, punitive parenting, malnutrition, homelessness, poverty and the serious potential dangers of the chronic and widespread use of psychotropic drugs. In his essays he tries to warn his readers about some of the physical, neurological, psychological and spiritual consequences of all forms of violence and neglect.

An earlier version of this essay was posted on July 25, 2012 at: http://lewrockwell.com/kohls/kohls13.1.html

Anonymous said...

FYI, a companion for your writing on Sandusky:

During his tenure at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Spanier was described as a “long time friend and associate” of Ronald Roskens, the former chancellor and president of UNL. Roskens, in turn, served as a close advisor to a man named Lawrence King, who operated a massive pedophile network in Nebraska that came to be known as “The Franklin Scandal.”

americanfreepress

The Men who Covered-up for Jerry Sandusky, July 30, 2012

By Victor Thorn

Anonymous said...

By the way, how the cities, counties, states, our municipals are saving the LIBOR crash,

EMINENT DOMAIN the "mortgage notes."

This means basically, all the homeowners, [LS, ET AL], are going to lose to the ED now by way of the BANKSTERS,' and here is how to protect:

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Neil Garfield LIVING LIES, GARFIELD FIRM

The list now has been enlarged. The revelation that Libor (London InterBank Offered rate) has been manipulated since 2005 for the trading profit and pleasure of the banks reporting to the index managers, means that the “former” homeowner was not presented with the correct amount for redemption or reinstatement. This alone might be grounds to overturn the eviction, the foreclosure, the notice of default and probably even the substitution of trustee in non-judicial states. The result is that the buyer gets nothing — he is dispossessed from title, right to possession and his tenant, who might now sue him, is kicked out as the homeowner is restored to ownership and possession.

But wait there is more! The cities and counties are getting closer and closer to saving their cities by use of the power of eminent domain in which the city seizes the mortgage, pays the fair market value of what it is worth and potentially ends up with the property as well. These risks to buyers have not as yet been quantified but are present and should be accounted for in the negotiations between the buyer and the title insurance company.

And add to that the fact that because the first “foreclosure” was illegal, and based upon debt that was not reported properly or possibly even paid by third parties, the junior lienholders — homeowner associations, HELOC lenders, and others have the power to foreclose on both the new “owner/buyer” and the bank that sold them the property.

During the break of an interview I had this morning with Saint Johns 103.5 they told me a story about a mortgage fraud up there where it is cool. The mortgage broker and lawyer involved conspired to put the property in their own names. The surprised borrower is in the process of being evicted from a home in which he did nothing wrong.

This might seem off-track but it isn’t. The banks deliberately put in the name of a third party as lender when it wasn’t the lender. There was no financial transaction between the named lender and the named borrower. The funds for closing came from an undisclosed third party.

This creates an immediate title problem for the mortgage. It secures a transaction between the named lender and the named borrower that never occurred. The note, being unenforceable is thus secured by a mortgage that is equally worthless. With no actual financial transaction between THOSE PARTIES, the mortgage secures nothing. Any foreclosure on that mortgage also results in nothing. Any buyer from such a pretender lender is getting the same — nothing.

Anonymous said...

And all the corpora RATS know which banks to suck up to....Barclay's, Wells Fargo, HSBC, etc. and the banks lend billions of dollars to corporations at the expense of the little taxpayers....the 99%, you and me and the homeowners who lost all they had.
These rascals get their financial fixes for their businesses off of normal everyday people's back.

I saw in LS that Barclay's and Freddie Mac financed away some of the debt for Campus Crest and Ted Rollins recently...wonder who helped set that up?

But by the way if you bad mouth Bradley Arant around these parts you'd best watch out for who you offend...someone's husband, someone's niece, someone's cousin, someone's father, etc...like Legal Schnauzer says...those roots go deep and they don't like being exposed.

I have found this to be true.

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 10:54--

Thanks for raising the point about the recent Campus Crest/Freddie Mac deal. Public documents show that Bradley Arant represented Campus Crest in its IPO, so I think it's a pretty safe bet the law firm was involved in the Freddie Mac deal. I've written that BA real-estate lawyers Dawn Sharff and Walter Sears have been involved with Campus Crest. But I feel certain that quite a few other BA lawyers are involved on the financial end. The bottom line? This firm works with a bank that launders money for drug traffickers. And in the case of Campus Crest, it helps promote the interests of a CEO who has a documented record as a child abuser. Is Bradley Arant amoral, immoral, or both? And why does it seem to enjoy relationships with sociopathic entities?

Anonymous said...

One Answer to your Question....MONEY and PAYBACKS

legalschnauzer said...

BTW, public docs show that Bradley Arant lawyers J. Andrew Robison and Paul S. Ware were involved in the Campus Crest IPO. The law firm's Web site says both of them specialize in corporate transactions and such. It's highly likely that they were involved with the Freddie Mac deal, perhaps in association with Barclay's.

A recent press release says Campus Crest has three projects coming online for 2013-14--at Colorado State, Ball State, and U of Oklahoma.

Isn't it odd that higher education is in an uproar over the Jerry Sandusky case at Penn State, but universitie are lining up to conduct business with a company led by a documented child abuser? In fact, Ted Rollins abused a boy who was about the same age as some of Jerry Sandusky's victims.

Here is press release:

http://www.4-traders.com/CAMPUS-CREST-COMMUNITIES-6668409/news/Campus-Crest-Communities-Inc-CCG-Starts-$82-5-Million-of-New-Projects-for-2013-2014-Delivery-14423931/

Anonymous said...

LS, anon is correct. You have stepped on more than just the tail of the tiger. IT is a very bad monster. Think of your family, LS!

Ishmael Says:

What we have seen unfold over the past 30 years is the establishment of a Global Police State that transcends borders and merely serves the Predatory Industrial Ruling Class. So that’s why I listen to guys like John Trudell, who managed to amass an 18,000 page FBI dossier just by TALKING to people.I am including a presentation he gave in Grass Valley in 2011. In it, he discusses the need to use the powers of our creative intelligence in a coherent fashion to figure out methods of NON-Cooperation with the Tyranny.

SanderO Says:

It’s not terribly hard to understand how the police state grows and how multiple forces are fueling its growth. What is both depressing and vexing is how passive people have become and hence the appropriate title of,

Sibel Edmond's www: Boiling Frogs.

... The trend will continue unless there is some MAJOR upset which interrupts this trajectory… that is we the frogs will boil to death… our freedoms will be completely gone and we will inhabit a neo-feudal fascist state with wealth disparity rivaling the middle ages. Of course the 1%ers and their *managers* will be laughing all the way to the bank living like it’s 1999.

Despite signs of optimism and the appearance of excellent tools to organize… such as the http://www... the trajectory continues unabated and soon the www will be lost and our using it will only bring the fascists to your doorstep to haul you off to a gulag.

as depressing as it sounds the seeming only chance to unify the masses is some sort of catastrophe which the 1% cannot control where the system really begins to break down. That WILL be like the middle ages and it might just wake up the people enough to use their people power to take back what was stolen. No peaceful demonstration of any size will do a thing. It historically hasn’t and there is no reason to expect it will in the future.

This is not a good thing… Martha

what happed to Sibel Edmonds' ?

Boiling Frogs

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 11:16--

And what is the source of that money? Well, one source appears to be Mexican drug lords.

Is that why Bradley Arant seemingly can afford to buy off judges in Alabama courts? Consider the Rollins v. Rollins divorce case, which I have covered extensively: Public documents strongly suggest that someone paid off Shelby County Judge Al Crowson to take a case he could not legally take and concoct a judgment that was wildly favorable for Ted Rollins--leaving his ex wife and children on food stamps.

Did Bradley Arant make the payoff? And where did it get the money? From the proceeds of Mexican drug cartels?

Just how filthy and nasty are Alabama courts? And do powerful law firms pull similar stunts in other states?

On a personal level, I've discovered that Bradley Arant has extremely close ties to certain individuals who are close to the UAB "leadership." Is that how I got screwed out of my job, for reporting truthfully about Bradley Arant cronies connected to the Riley admin? Is that why a UAB official admitted that I was targeted for writing about the Siegelman case, because my reporting made the Riley crowd and Bradley Arant look bad? Is that why a federal judge, William Acker, has made wildly unlawful rulings in my employment lawsuit against UAB?

It looks like Bradley Arant is virtually a bottomless pit of sleaze. But I am going to get to the bottom of it.

Anonymous said...

sv11za
www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490983/.../g23199a9sv11za.htmCached
You +1'd this publicly. Undo
Oct 13, 2010 – Paul S. Ware J. Andrew Robison Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP 1819 Fifth Avenue ... 9 to the Registration Statement on Form S-11 (File No. 333-166834) ..... 24 .1***, Power of Attorney (included on the Signature Page).

S-11/A 1 g23199a9sv11za.htm FORM S-11/A, As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 13, 2010, Registration Statement No. 333-166834,

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

Amendment No. 9, to, Form S-11, FOR REGISTRATION UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933 OF SECURITIES OF CERTAIN REAL ESTATE COMPANIES

CAMPUS CREST COMMUNITIES, INC.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Governing Instruments)

2100 Rexford Road, Suite 414
Charlotte, NC 28211
(704) 496-2500
(Address, Including Zip Code and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Registrant’s Principal Executive Offices)

Ted W. Rollins
Chief Executive Officer
2100 Rexford Road, Suite 414
Charlotte, NC 28211
(704) 496-2500
(Name, Address, Including Zip Code and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Agent for Service)

Copies to:

Paul S. Ware
J. Andrew Robison
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP
1819 Fifth Avenue North
Birmingham, AL 35203
(205) 521-8000

Jonathan Golden
Arnall Golden Gregory LLP
171 17th Street NW
Suite 2100
Atlanta, GA 30363-1031
(404) 873-8500

J. Gerard Cummins
Bartholomew A. Sheehan III
Sidley Austin LLP
787 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10019
(212) 839-5300

SEC FILINGS. name names very carefully.

You lost your job at UAB because the new world order is not about freedom of speech. The new world order is not about America the land of the free, home of the brave.

There was-is an agenda. The Agenda is "21." For a shortened label to explain the agenda.

The banks, are not banks. The creditors have been "loaning" virtual credit ["money out of thin air"] circa 1800s.

Lawyers are a cult, by design. Did anybody watch Tom Cruise in "Eyes Wide Open?"

Keep the lawyer class as sick as can be, psychopaths for the majority, and what a perfect set-up for the virtual credit criminally insane power over-lords, in what we can now talk about as experience.

This has been a lite experience, btw, the real deal has yet to come and thus, we must prepare.

JUSTICES AND A COURT SYSTEM OF LEGITIMACY? How?

Virtual credit fraud operates this system of "checks and balances," alright, "all the way to the "bank."

Use a better phrase. DO NOT GET TO THE "BOTTOM," get the sunshine to be so transparent - that you are - PROTECTED in the light.

Watch yourselves, Ms. LS, and You, watch each other, as though protecting the most valuable asset there is: life.

The criminally insane value life as though it belongs to them to snuff, notice.

jeffrey spruill said...

I know the ethically challenged/criminal attorney -David Bouchard- had knowledge CIA hits squads:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/politics/12intel.html?_r=1

So I would be pretty much standing on firm ground stating: the ethically challenged/criminal attorneys over at Bradley Arant know who's running this show:

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/07/2012721152715628181.html

Anonymous said...

"It would be easy for the Mexican army to capture El Chapo," Mireles said. "But this is not the objective." He thinks the authorities on both sides of the border are happy to have El Chapo on the loose, as his cartel is easier to manage and his drug money is recycled back into the broader economy. Other analysts consider this viewpoint a conspiracy theory and blame ineptitude and low level corruption for El Chapo's escape, rather than a broader plan from government agencies.

Great link. A woman from Mexico, born and raised there, however, had been in U.S. for quite some time as an interpreter for the DEA. She returned to Mexico, I won't say where, because the DEA is the CIA and the FBI and the drug cartels' "mules," as well as other obvious worker bee positions for the trillion dollar plus business, international drugs.

How better to launder than such pillars of our society: "banks."

thanks again for that great link, going to the other one now,

Anonymous said...

Albeit Al-Qaeda is far more than just a US intelligence asset, the organization and label of Al-Qaeda is a catch-all term that is used to camouflage the operations of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other affiliated intelligence services.

LINK, about Dick Cheney as CIA, great one too, THANKS.

When Dick dresses in that all black outfit of his, the long coat, gangster hat, and away he goes, DC CIA.

Here's the companion link to the great 2009, CIA,

Because he was the Saudi ambassador to Washington, he became the key figure in Saudi-US relations and developed close ties to the Bush family, which earned him the name “Bandar Bush.” It has been reported that the relationship was so close that the US Secret Service was part of his security detail. Moreover, he has had a long history with Robert Gates, starting from when Gates was a member of the CIA and helping mobilize fighters in Afghanistan against the Soviets.

In 2009, Bandar may have attempted to launch a silent coup in Saudi Arabia to impose his father, Crown Prince Sultan, as the new absolute monarch of Saudi Arabia. He was not seen for several years and may have been in some form of confinement. Things changed, however, in 2011 with the Arab Spring; Prince Bandar, Washington’s man, was seen in public again.

The Syrian Intelligence War: A Tale of Two Security Headquarters

by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

globalresearch.ca

Anonymous said...

Monday, July 30, 2012
CIA'S BANDAR ASSASSINATED BY SYRIANS?

There are reports that Bandar has been assassinated.

Reportedly, Prince Bandar has been assassinated in a bomb explosion in Saudi Arabia.

www.voltairenet.org/a175173

Bandar is, or was, the CIA's man in Saudi Arabia.

CIA's favorite Saudi prince is laying the groundwork for a post-Assad Syria

Prince Bandar was the 'bagman' for the Iran-Contra deal, transferring American money to the Iranians.

2012 May « The Prince: The Secret Story

Bandar has been linked to the financing of the CIA's 9 11 'hijackers'.

aangirfan