http://www.thekomisarscoop.com Reports & Analysis by Investigative Journalist Lucy Komisar Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:48:14 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2011/01/ex-employee-who-claimed-firing-over-opposition-to-haiti-bribery-settles-suit-against-idt/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2011/01/ex-employee-who-claimed-firing-over-opposition-to-haiti-bribery-settles-suit-against-idt/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:06:53 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/?p=5581 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2011/01/ex-employee-who-claimed-firing-over-opposition-to-haiti-bribery-settles-suit-against-idt/feed/ 0 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/12/shells-shams-and-corporate-scams/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/12/shells-shams-and-corporate-scams/#comments Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:18:26 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/?p=5442 The American Interest, Jan-Feb 2011 (online Dec 9, 2010) Corporate secrecy, which involves hiding the identities of company owners from tax and other legal authorities, is itself no secret. It is well known that offshore banking centers such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Cayman Islands have for many years enabled fraudsters all over the world to carry out scams, launder illicit profits, stash stolen loot and hide money from tax authorities. What most people do not know, however, is that there is a vast and growing American offshore. Foreign crooks prize states such as Nevada, Wyoming and especially Delaware for state laws that don’t require them to list owners or even company officials when a new company is formed. Corporate interests and the Obama administration are blocking congressional efforts to change that.]]> http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/12/shells-shams-and-corporate-scams/feed/ 1 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/09/lingering-problem-for-idt-ceo-admits-company-met-with-aristide/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/09/lingering-problem-for-idt-ceo-admits-company-met-with-aristide/#comments Sun, 19 Sep 2010 18:40:30 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/?p=4783 Barron's, Sept 20, 2010 - Scoop summary: Howard Jonas, CEO of U.S. telecom IDT, in an interview with Lucy Komisar, acknowledges for the first time that then Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2003 met with an IDT official during discussions about a contract to pay Haiti Teleco for calls from U.S. customers. That contract included agreement for IDT to send payments to a shell company in the offshore Turks and Caicos Islands. Jonas said IDT got an "ethics letter" from a law firm clearing the deal, but the lawyer said in a memo filed with the court, published here for the first time, that he simply told IDT to do "due diligence." IDT signed the contract the next day. A former IDT official, who objected to the deal, was fired and is suing the company; trial is set for Nov 9th. The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Jonas's revelations are likely to have a major impact in the trial and investigations.]]> http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/09/lingering-problem-for-idt-ceo-admits-company-met-with-aristide/feed/ 1 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/03/idts-voodoo-economics-inside-the-justice-department%e2%80%99s-probe-of-telecom-bribes-in-haiti/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/03/idts-voodoo-economics-inside-the-justice-department%e2%80%99s-probe-of-telecom-bribes-in-haiti/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:38:28 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/?p=3772 The Big Money, March 11, 2010 - When the devastating earthquake hit Haiti in January, IDT, the New Jersey-based global phone company, moved fast to help. It announced it was setting up calling stations at hotels and other sites so Haitians could use its Internet calling-service to reach family and friends around the world. It cut rates on its U.S. prepaid calling-card to 2 cents a minute to Haiti (at least for 12 days), donated 4,000 $2-prepaid calling-cards to Haitian community groups in New York and Florida, and said it would give some proceeds from prepaid calls to Haitian Red Cross relief. Such a warm, fuzzy response from a U.S. corporation often wins plaudits, though, of course, IDT has a business interest in the impoverished island. In 2005, in its latest publicly available figures, the company reported $4 million in profits from $17 million in revenues for routing calls there. ]]> http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/03/idts-voodoo-economics-inside-the-justice-department%e2%80%99s-probe-of-telecom-bribes-in-haiti/feed/ 1 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/the-real-aig-scandal-how-the-game-is-rigged-at-wall-streets-casino/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/the-real-aig-scandal-how-the-game-is-rigged-at-wall-streets-casino/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:36:24 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/26/the-real-aig-scandal-how-the-game-is-rigged-at-wall-streets-casino/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/the-real-aig-scandal-how-the-game-is-rigged-at-wall-streets-casino/feed/ 8 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/01/finance-us-treasury-nominee-failed-to-halt-bond-scam/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/01/finance-us-treasury-nominee-failed-to-halt-bond-scam/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:31:13 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/01/19/finance-us-treasury-nominee-failed-to-halt-bond-scam/ The New York Fed under Geithner's presidency has failed to stop massive naked short selling of U.S. Treasury bonds that threatens the stability of the market and sale of the bonds. Ironically, the scam, enabled by a lack of regulation at the behest of Wall Street brokerage houses, makes it more expensive for the U.S. to bail out those same financial institutions.]]> http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/01/finance-us-treasury-nominee-failed-to-halt-bond-scam/feed/ 3 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2008/10/courter-to-leave-idt-nyse-threatens-delisting-stock-in-free-fall/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2008/10/courter-to-leave-idt-nyse-threatens-delisting-stock-in-free-fall/#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:29:48 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/10/06/courter-to-leave-idt-nyse-threatens-delisting-stock-in-free-fall/ From alleged kickbacks to Aristide to a company that's tanking. Jim Courter, the former New Jersey Republican Congressman who quit as a McCain national finance co-chair after IDT, the global telecommunications company he heads, was fined $1.3 million by the Federal Communications Commission, now has much bigger problems. IDT announced Friday that Courter will quit the company. IDT’s filing with the SEC the same day shows the company in a free fall. Its stock is tanking, and the New York Stock Exchange has threatened to delist it. The FCC fine imposed for IDT’s failure to file its contract with Haiti was first reported by the author in July. The contract revealed that IDT was sending Haiti fees to a Turks & Caicos shell company instead of to a Haiti Teleco account. A whistleblower charged kickbacks. The company said Courter would leave as CEO when his contract expires next October. In the meantime, his 2009 salary will be paid entirely in stock, which he cannot cash in till his departure. That could mean paltry pickings. IDT stock has fallen to 69 cents from more than $24 in 2004 and $1.93 in June. IDT could be in for some more trouble with the FCC if a new administration decides to enforce its regulations. According to FCC responses to Freedom of Information Act requests, IDT has never filed its contracts with any of the 140 major international carriers to which it claims to supply service. This violation could bring fines of $7,000 a day for each case, but the agency has given the company a pass on obeying its rules.]]> http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2008/10/courter-to-leave-idt-nyse-threatens-delisting-stock-in-free-fall/feed/ 2 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/off-the-trail/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/off-the-trail/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:34:14 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/15/off-the-trail/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/off-the-trail/feed/ 0 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/mccain-trailblazer-burned/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/mccain-trailblazer-burned/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:54:02 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/14/mccain-trailblazer-burned/ The FCC hits James Courter's IDT with a $1.3M fine for a cloudy deal in Haiti. IDT, the New Jersey telecommunications outfit run by one of John McCain's top fundraisers, Jim Courter, was fined $1.3 million by the Federal Communications Commission for failing to file a contract for telephone service to Haiti in 2004. Courter, a former New Jersey Republican congressman, is one of 20 McCain national finance co-chairs, and joined the campaign in February 2007. He's a "Trailblazer" for McCain, meaning he raised at least $100,000. The IDT PAC has contributed $84,850 in 2008. IDT’s work with Haiti has been put under scrutiny since a former employee, Michael Jewett, then IDT's manager for the Caribbean, sued the company. His suit claims he was fired when he balked at negotiating a scheme that routed a portion of the company's long distance revenue from Haiti calls to a shell company, Mount Salem in the Turks & Caicos, which he was told was owned by then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. ]]> http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2008/07/mccain-trailblazer-burned/feed/ 0 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2007/10/french-finance-minister-not-sufficiently-aware-of-frigates-case/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2007/10/french-finance-minister-not-sufficiently-aware-of-frigates-case/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:26:10 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/10/23/french-finance-minister-not-sufficiently-aware-of-frigates-case/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2007/10/french-finance-minister-not-sufficiently-aware-of-frigates-case/feed/ 0