September 11 Commission Report - Gnostic Liberation Front

So the question them becomes, who put together this complex web of financial ownership
and offshore holding companies, initially funded with 600 billion rubles from the
Credobank? What one learns is that Abramovich was a client of Valmet and Menatep,
who structured his other financial operations.
The first link has emerged between the Bank of New York money-laundering scandal and a member of
President Yeltsin's "family", a mysterious businessman known as a kingmaker in the Kremlin. The
Times has learnt that Roman Abramovich, a tycoon, controls the trading arm of one of Russia's largest
oil companies through an Isle of Man company that has figured in the Bank of New York affair. Mr
Abramovich runs the Siberian oil giant Sibneft, which sells its oil through a company called Runicom.
His name has emerged after speculation that Swiss investigators are looking into the role of Runicom
as part of the widening investigation into the laundering of up to $15 billion of Russian money through
American banks. Runicom is owned by at least two offshore companies set up by the Valmet Group, a
financial services concern partly owned by Menatep, a failed Russian bank that used the Bank of New
York. [Yeltsin 'Family' Tycoon Linked to Cash Scandal , James Bone, David Lister, Fiona Flick, The
Times (UK), September 7, 1999]
Moreover, it should be noted that Runicom was under the ownership of Valmet when it
was originally controlled by Riggs, according to Alan Block and Constance Weaver, All
is Clouded by Desire, p.141.
Altalanos Ertekforgalmi Bank (AEB)
A second financial conduit for the Wanta ‘ruble destabilization’ program was the
Altalanos Ertekforgalmi Bank (AEB) in Budapest, Hangary. AEB had an evolving role
in this financial scheme starting in 1990, when 50% of AEB was bought by the CEDC
(Central European Development Corporation.) The CEDC is actually operated out of
Singer Island, Florida, and was created in 1989 apparently for the sole purpose of
procuring the AEB, as it has not done a lot else.
“R. Mark Palmer, the United States Ambassador here, is resigning from the State Department to
manage a new consortium of North American financiers that today announced the purchase of half
interest in a Hungarian bank, the first in what was projected as a series of ambitious investments in
Eastern Europe.
R. Mark Palmer, the United States Ambassador here, is resigning from the State Department to manage
a new consortium of North American financiers that today announced the purchase of half interest in a
Hungarian bank, the first in what was projected as a series of ambitious investments in Eastern Europe.
The chairman of the group, the Central European Development Corporation, is Ronald S. Lauder, a
former American Ambassador to Austria …
The announcement of the $10 million bank deal…will turn 50 percent of the General Banking and
Trust Company, one of prewar Hungary's most venerable institutions, over to a group of high-profile
businessmen, several of Hungarian descent. The deputy chairman is Andrew Sarlos, a Toronto-based
real estate developer. Other major investors include Melvin Simon, the American shopping mall
magnate, and Albert Reichmann, owner of Olympia & York Real Estate Company in Canada. Mr.
Lauder, whose family owns the Estee Lauder Cosmetics Company, holds 50 percent of the shares.”
[U.S. Envoy in Hungary Quits To Handle Investment in East, Celestine Bohlen, The New York Times,
January 26, 1990]
In addition to being a Bush appointee, R. Mark Palmer, it turns out appears to have been
a collaborator with George Soros in his efforts to unhinge Eastern European currencies.
THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 228