Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Who does have jurisdiction?

The airwaves, print media, and several blogs have been talking about the recent article in the New York Post about Clinton-pardoned Marc Rich's involvement in the UN supervised Blood for Oil scam. Speculation has been rampant on who knew what, did what, and what the connections might be between Rich's pardon and the massive political donations Denise Rich made to the Democrat Party, Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, and the Clinton Presidential Doublewide.

By comparison Ben Pollner, a New York-based oil trader who heads Taurus Oil, has hardly been mentioned and completely overlooked in the article is something that caught my attention:


So intense is the interest of prosecutors in the Rich connection that Pollner was recently "grabbed" and questioned by investigators from Morgenthau's office as he was on his way to Kennedy Airport for an overseas trip, a law-enforcement official told The Post.

In an angry confrontation that followed, Pollner told the New York investigators that they had no jurisdiction over oil deals that took place outside the United States and refused to cooperate, an official familiar with the interrogation said.



Sacred Cow Burgers

So then who does have jurisdiction? Iraq, the country where the oil was initially sold? The country in which the final sale occurred? This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg because this is only one individual who's been implicated.

Will France claim jurisdiction over the cases that involve people who laundered funds through the Bank of Paris? Russian jurisdiction in the instances where illegal activities occurred within their borders? China?

I'm beginning to get a really sick feeling that no matter what illegal activities occurred, no one is ever going to face an actual trial because of the one single question no one seems to have asked: Who does have jurisdiction?

1 Comments:

Blogger Don said...

Why, the UN, silly! Justice will be swerved.

6:58 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home