Frank Giustra

EXCERPT:
Vancouver Mining Company CEO Linked to Thai Bank Collapse
By David Baines,
The Vancouver Sun
March 14, 2009

The chief executive officer of a Vancouver-based junior mining company that is closely associated with Vancouver mining magnate Frank Giustra has been accused by the Thai government of plundering millions of dollars from the now-defunct Bangkok Bank of Commerce, according to documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

Andre Agapov, a Russian national who is now living in London, is CEO and a director of Rusoro Mining Ltd., which is based in Vancouver and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange.

In a request for assistance issued to the U.S. government in March 2002, Thai authorities named Agapov as a co-conspirator along with Krekkiat Jalichan, the bank's former managing director, and Jalichan's former adviser, Rakesh Saxena, as well as numerous others, in a scheme to defraud the Bangkok Bank of Commerce of hundreds of millions of dollars in the mid-1990s.

Giustra, who has become fabulously wealthy promoting mining deals throughout the world, and his right-hand man, Gordon Keep, have had a close business and financial relationship with Rusoro, initially through their publicly traded merchant-banking firm, Endeavour Financial Corp., and more recently through their private financial advisory firm, Fiore Capital Corp. In an interview this week, Keep said he became aware of the allegations against Agapov in a report done by a private investigation firm at the request of a U.S. investment banking company about three years ago. He said the report addressed the allegations, but because it is confidential, he declined to provide details. He said he also made other inquires, but once again declined to provide details. "The net result is that I felt comfortable dealing with Andre," he said, adding that, as far as he can determine, Agapov has acted appropriately as a senior officer and director of Rusoro.

Thai Bank Collapse financial markets get investigated by the SEC

EXCERPT:
Get investigated by the SEC
then sue them, best strategy?
By Jon Fernquest

Can government regulators really do their job if they face the risk of getting sued by powerful rich people who don't want to be investigated?

Today's Bangkok Post business section looks at how Thailand's Securities Exchange Commission gets sued and how this affects the job that they do on behalf of the public.

After mining deal Frank Giustra gave to Bill Clinton's Foundation

EXCERPT:
Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month. The gift, combined with Mr. Giustra’s more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton’s inner circle, an exclusive club of wealthy entrepreneurs in which friendship with the former president has its privileges.

A web of politics, billion-dollar businesses and former President Bill Clinton.

EXCERPT:
An Interview With Sergei Kurzin
Dmitry Sidorov, 04.20.09, 12:01 AM EDT
A web of politics, billion-dollar businesses and former President Bill Clinton.

"I don't remember exactly how many times I met President Clinton," Kurzin told me as we sat in the London Mayfair offices of his mining companies, Orsus Metal and Oriel Resources. The 47-year-old mini oligarch, who made a fortune in the mining business, blames age for the occasional memory lapses. "I am getting old," he said. After a short pause accompanied by a wrinkled forehead and furrowed eyebrows, Kurzin fondly recalled three encounters with Clinton.

As I found out 40 minutes later, two meetings took place in Canada, and one occurred in London. Another one Kurzin may have forgotten could have taken place in Kazakhstan in early September 2005, when Kurzin's partner, Canadian mining mogul Frank Giustra, and Bill Clinton flew out to meet with the country's president, Nursultan Nazarbaev.

With a doctorate in nuclear physics, Kurzin is hardly a household name in the U.K., where he has lived for almost 20 years, or in Kazakhstan or Russia, where he conducts business, or in the U.S. and Canada, where some of his friends and partners reside. His name means almost nothing to a mining industry outsider, except for the fact that he was a partner of Frank Giustra in a successful and lucrative deal to purchase uranium mines in Kazakhstan in 2005.

I became interested in Kurzin after a friend pointed out some Russian names on the Clinton Foundation donors list. (first article continues...)

Sergey Kurzin

Part 2 of the interview:

An Interview With Sergei Kurzin

Now back to the uranium deal in Kazakhstan and Giustra, Clinton, Kurzin and Dattels. This time Steve Dattels, Kurzin's partner in the Oriel and Everfor deals, would be cut out. "It wasn't only my decision but Giustra's as well, I told him," Kurzin responded to my question about Dattels' exclusion from the deal. "What, am I married to him? He had other partners as well," Kurzin added. According to him, any dispute with Dattels was taken care of. "We settled the score," Kurzin insisted without explaining how.

It was 2005, and the uranium deal was moving along. On Sept. 6, Giustra and Clinton traveled to Kazakhstan on a millionaire's private jet to meet with the president of the country, Nursultan Nazarbaev.... (article continued at link)

Bill Clinton ally & donor in Kazakhstan uranium scandal 2009

EXCERPT:

But if the deal was illegal -- not just based on Clinton's connections, but on actually breaking the laws of Kazakhstan -- then it's another story for both Clinton and Mr. Giustra (and now, by extension, publicly traded Uranium One). Especially if the guy who sold the mines did so because he was hoping to get some political favors in return.

Clinton-Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative

The Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative is an innovative partnership between the William J. Clinton Foundation, the private sector, governments, local communities, and other NGOs to increase the scope, scale, impact, and sustainability of economic and social development efforts in areas where poverty is widespread. Established in June 2007 by President Bill Clinton and Frank Giustra, CGSGI focuses on alleviating poverty in the developing world through market-driven development that creates jobs and increases incomes, and by strengthening factors that enable economic growth such as health and education. CGSGI is an effort to transform the way businesses do business in the developing world, by creating opportunities and models for all industries seeking to work responsibly in those regions.

The Clinton Foundation serves as the implementing partner for CGSGI, and has begun work in Colombia and Peru to strengthen child nutrition, expand access to health care in remote areas, and support entrepreneurship.