We get some interesting mail via our tips email address on rare occasions. Typically a little bit of spam will trickle through too -- Viagra ads mostly -- which we of course forward to the bloggers at our sister-site Wizbang (since we Blue bloggers are all hunky, studly progressive men with beards and carpets of manly body hair on our chests and back, while the male Wizbang bloggers still play with rubber ducks).
This email however was worth a Google. It came into our tips email box last night.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert <[email address redacted]>
Date: Jan 9, 2008 9:03 PM
Subject: Benazia Bhutto money
To: bluetips@wizbangblog.com
It is of interest that BB has a secret bank account (no longer secret) in a bank called - Bancaja - in the inland, lazy Spanish town of Ontinyente - near Jativa. The amount is in excess of 1m.€ What this money was destined to be used for is not clear, maybe her son's university fees.
Regards, RR
A Google of "Bhutto Ontinyente" reveals a few interesting news clips, like this one dated "March 9." (I assume from the copyright notice at the bottom of the article that this is from 2006, but that may not be true):
BHUTTO CASE TO BE HEARD IN LONDONThe Ontinyente judge in charge of the investigations of money laundering on the part of the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto yesterday stated that she hoped to be able to have the former Prime Minister give her testimony in London. All in all the judge is accusing Mrs. Bhutto, as well as Abdul Reman Malik, the former director of the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency and businessman Syed Hassan Jafri of taking part in an immense money laundering scheme involving millions of Dollars and UK Pounds. The investigation started in October 2004, when 'several doubts over the provenance of certain funds' became evident. The funds were all placed in six accounts in a bank in Ontinyente. The future hearings are probably going to take a considerable time before they become a reality as the judge's request has to go before the Valencian Superior Court of Justice, then the Madrid Prosecution service and the Foreign Ministry before arriving at the Spanish Embassy in London
A charge of money laundering suggests these millions of US dollars and UK pounds may have been in connection with US/UK efforts vis a vis the GWOT.
I know the Wizbangers are busy getting their ducks in a row (heh) for the upcoming primaries, but this may be a subject worth some investigation further. If any bloggers out there are interested feel free to pick this up and run with it.
Having someone assisting with the research who reads Spanish well will help, because if you substitute the search term Ontinyente with Ontinyent, it yields many more hits. Sadly, they are in Spanish, and yo no hablo espanol.... uh, mucho.
Comments (1)
Interesting when Benazir died, Arianna Huffington especially and Hillary Clinton went out of their way to claim a long and close friendship with Benazir...Lee, this is just a loose change account..Most of the money had been ripped off by the Bhuttos when they were in power in the 90's, on a Mobutu/Zaire like-scale.
1. Posted by Steve Crickmore | January 10, 2008 3:26 PM
Posted on January 10, 2008 15:26