Thread by @DawsonSField

DOJ unsealed a 2019 indictment in a global corruption case from 2009, the primary suspect plead guilty in May of 2019 & has been cooperating in secret for 2 years.
Of course it's another case of bribes for oil, where Swamp creatures buy access for contracts.
#ButNothingsHappening

The case seems simple on the surface, a start up energy company bribed some diplomats to help get contracts to drill for oil.
It's happened every day for more than half a century! But this one connects to some major players & Glencore swept up the money!
justice.gov/opa/pr/charges…

The Chadian Ambassador to the US & Canada, his Deputy & their wives accepted bribes in exchange for convincing the President of Chad to award them oil exploration & drilling rights.
Naeem Tyaab, a low level Canadian shady investment trader up to this point, has pled guilty!

The person who had to approve the contracts was President Deby of Chad, who came to power in a 1990 coup, likely with the help of French intelligence (like many Francophone leaders in Africa). But Deby's shakedowns of the oil industry lead Shell & Elf (now Total) to withdraw.

In swept a US led consortium of Exxon & Chevron (which is the US arm of Venezuela's oil production) along with Petronas, the state oil firm of Malaysia...
All approved by Pres. Deby of course, but it also required the US Swamp to make it happen...

The Clinton Administration pushed through a $3.5B World Bank loan to pay for the pipeline to get Chad's oil to the Atlantic ocean for shipping. Even though critics correctly predicted it would feed corruption in the region. web.archive.org/web/2015052713…

After the Clinton lose power in DC & the pipeline is finished, Deby begins pressuring the oil companies for a better deal. Eventually leading to Petronas & Chevron being kicked out in 2006 & Exxon staying but later asked to pay $74B in back taxes & fees. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum…

As it mentioned, Chad was trying to take control of it's oil industry because the oil companies always get the biggest cut. Which is what lead to this current scandal starting in 2009!

On July 15, 2009, Chad's Foreign Minister came to the US to try building new oil ties that benefited the Swamp creatures in Chad.
The US State Dept. is always a good place to start your hunt for Swamp creatures! 2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/2009…

A few weeks later, the Chadian Ambassador to the US & Canada is negotiating with start up energy company Griffiths Energy International out of Calgary.
A company run by a well connected Canadian investor Brad Griffiths & 2 shady brothers...

On 8/30/2009, Naeem Tyab (one of the shady brothers) signs a contract to pay a $2M consulting fee to the ambassador if he gets President Deby to sign the oil contract. But the firms lawyers refuse the contract because it looks like a bribe...
Really, it took a lawyer to see that!

So Tyab goes back to the drawing board, has the Ambassador's wife open a shell company in Vegas, signs a $2M contract with her. But already someone is making the deal even sweeter.

The Chadians are then given an additional up front pay off. They are sold 4M shares of stock,10% of the company, at the cost of a tenth of a penny per share...
Wonder what changed to increase the pay off so quickly?
courthousenews.com/chadian-oil-ri…

Of course it doesn't end there, with the Chadian Ambassador pressuring his boss the Foreign Minister to pressure the President, you might want outside lobbying too.
In August 2009, GEI hired former Canandian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to lobby Sudan to make the deal.

Chretien & his law firm's director of international development participated in a meeting of Griffiths directors, the Ambassador, the Foreign Minister, & President Deby in Washington DC in late Sept. 2009 to get this deal negotiated.
We may see why Bouchard resigned in late 2011!

They got a Memo of Understanding out of the meeting for the two oil blocks (regions they were allowed to explore & drill) Chretien's firms contract was ended in Jan. 2011 when the deal was completed & signed.
ethicsincanada.com/2013/01/28/b-h…

Then in February, the Ambassador's wife got her $2M consulting fee for arranging the deal (they still had the stock too!)
But it did take Griffith's doubling the Signature Bonus to $40M to finally seal the deal.

Then it got really interesting!

Brad Griffiths, experienced financier & wheeler & dealer needed to now explore a foreign country for oil & drill it to make the investment work. So he begins recruiting a new management team of oil industry professionals.

Professionals who didn't like what they walked into!

In early July 2011 (can't confirm a date) Griffiths wrestles control of the company from the Tyab brothers who were his partners. Naeem Tyab was the one how who arranged the bribes & has been cooperating for 2 years.

Was Griffiths scapegoating them? Or did they play him?

We may never know, because on July 18th, Barry Griffiths fell off his fishing boat in broad daylight at a lake north of Toronto. His body was recovered 5 days later...
Suicide? murder? day drinking? We may never know.

The central player in a soon to unfold global corruption scandal just falls in a lake & disappears...
A central player with decades in investment banking & securities who hired a former Prime Minister to be his lobbyist in the effort to win the contract...
nationalpost.com/posted-toronto…

How did the new Griffiths Energy Intl. leadership respond? They immediately hired outside counsel to investigate, took the report to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police & became the 1st company in Canada to confess that the company committed foreign bribery

But the Crown proseuctors signed off on a questionable deal, claiming that no Chadian official was influenced by the bribes & leaving PM Chretien out of trouble too! Very similar to the SNC Lavelin case...
mccarthy.ca/en/insights/ar…

The Canadian authorities took a $10.5M fine, said they would follow up on things but never did, & none of the individual perpetrators were charged since the case broke in fall of 2011.

Now Griffiths has a dangerous reputation, a contract to spend lots of money opening up oil production in Chad, & no solid means to raise funds to do that.

Enter my favorite corrupt commodities company, Glencore!

The company founded by Marc Rich of Clinton pardon infamy.

Glencore offers to fund $300M over 3 years to Griffiths Energy Intl. for 25% of the proceeds from the 2 Chadian oil fields. But of course Pres. Deby approved the oil deal in early 2013. store.globaldata.com/report/gdge041…

Then in April 2014, Glencore purchases Griffiths which had been renamed Caracal Energy to move away from the scandal. Glencore's buy out of Caracal was done at a 61% mark up over what the company's stock was worth. wsj.com/articles/SB100…

Which temporarily made the Chadian officials who owned the stock very rich. Temporarily because their 10% of Griffiths bought at $0.001 stocks went up to $9.20 when bought by Glencore.
Their $4k investment was seized by the DOJ when it was worth $34M.
courthousenews.com/chadian-oil-ri…

Glencore got very busy in Chad. In June 2013 was selected by Pres. Deby to loan Chad $1.3B to pay Chevron for it's remaining assets in Chad (they had been kicked out since 2006) giving Chad control of more of it's oil. But in debt to a global loan shark. uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/glencore-…

Glencore of course did not finance this deal itself, it used borrowed money from Deutsche Bank, Natixis, & Credit Agricole. Glencore arranges these deals to be paid back in oil, which rarely works out for the nations they are loaning money to!

Interestingly, Chad's oil minister from 2013-2016 Djerassem Le Bemadjiel was arrested in Sept 2020 for 'losing' $31M during negotations with a foreign oil company.
Likely code for a Swampy bribe disappearing through the middlemen involved in the deal. vanguardngr.com/2020/09/chad-f…

Glencore made more deals with Chad, that I won't go into in the interest of time. Becoming the major debt holder to Chad able to reposess their country or break some people's legs, whatever loan sharks do these days.

Which leads to this indictment in Feb. 2019 that was unsealed this week. As you will note, 2 of the individuals charged would have diplomatic immunity. So this release likely means that Chad (Deby) stripped them of their immunity. justice.gov/opa/press-rele…

Chad spent years using Glencore & the Chinese to replace the big oil companies. But in Deby fashion, after the oil companies get established, Deby starts shaking them down to keep their investment viable.

Following the arrest of it's oil minister in Sept 2020, for losing $31M in a deal that may have been with Glencore, Deby turns on them too when he doesn't ahve the cash to pay them. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

If you are new to following me, Glencore & it's competitors have spent the past 20 years or more, loaning money to countries in exchange for oil or minerals as payment. They then use their control over the supply to manipulate markets. Loan sharks, with global power.

Deby hasn't always taken the bribes though. He refused $2M in cash from Hunter Biden's partner Patrick Ho, arranged by Chad's Ambassador to the UN, who was caught on tape at Trump World Tower & convicted.

President Deby's 30 year Swampy ride ended in April. He was assassinated on the same day he was re-elected to another term as President of Chad.
Wonder which Swamp creatures wanted to get rid of him before these investigations finish?