Ltd. and Singapore-registered PowerCo International Pte. Tainted fuel scandal: 22 people and entities to stand trial. With approximately 24 million metric tonnes of physical crude oil, petroleum products and gas traded annually, BBE is one of the most active gas-oil, gasoline, fuel oil and bitumen traders. Although Labour can now pick up on details of outrageous behaviour, it never offered a different strategy to that which put people before profits during the horror of the pandemic. The efforts to hide the Cuban governments hand in the offshore companies means that its officials, lawyers and other employees used as stand-ins could eventually become the effective beneficiaries of the shares in those companies. If youre rich and want a place of power in politics, donate 3 million to the Conservative Party and youre likely to gain a peerage. This evolutionary approach not only applies to our services, but also our people. The new certificates, for 800 shares, were to be issued in the names of 10 members of the Bassatne family, including 160 shares for Riad Bassatne. Entity: B.B. The Swiss lawyer did not respond to El Nuevo Herald requests for comments on this story. How the 61-year-old embargo is blocking Cubans from finding sponsors in the U.S. 2022 LOrient-Le Jour All rights reserved. ZR Group and Mr. Rahmeh were unlawfully indicted on a number of charges, of which all but one have been dropped. This was on top of his standard MP salary of nearly 82,000. In recent years, the company has become increasingly active in LPG and LNG. They escaped after senior adviser Dominic Cummings showed there was one law for the rich and another for the rest. We made a separate appeal to examine the contract with Sonatrach, but it was rejected. Paterson had, on 16 occasions, used his House of Commons office for meetings relating to his private business interests. As Lebanon endures worsening blackouts and fuel shortages, BBC Arabic investigates the disastrous state of the country's electricity sector. And the case of Sabradell S.A., headed by Panamericana director Jos L. Fernndez de Cosso Domnguez for a time and dissolved in 2008. Testimonies collected by Mount Lebanon Investigative Judge Nicolas Mansour as part of the preliminary investigation pointed to suspected shady deals to forge lab tests for the fuels quality specifications, and to the involvement of employees at the labs as well as senior officials at the Energy Ministry, including the director-general of oil installations, Sarkis Hleiss. Digital Subscription $1,909 Premium Subscription $3,179 Best Value BB Energy, a leading global independent energy trading company, is pleased to announce that it has successfully refinanced and expanded a$580 millionsenior secured borrowing base credit facility (the Facility). This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. They include Petrobras, Vitol, and Glencore Limited. Sabradell was the sole owner of Resimevis Ltd, a Mossack Fonseca client since 1995 dedicated to general commerce of medical products and equipment., Whats more, a 2015 email indicated that the sole purpose of Curtdale Investments Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands, was to hold the shares of Ardpoint Company Inc., which in turn owned Altabana S.L. Sonatrach has been involved in at least two major corruption cases in the past decade, both of which involved the payment of bribes to company employees and officials. From the beginning of the pandemic, Labour leader Keir Starmer spent nearly all his time agreeing with Boris Johnson in a show of national unity. Somebody did and bedlam ensued. Boris Johnson initially backed Paterson. The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not answer a comment request for this story. Copyright 2023 BB Energy. The judiciarys opening of this file occured to the beat of a political debate that the judiciary does not seem to be far from, especially as opening such a file occurred according to a report presented by the leader in the the Aounist party, lawyer Wadih Akl, and investigations were conducted by Judge Ghada Aoun. After they didn't show up for questioning, reports suggested Hleiss and Rahme were being protected by Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh. BB Energy Group Holding Ltd. (DIFC) is managed by a Board of Directors comprising seven board members with five executive members and two non-executive members. Parliament is an unrepresentative, unaccountable front that covers for the real relations of power. RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1. Rahmeh, like the other defendants, presented preemptory defenses during the pretrial phase, which the judiciary accepted, except related to the charge of bribery, which it upheld. (Credit: Philippe Hage Boutros/OLJ). Behind the scandalous lies and appalling plunder by the political elite and their business backers lies their drive to profit from pandemic suffering. Reliance has said that in September 2012 it signed a 15-year deal to purchase up to 400,000 barrels a day of heavy crude from PDVSA. All the other commercial activities were not affected by any sanctions because these regulations do not exist as such, he wrote in an email, adding that Mexico, Canada and the European Union have laws prohibiting their citizens and companies from obeying U.S. sanctions on Cuba. The Mossack Fonseca documents nevertheless refer to Pescatlan as a Cuban company and do not identify the true owners of the company. Riad Bassatne and his son Wael remained owners of the remaining shares. BB Energy Location 12-14 Ansdell St, London, Essex, W8 5BN, United Kingdom Description Read More Industry Starting in the early 1990s, Cubas Ministry of Foreign Trade, through the Compaa Panamericana S.A, used Mossack Fonseca to create a string of disguised companies in Panama, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands that bought and sold medicines, cigars and food. The Cuban government used the Panama law firm involved in the Panama Papers to create a string of companies in offshore financial havens that allowed it to sidestep the U.S. embargo in its commercial operations. This was set to be voted on in parliament. The analysis and opinions they express through LOGI are their own and do not reflect the view of their respective employers. This raised many questions about the timing, and the reasons for neglecting it all these past years. The publication was sponsored by Global Warming Policy Forum, a think tank founded by climate change denier Nigel Lawson. The U.S. Treasury Department declined to respond to a request for comment. They have addresses in the Miramar and Old Havana neighborhoods of the Cuban capital. Public documents show for example that Vitol and Glencore have used intermediaries to funnel over US$31 million in bribes to corrupt Petrobras employees in the past so that they may win big contracts, along with acquiring other benefits. The contract may be summarized as follows: Sonatrach will give its name to the shipments of Baha Bassatne, who buys fuel from the Swiss company Vitol, for 3.5 dollars per metric ton, while he makes 25 dollars as profit in his deals with the end customer in Lebanon. Longtime Labiofam director Jos Antonio Fraga Castro, a nephew of Fidel and Ral Castro, retired in 2014 amid the so-called revolutionary perfumes scandal, sparked when the company sought to sell perfumes inspired by Cuban revolutionary hero Ernesto Che Guevara and former Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez. Panama Papers: Secret buyer seals deal for South Beach condo, U.S. investigated energy weapon, even aliens, but Havana Syndrome origin still unclear, Amid controversy, Biden administration shortens visit by Cuban Border Guard officials, Rubio questions planned visit by Cuban Border Guard delegation to Washington next week, Facebook takes down hundreds of fake accounts linked to the Cuban government targeting critics, A silent crisis: Miami experts discuss recent migration in South Florida at Herald townhall, Did a U.S. rapper make it rain money in Havana? They usually resort to those intermediaries when entering new markets that are unfamiliar to them, in order to benefit from their status inside this market, which they have done in several Asian countries before building direct relationships with the clients. 310. We are committed to acting as a model corporate citizen at all times and benefitting the local communities in which we operate. I think we have more confidence in what didnt happen than what did.. The PDVSA source said that Rosneft credited PDVSA the amount, minus an undisclosed fee, and then started talks with BB Energy to recover the sum it advanced PDVSA. Johnson even survived revelations that he would rather let the bodies pile high than push forward plans for a third lockdown. She has formally requested a parliamentary investigation committee be formed to probe the matter. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg. When he was appointed, Hayes said he would advise the company on strategic plans in the context of changes in the worldwide energy market. The Cuban military is estimated to control at least 60 percent of the islands economy. PDVSAs contemplated payment agreement with Rosneft is part of a series of methods used by Maduros government to gain access to cash, including selling Central Bank gold reserves. Hayes, who was once described as the champion of the motorist during his time as a transport minister, also recently contributed to a report critical of the government's net-zero policies. The Russian oil scheme appears to have been affected by the agreement between Cuba and Venezuela to exchange oil for medical services, and BB Naft expanded its work in Cuba in 2007 to include the sale of spare parts and batteries for autos and trucks, work boots, farm machinery, hardware for USD 5.3 million.. The managing team of Sonatrach, at that time, instructed Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation (London branch) to carry out the deal.The deal that was negotiated then created the branch of Sonatrach in London, a front for a Lebanese trader named Baha Bassatne, whose company (BB Energy) had been receiving a lions share of the profit margin obtained from these triangular business processes. Baha Bassatne remained the sole Sonatrach broker until Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour was appointed general manager of the company and imposed another intermediary. The Committee on Standards suggested Paterson should just be suspended from the Commons for 30 days. All of Britain's Big Six energy suppliers, EDF Energy , Innogy's Npower, E.ON, Scottish Power, SSE and Centrica's British Gas, have submitted bids in a tender run by regulator Ofgem to . Other leaked Mossack Fonseca documents show the interwoven complex of offshore companies created by the Cuban government to import and export goods and invest funds abroad with the assistance of the Panamanian law firm. So the seller had to be told that payment would be in euros from a bank in Spain, for example, and Cuba lost on the currency exchange.. After the return of Ould Kaddour to Sonatrach as its general manager in April 2017, it was not long before he imposed yet another intermediary besides Baha Bassatne. A letter sent to the Panamanian law firm in 1997 requested assistance organizing a fishing operation in the Turks and Caicos Islands with Cuban-flagged fishing boats.. Add your voice to our engaged subscriber community and be part of the change. Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in Caracas, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Julia Payne in London; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Simon Webb,David Gaffen and Marguerita Choy. Tory MP Bill Wiggin gained 25,000 in bonuses and fees from a tax dodging wealth management firm in Bermuda. According to an undated internal PDVSA document, Indias Reliance Industries Ltd - PDVSAs largest cash-paying client was also asked by PDVSA to pay Rosneft directly in April for oil sales under a long-term supply contract with the Venezuelan company. He failed on a number of occasions to declare those interests. A letter sent in 1998 by a Mossack Fonseca employee to the international trade office at state-run Petroecuador referred to documents sent by BB Naft required to register the company. A 2005 fax also points to an initial contact with the Venezuelan governments Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). But the stench of corruption was too much. For over five decades we have been applying our depth of specialist experience to oil refining, logistics, storage and financing across the world. Sonatrach signed the contract while Ali ibn-Buzeid was the manager of the London branch, and Muhammad Shawki Rahhal was the marketing manager, who had been accused in the first Sonatrach lawsuit. Our experienced traders are situated in our offices throughout the globe; industry specialists who count gas, crude oil, light and middle distillates, as well as bitumen, as their specialities. Patersons lobbying interests extended to sausage company Lynns Country Foods who paid him 12,000 for just 24 hours of work each year. Listed as a director of one of the companies is a brother of Gen. Luis Alberto Rodrguez Lpez-Calleja husband of Cuban ruler Raul Castros daughter and powerful head of the Cuban armed forces business conglomerate, GAESA. Records of a meeting in Dubai in March of 2011 reflect a decision to significantly reduce the capital of BB Naft, held by BB Energy Holdings NV., from $8 million to $1.050 million. After Rafik Damak was appointed by Ould Kaddour as the manager of the London branch in October 2017, the latter was able to remove many of the companys traditional clients out of the way. BB Energy (the Group) is pleased to announce the launch of its Improved Cookstove (ICS) Project in Rwanda. Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region's best source of business information. He was one of the witnesses in the pretrial investigation. Hayes recently opposed a plan to bring forward a ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars. Four high-level suspects, including Hleiss, and Teddy Rahme and Ibrahim al-Zouk of ZR Energy, did not respond to court summons and arrest warrants were issued for them. Labour supports essentially the same system as now. Few traders had room to receive physical barrels at Cushing. Corruption takes many forms, ranging from grand corruption - the capture of high office of government by elites and the uses of these offices for private gain - to "petty" corruption - the use of bribes or other Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh declined to respond to El Nuevo Herald for. Think we have more confidence in what didnt happen than what did political and. Is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged bb energy corruption parliament ( ICS ) Project in.! 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