Thursday 20 February 2014

USAHitman | Conspiracy News

Investment banker jumps to death from JP Morgan’s headquarters in Central

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 04:34 PM PST

An investment banker at JP Morgan jumped to his death from the roof of the bank’s headquarters in Central yesterday.
Witnesses said the man went to the roof of the 30-storey Chater House in the heart of Hong Kong’s central business district and, despite attempts to talk him down, jumped to his death.
Shocked witness said the 33-year-old – believed to be a junior-level employee at the bank – climbed onto the roof shortly after lunchtime.
Police said a man was found in a dangerous position on the roof of Chater House on Connaught Road Central at about 2pm. He threw himself off the building before emergency crews arrived.
He landed on the four-lane westbound carriageway outside the building. A police spokeswoman said the man was taken to Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai, where he was declared dead at 2.31pm.
According to several JP Morgan employees, the man worked for the firm’s investment-banking business in Hong Kong.
An initial police investigation showed he had recently told a colleague he was under heavy work-related stress, according to a police source involved in the investigation. The police said no suicide note was found.
A spokesman for JP Morgan said: “A sad and tragic incident occurred at Chater House, Hong Kong today, which is currently being investigated by the police.
“Out of respect for those involved, we cannot yet comment further.
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Obama’s TPP negotiators received huge bonuses from big banks

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 04:03 PM PST

A controversial trade deal being touted by the White House is expected to give American corporations broad new authority if approved. Now according to newly released documents, big banks gave millions to the execs that are now orchestrating the agreement.
Investigative journalist Lee Fang wrote for Republic Report on Tuesday this week that two former well-placed individuals within the ranks of Bank of America and CitiGroup were awarded millions of dollars in bonuses before jumping ship to work on the Trans-Pacific Partnership on behalf of the White House.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is a widely-contested trade deal between the US and 11 other nations adjacent to the Pacific Rim, and has been negotiated by representatives for those countries in utmost secrecy. According to leaked excerpts of the TPP and remarks from experts following the news closely, though, it’s believed that the arrangement would allow corporations to oppose foreign laws while at the same time limiting the abilities for governments to regulate those entities.
On Tuesday, Fang wrote that two major United States-based financial firms have significantly awarded former executives who have since attracted the attention of President Barack Obama and subsequently been offered positions that put them directly involved in TPP talks.
Former Bank of America investment banker Stefan Selig, Fang acknowledged, received more than $9 million in bonus pay after he was nominated to join the Obama administration in November. And Michael Froman, the current US trade representative, was awarded over $4 million from Citigroup when he left them in 2009 in order to go work for the White House. Republic Report were provided those statistics through financial disclosures included in Fang’s article.
When Selig was asked to head the International Trade Administration by the White House last November — a Commerce Department job — the New York Times considered it “a rare appointment of a Wall Street banker by the Obama administration.” If he is confirmed by the Senate as expected, he will work directly with US trade officials on hammering out final arrangements for the TPP. Froman has been the US trade representative since last June, and according to his biography on that department’s official website, is directly overseeing TPP discussions.
In Fang’s report, he noted that such hefty bonuses aren’t unusual on Wall Street.
“Many large corporations with a strong incentive to influence public policy award bonuses and other incentive pay to executives if they take jobs within the government,” he wrote.
But with the TPP expected to have serious implications on the corporate and financial realms, the appointments of Selig and Froman raise new questions about the potential influence of Wall Street on an already widely-disputed trade deal.
“The controversial TPP trade deal has rankled activists for containing provisions that would newly empower corporations to sue governments in ad hoc arbitration tribunals to demand compensation from governments for laws and regulations they claim undermine their business interests,” Fang acknowledged. “A fact-sheet provided by Public Citizen explains how multi-national corporations may use the TPP deal to skirt domestic courts and local laws. The arrangement would [allow] corporations to go after governments before foreign tribunals to demand compensations for tobacco, prescription drug and environment protections that they claim would undermine their expected future profits.”
“Not only do US treaties mandate that all forms of finance move across borders freely and without delay, but deals such as the TPP would allow private investors to directly file claims against governments that regulate them, as opposed to a WTO-like system where nation states (ie the regulators) decide whether claims are brought,” Boston University associate professor Kevin Gallagher told Fang.
When WikiLeaks released a draft version of a section of the TPP last year, the anti-secrecy group warned that “Particular measures proposed include supranational litigation tribunals to which sovereign national courts are expected to defer, but which have no human rights safeguards”
“No wonder they kept it secret,” internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom told RT at the time. “What a malicious piece of US corporate lobbying. TPP is about world domination for US corporations. Nothing else.”
Last month, leaked memos obtained by the Huffington Post suggested that the US has lost almost all international support from the 11 other Pacific Rim nations engaged in TPP discussions.
Source

UK child sex trafficking soars, says National Crime Agency

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 04:02 PM PST

Child sex abuse, human trafficking among minors and adults and cases of domestic slavery all saw sharp increases last year, says the National Crime Agency amidst calls for end to modern slavery.
British police identified 450 potential child victims who were either smuggled into the country or moved around it, the NCA show.
Of these, 56 were children of British origin who were suspected of being trafficked for sex – double the 2012 figure – while 88 foreign children were seen as at risk from sexual exploitation, an increase of 11 percent.
Another 123 children were believed to have been brought to the UK for forced labor often growing cannabis or working on drugs farms. Only children from Vietnam and Albania were more likely than the UK to be the victim of human trafficking.
Police forces across the UK have also seen a massive increase in cases of modern slavery, with 141 adults and 45 children seen as potential victims last year.
The figures were compiled from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which authorities and charities in the UK refer potential victims to.
Around a quarter of people referred to the NRM were children and almost two thirds were women. The number of UK based victims saw a huge increase of 173 percent to 90, while the number of children rose to 63, an increase of 186 percent on last year.
The number of potential adult victims being smuggled into the UK for forced labor exploitation has also jumped by 89 percent, with 511 known people smuggled into Britain in 2013.
The head of the NCA’s UK human trafficking center, Liam Vernon, said that the NCA remained committed to “disrupting what is a criminal trade in human misery.” He also said that the public are becoming more aware of the issue.
“Increased awareness, both of human trafficking in its various forms and the obligation of first responders to use the National Referral Mechanism, is a likely contributor to the increased number of referrals in 2013,” he said in a statement.
However, Heather Knight, a spokeswoman for the charity STOP THE TRAFFIK, warned that the NRM statistics offer only a snap shot and are the tip of the iceberg.
“Many potential victims of trafficking opt not to be part of the NRM, and so their data is not recorded. More importantly, many people are not identified as victims or discovered – human trafficking is an underground crime,” she told RT.
Karan Bradley, the Minister for Modern Slavery and Organized Crime, warned that the figures are unlikely to show the full extent of human trafficking, but insisted the government is increasing protection and punishment through the Modern Slavery Bill.
“Today’s figures are unlikely to show the full scale of modern slavery. The NCA is leading an enhanced and coordinated response to targeting trafficking gangs, we are increasing protection for victims, and we are strengthening legislation through a Modern Slavery Bill,” she said in statement.
Knight said that while she welcomes the bill, STOP THE TRAFFIK believes some key amendments are necessary for it to be effective.
“We want to see mandatory training put in place for all front line professionals, so that they know how to spot the signs of trafficking and can respond quickly. We want to see measures like this placed within the legislation rather than only included in the wider non legislative package,” she said.
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