Posts

Showing posts from December 17, 2012

Sicilian judges freeze Mafia money in Valletta-based company

Image
Wind energy company held in Valletta fiduciary company targeted by Palermo investigators hunting Mafia boss of bosses. Matteo Massimo Denaro identikit . Sicilian anti-mafia judges have issued a freezing order on assets and money registered under a Valletta-based company which investigations have revealed to be connected to one of the world 's most wanted mafia bosses , Matteo Messina Denaro . Known to be the current ' boss of bosses' to Sicily 's notorious ' Cosa Nostra ', Denaro was always considered to be the Mafia 's most prolific financial brain , who invested and laundered billions of drug and extortion money all over the world, including Malta on various occasions. On the run for the past 25 years, Denaro has this week hit the headlines in Italy for his connections to the highly lucrative sector of renewable energy . Months of investigations in Palermo have yielded Denaro 's links to Sicily 's wind farm energy...

What tip Italian Mafia gave before dying

Image
  An old Italian Mafia Don is dying and he called his grandson to his bed and said, " Grandson I wanta you to listen to me. I wanta you to take mya 45 automatic pistol , so you will always remember me." Grandson replied, "But grandpa I really don't like  guns , how about you leaving me your Rolex watch  instead." The old man replied: "You lisina to me, some day you goina run da bussiness , you goina have a beautiful wife , lotsa money , a biga home and maybe a couple of bambino, some day you goina come home and maybe finda you wife in bed with another man . Whata you gonna do then? Pointa to you watch and say, " Times Up "?

Death, money and the mafia in modern Russia

Image
A file picture taken 14 September 2004 shows Russian ex-spy and fierce Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko , after a press conference in London . The British government has evidence that the Russian state was involved in the radioactive poisoning of Litvinenko , a hearing into his death was told yesterday. Russia ’s thousand-year history is littered with conspiracies and conspiracy theories. Claims by Alexander Litvinenko ’s supporters that he was a Russian spy and, last week, by his widow’s lawyers that he was an important agent for MI6 , belong in all probability among the latter. Litvinenko was actually a middle-ranking KGB (and later, FSB ) enforcer who fell out with the Kremlin and with his former colleagues. He threw in his lot with the Kremlin ’s public enemy number one, Boris Berezovsky , and when Berezovsky fled to England in 2000, he fled with him. From the imagined safety of London , Litvinenko poured out his bile on Vladimir Putin , hurling ever more i...