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Was Boston Bombers `Uncle Ruslan' with the CIA?
MadCow Morning News
April 22, 2013
by Daniel Hopsicker
The uncle of the two men who set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, who
struck the only grace note in an otherwise horrific week, worked as a
=80=9Cconsultant' for the Agency for International Development (USAID)
a U.S. Government Agency often used for cover by agents of the CIA, in
the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan during the `Wild West' days
of the early 1990's, when anything that wasn't nailed down in that
country was up for grabs.
`Uncle Ruslan' Tsarni of Montgomery Village Md., whose name was the
top trending topic worldwide on Twitter last Friday for his
plain-spoken condemnation of his two nephews, has had a checkered
business career, that began well before he graduated (as Ruslan Z
Tsarnaev) from Duke Law School in 1998.
Tsarni, a well-connected oil executive, is currently involved in an
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international criminal investigation into a Kazakh billionaire
banker-turned-fugitive alleged to have absconded with $6 billion from
Kazakhstan's BTA Bank.
The story begins with The London Sunday Times on May 8, 2011, which
reported the sale of the personal home of England's Prince Andrew to
billionaire Kazakh Oligarch Timur Kulibayev, who `controls that
country's oil industry and happens to be married to the daughter of
its autocratic President Nursultan Nazarbayev.'
What does that have to do with "Uncle Ruslan?" Let's take a look.
"Can't tell your Oligarchs without a scorecard"
Headlined "Prince's home in 'laundered cash' inquiry," the story
raised several red flags.
One was that the President-for-Life's son-in-law had paid $5 million
over the asking price to purchase Prince Andrew's home, which raised
eyebrows.
Red flags and eyebrows were raised still further, in these times of
global near-depression, at the conspicuous oligarchic consumption
(read: bad taste) exhibited when the Kazakh President-for-Life's
daughter-for-life Goga Ashkenazi celebrated her 30th birthday with a
lavish party before the scandal hit.
Goga, who made her appearance in a Swarovski crystal-encrusted,
backless lace dress, attended by Prince-for-Life Andrew, was
entertained by fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a
girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped
like naked male and female torsos.
There was even a woman suspended in a bird cage (true) who was there
to direct guests to strategically-placed vomitoriums (alas, not true)
strewn about the mansion grounds.
Enter "Uncle Ruslan"
But the biggest red flag, the one pertinent to murder in Boston, was
Oligarch Kukibayev's use of money laundered through a network of
offshore companies to attempt to hide his purchase of Prince Andrew's
crib, which emerged during a legal battle between another billionaire
Kazakh oligarch, Mukhtar Ablyazov, and BTA Bank, from which Kazakhstan
claims Ablyazov embezzled a very cool $6 billion dollars.
And this is where =80=9CUncle Ruslan' Tsarni comes in.
The purchase of the Prince's estate was put together, according to
prosecutors in Italy and Switzerland, by a group of oil executives who
comprise `a network of personal and business relationships' allegedly
used for `international corruption," reported The London Telegraph.
Tsarni, called `a US lawyer who has had dealings in Kazakh business
affairs,' by the Sunday Times, clearly appears to be a member of that
network.
The Sunday Times reported, `A statement by Ruslan Zaindi Tsarni was
given in the High Court in December, claiming that Kulibayev bought
Sunninghill and properties in Mayfair with $96 million derived from a
complex series of deals intended to disguise money laundering.'
`Tsarni alleged that the money came from the takeover of a western
company, which had been used as a front to obtain oil contracts from
the Kazakh state.'
A Big Big Sky's the Limit
The `western company' used to launder the money which the Sunday Times
referred to is Big Sky Energy Corporation, where Ruslan Tsarni was a
top executive.
Big Sky, which used to be known as China Energy Ventures Corp, is a
now-bankrupt US oil company run by S.A. (Al) Sehsuvaroglu, a long-time
executive of Halliburton, which had oil leases in Kakakhstan's Caspian
Basin.
Tsarni was Big Sky's Corporate Secretary and Vice President for
Business Development. He joined Big Sky in 2005.
A press release announcing his appointment stated:
`Mr. Ruslan Tsarni, a U.S. citizen, has over 10 years of professional
experience in oil and gas legislation and corporate law. Previously,
Mr. Tsarni served as Corporate Counsel of Nelson Resources Limited
Group as well as Managing Director of several of its operating
subsidiaries.
`From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Tsarni worked as Head of Legal Affairs of
Golden Eagle Partners LLC.
Big Sky was on somebody's watch list
`From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Tsarni served as a consultant contracted by
USAID for projects aimed to develop securities markets in Central
Asia, where he trained corporate governance and corporate finance
principals in state and private companies.'
According to a source who worked for many years as a journalist at
Platts Oilgram News, a respected oil industry trade publication, good
corporate governance was not a Big Sky priority.
`Nelson, Big Sky, Ablyazov, Kulibayev and the rest were all on my
watch list for intelligence connections and pay-offs of various kinds
at Platts,' stated the source, who requested anonymity.
The news corroborates other reports beginning to emerge about the
family and its abundant connections. A "connected" family?
Before the Tsarnaev family moved to the United States a decade ago,
they lived in the northern Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, near the border with
Kazakhstan, which is home of the country's largest ethnic Chechen
community.
The day after the massive manhunt in the Boston area that led to the
death of Tamerlan and the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Radio Free
Europe and Kyrgyz Service correspondent Timur Toktonaliev traveled to
Tokmok.
>From there, he reported that the extended Tsarnaev family is
well-known there, even beyond their local community.
`It is not known if there was anything more than a personal
connection,' the story reported, `but organized crime boss Aziz
Batukaev, who is also an ethnic Chechen, lived next door to the
Tsarnaevs. Batukaev grew up and lived in Tokmok, but is now in
Chechnya.
Halliburton executives, suspected CIA assets, Chechnyan crime bosses,
oligarchs stealing billions from banks and laundering money with
seeming impunity, fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a
girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped
like naked male and female torsos...
If there hadn't been two of them, the investigation would already be
pointing to a single misfit, a lone nut bomber.
Daniel Hopsicker is an investigative journalist dubious about the
self-serving assertion of U.S. officials that there are no American
Drug Lords.
MadCow Morning News
April 22, 2013
by Daniel Hopsicker
The uncle of the two men who set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, who
struck the only grace note in an otherwise horrific week, worked as a
=80=9Cconsultant' for the Agency for International Development (USAID)
a U.S. Government Agency often used for cover by agents of the CIA, in
the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan during the `Wild West' days
of the early 1990's, when anything that wasn't nailed down in that
country was up for grabs.
`Uncle Ruslan' Tsarni of Montgomery Village Md., whose name was the
top trending topic worldwide on Twitter last Friday for his
plain-spoken condemnation of his two nephews, has had a checkered
business career, that began well before he graduated (as Ruslan Z
Tsarnaev) from Duke Law School in 1998.
Tsarni, a well-connected oil executive, is currently involved in an
X-Sender: Asbed Bedrossian
X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.87,571,1363158000";
d="scan'208";a="1190458533"
X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN
international criminal investigation into a Kazakh billionaire
banker-turned-fugitive alleged to have absconded with $6 billion from
Kazakhstan's BTA Bank.
The story begins with The London Sunday Times on May 8, 2011, which
reported the sale of the personal home of England's Prince Andrew to
billionaire Kazakh Oligarch Timur Kulibayev, who `controls that
country's oil industry and happens to be married to the daughter of
its autocratic President Nursultan Nazarbayev.'
What does that have to do with "Uncle Ruslan?" Let's take a look.
"Can't tell your Oligarchs without a scorecard"
Headlined "Prince's home in 'laundered cash' inquiry," the story
raised several red flags.
One was that the President-for-Life's son-in-law had paid $5 million
over the asking price to purchase Prince Andrew's home, which raised
eyebrows.
Red flags and eyebrows were raised still further, in these times of
global near-depression, at the conspicuous oligarchic consumption
(read: bad taste) exhibited when the Kazakh President-for-Life's
daughter-for-life Goga Ashkenazi celebrated her 30th birthday with a
lavish party before the scandal hit.
Goga, who made her appearance in a Swarovski crystal-encrusted,
backless lace dress, attended by Prince-for-Life Andrew, was
entertained by fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a
girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped
like naked male and female torsos.
There was even a woman suspended in a bird cage (true) who was there
to direct guests to strategically-placed vomitoriums (alas, not true)
strewn about the mansion grounds.
Enter "Uncle Ruslan"
But the biggest red flag, the one pertinent to murder in Boston, was
Oligarch Kukibayev's use of money laundered through a network of
offshore companies to attempt to hide his purchase of Prince Andrew's
crib, which emerged during a legal battle between another billionaire
Kazakh oligarch, Mukhtar Ablyazov, and BTA Bank, from which Kazakhstan
claims Ablyazov embezzled a very cool $6 billion dollars.
And this is where =80=9CUncle Ruslan' Tsarni comes in.
The purchase of the Prince's estate was put together, according to
prosecutors in Italy and Switzerland, by a group of oil executives who
comprise `a network of personal and business relationships' allegedly
used for `international corruption," reported The London Telegraph.
Tsarni, called `a US lawyer who has had dealings in Kazakh business
affairs,' by the Sunday Times, clearly appears to be a member of that
network.
The Sunday Times reported, `A statement by Ruslan Zaindi Tsarni was
given in the High Court in December, claiming that Kulibayev bought
Sunninghill and properties in Mayfair with $96 million derived from a
complex series of deals intended to disguise money laundering.'
`Tsarni alleged that the money came from the takeover of a western
company, which had been used as a front to obtain oil contracts from
the Kazakh state.'
A Big Big Sky's the Limit
The `western company' used to launder the money which the Sunday Times
referred to is Big Sky Energy Corporation, where Ruslan Tsarni was a
top executive.
Big Sky, which used to be known as China Energy Ventures Corp, is a
now-bankrupt US oil company run by S.A. (Al) Sehsuvaroglu, a long-time
executive of Halliburton, which had oil leases in Kakakhstan's Caspian
Basin.
Tsarni was Big Sky's Corporate Secretary and Vice President for
Business Development. He joined Big Sky in 2005.
A press release announcing his appointment stated:
`Mr. Ruslan Tsarni, a U.S. citizen, has over 10 years of professional
experience in oil and gas legislation and corporate law. Previously,
Mr. Tsarni served as Corporate Counsel of Nelson Resources Limited
Group as well as Managing Director of several of its operating
subsidiaries.
`From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Tsarni worked as Head of Legal Affairs of
Golden Eagle Partners LLC.
Big Sky was on somebody's watch list
`From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Tsarni served as a consultant contracted by
USAID for projects aimed to develop securities markets in Central
Asia, where he trained corporate governance and corporate finance
principals in state and private companies.'
According to a source who worked for many years as a journalist at
Platts Oilgram News, a respected oil industry trade publication, good
corporate governance was not a Big Sky priority.
`Nelson, Big Sky, Ablyazov, Kulibayev and the rest were all on my
watch list for intelligence connections and pay-offs of various kinds
at Platts,' stated the source, who requested anonymity.
The news corroborates other reports beginning to emerge about the
family and its abundant connections. A "connected" family?
Before the Tsarnaev family moved to the United States a decade ago,
they lived in the northern Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, near the border with
Kazakhstan, which is home of the country's largest ethnic Chechen
community.
The day after the massive manhunt in the Boston area that led to the
death of Tamerlan and the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Radio Free
Europe and Kyrgyz Service correspondent Timur Toktonaliev traveled to
Tokmok.
>From there, he reported that the extended Tsarnaev family is
well-known there, even beyond their local community.
`It is not known if there was anything more than a personal
connection,' the story reported, `but organized crime boss Aziz
Batukaev, who is also an ethnic Chechen, lived next door to the
Tsarnaevs. Batukaev grew up and lived in Tokmok, but is now in
Chechnya.
Halliburton executives, suspected CIA assets, Chechnyan crime bosses,
oligarchs stealing billions from banks and laundering money with
seeming impunity, fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a
girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped
like naked male and female torsos...
If there hadn't been two of them, the investigation would already be
pointing to a single misfit, a lone nut bomber.
Daniel Hopsicker is an investigative journalist dubious about the
self-serving assertion of U.S. officials that there are no American
Drug Lords.