An
enormous scam
Again I have decided to
literally copy an article form the National Post. It was written by Adrian
Humphreys. For me to re-write it would do an injustice to the fine work this
journalist did in writing the article.
A busy Ambassador Bridge linking
Detroit to Windsor, the continent’s most heavily travelled crossing, a Canadian
border agent greeted three men in a GMC Yukon Denali with the usual recital of
questions.
Did they have any firearms? Were
they bringing in currency worth $10,000 or more?
“No, no, nothing like that,” the
driver answered, according to notes made by members of the Canada Border
Services Agency. (CBSA) Unconvinced, the agent told him to pull over for a
search.
An inspection of the car would turn up two handguns and some
ammunition, but when CBSA agent Celine El-Tayar opened the back door on the
driver’s side of the SUV, she faced a wall of banker’s boxes. She tugged on
one. It was unexpectedly heavy. Lifting the lid, she saw wads of money.
Box after box—24 in all were similarly stuffed with bound wads
of currency, each bill featuring the cursive swoops of Arabic lettering.
Over the next several hours,
border agents and RCMP officers counted and photographed more than eight
billion Iraqi dinars, at the time worth about $7.4 million.
The driver was asked whose money it was. It’s complicated,” he
replied. He was right about that. The border stop on November 18, 2012 was just
the beginning.
The RCMP seized the cash under the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act, triggering a fight
with an oddball cast of characters over where it came from and who gets to keep
it. The battle over the dinars involves a private investigator from California,
a purported general from Hong Kong, a man who claims to be a judge but isn’t, a
fringe religious group and a little-known American charity. And along with
those claims have come threats, suggestions of corruption and conspiracy and no
small amount of buffoonery.
THE MONEY
What would anybody in North America be doing with 24 banker’s
boxes stuffed with such an exotic and difficult to deal in currency as Iraqi
dinars?
There is a strange, underground allure to Iraqi money,
particularly in the United States, where a mélange of conspiracy theory, shaky
geopolitical ideas and biblical End Times prophecy fuels a get-rich belief that
buying devalued dinars will yield huge profits when Iraq stabilizes and its
currency regains value.
Proponents sometimes claim this was the real, secret reason
behind the Gulf War that was engineered by a cabal of war-profiteering elites who
encouraged ordinary folks to get in on the anticipated bonanza. U.S. military
personnel who served in Iraq, members of sovereign citizen movements who reject
the laws and oversight of the state and fundamentalist Christian groups are
among those who have shown particular interest in hoarding dinars.
The pitch has strong appeal for many Christian believers, said
John Jagerson, a Utah-based financial analyst who has written a book about
Iraqi dinar schemes. The ancient city of Babylon was in what is now Iraq and
the Bible foretells the rise of Babylon preceding the second coming of Jesus
Christ. Some think buying dinars will help hasten Christ’s return.
“So it is seen as an opportunity for a windfall wrapped up with
spirituality, and invoking the authority of the Bible to show this is a
reasonable proposition, when it really isn’t,” said Jagerson.
Most organized dinar sales schemes Jagerson has tracked, he
said, are scams. But that hasn’t stopped a scramble to claim the Canadian
border stash
THE
PRIVATE EYE
As the 8,185,910,250 Iraqi dinars from the SUV were counted, the
driver, Jesus Berrios, found himself in a serious pickle. Within minutes,
Berrios, 53, of Daly City, California was in handcuffs with his brother Jose
and nephew Richard, who were with him in his SUV.
The next morning, the RCMP questioned him. Berrios, it turned
out, was a former police officer, retired from the California Highway Patrol
and working as a licensed private investigator.
The story he told the Mounties began four years earlier
when he met a man he called “the Overseer” of a religious group known as
Jericho Outreach. Berrios described it as an Amish group in Pennsylvania that
does international humanitarian work, according to the Mounties’ notes on the
interrogation.
The Private Eye joined Jericho Outreach and acted as secretary
and a trustee. Then, about a month before the border stop, Jericho Outreach
hired Berrios to collect Iraqi dinars from supporters around the U.S., he said.
He trotted about the country collecting the bills from about
1,000 people. His family was among the investors and they helped organize and
package the dinars, he said. After all the money was gathered and sorted, he
left his home in California, heading northeast, with his brother and nephew
“along for the ride.”
He was to drive to Buffalo, N.Y., and call a fixer who
would tell him where to take the money, but on his way, Berrios decided to
drive into Canada to see Niagara Falls, he told police. He didn’t know he had
to declare foreign currency at the border.
The three Berrios men were criminally charged with failing to
declare money valued at more than $10,000, on top of eight firearms
charges for the two guns and ammunition found in the SUV.
Released on bail, they returned to California, and apparently
haven’t been seen this side of the border since. According to Ontario court
records, there are warrants for their arrest for allegedly jumping bail and
failing to appear in Windsor.
Just because Jesus Berrios was unwilling to return to the
country, however, didn’t mean the Private Eye was giving up on the dinars.
In February 2013, he had a lawyer write to the CBSA, objecting
to the seizure and asking for its return.
The California Highway Patrol confirmed Berrios was an officer
in 1984-92. A call to the security firm at which state records last list him as
working revealed only he is “no longer with us.” He could not be reached for
comment.
THE
GENERAL
The dinars were still in the custody of the Canadian government
and Berrios’ claim pending a year after the seizure when the CBSA received a
second claim for the money, in the form of a registered letter from a mystery
man.
Signing his name “General L.W.R. (Professor),” his opening
volley was stern and domineering: a 72-hour “NOTICE OF DEMAND” on the
letterhead of ITIG Trust, based in Hong Kong.
“I have initiated an investigation for fraud and my people have
located it inside the borders of Canada where it is being detained by the
CBSA,” declared the letter, dated Nov. 13, 2013. “Further investigation proves
that certain unscrupulous people’s activity, even operating within my own
organization, and in conjunction with certain government officials, have
conspired together.”
He demanded “immediate release” of “100% of the cash assets” or
he would initiate “all necessary International Financial Crimes enforcement and
prosecution.”
His full identity remains a mystery. Is he a general? A
professor? Both? Neither?
An email request for an interview sent to the address in the
General’s “digital signature” on his demand letter was returned as
undeliverable.
Neither the General nor the Private Eye would get their
wish. On February 24, 2014, the Canadian minister of public safety decided
neither claimant had provided any legitimate explanation of the origin
of the cash, so it would remain the property of the Crown (government).
In any event, the General’s interest in the dinars appears to
have come at the last minute. A “deed of transfer” submitted in court says 8,185,910,250
Iraqi dinars were transferred to his ITIG Trust on the day of the seizure, from
an organization called Noahs Ark Foundation.
That deed says it was filed and registered with the
“Ecclesiastical Court of Justice, Pennsylvania.” And that so-called court is
the domain of a man named Nathan Joel Peachey.
THE JUDGE
Nathan Joel Peachey loves high-falutin’ language. He often uses
unusual word arrangements, legalese and odd capitalization, making everyday
objects sound like proper nouns. He has a way of making almost any interaction
sound like a legal pronouncement.
That’s also a hallmark of the anti-government “sovereign
citizens” movements he has pushed in the past. Peachey, 44, has been a leader
in the Republic for the united States of America (RuSA), once the largest
“sovereign citizen” group in America.
He starred in a 2010 online video encouraging citizens to opt
out of the United States and join this “newly established republic here in
America” that is subject to the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the
U.S. Constitution, rather than the litany of laws and regulations enacted since
the Civil War.
Before RuSA’s self-declared president, James Timothy Turner, was
sentenced in 2013 to 18 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the United
States, he named Peachey the “Chief Justice for the one supreme Court.” After
Turner’s arrest, it was Peachey who announced the process to select Turner’s
replacement, according to multiple websites aligned with the movement.
And it is Peachey who is at the centre of the intrigue over the
currency the CBSA seized. He is both “the Overseer” the Private Eye named to
the RCMP and the man who authorized the transfer of the dinars to the General.
So perhaps it was inevitable he would press his own claim to the eight billion
dinars. If the Private Eye’s letter was
a request and the General’s a demand, the Judge’s missive might be described as
a threat.
In a March 12, 2014, letter to the Canadian government, Peachey
offered three options: “I choose to sit down at an appointed meeting and ‘SHED
LIGHT’ on this subject matter and settle this between us like Gentleman (sic),”
he wrote; or, he would “take all the investigation findings that we have and
file criminal charges” and demand three times the amount of cash seized by
CBSA; the third option, he wrote, was “Classified.” He then filed a motion in
the Federal Court of Canada, seeking to force the government to rescind the
forfeiture.
In an email exchange with the National Post, Peachey rejected the suggestion there was anything
fraudulent about his collection of billions in Iraqi currency.
“This dinar project has nothing to do with the RV (Re-Valuing)
Internet scam promotions,” he told the Post.
In court filings, Peachey says Noah`s Ark Foundation launched a “one-time
special project” called the Dinar Exchange Project in August 2012 among
“various friends, relatives, and their friends and relatives and associates.”
Participants transferred Iraqi dinars to one of seven trustees
who assigned the money to Jericho Outreach, who in turn assigned it to Noah`s
Ark for exchange with ITIG.
Berrios, the private eye, was to transport, guard and deposit
the dinars and Peachey submitted a document saying Berrios was selected “by
virtue of divine appointment.”
The money, Peachey said, was to be deposited in the Bank of Nova
Scotia in Canada or at an institution in New York, all above board. He blames
the border trouble on a conspiracy.
In court filings, both Peachey and Berrios claimed a fixer from
New Zealand named Tamarau Ngawhaka Kapinga O Te Rangi Puna had told them border
clearances and arrangements for the cash had been made ahead of time—a
deviation from Berrios’s story to the RCMP.
Berrios was told to “take your guns along,” triggering the
border stop, the filings claim. The Post
could not reach Puna for comment. Peachey wants to subpoena him to testify. Assuming,
of course, Peachey ever gets a full hearing in court.
THE COURT
BATTLE
Peachey’s legal battle against the Canadian government has been
unconventional. He previously introduced himself as a “judge and a private
international common-law lawyer.” He told the government he has “full
attorney-in-fact powers” —a clever notation because he is not an attorney in
any usual sense.
He later agreed he has no accreditation from any recognized law
school or appointment by any recognized government as a judge, according to
court filings. Instead, he said, he is an “ecclesiastical judge.”
The federal court ordered him to hire a real lawyer. Peachey
objected, offering an “affidavit of legal ability.”
“I am adequately knowledgeable of the Holy Bible (King James
authorized version), Magna Carta
1215, Act of Settlement 1701, Paris Peace Treaty 1763, Law of Nations 1758, Canadian Bill of Rights 1960, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
1982,” as well as other acts, he wrote in the affidavit.
“The common law of nature and of nature’s God is the divine
law-form of which all sovereigns therewith are bound to adjudicate their
differences. No higher law exists.”
He also sought to subpoena Eric Holder, at the time the U.S.
attorney general, and John Gerretsen, Ontario’s then-attorney general. Peachey
asked the court to keep some court filings confidential from government
lawyers. He alleged the seizure was not a chance border stop, but rather a
“staged seizure” by the CBSA and RCMP in a “conspiracy to fraud.” He expressed
similar concerns about privacy to the National
Post.
“The free press is not a ticket or license to publish incorrect
and untruthful facts and information that is under strict contractual
confidentiality non-disclosure agreement,” he said in an email. He discouraged
open reporting on the case.
“Do not publish or print your article on this Canada Dinar issue
without my approval first on any or all of the facts that they are true and
correct,” he demanded, after offering to write an article for the Post.
Peachey has filed unorthodox documents in court showing he
authorized himself to have power over each of the organizations involved in the
dinar claims: Jericho Outreach, ITIG and Noah`s Ark Foundation
In fact, according to U.S. business records, Peachey’s name is
associated with 17 registered companies in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, a borough
of 1.8 square miles and a population of fewer than 4,000. Many have biblical
names akin to Noah`s Ark and Jericho Outreach, including House of David
Foundation, House of James Foundation and In The Word Foundation.
“No explanation is given as to what any of these entities have
to do with the issues in dispute,” writes prothonotary Kevin Aalto, the court’s
judicial official clerk managing the case, about the deed of transfer entered
into court records. “The legal status of
the applicants is unclear and there is no evidence before the court that they
are subsisting entities in law in Pennsylvania or elsewhere.”
The court is still waiting to hear if Peachey has hired a lawyer
to further his claims.
In the meantime, the RCMP continues to hold on to the 24 boxes
of dinars as evidence until the criminal case against Berrios and his kin can
resume in Windsor—which will not be until they return to Canada (which is
highly unlikely).
Jagerson, though, is left wondering: Why are people still
fighting so hard for the boxes of dinars?
The dinars may be worth millions according to the official exchange
rate, but Jagerson believes they are in reality worth very little—because that
much Iraqi currency can’t be exchanged on the open foreign currency exchange.
He said, “I doubt there is a bank in Iraq that would be willing to give up dollars
in return for so much local currency.”
My own commentary
I can`t help but wonder if ISIL is behind this scam. After all, surely
they would like to transfer the money they seized from the bank in Mosel, Iraq
and distribute it into various countries to further their plans to support home
grown Islamic terrorists in those countries.
Whoever is behind this scam, those people written about in Humphrey`s
article are unquestionably escapees from the looney bin.
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