Shaw Capital Management Factoring: ‘Dubai’ dealers in terrorist financing scam | Tumblr

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MBABANE – The Customs Department, now Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) has been blamed for laxity in verifying the authenticity of the registration of imported cars, contributing to the laundering of the cars in Southern Africa.

A report of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) found that such money laundering is also used to finance terrorist activities driven by the Al-Qaeda.

The report titled Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Risks in Botswana was compiled after a study was conducted in 2009.

It states that used motor vehicles imported from Asia are first taken to Botswana, where they are issued with forged registration before being driven to Lesotho and Swaziland to be re-registered.

“Since the authorities in the two countries have neither time nor the capacity to verify the authenticity of the registration documents produced, the vehicles are thus easily laundered,” the report states.

The report further states, “No duty would have been paid on the vehicles in Botswana as they would not be in the official registration database. At the same time, the vehicles would not attract duty in Lesotho or Swaziland on the assumption that such duty would have been in Botswana as part of the registration process there. A significant number of the vehicles are smuggled into South Africa despite the country having stringent laws on the imp-ortation of second-hand vehicles.”

The report states that the boom in imported used cars, which dates back to 2000, opened a window to the unmonitored crime. In Swaziland there are several sellers of used imported cars whose operations are currently being scrutinised by the newly launched Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA.)

About a month ago, the authority ordered all import car dealers to close their bonded warehouses while investigations were ongoing.

This was after revelation that government had been cheated of over E28 million by the dealers who under-declare the cars.

In Botswana, it was said that a number of terrorists linked to the Al-Qaeda had been detained by security agents.

They were under investigation for money laundering and attempting to establish various forms of terrorist structures.

“A number of suspects are foreigners involved in second-hand car dealerships, an area already identified by the ISS research as a money-laundering vulnerability.”

It states that Al-Qaeda agents in Botswana are believed to have used the country’s boom in imported second hand cars as a cover for their activities.

“They rarely use banks in their business transactions.

Investigations have linked com-pany directorships to Kenya, where terrorism-related activities are understood to be taking place. “There are suspicions that the stock of some car dealerships is purchased using proceeds from pirate activities near the horn of Africa.” The report concludes that there is need to review the risks of money laundering and the financing of terrorism on a regular and ongoing basis.

Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) Public Relations Manager Vusi Dlamini said the parastatal would respond after familiarising itself with the contents of the report.

Facebook's Zuckerberg gets Harvard star treatment

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Facebooks-Zuckerberg-gets-rb-1649472634.html?x=0

CAMBRIDGE (Reuters) - Mark Zuckerberg returned to Harvard officially for the first time Monday, winning a warm welcome from the university where he created Facebook and embarked on a well-chronicled meteoric ascent.

It was clear Zuckerberg was no longer the dropout who left the iconic Ivy League institution, even if he still dresses in the classic campus uniform of T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.

If he weren't so famous, the billionaire and Silicon Valley entrepreneur portrayed as the flawed protagonist of the Oscar-nominated "The Social Network" could have passed for any one of the hundreds of computer science students who came to hear him speak.

"It didn't seem it was that different than talking to other Harvard students," said Kyle Solan, 19, a computer science major afterward. "He seemed very down to earth."

Just a few blocks from where he started the world's largest social network, Zuckerberg took part in a rare question-and-answer for students, who snapped up tickets to the event with the same frenzy reserved for favorite bands.

"We weren't originally planning this as a business or anything," Zuckerberg said sheepishly of the phenomenon that Facebook would become. "If I had a chance to do it again I would have gone to classes."

Zuckerberg's rock-star reception marked a sea change from when the entrepreneur famously landed himself in hot water for creating Facemash, a website that allowed users to rank their fellow students' attractiveness and an incident immortalized in the film.

Speaking at his usual machine gun clip, Zuckerberg appeared every bit as driven as the character Aaron Sorkin imagined for "The Social Network". But his bluntness and occasional humor in response to questions ultimately won the crowd over.

CODING THE CLASSICS

More comfortable with coding than the classics, Zuckerberg playfully acknowledged a lackluster academic career. Indeed, he said he once aspired to be a classics major, describing how he passed a course on ancient Rome while working on Facebook by building an Internet site for students to share notes.

"About halfway through the semester I stopped going to class," he said to laughter from the audience.

One day he sent around an email to other students saying: "Hey, I built a study tool for everyone. And everyone filled out all the answers of all the significance of each of the pieces of art work, and made it a lot easier to study and I passed!"

Zuckerberg's return was labeled his first official on-campus appearance since leaving in 2004, though he has been back informally. His creation Facebook has been a huge presence on campus since, to the consternation of its professors.

At least one Harvard professor, British historian Niall Ferguson, has warned students he will fail anyone he finds using the site during his class.

While Zuckerberg appeared for the most part at ease, he still lacked the polish of a seasoned executive at public appearances. Asked what books inspired him, he faltered and admitted he was "stumped" by the question. When another student asked what global problems worried him, he responded only by detailing different features on Facebook.

The Facebook founder conceded he had a lot to learn.

"You have to be willing to make a lot of mistakes," he said. "The story of Facebook, we made so many mistakes and continue to, every kind of mistake. I mean I knew nothing when I was getting started. I still know so little. I mean I am so young running a company of this scale."

In response to a question about Facebook's privacy policy -- an area of constant criticism for the company -- Zuckerberg said Facebook was better than many others which gathered data on unsuspecting users to target ads.

"People share so much information, put so much stuff into Facebook that how their data is treated is super important and we're constantly working on more stuff to make that more transparent," he said.

Zuckerberg also boldly predicted that the amount of content that people share on Facebook would double annually for years to come.

"If you project forward 10 years, each person will share about 1,000 times more things per day than they are now - 2 to the 10th is 1024," he said.

Shaw Capital Management Factoring and Financings - Loan

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Summer is here. If you’re a gardener, you’re probably outside daily tending to your flowers, fruits or vegetables. But even if you don’t have a green thumb, you can still take advantage of the season by “planting the seeds” for the growth of another valuable piece of property — your investment portfolio.

Actually, you can find a few similarities between successful gardening and effective investing.

For starters, both gardeners and investors need to consider the landscape. If, for example, your garden is in a shady part of your yard, you could grow some nice geraniums, but you’ll have a tougher time with roses, which crave the sun.

As an investor, you’ll also find that some investments are more appropriate for your situation than others.

So, before you purchase a stock, bond or mutual fund, you’ll need to determine if it’s suitable for your risk tolerance, time horizon and long-term goals.

In addition, just as gardeners don’t usually grow only one variety of a flower or one fruit or vegetable, an investor shouldn’t stick with one type of investment vehicle.

If you own nothing but aggressive growth stocks, you’ll likely take on too much risk. Conversely, if you are too conservative and invest only in bonds, you’ll probably never achieve the growth you need, and your earnings may not even keep pace with inflation.

Instead, think about building a portfolio containing a variety of investments that, when put together, can help you make progress toward your objectives. We call this diversification, and while it can’t guarantee you’ll make a profit or prevent losses, it can be a good strategy to help reduce overall risk.

Another trait exhibited by gardeners and worthy of emulation by investors is patience.

If you were dissatisfied with the growth of a plant after just a few days, would you uproot it and put another plant in its place? Probably not.

Instead, you’d nurture the original plant, hoping that, in the long term, it is possible for it to grow.

The same thinking can apply to investments.

Over the short term, your investment choices will fluctuate in price, and sometimes you may be frustrated by what you perceive as the lack of progress. But instead of constantly selling off investments and buying new ones, you’ll likely be better off choosing quality securities and holding them for a period of many years. Eventually, your efforts may be rewarded.

What else do gardeners do that might be relevant to investors?

For one thing, they get rid of weeds that can choke off the growth of flowers or vegetables. As an investor, you too may benefit from occasionally “pruning” your portfolio of those investments that no longer meet your needs, and, in fact, take up space that could otherwise be more profitably used. That’s why it’s a good idea to review your holdings at least once a year.

Finally, just as backyard “diggers” may turn to master gardeners for advice and guidance, you, as an investor, could quite likely benefit from the services of a financial advisor — an experienced professional who knows the markets and who will take the time to understand your situation, needs and goals.

So the next time you see some industrious gardeners making something beautiful and productive in their yards, watch them closely. Their skills and habits might be productively transferred to you as you invest for the future.

John Beyer, CFP, is a financial advisor with the Niagara Falls brokerage firm of Edward Jones. Visit the website at http://www.edwardjones.com/.