GFBC NEWS NETWORK

January 27, 2012

Social media behemoth, Facebook is expected to file it’s IPO next week and has chosen Morgan Stanley to be the lead underwriter. According to CNBC, the company is looking to valuate the company at an estimated value of between $75-100 billion, according to the report. It is rumored that Facebook’s IPO is putting a damper on Yahoo, as it looks for possible suitors to reestablish itself back into prominence. Yahoo is facing challenging times as it’s founder, Jerry Yang recently resigned his board seat and other positions at the embattled company. Facebook follows other social media companies that went public, such as Linked in that went public May 20th of 2011. Linked-in is currently trading under the ticker symbol LNKD on the New York Stock Exchange.

Stanford, 61, has spent much of that time in a federal prison in Houston, and the mustachioed ex-tycoon may give evidence in a case watched closely by myriad investors who still don’t know if they will get any of their money back.

The trial has been delayed due to legal maneuvers, attorneys being hired and fired, and a prison fight that left Stanford, a towering man of six feet and four inches (193 centimeters), badly injured.

Stanford has pleaded not guilty to a revised 14-count federal indictment accusing him of bilking approximately 30,000 investors from over 100 countries through bogus investments with Stanford International Bank, based in Antigua.

Fallen Financier & Cricket Mogul Allen Stanford

In the West Indies he created the Stanford 20/20 Cricket tournament which, in 2008, captured a global television audience of 300 million.

But his personal fiefdom began to crumble when it attracted scrutiny from US financial regulators and he was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with fraud in February 2009.

According to the indictment Stanford “perpetrated a scheme to defraud investors who purchased SIB (certificates of deposit) of billions of dollars by soliciting funds under false pretenses.”

He then failed to invest those funds as promised, misappropriated money for personal use, created and disseminated false and fraudulent accounts to falsely show investors how their funds had been invested, and funneled bribes to Antiguan regulators to conceal the scheme, said prosecutors.

Following weeks of speculation about the federal investigation into his dealings, Stanford was arrested in June 2009 outside his girlfriend’s home in the US state of Virginia.

In 2006, Forbes Magazine ranked Stanford as the 605th richest person in the world, with a fortune of $2.2 billion. After most of those funds were frozen by the courts, Stanford was forced to accept appointed counsel.

But he has gone through more than a dozen lawyers since. Some he fired, but others quit. As recently as last week, Stanford’s court-appointed attorneys, Robert Scardino and Ali Fazel, asked US District Judge David Hittner permission to withdraw from the case, but the request was denied.

Judge Hittner had also ruled that Stanford was a flight risk and refused to set a bail bond, leaving him in custody.

While behind bars Stanford was involved in a fight with another inmate in which he was smashed into a steel pole, breaking many facial bones, and thrown onto a concrete floor injuring the back of his head.

He suffered a concussion which his attorneys claimed left him with memory loss and unable to participate in his defense.

Following the altercation, prison medics also prescribed antidepressants and strong antianxiety medication for Stanford. The combination, his attorneys argued, left him unfit for trial.

But the judge disagreed, ordering Stanford, who had become addicted to the anxiety medication, to undertake drug treatment and last month the accused was declared competent to stand trial.

Defense attorneys reportedly plan to have Stanford take the stand, but a fraud detection expert said the tactic could backfire.

“The prosecution gets to put their case on first. And when push comes to shove and all the evidence is on the table, the defense often changes its mind,” said Allen Bachman, of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in Austin, Texas.

A key test for prosecutors will be keeping the complex case against Stanford understandable to the jury.

“They need to keep it simple and concentrate on their best evidence,” Bachman said. “They don’t want to go down the worm hole.”

Source: MSN

HAVANA — Cuban dissident Wilmar Villar was buried in his hometown in eastern Cuba on Friday, rights activists told AFP, as Havana denied the inmate was a political prisoner who died after a 50-day hunger strike.
Villar, 31, is the second dissident to die here after a hunger strike in less than two years, and his passing drew condemnation from national and international human rights groups, as well as foreign governments.
Cuba’s communist rulers “bear complete moral, political and legal responsibility for the death of Wilmar, because he was in the custody of the authorities,” said dissident leader Elizardo Sanchez, calling it an “avoidable death.”
A wake was held for Villar at a funeral home in his town of Contramaestre, 900 kilometers (560 miles) southeast of Havana, but some said the authorities were preventing dissidents from attending.

Cuban dissident Wilmar Villar was buried in his hometown in eastern Cuba on Friday (AFP/HO/File

“I have a government agent in front of my house,” said Jose Daniel Ferrer, an ex-political prisoner who heads the opposition Patriotic Union of Cuba — to which Villar belonged.
More than 30 dissidents in several towns “have already been arrested so they can be prevented from going to the funeral,” added Ferrer, who was released in 2010.
Villar’s remains were buried later Friday in a ceremony attended by family, and under tight police scrutiny, activist Ana Luisa Bedey told AFP.

Sanchez, who leads the banned but tolerated Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said Villar had spent several days in “critical condition” at a hospital in the southeast of the Caribbean island.
The government of President Raul Castro denies it is holding any political prisoners, and considers jailed opposition activists to be US-backed “mercenaries.”
In an official note published Friday on the state-run Cubadebate website, the government said it had “abundant evidence and testimony” that Villar was not a dissident.
It slammed what it called an “international defamatory campaign” led by foreign news media “in collusion with domestic counterrevolutionary elements” over the case.

The statement said Villar had died of “multiple organ failure” which led to “septic shock.”
Villar had been convicted of “contempt, resistance and assault” and joined 60 political prisoners being held in Cuba, according to Sanchez’s group.
He was married to Maritza Pelegrino, an activist in the opposition Ladies in White group. He leaves two daughters, ages five and 10.
Villar is the second Cuban dissident to die in a hunger strike since Orlando Zapata — considered a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International — who expired after 85 days without food in February 2010.
In the United States, home to 1.5 million Cuban-Americans, the White House said President Barack Obama’s “thoughts and prayers are with the wife, family, and friends of Wilmar Villar.”
Villar’s “senseless death highlights the ongoing repression of the Cuban people and the plight faced by brave individuals standing up for the universal rights of all Cubans,” the White House said, adding that the United States “will not waiver in our support for the liberty of the Cuban people.”
Havana and Washington have not had full diplomatic ties since 1961.
In Spain, home to thousands of Cuban dissidents, the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy expressed “consternation” over Villar’s death, and urged Cuba to “liberate all political prisoners.”
Jose Miguel Vivanco with the watchdog group Human Rights Watch said Villar was not allowed to speak in his defense or have an attorney present at his trial.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Haiti’s Minister of the Interior Thierry Mayard-Paul accompanied by Prime Minister Garry Conille at a meeting with Ambassador Albert Ramdin, Assistant Secretary General for the Organization of American States, discussed potential cooperation in the areas of civil registry, security and disaster relief.

MIN. THIERRY MAYARD-PAUL

Topics addressed included a potential contribution from the OAS to strengthen security and disaster relief capacity building, as well as preparedness. “We had a very productive meeting and are encouraged by the OAS’ intent to support and contribute to the reinforcement of our institutional capacity, particularly in areas that the Ministry has outlined in its strategic action plan,” said Minister Mayard-Paul. “Our goal is to strengthen our institutional capabilities across the country, as a key element within our decentralization strategy.”

The delegations agreed to meet again in February to discuss specifics.

The meeting was also attended by Francois Bolduc, OAS Representative in Haiti, Shelly Dass, Counselor to Ambassador Ramdin, General Guy Thibault, IACD, Lieutenant Dennis Lepes, IACD and Catherine Pognat, OAS’ Senior Officer

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Censorship is the suppression of speech and art or other public communication, which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by our government, states Mike McNeilly. Censorship by the government is unconstitutional and creates a “chilling effect” on the right to express our beliefs.

The “chilling effect” is the term used to describe the inhibition of the legitimate exercise of a constitutional right by the threat of legal sanction. The right that is most often described as being suppressed by a “chilling effect” is the right of free speech. Our rights are clearly stated in the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech or the press.” A “chilling effect” may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, the decision of a court, or the threat of a lawsuit; any legal action that would cause people to hesitate to exercise their right to free speech for fear of the legal consequences.

The Internet is now facing the potential of censorship on-line. The arts & entertainment industry are increasingly being challenged by this “chilling effect” and censorship. Artists, like Mike McNeilly, create street art and super murals in support of the First Amendment and our right of free speech in America and have been censored by city officials and politicians. After the threats of arrests and fines, Artist Mike McNeilly created a street super mural called “Know Censorship.” The mural states, “Know Censorship,” know our First Amendment rights and continue to protect them. While painting another large scale mural called “Liberty,” he was charged with criminal counts after partially painting the 120-foot-high mural. When authorities stopped him from completing it, he added the word “CENSORED” to “Liberty.” The case was taken to Federal Court to protect the artist from prosecution and to recognize the artist’s First Amendment rights.

SOURCE Mike McNeilly