Shoppers hired Currie to work as a consultant focusing on public affairs, minority recruitment, and outreach and community relations. But in reality, prosecutors allege, Shoppers paid him to use his Senate seat to benefit the company's business and financial interests.

Currie, 73, highlighted his actions in a paper he wrote in September 2007, hoping to justify continued payments from the grocery chain, the indictment says. He called the document "Accomplishments on Behalf of Shoppers." He wrote that he was "in a unique position to assist Shoppers in expanding its mission and increasing its bottom line" and that he would bring the company "many more opportunities," court papers say.

The corporation was registered as a nonprofit computer service company and was operating illegally as a banking institution. ICC was forced to close July 1, and more than a dozen of its employees were jailed.

But the reverberations have echoed to the top of Benin's power pyramid and now threaten President Boni Yayi, who appeared on television with ICC managers.

Television news shows showed Yayi and other top government officials posing alongside the managers of the investment firm. The images were reproduced on T-shirts. While investors interpreted Yayi's presence as an endorsement, the president did not officially speak in favor of ICC during the appearances.

In this country of 8.7 million people, the average yearly income hovers at $750. Many lost months to years of savings in the scam.

Koch Industries is a massive industrial conglomerate headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, whose annual revenues are estimated to be a hundred billion dollars.

• operates oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota
• controls approximately four thousand miles of oil pipeline

Among many other products, Koch Industries owns: 

• Brawny paper towels
• Dixie cups
• Georgia-Pacific lumber
• Stainmaster carpet
• Lycra

Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill, and its consistent profitability has made David and Charles Koch among the richest men in America.

Who are the Kochs?

Charles and David Koch are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation.

Their father, Fred Koch, made his fortune in the Soviet Union working with the communist regime of Joseph Stalin where he implemented his patented oil refining process in several modern oil refineries. His work helped lay the foundation for the Soviet military industrial complex.  Upon returning from Russia, Fred Koch initiated his sons into the paranoid world of the arch-conservative John Birch Society.

The Koch brothers' radical views perfectly correlate with the vested interests of their company. A recent study by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outspent ExxonMobil in funding organizations fighting climate change legislation, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. In fact, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.

In a statement, Koch Industries said that the Greenpeace report “distorts the environmental record of our companies.” And David Koch, in a recent, admiring article about him in New York, protested that the “radical press” had turned his family into “whipping boys,” and had exaggerated its influence on American politics.

But Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said, “The Kochs are on a whole different level. There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.” [The New Yorker]

Koch Philanthropy

The Kochs are also known for generous giving. David Koch, in particular, has donated millions to the American Ballet Theatre, New York State Theatre, American Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  Of course, his name has been "generously" attached to buildings, wings, and endowed chairs to live on in perpetuity.

The Billionaire Pattern of Philanthropic Obfuscation

The pattern here is unmistakable. Philanthropic excess that is meant to do nothing more than cover up the subversive and illegal activities of their money-making enterprise. Whatever benefit arts and medical organizations have received as a result of the Koch's "generosity" has been completely offset by the avarice that causes them to use their money and power to undermine the government and country that has made them unimaginably wealthy. 

The Kochtopus - "Tearing the government out at the roots"

In Washington, David Koch is best known as part of a family that has repeatedly funded stealth attacks on the federal government, and on the Obama Administration in particular. The Koch family has, for decades, funded think tanks, political organizations, campaigns, and other hard-core conservative interests to the tune of many hundreds of millions of dollars. The Kochs have also generously funded radical elements within The Tea Party movement in an effort "to shape and control and channel the populist uprising into their own policies." 

According to the New Yorker article, a former Koch adviser said, “They’re smart. This right-wing, redneck stuff works for them. They see this as a way to get things done without getting dirty themselves.” 

Please read the rest of this fascinating article by clicking the button below -The Koch family history of arch-conservative lunacy on page 3 is especially interesting.

Lautner's lawsuit claimed McMahon's failed to complete the customized RV on time, and it needed additional work after it was delivered. McMahon and his attorney denied wrongdoing and said they will vigorously defend the case in court if Lautner, 18, doesn't accept the challenge.

The dealership said Lautner's camp had sought a $40,000 settlement to resolve the case, leading to the unorthodox proposal by McMahon. The 47-year-old businessman said if he won the contest, he would donate the settlement money to Children's Hospital of Orange County.

Mr Ravalomanana has been living in South Africa since March 2009.

Those killed were supporters of Andry Rajoelina, who has now taken over the government.

Mr Ravalomanana was charged with murder and being an accessory to murder, along with 18 other people, some of whom are also in exile.

It's the second time this year Hilton has been arrested on drug possession allegations, although authorities in South Africa dropped marijuana charges earlier this summer. In 2007, Hilton pleaded no contest to alcohol-related reckless driving and was sentenced to 45 days in jail.

This time, the hotel heiress was with her boyfriend, Las Vegas nightclub mogul Cy Waits, who manages a club inside the Wynn Las Vegas and was driving the black SUV.

Hilton was not taken to a cell and received no special treatment on a busy Friday night and Saturday morning at the jail. He said release without bail was common in such cases.

Release without bail is common in felony cocaine possession cases? Really? [expletive]. 

After spending 23 (of 45) days in jail for drunk driving, she told Larry King that she said had reevaluated her "partying lifestyle" and proclaimed that she wanted "to help raise money for kids and for breast cancer and multiple sclerosis."  

Awesome.

But at 533 feet, Eclipse would be only about 18 inches longer than the Dubai. And as the folks at Luxist point out: “Since the Dubai ruler basically owns his own shipyard now–the U.A.E.’s Platinum Yachts, where the Dubai was finished–it wouldn’t take much for him to have it refitted with an extra few feet of metal to put Abramovich firmly in his place.”

With wages stagnant for those who still have a job "a lot of people are having to tap into their nest egg to keep their living standards going," says Damien Hoffman, co-founder of WallStCheatSheet. "A lot of people are living out of principal. There's no other way to get around that."

Fidelity' recent report of a sharp increase in the number of 401(k) participants seeking loans or hardship withdrawals in the second quarter is further evidence of the disappearing middle class. "These are basically emergency ways to fund yourself. We think it's a scary statistic," Hoffman says. "Where is the middle class going to be if they draw down their 401(k)s drastically over course of next few years?" [Yahoo]

Hoffman stresses this trend is most prevalent among Baby Boomers, including many considered to be in the "upper middle class," who thought they'd be able to draw much more from fixed-income securities than offered in the current environment of ultra-low rates. With many younger Americans facing a difficult job market, stagnant wages, potentially higher taxes and the burden of caring for aging parents, this trend could expand with devastating socio-economic consequences.

The new owners will also have access to 24-hour room service from the neighboring Mandarin Oriental hotel, spas, squash courts a private wine-tasting facility and protection from security guards who are former members of the SAS, the UK's elite special forces unit. One Hyde Park, which boasts 86 properties starting at around £20 million, is comprised of four hexagonal tower blocks still under construction.

The Deans’ dream was to raise their four children here in an atmosphere like “Dynasty,” “only happy,” and then leave the 58-acre estate, with its 18-hole golf course, wedding chapel, band shell and formal gardens to a foundation that would open it to the public for charity events.

They scrutinized every object ...

• 10 bathrooms, including one built like Egyptian tombs
• 8 bedrooms, including an “Alice in Wonderland” master bedroom
• 58 acres of landscaped Italian and French gardens that rival that of Versailles
• 18-hole golf course
• grass tennis courts
• an amphitheater
• a conservatory
• 1950s game room
• a 24-karat gold sink for which he paid $88,000
• a Hawaiian-art gallery
• French Empire furniture
• 13 fireplaces
• $60,000 dolphin-sculpture fountain
• $17,500 leaded glass and mahogany double front doors, which came from the Chicago Cotton Exchange
• a 24-seat dining room complete with a wall-sized aquarium called the Predator Tank
• parking for a dozen cars

Tyler Perry plans to demolish the home and build a more energy efficient and sustainable multimillion dollar mansion.

Visit Dean Gardens web site

NYT slideshow 

Photo Credit: Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times