Saturday, May 21, 2022

As Allianz Fraudster Tournant Indicted Inner City Press Asks US about Cooperation & BaFin

 

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC-Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN NY Mag

SDNY COURTHOUSE, May 17 –  A scandal of Allianz that has been brewing since the collapse of its investment funds as COVID set has given rise to guilty pleas of two cooperators, and the indictment of Gregoire Tournant, by Southern District of New York prosecutors on May 17.  

At issue are Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC's Structured Alpha Funds; the cooperators are Stephen Bond-Nelson, who along with Tournant was discharged in late 2021, and Trevor Taylor.   

Inner City Press went to the SDNY press conference and asked if the US Attorney's Office anticipates seeking any jail time for Taylor and Bond-Nelson - who left his SEC interview, ostensibly for a bathroom break, and never came back.

Inner City Press has uploaded Bond-Nelson's cooperation deal to Patreon here.

  US Attorney Damian Williams replied that it is early in the cooperation so too early to tell. To Inner City Press' question about whether his Office worked with BaFin or other German authorities, he declined to say, emphasizing the collaboration of DOJ, the Postal Inspectors and SEC.

The prosecutors' statement of facts goes out of its way to say "The misconduct occurred only within the small Structured Products Group at AGI US. The Government’s investigation has not revealed evidence that anyone at AGI US outside of the Structured Products Group was aware of the misconduct before March 2020. The investigation also has not revealed that anyone at any other organizations that fell within the broader umbrella of the parent company Allianz SE was aware of or participated in the misconduct."  

  Allianz has previously been fined by the US OFAC for sanctions violations, and for example hit with penalties by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

Inner City Press will stay on the case - watch this site.

The case is US v. Tournant, 22-cr-276 (Swain)

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