Lord James of Blackheath, Foundation X and £1billion

uprising2

I This was posted on the CT forum, I didn't see a thread here about it, so I'll start one.
What can I say, it's bizarre?, Lord James in the house of lords says he's been talking to "Foundation X" about getting £5 Billion from them, Backed with Gold Bullion, only heads of state and the 6 most powerful men can contact "Foundation X".
He then goes on to state that he's laundered £1 billion of the IRA's money, take a look.

Lord James of Blackheath:
For the past 20 weeks I have been engaged in a very strange dialogue with the two noble Lords, in the course of which I have been trying to bring to their attention the willing availability of a strange organisation which wishes to make a great deal of money available to assist the recovery of the economy in this country. For want of a better name, I shall call it foundation X. That is not its real name, but it will do for the moment. Foundation X was introduced to me 20 weeks ago last week by an eminent City firm, which is FSA controlled. Its chairman came to me and said, "We have this extraordinary request to assist in a major financial reconstruction. It is megabucks, but we need your help to assist us in understanding whether this business is legitimate". I had the biggest put down of my life from my noble friend Lord Strathclyde when I told him this story. He said, "Why you? You're not important enough to have the answer to a question like that". He is quite right, I am not important enough, but the answer to the next question was, "You haven't got the experience for it". Yes I do. I have had one of the biggest experiences in the laundering of terrorist money and funny money that anyone has had in the City. I have handled billions of pounds of terrorist money.
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: Where did it go to?
Lord James of Blackheath: Not into my pocket. My biggest terrorist client was the IRA and I am pleased to say that I managed to write off more than £1 billion of its money. I have also had extensive connections with north African terrorists, but that was of a far nastier nature, and I do not want to talk about that because it is still a security issue. I hasten to add that it is no good getting the police in, because I shall immediately call the Bank of England as my defence witness, given that it put me in to deal with these problems.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/101101-0003.htm#10110215000101

From about 1:34:00 on this link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_lords/newsid_9146000/9146065.stm

From about 1min 35sec here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlwJPFEZ_-I

Rebelheart

These doddery old English aristocrats are fierce funny in their own way.

Scofflaw

Fair enough - offhand, this seems like a CT thread, but it's all there on Hansard (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/101101-0003.htm#10110215000011) including Lord Sassoon's reply:

Lord Sassoon: I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Myners. He had great trouble keeping a straight face. I have to say that I took extremely seriously my noble friend Lord James of Blackheath's suggestions
that there were people who could help us out with our financial difficulty. The noble Lord, Lord Myners, thinks it is all a joke. I have been in detailed discussions over the past number of weeks with the noble Lord, Lord James of Blackheath, and of course we take seriously anyone who wants to invest in our economy. I know many people believe that there will be great opportunities in our infrastructure programme to invest in rebuilding our networks to underpin growth.

A joke, one peer saving the blushes of another...couldn't rightly say.

somewhat mystified,
Scofflaw

uprising2

Rebelheart wrote: »

These doddery old English aristocrats are fierce funny in their own way.

Is that it?, anything else to add??

The strange case of Lord James and 'Foundation X'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/03/strange-case-lord-james-foundation-x

He seem's to have a good record:

Over his 52 years there, the Tory peer has been called into restructure some of the UK's most famous names, from the insurance market Lloyd's of London, in the 1980s, to the doomed Dome development six years ago.
Lord James - whose career spans four recessions, not including the one we are predicted to be heading into - has some strong views on the ongoing banking crisis which has seen Northern Rock nationalised and Bradford & Bingley on the brink of collapse.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/2793095/Lord-James-52-years-at-the-City-crease.html

Tory peer hints at shadowy 'Foundation X', admits to IRA money laundering
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/communication-breakdown-10000030/tory-peer-hints-at-shadowy-foundation-x-admits-to-ira-money-laundering-10020941/

Nehaxak

Has to be the strangest story I've encountered for a long time in politics (in general, not this forum) when it first broke. Very wary about giving any credence to this at all but also very interested in any further developments or information put forward.
Fascinating story though and to be honest, if it does turn out to be a complete work of fiction, t'would make a great film if someone creative enough would write a decent script for it all

uprising2

Here's some more news stories about this very strange story.

Tory peer Lord James: I helped launder over £1bn for the IRA

Tory peer Lord James of Blackheath has claimed he helped launder money for the IRA and has handled 'billions of pounds of terrorist money'.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/tory-peer-lord-james-i-helped-launder-over-1bn-for-the-ira-14995248.html#ixzz14K2BaZrM

Can 'Foundation X' save the British economy?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/robertcolvile/100062396/can-foundation-x-save-the-british-economy/

The parliamentary Foundation X-files
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/11/03/392971/the-parliamentary-foundation-x-files/

Rabble Rabble

He seems to have laundered £1B of IRA money at the behest of the Bank of England. Fair enough. I was wondering why he would be asked, but that makes more sense.

AdMMM

Last month he made a speech in which he references a song about Hermann Göring having sex with a kangaroo:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2010-10-21a.903.2&s=speaker%3A13880#g923.0

The general consensus around the blogosphere is that the honorable (and clearly bonkers) Lord James, has been dealing with the OITC (http://www.unoitc.org/) of which more stories of them can be found on Google or Wikipedia.

They are a seemingly renowned hoax but the Honourable Lord James couldn't figure that out from using the Googles and the Internets.

It's a shame, would have been a nice story.

uprising2

AdMMM wrote: »

Last month he made a speech in which he references a song about Hermann Göring having sex with a kangaroo:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2010-10-21a.903.2&s=speaker%3A13880#g923.0

The general consensus around the blogosphere is that the honorable (and clearly bonkers) Lord James, has been dealing with the OITC (http://www.unoitc.org/) of which more stories of them can be found on Google or Wikipedia.

They are a seemingly renowned hoax but the Honourable Lord James couldn't figure that out from using the Googles and the Internets.

It's a shame, would have been a nice story.

Its all speculation about who "foundation x" are at the moment, he said he has spent 20 weeks finding out if they were legitimite, now surely he would have come across www.unoitc.org or somebody would have told him.
He spoke to Commercial Secretary to the Treasury: Lord Sassoon about it and Lord Strathclyde, the leader of the House of Lords, these men said "it can't be true", but surely if it were www.unoitc.org it would have taken about 5 minutes to suss them out.

AdMMM

Remember, the House of Lords is where they hide the not-so-sane from the sane. Read through some of the transcripts of their debates... the stuff they talk about is truly ridiculous.

My name is URL

AdMMM wrote: »

Remember, the House of Lords is where they hide the not-so-sane from the sane. Read through some of the transcripts of their debates... the stuff they talk about is truly ridiculous.

Perhaps, but both Sassoon and James are highly respected people in the world of business. Their political statuses are somewhat irrelevant to that fact.

When MG Rover was being sold a few years ago both James and the OITC were amongst those interested in bidding for it. It's all truly bizarre.. I wonder if it will just be swept aside as an unfortunate mix-up

steelcityblues

AdMMM wrote: »

Remember, the House of Lords is where they hide the not-so-sane from the sane. Read through some of the transcripts of their debates... the stuff they talk about is truly ridiculous.

Could it be when you get older, you have less to gain, and therefore you can speak your mind more?

uprising2

Seems its not UNOITC!

Lord James: Foundation X not a scam
"I'm convinced it's bona fide," said James. "I've been working on this case for five months, and I've not found a single reason [to think otherwise]."

Blogger Hopi Sen suggested in a blog post on Wednesday that the mysterious organisation could be the "United Nations Office of International Treasury Control" (UNOITC), which claims to be a sovereign entity formed after the Second World War.

James told ZDNet UK that he had not been approached by the UNOITC, and that there were no links between Foundation X and UNOITC.

My name is URL

James has apparently stated that the group which he has been in discussion with is not connected to the OITC, and he is sure they are legitimate

A mysterious organisation that claims to have billions of pounds to invest in the UK economy is not an attempted scam, according to a peer with extensive City experience.

Lord James of Blackheath told ZDNet UK on Thursday that the organisation, which Lord James has dubbed 'Foundation X', to his knowledge is a viable organisation.

"I'm convinced it's bona fide," said James. "I've been working on this case for five months, and I've not found a single reason [to think otherwise]."

Blogger Hopi Sen suggested in a blog post on Wednesday that the mysterious organisation could be the "United Nations Office of International Treasury Control" (UNOITC), which claims to be a sovereign entity formed after the Second World War.

James told ZDNet UK that he had not been approached by the UNOITC, and that there were no links between Foundation X and UNOITC.

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/security-bullet-in-10000166/lord-james-foundation-x-not-a-scam-10020958/

snap, uprising!

Scofflaw

Curiouser and curiouser...do I believe that if you genuinely had £5bn to give the UK government right now, they'd do it as long as there was little chance of it being a PR disaster, no matter how you'd acquired the money? Hmmm...tricky one.

intrigued,
Scofflaw

karma_

Caught this story on reddit yesterday, it's certainly one of the weirder stories I've seen this year.

I was taken aback by the IRA and terrorist money laundering bit, no one seemed to bat an eye at those claims. I honestly don;t know what to make of it.

My name is URL

karma_ wrote: »

Caught this story on reddit yesterday, it's certainly one of the weirder stories I've seen this year.

I was taken aback by the IRA and terrorist money laundering bit, no one seemed to bat an eye at those claims. I honestly don;t know what to make of it.

Those 'claims' have been shown more interest by mainstream media than what he said about 'Foundation X. The Belfast Telegraph ran a story with the headline stating that he had admitted to laundering money for the IRA (has since been amended), which was completely false. What he said or at least meant to say is that he was tasked with identifying & writing off the money which the IRA were themselves laundering through various companies.

karma_

My name is URL wrote: »

Those 'claims' have been shown more interest by mainstream media than what he said about 'Foundation X. The Belfast Telegraph ran a story with the headline stating that he had admitted to laundering money for the IRA (has since been amended), which was completely false. What he said or at least meant to say is that he was tasked with identifying & writing off the money which the IRA were themselves laundering through various companies.

That definitely makes more sense in fairness, but why then did he make the comment about there being no point in calling teh police as he was asked to do it by the bank, all very strange.

My name is URL

karma_ wrote: »

That definitely makes more sense in fairness, but why then did he make the comment about there being no point in calling teh police as he was asked to do it by the bank, all very strange.

Yeah I don't understand why he said that myself. Perhaps he realised he had jumbled up what he was trying to say and meant it as a joke? It is all very strange, and I reckon that not much will come of it. It'll be forgotten about in a few days, sadly. Something is definitely awry in it all, whether or not it's an elaborate scam targeting governments or a real group of shadowy individuals willing to give such large amounts of money away.

The fact that whoever is behind it managed to secure a meeting with the commercial head of the UK Treasury is frankly amazing

Cannibal Ox

I don't really understand what he means with the IRA bit. Does he mean that it was IRA money that he was cleaning for the IRA? And if so, would the IRA really have had that much money? It's a pretty big number I would've thought.

uprising2

From SkyNews

Peer Claims 'Foundation X' Will Pay UK Debt
A shadowy organisation has apparently offered to lend the UK £75bn to clear the national debt and "help save the world", a peer has told Sky News

The peer refused to reveal the identity of the organisation but described them as having a "massive supranational accumulation of funds" which they have built up over 100 years.

He said a phone call from a senior minister to the foundation's chairman was all it would take "and then we can get into business".
Bloggers including Charles Stross spotted his remarks, prompting speculation on the internet that the peer, who is in his 70s, has been taken in by a scam.

Lord James told Sky News he was approached nearly six months ago and asked to help broker a deal which could be bigger than the Marshall Plan, the US fund which helped Europe recover from the Second World War.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Foundation-X-Lord-James-Of-Blackheath-Tells-Sky-News-Group-Could-Pay-Off-Billions-Of-UK-Debt/Article/201011115795267?lpos=Politics_Carousel_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15795267_Foundation_X%3A_Lord_James_Of_Blackheath_Tells_Sky_News_Group_Could_Pay_Off_Billions_Of_UK_Debt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dEAx3EXFkA

So who are "Foundation X"?

My name is URL

Cannibal Ox wrote: »

I don't really understand what he means with the IRA bit. Does he mean that it was IRA money that he was cleaning for the IRA? And if so, would the IRA really have had that much money? It's a pretty big number I would've thought.

No, he meant that it was his job at one time to investigate the money laundering activities of the IRA and to make sure that the money was not circulated back to them. As for the amount he did write off, I have no idea if his figure is accurate, but I'm sure the overall amount would indeed be huge.

uprising2 wrote: »

From SkyNews


Click the link to see video interview


So who are "Foundation X"?

I wonder if anyone will go to the trouble of requesting the answer to that through the freedom of information act.. I assume they could given that the meeting and communication between James & the X-Men would be considered official?

Scofflaw

uprising2, this is a specific story about something well-vouched but weird. It's not an opportunity to start posting CT junk in Politics.

Post deleted.

moderately,
Scofflaw

uprising2

uprising2 wrote: »

I This was posted on the CT forum, I didn't see a thread here about it, so I'll start one.

*ahem*

uprising2

Papa Smut wrote: »

*ahem*

Sorry didn't see your thread!

'Completely genuine and sincere': The shadowy organisation that wants to give the UK billions for NOTHING

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326945/Completely-genuine-The-shadowy-organisation-wants-UK-billions-NOTHING.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz14PpR8DWV

Foundation X and a £22bn offer to rescue Britain

The Mole: Is Lord James of Blackheath barking or can his shadowy friends really help Britain out?


Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/71071,news-comment,news-politics,foundation-x-and-the-22bn-offer-to-rescue-britain#ixzz14PpzLmKl

My name is URL

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lords-stunned-by-tory-peers-ira-funding-claim-2126723.html

Lords stunned by Tory peer's IRA funding claim

What a ridiculous headline.. I can't believe they're sensationalising that part of the story in particular. They don't actually think he was involved in anything untoward do they? Talk about drawing attention away from the possibly interesting part of all of this