On The QT #13
Everything You Always Suspected--
Plus Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part II
Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff
Publisher and Editor
WELCOME
to On The QT #13. On the scene. 9/11/01 left many examining the state of the nation. Prior to the war, polls indicated the USA was becoming a "low trust society". Meaning many felt uneasy about their fellow citizens. On the streets, in business dealings and in the halls of government, people worried they'd receive what's commonly called a
"ROYAL SCREWJOB".
Meet Kevin Ingram, ex Goldman Sachs bond trader, ex Deutches Bank mortgage maestro, ex dot commer, ex restauranteur, ex real estate developer and after being caught this June in an FBI sting, ex money launderer. Of close to three million dollars which was to be used to buy weapons for terrorists. Weapons sought by Kevin Ingram's associates included Stinger missiles, silencer equipped machine guns, grenade launchers and a little killer called a MR20, a nuclear missile trigger. The kind used in building a suitcase sized nuclear device. Heroin was to be part of the deal. The foreign country seeking the weapons was thought to be Pakistan; a possible recipient of the weapons Ossama Bin Laden, aka
THE CONTRACTOR.
Called so by his followers because his family made their fortune in the building trade. And speaking of construction, one of Kevin Ingram's residences was a condo in Jersey City, New Jersey. Where Ingram had a business partner, Diajaa Mohsin. Together with another partner they made up B.I.A. Construction, with an address on York Street. Egyptian born Mohsin introduced Kevin Ingram to Mohhammed Raja Malek, a Pakistani native who'd been a Jersey City resident for over thirty years and who also served on the Jersey City zoning board. Malek, known as "Mike", owned a string of liquor stores and smoke shops. Diajaa Mohsin also had contacts in Florida. Including a convicted money launderer and dubious diamond dealer named Randy Glass(!). Via Glass the Feds glommed on to Mohsin's and Malik's unseemly interest in illegal arms. Glass was squeezed, then wired for sound. He told Mohsin he had access to military goodies. Beginning in 1998, Glass and various undercover agents met with Mohsin, Malek and Kevin Ingram in Boca Raton, Florida and at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Grill in lower Manhattan and had numerous discussions about washing big dirty bucks and buying
BIG DEADLY BANGS.
Early this Summer the trio was busted. Along with several others involved with the deal. One was an associate of Kevin Ingram's-- Walter Kapij, an airplane broker from Wethersfield, Connecticut, In late August Kevin Ingram pled guilty to money laundering. He agreed to pay the US government $185,000 and also agreed to paint Mohsin and Malik into a corner. As sentencing approaches, Ingram's attorney says Ingram had no idea the dirty money was meant for weapons.
BRIDGE, ANYONE?
Kevin Ingram is a MIT and Stamford grad. A real estate finance honcho who ran the mortgage trading service at Goldman Sachs for 6 years and later headed the mortgage backed securities department at Deutsche Bank. In 1998 he was Deutsche Bank's man in London, heading their global asset securitization department. London has a rep as a banking haven for terrorists: including the Bin Laden financial network. Ingram also had offices in the World Trade Center, which radical Islamic terrorists, living in Jersey City, bombed in 1993. Would Kevin Ingram launder money with business partner Diajaa Mohsin and Muhhammed Raja Malek, both of Jersey City, without knowing what he was washing? For close to three years? Also consider that when Kevin Ingram was nabbed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (where the final money exchange took place) he lied about his assets at his initial bail hearing. His attorney said Ingram "panicked" and hence didn't mention a 1.5 million dollar Swiss bank account. Or his share in a restaurant in lower Manhattan. Plus quite a few other major assets. And when Kevin Ingrim was busted in Florida, he was about to head for Amsterdam in a Lear jet provided by airplane broker Walter Kapij. With 2.2 million dirty dollars in hand. Which would have beenhis second
MYSTERIOUS DEPARTURE
In 1996, Kevin Ingram had been hired to run Deutsche Bank's mortgage backed securities business. Two years later he was pressured to resign. Ingram's department ran huge trading losses. Others say office politics were behind his being axed. Ingram did not go gently into pink slip night. He called in Jesse Jackson to negotiate his departure. Ingram, who in 1996 was named one of the top 25 African American "movers and shakers on Wall Street" by Black Enterprise magazine, said racism was at work. He demanded 20 million dollars severance. At the time Deutsche Bank was in the process of acquiring Bankers Trust. Did the threat of a PC dust up, during a heavily regulated acquisition, cause Deutsche to quake in their liederhosen? Whatever the reason, Deutsche settled with Ingram for an undisclosed sum. Commonly believed to have been at least 10 million. Ingram donated generously to Jackson's Rainbow Push then moved on to
WAFFLES.
In 1999 he joined the real estate drive into Harlem. As chief executive of I.W, Development L.L.C., based in Midtown Manhattan, Ingram got in on reopening historic Harlem Be Bop shrine Minton's Playhouse and renovating Well's Famous Home of Chicken and Waffles. Minton's had floundered in an earlier renovation attempt, one spearheaded by celebs. Including Robert De Niro. The new financing for both Minton's and Wells was to be a package deal, with the HUD related Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone arranging loans of almost a million dollars and Ingram raising whatever else was needed. Ingram never kicked in his part of the package; but he did receive $200,000 from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. Who hit the litigation trail in an attempt to recover. Minton's and Wellswent nowhere.
BUZZ
In mid 2000, when Internet bond trading hype was running full throttle, Kevin Ingram launched TruMarkets, a site designed to trade securities electronically-- including derivatives and mortgage bonds. The buzz was good and investment support was impressive. Much of it from politicians and Wall Street heavies. Nonetheless TruMarkets went bankrupt in March, 2001. A few months later an undercover agent asked Ingram to launder the last and biggest weapons payment-- 2.2 million dollars. Ingram dithered at the agent's blunt description of the transaction, but finally said, "I'm a professional and I have a reputation, but I don't mind making money". He never mentionedthe word
TRAITOR.
If citizen was an impossible loyalty, how about "I'm a human being: I do mind harming people"?
ME & MY PROFIT.
Certain words in Kevin Ingram's story echo widely as the importance of laundered money emerges post 9/11/01. Arms. Foreign assets. Drugs. Diamonds. Real Estate. Mortgage Banks and brokers. Construction. HUD money. Money money. Equally resonant is Kevin Ingram's anomic description of himself. The same lonely light shines in the eyes of many. Dreams of "My Own Private Money Bin" absorb far more people than Kevin Ingram and not just those in economic and political elites. When money is God, people treat it as an unexamined first principle. No one asks from whence it comes. Greater attention to what's called "Black Money" may prove beneficial. Illuminating some dark corners. Not all of themOver There.
PS
rhymes with BS. In New Jersey, Republican Bret Schundler is running for governor. Claiming he can improve security and protect New Jersey from terrorism. Bret Schundler was mayor of Jersey City during most of the 90's. From the 93 WTC bombing through the Ingram/Malek/Mohsen salad days. Jersey City (pop roughly 350,000) is still a pretty small town politically. And economically. You gotta ask-- just how closely did Bret monitor terrorist circles or sources of money in his very own city?
SHINING WEBSITES:
Will return next issue. Along with a discussion of the Internet's stellar performance during the new millennium's first major war. Click here, for a list of sources used in this issue of On The QT.
"we black the boots of success, without inquiring whose soul
dangles from his watchchain."
e.e. cummings
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