Bush allies help to steal a sawmill

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Thursday February 16, 2006 15:47 by BushOut

This is an important story, and needs attention. Any readers with blogs, and websites, please post about this, apparently some newspapers will be running with this story, according to the author we need to get more people to post and talk about this

To summarise, very very briefly, Bill Saxon, a Dallax, Texas oil boss, and close friend of Bush got involved in a business venture, and assisted one half brother and his wife to steal a sawmill in Honduras from a man called Richard Nolan Thomas.

Richard's half brother, Gary, and his wife, Ollie, basically screwed Richard out of a whole load of money.

Gary had apparently agreed to approximately $7.8 million in notes for the mill. The letter also ensured that Saxon's $880,000 investment would be paid off first, with any remaining funds going to the other partners in the deal.

Richard says that Gary was not authorised to make such a deal with Saxon.

As owners of a Honduran export business, the Thomases had to pay taxes to the Central Bank of Honduras, which also functions as a central tax-collection agency. When goods are exported from Honduras, a portion of the gross receipts is supposed to come back to the bank as taxes.

Because Gary and Ollie had been selling the product and not sending the money back or paying tax on it to the Honduran Central Bank, none of the proper taxes had been paid to Honduras.

In addition, evidence came to light that Gary and Ollie were smuggling contraband back into Honduras. The definitive tip-off was a brand new Dodge Durango, mentioned in an email from Ollie to Gary on May 12, 2004, that was allegedly bought in the States for a dollar down and loaded into the container in order to smuggle it into Honduras without paying duties.

According to Travis Hollman, who won a lawsuit against Gary (see sidebar), Gary also had filed an insurance claim for the same vehicle, claiming it had been stolen.

Now, Richard had a drink driving conviction, and lodged an appeal, that appeal was, overturned, and he says he wasn't aware of that. In 1997 a warrant was issued for his arrest issued to "any peace officer of the state of Texas" for breaching his probation conditions.

On the 14th June 2004, Richard was leaving the bank, onto the street (which had been completely sealed off) the bank was surrounded by Interpol and Honduran police officers. He was beaten, and suffered a heart attack.

Richard's family doctor was sent for, but he did not show up, it turned out that the doctor had received a phone call from the US embassy telling him that if he intervened, his Visa to the US would be cancelled. Anyway, Richard was taken to hospital, after having to wait 30 minutes for some sort of medical attention.

An agreement was reached, whereby Richard would be placed under house arrest. There was an order made by the local judiciary to allow Richard to recover at his home, however, on the 23rd June 2004, the head of security at the US embassy (Joseph Stowell) showed up at the house with Honduran guards demanding that Richard went with them.

Richard was bungled into the back of an unmarked van, the van stopped at the home of his doctor, who was pressured by Stowell to sign a medical release form. the doctor was threatened with the revocation of his medical licence if he did not comply.

The van continued to the airport, where Stowell handed Richard over to US Air Marshalls. When Richard demanded to see the correct paperwork, the reply was:

"We don't need shit. And if you keep running your mouth, it won't be a very enjoyable trip to the United States."

A Freedom of Information Act request was filed to discover if any paperwork did exist, but there was no paperwork for this. Richard had been kidnapped, and Honduras sovereignty had been breached.

Ollie Thomas, in sworn testimony at Richard's hearing in Texas, attested, "Mr. Saxon had actually contacted Donald Evans … and basically got him involved in it."

Her husband, Gary, made other moves that drove remaining members of his family out of Honduras. A Honduran arrest warrant, a denuncia, was sworn out by Gary against his own mother for usury, for allegedly charging too much interest on a loan she gave him. Gary had been in default on the loan for almost two years, but specifically requested that she be sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison for doing him the favor of loaning him money.

The only paperwork which appears to exist are special requests from Bill Saxon, to high ranking Bush regime officials.

Donald Evans now heads the Katrina fund, and Larry Palmer, the US ambassador to Honduras at the time is now the president of the Inter American Foundation (replaced by Charles Ford, the senior adviser to the assistant secretary of commerce for the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service)

You can see the original article at http://www.nwmeridian.com/content/060210_01_p1.php