[Rough Translation] “By declaring all the workers redundant, the Tivat-based repair shipyard Sava Kovacevic was officially shut down, ending the tradition long full 118 years. The popular Arsenal is today being handed over to the new owner, Adriatic Marinas, owned by Canadian billionaire Peter Munk. … ”

http://www.limun.hr/en/main.aspx?id=171888

02 Jul 2007

(From a prior AC post)

PETER ABELES, MUNK, BARRICK GOLD, IRAN CONTRA AND THE CIA

EXCERPT FROM: Adnan Khashoggi Linked to 9/11 Terrorists (Part One), by Alex Constantine (2004):

Decades before burning skyscrapers, codified torture, secret trials and mass detentions, there was Barrick Gold, a mining concern in Canada with roots in the American intelligence establishment. It is fitting that gold, the seductive but dead heart of world capitalism, should christen a story about the most unconscionable event in Wall Street history: 911.

Barrick’s incorporation is obscure. Most accounts claim that the firm was founded by Peter Munk, a former radio manufacturer who made a splash in the Canadian press when he disposed of his shares in the company shortly before it was declared insolvent, a golden parachute paid for by investors and the Canadian taxpayer. His name was instantly mud in the investment community, but fortunately for Munk, no indictment was ever brought against him.

Today, his overall worth is estimated at $350 million. Munk’s redemption was the work of Saudi entrepeneur Adnan Khashoggi, who would go on to notoriety as an Ollie North intermediary in the Iran-Contra affair.

Khashoggi and Munk kicked off their partnership with a series of hotel investments. In 1983, the Saudi entrepeneur raided his fat cash reserves to purchase Barrick. Munk was installed as chairman.

Khashoggi distanced himself from Barrick shortly after the Iran-Contra scandal broke (but held onto his stock, tied up as collateral for North’s arms transfers to Iran in 1985), notes Observer reporter Gregg Palast in a book on the 2000 presidential election, before Bush was invited in.

That was in 1995: “Munk’s reputation was restored, at least in his own mind, in part by massive donations to the University of Toronto. Following this act of philanthropy, the university awarded Munk an honorary degree. Several students were arrested protesting what appeared to them as a cash-for-honors deal.”

The bonds were positively Sicilian. in 1986, Khashoggi was was arrested for fraud and held in a New York prison. Munk paid his $4 million bail.

This was roughly the same time that Roosevelt cemented relations with Khashoggi, who brought Munk along, on behalf of the CIA. The offshore division of Khashoggi’s Barrick Resources controlled Jetborne, Inc., a company in Toronto used by Khashoggi to ship arms to Iran under the direction of Reagan’s NSC. …