Sali Berisha

Sali Ram Berisha (born 15 October 1944) is an Albanian politician who has been Prime Minister of Albania since 2005. A cardiologist by profession, Berisha leads the Democratic Party of Albania (PD) and served as President of Albania from 1992 to 1997.

A former secretary of the committee of the Party of Labor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tirana, he abandoned his career as a cardiologist and university professor to become the leader of the Democratic Party in the 1990s. From 1992, after the fall of communism, he served as the President of Albania until his government collapsed in 1997 in the wake of the collapse of pyramid schemes. From 1997 to 2005, Albania was governed by the Socialist Party (PS) for two mandates, while he stayed in opposition.

In 2005, the Democratic Party won the general elections, and he became the Prime Minister after his coalition formed the new government. In 2009, he was re-elected Prime Minister, after the Democrats declared a narrow win of general elections but were forced into a coalition with the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) through not winning enough seats on its own for the first time since the start of multi-party democracy in 1991.

Sali Berisha is married to Liri Berisha , a pediatrician. The couple has two children, a daughter, Argita Malltezi (nee Berisha), and a son, Shkëlzen Berisha.

Early Life and Career

Berisha was born in Viçidol, Tropojë District, Kukës County, northern Albania, near the border with Kosovo. He studied medicine at the University of Tirana, graduating in 1967. He specialized in cardiology and was subsequently appointed as an assistant professor of medicine at the same university and as staff cardiologist at the Tirana General Hospital. At the same time, Berisha became a member of a discussion forum for changes in the Albanian Party of Labor[3] while having been enrolled as a member a few years earlier. Apart from his native Albanian, he speaks English, Italian and French fluently. During the 1970s, Berisha gained distinction as the leading researcher in the field of cardiology in Albania and became professor of cardiology at the University of Tirana. In 1978 he received a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO) fellowship for nine months of advanced study and training in Paris. Upon his return to Albania, Berisha conducted a research program on hemodynamics that attracted considerable attention among his colleagues in Europe. In 1986 he was elected to be a member of the European Committee for Research on Medical Sciences, where he worked for the elaboration of scientific researches strategies for “Health for all”. In an interview for the Albanian Writers League newspaper published also in the international press, Berisha demanded that the remaining barriers to freedom of thought and expression be ended, that Albanians be granted the right to travel freely within the country and abroad, and that Albania abandon its isolationist foreign policy. At an August 1990 meeting of the nation’s intellectuals convened by President Ramiz Alia, Berisha urged the Albanian Party of Labor (APL) to abolish the third article of the communist constitution which sanctioned that the Party of Labor had the hegemony of the Power, to recognize the Human Rights Charter, the drafting of a new democratic constitution, and to remove all monuments of Stalin in the country.

In an article published in the “Bashkimi” newspaper on 17 September 1990, Berisha condemned what he termed the “cosmetic reforms” of the Alia regime, which had only served to aggravate unrest within the nation. Without political pluralism, he argued, there could be no true democracy in Albania.

In December 1990, Berisha joined, on the very first day, a series of student demonstrations that forced the government to approve the establishment of a multi-party system. Berisha emerged as the leader of the Democratic Party of Albania (DP), the first and largest of the new opposition parties. It is interesting to note that all leading members of the party wore white coats during demonstrations, while Berisha was heard thanking Ramiz Alia when meeting with the students and was seen driving around Skanderbeg Square with a government vehicle. He was formally elected DP chairman in February 1991 at the party’s first national congress. He was elected member of Albania parliament in 1991, 1992, 1997, 2001 from the constituency of Kavajë.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Bamir Topi

Bamir Myrteza Topi (born 24 April 1957 in Tirana, Albania) is the fifth President of Albania since 24 July 2007. He was also Honorary President of Albanian football club KF Tirana from 2005 to 2007.

Early Life and Public Activities

Topi graduated from the Agricultural University of Tirana in veterinary studies with high grades and earned a PhD degree in the same field. In 1984, he was appointed a Scientific Researcher at the Institute of Veterinary Scientific Researches until 1995. During the 1987-90 period, he attended post-graduate studies in Italy in the field of Molecular Biology. After his return from Italy, Topi was appointed Director of the Food Safety and Veterinary Institute, a position held until the end of 1995. During the activity in this Institute as the Director and Scientific Researcher, Topi gave a Western world physiognomy to this important institution of the country. Alongside his work as Scientific Researcher, Topi has carried out a dense academic activity in preparing the educational curricula of the Toxicology and Pharmacology subjects for the students and postgraduates of the Veterinary Medicine Faculty while at the same time he was also a Lecturer of these subjects for about a decade. He was first elected as a parliamentarian of the Assembly of Albania in 1996 and was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Food where he served until 1997. He was elected to three mandates in the Assembly of Albania as a candidate of Democratic Party of Albania. In two terms Topi led the Parliamentary Group of Democratic Party in the Assembly. He has been elected vice-chairman of the Democratic Party of Albania, which is led by Sali Berisha. Topi has been distinguished and widely hailed as a politician of a moderated profile, as very active in resolving the crisis between the ruling majority and opposition and as a protagonist of political agreements and various parliamentary initiatives. He also holds the title of Honorary President of Albanian football club KF Tirana.

Support for Kosovo's independence

Topi has been a vocal advocate of independence for Kosovo. He staunchly pointed out the need for a sovereign state of Kosovo before the European Council and other international instances.

With a joint invitation of Kosovo's President, Fatmir Sejdiu, and the head of the UN mission, Joachim Ruecker, Topi stayed for a three-day visit in Kosovo in January 2009. He was proclaimed an honorary citizen of the capital Pristina and awarded with the golden medal, the Goddess on the Throne. During his visit, he was also conferred an honorary doctorate by the University of Pristina.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (born 5 June 1942) is an Equatoguinean politician who has been President of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. He ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in an August 1979 military coup and has overseen Equatorial Guinea's emergence as an important oil producer, beginning in the 1990s. Obiang has also been Chairperson of the African Union from 31 January 2011 to 29 January 2012.

Early Life

Born into the Esangui clan in Acoacán, Obiang joined the military during the colonial period, and attended the Military Academy in Zaragoza, Spain. He achieved the rank of lieutenant after his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, was elected the country's first president. Under Macías, Obiang held various jobs, including governor of Bioko and leader of the National Guard. He was also head of Black Beach Prison, which was notorious for subjecting inmates to severe torture.

Presidency

After Macías ordered the murders of several members of his own family—including Obiang's brother—Obiang and others in Macías' inner circle feared the president had gone insane. Obiang overthrew his uncle on 3 August 1979 in a bloody coup d'état. Macías was placed on trial for his activities over the previous decade and sentenced to death. His activities had included the genocide of the Bubi. He was executed on 29 September 1979 by firing squad.

Obiang declared that the new government would make a fresh start from Macías' brutal and repressive regime. He granted amnesty to political prisoners and ended the previous regime's system of forced labor. However, virtually no mention was made of his own role in the atrocities of his uncle's rule.

Wealth

Forbes magazine has said that he is one of the wealthiest heads of state, with a net worth of US$600 million. Official sources have complained that Forbes is wrongly counting state property as personal property.

In 2003, Obiang told his citizenry that he felt compelled to take full control of the national treasury in order to prevent civil servants from being tempted to engage in corrupt practices. To avoid this corruption, Obiang deposited more than half a billion dollars into accounts controlled by Obiang and his family at Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C., leading a U.S. federal court to fine the bank $16 million.

Coups

In 2004 an attempt to depose Obiang was thwarted. One of those involved was Mark Thatcher, son of the former UK Prime Minister. In 2008 American journalist Peter Maass called Obiang Africa's worst dictator, worse than Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

With the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi in August 2011, Obiang became a contender for the longest ruling non-royal head of state however, using different definitions, Paul Biya of Cameroon and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen have been heads of state for longer.

Personal

Obiang is believed to be suffering from terminal prostate cancer. He reportedly favours that his son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue succeeds him.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Stephen Harper

Stephen Joseph Harper PC MP (born April 30, 1959) is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election. He is the first prime minister from the newly reconstituted Conservative Party, following a merger of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties.

Harper has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Calgary Southwest in Alberta since 2002. Earlier, from 1993 to 1997, he was the MP for Calgary West. He was one of the founding members of the Reform Party, but did not seek re-election, and instead joined, and shortly thereafter led, the National Citizens Coalition. In 2002, he succeeded Stockwell Day as leader of the Canadian Alliance (the successor to the Reform Party) and returned to parliament as Leader of the Opposition. In 2003, he reached an agreement with Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay for the merger of their two parties to form the Conservative Party of Canada. He was elected as the party's first non-interim leader in March 2004.

Harper's Conservative Party won a stronger minority in the October 2008 federal election, showing a small increase in the percentage of the popular vote and increased representation in the Canadian House of Commons, with 143 of 308 seats. The 40th Canadian Parliament was dissolved in March 2011, after a no-confidence vote that found the Cabinet in contempt of parliament was passed by the opposition parties.

In the May 2011 federal election, Harper's Conservative Party won a majority government, the first since the 2000 federal election. The Party won 166 seats, an increase of 23 seats from the October 2008 election.

Early Life

Harper was born in Toronto, the first of three sons of Margaret (née Johnston) and Joseph Harris Harper, an accountant at Imperial Oil. He attended Northlea Public School and, later, John G. Althouse Middle School and Richview Collegiate Institute, both in Central Etobicoke. He graduated in 1978, and was a member of Richview Collegiate's team on Reach for the Top, a television quiz show for Canadian high school students. Harper then enrolled at the University of Toronto but dropped out after two months.[citation needed] He then moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where he found work in the mail room at Imperial Oil. Later, he advanced to work on the company's computer systems. He took up post-secondary studies again at the University of Calgary, where he completed a bachelor's degree in economics. He later returned there to earn a master's degree in economics, completed in 1993. Harper has kept strong links to the University of Calgary, and often lectured there. He is the most recent prime minister since Joe Clark without a law degree.

Personal Life

Harper married Laureen Teskey in 1993. Laureen was formerly married to New Zealander Neil Fenton from 1985 to 1988. They have two children: Benjamin and Rachel. He is the third Prime Minister, after Pierre Trudeau and John Turner, to send his children to Rockcliffe Park Public School, in Ottawa. He is a member of the evangelical Christian and Missionary Alliance and attends church at the East Gate Alliance Church in Ottawa.

An avid follower of ice hockey, he has been a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs since his childhood in the Leaside and Etobicoke communities in Toronto. He is working on a book of the history of hockey, which he hopes to publish in 2012, and writes articles occasionally on the subject. Harper appeared on The Sports Network (TSN) during the broadcast of the Canada–Russia final of the 2007 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. He was interviewed and expressed his views on the state of hockey, and his preference for an overtime period in lieu of a shoot-out. In February 2010, Harper interviewed former National Hockey League greats Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe for a Saskatoon Kinsmen Club charity event.

Harper taped a cameo appearance in an episode of the television show Corner Gas which aired March 12, 2007. He reportedly owns a large vinyl record collection and is a fan of The Beatles and AC/DC. In October 2009, he joined Yo-Yo Ma on stage in a National Arts Centre gala and performed "With a Little Help from My Friends". He was also accompanied by Herringbone, an Ottawa band with whom he regularly practises. He received a standing ovation after providing the piano accompaniment and lead vocals for the song.

In October 2010, Harper taped a cameo appearance in an episode of the television show Murdoch Mysteries, which aired July 20, 2011, during the show's fourth season.

Harper is 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) tall. He is the first Prime Minister to employ a personal stylist, Michelle Muntean, whose duties range from co-ordinating his clothing to preparing his hair and makeup for speeches and television appearances. While formerly on public payroll, she has been paid for by the Conservative Party since "some time [in] 2007".

From : www.wikipedia.org

Felipe Calderón

Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (born August 18, 1962) is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012. He is a member of the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), one of the three major Mexican political parties.

Prior to the presidency, Calderón received two masters degrees and went on to work within the PAN while it was still an important opposition party. Calderón served as National President of the party, Federal Deputy, and Secretary of Energy in Vicente Fox's cabinet.

He served in the cabinet of the previous administration up until he resigned to run for the Presidency and secured his party's nomination. The Federal Electoral Institute's official electoral results gave Felipe Calderón the largest vote total and the presidency but the decision was contested by Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Calderón's victory was confirmed on September 5, 2006 by the Federal Electoral Tribunal.

Felipe Calderón passed several reforms during his presidency, breaking through some of the gridlock faced since Mexico's transition to democracy. He would like to be remembered for building hospitals, fortifying education and legal institutions, and his environmental initiatives, but would likely and unjustly be remembered for the drug war.

Background and Family Life

Felipe Calderón was born in Michoacán. He is the youngest of five brothers and son of Carmen Hinojosa Calderón and the late Luis Calderón Vega.

His father was a co-founder of the National Action Party and an important political figure. He occupied state posts and served a term as federal deputy. Calderón spent most of his life working within the party and spent most of his free time promoting the PAN. The young Calderon was active in his father's campaigns. As a boy he distributed party pamphlets and flyers, rode PAN campaign vehicles and chanted slogans at rallies.

After growing up in Morelia, Calderón moved to Mexico City, where he received a bachelor's degree in law from the Escuela Libre de Derecho. Later, he received a master's degree in economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and a Master of Public Administration degree in 2000 from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Following his father's example, he joined the PAN. It was in the National Action Party where Calderón met his wife, Margarita Zavala, who served in Congress as a federal deputy. They have three children, María, Luis Felipe and Juan Pablo. Calderon is Roman Catholic.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Lee Myung-bak

Lee Myung-bak (born 19 December 1941) is the President of South Korea. Prior to his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the mayor of Seoul. He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother is Lee Sang-deuk, a South Korean politician. He attends the Somang Presbyterian Church. Lee is a graduate of Korea University and also received an honorary degree from Paris Diderot University on May 13, 2011.

Lee altered the South Korean government's approach to North Korea, preferring a more hardline strategy in the wake of increased provocation from the North, but is also supportive of regional dialogue with Russia, China, and Japan. Under Lee, South Korea has been increasing its visibility and influence in the global scene, resulting in the hosting of the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit. However, there remains significant controversy in Korea in regards to high profile government initiatives which have caused some factions to engage in civil opposition and protest against the incumbent government and President Lee's Grand National Party. The reformist faction within the Grand National Party is at odds against Lee Myung-bak.

Early Life and Education

Lee Myung-bak was born on December 19, 1941 in Osaka, Japan. The Lee family had emigrated to Japan in 1929 following the Japanese annexation of Korean Empire. His father, Lee Chung-u (이충우; 李忠雨), was employed as a farm hand on a cattle ranch in Japan, and his mother, Chae Taewon (채태원; 蔡太元) was a housewife. Lee is the fifth of seven children, with three brothers and three sisters. After the end of World War II in 1945, his family returned to his father's hometown of Pohang, in Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea. Lee's sister, Lee Ki-sun, made it known that they smuggled themselves into the country in order to avoid the property they acquired in Japan being confiscated by the officials. However, because the ship they took was wrecked off the coast of Tsushima island they lost all their belongings after all and the family barely survived.

Lee attended night school at Dongji Commercial High School in Pohang, at the time he received a scholarship. A year after graduation, Lee gained admission to Korea University. In 1964, during his third year in college, Lee was elected president of the student council. That year, Lee participated in student demonstrations against President Park Chung-hee's Seoul-Tokyo Talks taking issue with Japanese restitution for the colonization of the Korean peninsula. He was charged with plotting insurrection and was sentenced to five years probation and three years of imprisonment by the Supreme Court of Korea. He served a little under three months of his term at the Seodaemun prison in Seoul.

In his autobiography Lee writes that he was dismissed from Korea's mandatory military service due to a diagnosis of acute bronchiectasis while at the Nonsan Training Facility.

Business Career

In 1965, Lee started to work at Hyundai Construction which was awarded Korea's first-ever overseas construction, a $5.2 million contract to build the Pattani-Narathiwat Highway in Thailand. Despite being a new employee, Lee was sent to Thailand to participate in the project. The project was successfully completed in March 1968, and Lee returned to Korea and was subsequently given charge of Hyundai's heavy machinery plant in Seoul.

It was during his three decades with the Hyundai Group that Lee earned the nickname "Bulldozer". In one instance, he completely dismantled a malfunctioning bulldozer to study its mechanics and figure out how to repair it.

Lee became a company director at the age of 29 – just five years after he joined the company – and CEO at age 35, becoming Korea's youngest CEO ever. In 1988, he was named the chairman of Hyundai Construction at the age of 47.

When he started at Hyundai in 1965, it had 90 employees; when he left as chairman after 27 years, it had more than 160,000. Soon after the successful completion of the Pattani-Narathiwat Highway by Hyundai Construction, Korea's construction industry began to focus their efforts on encouraging the creation of new markets in countries such as Vietnam and the Middle East. Following the decline of construction demands from Vietnam in the 60s, Hyundai construction turned their eyes toward the Middle East and continued to be a major player in construction projects, with the successful completion of such vital international projects as the Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard, the Diplomatic Hotel in Bahrain and the Jubail Industrial Harbor Projects in Saudi Arabia, also known as 'the great history of the 20th century'. At that time, the amount of orders received by the Korean construction company exceeded US$10 billion and this contributed in overcoming the national crisis resulting from the oil shock.

After leaving Hyundai at the end of a 27-year career, he decided to enter politics.

From : www.wikipedia.org

John Key

John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand, in office since 2008. He has led the New Zealand National Party since 2006.

After a career in foreign exchange, Key entered the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2002 representing the Auckland electorate of Helensville, a seat that he has held since then. In 2004, he was appointed Finance Spokesman for National and eventually succeeded Don Brash as the National Party leader in 2006. After two years as Leader of the Opposition, Key led his party to victory in both the November 2008 and the November 2011 general elections.

Personal Life

Key was born in Auckland, New Zealand, to George Key and Ruth Key (née Lazar), on 9 August 1961. His father was an English immigrant and a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. He died of a heart attack in 1967. Key and his two sisters were raised in a state house in Christchurch by his Austrian Jewish immigrant mother.

He attended Aorangi School, then Burnside High School, and earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting from the University of Canterbury in 1981. He has attended management studies courses at Harvard University.

Key met his wife Bronagh when they were both students at Burnside High School. They married in 1984. She also has a BCom degree, and worked as a personnel consultant before becoming a full-time mother. They have two children, Stephie and Max.

On 25 July 2008, Key was added to the New Zealand National Business Review (NBR) Rich List for the first time. The list details the wealthiest New Zealand individuals and family groups. Key had an estimated wealth of NZ$50 million. Key is the wealthiest New Zealand Member of Parliament.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Semion Mogilevich

Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich (Ukrainian: Семен Ю́дкович Могиле́вич, tr:Semen Yudkovych Mohylevych, [sɛmˈɛn ˈjudkɔwɪt͡ʃ mɔɦɪˈlɛwɪt͡ʃ]; born June 30, 1946) is a Ukrainian-born organized crime boss, believed by European and United States federal law enforcement agencies to be the "boss of bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world. He is believed to direct a vast criminal empire and is described by the FBI as "the most dangerous mobster in the world".

Mogilevich's nicknames include "Don Semyon", and "The Brainy Don" (because of his business acumen[5]). He is said to control RosUkrEnergo, a company currently actively involved in Russia–Ukraine gas disputes. Secret US diplomatic cables, released by Wikileaks, describe Mogilevich as the figure in charge of both RosUkrEnergo and Raiffeisen Bank. They also state that Mogilevich has close links to Gazprom, the Russian state energy company.

He is based in Moscow, Russia. He is most closely associated with the Solntsevskaya Bratva crime group. Political figures he has close alliances with include Yury Luzhkov, the former Mayor of Moscow, Dmytro Firtash and Leonid Derkach, former head of the Security Service of Ukraine. Oleksandr Turchynov, former Prime Minister of Ukraine, went to court for allegedly destroying files pertaining to Mogilevich. Mogilevich is believed to have ordered many assassinations of his enemies across the world, including both shootings and car-bombs.

Biography

Mogilevich was born in Kiev's Podil neighborhood to a Jewish family. At the age of 22 he earned a degree in economics from Lviv University.

In the early 1970s he became part of the Lyuberetskaya crime group in Moscow and was involved in petty theft and fraud. He served two terms (3 and 4 years) for currency-dealing offenses.

During the 1980s, tens of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian Jews were emigrating to Israel on short notice and without the ability to quickly transfer their possessions. Mogilevich would offer to sell property – their furniture, art and diamonds – on behalf of the prospective émigrés, promising to forward the money on to Israel. The money was, instead, used to invest in black market and criminal activities. In 1990, already a millionaire, Mogilevich moved to Israel, together with several top lieutenants. Here he invested in a wide range of legal businesses, whilst continuing to operate a worldwide network of prostitution, weapon, and drug smuggling through a complex web of offshore companies.

In 1991 Mogilevich married his Hungarian girlfriend Katalin Papp and moved to Hungary and had three children with her, obtaining a Hungarian passport; at this point, Mogilevich held Russian, Ukrainian, Israeli and Hungarian citizenship. Living in a fortified villa outside Budapest, he continued to invest in a wide array of enterprises, including buying a local armament factory, "Army Co-Op", which produced anti-aircraft guns.

In 1994, Mogilevich group obtained control over Inkombank, one of the largest private banks in Russia, in a secret deal with bank chairman Vladimir Vinogradov, getting direct access to the world financial system. The bank collapsed in 1998 under suspicions of money laundering. Through Inkombank, in 1996 he obtained a significant share in Sukhoi, a large military aircraft manufacturer.[citation needed]

In May 1995, a meeting in Prague between Mogilevich and Sergei Mikhailov, head of the Solntsevo group, was raided by Czech police. The occasion was a birthday party for one of the deputy Solntsevo mafiosi. Two hundred partygoers (including dozens of prostitutes) in the restaurant "U Holubů" (owned by Mogilevich) were detained and thirty expelled from the country. Police had been tipped off that the Solntsevo group intended to execute Mogilevich at the party over a disputed payment of $5 million. But Mogilevich never showed and it is believed that a senior figure in the Czech police, working with the Russian mafia, had warned him. Soon, however, the Czech Interior Ministry imposed a 10-year entry ban on Mogilevich, while the Hungarian government declared him persona non grata and the British barred his entry into the UK, declaring him "one of the most dangerous men in the world".

Both Mogilevich and his associate Mikhailov ceased to travel to the west in the late 1990s, although Mogilevich retains an Israeli passport. In 1997 and 1998, the presence of Mogilevich, Mikhailov and others associated with the Russian Mafia behind a public company trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), YBM Magnex International Inc., was exposed by Canadian journalists. On May 13, 1998, dozens of agents for the FBI and several other U.S. government agencies raided YBM's headquarters in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Shares in the public company, which had been valued at $1 billion on the TSX, became worthless overnight. As to Mogilevich himself, federal law enforcement agencies from throughout the world had by now been trying to prosecute him for over 10 years. But he had, in the words of one journalist, "a knack for never being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Until 1998, Inkombank and Bank Menatep participated in a US$ 10 billion money laundering scheme through the Bank of New York.

Mogilevich was also suspected of participation in large scale fraud, where untaxed heating oil was sold as highly taxed car fuel.[when?] Estimates are that up to one third of sold fuels went through this scheme, resulting in massive tax losses for countries of Central Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland). In 2003, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation put Mogilevich on the "Wanted List" for participation in the scheme to defraud investors in Canadian company YBM Magnex International Inc. Frustrated by their previous unsuccessful efforts to charge him for arms trafficking and prostitution, they had now settled on the large-scale fraud charges as their best hope of running him to ground. He was, however, considered to be the most powerful Russian mobster alive. In a 2006 interview, former Clinton administration anti-organized-crime czar Jon Winer said, "I can tell you that Semion Mogilevich is as serious an organized criminal as I have ever encountered and I am confident that he is responsible for contract killings."

Mogilevich was arrested in Moscow on January 24, 2008, for suspected tax evasion. He was released on July 24, 2009. On his release, the Russian interior ministry stated that he was released because the charges against him "are not of a particularly grave nature." On October 22, 2009 he was named by the FBI as the 494th fugitive to be placed on the Ten Most Wanted list.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Musa Bin Shamsher

Dr. Moosa Bin Shamsher is a Bangladeshi business mogul who is often credited as the father of the Manpower Export industry in Bangladesh, and has also achieved notoriety for purportedly being a prominent name in the international weapons industry during the 1970s and the 1980s. He is renowned for his largess and his philanthropic activities.

Name, birth and ancestry

Prince Moosa, a moniker attributed to him by the media, was born in the town of Faridpur on the 15th of October 1949. His father, Shamsher Ali, was a prominent local government official during the British Raj; in later life he resigned himself to meditation and preaching.

The family can trace its roots to fourteenth century Sunni religious teachers (ulema) who migrated from Baghdad; family folklore hints at their ancestors being contemporaries of Nizamuddin Auliya.

Dr. Moosa was awarded an honorary doctorate in economics by the California based Pacific Western University.

Family

He is married to Kaniz Fatema Chowdhury (housewife) and they have three children Nancy Zahara, Bobby Hajjaj and Zubi Bin Moosa (the clown).

His only daughter Nancy Zahara received her education from University of Texas at Austin and is now married to Sheikh Fazle Fahim, an eminent businessman, and a scion of the celebrated Sheikh family (grandson of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman).

His eldest son Bobby Hajjaj is an Oxford scholar, and works as a business strategy consultant and also lectures in various universities on the topic; he is also a famed newspaper columnist. Bobby is married to Barrister Rashna Imam who is also an Oxford scholar and a leading young corporate lawyer in Bangladesh; she was previously engaged at Baker & McKenzie, London office, in cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

The youngest son Barrister Zubi Bin Moosa graduated as a Barrister from the prestigious Lincoln’s Inn in London, UK. Zubi is currently pursuing his legal practice at the prestigious chambers of Kamal Hossain and Associates, and his wife, Shumi Nasrin, a graduate from a distinguished Canadian university, is now heading her own business house.

The sybarite

The tycoon is reported to live in palatial splendor, in the Gulshan suburb of Dhaka. A lot has been written in the popular media about the decor of his mansion, the number and standard of butlers employed (over 100 in number, and unique for the country); the staff are reputed to be capable of providing superior services than any five-star hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

There have been no dearth of publications about Dr. Moosa's love for expensive luxuries, starting from 5 million dollar wrist watches to diamond studded shoes.

He considers himself the ultimate symbol of fashion and style, and numerous publications over the last couple of decades have given full credence to this belief. He is the first man who uses diamond and ornament on his different specially prepared dresses. He also prefers diamond on his shoes and uses diamond-studded shoes  on special occasions. His diamond encrusted shoes are said to be worth of US$3million.(the value of the most valuable pair of shoes) The value of his diamond encrusted Rolex watch is US$5 million. His diamond covered pen is valued between US$1million-2million. He wears a ruby valued at US$1million, a stone ofUS$50000, a dimond ring of US$50000 and an emerald of US$100000.He wears the ornament worth of at least US$7 million on special function.His all ornaments were last valued at US$85 million in 1988.Now these are valued at US$850 million.(2011)He bathes in rose water.He has a private Gulf stream jet plane and hundred exclusive private cars including Rolls-Royce and Limousine. He is escorted by 6 bodyguards wherever he goes. The Daily Telegraph, the famous British magazine published an extraordinary cover-story on Dr. Moosa . It followed a series of widespread sensational media reports, particularly in the west. The Telegraph’s special correspondent Nigel Farndale while compiling the cover story captioned Prince Moosa as the ‘Man with the Golden Guns’ wrote “here is the international arms dealer now happily occupying a forefront position in the world who is popularly known, particularly in the western society, as the ‘Prince of Bangladesh’”.

In 1980s, the leading Indian dailies The Hindu and the Times of India quoted Prince Moosa as the richest tycoon in South Asia.

From : www.wikipedia.org