After 20 Years of Government Overreach and Abuse, Will Martin Armstrong Finally Get His Day in Court?

 

August 13, 1999…

 

Imagine, after being named “Hedge fund manager of the Year” in 1998, you get a call from the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) saying that on behalf of one of your Japanese clients, the Financial Supervisory Agency of Japan (FSA) has written letters to the Federal Reserve, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Republic Bank, implicating you for (what they claimed) a missing $30 Billion?

By September 13, one month later, all of your business and personal assets – domestic AND foreign – have been illegally seized and frozen.  The US Attorney’s office (Department of Justice) obtains a warrant * for your arrest.

(* Legal action of this magnitude is rarely accomplished in a few weeks)

Without personal assets you’re unable to get proper legal counsel, which is a Constitutional violation of the 6th Amendment.

And for the next 20 years you find yourself subjected to Stasi-like government overreach and abuse including:

• Being improperly jailed and held in contempt of court for Seven years (By statute, contempt normally carries a maximum sentence of 18 months).

 

• Denied your right to due process.

 

• Having your $500 Million Line of Credit with Republic Bank (used for proprietary trading) frozen by an FBI seizure warrant…only to find out that Edmund Safra – founder of Republic Bank – paid off the $500 Million to facilitate the completion of the sale of Republic Bank to HSBC Holdings of Britain in late 1999.

 

• Learning that, by 2001, Republic Bank plead guilty to Securities Fraud and agreed to pay $606 Million in restitution for its role that cost Japanese investors millions of dollars. (The original claim of $30 Billion was a typo. It was reduced to $3 Billion. Then after admitting $2.2 Billion was previously redeemed, the number dropped to $1 Billion and eventually to $606 Million via hedging contracts).

 

• Being charged with co-mingling investors funds when, in fact, the Japanese investors DID NOT make accusations of co-mingling funds.

 

• Having foreign assets illegally seized. (The Territorial Reach of an SEC Receiver does not legally allow them to seize foreign assets.)

 

• Having your lead attorney taken away by the SEC in April of 2000.

 

• Placed in solitary confinement – on bogus charges – prior to going to trial with no or limited access to legal documents or lawyers – to extract a guilty plea.

 

• Under the threat of a being sentenced to 135 years in jail (Highly unusual for a financial/contempt of court case) you’re forced to sign a government -scripted guilty plea, which you must read to the court in haec verba.

 

• The government switching your case from one judge, who has acted favorably towards you, to another enabling a quick sentencing.

Adding insult to injury, the media coverage of this case – by so-called reputable news sources including; The New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Barron’s, and even Wikipedia – appears to have been written with a bias that supports their pre-determined outcome of “guilty” without proper investigation.

The above named “Notable News Outlets” failed to mention most of the glaring examples of injustice.

Instead, they referred to Martin Armstrong as a con man who went to jail “for cheating investors out of $700 Million and hiding $15 Million in government assets from regulators.” [Source Wikipedia].

The media’s collective handling of this reminds you of how street gangs isolate their victim before going about destroying them.

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In the story above, using egregious tactics to violate an American citizens rights would be an understatement.

However, what you just read is based on a true story about what happened to world renowned economic forecaster Martin Armstrong.

Throughout his career, Armstrong has been adviser to Presidents Regan and Bush, Margaret Thatcher and other notable international leaders and dignitaries.

If someone with Armstrong’s credentials and reputation could be victimized by excessive government overreach, think what could happen to the average citizen.

The research and due diligence for this article included reviewing thousands of pages of legal document, affidavits, court exhibits, transcripts, rulings, articles appearing in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Wikipedia, and numerous other credible sources related to this case.

 

Our conclusions left us with some daunting questions: The first question is why?

• Why didn’t these media outlets reveal the facts we’ve discovered?
• Why didn’t they point out how the Japanese investors were lying to their government for years about the true value of their portfolios?
• Why didn’t they question Armstrong being jailed seven years for contempt of court when it normally carries a maximum sentence of 18 months?
• Why was Armstrong denied “due process?”
• Why did they report that Armstrong committed SEC Fraud when in fact he was never charged with that fraud?
• Why did they report that Judge Richard Owen, ordered Armstrong to turn over $15 Million dollars in gold bars, coins and antiquities bought with the fund’s money? (Some of the gold and antiquities were Armstrong’s personal holdings prior to any involvement with the Japanese investors, and some were purchased with funds not related to the alleged conduct)
• Why did they report that the case was closed in 2017 when in fact, it remained open and is currently the subject of a Supreme Court inquiry?
• How could so many alleged reliable news and information sources have missed – or conveniently overlooked – some of the most obvious points listed above?

 

The good news is, after 20 years of government abuse, the Supreme Court accepted Armstrong’s petition against the government on November 1, 2019.

https://d33wjekvz3zs1a.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2019-09-20-Armstrong-cert-petition-as-filed.pdf

 

This is especially unique because it will be the second time Armstrong has gone before the Supreme Court for the same case. It’s extremely rare to get to the Supreme Court once let alone twice.

In Part 2 we’ll show you (with official court records) how the distortion of our legal process nearly killed Martin Armstrong and illegally kept him in jail for nearly 12 years.

We mentioned earlier how this story is not just about Armstrong. It’s about what can happen to any citizen in America.

He now finds himself on the threshold of redemption and hopefully will finally get his day in court.

Stay tuned…