Greg Szymanski Reviews Past Wanta Articles and Information Anent Leo Wanta's Past

More Articles and Information Surface About Leo Wanta's Past

Even famous White House reporter, Sarah McClendon, put pen and paper to the Wanta story in two 1997 articles.

9 Oct 2006

By Greg Szymanski

Digging into the Leo Wanta story a little deeper, several old newspaper articles and interviews surfaced from the late 1990's filling in a few more pieces of the mysterious puzzle surrounding the man who has been dubbed The $27.5 Trillion Dollar Man.

Two of the articles were written in 1997 about Wanta's Wisconsin tax evasion case by the late Sarah McClendon, a senior White House correspondent who covered 10 Presidents.

Several other interviews, one in particular written around the same time by a lesser known journalist, severely questioned Wanta's credibility, calling him an international high finance con man instead of a trusted former Treasury agent fighting for the rights of the American people, as he has claimed and been depicted in numerous recent articles.

Although the full details of Wanta's past may never be fully known, those who believe him claim he is an honorable, God-faring man who has uncovered and trying to expose trillions of offshore money stolen by the last three Presidential administrations.

However, those more skeptical of Wanta's true intentions claim he is either being used by the powers that be or working together with them for a larger purpose unknown to the people. If this be the case, who the real controllers in the background also remain unknown, but several researchers point to the Vatican and the Jesuit Order.

As background, Wanta assumed the name, The $27.5 Trillion Dollar Man , after recently going public with an incredible story of huge offshore slush funds and CIA undercover intrigue, including a failed attempt to arrest international criminal Marc Rich and $250 million handed over by Wanta to Vince Foster in Switzerland only two weeks before his untimely death in a Washington D.C. park.

As the Wanta story unfolded during the last year, he claimed to be the legal trustor of more than $27.5 trillion in offshore money amassed after he was assigned by President Reagan to destabilize the Russian currency at the end of the Cold War.

After Reagan left the scene, Wanta claimed to be at odds with the last three presidential administrations since their intentions were to use the money for their own covert purposes instead of using the money like Reagan intended for   the betterment of the American people.

For his steadfast loyalty, Wanta was first jailed in Switzerland for 133 days and then spent the better part of a decade in a Wisconsin jail for what he has called a bogus tax evasion charge.

Upon his release about a year and a half ago, he set out on a quest to repatriate the money and in June supposedly entered into a deal with U.S. authorities to return $4.5 trillion for the betterment of the U.S. economy.

But instead of the money being used properly, it has been supposedly languishing in either a Bank of America or Citibank account, being held up by the Bush administration who Wanta claims is using it for their own nefarious purposes.

While waiting for the money to be released or while watching the story be used as another ploy to help further a downfall of the U.S economy, here are the McClendon 1997 articles and several others about Wanta reprinted in order to fill in some of the missing gaps.

It should be noted in response to the article highly critical of Wanta by Mike Miller of the Capitol Times, Wanta has claimed the target of a massive CIA smear campaign as well as being targeted with numerous death threats.   Two other interviews with Wanta are also included as well as other interesting comments made in and around the same time frame of 1997.

SARAH McCLENDON'S WASHINGTON REPORT

3133 Connecticut Avenue

Suite 215

Washington, D.C. 20008

By Sarah McClendon

Washington , D.C. --- Leo Wanta, whose purchase of huge sums in Russian

rubles is credited with bringing down the Soviet Union in the Cold

War, will be put through a third party lunacy test in Madison,

Wisconsin circuit court on Tuesday. He has successfully been declared

of sound mind in two previous lunacy tests under the Wisconsin state

attorney general's office. His own attorney, James Shellow of Madison,

Wis., is instituting this test. Shellow says that under the rules for

attorneys in Wisconsin he has to notify the court that he thinks the

lunacy test should be given. Shellow admits to being a former attorney

for a deceased Mafia chief in Wisconsin named Belistiari. Shellow

thinks Wanta will be declared sane in the upcoming hearing on Tuesday,

but Shellow claims to know nothing as to how Wisconsin was able to

extradite Wanta in chains and shackles from Switzerland, where he was

doing business with Swiss banks after having given up his citizenship

in Wisconsin. Wanta claims that he had just been made ambassador to

Switzerland and Canada when Wisconsin state officials seized him

bodily in Switzerland. Wanta claims that they took his briefcase from

him at that time which contained billions in Treasury bills and

Promise software technical equipment which the U.S. was using to get

inside information about foreign treasuries.

Although the briefcase was taken by Wisconsin authorities in 1993, it

has never been returned to Wanta nor has he any knowledge of what

happened to its contents.

The charge is that he owed Wisconsin originally approximately $14,000.

He claims to have paid back that amount in 1992. The state attorney

general's office seized his house worth $120,000 and sold it for

$60,000, but there is no record of this in the Department of Revenue

in Wisconsin nor is there any trace of the proceeds from the sale.

Wanta was buying rubles from Russia at the request of the President,

Ronald Reagan. Wanta had worked at the White House, the National

Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and six other

government agencies during his career.

He and President George Bush set up the Ameritrust account in the

Credite Suisse bank for the U.S. government to use in case it needed

to counter terrorists from overseas, according to Pat Cameron, Los

Angeles attorney for Wanta. Wanta says that when former president

George Bush sought to withdraw funds from the $210 billion on deposit

that Wanta, a co-signer of the account, refused to give his signature

for the withdrawal because the funds, he said, belonged to the U.S.

government, not to an individual.

From Sarah McClendon 9-7-97

Tel. 1-202-483-3791

Fax 1-202-328-1818

By Sara McClendon

Washington , D.C. --- Mystery increases as to how state officials

of Wisconsin can abduct a man no longer a resident, charge him with

state income tax evasion, shackle him in arm and leg irons, and

bring him back into this country and hold him in an arrest for four

years. Leo Wanta did not have an American passport as he had

surrendered that when he was named briefly ambassador to Canada

and Switzerland.

Wanta had lived in Austria since 1988 but was charged by

Wisconsin Attorney General with not having paid $14,000 in state

income taxes in 1989.

[Wanta] says he cannot get the Civil Rights Commission to

take any interest in his case. Wanta thinks now that only

President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore could free him.

He says he has paid Wisconsin the $14,000 twice but can

get no receipt. In the meantime he says he had billions of dollars

in U.S. Treasury certificates in his briefcase when taken and no

report on what state officials did with its contents.

Why does he not simply walk away from the imprisonment

which he describes as illegal?

"They would charege me with walking away without bail when

I want clearance", he said.

"But what I wonder--if state officials can do this to one

citizen, could not other citizens be in danger of a similar action

from some other state officials seeking to claim back taxes"?

The case involves why the U.S. State Department is not

seemingly interested in protecting an ambassador who alleges that

he still holds that rand and why is not the Justice Department not

interested in protecting the civil rights of this man?

Wanta refuses to buy his way out with the state officials.

He says he has billions on deposit in various companies in banks

in foreign countries but he does not wish to pay any sums to

Wisconsin authorities.

His attorney, Pat Cameron of Los Angeles, has not been

able to get any information about his repayment of taxes to the

department of revenue of Wisconsin. When the $14,000 was first

levied against him, he was sentenced to 18 years in state court

for not having paid, a sentence which Cameron described as

"unconscionable".

It looks as if this house arrest of Wanta and his refusal

to assign any of his fortune in the billions to Wisconsin as a

citizen will go on forever. He claims that he once owned a house

worth about $120,000 which the state sold for $60,000 without

giving him any return or receipt.

Wanta served nine different government agencies in the

past including the Central Intelligence Agency and the White

House.

'DELUSIONAL' CON MAN GETS EIGHT-YEAR TERM

BY MIKE MILLER THE CAPITAL TIMES

Leo Wanta, the Appleton man who claimed to be an international businessman

with connections to government agencies but was portrayed by prosecutors as

an international con artist, will be spending the next few years in

Wisconsin prisons.

Wanta, 55, who was convicted in May of tax evasion, was given an eight-year

prison term Monday by Dane County Circuit Judge Michael Torphy, who also

ordered a six-year probation to follow.

For his part, Wanta -- described as delusional by his own attorney --

continued his scam to the end, claiming the court had no jurisdiction over

him, that he was a victim of a vicious Department of Revenue and state

Justice Department.

''I know there is a conspiracy and subterfuge here,'' Wanta said when given

a chance to speak.

At various times he has claimed to be a CIA agent, an ambassador from

Somalia, a close friend of former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush,

and an international businessman.

Assistant Attorney General Douglas Haag, who prosecuted the case, and

attorney Steven Epstein, who represented Wanta, disagreed mightily over who

Wanta was and what he should get for a sentence.

''As tax fraud cases go, this one is big-time,'' said Haag, who established

during the trial that Wanta made $ ?166,000 in 1988 and claimed to have

made nothing, and made $ ?63,000 in 1989 and claimed zero on his taxes.

Haag said that money came from a $ ?500,000 scam in which Wanta got people

to invest in a currency exchange deal.

''Mr. Wanta is in fact a con man, nothing more and nothing less,'' he said.

''He is a con man who cons con men.''

Haag said Wanta was arrested in Switzerland in 1993 for attempting an $ ?81

million bank fraud. Wanta claimed diplomatic immunity in that case,

contending he was the Somalian ambassador to Canada. The Swiss deported him

to the United States, where he was arrested in New York on the Wisconsin

tax fraud charge.

Wanta is also described in the book, ''A Thieve's World,'' as being

involved in an attempted scam involving Russian rubles.

''He is a world class con man,'' said Haag. ''A snake oil salesman. But he

was unable to sell that snake oil to the jury.''

Haag asked for a sentence of 13 years in prison and another 12 on

probation.

Epstein, on the other hand, said Wanta clearly is delusional.

He called Haag's allegations ''a lot of shadows and smoke and allegations

of wrong doing around the world,'' but pointed out Wanta has never before

been convicted of a crime.

''The portrait that has been painted by Doug Haag is not the real Leo

Wanta,'' said Epstein.

''He exists in a different world,'' Epstein said of his client. ''The fact

of the matter is he is in a different orbit,'' Epstein said, adding that

Wanta actually believes the stories he tells.

Epstein, who said the tax evasion sentences of Leona Helmsley, Michael

Milken and even the notorious Al Capone were less than Haag's

recommendation, asked Torphy to let Wanta go for the 444 days he has spent

in jail since he was arrested.

Wanta, a portly, gray-haired man, then arose and began an extended speech

in which he blamed his woes on others, cutting short his remarks only when

Torphy reminded him that the case had already been tried.

''I just want to be left alone,'' Wanta said, adding that if that was done,

''I won't sue them for false arrest.''

Torphy said he was sentencing Wanta only on the tax matter.

''I don't purport to sentence him as a con man,'' the judge said. ''I don't

purport to sentence him as a swindler.''

But he said the tax evasion was serious enough to warrant prison time and

as deterrent both to Wanta and to others.

LEO WANTA INTERVIEW: HE BLOWS THE LID

Facsimile Transmission

9-21-97 Tom of Venice

TOM: Are you under house arrest in Wisconsin?

WANTA: Yes. It's illegal.

T: When did you go to work for the U.S. government?

W: September 20, 1963.

T: In what capacity were you hired?

W: DEA and CIA with Senator Alexander Wiley(R-WI) as my sponsor.

T: What were your overall project jobs?

W: Aerospace, munitions, and currency.

T: When did you go to work for the Republican Party?

W: 1965.

T: Did you work for the Nixon campaign in 1968?

W: Yes, with Ray Fleming in communications.

T: Did you play a role in the Indochina conflict?

W: Yes, in tank projects and "B" bombers.

T: What was your capacity or role with the president?

W: I worked in the Department of Defense.

T: Did this role continue in the Carter Administration?

W: Yes. It was non-political. My skills were in demand.

T: In 1980 when President Reagan was elected, did your role in government

expand?

W: Yes, I went to work for Jim Baker who helped me get work with Bill Casey

in the CIA special operations branch -- Black Ops.

T: What role did Vice President George Bush play?

W: He was the Supervisor of Record.

T: Please explain your operation in the old Soviet Union.

W: We dealt with the fusion bomb and the destabilization of the Soviet

economy. My partner was Kok Howie Kwong of the Chinese Secret Service.

T: The Chinese worked with the United States in the ruble destabilization?

W: You bet!

T: You were detained in Switzerland on July 7, 1993?

W: Yes. The Swiss police arrested me on Wisconsin State tax charges.

T: What happened next?

W: I spent 130 days in a dungeon.

T: What happened next?

W: Prime Minister Rabin of Israel wrote a letter to the Swiss demanding my

release, given I was chairman of the AmeriTrust account.

T: What happened next?

W: The Swiss government released me and I was sent to New York state.

T: What happened next?

W: The federal judge in New York state released me, but I was arrested by

the state of Wisconsin on the steps of the federal courthouse as I left the building.

T: This is while you were still Somalian Ambassador to Switzerland?

W: Yes, of course. I had previously been Ambassador to Canada.

T: You were in Switzerland to execute a 70 billion dollar credit for the U.S. Treasury?

W: Yes. Along with Vince Foster and Geneva Farrell. We were to meet at the

Hotel Dekpix in Switzerland.

T: What was the role of George Bush in the AmeriTrust account?

W: Bush felt he could never lose the election and would be able to grab(??)

all the money himself.

T: Of course, Clinton won the election.

W: Yes. And Vince Foster and Mickey Lee Cantor called me and drew up an

instrument for $250,000,000 for the credit of the Children's Defense Fund.

T: What about the rest of the fund?

W: There was $210 billion in the account, $250 million to the Children's

Defense Fund, $70 billion was to be assigned to the White House, and some

to be directed to foreign nations.

T: Why was Vince Foster silenced?

W: He was upset about me and felt the AmeriTrust funds were being misdirected.

T: What was Foster's role with Bill Casey?

W: The Contra/arms laundering in Arkansas.

T: What is your understanding of the role of Ken Starr?

W: Protect the Clintons.

T: Explain to us your meeting with John Brown of Little Rock, Arkansas.

W: Mr. Brown drove up to Lacrosse, Wisconsin and said he was a Registered

Agent of Ken Starr. He demanded that I give him documents in my possession.

T: Did you give him the documents?

W: Yes. I was under house arrest and felt a great deal of pressure.

T: What were the documents about?

W: They were files relating to Mena, the DEA, Barry Seal, and the Chinese

COLA accounts.

T: What do you know about Mena?

W: It involved the Arkansas Development Finance Authority run by Bob Nash

which used Mitsui Mfg Bank to launder Japanese yen.

T: What else do you know about Mena?

W: It involved Bill Clinton, George Bush, Vince Foster, Bill Hakr and Webb

Hubbell. Japanese yen was laundered through the Bank of China in exchange

for U.S. dollars.

T: What else should we know about Mena?

W: Of course Barry Seal was the pilot bringing in the drugs. He reported to Bill Casey.

T: Did George Bush know about the murder of Barry Seal?

W: You bet!

T: What about the arms operation in Arkansas?

W: Arms were shipped through Honduras through the Chinese COLAs accounts.

My partner was eventually murdered with the help of Chinese Intelligence.

T: That partner was Kwong?

W: Yes.

T: What was the role of Hillary Clinton?

W: She was president of Standard LaFarge and helped launder the arms

profits through its headquarters in Quebec, Canada.

T: There is a hearing due on the 23rd of September, 1997.

W: I am hoping that my attorney's request for a summary judgment will be accepted.

T: That would lead to your release?

W: Yes, I hope.

T: Would you testify before the Senate Intelligence or Banking Committee?

W: Certainly.

T: Thanks for your cooperation.

Topic: White Water

Leo Wanta: Explosive Evidence in Foster Case and Corruption in Washington

CAS Mailing List

07/21/97 Tom from Venice on Putnam & Briem Shows

The Continuing Saga of Leo Wanta

There is an individual who calls in to the Putnam and Briem shows.

He refers to himself as Tom from Venice. [Venice, California] Putnam remarks

from time-to-time about Tom's high level Democrat contacts. Putnam seems to feel

that Tom has a fair amount of credibility. And Tom does seem to get his hands on

timely and not publicly known information.

On August 19 and 20, Tom phoned in to the Putnam program and then

the Briem program, respectively. The following information was offered up

with the report that documents in-hand confirmed it's validity.

I apologize in advance for the hodgepodge posting. I gleaned it from two

different shows. It may be a little jumbled. But it's late, and this will

have to do.

I can neither confirm or dispute the information. It may be very

accurate. Then again, it may not be. I merely present it for your access. Any references

to 'we now know' or similar statements, should be viewed as having been stated by Tom

from Venice.

Documents were provided to Putnam by Tom, that support Tom's

conclusion that there's a potential meltdown on the horizon in Washington, D.C.

Even though our main stream press doesn't want to cover it.

Under house arrest in Switzerland at this time is the former

Somali Ambassador to Switzerland, Leo Wanta. Mr. Wanta is a supposed lifetime operative

of the CIA, and a United States Citizen. Mr. Wanta did work for George Bush and

Republican party partisans. Wanta was appointed Ambassador on behalf of the Somalis

in April of 1993.

Wanta goes back a long time in association with our government.

Before becoming the Somali Ambassador to Switzerland, he was Ambassador to Canada on

behalf of the Somalis. But even before this, he worked his entire life in the

Republican party, supported Ronald Reagan, then was hired by George Bush.

Here we have a United States Citizen who worked for the CIA, the

Department of the Treasury, the US Customs Service, the US State Department, and the

NSA being appointed the Ambassador of a foreign nation.

Tom was in contact with Mr. Wanta's attorney. Documents were

provided to Tom who passed them on to Putnam. Putnam admitted to having received

these documents.

Now Mr. Wanta was in Switzerland one month prior to Vince Foster's

death which was ruled a suicide by Starr, but we have yet to see his

documentation and justifications for his conclusions.

Mr. Wanta has documents showing that Vince Foster made

reservations for him and a Geneva Ferelle at the Hotel De La Pleau in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mr. Ferelle is believed to work for the Italian Secret Police.

Carrying a valise with bearer bonds, Mr. Wanta met with Foster at

the hotel. Bearer bonds are immediately negotiable and could be tendered at a bank

in Switzerland. [most likely any bank in Switzerland]

According to a White House document by FBI Agent Frank B. Ingram,

Attorney Foster, Attorney Marvin Grobmeyer, and Secretary Donna Shalala are

still holding a copy of Foster's letter of intent to meet Wanta, visa vi a

$250,000,000 Ameritrust Corporation withdrawal to be placed in the Children's Defense

Fund.

Tom states that Wanta was essentially mascaradeing as the Somali

Ambassador to Switzerland, while working for the United States Government. He

was doing this with full knowledge that he was helping the government with anational

security situation.

What we now know from the Ingram memo, which is an accurate memo

and not a forgery, specifically referring to paragraph nine at this point,

is that Ingram refers to Mao Palo Limited Investments of Hong Kong, and states that he

believes that MIA funds should be re- allocated to the investigation of the death of

Foster. Ingram further states that, "We now believe that Credit Swiss is either

indirectly or directly connected to Foster's demise.

Tom continues by referencing the Mao Palo Limited [Hong Kong based

Chinese Slush funds] funds as being intelligence community related. And speaks

of documents in his possession that reveal Japanese laundered Yen currency in it's

direction by way of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority. [ADFA] These documents may

implicate Clinton... Bush... and possibly the Secretary of the Treasury at

that time, Mr. Bensen. Tom references a document at this point that shows billions headed

toward Mao Pala.

Specialist in counter-intelligence FBI Agent Frank B. Ingram's signature appears on a

document reportedly confirming that Vince Foster did arrive in Switzerland on July 7,

1993. Foster arrived in Switzerland with an irrevocable bank transfer. This bank

transfer was to facilitate a withdrawal of $250,000,000 from an

Ameritrust Corporation account kept in Switzerland. Which Wanta also had a

controlling interest in, as well as George Bush.

According to this FBI document these funds were withdrawn for the

purpose of being deposited at a later time in the Children's Defense Fund. Of

course the Chairman of the Children's Defense Fund was none other than Hillary Rhodam.

Other documents obtained, show involvement with this account in

some money laundering associated with computer software leading back to

Inslaw.

Vince Foster as you know was very heavily tied to Systematics Inc, Jackson Stevens...

[interrupted here]

Host had a scheduled guest appearing in a couple of minutes, and

had to cut this short. But Tom concluded by stating that he feels that the two NSA

binders removed from Foster's office by Deborah Ghoram, contained information relating

to Promise Software, and a $47,000,000 wire transfer that took place in 1988,

which Tom feels was related to laundered money associated with Systematics and

Steven's Inc.

Regarding Kenneth Starr, evidently Wanta was facing Wisconsin tax charges. He

made contact with Starr for representation. Within a week of Wanta

contacting Starr, Mr. Starr was hired by the Wisconsin Education Department, with

which Donna Shalala is closely connected.

Tom also stated that he didn't get pleasure out of bringing to

light information that might reflect poorly on the intelligence community. He felt those

agencies had been set up to support our nation. But they had been abused by greedy

individuals has subverted those organizations to their own benefit, blackmailing

anyone who could blow the lid off their operation.

Tom wanted people to seriously consider two words.

Washington Mafioso

Greg Szymanski Greg also has his own daily show on the Genesis Communications Network. Go to www.gcnlive.com Greg Szymanski is an independent investigative journalist and his articles can been seen at www.LewisNews.com. He also writes for his own site www.arcticbeacon.com

Listen to my Radio Broadcast live Monday night at 8pm Pacific time on LewisNews, returning Jan. 1 2006 Radio http://webs.lewisnews.com/radio/index.htm. Greg is also regular on Rense.com the first Thursday of every month at 9-10 pm pacific time.

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