BDN - First Wind (SunEdison) halts talks with Maine regulators on wind power deals

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Comment by Jim Wiegand on May 5, 2015 at 3:21pm

Mr. Nicastri is perfect fit for this slimy industry.

Comment by Barbara Durkin on May 5, 2015 at 11:03am

ME PUC should be cautious as all Public Officials be circumspect on renewables with public subsidies that attract criminals.

Christine {Duhaime] has a specialized counter-terrorist financing and anti-money laundering law practice and is a Certified Financial Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, a U.S. certification. Christine reports, “Europol has issued its first Serious and Organized Crime Threat
Assessment (“SOCTA“).”

“Organized crime groups such as the Cosa Nostra, Camorra and Ndrangheta are reported in the SOCTA as being heavily involved in renewable energy (wind and solar) and waste management businesses all over the EU which are used to launder funds.

With respect to renewable energy, the involvement of organized crime
commences at the financing of infrastructure and continues to operating wind
farms and solar energy companies. The generous EU subsidies, tax credits and tariff fees are attractive to organized crime because it means ultimately that the government is funding organized criminal activities.”

http://www.duhaimelaw.com/lawy...

"Money laundering through wind farms on the scale allegedly conducted by Mr. Nicastri is rarely limited within national borders and there are likely cases similar to his that will come to light in North America."

http://www.antimoneylaundering...

Note to regulators, "KYC"

Source: Christine Duhaime

"Know your customer procedures

Financial institutions and other participants should have sound know your customer (“KYC“) procedures. They help flush out money laundering and protect the reputation and integrity of the participants to a wind or renewable energy project by reducing the likelihood of any one of them becoming a vehicle for financial crime and suffering the consequential reputational damage.

For banks and other funding groups, KYC procedures constitute an essential part of sound risk management by providing the basis for identifying, limiting and controlling risk exposures in assets and liabilities, including assets under management."

"Reputational and other risks

The inadequacy or absence of KYC standards can subject participants in a wind energy project to serious customer and counterparty risks, especially reputational, operational, legal and concentration risks. All these risks are interrelated. However, any one of them can result in significant financial cost to an organization.

In respect of banks, law firms, or government agencies, reputational risk poses a major threat, since by their nature, they each must maintain the confidence of, as the case may be,  shareholders, rating agencies, creditors, the marketplace, tax payers or the public.

In respect of legal risks, participants can become subject to lawsuits resulting from the failure to undertake due diligence commensurate with the project risks, and can suffer suffer fines, criminal liabilities and special penalties.

But the greatest risk of all is the risk to the investment itself, namely the real risk of civil or criminal forfeiture of the assets, an outcome that is entirely avoidable by the exercise of competent anti-money laundering due diligence.

Government agencies especially should be alive to the issue of being able to demonstrate to the public in the face of a potential money laundering scandal that the requisite precautions were taken to minimize taxpayer exposure. Money laundering through wind farms on the scale allegedly conducted by Mr. Nicastri is rarely limited within national borders and there are likely cases similar to his that will come to light in North America.

"Former convictions

It is surprising that Mr. Nicastri’s companies, or companies in which he was affiliated, ever qualified to build wind farms involving EU subsidies in the first place. According to an EU fraud report, Mr. Nicastri has a criminal record. In 1996, he was convicted of wind farm fraud in connection with improper payments of €15 million and of bribing public officials to obtain contracts. That should have not only been a red flag in any transactional due diligence process but a bar to any EU or national procurements or approval of any government licenses. Mr. Nicastri is believed to be a member of the Cosa Nostra."

Christine [Duhaime] is a corporate and regulatory lawyer and certified anti-money laundering specialist, a U.S. designation.

The Wind Father illustration is borrowed from The Global Warming Policy Foundation."

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Christine Duhaime , Corporate Money Laundering , Energy & Money Laundering , Europol , Money Laundering & Banks , Money Laundering Charges , Money Laundering Europe , Money Laundering News , Money Laundering Trends

http://www.antimoneylaunderinglaw.com/2013/07/lord-of-the-winds-ass...

FIRST WIND and UPC STEVE VAVRIK direct testimony of 2006, page 5, provides UPC affiliate (IVPC). Italian Vento Power Corporation.  This affiliate, Oreste Vigorito, with associate Vito Nicastri, IVPC, is the subject of "Operation Gone With the Wind" in 2009, alleged associates of Matteo Messina Denaro, Cosa Nostra "Boss of Bosses", still at large and listed FBI World's Ten Most Wanted.

http://psb.vermont.gov/sites/psb/files/orders/2013/2013-12/Cowan-Ro...

Comment by Eric A. Tuttle on May 4, 2015 at 8:53pm

At least until they get their Toe in the door with Solar Farms.