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The Unholy Trinity - St. Thomas & Prince, Satas (Stamperija) and Armando Lapa
CATALOGO "SELOS PALOP" de ANTONIO ROMAO
COMING
SOON
COMPLETE
HISTORY OF
THE ST.THOMAS & PRINCE EUROPA 50TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
SCANDAL OF MONTENEGRO EUROPA 50TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
Print
your own stamps with
Hofmann Druck
The conspiracy to defraud Spanish investors
The
50th Anniversary of Europa scandal continues to make
headlines, this time in the Spanish magazine, Interviú.
Click on the pictures for a larger image.
Afghan update: the Swiss connection
If the UPU says this...
...why is Groth AG selling these?
Go to the WNS site or the Afghan post office site mentioned in the UPU circular - you won't find any of these stamps featured there.
Groth
and Bolaffi, so-called reputable dealers and publishers, make millions
from the sale of this, and similar, worthless paper while the Afghan
government and people are being deprived of vast revenues
by the marketing of illegal, fake stamps.
On
his own website, Groth has the nerve to say that he won't
take up the De Luxe Sheets from Nr.342 Afghanistan,
Himalayan Musk Deer because they are "not authorised
by the WWF International and Groth AG".
What's
the difference between the fakes he is selling and the fakes
he won't sell - they're both fakes! None of them are authorised by the
WWF, because none of them are authorised by the Afghan government, and
no-one cares what Groth thinks he can authorise.
He can't "authorise" a fake into a real stamp.
The innocent collectors are being cheated, as usual, and the WWF is brought into disrepute by their apparent sanction of these stamps, which carry their logo. Millions are made by people who should be ashamed of themselves and their actions.
Once
again, we call on the authorities, and the philatelic business itself,
to root out the fraudsters and start to bring some integrity and trust
back into the world of philately.
It's
no good the UPU issuing a circular if it doesn't
follow it up with some sort of litigation to try and stop
this continuing, shameful situation.
How
many AFINSA/Forum-type scandals do there have to be,
before someone does something?
Afghanistan suffers the actions of mercenary stamp bandits
Afghanistan has suffered much in recent years and the situation is being made worse by the actions of Sorbourne Limited, trading as Filatelia International, the company belonging to George Katz.
Katz
has been responsible for the production of countless
thousands of illegal stamps bearing the Afghanistan name
(some examples are shown below).
We have made enquiries of the Afghan government and been informed that the only legal stamps are those registered on the UPS WNS system (see emails 1 and 2). The WNS entries for 2004 can be seen here. Entries for 2005 can be seen here. Entries for 2006 here 1 and 2.
As
usual the Michel catalogue colludes with the crooks
and features illegal stamps in its pages.
These stamps are part of the great Europa Anniversary scandal. They aren't registered on the WNS; they are illegal.
Katz has issued 80,000 sets of the WWF stamps, 100,000 of the football sets and a staggering 500,000 of the Europa sets.
As
British troops die attempting to bring democracy and stability
to Afghanistan, Katz gets rich from cheating its government
and people of countless millions of pounds, aided and abetted
by the Michel catalogue.
It's
not just the government and people of Afghanistan who are cheated. As
always, philatelists around the world are led to believe that illegal
fakes are bona fide issues by the actions of the Michel catalogue, Bolaffi
of Italy with their involvement in the distribution of the Juventus
and A.C. Milan stamps and Hans Groth of Switzerland
with his involvement in the sale and distribution of the fake Afghanistan
WWF stamps.
Bolaffi
and Groth should be forced to return any money they have
made from the sale and distribution of these stamps and show
the real philatelists that it's not just Stamp Scandal.com that is concerned
for the future of philately.
The final, unanswered question is how long will it take Katz and his cronies to buy legitimacy for their crooked stamps? Who will be the first in the Afghan postal authority to be corrupted by the Katz dollar and let this crook get away with it again.
Has
Katz managed to corrupt someone in the Afghan
postal authority, or even the UPU? With 2.5 million euros
in his pocket from the sale of his fake Afghan issues,
and after 4 years, we are hearing rumours that, under
mounting pressure from his clients, Katz is desperate to
achieve his goal of legitimizing his fakes.
Keep checking back for breaking news on this story.
The latest from Spain on the Afinsa/Forum Filatelico fiasco
Judge
Garzón charges
suppliers of Europa stamps
An article in BolsaCinco shows that the net is closing on the perpetrators of the Europa 50th Anniversary scandal. Pamela Randall of Premium Stamp Brokers in the UK has been charged in the Spanish courts by Judge Baltasar Garzón and it can only be a matter of time before the spotlight falls on the leading figures in this huge fraud, George Katz, Alex Jesus Sanchez, Etienne de Cherisey and all the other bandits.
Justice
will be done at last in this worst of all
stamp scandals, designed only to cheat
the innocent Spanish public.
Breaking news on our lead story
BolsaCinco
(article
1/article
2) have confirmed that the Europa 50th Anniversary issue
was produced by Forum Filatelico and financed with the money of the
Spanish investors. The Spanish authorities are actively seeking to arrest
the fugitive, Carlos
Llorca and his agents in England. Links have been exposed
between one of the companies involved, Premium Stamp Brokers of 62 Priory
Road, Noak Hill, Romford, Essex RM3 9AP in the UK, whose offices are
in the same building as companies being investigated
for laundering drugs money in Marbella, by
Judge Baltasar Garzón and Operation Ballena Blanca.
More details soon.
Drª.
Maria Angelica Dimas
Presidente do Conselho de Administração
The rampant corruption in the Mozambique Postal Authority, led by Drª. Maria Angelica Dimas has been a long-running saga, linked to much of the unmitigated chicanery current throughout the philatelic world.
The story we have uncovered begins with the previous incumbent of the Director of Post Office, Dr Pedro Lopes Murima. He granted a contract to Marino Montero International philatelic agency to produce stamps on behalf of the Mozambique Post Office.
The
contract was for the production of stamps on the
theme of the History of the XXI Century.
In 2004, Sorbourne Limited, trading as Filatelia International, the company belonging to George Katz, approached Marino Montero International to allow them to produce a commemorative issue, under the terms of their contract, for the Europa 50th Anniversary.
The contract stipulated that the total issue for each stamp would be 180,000 of which 108,000 would be released on the open market, and 5,000 souvenir sheets of which 4,000 would be released on the open market. Marino Montero International were paid €20,000 on this basis.
By March 2006, it was common knowledge in the philatelic world that Sorbourne Limited, trading as Filatelia International, had printed 500,000 of each stamp and 500,000 of each souvenir sheet.
This
criminal disregard for the terms of the contract was compounded by the
printing of an additional unauthorised 500,000 imperf of each stamp
and 500,000 imperf
of each souvenir sheet.
This
isn't the only example of contract abuse
by Mr. Katz. His own printer implicates him in the falsification of
contracts for Azerbaijan
and Georgia -
see email here.
The
Azerbaijan contract allowed for
the production of 500,000 CTO which Katz transformed
into 500,000 mint, executing a massive fraud
against the Azerbaijan government.
The sheer quantity of stamps produced beggars belief. Imperf versions of the stamps alone would account for 6,000,000 stamps.
Those responsible for this travesty needed a way to make sure that no whiff of illegality surrounded these stamps.
Enter our old friends at the Michel Catalogue.
The
influence of Sako Khatchikian
with catalogue editor, Wolfgang
Maier - an influence probably increased by Khatchikian's
purchase of the majority of the 2006 catalogues - ensured that the stamps
appeared in the
2006 Michel Catalogue, turning the original €20,000 investment
into a catalogue value of €160,000,000.
Sako
Khatchikian's influence also ensured the
appearance in the 2006 Michel Catalogue of
illegal stamps supposedly from Benin
, along with
many others that should not be there.
On the 9th of May 2006, ironically the very date of the Europa 50th Anniversary, news of the Forum Filatelico scandal broke in Spain.
Marino Montero International, acting as a responsible member of the philatelic community, attempted to ascertain whether the Europa 50th Anniversary stamps had been supplied to Forum Filatelico. After all, where could this huge quantity of stamps have gone? There aren't enough collectors in the world to absorb that many stamps.
George Katz responded by informing Marino Montero International that the stamps had been supplied to Jesus Sanchez, owner of Primadart S.A., in Switzerland, which did nothing to allay the fear that there was more involved than just printing a lot of stamps.
It
was fast becoming apparent that the scale
of the
financial irregularities involved in the Forum
Filatelico scandal was breathtaking and a bland assurance that everything
was alright was less than comforting.
In
June, the situation became more complicated.
Drª. Maria Angelica Dimas, the director
of the Mozambique Post Office, sent a letter
to
Armando Lapa, the Portugese sidekick of Algirdas Satas, declaring that
the Europa
50th Anniversary
stamps were illegal.
Satas, the man responsible for the production of illegal stamps bearing the names of over 90 different countries, has a long running vendetta against Marino Montero International, which might explain why the letter found its way rapidly from the hands of Armando Lapa to almost every stamp dealer in the world.
At no time during this entire process had anyone made contact with Marino Montero International to explain the situation or give them a chance to challenge the actions of Drª. Maria Angelica Dimas.
She has a track record for trying to use her position for her own benefit. When she took over the office of Director of Post Office, she demanded that Marino Montero International pay for a round trip for her to the United Kingdom. There was no reason for her to travel to the U.K. We suspect that once there, her business would have been conducted mainly in Harrods and Harvey Nichols.
All
this
makes you wonder if someone didn't
pay her to write the letter.
Later
in June the owner of Marino Montero International
was threatened by thugs at his property.
We wonder who sent them?
Meanwhile,
Satas was busy producing his usual bundles
of illegal stamps, including a Europa 50th Anniversary
issue for St. Thomas & Prince which breached the
official logo copyright held by Sorbourne Limited,
trading as Filatelia International.
Where's the honour amongst thieves?
As
a result of all this nefarious activity, Mr. Sanchez,
owner now of the Europa 50th Anniversary stamps,
asked Mr. Katz whether they were legal or not.
Mr
Katz asked Marino Montero International for
reassurance on this point, who, of course, reassured him
that the contract was good and any stamps produced
under it were 100% legal.
After
all, as explicitly stated in the contract,
it could not be cancelled.
All
this made it too late to include the stamps in the
2007 Michel catalogue, which had suddenly become
virtuous and excluded the issue from its pages.
What were Sanchez and his cohorts to do?
The
Michel Catalogue published an article in the
February 2007 issue of Michel
Rundschau indicating
that, having received a letter from Maputo reversing the declaration
of illegality, the stamps would be reinstated
in the 2008 edition of the catalogue.
Did someone pay for this letter?
So, to summarize, the stamps have gone from being
legal in 2004-6,
to
illegal in 2006-7
to
legal again for 2007-8.
Where is the UPU? Where is ASCAT?
We could ask the new president of ASCAT, Hans W. Hohenester, who has recently replaced Carlos de Figueiredo, currently embroiled in the investigation of the alleged embezzlement of the savings of 400,000 Spanish families through the AFINSA/Forum Filatelico organisations.
Mr.
Hohenester should be able to offer a great deal
of insight into this matter in his role as president
of the company that runs the Michel Catalogue.
We
at Stamp Scandal consider the behaviour
of the Michel Catalogue a disgrace and call for
Mr. Hohenester's immediate resignation
from ASCAT. His probity is tainted and
he should step down.
As
for the UPU, once again corrupt African Post Office administrations
use them as a tool for making money
from honest dealers and agents.
The
corrupt administrations take money
for contracts, then issue declarations that the
stamps produced are illegal.
Then
they take some more money and declare
the stamps legal.
The
UPU just sits by, wrings its hands and lets them
do what they want.
Mozambique
has been cheated of millions of dollars of revenue by George Katz and
his cronies.
The agent has been cheated of legitimate income.
Yet nobody does anything.
We call on the President of Mozambique to follow the example of Montenegro and bring the full force of the law to bear on the miscreants in his Postal Administration.
Show the world that there is one African country that will not put up with this corruption.
Sack
them or imprison them, but make a stand
before it's too late.
We
are currently investigating another example of
contract abuse by George Katz relating to the supply
of stamps from St. Thomas & Prince and Chad
featuring Juventus and AC Milan for use in
a program distributed by Bolaffi of Italy.
Watch this space!
We
have received a letter from lawyers
representing
a Mr Jesus Sanchez. You can see it here.
We would like to offer an unconditional apology to Mr. Sanchez if he feels that we have confused him with the Alexandre Jesus Sanchez who controls the company Primadart S.A. and Hureges Holding Corporation. It is this Jesus Sanchez who we seek to expose in these pages. Unless any other of the many Jesus Sanchez are involved in a stamp scandal, they are not the subject of our interest.
We would like to offer an apology to each and every one of the many thousands of Jesus Sanchez that exist in the world for any confusion that may have arisen, but they can rest assured it is only the Jesus Sanchez we have identified as the director of Primadart S.A. and Hureges Holding Corporation that we are referring to in these articles.
The
authorities in Montenegro are very keen to track
down a "mysterious company" called Hureges Holding Corporation
in connection with their continuing investigation into the Europa 50th
Anniversary issue scandal that has seen most of the Montenegrin Postal
Authority officials prosecuted for corruption.
See the original article in Republika on-line here.
More on Michel Catalogue abuses soon.
The
Unholy Trinity -
St.
Thomas & Prince,
Satas (Stamperija)
and Armando Lapa
His
lawyers have sent defamatory letters
around the world.
He forced us to close temporarily by
sending gangster thugs from
the Lithuanian mafia to intimidate us and
he continues his criminal attempt to take
control of the stamp business.
He
is Algirdas Satas and once again he
is spreading lies about anyone
who stands against him, by accusing them
of producing illegal stamps.
Satas
and his company, Stamperija (successors of
the Brussels Stamp Center), produce
illegal, fake stamps in huge quantities using
the name of any country they choose.
His most recent fake stamps have shown up
on the Marlen Stamps site and
the countries he is abusing include
Benin, the Central African Republic,
Djibouti, Ivory Coast, Liberia,
Turkmenistan and the Somali Republic
(see a small sample below).
As
well as the usual breaches of
international copyright, Satas and
his representative, Armando Lapa,
in
conspiracy with the postal authority
of St. Thomas and Prince in the person
of ex-Director
General , Dr. Jose De Barros,
and current Director General,
Antonio "Moreno" Correia Mendes,
specialists in ante-dated and post-dated documents,
are laundering the money they make from
the sale of these illegal stamps through the
postal authorities in St Thomas and Prince.
They
should be ashamed of themselves for
cheating the postal authorities of their
African brothers and
encouraging the
spread of corruption.
If all the the
postal authorities received
legitimate income it could be used
to prevent some of the poverty
and deprivation
that is so much a part
of their everyday lives .
What
sort of people are these that knowingly
deal with criminals and spit in the faces
of their neighbours?
CATALOGO
"SELOS PALOP" de ANTONIO ROMAO
(SATAS)
537 pages - 2007
Date:
Tue, 11 Jul 2006 14:05:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: X X <fa_de_bonanca@yahoo.com>
Subject: Algirdas Satas´s catalogue of ilegal issues
To: jmarinomontero@aol.com
Dear Sirs :
How
do you do ?
I
am a philatelist and a regular visitor to your website , for wich I
would like to give you my most sincere congratulations for the very
good and important work made there .
Congratulations
!
Your
work is definatly the best contribution for the fight against this growing
problem of ilegal stamp issues .
I
am sending you this e-mail , since I have two information data that
I believe will be surelly interesting for you .
Most
specifically , they are regarding Mr. Algirdas Satas .
There
is very strong rumor that Mr. Satas is preparing the release of a «
catalogue » regarding the former portuguese colonies ( now portuguese
language speaking independent countries ) in order to legitimize some
of his « issues » in this area .
This
operation will be ready until the end of year ( maybe even a question
of months ) and it is needless to say that this « catalogue »
will not have the ASCAT logo or any other legitime support in order
to asure the needed background , since as you surelly know Mr. Satas
is not a member of any major Philatelic Dealers Association .
This
« catalogue » will be printed by Mr. Satas in Lithuania
, but the « official » responsability of it will be assumed
by a small and insignificant group of portuguese « partial-time
dealers » that are his puppets who distribute their « issues
» of the portuguese language speaking countries in the portuguese
philatelic market ( where unfortunatly , the acurate and real informations
about Mr. Satas are not knowed ) .
This « catalogue » printing operation can also be the start
mark of a new ilegal activity of Mr. Satas ( in complement to his «
stamp » printings ) , maybe already thinking in other future printings
such as currency , identification and oficial documents or other such
as passports , for example .
I believe that these data will surelly deserve you best attention .
Please understa that I can not give further information about how these
data had been provide .
I think that this is all for now , so until our next contact , I kindly
ask you please , to receive my most cordial saluts and once more , my
most sincere thanks for your kind colaboration
Sincerelly yours
fa_de_bonanca@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 15:09:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: X X <fa_de_bonanca@yahoo.com>
Subject: Thank you for your e-mail
To: JMarinoMontero@aol.com
Dear
Mr. Marino Montero :
Thank you very much for your last e-mail that I was very hounored and
pleased to receive .
I hope that everything will be fine with you and with all yours ( that
I salute already ) since our last contact .
Fortunatly , everything is fine with me .
I really hope that everything will be fine , after the terrible and
treathing situation that you told me in your e-mail .
I hope that the Police and justice authorities might handle with that
.
I had already eared so informations about Armando Lapa , since he claims
to be oldest philatelic dealer still in activity in Portugal ( but what
I really do not understand , is how a so experiented philatelic dealer
makes this association with Algirdas Satas , since their methods an
bacground are starting to be revealed in the past times ) .
He also claims to be the legitime agent of the Guiné Bissau ,
Moçambique and São Tomé e Principe Philatelic Services
in Portugal , based in official documents of these Philatelic Services
.
However , and as you surelly migh know , these oficial documents migh
be falsifications , what is a serious question .
Sofar , there are no legal sentences against him , and thati why I am
waiting to see the result of the investigations regarding the ilegal
issues that he and Algirdas Satas distribute in Portugal , that migh
be the start for a legal process in justice .
While Armando Lapa distributes their material to other portuguese Philatelic
Dealers ( that are anware of Algirdas Satas´s background ) , another
portuguese part-time dealer called ( Luís Romão , if I
am not in mistake ) visits Philatelic Events and Fairs to distribute
the material to other collectors .
At the moment , these are the only informations that I have .
Anyway , beyond your e-mail , I was also contacted by Mr. Hans Groth
, that advice me to contat he AS associations for this atempt to legitimize
their issues .
I will continue to visit your website regulary , and if there will be
any further news and informations that migh be interesting and in the
interess of legal philately , I will surelly contact you .
In the meanwhile , and until our next contact , I kindly ask you please
, to receive my most cordial saluts and once more , my most sincere
thanks for your kind colaboration as well as my wishes of a good weekend
Sincerelly yous
fa_de_bonanca@yahoo.com
THE
COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ST.THOMAS & PRINCE EUROPA 50TH ANNIVERSARY
ISSUE :
READ THE MOST ASTONISHING STORY OF
THE STAMP BUSINESS IN THIS CENTURY
- AND DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS.
We
deliver the facts on how an original price of
€18,955 can be inflated to €81,000,000 face value.
We
have seen an invoice to Filatelia International,
in England, for the origination of the Europa stamps
of St. Thomas and Prince.
With
the co-operation and collaboration of a catalogue
- the Michel Catalogue run by Wolfgang Mayer
for Schwaneberger
Verlag GmbH of Munich,Germany
- a magical transformation has happened.
A
mystical mathematical equation has been applied
to the value of the stamps.
This fabulous equation is:-
€18,955 origination price = €81,000,000 face value
€81,000,000 face value = €160,000,000 catalogue value
Now that is a return on investment!
Not
a genuine return, not a legitimate return, but if
you're part of the conspiracy to defraud the
philatelic community, a fabulous return.
And nobody in authority seems to be worried about it?
WHY?
MORE DETAILS VERY SOON.
Print
your own stamps
with Hofmann Druck
If
you're interested in printing stamps without
authorisation or official documentation we've been
given the name of the perfect company;
Hofmann Druck of Emmendingen, Germany.
In conjunction with the company, Papyrus,
it seems that they operate the same way as our old friends, Stamperija.
They don't need to see official contracts or particulars
of what they are allowed to produce on behalf of
a country - Azerbaijan, St. Thomas and Prince, Chad etc. -
they'll just print it anyway.
You
can see a fine example of their work here.
As you can see, this particular stamp has been attributed to the highly
reputable security printers in France, Cartor. When we checked with
a director of that company whether they had anything to do with printing
this stamp they categorically assured us that they had nothing to do
with it. and would be in in touch with the UPU immediately to find out
why their name had been associated with this issue.
The
postal authority of a recognised government is the
only organisation that can submit a stamp to the WNS.
We have been told by Jean-Francois Logette, who administers the WNS,
that it is illegal for an agent
to submit stamps to the WNS.
So
why would the postal authority of Georgia
think that Cartor had printed their stamps,
not Hofmann Druck of Emmendingen?
Don't they know who prints their stamps?
Why
didn't M. Logette check the details more
thoroughly, as he has done previously with other
countries when an agent is involved?
These
questions becomes even more interesting when
you remember that the stamp commemmorates
the 50th anniversary of Europa. We've covered a lot of stories relating
to the 50th anniversary of Europa,
none of them good.
The
involvement of companies controlled by
Alex Jesus Sanchez - Hureges
Holding Corporation
and Primadart
S.A. -
his agent in England, Sorbourne Ltd., trading as Filatelia
International, and some of his suppliers
- Sako Khatchitkian,
Etienne de Cherisey
Fatou,
Milana
Martinovica, etc. - in the 50th anniversary
of Europa issues and the suspected links of Hureges ad Primadart S.A.
to the Forum Filatelico scandal and money laundering makes us wonder
what other corruption is
being allowed to grow and flourish in postal authorities
around the world.