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CLOSE HIM DOWN!

Our campaign to eradicate illegal stamps focuses on one of the worst culprits in the world, Mr. Algirdas Satas of Conquest Trading Corporation and Stamperija Ltd., successor to the Brussels Stamp Centre, 68B Rue du Radoux, 1430 Rebecq, Belgium.

Mr. Satas is a stamp dealer. He is a stamp dealer who prints his own stamps.

Through his companies he is responsible for the production of 90% of all illegal stamps currently flooding the world market. Single handed his criminal activity has plunged the philatelic world into chaos. He started on a small scale but is now producing illegal stamps under the names of 40 different countries and thousands of labels under the name of many Russian countries. Given time he could be producing stamps for every country in the world.

These are some of his victims.

ABKHASIA
AFGHANISTAN
ANGOLA
BENIN

BURUNDI
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
CHECHNYA
COMORO
ERITREA
FALKLAND ISLANDS DEPENDENCIES

  GAMBIA
GUINEA BISSAU
GUINEA REPUBLIC
IVORY COAST
KOSOVO
KYRGYZSTAN
MALI
MAURITANIA
MYANMAR, UNION OF
NIGER
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
  RWANDA
SIERRA LEONE
SOMALI REPUBLIC
SOMALILAND
ST. THOMAS & PRINCE
SUDAN
TADJIKISTAN
TIMOR
TURKMENISTAN
UZBEKISTAN
         

None of these countries has any idea he is producing stamps with the name of their country on them. He has no contract with any of the countries' Postal Authorities. He is a stamp dealer who has decided that possession of a perforating machine is the same as being the Post Office of a sovereign country. The perforating machine was supplied by Visa of Germany, who were told that the machine would be used in the production of illegal stamps but went ahead anyway. No-one in the history of philately has ever produced stamps without a contract or written agreement with the country involved. It's surprising that he doesn't produce currency and passports as well.

In the case of Gambia, he has produced a huge amount of stamps, much to the bewilderment of the Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corporation of America who have a long standing and exclusive contract with that country to produce their stamps.

In January this year, he was thrown out of the Hong Kong Stamp Expo 2004 for trading in illegal stamps, as reported in the official magazine of the International Federation of Stamp Dealers' Associations.

Mr. Satas' company, Conquest Trading Corporation, is registered in the Bahamas and, in their own words, they "are not keeping any records of operations older than 6 months." a statement that speaks volumes about Mr. Satas' business ethics.

The sole aim of Stamp Scandal.com is to wipe out the wholesale production of illegal stamps. We demand that Mr. Satas provide us with copies of the official contracts, if any exist, under which he has printed the stamps that he sells to the world. Stamp Scandal.com will be happy to publish the contracts and seek confirmation from the sovereign governments that the contracts are in force.

We have to obtain confirmation of the authenticity of any contracts because Mr. Satas' cannot distinguish a real contract from one that he has printed himself. A reliable source tells us that he has sold home-made contracts as if he were the agent of various Postal Authorities, awarding contracts to anyone who can pay.

We feature Mr. Satas' stamps in our illegals catalogue and shall update the list on a rolling basis until someone who has the resources brings a criminal action against this man.

We have featured many of the people who have the resources to do something about those activities.

The UPU says it represents the Postal Authorities of the sovereign countries but the UPU is neutral and cannot involve itself in anything resembling useful action to prevent the production of illegal stamps. They promise the involvement of Interpol and nothing happens. Were they talking rubbish as usual? Stop aggravating the situation with pointless rulings and do something to help.

The Figueiredo Foundation clings to the UPU like a limpet but also does nothing useful to prevent the production of illegal stamps, even though they are a victim of Mr. Satas' illegal activities.

IFSDA, ASCAT and FIP call on everyone to join in a crusade against illegal stamps and do nothing more than indulge in malicious gossip.

Intergraf joins the WADP and does nothing to prevent the production of illegal stamps.

Tullis Russell, paper supplier to many security printers, refuses to supply paper to an agent with a legitimate contract with a sovereign Postal Authority but supplies paper to Conquest Trading without a qualm. Conquest produces 90% of all illegal stamps on the market and they are printed on paper supplied by Tullis Russell and, even though David Holmes of Tullis Russell was advised of this fact, they supplied the paper and still pretend to be a member of Intergraf.

If any of these committees, unions and companies had an ounce of motivation to match their financial resources they could wipe out the production of most of the illegal stamps in the world by bringing a single action against Mr. Satas and closing his company down. He has a company in Brussels; nothing stands in their way.

Someone, DO IT NOW!