British Parliament member [8] Lord James of Blackheath has alleged in a speech before Parliament an elaborate fraud involving the US government lying about hundreds of thousands of tons of imaginary gold, illegal wire transfers and loans totaling $15 trillion:
We have no idea whether Lord James is onto something big ... or has fallen prey to the equivalent of a Nigerian internet scam.
As the Independent notes [9]:
The House of Lords was treated to a 10-minute speech last week by Lord James of Blackheath, from whom we have not heard much since he announced in 2010 that he was in touch with Foundation X, a "genuine and sincere" secret organisation that wanted to lend the British government £75bn.
David James was a City businessman commissioned by the Tories, in opposition, to report on ways of eliminating government waste. Last week, the 74-year-old peer was exercised about a story he has picked up that $15trn – that is $15,000,000,000,000 – belonging to "the richest man in the world", Yohannes Riyadi, was deposited in 2009 in the Royal Bank of Scotland. Lord James said he remains baffled after a two-year pursuit of the story, but has all the information on a memory stick, which he is offering to hand over to the Government.
His documents include a letter from the Bank of Indonesia telling him the whole story is a "complete fabrication". He took his concerns to the Treasury minister, Lord Sassoon, who said: "This is rubbish. It is far too much money. It'd stick out like a sore thumb and you can't see it in the RBS accounts."
And an alert Financial Times blogger said that had Lord James googled "Yohannes Riyadi", the first item to come up would be a warning from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that the name is part of an internet scam designed to get money from the gullible. Two agents are trying to trace who is behind it. Perhaps Lord James should offer his memory stick.