Backroom deal suspected as Turkish agent buys foreclosed Gulen school property

In 2012, the Atlanta-area Fulton Science Academy (FSA) borrowed $19 million to buy land to expand their campus.  FSA quickly defaulted, and Wells Fargo sued them.  On Feb. 5, the land was sold at a foreclosure auction for $3.2 million according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The winning bidder?  A recently incorporated company called “TruGlobe,” with three Turkish officers, who were somehow able to come up with over $3 million on the day of the foreclosure sale, at which cash or cashier’s checks are normally required as immediate payment.

Both the Fulton Science Academy and TruGlobe have addresses in Alpharetta, Georgia.  The similarities between the entities indicate probable collusion between the Gulen charter school and the winning bidder prior to the sale.  It is worth noting that bid rigging at foreclosure auctions is a growth area for criminal activity.

The website Roots in Alpharetta was the first to expose the “amazing coincidence” of the buyer’s Turkish identity:

Did a Fulton Science Academy benefactor purchase their land?

February 6, 2013

Has a Fulton Science Academy benefactor swooped in to save the embattled school’s construction project? Perhaps.

FSA’s stalled construction project off Westside Parkway was sold in a foreclosure auction this past Tuesday. WSBtv reported this week via twitter that a firm by the name of TruGlobe Inc purchased the land on the courthouse steps for $3.2 million.

TruGlobe is based here in Alpharetta, according to records at the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. Principals with the company appear to be of Turkish descent and have ties to the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce.

Or it could all be an amazing coincidence. This blogger bets that the FSA will pursue a new state charter and attempt to revive their plans for new campus.

Indeed, the registered agent and chief financial officer of TruGlobe is listed as Ahmed Vehbi Ugur, a young man who describes himself as a board member of the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce of the Southeast.  Ugur is also registered as the CEO of the Maress Corporation, a Turkish kitchen appliance business with an Atlanta office.

The Fulton Science Academy belongs to a network of troublesome charter schools under the direction of Fethullah Gulen, an activist who seeks to replace the formally secular government in Turkey with a sharia-dominated Islamic caliphate.  Gulen schools have undertaken an influence peddling and crony contract scheme in Texas, improper financial activities in Georgia, were denied a charter in Virginia, and are currently under an FBI investigation for kickbacks.

Fulton County itself has recommended early revocation of FSA’s charter due to educational and financial shortcomings.  The State Board of Education of Georgia may consider such a suspension when it meets this month.

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UPDATE—April 8, 2013:  A colleague has noted that the Turkish parties in this case appear to have acquired a $19 million property for a fire sale price of $3 million, short-changing Wells Fargo and the Development Authority of Alpharetta by $16 million in the process.

Technically, the full $19 million debt owed by Fulton Science Academy has not been extinguished by the foreclosure sale to TruGlobe.  Wells Fargo could have pursued a confirmation of deficiency proceeding against FSA for the $16 million still owed.  However,

Halal abbatoir gets £366K from taxpayers

A sharia-compliant slaughterhouse has been granted over one-third of a million pounds by the U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to make Islamic burgers and hotdogs.

A more recent case in Australia of government-funded halal food production no longer seems so unusual.

But these cases should cause alarm for several reasons.  1)  Why are secular governments funding businesses that propagate Islamic (dietary) law?  2)  Such grants contradict the governments’ stated opposition to animal cruelty at non-stun abbatoirs.  3)  If there is such a high demand for halal food, and it’s such a growth industry, then we does it require a public subsidy to remain profitable?  4)  Have these halal butchers been properly vetted and will their books be audited to confirm how they’ll have spent the public funds that they’ve received?

From Eastern Daily Press earlier this fall:

Defra grants £366,000 to Halal food park in Banham

By Adam Gretton Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Up to 60 new jobs could be created in Banham after the government awarded more than £350,000 to a European Halal Food Park.

Officials at Defra defended the grant of £366,000, which is aimed to promote growth in rural areas.

The money comes from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) and will be used to buy equipment to make burgers and sausages in the park’s meat processing facility.

A spokesman for the government department said the cash would not be spent at Simply Halal’s abattoir site in Banham, which slaughters animals according to Islamic law.

A Defra spokesman said: “We awarded business development funding to this company to improve its processes for making burgers and sausages, which would create 60 much-needed jobs in a very rural area as well as supporting Norfolk livestock farmers.”

“We would prefer to see all animals stunned before slaughter but respect the rights of the Jewish and Muslim communities to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs.”

Defra has awarded the grant on the basis that the funding will not to be used in any part of the abattoir operation and that the company will create 60 new full-time jobs over the next three years.

The money will also be match funded by the company and the investment will support local farmers in an area where there are not many meat processing facilities, the spokesman added.

The funding was part of a £2m series of projects supporting four other meat processors developed by the East of England Development Agency before responsibility for RDPE funding transferred to Defra.

The European Halal Food Park at Moor Farm, in The Moor, Banham, near Attleborough, was approved two years ago to cater for the growing demand for Halal beef and sheep meat in the UK

The company’s website says that it “boasts the only dedicated 100pc non-stun abattoir for beef and lamb in the UK” with the Halal Burger Company opening in July and the Halal Sausage Company and the Halal Pet Food Company opening last month…

Yunus swoops down on Haiti

Multi-millionaire Muslim banker Muhammad Yunus is pledging to load Haiti with hundreds of thousands of dollars in new debt to finance a new “plantation” and some chicken farms.  This individual, who once won a Nobel prize, has come under increased scrutiny in recent years for his suspicious business and philanthropic activities:

• Yunus was the subject of an investigation by the government of Norway in 2010 for misappropriating Norwegian donations made to his bank.  (The Times, Dec. 3, 2010)
• Yunus was released on bail over slander charges from officials in Bangladesh, who have also investigated Yunus for tax evasion.  (Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Jan. 18, 2011)
• “A separate review of [Yunus’s Grameen Bank] has been underway since May this year.” (Business Recorder, Aug. 3, 2012)
• “Bangladesh’s cabinet Thursday ordered a new probe into Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.”  (Business Recorder, Aug. 3, 2012)

But the Associated Press doesn’t mention any of the recent controversies surrounding Yunus, and presents his promised loan as a groundbreaking effort to create jobs and reduce poverty in the hard-hit Caribbean nation.  The AP doesn’t include a single negative, critical, or alternate point-of-view, source, or quotation in its “news” article, which reads more like a Yunus/Grameen press release than an act of journalism:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Nobel peace laureate Mohammad Yunus announced Saturday that his pro-business development group is financing several endeavors through a mix of loans and equity.

The projects that incorporate Yunus’ development philosophy of “social business” include two poultry farms, a bakery and a plantation of jatropha plants that can be used for biodiesel, offering an alternative energy source while creating jobs for 200 farmers.

The amount invested in each will range from $80,000 to $500,000, and feature loans with interest rates ranging from 6-10 percent.

Such “social businesses” must each have a social mission like a non-governmental organization, but also generate revenues to cover costs like a profit-making business.

Yunus, an international development expert, made the announcement on the first of a three-day trip to Haiti that includes field visits and a conference examining ways to use his development philosophy to ease poverty in Haiti.

It was the second time Yunus had come to Haiti since visiting a year ago to introduce his “social business” philosophy to the impoverished Caribbean nation…

Prior Money Jihad coverage on Islamic activity in Haiti has revealed that Muslim Hands, a British Islamic charity that belongs to the Hamas-funding Union of Good network, has worked there with the Zakat Foundation, an Illinois-based charity.  The Global Muslim Brotherhood Report has also reported on Islamic Relief USA, a Muslim Brotherhood-linked charity, for its aid distribution in Haiti.

Why is the island so appealing to Muslim investors or NGOs when there is almost zero indigenous Islamic population in Haiti?  Because Muslim groups see failed states as a perfect breeding ground for their purposes.  Think of Sudan, Afghanistan, and Somalia.  Once Islamist elements realize that a central government is weak, that poverty and social chaos are on the rise, they swoop in to fill the void, and transform society into something far bleaker than what preceded it.

Audio: Jihad is the most profitable trade

A sermon delivered at Preston Mosque in suburban Melbourne, Australia, during Friday prayers on Apr. 27 instructed worshippers that waging jihad with your life and wealth is the most profitable form of trade.  Take a listen to this one-minute introduction given by “Brother Baha”—presumably the Preston Masjid’s executive committee member Baha Yehia:

The sermon was originally written in Arabic by Sheikh Mohamad Abou Eid, the mosque’s imam, and Brother Baha presented an English translation to the congregation.

The central message was that you should “sell” or give your life and wealth fighting for Islam, and your payment in return from Allah is paradise.  This “trade with Allah” is the best trade—-better than selling vegetables or other mundane commodities—and it is the type of trade that will spare you from hellfire.

The sermon (of which 10 minutes of audio is available here) included the story of a boy in the early days of Islam who supposedly shot three arrows at opposing “Roman” forces before himself being “martyred.”  Brother Baha told his listeners that both the boy and his mother (who applauded her son’s martyrdom) had both engaged in the best kind of trade with Allah.

The sermon represents mainstream thought and tradition in Islamic law which offers great rewards for jihadists and those who fund them, such as Koran 8:60 and 9:41.

Preston Masjid is an important mosque led for 30 years by Sheik Fehmi Naji El-Imam, the current “Mufti of Australia.”  The Preston Muslim community was also responsible for getting the Darebin council to hire a Muslim missionary with taxpayer dollars.

Why Minneapolis’s sharia loans must end

The city government of Minneapolis made headlines last week for conducting a frightful sharia loan program.  Minneapolis’s “Alternative Financing Program” is dangerous and misguided for four reasons.

First, the program represents a deeper entanglement of the government with sharia law.  What’s next?  Free office space for a Muslim imam to hold a sharia court to rule on Somali divorces?  Privacy screens for local Muslim women at the city pools?  Dog-free zones to comport with Muslim sensibilities?  Gay-free zones to comply with Islamic law against homosexuality?  On the basis of what compelling interest should the government create programs to enact sharia principles in America?  In so doing, Minneapolis runs afoul of the Supreme Court’s Lemon test, which interprets the First Amendment to prohibit measures that create excessive entanglement between government and religion.

Second, although the article does not specify the structural basis of the loans, the description most closely approximates a murabaha model, where interest cross-dresses in the garb of a “markup” embedded in the terms of the loan.  Murabaha has fallen under increasing disrepute by the international Islamic financial advocates, and Minneapolis risks embroiling itself in the same firestorm facing Goldman Sachs.  Staying out of internal religious squabbles is part of the basis of the Supreme Court’s Lemon test.

Third, through the program, Minneapolis legitimizes the notion that charging interest when lending money is somehow inappropriate.  Money has value, and money now has more value than the promise of money later.  In order to get money now instead of later, we pay a small price called interest.  This is an efficient and market-based method to provide capital to businesses and individuals—it is an important factor in the historical economic development of Europe and the United States.  The prohibition on charging interest is a key factor in the economic retardation of the Islamic world.  Despite vast oil wealth, the Middle East faces high poverty, high income inequality, and little innovation.  Catering to Islamic financial principles represents a step backwards toward a foreign system based on superstition, bias, and economic inefficiencies.

Fourth, the program presents an unnecessary financial risk to the taxpayers of Minneapolis.  If the businesses are receiving loans at a lower cost than what they would qualify for through a conventional bank loan, then that means that taxpayers have funded the amount of the difference.

Also, city officials tout a lower default rate through the program than the national rate.  But of course in the conventional financial sector, the costs of default are borne by the banks themselves.  But who bears the costs of default under Minneapolis’s Alternative Financing Program?  The taxpayers of Minneapolis.

For legal, economic, and financial reasons, the government of Minneapolis must cease its alternative lending program.  The taxpayers and voters of Minneapolis should demand it.  If not, legal action against the program should be pursued.

Bon jour, halal tax!

The Muslim fifth column advances in France.  What follows is video from the French Defence League about a secret, extra tax imposed on halal meat.  Buy at your own risk, monsieur. Hat tip to Gates of Vienna who include a text transcript of the FDL video on their blog.  If your browser prevents viewing this video, you can go straight to YouTube or to GoV to watch it.

Arab nations fund Marseille mega-mosque

Old news in need of wider dissemination.  Various “Arab nations” have pledged the money that will be necessary to build the new “Grand Mosque” in Marseille that will fit 7,000 worshipers…  From France 24, courtesy of the “Islam in Europe” blog on May, 20, 2010: