After having gone through scandals about extremely dumb diplomats and booze pushing and cross dressing diplomats, our heroic nation now boasts fake diplomats, courtesy of serial fraud artist Monte Friesner and associates like lawyer Herbert Young.
Meet Fahrudin B. Handanovic. He is according to the website of one of Friesner’s companies, Swiss Hannover Real Estate Corp., the European president of that same outfit, of Financiera Pronto Cash and of One World Financial Solutions – all fraud vehicles of Monte Friesner and his wife Tatiana Nazarova.
And, well, it is just a small step from being president of a scammers outfit to hanging yourself out as a Panamanian diplomat. Because, that is exactly what Mr. Handanovic has been doing, according to news reports in the Croatian press. Mr. Handanovic has been meeting with officials, apparently, posing as the “Panamanian Consul to the European Union” in order to drum up business for Swiss Hannover and other related Friesner companies.
FAKE DIPLOMATIC FOUNDATION
To add the appearance of legitimacy to this charade, Handanovic used the Societe Core Diplomatique, a foundation founded by lawyer Herbert Young, associate of prominent Panameñista legislator José Blandón. Members of that foundation, according to the public registry, are FAHRUDIN BECO HANDANOVIC, LAWRENCE B. HEATH QC, MONTE FRIESNER, TATIANA VIKTOROVNA NAZAROVA, GEERLING JOHANNES OFFEREINS, ZRINKA PHAREC, MARIJAN GROFF, ERVIN POREDOS, BRANISLAV IVKOVIC, MARKO BESKER, LILIANA GAINULLINA, BOZO RUDEZ and MARJAN KRAJNA.
A letter obtained by Bananama Republic shows Handanovic presenting himself as the Panamanian Consul to the EU on letterhead of the Societe Core Diplomatique.
The Core (sic!) Diplomatique foundation has, of course, nothing even close to diplomatic status and is simply a vehicle for a bunch of criminals to pose as diplomats.
VARELA QUIET
The matter has been brought to the attention of the Panamanian Foreign Ministry and minister Varela personally, but no response has been forthcoming. Juan Carlos Varela is of the same Panameñista Party as aforementioned José Blandón, law partner of Herbert Young. On the recommended links section of the Blandón & Young law firm’s website, Swiss Hannover is prominently featured just below Blandón’s own website.
UPDATE: On LinkVaark, a site that roots out Linkedin oddities and scams, we came across an article titled “Hold on to your wallet: Meet Dean Bouridis and friends“. Excerpt:
Dean Bouridis has a deal for you. His company, Pronto Cash, recently sent a letter to a number of LinkedIn Group members. This outfit will finance any amount of real estate for you. All you have to do is show him your money—3% of the total to be financed.
That is indeed Monte Friesner’s Pronto Cash. Follow the link and you can see the pitch for yourself – it’s a classic advance fee scam, similar to the one Friesner was convicted of earlier in the US.
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