XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Saturday 7 June 2014

One Ton Gold Shipment Into Hong Kong Revealed To Contain Just Worthless Metal -

One Ton Gold Shipment Into Hong Kong Revealed To Contain Just Worthless Metal - 



Two years ago, stories of fake tungsten-filled gold coins and bars began to spread; it appears, between the shortage of physical gold (after Asian central bank buying) and the increase in smuggling (courtesy of India’s controls among others) that gold fraud is back on the rise. As SCMP reports, a mainland China businessman, Zhao Jingjun, discovered that HK$270 million of 998kg of gold bars he bought in Ghana had been swapped for non-precious metal bars. What is perhaps even more worrisome, given the probe into commodity-financing deals and the rehypothecation evaporation; these gold bars were shipped to a Chinese warehouse before Zhao was able to confirm the fraud.

As South China Morning Post reports, police were last night making arrangements with a mainland businessman to check whether HK$270 million of gold bullion he bought in Africa was genuine after part of the consignment was swapped with metal bars.

On Wednesday, Zhao Jingjun, 43, opened part of his shipment in front of his buyer in Hong Kong and discovered the gold had been switched for worthless metal.

A senior officer said it would be the city’s biggest heist in a decade if it was confirmed that all the gold had been stolen.

An initial inquiry showed Zhao purchased 998kg of gold bars from a company in Ghana in mid-April, police said.

The consignment, in 14 cases, was escorted by his staff and delivered from Ghana on a chartered flight late last month.

“Officers were told that his employee confirmed the cases contained the gold before it was loaded onto the chartered flight in Ghana,” a police source said.

The source said the employee left Hong Kong after the consignment was handed to the staff of a logistics company at Chek Lap Kok airport. It was then couriered to a Tsuen Wan warehouse.

The businessman arrived from Hebei province on Monday and checked into the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. On Wednesday, he had five of the cases couriered to his buyer’s Hung Hom office.

“When he opened the boxes, he found they were filled with metal bars instead of gold bullion,” the source said. “He told officers the cases appeared to have been tampered with.”

A police investigator said: “We don’t rule out the possibility that the gold bullion may have been switched for metal bars before being delivered to Hong Kong.”

Zhao has reportedly made several such transactions. His business activities include the purchase of iron ore from Australia, Africa and South America.

Four years ago, 265 gold bars were taken from a Yuen Long company. Police arrested three men and recovered most of the HK$90 million in bullion stolen.
We can’t help but feel this is not the last time as commodity-backed financings are unwound en masse and the underlying collateral found missing… sourcing the underlying by any means will be on the rise.

Read more - 
http://www.infowars.com/one-ton-gold-shipment-into-hong-kong-revealed-to-contain-just-worthless-metal/

Pot For Pooches: Doctors Treat Pets With 'Medical Marijuana'... -

Pot For Pooches: Doctors Treat Pets With 'Medical Marijuana'... - 



rijuana is going to the dogs, but it's not your parents' Woodstock weed.

Georgia, a 5-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, is a medical marijuana patient. Kelly Conway, Georgia's owner, takes some heat when she tells friends about the unorthodox treatment.

"People will say they can't believe I'm letting her get high, but she's not getting high," Conway said.

No, Georgia is not ingesting the same kind of pot that Snoop Dogg smokes. (Or New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd eats.) Georgia, along with a growing number of pets, eats hemp-based capsules that contain only trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol — or THC — the psychoactive ingredient that provides the cannabis high.

Georgia suffered from syringomyelia, a serious neurological disease, and traditional medicine wasn't working. So earlier this year, Conway took her to Dr. Cynthia Graves, who practices alternative veterinary care in Philadelphia. Graves started Georgia on acupuncture, which seemed to help, and then she recommended Canna-Pet, a supplement made from hemp, for Georgia's pain and anxiety.

Conway was skeptical, but to her surprise, it worked.

"It has truly been a miracle and I don't say that lightly," Conway told CNBC. "I feel like I have a whole new dog. Georgia's happy and relaxed. She's not in pain. It's amazing."

Colorado and Washington have legalized and regulated cannabis for human recreational use — and 22 states allow for some form of medical marijuana. But no federal or state agency has made any provisions for the largely unregulated pet supplement industry.

To further complicate matters, the Drug Enforcement Agency still considers industrial hemp a controlled substance even though it is not psychoactive.

But times are changing. On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 22-8 on a plan that would block the DEA — or any federal agency — from spending funds to enforce anti-hemp laws in any state that has received permission to grow it. The full House OK'd the measure the previous week.

Congress' action emerged after the DEA in May seized a shipment of hemp seeds from Italy headed to Kentucky. The state filed a lawsuit against the federal government to get its hemp seeds and now Kentucky, long known for its tobacco fields, has hemp in the ground.

As the nation grapples with this knotty issue, farmers, business owners, patients — and pets — are moving ahead while lawmakers hash it out.

Helping with pain and anxiety

Graves has recommended hemp-based supplements for other dogs experiencing anxiety or pain. She's also used Canna-Pet in conjunction with cancer treatments and to boost appetite in dogs that won't eat.

"There's no question that it's a benefit to some patients," she said.

Two companies in the Seattle area, Canna-Pet and Canna Companion, are leading the charge into this new and uncharted field of hemp-based veterinary medicine.

Dr. Sarah Brandon and Dr. Greg Copas, husband and wife veterinarians, launched Canna Companion in March. They've been exploring medical cannabis for about eight years now.

They started with their pets and then those of family and friends, to find the right dosage.

"We took information from the human world and combined that with our knowledge of dogs and cats and slowly whittled away until we got something that was safe for them and that worked," she explained.

Read more - 
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/pot-pets-companies-make-hemp-laced-meds-fidos-n124826