Mark Felt

William Mark Felt Sr. (August 17, 1913 – December 18, 2008) was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in the Watergate scandal. Felt was an FBI special agent who eventually rose to the position of Associate Director, the Bureau's second-highest-ranking post. Felt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters. In 1980 he was convicted of having violated the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground, by ordering FBI agents to break into their homes and search the premises as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a fine, but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal.
In 2005, at age 91, Felt revealed to "Vanity Fair" magazine that during his tenure as associate director of the FBI he had been the notorious anonymous source known as "Deep Throat" who provided "The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with critical information about the Watergate scandal, which ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. Though Felt's identity as Deep Throat was suspected, including by Nixon himself, it had generally remained a secret for 30 years. Felt finally acknowledged that he was Deep Throat after being persuaded by his daughter to reveal his identity before his death.
Felt published two memoirs: "The FBI Pyramid" in 1979 (updated in 2006), and "A G-Man's Life", written with John O'Connor, in 2006. In 2012 the FBI released Felt's personnel file, covering the period from 1941 to 1978. It also released files pertaining to an extortion threat made against Felt in 1956.
Early life and career.
Born on August 17, 1913, in Twin Falls, Idaho, Felt was the son of Rose R. Dygert and Mark Earl Felt, a carpenter and building contractor. His paternal grandfather was a Free Will Baptist minister. His maternal grandparents were born in Canada and Scotland. Through his maternal grandfather, Felt was descended from Revolutionary War general Nicholas Herkimer of New York.
After graduating from Twin Falls High School in 1931, Felt attended the University of Idaho in Moscow. He was a member and president of the Gamma Gamma chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1935.
Felt then went to Washington, D.C., to work in the office of Democratic U.S. Senator James P. Pope. In 1938, Felt married Audrey Robinson of Gooding, Idaho, whom he had known when they were students at the University of Idaho. She had come to Washington to work at the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Their wedding was officiated by the chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, the Rev. Sheara Montgomery. Audrey died in 1984; she and Felt had two children, Joan and Mark.
Felt stayed on with Pope's successor in the Senate, David Worth Clark (D-Idaho). He attended the George Washington University Law School at night, earning his J.D. degree in 1940, and was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1941.
Upon graduation, Felt took a position at the Federal Trade Commission but did not enjoy his work. His workload was very light, and he was assigned to investigate whether a toilet paper brand, called "Red Cross", was misleading consumers into thinking it was endorsed by the American Red Cross. Felt wrote in his memoir:
My research, which required days of travel and hundreds of interviews, produced two definite conclusions:
1. Most people "did" use toilet tissue.
2. Most people "did not" appreciate being asked about it.
That was when I started looking for other employment.
He applied for a job with the FBI in November 1941 and was accepted. His first day at the Bureau was January 26, 1942.
Early FBI years.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover often moved Bureau agents around so they would have wide experience in the field. This was typical of other agencies and corporations of the time. Felt observed that Hoover "wanted every agent to get into any field office at any time. Since he [Hoover] had never been transferred and did not have a family, he had no idea of the financial and personal hardship involved."
After completing 16 weeks of training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and FBI Headquarters in Washington, Felt was assigned to Texas, spending three months each in the field offices in Houston and San Antonio. He returned to FBI Headquarters, where he was assigned to the Espionage Section of the Domestic Intelligence Division, tracking down spies and saboteurs during World War II. He worked on the Major Case Desk. His most notable work was on the "Peasant" case. Helmut Goldschmidt, operating under the codename "Peasant", was a German agent in custody in England. Under Felt's direction, his German masters were led to believe that "Peasant" had made his way to the United States, and thus were fed disinformation on Allied plans.
The Espionage Section was abolished in May 1945 after V-E Day. After the war, Felt was assigned to the Seattle field office. After two years of general work, he spent two years as a firearms instructor and was promoted from agent to supervisor. Upon passage of the Atomic Energy Act and the creation of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, the Seattle office became responsible for completing background checks of workers at the Hanford plutonium plant near Richland, Washington. Felt oversaw those investigations. In 1954 Felt returned briefly to Washington as an inspector's aide. Two months later, he was sent to New Orleans as Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge of the field office. When he was transferred to Los Angeles fifteen months later, he held the same rank there.
Investigates organized crime.
In 1956, Felt was transferred to Salt Lake City and promoted to Special Agent-in-Charge. The Salt Lake City office included Nevada within its purview, and Felt oversaw some of the Bureau's earliest investigations into organized crime, assessing the mob's operations in the Reno and Las Vegas casinos. (It was Hoover's, and therefore the Bureau's, official position at the time that there was no such thing as the Mob.) In February 1958, Felt was assigned to Kansas City, Missouri (which he dubbed "the Siberia of field offices" in his memoir), where he directed further investigations of organized crime. By this time, Hoover had come to believe in organized crime, in the wake of the famous Apalachin, New York, conclave of underworld bosses in November 1957.
Middle career.
Felt returned to Washington, D.C., in September 1962. As assistant to the bureau's assistant director in charge of the Training Division, Felt helped oversee the FBI Academy. In November 1964, he was promoted to an Assistant Director of the Bureau, as Chief Inspector of the Bureau and Head of the Inspection Division. This division oversaw compliance with Bureau regulations and conducted internal investigations.
On July 1, 1971, Felt was promoted by Hoover to Deputy Associate Director, assisting Associate Director Clyde Tolson. Hoover's right-hand man for decades, Tolson was in failing health and unable to carry out his duties. Richard Gid Powers wrote that Hoover installed Felt to rein in William C. Sullivan's domestic spying operations, as Sullivan had been engaged in secret unofficial work for the White House. In his memoir, Felt quoted Hoover as having said, "I need someone who can control Sullivan. I think you know he has been getting out of hand." In his book, "The Bureau", Ronald Kessler said that Felt "managed to please Hoover by being tactful with him and tough on agents". Curt Gentry described Felt as "the director's latest fair-haired boy", who had "no inherent power" in his new post, the real number three being John P. Mohr.
Weather Underground investigations.
Among the criminal groups that the FBI investigated in the early 1970s was the Weather Underground. Their case was dismissed by the court because it concluded that the FBI had conducted illegal activities, including unauthorized wiretaps, break-ins, and mail interceptions. The lead federal prosecutor on the case, William C. Ibershof, claims that Felt and Attorney General John Mitchell initiated these illegal activities that tainted the investigation.
After Hoover's death.
Hoover died in his sleep and was found on the morning of May 2, 1972. Tolson was nominally in charge until the next day, when Nixon appointed L. Patrick Gray III as Acting FBI Director. Tolson submitted his resignation, which Gray accepted. Felt succeeded to Tolson's post as Associate Director, the number-two job in the Bureau. Felt served as an honorary pallbearer at Hoover's funeral.
On the day of Hoover's death, Hoover's secretary for five decades, Helen Gandy, began destroying his files. She turned over twelve boxes of the "Official/Confidential" files to Felt on May 4, 1972. These contained 167 files and 17,750 pages, many of them containing derogatory information about individuals whom Hoover had investigated. He used this information as power over them. Felt stored the files in his office.
The existence of such files had long been rumored. Gray told the press that afternoon that "there are no dossiers or secret files. There are just general files and I took steps to preserve their integrity." Felt earlier that day had told Gray, "Mr. Gray, the Bureau doesn't have any secret files", and later accompanied Gray to Hoover's office. They found Gandy boxing up papers. Felt said Gray "looked casually at an open file drawer and approved her work", though Gray would later deny he looked at anything. Gandy retained Hoover's "Personal File" and destroyed it.
When Felt was called to testify in 1975 by the U.S. House about the destruction of Hoover's papers, he said, "There's no serious problems if we lose some papers. I don't see anything wrong and I still don't." At the same hearing, Gandy claimed that she had destroyed Hoover's personal files only after receiving Gray's approval. In a letter submitted to the committee in rebuttal of Gandy's testimony, Gray vehemently denied ever giving such permission. Both Gandy's testimony and Gray's letter were included in the committee's final report.
In his memoir, Felt expressed mixed feelings about Gray. He was the first person appointed as head of the FBI who had no experience in the agency, but he had experience in the Navy. While noting Gray did work hard, Felt was critical of how often he was away from FBI headquarters. Gray lived in Stonington, Connecticut, and commuted to Washington. He also visited all of the Bureau's field offices except Honolulu. His frequent absences led to the nickname "Three-Day Gray". These absences, combined with Gray's hospitalization and recuperation from November 20, 1972, to January 2, 1973, meant that Felt was effectively in charge for much of his final year at the Bureau. Bob Woodward wrote "Gray got to be director of the FBI and Felt did the work." Felt wrote in his memoir:
The record amply demonstrates that President Nixon made Pat Gray the Acting Director of the FBI because he wanted a politician in J. Edgar Hoover's position who would convert the Bureau into an adjunct of the White House machine.
Gray's defenders would later argue that Gray had practiced a management style that was different from that of Hoover. Gray's program of field office visits was something that Hoover had not done since his early years as director; some believed that Gray's visits helped raise the morale of the field agents. Gray's leadership style seemed to continue what he had learned in the US Navy, in which the executive officer concentrates on the basic operation of the ship, while the captain concentrates on its position and heading. Felt believed Gray's methods were an unnecessary distraction from the work of the FBI and showed a lack of leadership. He believed that he was not the only career manager at the FBI who disapproved of Gray's methods, particularly among those who had served under Hoover.
Watergate.
As Associate Director, Felt saw everything compiled on Watergate before it was given to Gray. The Agent in Charge, Charles Nuzum, sent his findings to Investigative Division Head Robert Gebhardt, who passed the information on to Felt. From the day of the break-in, June 17, 1972, until the FBI investigation was mostly completed in June 1973, Felt was the key control point for FBI information. He had been among the first to learn of the investigation, being informed the morning of June 17. Ronald Kessler, who spoke to former Bureau agents, reported that throughout the investigation, they "were amazed to see material in Woodward and Bernstein's stories lifted almost verbatim from their reports of interviews a few days or weeks earlier".
"Deep Throat" informant.
Bob Woodward first describes his source, nicknamed "Deep Throat", in "All the President's Men", as a "source in the Executive Branch who had access to information at CRP (the Committee to Re-elect the President, Nixon's 1972 campaign organization), as well as at the White House." In the book, Deep Throat is described as an "incorrigible gossip" who was "in a unique position to observe the Executive Branch", a man "whose fight had been worn out in too many battles". Woodward had known the source before Watergate and had discussed politics and government with him.
In 2005 Woodward wrote that he first met Felt at the White House in 1969 or 1970. Woodward was working as an aide to Admiral Thomas Hinman Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was delivering papers to the White House Situation Room. In his book "The Secret Man", Woodward described Felt as a "tall man with perfectly combed gray hair ... distinguished looking" with a "studied air of confidence, even what might be called a command presence". They stayed in touch and spoke on the telephone several times. When Woodward started working at the "Washington Post", he phoned Felt on several occasions to ask for information for articles in the paper. Felt's information, taken on a promise that Woodward would never reveal its origin, was a source for a few stories, notably for an article on May 18, 1972, about Arthur Bremer, who shot George Wallace.
When the Watergate story broke, Woodward called on Felt. Felt told Woodward on June 19 that E. Howard Hunt, who had ties to Nixon, was involved: the telephone number of his White House office had been listed in the address book of one of the burglars. Initially, Woodward's source was known at the "Post" as "My Friend". "Post" editor Howard Simons tagged him as "Deep Throat", after the widely known pornographic film "Deep Throat". According to Woodward, Simons thought of the term because Felt had been providing information on a deep background basis.
When Felt revealed his role in 2005, it was noted that "My Friend" has the same initial letters as "Mark Felt". Woodward's notes from interviewing Felt were marked "M.F.", which Woodward says was "not very good tradecraft".
Code for contacting Woodward.
Woodward explained that when he wanted to meet Deep Throat, he would move a flowerpot with a red flag on his apartment balcony; he lived at number 617, Webster House, 1718 P Street, Northwest. On occasions when Deep Throat wanted a meeting, he would circle the page number on page twenty of Woodward's copy of "The New York Times" (delivered to his building) and draw clock hands to signal the hour.
Adrian Havill questioned these claims in his 1993 biography of Woodward and Bernstein. He said Woodward's balcony faced an interior courtyard and was not visible from the street. Woodward said that the courtyard had been bricked in since he lived there. Havill also said "The Times" was not delivered in copies marked by apartment, but Woodward and a former neighbor disputed this claim.
Woodward said:
Haldeman informs Nixon about Felt's leaks.
Days after the break-in, Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman talked about putting pressure on the FBI to slow down the investigation. The District of Columbia police had called in the FBI because they found the burglars had wiretapping equipment. Wiretapping is a crime investigated by the FBI. Haldeman told President Nixon on June 23, 1972, that Felt would "want to cooperate because he's ambitious". These tapes were not declassified and revealed for some time.
Haldeman later initially suspected lower-level FBI agents, including Angelo Lano, of speaking to the "Post". But in a taped conversation on October 19, 1972, Haldeman told the president that sources had said that Felt was speaking to the press.
You can't say anything about this because it will screw up our source and there's a real concern. Mitchell is the only one who knows about this and he feels strongly that we better not do anything because ... if we move on him, he'll go out and unload everything. He knows everything that's to be known in the FBI. He has access to absolutely everything.
Haldeman also said that he had spoken to White House counsel John W. Dean about punishing Felt, but Dean said Felt had committed no crime and could not be prosecuted.
When Acting FBI Director Gray returned from his sick leave in January 1973, he confronted Felt about being the source for Woodward and Bernstein. Gray said he had defended Felt to Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst: "You know, Mark, Dick Kleindienst told me I ought to get rid of you. He says White House staff members are concerned that you are the FBI source of leaks to Woodward and Bernstein". Felt replied, "Pat, I haven't leaked anything to anybody." Gray told Felt:
I told Kleindienst that you've worked with me in a very competent manner and I'm convinced that you are completely loyal. I told him I was not going to move you out. Kleindienst told me, "Pat, I love you for that."
Nixon passes over Felt again.
On February 17, 1973, Nixon nominated Gray as Hoover's permanent replacement as Director. Until then, Gray had been in limbo as Acting Director. In another taped conversation on February 28, Nixon spoke to Dean about Felt's acting as an informant, and mentioned that he had never met him. Gray was forced to resign on April 27, after it was revealed that he had destroyed a file that had been in the White House safe of E. Howard Hunt. Gray recommended Felt as his successor.
The day Gray resigned, Kleindienst spoke to Nixon, urging him to appoint Felt as head of the FBI. Nixon instead appointed William Ruckelshaus as Acting Director. Stanley Kutler reported that Nixon said, "I don't want him. I can't have him. I just talked to Bill Ruckelshaus and Bill is a Mr. Clean and I want a fellow in there that is not part of the old guard and that is not part of that infighting in there." On another White House tape, from May 11, 1973, Nixon and White House Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig, spoke of Felt leaking material to "The New York Times". Nixon said, "he's a bad guy, you see." He said that William Sullivan had told him of Felt's ambition to be Director of the Bureau.
Clashes with Ruckelshaus and resignation.
Felt called his relationship with Ruckelshaus "stormy". In his memoir, Felt describes Ruckelshaus as a "security guard sent to see that the FBI did nothing which would displease Mr. Nixon".
In mid-1973 "The New York Times" published a series of articles about wiretaps that had been ordered by Hoover during his tenure at the FBI. Ruckelshaus believed that the information must have come from someone at the FBI.
In June 1973 Ruckelshaus received a call from someone claiming to be a "New York Times" reporter, telling him that Felt was the source of this information. On June 21, Ruckelshaus met privately with Felt and accused him of leaking information to "The New York Times", a charge that Felt adamantly denied. Ruckelshaus told Felt to "sleep on it" and let him know the next day what he wanted to do. Felt resigned from the Bureau the next day, June 22, 1973, ending his thirty-one year career.
In a 2013 interview, Ruckelshaus noted the possibility that the original caller was a hoax. He said that he considered Felt's resignation "an admission of guilt" anyway.
Ruckelshaus, who had served only as Acting Director, was replaced several weeks later by Clarence M. Kelley, who had been nominated by Nixon as FBI Director and confirmed by the Senate.
Trial and conviction.
In the early 1970s Felt had supervised Operation COINTELPRO, initiated by Hoover in the 1950s. This period of FBI history has generated great controversy for its abuses of private citizens' rights. The FBI was spying on, infiltrating, and disrupting the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-War Movement, Black Panthers, and other New Left groups. By 1972 Felt was heading the investigation into the Weather Underground, which had planted bombs at the Capitol, the Pentagon, and the State Department building. Felt, along with Edward S. Miller, ordered FBI agents to break into homes secretly in 1972 and 1973, without a search warrant, on nine separate occasions. These kinds of FBI operations were known as "black bag jobs". The break-ins occurred at five addresses in New York and New Jersey, at the homes of relatives and acquaintances of Weather Underground members. They did not contribute to the capture of any fugitives. The use of "black bag jobs" by the FBI was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in the "Plamondon" case, 407 U.S. 297 (1972).
The Church Committee of Congress revealed the FBI's illegal activities, and many agents were investigated. In 1976 Felt publicly stated he had ordered break-ins, and recommended against punishment of individual agents who had carried out orders. Felt also stated that Patrick Gray had also authorized the break-ins, but Gray denied this. Felt said on the CBS television program "Face the Nation" he would probably be a "scapegoat" for the Bureau's work. "I think this is justified and I'd do it again tomorrow," he said on the program. While admitting the break-ins were "extralegal", he justified them as protecting the "greater good". Felt said:
To not take action against these people and know of a bombing in advance would simply be to stick your fingers in your ears and protect your eardrums when the explosion went off and then start the investigation.
Griffin Bell, the Attorney General in the Jimmy Carter administration, directed investigation of these cases. On April 10, 1978, a federal grand jury charged Felt, Miller, and Gray with conspiracy to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens by searching their homes without warrants.
The indictment charged violations of Title 18, Section 241 of the United States Code and stated Felt and the others:
Did unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to injure and oppress citizens of the United States who were relatives and acquaintances of the Weatherman fugitives, in the free exercise and enjoyments of certain rights and privileges secured to them by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America.
Felt told his biographer Ronald Kessler: I was shocked that I was indicted. You would be too, if you did what you thought was in the best interests of the country and someone on technical grounds indicted you.
Felt, Gray, and Miller were arraigned in Washington, DC on April 20. Seven hundred current and former FBI agents were outside the courthouse applauding the "Washington Three", as Felt referred to himself and his colleagues in his memoir. Gray's case did not go to trial and was dropped by the government for lack of evidence on December 11, 1980.
Felt and Miller attempted to plea bargain with the government, willing to agree to a misdemeanor guilty plea to conducting searches without warrants—a violation of . The government rejected the offer in 1979. After eight postponements, the case against Felt and Miller went to trial in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on September 18, 1980. On October 29, former President Richard M. Nixon appeared as a rebuttal witness for the defense. He testified that in authorizing the Bureau to conduct break-ins to gather foreign intelligence information "he was acting on precedents established by a number of Presidential directives dating to 1939." It was Nixon's first courtroom appearance since his resignation in 1974. Nixon also contributed money to Felt's defense fund, since Felt's legal expenses were running over $600,000 by then. Also testifying were former Attorneys General Mitchell, Kleindienst, Herbert Brownell Jr., Nicholas Katzenbach, and Ramsey Clark, all of whom said warrantless searches in national security matters were commonplace and understood not to be illegal. Mitchell and Kleindienst denied they had authorized any of the break-ins at issue in the trial. (The Bureau used a national security justification for the searches because it alleged the Weather Underground was in the employ of Cuba.)
The jury returned guilty verdicts on November 6, 1980, two days after the presidential election. The charge carried a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine; on December 15, Judge William Bryant fined Felt $5,000 and Miller $3,500, but imposed no jail time for either. Writing an OpEd piece in "The New York Times" a week after the conviction, attorney Roy Cohn claimed that Felt and Miller were being used as scapegoats by the Carter administration and it was an unfair prosecution. Cohn wrote the break-ins were the "final dirty trick" of the Nixon administration, and there had been no "personal motive" to their actions. "The New York Times" praised the convictions, saying "the case has established that zeal is no excuse for violating the Constitution."
Felt and Miller appealed their verdicts.
Pardon.
In a phone call on January 30, 1981, Edwin Meese encouraged President Ronald Reagan to issue a pardon. After further encouragement from Felt's former colleagues, President Reagan pardoned Felt and Miller. The pardon was signed on March 26, but due to the assassination attempt on March 30, was not announced to the public until April 15, 1981.
In the pardon, Reagan wrote:
Nixon sent Felt and Miller bottles of champagne with the note "Justice ultimately prevails." "The New York Times" disapproved in an editorial, saying that the United States "deserved better than a gratuitous revision of the record by the President". Felt and Miller said they would seek repayment of their legal fees from the government.
The prosecutor at the trial, John W. Nields Jr., said, "I would warrant that whoever is responsible for the pardons did not read the record of the trial and did not know the facts of the case." Nields also complained that the White House did not consult with the prosecutors in the case, which was contrary to the usual practice when a pardon was under consideration.
Felt said,
I feel very excited and just so pleased that I can hardly contain myself. I am most grateful to the President. I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to thank him. It's just like having a heavy burden lifted off your back. This case has been dragging on for five years.
At a press conference the day of the announcement, Miller said, "I certainly owe the Gipper one." Carter Attorney General Griffin Bell said he did not object to the pardons, as the convictions had upheld constitutional principles.
Despite their pardons, Felt and Miller won permission from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to appeal their convictions so as to remove it from their record and to prevent it from being used in civil suits by victims of the break-ins they had ordered. Ultimately, the court restored Felt's law license in 1982, based on Reagan's pardon. In June 1982, Felt and Miller testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee's security and terrorism subcommittee. They said that the restrictions placed on the FBI by Attorney General Edward H. Levi were threatening the country's safety.
Family.
His daughter, Joan, graduated from high school in Kansas City during his assignment there, then attended the University of Kansas for two years, before transferring to Stanford in California to study drama. Felt settled in Alexandria, Virginia while she was an undergraduate, for his post at the FBI Academy. Prior to the Watergate scandal, Felt had become estranged from Joan. They had been close during her childhood, but after she graduated from Stanford, she had gone to Chile under a Fulbright scholarship to continue her studies. While there, she became friends with Marxist revolutionary Andrés Pascal Allende, nephew of future president Salvador Allende. When she returned home, her political views had shifted to the extreme left, putting her in conflict with her conservative father.
She earned her master's degree in Spanish at Stanford, and then joined a hippie community in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Felt and his wife went to visit her once and were appalled at her counterculture lifestyle and use of drugs; he was reminded of members of the militant Weather Underground that the FBI had been prosecuting. Joan's friends were equally shocked that her father was an FBI agent. Following their visit, Joan cut off most contact with her parents. As a result, and combined with the fact that she did not follow the news, she was unaware of her father's legal problems arising from the Watergate scandal.
The stress of following her husband's career as well as the separation of her daughter, combined with Felt's prosecution, resulted in Audrey suffering a nervous breakdown in 1954, while Felt was in Seattle. She had developed a dependency on alcohol, had been taking antidepressants for years, and had been hospitalized several times for various ailments. When Felt was put on trial, in 1980, she attended the first day, but did not return, as unable to bear it. In 1984, she committed suicide using Felt's revolver. Felt and his son Mark Jr., an officer in the United States Air Force, decided to keep this a secret and told Joan that her mother had died of a heart attack. Joan did not learn the truth about her mother's suicide until 2001.
Meanwhile, Joan had become an adherent of Adi Da, who had founded a new religious movement in San Francisco called Adidam, and she was living in Santa Rosa. She had borne three sons– Ludi (later Will), Rob, and Nick, the latter two from another Adidam devotee whom she never married –but her parents had only met Ludi during their visit in 1974. After Audrey's death, Felt began making yearly visits to see Joan and his grandsons, and they also came to visit him and his new girlfriend, who lived in the same apartment complex. In 1990 Felt permanently moved to Santa Rosa, leaving Alexandria. He bought a house where he lived with Joan, and took care of the boys while she worked, teaching at Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College. He suffered a stroke before 1999, as reported by Kessler in his book "The Bureau." According to Kessler's book, in the summer of 1999, Woodward showed up unexpectedly at the Santa Rosa home and took Felt to lunch.
Joan, who was caring for her father, told Kessler that her father had greeted Woodward like an old friend. Their meeting appeared to be more of a celebration than an interview. "Woodward just showed up at the door and said he was in the area", Joan Felt was quoted as saying in Kessler's book, which was published in 2002. "He came in a white limousine, which parked at a schoolyard about ten blocks away. He walked to the house. He asked if it was okay to have a martini with my father at lunch, and I said it would be fine."
Memoir.
Felt published his memoir "The FBI Pyramid: From the Inside" in 1979. It was co-written with Hoover biographer Ralph de Toledano, though the latter's name appears only in the copyright notice. Toledano in 2005 wrote that the volume was "largely written by me since his original manuscript read like "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table"". Toledano said: Felt swore to me that he was not Deep Throat, and that he had never leaked information to the Woodward-Bernstein team or anyone else. The book was published and bombed.
In his memoir, Felt strongly defended Hoover and his tenure as Director; he condemned the criticisms of the Bureau made in the 1970s by the Church Committee and civil libertarians. He also denounced the treatment of Bureau agents as criminals and said the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act of 1974 served only to interfere with government work and helped criminals. (He opens the book with the sentence, "The Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact", Justice Robert H. Jackson's comment in his dissent to "Terminiello v. City of Chicago", 337 U.S. 1 (1949)).
"Library Journal" wrote in its review that "at one time Felt was assumed to be Watergate's 'Deep Throat'; in this interesting but hardly sensational memoir, he makes it clear that that honor, if honor it be, lies elsewhere." "The New York Times Book Review" was highly critical of the book, saying Felt "seeks to perpetuate a view of Hoover and the FBI that is no longer seriously peddled even on the backs of cereal boxes". It said the book contained "a disturbing number of factual errors". Curt Gentry said that Felt was "the keeper of the Hoover flame".
Kessler said in his book that the measures Woodward took to conceal his meeting with Felt lent "credence" to the notion that Felt was Deep Throat. Woodward confirmed that Felt was Deep Throat in 2005. "There are plenty of people claiming they knew Deep Throat was actually former FBI man Mark Felt ... On May 3, 2002, PAGE SIX reported that Ronald Kessler, author of "The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI", says that all the evidence points to former top FBI official W. Mark Felt."
Deep Throat speculation.
The identity of Deep Throat was debated for more than three decades, and Felt was frequently mentioned as a possibility. An October 1990 "Washingtonian" magazine article about "Washington secrets" listed the 15 most prominent Deep Throat candidates, including Felt.
Jack Limpert published evidence as early as 1974 that Felt was the informant. On June 25 of that year, a few weeks after "All the President's Men" was published, "The Wall Street Journal" ran an editorial, "If You Drink Scotch, Smoke, Read, Maybe You're Deep Throat." It began "W. Mark Felt says he isn't now, nor has he ever been Deep Throat." The "Journal" quoted Felt saying the character was a "composite" and "I'm just not that kind of person." In 1975 George V. Higgins wrote: "Mark Felt knows more reporters than most reporters do, and there are some who think he had a "Washington Post" alias borrowed from a dirty movie." During a grand jury investigation in 1976, Felt was called to testify. The prosecutor, J. Stanley Pottinger, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, discovered that Felt was "Deep Throat", but the secrecy of the proceedings protected the information from being public.
In 1992 James Mann, who had been a reporter at "The Washington Post" in 1972 and worked with Woodward, wrote a piece for "The Atlantic Monthly", saying the source had to have been within the FBI. He noted Felt as a possibility, but said he could not confirm this.
Alexander P. Butterfield, the White House aide best known for revealing Nixon's taping system, told the "Hartford Courant" in 1995, "I think it was a guy named Mark Felt." In July 1999, Felt was identified as Deep Throat by the "Hartford Courant", citing Chase Culeman-Beckman, a nineteen-year-old from Port Chester, New York. Culeman-Beckman said Jacob Bernstein, the son of Carl Bernstein and Nora Ephron, had told him the name at summer camp in 1988, and that Jacob claimed he had been told by his father. Felt said to the "Courant", "No, it's not me. I would have done better. I would have been more effective. Deep Throat didn't exactly bring the White House crashing down, did he?" Bernstein said his son didn't know. "Bob and I have been wise enough never to tell our wives, and we've certainly never told our children." (Bernstein reiterated on June 2, 2005, on the "Today Show" that his wife had never known.)
Leonard Garment, President Nixon's former law partner who became White House counsel after John W. Dean's resignation, ruled Felt out as Deep Throat in his 2000 book "In Search of Deep Throat". Garment wrote:
The Felt theory was a strong one ... Felt had a personal motive for acting. After the death of J. Edgar Hoover ... Felt thought he was a leading candidate to succeed Hoover ... The characteristics were a good fit. The trouble with Felt's candidacy was that Deep Throat in "All the President's Men" simply did not sound to me like a career FBI man.
Garment said the information leaked to Woodward was inside White House information to which Felt would not have had access. "Felt did not fit." (Once the secret was revealed, it was noted Felt did have access to such information because the Bureau's agents were interviewing high-ranking White House officials.)
In 2002 the "San Francisco Chronicle" profiled Felt. Noting his denial in "The FBI Pyramid", the paper wrote:
Curiously, his son—American Airlines pilot Mark Felt—now says that shouldn't be read as a definitive denial, and that he plans to answer the question once-and-for-all in a second memoir. The excerpt of the working draft obtained by the "Chronicle" has Felt still denying he's Throat but providing a rationale for why Throat did the right thing.
In February 2005 reports surfaced that Woodward had prepared Deep Throat's obituary because he was near death. Chief Justice William Rehnquist was battling cancer at the time (he would die in September 2005), and there was speculation that Rehnquist might have been Deep Throat. Rehnquist was Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel, from 1969 to 1971, and then served on the Supreme Court until his death in 2005.
Deep Throat revealed.
"Vanity Fair" magazine revealed that Felt was Deep Throat on May 31, 2005, when it published an article (eventually appearing in the July issue of the magazine) on its website by John D. O'Connor, an attorney acting on Felt's behalf. Felt said, "I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat." After the "Vanity Fair" story broke, Benjamin C. Bradlee, the editor of the "Washington Post" during Watergate, confirmed that Felt was Deep Throat. According to the "Vanity Fair" article, Felt was persuaded to come out by his family. They hoped to capitalize on the book deals and other lucrative opportunities which Felt would be offered in order to help pay for his grandchildren's education. His family was unaware that he was Deep Throat for many years. Although Felt was suffering from dementia and had previously denied he was Deep Throat, both Woodward and Bernstein confirmed the attorney's claim. Felt's family realized the truth after his retirement, when they became aware of his close friendship with Bob Woodward.
Nixon's Chief Counsel Charles Colson, who served prison time for his actions in the Nixon White House, said Felt had violated "his oath to keep this nation's secrets". A "Los Angeles Times" editorial argued that this argument was specious, "as if there's no difference between nuclear strategy and rounding up hush money to silence your hired burglars". Ralph de Toledano, who co-wrote Felt's 1979 memoir, said Mark Felt Jr. had approached him in 2004 to buy Toledano's half of the copyright. Toledano agreed to sell but was never paid. He attempted to rescind the deal, threatening legal action. A few days before the "Vanity Fair" article was released, Toledano finally received a check.
He later said: "I had been gloriously and illegally deceived, and Deep Throat was, in characteristic style, back in business—which given his history of betrayal, was par for the course."
After the revelation, publishers were interested in signing Felt to a book deal. Weeks later, PublicAffairs Books announced that it signed a deal with Felt. Its CEO was a "Washington Post" reporter and editor during the Watergate era. The new book was to include material from Felt's 1979 memoir, plus an update. The new volume was scheduled for publication in early 2006. Felt sold the movie rights to his story to Universal Pictures for development by Tom Hanks's production company, Playtone. The book and movie deals were valued at US$1 million. A film based on those rights, "", in which Felt is portrayed by Liam Neeson, was released in 2017.
In mid-2005 Woodward published an account of his contacts with Felt, "The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat" ().
Appraisal of Watergate role.
Public response to Felt and his actions has varied widely since these revelations. In the immediate aftermath, Felt's family called him an "American hero", suggesting that he leaked information for moral or patriotic reasons. G. Gordon Liddy, who was convicted of burglary in the Watergate scandal, said Felt should have gone to the grand jury rather than leak.
Speculation about Felt's motives for leaking has also varied widely. Some suggested that it was revenge for Nixon's choosing Gray over Felt to replace Hoover as FBI Director. Others suggest Felt acted out of institutional loyalty to the FBI.
Political scientist George Friedman argued:
The "Washington Post" created a morality play about an out-of-control government brought to heel by two young, enterprising journalists and a courageous newspaper. That simply wasn't what happened. Instead, it was about the FBI using "The Washington Post" to leak information to destroy the president, and "The Washington Post" willingly serving as the conduit for that information while withholding an essential dimension of the story by concealing Deep Throat's identity.
In his 2012 book "Leak: Why Mark Felt Became Deep Throat", Max Holland argued that Felt leaked the information in an attempt to become head of the FBI. Holland said that Felt wanted to create the perception that Gray "could not control the FBI". This could result in Nixon's firing Gray, leaving Felt as the obvious choice to run the agency. Holland said this plan (if it was one) backfired as Nixon and his team found out that Felt was the leaker.
Death.
Felt died at home, in his sleep, on December 18, 2008. He was 95 years old and his death was attributed to heart failure.


North American Co. v. SEC

North American Co. v. Securities and Exchange Commission, 327 U.S. 686 (1946), is a United States Supreme Court case holding that a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) order under the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) directing a public utility holding company to divest its securities of all companies except for one electric company did not violate the Commerce Clause or the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Background.
PUHCA was one of a number of trust-busting and securities regulation initiatives that were enacted in response to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and ensuing Great Depression, including the collapse of Samuel Insull's public utility holding companies. By 1932, the eight largest utility holding companies controlled 73 percent of the investor-owned electric industry. Their complex, highly leveraged, corporate structures were very difficult for individual states to regulate. PUHCA required electric company holding companies to register with the SEC, and authorized the SEC to limit a holding company to a single integrated electric system through the divestiture of its other public utility and unrelated companies.
The North American Company, formed in 1890, was a holding company in a system that by 1940 contained 80 companies operating in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. These included the Union Electric Company, which operated an electric system around St. Louis, Missouri, and subsidiaries in Illinois and Iowa, the Washington Railway and Electric Company, and the North American Light and Power Company with systems in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa and its subsidiaries Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Detroit Edison Company. In addition, North American also owned an investment trust company and West Kentucky Coal Company. Together the various electric systems served more than 3,000,000 customers in a service territory of 165,000 square miles.
North American initially challenged the constitutionality of PUHCA and requested an injunction against its enforcement, but the Supreme Court in "Landis v. North American Co.", held that the case was premature and that North American should register and then litigate the constitutionality of PUHCA after the SEC conducted its proceeding. North American then registered in 1937 as a holding company with the SEC, reserving its right to challenge the validity of the remaining portions of PUHCA. After initiating an administrative proceeding, the SEC issued an order requiring divestiture of North American's securities in companies other than the Union Electric Company. North American appealed, but in 1943 the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the order. Arguing that ownership of securities was not interstate commerce within the meaning of the Commerce Clause and that the divestiture ordered by the SEC was a taking in violation of the Fifth Amendment, North American appealed to the Supreme Court, which granted certiorari.
Opinion.
The opinion by Justice Murphy first concluded that North American was engaged in interstate commerce and through its substantial stock ownership dominated its subsidiaries. The opinion then noted that North American's argument that PUHCA's divestiture provision was invalid because ownership of securities was not commerce had been previously rejected by the Court in the anti-trust case of "Northern Securities Co. v. United States". Under its authority under the Commerce Clause, Congress could regulate to protect the freedom of interstate commerce using any means that were lawful and not prohibited by the Constitution. Under "Northern Securities", Congress could deal with and affect the ownership of securities to protect the freedom of commerce, which it did in fashioning the divestiture remedy in PUHCA.
Lastly, the Court dismissed the takings argument, noting that Congress had weighed the benefit to shareholders of efficient, common management of diversified companies against the actual and potential harm to the public, investors, and consumers from the use of pooled investments, and determined that the economic advantages of a holding company atop an unintegrated, sprawling electric system were not commensurate with the resulting economic disadvantages. In addition, it was not clear that there would be a loss necessary for a takings claim under the Fifth Amendment. PUHCA does not require the dumping or forced liquidation of the securities on the market for cash, so the stock of the companies ordered divested could be distributed to the shareholders or sold under a plan that protects shareholder rights. The Court determined that it could not conclude that North American shareholders were disadvantaged by the operation of the divestiture provision of PUHCA.
Justices Reed, Douglas and Jackson did not participate in the consideration of the case. Although Chief Justice Stone had initially recused himself for a disclosed reason, but when he discovered that his disqualification plus those of the other justices would result in the lack of a quorum, he reversed his position.
Subsequent events.
PUHCA was repealed by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 effective February 8, 2006.


North American monetary union

The North American monetary union is a theoretical economic and monetary union of three North American countries: Canada, the United States of America and Mexico.
Implementation would involve the three countries giving up their current currency units (the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Mexican peso) and adopting a new one, created specifically for this purpose (some versions of the theory assume only the United States and Canada would be included). The hypothetical currency for the union is most often referred to as the amero. The concept is modeled on the common European Union currency (the euro).
Support.
Canada.
One argument is that it would save up to $3 billion in currency transactions. The same authors also stated that Canada's GDP could rise by up to 33% in a 20-year period given the adoption of a single currency.
The idea of a common currency has historically been unpopular in English-speaking Canada, in comparison to the French-speaking province of Quebec where it has received more support. A 2001 opinion poll found that in Quebec over 50% of respondents favored the idea of a shared currency, while in the rest of Canada a majority of respondents opposed the idea.
Support in other regions.
Lower levels of currency cooperation have been practiced in the Americas before. Some nations such as Argentina and Brazil have at times tied their currency to the U.S. dollar. Some of them, such as Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, and the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean, still do.
The U.S. dollar is officially accepted alongside local currencies in El Salvador (since 2001), Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru, Honduras, Panama, Bermuda and Barbados, and in practice two of these countries (El Salvador and Panama) are fully dollarized. In 2000, Ecuador officially adopted the U.S. dollar as its sole currency. In a few areas of Canada, the U.S. dollar can be accepted as currency alongside the Canadian Dollar, particularly in areas near border crossings. An example of this effect is Niagara Falls, Ontario, with large numbers of U.S. tourists (businesses still may not accept U.S. currency depending on their policy). The same is also true for the Canadian Dollar in many U.S. cities near the United States-Canada border.
Criticisms and problems.
Opposition to a North American monetary union exists high up in the governments on both sides of the Canada–United States border. Herbert Grubel, the first proponent of the amero, admits that American officials show no interest in the topic. He concedes that "there wouldn't be very much benefit for the United States" in an amero. Likewise, the Canadian Department of Finance strongly opposes the creation of a common currency with the United States, citing the loss of economic sovereignty. In briefing documents to former Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty, finance officials concluded: A North American common currency would undoubtedly mean for Canada the adoption of the U.S. dollar and U.S. monetary policy. Canada would have to give up its control of domestic inflation and interest rates.
Trade-offs.
From the point of view of the Canadian and Mexican governments, a major obstacle to the creation of a unified currency is the sheer dominance of the United States in any such union.
A paper from University of California, Santa Barbara puts forward the idea that the United States simply has too many advantages from the "status quo" to move toward a single currency. The United States dollar already acts as a global currency, meaning any transition to a 'new' currency would risk compromising this position and could cause a shift toward the euro or yen. The U.S. dollar is currently being used in over half of all the world's exports, double the total United States foreign trade. The adoption of the amero could threaten the seigniorage that the U.S. currently gains from its dollar. While seignorage would still be gained from the amero, this would be shared among the Bank of Canada, the Federal Reserve, and the Banco de México. Therefore, even if the amero were used just as much as the U.S. dollar, the advantages would be shared among two or more countries, and not exclusively held by the United States.
Differing economies and debt.
Several problems could arise in regards to macroeconomic management. By submitting to a common currency, the countries would lose considerable autonomy in the management of the currency itself, including the setting of interest rates. Amongst the three potential participants, there is considerable difference in policy which would have to be reconciled.
Debt is a factor affecting currency prices. As of 2010, the debt of the United States continues to increase, while the debt of the Canadian federal government is being reduced. This is a clear advantage for Canadians and it would not be reflected if the currencies were to merge. The importance of commodities also factors into this equation.
A concern with any unified North American currency is the differing economic situations between each country. The Eurozone is broadly similar being service-based economies based on high public spending (compared to the United States), high taxes and wealth being created by the sale of goods and services. North America on the other hand has three distinct economies; one based mainly on agriculture, industry and manufacturing with a demand for free trade (Mexico), another based on services such as retail, with higher taxes and low public spending (United States), and a third based on services with higher taxes and higher public spending, with a large sector in primary goods such as oil, mining and lumber (Canada).
Some observers blamed the Eurozone crisis partly on a lack of effective fiscal union. The Budget of the European Union is relatively small compared to the budgets of the Eurozone countries, which are set independently. Leading up to the crisis, some countries incurred more debt than the unenforced EU guidelines called for. Due to the centralized monetary union, countries experiencing problems were unable to apply local monetary policy to recover, and destabilized the currency which is also used by more economically healthy countries. The national budgets and debt levels of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, on the other hand, are also set completely independently, which could cause similar problems in a situation where monetary policy was centralized.
In contrast, the economies of the various states of the United States are strongly integrated. Internally, the U.S. also has strong fiscal federalism - all but one of the fifty states have a balanced budget amendment, and the federal budget is large compared to state budgets, resulting in effective federal stabilization of the currency and national economy.
Political mandate.
In November 2006, Lou Dobbs alleged on his CNN program that a "North American Union" was being implemented, without the knowledge and consent of the people who would be affected by the Union. The episode also briefly mentioned various claims about a common currency. The report focused on uncertainty prior to Felipe Calderón taking office as President of Mexico in late 2006, but never provided any substantive evidence to support this claim. The report suggested the union would be implemented by 2010, a deadline which came and went without such a union being implemented.
In 2006, Conservative Caucus Chairman Howard Phillips, WND columnist and author Jerome Corsi, activist Phyllis Schlafly, among others, reportedly formed a coalition against a North American Union. On January 22, 2007, Republican Representatives Virgil Goode of Virginia, Tom Tancredo of Colorado, Walter Jones of North Carolina, and Ron Paul of Texas were among the 43 federal lawmakers who introduced H. CON. RES. 40, a resolution advocated by the coalition, that expressed: The sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union (NAU) with Mexico or Canada.
Amero coins.
In August 2007, rumors and conspiracy theories began circulating across the Internet regarding alleged United States Treasury-issued amero coins.
The inspiration behind these rumors may have been the posting of images of medallions created by coin designer Daniel Carr. Carr, who designed the New York and Rhode Island 2001 statehood quarters, sells medals and tokens of his own design on his commercial website, "Designs Computed" (also known as "DC Coin"). Among his designs are a series of gold, silver and copper fantasy issues of amero coins ranging in denomination from one to one thousand. The medallions have the legend "Union of North America" on the back with his company's logo, a stylized "DC", in small type. Concerning his amero designs, he mentions on his website:
My goal with these coins is not to endorse a Union of North America or a common Amero currency. I fully support the United States Constitution, and I would not welcome (in any form) a diminishment of its provisions. I expect that these coins will help make more people aware of the issue and the possible ramifications. I leave it up to others to decide if they are in favor of, or against a North American Union. And I encourage citizens to voice their approval or disapproval of government plans that impact them.
Unauthorized postings of images taken from his website have been reposted widely across the Internet, often being used as supposed "proof" of the amero coinage. Notably, white nationalist and former Internet radio talk show host Hal Turner ran a full article on his website about the "amero coin", claiming to have arranged for a United States Government minted "amero" to be smuggled out of the United States Department of the Treasury by an employee of that organization.
Following Turner's assertions of federal minting of ameros, a web site marketing the curio coins released a statement debunking Turner's claims of a government cover up regarding Daniel Carr's amero products. The urban legend investigating Web site "Snopes" also ran a further counter to Turner's claims, stating "neither the U.S. Mint nor the U.S. Treasury has a hand in creating these 'Ameros'. These coins are merely collectibles offered to the buying public by a private company in the business of manufacturing such curiosities."
Hal Turner claimed that Carr's website had been created in haste in a matter of days expressly to discredit his claim about the coinage.
However, Carr's designs have been available through his website since 2005, and according to a WHOIS search at Network Solutions, the domain "dc-coin.com" was registered by Daniel Carr on September 27, 2005.
In October 2008, Hal Turner released a video showing an apparent 20 amero coin, with claims that shipments of the currency had been sent to China. Yet the coin in Hal Turner's video is identical to a medallion on Daniel Carr's "dc-coin" website, listed as "UNA 2007 20 Ameros, Copper, Satin Finish".
Amero bills.
On December 3, 2008, Hal Turner's blog featured what he claimed were genuine "amero bills". He displayed photographs of purported 20, 50, and 100 amero notes. Turner did not identify how he obtained the images, saying only that "once again, my sources have come through". He claimed that the "new currency is already being printed and quietly distributed around the world". The web site Snopes.com suggested Turner was "beating the same tired, apocryphal drum" with his new claim. These images are art from the Flickr user aleatorysort, who created them as an artistic political commentary, and were therefore not actual currency.


Taxation in Belgium

In Belgium, taxes are collected on both state and local level. The most important taxes are collected on federal level, these taxes include an income tax, social security, corporate taxes and value added tax. At the local level, property taxes as well as communal taxes are collected. Tax revenue stood at 48% GDP in 2012.
The amount of taxes a person in Belgium has to pay depends on whether you are or you are not a resident of the country. For a resident (a person whose work or family home is in Belgium) it is clear. But in the case of non-resident, there are two scenarios. If you are non-resident who lives in Belgium for at least six months of the year (183 days) and you are registered with your local commune, you are classified as resident. It means you are taxed by Belgium income tax on your worldwide income. But if you are a non-resident who lives in Belgium for fewer than 6 months (183 days) during the year, you have to pay Belgium income tax only on income you earned in Belgium (including rents and capital gains).
The tax topics and laws are managed by government through the Ministry of Finance. The power to levy taxes has only the parliament. After the law is signed by the king, it is published in the official gazette.
The effective taxation rate in Belgium is commonly cited as among the highest in the world; see list of countries by tax rates.
Income taxation.
Filing taxes.
The Belgian tax year for personal income runs from 1 January to 31 December. Both, residents of Belgium as well as non-residents who pay tax on their income (as mentioned above), have to file an annual Belgian tax return. A tax return associated with your income in previous year is generally delivered in May or June. Typically, it has to be returned by the end of June (exact date can be found on the particular tax return). In case you don't submit your return by the deadline, you will receive a fine. Moreover, tax authorities can determine the amount of tax you have to pay.
As regards regular income tax payments, it is quite simple. If you are employed, your employer will regularly (every month) deduct your income tax payment from your salary. With self-employed workers or paid company directors, the process is similar – tax is paid in advance on monthly basis through collecting agency or bank. In Belgium, it is also possible to pay taxes via post or online (using Belgian government's tax portal). For non-residents with Belgian-earned income, it is a bit more complicated. A tax return is delivered as soon as they inform competent tax collectors office. On the other hand, they can also pay with the use of post or online.
Income taxes rates.
Income tax is calculated by applying a progressive tax rate schedule to taxable income, with rates that go from 25% to a maximum rate 50%. The rates, as of 2015, were as follows:
Whereas in 2019 the income tax rates are a bit different:
Employment income is also subject to social security contributions. Employee contributions are 13.07% and are deducted by the employer. In addition, the employer contributes about 35% of employees wage. No ceiling for contributions apply on contributions for either employee and employer.
Deductions from income tax.
Furthermore, a long list of tax allowances can be deducted from both the employer and the employee, including a general deduction, benefits deduction, and a deduction for dependents. Tax deductions are granted according to the following table:
Business taxation.
In Belgium, there are many taxes connected with business such as corporate income tax (more specified in the Income Tax Code), payroll taxes on remuneration paid to employees and directors, VAT, transfer tax, insurance premium tax. Occasionally, certain regional or local taxes might appear, depending on the area where firm operates.
Taxes also differ depending on the fact whether a certain company is resident or nonresident. In the case of resident company, corporate income tax is levied on company's capital gains, worldwide profits and income. Non-resident companies have to pay tax on Belgian-sourced income.
The standard corporate tax rate is 25%. Small companies meeting stringent conditions are sometimes eligible for a reduced 20% rate on up to 100000€ in taxable revenue.
According to Deloitte study Taxation and Investment in Belgium 2017, taxable income can be defined this way: “The taxable income of resident company comprises its annual worldwide income, less allowable deductions. Income derived by a resident company from foreign real estate or branches located in countries with which Belgium has concluded a tax treaty is exempt. Although subsidies are, in principle, part of taxable income, certain job creation subsidies, capital grants and interest rate subsidies are exempt for corporate income tax purposes.” However, during the process of calculating taxable income, companies can deduct all business expenses that can be considered as legitimate and arm's length. Expenses that can be taken as deductions are for example royalties, fees, investments, employer-funded pension contributions, some of the employee benefits and in some cases also interest paid on loans.
By selling tangible and intangible fixed assets company generates capital gains that are usually taxed at the standard 25% corporate tax rate. „However, taxation of capital gains on such assets can be deferred if the assets were held for more than five years before the disposal and the entire sale reinvestment, the tax due will be spread over the life of the asset in which the sale proceeds have been reinvested.“ And further: „Capital gains from fixed income securities are taxed as profits. However, gains derived from shareholdings in other companies are exempt if: (i) the shares meet the „subject to tax“ requirement for application of the dividends received deduction; and (ii) the shares have been held in full ownership for an uninterrupted period o fat least one year. “
Indirect taxes.
Value added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax “placed on a product whenever value is added at each stage of the supply chain, from production to the point of sale. The amount of VAT that the user pays is on the cost of the product, less any of the costs of materials used in the product that have already been taxed.” VAT is not levied on exports and the standard VAT rate is 21%. But for certain cases, the rates might be a bit different – 0% rate in case of daily and weekly publications and certain recycled goods, 6% rate applies to most basic goods (water, food...), 12% rate is associated with social housing and restaurant services. A value added tax return is obliged to be filed monthly or quarterly. As regards the payments, typically, tax due must be paid at the time VAT return is being filed and sometimes advance payments may be required. The Belgian VAT is part of the European Union value added tax system. Most smaller businesses with a turnover lower than €25000 can request an exemption as of 01/01/2016.
Transfer tax - there is no transfer tax in Belgium.
In case of capital tax, there is only a fixed fee 50 EUR.
In Belgium, there are also some environmental taxes associated mainly with energy usage.


Commodity Futures Trading Commission

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an independent agency of the US government created in 1974, that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures, swaps, and certain kinds of options.
The Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), "et seq.", prohibits fraudulent conduct in the trading of futures, swaps, and other derivatives. The stated mission of the CFTC is to promote the integrity, resilience, and vibrancy of the U.S. derivatives markets through sound regulation. After the financial crisis of 2007–08 and since 2010 with the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the CFTC has been transitioning to bring more transparency and sound regulation to the multitrillion dollar swaps market.
History.
Futures contracts for agricultural commodities have been traded in the U.S. for more than 150 years and have been under federal regulation since the 1920s. The Grain Futures Act of 1922 set the basic authority and was changed by the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936 (7 U.S.C. 1 et seq.).
Since the 1970s, trading in futures contracts has rapidly expanded beyond traditional physical and agricultural commodities into a vast array of financial instruments, including foreign currencies, U.S. and foreign government securities, and U.S. and foreign stock indices.
Congress created the CFTC in 1974 as an independent federal regulatory agency. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-463) created the CFTC to replace the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Exchange Authority. The Act made extensive changes to the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) of 1936, which itself amended the original Grain Futures Act of 1922. (7 U.S.C. 1 et seq.).
The CFTC's mandate was renewed and expanded in December 2000 when Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which instructed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the CFTC to develop a joint regulatory regime for single-stock futures, the products of which began trading in November 2002.
In 2010, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act expanded the CFTC's regulatory authority into the swaps markets. The swaps markets currently have a notional value of more than $400 trillion.
Regulated markets.
The CFTC oversees the derivatives markets by encouraging their competitiveness and efficiency, ensuring their integrity, protecting market participants against manipulation, abusive trading practices, fraud, and ensuring the financial integrity of the clearing process. The CFTC generally does not directly regulate the safety and soundness of individual firms, with the exception of newly regulated swap dealers and major swap participants, for whom it sets capital standards pursuant to Dodd-Frank. Through oversight, the CFTC enables the derivatives markets to serve the function of price discovery and offsetting price risk.
As of 2014 the CFTC oversees 'designated contract markets' (DCMs) or exchanges, swap execution facilities (SEFs), derivatives clearing organizations, swap data repositories (SDRs), swap dealers, futures commission merchants, commodity pool operators and other intermediaries. The CFTC coordinates its work with foreign regulators, such as its UK counterpart, the Financial Conduct Authority, which supervises the London Metal Exchange.
Over-the-counter derivatives.
In 1998 CFTC chairperson Brooksley E. Born lobbied Congress and the President to give the CFTC oversight of 'off-exchange markets' for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives in addition to its existing oversight of exchange-traded derivatives, but her warnings were opposed by other regulators.
Two actions by the CFTC in 1998 led some market participants to express concerns that the CFTC might modify the "Swap Exemption" and attempt to impose new regulations on the swaps market. First, in a February 1998 comment letter addressing the SEC's "broker-dealer lite" proposal, the CFTC stated that the SEC's proposal would create the potential for conflict with the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) to the extent that certain OTC derivative instruments fall within the ambit of the CEA and are subject to the exclusive statutory authority of the CFTC.
In May 1998 the CFTC issued a 'concept release' requesting comment on whether regulation of OTC derivatives markets was appropriate and, if so, what form such regulation should take. Legislation enacted in 1999 at the request of the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board, and the SEC limited the CFTC's rulemaking authority with respect to swaps and hybrid instruments until March 30, 1999, and froze the pre-existing legal status of swap agreements and hybrid instruments entered into in reliance on the 'Swap Exemption', the 'Hybrid Instrument Rule', the 'Swap Policy Statement, or the 'Hybrid Interpretation'. The text of that act read: "...the Commission may not propose or issue any rule or regulation, or issue any interpretation or policy statement, that restricts or regulates activity in a qualifying hybrid instrument or swap agreement". Shortly after Congress had passed this legislation prohibiting CFTC from regulating derivatives, Born resigned. She later commented the failure of Long-Term Capital Management and the subsequent bailout as being indicative what she had been trying to prevent.
Regulating digital currencies.
In March 2014 the CFTC acknowledged it was considering the regulation of Bitcoin. The CFTC has since taken the position that Bitcoin is a commodity under the CEA. In October 2019, former CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert, now Chief Legal Officer of Citadel Securities LLC, declared that ether was also a commodity under the CEA.
In 2015, the CFTC ruled that for purposes of trading, cryptocurrencies were legally classified as commodities. However, in view of market volatility and other factors, the CFTC noted several risks associated with trading virtual currencies. In 2017, the CFTC cited the US SEC’s warning against digital token sales and initial coin offerings (ICOs) that can “improperly entice investors with promises of high returns”. In recent years, the CFTC has expanded its efforts to civilly prosecute fraud and misappropriation in the digital asset markets.
Organization.
Based in Washington, D.C., the CFTC maintains regional offices in Chicago, New York and Kansas City, Missouri. The Commission consists of five Commissioners appointed by the President of the United States to serve staggered five-year terms. The President, with the consent of the United States Senate, designates one of the commissioners to serve as chairman. No more than three commissioners at any one time may be from the same political party.
Major operating units.
Market Participants Division.
Formerly known as the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight, the Market Participants Division (MPD) primarily oversees derivatives market intermediaries, including commodity pool operators, commodity trading advisors, futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, major swap participants, retail foreign exchange dealers, and swap dealers, as well as designated self-regulatory organizations. MPD conducts the registration, compliance, and business conduct standards of intermediaries, swap dealers and major swap participants. The division also oversees the agency's customer education initiatives.
Division of Clearing and Risk.
The Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) oversees derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) and other market participants in the clearing process. These include futures commission merchants, swap dealers, major swap participants, and large traders. DCR monitors the clearing of futures, options on futures, and swaps by DCOs, assesses DCO compliance with Commission regulations, and conducts risk assessment and surveillance. DCR also makes recommendations on DCO applications and eligibility, rule submissions, and which types of swaps should be cleared. As of 2019, Clark Hutchison serves as Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk.
Division of Market Oversight.
The Division of Market Oversight (DMO) has regulatory responsibility for initial recognition and continuing oversight of trade execution facilities, including new registered futures exchanges, swap execution facilities, and swap data repositories. The regulatory functions of the Division include, among other things, market surveillance, trade practice reviews and investigations, rule enforcement reviews, review of product-related and market-related rule amendments, and associated product and market-related studies. As of 2019, Dorothy D. DeWitt serves as Director of the Division of Market Oversight.
Division of Enforcement.
The Division of Enforcement (DOE) investigates and prosecutes alleged violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. Violations may involve commodity futures or option trading on domestic commodity exchanges, or the improper marketing of commodity investments. The Division may, at the direction of the Commission, file complaints before the agency's administrative law judges or in the U.S. District Courts. Alleged criminal violations of the Commodity Exchange Act or violations of other Federal laws which involve commodity futures trading may be referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. The Division also provides expert help and technical assistance with case development and trials to U.S. Attorneys' Offices, other Federal and state regulators, and international authorities.
Funding/budget.
Unlike the other four main financial regulators, the CFTC does not have self-funding. A transaction fee has been "requested" for several years but Congress has not taken any legislative action. During the government shut down in October 2013, SEC and Federal Reserve stayed open, but "futures and most swaps markets were left with essentially no cop on the beat".
In 2007, the CFTC's budget was $98 million and it had 437 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). After 2008, funding increased by 80% to $205 million and 687 FTEs for fiscal year (FY) 2012, but was cut to $180.4 million and 682 FTEs for FY 2013. In 2013 CFTC's performance was severely affected by limited resources and had to delay cases. The current, FY 2014 funding of $215m did not keep up with CFTC's increasing swaps market oversight and regulation, equivalent to tens of trillions of dollars in formerly dark market trading, according to outgoing Commissioner Bart Chilton in his last speech. The Obama administration's latest budget proposal for FY 2015 requested $280m, which is $35m less than the request for the previous year, and would fund "100 less employees than we need" per Chilton, who called the budget "woefully insufficient" for CFTC's more than 40-fold increased purview.
In February 2014, Commissioner Scott D. O'Malia dissented from the FY 2014 spending plan saying that it did not allocate enough funding to new technology investments, but allocated too much to swap dealer oversight, duplicating the work of the self-regulatory National Futures Association. In March he dissented from the FY 2015 budget request stating CFTC "makes an unrealistic request for new staff and funding in this budget request without a firm understanding of its mission priorities, specific goals, and corresponding personnel and technology needs."
In December 2019, the CFTC secured funding of $284 million for FY2020, an increase of nearly 6 percent from the $268 million appropriated for FY2019. Chairman Tarbert commented that this "fully matched" the CFTC's request, the first time that had happened in "nearly a decade."


Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth

The Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth is a junior position in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the British government. It is currently held by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon who took the office on 13 June 2017.
Responsibilities.
The minister has the following ministerial responsibilities:


Agent-General for New South Wales

The Agent-General for New South Wales was created in 1864 as the representative of the Colony of New South Wales in the United Kingdom. The agent-general was appointed by and the expenses and salaries paid by the colonial and then state government to represent their commercial, legal, and diplomatic interests in Britain and to the British government and Whitehall. It continued to represent the state after the federation of Australia until it was abolished in 1993.
History.
The <includeonly></includeonly>New South Wales<includeonly></includeonly> Office in London was one of several overseas offices established by the colonies of Australia to represent their interests. The London Office was established after the appointment of the first Agent-General on 1 May 1864. In June 1932, the Agent-General's Office was abolished as a cost-cutting measure and was replaced by the New South Wales Government Offices, London, to be headed by an "Official Representative". The title was renamed Agent-General in 1937, but was left vacant from 1939 to 1946 due to the Second World War. From 1972 to 1993, the Agent-General's Office was located in separate premises from Australia House, at the nearby address of 66 The Strand, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in May 1972.
In October 1992, the position of NSW Agent-General in London was abolished by the Fahey government. This occurred following an expenses scandal by the last Agent-General, Neil Pickard, who had been appointed as a consolation for losing his seat in parliament. Following its abolition, Fahey noted to Parliament: "It was abundantly clear to me, to all Cabinet and to all Government that we no longer needed an agent-general's office in London. That was a throwback to colonial days - to the days when it was important to have garden parties and to participate in ceremonies. Quite frankly, little or no benefit accrued to New South Wales by participating in such a process." The Agent-General's Office was replaced by the NSW Government Trade and Investment Office, London, which had no ceremonial function, but focused on the promotion of investment and trade in the UK and Europe. The NSW Government of Gladys Berejiklian considered reviving the Agent-General position in late-2019, noting that "We know the post-Brexit environment is going to be very different and NSW can gain a lot of opportunities in business from the UK".


Kayar, Senegal

Kayar is one of the coastal cities of Senegal. Located in the Thiès region, it is 36 miles north of Dakar, the capital city of Senegal.
Population.
According to the 2013 census, the population of Kayar numbers around 23,585. From 2002 to 2013, the city experienced a 3.46% growth per annum, therefore, if it has continued to grow at the same rate, an estimate for the 2019 census would be a population of 27,956.
Local Economy.
The economy of Kayar depends on the Atlantic Ocean as it's one of the major fishing centers in Senegal. Kayar has the third largest fishing center in the country, but it is the most systemized in terms of self-regulation. There are associations for the long-liners, purse seiners, and traders that organize the fishing industry and ensure that the needs of each group are met without exploiting other groups. Purse seiners are allowed one fishing session per day. The rest of the fishermen have a daily maximum of about 100lbs (45 kg). If they exceed the limit, they are taxed, and the money goes toward replacing broken pirogues or assisting the less fortunate fishermen and their families.
Though self-regulation is exceedingly important, the bulk of the fish in the coastal waters have been fished by illegal vessels. Much more effort and danger are required to yield less and less profit. Without the ability to support the community exclusively through fishing, the illegal fishing trade has increased the need for the development of farming in the area and has also increased the amount of illegal migration to Europe.
Migration.
In 2006 Kayar was one of the main departure points for West Africans trying to reach the Canary Islands of Spain, on the very fishing vessels that have sustained those living in Kayar for decades. The number of migrants in 2006 alone reached 30,000. Of those 30,000 people, over 6,000 died. Through sea and air patrols, the number of migrants ceased to the point where the route from Kayar to the Canary Islands is now defunct.
More Information.
A documentary by French filmmaker Thomas Grand called "Kayar, A Childhood Caught in the Nets" "(Kayar, L'Enfance Prise aux Filets)" follows the story of a young man named Adama. The film is in Wolof with French subtitles and explores life in Kayar.


Apta (Hasidic dynasty)

The Apta-Zinkov-Mezibuz dynasty is a Polish Hasidic dynasty founded by Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apta, (popularly known as the "Apter Rov"; born in Zhmigrid, Poland in 1748 and died in Mezhbizh, Ukraine, Russian Empire in 1825).
History.
Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apta was born in 1748 to Rabbi Shmuel and was the son-in-law of Rabbi Ya'akov of Tortshin. He was one of the greatest disciples of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk.
Lineage.
Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apt was the founder of the Apt-Mezhbizh-Zinkover Hasidic dynasty. In honor of the dynasty's founder, his descendants adopted the family name Heshel.
The males in this family took wives several different times from the family of the Ryzhiner Rebbe.


Mohammad Qoli Khan Shamlu

Mohammad Qoli Khan Shamlu () was a Turkoman nobleman from the Shamlu tribe, who briefly served as the Grand Vizier of the Safavid king ("shah") Sultan Husayn (r. 1694–1722) from 1721 to 1722. He was succeeded by Fath-Ali Khan Qajar.


Arjuna Mahendran

Lakshman Arjuna Mahendran is a Sri Lankan born, Singaporean economist and banker. He is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), having been appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena in January 2015 and served until the end of his term in 30 June 2016. He was the former Managing Director of HSBC Private Bank, Chief Investment Officer of Emirates NBD as well as Chairman and Director-General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka. Mahendran is currently residing in Singapore, which has refused to extradite him on a request from Sri Lanka routed through interpol.
Education.
He was educated at Royal College, Colombo in Sri Lanka and at Balliol College, Oxford, he gained a MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Banking career.
Mahendran joined the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, he had served as a senior economist before moving into investment banking in Singapore going on to serve as Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist-Asia at HSBC Private Bank. He was responsible for driving research and providing in-depth analysis of markets in the Asia Pacific. Mahendran also led the analytics team in interpreting market economics and developing investment strategies for HSBC's clients in the region. Later he served as Chief Investment Officer-Wealth Management division at Emirates NBD. From 2001 to 2004 he served as Chairman and Director-General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI). For Mahendran's instrumental role in establishing the Board of Investments of Sri Lanka and driving its strategy, he was named a runner-up in Euromoney Strategic Direct Investor's "CEO Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2003. He served as Chief Economist & Strategist – Asia Pacific at Credit Suisse Group AG and was its Head of Research for Asia Pacific since October 2006.
Central Bank Governor.
In 2015 he was appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. He was extremely critical of the Sri Lankan tax system and called the revenue which is only 10% of the GDP "pathetic" and compared the low tax collection in the country to the tax collection of a poor Sub-Saharan country and also criticized the complexity of the tax system and proposed to simplify it and introduce online tax payment systems to streamline tax collection.
He also slammed inefficient loss making state-owned enterprises as they have created losses in state banks while giving a "free ride" to private banks as they exploit significant lending spreads by the government banks and proposed to make public enterprises more efficient so that the banking system can be more efficient and make the economy grow faster.
Singapore queries Sri Lanka's allegations of impropriety by Mr.Mahendran.
In March 2019 President Sirisena of Sri Lanka accused Singapore authorities of not acting on his request to frame charges against Mahendran. A spokesperson for the Singapore government said there were no grounds to do so. This follows reports that the Singapore authorities had refused the request on the basis that it could not be determined that Mahendran’s conduct, if committed in Singapore, would constitute a criminal offence in Singapore according to the evidence presented by Sri Lanka. In February 2015 CBSL advertised the sale of Rs. 1 billion in 30-year government bonds at a coupon of 12.5% though several accounts erroneously cite an indicative rate of 9.5%. Mr Mahendran stated that he grew perturbed that officials of The Central bank had advertised the auction for a very Low figure of Rupees one billion worth of government bonds when the government needed over Rupees 13 billion on the date of the auction and Rupees 172 billion in March 2015. The sale was oversubscribed with 36 bids of totaling Rs. 20 billion. The majority of bidders, 26, bidded for Rs. 100 million or less at a rate of 9.5%–10.5%. However, a few bidders, including Perpetual Treasuries Limited, wanted interest rates of 11%–12%. On 27 February 2015 an official tender board, which did not include Mahendran, accepted Rs. 10 billion in bids at rates of 9.5%–12.5%. The issuing of ten times the advertised bonds, and at a higher than expected rate, was alleged to cost the Sri Lankan government an additional Rs. 1.6 billion ($10.6 million), though this alleged loss was disputed by the Leader of the House of Parliament. A petition was lodged in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka contesting the methodology used to allege such a loss. Perpetual Treasuries was issued, directly and indirectly, with Rs. 5 billion in bonds at 12.5%. Perpetual Treasuries was one of the primary dealers in the sale and is owned by Mahendran's son-in-law Arjun Aloysius. The primary dealer had also appointed the sister of the former Central Bank Governor Ajit Nivard Cabraal onto the Board of its holding company.
This situation became a controversial political issue in Sri Lanka as the newly elected Sri Lankan Government of President Maithreepala Sirisena came to power with a slogan of good governance in the country. A three-member Committee of eminent lawyers was appointed to investigate the issue and the report produced by the committee claimed that there was no direct involvement by Mahendran in the deal. The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka did not grant leave to proceed in a fundamental rights case that requested a separate inquiry into the bond issue, as no laws were broken.
Mahendran denied any wrongdoing in the controversial bond auction and asserted that he was ready to face any inquiry to prove his innocence. He also said he had been made a victim due to his own transparency. In a related development Mahendran's successor at the Central Bank refused to publish a forensic audit commissioned to probe bond auctions, conducted by KPMG/BDO. The forensic audit did not find any evidence of wrongdoing by Mahendran. Despite efforts to stifle the report, the Speaker of Parliament ruled that the report be made available to Parliament for debate. Around the same time the Board of the Central Bank was reconstituted with new appointees.
A former governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Ajith Nivard Cabraal who preceded Mahendran charged that a higher hand was involved in the scandal given the scale of the cover-up attempts by the Sri Lankan government. Cabraal himself is the subject of several investigations by the law enforcement authorities on alleged misconduct during his tenure as Governor.
On 28 October 2016 the Committee on Public Enterprises, after a lengthy investigation, found Mahendran responsible for the Bond Issue Scam and recommended legal action be taken against the above. However President Maithripala Sirisena has announced that he has appointed a Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry to further investigate the case. This commission consisted of commission's chairman Justice K. T. Chitrasiri and members Justice Prasanna Jayawardena and retired Deputy Auditor General, V. Kandasamy. During the inquiry, Mahendran defended his actions before the Commission stating that he had not acted in a manner detrimental to the interests of the Government.
The commission handed over the report on Central Bank bond issuance to the President Maithripala Sirisena on 30 December 2017 and the Presidential Secretariat made available the full report in PDF form from its website for public viewing. In the findings of the report, Arjuna Mahendra was held directly responsible for causing a loss of LKR 11,145 million to public institutions. However, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced that 'No financial loss will be caused to the government on account of the Central Bank Bond issue since the government will recover the Rs 9.2 billion involved from Perpetual Treasures Ltd. according to the procedure recommended by the Presidential Commission. The Central Bank functioning under the Ministry of National Policy has already blocked and retained a fund of Rs 12 billion belonging to the Perpetual Treasures Ltd'In 2016 an independent report published by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that Such Commissions of Inquiry in Sri Lanka rarely served a useful purpose and stood in the way of competent institutions fulfilling their objectives.
The prolonged nature of the inquiry may be linked to a growing rift between Sri Lanka's President and Prime Minister and the two political parties they each represent in an increasingly fraught coalition government. A group of ministers from the President's party along with opposition MPs failed in a recent attempt to pass a motion of no-confidence against the Prime Minister in Sri Lanka's Parliament. A key issue in the motion was the Prime Minister's alleged interference in the Central Bank. The President has subsequently had to prorogue ParliamentPresident Sirisena was accused by Australian authorities of soliciting a bribe from an Australian contractor and his chief of staff was caught red-handed by Police while accepting cash from a businessman in the carpark of a hotel.
Arrest order quashed.
On 15 March 2018 Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court issued an arrest warrant on Arjuna Mahendra on charges of criminal breach of trust for allegedly providing confidential information of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to Perpetual Treasuries Limited, a primary dealer connected to and owned by his son-in-law Arjun Aloysius who was arrested on 4 February 2018 along with Kasun Palisena, who was the CEO of Perpetual Treasuries Limited. Mahendra did not surrender himself to the court. The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka had earlier rejected a similar petition. News reports state that Mr Mahendran has challenged the order through the International Police (Interpol). Prime Minister Wickremesinghe made a statement in the Sri Lanka Parliament on 5 June 2018 stating that the Singapore government has refused to arrest Mahendran Lawyers of the accused have made submissions to court contending that the presentation of the Commission of Inquiry CCOI) report in a court of law as evidence is not admissible as the COI does not formally follow the judicially recognised law of evidence.
On 28 June 2019, a case was filed at the Permanent High Court Trial at Bar by the Attorney General against Mahendran accused in the Central Bank Treasury Bond Scam and lost multi billions from Sri Lankan's public money.
On 16 June 2020, the attorney general of Sri Lanka alleged that, according to Interpol, Mahendran had changed his name to Harjan Alexander.However, one of the publications that stated this subsequently carried a reference to Mr Mahendran using his original name, casting doubt on the authenticity of the quote.Mr Mahendran published a rebuttal denying any change of his name alleging, inter alia, that the Sri Lanka Attorney General was instructed to sensationalise the case in the media on the instructions of the President.The same Sri Lanka attorney general ordered the arrest of a staffer in the Swiss embassy in Sri Lanka which was strongly objected to by the Swiss government.


Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, also referred to as the business secretary, is a senior Minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The office was created under its present name in 2016 and forms part of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
The current business secretary is Kwasi Kwarteng, since his appointment by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on 8 January 2021.
Responsibilities.
Corresponding to what is generally known as a commerce minister in many other countries, the Business Secretary's remit includes:
History.
During the government of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the then President of the Board of Trade Edward Heath was given in addition the job of Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development. This title was not continued under Harold Wilson, but when Heath became Prime Minister in 1970 he decided to merge functions of the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Technology to create the Department of Trade and Industry. The head of this department became known as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and also retained the title of President of the Board of Trade.
When Harold Wilson re-entered office in March 1974, the office was split into the Department of Trade, the Department of Industry and the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection, resulting in the creation of three new positions: Secretary of State for Industry, Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection, and Secretary of State for Trade. The title President of the Board of Trade became the secondary title of the Secretary of State for Trade. By 1979 the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection was abolished by the incoming Conservative government and its responsibilities were reintegrated into the Department of Trade. Furthermore, 1983 the offices of trade and industry were remerged and the title of Secretary of State for Trade and Industry was recreated. When Michael Heseltine held this office, he preferred to be known by the older title of President of the Board of Trade, and this practice was also followed by Ian Lang and Margaret Beckett. Heseltine's decision to reuse the old title caused some controversy, and it was discovered that the Board of Trade had not in fact met since the mid-nineteenth century.
Under Gordon Brown's premiership there were two renamings of the role and three re-alignments of responsibility. In his first cabinet of 2007, he called the post Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. With this change, the Better Regulation Executive was added to the department but the Office of Science and Innovation was lost. In 2008, the title remained the same but responsibility for energy was lost. In 2009, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was merged into the existing department and the post became Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
In July 2016, Prime Minister Theresa May decided to merge the Department for Energy and Climate Change into this department with the responsibilities for post-19 education and skills being returned to the Department for Education resulting in the position being renamed to Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. At the same time in July 2016, the post of President of the Board of Trade was transferred to the newly created post of Secretary of State for International Trade.