Public Intelligence

An interactive chart of more than 30 Blackwater/Xe Services LLC Front Companies.

Interactive map of BP’s offices around the planet.

BlackRock was originally the Financial Management portion of Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman’s Blackstone Group. The Blackstone Group and BlackRock Financial Management both derive their name from their co-founders’ surnames; schwarz means “black” in German and Peter is derived from the Greek word πετρος meaning “stone”. Laurence Fink, who ran the Financial Management division of the Blackstone Group, was heavily involved with the initial creation of mortgage-backed securities, the same type of financial products that would later lead to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009.

OSI Systems (NASDAQ: OSIS) is a vertically integrated designer and manufacturer of specialized electronic systems and components for critical applications. We sell our products worldwide into diversified markets, including homeland security, healthcare, defense and aerospace.

Chertoff Group, LLC is a registered corporation in the State of Delaware formed on February 2, 2009. The firm is lead by Chertoff and Chad Sweet, who served as Chertoff’s Chief of Staff during his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security. Mr. Sweet worked in the CIA until the early 1990s, when he began a career in investment banking. He initially worked at Morgan Stanley and was later recruited by Goldman Sachs. Mr. Sweet spent six of his twelve years in finance in overseas assignments. He returned to public service after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which he personally witnessed while working at Goldman Sachs in New York.

The Chicago Climate Exchange is the world’s first environmental derivatives exchange. The exchange is owned by the London-based Climate Exchange PLC which also owns the European Climate Exchange, Montréal Climate Exchange, and the Tianjin Climate Exchange. Approximately 10% of CCX is owned by Goldman Sachs and another 10% is owned by Generation Investment Management LLP.

Generation Investment Management LLP is a investment management firm with offices in London, Sydney, and Washington, D.C. The company was founded in April 2004 by the former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management David Blood and former Vice-President Al Gore.

Maiden Lane III LLC is a holding company established on November 10, 2008 by the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Treasury Department as part of the U.S. government’s restructuring of American International Group, Inc. (AIG). As part of this restructuring, under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, the Federal Reserve Board authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (New York Fed) to lend up to $30 billion to a newly formed Delaware limited liability company, Maiden Lane III LLC (ML III LLC), to fund the purchase of certain multi-sector collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) from certain counterparties of AIG Financial Products Corp. (AIGFP).

Kingdom Holding Company is the largest company in Saudi Arabia. While the company is technically a public holding company listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange, 95% of the company’s shares are owned by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud. Kingdom Holding Company owns portions of a number of companies around the world, including many U.S. companies.

Kissinger Associates, Inc. is an international consultancy firm that is owned and run by Henry Kissinger. The company was incorporated April 7, 1982 in the state of Delaware, though its primary offices are located in New York City. The company is extremely secretive and it is difficult to uncover information about them. Despite the fact that they have operated for more than twenty years, been involved in several multinational scandals resulting in congressional investigations, and are headed by one of the most notorious political figures in modern history, there is virtually no information available about them in traditional sources.

American Police Force is a private military company which claims to “service all 50 states and international countries” through law enforcement training, surveillance, kidnapping and ransom recovery services, as well as providing security to coalition forces in Iraq and Pakistan. At this time, it is difficult to verify any of these claims. The company is not listed in government contract databases, is not registered as a private investigative service, and only has “virtual offices” without physical addresses.

WellPoint Inc. is the largest U.S. health insurance provider in terms of commercial membership. It is the largest member of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, a federation of 39 health insurance providers.

CIGNA is one of the largest for-profit health insurance providers in the United States. According to the company’s website, CIGNA “provides health care and related benefits offered through the workplace” and key product lines “include health care products and services (medical, pharmacy, behavioral health, clinical information management, dental and vision benefits, and case and disease management); and group disability, life and accident insurance.”

Stanford Financial Group was a privately held international group of financial services companies controlled by Allen Stanford, until it was seized by United States authorities in early 2009. Headquartered in the Galleria Tower II in Uptown Houston, Texas, U.S. , it had 50 offices in several countries, mainly in the Americas, and said it managed $8.5 billion of assets for more than 30,000 clients in 136 countries on six continents.

Maiden Lane LLC is a limited liability company established by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York following the collapse of Bear Stearns. The company was incorporated on April 29, 2008 in the state of Delaware under the authority of section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act. A 2009 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York describes the company as a “special purpose vehicle” which was created for the purpose of facilitating “the merger of the Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.”

GeoEye, Inc. (GeoEye) is a provider of imagery, imagery information products and image processing services. The Company provides its products and services to the United States government, including the national security community, international customers, and North American commercial customers. The Company sells two types of products to its customers: basic imagery and imagery information products. [...]

Semiannual Report to Congress: October 1, 2008–March 31, 2009