The Mercator Corporation - Summary of Law Enforcement Action

On April 2, 2003, James H. Giffen, the Chairman of The Mercator Corporation, a merchant bank with offices in New York and the Republic of Kazakhstan, was indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges that he made a series of illegal payments to senior Kazakh officials in connection with numerous oil deals in that country. In a stunning end for the Justice Department, Giffen was pleaded guilty to only one count of failing to disclose a Swiss bank account and was sentenced to time served. The judge in the case lauded him as a "patriot" for his past work for the CIA.