Leo Wanta

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Leo Emil Wanta, born 1940, is an American businessman who claims to be the Reagan-appointed trustee of potentially trillions of dollars, result of an arbitrage scheme to sink the soviet economy. This statement has been taken at face value by conspiracy theorists since the early 1990's, with particular interest in 2006 - allegations of a coverup are rampant(and conspicuously little research was done in credible media outlets). The numbers claimed exceed the GDP of the Soviet economy at the time, and the Soviet Ruble was a non-convertible currency.

He was arrested in Switzerland in 1993 for attempting to defraud a bank of 81 million dollars; He claimed to have diplomatic immunity as the ambassador of Somalia (which, at that time, had no functioning internationally-recognized government) to Canada^[1]. He was deported to New York and then Wisconsin, on unrelated tax charges. In 1995, Wanta was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to an eight-year prison term in the State of Wisconsin.^[1] His lawyer claimed that he was delusional, and really believed to be a secret agent of international central bankers, being disappeared at the behest of powerful figures.

In his book Tragedy of Russia's Reforms (USIP, 2001), Peter Reddaway states Wanta had some dealings with the government of President Boris Yeltsin. Reddaway also states in his book that Wanta was wanted for credit-card fraud by U.S. authorities.^[2]

[edit] Sources

^ ^a ^b "'Delusional' Con Man Gets Eight-Year Term", Capital Times, November 21st, 1995.
^ Reddaway, Peter; Glinski, Dmitri (2001). Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 276. ISBN 1929223064.

[edit] Other references

Thieves' World- The Threat of the New Global Network of Organized Crime by Claire Sterling, Simon & Shuster, N.Y., N.Y., 1994. "The fact that scarecely anyone outside Russia has heard of the Great Ruble Scam may be explained partly by its seemingly unbelievable details, but partly, too, by Western reluctance to touch exquisitely sensitive political nerves." (Page 177.)
Conspiracy Encyclopedia: The Encyclopedia of Conspiracy Theories (Paperback) by Thom Burnett, copyright 2005. References to Leo Wanta: pp 160 and 173