In case you missed this -- an update on one of my favorite scandals -- Riggs Bank. Riggs is the investment bank where uncle Jonathan Bush is an executive. It has been fined for laundering funds for dictators like Pinochet. It also may have laundered funds for suspected terrorists. Saudi Prince Bandar and his wife have accounts with Riggs. Funds from her account may have found their way to two of the 9/11 hijackers. Anyway there is now this...

(WashPost) Riggs Bank and two members of the bank's controlling Allbritton family yesterday agreed to pay $9 million to victims of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for the bank's role in concealing and spiriting Pinochet's money out of Britain in 1999.

In return for the payment to a foundation established for victims of Pinochet's repressive 17-year rule and their survivors, a Spanish court agreed to dismiss criminal charges against current and former directors and officers of the bank, including the Allbrittons. Riggs will pay $8 million.

[...]

"There has never been any allegation that Riggs was culpable for the underlying human rights abuses of the Pinochet government," Buffone said. "But Riggs's recent plea agreement lays out in significant detail what Riggs did in assisting Pinochet in the concealment of his assets. They may hide behind their legal interpretation that they weren't properly served with the [freeze] order. But they were on notice. They chose not to honor it."

Buffone represents the families of two of Pinochet's victims: former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his assistant, Ronni Moffitt. Letelier and Moffitt were murdered by Chilean intelligence agents in a 1976 car bombing in the District.

Pinochet came to power in a swift and bloody 1973 [CIA-backed] coup that ousted democratically elected president Salvador Allende. Human rights organizations claim 3,000 people were murdered, tortured or "disappeared" during his rule.

Interestingly, Poppy Bush, Jonathan's brother, was involved in at least the cover-up of the Letelier carbombing. This was when Poppy was CIA Director (Riggs has had a long relationship with the Agency). As Robert Parry writes:

For instance, in September 1976, while the senior George Bush was CIA director, Pinochet’s assassins audaciously traveled to Washington and blew up a car carrying Chile’s former foreign minister Orlando Letelier. Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, an American co-worker riding in the car, were killed.

Though possessing information implicating Pinochet’s dictatorship in the terrorist attack, Bush’s CIA covered for Chile’s secret services by denying publicly that the Pinochet regime was responsible and pointing investigators off in false directions. Despite the CIA’s misleading statements, the FBI eventually did break the case, though Pinochet and his top assistants were never held accountable. [For details, see Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege.]

Even two decades later, when Pinochet was detained in London facing an extradition request from a Spanish prosecutor investigating the murder of Spanish citizens in Chile, the elder George Bush was still fronting for his old friend. Bush wrote a letter to British authorities urging them to ignore the Spanish extradition request. Following Bush’s intervention, Pinochet was allowed to fly back to Chile, rather than face human rights charges in Spain.

So why aren't any investigative journalists of the MSM chasing down the Riggs Bank story? Well... the answer may have something to do with the fact that what articles there are usually ignore the fact about Jonathan Bush being a Riggs exec...