Tag: corruption

Top FDA Officials Accepted Jobs With Moderna After Playing Key Roles In The Licensure Of COVID-19 Vaccines

A new BMJ investigation reveals a “revolving door” between FDA officials tasked with regulating COVID-19 vaccines and the companies who manufacture them.

Two high-level regulatory officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) involved in vaccine oversight accepted jobs at Moderna just months after signing off on the licensure of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to a British Medical Journal (BMJ) investigation.

The report by Peter Doshi, associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and senior editor at The BMJ, reveals a long-standing revolving door between the FDA and pharmaceutical companies whose products it regulates and raises questions about the impartiality and independence of top FDA regulators.

Dr. Doran Fink is a “physician/scientist experienced in regulation and clinical development/licensure of vaccines and related biological products” and was deeply involved with vaccine regulation at the FDA for more than 12 years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

According to the BMJ report, Dr. Fink started his FDA career as a clinical reviewer in 2010 and “worked his way up” to Deputy Director of the Division of Vaccines and Related Product Applications within the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review, where he led a team of medical officers focused on infectious diseases and related biological projects.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Fink was a prominent voice on COVID-19 vaccines and which population groups should receive them. He spoke on behalf of the FDA at numerous meetings held by the agency’s vaccine advisors who met to discuss whether to approve COVID-19 vaccines, change their composition, or authorize boosters.

Dr. Fink also presented at meetings held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices—a group of health experts that develop recommendations on how to use vaccines—as the FDA’s “principal FDA ex officio representative.”

According to the BMJ report and Dr. Fink’s LinkedIn profile, Fink also served on the senior leadership team for COVID-19 vaccine review and policy activities in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

As part of his role, he advised vaccine manufacturers on vaccine development throughout the pandemic and coordinated “expedited review of regulatory submissions,” advised U.S. government stakeholders outside the FDA on COVID-19 vaccine science and development, and contributed to FDA guidance on the development, licensure, and emergency use authorization of COVID-19 vaccines.

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Full Extent of COVID Fraud Will ‘Never Be Known With Certainty’

A couple claiming to run a farm that employed dozens of people used fake employee records to get more than $1 million in COVID-19 relief payments when they actually employed no one on a farm that did not exist.

A social media influencer created fake documents to score more than $400,000 in COVID-19 funds meant to help small businesses, then used the money to buy cryptocurrency and gifts for his girlfriend.

A state employee whose job was to stop unemployment benefits fraud helped other fraudsters navigate around fraud prevention systems so they could steal more than $1 million, including federal tax dollars made available to states during the pandemic.

Only now, nearly four years after the federal government approved an unprecedented amount of emergency spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, are investigators getting a full picture of all the ways that schemers and thieves raided programs. Congress approved about $4.6 trillion in COVID-19 emergency spending, and so much of it was stolen that auditors now say we’ll likely never have a full accounting of it all.

“When the federal government provides emergency assistance, the risk of payment errors—including those attributable to fraud—may increase because the need to provide this assistance quickly can lead agencies to relax or forego effective safeguards,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explained in a new report summing up efforts to recoup stolen funds. “Because not all fraud will be identified, investigated, and adjudicated through judicial or other systems, the full extent of fraud associated with the COVID-19 relief funds will never be known with certainty.”

As Reason has previously reported, auditors believe that about $200 billion was fraudulently disbursed from two programs run by the Small Business Administration (SBA) during the pandemic. That’s about one-sixth of all spending run through the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. Additionally, the GAO believes that between $100 billion and $135 billion in federal unemployment funds—provided to states on a temporary basis during the pandemic—were lost to fraud.

One former U.S. attorney has called it “the biggest fraud in a generation.”

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‘Wife beater Alaska mayor’s domestic abuser sons’ girlfriends are BOTH found dead at his home two years apart’ – with local cops accused of slow-walking probes into their deaths

A wife beater Alaska mayor’s two abusive sons each dated a woman who turned up dead at the lawmaker’s home two years apart – but no-one has ever been charged.

Jennifer Kirk and Sue Sue Norton were found dead with signs of strangulation and beating in 2018 and 2020 in the Alaskan town, Kotzebue. 

Both women were dating the ex-mayor Clement Richards’s sons at the time, with cops accused by ProPublica of inaction following the two women’s deaths.

Richards was previously convicted of beating his wife Annette, while his two sons Anthony and Amos also have a history of domestic violence.  Anthony had been convicted of beating Kirk prior to her death in May 2018, which cops claimed was a suicide. 

Amos admitted kicking Norton in the stomach while she was six months pregnant before she was killed in March 2020.

Despite those convictions – and a long track record of abuse allegations from multiple other women – neither of the sons have been charged in their deaths.

Holes in the police investigations and the judicial process have raised serious questions over a potential cover-up, after ProPublica and the Anchorage Daily News jointly reported the story.

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Former Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby found guilty on 2 counts of perjury

Former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has been convicted on two counts of perjury by a federal jury.

The federal jury reached the verdict Thursday, finding Mosby guilty of perjury after she falsely claimed financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to withdraw money from the city’s retirement fund, prosecutors announced.

“We respect the jury’s verdict and remain steadfastly committed to our mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, protect the civil rights of all Americans, and safeguard public property,” U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron said.

Mosby faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each of the two perjury counts. U.S. District Judge Lydia K. Griggsby hasn’t scheduled a sentencing hearing.

Mosby initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, which allege that the former prosecutor falsely claimed financial hardship during the pandemic in order to withdraw $90,000 from her city retirement accounts. She then used those funds for down payments on two vacation properties in Florida, prosecutors said.

Mosby lost a re-election bid in July 2022 to defense attorney Ivan Bates.

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Texas Journalist’s Home Repeatedly Visited by ‘Corrupt’ FBI for Exposing Possible Hamas Training Camp Near US-Mexico Border – FBI Demands In-Person Meeting to Disclose ‘Sources’ 

The sanctity of a free press and the protection of journalistic sources have come under direct fire in the Lone Star State, according to Sarah Fields, Director of Advocacy for the Texas Freedom Coalition and a reporter for The Publica, after exposing the possible existence of a Hamas training camp near the US-Mexico border.

Fields recently made public a harrowing account of ‘corrupt’ FBI agents arriving unannounced at her doorstep—not once, but twice—in a brazen attempt to intimidate and extract information about her confidential sources.

It began on October 17th when, according to Fields, FBI agents appeared at her doorstep while she was away. She recounts that the agents later contacted her, insisting on a private meeting at their local office to discuss her reporting—particularly stories related to war and the border. Fields, true to the ethos of journalistic integrity, refused.

“It became harassment after I didn’t show up to their private meeting,” said Fields.

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Congress Sneaks In Stealth $34,000 Pay Raise; Gaetz, AOC Among More Than 200 Lawmakers To Benefit

As House Democrats were set to hand power over to the Republicans following their midterm loss, they slipped in a provision into the House’s internal rules under the guise of aiding their less affluent members; a $34,000 allowance to ostensibly help with living expenses in Washington D.C.

A deep dive into the records by the Washington Free Beacon reveals that over 200 lawmakers, including the vociferous Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), have dipped into this taxpayer-funded pot, a sumptuous feast on the nation’s dime.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has previously lamented the costliness of D.C. living on a Congressperson’s salary, now enjoys taxpayer support for accommodations in a luxury building replete with amenities that seem more Silicon Valley than Capitol Hill.

Bipartisan handout

So far, 113 Democrats and 104 Republicans, including millionaire members like Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), have partaken in the program, drawing $1.4 million from taxpayers during the first half of 2023 alone.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a critic of past budgetary excesses (whose wife says she’s got a ‘chef husband’), claimed the largest share of the fund.

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NYC mayor being investigated for potentially illegal campaign cash

Federal authorities are investigating whether New York City Mayor Eric Adams received illegal campaign contributions from Turkey, reportedThe New York Times on Thursday.

This report comes after a raid was executed at the home of Brianna Suggs, a campaign consultant and prominent fundraiser for the mayor.

“Investigators also sought to learn more about the potential involvement of a Brooklyn construction company with ties to Turkey, as well as a small university in Washington, D.C., that also has ties to the country and to Mr. Adams,” reported William K. Rashbaum, Dana Rubinstein and Jeffery C. Mays. “According to the search warrant, investigators were also focused on whether the mayor’s campaign kicked back benefits to the construction company’s officials and employees, and to Turkish officials.”

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Democrats Say They’re Fighting Inequality. But Many of Their Policies Favor the Rich.

In the grand ballroom of American politics, Democrats have long waltzed to the melody of progressivism while ridiculing Republicans’ preference for outdated tax cut tunes. Ironically, they don’t want to pay for their style of big government with higher taxes on ordinary Americans, which their expansionary ambitions would require. Instead, they loudly proclaim that they want to tax the rich. It remains to be seen how true this is.

Indeed, while Democrats profess their devotion to social justice and fight against income inequality, they often push for policies that favor the rich. Take their nonstop battle over the last five years to ease the tax burden of their high-income constituents.

The State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap, part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), placed a $10,000 limit on the amount of state and local taxes that can be deducted from federal taxable income. This move predominantly affected high earners in high-tax states like New York, California, and many others that are Democratic strongholds.

That’s a tax hike on the rich. This shouldn’t bother Democrats, who are usually happy to demonstrate their egalitarian chops by clamoring for that very thing. Yet this time, by demanding repeal of the SALT cap, they are on the front lines of a battle to restore tax breaks for the rich. As it turns out, when affluent Californians and Northeasterners felt the pinch, Democrats were ready to cha-cha for tax relief.

Contrast this with the refusal by moderate New York Republicans to vote for Jim Jordan (R–Ohio) for House speaker in exchange for doubling the deduction cap to $20,000 for individuals and $40,000 for married couples. Now, this might mean these guys really didn’t want Jordan as speaker, but they wouldn’t roll over even in exchange for tax cuts for their own constituencies.

Would New York Democrats be so principled? Back in 2021, 17 of 19 members of this delegation threatened to block a Democrat-sponsored infrastructure bill if the SALT deduction cap wasn’t entirely repealed. I would have been OK with that crony bill failing; I highlight this incident only to reveal some Democrats’ commitment to tax breaks for rich blue-state voters.

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NJ Gov. Murphy used thousands in taxpayer funds to party at Taylor Swift concert, stadium events: report

Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is asking the state Democratic Party to reimburse taxpayers after he used $12,000 in state funds at a Taylor Swift concert and other stadium events.

Murphy’s expenditures, first reported by Politico, were all for food and drinks at MetLife Stadium. When confronted with the spending, Murphy’s office reportedly said it was asking the state Democratic Party to pay back the state.

Murphy’s office says it had always expected the state party to cover the costs, but noticed it had failed to do so. The governor’s office then dipped into a $95,000 personal expense account set up for the office. That account is set up to pay for “Official Receptions, Official Residence, and Other Official Expenses,” and cannot be used for “personal purposes,” according to Politico.

“Once it was clear that there were outstanding bills that had not been paid, the state stepped up to meet this responsibility,” Murphy spokeswoman Jennifer Sciortino told the outlet in a statement. “We are pursuing reimbursement from the state party for costs incurred at MetLife Stadium.”

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