Tag: corruption

Top prosecutor in Payne and Logan counties arrested after child pornography investigation

The first assistant district attorney of Payne and Logan counties was arrested Monday after his apartment was searched as a result of a child pornography investigation.

Kevin Etherington, 53, was being held Tuesday in the Payne County jail on a child pornography complaint and a computer crimes complaint. His bail was set at $500,000.

His boss, District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas, announced after his arrest that he had been fired.

“I cannot express how dismayed and disappointed I am about this development,” she said Monday night.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation disclosed the arrest in a news release. The OSBI said agents from its Internet Crimes Against Children unit conducted the search of his Stillwater residence.

In requesting the search, an OSBI agent reported about 153 videos and photos depicting child sexual exploitation were identified within his Google account.

Google notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about “suspected sexual abuse material” linked to Etherington on July 26, the agent reported. The center then forwarded 14 cybertips to the OSBI on Sept. 1, according to the news release.

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‘Bye-bye, Kiev, Hello Cote d’Azur’ – How Ukraine’s Elites Are Profiting from Western Aid

Since the beginning of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, the US, EU, and their allies have provided Kiev with $126 billion worth of aid, a number almost equal to the country’s entire GDP. Moreover, millions of Ukrainians have found refuge in the EU, where they were given housing, food, work permits, and emotional support. The scope is huge, even by Western standards. Considering that the bloc has been funding Kiev while coping with an economic and energy crisis of its own, the assistance is perhaps especially notable. 

Kiev bases its endless funding requests on the collapse of its economy, due to the war, and its need to “resist Russian aggression.” But is the aid reaching its intended destination?

The Monaco Battalion

While Ukraine has undergone a general mobilization affecting all men under the age of 60, many former and current high-ranking officials, politicians, businessmen, and oligarchs have moved to safety abroad – mainly to the EU.

The mass flight of Ukrainian elites started even prior to the armed conflict. On February 14, 2022, 37 deputies from the Ukrainian president’s parliamentary faction (Servant of the People) suddenly went missing. Had MPs not been banned from leaving the country the very next day, others would have definitely joined them. Meanwhile, former officials and oligarchs enjoyed more freedom to move around. According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, 20 business jets took off from Kiev’s Boryspol airport on the 14th as well.

Tycoons were at the front of the line. Entrepreneur and MP Vadim Novinsky, businessmen Vasily Khmelnitsky and Vadim Stolar, Vadim Nesterenko, and Andrey Stavnitzer all left the country on charter flights. Millionaire politician Igor Abramovich booked a private flight to Austria for 50 people – taking relatives, business partners, and fellow party members aboard. Oligarchs flew from Kiev to Nice, Munich, Vienna,  Cyprus, and other EU destinations. Another group of businessmen took off from Odessa on private planes. The owner of Vostok Bank departed for Israel, while the head of the Transship group flew to Limassol. An ex-governor of the Odessa region, Stalkanat’s Vladimir Nemirovsky, also left the country.

In the summer and early fall of 2022, Ukrainska Pravda prepared several investigative documentaries about fit-for-service Ukrainian billionaires and officials spotted vacationing on the Côte d’Azur during the war. A movie with the ironic title ‘The Monaco Battalion’ shows Ukrainian oligarchs resting at their villas, mansions, and on yachts. In the first part, we see businessman Konstantin Zhevago, who is included on Interpol’s wanted list, relaxing on his private yacht worth $70 million. The yacht graces the shoreline of the Côte d’Azur as Zhevago’s family disembarks. Kharkov entrepreneur Alexander Yaroslavsky, who promised to sell his yacht and transfer the funds towards the restoration of Kharkov, can be seen sailing alongside.

Ukrainska Pravda journalists also got a glimpse of the Surkis brothers in France, who are currently renting apartments worth €2 million per year. Meanwhile, a $300,000 Bentley belonging to Ukrainian businessman Vadim Ermolaev was spotted near the casino in Monaco, and Eduard Kohan, the co-founder of Euroenergotrade, was seen at one of Monte Carlo’s chic hotels.

A whole colony of Ukrainian oligarchs has apparently taken up residence in the elite French commune of Cap-Ferrat. Land developer Vadim Solar, oligarchs Dmitry Firtash, Vitaly Khomutynnik, and Sergey Lovochkin are among those enjoying high life in the middle of the war. The Cap-Ferrat villa once belonging to King Leopold II of Belgium was bought by the richest Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. His neighbors are Alexander Davtyan, president of the Investment Group DAD LLC, and Vladislav Gelzin, a former deputy of the Donetsk Regional Council.

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Michigan Judge In Hot Water After Allegedly Making False Assault Claim

A Michigan judge is in hot water after her alleged misconduct in a bike shop.

The Judicial Tenure Commission filed a public complaint against Wayne County Judge Demetria Brue after an incident that began when she rented bikes at Mackinac Island Bike Shop in August 2019, The Detroit Free Press reported.

When Brue and her colleague returned the bicycles, she told employees there was an issue with the bike and they should not have to pay full price, the complaint states. Brue also spoke to the owner of the shop, but they were unable to come to an agreement. Brue told the owner, Ira Green, multiple times that she was a judge, the complaint states.

Brue did not respond to a request for comment.

At some point during the 20-minute discussion, Brue allegedly reached over the cash register, took the receipt out of Green’s hands, and ripped it.

After ripping the receipt, she then allegedly falsely claimed that the store owner assaulted her and appeared to play every card she had.

“You assaulted me,” she said. “Did you just assault me? You took my receipt and tore it up. I want the police. Now we need the police. I am going to call them. You snatched my receipt and threw it away and grabbed my hand and you hurt me. You touched my hand with force and violence. I am a female. I am a judge. I am here for a conference and you … I am an African American female. That was racist, and it was disrespectful and it was violent.”

When police arrived she claimed to them that she was assaulted until the officers reviewed the security footage.

She admitted that she was not assaulted and the officers assisted in reaching an agreement where the judge did not have to pay for the bike rental.

She has been accused of breaking 10 rules, including making a false statement to a police officer.

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Howls Of Outrage After New York Times Confirms SBF To Speak Alongside Zelenskyy, Yellen

As we discussed last night, Sam Bankman-Fried has now demonstrated that he is both a pathological liar and a sociopath, the kind who in “explaining” to his employees how he stole billions (over $4 billion according to new FTX CEO John J. Ray) from the now bankrupt FTX, an act which left it insolvent and without liquidity, called it “loans” which were “generally” not used for “large amounts of personal consumption” (just “small amounts” used for such trivial items as $40 million penthouses and private jets).

And the only reason we don’t officially call him a criminal just yet, is because he has not yet confirmed he used client money from his exchange to fund his personal hedge fund, an act which would cost any other individual decades in jail… but not prominent democrats like SBF or Jon Corzine, of course. Plus it’s the US legal system’s job to do that, not ours. Although we are growing increasingly skeptical this prominent Democratic donor will ever see the inside of a courtroom.

It’s not just us: with much of the entire world demanding to know how this corpulent 30-year-old still has not been thrown in prison, or at least charged with a variety of crimes, the NYT just confirmed to the entire world what a farce the one-time paper of record has become, and how it is willing to whore itself out for clicks – not to mention prominent Democrat donors – because moments after SBF tweeted that he will be speaking with Andrew Ross-Sorkin moderated NYT “summit” on Nov 30…

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REVEALED: FTX crypto bro SHOWERED media orgs Vox, ProPublica, Intercept, Semafor and more with investment money

In addition to being a major donor to the Democrat Party during the 2021-22 election season, disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was a major donor to several liberal media outlets, including ProPublica, Vox, The Intercept, The Law and Justice Journalism Project, and the recently launched Semafor, leading to speculation about their ability to objectively report on FTX.

“They all took it,” Human Events Daily’s Jack Posobiec noted on Twitter, “and none of them broke the story.”

As Semafor launched in October, Reuters reported that “The platform said it has so far raised $25 million from investors including David Bradley, owner of The Atlantic magazine; Jessica Lessin, founder of technology website Information; and cryptocurrency exchange FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.”

That was only a few short weeks before FTX collapsed. Customers made a run on the exchange to withdraw their deposits, only to find that the company did not actually have it. FTX is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the state of Delaware, and Semafor is out a whole bunch of money.After Semafor published an article about disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s relationship with Elon Musk, indicating that despite Musk’s claim that his “bullshit meter was redlining,” Musk pointed out that their reporting was perhaps not entirely on the up-and-up where FTX was concerned.

“Semafor is owned by SBF,” Musk wrote to Semafor on Twitter. “This is a massive conflict of interest in your reporting. Journalistic integrity is [trash].”

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DEA’s most corrupt agent: Parties, sex amid ‘unwinnable war’

José Irizarry accepts that he’s known as the most corrupt agent in U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration history, admitting he “became another man” in conspiring with Colombian cartels to build a lavish lifestyle of expensive sports cars, Tiffany jewels and paramours around the world.

But as he used his final hours of freedom to tell his story to The Associated Press, Irizarry says he won’t go down for this alone, accusing some long-trusted DEA colleagues of joining him in skimming millions of dollars from drug money laundering stings to fund a decade’s worth of luxury overseas travel, fine dining, top seats at sporting events and frat house-style debauchery.

The way Irizarry tells it, dozens of other federal agents, prosecutors, informants and in some cases cartel smugglers themselves were all in on the three-continent joyride known as “Team America” that chose cities for money laundering pick-ups mostly for party purposes or to coincide with Real Madrid soccer or Rafael Nadal tennis matches. That included stops along the way in VIP rooms of Caribbean strip joints, Amsterdam’s red-light district and aboard a Colombian yacht that launched with plenty of booze and more than a dozen prostitutes.

“We had free access to do whatever we wanted,” the 48-year-old Irizarry told the AP in a series of interviews before beginning a 12-year federal prison sentence. “We would generate money pick-ups in places we wanted to go. And once we got there it was about drinking and girls.”

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AG Merrick Garland’s Son-In-Law Revealed as Prolific Democrat Donor, Funds PAC Behind ‘The Squad’

Yesterday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of Special Counsel ‘Jack Smith’ to oversee the DOJ investigation into Former President Donald Trump.

Today, Launch Liberty provides proof that Garland’s Son-in-Law Xan Tanner is a prolific Democrat donor who has donated to many prominent Democrats in the last election cycle.

This extensive list includes Cori Bush, who Tanner donated the Federal limit of $2,900 to during the 2022 Election cycle. Bush is a radical Democrat, and member of the anti-American leftist group in Congress called the ‘Squad’.

‘The Squad’, the most radical element of the Democrat Party, is funded by a group called ‘Brand New Congress’. The group describes themselves on their website as following…

“BRAND NEW CONGRESS IS AN AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE WITH THE MISSION TO ELECT HUNDREDS OF NEW PROGRESSIVE CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES IN LINE WITH THE CAMPAIGN’S POLITICAL PLATFORM”

‘Brand New Congress’ spent over $560k in this last election cycle propping up candidates like Alexadria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, and newly ‘elected’ Uncle Fester lookalike John Fetterman.

Xan Tanner, the Son-in-Law of our sitting Attorney General, has donated a total of over $1k to this organization.

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Now CBS FINALLY wakes up and admits Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop IS REAL, 20 months after DailyMail.com authenticated its contents and broke dozens of stories about his shady dealings – so why did it take them so long?

CBS has finally admitted Hunter Biden‘s laptop is real – 20 months after DailyMail.com authenticated its contents with top experts.

When files from the laptop were published before the 2020 presidential election, 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl insisted in an interview with Donald Trump that the contents couldn’t be verified.

The network was among a wide range of left-leaning outlets such as the New York Times and MSNBC who doubted the authenticity as the Biden administration insisted it was Russian disinformation.

But on Monday, two weeks after the midterms, CBS This Morning changed their tune.

The network ran a segment with with former Secret Service member and computer forensics expert Mark Lanterman saying he and his son Sean had independently verified the laptop and said there was no evidence of external tampering.

The story referenced a voicemail from Joe Biden to his son saying he ‘needed to get help’ for his ongoing drug addiction – and pinned the timing of the report to Republicans threatening to launch an investigation into the president’s complicity in Hunter’s foreign business deals.

DailyMail.com authenticated the laptop in March 2021, and was the first – and only – news organization to publicly verify its contents using expert analysis. 

The scandal was widely dismissed by multiple outlets, social media companies made sure stories were censored and whistleblowers claim FBI agents went out of their way to obstruct investigations. 

DailyMail.com columnist Meghan McCain has raised fresh questions over why it has taken so long for these outlets to come around.

‘Anyone with five braincells has known Hunter Biden’s laptop is real,’ McCain said.

‘I’m extremely confused why CBS is taking a victory lap or taking any kind of credit on this today – years late?’

‘Yes’, Lanterman said when asked if he believed what he saw on the laptop that was given to the FBI under subpoena was real and that it belonged to the president’s scandal-plagued son.

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While Crypto Bro Scammed Clients, Reporters Scammed Readers

Today, you probably know who Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX are, and the details of why he and his company are front-page news are emerging at an amazing pace. Here’s the short version: Bankman-Fried—a boyish-looking cryptocurrency baron known commonly as SBF—announced that his lauded cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, had lost at least $1 billion in client funds, sending the crypto market into a tailspin (Fox Business, 11/16/22). The company, once the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange (AP, 11/16/22), has filed for bankruptcy. Lest one think this is a debacle that only affects crypto bros, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns that “the sector’s links to the broader financial system could cause wider stability issues” (New York Times, 11/17/22).

How could this happen? How could no one have seen this coming? These are the questions many people are asking. One problem is that in the months leading up to Bankman-Fried’s transition from financial genius to possible financial criminal (Yahoo Finance, 11/14/22), he received little scrutiny in the media. On the contrary, he was celebrated.

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