Tag: corruption

US Postal workers arrested in $1.3 million fraud and identity theft scheme, authorities say

Three US Postal employees are among four people arrested in connection with a $1.3 million fraud and identity theft scheme allegedly carried out in New York and New Jersey since 2018, according to the Department of Justice.

A further five people facing changes in connection with the case remain at large, it said.

The individuals are accused of stealing credit cards from the mail and using them to buy merchandise at a variety of stores, including high-end retailers in New York and New Jersey, authorities said.

They are then said to have sold some of the merchandise on the website LuxurySnob.com, according to a statement from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

US postal workers Nathanael Foucault, Johnathan Persaud, Fabiola Mompoint, and civilian Devon Richards were arrested on Thursday, according to the statement.

Officials said five other people face charges, including Conspiracy to Commit Access Device Fraud, Access Device Fraud, and Aggravated Identity Theft charges, and each face lengthy prison sentences if found guilty.

“The defendants took advantage of the public trust we place in US Postal Service employees for their own financial gain,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Thanks to the diligence of USPIS (the Postal Inspection Service), the NYPD, and USPS-OIG (the Office of the Inspector General), the defendants will now be held accountable for their brazen criminal conduct.”

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Dem Mayor Who Blew $30K on First-Class Flights Found Living in Luxury Taxpayer-Funded Apartment

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, a Democrat, admitted to living in a $3000-a-month luxury apartment rent-free just weeks after being caught blowing $30,000 on first-class fights, all funded by the taxpayer.

Last month, Cantrell was caught spending city funds on first class air travel, saying economy class was ‘unsafe’ for black women.

Cantrell’s opulent apartment is located in the city’s Upper Pontalba building on Jackson Square in the famous district.

The apartment, which has a market rate of $2,991 per month, is owned by the city and managed by the French Market Corp.

A spokesperson for Cantrell said the Mayor had done nothing wrong, arguing that everything is legal according to the city’s terms with French Market Corp.

But despite Cantrell’s spokesperson’s claims, the city’s Metropolitan Crime Commission sent a report asking for an investigation into the Mayor’s use of the apartment.

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Investigator who revealed Jimmy Savile’s sick crimes says he is working with police on child sex case against ‘very significant’ person who is ‘untouchable’ and may only be named when he dies

Mark Williams-Thomas, the former police detective-turned-TV journalist who exposed Savile, claimed that the other individual has so far evaded justice because he is ‘untouchable’.

Williams-Thomas was the leading investigator on the ITV Exposure documentary, The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, which revealed how one of Britain’s most loved entertainers systematically and disturbingly preyed upon young and vulnerable girls.

The award-winning film, broadcast just over a decade ago on 3 October 2012 – a year after Savile’s death – prompted hundreds of other unheard victims to come forward with their experiences. 

In the documentary,  five women stated that they had been sexually abused by Savile as teenagers. This exposure of Savile as a paedophile led to extensive media coverage, including 41 days on the front pages.

The film led to the Met Police’s Operation Yewtree investigation, which ultimately resulted in sexual abuse convictions for multiple celebrity personalities.  

By October 2015, 19 people had been arrested by Operation Yewtree; seven of those arrests led to convictions.

However Williams-Thomas, a child protection expert has expressed his frustration that his pursuit of one high-profile target has so far been thwarted.

‘There are still people out there who are untouchable,’ the former Surrey Police and family liaison officer told i.

‘There is one very significant person who I’ve done everything to try and get prosecuted because he is clearly a child sex offender.’

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Navy lied about fuel-laced water on US aircraft carrier

A US Navy whistleblower has reportedly accused his superiors on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier of lying to crew members about the severity of a fuel leak into their drinking water and denying them medical treatment when they were sickened by the contaminated fluid.

“We were exposed to an unhealthy amount of JP-5,” a sailor on the carrier told Business Insider, referring to a common type of kerosene-based jet fuel. The media outlet, which posted its article on Saturday, said it didn’t identify the sailor out of concern that he might face retribution from the Navy for speaking out.

The incident occurred in mid-September, when members of the nearly 3,000-person crew noticed discoloration and a foul smell in the water that they use for drinking and showering. After initially advising the crew to drink only bottled water, the ship’s commanding officer and executive officer later announced that the Nimitz’s normal water supply was safe to use.

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Major Scientific Publisher Retracting Over 500 Papers

One of the world’s largest open-access journal publishers is retracting over 500 papers, based on the discovery of unethical actions.

London-based Hindawi, which publishes over 200 peer-reviewed journals across multiple disciplines, says its research team in June identified “irregularities” in the peer review process in some of the journals.

“All Hindawi journals employ a series of substantial integrity checks before articles are accepted for publication. Following thorough investigation, we identified that these irregularities in the peer review process were the result of suspicious and unethical activities. Since identifying this unethical activity and breach of our processes, we began proactively adding further checks and improving our processes and continue to do so,” Liz Ferguson, a senior vice president for John Wiley & Sons, Hindawi’s U.S.-based parent company, said in a statement on Sept. 28.

As a result of the investigation, 511 papers will be retracted.

The papers were all published since August 2020.

Sixteen journals published the papers that are being retracted.

Some of the authors and editors who contributed to the articles may have been “unwitting participants” in the unethical scheme, according to Ferguson. She said that the scheme involved “manipulation of the peer review process and the infrastructure that supports it.”

Richard Bennett, vice president of researcher and publishing services for Hindawi, told the Retraction Watch blog that the review uncovered “coordinated peer review rings,” which featured reviewers and editors coordinating to get papers through peer review.

Neither Ferguson nor Bennett identified any of the suspects.

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Pfizer CEO pulls out of testifying to EU Parliament COVID panel

Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla has pulled out of an appointment to testify before the European Parliament’s special committee on COVID-19, at which he was expected to face tough questions on how secretive vaccine deals were struck.

The decision follows an audit report into the EU’s vaccine procurement strategy published earlier in the month that raised new questions about contact between Bourla and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that preceded a multibillion-euro vaccine contract.

The head of the U.S. pharmaceutical giant, the largest supplier of COVID-19 vaccines to the EU, was scheduled to appear before the panel on October 10. The committee is meeting with key officials involved in the EU’s vaccine procurement process to draw lessons on how to respond to future pandemics. Other pharmaceutical executives have addressed the committee, including the CEO of Moderna and senior officials from AstraZeneca and Sanofi.

The committee’s chair, Belgian MEP Kathleen Van Brempt, told POLITICO she “deeply regrets” the decision taken by Pfizer.

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The House fails to pass bill barring lawmakers from stock trading

Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia excoriated her party leadership including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer for delaying a potential vote this week meant to ban lawmakers from holding and trading in stocks. Spanberger even called for new leadership in the Democrat party.

Spanberger had partnered with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) to introduce the Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust in Congress Act on Jan. 15, 2021. The legislation had 71 co-sponsors, ranging from Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

The legislation would have required lawmakers and immediate family members to place stocks in a blind trust. 

Business Insider magazine’s Conflicted Congress investigation in December 2021 revealed dozens of STOCK Act violations, and numerous potential conflicts of interests driven by lawmakers’ stock holdings, as well as paltry enforcement of anti-insider trading rules. Forty-nine members of Congress and 182 senior congressional staffers violated laws aimed at preventing insider trading.

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Anthony Fauci’s Net Worth Increased Over 70% to $12.7M Since The COVID Pandemic, Report Says.

Newly obtained financial documents reveal the controversial and oft-disproved Anthony Fauci’s net worth has exceeded $12.5 million, surging over $5.1 million amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Obtained by the government watchdog group Open The Books, the records detail how America’s most powerful public health official amassed his net worth through investments, gifts, and his taxpayer-funded salary. Fauci’s wife, Christine Grady, is also a National Institutes of Health (NIH) employee, curiously serving as the Chief at the NIH Clinical Center’s Department of Bioethics.

The Fauci household disclosed that their total net worth increased from roughly $7.6 million on January 1st, 2019 to over $12.6 million by December 31, 2021. The numbers represent a nearly 70 percent increase.

Documents also reveal that Fauci continues to be the top-paid federal employee, earning a salary of $456,000 in 2021 and $480,000 in 2022.

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BLM Activist Got Rich on Fat Salary While Ignoring Project for Which He Raised Money

Race hoaxer Shaun King is now famous for more than pushing lies on Twitter about whites who supposedly attacked or killed blacks, then deleting the tweets.

Now his name is in the news for looting his Grassroots Law Project of hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages.

A report on the financial shenanigans in The Daily Beast is the third major black eye for an outfit connected to the bigger ongoing hoax called Black Lives Matter. In early August, King landed in hot water for purchasing an expensive dog with Grassroots Law funds. In late August, a lawsuit accused a top BLM leader of purloining $10 million from the BLM Global Network.

The racial grievance business is booming.

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