Tag: cover ups

A mother reported her son missing in March. Police kept the truth from her for months.

Seven months of searching for her lost son brought Bettersten Wade to a dirt road leading into the woods, past an empty horse stable and a scrapyard.

The last time she’d seen her middle child, Dexter Wade, 37, was on the night of March 5, as he left home with a friend. She reported him missing, and Jackson police told her they’d been unable to find him, she said. 

It wasn’t until 172 excruciating days after his disappearance that Bettersten learned the truth: Dexter had been killed less than an hour after he’d left home, struck by a Jackson police car as he crossed a nearby interstate highway. Police had known Dexter’s name, and hers, but failed to contact her, instead letting his body go unclaimed for months in the county morgue. 

Now it was early October, and Bettersten had finally been told where she could find her son. 

She pulled up to the gates of the Hinds County penal farm, her sister in the passenger seat. A sheriff’s deputy and two jumpsuited inmates in a pickup told her to follow them. 

They bounced down the road and curved into the woods, crawling past clearings where rows of small signs jutted from the earth, each marked with a number.

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Whistleblower: The World Bank Helped Cover Up Child Sex Abuse at a Chain of For-Profit Schools It Funded

FOR SHANNON MAY and her husband Jay Kimmelman, the conference call scheduled with the World Bank on September 12, 2020, was make or break. It had been just over 10 years since the Harvard graduates had launched Bridge International Academies, a chain of for-profit schools that had exploded in Africa and South Asia. With the backing of Silicon Valley’s elite and the support of international financial institutions like the World Bank, the founders were now in negotiations to raise fresh capital that would allow them to move into several new countries. 

Rapid expansion was essential to the company’s business model. Bridge had figured out a way to slash the biggest cost drivers of a school budget — teachers’ salaries and traditional school houses — but the business was a low-margin enterprise that couldn’t slow down. The company was aiming for 10 million pupils, and it wasn’t as unreachable as it sounded: Bridge had already taught more than 1 million kids, backed by the for-profit investment arms of some of the world’s most famous philanthropists, including Bill Gates and eBay and Intercept founder Pierre Omidyar. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative provided Bridge with $10 million in seed funding; its previous round of financing, the so-called Series E, which closed in 2017.

Bridge was now raising its next round, Series F.  May and Kimmelman had a lot to lose: The couple had relocated from Cambridge to Kenya, and had done well enough to helicopter to their vacation home on the coast.

Just days before the call, in early September, May and Kimmelman had gotten bad news. In 2016, there had been a dozen or more cases of serial sexual assault at a Bridge school in Kenya. Several years later, at another Bridge location, a child on school grounds had been fatally electrocuted by a dangling live wire, while another had been badly injured. May and Kimmelman were already aware of the tragedies. Indeed, the company had internally documented many more cases of sexual abuse, but they had not been reported to the World Bank and stayed out of the local press. Now, a World Bank investigation threatened to bring them to light. 

In February 2020, an internal World Bank entity that independently reviews bank projects, called the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, had sent an investigative team, led by veteran investigator Daniel Adler, to Nairobi to look into complaints filed by a local human rights organization about workers’ rights and health and safety issues at Bridge schools. The CAO team, while in Nairobi, learned of additional allegations from parents and community members, namely the serial assaults and the electrocution. Adler quickly filed a report recommending a deeper look and asked Bridge for more information.

Bridge spent several months gumming up the process, successfully negotiating a nondisclosure agreement with the World Bank that would make it difficult to publish in full any report that might be completed. The company also pressured the head of the CAO, Osvaldo Gratacós, to ease off. Gratacós was pushed out by the World Bank, but the effort ultimately backfired; before his tenure expired, he formally launched an investigation — known internally as a CAO compliance process — into the sex abuse allegations at Bridge in September 2020. May and Kimmelman were now meeting with the World Bank to discuss how to respond.

With the company actively soliciting Series F financing and close to securing a deal to expand in Rwanda, the timing couldn’t have been worse. So the group — which included William Sonneborn, the World Bank official who oversaw the investment in Bridge, and another World Bank staff member, Shannon Atkeson — hatched a plan to keep the allegations hidden. 

With Gratacós already on his way out, the next step was to “neutralize Adler,” the CAO’s lead investigator. Bridge would file a complaint with a World Bank ethics office accusing Adler of violating CAO procedures and of impersonating a Bridge employee. It was right out of the Bridge playbook: The company had previously done the same to a Canadian graduate student writing a report on its schools in Uganda, going so far as to craft a bogus “Wanted” poster and place it in local newspapers. (A subsequent complaint Bridge filed with his university was dismissed.)

Next, Bridge would publish a consultant report favorably comparing its own record on student safety to that of Kenyan public schools — something to point to if the news leaked. The main objective, though, was to keep it quiet for as long as possible. The revelations would “spook investors” and undermine Bridge’s expansion plans in Rwanda. “Time matters,” as one person on the call put it. “Need to delay until Series F.”

There was only one problem: Someone on the call was taking notes.

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Hide-and-Seek: Jeffrey Epstein Victim Virginia Giuffre Fighting Jane Doe’s Objection to Unsealing of Records

Jeffrey Epstein’s loudest victim Virginia Giuffre is battling a woman associated with a sex trafficking case who is fighting tooth and nail to remain anonymous, RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal.

Giuffre, who famously accused Prince Andrew of sexually molesting her as a teenager, filed court documents in Manhattan federal court seeking to unseal the name of the woman labeled as Jane Doe #133.

“Doe 133’s objections to unsealing are the same as those the Court has already rejected numerous times: that unsealing certain documents might be embarrassing, would expose nonparties to media attention, and could result in some unfortunate association between the non-parties and Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell,” Guffre’s renowned attorney Sigrid S. McCawley wrote in a legal brief.

“But as the Court has previously recognized, such generalized concerns about annoyance or embarrassment are insufficient to overcome the presumption of public access to judicial documents in a case of great public interest like this one.”

Jane Doe #133 is among hundreds of anonymous characters implicated or simply named in a now-settled 2015 defamation lawsuit Guffre filed against Epstein’s alleged pimp Maxwell — who was convicted of sex trafficking and is 20 years in federal prison – for publicly calling her a liar.

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‘You just broke my neck’ — Man accuses jailer of assault, FBI investigating

When Jeff Fry walked into the Lorain County jail on May 12, he was facing a misdemeanor bench warrant. He had no idea he’d leave the facility on a stretcher with permanent injuries.

“My head snapped back and that was it,” said Fry as he sat with his left arm in a sling, outside a friend’s home.

Fry said he spent two weeks in the hospital and another four months in a nursing facility recovering from what happened inside the jail that day.

His lawyer said Fry’s injuries included a broken neck and permanent spinal cord damage.

Now the FBI is investigating, and Fry’s lawyer is preparing a lawsuit, but as far as News 5 investigators could tell, no discipline was ever meted out, and the officer responsible is still on the job.

The 58-year-old Fry said he doesn’t remember much of the incident with a corrections officer that led to the injuries, but said he didn’t deserve what happened that day.

The emotions it brings up were evidenced by the tears that welled up in his eyes when asked about it.

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U.S. Attorney declines to name those involved in decision not to prosecute Hunter Biden

Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C. who was a key figure in Jan. 6 prosecutions and refused to bring tax charges against Hunter Biden, backed out of naming those involved in declining to prosecute the first son, according to his transcribed interview with lawmakers.

“I’m already dealing with enough threats and harassment of my assistant United States attorneys,” Graves said in the official transcript obtained by Just the News as he explained why their names were not revealed. 

He told lawmakers during the interview how his agency decided to not partner with David Weiss, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware who was later named special counsel, and prosecuting a Hunter Biden in tax charges.

Graves told lawmakers he met with five or six people from his office in March 2022 to determine whether they should get involved in the Hunter Biden case.

Three weeks later the office decided to not get involved in the case, and Graves refused to disclose his office’s thoughts because the investigation is still ongoing.

Graves also said it was “normal” for federal prosecutors to bring tax cases without partnering with the Justice Department Tax Division, but in this case, Weiss needed the division’s approval to open a grand jury probe into Hunter Biden.

While Graves said he never told the Delaware prosecutor to not bring charges, he also never followed up with Weiss to make it clear that he was still welcome to bring charges even if his own office would not be involved.

Furthermore, Graves said he never felt a need to recuse himself from being involved in the case involving President Joe Biden’s son even though he worked on the president’s campaign, as well as candidate John Kerry’s 2004 Democratic presidential campaign and President Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign. 

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FBI Form Reveals They Knew New York Post’s Hunter Biden Laptop Story Was Real Ahead of 2020 Election

The FBI knew the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop featured in the New York Post’s reporting ahead of the 2020 presidential election were real, according to a newly released FBI FD-302 form summarizing the bureau’s interview with Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Tony Bobulinski.

The FBI interviewed Bobulinski on Oct. 23, 2020 after the New York Post’s story contained emails from the Hunter Biden laptop archive Bobulinski was copied on, the FD-302 form states. Bobulinski told the FBI he knew the emails were legitimate and had records of the emails on multiple cell phones, the form asserts.

“In addition, the New York Post recently published HUNTER BIDEN emails in which BOBULINSKI was copied. BOBULINSKI’s name was not redacted from the published emails, which put his name in the public domain and caused significant concern for his family’s safety,” the document reads. The FD-302 form’s contents were first reported by the New York Post.

“Nonetheless, BOBULINSKI was aware that the emails published by the New York Post were legitimate because BOBULINSKI was copied on them and had records of the emails on his own cellular devices,” the document adds.

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CPS DOESN’T KNOW WHAT RECORDS IT DESTROYED RELATED TO KEIR STARMER’S WASHINGTON TRIPS

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), England and Wales’ public prosecutor, has no knowledge of what records it has destroyed related to its previous head Keir Starmer, it can be revealed.

In June, Declassified revealed that the public body had deleted all records of Starmer’s four trips to Washington while he was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). 

Starmer made trips to Washington in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013 at a cost to the British taxpayer of £21,603. It was his most frequent foreign destination while in post and included a meeting with the US Attorney General.

Starmer served as DPP from 2008-13, a period when the body was overseeing Julian Assange’s proposed extradition to Sweden to face questioning over sexual assault allegations. 

During Starmer’s time in post, the CPS was marred by irregularities surrounding the case of the WikiLeaks founder, destroying key emails related to the Assange case, mostly covering the period when Starmer was in charge. 

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Police Detective: 50% of Sudden Infant Deaths Happened Within 48 Hours of Vaccination — But No One Is Allowed to Say It

A former police detective claimed that around 50% of the 250 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases she investigated over seven years happened within 48 hours after the infant received a vaccine. About 70% happened within one week.

She argued this timing proves vaccines are behind SIDS because the correlation would not be observed if the deaths were occurring randomly.

The detective, who worked in a “major city” of over 300,000 people and identified herself simply as “Jennifer,” shared her story with Steve Kirsch in a video and Substack article published last week.

Kirsch, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist and executive director of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation, said he contacted the police station where Jennifer worked and verified her identity.

The detective’s information is independently verifiable in the police records “for any health authority who has any doubts,” Kirsch said, adding that he is actively working with the police department to make the statistics public.

Describing her department’s policy to “leave no stone unturned” when investigating sudden infant deaths, Jennifer wrote:

“Standard police policy was to ask about any pharmaceuticals … and ask every single thing that a person was doing in the moments, hours, days and weeks leading up to their death …

“So, with a baby: ‘When was the last time he saw a doc? Was he healthy? Any meds or shots? What has he been eating? What kind of soap do you wash them with?’ …

“The coroner we had to often report to was especially a stickler on everything that went into that kid, food- and drug-wise.”

Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, president and CEO of The Rimland Center For Integrative Medicine, told The Defender, “Many parental reports about a baby dying suddenly start with the phrase, ‘He just was at the pediatrician’s office — they said he was healthy.’”

“If there were no correlations between vaccines and SIDS, then sudden death cases would be evenly distributed throughout the month,” Mumper said.

“Instead, we see clusters of unexpected deaths in the first week after shots are given. Reports from police officers and first responders are supported by this published evidence,” she added.

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Whistleblower says governor’s office illegally altered, withheld records related to podium purchase

An anonymous former state employee came forward Friday claiming to have evidence that the Arkansas governor’s office doctored documents and unlawfully withheld financial records that should have been made public under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.

Attorney Tom Mars, who is representing the whistleblower, sent a letter today to Sen. Jimmy Hickey (R-Texarkana) offering to have his client speak to auditors. Hickey yesterday requested that Legislative Audit, a nonpartisan agency independent from the executive branch, look into what’s come to be known as “podiumgate.”

The controversy concerns the $19,000 purchase of a lectern (or podium) by the governor’s office from an out-of-state events company earlier this year, as well as Gov. Sarah Sanders’ successful efforts to newly block access to certain governmental records.

Sanders recently pushed the state legislature to write a new exemption into the Arkansas FOIA in an attempt to prevent Matt Campbell, the Little Rock lawyer behind the Blue Hog Report blog, from accessing those records. Campbell’s FOIA requests uncovered the lectern purchase to begin with.

In the letter, Mars said his client can prove that someone in Sanders’ office altered documents that Campbell had requested through the Arkansas FOIA and that Sanders’ office pressured another government agency to withhold from the public documents that should have been made available.

His client is willing to give a statement to legislative auditors under oath, Mars said, and can provide documents for them to review.

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Rand Paul offers his theories for Dr. Fauci’s alleged secret visit to CIA headquarters: ‘Further the cover-up’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) floated on Thursday his theories for why Dr. Anthony Fauci allegedly visited the CIA headquarters to advise the intelligence agency on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is the background?

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed this week that it had received “concerning information” about the CIA’s investigation into the origins of the pandemic.

In a letter sent to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, committee Chairman Brad Wenstrup explained:

The information provided suggests that Dr. Fauci was escorted into Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Headquarters—without a record of entry—and participated in the analysis to “influence” the Agency’s review. Our goal is to ensure the scientific investigative process regarding the origins of COVID-19 was fair, impartial, and free of alternative influence.

Importantly, the visit remains an allegation only; Congress has not made public evidence proving the visit took place.

What did Paul say?

The Kentucky Republican, Fauci’s archenemy, posited three theories for the purpose of Fauci’s alleged visit to CIA headquarters.

First, Paul suggested that Fauci outright “convinced the CIA to dishonestly obscure the lab origin of COVID.” Second, Paul suggested the inverse, that the “CIA convinced Fauci to obscure the lab origin of COVID.”

Finally, Paul suggested, “An outside entity or person with unlimited monetary resources convinced Fauci to influence the CIA to obscure the lab origin of COVID.”

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