Tag: crime

2 LA men charged with fraud in misuse of public funds meant for combating homelessness

Two Los Angeles-area men faced federal charges in separate criminal cases as they are both accused of fraudulently acquiring public funds that were allocated to address homelessness and build affordable housing, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.

Cody Holmes of Beverly Hills was in custody as of Thursday after he allegedly used fake bank records to receive nearly $26 million from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for Shangri-La Industries LLC, for which he previously served as a CFO.

The money from Project Homekey was supposed to be used to build affordable housing in Thousand Oaks, but instead, Holmes, 31, spent the money to pay credit card bills and purchase good at luxury retailers, the DOJ alleged.

“Even though the developer received all the money from the state, the developer did not complete the construction of the Thousand Oaks project,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference Thursday. “Essentially, he stole the money.”

In a separate case, Steven Taylor, a developer and real state agent, of Brentwood was released on a $3.6 million bond, the DOJ said, after he was charged with bank fraud, identity theft and money laundering.

Federal investigators said Taylor also used fake bank records to obtain loans and lines of credit. The 44-year-old is accused of using the fraudulently obtained funds to flip a Cheviot Hills home and selling it to a homeless housing developer for more than double his original purchase.

“Taylor had contracted to sell the property, which he acquired for only $11 million, fraudulently, to Weingart, a homeless housing developer, that purchased the property for a whopping $27 million in a transaction that was hidden from the victim lender and others,” Essayli added.

Akil Davis, FBI’s assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles Field Office. said Taylor also tried to enrich his business in high-end neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

“Taylor’s actions not only misled banks, but also took advantage of the city and state’s efforts to combat the homelessness crisis, Davis said.

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Virginia Democrat Jay Jones BLASTED in Debate After GOP AG Exposes 116 MPH Reckless Driving Conviction and Alleged Scheme to Dodge 1,000-Hour Community Service Requirement

In a fiery debate Thursday night at the University of Richmond, Democrat attorney general candidate Jay Jones was absolutely torched by incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, who exposed the Democrat’s reckless driving conviction and attempt to manipulate his 1,000-hour community service requirement.

The debate, held Thursday at the University of Richmond and moderated by Virginia State Bar President K. Brett Marston, quickly turned into a disaster for Jones.

During the debate, the disgraced candidate said, “I am ashamed, I am embarrassed, and I am sorry.”

If he were truly sorry, he’d drop out of the race.

Jones, already under fire for past politically violent rhetoric in which he expressed a desire to kill his GOP rival, faced devastating scrutiny when Miyares opened the debate by reminding Virginians of Jones’ 116-mph joyride down Interstate 64.

Earlier this month, Miyares wrote on X, “Jay Jones was caught recklessly driving 116 miles per hour on I-64. Then, he tried to claim campaign work for his own PAC counted as community service to avoid jail. Jay Jones is too soft-on-crime — including his own.”

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DOJ Brings Terrorism Charges Against ‘Militant’ Antifa Cell That Attacked ICE Facility

A federal grand jury indicted two alleged Antifa members on counts of “providing material support to terrorists,” the “attempted murder of officers and employees of the United States,” and “discharging firearms during, in relation to, and in furtherance of a crime of violence,” according to the indictment.

These are reportedly the first terrorism charges associated with Antifa.

The charges originate from a July 4 attack on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, allegedly by Cameron Arnold, Zachary Evetts, indicted, and several co-conspirators, as previously reported by The Federalist. The Department of Homeland Security was using the facility to house illegal migrants ahead of their deportation.

According to the indictment, attackers “began by shooting fireworks toward the facility and vandalizing vehicles and a guard shed.” DHS personnel contacted local law enforcement for support.

The indictment says Arnold yelled “get to the rifles,” and fired on the officers. He hit an Alvarado police officer, who returned fire, the document says. The attackers left after Arnold’s rifle jammed. Police arrested “most of the Antifa cell shortly after the attack,” and arrested Arnold the next day, according to the indictment.

The indictment describes Antifa as a “militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups, primarily ascribing to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology, which explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law.”

The document acknowledged a pattern “beginning in 2025” of “Antifa adherents” targeting ICE facilities and agents, in protest of “policy on the removal of illegal aliens.” It cites one Antifa member in an encrypted chat saying, “I’m done with peaceful protests” and “Blue lives don’t matter.”

President Trump officially designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization last month.

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Florida Officials Are Revoking Medical Marijuana IDs From Patients And Caregivers With Drug Convictions Under Law Signed By DeSantis

Florida medical marijuana officials are actively revoking the registrations of patients and caregivers with drug-related criminal records.

The policy is part of broad budget legislation signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The provisions in question direct the state Department of Health (DOH) to cancel registrations of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they’re convicted of—or plead guilty or no contest to—criminal drug charges.

The measure says a patient or caregiver will have their registration immediately suspended upon being charged with a covered state drug crime, and the suspension will remain in place until the criminal case reaches a final disposition. DOH officials have authority to reinstate the registration, revoke it entirely or extend the suspension if needed.

Bobbie Smith, director of the Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU), told lawmakers on Wednesday that regulators are already banning people from the medical cannabis program under the new policy.

OMMU has “identified 20 individuals that meet the new requirement for revocation, and there’s roughly 140 that we’re still monitoring as they wait make their way through the criminal justice system,” she said at a hearing of the House Health Professions & Programs Subcommittee in comments first reported by Florida Politics.

Under the law, authorities are required to revoke a person’s registration if the patient or caregiver “was convicted of, or pled guilty or nolo contendre to, regardless of adjudication, a violation [of state drug law] if such violation was for trafficking in, the sale, manufacture, or delivery of, or possession with intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver a controlled substance.”

The enacted version of the legislation focuses specifically on production and distribution. It does not contain an earlier restriction from prior versions that would have also revoked registrations for people who merely purchased illegal drugs, including more than 10 grams of marijuana for their own use.

It also clarifies that patients and caregivers have a process to request their registrations be reinstated. That involves submitting a new application “accompanied by a notarized attestation by the applicant that he or she has completed all the terms of incarceration, probation, community control, or supervision related to the offense.”

It’s not clear from the plain language of the revised bill whether it will impact only future criminal cases involving medical marijuana patients and caregivers or whether DOH would need to review the records of existing program registrants and revoke registrations of an untold number of Floridians with past drug convictions.

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California city severely restricts self-checkouts in attempt to stop shoplifters

A California city is cracking down on shoplifters with a first-of-its-kind rule dramatically restricting self-checkouts.

Long Beach passed the “Safe Stores are Staffed Stores” in September, which requires large grocery stores and pharmacies to have at least one staff member monitoring every three self-checkout stations, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Many stores say they’ve been forced to simply shut down self-checkouts altogether because they can’t hire the staff to meet the new rules.

“We are currently unable to operate our self-checkout lanes,” read a recently posted sign at a downtown Long Beach supermarket, blaming “a new City of Long Beach ordinance.”

The city — located on the Pacific coast just south of Los Angeles — is one of countless across the US that has seen an enormous spike in shoplifting since the 2020 pandemic, with the The National Retail Federation reporting a staggering 93% increase from 2019 to 2023.

And those are just the numbers that are known — the Long Branch ordinance described shoplifting as extremely common and severely underreported, adding that such crime made retail work “hostile and unsafe.”

Stores are also required to limit customers to buying 15 items per self-checkout kiosk under the new rules.

The ordinance is intended to “advance public safety and prevent retail theft,” according to its own language, and some local union reps think it will do just that.

“The checkers and the cashiers are on the front lines of this,” Matt Bell, secretary treasurer of the grocery worker union UFCW 324 told the LA Times.

“It really is necessary to provide them safety and security and better staffing,” he added.

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Slain Journalist Was on Threshold of Exposing Large-Scale CIA-Mafia Drug-Smuggling Operation Using Australian Bank Founded by Special Forces Veteran

n August 10, 1991, Danny Casolaro was found lying dead in a tub of bloody water in a hotel room in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

The cause of death was ruled a suicide, the view presented in a recent Emmy winning Netflix series. However, the crime scene evidence makes clear that Casolaro was murdered.

Prior to his death, Casolaro had been investigating the nefarious activities of a corrupt cabal in the CIA linked to then-President George H.W. Bush and was planning to publish a tell-all book called “The Octopus.”

One of the key chapters was going to focus on a drug and arms-smuggling operation using the Australian-based Nugan Hand Bank, which was founded in 1973 and staffed by people with military backgrounds and who had links at a high level with American intelligence operations.[1]

Nugan Hand made its money by charging high fees for performing illegal and shady services (including moving money overseas, flouting Australia’s and other countries’ laws, and tax avoidance schemes) and from the fraudulent procurement and subsequent misappropriation of investments from the public.[2]

CIA whistleblower Victor Marchetti wrote that Nugan Hand’s favors for the CIA included providing cover for operators, laundering money, and establishing cutouts for clandestine activity the Agency did not want to be publicly identified with—including gun running to apartheid South Africa and Southern Rhodesia in violation of arms embargos.[3]

Casolaro had been planning a trip to Australia to interview key figures associated with the bank, including Bernie Houghton, a top CIA man from Texas who joined Nugan Hand’s staff in 1978 and established its Saudi Arabian branch.[4]

An Air Force cadet in World War II who flew opium out of the Golden Triangle in C-47 cargo planes during the Vietnam War, Houghton had established the Bourbon & Beefsteak, a gathering place for U.S. soldiers on R&R from Vietnam, whose private guests included Sydney mob boss Abe Saffron and John D. Walker, the CIA’s Australian Station Chief from 1973 to 1975.[5]

Besides Houghton, Casolaro hoped to interview members of an Australian parliamentary commission that had investigated the Nugan Hand Bank and helped expose its criminal activities. Casolaro further intended to interview Nugan Hand Bank co-founder Michael Jon Hand, a decorated Green Beret in Vietnam and CIA contract agent who trained hill tribesmen in Vietnam and Laos and fled Australia after the Nugan Hand Bank’s collapse in January 1980.[6]

Already, Casolaro had amassed significant evidence of Nugan Hand’s function as a beachhead for drug and money-laundering operations run by Mafia-connected CIA operatives who were part of President George H.W. Bush’s “secret team.”

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Wrist Slaps For Left-Wing Violence Invite More Attacks On Conservatives

wo teenagers who brutally assaulted former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer Edward “Big Balls” Coristine did not receive any jail time in yet another instance of left-wing judges protecting militant thugs from being held accountable in any meaningful way.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Kendra Davis Briggs, a nominee of former President Joe Biden, sentenced two 15-year-olds from Hyattsville, Maryland, to probation after they were arrested for an Aug. 3 attack on 19-year-old Coristine that left him bloody and battered.

The two sentenced to probation — a male and female — were among a “group of 10 guys,” Coristine said, many of whom apparently remain at-large. Coristine suffered a concussion and a broken nose after he and a female companion were jumped by the group.

The slap-on-the-wrist from Briggs comes after another Biden judge gave the would-be assassin of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh a laughably light sentence, citing the assassin’s claim of being a “transgender” woman, despite his being a male.

While prosecutors sought a 30-year sentence for would-be assassin Nicholas Roske (who now says he goes by the name “Sophie”), Maryland U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman instead gave him eight years.

“Though she got far too close to executing her plans, the fact of the matter is she abandoned them,” Boardman said, using female pronouns to refer to Roske, a male. “I take into consideration the conditions of pre-trial confinement and the fact that she is a transgender woman and will be sent to a male-only [Bureau of Prisons] facility.”

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DEVELOPING: Incoming Indictment…Grand Jury Considers Charges Against John Bolton

A grand jury on Wednesday convened to consider charges against John Bolton over his mishandling of classified materials.

Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton transmitted classified emails over a private server system and they were intercepted by a hostile foreign country’s spy service, according to a recent leak to The New York Times.

John Bolton is reportedly under investigation for violating the Espionage Act.

The New York Post reported:

A grand jury is convening Wednesday afternoon to consider charges against former national security adviser John Bolton over his alleged sharing of highly sensitive classified materials on a private email server, The Post has learned.

The proceeding comes two months after federal investigators raided Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington, DC, office in search of evidence in the Trump critic’s alleged theft of “highly sensitive national security” information.

Justice Department officials expect an indictment to be handed up either Wednesday or Thursday, with one telling The Post that the case against the 76-year-old is “airtight.”

Bolton is accused of using his private email account to remove sensitive information and record diary-like notes of his daily activities and assessments throughout his time in office, sources told The Post.

New John Bolton documents with classified markings were released after the FBI raided his home in August.

The FBI raided John Bolton’s home over the summer.

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Letitia James’ ‘fugitive’ relative who lives in her Virginia home was arrested twice for assaulting cops: docs

New York’s top law enforcer is housing a cop-hating fugitive relative with a lengthy felony rap sheet — who was twice arrested for assaulting police officers — at one of her Virginia homes, according to court documents.

State Attorney General Letitia James’ grandniece, Nakia Thompson, 36, is wanted for “absconding” from North Carolina after failing to complete the terms of her parole following a 2011 arrest in Winston-Salem, authorities said.

In that case, she was charged with malicious conduct by a prisoner, a felony, along with assault of a government official and resisting a public officer, court records show.

But Thompson has also been repeatedly arrested and cited in Virginia, since moving there — with charges including possession of burglary tools, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and grand larceny.

Since 2020, Thompson has been living at a house owned by James in Norfolk, which is now at the center of a criminal indictment against the AG.

That same year, Thompson was given two years’ probation and ordered to pay $2,020 in fees after she pleaded guilty to petit and grand larceny charges — both felonies, according to court records.

She also had a handful of misdemeanor charges dropped, as well as the felony burglary tools possession charge. 

She has also racked up nine separate vehicle offenses, including as recently as this summer.

In July, Thompson was hit with four citations in a single day, including driving 80 mph in a 55 zone and stopping her vehicle improperly on a highway.

The year before she was once again ticketed for going 80 in a 55, and got a summons for improper child restraint, for which she was later found guilty in absentia and fined $50.

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Rules for Thee, Fraud for Me: Letitia James Prosecuted Mortgage Fraud Case Mirroring the Charges Against Her

Attorney General Letitia James, the architect of New York state’s mortgage-fraud crackdowns, now finds herself in the position of her former defendants, accused of exploiting the very system she once claimed to defend. The hypocrisy is undeniable.

Any attempt by Letitia James to claim ignorance of the law as a defense in her mortgage fraud indictment is all but gone.

In June 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James stood before the cameras to hail a conviction she called a triumph against mortgage fraud.

The case involved a $1.3 million scheme by Brooklyn couple John F. Iacono and Shpresa Gjekovic, whom James accused of “a deliberate scheme to enrich themselves at the expense of hardworking New Yorkers.”

At the time, she declared the prosecution was proof that “no one is above the law”.

But today, now under indictment for mortgage fraud herself, that speech reads less like a moment of triumph and more like an act of projection.

The accompanying quote from Attorney General James remains striking for its tone of moral absolutism.

“Iacono and Gjekovic falsified document after document in order to pad their own pockets,” James said. “Let this serve as a warning to all of those who try to carry out such deliberate schemes: There is no place in this state for individuals who try to cash in at the expense of hardworking New Yorkers.”

Those words, “no place in this state,” once echoed across newsrooms as the declaration of a moral crusader.

Her CUFFS Initiative (Combatting Upstate Financial Frauds and Schemes) was marketed as a model for restoring faith in financial integrity, pairing state police with prosecutors to “expose deceitful plots” and reinforce public trust.

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