Tag: fbi

The FBI Seized Almost $1 Million From This Family—and Never Charged Them With a Crime

Carl Nelson and Amy Sterner Nelson’s pre-pandemic lives look a lot different than the ones they live now. There are the obvious ways, and then there are the not so obvious ways, like the fact that they sold their house and their car, liquidated their retirement funds, and moved their family of six from a comfortable West Seattle home to Amy’s sister’s basement after the FBI seized almost $1 million from them in May 2020.

“We went from living a life where we were both working full-time to provide for our four daughters to really figuring out how we were going to make it month to month,” Amy tells me. “It’s completely changed my belief in fairness.”

The bureau took funds from nearly every corner of the Nelsons’ world, including, for instance, the savings Amy racked up from her decade as a practicing attorney and her later efforts as head of The Riveter, the co-working start-up she founded. But the FBI never even suspected Amy of committing any crime. It was Carl they were investigating—a probe that has not resulted in a single charge against him almost two years later.

In April 2020, agents showed up at the Nelsons’ home and informed them that Carl—a former real estate transaction manager for Amazon—was under investigation for allegedly depriving the tech behemoth of his “honest services.” In plainer terms, they accused him of showing favor to certain developers and securing them deals in exchange for illegal kickbacks. “That never happened and is exactly why I’ve fought as long and hard as I have,” he says. “It’s that simple.”

Whether or not the FBI has come to that conclusion is still a mystery; its years-long investigation into Carl’s alleged fraud has not yielded an indictment. Yet no such thing was necessary for the federal government to wreck the Nelsons’ lives, costing them their home, their community, their jobs, their girls’ place in their Seattle school, and their security for the future.

Perhaps more vexing: The FBI has, in some sense, subtly conceded that it didn’t need to do any of the above to complete their investigation or to hamstring any supposed criminal operation run by Carl. Last week, the government agreed to a settlement: Of the original approximately $892,000 it seized, it will return $525,000, while Amy and Carl forfeit about $109,000. (The remaining sum has been depleted by court fees.)

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FBI to form new digital currency unit as Justice Dept taps new crypto czar

The U.S. Justice Department has tapped a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor to lead its new national cryptocurrency enforcement team and announced on Thursday that the FBI is launching a unit for blockchain analysis and virtual asset seizure. The creation of the “virtual asset exploitation” unit at the FBI comes on the heels of the Justice Department’s largest-ever financial seizure. Earlier this month, it charged a married New York couple with allegedly laundering bitcoins now valued at over $4.5 billion that were stolen in the 2016 hack of the digital currency exchange Bitfinex.

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Eyes turn to Hillary Clinton, not Trump in the Russiagate scandal

So there you have it. 

Russiagate, the collective delusion that Donald Trump was secretly a Russian agent aided and abetted by the Kremlin, the topic of uncountable inches of Washington Post and New York Times copy and the entire primetime lineup of MSNBC, was a dirty trick by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Not just part of it. All of it. One of the most diabolical, successful misinformation campaigns ever concocted. 

We already knew that the Steele dossier was garbage. Christopher Steele was paid indirectly by the Clinton campaign to dig up dirt, which he did by turning to other Clinton operatives, laundering every outlandish rumor about Trump he could find into an “investigative” document. 

He shopped it to the FBI, which couldn’t verify his sources or any of his stories, but the agency dragged out the investigation to cast maximum suspicion on the new president. In the meantime, Steele found willing accomplices in the media to push his propaganda. The dupes at BuzzFeed even decided to print the whole pack of lies, with the flimsy rationale of “Well, why not?” 

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Ottawa Police Team Up With Federal Intelligence Agencies, Including US DHS and FBI, to Launch “Enhanced Intelligence Operations and Investigations” Against Truckers For Freedom Convoy

Thousands of trucks have gridlocked the Canadian capital city of Ottawa for almost a week, with protesters aiming to pressure Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to end all mandates and lockdowns associated with Covid-19. Participants are refusing to leave until the authoritarian restrictions are lifted completely, and with both sides not budging, the Canadian government is turning to drastic measures in an attempt to crush the grassroots uprising.

On Friday, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) announced they are pairing with several federal intelligence agencies and other law enforcement divisions to launch “enhanced intelligence operations and investigations” that will target individuals who are participating in the Canadian Truckers For Freedom Convoy.

US law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), will also assist with the crackdown by investigating “online threats that originated in the US,” despite little to no evidence or behavior that has indicated any violence is being planned.

According to the OPS statement, the ‘enhanced investigation’ will begin targeting the key figures who are behind the organization of the convoy as part of the Canadian government’s “increased effort to identify and target protestors who are funding/supporting/enabling unlawful and harmful activity by protesters.”

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FBI Confirms Zodiac Killer’s Infamous 340 Cipher Has Been Decoded, And His Message Finally Revealed

A team of codebreakers decided to try and crack the code specifically because they knew it would be a challenge. 

David Oranchak, Sam Blake, and Jarl Van Eycke used software to help them break the cipher, first by finding the many possible reading directions that could be used if the cipher was transpositional. By sheer luck, Oranchak found that one solution for how the cipher could be transposed revealed fragments of messages, including “hope you are,” “trying to catch me” and “or the gas chamber”.

This gave them clues that the message wasn’t transcribed in one big block as it was presented, but instead was broken into three smaller blocks of text made up of nine lines, followed by nine lines, followed by a final two.

By starting in the top left hand corner, then moving down one line and across two spaces to get the next letter, a key which could be translated into letters and then words emerged. The letter “B” for instance, was represented by “□7”, “c” by a simple “9” and “A” by a whole load of symbols unavailable on a keyboard. You can see these neatly shown in the video released by the team below. 

Through use of this method, and some slight adjustments by ignoring a few words that stood out before transposing the text, a message was revealed:

I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME
THAT WASNT ME ON THE TV SHOW
WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME
I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER
BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER
BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME
WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE
SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH
I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS
LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH 

“Of all the things that stood out was the line ‘that wasn’t me on the TV show’,” Oranchak explained in the video. “At this point I jumped out of my chair because I knew the cipher was received on November 8, 1969, which is about two weeks after someone calling themselves Zodiac called into a TV talk show hosted by Jim Dunbar. While the caller was on the air, he said ‘I need help, I’m sick, I don’t want to go to the gas chamber.'”

This for Oranchak made the solution seem real, as it fit with the events around the time it was received. The rest of the message also seemed quite in character for the Zodiac Killer. 

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FBI agents descended on Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar’s house, but won’t say what they’re investigating

The FBI was on the scene Wednesday near the Laredo home of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar for what authorities described as a court-authorized ongoing investigation.

FBI spokesperson Rosanne Hughes confirmed law enforcement’s presence in the area but did not clarify what authorities were investigating.

Hughes said in a statement that the FBI was present on two streets around Cuellar’s house in Laredo “conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity.”

“The FBI cannot provide further comment on an ongoing investigation,” she said.

On Wednesday evening, Cuellar’s office released a statement: “Congressman Cuellar will fully cooperate in any investigation. He is committed to ensuring that justice and the law are upheld.”

Agents were seen taking cases and other items from the congressman’s home, according to MyRGVNews. FBI officials were also present at a downtown building owned by Cuellar that reportedly houses his campaign office as well as other private businesses, according to KGNS News.

First elected in 2004, Cuellar is a longtime representative of his Laredo-based 28th District.

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Police in Manchester arrest two teenagers over Texas synagogue siege that saw anti-Semitic terrorist from Blackburn shot dead – as first picture of gunman emerges and his ‘devastated’ brother says: ‘He had a criminal record. How was he allowed to travel?’

The family of a 44-year-old British Muslim man who was shot dead by police in Texas after launching a terror attack on a synagogue last night demanded to know how he was allowed into America despite a long criminal record.

Malik Faisal Akram, from Blackburn, died in a hail of bullets after a 10-hour stand-off on Saturday in which four people were held hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, 27 miles from Dallas.

Akram had apparently flown to America two weeks ago, lived in homeless shelters and bought a gun on the street, according to US President Joe Biden. 

He was described by his family as suffering ‘mental health issues’ but concerns over a wider plot grew last night as two teenagers were arrested over the incident by anti-terror officers in south Manchester.

The pair, both believed to be under 18, cannot be identified for legal reasons. They were still in custody overnight, Greater Manchester Police said.

However the FBI’s field office in Dallas had earlier said there was ‘no indication’ that anyone else was involved in what President Biden called ‘an act of terror’.

Malik’s brother Gulbar issued a statement on behalf of the family last night in which he told of their ‘devastation’ and revealed how relatives had been in contact with Malik during his attack at the police’s request but could not convince him to surrender.

But speaking to Sky News he also demanded to know how the incident had been allowed to unfold. ‘He’s known to police. Got a criminal record. How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?’, he said.

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FBI Changes Tune on Synagogue Hostage Situation: ‘The Jewish Community Was Targeted’

The FBI released a new statement late on Sunday appearing to contradict their previous remarks about the hostage situation that unfolded on Saturday at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.

The FBI said in a statement, “This is a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted, and is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

The statement is a marks a major shift in tune from the FBI after one of its agents said on Saturday that the situation “was not specifically related to the Jewish community.”

“We do believe from our engagement with this subject that he was singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno said. “But we’re continuing to work to find motive and we will continue on that path. In terms of the resolution of the incident, the hostage taker is deceased.”

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