Tag: money laundering

Coalition of 19 GOP AGs Launch Investigation Into ActBlue Over Money Laundering Allegations

Acoalition of 19 Republican state attorneys general have launched a criminal investigation into the Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue over allegations of money laundering.

As American Greatness reported in April, multiple independent investigative journalists, including O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) and Election Watch have uncovered what appears to be illegal activity involving millions of dollars in campaign donations to Act Blue that have been laundered through unwitting small donors.

The process of breaking up large donations and submitting them under the names of small donors to cover up illegal contributions has been dubbed “smurfing.” Suspicions that ActBlue routinely engages in this type of illicit fundraising have dogged the outfit since at least Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020.

The Committee on House Administration, chaired by Congressman Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.), launched an investigation into Act Blue in November of 2023 to look into reports that the fundraising giant was skirting campaign donation laws and allowing rampant fraud on the site. The committee widened its probe in August 2024.

In a letter sent to top officials on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on August 5, Steil urged them to “immediately initiate an emergency rulemaking to require political campaigns to verify the card verification value (‘CVV’) of donors who contribute online using a credit or debit card, and to prohibit political campaigns from accepting online contributions from a gift card or other prepaid credit cards.”

In September, Steil sent letters to five states, urging them to launch criminal investigations into ActBlue’s alleged illicit activities, citing three specific areas of concern:
– Donations significantly disproportionate to an individual’s net worth or previous giving history.
– Uncharacteristic donations from party-affiliated registered voters suddenly contributing to candidates of the opposing party.
– Unusually frequent donations from elderly individuals or first-time donors.

The number of GOP AGs involved in the effort has since swelled to 19.

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The Curious Case of the Man Who Bought Most of Hunter Biden’s Overpriced Art

How did the Central Intelligence Agency get threaded into the Hunter Biden scandal? We don’t know, but they interfered with federal investigators looking into Hunter Biden’s activities. A whistleblower has come forward alleging that Langley blocked investigators from interviewing attorney Kevin Morris, who is not just a crucial Hunter Biden ally but the primary purchaser of his overpriced art. Mr. Morris paid Hunter’s tax bills, helped subsidize his opulent lifestyle, and seemingly had the protection of the CIA. 

Morris is a big Democratic Party donor, so protection from the Biden Department of Justice wouldn’t be unusual, but the CIA? Mr. Morris appears to be a jack-of-all-trades character within the Biden orbit. Law professor Jonathan Turley, who disclosed that he was threatened with a lawsuit by Morris, broke down this intriguing tale. Morris was not just a money man for the crack-cocaine-addicted son of the president, he was also an attack dog, reportedly organizing hit campaigns against the enemies of the Biden family. Look, when someone loans your son over $6 million, you better believe there’s going to be some ironclad protections for that individual (via Turley): 

The New York Post has created a stir in Washington with its report that a whistleblower claims that the CIA reportedly blocked federal investigators from interviewing Kevin Morris, the entertainment lawyer who has subsidized the expenses and bought the art of Hunter Biden. 

[…] 

He’s Hunter’s confidant, art patron, business partner, and his lawyer. 

Now there is a suggestion that we might have to add CIA asset or protected person. 

The unnamed whistleblower told the House Oversight and Judiciary Committee that the “intelligence agency stopped IRS and Justice Department investigators from interviewing Morris in August 2021.” That has led Oversight chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) to demand answers from the CIA on whether two DOJ officials were summoned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. to discourage their interviewing Morris. 

Given the allegations of special treatment by the Justice Department (including blocking efforts to interview Hunter or search Biden properties), this latest report is obviously quite serious. One would expect that the CIA would simply say that no such meeting related to the Hunter Biden investigation occurred. Instead, the agency responded that it “does not obstruct investigations.” The spokesman added   “CIA does not comment on specific investigations. We can say that CIA cooperates with law enforcement partners and does not obstruct investigations. CIA also fully and routinely cooperates with our oversight committees and will continue to do so.” 

Hunter met Morris when he attended a political fundraiser as a major donor. 

Soon thereafter, he warned Biden associates that Hunter’s unpaid taxes raised political problems during Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential run. 

He later proceeded to pay off Hunter’s taxes and to subsidize his lavish lifestyle. 

He also took an apparent lead in planning public campaigns against the critics of the Bidens, reportedly pushing a scorched-earth approach to attack potential witnesses and accusers. 

[…] 

Most recently, it was revealed that, despite accounts of buyers flocking to buy Hunter’s overpriced art, it was Morris all along who bought most of the pieces. 

How the CIA would fit into any of this is anyone’s guess. 

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Hunter Biden received $4.9m from his bong-smoking ‘sugar-brother’ lawyer Kevin Morris over a three year period, reveals IRS whistleblower: Paid First Son’s $2m tax debts and bought his art

Hunter Biden received a staggering $4.9 million from his ‘sugar brother’ Kevin Morris, an IRS whistleblower has claimed. 

Lawyer Kevin Morris allegedly loaned the president’s son millions of dollars after the pair met at a campaign fundraiser in December 2019. 

IRS agent Joseph Ziegler declared the shocking figure with additional documentation on Tuesday with the House Ways & Means Committee as Hunter faces two charges of tax evasion. 

Morris, a Hollywood lawyer who made a fortune from a South Park TV deal, was dubbed Hunter’s ‘sugar brother’ after he reportedly paid off up to $2.8 million of the First Son’s tax bill in an attempt to placate prosecutors.  

The new figures alleged by Ziegler are a substantial increase on previous reports.

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Swedish Gangs Use Fake Spotify Hits From Affiliated Ganster Rappers To Launder Money

Swedish criminal gangs are using Spotify to launder money by engineering artificial hits on songs owned by gang affiliates to receive big payouts from the streaming platform.

The revelation comes from an investigative report by the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), which cites a whistleblower who recounted how gangs are exploiting the Swedish streaming giant to convert their dirty cash into legitimate income.

The informant, known by the fake name of Ismet, told SvD how the gangs, swimming in illegal cash generated through drugs, robberies, fraud, and people trafficking, are converting the proceeds of crime into cryptocurrency before paying individuals, whom he referred to as “Telegram bots,” after recruiting them on the encrypted messaging service to set up fake listens on Spotify on tracks under their control.

“We paid people who did this for us systematically,” Ismet explained.

“The bots ensured that we ended up on the top charts, by creating high pressure on a song. When we entered the top charts, we also got real streams,” he added.

The tracks were usually linked to Swedish gangster rap, which experienced a surge in popularity a few years ago and which has a close affiliation with organized crime groups.

One million streams generate around 60,000 Swedish krona which converts to just over €5,000, and Swedish gangster rap is receiving tens of millions of hits via the platform.

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Hunter Biden’s bong-smoking lawyer Kevin Morris, who paid first son’s $2M tax bill, ALSO spent fortune on his art – along with California Dem donor Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali, who Joe appointed to prestigious heritage board

Hunter Biden’s paintings have been bought by a top Democratic donor and the lawyer who has caught smoking a bong during a visit from the First Son last week, a bombshell new report has revealed.

Despite a White House promise that all purchasers’ identities would be kept a secret, two names have been revealed: Los Angeles-based real estate investor and Democratic donor Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali and Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris. 

In July 2022, eight months after Hunter’s exhibition opened in New York City, Joe Biden appointed Naftali to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. It’s not clear whether she had already purchased the art at that time.

Hunter’s Hollywood ‘fixer’ lawyer Morris was seen smoking on the balcony of his Malibu home last week and loaned the president’s son $2million to help him pay back taxes.

When Hunter Biden first announced he would make a high-dollar foray into the art world, the Biden team promised the identities of those who purchased Hunter’s art would remain anonymous. On the campaign trail, Joe Biden promised an ‘absolute wall’ between his duties as president and his family’s business dealings. 

In 2021, Hunter made his debut at a ritzy New York art gallery, where the sticker price clocked in on some of his amateur pieces at $500,000. 

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Seymour Hersh: the CIA Knows Ukrainian Officials Are Skimming US Aid

On Wednesday, Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a report on Substack that alleged the CIA was aware of widespread corruption in Ukraine and the embezzlement of US aid.

The report said the Ukrainian government has been using US taxpayer money to purchase diesel from Russia to fuel its military. Hersh said Zelensky “has been buying the fuel from Russia, the country with which it, and Washington, are at war, and the Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments.”

Hersh said according to one estimate by CIA analysts, at least $400 million in funds were embezzled last year. Sources told Hersh that Ukrainian officials are also “competing” to set up front companies for export contracts to private arms dealers around the world.

The issue of corruption was raised during a meeting between CIA Director William Burns and Zelensky in January. An intelligence official with direct knowledge of the meeting told Hersh that Burns delivered a stunning message to Zelensky.

Hersh wrote: “The senior generals and government officials in Kiev were angry at what they saw as Zelensky’s greed, so Burns told the Ukrainian president, because ‘he was taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the generals.’”

During the meeting, Burns presented Zelensky with a list of 35 generals and senior government officials whose corruption was known to the CIA. Zelensky responded by dismissing 10 officials who were engaged in flagrant corruption. “The ten he got rid of were brazenly bragging about the money they had—driving around Kiev in their new Mercedes,” the intelligence official said.

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