Tag: taxes

Lula’s Brazilian “Indigenous” Charity Embezzled $6.5 Million

The Brazilian NGO which posted images of Yanomami indios from Venezuela, claiming they were victims of Jair Bolsonaro, is a leftist organization which embezzled $6.5 million of taxpayer funds, reveals investigative journalist Oswaldo Eustáquio.

Public data from the Brazilia Federal Court of Auditors reveals that the NGO URIHI diverted R$ 33 million (US$ 6.5 million) from public coffers meant for indigenous health measures in the state of Roraima, according to Oswaldo Eustáquio.

“The public funds that are intended to be used for food, sanitation and health of the indigenous Yanomami instead are being used to enrich the leaders who live far from the villages, leaving their relatives in misery”, Eustáquio said.

URIHI is led by allies of Lula’s  leftist Workers’ Party, and faces several lawsuits for misappropriation of public funds. URIHI president Júnior Hekurari Yanomami lives a life of luxury, as his Instagram posts reveal, showing him flying in private planes and wearing Armani shirts. In April, Júnior Hekurari appeared with now-President Lula da Silva at an event.

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USAID Has Given $110,000 to Non-Profit With Alleged Links to Terror Groups

American taxpayer money might have been given to terrorist groups through a non-profit, according to a letter released on Friday from Congressman and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul (R-Texas).

The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s (HFAC) Chairman wrote a letter (pdf) to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) administrator, Samantha Power, expressing his concerns about the latter awarding a grant of $110,000 to a non-profit with alleged ties to terrorism.

McCaul expressed concerns over “credible” and “longstanding, detailed allegations” that the non-profit Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD) was not properly reviewed for its alleged ties to terrorist groups, terror financiers, and extremist groups.

The Foreign Affairs Committee had given information on the matter to USAID from May 2022, but USAID’s response at that time was not addressing the allegations against the grantee, according to McCaul.

The Epoch Times reached out to USAID for comments.

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Taxpayers to Cover Andrew Cuomo’s Defense in Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Taxpayers will be left footing the bill to defend disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in his sexual harassment lawsuit.

Nearly a dozen women have accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, leading to his resignation in August 2021.

Cuomo was sued by a State Trooper last year, who alleges that he hit on her, kissed her, and “placed the palm of his hand on her belly button and slid it across her waist to her right hip.”

According to a report from the New York Post, “the former governor claimed the sex harassment accusations were made while he was governor — entitling him to a state-funded defense.”

A lawyer with the Attorney General, Andrew Amer, said they had denied the taxpayer-funded defense because “all of the conduct was to serve [Cuomo’s] own self-interest.”

“These are not allegations where the conduct occurred while they were off duty. These are work place allegations,” Cuomo’s lawyer argued.

On Friday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shlomo Hagler sided with Cuomo.

“This court grants the petition and requires that there be a defense,” Hagler said.

“[Cuomo’s] view is that everything he did was within the scope of his employment and he was just acting as the governor … when addressing trooper 1 in a friendly manner,” Hagler continued. “Did he go over the line? That is not clear cut.”

The judge said that since Cuomo has denied the allegations and claimed that he was acting appropriately as the governor, a taxpayer-funded defense can’t be denied.

“The allegations are quite disturbing,” Hagler said. “They should not be tolerated in the work place, if true.”

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‘1619 Project’ author receives $29K in taxpayer funds from public library for 1-hour speaking event

The Fairfax County Public Library doled out $29,350 in taxpayer funds to “1619 Project” author Nikole Hannah-Jones for an upcoming one-hour speaking event, the New York Post reported.

Hannah-Jones authored the controversial New York Times Magazine series “The 1619 Project,” which aimed to reframe the United States as a system built on racism. Earlier this month, Hulu released a docuseries adaptation of Hannah-Jones’ project.

Northern Virginia residents were enraged that a local public library wrote a $33,350 check to Hannah-Jones, $29,350 of which was covered by taxpayers’ dollars. For the one-hour speaking engagement at McLean Community Center next month, Hannah-Jones will rake in approximately $589 per minute.

Fairfax County Times reported that Hannah-Jones’ contract with the Virginia library also included “non-stop, direct” first-class plane tickets, hotel accommodations, ground transportation, and “$350.00 to cover speaker’s out of pocket expenses.”

Last month, Virginia taxpayers were fuming when they discovered Fairfax County Public Library shelled out $22,500 to another divisive author, Ibram X. Kendi, for a one-hour virtual talk.

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US To Increase Artillery Ammunition Production By 500% For Ukraine

The Pentagon is planning to boost its production of artillery ammunition by 500% over the next two years as the US is depleting its military stockpiles by sending millions of shells to Ukraine, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the US has pledged to send Ukraine over one million 155mm artillery shells. Before the US Army began efforts to increase production, it produced 14,400 155mm shells a month, but under the new plans, the number could reach over 90,000 each month.

According to the Times, an Army report said the plan will involve expanding factories and bringing in new producers in an effort described as “the most aggressive modernization effort in nearly 40 years” of the US military-industrial complex.

The unguided 155mm shells that are fired out of Howitzers include parts produced by several arms manufacturers, including steel bodies made by General Dynamics and explosives mixed by BAE Systems. American Ordnance pours the explosives into the bodies, and several other contractors produce the fuzes that are screwed into the shells.

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Virginia Democrat Introduces Bill to ‘Remove Hate Speech From Public Places’

A Virginia Democrat has introduced a bill to “remove hate speech from public places.”

Del. Suhas Subramanyam introduced the bill in response to “antisemitic incidents” in the state.

If passed, the bill will require the government to remove any graffiti that is deemed to be hateful on the taxpayer’s dime, including on private property, if the owner fails to do so themselves.

“It’s been bad enough that we had to endure these incidents of racist and antisemitic graffiti, but it’s made worse when no one takes responsibility for the clean up and they remain in the public’s eye,” Subramanyam told WUSA9. “This bill would address that. Hate has no place in Virginia, and our diversity and unity is what makes us strong.”

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Reckless Reparations Reckoning

The last time racial reparations made the major news was on the eve of September 11, 2001 attacks. The loss of 3,000 Americans, which for a time fueled a new national unity, quickly dispelled the absurdities of the reparation movement, and turned our attention toward more existential issues. 

Now the idea is back in vogue again. Here are 10 reasons why the nation’s—and especially California’s—discussions of reparatory payouts are dangerous in a multiracial state, and why reparations are not viable either in an insolvent state or a bankrupt nation at large.

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Pentagon can’t account for $220 billion in gov’t property, fails fifth audit

A Tuesday report by the Government Accountability Office revealed that the Department of Defense failed its fifth audit in a row after it could not account for at least $220 billion in government-furnished property, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.

The DOD has been mandated by federal law to complete audits since 1994; however, the mandate was ignored for decades due to the agency’s massive size, according to Military.com. Since launching its first independent audit in 2017, the Pentagon has never passed.

The Pentagon failed its fifth audit in November after the agency could not prove expenditures for 61% of its $3.5 trillion in assets. To perform this year’s overall audit of the DOD, which was expected to cost $218 million, the agency aggregated 27 separate audits conducted by approximately 1,600 auditors. According to Military.com, the auditors performed 220 in-person site visits and 750 virtual site visits.

The GAO’s study reported that auditors first alerted the DOD in 2001 that the agency failed to keep track of its government-furnished property.

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Feds borrowed $4 billion per day in 2022, totaling $10K per household

Federal debt soared by $1.4 trillion in 2022 as President Joe Biden and Congress approved multiple new spending packages.

The Congressional Budget Office this month released the final details of federal spending in 2022 showing the federal government had a $1.4 trillion deficit last year, borrowing roughly $82 billion in December alone.

“This is not a pretty picture no matter how you look at it,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “There are times to borrow – like during a pandemic or major recession – and there are times where we should ratchet down the borrowing, like now when the economy is strong and inflation is hot.”

MacGuineas pointed out last year’s borrowing totals more than $10,000 per household and $4 billion per day.

The federal debt surpassed $31 trillion in the fall.

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San Francisco reparations panel pitches $5M — each — to black residents

A San Francisco panel studying reparations has proposed a one-time payment of $5 million to each black resident of the city deemed eligible as recompense for the “decades of harm they have experienced,” according to a report on Monday.

“A lump sum payment would compensate the affected population … and will redress the economic and opportunity losses that​ ​Black San Franciscans have endured, collectively, as the result of both intentional decisions and​ ​unintended harms perpetuated by City policy​,” the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee said in a draft report issued last month, Fox News Digital reported. ​

The proposal could cost the city, which has a 2022-2023 budget of $14 billion, roughly $50 billion, the Daily Mail reported.

The committee also proposed wiping out all debts associated with educational, personal, credit card and payday loans for black households.

The 15-member pan​el was established by San Francisco supervisors in May 2021. A separate task force created by California’s legislature is also studying reparations.

The city group’s report says: “Reparation​ ​must be adequate, effective, prompt, and should be proportional to the gravity of the violations and the harm suffered.​”​

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