Category: Corruption

Environmental Crimes Bulletin – September 2024

View All Environmental Crimes Bulletins In This Issue: Cases by District/Circuit District/Circuit Case Name Statute(s) 8th Circuit Court of Appeals United States v. Harvey Allen Hugs BGEPA 11th Circuit Court of Appeals United States v. John R. Moore, Jr., et al. Maritime Jurisdiction Theft Southern District of California United States v. Michael Hart Greenhouse Gas Imports/ Conspiracy, American Innovation and…

Unsealed: Eight Charged in $68M Social Adult Day Care and Home Health Care Scheme

An indictment was unsealed today in Brooklyn, New York, charging eight defendants for their alleged roles in a scheme to defraud Medicaid of approximately $68 million through the operation of two social adult day cares and a home health care financial intermediary that were paying kickbacks and bribes for services that were not provided. According to court documents, Zakia Khan,…

Carlos Ramon Polit Faggioni, Odebrecht S.A.: Former Comptroller General (Ecuador) Sentenced in International Bribery and Money Laundering Scheme

The former comptroller general of Ecuador was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar international bribery and money laundering scheme in which he received over $10 million in bribes and laundered those bribes payments in South Florida. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between 2010 to 2015, Carlos Ramon Polit Faggioni, 73,…

Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison to be sentenced over crypto fraud

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former cryptocurrency executive Caroline Ellison is set to be sentenced on Tuesday for her role in her imprisoned former boyfriend Sam Bankman-Fried’s theft of about $8 billion in customer funds from the now-bankrupt FTX exchange he founded. Ellison has pleaded guilty to seven felony counts of fraud and conspiracy, and testified as a prosecution witness in…

Israel deliberately targeting journalists in Gaza -Experts, Independent Investigations

On Friday, December 15, Al Jazeera journalists Samer Abudaqa and Wael Dahdouh were reporting at the Farhana school in Khan Younis when Israel struck from the air. Dahdouh took shrapnel to his upper arm but was able to apply pressure to the wound and escape to a nearby hospital for help. But Abudaqa was unable to move. Rescue teams tried to…

Whistleblowers allege FCA didn’t respect their anonymity: Senior independent director review

In August 2024, a former employee who left the FCA some years ago made an allegation publicly that, in the course of whistleblowing, their identity was not kept confidential by the chair of the FCA, Ashley Alder. Following the first public allegation, a second former employee of the FCA, who also left some years ago, came forward with a similar…

Malaysian police rescue 187 more children as sex abuse probe of Islamic group deepens

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian police said Monday they have rescued 187 more children and raided locations nationwide linked to an Islamic business group that is being investigated for alleged sexual assault of children. National police chief Razarudin Husain said the children and young people, including 59 under age 5, were rescued from welfare homes linked to Global Ikhwan…

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to hear appeal on Karen Read murder case

MANSFIELD — The full state Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments in November on whether to dismiss two of the three charges against Karen Read, including second-degree murder, for the January 2022 death of her police officer boyfriend. Lawyers for Read, 44, of Mansfield, filed a petition to the state’s highest court on Sept. 11 asking it to overturn a…

Israeli forces raid and shut down Al Jazeera bureau in occupied West Bank

Israeli soldiers have raided the Al Jazeera office in the occupied West Bank and ordered the bureau to shut down amid a widening campaign targeting the Doha-based broadcaster. Al Jazeera aired footage of Israeli troops storming its bureau in Ramallah on Sunday and ordering the office to be shut for 45 days. This follows an order issued in May that…

France’s Macron appoints new government weeks after divisive election

French President Emmanuel Macron has named a new government, hoping to put an end 11 weeks of political uncertainty after an inconclusive parliamentary election delivered a hung parliament. Conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Saturday put together the government whose first major task will be to submit a 2025 budget plan addressing France’s financial situation, which the prime minister this week…

US Secret Service probe finds lack of diligence ahead of Trump rally shooting

WASHINGTON – A US Secret Service probe found communication gaps and a lack of diligence ahead of the July attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally. “There was complacency on the part of” some agents “that led to a breach of security protocols,” acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe told reporters on Sept 20,…

Federal authorities subpoena NYC mayor’s director of asylum seeker operations

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the director overseeing New York City’s office for asylum seekers, the latest [in an] investigation into the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. Molly Schaeffer, who leads the city’s Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, received the information sharing request from federal authorities Friday morning, according to a person familiar with the matter. The…

Mystery Profile Linked to Hungarian Firm Implicated in Exploding Pagers

Dozens of people were killed and thousands more injured after two consecutive days of explosions across Lebanon this week that the Shia militant group Hezbollah has blamed on Israel. Pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously on Tuesday afternoon, leaving at least 12 people dead, including two children. On Wednesday, another wave of coordinated explosions affecting handheld radios killed at…

French mayor sorry for ‘no one died’ remark over mass rape trial

MAZAN, France (AP) — The mayor of a French town making headlines for the trial of dozens of men accused of rapes that occurred there over almost a decade has apologized for comments that appeared to downplay the case. “I have been criticized for minimizing the seriousness of the heinous crimes of which the defendants are accused,” Louis Bonnet, the…

US arms supplies to Taiwan violate one-China principle -Chinese Defense Ministry

Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman Zhang Xiaogang stated: “The US arms deliveries to Taiwan, one of China’s provinces, seriously violate the one-China principle and three joint communiques. This significantly infringes on China’s sovereignty and security interests, and severely undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the official said on the Chinese Defense Ministry’s WeChat account. The spokesman emphasized that Beijing…

Israeli Soldiers Filmed Throwing Bodies of Palestinians Off Rooftops in West Bank

Israeli soldiers were filmed throwing the bodies of Palestinians off rooftops in the West Bank on Thursday. Videos circulating on social media show Israeli soldiers throwing the bodies of three Palestinians, killed in the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya, off a rooftop on Thursday morning. The footage shows three Israeli soldiers standing on the roof of a building, throwing…