Category: Corruption

Hinds County District Attorney Jody E. Owens II walked briskly toward a crowd of TV cameras and reporters on the steps of the federal courthouse in Jackson last week to denounce what he called a “horrible example of a flawed FBI investigation” and an “assassination attempt on my character.” Owens, the top elected law enforcement official for Mississippi’s largest county that encompasses its capital city, pleaded not guilty to multiple federal felony charges stemming from an alleged FBI bribery sting….

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California voters have rejected a measure on the November ballot that would have amended the state constitution to ban forced prison labor. The constitution already prohibits so-called involuntary servitude, but an exception allows it to be used as a punishment for crime. That exemption became a target of criminal justice advocates concerned that prisoners are often paid less than $1 an hour for labor such as fighting fires, cleaning cells and doing landscaping work at cemeteries….

NEW YORK – Huawei Technologies asked a US judge to dismiss much of a federal indictment accusing the Chinese telecommunications company of trying to steal technology secrets from US rivals and misleading banks about its business in Iran. In a Friday night filing in federal court in Brooklyn, Huawei said there was no proof of a conspiracy, calling the charge part of the Department of Justice’s “ill-founded” China Initiative to prosecute people and companies with ties to China. Huawei said…

LOS ANGELES – Leonard Francis, the Malaysian military contractor known as “Fat Leonard”, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Nov 5 for his role in the US Navy’s worst-ever corruption scandal. Francis, 60, was also ordered to pay US$20 million (S$26.3 million) in restitution to the US Navy by a federal judge in San Diego and to forfeit US$35 million in ill-gotten gains, said the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of California in a statement. Francis,…

MEXICO CITY – Two Mexican journalists were shot dead in less than 24 hours in western states, according to authorities, as the country faces a flare-up of violence in the region. A Mexican journalist was shot dead in the western state of Colima on Wednesday afternoon, the state persecutor’s office told Reuters. Her name was Patricia Ramirez, also known by her nickname Paty Bunbury, and she worked as an entertainment reporter, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a…

Six defendants have been charged for their roles in schemes to rig bids, defraud the government and pay bribes and kickbacks in connection with the sale of IT products and services to federal government purchasers, which resulted in overcharges of millions of dollars to the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense (DoD). On Oct. 9 and Oct. 16, a federal grand jury in Baltimore returned indictments against two defendants. Four other defendants were also charged. These are the first…

A U.S. Navy Reserve Commander from Florida was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for his role in a years-long bribery scheme involving Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Afghan nationals. According to court documents and evidence submitted at trial, Jeromy Pittmann, 53, of Pensacola, accepted bribe payments from Afghan nationals in exchange for drafting, submitting, and verifying fraudulent letters of recommendation for Afghan nationals who applied for SIVs with the U.S. Department of State. Since 2009, Congress has authorized…

MILAN – Italian police have placed four people under house arrest as part of a probe into alleged illegal access to state databases by a private intelligence business run by a former policeman, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The person told Reuters that Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, son of late billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio, who founded Ray Ban-owner Luxottica, is among those targeted by the probe. Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, whom Reuters could not immediately…

Global financiers are poised to flock to Saudi Arabia’s annual flagship investment conference next week as a tightening of the kingdom’s purse strings and a deepening of regional conflict cloud the outlook. Among those expected to descend on the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh are top CEOs, including Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser and the London Stock Exchange’s Julia Hoggett. The high-profile event, first held in 2017, fills an opulent hotel in the capital…

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada faced the stiffest challenge to his leadership from fellow elected Liberal Party members on Oct 23 during a closed-door meeting where he was urged to resign to avoid torpedoing the party’s chances in the next election. For more than a year, the Liberals under Mr Trudeau have trailed the Conservative Party by double digits in polls, suggesting that the Liberal Party could face a crushing defeat in the next election, which must be held…

ROME – Italy’s right-wing government is facing criticism over its celebration of a major World War II battle, after the defence ministry said the defeated fascist soldiers of dictator Benito Mussolini had died for the country’s freedom. In a social media post on Oct 23 commemorating the anniversary of the 1942 battle of El Alamein in Egypt, the ministry described the conflict as “heroic and tragic” and paid homage to Italy’s soldiers “who sacrificed their lives for our freedom”. The…

E. coli food poisoning linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states, including one person who died and 10 who were hospitalized, federal health officials said Tuesday. The death was reported in an older person in Colorado, and one child has been hospitalized with severe kidney complications, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Infections were reported between Sept. 27 and Oct. 11, in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon,…

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Oct. 22 issued a decree to liquidate medical examination commissions for determining the severity of disabilities by Dec. 31. The decree was released after a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), which on Oct. 22 discussed violations at medical examination commissions and the fraudulent acquisition of disability status by officials through corruption schemes. Obtaining disability status through medical examination commissions allows evading military service and receiving a higher pension, among other social benefits. According to the decree, working…

LIMA – Peruvian former President Alejandro Toledo was convicted of taking bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht and sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison on Monday. The verdict marks Peru’s first high-profile conviction related to Brazil’s continent-spanning Lava Jato corruption scandal. Toledo, a 78-year-old economist who holds a doctorate from Stanford University, governed the Andean nation between 2001 and 2006. He was convicted of taking $35 million in bribes from the company formerly known as Odebrecht, according…

Raytheon Company (Raytheon) — a subsidiary of Arlington, Virginia-based defense contractor RTX (formerly known as Raytheon Technologies Corporation) — will pay over $950 million to resolve the Justice Department’s investigations into: (i) a major government fraud scheme involving defective pricing on certain government contracts and (ii) violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and its implementing regulations, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Raytheon will enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) in…