Corruption Ledger

MOSCOW — The head of the Wagner mercenary group said his forces were ending a march on the Russian capital after demanding the resignation of the country’s top defense officials over alleged failures in the war in Ukraine. In a statement to his Telegram social media account, Yevgeny Prigozhin said his fighters had led a “march for justice” over the past 24 hours that saw them travel from the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to the outskirts of Moscow “The…

Evgeny Prigozhin has agreed to halt his advance on Moscow after a mediation effort led by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusian state media reported Saturday evening.Lukashenko’s talks with Prigozhin, said to have stretched throughout the day Saturday, were agreed with Putin. “As a result, the parties agreed to to the inadmissibility of unleashing a bloody massacre on Russian territory. Evgeny Prigozhin accepted President Lukashenko’s proposal to stop the movement of Wagner’s forces in Russia and to take further steps to…

As columns of mercenaries appeared to be moving towards Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to strike back hard against Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the mercenary Wagner Group, who has launched an assault on his own government. In remarks on Saturday morning from the Kremlin, Putin denounced Prigozhin’s “criminal adventure” as an “armed mutiny” that would be met with a response from regular Russian troops. “Any actions that split our nation are essentially a betrayal of our people, of our…

Several world leaders, among them Russia’s closest allies and partners, have offered support for the Kremlin amid the deadly standoff between the Russian military and Prigozhin’s Wagner group. Belarus: Belarus, Russia’s Collective Security Treaty Organization ally and Union State partner, has offered full support for Moscow, emphasizing that Minsk has always been and remains Russia’s close ally. “Belarusians and Russians are brotherly peoples. Our states are bound by a political union. And we cannot remain aloof from events taking place…

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plane left Moscow Saturday morning, according to flight data. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had not fled and “is working at the Kremlin.” Wagner mercenaries appear to be headed for Moscow in what some are calling an attempted coup. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plane took off from Moscow early Saturday morning, heading towards St. Petersburg before disappearing from flight tracking radar. Putin’s presidential plane left at 14:16 Moscow time, according to FlightRadar data retrieved by…

Taiwan’s defense ministry said Saturday that eight Chinese warplanes had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and come close to waters under Taipei’s control. Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which views the self-ruled island as part of its territory to be seized one day. On Saturday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said 19 Chinese warplanes including J-10 and J-16 fighters were detected around the island. Eight of them crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and approached the island’s contiguous zone, or the band of sea within 24 nautical miles (44…

The Canadian Senate passed Bill C-18 Thursday, the second part of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s three-phase censorship legislation. In the process, the Conservative Party’s chief critic of the legislation was censured on Wednesday and was unable to attack the bill from the floor of the House of Commons. C-18 will force social media companies to pay Canadian media to post news stories. In protest of the bill, Meta has already put Canada on notice that it will cease providing Canadian…

A Russian court has determined that Evan Gershkovich will remain in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison until August 30. The decision comes after the journalist appealed against the extention of a pre-trial detention. Gershkovich appeared in the courtroom in a transparent box. The Wall Street Journal reported that media outlets were only allowed in the courtroom for a short time. On May 23, a district court in Russia upheld a request from the Federal Security Service (FSB) to have the journalist’s detention…

WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. officials said Wednesday that they were caught off guard when President Joe Biden described Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator” — just 24 hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing and appeared to reach a breakthrough in tense relations between the countries. Officials privately sought to clarify Wednesday with the Chinese that Biden’s description of Xi does not reflect a new talking point or official policy shift by the administration. Officials said they…

NEW YORK – Former Goldman Sachs banker Brijesh Goel’s trial on insider trading charges drew to a close on Tuesday, with his attorney saying he was framed by his friend and a prosecutor saying Goel had lied to a New York jury. Goel, a former Goldman Sachs vice-president, faces securities fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges for allegedly tipping his friend Akshay Niranjan to deals the bank was considering funding in 2017 and 2018. Prosecutors say Goel gleaned the…

NEW YORK – Gannett, the largest US newspaper chain and publisher of USA Today, on Tuesday sued Google for trying to corner the market for online advertising by monopolising ad technology. In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Gannett, which has more than 200 daily newspapers, said Google’s control over tools for buying and selling online ads forces publishers to sell more cheap ad space to the Alphabet unit. Gannett said this leaves Google with “exorbitant monopoly profits”, and…

NEW YORK – Leaders in the submersible craft industry were so worried about what they called the “experimental” approach of OceanGate, the company whose craft has gone missing, that they wrote a letter in 2018 warning of possible “catastrophic” problems with the submersible’s development and its planned mission to tour the Titanic wreckage. The letter, obtained by The New York Times, was sent to OceanGate’s CEO, Stockton Rush, by the Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society, a…

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon said it will be able to spend US$6 billion (S$8 billion) more than originally expected on arms for Ukraine thanks to what it called accounting errors. The Defense Department overstated the value of weapons sent from its stockpiles by US$2.6 billion in fiscal 2022 and US$3.6 billion in fiscal 2023, for a total of US$6.2 billion, deputy spokesman Sabrina Singh told reporters on Tuesday at the Pentagon.  “It’s just going to go back into the pot…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has agreed to plead guilty to two charges of willfully failing to pay income taxes. He will enter into an agreement that could enable him to avoid a conviction on a gun-related charge, according to a court filing on Tuesday. The federal charges against Hunter Biden resulted from an investigation by David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in the Democratic president’s home state of Delaware, who was appointed by Republican then-President Donald…

The Russian government says it will be forced to take retaliatory measures if Western-made F-16 fighter jets appear in the skies over Ukraine. The threat was aired by Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during an interview with the RT television channel late last week. According to Lavrov, Russia has issued a “very serious demarche” with regard to the possibility of F-16 aircraft being transferred to Kyiv. He also claimed that the fighter jets would be used by the Ukrainian Armed…

A new report has revealed details surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest banking institutions in the world, and specifically highlighted the financier’s ties to former JPMorgan executive Jes Staley. Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges, and died that same year in jail before he was tried in court over sex trafficking charges. The 20-plus internal report was reportedly prepared after news broke of Epstein’s arrest in 2019. According to reports based on…