Corruption Ledger

Ukraine faced its toughest week so far this year on the eastern front, where its defenders lost more ground to Russian forces but committed enormous resources to holding Bakhmut, a coal-mining town that has acquired emblematic importance to both sides. Russian troops have been launching probing attacks on a wide front in Donetsk, half of which they now occupy. But their main effort has been…

Russia began deploying ships with tactical nuclear weaponry in the Baltic Sea for the first time in the past 30 years, the Norwegian Intelligence Service reported Tuesday in its annual report. The document was published on the same day Moscow denied an alleged plan to destabilize neighboring Moldova, which closed its airspace in response, at a time when experts, including…

  There have been unconfirmed reports today of a fire that broke out in Moscow near the Scientific Research Institute of Precision Instruments, a manufacturer “various radio engineering equipment and software-hardware complexes that meet the highest requirements of the Russian aerospace industry,” according to their web site. Videos were posted to TikTok, Twitter and Reddit. Twitter video can be found…

The eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut endured heavy artillery fire on Monday as the NATO chief backed reports from local officials that a major new Russian offensive had begun, days before the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion. Ukrainian defenders, who have already held out for months, were braced for new ground attacks, Ukrainian military officials said. Positions in Bakhmut have…

Two Amazon marketplace sellers and four of their companies have pleaded guilty to price fixing DVDs and Blu Ray Discs. On Feb. 10 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Bruce Fish of Hayfield, Minnesota, along with BDF Enterprises, Inc., a corporate entity owned by Fish, admitted to participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of…

About this time last year, we offered some insight on Economic Espionage and Theft of Trade Secrets, which included a primer on economic espionage, case examples, and avoidance strategies.  We observed that “[w]hile the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has identified China, Russia, and Iran as the three states most capable of committing.

As has been reported by the Vancouver Sun and other Canadian news sources, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made a disappointing offer for provincial health care funding to provinces, and in order to get the money, provinces will have to “agree to work with the government on data sharing.” What is it? The Canada Health Transfer (CHT): CHT payments…

London, United Kingdom – The Metropolitan Police Force’s Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, is certainly banking on the expectation that it can. Many would say it’s an almost insurmountable task. But the alternative is unthinkable. The force is the first port of call for law enforcement and prevention of crime in the United Kingdom’s capital – with unique responsibilities and challenges. But…

Republicans in the United States House of Representatives have continued their investigation into the family of Democratic President Joe Biden, making their first official requests for documents related to his son’s and brother’s foreign business pursuits. “If President Biden is compromised by deals with foreign adversaries and they are impacting his decision making, this is a threat to national security,”…

An anonymous source tells the Associated Press that Pence has been subpoenaed in ongoing investigations into Donald Trump. Former United States Vice President Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel overseeing investigations into efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to a person with direct knowledge of the…

Several banks are now offering super-long-term mortgages in response to soaring interest rates, but experts warned that the offers come with a $300,000 hidden cost. Forty-year mortgages are now being offered by banks, to supposedly help alleviate some of the pressure as surging interest rates force the average Australian to spend an additional $12,000 a year in mortgage repayments. But…

Prosecutors arrested a former operations executive at the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee and three others on Wednesday over bid-rigging allegations, as yet another corruption scandal surfaces in the wake of the global sports event. Tokyo prosecutors arrested the former executive, Yasuo Mori, on suspicion he played a leading role in rigging bids for contracts related to games test events in…

The world’s biggest drone maker DJI found itself embroiled in the Russia-Ukraine conflict last year. In March, three weeks after Russia’s invasion began, a Ukrainian minister called out DJI on Twitter for being complicit in the war. DJI is just one of many tech companies that has found its products used on the battlefield. The Russian military allegedly used its…

A federal jury convicted two men today for engaging in a scheme to defraud Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care plans of over $3.8 million. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Ikechukwu Udeokoro, 47, of North Bergen, New Jersey, owned Meik Medical Equipment and Supply (Meik), a durable medical equipment supplier that was located in the Bronx, New York. Ayodeji Fasonu, 56, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was Meik’s manager. Through Meik, Udeokoro and Fasonu billed Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care plans for hundreds of expensive patient support systems that were never provided to patients or caregivers. These support systems included large devices that were designed to assist with lifting immobile patients and patients in nursing homes. In reality, Udeokoro and Fasonu provided patients with recliner chairs that had a seat lift feature. Between December 2010 and February 2014, Udeokoro and Fasonu fraudulently billed Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care plans more than $3.8 million and were paid approximately $2.4 million.