Tag: Region Americas

Probe into U.S. Olympic failings stunted by red tape in DC

More than 27 months since it was greenlighted by Congress, the panel established to investigate the inner workings of the U.S. Olympic structure has yet to conduct a formal interview because of bureaucratic red tape and slow action from the same lawmakers who had expressed a pressing need for better oversight. Two Olympics — the Summer Games in Tokyo and…

Kerry Inc. Pleads Guilty and Agrees to Pay $19.228 Million in Connection with Insanitary Plant Conditions Linked to 2018 Salmonella Poisoning Outbreak

  U.S. Department of Justice FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, February 3, 2023 Food and ingredient manufacturing company Kerry Inc. pleaded guilty today to a charge that it manufactured breakfast cereal under insanitary conditions at a facility in Gridley, Illinois, that was linked to a 2018 salmonellosis outbreak. Pursuant to a plea agreement filed with a criminal information in federal court…

Olympic snowboarders sue coach, USOPC and ski federation over alleged abuse

Olympic bronze medalist Rosey Fletcher is among three former U.S. snowboarders suing their ex-coach, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard federation, and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee alleging sexual abuse that they say the organizations covered up, court documents showed. Fletcher, a 2006 Olympic bronze medalist, Erin O’Malley and Callan Chythlook-Sifsof sued former coach Peter Foley and the sports bodies…

GoodRx to Pay $1.5 Million in First Ever FTC Health Breach Notification Rule Enforcement Action

On February 1, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it entered into a proposed order with GoodRx, a telehealth and prescription drug discount provider, for violations of the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule stemming from GoodRx’s unauthorized disclosures of consumers’ personal health information to third party advertisers and other companies. This is the first enforcement action taken under the…

Former Arkansas State Senator Sentenced for Bribery and Tax Fraud

A former Arkansas State Senator was sentenced today to 46 months in prison in the Eastern District of Arkansas for accepting multiple bribes and tax fraud in connection with a multi-district investigation spanning the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas and the Western District of Missouri. According to court documents, from 2010 through 2017, Hutchinson stole and misappropriated thousands of dollars in state campaign contributions for his own personal use and then filed false federal income tax returns from 2011 to 2014 to conceal his conduct. In addition, Hutchinson was hired as outside counsel by Dr. Benjamin Burris, an orthodontist who owned and operated orthodontic clinics throughout the state of Arkansas. In exchange for payments and legal work, Hutchinson pushed legislation beneficial to Burris. Hutchinson was provided legal work to conceal the corrupt nature of his arrangement. Hutchinson stole over $10,000 in state campaign funds for his own personal use and also falsified his 2011 tax returns, including failing to report $20,000-per-month-payments he received from one law firm and other sources of income he knowingly and intentionally concealed from his taxes.

NZ, Australia want ‘urgent’ answers over Saudi sponsorship of Women’s World Cup

Co-hosts New Zealand and Australia said Thursday they “urgently” want answers from FIFA over reports Saudi Arabia’s tourist board will sponsor the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Visit Saudi is reportedly poised to be named among the sponsors of the 32-team soccer tournament to be held in New Zealand and Australia from July 20. The sponsorship deal looks set to go…

FTC Enforcement Action to Bar GoodRx from Sharing Consumers’ Sensitive Health Info for Advertising

  The Federal Trade Commission has taken enforcement action for the first time under its Health Breach Notification Rule against the telehealth and prescription drug discount provider GoodRx Holdings Inc., for failing to notify consumers and others of its unauthorized disclosures of consumers’ personal health information to Facebook, Google, and other companies. In a first-of-its-kind proposed order, filed by the…

La Baguette LLC, Dynamic Integrated Solutions Inc, Priority Acquisitions Inc: False Claims Act – Improper Paycheck Protection Program Loans

Three California companies have agreed to pay a total of $530,000 to settle allegations that they knowingly violated the False Claims Act when they received and retained more than one Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan prior to Dec. 31, 2020, in violation of PPP rules.

Canadian province tries decriminalizing drugs to fight overdose crisis

The western Canadian province of British Columbia on Tuesday began a three-year pilot program to stop prosecuting people for carrying small amounts of heroin, meth, ecstasy, or crack cocaine, as part of an effort to fight a drug overdose crisis. B.C. accounts for about a third of the 32,000 deaths due to overdose and trafficking nationally since 2016, according to…

Prosecutors file charges in set shooting by Alec Baldwin

Actor Alec Baldwin and a weapons specialist have been formally charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a New Mexico movie set, according to court documents filed by prosecutors Tuesday. Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies filed the charging documents naming Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who supervised weapons on the set of the Western “Rust.”…

Gambit Matrix LLC: Former Florida CEO Sentenced to Prison for Tax Evasion (Jason Cory)

A former Jacksonville company CEO was sentenced yesterday to 32 months in prison for willfully attempting to evade the assessment of his federal income taxes. According to court documents and statements made in court, in 2015 and 2016, Jason Cory, 49, of Jacksonville, was a manager at a New York-based IT services company and from 2017 through 2019, he was the CEO of a different IT services company based in Jacksonville. From 2015 through 2018, Cory used his positions to cause more than $1.5 million to be deposited into the bank accounts of Gambit Matrix LLC, a shell company he controlled. As CEO, Cory caused transfers to Gambit Matrix under the false pretense that they were payments for consulting services that had never been provided.

World ‘dangerously unprepared’ for next crisis: Red Cross

All countries remain “dangerously unprepared” for the next pandemic, the Red Cross warned on Monday, saying future health crises could also collide with increasingly likely climate-related disasters. Despite three “brutal” years of the COVID-19 pandemic, strong preparedness systems are “severely lacking”, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said. The world’s largest humanitarian network said building…

Glenn Greenwald: Revealed – Mass Media Complicity in “Russian Disinformation” Fraud, w/ Matt Taibbi | SYSTEM UPDATE #30

Logan Square Aluminum Supply: Lead Violations

Today, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement with Logan Square Aluminum Supply Inc., resolving alleged violations of the federal Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting regulations, known as the RRP rule, at renovation projects Logan Square and its contractors performed in Chicago and Chicago suburbs.

Reports of drone attacks in Iran and Syria

Corruption Ledger does not not endorse or confirm the below content. Media is currently unverified. BREAKING MULTIPLE REPORTS: 🇬🇧UK-🇺🇲US-🇪🇺EU-armed military action targets 🇮🇷Iran humanitarian aid trucks loaded with flour and rice near Iraq-#Syria border as CIA boss arrives in Israel. (Video unverified) pic.twitter.com/tMy6YRB4WI — Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) January 29, 2023 Details on the #Iran Isfahan attack, which happened around 11:30…

AP: Ukraine Corruption Scandal; U.S. likely to OK sending Abrams tanks

Several senior Ukrainian officials, including front-line governors, lost their jobs Tuesday in a corruption scandal plaguing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government as it grapples with the nearly 11-month-old Russian invasion. Ukraine’s biggest government shake-up since the war began came as U.S. officials said Washington was poised to approve supplying Kyiv with M1 Abrams tanks, with international reluctance eroding toward sending tanks…