Tag: Region Americas

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s Senate on Thursday passed a measure to abolish the autonomous bodies that regulate some economic sectors and ensure government transparency, a reform that has sparked outcry from the opposition and industry. Lawmakers in the upper chamber voted on the proposal’s general terms with 86 in favor and 42 against, with nearly the same tally coming in for the bill’s particular terms. It had passed in the lower house last week. The reform proposes scrapping autonomous agencies…

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….

WASHINGTON – The United States financed the purchase of Israeli spy software Pegasus for Colombian security forces in 2020, a senior US official said on Nov 8, a move made without informing then-President Ivan Duque. The US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, corroborated a report in the Colombian daily newspaper El Tiempo that the software was used to investigate drug traffickers. The official denied the use of the software – which can remotely access messages, calls and…

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…

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The United States has approved $2 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, including the first-time delivery to the self-ruled island of an advanced surface-to-air missile defense system, in a move sure to anger China. Taiwan’s presidential office on Saturday thanked Washington for greenlighting the potential arms sales. Under the island’s new president, Lai Ching-te, Taiwan has been stepping up defense measures as China increased its military threats against the territory it claims as its own. Beijing…

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…

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,…

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…

OTTAWA – Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Oct 16 there were “clear indications” that India had violated Canadian sovereignty, as the countries row over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil last year that Ottawa blamed on New Delhi. Trudeau’s latest charge came two days after India and Canada expelled each other’s ambassadors as Ottawa alleged that Indian involvement in a campaign against Sikh separatists went beyond what was previously known. Tensions have soared since Canada…

New Delhi says Canada’s accusations against Indian diplomats and their expulsion is a politically driven move to show action amid criticism Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has turned a blind eye to foreign interference. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs says the move is strategically timed to coincide with Trudeau’s appearance at the Foreign Interference Commission, which has been mainly focused on China’s meddling in Canada. “Under criticism for turning a blind eye to foreign interference in Canadian politics, his Government…

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment yesterday charging a Maryland man with major fraud against the United States and making false statements to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for his alleged participation in a scheme to deceive the SEC into thinking his company’s data center was certified at the highest rating level for reliability, availability, and security, when it was not. According to the indictment, Deepak Jain, 49, of Potomac, was the…

According to a report from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on Oct. 10th, TD Bank’s U.S. wing agreed to pay over $3 billion in penalties. The fine was for failing to properly monitor money laundering activities. The bank has also accepted limits on its future growth in the U.S. FinCEN found that TD Bank facilitated over $1 billion in transfers linked to two crypto exchanges — one based in the United Kingdom and the other in Colombia. TD Bank…

Canada-based financial institution TD Bank has announced its agreement to pay over USD 3 billion, pleading guilty to criminal charges related to money laundering in the US. As detailed by regulators, the fine follows TD Bank’s failure to appropriately monitor money laundering by drug cartels and other criminals, allowing them to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in unlawful funds. In addition, the bank did not enforce sufficient defences against money laundering for nearly 10 years. It did not efficiently…