Tag: Region Europe

Hakan Agro DMCC, Hakan Organics DMCC, and Several Individuals Charged with Multimillion-Dollar Organic Grain Fraud Scheme

Two Dubai entities and several individuals were charged in an indictment unsealed in the District of Maryland recently for their roles in a multimillion-dollar scheme to export non-organic grain into the United States to be sold as certified organic. Hakan Agro DMCC and Hakan Organics DMCC, both based in Dubai, and Goksal Beyaz, Nuray Beyaz and Mustafa Cakiroglu, all of…

Germany arrests intelligence service employee, Carsten L, suspected of spying for Russia

German authorities said on Thursday they had arrested an employee of its foreign intelligence service (BND) on suspicion of sharing state secrets with Russia this year and thereby committing treason. Police arrested the suspect, a German citizen identified as Carsten L, on Wednesday in Berlin, the federal prosecutors office said. It said police also raided his flat and workplace as…

Turkey fumes at Sweden in NATO membership dispute

Turkey on Tuesday lashed out at Sweden’s refusal to extradite a top reporter that Ankara has demanded in exchange for its ratification of Stockholm’s NATO membership bid. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Sweden to return dozens of people that he suspects either of involvement in a failed 2016 coup or of membership of a banned Kurdish militia that Washington and…

Federal Financial Aid Fraud Scheme: Apex School of Theology Sham University

Five individuals were sentenced yesterday for conspiring to defraud the U.S. Department of Education’s financial aid programs of over $12 million in federal funds. According to court documents, from around August 2010 through May 2018, the defendants created and ran an elaborate sham university – the Columbus, Georgia, satellite campus of Apex School of Theology (Apex Columbus). Anderson, the former…

US ‘botched’ executions reach all-time high, report finds

Los Angeles, California – While the use of the death penalty continues to decline in the United States, a new report has found that “botched” executions reached a new high this year. In its annual report on the use of capital punishment in the country, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) said on Friday that seven of the 20 attempted…

Increasing US Enforcement Action for Sanctions Violations by Crypto Exchanges Likely to Have Ripple Effect in UK and Europe

The investigation and enforcement of potential sanctions violations by crypto exchanges is an area of focus in the US at present.  The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) recent settlement with Kraken, a global virtual currency exchange, is the most recent OFAC case demonstrating the risks for virtual currency platforms that process transactions without comprehensive…

Effective Arms-Control Measures Needed to Block Diversion of Ukraine Weapons, Senior United Nations Disarmament Official Tells Security Council

States must apply effective arms-control measures to prevent the diversion of weapons supplied to Ukraine, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as some Council members defended their decision to continue providing military support to Kyiv while others detailed the danger of doing so. Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said that the transfer of materiel…

As Sean Hannity’s (Fox News) former director awaits extradition to US for entangled sanctions mess with Russia, Konstantin Malofeyev’s US bank account was just seized

Prosecutors on Wednesday moved to confiscate $5.4 million from a U.S. bank account belonging to Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev, who Washington has accused of financing separatists in eastern Ukraine and Crimea and imposed sanctions on him. (Reuters) Konstantin Malofeyev is the founder of Tsargrad TV, and has been reported in western media to be a regular “consultant” to the Kremlin….

Italian Supreme Court Grants Global Delisting Order Under National Law

On November 15, 2022, the Italian Supreme Court held that an Italian court or competent data protection authority has jurisdiction to issue a global delisting order. A delisting order requires a search engine to remove certain search results about individuals if the data subject’s privacy interests prevail over the general right to expression and information, and the economic interest of…

Airbus to pay $16 million fine to end French corruption probe (bribery involving Libya and Kazakhstan sales)

French financial prosecutors say a Paris court has approved an agreement with Airbus that will see the plane maker pay a 15.8-million-euro ($16.3 million) fine A Paris court on Wednesday approved an agreement under which Airbus will pay a 15.8-million-euro ($16.3 million) fine to end a corruption probe focusing on sales to Libya and Kazakhstan over a decade ago, French…

Broker for Israeli Arms to Myanmar Arrested in Thailand for Drug Dealing and Money Laundering

Haaretz Daily Newspaper reports: Documents reveal that a corporation implicated in corruption, served as a middleman between Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Elbit (publicly traded co), Israel Shipyards (publicly traded co) and Myanmar’s brutal junta, despite international sanctions over the Rohingya genocide. Company Company Relation Location Industry Description Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) Parent Israel Aircraft Engines Elta Systems Ltd Subsidiary…

“Cash is King” to Avoiding US Sanctions

Miami – It was a deal that brought together oligarchs from some of America’s top adversaries. ‘The key is the cash,’ the oil broker wrote in a text message, offering a deep discount on Venezuelan crude shipments to an associate who claimed to be fronting for the owner of Russia’s biggest aluminum company. ‘As soon as you are ready with…

Leaked: Unintentional whistleblower Berlusconi tells “true story” of the Russia/Ukraine “massacre”

Ukraine throws damns this treaty to hell [less dramatic translation: violates the treaty] a year later, and begins attacking the borders of the two republics…Desperate, the two republics send a delegation to Moscow and finally manage to talk to Putin.

Russian Sanctions Update: Will “Biting” Eighth EU Sanctions Package Prohibit Legal Services?

“Russia should not benefit from European knowledge and expertise.”  That is the view of European Commission (“EC”) President Ursula von der Leyen, who recently proposed an eighth package of sanctions against Russia in response to “escalation” in Ukraine. Among the “biting” new sanctions will be a wider ban on the provision of European services to Russia.  The list of banned…

Russia asks for UNSC meeting to discuss strikes on Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

Russia claims that Ukrainian forces have repeatedly launched targeted attacks hitting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a sensitive area known as the largest nuclear power plant in Europe with at least six operating reactors. On August 7, the military-civilian administration of Energodar city, located in the north-western part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Ukraine, accused Ukrainian forces of launching a 220…

Only half of G20 support US-led drive to isolate Russia and China -Bloomberg

Aug 5, 2022. The US-Led Drive to Isolate Russia and China Is Falling Short While the US and its allies have sanctioned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, half of the countries in the Group of Twenty have not signed up. When Group of Seven leaders gathered in the Bavarian Alps in June, they pledged to stand with Ukraine for…