All posts by brucebecker

Human Slavery

The Real FIFA Scandal is Not About Bribes, Kickbacks and Money Laundered: It’s 1,200 Dead Workers in Qatar

Will the deaths of 1,200 workers in Qatar building the 2022 World Cup facilities be a simple footnote in the ugly face of football?

Will our insatiable appetite for an electrifying sport make us oblivious to a crime of Gulag proportions?

According to an investigation by The Guardian published in December 2014, guest workers imported to Qatar to build the pharaonic World Cup Soccer infrastructure are dying at alarming rates: “A report by the International Trade Union Confederation has estimated 1,200 deaths so far, with up to 4,000 additional worker deaths by 2022”.

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Security Failure

EXCLUSIVE: Undercover DHS Tests Find Security Failures at US Airports

An internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials, ABC News has learned.

The series of tests were conducted by Homeland Security Red Teams who pose as passengers, setting out to beat the system.

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Murder

SATANIC CULT LINKED TO MURDER OF 6-YEAR-OLD MEXICAN BOY

The horrific torture and murder of a six year-old Mexican boy by five other children, that prosecutors say is evidence of “social decomposition” and an “absence of values,” is now believed to be linked to a satanic cult.

In Chihuahua, Mexico, Christopher Marquez, 6, had been invited to play a “kidnap game” by five other children – a boy, age 12, two girls of age 13, and two other boys of age 15. As the Daily Mail reported last week, during the “game,” the older children tied up Christopher’s hands and feet, then beat him with a stick. Finally, the alleged murderers stoned and suffocated the young child, then stabbed him in the back and buried him face-down in a hand-dug shallow grave, in which they also dumped some weeds and a dead animal.

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Money laundering

MAJOR US BANKS CLOSING BORDER BRANCHES TO FIGHT MONEY LAUNDERING

As more money continues to flow into the pockets of Mexican drug cartels, traffickers need to maintain a solid network of places—often along the southwest border—where they can launder drug money. However, in an attempt to stymie these efforts, several major US banks have been closing numerous branches in the region and shutting down hundreds of customer accounts.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the Arizona border town of Nogales, population 21,000, is feeling the financial pinch most strongly. In the past several months, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc.-owned Banamex USA have shut a total of four branches in Nogales, almost halving the number in town owned by big US banks, per the Journal. Separately, hundreds of Chase and Wells Fargo & Co. customers, some of them second- and third-generation business owners, have had their bank accounts closed.

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Conspiracy, Money laundering, Obstruction of Justice

Jury Convicts Houston Lawyer on 18 Criminal Charges

A jury found Houston criminal defense attorney Abraham Moses Fisch guilty on May 27 of 18 criminal charges in connection with an alleged conspiracy to defraud defendants who were facing federal criminal charges in Houston.

A jury in U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal’s court in the Southern District of Texas found Fisch guilty of one charge of conspiracy, four counts of obstruction of justice, seven counts of money laundering, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and five counts of failure to file tax returns. He was found not guilty of one count of corrupt endeavor to impede the due administration of the Internal Revenue Code.

Read more: http://www.texaslawyer.com/id=1202727838129/Jury-Convicts-Houston-Lawyer-on-18-Criminal-Charges#ixzz3bdKZR2ev

Fraud

Feds: Doc’s ‘patients poisoned for money’

Stating that Dr. Farid Fata “ordered his patients poisoned for money,” federal prosecutors are seeking life in prison for the oncologist who built a storefront Rochester clinic into a medical empire before federal agents closed his offices in August 2013.

Fata pleaded guilty last September to multiple counts of fraudulent billing, participating in a kickback scheme and money laundering. A sentencing hearing is set to begin July 6.

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Corruption

Illinois Near Top of Corruption List

The new standings are out, and Illinois remains No. 3 in the nation when it comes to political corruption.  This is according to a University of Illinois study of 2013 data. On a per capita basis, only Louisiana and the District of Columbia had more political and government corruption convictions in federal court than Illinois did. Political science professor Dick Simpson says it’s part of the culture here, going back centuries, which he blames on political machines in many Illinois…

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Fraud

Federal prosecutors indict 15 Chinese citizens in student visa fraud scheme

PITTSBURGH –  Fifteen Chinese citizens conspired to take college entrance exams on behalf of others or paid to have that done for them so they could obtain student visas, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The newly unsealed indictment contends the alleged conspirators scammed tests run by Educational Testing Service and the College Board — such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT.

The alleged scheme involves test-takers and students who benefited from tests administered since 2011. Investigators weren’t saying which, or how many, schools the students may have entered fraudulently.

Six named in the indictment were identified as students who paid up to $6,000 to have others charged take the tests. Five defendants were test-takers, including Han Tong, 24, who flew to California from Pittsburgh to take an SAT test for one person, the indictment says.

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General Information

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Indicted

CHICAGO—Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges related to bank withdrawals of large sums of money that he allegedly paid to keep someone quiet about his “prior misconduct.”

Mr. Hastert is charged with intentionally withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in increments of less than $10,000 to avoid federal reporting requirements designed to prevent money laundering. The Republican also is charged with lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the withdrawals, telling agents he was taking the money out because he didn’t feel safe using the banking system.

The indictment alleges the money was going to someone identified only as “Individual A,” who had known Mr. Hastert for most of the person’s life. In 2010, Mr. Hastert agreed to pay this person $3.5 million “to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against Individual A,” the indictment said.

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Corruption

2, not 12 policemen detained over suspected human trafficking

The Home Ministry clarified that only two policemen were suspected to be involved in human trafficking, contrary to reported 12 who were detained over the crime.

Deputy Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar today said another two policemen and 10 enforcement officers from various agencies were nabbed for “ordinary smuggling” which, he explained, had nothing to do with human trafficking.

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