A veteran Pennsylvania congressman was convicted Tuesday in a racketeering case that largely centered on various efforts to repay an illegal $1 million campaign loan.
U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah was found guilty of all counts against him, including racketeering, fraud and money laundering. His lawyers had argued that the schemes were engineered without Fattah’s knowledge by two political consultants who pleaded guilty in the case.
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The nation’s chief law against racketeering applies to some activities outside of the United States, but private plaintiffs must claim a domestic injury, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled in a closely watched business case involving a major American cigarette and food producer.
In RJR Nabisco v. The European Community, the justices said the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act applies to “some” foreign activity, if the offenses violated another law that applied extraterritorially.
Police in Oklahoma are using scanners that can identify phony credit cards, but critics warn the devices could also allow cops to empty the bank accounts of law-abiding citizens with one swipe.
Authorities in the state are using the new devices during traffic stops to freeze and seize money loaded onto prepaid debit cards by alleged drug traffickers, with the potential to net up to $8,000 per portable scanner. Supporters of the program, which has only been in the field for about six weeks, say it’s an important tool for law enforcement agencies to interrupt the flow of illegal drugs into Oklahoma.
NEW YORK — A two count indictment unsealed Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court charged six people with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and/or money laundering. The indictments follow an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), United States Postal Inspection Service, Office of Inspector General (OIG).
The defendants allegedly conspired to transport cocaine through the U.S. mail from Puerto Rico to New York. On Wednesday, HSI agents arrested, Jermaine Sandifer, a U.S. postal carrier assigned to the Highbridge postal station in the Bronx.
Secretary of State John Kerry warned Wednesday that corruption is robbing governments around the globe of the money they should be collecting for themselves.
“[T]oday we see a corruption level that is stealing the future from people all over the world,” he said in Oslo, Norway. “Hard-earned revenue that should be going to the state – and I’m talking about whether it’s in Yemen, which saw billions of dollars stolen, or in Nigeria – and you can run the list.”
A bill aimed at reforming the Freedom of Information Act passed the House Monday and is headed to President Obama’s desk after years ofstalled attempts to address the open records law.
The legislation would set into law the “presumption” of disclosure that Obama encouraged federal agencies to adopt at the outset of his presidency.
A Navy officer pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court Thursday to felony charges he lied to investigators to conceal his illicit years-long relationship with Glenn “Fat Leonard” Francis, a foreign defense contractor at the center of a massive bribery and fraud scandal.
Navy Rear Adm. Robert Gilbeau, 55, is the highest-ranking Navy officer charged in the investigation so far, and is believed to be the first active-duty Naval flag officer ever charged in federal criminal court.
Gilbeau — who remains free on a $75,000 bond — faces a maximum of five years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 26 by U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino.
OKLAHOMA CITY –
You may have heard of civil asset forfeiture.
That’s where police can seize property and cash without first proving a person committed a crime; without a warrant and without arresting them, as long as they suspect that the property is somehow tied to a crime.
Now, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a device that also allows them to seize money on prepaid cards.
It’s called an ERAD, or Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machine, and OHP began using 16 of them last month.