Category Archives: Corruption

Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years In Massive Juvenile Justice Bribery Scandal

A Pennsylvania judge was sentenced to 28 years in prison in connection to a bribery scandal that roiled the state’s juvenile justice system. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was convicted of taking $1 million in bribes from developers of juvenile detention centers. The judge then presided over cases that would send juveniles to those same centers. The case came to be known as “kids-for-cash.”

Source

Federal Judge Orders IRS to Disclose WH Requests for Taxpayer Info

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Internal Revenue Service to reveal White House requests for taxpayers’ private information, advancing a probe into whether administration officials targeted political opponents by revealing such information.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the IRS’s argument that a law designed to protect the confidentiality of such information protected the public disclosure of such communications with the White House.

Source

Was AG DeWine just coy?

There was a noticeable difference in Attorney General Mike DeWine’s demeanor and attitude from May 2014, when he announced the indictments in the Oakhill Renaissance corruption case, to last month, when he met with The Vindicator’s editorial board.

Last year, there was fire in DeWine’s eyes as he talked about the government corruption in the Mahoning Valley after the criminal indictment of Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, ex Mahoning County Auditor Michael Sciortino and Youngstown Atty. Martin Yavorcik was returned by a grand jury in Cleveland. The trio faces a slew of criminal charges, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, bribery, perjury and money laundering, and are to go on trial in March in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

– See more at: http://www.vindy.com/news/2015/aug/02/was-ag-dewine-just-coy/#sthash.QhB3Pkpl.dpuf

FBI enlisting public help to uncover corruption in Kentucky

— Federal crime-fighters started an outreach campaign Friday to recruit Kentuckians to help uncover government corruption and end the state’s “fairly sordid” history of scandals that rob trust in government, law enforcement officials said.

The FBI’s “End Corruption Now” campaign includes an anonymous, toll-free tip line and an email address to allow people to report suspicions of wrongdoing by public officials. A billboard campaign in several communities will publicize the effort.

Former mayor of Pa. capital charged with 499 criminal counts

The former longtime mayor of Harrisburg, Pa., was arrested Tuesday and charged with nearly 500 criminal counts, in part stemming from allegations he illegally used hundreds of thousands of dollars from city agencies to purchase historical items, the Harrisburg Patriot-News reported.

Stephen R. Reed, 65, whose term as Democratic mayor of Pennsylvania’s capital city spanned nearly three decades, was arraigned on 499 counts stemming from 17 criminal charges before Magisterial District Judge William Wenner.

Source

FDA Stole Our Stuff

Should our government be above the laws that are in place to police it? Should they be so powerful that even the FBI will cover-up and refuse to investigate? Should they be allowed to blatantly infringe on the patents of its people, steal ideas, and put small business out of business? This is EXACTLY what has happened to me. Right now I am fighting the battle of my professional life after the Food and Drug Administration infringed on my little company’s patent and knowingly reproduced software and distributed it freely to the food industry, without any compensation. This has put us out of business and will have us out on the street in a matter of months. The suit involves several other companies such as Battelle Labs, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and others who have yet to be served. After meeting with us and hearing the story, and being outraged and agreeing to help us, Congressmen and Senators have turned and covered it up and refused to help in the end. The FDA has gone on to black ball me personally, a 20 year, 70% disabled Army veteran, who has had a successful career in food safety for most of my adult life, and my company, hoping to scare us off and make us disappear. We need your help to break this story and let the public know. Will you be brave enough to report the truth? We are not the only private company that the government has stolen from. Please visit our website to read more information. Stealing patented ideas from private industry will run this country into the ground. What is the point of devoting time, effort, and money to an idea if the government can steal it without compensation, patent or not? This must stop!!! Website: www.jgpis.org Please feel free to contact Bruce Becker at 540-645-1050, or [email protected]. Thank you for your time. Please see related links below.

For Immediate Release: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration FDA gets caught and admits that it’s guilty in one of the biggest thefts of intellectual property in history.

On June 21, 2015, the Acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Stephen Ostroff, admitted to one of the largest thefts of intellectual property of all time.The technology involves patents and trade secrets for what is called “predictive analytics.” Predictive analytics involves the harvesting of “big data” that is then analyzed by supercomputers to predict the future. If you are wondering just how big the market is for this revolutionary technology, take a look at the numbers. The predictive analytics market is expected to grow to $5.24 billion by 2018 at an annual CAGR of 25.2% making it one of the biggest and fastest growing market segments in the economy. On May 7, 2015, Acting Commissioner Ostroff was personally served with an affidavit giving the agency 45 days, 15 days more than legally required, to refute allegations that it stole a small company’s predictive analytics patents and trade secrets, which are valued at billions of dollars in today’s market. According to Dr. John Hnatio, one of the owners of the small company, FoodQuestTQ LLC, “Dr. Ostroff’s failure to refute the facts now legally stands as an admission of guilt that the FDA intentionally stole our technology. This represents a watershed moment for technology entrepreneurs across the nation who, every day, face the theft of their intellectual property by the U.S. Government. In far too many cases, these small companies do not have the resources to defend themselves from the government Goliath,” he said. The actions by the small company represent a landmark victory in preventing the government from simply stealing the technology of small businesses. “What FoodQuestTQ has done, is a strategic legal departure from relying exclusively on abstract codes or text, and an overburdened court system,” says Mr. Bruce Becker, another FoodQuestTQ entrepreneur. Becker goes on to say, “Instead of relying solely on government statutes, we have turned to the use of common law, which allows judges to rely on their predecessors’ decisions of actual controversies. It’s a whole new ballgame.”

Private sector companies, including the 300 member companies of the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Battelle Memorial Institute, have received similar affidavits from FoodQuestTQ LLC but have not yet responded. Hnatio says, “Any company out there that stole our technology can be sure of one thing. We will aggressively pursue you. The entire future of small business is at stake here.”

As of press time we have received no response to our request for comments from Dr. Ostroff at the FDA.

You can see the FDA affidavit of truth and other pending legal actions by FoodQuestTQ LLC involving the Grocery Manufacturers Association and FDA contractor Battelle Memorial Institute at: https://jgpis.org/

Related articles and updates:

Italian money laundering reports jump to all-time high in 2014

ROME, July 13 (Reuters) – Reports of suspicious bank transactions in Italy jumped 10 percent to a record high last year as the pervasive problems of organized crime, corruption and tax evasion were exacerbated by a three-year economic slump, the central bank said on Monday.

The financial downturn had given cash-rich mafia groups the opportunity to tighten their grip on the economy as, with banks reducing lending, the criminal networks boosted their investments in the real economy, investigators have said.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20150713_Reuters_L5N0ZT24E_Italian_money_laundering_reports_jump_to_all_time_high_in_2014.html#pgiSjad0KO5gFx4o.99