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Girl charged with threatening decide

Texas woman arrested on charges of threatening a special judge

A Texas woman has been charged with threatening to kill the federal judge who presided over a dispute between former President Donald Trump and the Justice Department over records seized in an FBI raid on Trump’s home last month.

An FBI special agent said Tiffani Shea Gish of Houston left three threatening voicemails on the chamber phone of US District Court Judge Aileen Cannon in South Florida, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday.

Gish identified herself as fictional Russian agent Evelyn Salt and claimed to be “in charge of nuclear power” for the government, a federal agent and “Trump’s hitman” who had a “license to kill,” according to transcribed excerpts of the calls included in the complaint.

Gish’s alias is the same name as the protagonist played by Angelina Jolie in the 2010 action film Salt.

A detailed ownership list of documents and other items seized from former US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate will be viewed after the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida in West Palm Beach, Florida, opened to the public. September 2, 2022.

Jim Castle | Reuters

Trump is “marked for assassination, and so are you,” Gish said in the expletive-filled messages showing the complaint. “You’re full of shit and I’m going to have you fucking shoot yourself. I’ve already ordered snipers and a bomb to your damn house,” Gish allegedly told the voicemails, all of which were created on September 1.

When agents arrived at her home on Sept. 4, Gish initially only spoke through a balcony window, but eventually invited the agents in and spoke to them for about 45 minutes, the complaint says. Gish said in that interview that she left the voicemails from her cell phone and also confirmed that according to the complaint, she owned a Facebook account with posts using the language of the voicemails.

Gish was charged in the US District Court in Houston with one count of influencing a federal official through threats and one count of interstate communications involving threats to kidnap or injure him.

Judge Peter Bray on Friday ordered Gish held in custody, saying she “appears to be suffering from severe mental impairment with symptoms including paranoia and delusions”.

A federal prosecutor had asked for a competency check on Gish, writing in a court filing that her “past conduct demonstrates delusional behavior in claiming to be a CIA agent, a Navy SEAL, an Army Ranger, and someone involved in nuclear weapons or war.” familiar, while at the same time shuffling threats against officials like former President Donald Trump or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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In March, a US intelligence agent called Gish’s mother, who “claimed that her daughter had severe bipolar disorder and was borderline schizophrenic,” according to court filings.

“While she did not feel that Gish would physically harm the former president, she was still afraid of her daughter and refused to see her in person for fear she would be attacked,” prosecutors wrote.

A competency hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. Gish’s attorneys did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Gish left the voicemails for Cannon, a Trump appointee, as the former president’s attorneys and the DOJ argued over whether the judge should appoint a special master to review the thousands of government records released from Trump’s home last month Mar-a- Lago in Florida were confiscated. This court-appointed independent third party would examine the seized records, many of which bore high-level classifications of non-disclosure, for personal belongings and potentially privileged material.

Cannon approved the appointment of a special champion last week, earning a win for Trump. The DOJ, which argued that a special master was unnecessary and could harm the government’s national security interests, is appealing Cannon’s verdict. The department also wants Cannon to suspend her related order to prevent the government from further reviewing classified documents stolen in the raid.

Trump’s lawyers asked Cannon on Monday to deny that request.

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Politics

Florida man Stephen Alford, linked to alleged Gaetz plot, charged in $25 million scheme

Florida man Stephen Alford, linked to alleged Gaetz plot, charged in $25 million scheme

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) walks out of the committee room during a hearing with the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information System in the Rayburn House Office Building on May 14, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

A man reportedly at the center of an alleged extortion plot involving Rep. Matt Gaetz and his family has been charged with engaging in a scheme to defraud a victim out of $25 million, in part by falsely promising he could secure a presidential pardon.

A grand jury charged Florida resident Stephen Alford, 62, with wire fraud in connection with the pardon scheme, carried out between March 16 and April 7, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Alford was also charged with attempting to stop the seizure of his iPhone by the government, said the grand jury indictment, which was signed by a U.S. magistrate judge on Aug. 18.

Alford was arrested earlier Tuesday and made his initial appearance in federal court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida said in a press release. He faces up to 25 years imprisonment on the charged crimes, according to the prosecutors’ office.

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Gaetz, R-Fla., a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, is being investigated by the Department of Justice about whether the 39-year-old congressman had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, The New York Times reported in March.

Gaetz, at the time that report came out, had linked that DOJ probe with the alleged $25 million “organized criminal extortion” scheme against him and his father, Don Gaetz.

Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing. He has not been charged with a crime.

A Times report from April 1, which described Alford as a real estate agent with a prior fraud conviction, said that he and a former Air Force intelligence officer named Robert Kent approached Don Gaetz about providing funding for an attempt to rescue an American hostage in Iran.

They reportedly told Don Gaetz, 73, that securing that hostage, Robert Levinson, could help clinch a pardon for his son in case he was charged with federal crimes.

Don Gaetz then hired a lawyer and contacted the FBI, the Times reported. Kent denied the allegations.

The grand jury indictment did not refer to Matt Gaetz, Don Gaetz, Levinson or Kent by their full names.

Instead, it said that Alford gave “Person A” the phone number of “D.G.” in order to “discuss the purported release of R.L. from captivity in Iran and a purported ‘current federal investigation’ into Family Member A of D.G.”

In a text message, “it was conveyed to D.G. that Person A’s ‘partner will see to it that [Family Member A] receives a Presidential Pardon, thus alleviating all his legal issues,” the indictment alleged.

Alford then wrote a letter, titled “Project Homecoming,” which made claims about an “‘investigation by the FBI for various public corruption and public integrity issues’ related to Family Member A,” as well as a “Presidential Pardon” and the request for $25 million to “‘immediately fund the release’ of R.L.,” according to the indictment.

The letter allegedly instructed that the money was to be “deposited into a trust account of Law Firm A.”

Alford’s letter also falsely asserted that his “‘team has been assured by the President’ that he will ‘strongly consider’ a ‘Presidential Pardon,'” or tell the Justice Department to quash any probe of “Family Member A” if R.L. is released from captivity, the indictment said.

Alford also falsely told D.G., “I will assure you that [Family Member A] will get off his problems” and claimed he could “guarantee” that that family member “would not go to prison.”

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Politics

Courtroom Paperwork Establish Sailor Charged With Arson in Fireplace That Destroyed Ship

Court Documents Identify Sailor Charged With Arson in Fire That Destroyed Ship

WASHINGTON — Investigators have identified the Navy sailor accused of starting a fire that engulfed the warship Bonhomme Richard and burned for days at a Navy base in San Diego last year.

The sailor, Ryan Sawyer Mays, 20, joined the service in May 2019 and holds the rank of seaman apprentice, according to Navy records. The Navy formally charged Seaman Mays with aggravated arson and hazarding a vessel last month but declined to provide additional details until federal search warrants were unsealed by a federal court in San Diego on Tuesday.

Documents filed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service describe a sailor who “hated” the Navy after being sent to a warship following a brief stint as a SEAL trainee in late 2019.

Seaman Mays quit the difficult six-month initial SEAL training course in Coronado, Calif., after just five days, according to the filing.

The fire, one of the worst to engulf an American warship outside combat, rendered the ship inoperative while it was pierside at the base. More than 400 sailors from 16 nearby ships fought the blaze, which reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees and took four days to extinguish.

A lawyer representing Seaman Mays said his client had “maintained his innocence throughout this entire ordeal.”

“He’s presumed innocent, and we look forward for the opportunity to review the evidence and presenting a case on his behalf,” the lawyer, Gary S. Barthel, said in an interview on Wednesday.

Seaman Mays, whose identity was reported earlier by The Daily Beast, was confined in a Navy brig from late August to approximately mid-October 2020 and then released, according to Mr. Barthel. It is unclear why the Navy freed Seaman Mays months before he was formally charged.

After his release from the brig, Seaman Mays reported to the staff of Amphibious Squadron 5 in San Diego, where he is currently assigned.

“He’s expected to perform his duties as he would any other day of the week as any other sailor would,” Mr. Barthel said of his client. “There are no restrictions on his movement.”

Mr. Barthel said his client voluntarily quit the SEAL program, and hopes to re-enter training in the future.

“I think he’d like to go back if given the opportunity, if he meets all the other qualifications,” Mr. Barthel said.

A spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, which oversees SEAL training, could not immediately confirm the details described by N.C.I.S.

Navy records show that Seaman Mays left the Naval Special Warfare training center on March 6, 2020, and reported to the Bonhomme Richard on March 23.

The N.C.I.S. report said that the Bonhomme Richard’s command master chief — the ship’s senior-most enlisted sailor and a top adviser to the commanding officer — described Seaman Mays as “a person who showed disdain towards authority and the U.S. Navy.” The report further noted that “the morale and behavior of sailors who had aspired to become a SEAL, and then find themselves serving in a more traditional role on a Navy ship, are frequently very challenging.”

Seaman Mays was assigned to the Bonhomme Richard’s Deck Division, which is responsible for maintaining the physical condition of the ship — a job often involving manual labor such as removing rust and painting.

The warship was undergoing an extended maintenance period and was moored when the blaze broke out on a Sunday morning, when fewer than 200 sailors were aboard. The unsealed documents said that Seaman Mays was on duty aboard the ship that day.

Navy officials deemed the 800-foot-long amphibious warship a total loss after repair estimates rose to more than $3 billion. The ship was decommissioned on April 14, and towed through the Panama Canal. It will be cut into scrap metal in Texas.

According to the N.C.I.S., a witness identified Seaman Mays as the only person who entered a vehicle storage area deep within the ship the morning of the fire, shortly before smoke was seen rising from that compartment. The report said that he may have left the storage area through an escape trunk and returned to his berthing area. A second sailor recalled Seaman Mays coming into the berthing area to “tell everyone to get off the ship because the ship was on fire.”

Seaman Mays filled out a questionnaire for investigators eight days after the fire broke out, and was the only member of the crew aboard the ship on July 12, 2020, who reported smelling a “burning fuel/rubbery smell” from the fire, the documents said. Investigators said the terminology Seaman Mays used to describe the smell of the fire was “consistent with items and materials” that special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found in the vehicle storage compartment after the fire was extinguished.

Seaman Mays faces a preliminary hearing known as an Article 32 investigation, the results of which will either recommend he be sent to a court-martial or have the charges dismissed. The final decision on whether Seaman Mays will face trial will be made by the commander of the Navy’s Third Fleet, Vice Adm. Steve Koehler.

Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a spokesman for Third Fleet, confirmed that “Seaman Apprentice Ryan Sawyer Mays is the sailor who was charged July 29,” and said, “I have nothing further to add.”

Seamus Hughes contributed research.

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Politics

Chinese language prosecutor, ex-NYPD cop charged with stalking U.S. residents

Chinese prosecutor, ex-NYPD cop charged with stalking U.S. residents

A Chinese soldier stands guard in front of Tiananmen Gate outside the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Getty Images

A prosecutor from China, a former New York City Police Department detective sergeant and seven other people were indicted Thursday on charges related to a brazen campaign to stalk and harass U.S. residents in an effort to get one of them to return to China.

The new indictment alleges that the nine defendants acted at the direction of officials from the People’s Republic of China, in an effort known as “Operation Fox Hunt,” to repatriate the target from the United States.

The plan included threatening one of the two New Jersey residents who were targets of the campaign with harm to one of the target’s family if he did not return to China, where he purportedly was wanted by the government for accepting bribes.

The New Jersey residents’ adult daughter also was the target of stalking and harassment, the indictment says.

One of the defendants, Tu Lan, was employed as a prosecutor with the Hanyang People’s Procuratorate.

Lan “traveled to the United States, directed the harassment campaign and ordered a co-conspirator to destroy evidence to obstruct the criminal investigation,” according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, which is prosecuting the case.

Lan and another defendant, Zhai Yongqiang, were added to an existing prosecution of six others previously charged in the case.

One of those prior defendants is Michael McMahon, a Mahwah, New Jersey, resident and retired NYPD detective sergeant who had become a private investigator.

McMahon, 53, is accused of working with several other defendants in the case to gather intelligence about and locate two people, identified as John Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2, after earlier efforts to get them to return to China failed.

McMahon didn’t know he was acting on behalf of the Chinese government as he performed work as a private investigator, said his attorney Lawrence Lustberg.

“In fact, far from having conspired with anyone, or of having committed any crimes, Mike was himself a victim of the Chinese, who deceived and duped him and never told him that he was working for them, as opposed to for a construction company – which is what they said,” the attorney said. “Rather than accusing him, our government should have protected him.”

All the defendants are accused of acting and conspiring to act as illegal agents of China without prior notification to the U.S. attorney general, and with engaging in and conspiring in interstate and international stalking.

“Unregistered, roving agents of a foreign power are not permitted to engage in secret surveillance of U.S. residents on American soil, and their illegal conduct will be met with the full force of U.S. law,” said acting U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn Jacquelyn Kasulis.

The indictments were announced hours after ProPublica published an article about Operation Fox Hunt and its targeting of the individuals in New Jersey.

The news outlet noted that Operation Fox Hunt and a program called Operation Sky Net, which were both launched by China in 2014, “claim to have caught more than 8,000 international fugitives.”

“The targets are not murderers or drug lords, but Chinese public officials and businesspeople accused — justifiably and not — of financial crimes,” ProPublica wrote.

“Some of them have set up high-rolling lives overseas with lush mansions and millions in offshore accounts. But others are dissidents, whistleblowers or relatively minor figures swept up in provincial conflicts.”

ProPublica reported that McMahon is from a family of cops and firefighters, and during 14 years of service at the NYPD had won the department’s second-highest honor, the Police Combat Cross, and later retired on partial disability related to ailments from working at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.

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The Chinese government in 2012 and 2014 caused the international police agency Interpol to issue so-called red notices for the Does, with the documents accusing John Doe of embezzlement, abuse of power and accepting bribes. Those charges carry a maximum possible sentence of death under Chinese law.

McMahon was hired by one of the defendants, Chinese government official Hu Ji in around September 2016, the indictment says, and later sent that Ji, information that included Jane Doe’s international travel details, and her daughter’s date of birth, Social Security number and banking information.

“After multiple months of investigative work” by McMahon, “the co-conspirators planned a specific rendition operation to stalk and repatriate John Doe #1 through psychological coercion,” the indictment said.

Prosecutors said that in April 2017, at the direction of Lan and Li, the elderly father of John Doe #1 was transported from China to the United States “to convey a threat to John Doe #1 that his family in the PRC would be harmed” with either imprisonment or the threat of that if he did not return to the PRC.”

“Tu Lan then traveled to the United States along with John Doe #1’s father and a medical doctor, Li Minjun,” prosecutors said in the press release. “While in the United States, Tu Lan directed several conspirators to surveil John Doe #1 and his family so the defendants would know where to bring John Doe #1’s father to deliver the demand that John Doe #1 return to the PRC.”

As part of that effort, the indictment says, McMahon performed surveillance around a house belonging to relatives of Doe.

In September 2018, prosecutors said, two of the defendants drove to the Does’ New Jersey residence and “pounded on the front door,” prosecutors said.

“The two defendants attempted to force open the door to the residence, then left a note at the residence that stated ‘If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right. That’s the end of this matter!'” prosecutors said.

Lan, Ji, and two other defendants in the new superseding indictment, Li Minjun, Yongqiang and Zhu Feng, remain at large, according to prosecutors.

Three other defendants, McMahon, Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong will be arraigned in Brooklyn federal court at a later date.

The name of the ninth defendant is under seal.

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FTE Networks executives charged with securities fraud conspiracy

FTE Networks executives charged with securities fraud conspiracy

SEC report on FTE Networks’ management team: Michael Palleschi as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors and David Lethem, CFO.

Source: SEC

The former top executives of FTE Networks, a former telecommunications company whose shares were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange last year, were separately indicted on Thursday by the federal and Manhattan prosecutors on a number of criminal charges.

The two men, Michael Palleschi and David Lethem, have also been sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission on a civil lawsuit for the same conduct that underlies the criminal charges against them in federal court.

Palleschi, the ex-CEO of FTE Networks, and Lethem, the company’s former chief financial officer, are charged in federal proceedings and SEC complaint of a comprehensive plan to fraudulently conceal FTE Networks’ deteriorating financial condition from 2016 to 2019.

The men are also accused in these cases of embezzling millions of dollars from the company to pay for the use of private jets, luxury cars, personal credit cards, unauthorized transfers, stock issues and unapproved salary increases.

The grand jury’s indictment received from Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office allegedly stole more than $ 28 million in property trust from Manhattan-based Benchmark Builders as of November 2018.

The men allegedly diverted these assets from the company, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of FTE Networks, to repay millions in loans received from FTE. In this case, you are accused of serious first-degree theft.

Palleschi, a 46-year-old Naples, Florida resident, was arrested Thursday morning in New York state while Lethem, 62, was arrested in Florida.

They are due to appear in separate federal courts later on Thursday.

Palleschi was Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of FTE from 2014 to May 2019, while Lethem, of Fort Meyers, Florida, was CFO from June 2014 to March 2019.

The federal indictment accuses them of working with others in “a complex scheme to fraudulently misrepresent investors, lenders and accountants” that the company’s financial condition was better than it actually was.

The program, which allegedly ran from 2016 to 2019, included hiding the convertible and warrant features of the company’s $ 22 million convertible bonds and recognizing more than $ 12 million in fake revenue, the indictment said Grand jury that was unsealed on Thursday.

The obfuscation of the debt features eventually led FTE Networks to re-estimate a net loss of $ 92 million for 2017, the indictment reads.

This indictment states that Palleschi and Lethem, along with others, made these false statements and omitted key facts in financial documents “to mask a trend of rising RTD operating losses” and to avoid a fall in the company’s shares.

The indictment states that if FTE’s share price had fallen below certain levels, it would have resulted in debt clauses on the company and forced it into bankruptcy.

The two men are charged on six counts, including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire transfer fraud, improperly influencing the conduct of audits, and aggravated identity theft.

The case is being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, based in Manhattan.

“Palleschi and Lethem have instead chosen to lie about FTE’s finances to make the company appear financially healthier than it was, defrauding FTE’s shareholders and lenders,” said SDNY US attorney Audrey Strauss.

“Rather than being open to their investors, Palleschi and Lethem have chosen the easy way to make money by hiding the real financial health of RTD through fake documents and fake signatures.”

The SEC complaint accuses Palleschi and Lethem of directly violating or aiding and abetting violations of the anti-fraud, reporting, and proxy solicitation provisions of securities laws.

FTE Networks is currently renting out residential properties. The company’s current interim CEO, Michael Beys, is an attorney and former federal attorney in the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the sister jurisdiction of the SDNY.

Beys said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday, “The company has partnered and will continue to work with SDNY and SEC.”

“We look forward to justice being served,” Beys said.

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“The company continues to move forward and hopefully brings back value for shareholders in the company,” he said. “We are the good guys and will continue to try to recover from the chaos that Palleschi and Lethem have left behind.”

Benchmark Builders, which was acquired by FTE Networks in 2017, said Thursday that executives from that company had alerted the Manhattan prosecutor’s office to the alleged crimes of Palleschi and Lethem.

“Today’s charges are the culmination of a difficult decision we made to protect our subcontractors and customers in late 2018 when we contacted the Manhattan District Attorney about the misuse of trust funds,” Benchmark Builders said in an email to CNBC .

“We invested our own personal resources in the company to protect the subcontractors and their workers and parted ways with RTD almost 2 years ago,” the company said.

“Not a single subcontractor or customer was affected by these events, and not a single worker missed a paycheck. Construction in this city can be tough business, but we’ve always put integrity first and that’s what led to today’s events. We We are pleased to have this behind us and will work with a new focus on customer care.

The SEC lawsuit calls for permanent injunctions, penalties, and a ban on both men from acting as officers and directors of public companies, as well as “skip and prejudice interest and a recovery of the stock-based compensation paid to Palleschi during the alleged fraud.” said the SEC.

Eric Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami regional office, said: “The defendants have engaged in an outrageous scheme to fraudulently increase RTD revenues in order to misrepresent the company’s financial position while holding millions of dollars Abusing dollars for their own personal use. “

“We pledge to hold executives accountable who provide materially false financial reports to the public and those who rob companies for their personal gain,” said Bustillo.

FTE, based in New York and Naples, Fla., Had previously traded its shares on the OTCQX over-the-counter market, but was trading on the NYSE US market in December 2017.

It was suspended from trading on the NYSE two years later and delisted on May 21, 2020.

A press release released in late 2019 said the company was notified of delisting because the NYSE found that FTE or its management were engaged in “business that the exchange believed to be contrary to the public interest.”

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Health

Homeopathic Physician Is Charged With Promoting Pretend Covid-19 Vaccine Playing cards

Homeopathic Doctor Is Charged With Selling Fake Covid-19 Vaccine Cards

A homeopathic doctor in California is the first person to be charged by the federal government for selling fake Covid-19 vaccination cards, authorities said.

The doctor Juli A. Mazi from Napa, California, also sold Covid-19 “vaccine pellets” to patients, the federal prosecutor said. She was arrested on Wednesday and charged with wire fraud and false testimony regarding health matters, according to a criminal complaint. Ms. Mazi could face up to 20 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, authorities said.

Ms. Mazi sold pellets for $ 243, which she said contained a “very tiny amount” of the coronavirus that would trigger an immune response and provide “lifelong immunity to Covid-19,” the complaint said. To encourage customers to buy the pellets, prosecutors said Ms. Mazi falsely told them that the three Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in the US contained “toxic ingredients.”

It also offered homeopathic vaccinations for childhood diseases that it falsely claimed would meet vaccination requirements for California schools, the complaint said.

Ms. Mazi was not immediately available for comment. It wasn’t immediately clear whether she had a lawyer.

She describes herself on her website as a naturopathic doctor who received her PhD from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon. She is trained in “traditional medical sciences” and “ancient and modern modalities” that nature says use for healing.

It also offers “classic homeopathy”, a medical system developed in Germany more than 200 years ago. It uses the theory that a substance can be cured by a substance that causes similar symptoms and the notion that drugs are more effective at minimal dosages, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. There is little evidence that homeopathy is an effective treatment for disease, the center said, citing a 2015 assessment by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council. A number of concepts in homeopathy are inconsistent with basic scientific concepts agreed, said the center.

Authorities began investigating Ms. Mazi after someone filed a complaint in April that relatives bought her the Covid-19 vaccine tablets and had not received any of the approved Covid-19 vaccinations. In addition to the pellets, Ms. Mazi also sent the family’s Covid 19 vaccination cards, on which Moderna was listed, according to the prosecutor. She instructed them to mark the cards to falsely indicate that they received the vaccine on the day they ingested the pellets.

It is unclear how many people bought Covid-19 vaccine pellets from Ms. Mazi, but she received more than $ 200,000 through Square, a digital payment processing company, from January 2020 to May 2021, the complaint said. Most of the transactions did not specify the purpose of the payments, but 25 transactions worth more than $ 7,500 were recorded to indicate that the complaint was for Covid-19 treatments.

“This defendant allegedly betrayed and endangered the public by exploiting fears and spreading misinformation about FDA-approved vaccinations while selling counterfeit treatments that put people’s lives at risk,” said Lisa O. Monaco, assistant attorney general , in a statement. She added that using false vaccination cards allowed people to “bypass efforts to contain the spread of the disease”.

Steven J. Ryan, special envoy for the inspector general’s office for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the department will continue to investigate “scammers” who are misleading the public.

“This doctor has violated the important public trust in health professionals at a time when integrity is most needed,” he said in a statement.

In May, California authorities arrested the owner of a bar on charges of selling fake Covid-19 vaccination cards in his shop. There is also concern that people who share photos of their vaccination card with their name and date of birth could leave them at risk of identity theft or fraud.

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Politics

Trump Group expects to be charged Manhattan DA case

Trump Organization expects to be charged Manhattan DA case

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A spokesman for DA Cyrus Vance Jr. has repeatedly declined to comment on the investigation or the timing of possible charges.

Ronald Fischetti, a Trump organization attorney and company spokesman, did not immediately respond to requests from CNBC for comment.

If the Trump organization is convicted of a crime, the company could face fines or behavioral restrictions.

Fischetti told CNBC last week, “In my 50+ years of practice, I’ve never seen prosecutors target a company for employee compensation or fringe benefits.”

“The IRS did not want to and did not file such a case,” said the attorney. “Even the financial institutions that caused the 2008 financial crisis, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, have not been prosecuted.”

Fischetti also confirmed the likelihood of criminal charges against the company last week.

“It looks like they’re going to bring charges against the company, and that’s totally outrageous,” Fischetti told NBC News at the time.

“They couldn’t get Allen Weisselberg to cooperate and tell them what they wanted to hear and so they are going to pursue these allegations and they couldn’t get him to cooperate because he wouldn’t say that Donald Trump knew or Had information he “may not have properly deducted the use of cars or an apartment.”

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Males charged in shell firm inventory fraud scheme, used SEC filings

Men charged in shell company stock fraud scheme, used SEC filings

Three men have embarked on a brazen scheme to “secretly kidnap” and take over dormant mailbox companies, whose shares they then fraudulently inflated to sell to ignorant investors, according to the indictment, which was unsealed on Friday.

The 2017-2019 men allegedly used fake resignation letters to take control of four mailbox companies, then used the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR public filing system and fake press releases to fraudulently “pump up” their stock prices by seeking new business opportunities says.

Millions of shares of those stocks, which the defendants bought in many cases for less than 1 cent a share, were then sold over-the-counter by the men and others at gains of up to 900%, according to the court record.

The defendants – Mark Allen Miller, Christopher James Rajkaran and Saeid Jaberian, also known as Andre Jaberian – are charged in 15 cases of securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and wire transfer fraud.

The indictment states that Minnesota residents, Miller and Jaberian, as well as an unidentified person who is a relative of Miller, actually became the nominal CEOs and presidents of the companies affected by the scam.

Prosecutors believe the men made hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal profits just from the behavior described in the indictment, according to a spokeswoman for the US prosecutor in Minnesota.

The indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota, was first reported Friday on the Twitter account of Seamus Hughes, associate director of the Extremism Program at George Washington University.

Hughes regularly scours the federal court’s online archive system, PACER, for interesting criminal and civil litigation documents that were not previously reported.

The Securities and Exchange Commission did not immediately respond when CNBC asked if the agency had taken any action against the defendants and whether they had made changes to the EDGAR file system to prevent tampering by suspected fraudsters.

None of the defendants could be reached for comment.

Rajkaran, a resident of Queens, New York and Guyana, was arrested on Friday as a possible aviation hazard after appearing in court in Brooklyn, New York.

The other two defendants, Miller and Jaberian, are due to appear in federal court in Minnesota on July 2.

The four mailbox companies affected by the alleged conspiracy were Digitiliti, Encompass Holdings, Bell Buckle Holdings, and Utilicraft Aerospace Industries.

While the companies were supposedly doing business – online privacy services, computer software, debt collection, and aerospace – all were actually dormant mailbox companies “with no business or income to speak of,” the indictment said.

The companies had all stopped filing required documents with the SEC and the Secretary of State, but their shares were publicly traded on the over-the-counter market.

After the corporate quartet was identified, “the conspirators then bought shares in the dormant public letterbox companies at low prices on the OTC market,” the indictment said.

“The conspirators were able to buy hundreds of thousands or even millions of shares because the shares traded for a fraction of a penny per share.”

In the Digitiliti case, according to the indictment, Miller drafted a fake resignation letter and board minutes in September 2017, falsely stating that the company’s previous CEO had resigned and Miller had been appointed president and CEO.

Miller then filed with the SEC papers falsely identifying himself as the company’s new head and asked for “the login codes that allow him access to the company’s SEC-EDGAR filing account.”

This in turn “allowed Miller to make public filings with the SEC on behalf of the company.”

The EDGAR system is used by publicly traded companies to disclose material events, including quarterly and annual financial results, changes in management, and sales and purchases of significant amounts of company stock by insiders and others.

The indictment states that Miller bought 50,000 Digitiliti shares in November 2017.

“After Digitiliti’s kidnapping, the Defendant Miller used his control over the company to issue a false and misleading press release on behalf of the company,” the indictment stated.

“On or about July 9, 2018, Miller issued a press release falsely claiming that Digitiliti was ‘negotiating’ with a private company that is trying to ‘buy’ Digitiliti.”

The press release also falsely alleged that the private company “has a proven track record of generating revenue and succeeding in a highly desirable sector of the market,” according to the indictment.

Miller sold his 50,000 Digitiliti shares three weeks later.

During the alleged hijacking of Encompass Holdings from June to November 2017, Miller and Rajkaran together bought more than 40 million shares in the company at low prices, the indictment said.

As with Digitiliti, Miller claimed in a forged letter of resignation and board minutes that he had become president and CEO, the indictment said.

Rajkaran then began posting about the company on investorhub.com to “promote and raise the price of ECMH stock,” the indictment stated.

“For example, he announced that the new CEO is’ likely to have nearly 20 million real estate holdings”[s] and construction machinery … heard, he owns several shopping centers in Mn ‘, “the indictment reads.

Miller then released a press release falsely claiming that Encompass “had signed a letter of intent to acquire approximately $ 6.4 million in assets from DDG Properties. according to the indictment.

“None of that was true.”

The stock price rose in response to the allegations, and Miller shortly thereafter sold 12 million shares in the company at fraudulently inflated prices and made a gain of more than 300%, the indictment said.

Rajkaran achieved an earnings return of around 150% after dumping more than 34 million shares, according to the indictment.

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Politics

Fugees’ Pras, Jho Low charged in scheme to get Trump administration to drop probe

Fugees' Pras, Jho Low charged in scheme to get Trump administration to drop probe

In this April 23, 2015 file photo, Jho Low, Director of the Jynwel Foundation, poses at the launch of the Global Daily website in Washington, D.C.

Stuart Ramson | Invision for the United Nations Foundation

A federal grand jury has hit the fugitive Malaysia financier Jho Low and Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel with new criminal charges, accusing them of running a back-channel campaign to get the Trump administration to drop an investigation of Low and the 1MDB investment company and to have a Chinese dissident returned to China.

The new charges against Low, 39, and the 48-year-old Michel come six months after former President Donald Trump pardoned former top Republican fundraiser Elliot Broidy in connection with his guilty plea in October for his role in the illegal lobbying effort on Low’s behalf.

CNBC has reached out to Broidy’s lawyer to ask whether Broidy testified before the grand jury that indicted Low and Michel.

Because of his pardon, Broidy would be unable to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to testify at a grand jury investigating his activities related to Low and Michel.

Broidy, who is a Los Angeles-based businessman, was paid $9 million for his efforts on their behalf, with “the expectation of tens of millions more in success fees,” federal authorities have said.

Low and Michel were charged two years ago in federal court in Washington, D.C., with allegedly illegally funneling millions of dollars of Low’s money to support the 2012 presidential campaign of then-President Barack Obama.

Pras Michel of the Hip hop group the Fugees performs on August 1, 1996 in New York City, New York.

Al Pereira | Michael Ochs Archives | Getty Images

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The indictment issued Thursday by a grand jury in Washington accuses Low and Michel of conspiring with Broidy, a woman named Nickie Lum Davis and others “to engage in undisclosed lobbying campaigns at the direction of Low and the Vice Minister of Public Security for the People’s Republic of China, respectively,” according to the Justice Department.

The goals of those campaigns were “both to have the 1MDB embezzlement investigation and forfeiture proceedings involving Low and others dropped and to have a Chinese dissident sent back to China.”

That dissident is understood to be billionaire Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Kwok and Miles Guo.

The new indictment also accuses Michel and Low of conspiring to commit money laundering related to the foreign influence campaigns, the Justice Department said. Michel is additionally charged with witness tampering and conspiracy to make false statements to banks.

Davis pleaded guilty in August to violating the foreign lobbying act as part of the Justice Department’s probe involving 1MDB. 

Also in August, Trump’s former senior advisor Steve Bannon was arrested on Guo’s yacht, off the coast of Connecticut, on federal criminal charges accusing him and others of defrauding thousands of donors through a crowdfunding campaign to privately build sections of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump pardoned Bannon on his last night in office in January, the same time he pardoned Broidy.

The investment bank Goldman Sachs last year entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department related to the conspiracy in which the bank and its Malaysian unit violated U.S. bribery laws by paying Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials to get business from 1MDB.

Goldman, which received around $600 million in fees for bond deals that funded the bank, agreed to pay more than $2.9 billion as part of that deferred prosecution agreement.

Categories
Health

Joseph D. Mount Was Charged For Organizing a Hike of Extra Than 150 folks to the Grand Canyon.

Joseph D. Mount Was Charged For Organizing a Hike of More Than 150 people to the Grand Canyon.

The promoter of a Grand Canyon Adventure described it as an opportunity to hike along the South Rim, “one of the greatest hikes in the world”.

By September, at least 100 people from 12 different states had signed up for the one-day hike on Facebook. The organizer, Joseph Don Mount, said on Facebook that he hoped more people would sign up for the hike.

“If you want to keep inviting friends, I am determined to do this work for as many who want to leave,” Mount said, according to federal court records.

A tipster sent the Facebook post to officials in Grand Canyon National Park, where hikes were limited to no more than 11 people per group in response to the pandemic.

When a park official contacted Mr. Mount, he denied that he was planning a large-scale trip.

Still, he continued to promote the hike and organize cabin stays and shuttle rides for dozens of people according to court documents. By October 24, the day of the hike, more than 150 people had paid $ 95 to sign up for the trip.

At least 150 people showed up on the North Kaibab Trail that morning, amazing rangers and overwhelming other visitors who, according to the documents, were trying to stay away from the hikers, many of whom were not wearing masks or social distancing.

On Tuesday, Mr. Mount was tried in the U.S. District Court in Arizona on five separate charges, including filing a false report, disturbing a government employee or agent acting on an official service, promoting business in a federal park without permission, and Violation of group size restrictions on park visits and restrictions related to Covid-19.

Mr. Mount did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The federal court records did not reveal whether he had an attorney.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Mr. Mount said he arranged the trip because “with Covid and all, people were just dying to get out.”

“I didn’t do it for a profit,” he said.

Timothy Hopp, an American park ranger, said on an affidavit that Mr. Mount raised $ 15,185 from attendees for the hiking event.

Mr. Mount planned to use the money to pay for two buses, three passenger cars, hotel accommodations, and about $ 2,900 for driver tips, meals, fuel, car pool drivers, and other expenses, according to the affidavit.

Updated

May 8, 2021, 5:12 p.m. ET

Mr. Mount “knowingly benefited from running this commercially organized” event, Mr. Hopp said. “J. Mount admitted that he would receive a net profit of $ 65.11 and that it would be enough to buy a new pair of walking sticks. “

Mr Hopp said he contacted Mr Mount in October after receiving the tip and Mr Mount told him at the time that he was taking a “small group of close rugby workers and friends of the family” with him.

Mr Hopp said he had repeatedly told Mr Mount that the limit for group tours at the edge was 11 people and that due to the pandemic, groups could not be split up to circumvent the size limit.

Mr. Mount’s planned hike has exceeded the limit set in normal times when up to 30 people are allowed in a group, Mr. Hopp said.

After the conversation, Mr. Mount informed the hikers that he was retiring as a tour guide, but the transportation plans were still in effect and huts and hotels were still booked.

“Remember – nothing will stop you from climbing the Grand Canyon that day,” he wrote, according to court records. “Now, however, there is a destination on my back and this is the best way I know to still hike” and “not be tied to either of you”.

He told the hikers he would be in his own group and advised them to travel in groups of no more than 11 people.

“Ranger Hopp – that’s my plausible denial,” Mount wrote on Facebook. “I’ll be leading on October 24th. No more groups through the Grand Canyon.”

At 5 a.m. that day, a caravan of cars arrived at the starting point. A ranger on the way saw at least 150 people walking around between 7:30 am and 8:00 am

The ranger, Cody Allinson, said that in seven months of work, according to an affidavit, he had never “seen so many people travel in the same direction in such a shortened period of time and space”.

When park rangers approached them, many hikers were evasive.

“It was obvious that they had been trained not to identify with their fellow players,” said a ranger, according to court documents.

Non-group hikers later complained to valet parking about the sheer number of people they encountered along the way.

“There was no social distancing, nobody wore masks,” one of the visitors complained, according to court records. “The group size was way out of control”

The day after the hike, some of the participants praised Mr. Mount on Facebook and suggested that everyone send him a “bonus for all the extra hard work he put in planning a weekend full of memories.”

The affidavit did not reveal whether Mr. Mount had received the bonus.