Tag: scandal

Danske Bank investors seek $475 million in damages over money laundering scandal

March 19, 2019

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Two U.S. law firms have filed a lawsuit against Danske Bank on behalf of institutional investors over a 200 billion euro ($227 billion) money laundering scandal.

Grant & Eisenhofer P.A. and DRRT filed the lawsuit in Copenhagen on behalf of investors from 19 countries, asserting “fraud claims stemming from a massive Russian money-laundering scheme and multi-year cover-up by Denmark’s largest bank and its senior leadership.”

The bank’s share price halved in 2018 as the scandal unraveled and it replaced both its CEO and chairman.

At a shareholder meeting on Monday in Copenhagen, several shareholders voiced concern about potential lawsuits from investor groups.

“It is our fundamental position that the bank has lived up to its information obligation,” Danske’s new chairman Karsten Dybvad told shareholders. “As such we don’t find any basis for lawsuits or for a settlement.”

Danske Bank was not immediately able to comment when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday.

The investors are seeking $475 million in damages, Grant & Eisenhofer said in a statement dated March 18.

Danske and four former top executives are already facing a lawsuit in New York filed in January by a U.S. pension fund. That accuses the bank of defrauding investors and inflating its share price by hiding and failing to stop widespread money laundering.

Authorities in Denmark, Estonia, France, Great Britain and the United States are investigating the payments, including in a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice. Danske has said it has been cooperating with authorities.

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, additional reporting by Jacob Grønholt-Pedersen, editing by Louise Heavens and Kirsten Donovan)

Biosludge giant Synagro filed for bankruptcy in 2013 following huge bribery scandal

(Natural News) Following the shocking revelation that the largest “recycler of organic waste in the United States” had been engaging in illegal bribery schemes to boost corporate profits, Synagro, the nation’s largest manufacturer of toxic “biosludge,” ended up having to file for bankruptcy protection upon determining that the company could no longer meet its debt…

Convicted French cardinal meets pope after saying he would resign

March 18, 2019

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Philippe Barbarin, the French Roman Catholic cardinal convicted this month of failing to report sexual abuse allegations, met Pope Francis on Monday after saying he planned to resign as archbishop of Lyon.

The Vatican’s daily list of papal audiences confirmed that the meeting took place but gave no details. It did not say if the pope had accepted any resignation.

Barbarin, 68, the highest-profile cleric to be caught up in the child sex abuse scandal inside the French Church, was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence on March 7.

Barbarin is appealing against the verdict. But after the hearing, he said he planned to travel to the Vatican and hand in his resignation.

The court in Lyon ruled that between July 2014 and June 2015 he covered up allegations of sexual abuse of boy scouts in the 1980s and early 1990s by a priest who is due to go on trial later this year.

Barbarin has denied concealing allegations that Father Bernard Preynat abused dozens of boys more than a decade before he arrived in the Lyon diocese in 2002. Preynat has admitted sexual abuse, according to his lawyer.

The trial put Europe’s senior clergy in the spotlight at a time when the pope is grappling with criticism over the Church’s response to a sexual abuse crisis that has gravely damaged its standing around the globe.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens)

Our Bankrupt Elite

by Matthew Continetti, Washington Free Beacon: Every element of the college admissions scandal, aka “Operation Varsity Blues,” is fascinating. There are the players: the Yale dad who, implicated in a securities fraud case, tipped the feds off to the caper; a shady high school counselor turned admissions consultant; the 36-year-old Harvard grad who sold his […]

The post Our Bankrupt Elite appeared first on SGT Report.

Former Obama Officials Ordered By Judge To Answer Questions Over Clinton Emails

Via SaraCarter.com,

A federal judge ordered multiple senior Obama Administration officials, State Department officials and former Hillary Clinton aides Thursday to provide answers under oath to questions requested by Judicial Watch after a roughly four year court battle.

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Judicial Watch, a leading conservative non-profit watchdog group, announced the schedule of depositions in their case in a press release Thursday.  The Judicial Watch questions regard two separate cases regarding the Obama administration’s actions during the Benghazi terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA Annex in Libya, and Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server to send classified government emails.

“Judicial Watch is doing the heavy lifting on the ongoing Clinton email scandal, even as Congress dropped the ball and DOJ and State continued to obstruct our quest for the truth,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, in a press release Thursday.

“The Court in our case wants real answers on the Clinton email scandal which is why our request for basic discovery was granted.”

District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered senior officials — including Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Jacob Sullivan, and FBI official E.W. Priestap – to respond under oath and submit the answers in writing to the questions provided by Judicial Watch. The decision from Lamberth was made this past January.

Lamberth ordered the discovery from the watchdog’s July 2014 FOIA lawsuit,  which was filed after the State Department failed to respond to an earlier request made May 13, 2014.

Judicial Watch requests: 

  • Copies of any updates and/or talking points given to Ambassador Rice by the White House or any federal agency concerning, regarding, or related to the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

  • Any and all records or communications concerning, regarding, or relating to talking points or updates on the Benghazi attack given to Ambassador Rice by the White House or any federal agency.

Judicial Watch’s discovery will seek answers to:

  • Whether Clinton intentionally attempted to evade the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by using a non-government email system;

  • whether the State Department’s efforts to settle this case beginning in late 2014 amounted to bad faith; and

  • whether the State Department adequately searched for records responsive to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request.

The confirmed discovery schedule now includes:

  • March 12: State Department’s responses to interrogatories and document requests were due.

  • March 14: Deposition of Justin Cooper, a former aide to Bill Clinton who reportedly had no security clearance and is believed to have played a key role in setting up Hillary Clinton’s non-government email system.

  • April 5: Deposition of John Hackett, a State Department records official “immediately responsible for responding to requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act.”

  • April 16: Deposition of Jacob “Jake” Sullivan, Hillary Clinton’s former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff.

  • April 23: Deposition of Sheryl Walter, former State Department Director of the Office of Information Programs and Services/Global Information Services.

  • April 26: Deposition of Gene Smilansky, a State Department lawyer.

  • April 30. Deposition of Monica Tillery, a State Department official.

  • May 7: Deposition of Jonathon Wasser, who was a management analyst on the Executive Secretariat staff. Wasser worked for Deputy Director Clarence Finney and was the State Department employee who actually conducted the searches for records in response to FOIA requests to the Office of the Secretary.

  • May 14: Deposition of Clarence Finney, the deputy director of the Executive Secretariat staff who was the principal advisor and records management expert in the Office of the Secretary responsible for control of all correspondence and records for Hillary Clinton and other State Department officials.

  • June 11: 30(b)(6) Deposition, which will be designated by the State Department.

  • June 13: Deposition of Heather Samuelson, the former State Department senior advisor who helped facilitate the State Department’s receipt and release of Hillary Clinton’s emails.

To Be Determined

  • As yet to be determined is the deposition date for Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell, who wrote a March 2, 2009, internal memorandum titled “Use of Blackberries on Mahogany Row,” in which he strongly advised that the devices not be allowed.

Written questions under oath are to be answered by:

  • Monica Hanley, Hillary Clinton’s former confidential assistant at the State Department.

  • Lauren Jiloty, Clinton’s former special assistant.

  • E.W. Priestap, who is serving as assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division and helped oversee both the Clinton email and the 2016 presidential campaign investigations. Priestap testified in a separate lawsuit that Clinton was the subject of a grand jury investigation related to her BlackBerry email accounts.

  • Susan Rice, President Obama’s former UN ambassador who appeared on Sunday television news shows following the Benghazi attacks, blaming a “hateful video.” Rice was also Obama’s national security advisor involved in the “unmasking” the identities of senior Trump officials caught up in the surveillance of foreign targets.

  • Ben Rhodes, an Obama-era White House deputy strategic communications adviser who attempted to orchestrate a campaign to “reinforce” Obama and to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.”

Why Was John Podesta REALLY In New Zealand Days Before Mass Shooting? Signs This Was A HUGE False Flag To Demonize Nationalism And Further Censor The Internet

by Stefan Stanford, All News Pipeline: While I woke up this morning expecting to write a story about just how incredibly deeply corrupt America has become as Michael Snyder reports in this new story over at the Economic Collapse Blog following the college admissions scandal that has rocked parts of Hollywood and some of the global elite […]

The post Why Was John Podesta REALLY In New Zealand Days Before Mass Shooting? Signs This Was A HUGE False Flag To Demonize Nationalism And Further Censor The Internet appeared first on SGT Report.

Tipster Behind College-Admission Scam Revealed; Mickelson Admits He Used Service

New details have emerged on how prosecutors helped uncover what is being called the “largest college admissions scam ever”. In addition, new celebrity names, including golfer Phil Mickelson, are being added to the list of those who used the service involved in brokering bribes to prestigious universities like Yale and Stanford. 

The scam was uncovered due to a tip that was given to the SEC by Morrie Tobin, a Los Angeles financial executive who was being charged for a financial pump and dump scheme at the time. Tobin “was being investigated in a securities fraud case,” when he tipped off the government, seeking leniency, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal.

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Tobin is a Yale alumnus, who said that the school’s women’s soccer coach had sought out a bribe in order to get his daughter into the school. As a result of the tip, regulators were able to uncover the massive scandal. Tobin is awaiting sentencing in his securities fraud case that he signed a plea deal for last November. 

Tobin reportedly wore a wire to help catch Rudy Meredith, Yale’s Women’s Soccer coach. He met with Meredith in a hotel room in Boston during April 2018, where the coach said he could get Tobin’s daughter on the team for $450,000. Meredith also helped another California family’s daughter make the team after he was paid $400,000, according to the report.

Separately, golfer Phil Mickelson admitted he had used the bribery company to “guide [him] through the college admission process” in a Tweet. His name was not part of the case, and a Bloomberg article notes that he was one of the legitimate clients of the company in question. 

In addition, Bill McGlashan, co-founder and managing partner at TPG Growth, has resigned from his position after being arrested in conjunction with the scandal. McGlashan spent $250,000 on “illegal schemes to get his son admitted to college” according to reports. 

The Wrap reported that he was involved in:

…hiring a proctor to improve his son’s answers on the ACT test before they were submitted and “conspiring to bribe” USC senior associate athletic director Donna Heimel “to facilitate his son’s admission to USC as a recruited athlete.” He even created a fake profile of his lacrosse-playing son as a football kicker as part of the scheme, court documents say.

Earlier on Thursday we reported that the universities involved were now facing class action lawsuits from their students. Last night, we also reported on major tax implications that could be waiting for the parents involved – including potential civil tax fraud penalties and interest charges on any bribe amounts they wrote off. 

Meredith also reportedly worked with William Rick Singer, the man at the center of the scheme. Yesterday morning, we unveiled that William Rick Singer was revealed as the man who brokered and facilitated many of the bribes. 

Singer is called a “self described serial entrepreneur” who appeared to have found his niche in helping young people get into college. He was the founder of the Edge College & Career Network, the institution that helped broker bribes between the uber-wealthy and prestigious colleges. According to the company’s website, his goal was to “help alleviate the anxiety of getting into college” because he “has seen first hand the stress that the college admissions and athletics recruiting process can put on a family.”

Following charges, Singer pled guilty to racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice. He is looking at between 15 and 19 1/2 years in prison for his crimes. Our original take on the scandal can be read here. 

Hollywood elitist college entrance scam proves everything the Left touches, it destroys: How much longer will our country survive?

(Natural News) The burgeoning college entrance scam involving scores of liberal elitists including at least two Hollywood actresses might seem like a small thing to many Americans, but that’s only because there has been so much Leftist fraud, corruption, fakery, and cultural degradation that came before it. But the scandal really does reveal far more…

DoubleLine’s Jeffrey Gundlach calls Modern Monetary Theory a ‘crackpot’ idea

March 12, 2019

By Jennifer Ablan and Trevor Hunnicutt

(Reuters) – Jeffrey Gundlach, the chief executive of DoubleLine Capital and Wall Street’s Bond King, called the increasingly popular Modern Monetary Theory backed by progressives a “crackpot” idea.

Gundlach, who oversees more than $123 billion, said on an investor webcast on Tuesday that Modern Monetary Theory is “complete nonsense, yet it is being used to justify a massive socialist program.”

Modern monetary theorists argue government spending, and deficits as needed, should be used to meet the full employment and inflation mandates currently tasked to the U.S. Federal Reserve. Taxes may not be needed to support all spending since the government can create more money and inflation is the main restraint on government spending, according to the theory.

The ideas have gained currency with some economists and Democratic Party politicians but have also been met with fierce criticism.

A leading proponent of Modern Monetary Theory, State University of New York at Stony Brook economics professor Stephanie Kelton, advised democratic socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in his 2016 run for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has also expressed openness to the idea.

“What happens when the economy turns down?” he asked. Gundlach added that the “ridiculous” MMT is a way of monetizing debt and could lead to a significant boycott of long-term bonds. The ideas could gain popularity if the United States enters a recession in 2020, ahead of the next presidential election.

Populist discontent has struck a nerve with some voters in the United States, with liberals calling for higher taxes on the rich and more spending to promote economic equality.

Gundlach said the timing of a college bribery scandal reinforces that populist narrative.

Federal authorities arrested dozens on Tuesday for a $25 million scheme to help wealthy Americans, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and some finance executives, cheat their children’s way into elite universities, such as Yale and Stanford.

Gundlach said: “It really doesn’t do all of us in the world of finance a lot of reputational good…look at these people, turning the table in their favor. It’s really pretty horrifying.”

Gundlach said the college bribery scandal “really helps the Elizabeth Warren crowd.”

Warren vowed on Friday to break up Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc if elected U.S. president to promote competition in the technology sector.

Addressing the run-up in the U.S. stock market, Gundlach said he still thinks stocks are in a bear market. “The stock market was and is in a bear market,” he said, adding stocks could go negative again this year.

Gundlach said the market rebound stemmed from the “remarkable 180-degree turn” from the Federal Reserve, which is straying away from quantitative tightening. He said the Fed will likely keep $3.5 trillion in assets on its balance sheet. “Maybe they realize that there really isn’t anybody to buy all the bonds that appear to be potentially in prospect other than the central bank,” Gundlach said.

(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Lisa Shumaker)

U.S. college admissions scandal sweeps up Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin, CEOs

March 12, 2019

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) – Federal authorities arrested dozens of people on Tuesday in what they described as a $25 million scam to help actors Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin, some CEOs and other wealthy Americans commit fraud to get their children into elite universities, such as Yale and Stanford.

The most sweeping college admissions scheme ever unearthed in the United States was masterminded at a small college-preparation company based in Newport Beach, California, prosecutors said. It relied on bribes to coaches, phony test takers and even doctored photos misrepresenting non-athletic applicants as elite competitors to gain admissions for the offspring of rich parents.

“These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege,” Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney in Boston, said at a news conference. “For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected.”

William “Rick” Singer, 58, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges related to running the scheme through his Edge College & Career Network, which charged from $100,000 to as much as $2.5 million per child for the services, which were masked as contributions to a scam charity Singer runs.

“I was essentially buying or bribing the coaches for a spot,” Singer said as he pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. “And that occurred very frequently.”

John Vandemoor, a former Stanford University sailing coach who worked with Singer, also pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy.

Huffman, who appeared in television drama “Desperate Housewives,” and “Full House” sitcom actor Loughlin were charged on Tuesday and due to enter pleas in a Los Angeles court, prosecutors said.

It was the latest in a series of scandals that have rocked the high-stakes, high-stress world of admissions to top colleges. Prosecutors in Boston in recent years have also charged Chinese nationals with cheating on entrance exams, while the College Board, which administers the SAT tests, was rocked in 2016 by a security breach that exposed hundreds of questions planned for tests.

Some 300 law enforcement agents swept across the country to make arrests in what agents code-named “Operation Varsity Blues.” Huffman and Loughlin were due to appear in federal court in Los Angeles later on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors have so far named 33 parents, 13 coaches and associates of Singer’s business.

Other parents charged include Manuel Henriquez, the chief executive of specialty finance lender Hercules Capital; Gordon Caplan, the co-chairman of international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher; Bill McGlashan Jr., who heads a buyout investment arm of private equity firm TPG Capital; and Douglas Hodge, the former CEO of the investment management firm Pimco.

Representatives for the companies and for Huffman and Loughlin, either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

The alleged masterminds of scam and parents who paid into it could all face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Huffman, a former Oscar nominee as best actress and wife of actor William H. Macy, starred in ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.” Loughlin, best known for her role in the ABC sitcom “Full House” and the recent Netflix sequel “Fuller House,” is married to Mossimo Giannulli, a clothing designer who was also charged in the scheme.

‘HELP THE WEALTHIEST’

On a call with a wealthy parent, prosecutors said, Singer summed up his business: “What we do is help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids into school.”

Prosecutors said it was up to the universities what to do with students admitted through cheating.

Yale University and the University of Southern California (USC) said in separate statements that they were cooperating with investigators.

“The Department of Justice believes that Yale has been the victim of a crime perpetrated by its former women’s soccer coach,” Yale said in a statement.

The coach, Rudolph Meredith, resigned in November after 24 years running the women’s soccer team. Meredith, who accepted a $400,000 bribe from Singer, is due to plead guilty, prosecutors said. His lawyer declined to comment.

Prosecutors said the scheme began in 2011 and also helped children get into the University of Texas, Georgetown University, Wake Forest University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Part of the scheme involved advising parents to lie to test administrators that their child had learning disabilities that allowed them extra exam time.

The parents were then advised to choose one of two test centers that Singer’s company said it had control over: one in Houston, Texas, and the other in West Hollywood, California.

Test administrators in the those centers took bribes of tens of thousands of dollars to allow Singer’s clients to cheat, often by arranging to have wrong answers corrected or having another person take the exam. Singer would agree with parents beforehand roughly what score they wanted the child to get.

In many cases, the students were not aware that their parents had arranged for the cheating, prosecutors said, although in other cases they knowingly took part. None of the children were charged on Tuesday.

Singer also helped parents stage photographs of their children playing sports or even Photoshopped children’s faces onto images of athletes downloaded from the internet to exaggerate their athletic credentials.

Wake Forest said it had placed head volleyball coach Bill Ferguson on administrative leave after he was among the coaches accused of accepting bribes.

According to the criminal complaint, investigators heard McGlashan of TPG Capital listening to Singer tell him to send along pictures of his son playing sports that he could digitally manipulate to make a fake athletic profile.

“The way the world works these days is unbelievable,” McGlashan said to Singer, according to court papers.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen, Joseph Ax and Gabriella Borter in New York and Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; writing by Jonathan Allen; editing by Scott Malone, Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman)

Left-wing elite privilege? FBI arrests dozens of elitists, including Hollywood actresses, in college admissions scandal

(Natural News) Maybe the reason why we hear white liberals talk so much about “white privilege” is because it is so much a part of their lives, as evidenced by dozens of FBI arrests on Tuesday. The bureau announced charges against scores of well-to-do people including famous actresses Felicity Huffman (“Desperate Housewives”) and Lori Loughlin…

Trudeau Refuses To Apologize Over Corruption Scandal

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking a page out of President Trump’s book. During a Thursday press conference, Trudeau addressed the SNC-Lavalin corruption scandal for the first time since his former Attorney General and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould delivered damning testimony before a Commons committee and the public, detailing a campaign of political pressure and veiled threats over her refusal to offer a deferred prosecution agreement to a Quebec-based engineering firm.

During his press conference, Trudeau largely adhered to the version of events delivered by his former top aide Gerald Butts during a separate hearing earlier this week. The prime minister insisted that his government did nothing wrong by pushing Wilson-Raybould to seek a second opinion on the SNC-Lavalin case. Instead of trying to illegally bend the country’s justice system, Trudeau said he was merely “standing up for Canadian jobs.”

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Trudeau feared that prosecution of SNC-Lavalin over allegations that it bribed Libyan government officials could lead to the loss of as many as 8,000 jobs in Quebec, his home province, where he is still an MP, according to the FT. 

The prime minister insisted that “no inappropriate pressure” was brought to bear on Wilson-Raybould, and that he has spent his entire career “fighting for justice.”

“I’ve spent my entire political career fighting for justice,” Mr Trudeau said. “Since I started in politics I’ve always worked to the best of my ability to represent people faithfully, the SNC Lavalin [file] was no exception to this rule.”

However, Trudeau acknowledged that, with the benefit of hindsight, he would have done things differently, and that “mistakes were made.” He added that the only reason his office had pressed Wilson-Raybould about SNC-Lavalin was because he had heard she might be open to it.

Mr Trudeau added: “We felt Ms Wilson-Raybould was ready to consider other options, and we have learnt since she was not open to that. We have learnt since that every time we mentioned it, it was inappropriate. For me and my team to continue talking about such important issues, well, that’s part of our jobs.”

Most amazingly, Trudeau said that political considerations were not part of his calculus, and that the Canadian government is duty bound to stand up for workers.

Mr Trudeau said he had felt “preoccupied” with “the number of jobs involved”, but said his concerns were “separate from any electoral concerns.” He added: “I think people understand that a Canadian government always needs to stand up for workers, stand up for jobs and a strong economy, and that is something all Canadian governments do.”

Since the scandal broke last month, Trudeau’s Liberal Party has lost its polling lead ahead of a crucial election in October. The prime minister is also facing at least two investigations – one in the Commons and one by the Canadian government’s ethics office – and his political opponents have continued to call on him to resign. Perhaps the biggest blow to public confidence in his government came earlier this week when a member of his cabinet resigned because she said she could no longer support the government in good conscience.

Though the Liberals have mostly backed Trudeau, there’s little doubt that his political future has never looked so precarious.

Ex-aide to Canada PM denies wrongdoing over SNC-Lavalin; Trudeau to address crisis

March 6, 2019

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) – A former top aide to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denied on Wednesday inappropriately pressuring a Cabinet member to help a major company as Trudeau planned to address a scandal that is threatening his prospects in an October election.

Allegations that Gerald Butts, who resigned last month as Trudeau’s principal private secretary, and other officials tried to help construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoid a corruption trial are fueling the crisis that has cost the Liberal government two senior Cabinet ministers.

Some nervous Liberal lawmakers complain Trudeau’s office has taken too long to respond to a scandal that deepened last week when former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said she and her staff had been subjected to persistent pressure.

Trudeau will take questions about the matter at an 8 a.m. (1300 GMT) news conference in Ottawa on Thursday.

“He will speak directly to the issues,” spokeswoman Eleanore Catenaro said, giving no details of what Trudeau might say.

Butts told the House of Commons justice committee he had one short conversation on Dec. 5 with Wilson-Raybould about SNC-Lavalin.

“I did not and I do not see how our brief discussion on that file constituted pressure of any kind,” Butts said. “I am firmly convinced that nothing happened here beyond the normal operations of government.”

SNC-Lavalin faces trial on fraud charges https://reut.rs/2UdgBBj relating to bribes the company is said to have offered to Libyan officials to influence the awarding of contracts between 2001 and 2011.

The company had hoped to benefit from a new law that would have allowed it to escape with a large fine. Wilson-Raybould had the power to scrap the decision to go to trial, but decided against it.

The firm, which employs 9,000 people in Canada, is based in the province of Quebec, where Trudeau’s Liberals have said they need to pick up seats to win October’s federal election.

Wilson-Raybould, unexpectedly demoted to the veterans affairs ministry in January, quit on Feb. 12 after less than a month in her new job.

‘DID NOT THREATEN ATTORNEY GENERAL’

Liberal legislators on the committee appeared relieved after Butts testified, telling reporters he had clearly done nothing inappropriate. Opposition members, who want a public inquiry into the affair, were unconvinced.

“How can you be credible to us when Ms. Wilson-Raybould gave us such clear consistent testimony of a pattern of interference in an independent prosecution?” asked legislator Charlie Angus of the left-leaning New Democrats.

Wilson-Raybould told the House justice committee last week that 11 officials and ministers contacted her and her office a total of 20 times over four months about the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Butts said: “That is two meetings and two phone calls per month for the minister and her office on an issue that could cost a minimum of 9,000 Canadians their job.”

A second member of Trudeau’s Cabinet resigned on Monday, saying she had lost confidence in how the government had dealt with the matter. Treasury Board President Jane Philpott was one of the most respected members of government.

Wilson-Raybould, who also served as Canada’s attorney general, had complained that Michael Wernick – head of the non-partisan federal civil service – made veiled threats to her in December as he stressed the need to settle the matter.

“I did not threaten the attorney general,” an often combative Wernick told the committee later on Wednesday.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Additional reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa and Matt Scuffham in Toronto; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Peter Cooney)

Revealed: British Army Deployed “Interrogators” to Abu Ghraib Despite Abuse Concerns

Ministry of Defence refuses to answer MEE’s questions about what its personnel were doing and what they saw at height of torture scandal in US-run Baghdad prison

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Britain’s defence ministry covertly deployed a team of interrogators to Iraq’s notorious …

The post Revealed: British Army Deployed “Interrogators” to Abu Ghraib Despite Abuse Concerns appeared first on Global Research.

SNC Lavalin Scandal Blowback from Corrupt Canadian Foreign Policy

Canada’s corrupt foreign policy practices have come home to roost on Parliament Hill.

Justin Trudeau’s government is engulfed in a major political scandal that lays bare corporate power in Ottawa. But, SNC Lavalin’s important role in Canadian foreign policy …

The post SNC Lavalin Scandal Blowback from Corrupt Canadian Foreign Policy appeared first on Global Research.

In major blow to Canada’s Trudeau, second minister quits over scandal

March 4, 2019

By David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon

OTTAWA (Reuters) – In a serious blow to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a second member of his Cabinet resigned on Monday, saying she had lost confidence in how the government had dealt with an escalating political scandal.

The departure of recently appointed Treasury Board President Jane Philpott, who was in overall charge of government spending, deprives Trudeau of another powerful female member of cabinet just months ahead of an election that polls show he could lose.

Philpott expressed unhappiness about the government’s response to allegations that officials inappropriately pressured former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould last year to help major construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoid a corruption trial.

“Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised,” Philpott said in a statement. “I have concluded that I must resign as a member of cabinet.”

Philpott is a close friend of Wilson-Raybould, who herself resigned on Feb. 12 after she was unexpectedly demoted in January. Wilson-Raybould said last week she was convinced her refusal to help SNC-Lavalin was behind the demotion.

Andrew Scheer, head of the official opposition Conservative Party, repeated calls for Trudeau to quit amid “ethical rot” he said was undermining the rule of law.

“Jane Philpott’s resignation from cabinet clearly demonstrates a government in total chaos led by a disgraced prime minister consumed with scandal and focused only on his political survival,” he told reporters in Toronto.

Trudeau has accepted the resignation and will address the matter later on Monday, said a spokesman.

The departure of Philpott, who was appointed on Jan. 14, is another setback for a prime minister who came to power in November 2015 promising “sunny ways,” more accountability in politics and a greater number of women ministers.

“What should be worrisome for the Trudeau Liberals is that the two cabinet resignations have been on issues of principle and ethics,” said Nanos Research pollster Nik Nanos.

“The second resignation begs the question – what did happen and could there be more resignations,” he said by email.

Other members of Trudeau’s government, including Finance Minister Bill Morneau, said they would stay in the cabinet.

Philpott said evidence of efforts by politicians and officials to pressure Wilson-Raybould had raised serious concerns. Wilson-Raybould tweeted to Philpott that “you are a leader of vision and strength and I look forward to continuing to work alongside you.”

Philpott, 58, was widely regarded as one of the best of Trudeau’s cabinet ministers. She had previously served as minister of health and minister of indigenous services.

Most Liberal members of parliament have so far backed Trudeau but there are signs of strain.

Celina Caesar-Chavannes, a Liberal legislator who is not seeking re-election, tweeted that “when you add women, please do not expect the status quo. Expect us to make correct decisions, stand for what is right and exit when values are compromised.”

Gerald Butts, who quit as Trudeau’s principal secretary last month over the SNC-Lavalin affair, will testify to the House of Commons justice committee from 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT) to noon ET(1700 GMT) on Wednesday.

In her testimony to the committee last week, Wilson-Raybould singled out Butts as one official who tried particularly hard to change her mind. Under questioning she said she did not consider officials had broken any laws.

(Reporting by Julie Gordon and David Ljunggren; editing by Phil Berlowitz and James Dalgleish)

Justin Trudeau CRISIS: Canada PM’s popularity PLUNGES after scandal, Conservatives AHEAD

CANADA’S Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a difficult election campaign after a new poll saw the scandal-hit leader’s approval ratings plummet.

Source: Tom Nellist

Canadians are due to go to the polls in October but Mr Trudeau is battling to maintain his popularity after becoming embroiled in claims his aides pressured former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to ensure construction firm SNC-Lavalin avoided a corruption investigation. The 47-year-old insists there was no wrongdoing but 41 percent of Canadians disagreed with Mr Trudeau in a Leger poll for news agency The Canadian Press. Just 12 percent believed he hadn’t done anything wrong following the allegations which has left his Liberal Party in turmoil.

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YouTube Found To Have Child Exploitation Videos — It’s Been A Problem For Years — REMOVES THOUSANDS OF CHANNELS AND DISABLES COMMENTS ON MILLIONS

by Aaron Kesel, Activist Post: YouTube has been caught in the crosshairs of another scandal, this time the platform is being accused by YouTuber Matt Watson of enabling a softcore pedophile ring in plain sight, Tech Crunch reported. According to Watson’s Reddit post entitled “Youtube is facilitating sexual exploitation of minors”: Over the past 48 hours, I have […]

The post YouTube Found To Have Child Exploitation Videos — It’s Been A Problem For Years — REMOVES THOUSANDS OF CHANNELS AND DISABLES COMMENTS ON MILLIONS appeared first on SGT Report.

Slap on the Wrist: Jussie Smollett Charged with One Count of ‘Disorderly Conduct’

2020 Dem hopefuls, Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, rushed to judgment after Jussie Smollett claimed white-racist Trump supporters ambushed him with bleach and a noose. Both Senators called the hoax a “modern-day lynching” and used the phony scandal to pass an anti-lynching bill through Congress.

Slap on the Wrist: Jussie Smollett Charged with One Count of ‘Disorderly Conduct’

2020 Dem hopefuls, Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, rushed to judgment after Jussie Smollett claimed white-racist Trump supporters ambushed him with bleach and a noose. Both Senators called the hoax a “modern-day lynching” and used the phony scandal to pass an anti-lynching bill through Congress.

Step Aside Volkswagen: Ford Finds “Problem” With Emissions Testing; Stock Slides

Regardless of whether overt fraud is suspected or not, after the numerous emissions scandals that have rocked the global auto industry over the past ten years (Volkswagen diesel-fuel emissions scandal being the most memorable and probably the most egregious), headline-scanning algos are bound to react to the word “emissions” in a headline – and that’s exactly what happened late Thursday when Ford announced that its workers had discovered an unspecified issue with the techniques used by the company to test whether its cars meet emissions standards.

Ford

But there’s no obvious reason to panic – at least, not yet. In a statement, Ford claimed that the problems didn’t involve “defeat devices” like those Volkswagen admitted were deliberately installed in its cars to circumvent federal regulations – a scandal that resulted in billions of dollars in fines and mass recalls. Some of the company’s executives even faced criminal charges.

Ford also said none of its fuel economy ratings had been found to be inaccurate (again, at least not yet).

The issue was reported to the company by employees back in September, prompting an internal probe. The company then reported the issue to the EPA and California regulators this week. An explanation for the lag was not offered.

Ford has hired an outside firm to investigate road load specifications used in its testing, according to a statement.

Again, so far, there’s no need to panic – yet. But the EPA confirmed Ford’s disclosure and said the investigation was “too incomplete” to arrive at any preliminary conclusions. And after a rough year for auto stocks as global sales slumped and Ford said it would shutter production on some poor-selling brands, the last thing the company needs is another scandal.

Pope opens child sex abuse conference, promising ‘concrete’ remedies

February 21, 2019

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis promised that concrete actions against child sexual abuse by priests would result from a conference he opened on Thursday, countering scepticism from some survivors who said the meeting looked like a public relations exercise.

Francis convened Catholic leaders from around the world for the four-day meeting to address the scandal that has ravaged the Church’s credibility in the United States – where it has paid billions of dollars in settlements – Ireland, Chile, Australia, and elsewhere over the last three decades.

“Faced with the scourge of sexual abuse committed by men of the Church against minors, I wanted to reach out to you,” Francis told the assembled bishops and heads of religious orders, asking them to “listen to the cry of the little ones who are seeking justice.”

Victims expected “concrete and efficient measures” and not mere condemnations, he added.

The pope and the almost 200 participants in a Vatican auditorium watched a video of five victims, who wished to remain anonymous, telling painful stories of abuse and cover-up.

“From the age of 15 I had sexual relations with a priest. This lasted for 13 years. I got pregnant three times and he made me have an abortion three times, quite simply because he did not want to use condoms or contraceptives,” a woman said.

A Chilean man said that when he reported abuse to religious authorities he was treated as a liar and an enemy of the Church.

“You are the physicians of the soul and yet, with rare exceptions, you have been transformed – in some cases – into murderers of the soul, into murderers of the faith. What a terrible contradiction,” he said.

Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines broke into tears as he read a keynote speech that acknowledged: “wounds have been inflicted by us, the bishops, on the victims”.

“LET’S SEE”

In Ireland, the sexual abuse scandal shattered the power of the Church which four decades ago dominated Irish society. In the past four years, voters approved abortion and gay marriage, defying the Vatican.

In Chile, all of the country’s bishops offered their resignations to the pope last year over a widespread cover-up. Francis accepted seven of the resignations and dismissed two others from the priesthood.

A poll by Santiago-based think-tank Latinobarometro showed the number of Chileans calling themselves Catholics fell to 45 percent last year, from 74 percent in 1995.

A report by a grand jury in Pennsylvania last year revealed that priests had sexually abused about 1,000 people over seven decades in that U.S. state alone.

Before it started, some victims’ groups said the conference was an attempt to cleanse the image of the 1.3 billion-member Church.

But Anne Barrett-Doyle of bishopaccountablity.org, which tracks abuse cases around the world, said she was pleasantly surprised by the pope’s opening remarks.

“They said this was going to just a teaching session but he is now talking about concrete measures. That’s good but let’s see how it ends up,” she told Reuters.

Journalists were permitted to listen to the conference speeches via audio and video links but not the debates that followed.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican’s top sexual abuse investigator, said the Church had to look at how priests and bishops are appointed.

“The question of future screening of candidates for the priesthood is fundamental,” he said in a speech steeped in legal details about how bishops must collaborate with civil authorities, adopting a “culture of disclosure” and for society to know that “we mean business”.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

‘Mockingbird’ Media Uses Mind Control Techniques To Brainwash The Masses Every Single Day – Tactics And MSM Examples Provided

by Susan Duclos, All News Pipeline: From the Trump/Russia “collusion” hoax, to the continued attacks against Trump supporters most recently evidenced by the Covington Catholic students and the scandal that engulfed the “Mockingbird” media after they were caught pushing a false narrative, directly followed by the Jussie Smollett hate hoax blaming MAGA supporters, to which […]

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In Unprecedented Move, Catholic Church Expels Cardinal For Sexual Abuse

Some six months after an archbishop in the Vatican ignited a scandal that nearly brought down the pope by publicizing allegations that the Vatican had systematically suppressed and dragged its feet on investigating one of the most powerful cardinals in the US, Pope Francis has taken the unprecedented step of defrocking – or laicizing, as its technically known – 88-year-old retired cardinal William McCarrick, who was once one of the most powerful Catholic officials in the US.

Priest

According to the New York Times, the de-frocking of McCarrick, who was found guilty of using his position of power to abuse both seminarians and children, may be the first example in the church’s 2,000+ year history of a cardinal being expelled from the priesthood, though no scholar of the church can say for certain that this is true. According to the ruling, McCarrick can no longer perform any religious duties – including taking confession and delivering holy communion – and will henceforth be known simply as Mr. McCarrick.

In a statement on Saturday, the Vatican said Mr. McCarrick had been dismissed after he was tried and found guilty of several crimes, including soliciting sex during confession and “sins” with minors and with adults, “with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”

While the Vatican has defrocked hundreds of priests for sexual abuse of minors, few of the church’s leaders have faced severe discipline. The decision to laicize, or defrock, Mr. McCarrick is “almost revolutionary,” said Kurt Martens, a professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America.

“Bishops and former cardinals are no longer immune to punishment,” Professor Martens said. “The reverence that was shown in the past to bishops no longer applies.”

Francis expedited the church’s final decision so that it would be delivered ahead of a Vatican summit on sexual abuse in the priesthood, a story that was first uncovered by the Boston Globe back in 2002, and has since escalated to a global scandal that has threatened the church’s power in traditional strongholds from the US to Ireland. Still unknown is how the church will investigate McCarrick’s rise under Pope John Paul II and his successors. Francis himself has been accused of turning a blind eye to McCarrick’s misconduct.

Per the WSJ, McCarrick had appealed an initial ruling of guilt on Jan. 11. And on Wednesday, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, rejected the appeal. McCarrick, who is now 88, was notified of the decision on Friday. He will now likely lose the church-supported housing and health benefits, and may need to find a new place to live. McCarrick’s expulsion follows the pope’s decision to laicized two retired Chilean bishops accused of sexually abusing minors. In December, he also removed two top cardinals from his powerful advisory council after they were implicated in sexual abuse cases.

A man who was victimized by McCarrick as a child delivered a statement to the NYT praising Francis for his decision to strip McCarrick of his title, though he lamented the fact that it came after years of trauma and pain.

James Grein, who told The Times that he was 11 when Mr. McCarrick began a sexually abusive relationship with him, said in a statement on Saturday: “For years I have suffered, as many others have, at the hands of Theodore McCarrick. It is with profound sadness that I have had to participate in the canonical trial of my abuser. Nothing can give me back my childhood.”

He added: “With that said, today I am happy that the Pope believed me. I am hopeful now I can pass through my anger for the last time. I hope that Cardinal McCarrick will no longer be able to use the power of Jesus’ Church to manipulate families and sexually abuse children.”

McCarrick has been living in a Capuchin friary in Kansas under orders to pursue a life of “prayer and penance.” He wears a pacemaker and had knee replacement surgery in 2016.

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