Category Archives: DOJ, DC and inside the Beltway

The Other College Tuition Scandal, Give up Custody

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Parents give up legal custody…what? Well, perhaps there is a silver lining in this…no more student loan debt….

Hat tip to ProPublica for great work and continued investigations.

In part:

Parents are giving up legal guardianship of their children during their junior or senior year in high school to someone else — a friend, aunt, cousin or grandparent. The guardianship status then allows the students to declare themselves financially independent of their families so they can qualify for federal, state and university aid, a ProPublica Illinois investigation found.

“It’s a scam,” said Andy Borst, director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Wealthy families are manipulating the financial aid process to be eligible for financial aid they would not be otherwise eligible for. They are taking away opportunities from families that really need it.”

While ProPublica Illinois uncovered this practice in north suburban Lake County, where almost four dozen such guardianships were filed in the past 18 months, similar petitions have been filed in at least five other counties and the practice may be happening throughout the country. ProPublica Illinois is still investigating.

Borst said he first became suspicious when a high school counselor from an affluent Chicago suburb called him about a year ago to ask why a particular student had been invited to an orientation program for low-income students. Borst checked the student’s financial aid application and saw she had obtained a legal guardian, making her eligible to qualify for financial aid independently.

The University of Illinois has since identified 14 applicants who did the same: three who just completed their freshman year and 11 who plan to enroll this fall, Borst said.

ProPublica Illinois found more than 40 guardianship cases fitting this profile filed between January 2018 and June 2019 in the Chicago suburbs of Lake County alone.

The process starts in the courthouse.

Nearly all the cases identified by ProPublica Illinois were handled by one of two law firms: The Rogers Law Group in Deerfield, which handled most of them, and the Kabbe Law Group in Naperville. The only case filed by a different firm involved the family of Rick Rogers, of the Rogers Law Group.

*** The college consultant is named Lora Georgieva.

Georgieva runs a Lincolnshire-based college consulting company, Destination College, which offers “strategies to lower tuition expenses.” The company’s logo is a graduation cap with dollar bills spilling out of it. In video testimonials, clients praise the company for saving them money.

She is tied to at least several of the families, as well as to Rogers, the attorney, who is also featured in the video.

The description for the company’s “premier” services includes a “College Financial Plan, Using Income and Asset Shifting Strategies to Increase Your Financial and Merit Aid and Lower Out of Pocket Tuition Expenses.”

Read the full summary here.

*** Is this happening in other states? We will soon know, questions are now being asked in Missouri.

Tlaib’s Campaign Donor has Been Dead for 10 Years

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Dinesh D’Souza was sentenced for a a felony count that was hardly as bad as what you are about to know. He also paid a $30,000 fine.

Just this week, President Trump gave a speech in Jamestown on the 400th anniversary of the first meeting of elected legislators in America. What was hardly covered is his speech was interrupted by a Virginia legislator named Ibraheem Samirah.

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Virginia Lawmaker Connected to Anti-Semitic Groups ...

As reported:

Democratic freshman representative Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) received a generous donation during the second quarter in the name of a man who died more than 10 years ago, a review of campaign and online records shows.

Tlaib’s campaign committee, Rashida Tlaib for Congress, hauled in donations of at least $2,000 from dozens of individuals between April 1 and June 30. One of those contributions was from George S. Farah Sr., a Michigan businessman, real estate developer, and community leader who made his way from Palestine to the United States in the mid-1950s. Farah passed away on Feb. 1, 2009, from heart failure, according to a Michigan Live article published at the time of his death.

On June 22, Tlaib’s campaign received a $2,500 donation in his name, Federal Election Commission filings show. A search of public records, which also state that he is deceased, provides an address identical to the one written on the contribution to Tlaib’s campaign committee. Grand Blanc Township property records also show that the residence located at that address is registered in Farah’s name along with that of his widow.

Tlaib is the sole federal politician to receive a donation in Farah’s name for the 2020 election cycle. In the past, Rep. Dan Kildee (D., Mich.) has also received contributions from Farah following his passing. Kildee, who first ran for the House of Representatives during the 2012 election cycle, was given $1,400 in total contributions in Farah’s name between 2011 and 2017. The two Democratic Michigan representatives are the only federal politicians who received money in Farah’s name for the past 10 years.

Federal law prohibits making campaign contributions in the name of another individual.

“It is illegal to make a campaign contribution in the name of another person and a campaign must ensure all donor information is reported accurately,” said Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust. “The requirement of accurate disclosure of campaign contributors is important to inform voters of the source of campaign funds, prevent corruption, and ensure individuals are contributing within the legal limits.”

Tlaib’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment before publication. A spokesman for Rep. Kildee’s campaign, however, did.

“Gisele Farah is the sole beneficiary of a trust in her late husband’s name, George S. Farah Sr., who passed away in 2009,” the Kildee campaign spokesman said. “Since his death, Gisele Farah, as the sole beneficiary in control of the trust, has contributed to the campaign with funds from her trust. Our campaign’s records have been amended to clarify that the campaign contributions were from Gisele Farah and should be designated under her name.”

Inquiries sent to West Second Street Associates, a real estate investment and development company founded by Farah and run by members of the Farah family, were not returned.

Donations in the names of deceased individuals have occurred in the past. Between Jan. 2009 and Aug. 2013, 32 contributions totaling $586,000 from people marked as “deceased” in campaign records made their way to political candidates and parties, according to a 2013 report from USA Today.

In some circumstances, individuals make political candidates and committees part of their estates. If, for example, a trust is set up before someone’s death, that individual can leave specific instructions for where they would like the funds to go.

George S. Farah Sr. did not appear to give donations to any federal politicians prior to passing, based on a search of records.

UPDATE 2:40 P.M.: After publication, a spokesperson for the Rashida Tlaib campaign returned the following statement, strikingly similar to the comment received from the campaign of Rep. Kildee prior to publication:

“Gisele Farah is the sole beneficiary of a trust in her late husband’s name, George S. Farah Sr., who as you noted passed away in 2009. Gisele Farah, as the sole beneficiary in control of the trust, contributed to our campaign with funds from her trust. We will amend our campaign records and filings to clarify that the campaign contribution was from Gisele Farah and should be designated under her name.”

 

 

Meet These FBI Agents that Worked for Mueller

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Let’s begin with Michael Gaeta. There is a specialized group of FBI agents in lower Manhattan. The Eurasian organized crime unit, led by a veteran mob investigator named Michael Gaeta, scrutinized criminal groups from Georgia, Russia and Ukraine that were running sophisticated scams in the U.S. As Randall and Gaeta linked street-level criminal operators to figures in Eastern Europe’s business and political elite, they started piecing together a string of rumors that led them to an unsettling conclusion: Russia might be bribing its way to host the 2018 World Cup.

Remember when AG Loretta Lynch prosecuted some people for FIFA embezzlement and corruption? ON MAY 27, 2015, Loretta Lynch — in her new role as U.S. attorney general — announced the indictment of 14 defendants, mostly foreign nationals, in the FIFA case. It all started with Chuck Blazer, a former FIFA official who had an apartment in Trump Tower.

Now dead of rectal cancer, the native New Yorker hardly resembled his image as a statesman of soccer — an infamous bon vivant who made so much money for the game’s international governing body, FIFA, that he was hailed as its virtuoso deal maker. He dined often with sheikhs and heirs at the trendiest restaurants and attended society events with a rotating cast of striking companions. His personal travel blog pictured him with the likes of Bill Clinton and Vladimir Putin and Miss Universe. At 400 pounds, with an unruly white beard and mane, he looked like Santa Claus, talked like a bricklayer and lived like a 1-percenter.

Meet Chuck Blazer - the ex-Fifa official and parrot ...

Blazer’s big secret, as he looked down on the Manhattan streets, seems so obvious now: He had embezzled his fortune through kickbacks and bribes.

How did the FBI get involved in the first place? Christopher Steele actually and he brought the case to the FBI. Now why is Michael Gaeta important? He was Josef Mifsud‘s handler. This has been confirmed by George Papadopoulos. Gaeta, Mifsud and Steele all had a working relationship operating out of Rome. Mifsud was a professor at Link Campus University in Rome. The school is under proprietary ownership of the University of Malta. Link University is but one of the major ‘go-to’ places for FBI agents to teach and train. Oh, it is also a location where up and coming spies for the UK and sometimes the United States have sessions.

Beginning to see how nuts all this is? When it comes to John Solomon, Senior Editor of The Hill, he confirmes that Mifsud worked with the FBI beginning in 2016. It was Mifsud too that introduced George Papadopoulos to Dr. Ivan N. Timofeev who is described as being a director of a think tank located in Moscow.

So, during the House Intelligence hearing with Mueller, Congressman Devin Nunes provided a couple of key names. One interesting person he mentioned was Steven Schrage. He is an interesting person as he is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and is currently at Cambridge University as a PhD candidate.Schrage as a PhD student was under Stephan Halper. Schrage hosted a conference in July of 2011 in Cambridge that had Madeleine Albright as a keynote speaker. Here was the moment that Stephan Halper was deployed to dangle Carter Page.

And so begins the plot for naming a special council, Robert Mueller due to James Comey, some agents, the DoJ operatives like Bruce Ohr and at least Victoria Nuland at the State Department.

The choreographed operation continues.

So, how about the rest of the FBI agents to confound this story? Ready?

Assigned to the Mueller/Zebley team were the following:

  1. Omer Meisel, (an SEC investigator, formerly assigned to Enron, read Andrew Weissman)
  2. Robert Gibbs, an expert in Chinese espionage
  3. Sherine Ebadi, previously prosecuted multi million dollar corporate fraud cases
  4. Jennifer Edwards, expert at identity theft, internet accounting, managed the Papadopoulos case
  5. Jason Alberts, expert at public corruption
  6. Brock Domin, a techie on Russian operations, assigned to prosecute Manafort
  7. David Archey, a rather utility agent who previously worked in Bahrain, Jordan, Algiers and Rwanda in counterterrorism
  8. Greg Andres, a lawyer with IRS specialty
  9. Kyle Freeny, a lawyer with the FBI specializing in money laundering
  10. Walter Giardina
  11. Curtis Heide, he forced Papadopoulos to wear a wire
  12. Francesco Corral, specializing in cyber security and foreign intelligence

So, hoping this gives the reader some jumping off point if you choose to research more on all this Russia probe. Meanwhile, let’s hear what Congressman Jim Jordan has to say after the Mueller hearing. He wants to continue to investigate the investigators and so do we.

One last item/factoid. Keep a close watch on Perkins Coie and Marc Elias. The law firm Perkins Coie provided office space for Fusion GPS to use. It was Marc Elias that hired Fusion GPS and it was Marc Elias that was the law firm to the DNC and the Hillary campaign. By the way, Marc Elias now is the lawyer of record for the Kamala Harris presidential campaign.

Oooops, remember when the FBI went to the Hillary campaign several times to talk about foreign cyber intrusions of the Hillary campaign servers? The campaign refused to allow the cyber team at the FBI any access to the login files. The campaign instead hired Crowdstrike at the behest of Perkins Coie.  It was Perkins Coie that blocked the FBI access to the DNC servers and those of the Hillary campaign. Crowdstrike was under agreement with the FBI to provide the forensic computer evidence, which never happened. One must argue now that Crowdstrike under orders from Perkins Coie destroyed all server, computer and operating systems in 2016 or just brought in new servers and evidence is still out there unless Bleachbit was used.

 

Senator Daines vs. Socialism

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Resolution_draft by Fox News on Scribd

In his prepared remarks introducing the resolution, obtained by Fox News, Daines criticized the Green New Deal and “Medicare-for-all” — as well as the increase in partisanship on Capitol Hill. Less than an hour earlier, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., similarly condemned “hyperventilating hacks” seeking to sow division, rather than make policy.

Daines Stumps For Gorsuch, Spars With Protesters At ...

“We are at a pivotal time in our great nation’s history,” Daines said. “We have shown the world time and time again the genius of American ingenuity and the grit of American determination. However, a radical, socialist, far-left movement is growing across this country. And it has taken root as the new voice of the Democratic Party.”

*** A hat tip to the Senator for his position on America vs. Democrats, Socialism and all things related to the Green New Deal. There is also Medicare for All, free college tuition and even paying criminals to behave.

Does this resolution go far enough? Not really, but it is a start. There should be legislation and eventually law that states socialism is forbidden in the United States. It is wishful thinking however, because our Federal government is slammed full with socialist programs that we can never undo.

All things government healthcare like Obamacare is socialism, Social Security is of course socialism, block grants, community reinvestment act and so many more fit the definition of socialism as do the countless entitlement programs.

You can however begin the challenge on yet another item that you personally pay each month. Have you checked your utility bills lately and looked at all those weird fees? Same thing with your cell phone bill. The cable bill too? Yes.

There is corporate socialism too, bailouts and subsidies…yes…all socialism. This is forced socialism with no oversight. That means no one is accountable, no one measures success, no one measures if the money really goes where it is supposed to go.

Places like Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore and other major cities all have a major homeless program where tax money is earmarked to address that crisis. For instance, California voted in March to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase to help the homeless. It is expected to raise $355 million each year for a ten year period. That said, do California officials and residents really believe the homeless problem will go away in ten years? Really?

As long as Baltimore is in the news, thousands of residents in the inner city get a lead check along with living in Section 8 housing and getting food stamps. What is a lead check you ask?

Well our Congress voted in the 1990’s to create a slush fund to eradicate lead (paint) from homes and buildings constructed before 1977. By now, all that lead should be gone right? Nah..residents in Baltimore and other major cities get a monthly lead check as they choose to live in row houses allegedly still containing peeling lead paint. This whole scam was coordinated by several federal agencies including Housing and Urban Development, the EPA and Health and Human Services.

Socialism is a constant cancer, of which the ends we will never see but we can stop some of it at least by challenging those pesky fees in your power bill, the cable bill or your cell phone bill.

Anyway….hat tip again to the Senator.

 

 

A Tip Discovered the Capital One Data Hack

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Lil miss Paige got what is in your wallet.

Paige Adele Thompson

MCLEAN, Va., July 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) announced today that on July 19, 2019, it determined there was unauthorized access by an outside individual who obtained certain types of personal information relating to people who had applied for its credit card products and to Capital One credit card customers.

Capital One

Capital One immediately fixed the configuration vulnerability that this individual exploited and promptly began working with federal law enforcement. The FBI has arrested the person responsible and that person is in custody. Based on our analysis to date, we believe it is unlikely that the information was used for fraud or disseminated by this individual. However, we will continue to investigate.

“While I am grateful that the perpetrator has been caught, I am deeply sorry for what has happened,” said Richard D. Fairbank, Chairman and CEO. “I sincerely apologize for the understandable worry this incident must be causing those affected and I am committed to making it right.”

Based on our analysis to date, this event affected approximately 100 million individuals in the United States and approximately 6 million in Canada.

***

According to the criminal complaint, the FBI honed in on Thompson after “information obtained from the obtrusion” was found on a GitHub page with Thompson’s name attached to it. A tipster had emailed Capital One on July 17, 2019, to alert them to the post. The message included a link to a file, that was confirmed to contain information for getting into Capital One systems.

paige thompsonAnd Paige bragged about her nefarious achievements.

 

Paige Adele Thompson described herself as a “Programmer, sysadmin, electronics enthusiast” on the GitLab profile mentioned in the third section of this article. Another profile states that she works at Netcrave Communications in Seattle. A search of online records brings up a now-deleted LinkedIn page that lists her occupation as “Owner / software engineer” at Netcrave. On a Meetup page, Thompson also described herself as the CTO of the company.

The resume that FBI investigators alluded to in the criminal complaint was easily found on Scribd, the online platform that allows for the sharing of documents. Thompson wrote on the resume that she worked for Amazon as a systems engineer in 2015 and 2016. She also lists prior jobs as a software engineer at companies including ATG Stores Inc, ConnectXYZLLC and Seattle Software Systems. The resume states that Thompson attended Bellevue Community College but did not graduate. Excellent work as published here.

According to the criminal complaint, Paige Thompson actually began the hack in March. It is quite the case and interesting reading found here.