Category Archives: Drug Cartels

Baltimore Infected With Gang Members, BGF

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14 alleged gang members indicted on racketeering charges

BALTIMORE (AP) — Local and federal authorities announced indictments against 14 men they say are members of a notoriously vicious gang known for violence, drug trafficking and witness intimidation both on Baltimore’s streets and in its jails.

U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday announced indictments against more the men they say are members of the Black Guerilla Family, a gang so brutal it is considered “the FBI’s number one violent gang target in the city of Baltimore,” said Stephen Vogt, FBI special agent in charge in Baltimore, on Thursday.

In the indictment, the alleged gang members are charged with conspiracy and racketeering. The indictment says those charged are responsible for drug trafficking, intimidating witnesses, drug overdoses that resulted in three deaths, two attempted murders and two murders, including one in which a teenage gang member was fatally shot.

The document describes the Black Guerilla Family as a meticulously organized criminal enterprise with a code of conduct so strict violating it is punishable by essay assignments, fines, beatings, stabbings and sometimes murder.

The gang garnered international media attention in 2013 after a sweeping federal indictment charged 44 inmates and prison guards at the Baltimore City Detention Center with participating in a widespread drug and cellphone smuggling operation.

Timothy Michael Gray, who federal officials say was the gang’s citywide commander until 2013, collected cash from members who oversaw the gang’s operations in Baltimore. Under his watch, the indictment alleges, Marshall Spence murdered a teenage gang member, then threatened a juvenile who had witnessed the crime. In a subsequent phone conversation with other gang members, the indictment says, Spence then discussed murdering witnesses.

“That’s what we’re facing on the street,” Rosenstein said at a news conference on Wednesday. “It’s important for us to intervene in these gang disputes and take the perpetrators off the streets and eliminate the opportunity for retaliation that we’ve seen fuel some of the violence we’ve seen over the last six weeks.”

The indictments are the result of an 18-month investigation, Vogt said, that demanded a strong partnership between local, state and federal law enforcement. On Wednesday Vogt praised Police Commissioner Anthony Batts for his patience and willingness to dedicate resources to such a “slow-moving” probe.

But over the past six weeks the bloodiest period in Baltimore in decades, with 42 murders in the month of May and 13 so far in June_the city’s arrest rate has plummeted, leaving Batts to defend a police force critics say have abandoned their posts in the city’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods following unrest and rioting prompted by the death of Freddie Gray.

“These police officers have gone through trauma,” Batts said, adding that he has taken a group of officers from the Western District, where Gray was arrested and the majority of violence erupted during the April 27 riots, off the streets this week so they could participate in team-building exercises, retraining and education. “My guys are going out there, getting into officer-involved shootings and taking guns of the streets.

“My officers have an ethical obligation to the babies, to the kids, to the mothers, to the weak ones out there to protect this city as a whole and keep their jobs going in that direction,” Batts said. “We are providing them with insight, we are providing them with counseling, we are providing them with opportunities to share what they need to do, but at the end of the day we get paid to get the job done.” ***

From the FBI in 2013:

BALTIMORE—A federal grand jury returned a racketeering indictment charging 25 individuals, including 13 correctional officers with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, for conspiring to run operations of the Black Guerilla Family (BGF) gang inside correctional facilities. All 25 defendants also are charged with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute drugs, and 20 of the defendants are charged with money laundering conspiracy.

The indictment and a detailed affidavit were unsealed today upon the arrests of the defendants and the execution of 15 search warrants. Approximately 170 agents and officers assisted in today’s arrests and search warrants. The indictment was returned on April 2, 2013. One defendant was killed in a robbery several hours before the indictment was filed. The defendants are identified at the conclusion of this press release.

The indictment arose from the efforts of the Maryland Prison Task Force, a group of local, state, and federal stakeholders that met regularly for more than two years and generated recommendations to reform prison procedures.

The indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts; Secretary Gary D. Maynard of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services; and Chief Mark A. Magaw of the Prince George’s County Police Department.

U.S. Attorney Rosenstein also recognized the efforts of the other members of the Maryland Prison Task Force in this investigation and prosecution, including: Baltimore City State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein; Colonel Marcus L. Brown, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; United States Marshal Johnny Hughes; Special Agent in Charge Karl C. Colder of the Drug Enforcement Administration-Washington Field Division; Tom Carr, Director of the Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area; and Dave Engel, Executive Director of the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center.

“Correctional officers were in bed with BGF inmates, in violation of the first principle of prison management,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Preventing prison corruption requires intensive screening at prison entrances and punishment for employees who consort with inmates or bring cell phones and drugs into correctional facilities.”

“This investigation revealed the pervasive nature of prison corruption in Baltimore City’s Detention Centers,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt. “Such corruption causes the FBI to divert crucial investigative resources away from addressing violence on the streets of Baltimore. In this case, the inmates literally took over ‘the asylum,’ and the detention centers became safe havens for the BGF. Such a situation cannot be tolerated. Law enforcement should not have to concern itself with criminal subjects who have already been arrested and relegated to detention centers.”

“Ninety-nine percent of our correctional officers do their jobs with integrity, honesty, and respect,” said Secretary Gary Maynard of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. “Today’s indictment, along with those in the past, show that our department will not stand idly by and let a few bad actors affect the security of our institutions. Nor will we allow them to impugn the reputation of the men and women who come to work every day and go about their jobs honorably. Those who would break the law should know we will always work tirelessly with our federal, state, and local partners to root out corruption.”

“Today’s multi-jurisdictional takedown of suspected BGF gang members and orchestrators who infiltrated the criminal justice system is another example of the Baltimore Police Department’s relentless focus on targeting the malignant gang organizations that plague our communities,” said Police Commissioner Anthony Batts. “Thanks to the hard working detectives, federal agents, and prosecutors who worked behind the scenes to build these cases. Our continued pledge to the people of Baltimore is that we will leverage the full capacity of our state and federal partnerships to identify those responsible for violence and bring them to justice.”

The 10 men and 15 women charged in the indictment are alleged to be members or associates of the BGF, a gang active in prisons throughout the United States. According to the indictment, BGF has been the dominant gang at the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC) and in several connected facilities, especially the Baltimore Central Booking Intake Center, the Women’s Detention Center (which houses many men), and in the Jail Industries Building. The indictment alleges that since at least 2009, BGF members and associates in BCDC and related prison facilities engaged in criminal activities, including drug trafficking, robbery, assault, extortion, bribery, witness retaliation, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.

BGF members and associates allegedly bribed correctional officers at BCDC and related prison facilities to smuggle drugs, cell phones, and other contraband. Correctional officers arranged favored treatment and privileges for imprisoned BGF gang members, and officers thwarted interdiction and law enforcement efforts against BGF inmates. BGF members and associates allegedly had long-term sexual relationships with several correctional officers and impregnated them.

BGF leaders allegedly used contraband cell phones to order contraband. Co-conspirators delivered contraband to corrupt correctional officers who smuggled the items into the prisons. Correctional officers often arranged payment for the contraband. Some gang dues and drug profits were used to support activities of BGF street organizations outside the prisons.

The charging documents allege that correctional officers were able to bring contraband directly into the prisons through the main entrances. Inside the prisons, BGF was able to control contraband smuggling because BGF gang members were designated as “working men.” Working men are inmates who are paid to assist management and are free to move about the facility.

Green Dot cash debit cards were allegedly used by inmates to pay BGF for smuggled contraband and used by BGF to transfer criminal proceeds. Luxury automobiles were among the purchases made by BGF with Green Dot cards.

According to the indictment, members, and associates followed directions from the ranking BGF members in BCDC, especially inmate Tavon White. On January, 5, 2013, White explained in a phone call:

“This is my jail. You understand that? I’m dead serious….I make every final call in this jail…and nothing go past me, everything come to me….Any of my brothers that deal with anybody, it’s gonna come to me. You see what I am saying? Everything come to me. Everything. Before a mother-f—— hit a n—— in the mouth, guess what they do, they gotta run it through me. I tell them whether it’s a go ahead, and they can do it or whether they hold back. Before a mother-f—— stab somebody, they gotta run it through me….Anything that get done must go through me. ”

Tavon White summarized his position in a conversation with correctional officer Adrena Rice on February 11, 2013:

“I told them worker men that they had to step down off the worker men spots or they was getting hit….I hold the highest seat you can get….My word is law…so if I told any mother-f—— body they had to do this, hit a police, do this, kill a mother-f——, do anything, it got to get done. Period.”

White allegedly used contraband cell phones to discuss BGF activities inside BCDC, such as the collection of fees and taxes, to request information about inmates, to hear grievances from other BGF inmates, and to coordinate his contraband smuggling operation. White and other gang members developed sexual relationships with officers in order to gain influence over them.

White allegedly had long-term sexual relationships inside BCDC with four correctional officers—Jennifer Owens, Katera Stevenson, Chania Brooks, and Tiffany Linder—impregnating each of the four officers at least once. Owens had “Tavon” tattooed on her neck and Stevenson had “Tavon” tattooed on her wrist. All four officers allegedly help smuggle contraband into BCDC and related facilities. White allegedly gave Owens a diamond ring and provided luxury automobiles to Owens, Stevenson, and Brooks. The indictment includes many overt acts in furtherance of the racketeering enterprise. For example, in November 2012, correctional officer Jasmin Jones allegedly stood guard outside a closet in BCDC so that correctional officer Kimberly Dennis and inmate Derius Duncan could have sex. Corrupt officers also warned BGF inmates about law enforcement operations. For example, Brooks and Linder allegedly notified White when they learned about upcoming canine scans and jail cell searches. The affidavit specifies two occasions in which warning calls to White were intercepted: December 21, 2012 (from Brooks) and January 6, 2013 (from Linder). White then used his cell phone to spread the word to other inmates.

On January 6, 2013, White allegedly said:

“I just got a message (from Officer Tiffany Linder) saying that they was going to pull a shake down (prison search) tonight. Let me call all these dudes in my phone and let them know.”

The U.S. Attorney expressed appreciation to Secretary Maynard and select members of his senior staff who confidentially arranged for 30 trusted correctional officers from outside Baltimore to join with federal agents and conduct surprise searches of BGF members and their jail cells on February 14, 2013, resulting in the discovery of important evidence.

The indictment seeks the forfeiture of $500,000 and other proceeds of the enterprise, including luxury automobiles.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the racketeering and drug conspiracies, as well as for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Stevenson, Yarborough, and Pinder each also face five years in prison for possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

The defendants are expected to have initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Baltimore this afternoon.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the FBI, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Baltimore Police Department, the Prince George’s County Police Department and Maryland Prison Task Force, Baltimore City Assistant State’s Attorneys Kevin Wilson, and Katie O’Hara for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Robert R. Harding and Ayn B. Ducao, who are prosecuting this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case.

The following defendants are charged in the indictment unsealed today:

Inmates:

  • Tavon White, a/k/a Bulldog and Tay, age 36, of Baltimore
  • Jamar Anderson, a/k/a Hammer and Hamma Head, age 26, of Baltimore
  • Derius Duncan, age 26, of Baltimore
  • Steven Loney, a/k/a Stevie, age 24, of Baltimore
  • Jermaine McFadden, a/k/a Maine, age 24, of Baltimore
  • Kenneth Parham, age 23, of Baltimore
  • Joseph Young, a/k/a Monster, age 30, of Baltimore

Correctional officers:

  • Antonia Allison, age 27, of Baltimore
  • Ebonee Braswell, age 26, of Baltimore
  • Chania Brooks, age 27, of Baltimore
  • Kimberly Dennis, age 26, of Baltimore
  • Jasmin Jones, a/k/a J.J., age 24, of Baltimore
  • Taryn Kirkland, age 23, of Baltimore
  • Katrina LaPrade, a/k/a Katrina Lyons, age 31, of Baltimore
  • Tiffany Linder, age 27, of Baltimore
  • Vivian Matthews, age 25, of Essex, Maryland
  • Jennifer Owens, a/k/a O and J.O., age 31, of Randallstown
  • Adrena Rice, age 25, of Baltimore
  • Katera Stevenson, a/k/a KK, age 24, of Baltimore
  • Jasmine Thornton, a/k/a J.T., age 26, of Glen Burnie

Outside suppliers:

  • Tyesha Mayo, age 29, of Baltimore
  • Teshawn Pinder, age 24, of Baltimore
  • Tyrone Thompson, a/k/a Henry, age 36, of Baltimore
  • Ralph Timmons, Jr., a/k/a Boosa, age 34, of Baltimore (deceased)

James Yarborough, a/k/a J.Y., age 26, of Baltimore.

 

 

 

 

 

Explaining Relations with Cuba, Prisoners and Debt

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Repaying $15 billion in debt default:

The Cuban government has agreed that it owes $15 billion to the exclusive group of nations known as the Paris Club, after Cuba declared itself in default in 1986, according to a report from Reuters quoting diplomatic sources.

The figure agreed to includes principal, service charges, interest and fines that Cuba owes 16 Paris Club nations from its 1986 default, Reuters reported on Monday. However, it does not include compensation fees levied by the United States for private properties confiscated by the Cuban government since 1959.

The Paris Club is an informal group of creditor governments and institutions composed of 20 permanent member countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.

The agreement reached with the Paris Club advances negotiations on the terms of payment, the first since negotiations failed in 2001, in part due to a $35 billion debt owed to the former Soviet Union, Cuba’s primary benefactor before its collapse in 1991. In July, President Vladimir Putin agreed to forgive nearly all of that debt and pledged to reinvest payments made by the Cuban government toward development projects on the island.

“This agreement is another sign of the political will of the Cuban government to rejoin a reasonable credit system at the normal level of the world economy, in accordance with the norms of international financial standards,” said José Oro, director of research division of Cuba at Thomas J. Herzfeld Advisors Inc. investment firm in Miami Beach.  Read more here.

Criminal illegals that Cuba wont take back:

Havana won’t take them back

Hundreds with ‘Zadvydas cases’ refused by their home countries

Hundreds of Cuban criminals are released onto the streets of the U.S. every year because that nation won’t take them back — even though the Obama administration is trying to broker a more open relationship with the communist island nation.

It’s a quirk of immigration law known as “Zadvydas cases,” after a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that said the government cannot detain immigrants indefinitely if their home countries won’t take them back.

Cuba, China and Vietnam regularly top the list, but even some countries that are supposed to be closer partners, such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, are refusing to quickly accept some of their citizens whom the U.S. is trying to deport.

Cuba refused to take back 878 criminals last year and rejected nearly 400 through the first eight months of the current fiscal year, according to statistics that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided to the House Judiciary Committee. Vietnam is second, having refused 331 criminals in 2014, though it has rejected the return of only 44 criminals so far this year.

All told, the government released 2,457 criminals and 461 non-criminal illegal immigrants onto the streets last year because of the Zadvydas strictures, ICE said. This year, the totals through May 9 were 1,107 criminals and 344 noncriminals.

“The Zadvydas problem is an urgent one, considering that a large percentage of the most serious criminal alien releases are Zadvydas,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies. “Given the obvious public safety risks, the administration should be more aggressive in seeking a solution or in using the tools available to them.”

In the Zadvydas ruling, the Supreme Court said immigration detention cannot extend beyond six months unless there is a compelling national security or public safety interest. If home countries won’t cooperate in taking back their citizens, the U.S. government must release them.

Republicans in Congress have proposed a number of fixes and have pushed for tools such as withholding visas from countries that refuse to accept their scofflaws, but the George W. Bush and Obama administrations have been reluctant to take those steps.

The issue is even more acute given that Cuba is the biggest offender and President Obama is trying to normalize relations with that nation. Analysts said it would be the perfect time to raise the issue of Zadvydas refusals.

The State Department didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment, but there is no indication that it has raised the issue as part of the talks.

Ms. Vaughan said that is a missed opportunity.

“It’s the best chance in decades to push Cuba to be more cooperative,” she said.

Beyond Cuba, the government faces problems returning citizens to a number of countries. Twelve nations refused the return of at least 70 of their citizens in 2014, including a number of countries that received generous U.S. aid.

One of those, Liberia, refused 85 criminals’ return, even as the U.S. was providing extensive help to combat an Ebola outbreak.

Three other Central American countries are poised to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in aid among them to try to stem a surge of their citizens entering the U.S. illegally for life in the shadows.  Read more here.

Among them, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador refused 127 criminals and 145 noncriminals in 2014.

The Guatemalan and Honduran embassies didn’t respond to repeated messages requesting comment, but El Salvador’s embassy in Washington said it does what it can while guaranteeing that its citizens go through legal due process.

“We want to make clear that there’s no policy that allows refusing deportations. On the contrary, our consulates give assistance to all Salvadoran prisoners in the United States seeking to facilitate their return to the country, where many of them won’t be in prison,” said Ana Virginia Guardado, an embassy spokeswoman.

She said her country refused return in cases in which the individuals rejected El Salvador’s consular help. She said El Salvador is still working on those cases and that individuals will be given travel documents allowing their deportation once they have exhausted all of their legal avenues in the U.S.

She said El Salvador has worked to accept nearly 8,000 deportees so far this year.

ICE said the Central American countries provide good cooperation and that the relationships have grown stronger with the surge of illegal immigrant children in the U.S. that peaked last summer.

“Through relationship-building, consular pilot programs and regular engagement, timely issuance of travel documents has risen, as has the host governments’ willingness and capacity to accept an increased amount of ICE air charter flights,” spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez said.

Ms. Rodriguez said the number of refusals from the Central American countries is low compared with the total number of deportations. El Salvador’s 2014 refusal rate was less than half of a percent of the total number who were accepted back.

She said the cases that are refused often have special circumstances that make them tougher to complete. Even after they are released, however, the Zadvydas cases are still in the system and ICE is still working to deport them as soon as possible.

 

Meet Bernard Aronson and Venezuela Blackouts

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Bernard Aronson, a Goldman Sachs insider with assignments in Latin America. It is especially cool that Barack Obama calls on Aronson to end the rebel fighting in Latin America. Or how about using Bernard to normalize Cuba with Hillary Clinton’s approval? John Kerry uses Aronson to handle matters with Columbia.

The intrigue begins. This is rather convoluted, so be patient as you read on.

Aronson has deep ties to Thomas Pritzker of Hyatt hotels fame same as Penny Pritzker who is Barack Obama’s Secretary of Commerce.

The Pritzker dynasty looks like this:

Family tree: Pritzker is the son of Jay Pritzker, founder of Hyatt Hotels Corporation.
Areas of interest:
nonprofits

College: Pritzker received a B.A. from Claremont Men’s College, and an MBA and J.D. from the University of Chicago.

Report: billionaires collect farm subsidies
Fifty billionaires were direct or indirect recipients of farm subsidies, according to a report by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.
November 7, 2013
The Pritzker fortune and the Obama campaign
Tonight, President Obama will speak at a ceremony honoring this year’s winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, named for the family that built a fortune with the Hyatt Hotels chain.
Back to the intrigue and Bernard Aronson….

Bernard W. Aronson past relationships:

Jimmy Carter – speechwriter
Freedom House – trustee
Global Hyatt Corporation – director
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. – international adviser
Hyatt Hotels Corporation – director
Mariner Energy Inc. – director
Walter F. Mondale – speechwriter
U.S. Department of State – assistant secretary
Now Venezuela:
There were power black-outs in Venezuela? But why? Answer here.
Derwick Associates:
Defendants are U.S. residents who have amassed enormous fortunes through an illicit scheme to secure energy-industry contracts in Venezuela for their various U.S.-based companies, Derwick Associates USA LLC and Derwick Associates Corporation (together with these

companies’  predecessors, successors, assigns and affiliates, “Derwick  
Associates” ). Known in the press as the “ChavezKids, ” “BoliBoys,”
 and “the  mafiosi of the Fifth Republic ,”  Defendants Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt Lopez (“Betancourt”),  Pedro Jose Trebbau Lopez (“Trebbau”),  and Francisco D’Agostino  Casado (“D’Agostino)
 have profited wildly from their ongoing illegal bribery scheme designed to exploit for their personal financial gain the corrupt and anti-democratic Chavez regime.
+++ 
By: Dan Rosenau
Venezuela/U.S. energy sector scandal involving J.P. Morgan, ProEnergy Services (partially-owned by Obama appointee), Derwick AssociatesThe U.S. Department of the Treasury’s FINCEN recently announced that Banco Privada d’Andorra was favored by criminal enterprises from Russia, China, and Venezuela. In the case of Venezuela, government officials reportedly deposited more than $4Bn into personal accounts—most of it siphoned off from PDVSA, the state-owned oil company of Venezuela.

I’m painfully aware of the embezzlement and overbilling involving Venezuela’s energy sector given that, until recently, I was employed at Sedalia, Missouri-based ProEnergy Services. ProEnergy was the contractor responsible for the construction of one dozen power plants in deals involving gross overbilling, multiple offshore transactions, and a murky association with Derwick Associates, a Venezuelan start-up with zero experience in power plant construction. I’m making available here more than 10GB of material directly from the company hard drive. The metadata on each document can be traced directly to Pro-Energy’s computers. My hope is that “crowdsourcing” the enclosed data will allow interested parties to assist in exposing a multi-billion dollar fraud.

From 2009-2012 ProEnergy billed to the tune of $2Bn almost all of it flowing from a single client: Derwick Associates. Our company sold more than $1Bn in turbines (most of them used or refurbished–but sold as new) to Derwick which then resold them hours later at a significant mark-up to the government of Venezuela through entities such as their electricity ministry, their Guyanese state enterprise CVG, their state-owned oil company PDVSA, and the SIDOR iron-ore producer.  In addition to turbine sales to Derwick, ProEnergy built the power plants that Derwick marketed as their own and for which both companies overbilled the Venezuelan government in the hundreds of millions of dollars.  According to the Wall Street Journal, Derwick is now under criminal investigation by federal authorities and by local authorities in New York. (This prompted Derwick to immediately hire Adam Kauffmann, former head of the Manhattan DA investigation division. Kauffmann is already representing several Venezuelan government officials who embezzled hundreds of millions).

Working in ProEnergy’s sales department, I learned our company had hit paydirt when a group of connected Venezuelans chose to ignore Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) such as Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, and General Electric and instead used ProEnergy as a middleman. In other words, a middleman used a middleman.

Inexplicably, the IT department at ProEnergy had blocked access to internet sites when I googled  “Derwick” and “corruption.” This stirred my curiosity and so I explored the company’s shared computer drive for the term “Derwick.”  What I found there shocked me: dozens of proposals to Derwick for generators, for power plants, for upgrades to those power plants. It was odd given that ProEnergy has never built a power plant in the United States (ProEnergy fails to meet American standards and so has offices in places like Angola, Argentina, Pakistan, and Venezuela).  Shockingly, ProEnergy’s proposals reflected a mark-up ranging from 20-74%.  In my industry, profit margin usually hovers between 2 and 5%. At these prices someone was being ripped off.  ProEnergy was overbilling Derwick.

My sense of disbelief only grew the more I read. I discovered document drafts on Derwick letterhead. ProEnergy was writing the proposals and preparing the invoices that Derwick sent Venezuelan clients for the exact same equipment described in the proposals to Derwick from ProEnergy. This included actual invoices from Derwick to Venezuela’s state-owned enterprises like PDVSA. These invoices, the Microsoft Word documents indicated, were created on ProEnergy computers in Sedalia. On some of the Derwick invoices, the bank wiring instructions went to bank accounts belonging to ProEnergy. Some to offshore bank Davos International and others to JP Morgan in New York.

When I learned that the owners of Derwick were barely out of college and friendly with the son of the Electricity Minister of Venezuela I realized why ProEnergy had prepared the Derwick invoices: because our 20-something Venezuelan clients lacked the technical know-how. After all, how does a person draft an invoice for a product with no knowledge about the item in question?

Remarkably, these invoices prepared by ProEnergy and purportedly from Derwick also revealed mammoth markups over and above the prices that ProEnergy charged Derwick.  So, an item like a set of three FT8 Swift Pac turbines bought by ProEnergy from Pratt and Whitney for $67.5M were sold one day later for $78M to Derwick who then sold it two days after that to Venezuela for $97.5 million.  And so in four days an item with a retail cost of $67.5M had $30M added by ProEnergy and by Derwick Associates. In another instance three Rolls Royce Trent 60 turbines originally sourced for $66M from Rolls Royce were sold to Derwick for $79.3M, which in turn resold them hours later for $97.5M, adding another $31M profit to the bottom line of both Derwick and ProEnergy. Like these transactions there are scores of instances on every item imaginable—from spare parts to construction costs, from turbines to generators, from transformers to transportation costs and employee training.  I stopped counting the total on the invoices after two billion dollars.

One colleague told me that the FBI had visited ProEnergy on several occasions. I was tortured, week after week, knowing that ProEnergy was robbing a nation where poverty and crime are rampant.  I spent sleepless nights agonizing about what to do.  Company-wide layoffs solved my immediate dilemma. The truth is that with no more Venezuelan cash flow, ProEnergy suffered a long-standing cash crunch. So much so that Washington, D.C.’s Acon Investments, made a capital injection into ProEnergy.  Acon is run by Obama appointee to Latin America Bernard Aronson.

Months went by and I could not shake the disgust of what transpired.  I blew the whistle by sharing the information with celebrated Venezuelan investigative reporter Cesar Batiz who verified the material and allowed a blogger to post some of it on Scribd.

The sensational revelations about money-laundering activities of Venezuelan energy officials at the Andorran bank would explain why Venezuelan state officials agreed to overpay Derwick and ProEnergy. The men addressed in the letters (written by ProEnergy and) and sent by Derwick are accountholders exposed to criminal charges in Spain for amassing illegal fortunes in “consulting fees.”

It is disheartening that American energy executives would display such appalling greed and be so quick to partake in the looting of Venezuela.  My hope is that by going public with the 10GB of information more of my former colleagues will come forward and blow the whistle on one of the most troubling international scandals in Venezuelan (and Missouri) history. I’ve learned that Derwick Associates has persecuted numerous bloggers in Venezuela and abroad as well as mainstream journalists including having stories about their misdeeds “spiked” at the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Economist, Huffington Post, and the Miami Herald.

Then there is Davos and JP Morgan. Sheesh…ties that bind in covert actions.

Welfare Funding Jihad Terror

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Countries that are too generous with welfare and social programs dole out millions of dollars to people that filed fraudulent applications all without so much as any investigation or concern by agencies. Does anyone care outside of the taxpayers themselves? Where is the outrage?

Thousands of Brits have traveled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS. Money for travel and weapons for the jihadis comes from tax dollars. Australia, a country that has the most fighters in ISIS has the same issue and has worked to stop some welfare payments.

On the American home front, it is no different. Islamic Relief Worldwide, the same charity connected to the mayor of Baltimore, continues to fund terrorism, so why would they be able to keep their IRS tax-exempt status?

Yet when it comes to entitlement programs in the United States funding jihad, the cases number in the thousands. A sting operation in Alabama called Operation T-bone found 17 suspects using EBT cards to send money to Yemen, where the Houthis, an Iranian militia has taken control of the country. In Minnesota, two Somalia men used their college grant money to travel to the Middle East to join militant groups.

One of the more well known terrorists, the Tsarnaev brothers, otherwise known as the Boston bombers did the same thing.

‘The family of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bomb attacks, received food stamps and welfare when the brothers were growing up, according to a letter from the state Department of Transitional Assistance that was obtained by the Globe.

In the letter, sent Thursday to the chairman of the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee, the department outlined the benefits that the brothers had received through their parents, Anzor and Zubeidat, as well as benefits Tamerlan Tsarnaev later received as a member of his wife’s household.

Anzor and Zubeidat received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, commonly known as food stamps, from October 2002 to November 2004, when Dzhokhar would have been about 8 to 10 years old and Tamerlan 15 to 17. The family also received them from August 2009 to December 2011, according to the letter.

Anzor was also a Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children grantee from January 2003 to March 2003, and again from August 2009 to June 2010.’

In 2014, there was yet another case of EBT fraud and synthetic marijuana in Davie, Florida where citizens themselves were the whistleblowers as the investigations found the money was going overseas to fund terrorism.

In Baltimore, 9 separate retailers and $7 million in food-stamp network has done the same thing.

The indictments allege that the defendants exchanged EBT benefits for cash, in violation of the food stamp program rules. The indictments allege that the defendants typically paid half the value of the EBT benefits in cash. To avoid detection, the defendants often debited the funds from the card in multiple transactions over a period of hours or days. As a result of unlawful cash transactions, the defendants obtained more than $6,898,000 in EBT deposits for transactions in which the stores did not provide food.

According to the indictments, the defendants listed below owned and/or operated stores in Baltimore that were authorized to accept SNAP. The defendants received instruction regarding the requirements and regulations of the food stamp program, including that only eligible food items could be exchanged for EBT benefits and that a retailer may never exchange EBT benefits for cash or non-food items.

Abdullah Aljaradi, age 51, of Baltimore: Second Obama Express and D&M Deli and Grocery, 901 Harlem Avenue, Suite A and B, respectively. From October 2010 through July 2013, Aljaradi allegedly obtained more than $2 million in payments for food sales that never occurred.
Dae Cho, age 66, and Hyung Cho, age 40, both of Catonsville: K&S Food Market, 3910 W. Belvedere Avenue. From November 2010 through July 2013, Dae Cho and her son Hyung Cho allegedly obtained more than $1.4 million in in payments for food sales that never occurred.
Abdo Mohamed Nagi, age 54, of Baltimore: New York Deli and Grocery 1207 West Baltimore Street. From February 2011 through May 2013, Nagi allegedly obtained more than $1.2 million in payments for food sales that never occurred.

None of this is new, cases were common going back to 2004, yet with ten years hence, why have this continued? The FBI and government agencies have the tools to track the fraud, money laundering and terror support structures. Where is the outrage?

 

Illegals Protected Class at California University System

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READ WRITE THINK AND DREAM

‘Undocumented Student Services’ at UC San Diego hosts workshops mandated by the school’s Vice Chancellor to plan strategies to get government financial assistance for housing, tuition, legal counseling with particular assistance for Latinos and Koreans. Remember that former Department of Homeland Security,Janet Napolitano is now the president of the University of California system.  She set aside $5 million dollars for such programs.

Not to be out done, CalState Los Angeles, CalState Fullerton and Long Beach all have the same programs. Suggestion: stop all federal dollars to the university system.

CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITIES ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Dreamers’ need a space ‘where they can feel safe’

Illegal immigrants in California are already eligible for state financial aid for college. Some public schools are now spending taxpayer money to help these students get money from other sources, even as legal students fight for sparse resources.

 

California State University-Los Angeles received a $1.6 million endowment late last month to fund the Dreamers Resource Center, which the school bills as a space that provides “academic guidance, referral assistance and other support” for so-called dreamers, or students whose parents brought them to the U.S. illegally.

It’s just the latest Cal State campus to christen a center dedicated to students without documentation: Fullerton was the first a year ago and Long Beach came two months ago.

The Northridge campus has one “in the works,” and legislation pending in the Legislature would help create more centers across the Cal State system and in community colleges, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The CSU-LA gift will help the school underwrite staff costs and maintain a dedicated space for the center, which was created in October. It helps undocumented students with things like scholarship deadlines and applying for federal work authorization, the school said.

Erika Glazer, the philanthropist whose $1.6 million donation followed her earlier pledges of $700,000 for illegal immigrants, said in CSU-LA’s release that she hopes the center “will be obsolete in a few years and the funds can go toward other programs” at the school.

CSU-LA “has a long history in facilitating the academic success of special student populations” such as low-income students, Nancy Wada-McKee, assistant vice president for student affairs, told The College Fix in an email. She said the school also serves more than 700 veterans through their own resource center.

Technically, the Dreamers center is open to all students, Wada-McKee said, although it focuses on helping undocumented students.

Favoring one group over everyone else?

Under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and California law, Dreamers who meet certain criteria are eligible for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

The 2011 California Dream Act also granted access to financial aid to so-called AB 540 students who attend a college or university in California.

In fall 2014, about 850 CSU-LA students met the requirements for in-state tuition under AB 540, the Times said.

The Long Beach Press Telegram reported a year ago that around 6,400 undocumented students were enrolled at Cal State’s 23 campuses.

CSU-Long Beach’s own “Dream Success Center,” not quite three months old, has already run into opposition from some students who think it’s a waste of valuable resource for a school that’s stretched thin.

The Fix previously reported on lobbying against the center by CSU-LB College Republicans Chairman Nestor Moto, Jr., who said the money that went into creating it could have been used to shrink overcrowded classes or offer more counselors for all students.

“We have 10 advising centers and that is who the money should have been allocated to,” not one special student population, Moto told The Fix in March.

The Daily 49er reported that the renovation for Long Beach’s center cost $16 million, and ongoing costs – including a full-time coordinator for the 650 undocumented students – run to $80,000 a year.

Just ‘leveling the playing field’

Besides the CSU-LA pledge from philanthropist Glazer, University of California President Janet Napolitano has set aside $5 million in non-state funds for undocumented students and resource centers.

UC said last week that Napolitano’s efforts – paying “trained advisers” to help students get “mentoring and emotional support” as well as “find internship and work-study jobs” – are simply “leveling the playing field” for illegal immigrants.

Jose Guevara, a CSU-LA center adviser and political science major who previously received a Glazer scholarship, told the Times that it was “important that [Dreamers] have a space where they can feel safe.”

Glazer is not the only multimillionaire philanthropist putting undocumented students ahead of other college students.

Former Washington Post owner Donald Graham and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman each donated $15 million to Graham’s scholarship fund for illegal-immigrant children, TheDream.us, the organization said Wednesday.

The new money – up to $25,000 each for 1,200 students at TheDream.us partner colleges – comes on top of $10 million each the duo previously donated. They want to spur other philanthropists to donate $30 million for another 5,000 scholarships, the organization said.

TheDream.us teamed up with the City University of New York last year to give scholarships to undocumented students who have already filed for temporary legal status.