DoJ Anti-Trust Case Advancing v. Social Tech Companies

The Department of Justice is preparing to open a broad probe into whether Amazon, Facebook, and other big tech companies are illegally harming their competitors, the department said in a press release on

The investigation is the latest antitrust probe looking into “Big Tech” and is separate from the potential investigations into Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Alphabet that are reportedly being brought up against them by the DOJ and FTC.

Watch the FAANG stocks.

What are FAANG Stocks?

Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX), and Alphabet (GOOG) are the five technology giants trading publicly in the market. Investors grouped these companies into one acronym to capture the collective impact that these companies have on the markets.

The Big FAANG Theory: 5 Reasons To Stop Dancing With Your Favorite Big 5 | Seeking Alpha

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In the case of Big Tech and Anti-Trust, the issue is to protect competition and ensure benefits to the consumer. There are at least 3 Anti-Trust laws under consideration for the Department of Justice to pursue a case or cases against big tech.

  • The Sherman Antitrust Act
  • The Clayton Act
  • The Federal Trade Commission Act

The Sherman Antitrust Act since 1890 stands to protect a free market economy and outlaws contracts, combinations or price fixing. In short, it is a crime to monopolize.

The Clayton Act is a civil statue that prohibits mergers or acquisition that harm competition.

The Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits unfair interstate methods of commerce that include false testimony to Federal agencies, mail or wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

These Acts in composition prevent corporate cartel action in a free market system. Previous cases have included telecom companies like AT&T, Proctor and Gamble and Roche Holding, a Swiss pharmaceutical company.

The DoJ has been reviewing all things big tech for a while so just a simple review has already happened. Digital platforms are not responsive to consumer demands when it comes to privacy, access to small business and entrepreneurs and retail operations.

Congress has proposed regulation and even Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg admitted he was open to oversight or regulation in congressional testimony. So far, big tech has not addressed the concerns of users including possible corruption, censor algorithms or slanted search results.

Users have lost trust but have little choices for other platforms that offer better free enterprise usage. Is this now a discussion and investigation on consumer welfare and protection? Yes. This comes down to an congested intersection of corporations, terms of use, subjective results, narrow competition ranges and innovation all under the guise of power and money.

There is market domination and the little guy is sideline or bought out causing harm to innovation and user expectations.

Wray’s Senate Testimony on China

Two significant items that prove Chinese espionage activities in the United States: a) Chinese Talent Plan b) Corporate Party Cells

This website has published several articles regarding the Chinese propaganda operation in the U.S. public school system and up to and including the university level.

As part of the Chinese mission to steal intellectual property beyond the insertion of censorship, culture and propaganda, China has at least two other successful objectives, the talent plan and the party cells.

China’s New Talent Policy: Objectives and Opportunities ...

A 5 page summary document on the talent plan is found here.

(U) Chinese Talent Programs are a vital part of Chinese industry. Talent programs recruit experts to fill technical jobs that drive innovation and growth in China’s economy. National, provincial, and municipal talent recruitment programs provide opportunities for experts to work in industry and academic organizations supporting key areas deemed critical to China’s development. The talent programs recruit experts globally from businesses, industry, and universities with multiple incentives to work in China. Associating with these talent programs is legal and breaks no laws; however, individuals who agree to the Chinese terms must understand what is and is not legal under US law when sharing information. A simple download of intellectual property (IP) or proprietary information has the potential to become criminal activity.

(U//FOUO) The large number of foreign students, researchers, scientists, and professionals in the United States, combined with current technological capabilities, allows foreign governments to contact and recruit individuals with the hopes to acquire advanced technology without research costs. While the majority of the population are law abiding individuals, anyone has the capability to acquire information. The theft of information can come from current or former employees, business partners, consultants, contractors, temporary hires, foreign agents, suppliers, or even vendors who have access to proprietary information. Read on here.

Per the applied website:

China initiated “the Recruitment Program of Global Experts” (known as “the Thousand Talents Plan”) since the end of 2008, under which it would bring in overseas top talents to China over the next five to ten years. Relying upon National Key Innovation Projects, National Key Disciplines and National Key Laboratories, central SOEs and state-owned commercial and financial institutions, and various industrial parks( mainly the high-tech development zones), this plan called for strategic scientists or leading talents who can make breakthroughs in key technologies or can enhance China’s high-tech industries and emerging disciplines.

By the end of May 2014,more than 4180 overseas high-level talents have been introduced in “1000 Talent Plan” by 10 times. When they go (back) to China, they are playing a positive role in the scientific innovation, technological breakthrough, discipline construction, talent training and hi-tech industry development, as an important force in the construction of the innovative country.

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May Day Story: Chinese Government’s Communist ‘Party Cells ...

As for the Party cells, China, Inc. meaning all Chinese corporations/businesses are to have a department or cell within the company that is a mobilized team ensuring all business activities and employees adhere to the Communist Party mandates.

In November, at the most important Communist Party meeting, which takes place every five years, Mr. Xi called on officials to strengthen the party in “government, the military, society and schools, north, south, east and west.” The message was quick to reach party members lower down in the ranks.

Soon after Mr. Xi’s speech, party officials in the central province of Hunan issued a notice to members instructing them to write the party into legal documents for private and state-owned companies alike. The document was accidentally made public when a local state-owned newspaper published it, but it was quickly taken down.

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In July, executives from more than a dozen top European companies in China met in Beijing to discuss their concerns about the growing role of the party in their local operations, Reuters reported.

One senior executive whose company was represented at the meeting told Reuters some firms were under “political pressure” to revise terms of their joint ventures with state-owned partners to allow the party the final say over business operations and investment decisions.

The business component with the party cells is quite important to consider when there is Chinese investment in the United States. When it comes to foreign applications, the U.S. Treasury may need to alter the approval process for all things China inside the United States given the history of theft. As for schools and business, it may be a consideration for the Chinese government to put up an export bond. Consider this is all going on as China defense industry is now the top arms maker ahead of all Western military contractors and manufacturers.

How About the Katyn Trials for Starters?

Since revisionist history is commonplace, few either know about the Nuremberg trials or remember the details. A book published years ago and finally translated in English titled ‘ Judgment in Moscow’ written by Vladimir Bukovsky asks the very question of why no Nuremberg type trials for the Soviets or Russians. In full disclosure, only recently I interviewed Mr. Bukovsky who has been living in England.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Mr. Bukovsky returned to Russia and traced documents proving the horrific crimes of the Soviets. In a prisoner swap, Mr. Bukovsky was later released from a Soviet prison. He knows full well the human rights atrocities of the Soviet Union and modern day Russia. Included are concentration camps, torture and genocide but outright murder cannot go unpunished. Someone please tell the New York Times to quit being so sympathetic with Moscow…anyway…..how about the Katyn massacre for starters?

This massacre happened in 1939 during the Soviet invasion of Poland when the Soviets massacred 8000 Polish military officers and an estimated 6000 police officers and hundreds of regular citizens. There are at least 8 mass graves in the Katyn forest holding the remains of Polish nationals killed by the NKVD, otherwise known as the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs. A great case for real reparations for sure.

It’s been 5 years since MH17 was shot down, killing 298 people.

Why no arrests, trial or prosecutions?

In May 2018, the international team of investigators concluded that a Russian military missile was responsible for bringing down the plane, and showed photo and video evidence.

Australia and the Netherlands then formally blamed Russia for the crash, concluding that it was likely the missile system was brought to the region to support the separatists.

mh17 suspects  International investigators have accused Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy, Oleg Pulatov, and Leonid Kharchenko of the missile attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Dutch national police/YouTube

The three Russians formally worked for Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, investigators said. The JIT intends to try the four suspects in The Netherlands in March 2020 on murder charges — though the men have not yet been apprehended. Russia maintains that the investigation is baseless and that the accusations “discredit Russia in the eyes of the international community.”

Credit video

Why are the dozens of Russian deaths committed in Britain, Ukraine, United States and in Russia all forgotten?

How about a few names you ask?

Vitaly Churkin

Petr Polshikov

Alexander Litvinenko

Oleg Erovinkin

Alex Oronov

Matthew Puncher

Mikhail Lesin

Anna Politkovskaya

Natalia Estemirova

Boris Nemtsov

Boris Berezovsky

Paul Klebnikov

Sergei Yushenkov

Nikolai Glushkov

There is an unresolved case that dealt with a nerve agent called novichok where at least two former Russian spies were poisoned.

Seems no world leaders including the United States has the will to host any kind of trial. What is the fear? Well for more context and perspective, read here.

Russia has veto power at the United Nations, so is this the reason the UNHRC, the Human Rights Council at the UN just ignores it all too? Shame on world leaders.

 

 

Facebook Primed for Illicit Funds Use/Money Laundering

America’s rivals are increasingly turning to bitcoin-style cryptocurrencies after their economies were brought to their knees thanks to crippling U.S. sanctions, experts have warned.

Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela are all investing in the technology in an attempt to counter American economic might – and an expert says these nations are forming alliances through the technology.

A form of digital money, cryptocurrency uses encryption to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. It uses cryptography, a form of secret coding originating from the Second World War, to process transactions securely. Its major appeal is it is untraceable.

U.S. sanctions work by placing bans on dealings and transactions with persons, nations and companies.

When ransomware is planted on state or local government systems and theft of data occurs, cities are forced to pay ransom to regain ownership and control.

Florida has paid more than $1.1 million in bitcoin to cybercriminals to recover encrypted files from two separate ransomware attacks—one against Riviera Beach and the other against Lake City.

Lake City, a city in northern Florida, agreed on Monday to pay hackers 42 Bitcoin (equivalent to $573,300 at the current value) to unlock phone and email systems following a ransomware attack that crippled its computer systems for two weeks.

For years, ransomware has been a particularly annoying cybersecurity threat. And despite reports that cybercriminals are shifting their efforts away from encrypting malware to cryptomining malware, ransomware infections continue at an alarming rate.

In one week in March 2018 alone, government-run targets in two of the biggest cities in America — Atlanta and Baltimore — were hit by ransomware. These attacks, which disrupted important city services, are far from isolated; similar ransomware attacks have targeted U.S. municipalities for years.

Stories about smaller cities falling victim to ransomware often go unreported by the national news … or anywhere at all. Nevertheless, municipalities and cities in all corners of the U.S. have seen ransomware infect their networks.

So, here comes the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin with a major concern and warning for Facebook. What about this new Libra currency that has been launched?

(Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Monday that the Treasury department has serious concerns that Facebook Inc’s proposed LIBRA cryptocurrency could be misused for money laundering, adding to the growing regulatory skepticism of the company’s digital asset plans.

Secretary Mnuchin also said that the agency has warned Facebook that it must enact proper safeguards against illicit use such as money laundering.

“Treasury has been very clear to Facebook…and other providers of digital financial services that they must implement the same anti-money laundering safeguards in countering the financing of terrorism as traditional financial institutions,” Mnuchin said.

Project Libra: Facebook Launching One-World ‘GlobalCoin ...

Meanwhile:

Activists and Democratic lawmakers blasted the Federal Trade Commission’s $5 billion fine against Facebook as “chump change” and lambasted the agency’s settlement as toothless.

The settlement, which was reportedly voted along party lines, gaining support from the FTC’s three Republicans while being rejected by its two Democrats, is the beginning of the end for the agency’s probe of Facebook’s alleged mishandling of more than 87 million users’ private data during the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Although the fine sets a record in terms of the agency’s actions against Big Tech, a chorus of Democratic lawmakers, technologists and activists excoriated the FTC for not doing enough and not imposing a larger penalty.

“The sad reality is that this does not go nearly far enough. For a company that last year alone generated revenue nearly 11 times greater than the reported fine, the Federal Trade Commission should send a clear signal to Facebook and so many other tech companies that privacy is their ultimate responsibility,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who is chairwoman of the consumer protection and commerce subcommittee in the House, said in a statement. “If these reports are true, then they failed.”

Will Facebook pay the fine using Libra? Well, when it comes to the Facebook blockchain debate, Facebook declares the Swiss government will regulate it all. Really? There is a Congressional hearing in the Senate by the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee where Libra is to be explained. Frankly, isn’t PayPal a form of cryptocurrency too? Anyway, this testimony found here is regarding Facebook’s Libra Project.

Read it here.

 

 

The Jalisco Drug Cartel, the Terror Training Camp

In part:

“If you want to go, fine, get out of here. The only way out of here is in a body bag. Whoever wants to go with him better speak up now. We’re not here to play.”

“Then I understood, and we all understood, that we were in big trouble. You don’t know what’s going to happen next, but you have to stay quiet and very serious because they could take any movement the wrong way,” Francisco recalls.

For years, videos of dismembered bodies, shootings, decapitated heads and all types of violence attributed to the CJNG ran through his mind. “I thought a lot about my son,” Francisco says. He ultimately decided to stay.

A Powerful Cartel

The CJNG has grown to become one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico, according to analysts and security forces. The Attorney General’s Office estimates that the cartel maintains a presence in 28 of the country’s 32 states, according to local media reports. The cartel has also established alliances with local criminal groups in the states of Durango, Campeche, Coahuila and Zacatecas.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bxEuepmii-Q/WXrj-mLYITI/AAAAAAAAE68/8SX6eEk91289_Gqnj3p5qZ_JRnoFAnuGQCLcBGAs/s1600/cjng-fb-702x468.jpg photo

The CJNG has also expanded abroad, “with a significant presence not only in the United States and Mexico, but also in Europe, Asia and Australia,” according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The genesis of this criminal organization, according to Sam Houston State University professor Nathan P. Jones, dates back to the July 2010 death of Sinaloa Cartel boss Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, alias “Nacho Coronel.” He specialized in methamphetamine production in the region around Jalisco. When Mexican authorities killed him, his operations fragmented into several groups. One of them was led by El Mencho. He was able to take advantage of Jalisco’s geographical location near Mexico’s Pacific ports. This allowed him to increase the volume of his business thanks to the sale of methamphetamine in markets in Europe and Asia, and the sale of fentanyl in the United States. Control of the ports was key to the CJNG being able to obtain the resources that allowed them to expand territorially, to corrupt Mexican government officials and to train their assassins as an elite force.

The Training

Francisco’s training camp was in Talpa de Allende, a municipality of just over 15,000 people in western Jalisco. A group of men armed with assault rifles and portable missile launchers loaded the 19 men into luxury trucks and drove them on dirt roads out to a hidden place in the Sierra de Talpa. The first truck stopped, then someone pulled a gun out the window and shot three times, which automatically opened a gate. They all passed and, again, another three shots were fired to signal the gate to close.

Once inside, the armed men took their cell phones and stripped them. “They had some car batteries. They got us wet and made us grab the terminals. So, if you had a GPS [Global Positioning System device] hidden inside you, it would burn. The shock was so strong that I practically peed,” Francisco explained.

The local boss was a young man about 28 years old, according to Francisco. He chose a nickname to address each of them. Then the training began with instructions on how to handle short and long weapons: handguns, AK-47 rifles and rocket launchers similar to the one the CJNG used to shoot down a Mexican Army helicopter in an attack that killed seven soldiers in May 2015.

The instructors let the men know all of the cartel’s rules imposed by El Mencho. They started with those related to firearms.

“Rule number one: Your finger should always be away from the trigger. Otherwise, in front of a cartel leader or high-ranking commander, you could be considered a threat and they could kill you.”

“Rule number two: Always check the safety.”

“Rule number three: Know how to hand over a weapon. Always pass it with the butt of the gun and not the barrel.”

The instructors imposed strict discipline. One mistake could be fatal. As was the case for one of the 19 recruits who nervously failed to put together a gun.

“In the blink of an eye, he killed him. He told us that he wasn’t useful because in a real confrontation, he would panic and put us all in danger,” Francisco said. Then began what the cartel called “the christening.” They all approached the corpse of their recently murdered companion.

“What is the first rule?” the plaza boss asked.

“If there isn’t a body, there isn’t a crime to pursue,” two of the commanders responded.

“Ok, Shaggy, come here. Cut off his hand. You don’t want to do it? Just tell me you don’t want to,” one commander said.

“You knew that if you said no, they were going to kill you,” Francisco recalls. Trembling, he began to cut off the dead man’s hand. Francisco touched his forearm. “I had to do it, you have no choice. I remember the fear, the blood.”

They were going one by one. The commanders saved the most timid group of recruits for the most difficult task: to decapitate the dead man and crush his head with a stone. When the body was severed, they were forced to eat some parts of it.

“There was one recruit who couldn’t eat it and vomited, but they picked up the piece of flesh from the dirt and forced him to eat it.”

These cannibalistic practices described by Francisco coincide with what a group of cartel hitmen arrested last June revealed. They said they did it to become desensitized to violence. The Attorney General’s Office in Jalisco has discovered at least five camps that the cartel used as clandestine training centers and narco-laboratories. Two more have been dismantled in Veracruz and Tabasco.

For Francisco, this was only the first part of a three-month stay in captivity.

*** In Bolivia, where he spent over two years evading justice, he was known as Jafett Arias Becerra, a respectable cattle rancher. José González Valencia is a man of many names.

González Valencia flew in and out of Bolivia multiple times in 2016 and 2017, raising questions about how it was so easy for him to live comfortably as a wealthy cattleman when he was wanted by the United States on charges of conspiracy to distribute large amounts of cocaine.

Bolivian authorities blame Mexico for the lapse, but also admit their fertile Santa Cruz region, known as “Bolivia’s barn,” is a popular hideout for drug traffickers on the lam. They acknowledge that they need to corral criminals like the Shrimp who find safe haven there.

A Cartel in the Crosshairs

The Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) has alarmed authorities in the United States and Mexico with its brutal tactics and rapid growth since it was formed in 2011.

Based in Guadalajara, the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, CJNG is behind some of the most notorious drug crimes of the past decade, including the 2011 torture and massacre of 35 rival cartel members in Veracruz and the downing of a military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade in 2015. The cartel even uses cannibalism as an initiation rite for new members.

The CJNG now has a presence in most of Mexico and connections in the rest of Latin America, the United States, Asia, Europe, and Australia. It is responsible for trafficking at least five tons each of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States every month, according to former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Last October, Sessions announced new measures targeting the CJNG, including hefty rewards for the capture of its leaders and economic sanctions against several of the Cuinis. He also unsealed indictments of 11 alleged members of the cartel, including Jose González Valencia.

Sessions called the CJNG one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal groups in the world.

“We are hitting them from all sides and with every weapon we have,” he said at a news conference. “They are in our crosshairs. This cartel is a top priority.”

Like many criminal organizations, CJNG is a family affair. José González Valencia — the man who lived as a cattle rancher in Bolivia — is the brother-in-law of its leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, who is also known as “El Mencho.”

The cartel’s rise and expansion are due largely to Los Cuinis, which according to US officials is dominated by the González Valencia family.

El Mencho’s wife, Rosalinda González Valencia, and three of her brothers, José, Gerardo, and Abigael, played a dominant role in establishing and operating Los Cuinis, with Abigael serving as “El Cuini” — the top squirrel.

In an interview with the Mexican news magazine Proceso in 2015, a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official described El Cuini as an intelligent trafficker whose diversification strategy differentiates CJNG from other cartels.

“The ‘Cuini’ focused on partnering with drug traffickers and narco-rebels of Colombia and other South American countries to sell cocaine and other drugs in Europe, without regard to the United States. That made a big difference in terms of profits earned,” he said.

“‘El Cuini’ and ‘El Mencho’ understood that there was more risk … if they were to compete with other cartels for the U.S. market,” another official told the magazine.

José González Valencia took over cartel finances after his brother Abigael was arrested in February 2015, according to the Center for Investigation and National Security, a Mexican intelligence agency. He was also allegedly responsible for providing security for the leader, El Mencho, making alliances with criminal groups in Asia and Europe, and establishing relationships with arms traffickers in the United States and Central America, Mexican newspaper La Jornada reported.

But despite his high profile, José González Valencia moved easily from Guadalajara to Bolivia, entering the country for the first time later that year. His ticket was a Mexican passport he had obtained in Guadalajara in 2013 under the name Jafett Arias Becerra.

It is unclear what he did to obtain that document, but it bought him years of freedom. In 2016, the year after he first came to Bolivia, he used it to obtain a Bolivian ID for foreigners. He was also granted a temporary stay valid for one year and applied for a second that would have been valid until March 2019.

Court records show American officials had been aware of his alias since January 2016. But according to Bolivian authorities, Interpol never issued any alerts for “Jafett Arias Becerra.”

González Valencia was finally caught in December 2017 — not in Bolivia, but in Brazil. He had flown there with a Bolivian friend, Mario Genaro Soljancic Fernandez, a vendor of veterinary products for cattle.

González Valencia was planning to meet his wife and children, who live in the United States, for a holiday in the tourist hub of Taíba on Brazil’s northeastern coast. Under Soljancic’s name, they rented a car and a seaside villa, complete with a basketball court and a small swimming pool, for 15 days.

In response to a US arrest request passed on by officials in Brasilia, police in the city of Fortaleza identified the rental car and then spent days monitoring security camera video until they found it, said Aldair da Rocha, the officer in charge of the operation. González Valencia was arrested at the stores in front of Beach Park, a nearby water park and tourist resort, on December 27, 2017. He was carrying his Bolivian ID card. Read the full fascinating wild story here from InSight. Amazing work.