Category Archives: The Denise Simon Experience

Democrats Refuse Legal Protection for Medical Mask Makers

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*** What Senator Cotton referred to is 3M company being granted the government contract to manufacture the N9 masks and 3M wants protection from litigious lawyers for all kinds of reasons and the House Democrats refused siding with nasty lawyers. There is building bi-partisan movement to protect the manufacturers….meanwhile…about that $8.3 billion….

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wants to funnel the $8.3 billion that will be spent to combat the coronavirus out of the money spent on foreign aid.

After passing through both chambers of Congress, President Trump signed legislation that makes $8.3 billion in emergency funding available to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Paul, who was the only senator to vote against the spending package, views the funding as necessary to address the spreading illness, but he did not want to take out the taxpayers’ checkbook without saving money elsewhere.

“I support the money,” Paul told WDRB. “I just think we should take it from somewhere else in the budget where it’s not being used wisely. So I had an amendment that would have said the $8 billion should come from foreign welfare that we send to foreign countries in the form of foreign aid. I think really we ought to concentrate on our country.”

He added, “I think really we ought to concentrate on our country, instead of borrowing more money from China. The virus came from there. Now we’re borrowing from China to spend on it. Why don’t we take it from the money we’re actually sending overseas and spend that money here?”

As Paul noted, the coronavirus outbreak has been traced back to Wuhan, China. Since the outbreak began late last year, more than 116,000 people have been infected worldwide, and more than 4,000 have died. In the United States, 27 people have died, and more than 750 have been infected.

Paul voted against the emergency funding last week, citing how the package did not include spending cuts to counter the money spent on fighting the coronavirus. He argued that even more money could have been allocated to stop the disease, but that he could not support a funding package that did not have an adjacent spending cut.

“I think we could allocate more money, but we should pay for it,” Paul said. “If you don’t follow through and you say, well, we should pay for it, but I’ll vote for it anyway, then that just gives them license to do it again and again and again. And that’s what happens.”

The U.S. spent nearly $40 billion on foreign aid in 2019, which was less than 1% of the federal budget. In 2017, China received more than $53 million in foreign aid from the U.S. The countries receiving the most foreign aid from the U.S. are Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel.

California Bullet Train, Shut-up About Fleecing the Government

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Exactly how come Senators Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein have nothing to say? Pelosi? Nah….
When Mark Styles was hired in October 2018 to help oversee Central Valley scheduling for the California bullet train, he soon learned he had walked into a mess.
Over the previous half decade the project had repeatedly fallen behind schedule, and the cost by 2018 had jumped from $64 billion to $77 billion in two years.
California is Building High-Speed Rail | High Speed Rail ...
A core problem was the project’s operating culture, in which managers for WSP, the bullet train’s lead consultant, threatened to punish or terminate employees if they failed to toe the company line, Styles said.
“I was told to shut up and not say anything,” said Styles, a career construction manager who was hired as WSP’s senior supervisory scheduler in the project’s Fresno office. “I was told that I didn’t understand the political arena the project was in. I told them I am not going to shut up. This is my job.”
The atmosphere described by Styles has been corroborated by a half dozen current and former senior officials knowledgeable about the project’s Fresno office.
The officials say it helps explain why California’s high-speed rail endeavor has barreled ahead for more than a decade, despite warnings it was structured on risky assumptions and could run out of money before any trains operate.
WSP spokeswoman Denise Turner Roth rejected Styles’ claims. “We always work carefully with our client to evaluate the demands of each project and to prepare realistic and transparent recommendations regarding schedule and budget,” she said.
But other ex-WSP employees in the Fresno office, including engineer Vera Lovejoy and project controls coordinator Todd Bilstein, say they were also discouraged from sharing bad news with bosses.
“I wanted the project to succeed,” said Lovejoy, who left the project in 2019 after one year. “I was eager to help deliver it. But I couldn’t stay. If you rock the boat, you are labeled as not a team player.”
Bilstein also left in 2019 after a nine-month tenure.
“If I was to give a talk at a construction conference, I would say they were not following generally accepted project management principles,” he said. The company’s failures, he said, ran the gamut of estimating costs, scheduling construction and managing change orders.
“Revealing bad news was discouraged,” he added. “I just couldn’t continue to work there. I don’t work that way. American professionals don’t work that way.”
Styles, who has no lawsuit or other legal claims, is also no longer with WSP. He left in November, calling it “the worst job of my career,” and moved to a new construction job out of state.
Brian Kelly, chief executive of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said in a statement that the agency “takes seriously any claim of wrongdoing by an employee or contractor. We have procedures in place for any such claim to be raised and reviewed. We have an expectation that all employees act within the law and that our contractors meet the requirements of state and federal law.”
He added in an interview, “Our focus is on the mission in front of us.”
In the last half year, Kelly has moved to make changes in his organization’s culture, replacing numerous middle-level management officials, orchestrating more documentation for its plans and vowing to improve transparency in the agency operations.
WSP and Parsons Brinckerhoff, which merged in 2014, have been on the project since the 1990s. The Montreal firm, one of the largest infrastructure engineering organizations, is working under a $666-million contract. When he arrived at the project’s Fresno office, Styles said, he found a dysfunctional operation like he had never seen before — a pressured environment that aimed to contain bad news that could damage the project’s fortunes.
At the time, the rail authority was confronting delay claims, resulting from its slow acquisition of land, and change orders — both amounting to millions of dollars in higher costs.
Within days, he asked to see the detailed justification documents for the change orders. He said he wanted to understand the delays and how they would affect future construction, a routine part of a scheduler’s job.
WSP management, he said, told him that he didn’t need to see the documents. WSP was pushing to “keep the numbers looking good,” which in some cases involved altering reports written by its staff to make construction progress look better, he alleges.
Styles and other sources speaking off the record say that the bullet train schedule, which calls for installing 119 miles of track and a complex signal system from Madera to Wasco by 2022, is “impossible,” even though the project’s budget is predicated on the completion date.
To install track by 2022 would normally require all of the bridges, viaducts, trenches and other structures to be completed beforehand. As a stopgap measure, the rail authority now plans to install track in five-mile discontinuous segments, which the Federal Railroad Administration has criticized as illogical.
A more likely scenario would have the current construction completed between 2025 and 2028, which would drive costs up and force the state to either find new money or curtail the project, Styles and others said.
Rail authority spokeswoman Annie Parker said the agency has acknowledged repeatedly that “the deadline is a challenge.” It will require boosting monthly construction spending from the current $46 million to $70 million, said chief financial officer Brian Annis, who added that its construction pace is improving.
Sylmar-based Tutor Perini, which is building rail structures in Madera and Fresno counties, said a week ago it will complete its work in 2023. The company’s contract was initially $1 billion, but delay claims and change orders have doubled the amount.
Chief Executive Ron Tutor told security analysts in a recorded telephone call on Feb. 26, “With our extending the completion date from the end of ’21 to the first quarter of ’23, once again, we are in discussions with the owner to resolve payment for that further delay. However, it seems certain that given all of the results and resolves over the last 90 days that that should be the final end date for high-speed rail.”
It would mean that the rail authority could not begin to install track and signals until after that construction is completed.
When The Times asked the rail authority if it had comment on Tutor’s statement, it received an email Friday from Tutor saying his statement to investors had caused “some confusion.” He said that he hopes that “substantial completion” of his company’s work would occur in early 2022, leaving “paperwork, acceptances and contractual documentation” to be completed in early in 2023.
Turning around the multibillion-dollar project has proved difficult for years, given California’s complex governance structure, flawed contracts and past decisions, officials close to the project say. Executives in civil engineering firms say the rail authority lacks technical resources.
“They have all these people in top jobs with no technical background,” said a top executive at a major European engineering firm, who worked on the project. “They are politicians. They never disclose the full cost. They give you incremental truth. They believe that is a successful business model. They should cancel the contracts and start over.”
The Federal Railroad Administration, which oversees billions of dollars in grants, has long warned the rail authority it risked missing deadlines and was headed for big cost overruns. In December 2016, the FRA warned the statethat the cost of the Central Valley construction could jump by $3.6 billion. After The Times obtained a copy of the confidential report and published its findings, the rail authority denied the legitimacy of the analysis. Today, the cost is even higher than the FRA projected.
WSP said it stands by the job it is doing for the bullet train. “To the extent WSP prepares cost and schedule estimates for the program as a whole, WSP brings world-class talent to the project that prepare professional estimates based on client needs and the information available when generated,” Turner Roth said.
Styles said he was shut out of work not long after taking the job at WSP, though the company did not fire him. Over many months, Styles, who was being paid $170,000 annually, said he kept advising management about the problems and writing procedures for contract compliance.
In a Facebook posting in June, Styles wrote that he had been warned by a co-worker “to be careful” and “you know too much” and to take a lower profile. “I’d rather be dead than a coward,” he wrote.
Styles filed an ethics complaint against his former employer in June, which was examined by a management committee in Chicago. “The committee concluded there was no proof that WSP violated ethics with the state,” he said.
Turner Roth said, “In 2019, an employee — who has since left the company — raised a question about the schedule data submitted to WSP by the construction managers and construction contractors. In response to this question, WSP thoroughly investigated the matter, and concluded there was no wrongful conduct by WSP employees in their review of contractor submissions.”
As for Lovejoy, whose career includes engineering jobs at major public agencies and corporations, she said problems started more a decade ago when the Obama administration issued a $2.5-billion grant from its economic stimulus program, intended for “shovel-ready projects.”
The grant came about four years before the first construction contract was issued, and actual work did not begin for two more years. “It was so far from shovel-ready,” Lovejoy said.
Another former WSP employee, who spoke anonymously out of concern that he would face retribution, supported Styles’ assertion that monthly and annual reports submitted by staff often were changed by WSP management before they were reviewed in meetings and sent to state executives.
“We gave them the bad news and they wouldn’t accept it,” he said.
The Times has previously reported that the project has struggled to relocate pipes, electrical lines and other infrastructure that stands in the way of securing parcels and laying track. Today, the rail authority is short by 497 of the 2,042 parcels it needs, according to its most recent progress report. In December, the authority acquired only five parcels.
In late 2018, Hemanth Kundeti, a database manager, was hired into the project to help improve property records, but he lasted only several months.
Kundeti, an employee of a subconsultant to WSP, said he developed his own software tool that could track the work more accurately. It would have allowed the state to replace a subcontractor that was charging $2 million annually to maintain the records, he said.
When he proposed the tool to WSP and state officials, it was rejected. In February 2019, he was twice reprimanded for “insubordination” for continuing to promote his software, according to a copy of the reprimand. In response, he wrote on his warning letter that management “without healthy debate is dangerous for any organization.” He was terminated a few weeks later.
“I am still reeling from the after-effects of being terminated for trying to save taxpayers’ money from being wasted,” said Kundeti, who has found a new job.

Horse Racing Doping Schemers Charged

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Disgusting but it is common in the industry.

 

Federal prosecutors announced charges on Monday against more than two dozen racehorse trainers, veterinarians and drug distributors in a wide-ranging series of indictments that laid out a corrupt scheme to secretly dope horses and cheat the betting public in what has become a $100 billion global industry.

Maximum Security's Unique Derby Path Serves Him Well ... source

Among the 27 people charged was Jason Servis, the trainer of Maximum Security, one of the best racehorses in the world. He covertly administered performance-enhancing drugs “to virtually all the racehorses under his control,” the indictment charged, adding that from February 2018 to February 2020 he entered horses in more than 1,000 races.

Maximum Security moved from Jason Servis after indictments ... Maximum Security

In May, Maximum Security crossed the finish line first at the Kentucky Derby, only to be disqualified for almost knocking over a rival horse and slowing the momentum of others. Country House, a 65-1 shot, was named the winner. Last month, Maximum Security won $10 million at the Saudi Cup at the King Abdulaziz racecourse in Riyadh, the world’s richest race

The scheme, as laid out in four separate indictments against a total of 27 people, was to manufacture and distribute adulterated and misbranded drugs and to secretly administer them to racehorses under their control.

The participants sought to improve race performance and obtain prize money from tracks throughout the United States, including in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio and Kentucky, as well as the United Arab Emirates, one indictment said, “all to the detriment and risk of the health and well-being of the racehorses.”

To avoid detection of their scheme, the indictment said, the defendants routinely defrauded and misled federal and state regulators “and the betting public.”

The charges were to be announced at a news conference on Monday by Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan, and William F. Sweeney Jr., head of the F.B.I.’s New York office.

Horse racing has a long history of trainers’ repurposing drugs in pursuit of a performance edge. Frog and cobra venom, Viagra, cocaine, heart medicines and steroids have all been detected in drug tests. This reliance on performance-enhancing drugs combined with lax state regulations has made American racetracks among the deadliest in the world.

Nearly 10 horses a week on average died at U.S. racetracks in 2018, according to the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database. That figure is anywhere from two and a half to five times greater than the fatality rate in Europe and Asia, where rules against performance-enhancing drugs are enforced more stringently.

Last year, at Santa Anita Park, a few miles east of Pasadena, more than 30 horses were euthanized after fatal breakdowns, including 23 of them in a three-month span that nearly shut down racing in Southern California and led to an investigation by the Los Angeles district attorney.

The post More Than Two Dozen Charged in Horse Racing Doping Scheme appeared first on New York Times.

***

Gary West, the owner of Maximum Security, released a statement on Tuesday saying he had terminated Servis’s employment. “Yesterday, Jason Servis, a trainer we have used for 5 years, was indicted on multiple charges regarding using an illegal substance in horses. This news is extremely disturbing and disappointing. Therefore we will be moving all our horses from Jason Servis as soon as arrangements can be made with other trainers. Maximum Security will be sent to Bob Baffert.”

According to the charges, Servis administered a drug called SGF-1000 to Maximum Security and other horses and then conspired with a vet to cover up the doping. Authorities say such acts of doping can cause horses to over-exert themselves, potentially leading to their deaths.

The welfare of racehorses has been under the microscope in the US over the last year after a spike in deaths. More than 30 horses died last year at Santa Anita, one of the most famous tracks in America. According to the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database, death rates at American tracks are up to five times

Biden’s Americore Under FBI Investigation

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Biden, Inc., or James Biden in deep legal trouble.

Joe Biden’s Brother Accused of Defrauding Rural Healthcare ...

FBI got a search warrant and raided the office….

The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided a health care business linked to Joe Biden’s brother in late January, seizing boxes of documents.

The raid of an Americore Health hospital represented a deepening of the legal morass surrounding James Biden’s recent venture into health care investing at a time when questions about the business dealings of Joe Biden’s relatives, and their alleged connection to the former vice president’s public service, continue to dog his presidential campaign.

In the weeks since the raid, two small medical firms that did business with James Biden have claimed in civil court proceedings to have obtained evidence that he may have fraudulently transferred funds from Americore “outside of the ordinary course of business,” and a former Americore executive has told POLITICO that James Biden had more than half a million dollars transferred to him from the firm as a personal loan that has not yet been repaid.

The purpose of the Jan. 30 raid of an Ellwood City, Pa., hospitalremains unclear, and there is no indication it was related to the actions of Biden’s younger brother, who has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing. Its owner, Americore, has faced legal problems and allegations of mismanagement that are unrelated to James Biden.

But recent filings in ongoing legal proceedings, along with new accounts provided to POLITICO by former executives of Americore and others, point to potential pitfalls for the former vice president, painting the fullest picture to date of James Biden’s health care dealings and the ways in which they allegedly related to his older brother. In 2017 and 2018, James Biden was embarking on a foray into health care investing, telling potential partners, including at Americore, that his last name could open doors and that Joe Biden was excited about the public policy implications of their business models, according to court filings and interviews with James’ former business contacts.

Tom Pritchard, a former Americore executive familiar with the business’ finances, told POLITICO that James Biden’s arrival exacerbated Americore’s financial problems. Holding out the promise of a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections, James Biden introduced Americore’s founder to his older brother and helped land a bridge loan to Americore from a hedge fund, Pritchard said. But then, Pritchard said, James Biden received a six-figure personal loan out of Americore’s coffers while encouraging the firm to take on greater financial liabilities. The cash infusion from the Middle East never arrived, and, Pritchard says, James Biden has not paid back the loan, the terms of which are unknown.

“It was all smoke and mirrors,” Pritchard said.

Meanwhile, Americore found itself increasingly hamstrung by high-interest loans and unable to pay employees and vendors, a situation that disrupted the operations of the rural hospitals it owns.

Now, the business is in bankruptcy court, and federal authorities are circling.

David Randolph Smith, an attorney for James Biden, declined to comment.

A Biden campaign official said that Joe Biden never discussed Americore with his brother or expressed support for the business. The official said that Americore’s founder, Grant White, purchased a ticket to a September 2017 fundraiser for the Beau Biden Foundation, an event attended by Joe Biden. “If the two interacted in any way, it would have been a handshake and nothing more,” the official said.

The messy politics surrounding the business dealings of Biden’s relatives, and President Donald Trump’s efforts to exploit them, have loomed over the presidential contest for several months, damaging both camps. Trump’s failed attempts to pressure Ukraine’s government to announce an investigation of Biden and his son, Hunter, led to Trump’s impeachment. Though Trump was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate, polls showed that a plurality of Americans consistently supported the impeachment, which highlighted evidence that Trump abused his power for partisan political ends. At the same time, a recent POLITICO/Morning Consult poll found that 57 percent of voters believe Hunter Biden’s well-compensated position on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm amounted to a scandal, compared to 19 percent who do not.

Over the course of Biden’s run, reports have trickled out about James, a sometimes business partner of Hunter’s, who has received financial support from people with an interest in influencing Joe and been repeatedly accused of trading on Joe’s clout to advance his business ventures.

Biden has defended his son Hunter and said that his relatives’ business dealings have had no connection to his official duties. But the recent developments related to James Biden’s health care ventures demonstrate that as long as Biden remains in the campaign, the issue of his relatives’ financial dealings is likely to remain as well.

Even before the development surrounding Americore, James Biden’s venture into health care investing has been surrounded by legal allegations and claims that he invoked his brother’s clout.

Last year, two medical services firms jointly sued James Biden and his business partners in federal court in Tennessee, alleging James and his partners promised to provide a large investment from the Middle East, then pushed the firms to make expensive acquisitions, as part of a scheme to drive them out of business and steal their business models. As previously reported, those firms alleged that James Biden cited his family’s political connections and promised his older brother would promote their health care model as part of his 2020 presidential campaign.

Another health care firm sued Platinum Global Partners — a Florida corporation that lists James and his wife Sara as managers — in Palm Beach County in June. The firm, which makes an oral rinse with applications for cancer patients, alleged that Platinum reneged on an agreement to invest in it and requested that Platinum turn over documents related to the Biden Cancer Initiative, a nonprofit founded by Joe Biden to fund medical research. An executive involved in litigation against James Biden previously told POLITICO that, on a call, James said he could get the Biden Cancer Initiative to promote the oral rinse.

The Tennessee case is ongoing. The Palm Beach County case was dismissed without prejudice in November.

James Biden and his partners have denied the central allegations in both cases.

But, in interviews, former executives of Americore offered additional, similar accounts of James Biden invoking his brother’s influence and the promise of investment funds from the Middle East that never materialized in order to push their firm to grow quickly, taking on new financial liabilities.

Unlike those other firms, Americore is now in the sights of the Justice Department.

The precise nature of James Biden’s relationship to the firm — founded by White, a Canadian investment banker, in 2017— is contested.

The plaintiffs in the Tennessee case described him as a principal of Americore and entered a business card identifying him as such into evidence. James Biden has disputed that he is a principal of the firm in court proceedings, though he has not detailed the precise nature of his ties to Americore,which owns hospitals in Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Missouri.

Pritchard and the other former Americore executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, each said James Biden was actively involved in the company during their tenures there. “Jim was operating as a principal or Jim was portraying that,” Pritchard said. “Whether on paper he had any ownership, I’m not 100 percent sure.”

Pritchard said James Biden first became involved with Americore in 2017, offering to use his political contacts to help the firm land business and investments. “He could get us in front of the unions. He could get us in front of certain people in government. He could get us in front of the right people,” recalled Pritchard, who said he was skeptical of plans to involve James Biden in the firm.

A former employee at Pineville Community Hospital in southeastern Kentucky, which was acquired by Americore in 2017, said she got the impression that James Biden was in a top leadership role at Americore when he visited the facility and introduced himself in early 2018.

The other former Americore executive — who left the firm after less than a year over concerns about its business practices that were unrelated to James Biden — recalled that James spoke regularly of the ways in which Joe Biden’s presidential aspirations could benefit the firm, and vice versa. “His brother was very interested in rural health care and very interested in veterans’ health care, and it was something he really wanted to get behind,” the former executive recalled James Biden saying. “This would help his brother get elected if it were to take off and go.”

Both former executives recalled James Biden said he would help facilitate a multimillion-dollar investment from the Middle East.

Pritchard said the exact source of the funds was never made clear to him. “That linkage was supposed to come via Jim Biden via whatever influence he had through his brother in the Middle East,” said the other former executive, who worked for Americore in 2018.

The plaintiffs in the Tennessee case allege James Biden and his partners aimed to solicit investments from the state-owned Qatar Investment Authority and met in West Palm Beach with representatives of the Turkish conglomerate Dogan Holding. James Biden and his co-defendants denied the allegation about the Qatar Investment Authority and acknowledged meeting with Dogan.

The former executives also said that James Biden began to set up an office on the second floor of Americore’s headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “It was like a little shrine to him and his brother and [former President Barack] Obama,” recalled Pritchard, who said he clashed with James Biden over James’ requests to be reimbursed for pricey furniture for the office.

The other former executive said that when he saw the office, several framed photos of the Biden brothers and foreign dignitaries sat on the floor, ready to be hung on the walls.

The former executives also described James Biden’s role in soliciting financing for Americore.

Pritchard said James Biden arranged a bridge loan to Americore via his business partner Michael Lewitt’s hedge fund, the Third Friday Total Return Fund.

But Pritchard said he learned that after Americore received the bridge loan, it made a six-figure loan to James Biden for his personal use.

Lewitt declined to comment, but referred to a letter he sent the Ellwood City Ledger blaming White’s alleged use of high-interest loans for Americore’s problems and vowing to restore the firm’s finances and operations.

Several Americore entities are currently in the midst of federal bankruptcy proceedings, providing a glimpse into their finances.In February, one of those entities, Americore Health LLC, filed a schedule of assets that included $650,000 due to accounts receivable. Pritchard said that figure referred to the loan repayment owed by James Biden.

Pritchard said that after James Biden received his loan payment from Americore, James reduced his involvement with the firm as its financial difficulties mounted.

“Jim needed to lay low because his brother was possibly running for president, and he didn’t need any bad press,” Pritchard recalled, saying that after James stepped back, Lewitt asked to review Americore corporate documents to ensure they did not bear James’ name.

The other former executive said that not long after he first saw the office being set up for James Biden in mid-2018, the office was emptied out.

Meanwhile, Americore’s problems have increasingly spilled into public view.

 

4 on Trial for Shooting Down MH17

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FOR THE 298 victims of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, shot down by a Russian Army missile over Ukraine in 2014, even a hint of justice has been a long time coming. But each year, investigators and prosecutors edge the case forward. On March 9th a court in the Netherlands will commence the criminal trial of four men (three Russians and one Ukrainian) accused of playing crucial roles in the decision to fire the missile. The hearing will be held in a courtroom next to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, from where the flight to Kuala Lumpur took off. The defendants will be absent, though at least one will be represented by lawyers, since Russia does not extradite its own nationals and the location of the Ukrainian is unknown. But the biggest absence of all will be that of the Russian government, which bears the ultimate responsibility for supplying, and probably firing the missile.

Russia says its input into MH17 crash over Ukraine ignored ...

Dutch prosecutors say their case runs to 30,000 pages of documentation. After the crash, a research unit called the Joint Investigative Team (JIT)—including investigators from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine—spent five years meticulously establishing what had happened. The plane’s wreckage was shipped to the Netherlands and reconstructed. Ballistics experts established that it had been shot down by a Russian-made BUK anti-aircraft missile. Mobile-phone conversations intercepted by the SBU (Ukraine’s secret police) appeared to show that Russian military personnel detailed to help pro-Russian separatists in Donbass had directed the operation.

 

Meanwhile Bellingcat, a digital-forensics group, collected thousands of public-source records from ordinary citizens’ smartphone pictures and dashboard cameras. These showed a convoy including a BUK launcher driving from a Russian army base to the Ukrainian border in the days before MH17 was shot down, and returning just afterwards with one missile missing. The JIT later confirmed Bellingcat’s research, and recovered the spent fuselage of a BUK missile from a field in Ukraine. In 2018 the JIT’s prosecutors announced they had determined that the missile belonged to the Russian army’s 53rd Anti-aircraft Brigade.

The men now facing trial all played important roles in Donbass’s rebel militias in 2014. The most senior, Igor Girkin (also known as “Strelkov”), a Russian nationalist and former army officer, was the minister of defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. He maintains his innocence. Sergei Dubinski and Oleg Pulatov, both Russian, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian, served in the rebels’ military-intelligence unit. They are accused of having played command roles, rather than of firing the rocket themselves. It is unclear how they will plead or even whether they will respond to the charges. The SBU’s mobile-phone recordings allegedly include two of the defendants conversing with senior Russian officials. No one believes they intended to shoot down an airliner. Rather, the theory is that they assumed the plane belonged to the Ukrainian air force and did not bother to check.

Russia denies having anything to do with the downing of MH17 or giving support to the Donbass rebels. Since the crash it has issued a stream of disinformation and (often conflicting) alternative theories of what happened. The Russian defence ministry released supposed radar data of the incident showing a second aircraft, perhaps a Ukrainian fighter. When the data were shown to have been faked, the ministry never spoke of it again. Last summer after Ukraine captured Vladimir Tsemakh, allegedly an air-defence specialist for the rebels, Russia insisted he be included in a prisoner exchange (an odd demand given that it claims never to have supported the separatists). He was sent to Russia over Dutch objections, and is now believed to be living in Donbass again.

Rebels stall as MH17 bodies left to rot source

The trial’s first days will be devoted to procedural issues, and the defendants’ absence will rob the scene of drama. But although much of the evidence is already public, Dutch prosecutors are thought to have much more unrevealed information which will come out at trial. The trial is expected to last at least for the rest of the year. Even if it results in convictions in absentia, Russia is highly unlikely to change its mind about extraditing the accused men.

Yet while the defendants may not be present, the families of those who died on Flight MH17 will be. Time has been allotted for them to make statements to the court. Russia’s strategy of obstruction and obfuscation has frustrated their demands for justice, but the trial may provide closure for some.