A senior official in Venezuela’s state economic development bank has pleaded guilty in New York federal court to accepting bribes from agents and employees of a New York-based broker-dealer (broker-dealer) in exchange for directing her bank’s security-trading business to the broker-dealer.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York, and Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos of the New York Office of the FBI made the announcement.
Maria De Los Angeles Gonzalez De Hernandez, 55, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in the Southern District of New York to conspiring to violate the Travel Act and to commit money laundering, as well as substantive counts of these offenses. Sentencing for Gonzalez is scheduled for August 15, 2014, before Judge Engelmayer.
At all times relevant to the charges, Banco de Desarrollo Económico y Social de Venezuela (BANDES) was a state-run economic development bank in Venezuela. The Venezuelan government had a majority ownership interest in BANDES and provided it with substantial funding.
According to court records, Gonzalez was an official at BANDES and oversaw the development bank’s overseas trading activity. At her direction, BANDES conducted substantial trading through the broker-dealer. Most of the trades executed by the broker-dealer on behalf of BANDES involved fixed income investments for which the broker-dealer charged the bank a mark-up on purchases and a mark-down on sales.
From early 2009 through 2012, Gonzalez participated in a bribery scheme in which she directed trading business she controlled at BANDES to the broker-dealer, and, in return, agents and employees of the broker-dealer shared the revenue the broker-dealer generated from this trading business with Gonzalez. During this time period, the broker-dealer generated over $60 million in mark-ups and mark-downs from trades with BANDES. Agents and employees of the broker-dealer devised a split with Gonzalez of the commissions paid by BANDES to the broker-dealer. E-mails, account records, and other documents collected from the broker-dealer and other sources reveal that Gonzalez received a substantial share of the revenue generated by the broker-dealer for BANDES-related trades. Specifically, Gonzalez received millions in bribe payments from broker-dealer agents and employees.
Additionally, Gonzalez paid a portion of the bribe payments she received to another BANDES employee who was also involved in the scheme.
To further conceal the scheme, the kickbacks to Gonzalez were often paid using intermediary corporations and offshore accounts that Gonzalez and others held in Switzerland, among other places.
Previously, three former employees of the broker-dealer—Ernesto Lujan, Jose Alejandro Hurtado, and Tomas Alberto Clarke Bethancourt—each pleaded guilty in New York federal court to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and conspiring to violate the Travel Act and to commit money laundering, as well as substantive counts of these offenses, relating, among other things, to the scheme involving bribe payments to Gonzalez. Sentencing for Lujan and Clarke is scheduled for February 11, 2014, before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe. Hurtado is scheduled for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Harold Baer, Jr. on March 6, 2014.
This ongoing investigation is being conducted by the FBI, with assistance from the SEC and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. Assistant Chief James Koukios and Trial Attorneys Maria Gonzalez Calvet and Aisling O’Shea of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant United States Attorneys Harry A. Chernoff and Jason H. Cowley of the Southern District of New York’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force are in charge of the prosecution. Assistant United States Attorney Carolina Fornos is also responsible for the forfeiture aspects of the case.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
The Top Five Conspiracy Theories on JFK Assassination
As the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination draws nearer
, the debate over who actually pulled the trigger rages on. Did Lee Harvey Oswald, as the The Warren Commission Report: The Official Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, concluded, use an Italian bolt-action Mannlicher-Carcano rifle to fire three shots from the Texas School Book Depository building, hitting President John F. Kennedy once in the neck and once in the back of the head? Or were there larger forces at work?
The belief that there was conspiracy to assassinate the president has only become more widespread with the passage of time. As ABC News reports, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1978 that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.” A 2003 ABC News poll showed that 70 percent of Americans believed the JFK assassination was “not the act of a lone killer,” with 7 percent believing that Oswald was not involved at all.
So what is the truth? What really happened on Nov. 22, 1963, at Dealey Plaza in Dallas? We’ll probably never know, but we can continue to speculate. Below is a list of the top five JFK assassination conspiracy theories that have been bandied about over the years.
1.) The CIA Killed JFK
The Central Intelligence Agency has always been shadowy
, mysterious organization, which lends itself perfectly to a conspiracy theory involving the JFK assassination. According to the Mary Ferrell Foundation, Kennedy made an enemy out of the CIA after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. As a result of that failed operation, CIA Director Allen Dulles (who would later serve on the Warren Commission) was forced to resign and many allegedly began to see JFK as a threat to CIA interests.
As the New York Post reports, author Patrick Nolan surmises that the CIA wanted “power, self-preservation and to stop the Kennedys’ plan to make peace with Cuba and the Soviets.” Nolan theorizes that a group of rogue CIA agents, including Richard Helms (who became CIA director a few years later), James Angleton, David Phillips and E. Howard Hunt (of Watergate infamy), used three shooters placed at different locations in Dealey Plaza -- the Book Depository building, the Grassy Knoll and the Dal-Tex building -- to pull off the assassination. In his book, “CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys: How and Why US Agents Conspired to Assassinate JFK and RFK,” Nolan uses physical, medical and film evidence, as well as eyewitness accounts, to reach his conclusion.
2.) The Mafia Killed JFK
The relationship between organized crime and the Kennedy family stretched back decades prior to the assassination
, as President Kennedy’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy, allegedly engaged in bootlegging during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. As the Los Angeles Times points out, it’s also believed that Joseph Kennedy used his Mafia connections to help his son win the crucial state of Illinois during the 1960 presidential election against Richard Nixon. However, the mutually beneficial relationship between the Mafia and the Kennedy family would soon come to an end.
According to ABC News, one version of this theory posits that Mafia was angered with JFK after the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, as they had hoped to re-exert their presence in Cuba, which had been erased after Fidel Castro rose to power. Additionally, JFK’s brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, had become a crusader against the Mafia in his position as the nation’s top cop.
As the Post reports, Lamar Waldron, author of the book “The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination: The Definitive Account of the Most Controversial Crime of the Twentieth Century,” theorizes that the assassination was masterminded by New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello, with help from Santo Trafficante of Florida and Johnny Roselli of Chicago. According to the Waldron, Marcello used Italian hit men, smuggling them into the country from Canada, to commit the crime. Marcello reportedly bragged about pulling off the assassination to an inmate at a prison where he was serving time in 1985. “Yeah, I had the son of a bitch killed,” he allegedly said. “I’m glad I did. I’m sorry I couldn’t have done it myself.”
3.) Lyndon B. Johnson Killed JFK
If one wants a definitive answer as to who killed JFK
, look no further than the man who benefited the most from his assassination. At least, that’s what author Roger Stone says in his new book, “The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ.” In an interview with Voices of Russia, Stone says that LBJ -- who was sworn in as president on a plane in Dallas just hours after the JFK assassination -- used longtime associate and hit man Malcolm Wallace to do the deed. As the Post points out, Stone alleges that Wallace’s fingerprints were found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building, where the Warren Commission says Oswald fired his fatal shots.
According to Stone, Johnson insisted on both the trip to Dallas and the route through Dealey Plaza, where none of the buildings in the area were sealed off. Stone thinks LBJ both reduced the number of police officers on motorcycles on either side of the president’s car and ordered off the Secret Service agents that would have been riding on the rear bumper of the car. In the interview with Voices of Russia, Stone believes that LBJ can be tied to as many as eight murders in Texas prior to the JFK assassination, in order to cover up his corruption, voter fraud and more.
4.) The Russians Killed JFK
To examine the theory that the Soviet Union killed President John F. Kennedy, one must look at the geopolitical situation in 1963. This was the height of the Cold War and the peak of anti-Communist sentiment in the United States. According to ABC News, conspiracy theorists frequently cite the notion that Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev was incensed at having to back down to JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis the year before, and had the president killed by the KGB in retaliation.
Another interesting connection is Oswald’s time spent in the Soviet Union. In October 1959, Oswald -- a former Marine -- defected to the Soviet Union, where he met his future wife, Marina. Marina’s uncle was a colonel in the MVD, which is the Russian Interior Ministry service.
According to Stratfor, there are numerous anomalies about Oswald’s time in Russia, including how the two were able to get permission to marry (a requirement for any Soviet citizen marrying a foreigner), as well as why Marina, an upper-middle class woman with an uncle in the government, would agree to marry an American defector with little prospects whom she had just met one month before.
In early 1962, Oswald, Marina and their daughter left the Soviet Union for the United States. As Stratfor points out, Marina Oswald was granted permission to leave the the country with an American defector within weeks of her request, an extremely rare, if not completely unheard of, turnaround. Why? Conspiracy theorists point to questions like these as evidence of Soviet involvement in the assassination of JFK.
5.) The Cubans Killed JFK
There are two separate sub-theories surrounding Cuba and the JFK assassination. The first, as ABC News points out, is that Castro had JFK assassinated in retaliation for the numerous attempts on his life during the Kennedy administration, courtesy of both the CIA and the Mafia. In 1968, Johnson told ABC News that “Kennedy was trying to get to Castro, but Castro got to him first.”
During an interview with Bill Moyers in 1977, Castro said the theory was “absolute insanity.”
The second, perhaps more plausible, theory involves a mixture of militant anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami, the Mafia and the CIA. As the Mary Ferrell Foundation points out, the anti-Castro Cubans were enraged by Kennedy’s failure to provide crucial air support during the Bay of Pigs invasion. This could have been seen as emblematic of Kennedy’s “soft” approach to communism, a charge that had already been leveled at him after he chose not to invade Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Did anti-Castro Cubans, working in conjunction with the CIA and the Mafia, assassinate JFK?
Thanks to Andrew Berry.
, the debate over who actually pulled the trigger rages on. Did Lee Harvey Oswald, as the The Warren Commission Report: The Official Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, concluded, use an Italian bolt-action Mannlicher-Carcano rifle to fire three shots from the Texas School Book Depository building, hitting President John F. Kennedy once in the neck and once in the back of the head? Or were there larger forces at work?The belief that there was conspiracy to assassinate the president has only become more widespread with the passage of time. As ABC News reports, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1978 that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.” A 2003 ABC News poll showed that 70 percent of Americans believed the JFK assassination was “not the act of a lone killer,” with 7 percent believing that Oswald was not involved at all.
So what is the truth? What really happened on Nov. 22, 1963, at Dealey Plaza in Dallas? We’ll probably never know, but we can continue to speculate. Below is a list of the top five JFK assassination conspiracy theories that have been bandied about over the years.
1.) The CIA Killed JFK
The Central Intelligence Agency has always been shadowy
, mysterious organization, which lends itself perfectly to a conspiracy theory involving the JFK assassination. According to the Mary Ferrell Foundation, Kennedy made an enemy out of the CIA after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. As a result of that failed operation, CIA Director Allen Dulles (who would later serve on the Warren Commission) was forced to resign and many allegedly began to see JFK as a threat to CIA interests.As the New York Post reports, author Patrick Nolan surmises that the CIA wanted “power, self-preservation and to stop the Kennedys’ plan to make peace with Cuba and the Soviets.” Nolan theorizes that a group of rogue CIA agents, including Richard Helms (who became CIA director a few years later), James Angleton, David Phillips and E. Howard Hunt (of Watergate infamy), used three shooters placed at different locations in Dealey Plaza -- the Book Depository building, the Grassy Knoll and the Dal-Tex building -- to pull off the assassination. In his book, “CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys: How and Why US Agents Conspired to Assassinate JFK and RFK,” Nolan uses physical, medical and film evidence, as well as eyewitness accounts, to reach his conclusion.
2.) The Mafia Killed JFK
The relationship between organized crime and the Kennedy family stretched back decades prior to the assassination
, as President Kennedy’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy, allegedly engaged in bootlegging during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. As the Los Angeles Times points out, it’s also believed that Joseph Kennedy used his Mafia connections to help his son win the crucial state of Illinois during the 1960 presidential election against Richard Nixon. However, the mutually beneficial relationship between the Mafia and the Kennedy family would soon come to an end.According to ABC News, one version of this theory posits that Mafia was angered with JFK after the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, as they had hoped to re-exert their presence in Cuba, which had been erased after Fidel Castro rose to power. Additionally, JFK’s brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, had become a crusader against the Mafia in his position as the nation’s top cop.
As the Post reports, Lamar Waldron, author of the book “The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination: The Definitive Account of the Most Controversial Crime of the Twentieth Century,” theorizes that the assassination was masterminded by New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello, with help from Santo Trafficante of Florida and Johnny Roselli of Chicago. According to the Waldron, Marcello used Italian hit men, smuggling them into the country from Canada, to commit the crime. Marcello reportedly bragged about pulling off the assassination to an inmate at a prison where he was serving time in 1985. “Yeah, I had the son of a bitch killed,” he allegedly said. “I’m glad I did. I’m sorry I couldn’t have done it myself.”
3.) Lyndon B. Johnson Killed JFK
If one wants a definitive answer as to who killed JFK
, look no further than the man who benefited the most from his assassination. At least, that’s what author Roger Stone says in his new book, “The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ.” In an interview with Voices of Russia, Stone says that LBJ -- who was sworn in as president on a plane in Dallas just hours after the JFK assassination -- used longtime associate and hit man Malcolm Wallace to do the deed. As the Post points out, Stone alleges that Wallace’s fingerprints were found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building, where the Warren Commission says Oswald fired his fatal shots.According to Stone, Johnson insisted on both the trip to Dallas and the route through Dealey Plaza, where none of the buildings in the area were sealed off. Stone thinks LBJ both reduced the number of police officers on motorcycles on either side of the president’s car and ordered off the Secret Service agents that would have been riding on the rear bumper of the car. In the interview with Voices of Russia, Stone believes that LBJ can be tied to as many as eight murders in Texas prior to the JFK assassination, in order to cover up his corruption, voter fraud and more.
4.) The Russians Killed JFK
To examine the theory that the Soviet Union killed President John F. Kennedy, one must look at the geopolitical situation in 1963. This was the height of the Cold War and the peak of anti-Communist sentiment in the United States. According to ABC News, conspiracy theorists frequently cite the notion that Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev was incensed at having to back down to JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis the year before, and had the president killed by the KGB in retaliation.
Another interesting connection is Oswald’s time spent in the Soviet Union. In October 1959, Oswald -- a former Marine -- defected to the Soviet Union, where he met his future wife, Marina. Marina’s uncle was a colonel in the MVD, which is the Russian Interior Ministry service.
According to Stratfor, there are numerous anomalies about Oswald’s time in Russia, including how the two were able to get permission to marry (a requirement for any Soviet citizen marrying a foreigner), as well as why Marina, an upper-middle class woman with an uncle in the government, would agree to marry an American defector with little prospects whom she had just met one month before.
In early 1962, Oswald, Marina and their daughter left the Soviet Union for the United States. As Stratfor points out, Marina Oswald was granted permission to leave the the country with an American defector within weeks of her request, an extremely rare, if not completely unheard of, turnaround. Why? Conspiracy theorists point to questions like these as evidence of Soviet involvement in the assassination of JFK.
5.) The Cubans Killed JFK
There are two separate sub-theories surrounding Cuba and the JFK assassination. The first, as ABC News points out, is that Castro had JFK assassinated in retaliation for the numerous attempts on his life during the Kennedy administration, courtesy of both the CIA and the Mafia. In 1968, Johnson told ABC News that “Kennedy was trying to get to Castro, but Castro got to him first.”
During an interview with Bill Moyers in 1977, Castro said the theory was “absolute insanity.”
The second, perhaps more plausible, theory involves a mixture of militant anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami, the Mafia and the CIA. As the Mary Ferrell Foundation points out, the anti-Castro Cubans were enraged by Kennedy’s failure to provide crucial air support during the Bay of Pigs invasion. This could have been seen as emblematic of Kennedy’s “soft” approach to communism, a charge that had already been leveled at him after he chose not to invade Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Did anti-Castro Cubans, working in conjunction with the CIA and the Mafia, assassinate JFK?
Thanks to Andrew Berry.
Inside the Kwame Kilpatrick #PublicCorruption Case
When Kwame Kilpatrick became mayor of Detroit in 2002, he promised to revitalize the city. Instead, he shamelessly used his position to steal from the citizens he had vowed to serve.
“Criminal activity was a way of life for him, and he constantly used the power of his office to look for new opportunities to make money illegally,” said Federal Bureau of Investigations Special Agent Robert Beeckman, who investigated the mayor and his corrupt regime for eight years.
Last month, a federal judge sentenced Kilpatrick to a 28-year prison term for his role in a wide-ranging racketeering conspiracy that included extortion, bribery, and fraud. Thirty-two others have also been convicted of crimes in connection with the case, including Kilpatrick’s contractor friend Bobby Ferguson, who received a 21-year jail term.
Kilpatrick and Ferguson established a “pay to play” system that made breaking the law standard operating procedure. Kilpatrick extorted city vendors, rigged bids, and took bribes. He used funds from non-profit civic organizations to line his pockets and those of his family. And he was unabashed about it.
“His crimes were not the result of a momentary lapse in judgment,” said a document prepared for the court by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. “He systematically exploited his office to enrich himself, his friends, and his family.” For example, Kilpatrick and Ferguson obtained more than $500,000 from the state of Michigan and private donors for non-profit organizations they controlled. The organizations were supposed to help the community. Instead, the mayor spent large sums on himself for luxury vacations, spa treatments, and golf clubs.
The FBI opened a case on Kilpatrick in 2004, two years after he moved into the mayor’s mansion. “Initially, we had sources and a few cooperating defendants from other cases who revealed a pay to play scheme and that the mayor was behind it,” Beeckman said.
As the investigation unfolded, FBI agents—along with investigators from the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies—used court-ordered wiretaps and undercover operators to gather evidence. “Over the years, we employed every investigative technique we could,” Beeckman said.
A significant break in the case came when investigators discovered that Kilpatrick’s cell phone provider had kept an archive of all his text messages. “The messages were explicit,” Beeckman said. “He talked about bid rigging, bribes, and other criminal activity. He had no idea there would be a record of those messages.”
Investigators also followed the money, which left no doubt about Kilpatrick’s corruption. Before he became mayor, Kilpatrick’s paycheck from the state of Michigan was electronically deposited into his bank account, and he made regular withdrawals to pay bills and to get cash. After his election, he stopped making withdrawals and instead made only large cash deposits.
Kilpatrick’s bank records revealed more than $840,000 in unexplained expenditures above and beyond his salary as mayor—and none of that money was disclosed on his tax returns. “There were times,” Beeckman said, “when the mayor would hand one of the officers on his protective detail an envelope with cash and tell him to take it to the bank and pay his credit card bill.”
The beleaguered mayor pled guilty to two felony counts in 2008 and resigned his office. Two years later, he was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion; in March 2013 he was found guilty of the wide-ranging racketeering conspiracy charges.
Why was Kilpatrick so brazen about his crimes? “He thought he was above the law,” Beeckman believes. “He thought he could do whatever he wanted and get away with it.”
That turned out not to be the case, thanks to the dedicated work of the investigators and prosecutors who ultimately brought Kilpatrick and his co-conspirators to justice.
“Criminal activity was a way of life for him, and he constantly used the power of his office to look for new opportunities to make money illegally,” said Federal Bureau of Investigations Special Agent Robert Beeckman, who investigated the mayor and his corrupt regime for eight years.
Last month, a federal judge sentenced Kilpatrick to a 28-year prison term for his role in a wide-ranging racketeering conspiracy that included extortion, bribery, and fraud. Thirty-two others have also been convicted of crimes in connection with the case, including Kilpatrick’s contractor friend Bobby Ferguson, who received a 21-year jail term.
Kilpatrick and Ferguson established a “pay to play” system that made breaking the law standard operating procedure. Kilpatrick extorted city vendors, rigged bids, and took bribes. He used funds from non-profit civic organizations to line his pockets and those of his family. And he was unabashed about it.
“His crimes were not the result of a momentary lapse in judgment,” said a document prepared for the court by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. “He systematically exploited his office to enrich himself, his friends, and his family.” For example, Kilpatrick and Ferguson obtained more than $500,000 from the state of Michigan and private donors for non-profit organizations they controlled. The organizations were supposed to help the community. Instead, the mayor spent large sums on himself for luxury vacations, spa treatments, and golf clubs.
The FBI opened a case on Kilpatrick in 2004, two years after he moved into the mayor’s mansion. “Initially, we had sources and a few cooperating defendants from other cases who revealed a pay to play scheme and that the mayor was behind it,” Beeckman said.
As the investigation unfolded, FBI agents—along with investigators from the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies—used court-ordered wiretaps and undercover operators to gather evidence. “Over the years, we employed every investigative technique we could,” Beeckman said.
A significant break in the case came when investigators discovered that Kilpatrick’s cell phone provider had kept an archive of all his text messages. “The messages were explicit,” Beeckman said. “He talked about bid rigging, bribes, and other criminal activity. He had no idea there would be a record of those messages.”
Investigators also followed the money, which left no doubt about Kilpatrick’s corruption. Before he became mayor, Kilpatrick’s paycheck from the state of Michigan was electronically deposited into his bank account, and he made regular withdrawals to pay bills and to get cash. After his election, he stopped making withdrawals and instead made only large cash deposits.
Kilpatrick’s bank records revealed more than $840,000 in unexplained expenditures above and beyond his salary as mayor—and none of that money was disclosed on his tax returns. “There were times,” Beeckman said, “when the mayor would hand one of the officers on his protective detail an envelope with cash and tell him to take it to the bank and pay his credit card bill.”
The beleaguered mayor pled guilty to two felony counts in 2008 and resigned his office. Two years later, he was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion; in March 2013 he was found guilty of the wide-ranging racketeering conspiracy charges.
Why was Kilpatrick so brazen about his crimes? “He thought he was above the law,” Beeckman believes. “He thought he could do whatever he wanted and get away with it.”
That turned out not to be the case, thanks to the dedicated work of the investigators and prosecutors who ultimately brought Kilpatrick and his co-conspirators to justice.
Friday, November 15, 2013
State Department Offers $1 Million Dollar Reward for the Dismantlement of the Transnational #OrganizedCrime #Xaysavang Network
Per Secretary of State John Kerry: "I am proud to announce the State Department’s first-ever reward for information leading to the dismantling of a transnational criminal organization, as part of our new Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program.
"The involvement of sophisticated transnational criminal organizations in wildlife trafficking perpetuates corruption, threatens the rule of law and border security in fragile regions, and destabilizes communities that depend on wildlife for biodiversity and eco-tourism. Profits from wildlife trafficking, estimated at $8–10 billion per year, fund other illicit activities such as narcotics, arms, and human trafficking.
"That is why the Department of State is offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the dismantling of the Xaysavang Network.
"Based in Laos with affiliates in South Africa, Mozambique, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China—the Xaysavang Network facilitates the killing of endangered elephants, rhinos, and other species for products such as ivory.
"Several major seizures of illegal wildlife products have been linked to the Xaysavang Network.
"You can visit the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program website for more information on the program and reward offers.
"I encourage anyone with information on the members or illegal activities of the Xaysavang Network to contact the rewards hotline in Laos at +856 21 219565 and/or by email at TOCRP-Xaysavang@state.gov. All communications are strictly confidential. Rewards and amounts will be considered on a case-by-case basis." ~ John Kerry
"The involvement of sophisticated transnational criminal organizations in wildlife trafficking perpetuates corruption, threatens the rule of law and border security in fragile regions, and destabilizes communities that depend on wildlife for biodiversity and eco-tourism. Profits from wildlife trafficking, estimated at $8–10 billion per year, fund other illicit activities such as narcotics, arms, and human trafficking.
"That is why the Department of State is offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the dismantling of the Xaysavang Network.
"Based in Laos with affiliates in South Africa, Mozambique, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China—the Xaysavang Network facilitates the killing of endangered elephants, rhinos, and other species for products such as ivory.
"Several major seizures of illegal wildlife products have been linked to the Xaysavang Network.
"You can visit the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program website for more information on the program and reward offers.
"I encourage anyone with information on the members or illegal activities of the Xaysavang Network to contact the rewards hotline in Laos at +856 21 219565 and/or by email at TOCRP-Xaysavang@state.gov. All communications are strictly confidential. Rewards and amounts will be considered on a case-by-case basis." ~ John Kerry
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Kevin Trudeau, Weight Loss Infomercial Pitchman, Convicted of Criminal Contempt
Author and television pitchman Kevin Trudeau was convicted today of criminal contempt for violating a 2004 federal court order that prohibits him from making deceptive television infomercials that misrepresent the contents of his weight loss cure book. A federal jury deliberated approximately an hour after a week-long trial in U.S. District Court.
Trudeau, 50, of Oak Brook, had his bond revoked, and he was ordered taken into custody by U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman, who set a schedule for post-trial motions but no sentencing date.
Criminal contempt has no statutory maximum sentence. The Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The guilty verdict was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Tony Gómez, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Chicago; and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to the evidence at trial, Trudeau appeared in three television infomercials between December 2006 and November 2007 in which he willfully misrepresented the contents of his book The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About. In April 2010, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman issued an order to show cause why Trudeau should not be held in criminal contempt of a September 2, 2004 settlement in which Trudeau agreed not to directly or indirectly produce and broadcast any deceptive infomercials that misrepresented the contents of any book, including the weight loss cure book. (Federal Trade Commission v. Trudeau, No. 03 C 3904.)
In closing arguments today, prosecutors listed a litany of blatant lies and misrepresentations made by Trudeau in his infomercials. These included his claims that his book was not a “diet,” when in fact it required at least three weeks of eating 500 calories or less a day, and that a hormone found only in pregnant women that was required to be injected daily could be obtained “anywhere,” when in fact it could be obtained in the United States only through a doctor’s prescription. He also claimed that after finishing the diet, consumers could eat anything they wanted without regaining weight, when in fact the diet required severe food deprivation that lasts for life.
The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys April Perry and Marc Krickbaum.
Trudeau, 50, of Oak Brook, had his bond revoked, and he was ordered taken into custody by U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman, who set a schedule for post-trial motions but no sentencing date.
Criminal contempt has no statutory maximum sentence. The Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The guilty verdict was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Tony Gómez, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Chicago; and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to the evidence at trial, Trudeau appeared in three television infomercials between December 2006 and November 2007 in which he willfully misrepresented the contents of his book The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About. In April 2010, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman issued an order to show cause why Trudeau should not be held in criminal contempt of a September 2, 2004 settlement in which Trudeau agreed not to directly or indirectly produce and broadcast any deceptive infomercials that misrepresented the contents of any book, including the weight loss cure book. (Federal Trade Commission v. Trudeau, No. 03 C 3904.)
In closing arguments today, prosecutors listed a litany of blatant lies and misrepresentations made by Trudeau in his infomercials. These included his claims that his book was not a “diet,” when in fact it required at least three weeks of eating 500 calories or less a day, and that a hormone found only in pregnant women that was required to be injected daily could be obtained “anywhere,” when in fact it could be obtained in the United States only through a doctor’s prescription. He also claimed that after finishing the diet, consumers could eat anything they wanted without regaining weight, when in fact the diet required severe food deprivation that lasts for life.
The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys April Perry and Marc Krickbaum.
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