Hunter Biden Indicted On Nine Tax Charges, Adding To Gun Charges In Special Counsel Probe

FILE - Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, walks from Marine One upon arrival at Fort McNair, June 25, 2023, in Washington. Hunter Biden has been indicted on nine tax charges in California as a special counsel investigation into the business dealings of the president’s son intensifies against the backdrop of the looming 2024 election.(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

BY LINSAY WJITEHURST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden was indicted on nine tax charges in California on Thursday as a special counsel investigation into the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son intensifies against the backdrop of the looming 2024 election.

The new charges — three felonies and six misdemeanors — are in addition to federal firearms charges in Delaware alleging Hunter Biden broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018. They come after the implosion of a plea deal over the summer that would have spared him jail time.

Hunter Biden “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” special counsel David Weiss said in a statement. The charges are centered on at least $1.4 million in taxes Hunter Biden owed during between 2016 and 2019, a period where he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. The back taxes have since been paid.

If convicted, Hunter Biden could face up to 17 years in prison. The special counsel probe remains open, Weiss said.

In a fiery response, defense attorney Abbe Lowell accused Weiss of “bowing to Republican pressure” in the case.

“Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought,” Lowell said in a statement.

The White House declined to comment on Thursday’s indictment, referring questions to the Justice Department or Hunter Biden’s personal representatives.

The charging documents filed in California, where he lives, details spending on everything from drugs and girlfriends to luxury hotels and exotic cars, “in short, everything but his taxes,” prosecutor Leo Wise wrote.

The indictment comes as congressional Republicans pursue an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, claiming he was engaged in an influence-peddling scheme with his son. The House is expected to vote next week on formally authorizing the inquiry.

No evidence has emerged so far to prove that Joe Biden, in his current or previous office, abused his role or accepted bribes, though questions have arisen about the ethics surrounding the Biden family’s international business.

The criminal investigation led by Weiss has been open since 2018, and was expected to wind down with the plea deal that Hunter Biden had planned to strike with prosecutors over the summer. He would have pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax evasion charges and would have entered a separate agreement on the gun charge, getting two years of probation rather than jail time.

It was pilloried as a “sweetheart deal” by Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, who is facing criminal charges in multiple cases.

The agreement also contained immunity provisions, and defense attorneys have argued that they remain in force since that part of the agreement was signed by a prosecutor before the deal was scrapped.

Prosecutors disagree, pointing out the documents weren’t signed by a judge and are invalid.

After the deal fell apart, prosecutors filed three federal gun charges alleging that Hunter Biden had lied about his drug use to buy a gun that he kept for 11 days in 2018. Federal law bans gun possession by “habitual drug users,” though the measure is seldom seen as a stand-alone charge and has been called into question by a federal appeals court.

The defense is planning to push next week for dismissal of the “unprecedented and unconstitutional” gun charges, Lowell said.

Hunter Biden’s longstanding struggle with substance abuse had worsened during that period after the death of his brother Beau Biden in 2015, prosecutors wrote in a draft plea agreement filed in court in Delaware.

He still made “substantial income” in 2017 and 2018, including $2.6 million in business and consulting fees from a company he formed with the CEOs of a Chinese business conglomerate and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, but did not pay his taxes on a total of about $4 million in personal income during that period, prosecutors said in the scuttled Delaware plea agreement.

He did eventually file his taxes in 2020 and the back taxes were paid by a “third party” the following year, prosecutors said.

New York Attorney General Seeks Immediate Verdict In Fraud Lawsuit Against Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump walks to speak with reporters before departure from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

BY MICHAEL R. SISAK

NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s attorney general says a judge doesn’t need to wait until an October trial in her civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump to rule that he committed fraud while building his real estate empire.

In court papers made public Wednesday, Attorney General Letitia James urged Judge Arthur Engoron to issue an immediate verdict endorsing her claim that Trump and his company defrauded banks and business associates by lying on financial statements about his wealth and the value of his assets.

Engoron has scheduled a Sept. 22 hearing on James’ request. Her lawsuit, which seeks $250 million in penalties and a ban on Trump doing business in New York, is scheduled to go to trial Oct. 2 in state court in Manhattan. Even if Engoron rules on the fraud claim, he would still preside over a non-jury trial on other claims in the lawsuit if it is not settled.

Messages seeking comment were left with Trump’s lawyers and a spokesperson for his company, the Trump Organization. Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in next year’s presidential election, has claimed the lawsuit is part of a “politically motivated Witch Hunt” led by James and other Democrats.

James’ lawsuit, involving allegations about Trump’s pre-presidential life as a businessman, is one of many legal headaches he faces as he seeks a return to the White House.

Trump has been indicted four times in the last five months — accused in Georgia and Washington, D.C., of plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss, in Florida of hoarding classified documents, and in Manhattan of falsifying business records related to hush money paid on his behalf. Some of Trump’s criminal trials are scheduled to overlap with the busy presidential primary season.

To rule, Engoron needs only to answer two questions, James’ office argued: whether Trump’s annual financial statements were false or misleading, and whether he and the Trump Organization used those statements while conducting business transactions.

“The answer to both questions is a resounding ‘yes’ based on the mountain of undisputed evidence” in the case, James’ special litigation counsel Andrew Amer said in a 100-page summary judgment motion.

Based on that, Amer argued, no trial is required to determine that Trump, the Trump Organization, and other defendants, “presented grossly and materially inflated asset values” in the financial statements and then used those statements “repeatedly in business transactions to defraud banks and insurers.”

“At the end of the day this is a documents case, and the documents leave no shred of doubt that Mr. Trump’s (statements of financial condition) do not even remotely reflect the ‘estimated current value’ of his assets as they would trade between well-informed market participants,” Amer wrote.

Two of Trump’s children who have worked as company executives, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, along with other high-level Trump Organization officials. Messages seeking comment were left with their lawyers.

Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, was initially named as a defendant, but a state appeals court dismissed her from the case in June after determining that allegations against her were barred by the state’s statute of limitations.

James sued Trump in September 2022, alleging he and his company lied for at least a decade on annual statements of financial interest he provided to banks, insurers and others. The statements padded Trump’s net worth by billions of dollars and misled banks, insurers and others about the value of assets like golf courses, hotels and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, James said. She dubbed the alleged scheme “The art of the steal,” riffing on the title of Trump’s 1987 memoir, “The Art of the Deal.”

In seeking summary judgment on the fraud claim, James’ office pointed to evidence that shows Trump inflated his net worth by up to 39%, or more than $2 billion, in some years. James’ office said Trump’s “blatant and obvious deceptive practices” included wildly overstating the size and value of his homes in Florida and New York, marking up the value of unsold condominiums and rental space, and claiming he could do more with certain land that allowed — like building more homes on his Scottish golf course that the local government had approved.

Trump answered questions in the lawsuit for seven hours at James’ office in April, a reversal from a deposition last year, before the lawsuit was filed, where he refused to answer all but a few procedural questions. At that earlier deposition, Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination more than 400 times.

Trump is not expected to testify in court, but video recordings of Trump’s depositions could be played.

Former Mozambique Finance Minister Pleads Not Guilty In US Federal Court Over $2 Billion Scandal

Former Mozambican Finance Minister, Manuel Chang, is seen in court in kempton Park, Johannesburg, South Africa, Jan. 8, 2019. Image: Phill Magoke/Associate Press

BY BOBBY CAINA CALVAN

NEW YORK (AP) — Mozambique’s former finance minister pleaded not guilty in a U.S. federal court in New York on Thursday in connection with a $2 billion corruption and money laundering scandal that prosecutors said defrauded American investors and threatened to further destabilize the economy of one of the world’s poorest countries.

Manuel Chang served as finance minister from 2005 to 2015 for Mozambique, a country of 31 million on Africa’s southern coast on the Indian Ocean. He was ordered detained until at least October, when his attorneys argue for a dismissal of his case.

Chang is accused of receiving bribes of up to $18 million during a scheme that secured loans for Mozambican state-owned companies from foreign banks and financiers for maritime projects. The money was looted through kickbacks and other corrupt dealings, according to U.S. prosecutors.

Until his extradition to the United States Wednesday, Chang had been held in South Africa after being arrested in Johannesburg in 2018 on a U.S. warrant.

“He is relieved to be here,” his lawyer, Adam Ford, said after the arraignment in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.

He had fought his extradition to the U.S., and the Mozambican government’s own attempts to have Chang face trial in Mozambique had been dismissed by several South African courts. Some groups opposed his return to his own country because of concerns that he would likely be treated leniently.

In a letter a month ago to U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, one of Chang’s attorneys sought to have the case dismissed, asserting that Chang’s right to a speedy trial had been violated.

Ford has called the charges “meritless” and asserted that Chang would be acquitted — like another key figure in the alleged scheme who was acquitted by a U.S. jury in 2019.

The judge raised that point in court Thursday, but was persuaded by the prosecution’s suggestion that another jury might see things differently.

In 2019, a federal jury acquitted co-defendant Jean Boustani, a Lebanese national who worked for a Middle Eastern shipbuilding company, who was accused by American authorities of fraud related to $200 million in bribes and kickbacks as part of the broader scheme.

Much of Thursday’s hearing focused on whether Chang should be released on bail. The judge, citing the amount of money involved and the gravity of the charges, agreed with prosecutors that he could be a flight risk.

During the hearing an attorney for the U.S. government, Hiral Mehta, provided a preview of the evidence that could be introduced during a trial, including emails, spreadsheets, bank records and other financial documents.

The scandal centers on loans totaling $2 billion that were supposed to go toward purchasing fishing vessels and naval patrol boats to bolster Mozambique’s fishing industry. But prosecutors say the investments never happened.

The scandal caused a financial crisis in Mozambique when the International Monetary Fund withdrew its support for the country after the so-called “hidden debts” were revealed in 2016.

In 2021, Swiss bank Credit Suisse agreed to pay at least $475 million to British and American authorities to settle bribery and kickback allegations stemming from their involvement with the corrupt loans.

At least 10 people have already been convicted and sentenced to prison by a Mozambican court over the scandal, including Ndambi Guebuza, the son of former Mozambican president Armando Guebuza. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for receiving up to $33 million from the corrupt deal.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Jean Boustani’s last nam

Associated Press Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Group recommends reforms for scandal-plagued Los Angeles city council

FILE - Los Angeles City council member Curren Price Jr., speaks at the Paradise Baptist Church in Los Angeles on Aug. 19, 2014, during a community forum. Prosecutors charged Price, with embezzlement and perjury on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. The criminal case is the latest one to upend the scandal-plagued governing board of the nation's second-largest largest city. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)

BY AMANCAI BIRABEN

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles should add 10 more city council members, create two independent redistricting commissions and establish a more powerful ethics commission, a panel of academics exploring reforms for the scandal-plagued city government said Thursday.

The Los Angeles Governance Reform Project shared its recommendations just days after yet another councilman — the fourth in recent years — was charged with a felony, this time for embezzlement and perjury. The group, made up of academics backed by philanthropists, formed last year after leaked recordings revealed several council members making racist remarks as they discussed redistricting.

“I don’t think anyone has forgotten that the moment is now for change,” said Ange-Marie Hancock, a co-chair of the reform group and a professor of gender studies and political science at the University of Southern California.

The group eventually wants to put proposals before voters on the November 2024 ballot.

City Council members in Los Angeles control the redistricting process, which happens once every 10 years and determines what neighborhoods politicians represent.

“There’s a lot at stake in redistricting in LA because the districts are so large, and the council positions are so significant, and it becomes a way of thinking about the representation of diverse groups,” said Raphael Sonenshein, a member of the reform group and former executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at the California State University, Los Angeles.

Governance advocacy groups like The League of Women Voters and Catalyst California argued that two independent redistricting commissions are necessary in light of the chaos that engulfed the city following last fall’s recordings between council members who control the redistricting process. The recordings featured several Latino lawmakers talking about ways to protect their own political power. The leak prompted calls for their resignations, only one of whom stepped down.

Past efforts to reform how Los Angeles draws political maps haven’t been successful. In 1999, the city created an advisory commission, but it is only consulted on an optional basis.

The Los Angeles Governance Reform Project recommends creating two independent redistricting commissions made up of city residents from a variety of backgrounds. One would focus on drawing city council districts, while the other would focus on districts for Los Angeles Unified School District Board members. The state of California operates an independent redistricting commission that sets state legislative maps.

Kathay Feng of Common Cause, a government watchdog group, said these reforms would lessen the cynicism city residents feel about their fates in the hands of few leaders.

“Either we’ll all divide up into our fiefdoms, or some people who have more power will have the things that they want and others will not. And I think it’s important for us to demonstrate that we can create governance systems even through this redistricting commission, that is reflective of the better angels that we want to be,” Feng said.

The Los Angeles Governance Reform Project’s second recommendation is to increase the number of city council seats from 15 to 25. Twenty-one would represent specific districts, while four members would preside at-large. That hybrid system is used by several cities like Seattle, Houston, Atlanta and Philadelphia, and in California’s state redistricting commission.

Los Angeles, a city of nearly 4 million people, is represented by 15 city council members. That is compared to 51 who represent New York, a city of about 8.5 million people. Chicago, home to nearly 2.7 million people, has 50 aldermen representing the city.

The reform group argued that smaller districts improve representation because council members would have fewer constituents to oversee. The distance between the citizen and his or her representative is smaller when the number of people represented by each individual is smaller, the panel said.

“As we speak today, there are 260,000 souls in every city council district and Los Angeles. To say that this stretches the definition of local representation as it was understood by our founders would be an understatement,” said Gary Segura, a member of the reform group and a professor at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The group didn’t include a cost estimate for expanding the city council.

The group’s third recommendation is to enhance the city Ethics Commission’s authority. That would be done by disallowing the council to amend proposals offered by the ethics commission and giving the commission the power to put its recommendations directly on the ballot. These recommendations were made to heighten accountability, members of the group said.

All of the proposed reforms are far from certain to be adopted. The group plans to seek community feedback and conduct a city-wide public opinion survey to see how voters and residents feel about the ideas.

Then, the panel will review the suggestions and make changes before eventually proposing language for the 2024 ballot. Sonenshein said he hopes the City Council would approve putting the measures before voters, but the group could also try to get them on the ballot by collecting voter signatures.

Los Angeles has an opportunity to create better systems for representation, said Michael Li of the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, who works on redistricting.

In Los Angeles, ethnically diverse populations are increasingly inhabiting the same voting districts, and they are engaging in conversations around shared representation differently than they are other major cities, he said.

“These groups are coming together, they’re forming coalitions, they’re deciding if they have a shared identity or not,” Li said. “Multiracial politics of the future are still being written, and LA is a center point for that.”

The complexities of determining political representation in such a diverse city — nearly 200 languages are spoken — was at the center of the leaked recordings that caused an uproar last year.

Sara Sadhwani, one of the scholars on the reform committee and a member of the state’s redistricting commission, has seen the discussion over redistricting play out for years and often end with legislators unwilling to give up the power to draw their own maps. But the backlash to the tapes may have provided an opportunity for change, she said.

“We recognize that there’s some real troubles,” Sadhwani said of current system. “It creates this kind of jockeying for power that no longer holds true to the values that we have as Californians who want to live together with one another in coalition.” ___

This story has been corrected to show that Raphael Sonenshein is former executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs, not the current executive director.

Los Angeles City Hall Rocked By Another Corruption Scandal, Rattles Trust In Government

FILE - Los Angeles City council member Curren Price Jr., speaks at the Paradise Baptist Church in Los Angeles on Aug. 19, 2014, during a community forum. Prosecutors charged Price, with embezzlement and perjury on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. The criminal case is the latest one to upend the scandal-plagued governing board of the nation’s second-largest largest city. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)

BY MICHAEL R. BLOOD AND STEFANIE DAZIO

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) — These are dark days in Los Angeles, but perhaps nowhere is that more true than at scandal-ridden City Hall.

The weather phenomenon known as June Gloom has for weeks sealed the city known for crystalline sunshine under a murky blanket of clouds. That could be an apt metaphor for a metropolis struggling with a panoply of crises, most recently a shocking string of corruption cases in city government.




On Tuesday, prosecutors charged Councilmember Curren Price Jr., who has served on the 15-member council for a decade, with embezzlement and perjury. He’s the third city council member to be charged with a felony in recent years. Two former members — Jose Huizar and Mark Ridley Thomas — pleaded guilty to felonies this year.



It follows a racism scandal last year that led to the resignation of then-council president Nury Martinez after a leaked tape exposed three Latino councilmembers plotting to expand their power at the expense of Black voters, revelations that shook the public’s trust in the council.



All have left the council hobbled — in numbers and reputation — to address persistent problems in the sprawling city of nearly 4 million, like an unyielding homeless crisis, post-pandemic office vacancies and poorly maintained roads.


“It’s a dark moment, for sure,” said historian William Deverell, of the City Hall corruption scandals. “Our governance structure in downtown Los Angeles seems beset with these crimes.”



Deverell, the founding director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, noted that L.A. history has many examples of violence and unrest — whether in the 1850s as a new American city or during its explosive growth in the 20th century, with the expansion of Hollywood and the oil industry.


In recent years, there was talk of a downtown “renaissance” and predictions that the city was headed toward a reshaped future with more public transit and high-rise living options. That may come in time, but for now L.A. is left with the challenge of a council in turmoil at a time of multiple, interconnected challenges with homelessness, housing, fiscal policy and other issues.



“How can we solve these things systematically?” Deverell asked.



Price’s charges are the latest in a string of scandals that have shaken public trust in City Hall.


He has been charged with five counts of embezzlement of government funds, three counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest — alleging in part that between 2019 and 2021, Price’s wife received payments totaling more than $150,000 from developers before Price voted to approve their projects.


Price was first elected to the council in 2013. His district includes South Los Angeles and parts of downtown. His term is set to expire in 2026.


“There’s no getting around the fact that this City Council has been rocked by a number of scandals over the course of recent years. That is undeniably true and it is palpably felt by me, by the members of the council and certainly by the members of the public,” council President Paul Krekorian told reporters Wednesday.




“Every time there is a new scandal, I recognize that ... there are going to be people who lose confidence, not just in this institution, but in government as a whole,” he said.


In March, former Democratic City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas — a one-time legislator, county supervisor and a fixture in local politics for decades — was found guilty in federal court of seven felonies, including conspiracy, bribery and fraud.


A few months earlier, Councilman Jose Huizar, pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges — and in 2020 former council member Mitch Englander pleaded guilty to charges after an FBI investigation.


Amid the racism scandal in October, both Martinez and a powerful labor leader, Ron Herrera, resigned.



On Wednesday, Krekorian filed a motion to suspend Price, saying he was shocked by the criminal complaint against his “friend and colleague,” while stressing that the presumption of innocence is a bedrock principle of the U.S. Constitution.



In a letter to Krekorian, Price said he was stepping down from committee assignments and leadership responsibilities “while I navigate through the judicial system to defend my name.”


Price’s attorney, David Willingham, declined to comment Tuesday, saying he had not seen a copy of the criminal complaint.


Krekorian pledged to undertake an orderly process that will include input from Price’s district on how to proceed. He said the suspension motion will initially be referred to the council’s rules committee.



“This will not be a process that will be rushed through as has happened in the past, because it is important that the council have an opportunity to discuss and debate all of the issues surrounding this,” Krekorian said.


The scandal will pressure Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, to intervene, according to political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a retired University of Southern California professor.


“People see her as the leader of the city,” Jeffe said of Bass. “Politically, this is not good that this is happening, even though (Bass) has nothing to do with it.”


—-


Associated Press writer John Antczak contributed to this report.

Former Mozambique Finance Minister Loses Last Appeal, Set For Extradition To US Over $2B Scandal

FILE - Former Mozambican finance minister, Manuel Chang, appears in court in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, South Africa, on Jan. 8, 2019. Chang faces imminent extradition to the U.S. to face corruption charges after spending four years in a South African prison. Chang was in 2018 arrested in South Africa on a U.S. warrant of arrest for charges related to his role in a $2 billion debt scandal that plunged Mozambique into a financial crisis when it was uncovered in 2016. (AP Photo/Phill Magakoe, File)

BY MOGOMOTSI MAGOME

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nearly five years after he was arrested at a South African airport, Mozambique’s former finance minister has lost a last-ditch court appeal and faces extradition to the United States over a $2 billion corruption scandal related to loans to Mozambican state-owned companies.

U.S. prosecutors allege that Manuel Chang, Mozambique’s finance minister from 2005 to 2015, was involved in a scheme that ultimately defrauded American and international investors. The huge sums of money leant by international banks to Mozambique — and guaranteed by the Mozambique government — were meant for a series of maritime projects but disappeared in bribes, kickbacks and other illegal payments, it’s alleged.

Chang is accused of receiving about $17 million in bribes in the “hidden debts” scandal. He was indicted in the Eastern District Court of New York in 2018.

The more than $2 billion was meant to be for the purchase of naval vessels, the building and maintenance of shipyards and various other projects to help the country’s fishing industry, but were never used for those purposes, according to the allegations. The scandal caused a financial crisis in Mozambique. When the loans were disclosed in 2016, the International Monetary Fund withdrew its support for the southern African country.

Chang has been held in jail in South Africa since December 2018, when South African police arrested him at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg at the request of U.S. authorities before he took a flight to Dubai.

He brought numerous court cases and appeals in an attempt to avoid extradition to the U.S.

Chang ran out of legal options in South Africa when the country’s apex Constitutional Court denied applications from him and the Mozambican government to appeal against a lower court’s ruling that he must be extradited to the U.S.

Chang and the Mozambican government were arguing that he should be extradited to Mozambique.

The Constitutional Court made the ruling on Wednesday and provided a copy of the judgment to the AP on Thursday. In its judgment, the court said permission to appeal against a ruling ordering Chang’s extradition to the U.S. “must be refused” because there was a “lack of reasonable prospects of success.”

A Mozambican civil society group, the Forum de Monitoria do Orcamento (FMO), supported Chang’s extradition to the U.S., arguing in court that he was unlikely to face real justice in his home country.

In December, several others accused in the scandal were convicted and sentenced in Mozambique. They included Ndambi Guebuza, the son of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, who was sentenced to 12 years in jail for illegally receiving an estimated $33 million from the corrupt dealings.

Ten other people were found guilty on similar charges and were all sentenced to more than 10 years in jail.

South Africa’s Department of Justice and Chang’s lawyers did not immediately respond to questions from the AP about when Chang might be extradited to the U.S.

In 2021, Swiss bank Credit Suisse agreed to pay at least $475 million to British and American authorities to settle allegations of bribery and kickbacks related to the bank’s involvement in the loans.

___

More AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Dirty Money: Ex-Lawmaker Gets 2 Years For Cesspool Bribes

Former state Rep. Ty Cullen speaks to reporters outside U.S. District Court in Honolulu on Thursday, April 6, 2023 after he was sentenced to two years in prison for taking bribes in exchange for influencing cesspool legislation. Cullen's federal corruption case has drawn attention to a perennial problem in the islands: the tens of thousands of cesspools that release 50 million gallons of raw sewage into the state's pristine waters every day.(AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)

BY AUDREY MCAVOY

HONOLULU (AP) — A former Hawaii lawmaker was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison in a federal corruption case that’s drawn attention to a perennial problem in the islands: the tens of thousands of cesspools that release 50 million gallons of raw sewage into the state’s pristine waters every day.

Cesspools — in-ground pits that collect sewage from houses and buildings not connected to city services for gradual release into the environment — are at the center of the criminal case against former Democratic state Rep. Ty Cullen. He has admitted to taking bribes of cash and gambling chips in exchange for influencing legislation to reduce Hawaii’s widespread use of cesspools.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway said she gave Cullen a sentence at the shortest end of the term recommended by prosecutors because he had cooperated extensively with investigators. Yet she didn’t go as low as the 15 months requested by his defense attorney because of the serious nature of his crimes.

“This was a grievous breach of public trust on your part. It appears to have been motivated by greed, and it stretched out over a number of years,” Mollway told Cullen. “I am very concerned that this was not a momentary lapse of judgement.”

Cullen told the judge he took full responsibility for and was ashamed of his actions.

“I want to say I’m sorry to my family who stayed by me, to my friends, to my constituents, my community and the people of Hawaii,” Cullen said, choking up. “I will continue to work to make my wrongs right. And ensure that this never happens again.”

Mollway also fined Cullen $25,000.

The toxic pits proliferated in Hawaii in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. when investment in sewer lines didn’t keep up with rapid development. Today Hawaii has 83,000 of them — more than any other state — and only banned new cesspools in 2016.

Now Hawaii is eager to get rid of them because of the environmental damage they do and the risk of groundwater contamination.

Public spending on such efforts and the lack of knowledge about the specialized field can create conditions ripe for corruption, said Colin Moore, a political science professor at the University of Hawaii.

“That just creates a lot of opportunities because comparisons are so difficult to make, especially in a really small market like Hawaii where there may only be two, or in some cases even one, contractor who can do the work,” Moore said. “Who’s to say that the bid is inflated?”

Criminal cases related to Cullen’s have led to guilty pleas from the Honolulu businessman who bribed the lawmaker and a former Senate majority leader.

An estimated 16% of Hawaii housing units have cesspools, but the share is much higher on more rural islands like the Big Island, where more than half of the homes have them. They’re found everywhere from the mountains to the seashore and even in urban neighborhoods just miles from downtown Honolulu.

In these homes, effluence from toilets and showers flows through drains into a pit in a yard instead of into a sewer line and to a central wastewater treatment plant. Raw sewage — including all its bacteria and pathogens — then seeps from the pit into the ground, groundwater, aquifers and ocean.

The sewage can contaminate drinking water, and in the ocean it can fuel the growth of reef-smothering algae. As sea levels rise due to climate change, scientists expect the ocean to increasingly inundate cesspools on coastal properties, pushing sewage into waters where people swim.

Such concerns have prompted the Legislature to draft bills to phase out cesspools. In 2017 the state enacted a law requiring homeowners to close their cesspools and hook up to sewer systems or install cleaner on-site waste treatment systems by 2050. The most common on-site alternative is a septic tank and leach field combination, in which bacteria break down solids inside a tank and a disposal field removes wastewater and pathogens while safely returning water to the environment.

This year lawmakers are considering additional legislation, including one bill that would accelerate conversion deadlines for cesspools in more environmentally sensitive areas to 2035 and 2040. Another would establish a pilot program to expand county sewage systems.

In a plea agreement, Cullen admitted receiving envelopes of cash to help pass a bill related to cesspool conversions. He was vice chair of the powerful House Finance Committee for part of the time he received bribes.

Cullen accepted a total of $30,000 from Honolulu businessman Milton Choy, who is due to be sentenced next month. He’s also admitted accepting $22,000 in gambling chips from Choy during a trip to a New Orleans wastewater conference.

Court documents say Choy’s company regularly entered into contracts with government agencies to provide wastewater management services and was well-placed to benefit from publicly financed cesspool conversion projects.

J. Kalani English, a Democrat and the former Senate majority leader, has already been sentenced to three years and four months in prison for taking bribes from Choy, also in exchange for influencing cesspool legislation.

Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence more lenient than federal guidelines because English did not cooperate the way Cullen did, said Ken Sorenson, the assistant U.S. attorney on that case.

Separately, a former Maui County wastewater manager admitted taking $2 million from Choy in exchange for steering at least 56 sole-source contracts to his business. He was sentenced to 10 years in February.

The case has invited jests likening the unsanitary disposal pits to underhanded political behavior.

“We were joking that, ‘Oh, now these politicians have given cesspools a bad name,’” said Stuart Coleman, a longtime advocate for shutting down Hawaii’s cesspools and the executive director of the nonprofit Wastewater Alternatives and Innovations.

“It’s not too far a jump when you talk about this kind of corruption and (then) you talk about the cesspool that is politics.”

___

This story has been updated to correct to $30,000 the amount Cullen accepted from Choy.

NIGERIA: 14 Ex-Govs Fingered In N21 Trillion, $47.4 Billion Alleged Fraud In 15 years

VANGUARD

• 61 of 100 cases ongoing one and a half decades after

• Money almost equals FG’s 2023 budget of N21.83 trillion, Ways and Means debt of N22.7 trillion

•8 former Ministers/Special Advisers, 5 senators, others make list

•Money credited to women suspects: N8. 9 trillion, $20 billion; men: N7. 9 trillion, $17. 8 billion

• Trials of those charged should be pursued with vigor and efficiency – Goldstone, a former Justice of Constitutional Court of South Africa

By Kennedy Mbele

14 former governors, eight erstwhile Ministers and Special Advisers, and five senators are among 100 high-profile individuals fingered in alleged corruption cases involving N21. 63 trillion and $47.4 billion over the past 15 years.

73 other suspects were outside of the three categories.

N7. 9 trillion and $17. 8 billion of the alleged fraud involved men, N8.9 trillion and $20 billion involved women while N4.2 billion and $9. 6 billion involved corporate bodies, according to a report.

The alleged fraud (N21. 63 trillion) is almost equal to the 2023 budget of N21.83 trillion of the Federal Government and the Ways and Means debt of N22.7 trillion the Federal Government is owing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Reacting to the report, Justice Richard Goldstone (retd), a former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and a member of the Board of a non-governmental organization that pushes for the establishment of a permanent International Anti-Corruption Court, said it was important that the trials of those charged should be pursued with vigour and efficiency

The 77- page document released by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, otherwise known as HEDA Resource Centre, also shows that of the 100 cases considered, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, handled 79, Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences, ICPC, 13, SPIPRPP and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, one each while CCT handled none.

The years of documentation are between 2007 and 2022.

The document is entitled ‘A Compendium of 100 High Profile Corruption Cases in Nigeria’ and is dated November 22, 2022.

It is supported by MacArthur Foundation and is in the 6th edition.

63% of the corruption cases representing 63 cases concern fraud, 20 (20%), money laundering, 6 (6%), corruption, 5 (5%), misappropriation of funds, 4 (4%), embezzlement while 1 (1%) is bribery and forgery, each.

On the status of the cases, the largest number, 61, are said to be ongoing as of the date of publication (November 22, 2022), 10 pending, two dismissed, 11 sentenced, and property of one seized while two cases are stalled.

There were also 12 convicted cases out of which some were later discharged by higher courts.

One case is still being investigated.

On the cases that are either ongoing or pending, the document notes that those involving all 14 former governors are ongoing while nine are pending.

Also, 16 other government officials have their cases ongoing while 10 are pending.

On the amounts involved, the report indicates that 88 of the cases are below N100 billion each while four are between N100 billion and N200 billion each.

The report also notes a significant difference in the distribution of charges.

Most of the former governors are facing charges of fraud, money laundering and misappropriation of funds.

There was also a significant difference in the amounts involved.

For instance, while the 14 former governors and 36 other defendants were involved in less than N100 billion each, two former Ministers/ Special Advisers were involved in over N700 billion in alleged corruption cases, an amount the report described as staggering.

Similarly, of the 100 corruption cases considered, the highest year of case inception was 2022 with 24 % whereas 2017 recorded the lowest (7%).

It was also observed that there was no major difference between the amount involved in the cases and the status of the cases.

For instance, of the 100 cases with amounts below N100 billion examined, 36 are ongoing, while 20 are pending.

Nine have been dismissed, while eight defendants got sentenced.

However, four who were initially convicted were later discharged by a higher court.

Three of the cases went through plea bargaining, while five are still under investigation.

Motivation

The document established the motivation for the work in the Preface written by Olanrewaju Suraju who is the Chairman of, HEDA Governing Board.

Suraju said: “The motivation for this compendium in 2017 was derived from the major concern for the cascading morality in the society with assorted nauseating manifestations.

“It became a regular practice celebrating those notorious for corruption and financial crime offences in the country such that those accused are not only revered and celebrated and elevated by social and religious institutions, but societies also elect them into otherwise respectable offices”.

The HEDA Chair noted that the 2019 elections still saw the election of suspects in corruption and financial crimes as governors in some states, saying, “Obviously, the proceed of crime is used by suspected politically exposed persons to purchase immunity from prosecution and delay the trial to escape public attention and possible justice”.

Threats/harassment

He spoke of threats/harassment as well as accolades and intimidation in the course of compiling the cases.

His words: “For us at HEDA Resource Centre, researching, documenting and publishing this compendium has remained a remarkable achievement in the face of threats and harassment.

“We have received impressive and remarkable accolades for the unprecedented and bold move inherent in the publication and so are criticisms and threats from those affected by the audacity of this action.

“Our underlining objective, as stated from inception, was not to pass any verdict on any of the accused. Rather, this is to document and assist the public, the media, especially those with a knack for insightful backgrounding as well as researchers with information handy enough for easy reference purposes.

“Remarkable achievement of the compendium as we progress was the use by international law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom and the United States as background for investigation into some corruption and illicit assets recovery cases for Nigeria”.

On why it should be 100 cases, Suraju said: “We are conscious of cases under the definition of corruption and financial crimes, but focuses on only 100 for the publication as promised since inception with substitution of some previously reported and decided cases with some latest cases”.

In the Forward to the compendium, Justice Richard Goldstone (retd), a member of the Board of a recently established no-governmental organization that pushes for the establishment of a permanent International Anti-Corruption Court, wrote: “One of the most important advantages of an International Anti-Corruption Court would be the pressure it would place on domestic authorities to investigate and prosecute grand corruption at home within a reasonable time”.

In that way, he further wrote, and that way only, would they be able to avoid the international court assuming jurisdiction.

On the 100 cases the compendium highlights, Goldstone, also a former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, added: “The 100 prosecutions that are summarized in this useful report establish the intent of prosecution authorities in Nigeria to investigate and indict those against whom evidence of corruption has been amassed.

“It is equally important that the trials of those charged should be pursued with vigour and efficiency. This Report is likely to encourage that result. It is much to the credit of those who have collected and recorded this information”.

Wealth Looms Big As Ever In Post-Scandal College Admissions

FILE - In this March 12, 2019, file photo, William "Rick" Singer, founder of the Edge College & Career Network, departs federal court in Boston after pleading guilty to charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal. In the wake of the college admissions bribery scandal, experts say there’s little evidence that it stirred significant change in the world of college admissions. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

BY COLLIN BINKLEY

Celebrities wept in court. Coaches lost their jobs. Elite universities saw their reputations stained. And nearly four years later, the mastermind of the Varsity Blues scheme was sentenced this month to more than three years in prison.

But there’s little

belief the college bribery scandal has stirred significant change in the admissions landscape. Some schools tweaked rules to prevent the most flagrant types of misconduct, but the outsize roles of wealth, class and race — which were thrust into public view in shocking plainness — loom as large as ever.

College admissions leaders say the case is an anomaly. Corrupt athletics officials abused holes in the system, they argue, but no college admissions officers were accused. Still, critics say the case revealed deeper, more troubling imbalances.

“Privilege is just really baked into the system in many ways,” said Julie Park, who studies college admissions and racial equity at the University of Maryland. “At the end of the day, there’s disproportionate representation of the 1% at any private college.”

The scheme itself was brazen, with rich parents paying to get their children accepted to selective universities as fake athletes. It drew attention to the advantages those families already had, including tutors and private consultants. It also highlighted other ways money can sway admission decisions, with edges given to the relatives of donors and alumni.

In court, some of the accused parents argued their alleged bribes were no different from donations colleges routinely accept from relatives of prospective students. Records revealed from the University of Southern California showed lists detailing scores of “VIP” applicants, with notes such as “potential donor” or “1 mil pledge.”

Among the parents sent to prison for participating in the scheme were “Full House” actor Lori Loughlin, her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli, and “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman.

When authorities announced the first charges in 2019, it left colleges across the U.S. scrambling to review their own admissions systems, especially where there was overlap with athletics programs. Schools added layers of scrutiny around recruiting, with a sharp eye on lower-profile sports targeted in the scheme, such as water polo and rowing.

Asked what has changed since then, the universities at the center of the scheme point to a flurry of policies that were adopted within a few months of the arrests.

An internal review at USC found an average of 12 students a year had been recruited for sports they didn’t end up playing. Some, but not all, were tied to the bribery scheme. The university blamed it on “one or a small number” of sports officials who violated school policy and hid it from the admissions office.

Officials at USC said they started reviewing athletic recruits at multiple levels of administration, including by an office of athletics compliance, which also started verifying that recruits actually end up competing.

Yale University made similar changes after a women’s soccer coach accepted $860,000 in bribes to get students admitted as part of the scheme. Yale’s athletic director started reviewing all proposed recruits, the school announced in 2019, and recruits that don’t end up on teams now face “close scrutiny.”

But in the big picture of Yale’s admissions, “very little has changed,” said Logan Roberts, a senior at the Ivy League school who came from a low-income family in upstate New York. The school denounced the scandal, he said, but ignored deeper problems that give wealthy students advantages in admissions.

On campus, he said, students from modest means are still far outnumbered by those who went to private schools with access to expensive tutors. Roberts and others have pressed the university to abandon policies that favor wealth, including preferences for the children of alumni, but so far Yale has resisted change.

“When money and morality clash, money generally tends to win,” said Roberts, 22.

Angel Pérez was the head of admissions at Trinity College in Connecticut when the scandal broke. His school wasn’t implicated, but within minutes, his phone was buzzing with texts from colleagues. Could it happen here, they wondered? Trinity reviewed its policies and concluded they were sound.

Ultimately, it did little to change the industry, said Pérez, who now leads NACAC, a national association of college admissions officials.

“The majority of institutions found that they had a really good process and that there wasn’t unethical behavior taking place,” he said. “This was a case of some bad actors who were framing themselves as college counselors.”

Still, he said, the bribery case — along with the country’s racial reckoning and separate legal battles over affirmative action — stirred debate about the fairness of legacy preferences and entrance exams.

“I think it just woke up the American public,” he said.

After the Jan. 4 sentencing of scheme mastermind Rick Singer, authorities said their work led to reform. The FBI said colleges reached out asking how they could catch wrongdoing.

Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said it revealed a “separate college admissions process for the rich, powerful and entitled,” but she also said it led to “meaningful changes.” She suggested it may have contributed to more colleges making the SAT and ACT optional, a trend that started before the case but gained steam during the pandemic.

Others, however, argue that the scheme was only a symptom of a disease.

America’s obsession with elite schools, combined with opaque admissions systems, has led to desperation among families seeking the best for their children, said Mark Sklarow, CEO of the Independent Educational Consultants Association, a nonprofit that represents private counselors who help in the admissions process.

Colleges help fuel the frenzy, he said, by boasting about their ever-narrowing acceptance rates, all while giving advantages to the well-connected.

“Colleges created a system that was designed to reject more and more kids,” he said. “It became less and less clear who got in and who got rejected, and I think that led this generation of parents to say, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to get my kid in.’”

Closing bribery loopholes, he added, does little to make admissions more fair.

Ultimately, wealth and privilege play the same role in admissions that they did before the case, said Park, of the University of Maryland. So far she sees little real change, she said, with only a small number of schools agreeing to drop legacy preferences, for example.

“Things have the potential to change,” she said. “But is it just going to be shifting chairs around on the Titanic? I don’t know.”

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

For Trump, Tax Fraud Case Just One Of Several Legal Problems

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York jury convicted Donald Trump’s company of tax fraud Tuesday, a verdict that could damage the Republican politically and adds to an already long list of legal headaches as he mounts another run for president.

While Trump was not personally charged in the Manhattan district attorney’s tax case, he faces other inquiries. They include a criminal investigation over top secret documents found at his Florida estate, probes in Georgia and Washington into his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, and more probes in New York.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and says he is being targeted by Democrats trying to keep him from reclaiming the White House.

Here’s a look at the probes underway in different states and venues:

MAR-A-LAGO

The Justice Department is investigating the retention of top secret government documents at Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, and potential efforts to obstruct that probe.

As part of that inquiry, agents and prosecutors have spent months interviewing multiple people close to Trump, including an aide who was seen on surveillance video moving boxes of documents at the property.

A grand jury in Washington has been hearing evidence in the investigation. Prosecutors last month granted limited immunity to one close Trump ally to secure his testimony.

Attorney General Merrick Garland last month named Jack Smith, a veteran war crimes prosecutor who previously led the Justice Department’s public integrity section, to serve as special counsel over the Mar-a-Lago investigation and key aspects of a separate probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

2020 ELECTION AND CAPITOL RIOT

The Justice Department is investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to overturn the election Trump falsely claimed was stolen.

Federal prosecutors have been especially focused on a scheme by Trump allies to elevate fake presidential electors in key battleground states won by President Joe Biden as a way to subvert the vote, issuing subpoenas to multiple state Republican party chairmen.

Federal prosecutors have brought multiple Trump administration officials before the grand jury for questioning, including the former Trump White House counsel and a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence.

In a sign of the expanding nature of the investigation, election officials in multiple states whose results were disputed by Trump have received subpoenas asking for communications with or involving Trump and his campaign aides.

The Justice Department investigation is running parallel to a probe by a U.S. House committee which held several public hearings about efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss. That House committee doesn’t have the power to file criminal charges.

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

GEORGIA

After his 2020 election loss, Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and urged him to “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state.

That Jan. 2 phone call is part of an investigation by a prosecutor in Atlanta. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said she is contemplating subpoenaing Trump for his testimony.

Among those who have been questioned by the special grand jury are former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. The special grand jury is expected to wrap up its investigation soon and to provide recommendations to Willis.

Prosecutors have also advised Georgia Republicans who served as fake electors that they are at risk of being indicted. They signed a certificate asserting Trump had won the election and declaring themselves the state’s electors, even though Biden had won the state and a slate of Democratic electors had already been certified.

Trump and his allies have denied any wrongdoing, and he has repeatedly described his phone call to Raffensperger as “perfect.”

NEW YORK

New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued Trump and the Trump Organization, saying it misled banks and tax authorities about the value of assets like golf courses and skyscrapers to get loans and tax benefits.

That lawsuit, which is pending, could lead to civil penalties against the company if the Democratic attorney general prevails. She wants $250 million and a ban on Trump doing business in New York.

In the meantime, a judge has appointed an independent monitor to watch the company.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office says it is also still pursing a parallel criminal investigation into Trump’s business dealings.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg recently named a new senior prosecutor to oversee that probe, which had appeared to be heading toward a possible indictment when the Democrat slowed things down after taking office in January.

Nigerian Court Refuses Extradition Of Police Chief Indicted In U.S

Abba Kyari

BY CAMILLUS EBOH

ABUJA, NIGERIA (REUTERS) – A Nigerian judge on Monday rejected a request by the federal government to extradite a suspended police chief to the United States to face charges linked to fraud.

Commissioner Abba Kyari has denied involvement in what a U.S. indictment describes as an elaborate scheme to defraud a Qatari businessperson of more than $1 million, masterminded by a Nigerian celebrity fraudster known as “Hushpuppi”.

Kyari has denied any wrongdoing.

He is in prison awaiting trial on separate charges of alleged criminal conspiracy, official corruption and tampering with exhibits after his arrest by the local drug enforcement agency in February.

On Monday, High Court Judge Inyang Ekwo said Kyari could not be extradited because of that trial in Nigeria and handing him over to the United States would breach the country’s extradition law.

“By that fact, it (the extradition request) is incompetent, it is equally bereft of merit and ought to be dismissed and I make an order dismissing this case,” Ekwo said in a ruling.

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General Abubakar Malami could not be reached for comment.

Kyari was one of six people indicted over the alleged fraudulent scheme last year, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California.

Nigeria has long struggled to control the problem of financial scams, often perpetrated by email.

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh in Abuja, additional reporting by Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi, writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by Alex Richardson)

South African Leader Gets Final Chapter Of Corruption Report

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, right, receives the final report of a judicial investigation into corruption from Chief Justice Raymond Zondo at Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. The probe has laid bare the rampant corruption in government and state-owned companies during former President Jacob Zuma’s tenure from 2009 to 2018. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

BY MOGOMOTSI MAGOME

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has received the final chapter of a report on an extensive judicial investigation into corruption.

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo handed over the last installment of the report, reportedly 1,000 pages long, to Ramaphosa. The earlier segments of the report have laid bare the rampant corruption in government and state-owned companies during former President Jacob Zuma’s tenure from 2009 to 2018.

Speaking at the handover of the final chapter, Ramaphosa emphasized that he didn’t know what’s in the conclusion, not even the commission’s findings on his own testimony.

“Not for once has the chief justice even wanted to discuss the evidence that I have presented to the commission. And he has said that he has a chapter or so dealing with evidence that I presented at the commission but I don’t even know what that is because of the high regard I have for him,” said Ramaphosa.

“He could have made a negative finding against me, which I will accept,” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa has already received four installments of the report which have been made public and have damning findings against politicians and business people linked to his ruling African National Congress party. The earlier parts of the report recommended that many people be criminally prosecuted.

The last segment of the report is expected to detail corruption in South Africa’s intelligence department, the State Security Agency, which was headed by former intelligence chief Arthur Fraser during Zuma’s tenure.

Fraser was later appointed head of the country’s prisons and controversially approved Zuma’s release from prison on medical parole. Zuma was he was jailed for refusing to testify before the judicial commission chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

Fraser is currently at the center of the controversy engulfing Ramaphosa because he lodged a criminal complaint alleging that the president covered up the theft of about $4 million in foreign currency from his Phala Phala game farm in the northern Limpopo province.

The scandal — dubbed Phala Phala-gate in South Africa’s lively press — has tarnished Ramaphosa’s anti-corruption reputation and has prompted calls by opposition parties for him to step down.

The release of the final chapter of the report has been delayed as it was initially set to be handed over to Ramaphosa and released to the public last week, raising the ire of main opposition party Democratic Alliance.

The report is also expected to deal with allegations of wrongdoing at the country’s state-owned public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

The institution has already been fingered in wrongdoing by earlier versions of the report which dealt with how money flowed from the broadcaster and other state-owned companies to sponsor projects of The New Age newspaper, which was controlled by the controversial Gupta family.

Two brothers, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, were arrested in Dubai two weeks ago in connection with corruption charges against them in South Africa. South African authorities are expected to press for their extradition so they can stand trial in South Africa, where some of their associates are already facing corruption charges.

The Guptas allegedly used their close ties with Zuma to influence his cabinet appointments and to win lucrative contracts from government departments and state-owned companies.

2 Plead Guilty In Nigerian Fraud Scheme

Court documents state Edafe Onoetiyi, 34, of Nigeria, but living in Dallas, Texas; and Susan Johns, 55, of Bothwell, Washington, admitted conspiring with each other and other people to defraud American citizens.

NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI (AP) — Two people accused in a Nigerian fraud scheme pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy during a court hearing in Mississippi, federal prosecutors said.

Edafe Onoetiyi, 34, of Nigeria but living in Dallas, and Susan Johns, 55, of Bothell, Washington, entered the pleas in U.S. District Court in Natchez, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi said in a news release.

Court documents show the defendants conspired with each other and other people to defraud American citizens by transferring bank account information, personal identity information and other access devices to create and transfer fraudulent loans and perpetrate other forms of theft resulting in the transfer of hundreds of thousands of dollars within the U.S. and abroad, including Canada and Nigeria, the news release said.

“Many of the victims of the fraud were romance scheme victims, wherein fraudsters concealing their true identities duped innocent victims into either sending money or allowing the fraudsters to use their bank account to move fraudulently obtained money,” the news release said.

Onoetiyi and Johns will be sentenced Sept. 6. They each face up to five years and a $250,000 fine.

The convictions are the result of a multi-year investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations.

Nebraska Congressman Convicted On Charges Of Lying To The FBI About Foreign ‘Straw Donor' Scheme Faces Calls To Resign Amid Bid

OPEN SECRETS

Jeff Fortenberry. Image: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

BY ANNA MASSOGLIA

A jury Thursday found Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) guilty on three counts related to lying to federal agents about money his campaign received through a “straw-donor” scheme that steered illegal foreign contributions to U.S. presidential and congressional candidates.

The conviction stems from Fortenberry’s acceptance of about $30,000 from straw donors bankrolled by Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury. Chagoury maintains that he had hoped to curry favor to promote Christianity in the Middle East, while his multinational Nigeria-based companies have business interests around the world.

Fortenberry stepped down from his committee posts in October after he was indicted and, after his conviction, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) indicated that he thinks Fortenberry should resign from Congress. “I think when someone’s convicted it’s time to resign, he said. House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.) went a step further issuing a statement that Fortenberry “must resign” from the House.

Chagoury, a foreign national prohibited by federal law from making contributions to political groups or campaigns to influence U.S. elections, routed about $180,000 to four U.S. candidates through straw donors over the course of three election cycles.

Justice Department documents unsealed in April 2021 revealed that Chagoury agreed to pay the U.S. government $1.8 million to resolve allegations that he conspired to violate federal election laws in the straw-donor scheme.

Chagoury admitted the money disseminated to straw donors was intended to support candidates and that he was aware the contributions were made as illegal conduit contributions by giving his money under the name of another individual, according to court records.

Other recipients of straw donor contributions funded by Chagoury include the campaigns of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and former Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), now a senior adviser at law firm Kelley, Drye & Warren, as well as a joint fundraising committee supporting the 2012 presidential bid of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).

Fortenberry was the only politician charged in the case. He was accused of concealing information and making false statements to federal investigators while the other politicians whose campaigns received illegal foreign funds from straw donors steering money from Chagoury have not been accused of wrongdoing.

On Oct. 19, a grand jury charged Fortenberry with knowingly making false statements to federal agents about whether he was aware that his campaign received illegal contributions from Chagoury at a 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles.

Prosecutors claim that approximately $30,200 of the $36,000 raised at the 2016 fundraiser was contributed by six people who were allegedly reimbursed by Chagoury.

Toufic Baaklini, one of Chagoury’s two associates listed in Justice Department filings, testified that he didn’t tell Fortenberry that the contributions had come from a foreign billionaire and said he told Fortenberry there was nothing wrong with the money in order to protect him.

But prosecutors say Fortenberry later learned the contributions were illegal and repeatedly lied about it to federal agents. Fortenberry’s fundraising consultant also told prosecutors that she warned Fortenberry of the risk of illegal “foreign and conduit contributions.”

Court records show that Fortenberry met at least twice with Chagoury, once in Paris and another time in Washington, D.C. Baaklini testified that Fortenberry tried to meet with Chagoury again in Rome but that didn’t work out.

Fortenberry running for reelection amid calls to resign

The jury verdict in Fortenberry’s trial marks the first conviction of a sitting congressman since Rep. Jim Traficant (D-Ohio) was convicted of charges related to a bribery scheme in 2002.

Controversy around the case has fueled the fight over Fortenberry’s House seat representing Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District ahead of 2022 midterm elections. Fortenberry announced his reelection bid in January.

Fortenberry has not stated if the conviction will impact his campaigning but says he plans to appeal the conviction.

Nebraska state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, the top Democrat running in the 1st District, announced her bid for Fortenberry’s seat in November and raised nearly $210,000 in the final weeks of 2021. Pansing Brooks’ donors include Bob Kerrey, Nebraska’s former governor and former U.S. Senator. Her congressional campaign ended the year with about $160,000 cash on hand.

Some Republicans have endorsed Nebraska state Sen. Mike Flood, a conservative state lawmaker and former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, who launched his campaign in January. Two weeks after Flood threw his hat in the ring, his campaign announced that he had already raised more than $400,000. After Gov. Pete Ricketts and former Gov. Dave Heineman each endorsed Flood, Fortenberry’s campaign paid for an attack ad trying to equate Flood to Democratic President Joe Biden because Flood voted in support of a bill to fund prenatal services for low-income women in 2012. Nebraska’s Republican primaries are scheduled for May 10.

Fortenberry’s campaign ended 2021 with more than $895,000 cash on hand after a $567,076 fundraising haul that year.

Fortenberry’s campaign reported paying multiple firms legal fees last year. His campaign’s top vendor in 2021 was Bienert Katzman Littrell Williams LLP, a California firm specializing in white collar criminal defense that has lawyers representing Fortenberry in the federal case. The firm received $155,000 in payments from Fortenberry’s campaign in 2021.

Federal campaign finance reports detailing what the campaigns have raised and spent in the first three months of 2022 must be filed by April 15.

Chagoury’s history of influence in the U.S.

Before steering money in the straw donor scheme, Chagoury previously attempted to contribute directly to a number of congressional campaigns and Republican Party committees starting in 1987 but the money was refunded.

In addition to political donations, Chagoury also curried influence in the U.S. by paying foreign agents to represent his interests and further the agenda of controversial Nigerian politicians, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act filings reviewed by OpenSecrets.

Unlike foreign national contributions to political campaigns, it is legal for foreign nationals to pay lobbyists and political operatives to represent their interests in the U.S. through lobbying or communications campaigns advancing their agenda.

Mark Corallo retroactively registered as a foreign agent of Chagoury in 2020 for a $900,000 foreign influence operation promoting then-Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of his 2015 re-election campaign.

Anti-corruption researchers have described Jonathan’s administration as “probably the most corrupt government ever to take charge of affairs in Nigeria.” After Jonathan lost reelection in 2015, the Nigerian government accused the former president of taking bribes during his time in office. Officials in Jonathan’s government have also been accused of implementing a bribery scheme to support Jonathan’s failed 2015 reelection bid and of steering money to office holders to influence election outcomes.

Corallo, a former spokesperson for former President Donald Trump’s private legal team in the Russia investigation, had acted as Chagoury’s spokesperson since at least 2010.

FARA filings stamped May 2020 and March 2019 retroactively revealed additional information about the operation, detailing meetings and showing how Corallo’s firm routed funds through sub-vendors assisting with the foreign influence operations.

Corallo’s firm paid New World Group Public Affairs LLC, a lobbying firm run by former Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.), a $15,000 retainer to arrange meetings with members of Congress and congressional staffers. Black Bag LLC reported receiving $25,000 from Corallo’s firm but did not disclose how much of that work was for Chagoury or what other clients the LLC might have performed work for.

Lobbying firm Kivvit LLC did not report any receipts from Corallo in FARA records but disclosed managing a Twitter account, providing public relations advice and media monitoring as part of the operation.

Another firm, 4Impact LLC, functioned as Chagoury’s liaison in the foreign influence efforts, according to the FARA records. Toufic Baaklini, one of Chagoury’s two associate’s listed in Justice Department filings, reported 4Impact LLC as his employer in FEC filings.

Chagoury was a top advisor to former Nigerian head of state Sani Abacha, who the Justice Department has described as a dictator, and described by Nigeria’s top anti-corruption prosecutor as a “kingpin in the corruption that defined Abacha’s regime.”

In 2014, the Justice Department seized more than $480 million in corruption proceeds hidden in bank accounts around the world after Abacha was accused of diverting millions of dollars from Nigeria’s central bank to overseas bank accounts of his family and associates, including accounts under Chagoury’s control.

Chagoury’s name was listed among attendees of meetings where bribes were allegedly discussed and, amid a probe of corruption under Abacha’s regime, Chagoury returned an estimated $300 million held in Swiss bank accounts to the Nigerian government to secure his immunity from prosecution in Nigeria.

Chagoury has denied any involvement in the bribery case, but he was known to work as an intermediary for Abacha and was nevertheless convicted in Geneva, Switzerland of laundering money and aiding a criminal organization in relation to the case in 2020.