#government relief program fraud

[smalltofedsblog]

Using The 5Cs Of Fraud Prevention In Government Programs

Using The 5Cs Of Fraud Prevention In Government Programs

“FEDERAL TIMES” – By Erik Ekwurzel, Chief Technology Officer “Fraudsters have stolen billions of taxpayers’ dollars, monies intended for small businesses and workers experiencing economic hardship caused by the pandemic. This problem manifested with the recent announcement that an estimated $163 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits was likely lost to fraud and waste, siphoning valuable…

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#F:raud #Fraud Prevention #government fraud #government relief program fraud

[probablyasocialecologist]

Today’s food is the product of a highly industrialized, oil-fueled, climate-changing machine built largely on lax environmental standards, loose animal welfare rules, nonexistent antitrust enforcement, and enormous government subsidies to deliver food that is plentiful, cheap, and increasingly harmful to the people who consume it and the rural communities that produce it. And don’t look to organic farms, small farmers, or local food to slowly but surely overtake today’s industrial food juggernaut. Even with the USDA widening its formerly sacred organic standards to include such wildly nonorganic practices as hydroponic fruit and vegetable production, total organic sales in 2022 totaled only $60 billion, an almost invisible drop in food’s $2.4 trillion bucket that year. Small-acreage organic farms—the farms most Americans envision when they think “farmer”—exist in spite of the USDA’s loosening standards, not because of them. American agriculture is shot through with contradictions. For example, every farmer knows that good weather and superb crops usually mean low prices and lean times. Another relates to how farmers dislike, discount, and dismiss “government” but rarely acknowledge it as their moneybags partner. (Uncle Sam sent U.S. farmers over $90 billion from 2018 through 2020.) Ethanol, too, is a massive paradox—some say fraud—that will claim one-third of the 2023 U.S. corn crop, at an estimated value of over $30 billion, even as one-in-four new cars sold in the United States is now electric, and at least seven states have banned the sale of gas-powered cars after 2035. The biggest paradox in American agriculture is Congress’s Farm Bill itself. The soon-to-be-enacted five-year update, the 2023 Farm Bill, will cost an estimated $150 billion per year. Even the common term “Farm Bill” is a misnomer: over three-quarters of the bill’s budget is devoted to SNAP, the nation’s largest food assistance program, which is a poverty relief program that also benefits the food industry. The rest of the budget goes to crop insurance subsidies, federal research grants, green energy initiatives, export subsidies, soil conservation, beginning farmer loans, and hundreds of other never-heard-of giveaways. This part of the budget often helps the very well-off: large agribusinesses. The bill is never imagined as a way to reverse the concentration of control into fewer and fewer hands. Few measures, if any, will slow the demise of rural America. Few, in fact, ever have.

#usa #big ag #agriculture #industrial agriculture

[mostlysignssomeportents]

McKinsey and Providence colluded to force poor patients into destitution

Providence is a health giant whose anchor is a network of Catholic hospitals. They colluded with McKinsey to steal from their poorest patients, by deceiving them about their eligibility for free care, saddling poor, sick people with crushing debts:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/business/nonprofit-hospitals-poor-patients.html

Though Providence is nominally a nonprofit, but it sits atop a $10 billion private equity fund that it invests in unrelated sectors. Its nonprofit status lets it evade $1.2 billion per year in federal and state taxes. The company stole $500,000,000 in US covid relief intended for hospitals in danger of closure. Its CEO makes $10,000,000 per year.

As a nonprofit, Providence is required to provide free care to low-income patients. In 2018, the company retained the services of McKinsey and Co, a scandal-haunted global consulting firm with a long track record of designing criminal strategies for its clients. There are many ghastly examples of this conduct — for example, helping the Saudi government hunt down, torture and murder dissidents:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/business/dealbook/mckinsey-saudi-dissidents.html

Closer to home, McKinsey crafted ICE’s immigration sweeps and helped design the notorious kids-in-cages detention centers, counselling the Trump administration to control costs by denying detainees adequate food and health care:

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-helped-the-trump-administration-implement-its-immigration-policies

(McKinsey then lied about this)

https://www.propublica.org/article/mckinsey-called-our-story-about-its-ice-contract-false-its-not

All these failures and scandals are even more infuriating when you learn about McKinsey’s internal mythologizing. The company tells new recruits that they are a global force for good, comparing their consulting work to the Catholic Church and the US Marine Corps.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-makes-its-own-rules

This is an obviously absurd claim — no matter how many people McKinsey helps murder, they’ll never come close to either institution’s body-count. But McKinsey has a comprehensive plan to sell this image to its “associates,” starting with a curriculum to help very young children learn to act like McKinsey consultants:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/15/management-jesuits/#pmc-jr

But a recurring motif in the long symphony of McKinsey scandals are those involving health-care. They made $100,000,000 in failed, idiotic, bumbling covid initiatives:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/15/3-frauds-in-a-trenchcoat/#failing-up

They designed Big Pharma’s price-gouging program:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/25/strikesgiving/#cool-story-pharma-bro

They helped the Sacklers — a multigeneration crime family of pharma billionaires whose Oxycontin set off the opioid epidemic — design their sales program, suggesting that pharma distributors be paid cash bounties for each fatal opioid overdose in their sales territory:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/business/mckinsey-opioids-settlement.html

They helped pharma companies design programs to convince doctors to overprescribe opiods:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/30/mckinsey-mafia/#everybody-must-get-stoned

Then, after the Sacklers declared their pharma company bankrupt, protecting their billions from their victims, McKinsey helped craft their bankruptcy strategy, ensuring that they could vaporize their victims’ claims while holding onto their fortune:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/29/impunity-corrodes/#morally-bankrupt

As all this was coming to light, a senior McKinsey specialist drafted a plan to hide the company’s role in the opioid crisis, illegally destroying internal memos relating to litigation:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/business/mckinsey-purdue-oxycontin-opioids.html

In light of all this, it’s only natural that Providence would turn to McKinsey when they needed help committing crimes and destroying thousands of people’s lives. McKinsey helped Providence craft a program to coerce poor people into paying for care they were entitled to get for free. They called it “Rev-Up.”

Writing in the New York Times, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Katie Thomas reveal the full depravity of “Rev-Up.” McKinsey advised Providence to train its staff to avoid truthfully answer poor patients’ queries about whether they were eligible for free care.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/business/nonprofit-hospitals-poor-patients.html

When patients asked if they were eligible for free care, Providence employees were trained to answer “Payment is expected.” Staff were told “Don’t accept the first ‘no.’” Rather, they were told to reply, “How would you like to pay for that today?” If patients still pressed them on their legal entitlement to free care, Providence employees were told to ask if the patients’ employers would pay for half their care.

When patients asked why a nonprofit hospital was asking them to pay more than they could afford, reps were counseled to reply, “We are a nonprofit. However, we want to inform our patients of their balances as soon as possible and help the hospital invest in patient care by reducing billing costs.”

After saying this, reps were supposed to add, “how would you like to take care of this today?”

If patients continued to press Providence reps on their eligibility for free care, then, finally, could the reps discuss the hospital’s legal obligation to wipe out the bills for those in need.

Charity care costs the average US nonprofit hospital 2% of its total expenses. For Providence, it’s less than 1%. In 2018, when the company hired McKinsey to design Rev-Up, it was 1.24%.

In pursuing a <1% reduction of expenses, the “nonprofit” ruined the lives of thousands of poor people, including its own employees, who are so badly paid that they qualify for free care. The Times quotes Bev Kolpin, a Providence Oregon sonogram tech who paid her own employer $8,000 to have a cyst removed (she had to take unpaid leave for the procedure).

Michael Hudson tells us that “debts that can’t be paid, won’t be paid.” Poor people can’t afford to pay the sticker price of care at Providence, so Providence sent thuggish collection agencies to hound patients (including Medicaid patients) to pay the balances that should have never been assessed.

The Times spoke to patients who were taken to collections by Providence and thereafter avoided seeking care for themselves and their children, even for urgent conditions. Dean A. Zerb, a former congressional staffer who investigated nonprofit hospitals, said “That is the outcome that hospitals like Providence may be hoping for.”

One of the most haunting details in the Times report is the story of Vanessa Weller, a single mother in Alaska, who delivered a premature baby at the Providence Alaska Medical Center. The baby died five days later, but Weller was pursued for $125,000 in medical bills by Providence. As a manager at a local Wendy’s, she was entitled to have her bill erased. Instead, she was relentlessly chased by bill-collectors and her credit rating fell from 650 to 400.

Providence professes to be shocked, shocked that all this happened. Providence CFO Gregory Hoffman told the Times that the news that his company had failed in its legal obligations after paying a consultant to teach them how to do this “very concerning,” adding that these victimized patients “have our attention.” McKinsey made at least $45,000,000 for designing Rev-Up.

I have my own experience with Providence, though not nearly so disturbing. In 2018, my parents came to stay with me in Burbank. My father fell gravely ill — he had kidney stones and a septic bladder infection. He went to the local Providence ER and nearly died. He was in a coma for two days. As my mother stood at his bed-side, not knowing if he would live out the day, a billing agent for the hospital came into the room and began to pester her about how she would pay his bill.

Thankfully, my parents are retired, unionized schoolteachers from Canada, and they were fully insured. But insured or not, it was such a disgusting, filthy, callous thing to do that I have never forgotten it. Thankfully, my father made a full recovery but I have no interest in ever visiting a Providence hospital

[Image ID: A collage. On the left is an image of a cigar-chomping plutocrat in a top hat. He stands at a control box whose lever is fashioned into a dollar-sign. The control box bears the logo of McKinsey and Company. In one gloved hand, he holds aloft a sad, cloth-capped young man on crutches. On the right is an ogrish thug wielding a club and holding out his free hand in a 'gimme' gesture. He wears a doctor's reflector around his head. Behind them is a hospital ward. On the wall of the hospital ward is the logo for Providence hospitals.]

#pluralistic

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The Biden administration announced a series of measures Thursday to track down and punish fraudsters who scammed billions of taxpayer dollars that were supposed to provide relief to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden is pledging $1.6 billion to bolster law enforcement manpower and new programs that will be used to prosecute scammers, prevent fraud, and provide assistance to victims of identity theft.

“We want to not only capture them and get their funds, we want to send a signal to them that you can run, but you cannot hide,” said Gene Sperling, a Biden senior adviser who is overseeing the implementation of the COVID-relief plan.

THE LATEST

• The administration’s plans call for creating 10 Department of Justice “strike forces” that will include U.S. attorneys and other law enforcement officials to investigate COVID-relief fraud and help recover stolen tax dollars. The teams will target criminal syndicates and other major fraudsters. Three strike forces already are in place and have recovered millions of dollars in stolen relief funds, officials said.

• The administration also will propose increasing the statute of limitations to 10 years for fraud involving the pandemic Unemployment Insurance program, which has been hit especially hard by scammers.

• Some $300 million will be distributed to inspectors general at the Small Business Administration, the Department of Labor and the staff of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, a government watchdog over pandemic spending. The money would be used to hire investigators and make sure they have the resources needed to pursue specialized cases of pandemic fraud.

• In his proposed budget to be released next week, Biden will offer a package of legislative reforms to prevent, detect and recover payments made improperly through the Unemployment Insurance program.

• Federal grants would be made to states to help modernize their information technology systems to enable them to respond more quickly to fraud, decrease erroneous payments and provide more efficient claims processing.

• New initiatives also would be put in place to identify victims of identity theft, including an early warning system to stop potentially fraudulent transactions before they occur and a one-stop shop to report identity crimes.

WHY IT MATTERS

The federal government distributed more than $5 trillion in pandemic relief under programs approved by Biden and former President Donald Trump. The money was distributed quickly, leading to an increase in fraud and other improper payments, such as those that shouldn’t have been made or were made in the wrong amount.

The Government Accountability Office reported last month that the extent of fraud in COVID-relief programs is not yet known but that the Unemployment Insurance program alone was believed to have made more than $60 billion in fraudulent payments.

From March 2020 to last January, at least 1,044 people pleaded guilty or were convicted of defrauding COVID relief programs, the GAO report said. Federal charges were pending against another 609 individuals or entities for attempting to defraud COVID-relief programs.

Also, the federal government gave $5.4 billion in COVID aid to small businesses with “questionable” Social Security numbers, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee reported in January. The watchdog identified nearly 70,000 questionable Social Security numbers used to obtain pandemic aid from two programs run by the Small Business Administration.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee has opened an investigation into fraud in COVID-relief programs. The committee held its first hearing on the subject last month.

Sperling, however, said the administration’s anti-fraud package isn’t a direct response to the GOP investigations. Most of the proposals were being prepared before last November’s election, he said.

#us politics #news #usa today #2023 #president joe biden #biden administration #ppp loans #stimulus checks #pandemic response #covid relief #fraud #Gene Sperling #identity theft #Department of Justice #Unemployment Insurance #Small Business Administration #Department of Labor #Pandemic Response Accountability Committee #Government Accountability Office

[beardedmrbean]

WASHINGTON — Senior lawmakers in Congress announced a bipartisan deal Tuesday to expand the child tax credit and provide a series of tax breaks for businesses.

The agreement between House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., caps months of negotiating and pursuing common ground in the divided Congress.

“American families will benefit from this bipartisan agreement that provides greater tax relief, strengthens Main Street businesses, boosts our competitiveness with China, and creates jobs," Smith said in a statement. "We even provide disaster relief and cut red tape for small businesses, while ending a COVID-era program that’s costing taxpayers billions in fraud."

The deal, details of which were reported earlier by NBC News, would enhance refundable child tax credits in an attempt to provide relief to families that are struggling financially and those with multiple children. It would also lift the tax credit's $1,600 refundable cap and adjust it for inflation.

The new child tax credit policy would benefit about 16 million kids in low-income families, according to an analysis by the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “The expansion would meaningfully reduce child poverty,” CBPP wrote. “In the first year, the expansion would lift as many as 400,000 children above the poverty line. 3 million more children would be made less poor as their incomes rise closer to the poverty line.”

Democrats had demanded a larger child tax credit after an earlier version they passed for less than one year expired, causing child poverty to fall and then rise again after it lapsed. The new agreement would provide smaller benefits than the monthly payments under the American Rescue Plan.

“Fifteen million kids from low-income families will be better off as a result of this plan, and given today’s miserable political climate, it’s a big deal to have this opportunity to pass pro-family policy that helps so many kids get ahead,” Wyden said in a statement.

Republicans were motivated to revive some expired portions of the 2017 Trump tax cuts for businesses. The deal includes expensing for research and experimental costs, restoration of an earlier interest deduction, an expansion of small-business expensing and an extension of bonus depreciation, according to a section-by-section summary released by the Ways and Means Committee.

Wyden has said he hopes to pass the deal by the beginning of tax filing season, which is Jan. 29. That's not assured as Congress is juggling other priorities, most notably averting a government shutdown at the end of this week and completing its funding process by March. If it passes, it would be a rare success story of active legislating on a politically sensitive issue by a divided Congress that has so far been historically unproductive.

"My goal remains to get this passed in time for families and businesses to benefit in this upcoming tax filing season, and I’m going to pull out all the stops to get that done," Wyden said Tuesday.

#nunyas news

[cultml]

[meandmybigmouth]

The U.S. government laid out $5.7 trillion for various programs and initiatives meant to provide American workers, businesses, and communities with relief during the pandemic. However, Maher revealed that some $163 billion in unemployment benefits were lost to fraud. The Real Time host chirped that there was a “come and steal it” sign on the mountain of money created by the government. AND OF COURSE THE “BORROWED” AMERICAN TAX PAYERS MONEY WAS DELIVERED INTO THE HANDS OF THE RICH, TRUMP PALS, AND EVERY OTHER FINANCIAL CROOK OUT THERE!.

[mariacallous]

Students whose colleges misled them would have an easier time seeking loan forgiveness from the federal government under a series of regulatory proposals the U.S. Department of Education released Wednesday. 

One long-awaited rule would apply to the borrower defense to repayment process, which discharges loans for defrauded students. The proposed changes would also address flaws in the beleaguered Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which clears the debt of borrowers who work in fields like teaching or government jobs and make a decade’s worth of qualifying payments. PSLF has suffered from notorious administrative problems, leading to a fraction of eligible borrowers securing loan relief. 

The Biden administration aims for the new rules to take effect by July 1 next year. They would streamline procedures for seeking loan forgiveness, covering all pending and future claims as of that date. 

The process for receiving borrower defense relief now is determined by a loan’s disbursement date. That’s because the prior two presidential administrations issued regulations that applied to a certain time period of loans. The new proposal would “remove the patchwork tied to the disbursement date of the loan,” an Ed Department official said in a call with reporters Wednesday.

The agency also said the borrower defense rule would make clearer what would be considered misconduct by a college and that would potentially fall under the regulation. The Ed Department’s proposal introduces a new category of such fraud — aggressive and deceptive recruitment. 

Students who attended institutions that substantially misrepresented or omitted facts about themselves could also be eligible for loan forgiveness.

Colleges would be on the hook for the cost of such discharges, the Ed Department said. 

Proposed changes to the PSLF program include allowing more payments to qualify toward its forgiveness threshold.

Other proposals released Wednesday would eliminate interest capitalization — when accrued interest is added to a loan’s principal balance — except in cases where the law requires it. They would also expand discharge eligibility for borrowers with disabilities, use the closed-school discharge program to automatically forgive debts for many borrowers after institutions close, and improve rules allowing discharges for students whose colleges certified them as eligible for loans even though they were not. 

The proposals now go to a 30-day comment period. The department intends to publish a final iteration of the rules in the fall.

[kp777]

By Sharon Zhang

TruthOut

Oct. 6, 2022

An explosive new investigation of data from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) finds that, in Donald Trump’s final days in office, his administration rushed to eliminate oversight for loans which were flagged for potential fraud or further investigation — and wiped flags from nearly every one of the largest PPP loans.

As the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) revealed in a report published Wednesday, over the course of several weeks before President Joe Biden was inaugurated, the Trump administration went on a spree of eliminating flags on PPP loans, the majority of which went directly to personally enriching the richest Americans. Officials in the Small Business Administration (SBA) eliminated 2.7 million flags between December 2020 and January 2021, as the administration was in its lame duck period.

Special preference was given to the largest loans, which often also went to the largest corporations. On January 16, 2021, four days before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Trump’s SBA wiped 99 percent of special review flags, which were given out to every loan above $2 million for separate investigatory purposes.

If the Trump administration did, indeed, go on a spree to mass-clear potential fraud flags before Trump left office, it is no surprise that it appeared to have favored the very largest loan recipients. Trump continually gave huge financial favors to large corporations during his time in office — and though most large corporations were exempt from receiving PPP loans, some large corporations managed to skirt the rules and receive loans anyway.

Out of the $800 billion given out in the program, flagged loans accounted for at least $189 billion. Because the vast majority of PPP loans — 95 percent — have been forgiven, it’s likely that many of these loans that had previously been flagged have been forgiven entirely.

Not all flagged loans were necessarily fraudulent; many of them had flags indicating clear reasons that the recipient may have submitted a fraudulent application or should at least have been investigated as such. The most common flag, applied to over 785,000 loans, showed that the businesses didn’t exist before February 2020 and were therefore ineligible.

It’s unclear how many loans went to businesses for their intended purpose of saving small businesses from pandemic impacts. But a report done earlier this year estimated that only between about a quarter and a third of PPP loans went to saving workers’ jobs. The rest — about 66 to 77 percent — went to business owners and people like shareholders.

Many loans went directly to the rich. Several billionaires or companies owned by billionaires received loans, like Republican fundraiser Joe Farrell or Kanye West’s apparel company, valued at $3 billion.

One loan, POGO found, went to a hotel owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican who is the richest man in the state and a former billionaire. The loan was worth $8.9 million and appeared to have been flagged eight times by the SBA. Another loan with nine flags, worth over $5 million, appears to belong to a Kentucky hospitality corporation whose annual revenue of $850 million would likely make it too large to receive a PPP loan.

Other loans, which are very often forgiven, went to politicians or their campaigns — including several far right politicians who have spent the last months spouting diatribes about how people buried in student debt aren’t “deserving” of debt relief. People like Representatives Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) Mike Kelly (R-Pennsylvania) and Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) had hundreds of thousands of PPP loans forgiven.

In a previous investigation in 2020, POGO found that there were at least 113 loan recipients, making up hundreds of millions of PPP loans, who political contributions worth about $11 million immediately after receiving the loan.

#trump administration #paycheck protection program #ppp #project on government oversight #john farrell #kanye west #marjorie taylor greene #matt gaetz #jim justice #republicans cheat

[newstfionline]

Thursday, August 18, 2022

A drought is devastating the U.S. cotton harvest (WSJ) Southwestern cotton growers are abandoning millions of parched acres that they planted in spring, prompting forecasts for the weakest U.S. harvest in more than a decade and sending prices sharply higher. U.S. agricultural forecasters expect drought-struck farmers to walk away from more than 40% of the 12.5 million acres they sowed with cotton and harvest the smallest area since Reconstruction. Back then, in 1868, yields per acre were less than a fifth of what they are today, but the market for cotton was vastly smaller too. A severe drought and some of the hottest weather on record have scorched fields and driven a historically high level of abandonment in the Southwest, the USDA said. Farmers abandon crops when so little grows that it isn’t worth the trouble to harvest.

Prosecutors Struggle to Catch Up to a Tidal Wave of Pandemic Fraud (NYT) In the midst of the pandemic, the government gave unemployment benefits to the incarcerated, the imaginary and the dead. It sent money to “farms” that turned out to be front yards. It paid people who were on the government’s “Do Not Pay List.” It gave loans to 342 people who said their name was “N/A.” As the coronavirus shuttered businesses and forced people out of work, the federal government sent a flood of relief money into programs aimed at helping the newly unemployed and bolstering the economy. That included $3.1 trillion that former President Donald J. Trump approved in 2020, followed by a $1.9 trillion package signed into law in 2021 by President Biden. But those dollars came with few strings and minimal oversight. The result: one of the largest frauds in American history, with billions of dollars stolen by thousands of people, including at least one amateur who boasted of his criminal activity on YouTube. Now, prosecutors are trying to catch up. There are currently 500 people working on pandemic-fraud cases across the offices of 21 inspectors general, plus investigators from the F.B.I., the Secret Service, the Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service.

Brazil’s presidential campaign kicks off amid violence fears (AP) Brazil’s presidential election campaign officially began Tuesday with former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leading all polls against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro amid growing concern of political violence and threats to democracy. Da Silva, whose two-term presidency ran from 2003 to 2010, has already taken to wearing a bulletproof vest for public appearances. He was scheduled to speak at an engine factory Tuesday morning, but federal police officers asked him to cancel the event due to security concerns, according to his campaign. Instead, the leftist launched his seventh bid for the presidency at a Volkswagen plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a manufacturing city outside Sao Paulo where he rose to fame as a union leader in the 1970s. Bolsonaro revisited the spot in the city of Juiz de Fora where he was stabbed by a mentally ill man on the campaign trail in 2018. He arrived on a motorcycle surrounded by security guards and wearing a bulletproof vest, unlike in 2018 when he plunged unprotected into the thronging crowd.

Heathrow extends passenger limit into fall as travel chaos persists (Washington Post) One of Europe’s busiest airports has extended its cap on passengers into late October, as a summer of travel disruptions and staff shortages drags on. London’s Heathrow Airport said it would allow no more than 100,000 people to fly out each day, extending for longer than initially planned a restriction that it said eased the chaos plaguing summer travel in Europe. The travel hub imposed the daily limit in July during peak travel season, as photos circulated of lost luggage piling up on terminal floors and lines snaking around security barriers for hours. German pilots, French airport workers and Italian air traffic controllers have all walked out in recent weeks, squeezed by labor shortages and soaring inflation. Travelers in Europe added a record heat wave—which threatened to melt airport runways in Britain—to their list of 2022 hurdles.

Europe burns (Washington Post) The European Union is on pace for a record fire season. Waves of extreme heat, compounded by widespread drought conditions, provoked a summer of devastating blazes. According to the European Forest Fire Information System, about 1.6 million acres of land—equivalent to an area more than eight times the size of New York City—burned across the continent so far this year. That figure is 56 percent higher than a previous record set in 2017 and double the annual average calculated between 2006 and 2021, according to the E.U. agency. Spain, Romania and Portugal were among the worst hit E.U. countries; thousands of people died amid soaring temperatures. Last week in the southwestern Gironde region of France, home to Bordeaux’s famous vineyards, hundreds of firefighters from across the European Union rushed in to help combat a wildfire sweeping through thousands of hectares of pine woods. The ongoing drought in many parts of Europe is both a cause and effect of the continent’s extremely hot summer, as my colleagues at The Post’s Capital Weather Gang explained: “The hotter weather dries out the landscape, which dries the atmosphere, in turn making the air easier to heat up. That cycle is extremely difficult to break.”

Ukrainian Soldiers Train for the Frontlines on British Soil (NYT) A commander barked orders to Ukrainian recruits. A group of new soldiers wearing fatigues traversed a street strewn with grenade canisters, burning debris and overturned cars. A wounded man was brought out on a stretcher, moaning. The battle that unfolded on Monday was a training exercise, led by a British commander who was flanked by a Ukrainian translator as he directed recruits through a mock village in southeast England. It was designed to resemble the scenes of destruction unfolding on the front lines of Ukraine more than a thousand miles away. “This training in urban areas is exactly what we need,” said Nick, a 25-year-old Ukrainian recruit who offered only a nickname for fear of Russian retaliation against his family. Nick is taking part in a British-led program to provide military training to tens of thousands of Ukrainian Army recruits and staff, an effort designed to bolster local resistance to the Russian invasion. The initiative, announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in June, began with more than a thousand British soldiers from the 11th Security Force Assistance Brigade, which specializes in training foreign militaries. About 2,000 recruits have completed the program and returned to Ukraine, British officials said.

Dueling views remain a year after Afghan pullout (AP) A year after America’s tumultuous and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, assessments of its impact are divided—and largely along partisan lines. Critics slam the August 2021 evacuation of more than 120,000 American citizens, Afghans and others as poorly planned and badly executed. They say the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces opened the door to a resurgence of al-Qaida and Islamic State militants in the country. And the exit, they say, signaled the United States’ lack of commitment to the broader Middle East and its unwillingness to stand by a partner in need. Supporters counter that it was time to end America’s longest war and that leaving forces in the country would risk their lives and gain little. It was time, they said, for the Afghan people to take charge of their own country and its security so that the U.S. could focus on threats from China and Russia, and on other critical issues such as climate change and the pandemic. What is certain is that the government of Afghanistan collapsed at the hands of the Taliban, hundreds of Afghans who supported the U.S. during the war were left behind fearful of retribution, and the leader of al-Qaida found sanctuary in Kabul.

Thailand’s restive south hit by wave of arson and bombings (AP) A wave of arson and bombing attacks overnight hit Thailand’s southernmost provinces, which for almost two decades have been the scene of an active Muslim separatist insurgency, officials said Wednesday. At least 17 attacks occurred Tuesday night in Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces, mostly at convenience stores and gas stations, military spokesperson Pramote Promin said. Three civilians were reported injured. There have been no claims of responsibility. More than 7,300 people have been killed since the insurgency began in 2004 in the three provinces, the only ones with Muslim majorities in Buddhist-dominated Thailand. Attacks have also taken place in neighboring Songkhla province. Muslim residents have long charged they are treated like second-class citizens in Thailand, and separatist movements have been periodically active for decades. Heavy-handed crackdowns have fueled the discontent.

China set to discourage abortion amid concern over birthrates (Washington Post) China’s National Health Commission announced Tuesday that it would take steps to reduce the number of abortions in the country—Beijing’s attempt to tackle low birthrates and stagnant population growth. According to new guidelines published on the state-run commission’s website, officials plan to offer incentives to encourage family growth, including expanding access to child-care services, reducing the cost of attending nursery school and working with employers to make offices more “family friendly.” The Tuesday notice comes as China continues to grapple with a demographic downturn—a hangover from the country’s “one-child policy,” which from 1979 to 2015 was used to slash birthrates while the country was experiencing a population boom. Abortion, which is legal in China, played a role in adherence to the policy. According to the Guttmacher Institute, China has among the highest rates of abortion globally. From 2015 to 2019, the country recorded 40,200,000 pregnancies annually—23.2 million of which were unintended and 17.7 million that ended in abortion. The data shows that about 78 percent of unintended pregnancies in China end in abortion.

China cuts power to factories, homes as reservoirs fall (AP) Factories in China’s southwest have shut down and a city imposed rolling blackouts after reservoirs to generate hydropower ran low in a worsening drought, adding to economic strains at a time when President Xi Jinping is trying to extend his hold on power. Companies in Sichuan province including makers of solar panels, cement and urea closed or reduced production after they were ordered to ration power for up to five days, according to news reports Wednesday. That came after reservoir levels fell and power demand for air conditioning surged in scorching temperatures. In Sichuan, which has 94 million people, water levels at hydropower reservoirs are down by as much as half this month.

Bringing back the Tasmanian Tiger? (Washington Post) A team of scientists in Australia is attempting to make the concept of “de-extinction” a reality. Over the coming decade, they plan to use gene editing to bring the long-dead thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, into today’s world. The goal invites an obvious reference. Team leader and biosciences professor Andrew Pask doesn’t mind. “I love Jurassic Park!” he said. “I love it.”

#headlines #news

[payrollbd]

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Republicans on the House Budget Committee offered a preview Wednesday of the programs they're looking to cut or overhaul as part of any agreement to lift the debt ceiling, a target list that includes food aid for low-income families, climate justice and electric vehicle funding, student debt relief, and Affordable Care Act subsidies.

The proposed cuts were outlined in a press release issued by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), the chair of the House Budget Committee.

In total, Arrington put forth roughly $780 billion in proposed spending cuts, nearly half of which would come from reversing President Joe Biden's student debt cancellation—a plan that is currently blocked pending a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Notably absent from the House GOP's outline was any mention of the U.S. military budget, which currently represents more than half of the federal government's discretionary spending and is a hotbed of the kind of waste and fraud that Republicans claim to oppose.

At $858 billion, the fiscal year 2023 military budget alone is larger than the $780 billion in cuts Arrington has floated.

Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in a statement to Bloomberg that the GOP's proposed spending cuts are a needless attack on the vulnerable.

Experts have repeatedly warned that more stringent income verification and work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, for instance, would result in food aid cuts for many needy families.

"Why is it that whenever tough choices are required, Republicans want working families and children to make the sacrifice?" Boyle asked. "Why not keep our children fed and families healthy, and instead work with Democrats to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes?"

Arrington's recommendations come as the GOP is facing growing backlash over its efforts to use the debt ceiling—and the looming possibility of a U.S. default—as leverage to pursue steep spending cuts, something the party has done to disastrous effect in the past.

Advocacy groups and analysts were quick to assail Arrington's proposals.

The Debt Collective, an organization that supports student debt cancellation, wrote on Twitter that "it doesn't 'cost' $379 billion to cancel $379 billion of student debt."

"It's pure fiction to think that killing cancellation will mean the [Department of Education] will collect $379 billion," the group added. "Even the Federal Reserve knows there will be record defaults."

Krutika Amin, associate director of the Kaiser Family Foundation, noted that the GOP proposal to cap Affordable Care Act subsidies at 400% of the federal poverty line "would mean middle-income people pay more for coverage."

"A 60-year-old making $55,000 in 2023 pays 8.5% of their income on a silver plan," Amin observed. "Without subsidies, they would pay over 20% of their income on average."

#us politics #news #2023 #118th congress #us house of representatives #House Budget Committee #conservatives #republicans #gop policy #gop platform #gop #Affordable Care Act subsidies #student debt forgiveness #electric vehicle funding #climate reform #snap benefits #Rep. Jodey Arrington #Rep. Brendan Boyle #defund the military #Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program #The Debt Collective #Krutika Amin #Kaiser Family Foundation

[kirlewlawfirm]

What are the consequences of Financial Fraud?

Financial fraud, a crime encompassing various illegal activities, can result in prison time, seizure, and forfeiture of assets, including your home, freezing of bank accounts, and limitations on travel or ability to relocate. If you receive a target letter or a knock on your door from law enforcement wanting to talk about a financial transaction, the first thing you need to do is hire expert legal counsel who will ensure you receive top-notch legal representation and guidance.

What Constitutes Financial Fraud?

Financial fraud can include embezzlement, securities fraud, tax evasion, and more recent phenomena like PPP loan fraud. This fraud charge became particularly prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic, as businesses sought financial relief through government-funded programs. However, if you're caught misrepresenting your prior income, expenses, the number of employees who hire or other eligibility criteria for such funds, you will face arrest and prosecution. The statute of limitation on most fraud charges is 5 years, but for PPP loan fraud, the statute of limitations is 10 years.

Potential Consequences

The legal repercussions of financial fraud can vary significantly. Generally, it depends on the severity of the fraud, the loss amount involved, the defendant's prior criminal history, and the specific laws violated. Typically, these crimes are charged as felonies, with penalties including:

Imprisonment up to 20 years

Supervised release up to 5 years

Restitution and fines

Federal charges are common in financial fraud cases because most financial fraud now uses the internet and affects interstate commerce. Agencies like the FBI, the IRS, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission often investigate these offenses and present evidence to a grand jury seeking an indictment.

Role of Legal Representation

When facing allegations of financial fraud, you need experience and expert legal counsel. Someone who has done this before and can walk you through the process. A knowledgeable white collar defense attorney in Miami, FL, like those at Kirlew Law Firm, can assist you throughout the case. 

Experienced attorneys are well-versed in the nuances of federal and state laws associated with financial fraud. They can provide the necessary guidance, from navigating pretrial release from custody to negotiating a plea deal or preparing your case and defending your innocence before a jury. The role of a top-notch white-collar defense attorney cannot be overstated in such complex legal matters.

Don't Risk Your Future; Contact Kirlew Law Firm Today!

At Kirlew Law Firm, we understand that sometimes good people make mistakes or find themselves in problematic situations. Our commitment is to provide our clients with robust defense strategies and advocate zealously on their behalf, ensuring their side of the story is heard and their rights are protected. Contact us today if you are under investigation, have been arrested, or are concerned that you may be the target of a financial fraud investigation. Call us at 305-521-0484 or visit us online.

#criminal defense lawyer in miami #law firm in miami

[sadanseo]

Importance of Applying for Tax Debt Relief

Refund checks are one of the few times you could get official correspondence that makes you happy. If you have tax debt and can't pay it, it's easy to get in touch with the IRS via snail mail.

You should look into tax debt relief options if you are having problems paying the IRS when you file your taxes this year. Even though there are tools to help, you should always exercise caution to avoid being a victim of fraud.

Could you please explain what tax debt reduction is?

When individuals face financial hardships that prevent them from paying their taxes, the government offers a program known as tax debt relief to assist them. Assuming this is the case, it means the IRS has settled your tax debt by reducing the amount you owe. A settlement or payment plans are two possible forms for this.

The problem of increasing tax debt and its solutions

If reducing your tax burden isn't your first priority, here are some more things to think about:

Think about what you can do to increase your income:

You may rest easy knowing that this approach to tax debt is risk-free since it does not involve taking out a loan, which might damage your credit and money. Having a full-time job makes the logistics much easier than they appear. Selling gently used furniture, clothing, and other stuff is a quick and easy way to make some extra money. You may even try your hand at pet sitting or student mentoring as a side hustle and charge by the hour.

The 10% early withdrawal penalty does not apply to 401(k) loans used to pay taxes if the borrower is less than 59 and a half years old. Under this arrangement, you have five years to pay back the principal and interest on the loan.

Take the time to apply for a loan:

You can get the money you need without putting up any collateral because these loans typically don't need it. Borrowing money becomes more expensive since many lenders add an origination fee to the interest rates on these loans. Furthermore, you need good to great credit to be eligible for the finest rates. In the absence of this guarantee, the interest rate that you end up paying could reach 36%, subject to the lender.

A credit card can be obtained by:

You can pay your taxes online with a credit card through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Just so you know, even though this choice can provide you more time to pay off your debt, there will be a payment processing cost of up to 1.98 percent of the total transaction amount. The scenario is made worse because the credit card company can and will charge interest on any amounts that remain unpaid.

Understand the things precisely

Home equity loans, sometimes called HELOCs, are available to property owners who have 20% equity or more in their homes. Because it requires pledging one's house as security and could take some time, this option might be best for people with substantial outstanding government debts.

Paying taxes you can't afford is never fun. You can get help with your tax debt from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in a number of different ways. If you're not sure you qualify for tax debt relief, you might look into other possibilities. It may be wise to consult a tax professional who can assess your unique situation and offer advice on how to proceed.

#tax relief services #tax debt relief #irs tax relief #irs fresh start programs #tax settlement services #free consultation tax attorney

[mystlnewsonline]

British Cierrah Williams, pleaded guilty to 15 felonies:

Former Reality Show Cast Member and St. Louis DJ Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Multiple Frauds ST. LOUIS, MO (STL.News) U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Tuesday sentenced a former “Basketball Wives” reality show cast member and St. Louis, Missouri area radio personality, to four years in prison for committing $564,000 worth of frauds, including tax fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud, and three separate pandemic fraud schemes. British Cierrah Williams, 33, pleaded guilty in May to 15 felonies: five counts of misuse of a Social Security number, four counts of bank fraud, three counts of making false statements to the IRS, and three counts of wire fraud. Assistant United States Attorney Diane Klocke called Williams’ conduct part of a roughly decade-long series of frauds during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing.  Her crimes continued after she was initially contacted and interviewed by federal agents and even after she was indicted, Klocke said. Judge Autrey told Williams, “You knew what you were doing.  You knew it was wrong, and you did it anyway.” Williams will be on supervised release for five years after her release from prison, and Judge Autrey ordered her to pay $564,069 in restitution. “The defendant launched a scheme that led to a variety of financial crimes, including tax fraud, bank fraud, COVID loan fraud, and identity theft,” said IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) Special Agent in Charge Thomas F. Murdock, St. Louis Field Office.  “Ms. Williams displayed a blatant disregard for the victims of her deceit.  Financial crimes of this magnitude deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.” “British Williams was getting paid to portray her celebrity lifestyle on “Basketball Wives” when in fact, she was a typical fraudster,” said Special Agent in Charge Jay Greenberg of the FBI St. Louis Division.  “After today’s sentencing, her reality is now the life of a felon.” “This sentence demonstrates our commitment to hold accountable those who intentionally misuse Social Security numbers for their own personal gain,” said Gail S. Ennis, Inspector General for the Social Security Administration.  “Ms. Williams’ criminal actions brought financial harm upon individuals, businesses, and government programs, damaging the integrity of Social Security numbers.  I thank the FBI and the IRS-CI for their investigative efforts, and I thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Special Assistant United States Attorney Diane Klocke for prosecuting this case.” In her plea agreement, Williams admitted under-reporting her income on tax returns for 2017-2019 and falsely claiming a niece and nephew as dependents, thereby avoiding $29,366 in tax. She fraudulently used Social Security numbers not assigned to her to open accounts with credit card companies and banks.  When she failed to pay on the accounts, victim companies lost $28,537. Williams also used those Social Security numbers to open bank accounts and commit bank fraud.  She deposited thousands of dollars worth of checks taken from other peoples’ accounts without their knowledge and then withdrew the money, causing another $23,850 in losses. Williams admitted submitting nine applications for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, intended to help struggling businesses during the pandemic.  The applications contained false information about business income and payroll, as well as her criminal history.  She used the $144,400 that resulted from two of the applications to fund her personal lifestyle, her plea agreement says. Williams also received $52,647 from four Paycheck Protection Program loans. After her indictment, Williams, on Jan. 3, 2022, applied for the California COVID-19 Rent Relief program, falsely claiming that she was a state resident with a total annual household income of $50,000 and that she couldn’t pay her rent due to a “Reduction in hours of work” due to the pandemic, her plea agreement says.  She received $27,801.  She had stopped paying rent in July of 2021, and she failed to disclose that her $3,803 rent was more than reimbursed by a $4,000 payment from the network that produces “Basketball Wives LA.” Her work hours and pay were not reduced by the pandemic. Williams submitted fake medical bills to at least one insurance company, resulting in $139,479.92 paid to her, co-conspirators, or both. Finally, Williams has not filed annual tax returns since her indictment in October of 2021.  She listed herself as “exempt” on a form with her radio station employer resulting in no taxes being withheld from her $90,000 salary, her plea says.  Williams is no longer employed by the station. The total known actual and intended losses from all the frauds and schemes, including the relevant conduct listed in the plea agreement, is $564,069. This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, and the FBI.  Special Assistant United States Attorney Diane Klocke is handling the case for the Eastern District of Missouri. SOURCE: Office of the Inspector General Read the full article

[investmenttoday]

HOW NOT TO BECOME VICTIM TO UNETHICAL PRACTICES WHILE APPLYING FOR CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT?

Being into the RCBI for over 14 years, I have seen and heard enough of ethical- unethical practices related to Residency or Citizenship by Investment programs, programs that attract thousands of the entrepreneurs, business owners, senior managers/ directors, or the HNI from all around the world every year. Everyone wanted to opt the options for various reasons, be it for the total control over their investment, global mobility, expanding their business, taxation, family security, political instability in the country of their birth / current residence. One thing that is common among all is they wanted their life to be easy, and they wanted the consultants to be ethical who make their immigration process simplified.

Citizenship by Investment in the Caribbean are most sought after programs, couple a year back over 60% clientele were from China, but during last few years I have seen that 70% of the applications have been from GCC and MENA region. People have realized the importance of these programs and the demand for Residency or Citizenship by Investment programs has begun to pick up.

I believe, transparency and open communication are essential in building strong and trustworthy relationships with my clientele, and this has made me write this article, so they don’t become the victim of unethical practices.

Below are few of the most common questions I have been hearing now a days.

CAN I GET CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT WITH A SPECIAL PRICE?

No, each country that offers Citizenship by Investment (i.e. Antigua & Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, or St. Lucia), have their approved set of investment options that are clearly mentioned on their official website, and should they offer some discount it is always published on their official websites and communicated with all the government authorized agents, they then pass this change of price or policy to promoters and or the sub agents listed with them. For example, one of the Caribbean country St. Kitts & Nevis has a limited time offer from 1st January 2023 until 30th of June 2023 that offers a discount of USD $25,000 and accelerated application process (60 days from the date of the CIU’s acknowledgement of the application) at NO ADDITIONAL COST, or another Caribbean country St. Lucia had a limited time offer of COVID-19 Relief Bond with a reduced investment option that ended 31st December 2022.

WERE THERE ANY CONTROVERSIS BETWEEN 2018 AND 2021 REGARDING THE RCBI PROGRAMS?

Yes, according to GULF NEWS and KHALEEJ TIMES the fate of hundreds of such applicants seeking Dual Citizenship or the Second Passport(s) of Caribbean nations was at stake. Media reports suggesting “allegedly” many immigration firms were avoiding legal requirements, selling innovative schemes that were never approved by the Caribbean governments or forging government documents to process citizenship applications, some of the agents were selling these Citizenship by Investment programs at a price way below government-sanctioned rates through innovation in real estate option (candidate are required to contribute/donate “a certain amount depending program of their choice or the family size” to the government, once his application gets approved the agent then requests the Citizenship by Investment unit “UNKNOWN TO THE APPLICANTS” to switch to the real estate option).

Allegations were so loud at an extent that one of the Caribbean countries parliament led to a no-confidence motion against their sitting prime minister, some of the high ranking government officials had to come into media saying the allegations of fraud were “unfounded and politically motivated” but the allegations were so strong that one of the former prime minister in one of the Caribbean nations stated “he will revoke the citizenship of any applicant who is found to have underpaid for the country’s CBI”.

ARE THERE ANY UNETHICAL FIRMS IN THE CBI INDUSTRY THAT GOT BLACKLISTED BY THE CARIBBEAN GOVERNMENTS?

Yes, people can check on the official websites to see who are authorized local agents, international marketing agents, and or the promotors. One Caribbean country “Commonwealth of Dominica” has a list published on their official website https://www.cbiu.gov.dm/dominica-citizenship/blacklisted-agents/.

I strongly believe all five of the Caribbean countries must have this sort of a list published on their official website.

IS THERE A WAY TO AVOID FRADULENT PRACTICES?

Yes, and it’s very simple. All you need is to ask the CBI firm if they are the authorized agents, promoter, and or sub agents?

Authorized agents are licensed by the Citizenship by Investment unit of the country you are looking to opt as your second citizenship / passport, they must reside in the country (i.e. Antigua & Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, or St. Lucia), and the promoters or the sub agents may be listed with the authorized agents, promoters can be located across the world and assist in the marketing of the CBI program in their region and assist prospective applicants under the CBI program.

Also, the Caribbean Governments are now making the interviews mandatory (main applicant, spouse, and dependents 17 years of age and above), these interviews will allow an additional layer of protection to the Citizenship by Investment programs. This initiative is a positive step for Caribbean Citizenship and is a part of enhanced due diligence, interviews will be a wonderful opportunity for the applicants to meet (in-person or virtually) with the Government officials, while interviews all the questions related to special pricing, the company, or any other doubts you may have can be asked, the process will help CIU "Citizenship by Investment Unit" officials to directly address any concern they may have with regards to application, I am 100% sure that a mandatory interview will help high net-worth individuals/applicants avoid unethical firms offering a non approved investment options, it's essential to carefully research and consider the implications, costs, and legal requirements before pursuing a second citizenship, as the process and benefits can vary widely among countries.

IS THERE A PLATFORM WHERE YOU CAN REGISTER COMPLAINTS RELATED TO UNETHICAL PRACTICES?

Yes and No, the right way would be always having a second opinion if and when someone offers you a special price, you can verify the information from official website of the countries Citizenship by Investment unit, one may also call the official representation (i.e. Embassy and or the Consulate General in the country of your residence) of the CBI in question.

I would encourage you visit www.investmenttoday.net alternatively you can reach out to one of the expert advisors from the industry.