Things to Keep an Eye On
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs blows the lid on their spying on the ICC, Ayala Isenberg situation, Pope Francis speaks on Gaza, Founders Fund-backed CEO found dead, various DOJ updates
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs gets way ahead of itself
This is pretty darn funny. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted, then deleted, a statement condemning the issuance of warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. People are speculating that this means they were spying on the ICC, which we already knew they were doing because of reporting in the Guardian. Israel’s threats against the court have come in public, and probably in secret, too. The thing is with this extreme government in Israel, which has replaced any genuine statesmen with fanatics, gangsters and the second string of the IDF, is that they’re careless and cocky. And this sort of thing makes it much harder for the ICC to back down and maintain its credibility. They have been sitting on this for far too long, though.
The Ayala Isenberg situation
The woman going by “prolifejewess” on Twitter caused a big stir this week by publishing an article in which she claimed to have had an abortion. She was heavily promoted by Lila Rose’s group, LiveAction, which has now removed the page on her.
There’s a lot that’s murky and concerning about this, but this post from one of her former movement allies is especially so:
Lila Rose is involved with Opus Dei, and it’s disturbingly common for people close to Opus Dei to end up institutionalized like this. There have long been concerns among the Jesuits and the episcopate about some of their practices, especially involving spiritual direction, secrecy, and their habit of not giving their institutions typically Catholic names, which have led some to make comparisons between it and Freemasonry. There are also big lingering questions about the failure of Banco Popular, the Spanish Opus Dei bank, in 2017.
Isenberg, as far as I can tell, is from North Carolina. The gist of her story is that she was sexually abused as a child, became pregnant, wanted to keep the child but miscarried at 15. As of this week she appears to be all-in on the pro-abortion side.
This is obviously really sensitive stuff, but there are a few basic questions I wonder about. Did LiveAction check her story out in any way? Various articles on her have stated charges were pressed, then dropped against her abuser.
LiveAction has engaged in a number of stings themselves before, and I wonder if this is them getting stung back. The custom of not naming child sex abuse victims is a good one, but if someone, as an adult, makes a name for themself as a victim of it, it seems prudent to ask them to be able to back up their claims.
Isenberg’s religious views are not exactly clear either, she’s suggested she was Christian early in life, reconnected with her Jewish roots, then some people say she’s Catholic. It really is true that Jews think about abortion as a moral question differently than Christians. All the sensitivities around this stuff is one reason these debates probably ought to be had in a state legislature, where we can figure out where to draw the line.
Pope Francis speaks on Gaza
Pope Francis answered some questions on his way back from Southeast Asia this week, one of them on the situation in Gaza. Here’s the important quote:
I can’t say whether this war is excessively bloody, but when you see the bodies of children killed, when you hear that schools are bombed because guerrillas might be inside, it’s horrifying. It’s horrible, it's horrible.
It’s sometimes said that this is a defensive war, but sometimes I believe that it’s a war… too much, too much. I apologize for saying this, but I don’t see steps being taken toward peace.
CEO of Founders Fund-backed company found dead in Idaho
This is no doubt raising some eyebrows at the FBI:
Saturday morning, deputies took the Sheriff’s Office boat to the lake and searched about 8 a.m. Cadaver dogs from Spokane were brought up to search for a body later Saturday morning, Blakeslee said. They gave a general indication of a location and Spokane County divers were able to locate Reiner’s body, which was recovered about 3 p.m.
Reiner, who is described as a billionaire in some media reports, started Stemcentrx, a bio firm he sold in 2016. Stemcentrix worked on a set of experimental drugs that targeted cancer stem cells. It was sold to AbbVie for $5.8 billion in cash and stock, plus another $4 billion in prospective milestone payments, AbbVie reported in a 2016 news release.
“AbbVie will acquire Stemcentrx for approximately $5.8 billion in cash and stock. AbbVie will pay approximately $2.0 billion of the transaction value in cash and fund the remaining portion with stock. In addition, Stemcentrx investors are eligible to receive up to $4 billion in cash for additional, success-based milestone payments for the achievement of certain regulatory and clinical developments,” according to the AbbVie news release.
Sinaloa in California
Some good reporting on a June bust in California on the Sinaloa Cartel:
At the crack of dawn on June 5, hundreds of federal agents hit houses across Southern California, hauling in suspects, pills, powder, and ghost guns. The targets were focused in Imperial Valley and the small towns and cities of El Centro, Brawley, Niland, Holtville and above all Calexico, over the border from Mexicali. But there were also suspects in San Diego and Los Angeles and connects as far afield as Arizona and Oregon. And the feds nabbed a Border Patrol agent alleged to be involved. …
The sting coincided with unveiling indictments against 47 suspects in the smuggling ring and followed a years-long investigation with phone taps. The traffickers were moving so much fentanyl, HSI claims, that the price they paid plummeted from about $1.70 a pill in 2021 to just 45 cents a pill by this May - right as overdose deaths have ravaged the United States. The crew’s source, HSI says, was the Sinaloa Cartel.
SEC orders Ohio energy company to pay $100 million in fines
This scandal has already sent a former Ohio house speaker to prison:
An energy company at the center of a $60 million bribery scheme in Ohio has been ordered by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to pay a $100 million civil penalty for misleading investors about its role in the scandal.
Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. violated antifraud provisions by misrepresenting its role in the political corruption scheme and failing to disclose related payments, according to the SEC.
State Department claims Russian intelligence integration with RT
What’s interesting here is that former RT employees are cooperating with the feds:
“Thanks to new information, much of which originates from RT employees, we know that RT possessed cyber capabilities and engaged in covert information and influence operations and military procurement,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.
A key finding from the new US intelligence is that, for more than a year, the Russian government quietly embedded an intelligence-gathering unit within RT focused on influence operations globally. That activity has been part of US officials described as a big expansion of RT’s role as an arm and mouthpiece of the Kremlin abroad. The activity goes beyond propaganda and covert influence operations to even include military procurement, according to US officials.
Conviction in California addiction treatment kickback scheme
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Casey Mahoney, 48, of Los Angeles, paid nearly $2.9 million in illegal kickbacks to so-called “body brokers” who referred patients to Mahoney’s addiction treatment facilities, Healing Path Detox LLC and Get Real Recovery Inc. Those body brokers in turn paid thousands of dollars in cash to patients, which some patients used to purchase drugs, in order to induce those patients to attend treatment at Mahoney’s facilities. Mahoney concealed the illegal kickbacks by entering into sham contracts with the body brokers which purportedly required fixed payments and prohibited payments based off of the volume or value of the patient referrals. In reality, Mahoney and the brokers negotiated payments based on the patients’ insurance reimbursements and the number of days Mahoney was able to bill for treatment. Mahoney also laundered the proceeds of the conspiracy through payments to the mother of one of the body brokers, which Mahoney falsely characterized as consulting fees.
Israeli smuggler pleads guilty to illegal exporting to Russia
From DOJ, this one involved aircraft parts:
Gal Haimovich, 49, of Israel, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to commit export control and smuggling violations for his role in a scheme to illegally ship aircraft parts and avionics from U.S. manufacturers and suppliers to Russia, including for the benefit of sanctioned Russian airline companies. As part of his plea agreement, Haimovich admitted that his scheme involved deceiving U.S. companies about the true destination of the goods at issue, and that the defendant and others attempted to conceal the scheme by submitting false information in export documents filed with the U.S. government. A sentencing hearing has been set for Nov. 22.
Jury convicts leaders of the African People’s Socialist Party
This was a big one in St. Louis:
A jury today convicted Omali Yeshitela, 82, Penny Hess, 78, Jesse Nevel, 34, all of St. Louis, and Augustus C. Romain Jr., 38, of Atlanta, of conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government. The defendants were charged in a superseding indictment on April 13, 2023.
According to evidence presented at trial, from at least May 2015 until July 2022, Yeshitela, Hess and Nevel agreed to act on behalf of the Russian government within the United States. Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a resident of Moscow, was the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), an organization headquartered in Moscow, Russia, and funded by the Russian government. Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel were leaders of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) or components thereof. Augustus C. Romain was a high-level leader of the APSP who, in November 2018, left and formed a Georgia-based group called the Black Hammer. Ionov’s influence efforts were directed and supervised by Moscow-based Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, including indicted defendants Aleksey Borisovich Sukhodolov and Yegor Sergeyevich Popov.
FBI claims crypto scams cost Americans $5.6 billion in 2023
Report released Monday. Via AP:
Americans were duped out of more than $5.6 billion last year through fraud schemes involving cryptocurrency, the FBI said in a report released Monday that shows a 45% jump in losses from 2022.
The FBI received nearly 70,000 complaints in 2023 by victims of financial fraud involving bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies, according to the FBI. The most rampant scheme was investment fraud, which accounted for $3.96 billion of the losses.
Terrorgram Collective indicted
This one has some interesting connections:
The Justice Department announced today that Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, and Matthew Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho — leaders of the Terrorgram Collective, a transnational terrorist group — were charged with a 15-count indictment for soliciting hate crimes, soliciting the murder of federal officials, and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Humber and Allison were arrested on Friday by law enforcement officials.
“Today’s indictment charges the defendants with leading a transnational terrorist group dedicated to attacking America’s critical infrastructure, targeting a hit list of our country’s public officials, and carrying out deadly hate crimes — all in the name of violent white supremacist ideology,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Today’s arrests are a warning that committing hate-fueled crimes in the darkest corners of the internet will not hide you, and soliciting terrorist attacks from behind a screen will not protect you. The United States Department of Justice will find you, and we will hold you accountable.”
New York education officials sentenced to prison
A fairly major bribery scandal involving New York City public schools:
Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Eric Goldstein, the former Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Department of Education’s (NYC DOE) Office of School Support Services, and Blaine Iler, Michael Turley and Brian Twomey, the owners of SOMMA Food Group (SOMMA), were sentenced by U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin sitting by designation to prison terms for multiple counts of bribery and bribery conspiracy relating to programs receiving federal funds. Goldstein was sentenced to 2 years, Iler to 12 months and a day along with a $10,000 fine, Turley to 15 months, and Twomey to 15 months and a $10,000 fine. The four defendants were convicted by a federal jury in June 2023 following a four-week trial.