TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalWho Put Out The Hit On Mayor Pete?
by Ed HeinzelmanMany of you are probably as surprised as I am at the ascendance of South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the polls…particularly in places like Iowa. And of course his growing popularity hasn’t gone unnoticed in the media or the campaign offices of his Democratic opponents.
But even with that…it is surprising that ‘they’ are coming after him as directly and cruelly has ‘they’ have. My question is who is ‘they’ and why are ‘they’ attacking a Democrat in this manner?
Of course we have the concerns around his time as a business consultant with McKinsey and Company. A consulting company that has grown larger than many of its clients and has a checkered history working with government agencies. After a bit of jawing around in the media, Mayor Pete released the clients he worked with while employed at McKinsey.
And then there was consternation around his fundraiser held in wine country California…it was high dollar and apparently a closed event…which brought a lot of attention to his campaign. Something he certainly didn’t need but brought a promise of improved transparency going forward.
Read more: http://bloggingblue.com/2019/12/who-put-out-the-hit-on-mayor-pete/
New York Man Admits Role In Defrauding Banks In $3.5 Million 'Shotgun' Loan Scheme
NEWARK, N.J. – A Bronx, New York, man today admitted participating in a conspiracy to carry out a $3.5 million scheme to use bogus information and simultaneous loan applications at multiple banks to fraudulently obtain home equity lines of credit, a practice known as “shotgunning,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Saoud “Sam” Rihan, 59, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez to an indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:
Rihan was a business partner of Simon Curanaj, 65, of Yonkers, New York. From 2012 through January 2014, Rihan, Curanaj, and others conspired to fraudulently obtain multiple home equity lines of credit (HELOC) from banks on residential properties in New Jersey and New York.
In 2013, Rihan and Curanaj executed a deed to transfer ownership of a Bronx property to people identified in the complaint as “Individual 1” and “Individual 2,” neither of whom lived at the property. Rihan offered Individuals 1 and 2 $10,000 cash payments for acting as straw borrowers but never paid them. Rihan and Curanaj then applied for three HELOCs valued at $750,000 from multiple banks in the name of Individual 2.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/new-york-man-admits-role-defrauding-banks-35-million-shotgun-loan-scheme-0
Third Conspirator Pleads Guilty to Participation in a Ponzi Scheme Involving $2.5B in Transactions
Third Conspirator Pleads Guilty to Participation in a Ponzi Scheme Involving $2.5B in Transactions and $1B in LossSACRAMENTO, Calif. — Robert A. Karmann, 53, of Clayton, pleaded guilty today to his participation in a massive fraud scheme involving a solar energy company in Benicia that defrauded investors of approximately $1 billion, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.
Those losses resulted from investment transactions in solar energy hardware valued at approximately $2.5 billion. Karmann is the third person to plead guilty to federal criminal charges relating to the fraud scheme since October.
According to court documents, between 2011 and 2018, the solar energy company manufactured mobile solar generator units (MSG), solar generators that were mounted on trailers. The company touted the versatility and environmental sustainability of the MSGs and claimed that they were used by cellphone companies to provide emergency power to cell towers in the case of a power failure. They were also claimed to be used to power lights at sporting and other events.
The company solicited investors by claiming that there were very favorable federal tax benefits associated with investments in alternative energy. The company structured the transactions in order to maximize the tax benefits to the investors. Investors would buy the MSGs without ever taking possession of them. They would pay a percentage of the sales price and finance the balance with the company. Then the investors would lease the MSGs back to the company, which in turn leased them to third parties. A portion of the lease revenue would be used to pay the investors’ debts to the company and to the investors. The third‑party leases, however, generated little income and the company paid early investors with funds contributed by later investors.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/third-conspirator-pleads-guilty-participation-ponzi-scheme-involving-25b-transactions
Former Yellowstone Partners' CEO Pleads Guilty
POCATELLO - David Hansen, 48, of Idaho Falls, pleaded guilty today to wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced. Pursuant to a written plea agreement filed with the court, Hansen pleaded guilty to count 16 of the superseding indictment. The trial set for January 21, 2020 was vacated.
According to court records, Hansen was the Chief Executive Officer and a 90-percent partner in Yellowstone Partners, LLC, an investment management firm headquartered in Idaho Falls. Clients of Yellowstone Partners entrusted their monies to Yellowstone Partners to invest and manage on their behalf. In exchange, Yellowstone Partners earned fees for its services. Yellowstone Partners’ fees were set forth in investment agreements between Yellowstone Partners and its clients.
According to court records, Yellowstone Partners’ clients’ monies were kept in accounts at third party custodians. Yellowstone Partners directed how the monies in client accounts were invested and how they were disbursed. This included submitting email billing requests to a third party custodian to take fees from client accounts and to deposit them into Yellowstone Partners’ own accounts.
According to court records, from 2008 through April of 2016, Hansen knowingly and intentionally devised a scheme to defraud clients of Yellowstone Partners by obtaining money or property by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises. Specifically, the scheme was to fraudulently bill clients for fees to which Yellowstone Partners was not entitled under the terms of the investment agreements or otherwise. Through this overbilling scheme, Hansen fraudulently obtained client funds from a third party custodian and used them to enrich himself and to fund Yellowstone Partners’ operations. For certain identified victims, Hansen personally submitted, or was carbon-copied, on 50 fraudulent overbilling requests to a custodian, which resulted in a loss of $2,675,856. For each of the overbillings, Hansen acted with the intent to deceive or cheat the victims.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-id/pr/former-yellowstone-partners-ceo-pleads-guilty
Republican mega-donor urged ex-Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin to pardon convicted killer
By Joe Sonka and Phillip M. BaileyLOUISVILLE, Ky. – A prominent Kentucky banker who is one of the state’s largest Republican donors urged former Gov. Matt Bevin to pardon convicted killer Patrick Baker months before the outgoing governor issued a controversial last-minute order freeing the man.
Terry Forcht, founder of Corbin-based Forcht Bank, has given more than $1 million to Republican candidates, committees and super PACs over the past decade, state and federal campaign records show.
Forcht hosted a re-election fundraiser for Bevin on March 23 at his home near London, Kentucky, where he raised $33,150. Forcht also gave $100,000 to the Matt Bevin-Jenean Hampton Inaugural Committee in 2015.
Public records reviewed Tuesday by The Courier Journal show the GOP mega-donor lobbied Bevin, a Republican, on behalf of Baker twice: In an August 2018 letter and again in a June 4 note.
Read more: https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/17/gop-mega-donor-terry-forcht-urged-bevin-pardon-convicted-killer/2680548001/
(Appleton Post-Crescent)
In Dallas, Churches Break the Law to Shelter Homeless People on Freezing Nights
By Michael BarajasThe first night of a punishing cold front in January 2018, two people living on the streets of South Dallas died. Others camping underneath the same highway overpass as Jesse Johnson Jr., 69, remembered him as a nice guy who mostly kept to himself. Less than a mile away, a man found Donna Bannister, 58, near her wheelchair on the floor of a bus stop shelter; he told WFAA it appeared she had “frozen to death.”
Rachel Baughman, senior pastor at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church in Dallas, recalled the news as “one of those situations that hits you in the face.” Bannister and Johnson both died within a block of a church.
For the past three years, Baughman has opened her church’s doors on nights when temperatures could be fatally cold—and she’s tried to team up with other faith leaders to build a broader “pop-up” network. But she’s faced a persistent roadblock: In Dallas, it’s against the law. Chapter 51A of the Dallas Development Code bans overnight shelters within 1,000 feet of a church, school, park, or other entity, preventing places of worship and virtually anyone else from offering aid.
Still, some churches choose to take a risk. Wayne Walker, executive director of homeless resource and outreach center OurCalling, says some churches and organizations provide shelter “under the radar” to avoid trouble. On a cold night in February 2018, a month after Bannister and Johnson died, Walker received a code violation for keeping his center open for people without shelter. He hung the letter on the wall in his office.
Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/dallas-churches-homeless/
Federal Judge Rules Army Corps Liable For Flooding Homes In Addicks And Barker Reservoirs During Har
Federal Judge Rules Army Corps Liable For Flooding Homes In Addicks And Barker Reservoirs During HarveyBy Davis Land
A federal judge has ruled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is liable for homes flooded inside the Addicks and Barker reservoirs during Hurricane Harvey.
Judge Charles F. Lettow’s ruling asserts the government effectively took homeowners’ property by allowing the reservoirs to fill up with water and denies the government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
“The government’s suggestion that this flooding is not a compensable taking because it was temporary and confined to a single flood event carries no water,” Lettow wrote in a 46 page ruling.
“The flooding that occurred was the direct result of calculated planning,” he added, concluding the Army Corps was aware that flooding would happen if a major storm like Harvey hit.
Read more: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/local/2019/12/17/354502/federal-judge-rules-army-corps-liable-for-flooding-homes-in-addicks-and-barker-reservoirs-during-harvey/
Will Bloomberg Pledge to Support the Eventual Democratic Nominee?
By Harold Meyerson
Michael Bloomberg entered the Democratic presidential race in good measure because he feared Joe Biden might continue to falter, thereby making it more possible that either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would win the nomination.
Which raises a question that Bloomberg should be made to answer: Is he willing to support the eventual Democratic nominee, whoever it may be? I have no doubt that Sanders and Warren will support a more centrist Democrat, a Biden or a Buttigieg, if they’re selected to run against Trump. But would Bloomberg support Sanders or Warren if that’s who the Democrats end up nominating? And if not—if he’s not willing to pledge he’ll abide by the results of the process—why should Democrats even consider him a Democrat, much less a candidate for the party’s nomination?
You’d think this would be the first question the media would ask Bloomberg. It’s the lowest possible bar a presidential candidate should have to clear. So how about it, fellow scribes? Let’s ask Mike.
https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/will-bloomberg-pledge-to-support-the-eventual-democratic-nominee/
(American Prospect)
Chicago student pleads not guilty in IS computer coding case
Chicago -- A Chicago college student pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a terrorism charge accusing him of writing computer code that could help Islamic State bypass programs designed to block the movement's propaganda from social media.
Thomas Osadzinski, a 20-year-old DePaul University student, appeared calm at his brief arraignment in U.S. District Court in Chicago. He was shackled at his ankles and wore orange jail garb.
Defense attorney Joshua G. Herman entered the not guilty plea to one count of material support for terrorists on Osadzinski's behalf. Prosecutor Barry Jonas said a conviction carries a maximum 20-year prison term.
Osadzinski, who was born in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, was arrested in November in an FBI sting during which agents posed as IS sympathizers. He was denied bond and remains jailed pending trial.
Read more: https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20191217/news/312179895/
(Arlington Heights Daily Herald)
Madigan confidant tried to sway Pritzker but was blackballed after 'trashing' key gov staffer
By Tina SfondelesTwo weeks before Anne Caprara stepped into one of the highest profile political roles of her life, she got a call from Gov. J.B. Pritzker with some uncomfortable news.
Pritzker sounded upset, according to a high-level source close to the governor. He said people were “trashing” Caprara to several others, including reporters, in an attempt to squash her appointment as Pritzker’s chief of staff.
Before running Pritzker’s gubernatorial campaign, the Philadelphia native ran Hillary Clinton’s 2016 super PAC and also served as chief of staff to two U.S. congresswomen.
But Caprara wasn’t good enough to serve as the governor’s chief of staff, and she wasn’t from Illinois — a huge no-no, perhaps because she wasn’t beholden to the old boys network of Illinois politics, people were told.
Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2019/12/16/21020860/madigan-mike-mcclain-blacklisted-jb-pritzker-lobbyist-comed-anne-caprara
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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Current location: Bryan, Texas
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