The chairman of Lloyd's of London, one of the world's oldest insurance firms, told a Toronto business audience on Wednesday that Canada is becoming a credible target for terrorism, as he drums up awareness of the company's insurance products.
“Canada's risk profile has changed in recent years and while no stranger to terrorism, intelligence suggests that its role is shifting from a hub for fundraising and planning attacks outside the nation – for example in the U.S. – to a credible target in its own right,” said Lord Peter Levene. “We are told that, by this year, there were thought to be some 60 groups operating within Canada's borders that support an extremist jihadi ideology,” he added.
Lloyd's is the seventh largest insurer in Canada, Mr. Levene noted, and a “very significant provider of insurance for terrorism risks in Canada, and we are also at the forefront in providing terrorism coverage for Canadian interests abroad. “The real estate, hotel and transportation sectors are amongst those we cover, and the 2010 Winter Olympics is already buying terrorism coverage from Lloyd's.”
Mr. Levene believes that instability is an issue of rising importance for 21st Century business leaders, and said that about 20 per cent of international terrorist attacks are directed against business, meaning between 150 and 200 attacks per year. “By all accounts, Canada's domestic security services have done a first-class job. But that should not lead to complacency,” he said.
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http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/071128madison.htm
Wisconsin man sentenced for smuggling aliens into U.S. to work at motels
MADISON, Wis. - A Wisconsin man was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months in prison for smuggling illegal aliens from Guatemala into the United States to live and work at two local Super 8 Motels. The sentence is the result of an investigation by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Siddhartha “Sam” Shah, 51, of Pleasant Prairie, Wis., was sentenced Nov. 27 by U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb to 21 months in prison and a $20,000 fine for smuggling and harboring four illegal aliens at Shah’s Super 8 Motels in Wisconsin Dells and Pleasant Prairie from 2005 to 2007. Shah pleaded guilty to this charge Aug. 23.
Shah traveled to Guatemala and arranged to smuggle workers to the United States so that they could work at his motels. One of the workers lived in a utility closet at one of Shah’s motels. In sentencing Shah to the high end of the applicable sentencing guideline range, Judge Crabb found that the seriousness of the offense warranted the relatively high sentence.
“Employers who take advantage of illegal labor to gain a competitive advantage for their own profit will be prosecuted,” said Elissa A. Brown, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago. “ICE has no patience for employers who tolerate or perpetuate a shadow economy.”
ICE was assisted in the investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General, and the Wisconsin Dells Police Department. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen P. Sinnott, Western District of Wisconsin, successfully prosecuted this case.
Shah and his co-defendant Jignesh “Mark” Jagaria, 36, of Wisconsin Dells, Wis., were arrested by ICE agents on June 11. Jagaria is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 11. Shah, a U.S. permanent resident from India, will be transferred to ICE custody for deportation after he completes his prison sentence.
— ICE —