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One of France's most distinguished diplomats has confessed to an investigating judge that he accepted oil allocations from Saddam Hussein, it emerged yesterday. Jean-Bernard Mérimée is thought to be the first senior figure to admit his role in the oil-for-food scandal, a United Nations humanitarian aid scheme hijacked by Saddam to buy influence. The Frenchman, who holds the title "ambassador for life", told authorities that he regretted taking payments amounting to $156,000 (then worth about £108,000) in 2002. The money was used to renovate a holiday home he owned in southern Morocco. At the time, Mr Mérimée was a special...

April 20 — At least three senior United Nations officials are suspected of taking multi-million dollar bribes from the Saddam Hussein regime, U.S. and European intelligence sources tell ABCNEWS. One year after his fall, U.S. officials say they have evidence, some in cash, that Saddam diverted to his personal bank accounts approximately $5 billion from the United Nations Oil-for-Food program. In what has been described as the largest humanitarian aid effort ever undertaken, the U.N. Oil-for-Food program began in 1996 to help Iraqis who were suffering under sanctions imposed following the first Gulf War. The program allowed Iraq to sell...

In a compelling development stemming from an FBI raid conducted last year, a portion of the gold bars found in the residence of embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) have been identified as those stolen in a high-profile 2013 robbery. In September, Sen. Bob Menendez, the senior U.S. Senator from New Jersey and the former Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were indicted on bribery and corruption charges. In October, Bob Menendez was charged with acting as a foreign agent in a superseding indictment. Bob Menendez and his wife are under investigation for their involvement...

The FBI’s reputation problems have accelerated with the arrest on corruption charges of Charles McGonigal, the former chief of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York field office, one of the most powerful spy-hunters in the country - who also happened to be connected to Hunter Biden. In twin indictments last month, McGonigal was charged with taking secret cash payments from a former Albanian intelligence officer, holding secret meetings with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and attempting to remove top Kremlin oligarch Oleg Deripaska from a US sanctions list. The Albanians cited by prosecutors tie this scandal to Hunter Biden and...

Indonesian Catholics offer Muslims sacrificial animals for Eid festivalThe initiative stems from long-held interfaith harmony and mutual respect, says Jesuit priestCatholics in Indonesia have offered sacrificial animals to Muslims ahead of the Eid al-Adha festival as an expression of interfaith solidarity, local sources say.From the national capital Jakarta to Christian strongholds in eastern Indonesia, Catholic individuals and Church-based groups donated cows and goats to mostly needy Muslims ahead of the festival held on May 27.During the festival, millions of Muslims across the world slaughter animals and share meat with others, including relatives and poor people, as a mark of solidarity....

An artificial intelligence data center was running up a water bill for the ages, and local residents were the ones to point out the problem. In November, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Microsoft had a new “superfactory” named Fairwater spanning over 1 million square feet outside of Atlanta. Chief Technical Officer Mark Russinovich explained why the site is so massive. “To make improvements in the capabilities of the AI, you need to have larger and larger infrastructure to train it,” he said in a statement. The site developer, Quality Technology Services, purchased the plot in 2022 for $154 million. Ironically, Microsoft...

Elf Aquitaine, until its privatisation in 1994, was much more than a oil company - according to prosecutors at the trial of Elf's top managers. They claim the state-owned firm worked as an unofficial arm of France's murkiest diplomacy. The close relationship between Elf and French officials is well-documented, and goes back to the presidency of General Charles de Gaulle. As the company expanded into Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, Elf paid secret "commissions" to African officials with the blessing of French governments. By the 1980s Elf had operations in Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, Cameroon, Angola and Nigeria - which,...

Swiss diplomat Sylvie Brunner was found dead this week after falling from her 17th-floor apartment balcony in Tehran. She was the first secretary of the Swiss delegation and worked in the US Interests Section. Neighbors heard a loud explosion late at night before her death. Her body was found in the garden the next morning. According to reports, Sylvie Brunner was called to Iran to testify about her knowledge of the details of the American accounts who pocketed billions of dollars due to the bribes to lift sanctions against Iran. ...... Snip...... Dan J @DanTCH_ Swiss diplomat who was preparing...

Two corrupt town workers in posh East Hampton accepted thousands of dollars in cash bribes from contractors in exchange for near-instant under-the-table building permits, according to prosecutors. Town Building Inspector Ryan Benitez, 37, and his senior office assistant, Evelyn Calderon, 46, pocketed more than $16,000 from four unnamed contractors so that the builders could sidestep the months-long approval process and have their permits and certificates of occupancy secretly fast-tracked, Suffolk County prosecutors claimed. The pair of government employees would sometimes jump into action within minutes of getting a request — and cut down the typical months-long process to mere hours...

A Brooklyn Council member, her sister — an aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul — and the husband of a Democratic state Assembly member are being investigated by federal prosecutors looking into whether they took bribes to help a migrant shelter provider that has received $200 million in city contracts, according to a report. Democratic Councilwoman Farah Louis and her sister, Debbie Louis, who served as Hochul’s assistant secretary of New York City intergovernmental affairs, were named in a search warrant obtained by the Associated Press seeking evidence for possible criminal violations. Edu Hermelyn, the husband of state Assembly Member and...

Washington reporters have been given the green light to go after Joe Biden. Joe Biden on Tuesday afternoon walked by a group of reporters after delivering remarks at the Chiefs of Mission reception in the East Room. A reporter ambushed Joe Biden and asked him about the Ukraine bribery scheme alleging he received a $5 million bribe from Mykola Zlochevsky, the Ukrainian oligarch who runs Burisma Holdings. ..... Snip..... New York Post reporter Steven Nelson surprised Joe Biden when he asked about the Ukraine-bribery scheme and audio recordings of him and his son Hunter. “Are there tapes that you accepted...

The Communist Party of China confirmed on Tuesday that it had executed Bai Tianhui, who once held several high-ranking positions at the embattled finance giant Huarong, after several appeals in the Tianjin court system failed. Bai was convicted on multiple appeals of bribery while holding several positions in various arms of Huarong, including Huarong (Hong Kong) International Holdings Co., Ltd., and China Huarong International Holdings Co., Ltd. He is the second executive associated with Huarong — whose central entity is China Huarong Asset Management — that the Chinese government has executed in recent memory. Huarong has been the subject of...

The rebuilding cost of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge has more than doubled, and has a new expected opening of late 2030. The Key Bridge, which collapsed in March 2024 after being hit by a cargo ship, is now projected to cost $4.3 billion to $5.2 billion to rebuild, up from the previous cost estimate of $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion, CNN reported. The bridge was also originally expected to be completed by 2028. “Preliminary cost and project time estimates were made less than two weeks after the initial crash and before any engineering or design studies were conducted,” Maryland...

One of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., is raising eyebrows over a “bizarre inconsistency” in his campaign’s Federal Election Commission filings that list several different reasons for payments to a Haitian American staffer, totaling over $360,000. FEC filings from Swalwell for Congress and his Remedy PAC, dating back to 2021 and as recently as last month, show over 75 payments to an individual named Darly Meyer, with various reasons given for the disbursements. Individual payments vary from as little as $53 to over $12,000. Based on the payments, Meyer has earned varying amounts each year,...

What happens when the face of a country’s anti-corruption movement suddenly is investigated for the sort of bribery he once condemned? Ukraine, a U.S. ally and neighboring foe of Russia, is soon to find out. And it’s a case with implications in the United States, where the fallout from the unproven Trump-Russia collusion scandal has engulfed several Ukrainians. The country’s chief corruption prosecutor on Thursday opened an investigation into “suspicions” that Serhiy Leshchenko, a crusading anti-corruption member of Ukraine’s parliament and former investigative journalist, accepted bribes in 2016 from a Russian source that enabled him to buy a luxury condo...

Investigative journalist John Solomon has uncovered a smoking-gun email from Obama’s Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates explicitly ordering FBI agents to shut down a criminal corruption probe into the Clinton Foundation. Thanks to Judicial Watch, the American public was made aware of Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Hillary Clinton conducted official business on a non-government server so she could hide her Clinton Foundation pay-to-play while she was head of the Department of State. According to emails obtained by Judicial Watch, Hillary Clinton gave preferential treatment to Clinton Foundation donors while she was Secretary of State. In fact, Judge Royce...

In New Jersey, we think of the fall of former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez as a story of old fashioned corruption — a politician taking gifts for favors. For that crime, Menendez is now serving an 11 year prison sentence. And state officials have continued to pile on consequences, with Attorney General Matt Platkin filing a lawsuit to have it judicially confirmed that Menendez is “forever disqualified” from holding public office, and Assemblywoman Aura Dunn promoting a bill that would take away state pensions from former officials convicted of misconduct in office. But there is an equally disturbing side of...

Iran's Oil Mafia April 16, 2007 Frontpagemagazine.com Hassan Daioleslam Robert William (Bob) Ney is a current federal prisoner and a former Ohio Congressman from 1995 until November 3, 2006. Ney pled guilty to charges of conspiracy and making false statements in relation to the Jack Abramoff lobbying and bribery scandal. Ney reportedly received bribes from Abramoff, other lobbyists, and two foreign businessmen - a felon and an arms dealer - in exchange for using his position to advance their interests. Conspicuously missing from this dossier of disservice to the country was Ney’s assistance in the creation of a Washington-based lobbying...

One of Hunter Biden’s favorite prostitutes and drug buddies was charged with manslaughter in Nevada this year after allegedly bringing drugs into a jail, leading to another inmate’s death. Cheryl Ann Deboves was arraigned on involuntary manslaughter and drug possession charges in Clark County, Nevada in April, records show. The case was moved to state court, and she pleaded guilty last month to possession of controlled substances by an inmate, with a sentence of between 12 and 30 months. Deboves was a recurring figure on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which shows former President Joe Biden’s son engaging in orgies with her,...

Two men working on behalf of the Chinese government’s Ministry of Public Security attempted to bribe an IRS agent in a scheme intended to further Beijing’s harassment of Falun Gong believers, the Justice Department revealed in a criminal complaint unveiled today. The defendants were arrested today in California on charges including acting as unregistered foreign agents, money laundering, and bribery. “The Chinese government has yet again attempted, and failed, to target critics of the PRC here in the United States,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement this afternoon. “The Justice Department will continue to investigate, disrupt, and prosecute...