Free Republic

There are always four phases to the Left's argument against an issue: 1. That thing isn't happening; it's a Right-wing conspiracy. 2. Okay, that thing is happening, but it's not happening much. 3. Yeah, that thing's happening and it's a good thing. 4. It's happening, it's a good thing, and we're not gonna let you stop us. Bigots. This story is somewhere between Steps 2 and 3. ne of the women accused of stealing and fraudulently casting more than a dozen ballots ahead of last November’s election pleaded guilty Monday. Vicki Stuart, 64, was charged with 34 counts related to...

FORT COLLINS — A Larimer County woman has found herself part of a nationwide investigation into an alleged “smurfing” campaign by ActBlue, an online fundraising platform for Democrat candidates, progressive organizations and nonprofits. In a report by the American Spectator, Sonia Immasche, of Fort Collins is shown to have donated $234,441 over a period of six years and two months in 57,138 separate ActBlue contributions under five different versions of her name, averaging out to $4.10 per donation. “Smurfing” is a form of identity theft that uses the names of legitimate political donors to report numerous small donations repeatedly without...

efore the recent election, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability asked then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to turn over all Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) relating to ActBlue — not much happened. An SAR is a document that banks file with the Treasury Department pursuant to potentially fraudulent or illicit financial activity. Yellen stalled, presumably in the hope that the Democrats would win the House back in November and halt the investigation. That obviously didn’t happen and the new Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, is of course cooperating with the committee. This may well be what precipitated the sudden departure...

The disappearance of Abdul Aziz Khan was featured on Netflix's 'Unsolved Mysteries.'A young boy who was reported missing in Georgia several years ago has been found safe roughly 1,400 miles away. On Wednesday, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Colorado announced deputies recently found Abdul Aziz Khan after responding to a no trespassing call. Aziz, then 7 years old, was allegedly abducted by his noncustodial mother Rabia Khalid on Nov. 27, 2017 in Atlanta. His disappearance was featured on various programs, including Netflix's 'Unsolved Mysteries.' According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a felony warrant for...

Police arrested a 52-year-old Airway Heights woman Thursday on suspicion of possessing multiple explosives. The woman, Angela Andreas-Miller, faces eight potential charges of manufacturing, possessing or disposing of an incendiary device, arrest records show. Airway Heights police found one device in her apartment at 13660 W. 6th Ave., according to a news release from the department. They found seven more in her car. Police first arrived at the residence to serve a search warrant for alleged identity theft when they found a device, the release said. Those living in the apartment complex were evacuated as a precaution. Court records say...

Company Agreed to Pay $3.7M Penalty for Aggravated Identity Theft and Obstruction Offenses Committed by Hiring Manager Fresh Mark, Inc, has entered into a Non-prosecution Agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio in connection with its hiring manager’s involvement in an identity theft scheme and subsequent obstruction of justice. The company was founded in 1920 and is a nationwide producer of processed meats under the Sugardale and Superior Brand Meats brands, along with several private labels. Between 2013 and 2018, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents arrested multiple Fresh Mark employees who used stolen identities to...

A Hawaii woman who has been missing since she failed to board a connecting flight in Los Angeles sent “alarming” text messages before she vanished, her family has said. The family of Hannah Kobayashi, 30, who has been missing since Friday, Nov. 8, said she felt “scared” in the text messages while staying in L.A. ahead of her scheduled connecting flight to New York City. "Hannah’s last message to us was alarming — she mentioned feeling scared, and that someone might be trying to steal her money and identity," family member Larie Pidgeon wrote on Facebook on Nov. 14. "She...

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign refuses to explain how it obtained sensitive student data in Arizona—later exploiting it for a massive get-out-the-vote effort. On Sunday, the Harris campaign sent unsolicited text messages to students, parents and others affiliated with Arizona’s three major universities about voter registration deadlines. The three affected institutions were Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University. While universities claimed that data could be released under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Republicans in the Arizona Senate have launched an investigation, arguing the law prohibits campaigns from...

BY THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE (Compiled from news accounts, court records, public notices) Last week's arrest of a long-sought accused eco-saboteur pushed the spotlight back on a tight-knit cell of radical environmentalists responsible for a $48 million run of firebombings and other crimes across the West in the 1990s and early 2000s. Six men and five women prosecuted in Oregon received sentences ranging from three years to 13 years. They were arrested starting in 2005 in what the FBI called "Operation Backfire," a task force that tracked down the suspects with the help of an informant deep within the underground group....

bout four months after a notorious hacking group claimed to have stolen an extraordinary amount of sensitive personal information from a major data broker, a member of the group has reportedly released most of it for free on an online marketplace for stolen personal data. The breach, which includes Social Security numbers and other sensitive data, could power a raft of identity theft, fraud and other crimes, said Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the U.S. Public Information Research Group.

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (WATE) — A scheme designed to let foreigners do information technology work as if they were actually in the United States has been unraveled by federal investigators. The investigation claimed that Jefferson City was home to one of several “laptop farms” that helped make the scheme possible.According to court documents, the schemes involved defrauding over 300 U.S. companies using U.S. payment platforms, online job site accounts and proxy computers located in the United States. The Justice Department shared that two people have been arrested and search warrants were executed in Jefferson City, Washington, D.C. and other jurisdictions.Federal...

The Justice Department announced today the seizure of four domains used by the administrators and customers of a domain spoofing service. The domain seizures were authorized pursuant to seizure warrants issued in the Western District of Pennsylvania and were executed in coordination with the arrest of dozens of administrators and customers of the illicit service by foreign law enforcement agencies.“Together with our international partners, the Justice Department has disrupted another cybercrime scheme originating from Russia that enabled criminals to steal from over a million victims in the United States and around the world,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “I...

The independent journalist Peter Bernegger has uncovered what appears to be a massive fraud scheme related to Fulton CountyDA Fani Willis and her campaign funds. According to Bernegger, a large number of people are being used to make campaign donations to Willis — without their knowledge. More precisely, their names and addresses are being used — an illegal tactic known as “smurfing.” It’s structured money laundering for political campaigns. [snip] This is illegal in the state of Georgia. The current count of suspicious donations stands at over $160,000 — all of it apparently “smurfed” into the Fani Willis campaign.

Soros-funded Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is now at the center of a scandal involving her campaign finances. A new complaint filed alleges that nearly half of Willis’ campaign contributions, amounting to approximately $168,000, are linked to illegal activity, including money laundering and identity theft. The Gateway Pundit first reported Fani Willis’ money laundering network back in September 2023. A bombshell investigation has uncovered jaw-dropping connections between Fani Willis and a sprawling web of election fraud and money laundering activities. The investigation, which spans across multiple states and multiple jurisdictions, has revealed a complex network of illicit operations aimed...

At least no one can say that the January 6 committee didn’t have an impact! Greg Abbott, Kristi Noem, Henry McMaster, and their families will have to guard against identity theft for the rest of their lives, thanks to the committee’s work in exposing their Social Security numbers. How many numbers got exposed? “Around 1900” of them, according to the Washington Post, which came from White House visitor logs supplied to the committee. The J6 committee failed to redact those from a spreadsheet released to the public as part of its final report on the riot. Ben Carson, a Trump...

The Internal Revenue Service lost millions of taxpayer records and federal employees don’t know where they have gone. Lawmakers want answers and accountability for the IRS over those documents, which could be used by nefarious actors to steal Americans’ identity. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel raising concerns about the IRS’ inventory of taxpayer records. “The IRS’s lackadaisical attitude towards the loss of millions of taxpayer records containing Social Security numbers, addresses, and other sensitive tax return information is appalling,” the letter said. “The...

The Oregon DMV data breach is just the latest in a long list that affects consumers. State officials confirmed the breach had extended to about 90% of the state’s driver’s license and ID card files. Nationally, millions of people have sensitive information, such as login credentials, bank account info and Social Security numbers, floating around the internet just waiting to be exploited. At this point, it’s safe to assume that some of your information is out there. Now it’s a matter of doing what you can to protect yourself and deter malevolent actors from making you a victim of identity...

Former CA agent helped a man tied to organized crime learn if his associates were under investigation ... A former FBI agent in Northern California who handled national security issues was convicted Tuesday of accepting at least $150,000 in gifts and cash bribes to provide confidential information to a man with organized crime ties, prosecutors said. Babak Broumand, 56, of Lafayette, was found guilty in Los Angeles of conspiracy, bribery of a public official and monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. He could face 15 to 45 years in...

A little background. My elderly singe mother lives locally, in her own home alone, with daily check-ins by relatives, household employees and friendly neighbors whom she compensates for help with her care. A few years ago, she was contacted by someone who identified themselves as a Census worker. She was requesting financial information a little more detailed than the decennial census would require. Mom says that the lady paid her a personal visit to help her fill out the form. My mom is very kind and tender-hearted, which makes her a little blind to scams and quite naïve about many...

A Hawaii man and his wife were arrested for allegedly stealing the identity of two babies who died in Texas in the 1960s, with prosecutors claiming that the duo may have ties to the Soviet-era KGB. "I still can’t believe it happened," 91-year-old John Montague, the father of one of the babies who died when she was 6 weeks old in 1968, told the Associated Press. "The odds are like one in a trillion that they found her and used her name. People stoop to do anything nowadays. Let kids rest in peace." U.S. defense contractor Walter Primrose and his...