Free Republic

A winery co-owned by the husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was shuttered amid fraud claims, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said. Comer said over the weekend that the winery had been selling empty barrels to investors under the guise of "wine to be aged." "I can tell you from our initial investigation of Omar and her financial disclosure form that there are multiple fronts where you could get a search warrant issued," Comer told Trey Gowdy on Fox News' "Sunday Night in America." "First of all, not only was there a huge discrepancy in the financial disclosure...

Nearly $2 million dollars donated to the victims of Maine’s biggest mass shooting didn’t go to the victims and instead went into the hands of Muslim groups and left-wing migrant activist groups, according to a new report. After the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 18 innocent people in Lewiston, Maine, in October of 2023, the state’s Democrat Governor, Janet Mills, promoted an organization called the Maine Community Foundation that began taking donations from the public to benefit the survivors of the rampage. Mills endorsed the organization as the only trustworthy place to send donations to help the victims....

The Obama Foundation appears to have an income inequality problem, with the former president’s political allies enjoying six-figure salaries while low-paid workers are fighting for union representation. That’s the conclusion of an exclusive report by Fox News Digital, which tracked the top salary of CEO Valerie Jarrett at $771,000, a number of others in the half-a-million-dollars-a-year range and nearly 200 more pulling in six-figure salaries. Approximate reported top salaries in the 2025 tax filing include: • Christina Tchen, former chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama — $431,000.

‘Racial wealth gap’ – the catch-all phrase that would serve to justify anything the committees wanted When I read that “New California reparations law requires companies to disclose past profits from slavery,” I thought it was a joke. I’ve covered California Democrat’s years-long attempts to pass legislation to authorize reparations. In June, I reported “DOJ Case Applies to California: Reparations Program is Discriminatory and Illegal.” I thought once again, reparations in California is so stupid and factually ignorant – California wasn’t a slave state. Slavery has existed on every inhabited continent for at least 4,000 years of recorded history. And...

The US Treasury Department said Tuesday that it’s imposing $1.2 billion in fines on Bank of America for allegedly violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. The fines on America’s second-biggest bank amount to the third-largest in the department’s history. “When a bank of this size fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls, exposing the entire U.S. financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.” Treasury said...

The Treasury Department announced more than $1.21 billion in penalties against Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the U.S., on Tuesday for anti-money laundering and sanctions violations. The enforcement actions include the largest fine in the history of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the third-largest penalty in Treasury history. According to Treasury, Bank of America prioritized revenue while minimizing compliance resources, despite mounting warning signs. Treasury said Bank of America failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions on time, including activity indicative of Chinese money laundering networks. The bank also processed...

OPINION: Hillary Clinton, of former fame — former secretary of the U.S. State Department, former presidential contender, former Democrat Party presidential primary contender, former first lady — jumped back into the political headline world with a sideswipe at President Trump made during a Barack Obama-Michelle Obama event. The event took place months ago, but she was proud of her wittiness and had to share it with the world. Proud of her pettiness. Proud of her tastelessness. “I was at the opening [months ago] of the Obama library,” she said this past weekend, during a Nebraska Democrat Party event, The Hill...

Substantial sums of hard currency provided to Saddam Hussein from the sale of Iraqi oil allowed under United Nations sanctions have been laundered through banks around the world by a Russian Mafiya boss described in an MI5 report as "one of the world's top criminals." Despite that, Israel continues to allow Semyon Yukovich Mogilevich to travel openly on one of its passports. Even more remarkable, the MI5 description was reinforced by an investigation by Mossad. Its report concluded that Mogilevich is a "major criminal - but has taken great care to commit no crime against Israel." His supply of arms...

Yemen-based Ansar Allah, widely known as the Houthis, continues to have a profound impact on global security. The group’s ongoing operations in the Red Sea affected an estimated US $1 trillion worth of maritime cargo between October 2023 and May 2024, and despite periodic kinetic attacks, its operations show no signs of abating. Moreover, evidence suggests the Houthis enjoy the financial and military backing of Russia and China, in addition to their established ties with Iran. This Insight explores the Houthis’ financing mechanisms, including leveraging technology to evade sanctions and the involvement of foreign facilitators with demonstrable and plausible ties...

Researchers have begun drilling into a mysterious, boat-shaped formation in the mountains of eastern Turkey, hoping an underground robot will unearth the answer to one of biblical history’s biggest mysteries. Members of the Noah’s Ark Scans expedition believe the Durupinar formation, located in eastern Turkey near Mount Ararat, could mark the final resting place of the vessel described in Genesis. “Good morning from the outer rims of Noah’s ark,” the project’s marketing and fundraising director, divisive Christian activist Lauren Witzke, wrote in a Tuesday update. “Core drilling has begun and the big bang evolutionists are already in damage control mode,”...

The media say they have always been concerned about big money in elections. They also say they are very concerned about foreign money in elections, and honest elections, so here is a trial should draw great interest. It also involves a billionaire and stolen money. It has a major movie star, Leonardo DiCaprio, who is testifying about corruption.Yet so far it hasn't. It is too bad that DiCaprio wasn't testifying about green energy. Then it would get major coverage. Or if Gwyneth Paltrow had a ski accident, or if Johnny Depp was getting sued, then it would have had massive...

President Trump’s administration just landed a major blow against the industrial-scale scam networks stealing from Americans. In one coordinated operation, federal authorities restrained more than $52 million in cryptocurrency, sanctioned a Chinese-language criminal marketplace and helped foreign partners dismantle 13 Chinese-run scam compounds in Madagascar. This was not a small cybercrime bust. It was a strike at the infrastructure that allows fraud rings to recruit workers, build fake investment platforms, move stolen money and prey on victims across the world. The target at the center of the operation was Xinbi Guarantee, a Telegram-based marketplace that the Treasury Department says has...

A business owner out of Detroit was arrested by Homeland Security for alleged international money laundering with major drug cartels in Mexico. Officials say 58-year-old Juan Romo-Padilla, who is the owner of Mexican restaurant ‘La Posada' in Southwest Detroit, was arrested on Thursday following a joint investigation by the DEA and IRS. Romo-Padilla faces charges of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, international money laundering, laundering of represented drug proceeds, and violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, announced US Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. According to a federal criminal complaint, agents from DEA and IRS-CI have been investigating Romo-Padilla since 2024...

The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it is creating a task force to take a fresh look at drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations linked to Hezbollah after an investigative report last month claimed that the Obama administration turned a blind eye to such activities to preserve the Iran nuclear deal. The task force, dubbed the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team (HFNT), will begin its work by reviewing investigations stemming from Project Cassandra, a campaign led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) targeting the Lebanese terror group’s actions. According to a Politico report published last month, officials with the Obama Justice...

Given that he deliberately allowed Iran to flood America with deadly drugs and grow its nuclear program, it’s easy to argue that he is. As Barack Obama slowly fades from the landscape, let’s consider how he has helped to destroy Western civilization, especially the United States of America. He did this via his fealty to Iran, which allowed unchecked, deadly drug trafficking into America while giving Iran the time, space, and funds to develop its nuclear weapons. The Obama Administration killed hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing the Iran-founded and funded terrorist organization Hezbollah to operate in the Western...

The David Horowitz Freedom Center is still standing. Heidi isn't.

A vast network of these large NGOs operates as a de facto branch of the government, deliberately designed to bypass the constitutional limits of a democratic republic.This setup creates a highly effective, insulated loop that shifts power away from voters through several distinct mechanisms: 1. Laundering Taxpayer Cash The financial plumbing of these organizations reveals their true nature. Congress regularly appropriates billions of dollars to federal agencies (like the EPA, USAID, or the Department of Energy). Those agencies do not spend all that money internally; instead, they distribute it via multi-million-dollar "grants" to friendly NGOs.The NGO takes the taxpayer money...

After building an ugly, overprice, monstrosity marring the design of a famous Chicago park, anybody surprised to learn that the Obama Presidential Center has failed to pay the help? Multiple little-guy contractors have told Fox News that they've been stiffed on the payments for their goods and services. (snip) Salaries and benefits soared from $18.5 million in 2018 to $43.7 million in 2024, as staffing expanded to 337 employees and annual revenue reached nearly $210 million. But the little guy who smooths the cement or does the gardening or catering or windows and floors gets nothing, and as the video...

African American Contractors Association president Omar Shareef said that a total of seven separate subcontractors have contacted him for help with pursuing missing payments in the past several months. Some of the contractors are owed seven figures. They’re willing to settle for less, as long as they can keep their businesses running.

Taxpayers could be left with a big tab if the Obama Presidential Center experiences financial trouble because its foundation has not yet established a promised $470 million safety net to guard against a public bailout. That according a Fox News Digital investigation of the center’s finances as Chicago awaits its grand opening on Friday, June 19. The outlet’s investigation, published Saturday, found that “multiple contractors and subcontractors claiming losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions on the project, with some alleging they remain locked in payment disputes and face financial ruin…” In an agreement with the city...