Free Republic

"Once the factory is running in 2024 or 2025, another 85 million more tests can be produced each month The Biden administration has signed a $137 million contract with a pharmaceutical company for the purpose of building a factory for COVID-19 test strip materials, a White House official confirmed to FOX Business on Wednesday. But the new facility will not start churning out the materials for three years, according to the company. If the timeline is correct, the deal will not alleviate the administration's scramble to make more tests available in the near future amid a lack of supply for...

In 2018, California resident Steven Childs wanted to know how much the state paid to a single vendor over a five-year period. Instead of the data, California Controller Betty Yee sent him an invoice for $1,250. Childs asked more questions and the Controller’s chief counsel, Rick Chivaro, admitted the state held electronic records and “warrant records” akin to “maintaining a checking account online.”Today, in a Sacramento superior court, the controller denies having a checkbook and claims the warrant register doesn’t contain vendor information. The Golden State is the only state in the nation not to produce state spending under open...

Politically connected First Solar also secured $3 billion in loan guarantees from Obama administration.. A solar energy company owned by a Biden megadonor received a $500 million government loan to build a manufacturing facility in India, the Biden administration announced this week, raising questions about whether the company's political clout played any role in the financing decision. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation granted the loan to First Solar, which is owned by billionaire Walmart heir Lukas Walton, to build a solar module plant in India. Walton contributed over $300,000 to President Joe Biden's campaign last year, and over $100,000...

The White House is warning that the art world is fertile ground for money laundering and other financial crimes as the president's son, Hunter Biden, is raising eyebrows by selling paintings for up to half a million dollars — despite lacking any formal art experience. The Biden administration released on Monday a national strategy to counter corruption, which it noted is the first of its kind. The White House document touches on the corruption-rife art world, noting that the "markets for art and antiquities — and the market participants who facilitate transactions — are especially vulnerable to a range of...

Or do penalties owed the state for the commission of a crime end at the grave? Google can't (or won't) respond intelligently to this query. I've also asked an attorney, he had no answer. All I know is, the penalty for conviction for money laundering in Florida is incarceration in the state penitentiary for an extended period of time, plus the requirement that the convicted party repay to the state double the amount of money originally laundered! Thanks for any insight you all may be able to provide. (Yes, I've pledged a monthly contribution today.)

Vice President Kamala Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined forces on Thursday to promote Proterra, a Burlingame, California-based electric bus company that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm previously sat on the board of and held stock in, which garnered her $1.6 million when she finally divested them 157 days after her nomination. This happened during an event at Charlotte Area Transit System in Charlotte, North Carolina that was meant to tout the “marquee legislation” in President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda — the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package — from two of Biden’s highest-profile cabinet members. While at the event,...

Kyle Rittenhouse claims ex-lawyer ‘set him up’ for Proud Boys pic Kyle Rittenhouse claimed his ex-attorney “set him up” for a photo of him posing with purported members of the Proud Boys and making a hand gesture used by white supremacists. Rittenhouse blasted his former legal team, John Pierce and Lin Wood, saying he didn’t know the “OK” hand signal is now associated with white supremacy and claiming he “didn’t know what a militia was” until after he was arrested. The 18-year-old was seen making the gesture in a now widely circulated picture taken in a Wisconsin bar and used...

administration has produced a clownish energy policy. It is simultaneously suppressing petroleum production in the U.S. and begging Saudi Arabia and Russia to produce more. This is idiotic, but Jennifer Granholm apparently thinks it’s funny. You might think the administration’s energy policies couldn’t possibly get worse. But now the New York Times reports: “Biden Administration Plans Wind Farms Along Nearly the Entire U.S. Coastline.” The Biden administration announced on Wednesday a plan to develop large-scale wind farms along nearly the entire coastline of the United States, the first long-term strategy from the government to produce electricity from offshore turbines. Speaking...

The federal case against him is so strong that prosecutors had no interest in striking cooperation agreements with the ringleader of Spitzer's hooker-supplier, Emperors Club VIP, and his second in command, sources told The Post's Murray Weiss. Prosecutors have records of Spitzer's transactions, phone records and taped conversations with Emperors Club, and are confident they need little more to nail him on charges that could include violating prostitution laws and money laundering, sources said. Probers are also said to be looking into whether he used campaign funds to pay for his pleasures. The case against Spitzer includes the cooperation of...

Fresh off of renewed questions about a grant given to a health organization that worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the National Institutes of Health is in the spotlight for giving grants to a man charged with illegally supplying high-tech medical equipment to Iran.According to a Justice Department news release, Dr. Mohammad Faghihi was charged Tuesday with conspiracy to commit money laundering, unlawful exports of goods to Iran, smuggling goods out of and into the U.S., wire fraud and making false statements.Faghihi, a former associate professor at the University of Miami who was born in Iran, was charged in...

A U.S. Treasury Department official has been criminally charged with leaking confidential documents relating to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the Russian embassy and others, to a reporter from digital media company BuzzFeed, Manhattan federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday. Natalie May Edwards, a senior adviser in the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), was arrested on Tuesday and charged with unauthorized disclosure of suspicious activity reports, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. She was expected to make an initial appearance in Virginia federal court later in the day.

...she is a whistleblower who sent suspicious activity reports to BuzzFeed News after trying in vain to work through lawful channels. Her actions became the basis for the global FinCEN Files investigation. They also described her disclosures as “unparalleled in FinCEN’s history,” having sent approximately 50,000 documents, including 2,000 SARs, to Leopold over the course of a year and running searches within internal systems at his request.

Biden's Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Hunter will not 'discuss anything related to the selling of his art' – even though he will attend two exhibits this fall 'We believe that Hunter Biden, just like any child of a president, should be able to pursue their professions and their passions,' she said at Thursday's briefing Assured Hunter and the White House won't know the identities of the sellers, 'so there's no scenario where they could provide influence' Georges Bergès Gallery confirmed Biden will attend two small exhibits showcasing his large oil paintings, which are expected to go for $500,000 plus...

A man claiming to be an artist vandalized the Soho gallery on Friday where Hunter Biden is having an art show, with paintings being sold for as much as $500,000. The man, who identified himself as Rod Webber, was removed from the upscale gallery by NYPD officers after spray painting 'Daddy' on the wall. Witnesses told DailyMail.com he also threw a pile of bills onto the floor of the gallery. Webber, who has a long history of provocative stunts, had previewed his latest act on Facebook, writing earlier on Friday: 'Art gallery promotes crime family. 'What will happen today is...

Webber is accused of arriving at the West Broadway gallery around 4 p.m. Friday and spray painting Daddy backwards on the wall. He told a police officer “I was trying to paint the phrase, ‘Daddy is a war criminal,’ ” a prosecutor said Saturday at Webber’s arraignment in Manhattan criminal court. He was charged with assault, criminal mischief, attempted assault, making graffiti, and possession of graffiti instruments. Webber, who famously ate a banana off the wall of an installation at Art Basel in Miami in 2019, was released without bail. He was barred from returning to the gallery at 462...

The White House helped broker the deal that would allow buyers of Hunter Biden's paintings to remain confidential, despite widespread concerns it could lead to bribery and influence peddling, it was revealed on Thursday. The plan will allow Hunter Biden to forge ahead with his new career as an artist after a career change from a high-paid consultant on international deals, by also shielding him from the identities of those who purchase his pricey works. The deal came about after Biden administration staffers reached out to Hunter's lawyers to forge a plan intended to 'avoid' ethics concerns and let the...

Hunter Biden complained that 'half' of his salary went to paying his father's bills while he was Vice President including a $190-a-month AT&T phone bill, newly unearthed emails from his laptop show. In 2010, Joe Biden was earning $225,000-a-year as Vice President and he'd already made well over $100,000-a-year for decades prior as a senator and author. But Hunter, according to emails obtained by The New York Post, had to foot a $190-a-month AT&T phone bill for his father, and pay for repairs to his lakeside property in Wilmington, Delaware. At the time, Hunter was working as the interim CEO...

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on June 9 launched a nationwide campaign to prevent cross-border money laundering using virtual currencies (cryptocurrencies). This is the fifth time for such action and part of the CCP’s recent efforts to prevent capital flight and guard against financial risks. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC), China’s central bank, said on June 1 that revisions to the Anti-Money Laundering Act were included in the legislative work plan of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and that it is soliciting public opinion before June 30. The statement stressed that revisions to the act are...

When news came out about crackhead Hunter Biden suddenly taking up yet another career as a full-time "artist," all I could think of at the time was that this was a cleverly disguised means of taking bribes. Sell a painting at an inflated price, pocket the cash from the special interest, then return the political favor through the Big Guy. No one would be able to prove a thing. Now that some of the prices of Biden's pieces are coming out, let's just say the suspicion grows. According to Breitbart News: President Joe Biden’s scandal-plagued son Hunter Biden is reportedly...

President Joe Biden’s scandal-plagued son Hunter Biden is reportedly now engaged as a “full-time artist” and is working with Soho art dealer Georges Bergès to hold an exhibition in New York in the coming months, with prices for Hunter’s artwork ranging from $75,000 to $500,000, according to Artnet. Amid years of scandal, the 51-year-old Hunter Biden is apparently now “laying low” in his Los Angeles home while working on his artwork. Bergès, his dealer, plans to host a “private viewing for Biden in Los Angeles this fall, followed by an exhibition in New York.” Bergès told Artnet that prices for...