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<p>NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. federal court documents show Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández and some of his closest advisers were among the targets of a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation.</p> <p>A document filed by prosecutors on Tuesday in the Southern District of New York mentions Hernández as part of a group of individuals investigated by the DEA since about 2013 for participating “in large-scale drug-trafficking and money laundering activities relating to the importation of cocaine into the United States”.</p>

The Trump administration has removed or reassigned several top career officials in the Justice Department’s national security and criminal divisions, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.Two of the people said that at least 15 experienced career staffers across several divisions were removed from their positions and reassigned, a sign that the new president and his aides plan to carry out their promises to dramatically reshape the agency, including to focus more on immigration enforcement.As a way to skirt legal protections afforded to career staffers, many of the...

Iran, Turkey, and Venezuela's Super Facilitator: Who Is Slex Saab? On June 12, Alex Nain Saab Morán, a Colombian businessman of Lebanese  descent, was arrested at Amílcar Cabral International airport in Cape Verde. This was a huge blow to the Maduro regime’s illicit networks, as Saab is a key facilitator, involved in alleged corrupt dealings and money laundering in Venezuela since 2004.  His arrest was made after years of investigations on behalf of the U.S. and Colombia to uncover a myriad of shell companies that Saab; his business partner, Alvaro Pulido Vargas; and family members set up. Considered a fugitive in Colombia,...

A widening investigation into allegations of high-level corruption on the island of Malta, first levelled by murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, stretches to China and a $400 million investment into Europe by a Chinese state power company, Reuters has found. Caruana Galizia was murdered in October 2017 as she investigated a web of companies that she believed were funneling bribes to Maltese politicians. Now, Reuters and a consortium of journalists have traced two firms involved in that web to relatives of a senior Chinese executive for Accenture, the global consultancy firm. The executive, 43-year-old Chen Cheng from Shanghai, negotiated investments...

“Hundreds of billions of dollars are lost every year because people like the defendant choose to shirk their responsibilities as taxpayers,” prosecutors wrote. “Put bluntly, meaningful sentences must be given in cases such as this to forewarn others of the consequences for engaging in multi-year tax fraud.”The New York Times, in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, reported on von der Goltz’s work with Mossack Fonseca in June 2016. One day after the story, prosecutors said, von der Goltz left a voicemail with Gaffey.“Unfortunately,” von der Goltz said, “with the interview I had with the IRS [Internal Revenue...

A criminal complaint was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares (Luis Martinelli Linares) and Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares (Ricardo Martinelli Linares) for their roles in a massive bribery and money laundering scheme involving Odebrecht S.A. (Odebrecht), a Brazil-based global construction conglomerate. On Dec. 21, 2016, Odebrecht pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of New York to a criminal information charging it with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for its involvement in the bribery and money laundering scheme. The overarching Odebrecht scheme involved the payment of...

MaltaÂ’s martyr: The long shadow cast by the assassination of islandÂ’s investigative reporter PUBLISHED: 13:00 12 October 2019 CAROLINE MUSCAT Police inspect the wreckage of a car bomb believed to have killed journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia close to her home in Bidnija, Malta. Photo :STR/AFP/Getty Images Police inspect the wreckage of a car bomb believed to have killed journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia close to her home in Bidnija, Malta. Photo :STR/AFP/Getty Images Two years after the archipelagoÂ’s most famous journalist was blown up by a car bomb, calls for justice are louder than ever. CAROLINE MUSCAT...

A Massachusetts-based accountant who was charged along with three others in connection with a decades-long criminal scheme perpetrated by Mossack Fonseca & Co. (Mossack Fonseca), a Panamanian-based global law firm, and its related entities, pleaded guilty today to wire and tax fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft and other charges. Richard Gaffey, aka “Dick Gaffey,” 75, of Medfield, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit tax evasion and to defraud the United States, one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, four counts of willful failure to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial...

In May, 2000, Senatorial candidate Hillary Clinton received a $1,000 donation from American Muslim Council (AMC) founder Abdurahman Alamoudi,(1) a Falls Church, Virginia Muslim Brotherhood member and Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda supporter who was also the first president of the Islamic Society of Boston mosque, later attended by Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.(2) Alamoudi, an Eritrean immigrant who came to the United States in 1979 and became a naturalized citizen in 1996, was convicted to 23 years in prison in 2004 for illegal financial dealings with that included raising funds from the Libyan government for a 2003...

[Subtitle: “I hope that my story will help you understand the methods of Russian operatives in Washington and how they use U.S. enablers to achieve major foreign policy goals without disclosing those interests,” Browder writes.]The financier Bill Browder has emerged as an unlikely central player in the ongoing investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Sergei Magnitsky, an attorney Browder hired to investigate official corruption, died in Russian custody in 2009. Congress subsequently imposed sanctions on the officials it held responsible for his death, passing the Magnitsky Act in 2012. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government retaliated, among other ways,...

A former U.S. resident and taxpayer who was charged along with three others in connection with a decades-long criminal scheme perpetrated by Mossack Fonseca & Co. (Mossack Fonseca), a Panamanian-based global law firm, and its related entities, pleaded guilty today to wire and tax fraud, money laundering, false statements and other charges. Harald Joachim von der Goltz, aka “H.J von der Goltz,” “Johan von der Goltz,” “Jochen von der Goltz,” “Tica,” and “Tika,” 82, a citizen of Germany and Guatemala who last resided in Needham, Massachusetts, and Key Biscayne, Florida, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit tax...

While tensions between President Trump and CNN dying down, a new scandal has erupted for the cable news network after Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday he wanted CNN out of the country, accusing it of spreading fake news, misrepresenting the truth and meddling in issues that are not of its concern."CNN, do not get into the affairs of Venezuelans. I want CNN well away from here. Outside of Venezuela. Do not put your nose in Venezuela," said Maduro during a political statement. Quoted by Fox News, Maduro made the comment after blaming the U.S. network of distorting...

LIMA, Peru — A former president of Peru died on Wednesday after shooting himself in the head when the authorities tried to arrest him in connection with one of the biggest corruption scandals in Latin American history. A personal secretary for the former president, Alan García, 69, confirmed his death. The secretary, Ricardo Pineda, also told a Peruvian radio station that as the authorities arrived at the former president’s home with an arrest warrant, he locked himself into his bedroom, shot himself and was rushed to a hospital. The charges relate to Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction giant, which last year...

U.S. prosecutors unsealed Tuesday an indictment against four people affiliated with the Panama City law firm Mossack Fonseca, the first such American charges related to the 2016 Panama Papers leak. The charges, filed in the Southern District of New York, include defrauding the United States, wire fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and making false statements to investigators. An accountant, an investment advisor, and a former client of Mossack Fonseca’s are under arrest while a Mossack Fonseca partner, Ramses Owens, remains on the lam, the Wall Street Journal reports. The American law enforcement action follows a Panama Papers-related raid on Deutsche...

Caruana Galizia had been investigating alleged corruption within the government. Her family and protesters have accused Muscat of trying to shield members of his inner circle from the ongoing investigation into her death. Her journalism-- including her research into Maltese citizens implicated in the Panama Papers -- had made her some very powerful enemies. The Panama Papers are the name for the leak of millions of files from the database of a Panama law firm called Mossack Fonseca in 2016. The journalist had suffered intimidation over the years -- her dog's throat was cut, and in 2006 her house was...

Venezuela's ousted chief prosecutor and her husband — two of President Nicolas Maduro's most outspoken critics — fled the country and landed Friday afternoon in Colombia. Luisa Ortega Diaz and German Ferrer arrived in Bogota aboard a private plane traveling from Aruba, Colombian migration authorities said in a statement. The couple didn't request asylum, according to a senior Colombian official speaking on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to discuss the politically sensitive case. Ortega and Ferrer have long been aligned with Venezuela's ruling socialist party but recently broke with Maduro, publicly denouncing his push to convene a constitutional...

Raleigh, N.C. — The couple at the center of an international money laundering and murder-for-hire case appeared in federal court again on Tuesday morning in Raleigh. Investigators say Tanya and Leonid Teyf profited off a $150 million kickback scheme involving a contract with the Russian military and used the proceeds to purchase their multimillion-dollar mansion. Since December 2010, the couple opened at least 70 financial accounts at four different banks, and wire transfers show money coming into the couple’s bank accounts from countries known to launder money, including Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Panama and Seychelles. Investigators said the Teyfs...

A shoutout to this great podcast. This episode breaks down SPYGATE and recent developments. Description: In this episode I address the scandalous connections between the players in the Uranium One scandal and the recent actions by the Mueller witch-hunt team. This show ties it all together, please don’t miss it.

he House Select Committee on Intelligence is now investigating former Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s possible role into the unverified dossier paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton Campaign, this reporter has learned. The dossier, assembled by a former British spy, laid the foundation for the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion between President Trump and Russia and was the essential piece of evidence used by the FBI to get a warrant to spy on a former volunteer for the Trump campaign. For more than a month, the committee has been in its second phase of investigations...

Car bomb kills journalist behind Panama Papers offshore tax evasion investigation 'days after she received threats to her safety' (Full Title) A journalist who led the Panama Papers offshore tax evasion expose was killed today when a bomb blew up her car. Investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia - dubbed a "one-woman WikiLeaks" - was killed as she was driving near the village of Bidnija in northern Malta. She had filed a complaint to police a fortnight ago after receiving personal threats to her safety, local media said. Caruana Galizia ran a hugely popular blog relentlessly highlighting cases of alleged corruption,...