Free Republic

Takeshi Ebisawa of Japan, Leader Within the Yakuza Transnational Organized Crime Syndicate, Allegedly Trafficked Nuclear Materials, Including Uranium and Weapons-Grade PlutoniumDamian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Matthew G. Olsen, the Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; and Anne Milgram, the Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), announced the issuance today of a Superseding Indictment charging TAKESHI EBISAWA with conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials from Burma to other countries. In the course of this conspiracy, EBISAWA and his confederates showed samples of nuclear...

In 2009, Russia’s state nuclear agency, Rosatom, began acquiring a Canadian company called Uranium One. It started small—17%—then kept buying. By 2010, Rosatom wanted control. The prize wasn’t just uranium. It was access: to Kazakh deposits, American mines, and strategic reserves buried beneath a 35,000-acre ranch in Wyoming.The deal needed approval from CFIUS, a powerful U.S. committee tasked with blocking foreign threats to national security. On the panel sat the State Department, then led by Secretary Hillary Clinton.That spring, as the uranium deal quietly advanced toward Washington, Salida’s charitable arm—the Salida Capital Foundation—received $3.3 million. It was an anonymous donation.Within...

Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded guilty in Manhattan, New York, today to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma to other countries, as well as to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges.“Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who imperil our national security by trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and other dangerous materials on behalf of organized criminal syndicates that the Department of Justice will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security...