Corruption is Everywhere > The Biden Family Protection racket; Cleaning up the Ukraine - Now there's a challenge; Prigozhin's DNA found at crash site

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Viktor Shokin says Hunter Biden was recruited by Burisma to

‘provide protection’ while company engaged in ‘illegal activities’

By Patrick Reilly, NYPost

August 26, 2023 9:04pm  Updated

Fired Ukraine prosecutor general Viktor Shokin claims he was fired by the former Ukrainian president at Joe Biden's insistence.

Fired Ukraine prosecutor general Viktor Shokin claimed then-second son Hunter Biden was brought on to the Ukrainian gas company Burisma’s board in order to “provide protection” for CEO and founder Mykola Zlochevsky from criminal investigations.

“I have no doubt that there were illegal activities engaged in by Burisma,” he told Fox News’ “One Nation” host Brian Kilmeade through a translator in an interview that aired on Saturday night.

“It continued to expand and Zlochevsky, who at the time held the post of minister … started bringing in people who could provide protection for him. Hunter Biden was among them and the corruption network expanded as a result,” he said.

Kyiv’s former top prosecutor has emerged as a key figure in the investigation into the Biden family foreign business dealings and accusations of bribery. Shokin’s accusations, if deemed credible, could add fire to calls for a House impeachment inquiry into the president — which could happen as soon as next month.

Shokin claims he was forced out of office in 2016 by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko “at the insistence of then-Vice President Joe Biden” amid an investigation into Burisma Holdings and Zlochevsky, Shokin told Kilmeade.

Biden was withholding much-needed aid to Ukraine in exchange for bribes for Shokin’s removal, Shokin believes.

“I do not want to deal in unproven facts, but my firm personal conviction is that, yes, this was the case. They were being bribed. And the fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing, isn’t that alone a case of corruption?” he questioned.

Biden publicly claimed credit for forcing out Shokin by threatening to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees.

Hunter Biden was on Burisma’s payroll for up to $1 million per year as a member of the company’s board beginning in April 2014.

Shokin was fired in 2016 by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko after he claims Biden forced him out.

NurPhoto via Getty Images

Shokin said he has “no doubts” that the since-disbanded company was engaged in illegal activity.

He said the probe into Burisma was “an ordinary case” with nothing particularly remarkable about it but it demanded “special attention” given the Bidens’ connection.

“It was on a list of cases to merit special attention because Hunter Biden was involved with Burisma and of course, his father, the vice president. Biden at the time oversaw Ukraine affairs for the White House,” he said.

Shokin says Biden’s business interests led to the “full scale war” between Ukraine and Russia.

An FBI informant file made public last month revealed that Zlochevsky claimed in 2016 that he was “coerced” into paying a $10 million bribe to the president and his son in exchange for Shokin’s ouster.

Purported internal Obama-Biden administration emails from 2016 published by Just the News this week showed that officials were shocked that Biden was pushing for Shokin’s ouster as a condition of US aid.

Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer, who also joined Burisma’s board in 2014, told the House Oversight Committee last month that Burisma added Hunter to its board so that “people would be intimidated to mess with them … legally.”

Archer confirmed that Joe Biden met with Burisma board advisor Vadym Pozharskyi in Washington in 2015, and spoke to Hunter on the phone with Pozharskyi and Zlochevsky present at a 2015 meeting in Dubai.

Shokin says he was fired because his office “would have found the facts about the corrupt activities that they were engaging in. That included both Hunter Biden and Devon Archer and others.”

Joe Biden spoke on the phone four times in February and March 2016 with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and once with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk as he pushed for Shokin’s ouster.

Shokin’s office won a court order to seize Zlochevsky’s property on Feb. 2, 2016, the Kyiv Post reported at the time. Shokin was fired on March 29.

It reads like a very high version of the old Mafia protection rackets. Should we start calling Joe - Godfather?

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Another corruption story from the land of corruption...

2 Ukrainian officials misappropriated $1.6 million,

anti-corruption agency says

By Patrick Hilsman

 

Two Ukrainian officials have been implicated in a corruption scandal involving food supplies as part of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's anti-corruption push.

The officials misappropriated about $1.6 million in funds,

according to Ukraine's anti-corruption agency. 

File Photo by Ukrainian President Press Office/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Two high-ranking Ukrainian officials have been embroiled in a corruption scandal as the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky continues its anti-corruption push.

First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotskyi, and an unnamed former deputy minister of the economy were found to have misused about $1.68 million in funds.

Vysotskyi took advantage of the Ukrainian railway company Ukrzalinznytsia for one of the schemes, anti-corruption officials said.

"From March to August 2022, Ukrzaliznytsia overpaid companies participating in the scheme UAH 22.7 million [$610,000]. Having been received, the funds were transferred to a foreign company with signs of fictitiousness for further legalization," the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine said in a press release Friday.

"Draft records outlining the distribution of the ill-gotten gains were discovered during a search at a scheme participant's place," NABU said.

NABU said "he was aware of the actual market value of the products, as he regularly received relevant data from the state statistical service."

Earlier this month, Zelensky fired all regional military recruitment heads after an officer, Yevhen Borisov, was found to have up to $5 million in assets hidden in his mother's name in Spain. The Ukrainian president said the recruitment officers would be replaced by wounded military veterans.

"Corruption in military recruiting will be eliminated. The heads of all regional recruitment centers will be fired and replaced by brave warriors who have lost their health on the frontlines but maintained their dignity," Zelensky tweeted.

In January, Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov resigned his post after a Ukrainian publication revealed he had purchased food for the military at inflated prices. Defense officials claimed the purchases occurred at inflated prices due to a "technical mistake."

Right! The only technical mistake was that he got caught.

Several other officials resigned after coming under scrutiny and President Zelensky responded by barring officials from unauthorized travel abroad.

"It applies to law enforcers, people's deputies, prosecutors and all those who are supposed to work for the state," the Ukrainian president said.

Russia says genetic tests confirm Wagner leader Prigozhin died in plane crash

Crash came 2 months after mercenary leader led mutiny against Russia's military

Thomson Reuters · Posted: Aug 27, 2023 6:20 AM PDT | Last Updated: August 27

Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of Russian private mercenary group Wagner, gives an address in a desert area at an unknown location, believed to be in Africa, in an image taken from a video published Aug. 21. Russian officials say they have confirmed Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Russian investigators said on Sunday that genetic tests had confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner mercenary group who led a short-lived armed rebellion against Russia's military, was among the 10 people killed in a plane crash last week.

Russia's aviation agency had previously published the names of all 10 people on board the private jet that crashed in the Tver region northwest of Moscow on Wednesday. They included Prigozhin, Dmitry Utkin, his right-hand man who helped found the Wagner group, and Wagner logistics mastermind Valery Chekalov.

"As part of the investigation of the plane crash in the Tver region, molecular-genetic examinations have been completed," Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

"According to their results, the identities of all 10 dead were established. They correspond to the list stated in the flight sheet," it said.

Authorities have yet to say what they believe caused his private jet to fall from the sky.

Russian servicemen inspect a part of a crashed private jet near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver region, Russia,

on Thursday. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/The Associated Press)

Putin called mutiny 'stab in the back'

The crash came two months to the day after Prigozhin, 62, and his Wagner mercenaries staged a mutiny against Russian military commanders in which they took control of a southern city, Rostov-on-Don, and advanced toward Moscow before turning around 200 kilometres from the capital.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the June 23-24 mutiny as a treacherous "stab in the back," but later met with Prigozhin in the Kremlin.

He sent his condolences on Thursday to the families of those believed to have died in the crash.

A member of private mercenary group Wagner pays tribute to Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, who managed Wagner's operations, at a makeshift memorial in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on Thursday. (AFP/Getty Images)

Western politicians and commentators have suggested, without presenting evidence, that Putin ordered Prigozhin to be killed as punishment for the mutiny, which also represented the biggest challenge to Putin's own rule since he came to power in 1999.

Since when do Western politicians and media need evidence?

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that such suggestions were "an absolute lie." Asked whether Putin might attend Prigozhin's funeral, Peskov said it was too early to say and also noted the president's "busy schedule."

Wagner fighters played a prominent role in the fighting in Eastern Ukraine, especially in the months-long siege of the city of Bakhmut, despite Prigozhin's frequent, profanity-laced attacks on Russia's military high command over their conduct of the war that culminated in the failed mutiny.

The Kremlin has also used the Wagner Group as a tool to expand Russia's presence in the Middle East and Africa.

The Wagner fighters have now left Ukraine and some have relocated to neighbouring Belarus under the terms of a deal that ended their mutiny.

Some are expected to be absorbed into Russia's armed forces, but many will be angry over the sudden demise of the group's founder who inspired a high degree of loyalty among his men.

Putin paid a mixed tribute to Prigozhin on Thursday, describing him as a "talented businessman" but also as a flawed character who "made serious mistakes in life."

Kuzhenkino, RU

Corruption is Everywhere - Well-Funded Progressive Cabal Ensured 'Protection' for 2020 Election - Time Magazine

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Time Magazine: ‘Secret,’ ‘Well-funded Cabal’ Worked to ‘Protect’ 2020 Election

A cabal protecting the election makes me think of the Mafia offering protection from itself at a price; an offer they cannot refuse.

I believe quite strongly, that similar tactics were used in the 2015 Canadian Election.

FILE - In this March 10, 2020, file photo a box of ballots mailed in for the Washington state primary election are shown at the King County Elections headquarters in Renton, Wash. Ted S. Warren/AP 

JOEL B. POLLAK, Breitbart

5 Feb 2021, 6:42

Time magazine has published a detailed account of what it describes as a “conspiracy” between “left-wing activists and business titans” to create “an extraordinary shadow effort” to “protect” the 2020 presidential election.

The New York Times had reported on the effort in January, referring to the “Democracy Defense Coalition.” The Daily Beast hinted at it in the fall. But the Time article is the most in-depth report at what others suggested was going on behind the scenes.

The article by Molly Ball, titled “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election,” presents the effort as a heroic effort to preserve a free and fair election, and to fend off President Donald Trump’s anticipated claims of fraud.

Ball’s description, however, also matches what she calls a “paranoid” view of an effort to make it difficult for Trump to win:

The handshake between business and labor was just one component of a vast, cross-partisan campaign to protect the election–an extraordinary shadow effort dedicated not to winning the vote but to ensuring it would be free and fair, credible and uncorrupted. For more than a year, a loosely organized coalition of operatives scrambled to shore up America’s institutions as they came under simultaneous attack from a remorseless pandemic and an autocratically inclined President. Though much of this activity took place on the left, it was separate from the Biden campaign and crossed ideological lines, with crucial contributions by nonpartisan and conservative actors.

…

Their work touched every aspect of the election. They got states to change voting systems and laws and helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding. They fended off voter-suppression lawsuits, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time. They successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears. They executed national public-awareness campaigns that helped Americans understand how the vote count would unfold over days or weeks, preventing Trump’s conspiracy theories and false claims of victory from getting more traction. After Election Day, they monitored every pressure point to ensure that Trump could not overturn the result.

…

That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.

Did I mention that I have a tropical island off the coast of Labrador, for sale, cheap?

 

Ball describes the participants in this plan as “democracy campaigners.” It was led by Mike Podhorzer, a “senior adviser to the president of the AFL-CIO,” one of the nation’s most powerful labor unions, aligned with the Democratic Party.

Ball notes:

In his apartment in the D.C. suburbs, Podhorzer began working from his laptop at his kitchen table, holding back-to-back Zoom meetings for hours a day with his network of contacts across the progressive universe: the labor movement; the institutional left, like Planned Parenthood and Greenpeace; resistance groups like Indivisible and MoveOn; progressive data geeks and strategists, representatives of donors and foundations, state-level grassroots organizers, racial-justice activists and others.

By April, she notes, Podhorzer was hosting two-and-a-half-hour Zoom meetings with other participants in the project. They pushed Congress to fund vote by mail, and persuaded Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to “election administration funding.” (As Breitbart News warned, Zuckerberg’s donations looked more like a Democrat get-out-the-vote effort, and was aimed primarily at Democrat-heavy counties in key battleground states.)

The campaign also used legal efforts to change voting procedures during the COVID pandemic, leading to a “revolution” in mail-in voting: ”Only a quarter of voters cast their ballots the traditional way: in person on Election Day,” Ball notes.

The group also used a “nameless, secret project” to fight “disinformation.” Their method was “to pressure platforms to enforce their rules, both by removing content or accounts that spread disinformation.” Ball does not mention the New York Post‘s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, but tech companies, mainstream media outlets, and former intelligence officials leapt in October to call the laptop potential Russian “disinformation,” and to suppress it. Twitter blocked links to the story, and also locked the Post out of its account for more than two weeks. The story was later shown to be true, with Hunter Biden announcing — after the election — that he was under FBI investigation.

The group also decided to exploit the violent unrest that spread across the nation in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May, and took steps “to harness its momentum for the election without allowing it to be co-opted by politicians.”

 

Toward the end of the election, Ball reports, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce set aside old disputes to join the AFL-CIO in creating an alliance to reject claims of election fraud. Ball notes that some Republicans also aided in the effort.

As Breitbart News reported at the time, there was a nationwide left-wing movement to unleash more unrest if Trump claimed victory in a close election. Ball’s reporting confirms that the “shadow” effort was coordinating such efforts. She adds that the “national mobilization network” was told to “stand down” after it appeared Biden would be the winner.

Later, she says, Podhorzer’s network decided to make sure there were few counter-demonstrators at the January 6 “Stop the Steal” demonstration in Washington, DC, ensuring that blame for what happened would be placed on Trump alone.

Read the full article here.

Record 12 Billion Rubles in CASH Seized from Arrested FSB Officer

Being a colonel in Russia's FSB probably pays well, but not that well!
Corruption is Everywhere - Definitely in Russian Police Services

FILE PHOTO. ©  Global Look Press / Silas Stein

Some 12 billion rubles ($185 million) in cash has been reportedly seized from an FSB colonel facing charges of large scale corruption – overshadowing the notorious case of Colonel Zakharchenko and his record of 8.5 billion rubles.

The piles of cash – literally – were discovered at three apartments belonging to FSB Colonel Kirill Cherkalin and, allegedly, to his allies, Russian media reported on Friday, citing sources close to the investigation. Aside from cash, a whole collection of luxury wristwatches and other treasures were seized as well.

The funds were allegedly provided to the official and two of his accomplices by various banks and other businesses for “protection.”

“We believe these funds have been received for a general ‘patronage’ from representatives of several commercial firms, first of all from directors of banks,” a source told Rosbalt.

On Thursday, Colonel Cherkalin, who has served as the head of the FSB department on cyber security in the banking sphere, was charged with receiving a hefty bribe of $850 thousand (some 55 million rubles) from a commercial firm. Cherkalin and his two accomplices – both of them are retired FSB Colonels – were arrested earlier this year and remain in custody by court ruling.

Col. Cherkalin resisted arrest and wound up with a broken arm.

If confirmed, the sum of 12 billion rubles will mark the largest-ever amount of cash, seized from a corrupt official in Russia. Prior to this, the dubious ‘record’ was held by police colonel, Dmitry Zakharchenko.

While holding a senior anti-corruption post, Zakharchenko managed to amass a whopping 8.5 billion rubles (some $ 131.5 million) in cash, allegedly extorting bribes from various businessmen. The hearings on the Zakharchenko case continue, earlier this week a prosecutor asked the court to sentence the former law enforcer to 15 and a half years behind bars.

‘Game-changer’: European Parliament Votes in Favor of ‘Dropping Charges’ Against Snowden

Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
© Vincent Kessler / Reuters

The majority of European Parliament members have voted in favor of asking constituent states to grant protection to whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has described the move as a ‘game-changer’ and a ‘chance to move forward’.

MEPs have urged EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender,” a European Parliament press release stated.

The call was not unequivocal, however, with 285 MEPs voting for the motion and 281 against, showing just how divided the European political elite remains on the issue.

Still, it’s a victory for Snowden, who sees the result of the voting as a “game-changer.”

“This is not a blow against the US Government, but an open hand extended by friends. It is a chance to move forward,” he wrote on Twitter.

Even a slim majority voting in favor of Snowden means a lot, according to Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden’s lawyer in Russia.

“The resolution of the EU parliament is recognition of Edward’s [Snowden] merits to the mankind, his courage and honesty of his position,” he said as cited by the Interfax news agency.

The European Parliament thoroughly studied Snowden’s leaks and in March 2014 adopted a resolution to protect the personal data of EU citizens.

“The European Parliament's inquiry into Edward Snowden’s revelations of electronic mass surveillance was the most comprehensive investigation completed to date. This work needs to continue to ensure that civil liberties are defended on the internet too,” Claude Moraes of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Chair of the Civil Liberties Committee and rapporteur on mass surveillance said.

The MEPs now say they are dissatisfied with the lack of action taken following their inquiry. The Thursday resolution, which said that not enough had been done to tackle mass surveillance, received a wider backing with 342 voices for it, 274 against and 29 abstentions.

“EU citizens' fundamental rights remain in danger” and “too little has been done to ensure their full protection,” the MEPs said.

The Parliament has also called on the European Commission to “immediately take the necessary measures to ensure that all personal data transferred to the US are subject to an effective level of protection that is essentially equivalent to that guaranteed in the EU”.

The EU’s parliament is worried about “recent laws in some member states that extend surveillance capabilities of intelligence bodies” – including in France, the UK and the Netherlands.

It is also concerned about “revelations of mass surveillance of telecommunications and internet traffic inside the EU by the German foreign intelligence agency (BND) in cooperation with the US National Security Agency (NSA)”.

The MPs also called on EU bodies to elaborate a strategy aimed at increasing levels of technological independence, improving online privacy, democratizing control over intelligence activities and rebuilding trust with the EU.

The problem of personal data protection has been in the spotlight since 2013, when former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, disclosed mass surveillance programs used by the US intelligence services. Snowden was granted asylum in Russia. He is facing a number of charges in the US, including theft of government property and violating the Espionage Act.

So, how can the US charge Snowden with theft of government property, when that property was obtained illegally. Does a thieve's booty become his property?