Corruption is Everywhere - College Admission Scandals All Over the World, and More

Turkey names banker US convicted of Iran sanctions-dodging

as head of STOCK EXCHANGE

© Reuters / Murad Sezer

A Turkish banker convicted of helping Iran avoid US sanctions has been named head of the Turkish stock exchange in a defiant gesture to Washington as US President Donald Trump threatens Ankara with its own sanctions.

Hakan Atilla has been appointed general manager of Borsa Istanbul, Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak announced on Monday. Atilla, a former deputy general manager at Turkish state-owned Halkbank, returned to Turkey in July after serving part of a 32-month prison sentence. He was convicted in 2018 of five counts of conspiracy and bank fraud related to his alleged involvement in a multibillion-dollar sanctions dodging scheme, but Turkey maintained his innocence throughout the trial proceedings, slamming the guilty verdict as “scandalous.” 

Halkbank itself was hit with a six-count indictment for fraud, money laundering, and sanctions offenses last week centering on the transfer of some $20 billion in Iranian oil and gas profits between 2012 and 2016. Meanwhile, Trump has promised a 50-percent tariff on Turkish steel and cancelled a $100 billion trade deal over Turkey’s anti-terror operation in northeast Syria, while the Pentagon has called on Ankara’s NATO allies to sanction the country. Should Turkey misbehave in some way, Trump warned repeatedly, he would “destroy Turkey’s economy.”

Congress has also begun the process of sanctioning Turkey over its activity in Syria, which is aimed at carving out a safe zone some 30km from the Turkish border to prevent attacks from Kurdish militias Ankara considers terrorists. 

Giuliani's greasy fingers?

Accused of devising a system to smuggle billions of dollars in Iranian funds through US financial institutions, Attila was fingered in 2016 by gold trader Reza Zarrab, who turned state’s witness and worked with the US government to ensnare the banker when he came to the US on a business trip. While Zarrab admitted to lying to federal agents, netting $150 million in profits from the scheme, and bribing Turkish co-conspirators, it was Atilla - who was on a plane with no cellphone service when he was supposedly making the calls that proved his involvement in the setup - who ended up taking the fall.

Zarrab was insulated from the fallout from his own misdeeds by his relationship with former New York mayor and current Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani, who pressed the president to drop the charges against the gold trader.

Bangladeshi MP expelled from uni for hiring EIGHT LOOKALIKES to take exams for her

Woman posing as Bangladeshi MP Tamanna Nusrat / Tamanna Nusrat herself

©  Nagorik TV / Tamanna Nusrat's Twitter page

A Bangladeshi politician has been expelled from university after reportedly hiring a small ‘class’ of her impersonators to take exams on her behalf.

Apparently being unable to tackle the challenge of combining parliamentary work and university study, Tamanna Nusrat from the ruling Awami League party found at least eight female students who looked like her and paid them to pass her university tests. The fraud had been successful for some time. Nusrat - or those acting in her name - managed to pass as many as 13 exams.

The scheme was revealed when local broadcaster Nagorik TV entered a test hall and confronted one of the women posing as Nusrat, turning a personal cheating fail into a TV scandal.

Nusrat, who became a member of parliament last year, was studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree with the Bangladesh Open University. Vice Chancellor of the University has commented on the case, ruling out any exceptions for the MP: “We expelled her because she has committed a crime. A crime is a crime. She will never be able to get admitted here again.”

It is still unclear if Nusrat is to keep her parliamentary seat after a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court suggested, according to local media, the authorities to amend the existing law by including a provision to expel a lawmaker for “this type of immoral acts”.

Test fraud is a common problem in Bangladesh with a history of government addressing the problem at a law enforcement level. Country’s police intercepted a ring of professional exam cheaters in Dhaka in 2012. They facilitated successful test results by sending answers to mobile phones disguised as wrist watches.

So, it's not just rich Americans cheating on entrance exams. Corruption is Everywhere! Is it just me or do rich people seem like the least likely to deserve being wealthy? Probably just me!

4 more USA parents pleading guilty in college admissions scandal

by COLLIN BINKLEY AP 

FILE - In this April 3, 2019, file photo, Manuel and Elizabeth Henriquez arrive at federal court in Boston to face charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal. The couple are scheduled to plead guilty on Monday, Oct. 21. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

BOSTON (AP) — Four more parents are pleading guilty in the college admissions bribery scandal, and a Texas man accused of helping to orchestrate the scheme has also agreed to a plea deal.

Parent Douglas Hodge entered his guilty plea in Boston's federal court Monday after previously pleading not guilty in April. Also scheduled to reverse their pleas on Monday are parents Michelle Janavs, Manuel Henriquez and Elizabeth Henriquez. Each faces charges of fraud and money laundering.

Martin Fox, the president of a private tennis club in Houston, also agreed to plead guilty in a deal that prosecutors announced Monday. He is charged with a single count of racketeering.

Authorities say Fox brokered bribes to help wealthy parents cheat on their children's college entrance exams at a Houston testing site. He's also accused of arranging bribes to get two students admitted to the University of San Diego as recruited athletes, and one student to the University of Texas. He will return the $245,000 he received through the scheme, according to his plea deal.

The four parents join 15 others who have pleaded guilty in the case, while 15 other parents are fighting the charges. Out of 10 parents sentenced so far, nine have been dealt prison time, with terms ranging from two weeks to five months.

Hodge, of Laguna Beach, California, was accused of paying more than $500,000 in bribes to get two of his children into the University of Southern California. Authorities say he paid $200,000 to get his daughter admitted as a soccer recruit in 2013, and $325,000 to get his son in as a football recruit in 2015. Neither played on those sports teams.

Hodge, a former CEO of the Pacific Investment Management Company, is scheduled to be sentenced in January 2020. He apologized in a statement Monday, saying he takes full responsibility for his conduct.

"I have always prided myself on leading by example, and I am ashamed of the decisions I made," he said. "I acted out of love for my children, but I know that this explanation for my actions is not an excuse."

Janavs, of Newport Coast, California, is accused of paying $400,000 to get her son admitted to Georgetown University as a fake tennis recruit in 2017. She separately paid $100,000 to help two of her daughters cheat on the ACT exam in 2017 and 2019, prosecutors said.

Janavs is a former executive of Chef America Inc., a food producer that created the Hot Pocket frozen snack.

Manuel and Elizabeth Henriquez, of Atherton, California, are accused of paying $400,000 in bribes to get their oldest daughter into Georgetown as a fake tennis recruit in 2016. They're also accused of paying to help two of their daughters cheat on college entrance exams a total of four times.

Manuel Henriquez is the founder and former CEO of Hercules Capital, a finance firm in Palo Alto, California.

Lori Loughlin faces new charges in

college admissions scandal

The Associated Press 

Full House actress Lori Loughlin, her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, and nine other parents were indicted Tuesday on new federal charges as prosecutors pressure them to admit guilt in a college admissions bribery scheme.

A grand jury in Boston indicted the parents on charges of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery. The count accuses the parents of attempting to bribe officials at an organization that receives at least $10,000 in federal funding.

The bribery charges carry a possible sentence of up to ten years incarceration along with a fine of up to $100,000, though all of the sentences already handed down in relation to the case have been for far less than that.

All eleven named in the new indictments have previously pleaded not guilty to other charges in the scheme.

It's the second time prosecutors have added new charges for parents pleading not guilty in the case. In April, they added money laundering to the initial charges of fraud and conspiracy.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling in Boston said the latest charges stem from an ongoing investigation. The charges will further his goal of holding the defendants "fully accountable for corrupting the college admissions process through cheating, bribery and fraud," he said in a written statement.

Lawyers for Loughlin and Giannulli did not immediately respond to the charges. The couple are accused of paying $500,000 to get their two daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as recruits on the crew team, even though neither participated in the sport. Loughlin and Giannulli have pleaded not guilty.

Others indicted on the new charge include William McGlashan, who co-founded an investment fund with U2's Bono in 2017, and Robert Zangrillo, a prominent Miami real estate developer.

South Korean court to review arrest warrant for ex-minister's wife over college admission

By Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, (UPI) -- A Seoul court is expected to decide whether to arrest the wife of ex-Justice Minister Cho Kuk this week over charges related to her daughter's college admission and a private equity fund investment.

The Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to review the arrest warrant request made by the prosecution Wednesday morning. Prosecutors have been investigating Cho's wife, Chung Kyung-sim, for two months regarding the college admission process and an $853,970 PEF investment.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office filed the request for Chung, a Dongyang University professor, Monday over 11 charges that include obstruction of business, violation of capital market law and involvement in the destruction of evidence.

This is not the first time the prosecution has requested an arrest warrant for a member of the former justice minister's family.

Earlier this month, the prosecution sought an arrest warrant for Cho's younger brother on allegations of dereliction of duty. The court, however, rejected the request, citing the quantity of evidence and his medical condition.

Eyes are on whether Chung's health will also affect the court's decision. Citing MRI test results, her legal representatives said she has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor and cerebral infarction.

The latest developments come a week after Cho abruptly resigned amid controversy about whether he was suitable for the Cabinet post.

A key architect for President Moon Jae-in's drive to reform the prosecution, Cho was appointed on Sept. 9 despite objections from opposition parties.

For about two months, protesters staged street rallies for and against his appointment and prosecution reform measures.

Supporters of Cho called for thorough reform of the elite investigative agency and branded the prosecution's probe into his family a politically charged one.

Florida Mayor Arrested Just 3 Weeks After Taking Over for Florida Mayor Who was Arrested

Benjamin Sutton, News Breaking

A second mayor has been arrested in Port Richey, Florida, 20 days after taking over for the previous mayor, who had been arrested.

Terrence Rowe, 64, was arrested on charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and use of a two-way communication device to facilitate the commission of a crime.


This was the second time in 20 days that a mayor had been arrested in the Florida town, the first being Dale Massad, 68, who is accused of firing at a Pasco sheriff’s SWAT team that was arresting him on allegations that he was practicing medicine without a license.

You can find our coverage of that story here.

Rowe was acting mayor after Governor DeSantis suspended Massad from office. Authorities say that Rowe’s arrest is an off-shoot of Massad’s arrest, but did not elaborate. 

Dirty Underbelly: Shkreli Fires Off Drug Industry List of Failures

Martin Shkreli, aka Pharma Bro, showed the industry he’s not the guys to mess with after a pharma trade company launched an ad campaign which takes a pot shot at him. Shkreli has fired back with a website listing drug companies’ scandals.

"I’m pretty p***** off,” opens Shkreli on his YouTube post introducing this tell-all website, pharmaskeletons.com. “This lobby group, PhRMA, thinks it’s a good idea to come after me for the industry’s problems. So I made a website called Pharmaskeletons.com, and you can see the industry has quite a history of problems.”

The link above did not work for me, Shkreli may have taken the site down. Below is a 10:33 rant which probably contains most of what was on the site. It is laced with course language so caution advised.

Shkreli said he went through each member of the PhRMA lobbying group and made a website about some of the scandals that have plagued the companies in the past. He mentioned 26 specific drug companies and has harsh words for 25 of them.

“Because to call these companies model corporate citizens would be an error,” said Shkreli.

Shkreli’s website has an alphabetical list of drug companies, with notes and links to stories of some of the drugs that caused scandals for the company, whether for drug prices hikes, or burying side-effects of drugs, or extreme measures over drug recalls.

“Merck. I have a special place in heart to take a s*** on Merck. This is a company that has as their CEO a lawyer who prior to Merck worked at McDonald’s,” stated Shkreli.

“Merck had a drug called Vioxx. They allegedly hid the data that showed drug caused cardiovascular problems. Vioxx is a pain drug. It was pulled from the market. It almost took Merck down. The CEO, I mentioned, saved the company by settling these lawsuits. The fact of the matter is there is a dirty underbelly at Merck that was about selling Vioxx not about caring patients.”

I was on Vioxx for a few months and it worked wonderfully for pain and inflammation, but my heart went ridiculously a-rythmic and I had to stop taking it.

Shkreli gained notoriety when he hiked the price of a drug essential to many HIV patients by 5,000 percent.

What rankled with Shkreli was PhRMA’s new multi-million dollar ad campaign, launched on Monday, which aims to distance itself from Shrekli.

“Much of the public discussion has been myopically focused on drug prices and not on the value the products bring to patient care, the health care system, the economy as a whole. Much of the public discussion has been focused on some guy in a hoodie,” PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl told CNBC, a reference to Shkreli’s trademark attire.

Ubl said the new campaign would show the world the drug industry is about hard work and scientific discovery, not price gouging.

“We want to close that gap. Less hoodie, more lab coats,” Ubl added.

Shkreli fired back at the end of his post on the website.

“Look in the mirror. This website took me half an hour to make, just 'membering a few moments from the past. Pharma is a wonderful industry that does great things, but trying to throw me under the bus is foolish. Let me remind you 90% of your members' CEOs could not hold a candle to me in scientific knowledge, achievements or wealth and entrepreneurial achievements,” he wrote.

Big Pharma needs to work on a pill for humility!

Corruption and Waste in Afghanistan: Role of US Gov’t Exposed in New Report

The spectacular corruption in Afghanistan, which, I believe is common to most 3rd world countries, and the lack of oversight by Americans, resulted in the USA providing materiel support to both sides of the war - a phenomenon that is not so rare and only applicable to America.

Afghan children pumping water from a well

A new report examining widespread corruption and waste in Afghanistan found that the practice blossomed following the US invasion in 2001. The problem was fed by its slowness to recognize the problem and exacerbated by the injection of tens of billions dollars into the economy with very little oversight.

“Corruption in Conflict: Lessons from the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan” examined how from 2001 to 2014 the US government, through the Department of Defense, State, Treasury and Justice and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) understood the risks of corruption in Afghanistan, how the US evolved its understanding, and the effectiveness of that response.

SIGAR was created by Congress to provide independent and objective oversight of Afghan reconstruction projects and activities.

US funding both sides of war

The report released on Wednesday had five main findings: 1) corruption undermined the US mission in Afghanistan by fueling grievances against the Afghan government and channeling material support to the Taliban; 2) the injection of tens of billions of dollars into the Afghan economy was governed by flawed oversight and contracting practices and “partnering with malign power-brokers”; 3) the US was slow to recognize the problem; 4) when it did recognize the depth of corruption “security and political goals” trumped anti-corruption efforts; 5) in areas where it was successful it was only “in the absence of sustained Afghan and US political commitment.”

The report defined corruption as “the abuse of entrusted authority for private gain,” and placed in the context of Afghanistan’s kinship-based society where the gains from corruption often benefited not just an individual but a family, clan, tribe or ethnic group.

Corruption is the system of governance

According to SIGAR about $113.1 billion has been appropriated for Afghanistan relief and reconstruction since 2002. The funds were used by the Afghan National Security Forces to promote good governance, conduct development assistance, and engage in counter-narcotics and anti-corruption efforts.

In a 2010 US Embassy Kabul report on a meeting with senior US officials and the Afghan National Security Adviser, Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta said “corruption is not just a problem for the system of governance in Afghanistan; it is the system of governance.”

The report referred to a 2015 UK research that showed there was weak separation of the private and public spheres which resulted in widespread private appropriation of public resources, vertical- and identity-based relationships had primacy over horizontal, i.e. citizen-to-citizen relationships, and politics was centered around a centralization of power and patron-client relations replicated throughout society.

Opportunities for corruption expanded after 2001 as the amount of money in the economy grew from millions to billions of dollars with the Department of Defense budget at time equivalent to the entire Afghan economy and sometimes quadruple the amount.

“Many of the funds were licit, arriving via civilian and military contracts. At their peak in fiscal year 2012, DOD contract obligations for services in Afghanistan including transportation, construction, base support, translation/interpretation, an private security total approximately $19 billion, just under the Afghanistan’s 2012 gross domestic product of $20,5 billion,” stated the report. “From 2007 to 2014 those contract obligation totaled more than 89 billion.”

Billions worth scandals

During the years of the Obama administration, Afghanistan was rocked by two corruption scandals: The Salehi arrest and the Kabul Bank losing $1 billion.

Salehi was involved in the New Ansari Money Exchange, a money transfer firm that moved money into and out of Afghanistan. The exchange was suspected of moving billions of dollars out of Afghanistan for Afghan government officials, drug traffickers and insurgents. US law enforcement and intelligence investigators estimated that as much as $2.78 billion was taken out of Afghanistan between 2007 and 2010.

“A wiretap recorded an aide to Karzai, Mohammad Zia Salehi, soliciting a bribe in exchange for obstructing the investigation into New Ansari. Reportedly, after US officials played some of the wiretaps for an adviser to Karzai, the adviser approved Salehi’s arrest,” stated the report.

Salehi was arrested in July 2010, but was released within hours on the orders of President Karzai and the case was dropped. The New York Times reported Salehi had once worked for notorious warlord Rashid Dostum and was also “being paid by the CIA.”

“If true, this would suggest a US intelligence agency was paying an individual as an intelligence asset even as US law enforcement agencies were building a major corruption case against him,” stated the report.

The other corruption scandal involved the Kabul Bank, which paid was used among other things to pay the salaries of the Afghan military and police, was found in 2010 to have lost nearly $1 billion of US taxpayer’s funded foreign assistance to Afghanistan. The bank’s deposits had seemingly vanished into Dubai and off-shore locations and unknown offshore bank accounts and tax havens, through Ponzi schemes, fraudulent loans, mass looting and insider loans to fake and bogus companies by less than 12 people who were apparently linked to President Karzai.

Lack of oversight and slow response

Against this the DOD and USAID vetted contractors and implemented contracting guidance to reduce opportunities for corruption and while they were somewhat successful, “they were not unified by an overarching strategy or backed by sustained, high-level US political commitment,” stated the report.

During this time, from mid-2011 to March 2012, the US also sought to explore political reconciliation with the Taliban and to do so the US had to preserve a working relationship with President Karzai to ensure an Afghan government buy-in.

“The US government showed a lack of political commitment. When it became clear the Afghan government was not willing to undertake true reform – because it involved taking action against people connected to the highest levels of political power – the US government failed to use all of its available tools to incentivize steps towards resolution,” stated the report.

Another weakness in tackling corruption was the high turnover of US civilian and military staff “meant US institutional memory was weak and efforts were not always informed by previous experience.”

“One Afghan anticorruption expert noted that US agencies often hosted workshops and training that lasted only a few days, with limited follow-up. He suggested that a more fruitful approach might have been to establish a standing institute to train auditors, attorneys, investigative police and others for year, rather than days,” stated the report.

SIGAR's report quoted Ryan Crocker, who re-opened the US Embassy in Kabul soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks and served again as ambassador in 2011-2012 as saying that "the ultimate point of failure for our efforts wasn't an insurgency. It was the weight of endemic corruption."

The report comes with recommendations for addressing corruption risks to US strategic objectives for future missions. It recommended that Congress pass legislation to make clear “that anticorruption is a national security priority in a contingency operation” and required strategies, benchmarks and “annual reporting on implementation.” It also recommended that Congress consider sanctions and the DOD, State and USAID should establish a joint vetting unit to better vet contractors and subcontractors in the field.

The recommendations for the executive branch level are that interagency task force should formulate policy and lead strategy on anticorruption during an operation and the intelligence community should analyze links between host government officials, corruption, criminality, trafficking and terrorism and provide regular updates.

"In Afghanistan today, corruption remains an enormous challenge to security, political stability, and development," SIGAR said.