What You Need to Know About the Obscure Occult Group Linked to Toronto Murder

The Order of Nine Angles has been linked to crimes across the globe, including a recent murder. Experts say the group has few followers, but an outsized violent reach.

By Mack Lamoureux
TORONTO, CA
28.9.20

VON NEUTEGEM, LEFT, A SCREENSHOT OF THE ONA MONOLITH 

HE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA. PHOTOS VIA SCREENSHOTS.

On September 12, 58-year-old Mohamed-Aslim Zafis was sitting outside of a mosque in Etobicoke, part of greater Toronto, making sure that everyone who entered was wearing a mask. A little after 8:30 p.m., a man walked up to him and stabbed him in the neck. Zafis died in front of the mosque.

Police eventually arrested and charged 34-year-old Guilherme (William) Von Neutegem with the murder, and said he had no connection to Zafis. They also said there was a possibility that Von Neutegem was connected to another murder, that of Rampreet Singh, another person of colour who was stabbed to death on September 7 as he slept under an Etobicoke bridge.

“There does not appear to be any motive" in the killing, police said. Yet, as first reported by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network which monitors Canadian hate groups, it appears that Von Neutegem may have been associated with, or at least had an affinity for the teachings of, the Order of Nine Angles (ONA), an occultist fascist group that has deep ties to neo-Nazism.

Joshua Fisher Birch, a research analyst with the U.S. based Counter Extremism Project, described the group as a “secretive satanic, fascist cult that believes in the use of extreme violence, rape, pedophilia, murder, and terrorism to bring about chaos and the downfall of the modern order.“

Despite being relatively unknown, ONA has been tied to several violent crimes, child porn cases, sexual abuse against minors, and terrorism. In July, Pvt. Ethan Melzer, a 22-year-old U.S. Army soldier found to be an ONA adherent, was charged with numerous terrorism-related crimes after allegedly sharing his troop’s movements with a neo-Nazi/ONA group and a person he believed to be in al Qaeda. The youngest person ever convicted of terrorism charges in the U.K. was found to be reading ONA material. The leader of the Yorkshire ONA cell was sentenced to four years in prison in 2017 for raping a 14-year-old girl.

Von Neutegem’s social media accounts paint a portrait of a person familiar with ONA and the occult. (A police source confirmed to the CBC that the accounts are connected to the accused, and all his social media pages link back to one other and are in both names police gave for him.) When asked by VICE if Toronto Police were aware of the CANH report and they were investigating Von Neutegem’s social media posts as a motive, a TPS spokesperson told VICE News they will “not be commenting.”



THE ONA VIDEO VON NEUTEGEM POSTED ON YOUTUBE. PHOTO VIA SCREENSHOT.

On Facebook, Von Neutegem’ followed several ONA groups’ pages. On Instagram, he posted an image that included a sonnenrad—a black sun—a symbol tied to neo-Nazism and the occult. On Twitter, he followed figures influential in the neo-Nazi world and several more prominent in the alt-right and far-right ecosystem.

It’s YouTube that holds the most significant evidence of Von Neutegem’s seeming affinity for ONA. One YouTube video posted seven months ago by Von Neutegem is entitled "Chant (ONA)." The minute-and-a-half-long video shows a busy altar with meticulously placed candles, pyramids, and other items featuring sigils or runic symbols, and a monolith with the ONA symbol as its centrepiece. A man incants a chant that Von Neutegem attributes in the video’s description to a musical artist who makes ONA music exclusively.

 
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“ONA is a very, very small organization, which is very extreme. It's not commonplace, even in terms of the far-right,” said Nick Lowles, the founder of U.K.-based anti-racism advocacy group Hope Not Hate, who has been researching the group for decades. ”So for someone to have ONA imagery, for someone to have a video where they're chanting ONA chants, would heavily suggest that this person is actively involved.“

If the attack was random, “that's definitely the M.O. of Order of Nine Angles," said Lowles, adding that random attacks are encouraged in ONA literature.

A person familiar with ONA and other esoteric occult teachings and rituals who requested to be anonymous because of a fear or reprisal told VICE News after viewing his social media profile, he seemed to “be on this stuff for years” and was “obviously heavily dabbling in the esoteric and left-handed path.”

For the majority of Canadians, Zafis’ death is the first time hearing about the order. The group was founded in the U.K. in the late 60s and is closely tied to neo-Nazi David Myatt, an influential figure in the far-right who over the years has produced several terror manifestos and been involved in groups such as Combat 18 and the National Socialist Movement, Lowles told VICE. One of the manifestos Myatt wrote was cited as a direct influence on David Copeland who targeted U.K. minorities with nail bombs, which killed three and injured over 100, in 1999. The group’s calendar begins in 1889, the year Hitler was born.

 

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The order has also been linked to accelerationist neo-Nazi groups Atomwaffen and The Base. John Cameron Denton, a leader of Atomwaffen Division, was a prominent ONA adherent and was charged with being involved with a swatting ring and was accused of (but not charged with) sharing child pornography. Earlier this month, a teen in the U.K. pleaded guilty to distributing bomb-making material and child porn online; police found ONA literature in his possession.

Those connected to ONA have produced a huge amount of literature explaining the order’s ideology and rituals. The group remained small and relatively unknown for years, but then the internet came around. Prominent ONA members made their work available online and its influence started to spread.

“The last five years or so has been their golden time, in a way,” said Lowles. “Here was an organization that, up to a few years ago, was deeply secretive, deeply hidden. It was very hard outside of that satanic world to come across them.”

ONA members worship dark gods of a previous age and want to manifest evil in the world through both actions and rituals, including chanting, which they believe will connect them to the supernatural. ONA literature tasks followers with physical tests like living in the woods for six months, infiltrating other groups like the military or extremist groups (“insight roles”), and creating a small cell, or “nexion.” The nexions are decentralized and have been found in several countries, including the U.K., the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, Italy, and France.

An adherent initiates themselves to ONA through their literature. The literature intends for followers to shuck any form of morality or empathy they have—the teenager who became the youngest ever convicted of terror charges in the U.K. had written “shed empathy” in his journal. Some texts promote human sacrifice and the “culling of the mundanes”—–killing humans the group has deemed unworthy of life.

Lowles said the group actively attempts to groom younger members.

The person familiar with the teachings told VICE that if Von Neutegem was an adherent it's possible he wasn't connected to other members. "One person can be a nexion," they said, and, for many, the journey through ONA is “a personal one” they do alone.

 

A BLACK SUN VON NEUTEGEM POSTED TO INSTAGRAM. PHOTO VIA SCREENSHOT.

Lowles said he considers the group to be one of the “most dangerous groups out there because it is so ideologically driven." Lowles and Hope Not Hate are pushing for the group to be banned in the U.K.

“ONA has been able to operate in the shadows for all this time, advocating terrorism, advocating violence, and advocating murder,” said Lowles. “Nothing has ever happened to them largely because they don't operate as a standard far-right group. The police seemingly haven't been able to infiltrate them and ideologically, they don't quite understand them.”

Evan Balgord, the executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network told VICE News that he's concerned Toronto police didn't make a connection between ONA and Von Neutegem.

The secretive nature of the group makes it difficult to estimate the number of adherents but due to its extreme nature and niche subject matter, it’s safe to say it’s small. Fisher Birch said this is one of the cases where the “the danger from the ideology is outsized,” and added if the man who murdered Zafis was indeed an ONA adherent, “it would follow a pattern.”

“Their reach is far bigger than their organizational size,” said Lowles. “You don't measure in terms of numbers you measure in terms of who they're influencing. They are influencing the most violent end of the international far-right.”

Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xg8bmj/the-order-of-nine-angles-the-obscure-occult-group-linked-to-toronto-murder-of-mohamed-aslim-zafis

Canadian Anti-Mask Protesters Marched With Tiki Torches This Weekend
A recent march in Edmonton, which saw anti-lockdown protestors march with tiki torches, shows that the influence of the far-right within the community should not be ignored.

By Mack Lamoureux
TORONTO, CA
22.2.21

A PHOTO SHOWING PROTESTERS CARRYING TIKI TORCHES IN EDMONTON SATURDAY. (PHOTO VIA MARTA PK FACEBOOK PAGE.)

A group of hundreds of anti-mask and lockdown protesters marched the streets of Edmonton this weekend, many with a tiki torch proudly clutched in their hand.

The march, dubbed a Freedom Walk by protesters, followed a rally at Edmonton’s legislature where speakers included conspiracy theorists and a man who has been charged with hate crimes against Muslims.

During the march through Edmonton, protesters chanted “no more fake news,” “no more fake science,” and “we are people.” Many of the marchers clutched tiki torches, which many observers linked to the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 of tiki-torch-wielding white nationalists. 

The decision for the marchers to hold tiki torches in the bright Albertan daylight was made after the media questioned promotional material for the event that featured images of the Charlottesville marchers.

“They knew what that symbol meant. Any claim they didn’t know ended when they continued to use the imagery even after it became obvious that it originated with the Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ torch march and discussed at length in the media,” Kurt Phillips, a board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, told VICE World News. “No one can convince me that this wasn’t an attempt to intimidate who they have characterized as their enemies: government and politicians, public health workers, ‘leftists,’ and others.”

Marie Renaud, an NDP MLA for St. Albert, Alberta, spoke out against the rally and has been lambasted with unsettling messages as a result. One Facebook message told her she will “hang for this plandemic,” warned her the mob is hoping to bring “back corporal punishment,” and advised her to “run while (she) still can.” Renaud told VICE World News this sort of messaging is not new, but thinks actions like this weekend have “gotten people emboldened.”

“I think there are about 50 (messages like that) at last count,” Renaud said. “It’s important to call it out, particularly what happened this weekend... There are people carrying tiki torches. That’s not a coincidence that they’re carrying them. They’re very symbolic.”

Organizers of the rally did not respond to several requests for comment.

It’s not just politicians the marchers are aggressive towards; video taken by journalists at the rally shows protesters being upset at the presence of reporters at the rally and acting aggressively towards them. One video by City News reporter Bailey Nitti shows protesters getting in the faces of cameramen and reporters and screaming “fake news” at them. Edmonton police said one of the organizers of the Freedom Walk was arrested for “causing a disturbance.”A

After the rally Sgt. Michael Elliott, the head of Edmonton Police Association, tweeted that “four members were assaulted at the event & we have had numerous members isolated either due to contracting/close contact.” Despite this—and the obvious references to an infamous whitesupremacist rally—Edmonton police characterized the tiki-torch rally as “peaceful” and respectful” in a tweet. Edmonton police did not respond to VICE’s request for comment.

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network said that the speakers and organizers at the event were a relative “who’s who of the Albertan far-right.” It included Kevin Johnston, a man best known for being ordered to pay $2.5 million to a Toronto restaurateur after spreading Islamophobic conspiracies about him and being charged with a hate crime for targeting Muslims online; Peter Downing, a co-founder of the Wexit movement; Artur Pawlowski, a Calgary street preacher known for anti-LGBTQ diatribes; and Laura-Lynn Thompson, a conspiracy theorist who ran (and lost) for the People Party of Canada in the 2019 federal election and is currently the leader of the Christian Heritage Party of B.C..

Several anti-mask groups backed out of the event because of the organizers toxicity. Phillips, who followed the organization of the rally closely, said the attendees were a mixed bag, which included “biker wannabes spoiling for a fight,” “Qanon conspiracy believers,” anti-vaxxers, and various religious groups.

“The ties that bind all of these groups is, of course, the anti-lockdown motivation, however underlying that is an anti-government mentality that people like Trump contributed to since the pandemic began. Had he advocated for masks and a lockdown, I’m not sure this movement would be what it is today,” Phillips said.

Over the past few months, at least four Muslim women have been attacked in “hate-motivated” assaults in Edmonton. Renaud was emotional when speaking about seeing people with tiki torches march through the city.

“It’s really sad, actually,” she said. “I thought we had learned something. I thought we had learned how important it was to stand up against these things, to stand up against these symbols.”

Multiple public leaders have publicly denounced the rally. Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, tweeted, “Edmonton unequivocally condemns racism, misogyny, and other forms of hate.” NDP MLA Janis Irwin tweeted, “Torches, on a bright sunny day in Edmonton? Why? This is very much purposeful. And it’s disgusting.”

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has yet to condemn the march.

“The premier of Alberta needs to stand up and condemn this sort of behaviour. Condemn this white nationalism, condemn this hatred and racism and bigotry, and stand up and say this is wrong,” Renaud said.

A spokesperson for the United Conservative Party did not return a request for comment on the march.

Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.

ALBERTA

RMA threatens to name and shame deadbeat oil and gas companies with $245 million in unpaid property taxes

posted by Jim Storrie 
February 22, 2021

File this one under oil and gas not loving Alberta back. The Rural Municipalities of Alberta, an advocacy group representing 69 of Alberta’s rural counties and municipal districts, reports that oil and gas companies are refusing to pay about $245 million in taxes that they owe to towns, villages and hamlets across the province.

And their president is prepared to escalate matters further. “The RMA will name and shame these deadbeat oil companies unless this problem is fixed by the Alberta government soon,” said Paul McLauchlin, president of the RMA. 

Photo courtesy of the Orphan Well Adoption Agency.

It’s a huge pot of money for these small communities who are already struggling with the increased expenses and lowered tax revenues of Alberta’s disastrous COVID situation. And it’s not a problem that appeared out of thin air. Last spring, before the distraction of the pandemic, municipalities were already raising the alarm that oil and gas companies were failing to pay their fair share.

The response from Alberta’s UCP government wasn’t to fill the gap, either. In fact the province had already been very aggressively chiseling away at municipal budgets: crown land grants and the Municipal Sustainability Initiative took significant cuts, a huge portion of policing costs were dumped from the provincial budget onto municipalities’ shoulders, and some provincially-collected taxes that were formerly handed over to towns and cities were clawed back by the government.

The MacKinnon report — written by Janice MacKinnon and commissioned by the UCP to provide cover for austerity measures shortly after they gained power —”made it clear that municipalities must shoulder more of the responsibility for major projects,” said Finance Minister Travis Toews back in 2019.

The reaction by the UCP to the RMA’s warnings last spring, in fact, was to let deadbeat oil and gas companies off the hook. Last October the Alberta government gave the industry a three-year tax exemption for any new pipeline or drilling projects, and were set to go even further, proposing a giant tax cut that would essentially zero out all of the missing property taxes owed to these communities. Strong opposition from municipalities put that plan on hold but it’s not gone for good. The UCP administration is continuing to ‘consult’ about just how big the tax break will be—it’s been delayed, not cancelled.

Kenney and the UCP haven’t pushed that tax break through yet, but municipalities still aren’t getting their money. Perverse loopholes in Alberta’s tax laws mean that oil and gas companies can often just get away with ducking huge tax bills. Researching this issue for The Narwhal, Sharon J. Riley pointed out a few recent examples: Stettler having to eat a $4 million loss to a deadbeat oil and gas company in 2019, Big Lakes County cheated out of $6 million through 2018-2019, and Lacombe County left holding the bag for $600,000 in 2019.

If you fail to pay your own property taxes, municipalities can and will go after you in all sorts of ways; they have the authority to put liens on your property and auction it off to pay what you owe. But not if you’re an oil and gas company. Thanks to the rules in Alberta, municipalities have little recourse when it comes to oil and gas deadbeats.

“There is no reason why oil and gas companies should have an option to pay property taxes and face no consequences if they choose not to. Not only does this non-payment impact municipalities providing the infrastructure that those companies use every day, but it is also disrespectful to every other homeowner and small business in the municipality who will see their taxes increase or their service levels decrease due to the irresponsibility of some oil and gas companies,” said McLaughlin.

He’s more polite than we would have been, but he’s right. The oil and gas industry should not have the right to simply decline to pay taxes. And Alberta’s government seems set on heading in exactly the wrong direction, pushing to let this parasitic behavior fly while sticking rural Albertans with the bill, just like they have on the orphan well file.

If you are an Albertan living in a rural community today and you oppose letting deadbeat oil and gas firms skip out on their taxes, it’s time to lean on your MLA. Emails are easily dismissable but phone calls and letters often do apply some pressure. You can find the contact information for your MLA online. 

After a year of the provincial government refusing to help—and watching it actually make matters worse—the RMA is wise to be escalating their response. If they ever want to see a cent of what they’re owed, these rural municipalities need to start playing hardball.

With files from Duncan Kinney.

Mariachi band plays outside Ted Cruz’s home following Cancun trip controversy
Gino Spocchia
Mon, February 22, 2021

A mariachi band plays outside Ted Cruz’s home(@poojaontv / ABC13 / Twitter)

A mariachi band was seen playing outside the home of Texas senator Ted Cruz on Sunday, as outrage continued over a short-lived holiday to Cancun, Mexico during a devastating storm.

According to witnesses, some of Mr Cruz’s neighbours went out on to the street to watch the impromptu mariachi performance Sunday, which was organised by a Houston-based Twitter user, Bryan Hlavinka.

“Just a typical Sunday. Mariachi band in town,” said the Texan in a video shared to Twitter, which showed the mariachi band walking behind him. “Where on our way to Ted Cruz’s house because he feels so bad about missing his vacation.”

The vacation – which was cancelled by Mr Cruz after touching down in Cancun on Thursday morning – came amid widespread power outages, and as thousands remained without running water for the fourth day running.

Mr Cruz admitted afterwards that the vacation was a “mistake”, and that he "was trying to take care of my kids,” who like millions of Texans last week, went for days without power.

“It's unfortunate, the fire storm that came from it. It was not my intention,” he told ABC13. “In saying yes to my daughters to somehow diminish all the Texans that were going through real hardship."

As criticism continued over the weekend, videos posted on Twitter on Sunday showed the mariachi band playing songs outside Mr Cruz’s home in Houston, Texas, as a form of protest against the senator’s actions.

A separately organised fundraiser for a mariachi band to play outside the senator’s home on Thursday has since attracted donations, with proceedings going directly to Texas Children Hospital in Mr Cruz’s neighbourhood of Houston.

Adam Jama, from Carrollton, Texas, who organised the fundraising page, wrote that “no one should go to Cancun and not listen to mariachi”, after Mr Cruz cancelled the planned trip.

“Senator Cruz, being an amazing dad, dropped off his family in Cancun in the middle of a major crisis and came back to Texas to continue serving his constituents,” wrote Mr Jama.

“We want to thank Senator Cruz for his leadership and pay for an amazing mariachi band to perform for him. No one should go to Cancun and not listen to mariachi,” the fundraiser added.




Temperatures reached as low as 0F (-18C) in Texas last Sunday, in what was the worst winter storm to strike the state in some three decades — and with as many as five million people thought to be without power at the worst point last week.

At least 30 fatalities have also been reported in weather-related incidents, leading to one bystander at the mariachi band protest holding a sign that said: “Cruz’s lies cost lives”.

Mr Cruz said in a written statement on Thursday: "With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon."

Mr Cruz later told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity that “I had initially planned to stay through the weekend and to work remotely there, but as I – as I was heading down there, you know, I started to have second thoughts almost immediately because the crisis here in Texas, you need to be here on the ground."

This article was updated to correct the name of the organiser of the mariachi band.

Read More

Ted Cruz under fire after Texas winter storm ‘photo op’ shows him handing out water to residents

‘Say no to your kids’: Houston police chief slams Ted Cruz

Houston Chronicle publishes scathing editorial telling Ted Cruz to resign (again)

CANADIAN VOTING SYSTEM WORKS FOR US

After suing Mike Lindell, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani, Dominion says it will go after others who spread claims of election fraud - and it's 'not ruling anyone out'

Grace Dean
Wed, February 24, 2021, 

Dominion's defamation lawsuit against Mike Lindell is "definitely" not its last, its CEO told CNBC.

Lindell, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani made baseless claims about Dominion's voting machines.

Asked whether the company would sue Fox News, John Poulos said Dominion was "not ruling anyone out."

Dominion Voting Systems' CEO said the company would continue to take legal action against people who spread baseless claims that its voting machines were used to "steal" the 2020 US presidential election.

Dominion has already filed defamation lawsuits against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, the pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, and former President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, seeking at least $1.3 billion in damages in each case.

Dominion CEO John Poulos told CNBC on Tuesday that the filing against Lindell on Monday was "definitely not the last lawsuit."

Dominion has sent cease-and-desist notices and warnings to preserve documents to more than 150 people, The Washington Post reported. This includes the media outlets Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News.

Asked whether the company would sue Fox News, Poulos said Dominion was "not ruling anyone out."

As conspiracy theories sprung up around the election, one posited that Dominion and Smartmatic, a rival election-technology company, developed technology that "flipped" votes from Trump to Joe Biden through a method developed with the regime of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez.

The theory has been thoroughly debunked. But that didn't stop Powell and Giuliani from pushing elements of the theory while filing a series of failed lawsuits seeking to overturn the results of the election. Lindell has also spread misinformation about the machines, saying Dominion "built them to cheat."

A Fox News representative told Insider earlier in February that the network ran several "fact-check" segments "prior to any lawsuit chatter." While several of its news shows reported that there was no evidence of Dominion's systems changing votes, Fox News, in particular its opinion hosts, "questioned the results of the election or pushed conspiracy theories about it at least 774 times" in the two weeks after the network called the race, according to Media Matters.

On February 4, Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News over election conspiracy theories, saying it had "damaged democracy worldwide." Fox News said it fairly reported and commented on "allegations in a hotly contested" election and asked a judge to dismiss the defamation lawsuit.

Insider has contacted Fox News for comment on Poulos' remarks.

Lindell called 'reckless' in his peddling of disinformation

Poulos told CNBC that Lindell's claims were "absolute nonsense," adding that what the controversial CEO touted as evidence was actually "fake documents."

Poulos said the voter-fraud theory had caused "devastating" reputational damage to the company.

He said Americans could be "forgiven for believing" the claims because they were touted as facts.

Despite naming both Lindell and MyPillow in the lawsuit, Poulos said Dominion didn't want to put the pillow company out of business.

"The larger point is to get the facts on the table in front of a court of law where evidence is properly judged," he said.

In the lawsuit, Dominion listed various promotional codes that MyPillow had used to offer online discounts, including "QAnon" and "FightforTrump."

Poulos told CNBC that Lindell used the codes to attract people to MyPillow's website.

In the lawsuit, Dominion said Lindell's voter-fraud claims had caused MyPillow's sales to surge by up to 40%.

But Lindell told Insider he expected to lose money as well over the claims - which he stood by - including an estimated $65 million in revenue this year he attributed to boycotts from retailers including Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl's.

Read the original article on Business Insider

U.S. settles with BitPay for apparent sanctions breaches


A woman explains how bitpay, a company designed to help companies

 use virtual currency, to attendee during Inside Bitcoins: 

The Future of Virtual Currency Conference in New York

By Sarah Marsh

(Reuters) - BitPay, one of the biggest cryptocurrency payment processors, will pay $507,375 to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of U.S. sanctions on countries like Cuba, North Korea and Iran, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

Digital currencies, which are mostly unregulated, decentralized and anonymous, have gained popularity in recent years, especially in countries under U.S. and other sanctions, where they are seen as a way of getting around the global financial system.

Bitcoin touched a market capitalization of $1 trillion as it hit yet another record high on Friday, with world's most popular cryptocurrency hitting an all-time high above $54,000. It has surged roughly 64% so far this month alone, fueled by signs it is gaining acceptance among mainstream investors and companies.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said late on Thursday that it had detected 2,102 instances between 2013 and 2018 in which BitPay had allowed people apparently located in sanctioned countries to conduct transactions worth around $129,000 in total with merchants in the United States and elsewhere.

OFAC acknowledged that BitPay had implemented sanctions compliance controls as early as 2013 but it should have better screened the information it had on customers' location through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and other data it had access to.

"This action emphasizes that OFAC obligations apply to all U.S. persons, including those involved in providing digital currency services," OFAC said in a statement.

BitPay said it had continued to improve its compliance program during the transaction period and since.

"Since our founding, our commitment to compliance has been continuous and unwavering," a company spokesman told Reuters.

The illegal use of cryptocurrencies has long worried regulators and law enforcement, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde both calling for tighter oversight last month.

Increasing regulation is a blow people in countries like Cuba, cut off from conventional international payment systems and financial markets by the decades-old U.S. trade embargo, although traders say they will find a way around it.

While digital currencies are often thought of as a form investment, in Cuba some ordinary citizens buy them to make purchases online as well as to receive remittances.

"It's the country in the Caribbean with most crypto activity," said Alex Sobrino, founder of the group CubaCripto on different social media platforms where Cubans debate and trade digital currencies. "There are hundreds of thousands of Cubans using it."

Reuters was unable to independently verify that figure.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional Repoorting by Tom Wilson in London; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Op-Ed: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has value far beyond $25 an acre in oil leases. Tell Congress.

Deborah L. Williams
Mon, February 22, 2021, 

A plane flies over the Porcupine caribou herd on the coastal plain of the remote and pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

The pure, utter wildness of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will overwhelm you. When I was there one June, I watched thousands of caribou migrating purposefully to their birthing grounds on the refuge's coastal plain. The Porcupine caribou herd had once again traversed 400 miles to reach this incomparable place — remote, pristine, rich with resources for the mothers and their calves.

On Jan. 20, President Biden signed an executive order that placed a temporary moratorium on all activities associated with the auction of refuge oil and gas leases. It was the first of several steps that need to be taken to reverse a terrible mistake involving this publicly owned, irreplaceable national treasure.

For more than 60 years, starting with President Eisenhower, Americans have worked to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, America’s Serengeti. Repeatedly, efforts by the Alaska congressional delegation to open its coastal plain to oil and gas exploration and extraction have been successfully stopped. In 2017, however, during the rush to find money to help pay for, among other things, tax breaks for the wealthy, the Senate voted, by a slim 52-vote majority, to require two oil and gas lease auctions in the refuge.

The silver-tongued argument went this way: Holding two lease sales would generate more than $1.8 billion over 10 years. On Jan. 6 the Trump administration conducted the first of the two prescribed auctions (the second is not yet scheduled). The sale did not, in fact, result in $1.8 billion in bids. It didn’t realize $900 million or even $100 million. The first sale generated just $12 million. No major oil company submitted a bid.

From the private sector, two small companies submitted bids: Knik Arm Services and Regenerate Alaska. Ever heard of them? Of course not. They each won one tract for a total of about 70,000 acres at less than $34 an acre.

In the pitifully attended auction, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a quasi-governmental entity and not an oil company at all, was the only bidder on seven other awarded tracts, totaling more than 365,000 acres. The state-based entity won its leases by bidding the minimum allowed, a mere $25 an acre.

Selling development rights to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most precious and valuable ecosystems on Earth, for $25 or $34 an acre is a national and international disgrace.

How many millions of dollars did the Trump administration spend to prepare for the first lease sale? That number has not been released, but based on other sales I’m familiar with, $3 million is a reasonable guess. This would mean the January auction netted around a measly $9 million.

Here is the good news. Environmental groups have filed compelling lawsuits charging that the processes and documents leading to the lease sale, including the critically important environmental impact statement, were legally flawed. As has happened with other improper lease deals, the federal courts can void these leases.

Congress must also act. Americans want the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge protected for its extraordinary value — to the Indigenous Gwich'in people, and as wilderness, wildlife sanctuary and a still unspoiled, environmentally crucial ecosystem. The coastal plain is the birthing ground not only of the Porcupine caribou herd but also of threatened polar bears. Hundreds of thousands of snow geese often arrive annually to feed on cotton grass. The Gwich'in call the refuge “the sacred place where life begins.” As public land, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge belongs to all of us and to future generations. We still have the ability to keep it intact, flourishing and wild.

Understanding that it made a significant error the last time, one based on grossly incorrect assumptions, Congress now needs to amend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to eliminate the Arctic refuge leasing provisions. No more American tax dollars should be wasted on pursuing reckless leasing in an incomparable area that no oil company of any credible size wants to develop.

We all make mistakes. Let’s thoughtfully, but adamantly, demand that Congress reverse this one.

Deborah L. Williams, a lecturer in the UC Santa Barbara environmental studies department, has worked in the federal government and the nonprofit sector to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for more than 40 years.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP UNDER WORKERS CONTROL

Closing GKN plant 'difficult but necessary', says Melrose boss

Alan Tovey
Tue, February 23, 2021

GKN takeover protest

Melrose has defended its plan to close a Birmingham car parts plant with the loss of 500 jobs, saying it was “one of the difficult things we have to do to make GKN a better business”.

Simon Peckham, chief executive of the company that bought GKN three years ago after a bitter £8bn takeover battle, told MPs that shutting the Erdington site was necessary to improve the “troubled business”.

Giving evidence to the Business Select Committee on the impact of Britain leaving the EU and the industry’s readiness for it, Mr Peckham said Brexit was not a factor in the decision.

“Let's be entirely clear, Brexit has no influence over the decision," he said. "Erdington is one of the difficult decisions as well as the good stuff we do. We inherited GKN, which basically was a troubled business.”

During the takeover, unions raised fears about the new owners asset-stripping the business and closing down British factories.

Melrose gave a series of undertakings to the Government to protect the business, including not selling the sensitive aerospace business and maintaining investment in R&D.

Mr Peckham said his company had “complied with the spirit and the word of every undertaking we gave, but we also said we would make difficult decisions from time to time - unfortunately, Erdington is one of those”.

He added that “it might shock” MPs on the committee to learn the Birmingham drivetrain assembly plant “lost money every single year for the past 10 years, with losses now totalling £100m”.

Mr Peckham added that over the past decade executives “have tried to improve the business, but they've failed”.

He added that Erdington - one of only two GKN automotive plants in the UK - lost a quarter of its market between 2016 and 2019, and that 40pc of its sales would “disappear through electrification”.

This is thought to be partly due to Jaguar Land Rover, a major customer, taking its cars all electric.

Work at Erdington is expected to be sent to the company’s European plants, and Mr Peckham said this was a consequence of decisions by previous management regimes.

“Unfortunately, before we turned up, past management of GKN placed the manufacturing [elsewhere], Erdington's not a manufacturing site, it’s purely an assembly plant. It doesn't have manufacturing equipment," he said.

“They chose to put the manufacturing for EV manufacture in Italy, we didn't make that choice, they did. Now we have capacity in that plant. There's nothing we can do about it. It's a legacy we inherited.”

Unions have vowed to fight the closure, with Unite labelling pledges to protect the business as “at best misleading, or at worst a direct lie”.

GREEN CAPITALI$M

Lloyd's insurer Brit says it will not insure Adani coal mine

The Lloyd's of London building is lit by winter sun in the 

City of London financial district in London

LONDON (Reuters) - Major Lloyd's of London insurer Brit will not insure Adani Enterprises' Carmichael thermal coal mine, it said on Tuesday, adding to a growing list of Lloyd's insurers who have made similar pledges.

Carmichael has provoked controversy in Australia with its plan to open up a new thermal coal basin at a time of growing concern over global warming, in a region that is in need of jobs.

"Brit does not, has never, and will not write any policies relating directly to the Adani Carmichael coal mine itself," Brit said in an emailed statement.

"Brit also confirms that it does not plan to renew any risks involving any other works directly associated with the project."

Twenty-six Lloyd's syndicates have now said they will not insure the mine, according to action group Insure Our Future.

Adani has begun construction at Carmichael together with an associated rail project, with plans to start producing 10 million tonnes of coal per year from 2021.

The coal industry is in the spotlight for its higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions than crude oil.

Many insurers, particularly in Europe, have pulled back from insuring thermal coal, but Lloyd's of London insurers have continued to do so, industry sources say.

This is likely to change after Lloyd's issued its first climate strategy for its 100 syndicate members in December 2020, ending its previous hands-off approach to the issue.

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Jan Harvey)

GREEN CAPITAL$M

UK
Local government pensions invest nearly £10bn in fossil fuels, data shows

Daisy Dunne
Tue, February 23, 2021, 

More than three-quarters of local authorities have made ‘climate emergency’ declarations(AP)

Nearly £10bn remains invested in fossil fuel companies through local government pensions, it has been revealed.

Figures obtained via freedom of information requests show that local authority pensions invested £9.9bn in fossil fuels in the financial year of 2019 to 2020.

That means that each of the 6.8 million people who depend on local government pension funds had at least £1,450 invested in fossil fuels.

The £9.9bn figure is a 40 per cent decrease on the amount invested in fossil fuels in 2017, the analysis finds. However, campaigners have urged councils to fully divest from fossil fuels and instead put money into renewable energy and other areas that benefit communities.

The three local authority pension funds with the largest investments in fossil fuels from 2019 to 2020 were Greater Manchester, Strathclyde and West Midlands, according to the data compiled by Friends of the Earth and Platform, a campaign group investigating the impacts of oil.

More than three-quarters of UK local authorities have made “climate emergency” declarations, and many have also pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2030, ahead of the national target of 2050.

Rianna Gargiulo, a divestment campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Declaring a climate emergency may garner good headlines but too often it seems to stop there.

“Councils can’t make a bold claim about saving the planet while continuing to invest in fossil fuels. Local authorities have the power and duty to ensure local workers not only have a pension for their retirement, but also a future worth retiring into.”

Friends of the Earth and Platform have created a dashboard to allow people to explore their local authority pension fund’s fossil fuel investments in more detail.

Some councils have already committed to fully divesting from fossil fuels, according to the campaign groups. These councils include Southwark, Islington, Lambeth, Waltham Forest and Cardiff.

Overall, the report shows that fossil fuels represent 3 per cent of the total value of the UK’s local government pension scheme.

Companies such as the oil majors BP and Shell and the mining firm BHP are among those to benefit most from local authority pension investments, according to the findings.

Green Party councillor Carla Denyer, who led a campaign that saw Bristol City Council become the first council to make a climate emergency declaration in 2018, said: “Divesting pension funds from fossil fuels is a simple and effective step that councils can take to reduce their own carbon emissions, protect their workers’ pensions, and send a message to the industry that it must change.

“The science is clear – to avoid catastrophic climate change, we must stop extracting fossil fuels. Councils across the country have acknowledged the ‘climate emergency’ but many, including Bristol, still fund fossil fuel extraction via their pension investments. This is not only environmentally irresponsible, it is also financially unwise.”

Experts have warned that the assets of fossil fuel companies could be left “stranded” – or economically unviable – as the world transitions to greener ways of producing electricity.

“Even if fund managers don’t care about climate change, they should still be divesting to protect the value of their investments,” said Ms Denyer.

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Planning to build a new coal mine is like investing in a new fax machine – it takes us all backwards