LONG READ

North Korea is the most isolated country on the planet, but it still finds ways to steal billions of dollars

ROBIN HOOD NATION TAKE FROM THE RICH GIVE TO THE POOR AND THEY

GOT LOTS OF THEM

Ellen Ioanes
Wed, March 3, 2021, 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches a military parade 

for the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ruling 

Workers' Party of Korea, October 10, 2020. 

KCNA via REUTERS

North Korea faces an array of US and international sanctions that have made it the most isolated country in the world.

But Pyongyang has found many ways to get around those restrictions, relying on smuggling and theft to enrich its leaders and finance its military.

The Department of Justice said last month that North Korea has used cyberattacks to steal over $1 billion since 2015 to fund its nuclear weapons program.

Heavy sanctions, imposed by both the US and the UN, prevent North Korea from participating in the formal global economy. The regime often circumvents these sanctions, mostly through secretive ship-to-ship transfers of luxury goods, chemicals, and coal, which is North Korea's primary export.

North Korea's nuclear program is essential to the Kim regime, and it devotes all the resources it can to increasing and improving its arsenal. The rise of digital currencies has created new opportunities to acquire funds for that effort.

To understand how the regime perpetrates financial crimes online and the threat it poses, Insider spoke with Jason Bartlett of the Center for a New American Security.

Insider: Let's start with an overview of how North Korea avoids sanctions. In my mind, there are three main ways: Through traditional over-land means, hacking, and cryptocurrency.

Jason Bartlett: Over the years we've seen a heavier focus on cyber-enabled financial crime that benefits North Korea's nuclear weapons.

That includes hacking of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and more distribution of malware. There was the WannaCry cyber attack, there was the online bank heist in 2016 of a Bangladesh bank. South Korea experiences numerous cyber attacks against its ATMs and other financial institutions.

What we've seen in recent years, North Korea has been upping the ante of its targets. The leaked FinCEN files from 2020 indicated that North Korea was able to launder money through the US financial system.

We're also seeing reports coming out that North Korea may have been able to hack cryptocurrency through DeFi, decentralized finance platforms, which is a new field for them.

An electric board showing exchange rates at a cryptocurrency 

exchange in Seoul, South Korea, December 13, 2017 REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Insider: Has the proportion of sanctions evasions through online means, compared to overland and ship-to-ship transfers, increased recently, especially after coronavirus?

Bartlett: Time will tell. One of the issues with cybercrime is it is very high gains with low risk, because it is hard to be detected, as we see some of the most high-profile attacks. The SolarWinds attack, by allegedly Russia, we found out about that very late, so there might be other hacks that North Korea has already been doing that we're unaware of.

I would not be surprised if we see that there has been an increase in North Korean state-sponsored cybercrime during coronavirus. One, because of the original track that North Korea was making already with increased online activity, increased cyber-enabled financial crime. Just because of the nature of the world today there's more financial transactions, more people are shifting to conducting their business online and more financial institutions and services are adopting BitCoin and other cryptocurrencies.

But I'm sure that this shift has also been heavily contributed [to] by coronavirus in terms of people relying more on virtual transactions and digital currencies.

Insider: How does North Korea target crypto exchanges?

Bartlett: As far as we know, North Korea has several different cyber-crime forces within its intelligence bureaus. There's the Lazarus group, and there's sub-units within that. Some are just cyber, and some within the cyber field focus more on things like espionage, compared to petty financial crime. We don't know exactly which groups are primarily responsible for which ones - we have ideas.

When it comes to smaller transactions, there are so many loopholes in the cryptocurrency exchanges, and in DeFi because it is not regulated. These transactions never go through human hands or human scrutiny. Everything is automated. If you're able to break into that system, and you're able to manipulate the currency price, which is what North Korea allegedly did recently, then you're able to hack as many of these transactions as you like, and you can up and lower the price of the cryptocurrency that you're using to get as much money as possible.

The thing with smaller transactions is that it typically can be easier to steal, because there might not be as many eyes on it, as opposed to some large exchange in New York, or in Bangladesh, or South Korea ... if you're targeting hundreds and hundreds or even thousands of smaller transactions that are all happening at the same time, and then you're able to just shift the currency as you're hacking it for money laundering, it's a very successful way to hack a lot of money at the same time while keeping it below a notification threshold, which is what North Korea tends to be doing.

US Treasury Department photos show a ship-to-ship transfer with a North Korea-linked vessel. US Treasury

Insider: How successful is North Korea with this?

Bartlett: They're successful usually in the hack itself. With North Korea what tends to be more impressive is its money-laundering ability. Just because they hack a certain amount of money doesn't necessarily mean they will have access to all of that. Sometimes we're able to freeze the assets, [and] we're able to get the exchange back.

So if North Korea were to steal $3 million in cryptocurrency, doesn't necessarily mean that then they'll be able to turn that into $3 million of cash that they can use for weapons. It needs to go through money laundering, and that's when the signals can be more detectable. North Korea has gotten significantly better. It's also received help from abroad. We have the case of the two Chinese nationals that were offering professional money laundering services on behalf of North Korea.

North Korea has incredibly sophisticated hacking techniques, but as a country in itself, economically and technologically, it is not advanced, yet it's able to perform all these tasks. It's very impressive, especially when it's targeting more technologically advanced nations such as the US, the UK, and South Korea.

Insider: In what ways do other countries support these North Korean efforts?

Bartlett: This is also a developing field, but China has had a history of hosting North Korean hackers and hacking groups. There were several hotels in China allegedly hosting North Korean hackers until recently. They were apparently closed down and the hackers were repatriated. But that's very difficult to check. China doesn't necessarily abide by all the UN and US resolutions, especially the ones regarding North Korean sanctions.

Russia and China also have a history of evading sanctions targeting North Korean workers abroad. North Koreans have been able to circumvent sanctions, specifically a US resolution that took effect in December 2019 that required UN member states to repatriate all North Korean workers back to their country due to findings that their earnings were going to the nuclear development program.

But recent UN panels, expert reports have shown that these IT workers are still very active in China and Russia. And in the case of the WannaCry attack, there was a North Korean hacker, Park Jin Hyok, who worked in an IT company in China while he was also conducting these cyberattacks against the UK, the US, and various other nations on behalf of North Korea.

There's also talk of technology exchange. Prior to Covid, there was a lot of student exchange between China and Russia, which obviously doesn't necessarily mean that there will be information-sharing, but we see [it] at very high-level science and technology universities. China and Russia have a history of providing North Korea with technological infrastructure, internet connection, so there's both direct and indirect facilitation.

Kim with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in an undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, March 28, 2018. KCNA/via Reuters

Insider: How do we go from cryptocurrency to, for example, mid-range nuclear missiles?

Bartlett: Just because they hack a very substantial amount of cryptocurrency doesn't mean they get all the cash. Typically, they'll turn it into Bitcoin or very commonly used, commonly transacted cryptocurrency. Then they're able to transfer that into funds, and then they take those funds out and it's cash.

And from that money, after they go through different money-laundering services - which is basically a way of changing the currency and changing the tracking so that it's harder to tell where the money's coming from, where it's going to, what currency is being used - they're able to go through exchanges and withdraw that money in cash. Then they're able to purchase nuclear weapons, pay off other countries or companies that are either helping ship their coal, helping ship some technology to them, or helping ship different parts or chemicals, and pay for oversea exchange.

There are also luxury goods, we see that a lot with Kim Jong Un having these, I think they're some form of a white stallion, Mercedes-Benz, and things like that. It's not just unique to North Korea. There's also countries in Latin America and across the world that hide funds from money laundering in luxury goods that they're able to keep and then sell.

I believe sometime last year, the Treasury issued one of its first statements about a North Korean art exhibit, and how some of this money that they were receiving for this art exhibit was then being used for its nuclear weapons, or they were hiding money in very expensive art. So it's a way of holding onto ... a reserve, and you can just sell this when you need more funds.

Insider: How are nations like the US, the UK, and the Five Eyes tracking these projects and these crimes?

Bartlett: The Treasury Department - so FinCEN - as well as the Department of Justice, have been working very hard to track the efforts and, for example, to issue charges against North Korean or other nationals that are supporting North Korea's cyber-enabled financial crime. It's very difficult, because cyber crime is directly connected to North Korea's intelligence bureau and its nuclear development program, to know just how sophisticated and just how successful it is.

It's unique in that it's one of the only cyber programs in the world that its main goal is not necessarily espionage - that's only one of them. It's more about funds for its nuclear program, because nuclear development is a key aspect of North Korea's political identity.

I think there is starting to be more conversation regarding cyber within the counterproliferation field in the United States. It's a little overdue, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. I think, before then, it was separated, or maybe North Korea wasn't taken as seriously because there's cyber giants, like China and Russia, that have done successful election intervention and espionage attacks. But stealing money to build up nuclear weapons is a grave national-security concern ... I think now [the] US government is beginning to get more research to focus on that field.

The private sector has continued to be very vigilant of North Korean cyber crime. They tend to also be a large target of it. Hopefully now, with this new presidency and a seemingly strong focus on cyber following the SolarWinds hack, following even the GameStop scandal, I think that's something that the US government is going to be incredibly aware of and how important but how fragile and easy to manipulate virtual currencies can be if they don't have the proper regulations and if there's not proper consensus on how these transactions should be conducted.

ICBMs in a military parade for the 105th birthday of 

North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, in Pyongyang, April 15, 2017. Reuters

Insider: How do we keep crypto out of the hands of malicious actors?

Bartlett: I think there needs to be a greater consensus of not just the threat but what resources we already have available to us. I'm not exactly sure how informed cryptocurrency exchanges and companies are of what resources they have available to them ... The government and private sector need to come up with a stronger framework to train each other.

Training that financial institutions and banks that work with fiat currency have for anti-money laundering and hacking - I'm not exactly sure if cryptocurrency companies receive that same level of training, in terms of red-flag indicators of financial crime or suspicious activity, how to report, how to freeze, how to track. That would be the first thing, more of an assessment of what do you know, what can you do?

One of the bigger issues is compliance, having not just US companies but also foreign companies being compliant. If US companies are compliant with law, then North Korean actors and other illicit actors will just go to countries and regions that aren't or don't have the legal framework. ...

Once we establish our own protocols and our own way of doing things, and strengthen our own collaboration with the private sector, then we can export that knowledge, not just to our common actors in the Five Eyes but also with countries predominantly in Southeast Asia where there's a lot of North Korean hackers. I think it'll be very difficult to persuade China and Russia to abide by UN and US sanctions, especially cyber, because you have plausible deniability.

Insider: Is there anything we're doing in terms of retaliation?

Bartlett: A cyberattack against Russia's online infrastructure in retaliation to SolarWinds, or in retaliation against China - and I'm not condoning this - I'm just saying that attacks like that would typically be a little bit more plausible because the countries are connected to the internet.

That's not the case for North Korea. North Korea has an intranet; only select individuals, typically in Pyongyang, typically have access to this intranet and cell phones.

So, a direct attack on North Korea's internet infrastructure won't really have the same effect that it would on us. That's not to say it wouldn't have any effect, but it wouldn't be as strong as it could against other countries. I think the majority of our retaliation efforts tend to be more of freezing funds and freezing assets, which then ultimately affect the economy, making it harder for North Korea to divest more resources into expanding its cyber crime.

A student and teacher look at a computer during a biology 

class at an elite military school, in Pyongyang, June 21, 2018. AP

Insider: It seems like North Korea is always working to stay a little bit ahead of sanctions, so assuming that regulations come in under this administration and security is much tighter, how are they going to get around that?

Bartlett: For the past couple years, the US has been playing catch-up with cyber crime, as opposed to "build up against," so I'm very realistically optimistic in that now, because we have seen, over the years, that the various targets - so, not just North Korean, but Russian and Chinese actors - have on our cyberspace. It ranges from our financial institutions to the security of our citizens and our government, and this is a major threat.

And I think that COVID, because of the shift to more online transactions, more virtual interactions, more widespread adoption of virtual currencies as legitimate forms of payment, there will continue to be a large increase in North Korean cyber crime.

I'm not exactly sure how it will be possible for us to be more ahead of them, because this is a national initiative of North Korea ... nuclear weapons, sanctions evasion, and cyber, because it's high gains with very, very low risk, easy plausible deniability, and you can receive an enormous amount of funds very, very quickly, relatively easily. So I think the next step for us is to really reevaluate our cyber strategy in general, and our cybersecurity - what does cybersecurity really mean for the US ...

On the DeFi platform, that is most likely going to be a new field that will have a high level of risk, because there is no human interaction, there's no regulation, and it's not surprising that North Korea has already started to exploit that, but it is shocking that they're able to do so.

And it shows that North Korea's also thinking ahead, so I wouldn't be surprised if, in the coming months, there is at least talk of ways to introduce legislation or ways to regulate the DeFi platform, or try to have more coordination with the private sector and with the cryptocurrency companies. In terms of DeFi, in terms of SolarWinds, and as well as GameStop, I'm sure that now the US government is realizing that this is a major threat that we have to address now, because these illicit actors have already begun to exploit this.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

Read the original article on Business Insider

PHILIPPINES

One more humiliation for the accused and killed: leased graves that expire

LONG READ

David Pierson, Aie Balagtas See
Wed, March 3, 2021,

A woman visits the tombs of her father and her brother at Navotas Public Cemetery in Manila. The pair were killed in the Philippines' crackdown on drugs. (Aie Balagtas See / For The Times)

There isn’t much in the way of dignity for the dead in Navotas Public Cemetery.

Remains are stacked in cinder-block holes five levels high. Their openings are cemented shut and painted in blue, yellow or pink pastels. Those whose families can’t afford a plaque have their names scrawled in black ink. On days when the humidity and breeze conspire, the stench of decomposing bodies hangs over grounds strewn with trash and uncollected bones.

Such is death for the poor and the accused in an unforgiving land. Yet one more humiliation awaits scores of those buried at the cemetery along Manila Bay. In a few months, the first wave of victims of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs will be exhumed and left for loved ones to relocate.

July marks the fifth anniversary of the bloody campaign in which thousands of mostly urban poor were killed in nightly sweeps by authorities and vigilantes. The raids in alleys and homes claimed the guilty and the innocent. So many of those gunned down are believed to be interred at Navotas that the site has been dubbed Tokhang Village, after the name given to the campaign, “Knock and plead.”

Like many burial sites in Manila, remains can be interred at Navotas only for a maximum of five years because of chronic overcrowding. After that, it’s up to families to pay for a permanent burial plot or a bone crypt. That was a burden few could afford — the average monthly salary in the Philippines is about $300 — even before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed millions more into poverty.

Many of those felled in the drug war are expected to meet the same ending as generations of impoverished Filipinos before: stuffed in rice sacks and stored in charnel houses or dumped in piles, mixed with rubble and gravel on the cemetery floor.

“It is only the poor who have this problem because the rich have spaces in private cemeteries and they rest there forever,” said Danny Pilario, a priest who founded an organization to care for widows and orphans left behind by the drug war. “The poor have to be evicted from their abodes, not only in life but also in death. They are homeless forever.”

With the deadline approaching, family members are frantically assessing their finances in hopes of avoiding a similar fate for their husbands, sons, cousins and uncles.

It is a cruel math shared by many who come to Navotas, a place of few flowers, no repose and whispered words to saints. A 28-year-old woman whose father and brother were fatally shot on the same day in the summer of 2016 arrived on a recent afternoon.

She wiped away tears and sweat in the glare of a beating sun. She bowed her head and prayed, placing candles before the tombs.

She had come to see if a gravedigger had marked the site with an X, the common way families are alerted that exhumation is imminent. Ten years ago, she was stunned to discover a tomb belonging to another brother, this one killed in a gang fight, had been smashed open and his remains removed. She did not know then to look for an X. She didn’t want to make that mistake again.

On this day, there was no marking, but she was told that it wouldn't be long before the remains of her father and her brother would be removed. Not only was their lease expiring, but the land she stood on also would soon make way for a building development.

The woman was one of 15 family members of victims of extrajudicial killings who spoke to The Times for this report. Like most of them, she recounted her ordeal on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the police.

Family members grieve over the death of a suspected drug dealer in 2016. 

(Linus Guardian Escandor II / For The Times)

Her father, 53, and brother, 27, were drug dealers in their neighborhood when they were killed — the elder by police in a raid and the younger by unknown gunmen. The two sold shabu, a cheap methamphetamine known as the poor man’s cocaine that is ubiquitous in the Philippines, a major international transit hub for narcotics.

National disgust for that trade propelled Duterte's political ascent and unleashed a wave of extrajudicial killings. As with most drug war fatalities, authorities claimed the woman's father had resisted arrest. But the woman said he was asleep when police stormed their house and executed him. Guns were planted at the crime scene to support claims that he fought back. The woman’s 12-year-old sister witnessed the killing.

The family tumbled into crisis. The woman’s mother abandoned the family and moved in with another man. The woman not only had to care for her three children, but also four younger siblings and her brother’s two children.

To pay for the funeral and tombs, she sold her parents’ house and the family motorcycle. A former drug dealer, the woman these days lives on church donations and money earned selling tea. Jobs are scarce in Manila, which has been under months of COVID-19-related restrictions, contributing to the worst economic times in the Philippines since the country started publishing national data after World War II.

She needs hundreds of dollars she does not have for a permanent burial site for her father and her brother.

“I have to keep trying because I’m not sure if we can ever attain justice,” she said. “But knowing they have a decent resting place in the cemetery gives me peace of mind somehow.”

A woman prays near a section of La Loma Cemetery in Manila for unclaimed remains. (Aie Balagtas See / For The Times)

The systematic execution of thousands of suspected drug abusers and dealers has shaken the country but has not deterred Duterte, whose term ends next year.

Rather than sink the mercurial leader’s allure, his often vulgar pledges of street justice only made him more popular to his followers. The impunity of the drug war, which peaked in 2016 and 2017, emboldened Duterte to jail political rivals, silence independent media organizations and violently suppress human rights workers.

Amnesty International said an average of 34 people a day, or about 7,000 in all, were killed by police and vigilantes from July 1, 2016, to Jan. 21, 2017. There are no exact figures as to how many people have been killed since the drug war began. But human rights groups say the total number may be between 20,000 and 40,000.

At least 3,000 killings are under investigation by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights. Last year, Fatou Bensouda, prosecutor for the International Criminal Court at The Hague, said her office may investigate later this year to determine whether crimes against humanity had been committed.

In a move widely viewed as a bid to head off international scrutiny, Philippine Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra acknowledged to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council in a speech last month that police had failed to follow standard protocols in thousands of drug-related deaths. That includes examining recovered guns, verifying ownership of firearms or conducting ballistic examinations.

Government critics say the remarks were short of an admission that guns found at crime scenes were planted as evidence.

As more proof of official wrongdoing emerges, calls are growing to keep the dead at Navotas and other cemeteries from being taken from their cinder-block graves.

“It’s enraging that families of drug war victims have to endure this in the middle of a pandemic,” said Rubilyn Litao, the coordinator of Rise Up, an ecumenical group that has documented hundreds of drug war cases. “They cannot even put food on the table.... Their loved ones should not have been killed in the first place.”

With seven children to feed, Rodalyn Adan has no way of paying $67 for her late husband’s remains to be exhumed and transferred to a permanent bone crypt, a resting spot that will eventually cost $21 a year to maintain.

Adan, 32, does not have a stable job but wants to keep her husband at Bagbag Cemetery in Quezon City so that her children can visit his tomb regularly. Her husband, Crisanto Abliter, was 32 when he was rounded up by police on Oct. 4, 2016, and never seen alive again.

“Our [youngest] child was still a baby when my husband was killed,” Adan said. “Our baby is 6 years old now and he’s always asking why his father refuses to get out of the niche. I tell him that it was because he was cemented inside the tomb.”

The improper handling of cases such as Abliter's should prompt the government to stop or delay exhumations, said the Commission on Human Rights, an independent constitutional office.

“Mandatory disinterment of remains from public cemeteries after five years could potentially hinder current and prospective investigations into extrajudicial killings by complicating access to remains whose deaths are in question,” said Jacqueline De Guia, a spokeswoman for the commission.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gave "shoot-to-kill"

orders against drug dealers. (Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press)

Marissa Lazaro’s 20-year-old son Christopher was shot dead by police after he was mistaken for a drug-addled thief as he was on his way home Aug. 4, 2017, in Bulacan province, north of Manila. A medical examiner told Lazaro that her son’s hands were tied when he was killed.

The lease for Christopher’s tomb will expire next year. She wants him to be reburied in a cemetery near the family's home and a park where he used to play. She traveled thousands of miles and took a job as a domestic helper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to help pay for it all. But her employer was abusive. She quit her contract and returned home deeper in debt.

Lazaro knows what it's like for a body to be forever lost. Her father died when she was 9. She does not know where his remains are.

They were exhumed without her mother’s permission. As a child, she often asked her aunts why they never paid respects to him in Manila North Cemetery. They said his body had been turned into “vetsin” powder, or monosodium glutamate. Traumatized by this joke, Lazaro refused to use MSG in her cooking for years, thinking they were sourced from human bones.

She needs $4,000 to move Christopher to a permanent place. It seems an impossible sum.

“My other children tell me: ‘Ma, stop prioritizing the dead.’ But I cannot allow my son to suffer the same fate as my father,” Lazaro said. People killed by the police “already died a gruesome death. Can’t they not have a decent repose?”

She doesn't know if this will happen. But she is signing up to work overseas again.

Special correspondent Balagtas See reported from Manila and Times staff writer Pierson from Singapore.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

A man in New Jersey admitted to working 

with white supremacists nationwide to

destroy properties belonging to Black 

and Jewish Americans


Madison Hall
Tue, March 2, 2021, 

Jewish men stand at the swastas paintiked entrance of the grand synagogue in Petach Tikva, near Tel Aviv in 2006. AFP via Getty Images


A man in New Jersey admitted to conspiring with white supremacists to vandalize synagogues.


Richard Tobin, 19, told investigators he was a member of "The Base," a neo-Nazi survivalist group.


Tobin admitted to launching "Operation Kristallnacht," an effort to vandalize two synagogues.



A man in New Jersey pleaded guilty to conspiring with white supremacists in the US to vandalize synagogues across the country and intimidate Black and Jewish Americans, according to the Department of Justice.

Video: What the clothing and symbols worn by Capitol rioters reveal

Richard Tobin, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy against rights, a federal offense where two or more people conspire to injure or intimidate anyone from being able to enjoy their constitutional rights or US laws.

According to a complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Jason Novick, Tobin is a member of an American-based neo-Nazi and prepper group called "The Base." Members of the group describe The Base as a "White Protection League" and offers survivalist training to resist "our People's extinction" from minorities and uses a Nazi-era symbol as its logo.

As a member of the group, Tobin admitted to launching "Operation Kristallnacht," an effort to vandalize synagogues in Michigan and Wisconsin with swastikas and other Nazi symbols, which were spray-painted in the places of worship. In messages to members of The Base, Tobin implored the assailants to also slash vehicle tires belonging to Jewish and Black Americans.

The name of the operation is a direct reference to "Kristallnacht," or "the night of broken glass," an attack on Jewish people in 1938 in Nazi Germany where Jewish businesses, buildings, and synagogues were destroyed by Nazi soldiers.

When federal investigators interviewed Tobin, he admitted that he regularly had thoughts of becoming a suicide bomber or dying of suicide-by-cop, according to court documents seen by Insider. This was corroborated after the FBI reviewed Tobin's computer and found a search for "svbied," a common acronym referring to "suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device." A further examination of his computer found a document detailing how to create plastic explosives as well as how to arrange barrels inside of a truck to be used as a truck bomb.

Prosecutors suggested in court filings that Tobin's computer showcased his "obsession" with neo-Nazi propaganda and acts of mass violence. The contents of Tobin's computer contained several videos and photos of acts of violence against Jewish people, Muslims, Black people, and others.

Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Philadelphia Division, Michael J. Driscoll, said in a statement that while Americans have their First Amendment protections, beliefs that lead to violence are unacceptable.

"The FBI and our partners simply won't tolerate crimes spurred by hate, which are meant to intimidate and isolate the groups targeted," Michael J. Driscoll said. "People of all races and faiths deserve to feel safe in their communities. Richard Tobin encouraged others to victimize innocent people, in furtherance of his abhorrent white supremacist beliefs. While we all have the right to believe whatever we want, when those views lead to violence, that's a different and dangerous story."

President Joe Biden's nominee for Attorney General, Merrick Garland, recently said at his confirmation hearing that the danger of domestic terrorism is at a high following the Capitol insurrection on January 6 and that he planned to lead the Department of Justice in prosecuting white supremacists in the US.

"I certainly agree that we are facing a more dangerous period than we did in Oklahoma City at that time," Garland told the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing.

Tobin's sentencing is scheduled for June 28, 2021. He could receive up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Read the original article on Insider

THIRD WORLD USA

In 'exceedingly rare' case, Iowa journalist faces charges from reporting on summer protests

Ryan W. Miller, USA TODAY
Wed, March 3, 2021, 11:43 AM·7 min read

The trial of a Des Moines Register reporter who was arrested covering racial justice protests last summer is slated to begin next week in what experts said is a rare criminal prosecution of a journalist on assignment in the USA.


Andrea Sahouri Wiki & Bio - Register Reporter (everipedia.org)
Andrea Sahouri faces charges of failure to disperse and interference with official acts and is set to stand trial starting Monday.

At least 126 journalists were arrested or detained in 2020, but only 14 still face charges, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The group's managing editor, Kirstin McCudden, said it's "surprising and unknown" why Sahouri's charges remain.

Media and journalism groups called for the charges to be dropped, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and students and staff from the Columbia University School of Journalism, where Sahouri earned a master's degree. The human rights organization Amnesty International has also taken up the cause.

"That this trial is happening at all is a violation of free press rights and a miscarriage of justice," the Des Moines Register's Editorial Board wrote in an editorial.

Carol Hunter, the newspaper's executive editor, told USA TODAY that the Register is helping Sahouri fight the charges because they "see it as a fundamental principle ... that a reporter has a right to be at a protest scene to be able to observe what is going on and to report."

Opinion: Trying a Des Moines Register reporter arrested while covering a protest violates free press rights

Sahouri was arrested while on assignment at a mall in Des Moines to cover protests in the days after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died as a white police officer knelt on his neck. Floyd's death provoked unrest across the country, and Des Moines experienced days of protest demanding racial justice and changes to policing.

Police and prosecutors have provided few details about the incident May 31. Sahouri said she repeatedly told officers she was a journalist working in her official capacity to report on the protest.

The Des Moines Register, which is owned by Gannett, the same parent company as USA TODAY, reported that another reporter at the newspaper who was with Sahouri and not arrested corroborated her account of the events.

Sahouri declined to comment to USA TODAY so close to trial. Nicholas Klinefeldt, her attorney, told USA TODAY he could not comment until the trial was over. Polk County Attorney John Sarcone declined to comment as well, citing the pending trial and ethical considerations.

In a statement Aug. 20 to the Des Moines Register, Sarcone said, "We strongly disagree with how this matter has been characterized and will do our talking in the courtroom, which is the proper place to deal with this case."

An arrest report of the incident did not name Sahouri in describing the alleged crimes. The report said the protest had "evolved" and people were "engaging in assaultive conduct, the intimidation of people and destruction of property."

"During these activities, defendant was in hearing distance of the officer giving commands to disperse and failed to leave the area," the report said.

In a video filmed from a police vehicle immediately after her arrest, Sahouri said she told officers she was a reporter and was leaving the area.

“I was saying, ‘I'm press, I'm press, I'm press,’” Sahouri said in the video.

More on Sahouri's case:

Judge declines to dismiss charges against Register reporter but orders state to produce bodycam footage

Sahouri said that she was with her then-boyfriend, who was there for safety reasons while covering the protests, when the arrest occurred and that they were fleeing the area. He was hit by a projectile, and Sahouri was pepper-sprayed before they were arrested, she said. He pleaded not guilty to similar charges.

"I'm just doing my job as a journalist. I'm just out here reporting as I see," Sahouri said in the video.

In a supplemental report, written a week after the arrest and obtained by the Des Moines Register, an officer wrote Sahouri did not identify herself as a reporter until she was in police custody. The report described officers spraying chemical irritants in the crowd.

In court, Klinefeldt argued that his client and those near her shouldn't have been pepper-sprayed because they were fleeing the area. He raised issues around discrepancies between Sahouri's and her then-boyfriend's arrest reports, which are nearly identical but list two different arrest locations despite them being together at the time.

Hunter, the Register's executive editor, said she was surprised and disappointed the charges hadn't been dropped. She questioned the claim that Sahouri disobeyed orders, given that she was leaving the area.

Freedom of the press includes freedom to gather news, including being present at a protest scene, Hunter said.

"Andrea was there as a working journalist, and her job was to be the eyes and ears to the public at a historic moment, witnessing and observing what was unfolding," Hunter said.

David Ardia, a law professor and co-director at the University of North Carolina's Center for Media Law and Policy, said going to trial in a case like this is "exceedingly rare."

The First Amendment does not give journalists a "free pass" to do what the public is not permitted to do at a protest, Ardia said, but police departments and prosecutors, through policies or informal understandings, do not often arrest or prosecute journalists for covering the events.

Ardia said the case sends "a chilling message" to journalists that their rights won't be recognized. “It's clearly sending a signal, whether it's intentional or not, to other reporters: ‘Don't cover protests in Des Moines,’” he said.

Sahouri is one of four journalists who have hearings this month in connection with arrests in 2020 in their capacity as journalists, according to McCudden, with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

In most cases, reporters had charges against them dropped. In Des Moines, the day after Sahouri's arrest, a freelance journalist was arrested, and those charges were dismissed at the request of prosecutors.

More on 2020 protests: Journalists blinded, injured, arrested covering George Floyd protests nationwide

The number of reporters arrested last year – at least 126 – was more than the total number of arrests that the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented in all years combined since its inception in 2017, McCudden said.

In 2019, nine journalists were arrested or detained, according to the tracker.

McCudden said it is "extraordinary" that the case is going to trial, given how few cases get this far. During 2020, especially in the height of the protests, the arrests and detainment of journalists appeared to become an ordinary occurrence, she said.

McCudden described the reasons for the uptick in journalist arrests in 2020 like "onion layers." The majority of the arrests came during the Floyd protests. The period was "a very tense time," coming on the heels of anti-lockdown protests against coronavirus restrictions and in the middle of an election year involving a president, Donald Trump, who routinely criticized journalists, McCudden said.

Sahouri came to the Register in August 2019 as an intern covering breaking news, Hunter said. In April 2020, she started working full-time as a public safety reporter, routinely covering police calls, traffic accidents and weather.

Hunter described Sahouri as "a very empathetic interviewer," who often spoke with the families of victims of accidents or crimes and was "able to make them comfortable enough to share their stories."

In February, she was named one of three winners of the Jay P. Wagner Prize for Young Journalists, an award given by the Iowa Newspaper Foundation.

In a letter nominating Sahouri for the award, Hunter wrote, "Andrea is undeterred. She continues to seek out Iowans’ stories and hold law enforcement and other officials accountable for their actions."

Contributing: Tyler J. Davis, Des Moines Register

Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Andrea Sahouri: Iowa reporter still faces George Floyd protest charges

USA

SUV in crash where 13 died came through hole in border fence

Tue, March 2, 2021,

HOLTVILLE, Calif. (AP) — The 13 people killed in one of the deadliest highway crashes involving migrants sneaking into the U.S. had entered California through a section of border fence with Mexico that was cut away, apparently by smugglers, immigration officials said Wednesday.

Surveillance video showed a Ford Expedition and Chevrolet Suburban drive through the opening early Tuesday, said Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol's El Centro sector chief. The video has not been publicly released because it’s part of an ongoing investigation.

The Suburban carried 19 people, and it caught fire for unknown reasons on a nearby interstate after entering the U.S. All escaped the vehicle and were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents.

The Expedition crammed with 25 people continued on, and a tractor-trailer struck it a short time later. Ten of the 13 killed in that crash have been identified as Mexican citizens. The Border Patrol said its agents were not pursuing the vehicle before the wreck.

The opening in the fence was about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of the crash in the heart of California’s Imperial Valley, a major farming region now at the height of a harvest that provides much of the lettuce, onions, broccoli and winter vegetables to U.S. supermarkets.

It was made of steel bollards that were built before former President Donald Trump blanketed much of the border with taller barriers that go deeper into the ground. Photos show a panel of eight steel poles was lifted out and left on the ground in the desert next to an old tire and other debris.

“Human smugglers have proven time and again they have little regard for human life,” Bovino said. “Those who may be contemplating crossing the border illegally should pause to think of the dangers that all too often end in tragedy, tragedies our Border Patrol Agents and first responders are unfortunately very familiar with.”

The breach occurred in a busy area for illegal crossings near the Imperial Sand Dunes where migrants often climb over an aging barrier and wait for drivers to pick them up, hoping to avoid the scrutiny of Border Patrol agents at checkpoints on highways leading to Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix.

A pandemic-related measure that allows the Border Patrol to expel people without an opportunity to seek asylum potentially leads some to try to evade authorities instead of surrendering, sometimes with fatal consequences. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced expulsion powers nearly a year ago under Trump, and the Biden administration has signaled no plans to lift them anytime soon.

The cause of Tuesday's collision wasn't yet known, authorities said. The Expedition is built to hold eight people safely, but smugglers are known to pack people into vehicles in extremely unsafe conditions to maximize their profits.

Seats in the SUV had been removed except for those for the driver and front passenger, said Omar Watson, chief of the California Highway Patrol’s border division.

The crash happened in an area that became a major route for illegal border crossings in the late 1990s after heightened enforcement in San Diego pushed migrants to more remote areas.

Barely a mile from the crash, there is a cemetery with rows of unmarked bricks that is a burial ground for migrants who died crossing the border.

In 2001, John Hunter founded Water Station, a volunteer group that leaves jugs of water in giant plastic drums for dehydrated migrants.

“I was trying to figure out how to stop the deaths,” said Hunter, whose brother Duncan strongly advocated for border wall construction as a congressman.

Illegal crossings in the area fell sharply in the mid-2000s but the area has remained a draw for migrants and was a priority for wall construction under Trump. His administration's first wall project was in Calexico.

When police arrived Tuesday at the crash site about 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of San Diego, some passengers were trying to crawl out of the crumpled SUV. Others were wandering around the nearby fields. The big rig’s front end was pushed into the SUV’s left side and two empty trailers were jackknifed behind it.

The men and women in the SUV ranged in age from 15 to 53, and those who survived had injuries that were minor to severe, including fractures and head trauma, officials said. The driver was from Mexicali, Mexico, just across the border, and was among those killed.

The 68-year-old driver of the big rig, who is from the nearby California community of El Centro, suffered moderate injuries.

The crash occurred around 6:15 a.m. under a clear, sunny sky at an intersection just outside the community of Holtville, about 11 miles (18 kilometers) north of the border. Authorities said the tractor-trailer was heading north on a highway when the SUV pulled in front of it from a road with a stop sign.

It’s not clear if the SUV ran the stop sign or had stopped before entering the highway. How fast both vehicles were going also wasn't yet known.

A 1997 Ford Expedition can carry a maximum payload of 2,000 pounds. If it had 25 people inside, that would easily exceed the payload limit, taxing the brakes and making it tougher to steer the vehicle, said Frank Borris, former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation.

“You’re going to have extended stopping distances, delayed reactions to steering inputs and potential overreaction to any type of high-speed lane change,” said Borris, who now runs a safety consulting business.

___

Associated Press reporters Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles, Julie Watson in San Diego, Anita Snow in Phoenix, Tom Krisher in Detroit and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contri

Russia brands Navalny-linked medical trade union a 'foreign agent'


FILE PHOTO: Anastasia Vasilyeva, an ally of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, and Ilya Pahomov from the Anti-Corruption Foundation leave a hospital in Omsk

Wed, March 3, 2021, 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Ministry of Justice said on Wednesday it had added a medical trade union with ties to jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny to its list of "foreign agents," a move that could complicate its activities.

The ministry said in a statement it had moved against Russia's Doctors Alliance, which distributes personal protective equipment to medical staff and supports doctors in defending their labour rights, after determining it had received foreign financing on more than one occasion and engaged in politics.

The "foreign agent" label, which carries negative Soviet-era connotations, subjects non-governmental organisations deemed to receive foreign funding for political activity to increased bureaucratic scrutiny and spot checks.

It also requires them to regularly report on their funding and spending, and attach the "foreign agent" label to their publications.

The move prompted outrage among Navalny's supporters, while a spokeswoman for Russia's Doctors Alliance wrote on Twitter that the ministry had not notified it of its addition to the list of "foreign agents."

The group on Twitter later called the justice ministry's statement absurd and said it would continue its work.

The organisation's head, Anastasia Vasilyeva, is an ally of Navalny. She treated him in 2017 after he suffered a chemical burn to his right eye after an assault by pro-Kremlin activists.

Police arrested Vasilyeva in January for breaching COVID-19 restrictions at an unauthorised rally in support of the opposition politician. She was placed under house arrest.

"Does this mean that 'foreign agents' help our doctors while the authorities steal money?" Navalny's team wrote on Twitter. "This shameful government has gone completely mad."

The "foreign agent" law was broadened in 2019 to cover individuals and bloggers, something rights groups say threatens to stifle dissent.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Timothy Heritage/Andrew Osborn)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$T

IG faults Elaine Chao at Transportation over ethics concerns

HOPE YEN

Wed, March 3, 2021, 

The Transportation Department’s watchdog asked the Justice Department to criminally investigate Elaine Chao late last year over concerns that she misused her office when she was transportation secretary under President Donald Trump but was rebuffed, according to a report released Wednesday.

The report said the department’s inspector general found that Chao used her staff and office for personal tasks and to promote a shipping business owned by Chao’s father and sisters, in an apparent violation of federal ethics rules.

But when the inspector general’s office referred its findings to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and prosecutors at the Justice Department who focus on public integrity cases, both declined to bring charges, the report said.

“A formal investigation into potential misuses of position was warranted,” deputy inspector general Mitch Behm wrote in a letter to lawmakers.

Chao, the wife of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, stepped down from her job early this year in the last weeks of the Trump administration, citing her disapproval over the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol by Trump’s supporters.

Chao has denied wrongdoing. In the report released Wednesday, she did not specifically respond to allegations, instead providing a September 2020 memo that argued promoting her family was an appropriate part of her official duties at the department. The shipping company owned by her family does substantial business with China.

“Asian audiences welcome and respond positively to actions by the secretary that include her father in activities when appropriate,” that memo said.

The watchdog report cited several instances that raised ethical concerns. In one, Chao instructed political appointees in the department to contact the Homeland Security Department to check personally on the status of a work permit application for a student who was a recipient of her family’s philanthropic foundation.

Chao also made extensive plans for an official trip to China in November 2017 — before she canceled it — that would have included stops at places that had received support from her family’s business, the New York-based Foremost Group. According to department emails, Chao directed her staff to include her relatives in the official events and high-level meetings during the trip.

“Above all, let’s keep (the Secretary) happy," one of the department’s employees wrote to another staffer regarding Chao’s father. “If Dr. Chao is happy, then we should be flying with a feather in our hat.”

The report found that Chao also directed the department’s public affairs staff to assist her father in the marketing of his personal biography and to edit his Wikipedia page, and used staff to check on repairs of an item at a store for her father.

The IG report said Justice Department officials ultimately declined to take up a criminal review, saying there “may be ethical and/or administrative issues” but no evidence to support possible criminal charges.

As a result, the inspector general's office said in the report it was now closing its investigation “based on the lack of prosecutorial interest” from the Justice Department.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, chairman of the House transportation committee, who requested the investigation, expressed disappointment that the review was not completed and released while Chao was still in office.

“Public servants, especially those responsible for leading tens of thousands of other public servants, must know that they serve the public and not their family’s private commercial interests,” he said.

Inspector general: Ethics questions prompted criminal referral involving Elaine Chao

Elaine Chao

Shawna Chen
Wed, March 3, 2021,

The Transportation Department's deputy inspector general said a "formal investigation into potential misuses of [former Secretary Elaine Chao's] position was warranted," after finding evidence of possible ethics violations, according to a report made public on Wednesday.

Why it matters: The report reveals that the IG last December asked the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to consider a criminal investigation into Chao's actions, citing possible ethical or administrative concerns. Both declined to investigate.

Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

The state of play: The IG found multiple “potential ethics concerns arising from the actions of the Secretary and Office of the Secretary (OST) staff under her direction,” the investigators wrote, adding that Chao used the department's staff time “for tasks for the Secretary that appear to be personal in nature." Such requests include:

Asking staff to contact the Department of Homeland Security about the status of a work permit for a student who benefited from her family's philanthropic foundation.

Making "extensive plans" to include family members in events during an official trip to China in November 2017 that was ultimately canceled, per a House committee press release on the IG report.

Directing staff to support her father, in marketing his biography and editing his Wikipedia page. She allegedly instructed two staffers to send a copy of his book to a "well-known CEO of a major U.S. corporation (which is not regulated by DOT)."

Zoom out: The Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General opened the investigation into Chao in 2019 upon the request of the House Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure and Oversight and Reform.

Chao, who's married to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, announced her resignation on Jan. 7 after the Capitol riots.

Her family company, Foremost Group, is responsible for "orders at one of China's biggest state-funded shipyards," according to the New York Times.

What they're saying: Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said he was "disappointed" that the DOJ declined to pursue the matter.

"Secretary Chao’s flagrant abuse of her office provides further evidence that additional ethics and transparency reforms are needed," Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, added in the statement.

The other side: Chao declined to respond to a request for comment from the New York Times, but shared a memo expressing the importance of promoting her family as part of her duties.

"Asian audiences welcome and respond positively to actions by the Secretary that include her father in activities when appropriate," the memo, dated September 2020, said.

UPDATE 3-Biggest wealth fund puts Kirin on watch list over Myanmar link

Terje Solsvik
Wed, March 3, 2021

* Norway fund says may divest from drinks giant Kirin

* Fund to monitor Kirin's severance of Myanmar army ties

* Thyssenkrupp subject to anti-corruption dialogue

* Poland's Atal removed from exclusions list (Adds Thyssenkrupp reaction, paragraphs 16,17)

By Terje Solsvik

OSLO, March 3 (Reuters) - The Norwegian central bank said on Wednesday it had put Japan's Kirin Holdings on a watch list for possible exclusion from its $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund over the beverage giant's business ties to Myanmar's military.

Kirin on Feb. 5 said it would end its partnership with Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (MEHPCL), a company run by Myanmar's army, after a military coup deposed the democratically elected government.

As part of its decision on whether to maintain its ownership in Kirin, the Norwegian fund will monitor the implementation of the company's plan to end the ties, Norway's central bank said in a statement.

Kirin's decision effectively scraps the Myanmar Brewery joint venture, in which the Japanese firm's controlling stake was valued at up to $1.7 billion, although Kirin also said it still wanted to keep selling beer in Myanmar.

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, held a 1.29% stake in Kirin Holdings at the end of 2020 with a value of $277.1 million.

"We remain focused on urgently implementing the termination of our joint-venture partnership with MEHPCL," Kirin said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

"As part of this, we hope to find a way forward that will allow Kirin to continue to contribute positively to Myanmar. We value opinions and feedback from all of our stakeholders and are open to constructive engagement on this matter," it added.

The Norwegian sovereign fund, formally called the Government Pension Fund Global and set up in 1996 to save petroleum revenues for future generations, owns about 1.5% of all globally listed shares.

Holding stakes in around 9,100 companies worldwide, it has set the pace on a host of issues in the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) field, and its decisions are often followed by other investors.

ATAL, THYSSENKRUPP

The bank separately said it would allow the wealth fund to invest again in Poland's Atal, which had been excluded since 2017 for risk of human rights violations through its use of North Korean workers at Polish construction sites.

"As a result of a resolution in the United Nations Security Council, all North Korean workers have now been sent out of Poland. Therefore, there are no longer grounds for excluding the company," Norges Bank said.

Atal did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

A third firm, Germany's Thyssenkrupp, will be the subject of an "active ownership" process as the fund's management seeks to probe the company's anti-corruption work, Norges bank said.

"Norges Bank has been in dialogue with the company over a long period of time. We therefore have a good foundation for active ownership on the issues to which this matter relates," the central bank said.

The fund held a 1.3% stake in the German firm at the end of 2020 valued at $147.1 million.

Thyssenkrupp in a statement said there was no specific reason triggering the talks.

"Thyssenkrupp is in regular and constructive dialogue with its investors. This also includes the Norwegian wealth fund. In these discussions, governance issues are also repeatedly addressed, such as the implementation of the zero tolerance policy in compliance issues," the company said. (Editing by Gwladys Fouche, Gerry Doyle and Jason Neely)

It’s an ‘American right to be paid equally for equal work’: Lilly Ledbetter on gender wage gaps

Lilly Ledbetter, center, an activist for workplace equality, is flanked by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., right, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, left, speaks at an event to advocate for the Paycheck Fairness Act on the 10th anniversary of President Barack Obama signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The legislation, a top tier issue for the new Democratic majority in the House, would strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and guarantee that women can challenge pay discrimination and hold employers accountable.(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Lilly Ledbetter, an Equal Pay for Equal Work Activist, joins Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers and Sibile Marcellus to discuss women in the workforce, the barriers that prevent women from achieving wage parity, and possible solutions to start broaching gender disparities.

Gender pay gap creates ‘second class citizenship for women': Lilly Ledbetter

Kristin Myers
Thu, March 4, 2021, 

The gender pay gap causes women to have huge pay losses that continue through retirement, equal pay activist Lilly Ledbetter told Yahoo Finance.

“It's really a second class citizenship for women like myself for the rest of their life,” she said. “And that's what so many young women do not understand that's out there working today, that if you do not get equal pay or your rightful pay, it's gone forever because it affects your retirement, your 401Ks, your contributory retirements, and Social Security or any other program you might be involved in.”

The wage gap creates a knock on effect that impacts how much you get paid overtime (typically one and a half time an employee’s regular rate of pay), how much an employer will contribute to a retirement account (a percentage of an employee’s yearly salary) or how much is paid in pension.

Currently, gender pay gaps continue to persist, though they have narrowed over time. On average, women earn just under 82 cents to every dollar a man earns. But according to the Census Bureau, at the current rate, it will take until 2059 for women to achieve equal pay.

While all women are underpaid compared to their white male counterparts, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, gaps not only persist throughout time, they widen based upon race and ethnicity.

In analyzing median annual earnings, the Department of Labor found Black women earn roughly 61% of what white men earn. Hispanic women fare even worse; they earn just over half of what their white male counterparts earn. Asian women and white women were still underpaid but faced narrower gaps: 85% and 77%, respectively.

The gender gap, Ledbetter said, makes it “extremely difficult for so many women across this nation to stay independent.”
'American right to be paid equally for equal work'

Ledbetter was about to retire from the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in the late 1990s when an anonymous note given to her revealed she was earning less than her male colleagues. Ledbetter would go on to sue Goodyear in a case that went to the Supreme Court.

In her dissent, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg noted that the pay differences between Ledbetter and her colleague were large.

“Initially, Ledbetter’s salary was in line with the salaries of men performing substantially similar work,” the dissent stated. “Over time, however, her pay slipped in comparison to the pay of male area managers with equal or less seniority. By the end of 1997, Ledbetter was the only woman working as an area manager and the pay discrepancy between Ledbetter and her 15 male counterparts was stark: Ledbetter was paid $3,727 per month; the lowest paid male area manager received $4,286 per month, the highest paid, $5,236.”

The gap represented more than $18,000 each year.

Ledbetter ultimately lost her Supreme Court case, for statutory reasons: Goodyear cited Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that “requires discrimination complaints to made within 180 days of the employer's discriminatory conduct.”

But while Ledbetter lost her case, it did inspire a new law: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 — the first act that former President Barack Obama would sign into law after taking office. The law strengthened workers’ rights and eliminated the time limit on when wage discrimination lawsuits could be filed. Instead of filing a lawsuit within 180 days from the first unfair paycheck, the law allowed for workers to sue for every unfair paycheck issued.

Ledbetter said missing out on equal pay for 19 years impacts her finances to this day.

“I have to do without them [the lost wages] and try to make ends meet for the rest of my life,” she explained. “And this is not right in this country. This is an American right to be paid equally for equal work.”
'A double standard'

But gender discrimination impacting pay isn’t the only hurdle facing women. Women must often contend with the “motherhood tax,” the amount that a woman’s salary falls after giving birth. Studies have found that 10 years after having children, American women’s salaries drop by roughly 40%, compared to their pre-birth wages.

Mothers, typically saddled with caregiving duties, often opt for reduced hours or for lower paying jobs that are more child-friendly. This makes them less competitive in the workplace than their male colleagues, who can work later hours, or attend events and outings.

“There is still a double standard today,” Ledbetter said. “What works for the man does not work for women. And this is not right because this is a hardship. And the women should not be penalized,”

Caregiving, Ledbetter explained, isn’t classified as work, which also impacts a woman’s Social Security payouts later in life.

Ledbetter shared with Yahoo Finance that the decade she stayed at home to raise her children slashed her Social Security payments by $500 a month — money she needs now after being underpaid compared to her male coworkers at Goodyear.

Even though women have a right to be paid equally to their male counterparts, Ledbetter said many might not speak out for fear of retaliation.

“That's one of the reasons there have never, never been many cases like mine or anyone like myself that would pursue it all the way,” Ledbetter explained.

One of the hurdles facing women in the fight for equal pay is a lack of transparency in workplaces about salaries. Given the challenges, Ledbetter said women need to get their equal pay at the beginning of their careers.

Raises, she explained, “are generally percentages of what you’re making. So you need to start out with as much as you can get under the law.”

Kristin Myers is a reporter and anchor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.

How private equity squeezes cash from the dying U.S. coal industry





How private equity squeezes cash from the dying U.S. coal industry

FILE PHOTO: In U.S. coal country, workers forgive Trump for failed revival



Tim McLaughlin
Tue, March 2, 2021

BOSTON (Reuters) - Private equity firms are proving there’s still plenty of profit in the U.S. coal industry despite a decade of falling demand for the fossil fuel. They are spending billions of dollars buying coal-fired plants on the cheap - and getting paid even when they are not providing power.

Since the end of 2014, at least five U.S. private equity firms have bought coal plants in markets where regulators pay them to be on standby to provide emergency power when demand surges with extreme hot or cold weather, according to a Reuters review of U.S. regulatory disclosures and credit-rating agency reports.

The lucrative investments illustrate how fossil fuels will remain an important part of the energy mix - and continue spinning off cash for investors - even years after demand for them peaks as the world transitions toward cleaner energy sources.

The need for reserve power was on display during the utility crisis this month in Texas - the only U.S. grid system that operates without such an emergency system. A cold snap knocked out several of the state’s generating plants and triggered widespread blackouts, leaving a wake of human suffering including several dozen deaths.

The so-called capacity payments are given out in most U.S. power markets, and regulators tend to favor coal-fired generators that store heaps of coal on site when other power sources might be disrupted. In the Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland Power Pool (PJM), which has the largest standby market, capacity revenue payments average more than $100 per megawatt per day - an insurance policy that costs about $9 billion a year and aims to make sure the grid’s 65 million customers avoid blackouts during heat waves and Arctic blasts.

“The capacity power market is a certain source of revenue for coal plants that might otherwise be uneconomical,” said Sylvia Bialek, an economist at New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity.

The administration of former President Donald Trump, a Republican, encouraged capacity market incentives for coal-fired generators. But President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is likely to change those policies in the coming years as part of an effort to slash nearly all of the U.S. power sector’s reliance on fossil fuels by 2035.

In the meantime, private equity firms are in a good position to compete for capacity payments because traditional utilities are under pressure from activist shareholders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to limit debt.

The private equity owners of Ohio’s Gavin Power Plant in the PJM grid, for example, have squeezed hundreds of millions of dollars out of the facility since buying it four years ago, even though it only runs about 60% of the time.

Lightstone Generation LLC - a joint venture between Boston’s ArcLight Capital Partners LLC and New York-based Blackstone Group Inc - took on $2.1 billion in debt from Wall Street banks to buy the plant and three much smaller gas-fired units from American Electric Power Company Inc in 2017, according to term sheets viewed by Reuters.

From 2018 to 2020, Lightstone’s power plant operations produced about $1.1 billion in operating profit, according to estimates from Moody’s Investors Service. Up to 50% of Gavin’s cash flow comes from being on standby for emergency power, according to several economists and credit analysts.

About 18 months after the Gavin acquisition, ArcLight and Blackstone went back to Wall Street to finance most of a $375 million special dividend they paid to themselves, according to credit rating agencies. Such dividends are a way for private equity firms to lock in profits and shift risk to their debt-holders, which are often mutual funds. If the business does well, the debt gets paid off at a premium. But if the business fails, the debt-holders end up with equity stakes in plants of declining value.

ArcLight did not respond to requests for comment. Blackstone declined to comment.

The private equity firms' backers have also been making money on the investments, according to filings. The state of Connecticut’s retirement plan, for example, invested $85 million in ArcLight’s Energy Partners Fund VI, which holds stakes in the Gavin plant along with other energy investments, and has seen returns of about 8%.

Meanwhile, mutual funds that invested in Lightstone's debt are receiving payments pegged to a floating interest rate that has ranged from 4% to 6% - far higher than about 1.4% on the U.S. benchmark 10-year yield.

‘ABSOLUTELY VITAL’

Other private equity firms have also been betting on coal power capacity payments.

Atlas Holdings, for example, led a joint venture to buy New Hampshire’s Merrimack Station coal plant in 2018, the centerpiece of a $175 million acquisition of generators from New England-based utility Eversource Energy.

Atlas declined to comment.

The coal plant hardly runs but has been eligible to receive up to $188 million in capacity payments from the New England ISO between 2018 and 2023, according to disclosures by regulators. Workers at Merrimack Station see their mission as a matter of life and death. They keep boilers warm and the plant in a constant state of readiness, said Tony Sapienza, business manager for Local 1837 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical workers.

"The capacity market is absolutely vital," Sapienza said. "And without Merrimack Station, people might die in the winter or during really hot weather. It's really that simple."

The reserve coal plants create good jobs. Private-equity owned coal plants can pay their staff about $100,000 a year for keeping the facilities on standby and firing them up when needed, according to Shawn Steffee, business agent for the Boilermakers Local 154 union in Pennsylvania. He said coal plants in the state "ran like a freight train" during the recent cold snap.

In another profitable investment, private equity firm Riverstone Holdings LLC paid $1.8 billion in late 2016 to buy the remaining stake in electricity producer Talen Energy Corp. The take-private deal included stakes in several coal plants, including ones receiving PJM capacity payments, an “important component” of gross profits, according to an SEC disclosure. About a year later, Talen paid its owners, including Riverstone, a special $500 million dividend. Riverstone did not return messages seeking comment.

WITH REWARD COMES RISK

Private equity ventures into coal-fired power don’t always turn out well, with some deals getting caught up in the broader decline of the coal industry. A credit fund run by private equity firm KKR & Co Inc in 2015, for example, took a big stake in Longview Power LLC - whose major asset is a West Virginia coal plant plugged into the PJM electric grid - as part of a bankruptcy restructuring.

But in April 2020, Longview filed for bankruptcy protection again, wiping out some $350 million in debt, as coronavirus lockdowns cut electricity demand. KKR declined to comment.

Analysts and economists expect Biden’s administration to crack down on rules that prolong the lifespan of dirty coal plants as part of sweeping measures to fight climate change. Biden has named Richard Glick, a Democrat, as the new chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Under a Republican majority on the commission, Glick had been critical of FERC rules he contends unfairly favor coal over renewable energy sources in capacity power markets, saying they "would have made the Kremlin economists in the old Soviet Union blush.”

FERC did not respond to requests for comment, and the White House declined to comment.

“I’m confident, in the next couple of years, FERC will order changes,” said Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School.

Policy changes could make it harder for highly-leveraged private equity owners of coal plants, like Lightstone, to refinance their debts, according to Richard Donner, a credit analyst at Moody’s Investors Service. About $1.7 billion in the company’s debt comes due in 2024.

Even so, Lightstone’s creditors are the ones with the greatest risk, according to Peskoe.

“Somehow the private equity guys always make out OK,” Peskoe said. “It’s everyone else who doesn’t.”

(Reporting by Tim McLaughlin; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Brian Thevenot)