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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith threatens CBC with legal action over Coutts blockade stories

WHEN NOT FIGHTING OTTAWA FIGHT THE CBC

Story by John Mazerolle • 1h ago

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is threatening legal action against the CBC if the corporation doesn't retract and apologize for recent reporting about the premier and COVID-19-related criminal cases related to last year's Coutts, Alta., blockade.


Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks at an event for the Canada Strong and Free Network in Ottawa on March 23. Smith has threatened legal action against the CBC if the corporation doesn't retract and apologize for some of its reporting about her by April 28.© Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

In a letter addressed to CBC editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon and verified by CBC News, lawyer Munaf Mohamed, writing on Smith's behalf, demands the corporation retract its reporting and publish an apology online and in news broadcasts "informing readers that it has no evidence of dishonesty or direct contact between the premier (or anyone in her office) and Alberta Crown prosecutors about any specific COVID-19-related prosecutions."

The letter, dated Sunday, gives a deadline of April 28 before Smith may take legal action under the Defamation Act.

At an unrelated news conference on Monday, Smith read from a written statement, saying: "As you know, there's been a great deal of inaccurate, misleading and likely defamatory reporting about my discussions with justice officials regarding amnesty for COVID prosecutions.

"I have been clear that neither I, nor anyone within my staff, have contacted any Crown prosecutors, as has been alleged."

Asked for comment, CBC's head of public affairs Chuck Thompson said in an email, "As we've said all along, we stand by our journalism on this story and, if necessary, will defend it in court."

Related video: Alberta premier says she will no longer comment on Crown prosecutor controversy (The Canadian Press)   Duration 2:08   View on Watch

The letter says a March 23 article, headlined "Danielle Smith discussed COVID charges 'almost weekly' with justice officials, according to leaked call," and other recent articles and broadcasts "transparently seek to sensationalize allegations already fully addressed by the premier and resuscitate a false and defamatory narrative against the premier, her office, Alberta Crown prosecutors, and the administration of justice in Alberta."

'Irresponsible reporting'

The leaked call reported on in the story is a phone conversation between Smith and Artur Pawlowski, a controversial Calgary street pastor. It happened in early January, just weeks before his trial in Lethbridge, Alta., on Feb. 2.

Pawlowski faces charges of criminal mischief and an offence under Alberta's Critical Infrastructure Defence Act related to last year's blockade in Coutts, Alta., which paralyzed Alberta's main U.S. border crossing for more than two weeks. A judge is set to deliver a verdict in early May.

The letter to CBC also calls attention to a Jan. 19 article headlined "Alberta premier's office contacted Crown prosecution about Coutts cases: sources," and calls it "irresponsible reporting by the CBC, presumably to sensationalize a political narrative."

The letter says that "absent an apology, retraction and correction from the CBC," the premier will not be commenting.

Smith has continuously denied that she or her office engaged in any inappropriate conduct regarding COVID-related prosecutions.

"As I have previously stated, I had my staff work with the Ministry of Justice, to determine if anything could be done to grant amnesty for those charged with non-violent, non-firearms COVID-related charges," Smith said in a tweet on March 29 that referred to reporting by CBC News.

"As also indicated previously in multiple interviews, I received a legal brief from the Ministry of Justice recommending against pursuing amnesty further, as several matters involving this issue were and still are before the courts. I have followed that advice."

The provincial election this year may well hinge on whether Albertans give a damn about Artur Pawlowski. Your report on Alberta politics for April 1, 2023 on the web at theprogressreport.ca

Who is this guy? By now you may have heard that Premier Danielle Smith is in hot water this week for things she said to him back in January.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic Pawlowski was more or less playing chicken with AHS and the Alberta government over things like masks, holding indoor events, and so on. He was convicted of contempt of court in 2021 for some of these antics, but the conviction was later overturned.

Pawlowski eventually escalated to the point of getting mixed up in last February’s Coutts border blockade. That border crossing to the United States was blocked by pro-COVID protesters for nearly two weeks. When the RCMP finally negotiated an end to the blockade, and people were about to disperse, Pawlowski roused the protesters back, calling out that “for freedom to be preserved, people must be willing to sacrifice their lives,” and “if this is our Alamo then so be it!”

It was not their Alamo, of course, because that is insane. The RCMP eventually cleared the blockade without anyone shooting at each other—though they did arrest eleven protesters who the RCMP allege were conspiring to kill cops. And whew, those eleven certainly had a lot of guns with them.

Pawlowski himself got hit with charges under CIDA, the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, an Alberta law ironically put together by the UCP to put the boot to environmentalists and labour activists. And you might think that’s just desserts, but a crackdown was exactly what Pawlowski wanted. Now sporting the cred of a real enemy of the state, Pawlowski’s prominence on the far-right and anti-vax circuits soared. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson praised him on air and argued that Pawlowski’s experience was proof of Justin Trudeau’s horrible tyranny. Pawlowski has parlayed his arrest into a gig as a minor celebrity on weirdo right-wing media.

Now according the Premier, she has been in constant contact with prosecutors, urging them to reconsider whether Pawlowski’s charges are in the public interest, and also she has been in “almost weekly” contact with justice department officials looking to see, in her words, “if anything could be done to grant amnesty” to Pawlowski and other COVID scofflaws. But according to the Premier, she also hasn’t been in constant contact with prosecutors, or even spoken to them at all. One story for the far-right  and the Rebel News watchers, and a completely different story for the rest of us.

As the youths say, sus.

Here’s the thing though: if you’re not from around here or the only Alberta news you get is when we have a cameo on Fox, maybe you only know of Pawlowski as this pro-COVID guy constantly getting arrested over violating public health rules. But if you’ve been involved in politics or activism in these parts for long—especially around Calgary—you’re probably more familiar with Pawlowski’s long and filthy history as a venomous anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ bigot.

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network has a roundup of some of Pawlowski’s more notorious antics on their blog. It’s some real foul stuff, and that’s only the highlights. And Danielle Smith is far from the first Alberta conservative to make the mistake of getting mixed up with him. Back in 2014, Ric McIver got roasted in the PC leadership race for attending Pawlowski’s “March for Jesus” for years in a row. (Ric is still an MLA—he represents Calgary-Hays.)

That’s back when Danielle Smith was the leader of the Wildrose Party. Back then Danielle Smith was unequivocal about Pawlowski’s message and McIver’s entanglement with him, saying: “it’s beyond the pale. It’s extreme. I think Albertans expect that political leaders will stand up against this intolerance.”

I wonder if she misspoke then too.

Sundries

• The writ for the election hasn’t been drawn up but oppo research season is already here. Our first dropout of the season: Torry Tanner, the UCP candidate for Lethbridge-West, who in a video posted online claimed that teachers are showing pornography to children and talking them into changing their gender. Someone at the UCP party office must have gotten nervous about that because Tanner was out of the race barely a day after the video started getting passed around. The grim thing is that what Tanner was saying is actually the UCP party line—conspiracy theories about teachers ‘making your kids queer’ have been a foundation of the UCP policy book since the conflict over GSAs in 2019.
• 1630 Albertans died from drug poisoning in 2022. While it is the second highest death ever in the history of the drug poisoning crisis the government put out a statement saying it is "cautiously optimistic about the continued downward trend since the peak in late 2021." 
• The UCP continue their habit of stuffing their friends and allies into every nook and crevice of Alberta’s public institutions by appointing them to university boards, crown corporation boards and various other boards. The latest order in council has 72 appointments, at least two of whom are former PC MLAs.
• The Office of the Child and Youth Advovate is legally mandated to review the deaths of children and youth in care and they just released their biggest report ever. Fifteen deaths, nine of them from drug poisoning, 12 of them being Indigenous. Our editor wrote up a Twitter thread that summarized the report, read it here.  
• Video has been released of an Edmonton cop slamming a person in handcuffs head into the ground after they tried to stomp on the officer's foot. Duncan spoke with a former police chief from the lower mainland about whether excessive force was used. 

Jim Storrie
http://www.progressalberta.ca/

COVER UP
Alberta waited a month to declare emergency response to oilsands releases: document
Story by The Canadian Press • 

EDMONTON — The Alberta government waited a month before calling an emergency response to one of the biggest releases of oilsands tailings in the province's history, a leaked document shows.


Alberta waited a month to declare emergency response to oilsands releases: document© Provided by The Canadian Press

The document, obtained by The Canadian Press, shows the province didn't initiate an emergency response until after First Nations chiefs in the area went public about how they were informed of the releases from Imperial Oil's Kearl mine, about 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alta.

The document also sheds new light on official communications and reaction to the spills, now the subject of three inquiries.

"The fact that the province waited over a month before initiating its emergency response is not surprising at all," said Chief Alan Adam of the Athabasca Cree First Nation, which uses the area for harvesting. "We are used to the provincial government letting us down."

Discoloured water, later found to be groundwater contaminated with oilsands tailings, was discovered seeping from a Kearl pond in May. First Nations were not kept informed of that investigation until Feb. 7, when the Alberta Energy Regulator issued an environmental protection order against Imperial after the another release of 5.3 million litres ofindustrial wastewater including some tailings from a containment pond.

That order was made public and reported on. Alberta Environment Minister Sonya Savage has said the protection order was how she first learned of the problem.

The releases drew more attention on March 2, when chiefs of area First Nations said they had not been updated since the original notification, while their people continued to hunt, fish and gather plants in the area. Both Adam and Chief Billy-Jo Tuccaro of the Mikisew Cree First Nation said they'd lost trust in the regulator.

Five days later, on March 7, Alberta Environment began an emergency response to the spill, which contained toxic levels of contaminants including arsenic. It took another three days before provincial emergency response staff made it to the site.

That's what a March 23 document from Alberta Environment and Protected Areas entitled "Kearl Oil Sands — AEPA Response Summary and Drinking Water Evaluation" indicates. The dates are revealed in a timeline of the department's response.

Alberta Environment did not respond to a question about why it took a month to declare an emergency and then only after national media attention.

Alan said it's part of a pattern of indifference.

Related video: Anger grows after Alberta oilsands leak kept from public for months (Global News)

He said his band hasn't heard from either of the United Conservative Party government members who represent the area, even though both hold relevant posts. Tany Yao is parliamentary secretary for rural health and Brian Jean is minister of jobs, economy and northern development.

"You'd think this would be right up their alley," said Alan in a statement. "Maybe there's a bigger crisis happening in our region that I don't know about that they're focused on instead."

Opposition New Democrat environment critic Marlin Schmidt said he wondered what triggered the emergency decision.

"When (the releases) first hit the press in February, all we heard from the minister, the regulator and Imperial Oil was that everything was fine and under control. A month later, we've got an emergency response.

"What triggered the emergency response?"

The document offers data on a long list of potential contaminants measured at the Fort Chipewyan water intake. It concludes that the water at that point is safe to drink, with levels of many of the toxins too low to measure.

Results of water samples taken close to the release sites aren't listed.

Official responses to the releases are being investigated by Alberta's Information Commissioner, the province's energy regulator and the House of Commons environmental and sustainable development committee. That committee has asked the head of the Alberta's regulator and senior Imperial Oil officials to answer questions on April 20 and 24.

The regulator's review is to ask if it's the agency's job to assess an incident report and if the proper communication processes were followed by both the regulator and the company. It will also ask if investigation, compliance and enforcement processes were followed.

That report is expected by the end of July.

Schmidt said the real issue is that the Kearl pond continues to seep into groundwater.

"It's good that they're looking at transparency and information sharing. But there is another issue here — a tailings pond that seems to be leaking."

Imperial has said it's building trenches and installing pumps to capture more seepage.

The regulator said it has asked other oilsands operators to review its tailings pond controls.

"At this time and based on our preliminary review, no issues have been identified," regulator spokeswoman Teresa Broughton said in an email.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 4, 2023.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Syncrude Canada faces five charges in death of worker at oilsands project in 2021

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

FORT MCKAY, ALBERTA — Oilsands giant Syncrude Canada Ltd. has been charged in the death of a worker north of Fort McMurray, Alta.


Syncrude Canada faces five charges in death of worker at oilsands project in 2021© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Alberta government says on June 6, 2021, in Fort McKay a worker was operating an excavator to build a berm when the bank slumped into the water.

It says the cab of the excavator was fully submerged and the worker drowned.

Syncrude faces charges under Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Act, including failure to ensure the health and safety of a worker.

Other charges include failure to ensure the health and safety of their worker by permitting the worker to operate the excavator on a ramp with an over-steepened slope, failure to comply with Energy Safety Canada safety rules, and other offences.

The Syncrude Project is a joint venture that includes Suncor Energy Inc., Imperial Oil Resources Ltd., Sinopec Oil Sands Partnership and CNOOC Oil Sands Canada.

The case is to be heard in Fort McMurray court on May 24.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 3, 2023

TRUMP NASAL PROBLEMS
Researchers: Cocaine abuse can be mistaken for non-threatening nasal disease


 Photo by stevepb/Pixabay

April 4 (UPI) -- A new paper by British researchers found that cocaine abuse in the nasal area often can be mistaken as a non-threatening nasal disease, resulting in patients receiving potentially dangerous treatments.

The paper detailing the research was posted Tuesday in the scientific journal Rheumatology Advances in Practice, published by Oxford University Press.

Authors of the paper conducting a retrospective review of patients who visited clinics at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and the Royal Free Hospital in London found cocaine abuse being misdiagnosed at times.

The abuse was mistaken as granulomatosis with polyangiitis, a nasal disease that causes inflammation of the blood vessels and commonly results in symptoms in the sinuses, throat, lungs and kidneys.

RELATED Overdose deaths among seniors soar over past 2 decades, UCLA study finds

The researchers said that many patients identified with the sinus and nasal limited form of the disease actually may have been suffering from nasal damage from cocaine use.

The authors said that while granulomatosis with polyangiitis, of GPA, is rare, affecting about three out of every 100,000 people, they believe that the possibility for misdiagnosis is serious because common treatments for GPA may be ineffective -- and even dangerous -- for ongoing cocaine users.

"This is an important paper that has changed our practice," said Aine Burns, one of the paper's authors. "We now include urine samples for drugs of abuse in our initial investigations of patients with GPA and in those who appear not to be responding to treatment."

In their review, researchers found out of the 42 patients with GPA, cocaine use was common among them. Urine tests confirmed 86% tested positive for cocaine.

"Sadly, we have seen young people with life-changing disfigurement because of cocaine-induced granulomatosis with polyangiitis. A better understanding of this condition prevents us from potentially harming patients further by administering inappropriate, potentially toxic, and futile treatments."

Burns said there currently needs to be a heightened awareness of the possible misdiagnosis among users, the public and healthcare professional

In Britain, cocaine is the second most abused drug with 2.6% of the population using it from the ages of 16 to 59. Cocaine can cause significant health problems, including cocaine-induced midline destructive lesions and various other health problems.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cocaine was involved in nearly 1 in 5 overdose deaths in 2019. More than five million U.S. residents reported current cocaine use in 2020, which is almost 2% of the population.


Non-Hispanic Black persons experienced the highest death rate for overdoses involving cocaine in 2019.

Both cocaine and GPA have similar general symptoms, such as arthralgia, fatigue, and skin rash, making it difficult to initially diagnose for physicians.

DNA: Woman was on famed 17th century Swedish warship

By JAN M. OLSEN

The royal warship Vasa is seen at the Vasamuseet museum in Stockholm, April 24, 2011. A U.S. military laboratory has helped Swedes confirm what was suspected for years: A woman was on the famed 17th-century warship that sank on its maiden voyage and is on display in a popular Stockholm museum, the museum said Tuesday April 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Scanpix Sweden, Anders Wiklund, File)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A U.S. military laboratory has helped Swedes confirm what was suspected for years: A woman was among those who died on a 17th-century warship that sank on its maiden voyage, the museum that displays the ship said Tuesday.

The wreck of the royal warship Vasa was raised in 1961, and was remarkably well-preserved after more than 300 years underwater in the Stockholm harbor. It has since been place at the Vasa Museum, one of Stockholm’s top tourist attractions where visitors can admire its intricate wooden carvings.

Some 30 people died when the Vasa keeled over and sank just minutes after leaving port in 1628. They are believed to have been crew members and most of their identities are unknown.

For years, there were indications that one of the victims, known as G, was a woman, because of the appearance of the hip bone, Fred Hocker, research leader at the Vasa Museum, said in a statement.

Anna Maria Forsberg, a historian with the Vasa Museum, told The Associated Press that women were not part of the crew in the Swedish navy in the 17th century, but they could be on board as guests. Seamen were allowed to have their wives with them onboard unless the ship was going into battle or going for a long journey.

“We know from written sources that around 30 people died that day,” Forsberg said. “It is thus likely that she was a seaman’s wife who wanted to come along on the maiden journey of this new, impressive ship.”

She said the exact number of people on board that day was not known “but we think there were around 150 people. An additional 300 soldiers were supposed to board further out in the archipelago,” she said.

Since 2004, the Vasa Museum collaborated with the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University, which examined all the skeletons on Vasa in order to find out as much as possible about the various individuals on the doomed vessel.

“It is very difficult to extract DNA from bones that have been on the seabed for 333 years, but not impossible,” Marie Allen, professor of forensic genetics at Uppsala University said in the statement. “Simply put, we found no Y chromosomes in G’s genome. But we couldn’t be completely sure and we wanted to have the results confirmed.”

So they turned to the Delaware-based Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory. And thanks to the forensics laboratory specializing in DNA profiling at the Dover Air Force Base, “we have been able to confirm that the individual G was a woman, using the new test,” Allen said.

The Vasa which was supposed to go to a naval base outside Stockholm to wait for the boarding of the soldiers, is believed to have sunk because it lacked the ballast to counterweigh its heavy guns.

Britain fines TikTok $16M for misuse of child data; Australia announces ban on federal devices



Both Britain and Australia took regulatory action against TikTok on Tuesday. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

April 4 (UPI) -- Both Britain and Australia took action against TikTok on Tuesday as Western nations continue to crack down on the Chinese-owned video-sharing app over privacy concerns.

Britain's privacy regulator fined TikTok $15.8 million for unlawful use of the data of children younger than 13 and failure to carry out adequate checks to identify and remove more than a million underage children from the platform.

British data protection law says that organizations that use personal data to provide information services to children under 13 must have consent from their parents or caretakers.

"There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws," said Information Commissioner John Edwards.

RELATED Arkansas sues Meta, TikTok over putting children, personal data at risk

"As a consequence, an estimated one million under 13s were inappropriately granted access to the platform, with TikTok collecting and using their personal data. That means that their data may have been used to track them and profile them, potentially delivering harmful, inappropriate content at their very next scroll.

"TikTok should have known better. TikTok should have done better," Edwards said.

The ICO said TikTok allowed around 1.4 million children 13 and younger to use its platform in 2020 -- in breach of its own rules prohibiting children of that age from creating an account.

ICO originally notified TikTok that it intended to impose a $34 million fine, but reduced it to $15.8 million following negotiations.

Pointing out that the fine related to a period between 2018 and 2020, TikTok said it had since "invested heavily" to prevent under-13s from accessing the platform.

"Our 40,000-strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community," a spokesperson said.

The fine came hours after Australia became the latest country to prohibit the use of TikTok on federal government-issued devices on security grounds, following the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, France and EU institutions.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus issued a mandatory directive banning TikTok from devices issued by Commonwealth departments and agencies after receiving advice from intelligence and security agencies.

"The TikTok application poses significant security and privacy risks to non-corporate Commonwealth entities arising from extensive collection of user data and exposure to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law," the directive says.

The ban will come into effect as soon as practicable and exemptions would only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place, Dreyfus said.

People will still be able to use TikTok on their privately-owned personal devices.

TikTok expressed "extreme disappointment" at the decision alleging that it was "driven by politics, not by fact."

"We are also disappointed that TikTok, and the millions of Australians who use it, were left to learn of this decision through the media, despite our repeated offers to engage with government constructively about this policy," TikTok Australia and New Zealand General Manager Lee Hunter told UPI.

"Again, we stress that there is no evidence to suggest that TikTok is in any way a security risk to Australians and should not be treated differently to other social media platforms."

The ban is also likely to be adopted by the country's six states and two territories, but only Victoria has said it will follow suit so far.

"We've always said we'll follow the Commonwealth's guidance when it comes to cybersecurity -- and we'll now work on implementing these changes across the public service as soon as possible," said a spokesperson for Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews.

A spokesperson from the Australian Capital Government government in Canberra said the territory government would work with the Commonwealth to adopt restrictions.

"Based on the Commonwealth's advice, and the desirability of national cybersecurity consistency, the Australian Capital Territory government will consider similar restrictions on territory government devices at a security and emergency management meeting of Cabinet tomorrow."

TikTok has come under increased scrutiny after an investigation by BuzzFeed last year revealed that employees at its parent company ByteDance had repeatedly accessed personal data from U.S.-based users of the app. An internal review that was commissioned by ByteDance revealed that employees had spied on journalists in the United States.

In late February the White House gave federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from all government devices amid mounting fears that U.S. data may end up in the hands of Chinese Communist Party members via the Chinese-owned social media platform.

Since then the Biden Administration has been ramping up pressure on TikTok's Chinese owner to sell its stake in the company and has reportedly threatened to implement a broader ban on the app.

Britain announced a ban on TikTok last month as part of a plan to strengthen its policy on the management of other third-party applications on government devices citing the "potentially sensitive nature of information" that they may hold.

"TikTok requires users to give permission for the app to access data stored on the device, which is then collected and stored by the company. Allowing such permissions gives the company access to a range of data on the device, including contacts, user content, and geolocation data," the government said in a statement.

The ban does not apply to government employees' personal devices but the Cabinet Office advised individuals to "be aware of each social media platform's data policies when considering downloading and using them."

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Founder of student-aid website accused of fraud by SEC

Charlie Javice, the founder of the student aid website Frank, was accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, in connection with its acquisition by JP Morgan. File photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo


April 4 (UPI) -- Charlie Javice, the founder of defunct student loan assistance company Frank, was charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

Frank was sold to JP Morgan in 2021 for $175 million. However, the agency alleges that Javice falsely said that Frank had access to valuable data on more than 4 million students, when the actual number was less than 300,000.

Javice allegedly paid a data science professor to manufacture data to make it appear that Frank had 4.25 million customers, according to the SEC.

"She lied about Frank's success in helping millions of students navigate the college financial aid process by making up data to support her claims, and then used that fake information to induce JPMC to enter into a $175 million transaction," Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said in a statement. "Even non-public, early stage companies must be truthful in their representations, and when they fall short we will hold them accountable as in this case."

RELATEDJP Morgan shuts down student-aid website over its user base claims

In January, JP Morgan shut down Frank and sued Javice, alleging that the company fabricated the amount of students it served.

A spokesperson for JP Morgan told CNBC that the organization believed it was helping Frank grow and "deepen" its relationship with borrowers, believing it was the "fastest-growing college financial planning platform."

Javice filed a countersuit against JP Morgan, accusing the financial giant of terminating her without cause and launching an undue investigation into her activities.

"After JPMC rushed to acquire Charlie's rocketship business, JPMC realized they couldn't work around existing student privacy laws, committed misconduct and then tried to retrade the deal," said Alex Spiro, an attorney for Javice.

Student aid startup founder arrested on fraud charges

By LARRY NEUMEISTER

TODAY

The Department of Justice emblem at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida in downtown Miami is pictured on Jan. 25, 2023. On Monday, April 3, Charlie Javice, the founder of Frank, a student loan assistance startup company that J.P. Morgan Chase acquired for $175 million two years ago, was arrested on charges that she duped the financial giant by dramatically inflating the number of customers her company had, authorities said Tuesday, April 4. (D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via AP, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — The founder of Frank, a student loan assistance startup company that J.P. Morgan Chase acquired for $175 million two years ago, has been arrested on charges that she duped the financial giant by dramatically inflating the number of customers her company had, authorities said Tuesday.

Charlie Javice, 31, of Miami Beach, Florida, was arrested Monday night in New Jersey on conspiracy, wire and bank fraud charges.

A charging document in Manhattan federal court said she claimed her company had over four million users when it had fewer than 300,000 customers.

Authorities said Javice, who appeared on the Forbes 2019 “30 Under 30” list, would have earned $45 million from the fraud.

A message seeking comment was sent to an attorney for Javice, who was expected to make an initial appearance in court later in the day.

In a release, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Javice “engaged in a brazen scheme” to defraud the acquiring financial company by fabricating data to support lies she told in a bid to make tens of millions of dollars from the sale of her company.

“This arrest should warn entrepreneurs who lie to advance their businesses that their lies will catch up to them,” he said.

According to a criminal complaint, Javice in 2017 founded TAPD Inc., which operated under the name Frank, to provide an online platform to simplify the process of filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a free federal government form used by students to apply for financial aid for college or graduate school.

In 2021, Javice sought to sell her company in her role as its chief executive to a large financial institution, the complaint said.

When JPMC sought to verify that her company had 4.25 million customers, Javice asked her company’s director of engineering to create an artificially generated data set, but the individual declined, it said.

She then hired an outside data scientist to create the synthetic data set as she purchased for $105,000 on the open market real information for over 4.25 million students, the complaint said. But it added that the data she purchased did not contain all of the information she had told JPMC was maintained by Frank.

In a civil complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulatory agency alleged that Javice made numerous misrepresentations about Frank’s alleged millions of users to entice JPMC to purchase the now shuttered Frank.

Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a release that “even non-public, early-stage companies must be truthful in their representations.”

He added: ““Rather than help students, we allege that Ms. Javice engaged in an old school fraud: she lied about Frank’s success in helping millions of students navigate the college financial aid process by making up data to support her claims, and then used that fake information to induce JPMC to enter into a $175 million transaction.”

Jeju Island mourns historic massacre victims amid controversy

By Darryl Coote 

1/8
Several people perform a memorial service for their deceased family member before a tombstone in the Tombstone Park for the Missing at the Jeju 4.3 Peace Park in Jeju City, South Korea on Monday.

 Photo by Darryl Coote/UPI  

JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, April 3 (UPI) -- South Korea on Monday mourned the tens of thousands of Jeju islanders killed by government forces some seven decades ago during a memorial ceremony that was marked by the absence of President Yoon Suk-yeol and extreme right-wing protesters challenging the widely accepted history of the Jeju Massacre.

Thousands of island residents congregated at the Jeju 4.3 Peace Park for the 75th anniversary ceremony that honors the 30,000 Jeju islanders who were killed during the South Korean government's suppression campaign targeting so-called communists between March 1, 1947, and Sept. 21, 1954

The tragedy is widely known as the Jeju April 3 Incident, or Jeju 4.3 in Korean, for the communist-led uprising that occurred on that day in 1948, which sparked the government crackdown in which Jeju residents were slaughtered.

At the park, located outside Jeju City, created in the 2000s to commemorate Jeju's 4.3 dead, bereaved family members held jesa memorial ceremonies and wiped clean tombstones of their loved ones in the cemetery for the 4,007 islanders who disappeared but are believed to have been killed during the massacre.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who attended the ceremony in Yoon's place, read prepared remarks by the president, who vowed to "warmly care for the souls of the innocent 4.3 victims" and to "sublimate the value of freedom and human rights that you have cherished."

"The government is committed to restoring the honor of the 4.3 victims and their families," Han, reading Yoon's remarks, said before the memorial tables entrainment room, where the names of the more than 14,000 identified massacre victims are etched.

"The way to truly honor the victims and their bereaved families is to create a Republic of Korea where freedom and human rights bloom and to achieve greater prosperity here in Jeju based on universal values and the spirit of liberal democracy. The responsibility lies with me, the government and our people," he said.

RELATED45 years on, story helped generations face trauma of Korean massacre

Yoon attended the ceremony last year as president-elect, making him the first conservative leader to participate in the memorial but only liberal Presidents Moon Jae-in and Roh Moo-hyun have done so while in office.

A day prior to the ceremony, the presidential office said Yoon was not going to attend out of concern over whether it was "appropriate to go to the same event every year."

For decades following the official end of the massacre, the government blamed Jeju 4.3 on so-called communists. Islanders related to those killed were subsequently branded with the same label and have been denied government jobs, as well as facing harassment

The South Korean government eventually accepted responsibility for the massacre and officially apologized to the people of Jeju following the passage of the Jeju 4.3 Special Act in 2000. However, conservative governments have seemingly kept the issue at arm's length.

Surrounding this year's memorial service are controversial comments made by North Korean defector and member of Yoon's People's Power Party Tae Yong-ho, who said while on the island in February that the uprising of April 3, 1948, was initiated by North Korean founder Kim Il Sung and his communist party.

The uprising was a predawn assault by a few hundred people that was the culmination of several factors, one of which was the division of the Korean Peninsula. The official government investigation report said there is "no concrete evidence that the events were direct by the instructions of the headquarters of the South Korean Labor Party."

Tae's comments were swiftly confronted by the local government and Jeju 4.3 bereaved family associations as attempts to distort the truth. However, following Tae's remarks, right-wing political organizations erected 80 banners around the island that parroted Tae's remarks.

A political banner that reads, "The Jeju April 3 Incident was a communist riot caused by Kim Il Sung and Namrodang against the founder of the Republic of Korea" is in tatters on March 23, shortly after it was erected in Seogwipo City, Jeju Island. Photo by Darryl Coote/UPI

Jeju City Mayor Kang Byung-sam told UPI in an interview that he was "scared" when he first saw one of the banners near city hall.

After they were erected, 59 of them were slashed to pieces, he said.

Two people have been apprehended over vandalizing the banners, which were taken down on Friday under the Jeju 4.3 Special Act that prohibits the dishonoring of victims, he said, adding that he expects lawsuits to be filed by the extreme right-wing groups against the local government for doing so.

Asked if city hall received any comments about the banners, he said that on one day alone a call came in every 3 minutes to complain about them.

Prior to the memorial ceremony on Monday, an extreme right-wing group associated with the Northwest Youth League, an organization of North Korean refugees who were deployed on the island during the massacre and blamed for some of the worst atrocities, had planned to hold a rally out front of the Jeju 4.3 Peace Park during the memorial ceremony.

"Every time a conservative government takes power, there are groups that criticize the 4.3 uprising," local reporter and author Heo ho-joon said. "This year, it has become more severe.

A van transporting three or four of the Seobuk members was confronted Monday morning outside the park by counter-protesters and bereaved family members who had to be separated from the vehicle by police.

Shouts of "shame" and accusations of truth distortion were hurled at those in the van, which eventually left the area, while police were bombarded with questions as to why they were protecting them.

"The Northwest Youth League needs to apologize to the victims of April 3. This is an absurd situation. We can't accept those kinds of actions," Yang Seong-ju, external vice president of the Association of Bereaved Families 4.3 Victims, told UPI as an explanation for why he was yelling at the vehicle.

Park Song-tae was paying her respects before her father's name etched into a stone monument within the park on Monday.

She told UPI she was born in 1947 and was 2 years old when her father died during the massacre. She has no recollection of what he looked like, she said.

Asked how she felt about the banners and the protests, Park said she was angry but was glad she had the park.

"It's really good to be able to find his name here, to remember my father," she said.