Op-Ed: The anti-vax movement was already getting scary. COVID supercharged it

John P. Moore
Fri, February 25, 2022

Dozens of anti-vax protesters rally in front of Los Angeles City Hall last September. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Conspiracy theorists' disinformation has led to the deaths of thousands of Americans every week by discouraging COVID-19 vaccinations. That toll will end up being a tiny fraction of the anti-vax movement’s body count.

Even when this pandemic is over, an energized base of anti-vaxxers will lead to more deaths for years to come. The uptake of standard childhood vaccines was already declining before COVID-19 hit, leaving more and more children vulnerable to diseases like diphtheria, measles, rubella, mumps, tetanus and whooping cough. Since the pandemic began, we’re also seeing more politics-driven attacks on state mandates for pre-school vaccination. Long-vanquished child-killing diseases will rise again, just because parents have been fooled into rejecting safe, long-proven vaccines.

The anti-vax movement has never been based on science. Its standard methods are similar to ones used by the charlatans who argued that HIV wasn’t the cause of AIDS, or that putting fluoride in the water is harmful. They claim that any opposition to their propaganda must be proof of “deep state” or “big pharma” corruption of science and public policy.

It’s a tired playbook, but it resonates with people whose psychological states leave them susceptible to believing conspiracy theories. One study found that people who believe “9/11 truther” theories are more likely than average to also believe COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an influential anti-vaxxer, said at a recent rally in Washington: “Bill Gates and his 65,000 satellites alone will be able to look at every square inch of the planet, 24 hours a day.” And “They’re putting in 5G to harvest our data and control our behavior — digital currencies that will allow them to punish us from a distance and cut off our food supply.”

Why would anyone rational take medical advice from him — a lawyer who believes this kind of nonsense? But many do. It doesn’t help when people in positions of power buy in. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) claimed that vaccinated athletes were “dropping dead on the field,” an outright fabrication.

Many anti-vaxxer leaders are glory-seekers and grifters. There’s serious money in play. One prominent anti-vaxxer, Joseph Mercola, has profited by peddling alternative remedies.

White supremacists and people with antisemitic views have found a home in the anti-vaccine movement, sometimes seemingly pitching their agenda to groups they hope to hurt. Somali immigrants have been deliberately targeted by anti-vaxxers, as have Black Americans, Orthodox Jews and other religious minorities. How many of the people who fall for anti-vax lies fully understand the various and often perverse agendas behind them?

The sensible majority of the American people need to fight back before this public health crisis rages further out of control.

Aggressive public service messaging could shock people into understanding not only the risk to adults who avoid COVID vaccination but also the full consequences of leaving children unvaccinated against deadly diseases like polio. Graphic antismoking TV ads can be a model. Deathbed testimonials from regretful victims of anti-vax propaganda send a powerful message. The many COVID-19 deaths of prominent anti-vaxxers should be widely publicized — to scare others from acting foolishly. Seeing death in all its horror can change minds.

And let’s get the courts involved. When words kill, there should be no absolute 1st Amendment protection. Grieving families of dead anti-vaxxers could sue the propagandists they listened to. There’s a model for this as well: Creative lawsuits have forced some white supremacist organizations out of business.

Since the pandemic began, the U.S. has seen public health professionals resign because of threats from anti-vaxxers, hollowing out infrastructure that’s critical to America’s welfare. We need more aggressive prosecutions of anyone threatening officials and scientists who promote vaccination. The public can help. Internet sleuths have identified hundreds of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, feeding information to an FBI task force that makes arrests. Anti-vaxxers who threaten public servants are often anonymous — but may be traceable online.

Here’s another legal avenue: People who make money out of fake vaccination documents are active on social media. Their hubris should land them in prison.

Rather than letting infractions slide, state licensing boards and professional organizations should accelerate sanctions against physicians and pharmacists who distribute and profit from useless and harmful “COVID-19 drugs” such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. It’s particularly egregious when they also refuse to prescribe FDA-approved drugs and trash vaccines that actually are effective against COVID-19. Affected patients and family members could sue the quacks who harmed them. We are now seeing “long COVID” sufferers targeted. Pushing untested cocktails of irrelevant drugs and supplements onto people with serious health problems is downright dangerous.

Taking on COVID-19 anti-vax malfeasance and malpractice is crucial and urgent. Successes on that front can help us counter the older and more pernicious resistance to childhood vaccinations. In the meantime, the flood of disinformation on social media continues to put our children’s futures at serious risk.

A successful scientist-led campaign against anti-vaxxer lies on Spotify has raised awareness of what needs to be done to stop the nonsense. Just as COVID-19 galvanized the anti-vax movement, it can also marshal widespread support to combat the propaganda and protect public health.

John P. Moore is a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College.


This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Moderna co-founder, mRNA developer says he's not completely surprised by vaccine hesitancy


Frank Gluck, Fort Myers News-Press
Fri, February 25, 2022

The co-founder of Moderna and a developer of the foundational technology behind the COVID-19 vaccine says he's not completely surprised people are skeptical about the shots, since revolutionary medical advances have always been controversial.

But Robert Langer, one of the scheduled Imagine Solutions Conference speakers on March 7 in Naples, said the science behind the inoculations could lead to breakthrough treatments in HIV, cancer, heart disease, respiratory afflictions and a host of other ailments in the coming years.

Langer, 73, a billionaire who now sits on the pharmaceutical giant's board of directors and teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, blames widespread misinformation online for some of the vehement opposition to life-saving vaccinations and the mRNA science underlying them.


"I think there's a lot of social media and other things where people say it's not good but, from a clinical standpoint and a scientific standpoint, that doesn't make sense to me," Langer said. "But, if you look at the safety profiles, from everything I've seen in the top medical journals, the safety has been as good or better than any vaccine. But some people are distrustful today of the government and a lot of other things. And I think that's sad."

Florida hiding COVID numbers: Florida hides data showing how many tourists and snowbirds contract COVID-19 in the state

Health care worker vaccinations: Lee Health employee vaccinations for COVID-19 jump to nearly 70%, even as mandate remains on hold

Focusing on changes: What to know about the Imagine Solutions Conference in Naples

Moderna was founded in 2010 to develop vaccines and medical treatments based on mRNA technology. In addition to developing a COVID-19 vaccine, it has a number of clinical trials underway for other drugs and treatments.

Langer did not comment at length on vaccine mandates and opposition to them, saying that's an issue for policymakers.

"I'm not a politician, so I'm not the best person to answer that," he said. "I just feel that it's sad that everybody's not pulling together to knock out COVID."

Related coverage: Lee County COVID-19 vaccine tracker: 65% of people fully vaccinated

More: Lee Health at 108% of bed capacity as COVID-19 cases, staffing shortages linger amid peak tourism season

He noted that Americans were also skeptical of the polio vaccine and even the work of Louis Pasteur, the father of modern germ theory and the resulting revolution in disease-preventing hygiene practices.

More than 204.7 million doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States as of this month, according to the global research firm, Statista. That makes it the second most used in this country out of the three available vaccines, behind those developed by Pfizer and ahead of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say all the vaccines are safe, despite some reported non-fatal side effects. Medically serious reactions to the shots are rare, the CDC notes.

Traditionally, vaccines have used a weakened or inactivated germ to trick the body to produce an immune response. Unlike those, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines employ lab-created messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) to teach cells how to make proteins that trigger an immune response.

Langer's work on mRNA technology began in the 1970s when he published his first paper demonstrating large molecules like RNA or DNA could be put in and delivered by nanoparticles. Langer, in addition to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman won the prestigious BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine this year for that early work.

"People were skeptical of that. It kind of went against what people thought you could do," Langer said. "They thought these molecules were too big."

That skepticism persisted for years, he said.

"But I thought it worked. And even though a lot of people criticized me — I got all my grants (applications) turned down, nine in a row, and I couldn't get a chemical engineering professor job — I kept at it and tried to understand it."

Today, Langer has 250 major awards in science, including the 2006 U.S. National Medal of Science and the Charles Stark Draper Prize, considered the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for engineering.

Langer also served as a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s SCIENCE Board from 1995 to 2002.

Looking to the future, he said mRNA technology could soon deliver a whole host of groundbreaking treatments, including vaccines for HIV, more effective flu vaccines, personalized treatments for certain cancers, and treatments for respiratory diseases and heart disease.

"I mean, there's very few limits to what I think you'll see the technology used for," he said.

Frank Gluck is a watchdog reporter with The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. Connect with him at fgluck@news-press.com or on Twitter: @FrankGluck.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Moderna co-founder Robert Langer not surprised by vaccine doubts

Tranquil Valley’s Triumph Over Coal Shows Hurdles for Industry

Heesu Lee
Thu, February 24, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- In the Bylong Valley in the verdant hills of southeastern Australia, a community’s victory over a planned coal mine shows the rising opposition that’s stalling new supply of the fuel and pushing prices higher.

For campaigners in this pastoral countryside adjacent to a world heritage site, a decision this month by the High Court of Australia was the culmination of a years-long legal battle against a global corporate giant. For the loser, Korea Electric Power Corp., and for the coal industry as a whole, it was just the latest blow as sentiment hardens against the most-polluting fossil fuel.

The world’s biggest miners have been retreating from coal under mounting pressure from investors and climate activists. While a global power shortage and a slow transition to cleaner energy continues to boost demand for fossil fuels, the Bylong Valley case illustrates the growing difficulties in getting new coal projects approved and running.

“This project would have generated over 200 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Rana Koroglu, a managing lawyer at the Environmental Defenders Office, and who represented the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance. “It would have been an affront to global efforts to limit climate change.”

In 2010, the South Korean utility known as Kepco made a proposal to develop the Bylong Valley to produce up to 6.5 million tons per year of coal for about 25 years, according to the project website. Bylong residents fought against the plan, fearing Kepco’s mine would threaten farming and water security in the pristine valley, which is next to the Greater Blue Mountains, a Unesco world heritage site.

The New South Wales Independent Planning Commission rejected the proposal in 2019, saying it would have unacceptable impacts on issues like groundwater, the climate, agricultural land and the area’s scenic and heritage values. That decision was upheld through various legal challenges, and the High Court sealed the project’s fate this month by dismissing Kepco’s request for an appeal.

Kepco, which invested more than 800 billion won ($669 million) in the Bylong project, is currently reviewing its options, according to a spokesman. One proposal would be to convert the site into a green hydrogen cluster.

The company, which remains one of the largest financiers of oil and gas, retains coal power projects in Vietnam and Indonesia.

Opposition to new mine and power station projects, and tougher access to finance, means the global pipeline of new coal-fired plants has declined almost 70% since 2015, according to a report from climate think tank E3G. Investors including BlackRock Inc. have also been limiting exposure to both coal pits and power stations.

Rio Tinto Group became the first major mining company to move away from coal in 2018, while BHP Group has sold assets and is considering an exit from thermal coal used in power stations. Even Glencore Plc, a major coal champion, previously agreed to cap its production.

“Big institutional investors recognize that the writing is on the wall for coal and are shifting their capital elsewhere,” said Leo Roberts, a research manager at E3G’s fossil fuel transitions team.

Governments, including South Korea, have been pushing to halt financing of overseas coal power projects. However, China and India dealt a blow to efforts to limit use of the fuel by watering down an agreement at the COP26 climate summit that originally called for a “phase-out” of unabated coal power.

Coal continues to dominate the global power mix and demand is rising this year in key markets, including in gas-starved Europe. Combined with the lack of new mines, that’s pushing prices higher. High-quality thermal coal at Newcastle port in Australia, the benchmark in Asia, set new records in January and again this month, according to Australian producer Whitehaven Coal Ltd.

The surge in prices has stoked concerns from some campaigners that private firms and smaller players could seek to develop new assets, or extend the lives of aging mines. Still, falling costs of renewables make that less likely, said Oh Dongjae, a researcher at Seoul-based Solutions for Our Climate.

“Theoretically, higher fossil fuel prices should restrain demand in the coming years, prompting countries to accelerate their transition to cleaner sources,” he said by phone.

(Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, has funded campaigns for the closure of coal-fired power globally.)

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Coal Miners Fear For Their Jobs As World Shifts To Renewables

Editor OilPrice.com
Thu, February 24, 2022

Thousands of workers in fossil fuel-related jobs are worried about their future employment as governments start the transition to renewable energy. This is particularly true for those working in the coal industry, as several countries aim to shut down their existing coal plants over the next decade, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands unemployed.

The latest in a long line of worldwide coal plant closures came this week as Australia announced it has plans to shut down its biggest coal factory in 2025, seven years ahead of schedule. Eraring station in New South Wales, operated by Origin Energy, said it plans to turn the power off on the 2,880MW black coal generator due to changing conditions.

CEO of Origin Energy, Frank Calabria, explained of the decision, “The reality is the economics of coal-fired power stations are being put under increasing, unsustainable pressure by cleaner and lower-cost generation, including solar, wind and batteries.”

Several other energy companies in Australia have stated plans to close their coal operations early over the last year. AGL is planning to close its Bayswater generator in 2033 rather than 2035, and its brown coal-fired Loy Yang A plant in 2045 as opposed to 2048. EnergyAustralia has also brought forward its Yallourn power plant closure from 2032 to 2028.

This has led many Australian coal workers to fear for their employment prospects heading forward. There are around 400 workers at the Eraring plant that will lose their jobs and more in the supply chain that will be affected. While the green transition and the move away from coal has been a long time coming, calls from coal-reliant towns have gone unanswered by the government. Despite the news of the early closure, the workers were told nothing about their severance package or the transition plan at the time of the announcement, leaving many worried about the future.

The Independent party politician for the region, Greg Piper, explains, “I have always supported a move away from coal but the fact is, the workers and this power station have been the heavy lifters in giving energy security to NSW.”

This is a sentiment felt by many as the world transitions away from fossil fuels. While it may be important to consider the environmental impact of our energy, the prospects of the workers that have been helping to supply energy for decades should not be overlooked. The Centre for Policy Development released a report in January suggesting that achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 could lead to the cutting of 300,000 jobs in Australia alone.

To avoid catastrophe, governments around the world must consider the future of fossil fuel workers in their energy transition strategies. Not only will this help prevent soaring unemployment, but it could also help support the renewable energy industry through the retraining of workers to transition to green energy jobs.

Matt Kean, New South Wales’ treasurer, has suggested just this. He announced last week, the creation of 3,700 roles in clean industries in response to the plant closure. In addition, the state plans to invest $250 million in the next half a decade to increase local manufacturing for components to be used in renewable energy projects, from wind towers to electrolyzers and batteries, creating a further 500 jobs.

Other countries are experiencing similar challenges as they strive for a green transition. In India, new coal mines continue to be being built in response to the country’s growing population and increasing energy demand. Several companies are asking people across India to give up their land in return for a job in a new plant. But whereas these jobs used to be permanent many are now temporary, as the number of jobs in the new plants outweighs the number of people losing land. Formal employment in the mining industry has become scarcer, with many across the country left without an income as they lose their land and have no long-term job to fall back on.

Many of the coal job cuts worldwide were spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic which saw a high number of job losses across the fossil fuel industry as operations shut down. The U.S. fossil fuel industry is thought to have reduced its workforce by between 10 and 24 percent during 2020. At the same time, renewable energy projects picked up the pace, with wind, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and battery storage operations profiting from the closure of coal and oil projects. As operations resumed the outlook appeared different, with governments, international organizations and environmental activists around the world pushing for a transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable alternatives, meaning an increasing number of job cuts across the industry.

In April last year, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $109.5 million in funding for projects that support job creation for communities affected by the energy transition, but this is a drop in the ocean considering the number of jobs being lost every month. As job losses become more commonplace worldwide across the energy sector, governments desperately need to consider how the energy transition will affect the workers.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

Iranian activist disappears after criticizing internet bill

Sat, February 26, 2022

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian activist went missing after criticizing a proposed bill by hard-liners to implement highly restrictive internet policies, his family said Saturday.

Hossein Ronaghi, a blogger and free-speech activist, disappeared Wednesday after he criticized a bill in parliament to limit internet access in the country, known as the “Users Protection Bill.” The proposal has been criticized by many Iranians on social media.

There was no information on Ronaghi’s location or condition.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, said in March last year that social media in Iran is “unbridled” and it should not be “surrendered to the enemy.”

In a recent tweet, Ronaghi said: “The Protection Plan was a decision made by the entire system based on the demand from the Islamic Republic’s leader who had stated: ‘Virtual space must be controlled.'"

Ronaghi's brother, Hassan, who also is an activist, said in a tweet that Hossein was kidnapped. He said his brother had received several anonymous phone calls in the days leading up to his disappearance.

Hassan Ronaghi also said his brother needs medical care because he is suffering diseases affecting several of his organs, including his kidneys.

“Anything that happens to Hossein is the responsibility of the Supreme Leaders’ office, the (Revolutionary Guard), and the judiciary.”

Reza Ronaghi, the father of the two brothers, said in an interview with Iranian foreign-base media on Wednesday that Khamenei was directly responsible for his son’s life.

A day after the first reports surfaced of his disappearance, human rights activists claimed that security forces came into Hossein Ronaghi's home and and took a laptop and notebooks.

The language in the proposed internet legislation has yet to be finalized. But if implemented in its current form, it could lead to the disruption of international internet services and websites — like Instagram — that have not yet been blocked.

Under pressure from hard-liners, the Iranian government has long blocked access to many websites and social media platforms, from YouTube and Facebook to Twitter and Telegram.

Many Iranians, especially youths, access social media through VPNs and proxies. Instagram and WhatsApp remain unblocked.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, this is not the first time Ronaghi has been arrested. In December 2009, during the mass arrests that followed post-election protests over voter fraud allegations in the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he was arrested after discussing politics in a series of critical blogs that were eventually blocked by the government.

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITAL$M
BitConnect Founder Satish Kumbhani Indicted for Ponzi Scheme

Bob Mason
Fri, February 25, 2022


Key Insights:


BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani indicted for Ponzi Scheme


In 2021, BitConnect and Kumbhani were sued by the SEC.


Penalties for illegal activity are hefty, with some jurisdictions calling for life sentences.

BitConnect was a proof-of-stake (PoS) platform allowing users to buy Bitconnect Coin (BCC) to earn interest. Users could sell Bitcoin (BTC) for BCC and then lock in the BCC price and earn daily interest over defined lock-in periods.

In September 2021, the SEC filed an action against BitConnect, founder Kumbhani, its top promoter, and his affiliated company. The action alleged that they defrauded retail investors out of $2bn through the fraudulent and unregistered offering of investments.


From early January 2017 through January 2018, the SEC claimed that the defendants siphoned money by transferring funds to digital wallet addresses. The wallets were in the control of Bitconnect, its founder, and top U.S promoter, Glenn Arcaro among others.

Grand Jury Indicts BitConnect Founder

On Friday, the United States Justice Department (DoJ) announced the indictment of BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani. A federal grand jury indicted Kumbhani with “orchestrating a global Ponzi scheme.”

As per the press release, Kumbhani “misled investors about BitConnect’s Lending Program.” The press release goes on to say: “BitConnect operated as a Ponzi scheme by paying earlier BitConnect investors with money from later investors. In total, Kumbhani and his co-conspirators obtained approximately $2.4bn from investors.”

The SEC charges the defendants with violating the antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws.

U.S promotor Arcaro had pleaded guilty to the criminal charges back in September of last year.

Hefty Fines and Lengthy Jail Terms Are on Offer for Crypto Lawbreakers

The SEC and the DoJ have been particularly active in the crypto space.

Earlier this week, BitMEX co-founders Delo and Hayes pleaded guilty to violating the U.S Bank Secrecy Act. Under the terms of their plea agreements, “Hayes and Delo each agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine representing pecuniary gain derived from the offense.”

In 2021, BitMEX paid a $100m penalty for violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) by offering the trading or processing swaps without approval as a Designated Contract Market (DCM) or a Swap Execution Facility (SEF).

BlockFi also paid a $100m penalty in an SEC settlement this month.

While the sums are sizeable, regulators in South Korea have taken a sterner approach against fraudsters and scammers. In January, news hit the wires of South Korean prosecutors wanting to put crypto criminals away for life. Executives of crypto platform V Global reportedly received hefty jail terms for a $1.7bn fraud. The CEO received a 22-year jail term.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

BitConnect’s Kumbhani Charged by U.S. in $2.4 Billion Ponzi Scam

David Voreacos
Fri, February 25, 2022,



(Bloomberg) -- BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani was indicted by a U.S. grand jury on charges he orchestrated a global Ponzi scheme that raised $2.4 billion from investors in a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platform, according to a Justice Department statement.

Kumbhani, 36, was charged in San Diego with misleading investors about BitConnect’s purported propriety technology, which falsely promised returns based on phony “volatility software” that tracked cryptocurrency exchange markets, prosecutors said Friday. BitConnect used money from new investors to pay earlier ones and also operated as an unlicensed money transmitting business, the U.S. said.

BitConnect closed its exchange in January 2018 after getting cease-and-desist letters from state regulators in Texas and North Carolina. On Sept. 1, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Kumbhani for raising more than $2 billion in an unregistered offering. That day, BitConnect’s top promoter in North America, Glenn Arcaro, pleaded guilty.

“As cryptocurrency gains popularity and attracts investors worldwide, alleged fraudsters like Kumbhani are utilizing increasingly complex schemes to defraud investors,” said Ryan Korner, special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s office in Los Angeles.

Kumbhani, of Hemal, India, couldn’t immediately be located for comment. His is charged with wire fraud, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, and three conspiracies: to commit wire fraud; commodity price manipulation; and international money laundering.

“The commodities price manipulation conspiracy is believed to be the first time any cryptocurrency has been alleged to function as a commodity,” according to a statement by prosecutors in the Southern District of California.

If convicted of all counts, Kumbhani could get 70 years in prison but would likely get far less time.

In November, prosecutors said they would sell about $57 million in cryptocurrency seized from Arcaro. This month, a judge approved an amended order for the sale.

US Justice Department Indicts BitConnect Founder

Nikhilesh De
Fri, February 25, 2022,


The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that a federal grand jury charged BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani with defrauding investors of some $2.4 billion through its lending scheme.

Kumbhani was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit price manipulation, operating an unlicensed money transmitter and conspiracy to launder funds internationally for "orchestrating a global Ponzi scheme" according to a DOJ press release, which alleged he traded cryptocurrencies using his investors' funds, and repaid earlier investors with the funds he received from later investors.

Kumbhani was already sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in late 2021 on similar charges, alongside BitConnect promoter Glenn Arcaro. Arcaro pleaded guilty to a similar BitConnect-related charge filed by the DOJ last September.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. said cryptocurrencies are continuing to be used in international crimes in a statement.

“The department is committed to protecting victims, preserving market integrity, and strengthening its global partnerships to hold accountable criminals engaging in cryptocurrency fraud. We thank our partners around the world for their continued efforts," he said.

In a statement, IRS-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Ryan Korner said malicious actors were increasingly using crypto.

“As cryptocurrency gains popularity and attracts investors worldwide, alleged fraudsters like Kumbhani are utilizing increasingly complex schemes to defraud investors, oftentimes stealing millions of dollars,” he said. “However, make no mistake, our agency will continue our long tradition of following the money, whether physical or digital, to expose criminal schemes and hold the fraudsters accountable for their illegal acts of trickery and deceit.”

BitConnect collapsed in dramatic fashion in 2018, shuttering its exchange and lending platforms within a week after receiving cease-and-desist orders from U.S. state regulators. The company attempted to continue raising proceeds through an initial coin offering (ICO).

Regulators in the U.S. and other nations have arrested or sought information from a number of BitConnect promoters in the four years since its collapse.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Star witness against ex-Goldman banker says wives used to disguise 

1MDB kickbacks

Luc Cohen

Thu, February 24, 2022, 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two Goldman Sachs bankers concocted a scheme involving their wives to conceal kickbacks they received for helping to loot Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, one of the bankers testified on Thursday at the corruption trial of the other, Roger Ng.

Tim Leissner, who had been Ng's supervisor at Goldman before becoming the star government witness against him, said he received kickback payments from a Malaysian intermediary, Jho Low, for helping embezzle funds Goldman raised for 1MDB through three bond sales.

Leissner testified after pleading guilty to money laundering and corruption charges, while Ng has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering and violating an anti-corruption law.

The charges stem from one of the biggest financial scandals in history, in which U.S. prosecutors say $4.5 billion of the $6.5 billion Goldman raised for 1MDB was diverted to government officials bankers and their associates through bribes and kickbacks.

Leissner, 52, said that after the first bond sale in 2012, he received $35 million from Low, and transferred half of it to Ng.

Both then discussed crafting a "cover story" to explain the payments so the banks processing the funds would not grow suspicious, Leissner said.

"His wife's family had previously made an investment in my wife Judy's business in China, and this was return of that investment," Leissner told the jury in Brooklyn federal court, referring to his former wife Judy Chan.

Leissner said the story was untrue, and that he did not know if Ng, 49, relayed it to his bank.

The statement could be problematic for Ng.

His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, has denied the payment was a kickback, and said the men's wives had a legitimate business together.

Agnifilo has said he plans to call Ng's wife, Hwee Bin Lim, to testify in her husband's defense.

He may question Leissner about the payment during cross-examination, which will not take place until next week because the U.S. Department of Justice delayed disclosing about 15,500 documents related to Leissner to the defense.

Agnifilo signaled in his opening statement that he will challenge Leissner's credibility by asking about his infidelity.

Leissner testified on Thursday that in 2013, while separated from Chan, he forged divorce papers in order to marry Kimora Lee Simmons, the American model and former wife of U.S. music producer Russell Simmons.

Goldman in 2020 paid a nearly $3 billion fine and arranged for its Malaysian unit to plead guilty in U.S. court.

U.S. prosecutors indicted Low in 2018, but he has not been arrested by American or Malaysian authorities. Malaysia has said Low is in China, which Beijing denies.

Goldman Probed by SEC Over Messages Sent Using Unapproved Services

Daniel Taub and Sridhar Natarajan
Fri, February 25, 2022, 


(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. became the latest bank to be investigated over employee communications over unapproved messaging services.

The New York-based company is cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission and producing documents related to a probe into “compliance with records preservation requirements relating to business communications sent over electronic messaging channels that have not been approved by the firm,” it said in a regulatory filing Friday.

In December, the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposed $200 million in fines on JPMorgan Chase & Co., saying that even managing directors and other senior supervisors at the bank had skirted regulatory scrutiny by using services such as WhatsApp or personal email addresses for work-related communication. This week, HSBC Holdings Plc said it’s being investigated by the CFTC over bankers’ misuse of WhatsApp and other messaging platforms.

In its filing, Goldman pointed to the probes elsewhere. “The SEC has stated that it is conducting similar investigations of record preservation practices at other financial institutions,” the bank said.

Wall Street firms have been required for decades to closely monitor and save their employees’ business communications, a task that’s been complicated in recent years by the proliferation of mobile technology and messaging apps. The system was strained even more as banks sent workers home at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it harder to see who might be using an unmonitored device.

In the JPMorgan case, SEC officials said they were aware of tens of thousands of messages involving more than 100 people that avoided routine surveillance. The communications that investigators were aware of involved discussions of company business, client meetings, investment strategies and market analysis and color.

The probe was ongoing and would entail other firms, officials said in December, adding that they were encouraging companies to self-report any violations.

HSBC Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn said the CFTC’s work was part of a broad investigation by U.S. authorities.

“I don’t think it’s specific, I think it’s general across all financial institutions,” he said in a phone interview earlier this week. “They’re looking at the use of mobiles and WhatsApp and text messages to make sure it’s appropriate.”

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M
Morgan Stanley Discloses U.S. Probe Into Its Block-Trading Business
Sridhar Natarajan and Katherine Burton
Thu, February 24, 2022,


(Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley said U.S. regulators and prosecutors are investigating various aspects of its block-trading business, acknowledging the firm itself is under scrutiny as authorities dig into how Wall Street bankers and money managers carry out stock transactions big enough to move prices.

The New York-based investment bank has been responding since August to requests for information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the company said in a regulatory filing Thursday. It’s also been fielding requests from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since June 2019, the firm said, noting that it’s cooperating.

U.S. investigators have been gathering communications involving employees at a number of banks, as well as outside money managers known to acquire slugs of stock in confidential offerings, Bloomberg reported last week. As part of the probe, authorities are trying to determine whether any banks’ dealmakers improperly tipped off investors to transactions big enough to move share prices.

Morgan Stanley overtook Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in recent years to become the biggest block trader in the industry. Authorities have sought information pertaining to several of its managers, people familiar with the matter have said, and in November the firm put a key executive involved in communicating with clients on block trades on leave.

No one has been accused of wrongdoing, and the opening of a probe doesn’t necessarily mean that civil or criminal charges will follow.

UPDATE 2-Credit Suisse tries to aid U.S. block-trading probe of rivals -Bloomberg News

Fri, February 25, 2022
(Adds details from Financial Times report)

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG is trying to help the U.S. Department of Justice potentially build a case related to block trading against rivals Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. (https://bit.ly/3t9DIPZ)

The Swiss bank's push to provide assistance apparently goes beyond banks’ routine cooperation with requests for information, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Credit Suisse has delivered a presentation to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, flagging potential issues with the collapse of Archegos Capital Management last year that led to billions of dollars of losses for global banks, according to the report.

A representative for Credit Suisse declined to comment.

The Archegos meltdown drew regulatory scrutiny towards block trading, which refers to the practice of buying and selling blocks of shares. Broker-dealers engage in block trading, either on behalf of clients or as part of a hedging strategy.

Reuters reported last week that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was probing whether financial executives may have broken the rules by tipping off hedge funds ahead of such trades.

In a filing on Thursday, Morgan Stanley said regulators and prosecutors in the United States were probing various aspects of its block-trading business.

China's securities regulator has ordered the Wall Street bank to provide it with information on the U.S. probe, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing a notice on the China Securities Regulatory Commission's website. https:// on.ft.com/3sifCTY

Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)

Canada protest convoy organizer Pat King denied bail


Police work at a checkpoint after authorities took action to clear a trucker protest that was aimed at COVID-19 measures before growing into a broader anti-government protest and occupation, in Ottawa, on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022

(Cole Burston/The Canadian Press via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)


Fri, February 25, 2022

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — A Canadian judge denied bail on Friday to a prominent organizer of the three-week convoy protest against coronavirus measures in Ottawa.

Pat King was arrested on Feb. 18 and faces charges of mischief, counselling to commit mischief, counselling to commit the offence of disobeying a court order and counselling to obstruct police.

Justice of the Peace Andrew Seymour said he’s not satisfied that King, if released, wouldn’t commit offences similar to those he’s accused of.


The trucker protest grew until it closed a handful of Canada-U.S. border posts and shut down key parts of the capital for more than three weeks. But all border blockades have now ended and the streets around the Canadian Parliament are quiet.

Seymour said he also lacks confidence in King’s proposed surety, an Alberta woman who has known King for about four weeks.

King sat in the Ottawa courtroom wearing a camouflage jacket over a grey hoodie and matching sweatpants. King has been known to promote racist conspiracy theories online.

Other judges earlier denied bail to two other organizers behind protests against COVID-19 restrictions and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Ottawa protesters who vowed never to give up are gone, chased away by police in riot gear in what was the biggest police operation in the nation’s history.

Ukrainians and Russians are packing ATM lines, prompting fears of what happened in the US during the Great Depression


Ukrainians stood in long lines outside of banks and ATMs hoping to take out their funds, even defying curfew to do so.

DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images.


Jason Lalljee
Thu, February 24, 2022


After Russia invaded Ukraine Thursday, people in both countries started withdrawing cash from banks.


It's led to fears of bank runs, which triggered turmoil in the US during the Great Depression.


Bank runs can lead to bankruptcy, unemployment, lending shortages, and closed businesses.

Many of the Ukrainians who haven't already fled the country as Russia's threat turned into invasion stood in long lines outside of banks and ATMs hoping to take out their funds, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Meanwhile in Russia, people are also queuing outside of ATMs trying to get US dollars as its citizens worry their own currency's value will continue to tank, according to the Wall Street Journal. Banks in the capital city of Moscow are running out of money, according to MSNBC.

All of this has led to fears of bank runs, which is when people withdraw money en masse because they worry banks will cease to function. It has the potential to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, destabilizing banks to the point of bankruptcy. That's what happened in the United States during the Great Depression, and it triggered mass unemployment and loan scarcities.

In fact, what took place in the US between 1929 and 1939 serves as a case study of what can happen when banks can't keep up with withdrawals: for years to come, there could be less money to go around.

"Locations around the country that have more bank failures have larger declines in spending," David Wheelock, the senior vice president and special policy advisor to the president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said during a workshop examining the Depression in 2013. Simply put, he said, "People lose money, they spend less."
Ukraine and Russia have taken steps to avoid bank runs

Banks in Ukraine are attempting to quell the possibility of economic havoc by imposing limits on withdrawals.

The Donetsk republic in eastern Ukraine limited withdrawals this week to 10,000 rubles, $129 per day, from ATMs. The National Bank of Ukraine also employed a cash withdrawal limit of 100,000 Ukrainian hryvnia per day on Thursday, or about $3,339, also halting exchanges for Ukranians trying to obtain foreign currencies.

To avoid catastrophe in its own country, Russia's Central Bank announced an emergency support package on Thursday as its stock markets plunged in response to its government's military action.

That package includes closing the stock exchange and purchasing millions of rubles to increase the value of the currency. The Central Bank has not yet imposed restrictions on how much cash people can withdraw.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said that although Russia is currently withstanding the impact of its shrinking currency and impending sanctions, additional interventions could "weaken Russia's economic base and its capacity to modernize."
The Great Depression is a cautionary tale

After the stock market crash of October 1929, anxious Americans withdrew massive deposits of cash, which frequently forced banks to permanently close, according to History.

Because banks only physically carry a limited amount of cash at any given time, sudden bank runs like the ones that spiraled throughout the country in the 1930s forced banks to sell their assets to acquire the cash to give people when they requested it — leading to bankruptcy.

The impact of such bankruptcies varied throughout the US, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, but it often had ripple effects on the rest of the economy.

"Hundreds of banks failed. Lending declined. Business faltered and unemployment rose," the Fed wrote. "The crises also generated deflation because they convinced bankers to accumulate reserves and the public to hoard cash."

A decline in deposits meant that the banks had less money to lend out, which meant that people had less money to pay for goods and services and that the prices of those goods and services deflated. According to the Fed, that deflation further forced banks, businesses, and debtors into bankruptcy, reduced consumption, and ultimately increased unemployment.

"Think of the financial system that keeps the wheels of the economy spinning — bank failure is like throwing sand into the wheel." Wheelock said. "Or even chopping off bits of the wheel altogether."

Bernie Sanders calls Putin a 'poster boy for greed and oligarchy' and says he should worry more about the people of Ukraine and Russia than his yacht

Joseph Zeballos-Roig,Juliana Kaplan

Thu, February 24, 2022, 

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

• Sen. Bernie Sanders heaped fresh criticism on Putin for his extravagant wealth.

• He assailed Putin as "the poster boy for greed and oligarchy" in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

• Sanders is prodding the Biden administration to impose severe sanctions on the Russian leader.

Senator Bernie Sanders is once again criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin after the Russian leader sparked the biggest land war in Europe in decades.

Sanders, a progressive from Vermont and the chair of the powerful Senate Budget Committee, called Putin "the poster boy for greed and oligarchy" on Twitter.

"Maybe, before starting a war that could kill thousands and displace millions, he might worry more about the people of Ukraine and Russia and less about his precious super-yacht," Sanders wrote.

He cited Insider's Julie Coleman, who reported on February 9 that a yacht said to belong to Putin left Germany hastily. The yacht wasn't finished with repairs, according to German media, but departed amidst concerns that the West would sanction Russia as it edged towards invading Ukraine.

The yacht, named Graceful, is reportedly worth $100 million, and costs $5 to $10 million a year to run. Putin's net worth has long been a bit of a mystery, although he may be one of the richest people in the world.

Forbes reported that American financier Bill Browder calculated in 2017 that Putin's net worth was $200 billion. Elon Musk, the world's richest person according to traditional measures, saw his net worth fall below $200 billion on Wednesday.

Sanders' comments came in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine early Thursday. Putin's military assault sparked an international outcry and unsettled financial markets around the world. The Associated Press reports that Ukraine's health minister said 57 Ukrainians have been killed and 169 wounded.

President Joe Biden condemned Putin in the harshest terms at a news conference, and assailed him for embarking on a premeditated war against Ukraine. "Putin chose this war," he said. "And now he and his country will bear the consequences."

He announced a fresh wave of sanctions targeting Russian banks as well as other senior officials and their families. Biden also tried steeling Americans against the prospect of higher prices for gas and food.

Those financial penalties, however, stopped short of targeting Putin. Some Democrats are already urging Biden to impose sanctions on the Russian leader, a dramatic step typically reserved for autocrats like the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Sanders previously blasted former President Donald Trump for his praise of Putin, saying that it was "outrageous, if unsurprising" for Trump to praise the invasion as an act of "genius."

"The United States and our allies must impose severe sanctions on Vladimir Putin and his fellow oligarchs," Sanders said in an afternoon statement on Thursday. "At a time when thousands may die as a result of his war, Putin, one of the richest people in the world, should not be allowed to enjoy the billions he stole from the Russian people. The United States must also work closely with international partners to provide humanitarian relief for the Ukrainian people."