The Soros Files Brazil: Barack Obama, PetroBras and the Biggest Corruption Scandal in Brazil’s History

Brazilian President-Select Lula has nominated the head of the Open Society Foundations Latin America as part of his transition team. George Soros has been heavily invested in Brazil ever since buying into criminally corrupt state-owned oil giant Petrobras in 2008, which was subsequently involved in the biggest corruption scandal in Brazilian history.

On November 16, purported Vice-President Gerald Alckimin announced that Pedro Abramovay would be a member of purported President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s transition team. Abramovay has been executive director of the Open Society Foundations in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2013. During Lula’s first reign 2003 to 2011, Abramovay was an adviser to Minister of Justice Márcio Thomaz Bastos, who served 2003 to 2007 and died 2014

As Minister of Justice, Thomaz Bastos helped Lula pack the Supreme Court with many of the far-left Justices that today stand accused of state capture and whitewashing election fraud. As a lawyer, he defended several companies involved in Brazil’s massive corruption scandal known as “Car Wash” (Lava Jato) and is accused of money laundering going back before 2007, Antagonista reported 2018. Thomaz Bastos died with a fortune estimated at R$393 million (US $73 million), not bad for a lawyer.

In August 2008, George Soros’ Quantum Fund invested $811 million in Petroleo Brasileiro (PetroBras), “making the Brazilian state-controlled oil company his investment fund’s largest holding” at 22% of Quantum’s holdings at the time, Bloomberg reported.

By a lucky coincidence, the Obama administration soon thereafter began funding offshore drilling in Brazil. In August 2009, the U.S. Export-Import Bank announced it was loaning PetroBras $2 billion “to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro”, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Soon after, President Barack Obama announced a ban on offshore drilling in the USA in December of 2010 and ended oil tax breaks for US companies in January 2011. Obama “was declared in contempt of court for defying a federal judge who ordered the moratoriums reversed. Some wondered if the president wasn’t intentionally acting against U.S. interests,” Business Daily wrote.

The massive influx of cash allowed PetrobBras to sell $70 billion in new stock, the largest stock issue in history, for what Reuters called “the world’s biggest oil exploration program” for the Tupi oil field, discovered in 2007, which was renamed “Lula” (squid).

In 2014, a massive government scheme to defraud Petrobras was revealed, the largest corruption scandal in Brazilian history, “Car Wash”. “By March 2015 federal prosecutors had formally accused 110 people of corruption, money laundering, and other financial crimes. In April Petrobras … announced that the company had lost $17 billion to mismanagement and graft”, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

On March 4, 2016, former President Lula da Silva’s home was raided by police, and he was charged with money laundering. Lula’s successor as President Dilma Roussef tried to make him her Chief of Staff, to grant him immunity against prosecution, but on March 13, 2016, over a million Brazilians protested, calling for Roussef’s impeachment. On April 17, over two-thirds of the Deputies, including her former allies, voted to impeach Roussef.

Lula was considered the mastermind of the scandal and was charged with accepting bribes worth $1.1 million. His wife died in February 2016 of a stroke, In July, Lula was convicted of fraud and money laundering, and sentenced to 10 years in prison, later increased to 12. Lula should be ineligible to run for President as a convicted criminal, but the pro-Lula Supreme Court vacated the charges in 2021 in a transparent move to install their candidate and ally.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/soros-files-brazil-barack-obama-petrobras-biggest-corruption-scandal-brazils-history/

Socialists Step Down, Police Find Suitcase ‘Full of Cash’, as EU Corruption Scandal Widens

A suitcase described as being “full of cash” has been seized by police as part of an investigation into EU corruption, which has seen a number of socialist MEPs forced to step down from their positions

Police in Belgium have reportedly seized hundreds of thousands of Euro in cash as part of an ongoing investigation into a corruption scandal that is now plaguing the EU, with officers being said to have recovered a suitcase “full of cash” as part of their investigation.

With the now-former Vice President of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, said to have been put behind bars as part of the investigation, news of rampant corruption within the EU could not come at a worse time for Brussels, which has been actively trying to paint Hungary’s nationalist government as being a corrupt force that is trying to erode democracy.

Such a narrative has only become less and less convincing as time goes on, with Politico reporting that police have continued conducting raids on premises linked to various officials thought to be connected to criminality, which largely revolves around the alleged taking of bribes from a country widely said to be Islamist Qatar.

As part of such searches, €600,000 (~$630,000) from a private home, €150,000 (~$160,000) from Kaili’s apartment, and a suitcase in a Belgian hotel described as being “filled with cash” have all been seized.

Meanwhile, the socialist group in the European Parliament has allegedly been forced to ask a number of its MEPs to step back from their positions in various bodies, with those linked to the corruption scandal within the bloc having been overwhelmingly left-wing so far.

The Socialists & Democrats group, which represents one of the largest within the European Parliament, has reportedly seen a number of MEPs either voluntarily step back or suspend themselves from the group, with one Belgian MEP, Marc Tarabella, reportedly stepping aside after his house was raided by police.

Overall, six people have reportedly been arrested as part of the investigation — two of whom were subsequently released — while 19 private homes have been searched for evidence.

In the wake of the revelation that corruption is rampant within the upper echelons of Brussels, many within the EU were keen to distance both themselves and the bloc as a whole from wrongdoing.

For example, the parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola has alleged that “European Democracy is under attack” as a result of the revelations, with the bloc voting on Tuesday to dismiss Eva Kaili MEP from her position as vice president, despite the fact that the Greek politician denies being involved in bribery from Qatar.

However, none of these actions have saved the bloc from serious embarrassment, especially given its attacks on member state Hungary for corruption and accusing it of being being “no longer a democracy“.

With it now being revealed that the European Parliament itself has seemingly been harbouring serious corruption, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took to Twitter to openly mock the block for its repeated attacks on his country while hosting its own corruption.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/12/13/socialists-step-down-police-find-suitcase-full-of-cash-as-eu-corruption-scandal-widens/

Eighteen Years Ago: Journalist Gary Webb Was Murdered After Exposing CIA Drug Trafficking

On December 10, 2004, the body of journalist Gary Webb, 49, was discovered in his home near Sacramento after a moving company worker found a note posted to his front door that read: “Please do not enter. Call 911 and ask for an ambulance.”

Webb’s death was listed as a suicide, but Webb was found with two bullet holes in the head, indicating that he was executed.[1]

In the days leading up to his death, Webb had told friends that he was receiving death threats, being regularly followed by what he thought were government agents, and that he was concerned about strange individuals who were seen breaking into and leaving his house.

In the late 1990s, Webb had written a series of stories for the San José Mercury News, which provided the basis for his book, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1998).

In it, Webb detailed how the explosion of crack cocaine in South Central Los Angeles during the 1980s was sparked by two Nicaraguan émigrés, Danilo Blandón and Norwin Meneses, who sold huge amounts of cocaine to raise funds for a CIA-backed rebel army—the Contras.

Webb was a Pulitzer Prize winner whose “Dark Alliance” series went viral in the early days of the internet. It caused a firestorm that led to the resignation of CIA Director John Deutch after he was grilled by angry Black activists at a meeting in L.A.[2]

Webb’s story had traced how cocaine was shipped into San Francisco and distributed in L.A. after Blandón and Meneses sold it to a street dealer from South Central named “Freeway” Ricky Ross.

Through this connection, “Freeway Rick” became a crack kingpin, using his contacts with L.A.’s Crips and Blood street gangs to help distribute crack to many other cities across the country.

Webb had first heard about the story after receiving a tip from the girlfriend of a drug dealer against whom Blandón was testifying.

In his lead paragraph, Webb wrote that “a Bay Area drug ring had funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency” which was in league with “Uzi-toting ‘gangstas’ of Compton and South-Central L.A.”

The thrust of Webb’s research was confirmed in 1998 when a CIA inspector general’s report acknowledged that the CIA had worked with suspected drugrunners while supporting the Contras in Nicaragua.[3]

The corruption Webb exposed led all the way to the White House and President Reagan via his aide, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who was coordinating, under Reagan’s orders, the illegal supplying to the Contras of weapons that were purchased with profits from the cocaine being smuggled into the U.S. and distributed around the country by criminals in league with the CIA.

Because of the far-reaching implications, Webb became the target of what Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair called “one of the most venomous and factually inane assaults on a professional journalist’s competence in living memory.”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/eighteen-years-ago-today-journalist-gary-webb-murdered-after-exposing-cia-drug-trafficking/5802011

Ex-Twitter censor Yoel Roth and his boyfriend are forced to FLEE their $1.1m home after his thesis - which supports letting children use gay hook-up app Grindr - is shared by Elon Musk

Twitter's former censor has been forced to flee the $1.1m Bay Area mansion he shares with his boyfriend after Elon Musk shared part of his thesis which suggested letting children access gay hook-up app Grindr.

Yoel Roth, 34, and his partner Nicholas Madsen, 44, moved out of their two-bed, two-bath property in El Cerrito over fears for their safety, after receiving a torrent of threats, the Washington Post reported.

Musk tweeted: 'Looks like Yoel is in favor of letting children being able to access adult internet services in his PhD thesis.'

He also shared a screenshot of part of the document.

Roth's thesis, written in 2016 while he was at the University of Pennsylvania, included the claim that many under-18s access gay hook-up app Grindr, despite being too young to do so.

He then suggested that an age-appropriate version of the app be created, to offer support to LGBT youth.

During his time at Twitter, Roth had huge sway in deciding which posts needed to be removed and accounts suspended.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11531441/Ex-Twitter-censor-Yoel-Roth-boyfriend-forced-FLEE-t-1-1m-home-Elon-Musk-shared-thesis.html

Danske Bank Pleads Guilty To Fraud On U.S. Banks In Multi-Billion Dollar Scheme To Access The U.S. Financial System

Largest Bank in Denmark Agrees to Forfeit $2 Billion

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/danske-bank-pleads-guilty-fraud-us-banks-multi-billion-dollar-scheme-access-us

New Study Details Coca-Cola’s Big Influence on Public Health Organizations, Conferences and Events

An investigation reveals the beverage giant gives big bucks to influence research and policy through events and conferences.

Coca-Cola is directly influencing public health conferences and events via sponsorships — sometimes undisclosed — that could give the multinational company say in speaker selections and conference agendas, according to a new study.

The study, published in the Public Health Nutrition Journal, uncovered previously unknown collaborations between Coco-Cola and major health institutions including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the Institute for Excellence in Pediatrics, the Obesity Society and the American Academy of Family Physicians. It builds upon a 2020 study that showed the company helped shape the International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health, an international effort to promote physical activity.

The findings, based on documents uncovered by 22 Freedom of Information requests by the U.S. Right to Know organization, suggest that Coca-Cola’s influence could suppress research and viewpoints unfavorable to the company and its suite of unhealthy products, advance messaging that physical inactivity is the key cause of obesity and bolster its image as science-friendly.

“The effect of this industry involvement is to expose professionals to the brands and marketing of certain products, including ultra-processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages, while also allowing the brands to build their image by affiliating with scientific and research communities,” the authors wrote.

Conflicts of interest

The study found Coca-Cola gave three types of support: funding conference organizers, non-profit organizations or conference speakers. These contributions gave the company perks such as proposing topics, suggesting speakers, marketing opportunities or lunchtime seating with conference VIPs.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/new-study-details-coca-cola-big-influence-public-health-organizations-conferences-events/5802203

ONTARIO PASSES ANTI-PROTEST LAW BILL 100

The Bill enacts the Keeping Ontario Open for Business Act, 2022. The Act establishes prohibitions and enforcement mechanisms to prevent persons from impeding access to, egress from or ordinary use of protected transportation infrastructure. “Protected transportation infrastructure” is defined in section 1 as any land or water border crossing point between Ontario and the United States, any airport that regularly accommodates flights directly between Ontario and a country other than Canada that is prescribed by the regulations made under the Act, and any other transportation infrastructure that is of significance to international trade that is prescribed by the regulations made under the Act. In the case of regulations prescribing other transportation infrastructure, subsection 17 (2) provides that any such regulation ceases to apply after 30 days, if it is not revoked earlier.

Section 2 sets out the main prohibitions in the Act. Subsection 2 (1) prohibits persons from impeding access to or egress from, or the ordinary use of, protected transportation infrastructure, or from directly or indirectly causing such access, egress or ordinary use to be impeded, if the impediment has or is reasonably expected to have the effect of disrupting ordinary economic activity or interfering with the safety, health or well-being of members of the public. Subsection 2 (4) prohibits persons from knowingly aiding a person in doing something prohibited under subsection (1). Subsections 2 (3) and (5) set out exceptions and circumstances in which the prohibitions do not apply.

https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-2/bill-100

French Parliamentarians Demand an Extra Budget to Heat the Parliament, Whilst the Rest of France is Freezing

The French National Assembly has provided 2.3 million Euros in additional money for 2022 in order to deal in particular with the “effects of inflation” on the energy expenditure of their institution, along with automatic increases in the remuneration for civil servants, reported the French press this week.

Yes, you heard that right: French parliamentarians are cold, and had to get a budget’s extension to warm their seats – whilst the rest of France is freezing! Indeed, the monarchy is alive and well…

A cozy 2.3 million Euros

The Assembly’s draft budget amounted to €608.7 million, but bureaucrats had to act to secure an extension of €2.3 million “in order to take into account the index revaluation measures, the uncertainties linked to the rate of progress of several real estate investments and the effects of inflation on the energy expenditure,” according to the minutes meeting’s report. In other words, they say the need more cash to pay the utility bills.

Long exchanges took place, as ministers argued over the thermostat temperature in certain offices and on the premises of the French Assembly, in principle OK at 19°C, but sometimes less in the event of defective heating (the radiators are old, you see), reported one government source.

We’re told that some deputies have also been happy to wear the scarf in the hemicycle for a few days (not the entire winter of course).

Ironically, President Yaël Braun-Pivet had just launched a working group on “sustainable development” within the institution in early August 2022, responsible for working on Macron’s bold new “energy sobriety measures”, and for a few months on a new “ecological transition plan“.

Aristocratic France will of course see that its elite public servants are warm this winter, but what about the deplorables?

https://21stcenturywire.com/2022/12/13/french-parliamentarians-demand-an-extra-budget-to-heat-the-parliament-whilst-the-rest-of-france-is-freezing/

Governor DeSantis Calls on Grand Jury to Investigate Covid Vaccine-Related Injuries

https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1602711034921619461

Why Are Retired Generals Receiving Pentagon Waivers To “Consult” For Foreign Governments? Congress Wants To Know

Is this corruption in plain sight?

Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Michael Cloud (R-TX), and Jason Crow (D-CO) sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asking for more info on former generals consulting on behalf of foreign governments.

The Hill reported:

Three House members on Tuesday sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to ask for additional details about how former generals receive waivers to consult on behalf of foreign governments.

The lawmakers said they are concerned about a lack of transparency in the waiver approval process and reporting to Congress, the lack of standardized internal procedures at the Defense Department to implement the waiver approval process and the lack of enforcement when retired personnel violate the law through failing to report that they are advising for a foreign government.

They said they are also worried about potential conflicts of interest that were identified during the waiver approval process and the extent to which International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) concerns are discovered and resolved during the approval process.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/retired-generals-receiving-pentagon-waivers-consult-foreign-governments-congress-wants-know/