PDVSA ex-executive admits taking bribes in guilty plea in U.S. court

A former finance executive of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA accepted $17 million in bribes as part of a broad embezzlement scheme, U.S. federal prosecutors said on Wednesday, in a case that implicates a French oil firm and a Russian bank. The former executive, Abraham Ortega, admitted to taking the bribes as part of a guilty plea to one count of attempting to launder $12 million of the illegal payments, the U.S. Attorneys’ Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.

The case comes amid growing U.S. investigations into the troubled OPEC nation’s public officials, and may lead to new revelations about the role of foreign firms in graft probes that until now have mainly focused on Venezuelan nationals. “Ortega admitted that he and his co-defendant laundered $12 million through a sophisticated false-investment scheme,” reads the statement, which describes a “billion-dollar international scheme to launder funds embezzled from PDVSA.” PDVSA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Ortega accepted $5 million from a French oil company and from a Russian bank, according to the statement, which did not name either company.

Prosecutors said that in exchange, Ortega helped companies gain “priority status” to loan money to joint ventures in which they were partners with PDVSA. That was beneficial to those companies because PDVSA had agreed to speed up the flow of cash coming out of the joint ventures, which had slowed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, if the companies made the loans, the statement said. PDVSA in 2013 said it had signed a deal with Russia’s Gazprombank for $1 billion in financing for a joint venture between the two companies called Petrozamora. Gazprombank did not respond to an email seeking comment.

In 2014, then-Petroleum Minister Rafael Ramirez announced a $420 million loan from Anglo-French oil company Perenco to boost output at the Petrowarao joint venture. Perenco declined to comment.

Ortega obtained $12 million through a PDVSA embezzlement scheme built around the country’s exchange control system, which for years has allowed well-connected public officials to buy subsidized dollars and resell them at a huge profit. More than a dozen people have pleaded guilty as part of a broad Justice Department investigation into bribery at PDVSA that became public in 2015 with the arrest of U.S.-based contractors Roberto Rincon and Abraham Shiera. The government of President Nicolas Maduro has described the U.S. investigations as politically motivated, and accuses Washington of seeking to undermine his government through financial sanctions.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-pdvsa/pdvsa-ex-executive-admits-taking-bribes-in-guilty-plea-in-u-s-court-idUSKCN1N639G

>>3682624

I would agree with that, seems the only ones who can defend are the criminals themselves…

Baker, I really like the color full titles in the notables KeK

Jimmy Buffet doing Florida concert with Bill Nelson, Andrew Gillum

Two top Democrats in Florida will get a boost from singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett just before the midterm elections next week. A get-out-the-vote event sign-up page says Buffett will appear at a Saturday afternoon concert in West Palm Beach with Sen. Bill Nelson and Tallahassee mayor and Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. "Join us in West Palm Beach for a GOTV concert to energize Democrats and Parrot Heads across the state," the event page on Gillum's website states. Buffett, who lives in Palm Beach, has performed for other Democrats in the past, including Gwen Graham, lost to Gillum in the primary contest earlier this year. Nelson, who assumed office in 2001, faces a tough re-election contest against Republican Gov. Rick Scott. Nelson has a slight 2-percentage point advantage in the latest RealClearPolitics polling average. Gillum is facing off against Rep. Ron DeSantis in the race for Florida governor. He leads in the latest RealClearPolitics polling average by 3 percentage points. President Trump stumped for Scott and DeSantis in Southwest Florida on Wednesday.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/jimmy-buffet-doing-florida-concert-with-bill-nelson-andrew-gillum

Note: This didn't work before for Hillary…Definition of insanity…is right here with this crew.

Voters purged from Ohio rolls to have their ballots counted, court rules

Certain Ohio voters who had been purged from the state’s electoral rolls for not voting over a six-year period will be allowed to vote in the midterm elections this year, federal judges ruled Wednesday. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned, in part, an Oct. 10 ruling by a federal judge that said voters had not been illegally purged in the state. Advocacy groups such as the Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and public policy organization Demos had continued to challenge the state’s confirmation notices sent to voters. The groups argued the state was vague in informing voters of their removal from county voter rolls for not voting in three federal elections or taking other voting-related actions, according to the Associated Press. They said the letters were inadequate under federal law and did not clarify the consequences of not responding or failing to vote within a four-year period.

The court agreed and granted the emergency motion. “Plaintiffs have a reasonable, and perhaps even greater, likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that defendant's confirmation notice did not adequately advise registrants of the consequences of failure to respond, as the NVRA (National Voting Rights Act) requires," the court ruled Wednesday.

The voting-rights groups had further argued that some elections in Ohio have been settled by small margins, and that turning away thousands of potential voters could alter outcomes. Ohio has traditionally been a swing state, and with the midterms less than a week away, the ruling will allow provisional ballots submitted by voters purged from the rolls between 2011 and 2015 to be taken into account in the state’s early voting — as long as they still live in the same county of their last registration and have not been disqualified from voting due to felony conviction, mental incapacity, or death. The court did not block the act of purging voters from the rolls itself. Plaintiffs led by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a nonprofit organization for African-American trade unionists, and other voting rights groups had in June lost a Supreme Court case challenging Ohio’s election administration process overall, deeming it unconstitutional. The advocacy groups, who argue the act amounts to voter suppression, are still appealing the original Oct. 10 ruling.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/voters-purged-from-ohio-rolls-to-have-their-ballots-counted-court-rules

>>3682877

I have to say he ruined James Taylor for me I did at one time enjoy the stories in his songs…

Conspiracy theorist becomes key figure as Mueller builds case

Self-proclaimed conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi returned to Washington, D.C., again this week for more closed-door meetings with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators, and on Friday is scheduled to make a second appearance before the federal grand jury probing Russia interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, ABC News has learned. Reached by ABC News on Wednesday, Corsi's lawyer, David Gray, declined to comment on the matter.

Corsi, who until recently served as the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for the controversial far-right media outlet Infowars, is one of at least 11 individuals associated with political operative Roger Stone – a longtime and close ally of President Donald Trump – who have been contacted by the special counsel.

Much remains unknown about Mueller’s interest in Stone. But in recent weeks, Corsi has emerged as a central figure of interest to Mueller as he builds his case, sources confirm to ABC News. Corsi, who Stone told ABC News he has known for years, has frequently appeared with Stone on-air for Infowars, where Stone currently serves as a contributor.

Mueller’s interest in Corsi is believed to stem from his alleged early discussions about efforts to unearth then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails. The special counsel has evidence that suggests Corsi may have had advance knowledge that the email account of Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, had been hacked and that WikiLeaks had obtained a trove of damning emails from it, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told ABC News. While Corsi is not a widely recognized figure, his handiwork in the political arena has at times become very well known. He has served as the pioneer of several enduring political smears during national campaigns throughout the 2000s. Corsi has been cited as one of the architects of the 2004 effort to bring then-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry’s war record into question through a 527 political organization called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group attempted to cast doubt on Kerry’s Vietnam War record and question the injuries he sustained in earning decorations that included a Bronze Star, a Silver Star, and three Purple Hearts. Corsi co-wrote a book on the matter, “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.”

In 2007, Corsi took a brief hiatus from his role as a columnist on the fringe website World Net Daily [WND] to explore a potential third-party bid in the 2008 presidential election but ultimately returned to WND two months later. At the time, he was a subscriber to the so-called 9/11 Truth Movement – a conspiracy theory that disputes al Qaeda's involvement in the 2001 terrorist attacks, alleging that the U.S. government was complicit in the deadly plot and its coverup and was an inside job. Corsi even convened a press conference in late 2007 to call for then-President George W. Bush’s impeachment. But Corsi’s most penetrating smear campaign is the same one that helped forge his bond with Donald Trump. He is widely considered one of the early promoters of the so-called “birther” movement, which pursued the idea that former President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not in America. The theory was debunked and widely denounced as baseless, racist vitriol. Corsi and Trump have long been blasted for not walking back their claims even after Obama produced his long-form birth certificate. In fact, it was only in the final stretch of his successful 2016 presidential bid that Trump finally acknowledged that Obama was born in the U.S. Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, when Corsi joined the controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ right-wing outlet, Infowars, Jones reportedly boasted that Corsi “had a history” with Trump, and that the two had been acquainted for “40-plus years.”

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/conspiracy-theorist-key-figure-mueller-builds-case/story?id=58886291

>>3683189

Yeah… I was never a fan, didn't know about him until I heard it on a CD in someone's car..

Soros Has Given $1 Million To Group Linked To Fusion GPS For Trump-Russia Investigation

George Soros, the billionaire financier who supports numerous progressive causes, has provided $1 million in funding for a nonprofit group that works closely with Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the infamous Steele dossier. Soros is considering providing more funding for the group, the Democracy Integrity Project, according to The New York Times. The Democracy Integrity Project, which was founded in January 2017 by Daniel Jones, a former Democratic staffer on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has worked with Fusion GPS and dossier author Christopher Steele to investigate Russian interference in American elections. The group has also investigated President Donald Trump’s possible links to Russia.

The $1 million in funding matches what the Democratic National Committee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid Fusion GPS during the campaign to investigate Trump and his campaign. Details of Soros’ links to the Democracy Integrity Project and Fusion GPS have trickled out since March, when an attorney for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska revealed his interactions with Jones. The lawyer, Adam Waldman, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that he met with Jones in March 2017 to discuss the Democracy Integrity Project’s investigation of Trump. Waldman said that Jones told him that a group of wealthy Democrats, including Soros, was funding the Democracy Integrity Project. Jones also said that his group was working closely with Fusion GPS, which was founded by former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson and two colleagues. Jones also suggested to Waldman that his operation was behind various anti-Trump stories planted at various media outlets.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence revealed in April that Jones described his efforts to the FBI in late March 2017. “In late March 2017, Jones met with FBI regarding PQG, which he described as ‘exposing foreign influence in Western election,'” reads the committee’s report, referring to Jones’ consulting firm Penn Quarter Group. Jones told the FBI that his operation was “funded by 7 to 10 wealthy donors located primarily in New York and California, who provided approximately $50 million.” Jones said that he had “secured the services of Steele, his associate [redacted], and Fusion GPS to continue exposing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.” The goal of the project was to “share the information he obtained with policymakers … and with the press,” he said. He also offered to provide information to the FBI. Soros spokesman Michael Vachon told The Washington Post for a Sept. 26 article that Soros had indirectly funded Fusion GPS. Vachon did not disclose how much money was provided.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2018/10/31/george-soros-fusion-gps-trump-funding/

>>3683278

He rather enjoys his evil wrath..he would never use it for the force of good..it would full fill the high.

>>3683205

Entertainers should just entertain…just like companies should just mind their businesses but they don't, it will bite them in the ass eventually.