Prominent Global Law Firm Agrees to Register as an Agent of a Foreign Principal

Civil settlement resolves Department of Justice national security inquiry into violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP has entered into a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice, resolving its liability for violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), announced Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers.

According to the Agreement, Skadden acted as an agent of the Government of Ukraine within the meaning of FARA, 22 U.S.C. § 611 et seq., by contributing to a public relations campaign directed at select members of the U.S. news media in 2012. Moreover, in 2012 and 2013, Skadden received multiple inquiries from the Department’s FARA Registration Unit about its role in that campaign. A partner then at Skadden made false and misleading statements to the FARA Unit, which led it to conclude in 2013 that the firm was not obligated to register under FARA. The facts, when uncovered, showed that Skadden was indeed required to register in 2012, and, under the Agreement, it will do so retroactively.

“Law firms should handle inquiries from the federal government the same way they would counsel their clients to: with appropriate due diligence to ensure the honesty of their response,” said Assistant Attorney General Demers. “Skadden’s failure to do so, and reliance on only the representations of the lead partner on the matter, hid from the public that its report was part of a Ukrainian foreign influence campaign. FARA protects the integrity of the American political system by enabling Americans to consider the identity of the speaker as they evaluate the substance of the speech.” Assistant Attorney General Demers added, “The Department appreciates Skadden’s more recent extensive cooperation in the investigation of this matter, which facilitated its resolution.”

In addition to agreeing to register under FARA, Skadden has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury more than $4.6 million, which it received in fees and expenses for its work with Ukraine, and will ensure that it has formal, robust procedures for responding to inquiries concerning its conduct from any federal government entity and ensuring FARA compliance as to its engagements on behalf of foreign clients.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/prominent-global-law-firm-agrees-register-agent-foreign-principal

Acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker Delivers Remarks at the Heritage Foundation to Commemorate 25th Anniversary of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Thank you, Tom for that kind introduction and thank you for your leadership at the Ed Meese Center. Ed Meese is a personal hero of mine and you are helping to carry on his legacy of upholding the Constitution and defending the rule of law.

Thank you also to Jennifer Marshall, John Malcolm, and especially to our panelists. Each one of you brings a unique perspective to today’s discussion—but we are all united in our shared values of tolerance and mutual respect.

I want to start by wishing everyone a happy Religious Freedom Day.

Two-hundred thirty-three years ago, the Virginia Senate passed the Statute for Religious Freedom, which remains one of the most eloquent defenses of religious freedom ever written.

It states that “truth is great and will prevail if left to herself…[Truth] has nothing to fear…unless…disarmed of her natural weapons: free argument and debate.”

The statute protected Virginians from being compelled to attend or support any religious service or ministry or from being punished because of their beliefs.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/acting-attorney-general-matthew-g-whitaker-delivers-remarks-heritage-foundation

Two Ukrainian Nationals Indicted in Computer Hacking and Securities Fraud Scheme Targeting U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Hacking and Trading Scheme Involved Theft of Thousands of ‘EDGAR’ Filings, Including Draft Earnings Reports of Publicly Traded Companies before Reports were Made Public

Two Ukrainian men have been charged for their roles in a large-scale, international conspiracy to hack into the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) computer systems and profit by trading on critical information they stole.

In a 16-count indictment unsealed today in the District of New Jersey, Artem Radchenko, 27, and Oleksandr Ieremenko, 26, both of Kiev, Ukraine, are charged with securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, computer fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and computer fraud. The SEC also filed a civil complaint today charging Ieremenko along with several other individuals and entities.

The indictment alleges that Radchenko and Ieremenko hacked into the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR) system and stole thousands of files, including annual and quarterly earnings reports containing confidential, non-public, financial information, which publicly traded companies are required to disclose to the SEC. The defendants and others then profited by selling access to the confidential information in these reports and trading on this stolen information prior to its distribution to the investing public.

“The defendants allegedly orchestrated sophisticated computer intrusions to steal non-public information from the SEC, compromising the integrity of the market and depriving honest investors of a level playing field,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. “The Department of Justice will aggressively pursue and prosecute those who attack our financial markets and seek to profit unfairly, no matter where such offenders reside.”

“The defendants charged in the indictment announced today engaged in a sophisticated hacking and insider trading scheme to cheat the securities markets and the investing public,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. “They targeted the Securities and Exchange Commission with a series of sophisticated and relentless cyber-attacks, stealing thousands of confidential EDGAR filings from the Commission’s servers and then trading on the inside information in those filings before it was known to the market, all at the expense of the average investor.”

“Today’s indictment sends a strong message to those criminals who choose to use the cyber-world to profit from network intrusion,” Mark McKevitt, Special Agent in Charge of the Secret Service Newark Field Office, said. “The Secret Service will continue to aggressively investigate cyber-enabled financial crimes and develop innovative ways to combat emerging cyber threats.”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-ukrainian-nationals-indicted-computer-hacking-and-securities-fraud-scheme-targeting-us

Maryam Rajavi calls for support of Iranian protesters in the New Year

On Sunday, January 13, 2019, Maryam Rajavi attended a New Year ceremony attended by French mayors, elected representatives and supporters of the Iranian Resistance. Titled, “Solidarity with the Iranian People’s Resistance and Uprising,” the conference called for greater support for ongoing protests in Iran and the Iranian people's efforts to free their country from the tyranny of the ruling mullahs.

Among the participants in the meeting were Mrs. Anissa Boumediene, former First Lady of Algeria; Mr. Dominique Lefebvre, former MP; Bishop Jacques Gaillot, a number of Paris district mayors, the mayor of Val d’Oise, and a number of French personalities.

Maryam Rajavi welcomed the audience and extended her New Year felicitations. She briefly reviewed the events of the past year and elaborated on the prospects of 2019. Following is the text of her speech:

https://english.mojahedin.org/i/maryam-rajavi-new-year-2019-iran-protests

>>4804901

Closer Everyday

Turkey’s control of the Euphrates might lead to disaster

Criticism of the Turkish government has been voiced by civil society activists in Northern Syria concerning Turkey’s control of the River Euphrates. In recent weeks, the Turks have stopped the flow of water into Syria from the mighty river, which has its source in Turkey’s Taurus Mountains before flowing into Syria and on into Iraq. The Euphrates is the main source of water for the Northern Syrian province of Raqqa.

“This threatens us with a real disaster within the next few days,” said Abu Mohamed, a local activist from Raqqa. He pointed out that half of the villages in the district currently have no water available for residential use or agricultural purposes.

The Euphrates has three main dams within Syria: Tishreen, Euphrates and Al-Baath. The Euphrates dam is considered the most important of the three. The water level in the Euphrates Lake (formerly known as Al-Assad Lake) has dropped significantly. It is the largest man-made lake in Syria at 85km long; until recently it held more than 14.2 billion cubic metres of water. The lake and hydro-electric power station on its dam is the source of water and electricity to Raqqa and eastern Aleppo.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20140623-turkeys-control-of-the-euphrates-might-lead-to-disaster/

Shaked faces calls to resign as sex scandal rocks Israel judiciary

Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is facing calls to resign as Israeli politicians accuse her of complicity in a sex scandal that has rocked the country’s judiciary.

Shaked yesterday hit back at accusations that she bore responsibility for the scandal, in which the head of the Israel Bar Association, Efraim (Efi) Nave, allegedly helped appoint a female judge in return for sexual favours.

Nave is thought to be a powerful ally of Shaked’s within the judicial system, with both sitting on Israel’s Judicial Appointments Committee which assigns judges to the Israeli courts. Shaked’s political opponents are now claiming she allowed Nave to allegedly abuse his power under her watch in order to promote her own political interests.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190118-shaked-faces-calls-to-resign-as-sex-scandal-rocks-israel-judiciary/

>>4804987

I don't have it

Migrants stole Swedish woman’s puppies, beat her unconscious and tried to break her neck

A dog breeder in southern Sweden was brutally beaten in connection with a robbery last week. Three masked men stole her six puppies.

Now, several puppy ads written in poor Swedish and at low prices have appeared on various websites.

51-year-old Eivor Nilsson was on her way to let her Golden Retriever puppies out when three masked men attacked her, Samhällsnytt reports. The men sprayed red colour in Eivor’s face and hit her on the head with a hard object.

“I’m going to die. Will my life end at 50 like this, I thought before I fainted”, Eivor explains.

When she regained consciousness, one of the men tried to break her neck. The attempt was interrupted and instead they duct taped her mouth, eyes, hands and feet while communicating in broken Swedish. “They spoke in a foreign language. There is no doubt about it.”

She managed to contact her mother, who called the police and an ambulance. The assault resulted in swelling of the head, a damaged cornea, bruising over the body and a bone fracture.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/01/migrants-stole-swedish-womans-puppies-beat-her-unconscious-and-tried-to-break-her-neck/

U.S. Surveillance Tech Is Propping Up Authoritarian Regimes

This article is correct to state: “But if human rights concerns aren’t enough to move U.S. policymakers, there’s another reason to act: Exporting surveillance equipment enables digital authoritarianism and hurts U.S. national interests.” However, TN readers know that Technocrats don’t care about U.S. national interests! ⁃ TN Editor

NSO Group, an Israeli cyberintelligence firm, makes spyware that it sells to a variety of government clients around the world. It has denied that those surveillance products were involved in the torture and murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, although it has neither confirmed nor denied selling its products to the Saudi government — elements of which, the CIA has concluded, ordered the killing.

That may raise eyebrows, but this intermingling of privately sold technology and authoritarian regimes is hardly an outlier. Throughout the world, despots are also probably monitoring Internet traffic, communications and behavior — in many cases using surveillance technology supplied by U.S. and other Western companies.

Take, for instance, recent reporting: The U.S. firm Gatekeeper Intelligent Security sold facial-recognition technology to the Saudi government. The system identifies the faces of drivers and passengers in cars, even with blacked-out or tinted windows. The technology has also been sold to regimes in the United Arab Emirates, and “when combined with facial recognition and number-plate readers,” Forbes wrote, “it’s designed to help authorities track individuals of interest.” This is only the latest in reports about Western firms selling surveillance technology to authoritarian regimes.

https://www.technocracy.news/u-s-surveillance-tech-is-propping-up-authoritarian-regimes/

>>4805042

I have been watching it for a few years now…Then Q said learn Russian and I thought what a coincidence

US-led coalition strikes mosque in northern Syria

The US-led coalition hit a mosque Thursday believed to be a military command post for Daesh in northern Syria, Anadolu reports.

The strike “destroyed an ISIS (Daesh) command and control facility in a mosque” in Safafiyah town in Deir ez-Zor province, the coalition said in a statement, using another name for Daesh.

The terror organization “continues to violate the Law of Armed Conflict and misuse protected structures like hospitals and mosques, which cause a facility to lose its protected status,” it said.

The coalition said the strike killed Daesh terrorists “who presented an imminent threat to our Syrian partner forces.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190118-us-led-coalition-strikes-mosque-in-northern-syria/