U.S. to formally seek extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou: Globe and Mail

(Reuters) - The United States will proceed with the formal extradition from Canada of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, Canada’s ambassador to the United States told the Globe and Mail, in a move certain to ratchet up tensions with China. David MacNaughton, in an interview with the Canadian newspaper published on Monday, said the U.S. has told Canada it will request Meng’s extradition, but he did not say when the request will be made. The deadline for filing is Jan. 30, or 60 days after Meng was arrested on Dec. 1 in Vancouver. Meng, the daughter of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested at the request of the United States over alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran. She was released on bail last month and is due in court in Vancouver on Feb. 6.

Relations between China and Canada turned frosty after the arrest, with China detaining two Canadian citizens and sentencing to death a Canadian man previously found guilty of drug smuggling. The Chinese firm, the world’s biggest maker of telecommunications equipment, said it had no comment on ongoing legal proceedings when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday. A U.S. Justice Department spokesman said, “We will comment through our filings.” The Canadian Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

Canada is one of over 100 countries with which the United States has extradition treaties. Once a formal request is received, a Canadian court must determine within 30 days if there is sufficient evidence to support extradition, and Canada’s Minister of Justice must give a formal order. In an article published on Monday, a former Canadian spy chief said Canada should ban Huawei from supplying equipment for next-generation telecoms networks, while Canada’s government is studying any security implications. Some of Canada’s allies such as the United States and Australia have already imposed restrictions on using Huawei equipment, citing the risk of it being used for espionage.

Huawei has repeatedly said such concerns are unfounded, while China’s ambassador to Canada last week said there would be repercussions if Ottawa blocked Huawei. In Monday’s interview, MacNaughton said he had complained to the United States that Canada was suffering from Chinese revenge for an arrest made at the U.S.’s request. “We don’t like that it is our citizens who are being punished,” the Globe and Mail cited MacNaughton as saying. “(The Americans) are the ones seeking to have the full force of American law brought against (Ms. Meng) and yet we are the ones who are paying the price. Our citizens are.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously said China was arbitrarily using the death penalty and called on world leaders to raise concerns about the detained Canadians.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-huawei-canada/u-s-to-formally-seek-extradition-of-huawei-executive-meng-wanzhou-globe-and-mail-idUSKCN1PG078?il=0

China drone maker DJI says $150 million scam involved staff padding parts costs

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd, the world’s largest maker of consumer drones, said employees inflating the cost of parts for personal gain led to incidents of suspected corruption that may have caused it to suffer a hit of almost $150 million last year. Privately held DJI said late last week it was “investigating a number of serious cases of corruption at the company leading to losses of more than 1 billion yuan ($147.03 million) for 2018”, in one of the largest cases of corruption involving a Chinese technology company.

On Monday, it offered some more details about the cases, pinning the blame on staff for inflating costs of parts. It also said in a statement it “did not incur a full year loss in 2018”. DJI did not respond to further questions about the matter and its earnings.

Founded in 2006, Shenzhen-based DJI is one of a handful of Chinese consumer technology companies to successfully expand overseas, developing North America as its biggest market. Speaking to Chinese online media outlet The Paper in December, DJI president Luo Zhenhua revealed that the company posted revenue of 18 billion yuan in 2017, 80 percent of which came from outside of China.

According to an internal notice which begun circulating on Chinese social media on Friday, during an overhaul of management procedures DJI discovered that employees in several parts of its supply chain engaged in “corrupt behavior” that caused prices to rise on an average of 20 percent. Reuters was unable to independently verify the contents of the document, which also said the company fired 45 individuals, most of whom were in research and development as well as procurement. There has been a spate of cases in recent months in which Chinese tech companies have fired employees citing corruption.

Earlier this month, Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing Technology Co Ltd, which is backed by Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group Corp and U.S. ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies [UBER.UL], announced it had fired over 80 employees as part of a corruption crackdown. According to Didi the dismissed individuals had primarily engaged in fraud, profiteering, or violating information security regulation. And the president of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s video streaming service Youku stepped down and is believed to be talking to Chinese authorities as part of a potential corruption case, the company said in December.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-dji/china-drone-maker-dji-says-150-million-scam-involved-staff-padding-parts-costs-idUSKCN1PG0AE?il=0

>>4857549

Corruption has way of driving costs through the roof, kek..all for greed..These people forget volume=just as much in the end..

>>4857581 meant to tag you >>4857561

Macau, Beijing police arrest 37 in crackdown on illicit banking

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Police in Macau and mainland China detained 39 suspects in an underground lending case involving more than 30 billion yuan ($4.42 billion), as China steps up measures to reduce economic risks and clamp down on illicit capital outflows. Macau police and state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday that a criminal gang had illegally brought credit card point-of-sale terminals from the mainland into Macau’s casinos for gamblers to get cash out. Macau is the world’s biggest gambling hub.

The bust comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Monday that the country must be on guard against “black swan” risks while fending off “grey rhino” events, adding that the economy faces deep and complicated changes. Xi’s warning and the ensuing crackdown came after data showed the economy posted the slowest growth in 28 years last year, hurt by faltering domestic demand and bruising U.S. tariffs.Illegal point of sale terminals in Macau, a Chinese territory, have been a key method for many mainland Chinese to circumvent cash withdrawal limits of 20,000 yuan ($3,200) a day. They either use that money to gamble or transfer it abroad.

Macau authorities have been cracking down on the scheme over the past year and instructed financial institutions to tackle the illegal use of UnionPay cards to evade exchange controls. Macau’s gambling industry has revenues of around $3 billion a month. Through the joint investigation, Beijing and Macau police raided their respective cities as well as Hebei, Hubei and Guangdong. They seized 32 illegal converted point of sale terminals as well bank cards and computers. Police said the criminal group started operations in 2016, recruiting mainlanders to come to the Chinese special administrative region. The group had opened 5 accounts in a casinos’ VIP room as a source of funds. The statements did not identify which casino or VIP room were involved.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-macau/macau-beijing-police-arrest-37-in-crackdown-on-illicit-banking-idUSKCN1PG0A0?il=0

>>4857732

My preference: E verify…if you can't verify you get nothing..period, time to go. I believe it's strong enough in 2 ways..sends them back and keeps them from coming in illegally.

Death Of Russiagate? Mueller Team Tied To Mifsud's Network

In April last year, Disobedient Media broke coverage of the British involvement in the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, asking why All Russiagate Roads Lead To London, via the quasi-scholar Joseph Mifsud and others. The issue was also raised by WikiLeaks's Julian Assange, just days before the Ecuadorian government silenced him last March. Assange's Twitter thread cited research by Chris Blackburn, who spoke with Disobedient Media on multiple occasions covering Joseph Mifsud's ties to British intelligence figures and organizations, as well as his links to Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign, the FBI, CIA and the private cyber-security firm Crowdstrike. We return, now, to this issue and specifically the research of Chris Blackburn, to place the final nail in the coffin of the Trump-Russia collusion charade. Blackburn's insights are incredible not only because they return us to the earliest reporting on the role of British intelligence figures in manufacturing the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, but because they also implicate members of Mueller's investigation. What we are left with is an indication of collusion between factions of the US and UK intelligence community in fabricating evidence of Trump-Russia collusion: a scandal that would have rocked the legacy press to its core, if Western establishment-backed media had a spine.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-21/death-russiagate-mueller-team-tied-mifsuds-network-0

"Drink Good Wine, Hide Cash": $364 Million Ponzi Scheme Mastermind Told Wife To Hide Assets

Federal officials announced in September the indictment and arrest of a Baltimore man, involved in the most massive Ponzi scheme ever in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. With his accounts frozen, Kevin B. Merrill, the mastermind behind the fraud, allegedly wrote a prison note to his wife telling her to hide their assets. The note was found in Merrill's sock by prison guards as he faces charges of defrauding investors of $364 million.

Federal prosecutors revealed the note in criminal charges filed last month against Amanda Merrill, the young wife of the mastermind fraudster. She was charged with conspiracy, obstruction, disobeying a court order and removing property to prevent its seizure. US Attorney Robert Hur said Merrill swindled family offices and investors around the country. He called it the largest Ponzi scheme in Maryland's history. Federal agents arrested Merrill in September and raided his multi-million dollar home in Ruxton-Riderwood, Maryland.

He and his business partner, Jay Ledford, 54, of Texas, have been indicted on federal charges of wire fraud, identity theft, and money laundering. Investors in the scheme believed they were buying “consumer debt portfolios,” tranches of credit card debt, car loans, and student loans. Instead, Merrill shifted the money from new investors to old investors, prosecutors say.

Merrill spent investors' money on dozens of luxury cars, including a million dollar Bugatti Veyron. Prosecutors say he spent $37,500 on designer watches and jewelry, $50,000 on private flights and $100,000 at Las Vegas casinos. They even say he decorated his mansions with the fine art of the mustached Monopoly character Rich Uncle Pennybags. A federal judge issued a restraining order stopping Merrill and Ledford from selling their assets. Federal officials have filed documents with the courts to instruct Sotheby’s International Realty to sell a dozen mansions the men owned in Maryland, Florida, Texas and Nevada, collectively worth $20 million or more. Officials are also ready to sell off the fleet of 34 exotic cars, motorcycles and boats. Both individuals have pleaded not guilty. Their trials have not yet been scheduled.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-21/drink-good-wine-hide-cash-364-million-ponzi-scheme-mastermind-told-wife-hide-assets

>>4858083

Absolutely..I remember when this first came out..the article mentioned in an off handed way it made Madoff look like small potatoes.

>>4858134 @ >>4858112

Sorry I must be tired..

>>4858114

But of course…Buzzfeed!

>>4858161

Indeed!