tyb
Army's Future Attack Helicopter Zooms Ahead Of Schedule
Last month, we reported that the US Army was considering whether it should purchase Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) to replace its aging fleet of Boeing AH-64 Apache and Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior copters. Now it seems the Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) modernization priority, a competition to design, build, and test the FARA prototypes is ahead of schedule and exceeding expectations, stated Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center Public Affairs.
Out of eight proposals, five had been awarded for prototype agreements as of April 23, well ahead of schedule.
"FARA represents the leap-ahead technology we've been talking about," said Col. Craig Alia, FVL Cross-Functional Team chief of staff. "It's a critical program in that it fills an existing capability gap created by the divestiture of the OH-58."
Dan Bailey, Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), is the lead project manager on the FARA program. He told the Army Public Affairs office that FARA solicitation to private defense firms was publicly announced in late 2018 with anticipated awards this summer, indicating the program is two months ahead of schedule.
"What's exciting about the new process the Army has put in place through the Army Futures Command and cross-functional teams … is that we've gone from concept … to awards in basically a one-year period of time," said Bailey.
The Army's requirements for FARA include complete integration of government equipment: engine, M230 chain gun and rocket launcher, a minimum speed, specific target gross weight, a maximum 40-foot diameter rotor, and an affordable price tag.
Extended range, payload, and endurance were among the other requirements the Army expects. Separate from those mandates, the timing of the execution plan, funding profile requirements, acceptable risk level, statute requirements and the ability to have helicopters in series production by the mid-2020s for fielding by 2028, were also considered.
"We're at an inflection point where we can't afford not to modernize," said Alia, echoing a similar tune from Brig. Gen. Walter Rugen FVL director. "We know that the current fleet is fantastic and has done a great job for us, but we can't indefinitely continue to incrementally improve 1970s and 1980s technology," Alia added.
The five awards were initiated six months after the initial solicitation went out in October 2018. Bailey said initial designs would be submitted to the Army by February 2020. "Those are designs of the aircraft, updated plan to execute the entire approach and risk assessments of proceeding, followed by another evaluation process," he said.
Baily said the five vendors understand that only two will make it to the next phase. "The awards made this week were not just for phase one; it was for the entire execution all the way through flight test on these vehicles" he explained. "We looked at all aspects of being able to execute, not only the CP effort through flight test in 2023, but also their ability to execute an (engineering manufacturing and development) phase follow-on and a production phase afterward," Bailey explained.
The most likely FARA candidates will be the Sikorsky S-97 Raider and the Bell V-280 Valor.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-02/armys-future-attack-helicopter-zooms-ahead-schedule
(video's at article link)
Vietnamese woman in Kim Jong Nam murder freed in Malaysia, heads home
A Vietnamese woman who was implicated in the killing of the estranged brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over two years ago was released on Friday from a Malaysian prison and flew home to Vietnam.
Doan Thi Huong, 30, was set free from a women's prison in Kajang on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in the morning and, after deportation processing, headed to Kuala Lumpur International Airport in the evening.
After boarding her flight, she told reporters on the plane that she was grateful for all the support she received during her ordeal. "I want to say I love you all. Thank you my Lord Jesus," she said.
Her lawyers, plus officials from the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia were on the same Vietnam Airline flight to Hanoi with Huong.
"The case has come to a complete end as far as Doan is concerned," Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, one of her lawyers, told reporters at the airport.
Her release capped a remarkable turn of events that began on Feb. 13, 2017, when Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean leader's paternal half-brother, was killed at the airport.
Security cameras at the departure terminal recorded Huong and 27-year old Siti Aisyah from Indonesia swiping his face with a substance that was later determined to be the toxic nerve agent VX.
Huong was arrested two days later followed by Aisyah the next day and both were charged with murder, which carries a mandatory death sentence.
Both claimed they were duped by North Korean agents into thinking they were taking part in a television prank show and were not aware of the lethality of the substance the North Koreans applied on their palms.
Prosecutors alleged that the women had a "common intention" with four North Koreans to murder Kim Jong Nam. The four men – Ri Ji Hyon, Ri Jae Nam, Hong Song Hac and O Jong Gil – fled Malaysia within hours of the incident and are believed to have returned to North Korea.
However, 17 months after the trial began in October 2017 at the Shah Alam High Court on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian attorney general unexpectedly withdrew the murder charge against Aisyah and she was freed in March following lobbying from Jakarta.
This prompted an outcry from Huong's legal team, who accused the attorney general of acting unfairly. The Vietnamese government stepped up its campaign with appeals to the Malaysian government and making representations to the attorney general on Huong's behalf.
On April 1, the prosecutor offered Huong a lesser charge of "causing hurt," which is punishable by up to 10 years in jail. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years and four months in jail. The sentence ran from the date of her arrest on Feb. 15, 2017.
A one-third remission of her sentence for good behavior meant she was released Friday.
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2019/05/cf676313fe09-vietnamese-woman-sentenced-in-kim-jong-nam-murder-freed-in-malaysia.html
you do realize that doesn't work anymoar….right?
Toronto Dominion Bank : Victims of Stanford Ponzi Scheme Make a Final Push Against Banks
In the decade since R. Allen Stanford's international financial empire was exposed as a fiction, investors in his Ponzi scheme have recouped just a tiny fraction of the life savings many of them lost.
Now a small group of individuals, backed by hedge funds, is making a last-ditch effort to recover money from five banks that they contend turned a blind eye to Mr. Stanford's fraud. In a lawsuit filed in Dallas federal court on Friday, these investors alleged that the banks "aided, abetted and conspired" with Mr. Stanford to steal from investors and that "their close profitable relationship with such a wealthy, high-profile customer led them to callously ignore R.A. Stanford's fraud."
The five banks they sued on Friday are HSBC Bank PLC, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Houston, Trustmark National Bank, and Societe Generale Private Banking. Most of these institutions had long-term relationships with Mr. Stanford and his entities, and those ties gave them insights into the fraud as it was happening, the investors allege.
In addition to filing the new lawsuit, investors in Stanford have lobbied lawmakers in recent months, met with Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton and pressed for the return of frozen overseas assets, according to people familiar with the matter.
Since Mr. Stanford's arrest and the collapse of Stanford International Bank Ltd. in 2009, what remains of his far-flung financial operation has been wound down by lawyers and consultants in Antigua and Dallas, where court-appointed liquidators have sold assets, sued alleged beneficiaries of the fraud and distributed proceeds across roughly 18,000 victims.
But unlike account holders at Bernard Madoff's phantom investment firm, Mr. Stanford's U.S. victims stand out for how little they have recovered. The judge overseeing the receivership has authorized $272 million in distributions, compared with the more than $5 billion lost by depositors.
That comes out to roughly 4.5 cents on every dollar in losses. By contrast Mr. Madoff's customers have gotten back roughly two-thirds of the $17.5 billion they lost, with individual claims up to $1.5 million satisfied in full. The schemes imploded two months apart as the global financial crisis peaked.
Mr. Smith, 61, never sold his claim to an outside investor. The best offer – 14 cents on the dollar – was too low for him to bite. Instead, he has spent the past decade hoping lawsuits would eventually dig up enough money to pay him more. Mr. Smith isn't part of the lawsuit.
Kevin Sadler, a lawyer for the receiver, acknowledged that the pace of recoveries have been "frustratingly slow," in part because U.S. government prosecutors didn't generate recoveries for victims to the extent it did for those who invested with Mr. Madoff.
Mr. Madoff's account holders were deemed eligible for insurance coverage from the Securities Investor Protection Corp., an industry association created by Congress that maintains a special fund to cover the first $500,000 of losses for customers of failed brokerages. SIPC also bankrolled a legal campaign by Madoff liquidating trustee that dug up more than $13 billion for creditors.
No such coverage was available to Mr. Stanford's victims, which also meant the legal fees for cleaning up his fraud had to be paid out of money that would otherwise go to victims. As of October 31, those fees and expenses totaled $224.2 million, according to court records.
"When you're not able to be outspent, that improves your ability to resolve cases successfully," said Mark Kornfeld, a lawyer who worked for years with the Madoff trustee.
SocGen also holds roughly $160 million in assets linked to Mr. Stanford in Switzerland, claiming in Swiss court that it has the right to use the funds to protect itself against potential claims. Senator Bill Cassidy (R, La.) demanded that the money be returned in a meeting last month with SocGen's attorneys, alleging it "aided and abetted Stanford's banking outside the United States." A SocGen spokesman said it was "carefully reviewing" the senators' concerns.
The other banks either declined to comment about Friday's lawsuit or didn't immediately respond to queries.
https://www.marketscreener.com/TORONTO-DOMINION-BANK-1411888/news/Toronto-Dominion-Bank-Victims-of-Stanford-Ponzi-Scheme-Make-a-Final-Push-Against-Banks-28539582/
thank you baker, those people got less than madoff. Totally protected. Even got the shit beat out of him in jail, or at least that was the story-don't know if I believe inmate's were investing with him and cared enough to beat the pulp out of him. Seemed like a sympathy thing at the time.