Is DHS Busting Fake University Students Hacking Pipelines?

Are these hackers?

Did they pay to get into the U.S. to run fake ass mortgage schemes?

Oh, the possibilities.

Cocktails & Popcorn: Detroit DHS LARP Busts First Layer Of Major Modern Day Human Trafficking Ops Through Michigan Universities

ICE arrests 90 more students at fake university in Michigan

ICE has arrested about 250 students who were enrolled at a fake university in Farmington Hills set up by ICE to lure in students.

About 90 additional foreign students of a fake university in metro Detroit created by the Department of Homeland Security have been arrested in recent months.

A total of about 250 students have now been arrested since January on immigration violations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of a sting operation by federal agents who enticed foreign-born students, mostly from India, to attend the school that marketed itself as offering graduate programs in technology and computer studies, according to ICE officials.

Many of those arrested have been deported to India while others are contesting their removals. One has been allowed to stay after being granted lawful permanent resident status by an immigration judge.

This is the building at 30500 Northwestern Hwy. in Farmington Hills south of 13 Mile Rd. that was used as the fake University of Farmington campus created by the Department of Homeland Security as part of a sting operation targeting foreign students, seen on Thursday, February 7, 2019, in Farmington Hills. (Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)

The students had arrived legally in the U.S. on student visas, but since the University of Farmington was later revealed to be a creation of federal agents, they lost their immigration status after it was shut down in January. The school was located on Northwestern Highway near 13 Mile Road in Farmington Hills and staffed with undercover agents posing as university officials. 

Out of the approximately 250 students arrested on administrative charges, "nearly 80% were granted voluntary departure and departed the United States," the Detroit office of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) told the Free Press in a statement Tuesday.

Out of the remaining 20%, about half of them have received a final order of removal; some of them were ordered removed by an immigration judge, and others "were given an expedited removal by U.S. Customs and Border Protection," said HSI Detroit.

['It was a pleasure speaking with you': Emails reveal how university portrayed itself to potential students. Read more here.]

The remaining 10% "have either filed for some sort of relief or are contesting their removals with Executive Office for Immigration Review," said HSI Detroit. 

ICE said in March that 161 students had been arrested, which has now increased to about 250; the 250 arrests took place from January to July, said an ICE spokesperson.

Meanwhile, seven of the eight recruiters who were criminally charged for trying to recruit students have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced in Detroit, including Prem Rampeesa, 27, last week. The remaining one is to be sentenced in January.

Attorneys for the students arrested said they were unfairly trapped by the U.S. government since the Department of Homeland Security had said on its website that the university was legitimate. An accreditation agency that was working with the U.S. on its sting operation also listed the university as legitimate.

More: ICE arrests more students at fake university, others being removed from US

More: Attorney: Fake Farmington university sting by ICE was entrapment

There were more than 600 students enrolled at the university, which was created a few years ago by federal law enforcement officials with ICE. Records filed with the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) show that the University of Farmington was incorporated in January 2016.

Many of the students had enrolled with the university through a program known as Curricular Practical Training (CPT), which allows students to work in the U.S through a F-1 visa program for foreign students. Some had transferred to the University of Farmington from other schools that had lost accreditation, which means they would no longer be in immigration status and allowed to remain in the U.S.

Emails obtained by the Free Press earlier this year showed how the fake university attracted students to the university, which cost about $12,000 on average in tuition and fees per year. 

The U.S. "trapped the vulnerable people who just wanted to maintain (legal immigration) status," Rahul Reddy, a Texas attorney who represented or advised some of the students arrested, told the Free Press this week. "They preyed upon on them."

 The fake university is believed to have collected millions of dollars from the unsuspecting students. An email from the university's president, named Ali Milani, told students that graduate programs' tuition is $2,500 per quarter and the average cost is $1,000 per month.

"They made a lot of money," Reddy said of the U.S. government.

Reddy said that two of the students who were sent back to India through a voluntary departure agreement with ICE were denied entry into the U.S. after they tried to reenter this year.

University of Farmington office in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Photo taken in 2017. (Photo: Matt Friedman/Tanner Friedman Strategic Communications)

No one has filed a lawsuit or claim against the U.S. government for collecting the money or for allegedly entrapping the students.

Attorneys for ICE and the Department of Justice maintain that the students should have known it was not a legitimate university because it did not have classes in a physical location. Some CPT programs have classes combined with work programs at companies. 

"Their true intent could not be clearer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Helms wrote in a sentencing memo this month for Rampeesa, one of the eight recruiters, of the hundreds of students enrolled. "While 'enrolled' at the University, one hundred percent of the foreign citizen students never spent a single second in a classroom. If it were truly about obtaining an education, the University would not have been able to attract anyone, because it had no teachers, classes, or educational services."

In the memo, federal prosecutor Baker said the case raises questions about the U.S. "foreign-student visa program."

Baker wrote that "immigration and visa programs have been hot-button topics in the United States for years and national scrutiny has only been increasing. Fairly or unfairly, Rampeesa’s conduct casts a shadow on the foreign-student visa program in general, and it raises questions as to whether the potential for abuse threatens to outweigh the benefits."

Reddy said, though, that in some cases, students who transferred out from the University of Farmington after realizing they didn't have classes on-site, were still arrested.

Admissions section of the website of the University of Farmington, a fake university created by ICE and Dept. of Homeland Security. It reads: "We are very excited about welcoming you to the UF community and helping you" (Photo: Department of Homeland Security)

Rampeesa was sentenced Nov, 19 to one year in prison by Judge Gershwin Drain of U.S. District Court in Detroit. With time already served of 295 days, he should be out in about two to three months, and will then be deported to India, said his attorney Wanda Cal. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harbor aliens for profit.

Detroit ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said the other recruiters sentenced so far are Barath Kakireddy, 29, of Lake Mary, Florida, 18 months; Suresh Kandala, 31, of Culpeper, Virginia, 18 months; Santosh Sama, 28, of Fremont, California, 24 months; Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 15 months; Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta, Georgia, 12 months; Naveen Prathipati, 26, of Dallas, Texas, 12 months.

Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, Kentucky, is to be sentenced in January.

In court, Rampeesa's attorney, Cal, said his client had no criminal record and came from a rural background in India. 

He was trying to "help his family back home," Cal said before Judge Drain. "My client is very remorseful. He is really a good person caught up in a bad situation."

Rampeesa arrived in the U.S. legally a few years ago on a student visa and earned in 2016 a master's degree in computer science at Northwestern Polytechnic University. But the university later lost its accreditation, which put his immigration status in jeopardy. He had spent $40,000 in tuition and fees for his studies at the university.

"He was desperate to find a way to stay in the United States," Rampeesa's attorney, Cal, wrote in his sentencing memo. He wanted to get a Ph.D. in computer science, she said.

Rampeesa then met Sama, who recruited him to attend the University of Farmington and told him he could get tuition credits if he recruited other students, Cal said.

Sama and Rampeesa were working with people they thought were university officials, but were actually undercover agents for the Department of Homeland Security.

"My client has no other criminal history, not even a traffic ticket," Cal said in court last week. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Baker said in court that Rampeesa was "aware it was completely fake," that "it was just for maintaining status."

"He chose the University of Farmington for a reason," Baker said of Rampeesa. 

In calling for a sentence of 24 to 30 months, Baker said: "It's important to send a message ... this type of crime will not be tolerated."

Accompanying Baker in the court last week was Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet, who helped prosecute the case. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken offline the website of the University of Farmington, which it had created for a sting operation. The website was taken down on Jan. 31, 2019 after a federal indictment was unsealed on Jan. 30. The website for the fake university now contains a logo for the investigative unit of ICE and reads: "The University of Farmington has been closed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement." (Photo: Dept. of Homeland Security)

Judge Drain sentenced him to 1 year, but he will be released in two to three months because of time served, and then deported. 

Drain said of Rampeesa: "You don't have any criminal history. ... I don't think you're a danger to the public."

Rampeesa received a shorter sentence than Sama because he was not recruiting other students for cash, but for tuition credits provided by the university, Judge Drain said.

Rampeesa wrote a letter to the court pleading for leniency that was read before the judge. A Telugu-speaking translator was at his side in court, translating the courtroom proceedings. Most of the students were from Telugu-speaking regions of India in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

He said he was trying in the U.S. after his previous university's loss of accreditation made his master's degree "worthless."

"I am ashamed," Rampeesa wrote. "I made a very bad decision" to recruit students that "bought shame to my family name."

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Baltimore County Schools Shreds Procurement Records After Being Told Not To Do It

I bet Wayne County does it, too.

Baltimore County Schools Destroyed Accounting Records Amid High Profile Procurement Audit and Directive to Stop all Record Destruction

In the midst of a high profile and widely anticipated procurement audit last year, employees from Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) had over 53,000 lbs. of accounting documents from its fiscal services file room destroyed, a windowless storage-room-turned-office in its Business Administration building.

This, according to information provided by BCPS in response to a direct request, specifically seeking a log detailing which records had been removed from the room, purportedly first scanned and then destroyed.

Last fall, the school board directed then-interim Superintendent Verletta White to direct all staff to cease the destruction of all documents after roughly 2,600 financial disclosure statements were found to have been destroyed months earlier, which included some records needed for the procurement audit.

Two floors above the meeting room, where school board members convene for bimonthly public meetings in Building E of BCPS’ Greenwood campus headquarters, the file room was emptied to make room for a new office.  Certificates from a shredding company show that the records were destroyed in November and December 2018, a few months before an April 2019 report was delivered to the school board, at the conclusion of what was supposed to be a comprehensive procurement audit which looked into the system’s procurement practices for years 2012 through 2017.

While BCPS provided a list on Friday, detailing what was archived and sent to an offsite storage facility, what was purportedly “electronically scanned” – and then destroyed – is not so clear. And the scant information provided by the school system does not include what a system employee told The Gunpowder Gazette was also in the file room for fiscal services.

According to that employee, who spoke with The Gunpowder Gazette under the condition of anonymity due to fears of retribution, the sudden and unplanned clearing of the file room – which included “wall-to-wall” and “a center isle” full of file cabinets – included employees’ reimbursement documents as well as travel, mileage and conference expenses which were a topic at the center of controversy for the district after the New York Times and Baltimore Sun published reports which questioned travel and vendor-employee relationships.

So far, the school district acknowledges that the destroyed files were from the Department of Fiscal Services, stating that boxes identified for destruction included vendor invoice documents from its accounts payable department.

Two orders to destroy the records were signed off by the “office head” of the Office of Accounting. Other records were sent to a storage facility. But, not included in a description of the transferred documents, were reimbursement and travel records the employee claims had been there.

The Gunpowder Gazette has requested precise details from Baltimore County schools on exactly what was destroyed since a vague initial response from the school system is disputed by the anonymous employee with familiarity with the file room which was turned into an office for a senior executive director.

Shredgate #1:

Knowledge of this second shredding arose in the middle of a yearlong and continued fight for records concerning the first known shredding – coined by some as ‘Shredgate” or “Purgegate” – that occurred months before, in which roughly 2,600 financial disclosure statements were suddenly purged in the middle of a reporter’s request for financial disclosure records, which immediately preceded the procurement audit.

Financial disclosure statements ask employees to declare all work performed outside of the school system, including any done for school vendors.

The forms are signed under penalty of perjury and the failure by employees to disclose information on them can lead to prison sentences which is what occurred in the case of former superintendent of Baltimore County schools, Dallas Dance, last year.

In late 2017, after The New York Times and Baltimore Sun published stories which questioned vendor and employee relationships, widespread calls for an audit ensued. In early 2018, after Dance was indicted for perjury for failing to disclose $147,000 in income on his financial disclosure forms, pressure mounted.

Within weeks, 2,600 financial forms would be destroyed. At roughly 16 pages each, 40,000 pages for years 1997 to 2013 were simply eliminated and included two years’ worth of records – 2012 to 2013 – that were later needed for the procurement audit.

While the discarded financial disclosure records were destroyed in accordance with school policy – which states that anything over four-years-old can be destroyed – it was the first time in the 21 years the records had been maintained by the system that school staff made use of the policy and decided to purge the records.

For over one year, a now-Gunpowder Gazette reporter has tried in vain to obtain any details about the massive document destruction. The shredding was discovered after several anomalous responses to the records led to the discovery that they had been destroyed during the precise time she had been requesting them.

To date, an attorney for the school system’s law office that oversaw the destruction of documents says there are “no responsive records” available surrounding any part of the disappearance of the financial records.

For months, the office has maintained that there simply are no records of any expenses, employees, contractors or shredding companies which may have been involved in the selection or destruction of roughly 40,000 pages of financial disclosure statements.

But shred certificates – sans a detailed log of the destroyed contents – exist for the records destroyed in the system’s Fiscal Services file room last November and December, which occurred months after the financial disclosure statements vanished without a trace.

Shredgate # 2?:

On Friday, two responses – obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act request – show the school system not only destroyed the records after a directive by board members specifically prohibited it, but the records officer also misinterpreted a reporter’s request in which The Gunpowder Gazette specifically requested a log detailing precisely what had been destroyed, in addition to what may have been archived or stored elsewhere.

Instead, a list of some of the documents that had been archived was provided, including banking reports that were moved for storage to an offsite facility. But requests for details on what had been scanned and subsequently destroyed, only produced responsive documents called “Transfer Requisitions,” and “Certificates of Records Destruction,” provided by a shredding company which stated that 53,000 lbs of of the records were destroyed. Additionally, a short description in the response attempted to describe some of what was discarded.

According to a single sentence in the response from the system’s law office, “boxes identified for destruction included vendor invoice documents from Accounts Payable that were scanned and retained electronically.”

Yet no such detail was provided on what had been purportedly scanned and destroyed or retained, elsewhere.

Baltimore County Schools did not respond to requests for clarification or comment. But communications specialist, Brandon Oland, sent a message after the publishing of this story, stating, “Nothing to add, other than I hope you have a good evening.”

The school system also failed to address the decision to scan and destroy the accounting documents in the midst of a procurement audit and after a directive by school board members specifically asked for all document destruction to immediately cease.

In question is who exactly oversees the documents since the directive to cease purging any records was modified, a month after the directive was implemented, to apply to executive directors and above.

Interim Superintendent Verletta White, who led the system at the time of the purges, stepped down in June and was hired as a consultant for the system after current Superintendent Darryl Williams took over on July 1 of this year.

Timeline of events leading to shredding and procurement audit:

Feb 14, 2018: Reporter made first of six requests to review Financial Disclosure Statements (FDS)

Feb 14, 2018: BCPS’ Office of Law created Excel spreadsheet to log the future destruction of the FDS (the same day that the reporter made the first round of FDS examination requests). Destruction, according to BCPS, occurred on April 27, 2018 and Aug 1, 2018.

May 22, 2018: BCPS school board hired UHY to conduct procurement audit, chooses years 2012 to 2017 for scope.

Aug 9, 2018: Reporter discovered, after six rounds of requests for FDS, that roughly 2,600 had been destroyed

August 21, 2018: School Board directs superintendent to direct school staff to cease all further document destruction due to active audit.

September 2018: The directive to freeze all record destruction in BCPS modified to include only executive directors and above.

November 12, 2018: Seven boxes of material from “Fiscal Services File Room” destroyed. Seven boxes archived. Signed off by “Office Head” from Office of Accounting. But shred certificate states: 26,715 lbs of materials destroyed.

December 7, 2018: Fifteen boxes of documents containing materials from “Fiscal Services File Room” destroyed. Nine boxes archived. Signed off by “Office Head” from Office of Accounting. But shred certificate states: 26,365 lbs of materials destroyed.

April 9, 2019: UHY provided audit report to Baltimore County Board of Education, produced under its consulting services arm, UHY Advisors.

Want to learn about the backstory to this story?  See: Gunpowder Gazette Insider: The Story Behind the Story on Baltimore County Public Schools’ Financial Document Destruction

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Cocktails & Popcorn: September 24th, 2019. Mueller Takes Down Fernald - Exfiltrates It To Tenex

"If you do not live there, you cannot vote there".

https://www.lm.doe.gov/land/sites/oh/fernald_orig/AboutFernald/aboutF.htm

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/15/us/us-for-decades-let-uranium-leak-at-weapon-plant.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2014/04/26/fernald-nuclear-weapons-plant-green-living/8044037/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernald_Feed_Materials_Production_Center

https://local12.com/news/investigates/whats-in-the-water-local-12-investigates-fernald

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Cocktails & Popcorn: September 24th, 2019. Ukrainian Connection To Ohio State - Another Wexner DoE Front? - Another Form Of Gerrymandering

Why is it no one is speaking upon the tiny human research of Abigail Wexner or the special human research facilities?

You cannot vote if you do not live there.

You cannot vote if you are dead, sometimes.

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Cocktails & Popcorn: September 24, 2019. DoE Report and Citizen Validate Webb Report On Wexner Uranium Games

It always starts with the children because no one cares.

Excess Materials and Radioactive Waste Management

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TRUMP Announces The Quantum Renaissance At National HBCU Week Conference

HBCUs are universities.

Faith Based HBCUs now have equal access to federal funding support from SCOTUS ruling.

This is going to be a wild ride because the history is going to come out, even the financial and foreign special interest academic investments.

HBCUs now have access to high demand fields in space, science research and technology.

For those of you who did not catch it, HBCUs historically did not have access to high demand fields in space, science research and technology.

@21:00 Trump slammed about foreign corporations taking university money for special interests like foreign wars.

He is in rare form. 

He is talking about rebuilding America, what I consider to be the Second Reconstruction because the first one got shutdown just as fast as it was implemented.

Quantum Renaissance.

Fixing decades of mistakes by politicians of both parties, who put special interests ahead of our people....policies that devastated millions hard working families....China and other nations loot our nation....of course, I am paraphrasing.

The era of economic surrender is over.

We are bringing back our wealth.

Welcome to Detroit.

#sayhisname

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DOJ: Arrests Made in Nationwide College Admissions Scam: Alleged Exam Cheating & Athletic Recruitment Scheme

What people fail to realize about the severity of this college scam is not about the human trafficking, nor is it about the massive amounts of money people made selling university admissions, it is about what happens with the students who graduate.

These students will graduate with degrees, get great jobs, and become experts, sometimes in the same university of which they graduated.

These graduates will then pump their talking points white papers to further the privatization of the U.S. by pushing crap.

Yes, I said it.

U.S. universities will crank out indoctrinated crap that comes from foreign universities like Tel Aviv University.

Yes, U.S. domestic policies are generated by foreign interests, which are not in the best interest of the nation, like USC and its work on Michigan Emergency Manager and Detroit Land Bank Authority.

These are the reasons why "The Poors" do not get into college.

What makes this scheme so nefarious is because the bribes were laundered through child welfare NGOs.

Cocktails & Popcorn: Detroit DHS LARP Busts First Layer Of Major Modern Day Human Trafficking Ops Through Michigan Universities


It seems this drama is just getting started.

Personal tennis instructor for Michelle Obama, her daughters charged in bribery scheme

Defendants include CEOs, actresses, university athletic coaches, and college exam administrators

BOSTON – Dozens of individuals involved in a nationwide conspiracy that facilitated cheating on college entrance exams and the admission of students to elite universities as purported athletic recruits were arrested by federal agents in multiple states this morning and charged in federal court in Boston. Athletic coaches from Yale, Stanford, USC, Wake Forest and Georgetown, among others, are implicated, as well as parents and exam administrators. 

William “Rick” Singer, 58, of Newport Beach, Calif., was charged with racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Singer owned and operated the Edge College & Career Network LLC (“The Key”) – a for-profit college counseling and preparation business – and served as the CEO of the Key Worldwide Foundation (KWF) – a non-profit corporation that he established as a purported charity.

Between approximately 2011 and February 2019, Singer allegedly conspired with dozens of parents, athletic coaches, a university athletics administrator, and others, to use bribery and other forms of fraud to secure the admission of students to colleges and universities including Yale University, Georgetown University, Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and Wake Forest University, among others. Also charged for their involvement in the scheme are 33 parents and 13 coaches and associates of Singer’s businesses, including two SAT and ACT test administrators.  

Also charged is John Vandemoer, the head sailing coach at Stanford University, Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith, the former head soccer coach at Yale University, and Mark Riddell, a counselor at a private school in Bradenton, Fla. 

The conspiracy involved 1) bribing SAT and ACT exam administrators to allow a test taker, typically Riddell, to secretly take college entrance exams in place of students or to correct the students’ answers after they had taken the exam; 2) bribing university athletic coaches and administrators—including coaches at Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, the University of Southern California, and the University of Texas—to facilitate the admission of students to elite universities under the guise of being recruited as athletes; and (3) using the façade of Singer’s charitable organization to conceal the nature and source of the bribes.   

1. College Entrance Exam Cheating Scheme

According to the charging documents, Singer facilitated cheating on the SAT and ACT exams for his clients by instructing them to seek extended time for their children on college entrance exams, which included having the children purport to have learning disabilities in order to obtain the required medical documentation. Once the extended time was granted, Singer allegedly instructed the clients to change the location of the exams to one of two test centers: a public high school in Houston, Texas, or a private college preparatory school in West Hollywood, Calif. At those test centers, Singer had established relationships with test administrators Niki Williams and Igor Dvorskiy, respectively, who accepted bribes of as much as $10,000 per test in order to facilitate the cheating scheme. Specifically, Williams and Dvorskiy allowed a third individual, typically Riddell, to take the exams in place of the students, to give the students the correct answers during the exams, or to correct the students’ answers after they completed the exams. Singer typically paid Ridell $10,000 for each student’s test. Singer’s clients paid him between $15,000 and $75,000 per test, with the payments structured as purported donations to the KWF charity. In many instances, the students taking the exams were unaware that their parents had arranged for the cheating.

2. College Recruitment Scheme

It is further alleged that throughout the conspiracy, parents paid Singer approximately $25 million to bribe coaches and university administrators to designate their children as purported athletic recruits, thereby facilitating the children’s’ admission to those universities. Singer allegedly described the scheme to his customers as a “side door,” in which the parents paid Singer under the guise of charitable donations to KWF. In turn, Singer funneled those payments to programs controlled by the athletic coaches, who then designated the children as recruited athletes – regardless of their athletic experience and abilities. Singer also made bribe payments to most of the coaches personally.

For example, during a call with one parent, Singer stated: “Okay, so, who we are…what we do is we help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids into school…My families want a guarantee. So, if you said to me ‘here’s our grades, here’s our scores, here’s our ability, and we want to go to X school’ and you give me one or two schools, and then I’ll go after those schools and try to get a guarantee done.” 

As part of the scheme, Singer directed employees of The Key and the KWF to create falsified athletic “profiles” for students, which were then submitted to the universities in support of the students’ applications. The profiles included fake honors that the students purportedly received and elite teams that they purportedly played on.  In some instances, parents supplied Singer with staged photos of their children engaged in athletic activity – such as using a rowing machine or purportedly playing water polo.

3. Tax Fraud Conspiracy

Beginning around 2013, Singer allegedly agreed with certain clients to disguise bribe payments as charitable contributions to the KWF, thereby enabling clients to deduct the bribes from their federal income taxes. Specifically, Singer allegedly instructed clients to make payments to the KWF in return for facilitating their children’s admission to a chosen university. Singer used a portion of that money to bribe university athletic coaches to designate the children as student athletes. Thereafter, Masera or another KWF employee mailed letters from the KWF to the clients expressing thanks for their purported charitable contributions. The letter stated: “Your generosity will allow us to move forward with our plans to provide educational and self-enrichment programs to disadvantaged youth,” and falsely indicated that “no good or services were exchanged” for the donations. Many clients then filed personal tax returns that falsely reported the payment to the KWF as charitable donations.

The charge of racketeering conspiracy provides for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater and restitution. The charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of not more than $500,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the money laundering. The charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States provides for a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of obstruction of justice provides for a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, and of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud, provide for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of 250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; and Kristina O’Connell, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric S. Rosen, Justin D. O’Connell, Leslie Wright, and Kristen A. Kearney of Lelling’s Securities and Financial Fraud Unit are prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Appendix

1. William Rick Singer, 58, of Newport Beach, Calif., owner of the Edge College & Career Network and CEO of the Key Worldwide Foundation, was charged in an Information with racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and obstruction of justice.  He is scheduled to plead guilty in Boston before U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel on March 12, 2019, at 2:30 p.m.;
2. Mark Riddell, 36, of Palmetto, Fla., was charged in an Information with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering;
3. Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith, 51, of Madison, Conn., the former head women’s soccer coach at Yale University, was charged in an Information with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud as well as honest services wire fraud;  
4. John Vandemoer, 41, of Stanford, Calif., the former sailing coach at Stanford University, was charged in an Information with racketeering conspiracy and is expected to plead guilty in Boston before U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel on March 12, 2019, at 3:00 p.m.;
5. David Sidoo, 59, of Vancouver, Canada, was charged in an indictment with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Sidoo was arrested on Friday, March 8th in San Jose, Calif., and appeared in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California yesterday. A date for his initial appearance in federal court in Boston has not yet been scheduled.  

The following defendants were charged in an indictment with racketeering conspiracy:

6. Igor Dvorskiy, 52, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., director of a private elementary and high school in Los Angeles and a test administrator for the College Board and ACT;
7. Gordon Ernst, 52, of Chevy Chase, Md., former head coach of men and women’s tennis at Georgetown University;
8. William Ferguson, 48, of Winston-Salem, N.C., former women’s volleyball coach at Wake Forest University;
9. Martin Fox, 62, of Houston, Texas, president of a private tennis academy in Houston;
10. Donna Heinel, 57, of Long Beach, Calif., the senior associate athletic director at the University of Southern California;
11. Laura Janke, 36, of North Hollywood, Calif., former assistant coach of women’s soccer at the University of Southern California;
12. Ali Khoroshahin, 49, of Fountain Valley, Calif., former head coach of women’s soccer at the University of Southern California;
13. Steven Masera, 69, of Folsom, Calif., accountant and financial officer for the Edge College & Career Network and the Key Worldwide Foundation;
14. Jorge Salcedo, 46, of Los Angeles, Calif., former head coach of men’s soccer at the University of California at Los Angeles;
15. Mikaela Sanford, 32, of Folsom, Calif., employee of the Edge College & Career Network and the Key Worldwide Foundation;
16. Jovan Vavic, 57, of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., former water polo coach at the University of Southern California; and
17. Niki Williams, 44, of Houston, Texas, assistant teacher at a Houston high school and test administrator for the College Board and ACT.

The following defendant was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud:

18. Michael Center, 54, of Austin Texas, head coach of men’s tennis at the University of Texas at Austin

The following defendants were charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud:

19. Gregory Abbott, 68, of New York, N.Y., the founder and chairman of a food and beverage packaging company;
20. Marcia Abbott, 59, of New York, N.Y.;
21. Gamal Abdelaziz, 62, of Las Vegas, Nev., the former senior executive of a resort and casino operator in Macau, China;
22. Diane Blake, 55, of San Francisco, Calif., an executive at a retail merchandising firm;
23. Todd Blake, 53, of San Francisco, Calif., an entrepreneur and investor;
24. Jane Buckingham, 50, of Beverly Hills, Calif., the CEO of a boutique marketing company;
25. Gordon Caplan, 52, of Greenwich, Conn., co-chairman of an international law firm based in New York City;
26. I-Hin “Joey” Chen, 64, of Newport Beach, Calif., operates a provider of warehousing and related services for the shipping industry;
27. Amy Colburn, 59, of Palo Alto, Calif.;
28. Gregory Colburn, 61, of Palo Alto, Calif.;
29. Robert Flaxman, 62, of Laguna Beach, Calif., founder and CEO of real estate development firm;
30. Mossimo Giannulli, 55, of Los Angeles, Calif., fashion designer;
31. Elizabeth Henriquez, 56, of Atherton, Calif.;
32. Manuel Henriquez, 55, of Atherton, Calif., founder, chairman and CEO of a publicly traded specialty finance company;
33. Douglas Hodge, 61, of Laguna Beach, Calif., former CEO of investment management company;
34. Felicity Huffman, 56, of Los Angeles, Calif., an actress;
35. Agustin Huneeus Jr., 53, of San Francisco, Calif., owner of wine vineyards;
36. Bruce Isackson, 61, of Hillsborough, Calif., president of a real estate development firm;
37. Davina Isackson, 55, of Hillsborough, Calif.;
38. Michelle Janavs, 48, of Newport Coast, Calif., former executive of a large food manufacturer; 
39. Elisabeth Kimmel, 54, of Las Vegas, Nev., owner and president of a media company;
40. Marjorie Klapper, 50, of Menlo Park, Calif., co-owner of jewelry business;
41. Lori Loughlin, 54, of Los Angeles, Calif., an actress;
42. Toby MacFarlane, 56, of Del Mar, Calif., former senior executive at a title insurance company;
43. William McGlashan Jr., 55, of Mill Valley, Calif., senior executive at a global equity firm;
44. Marci Palatella, 63, of Healdsburg, Calif., CEO of a liquor distribution company;
45. Peter Jan Sartorio, 53, of Menlo Park, Calif., packaged food entrepreneur;
46. Stephen Semprevivo, 53, of Los Angeles, Calif., executive at privately held provider of outsourced sales teams;
47. Devin Sloane, 53, of Los Angeles, Calif., founder and CEO of provider of drinking and wastewater systems;
48. John Wilson, 59, of Hyannis Port, Mass., founder and CEO of private equity and real estate development firm;
49. Homayoun Zadeh, 57, of Calabasas, Calif., an associate professor of dentistry; and
50. Robert Zangrillo, 52, of Miami, Fla., founder and CEO of private investment firm.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Happy Black History Month: Bennet College, HBCUs, Betsy DeVos & Child Welfare Fraud

HBCUs have always been part of the underground network for money laundering, but hey, what do I know?

I know the timing is just impeccable and reminds me of Detroit, sooooooooo much!

Bennett College loses appeals hearing but files federal suit to keep accreditation

Then this happened...

Federal judge grants Bennett College temporary restraining order, restoring accreditation

Just another transposable model.

HBCU, SEC, DOE, DOJ And The Child Welfare Fraud 

Happy Black History Month!

DeVos donates her salary to historically black colleges, 6 other groups

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos donated a portion of her government salary to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, a group of public historically black colleges and universities, the group announced Wednesday.

“Out of all the higher education organizations in the country she could have selected, we can’t thank Mrs. DeVos enough for her trust, belief in and support for TMCF, the mission and our 47 member-schools,” Harry L. Williams, TMCF president and CEO, said in a statement.

It's the latest example of her warming relationship with HBCUs, which got off to a rocky start when she issued a statement in 2017 calling the schools — founded during an era of racial segregation — "real pioneers when it comes to school choice.” Later that year, she was booed by hundreds of graduating seniors at a historically black university in Florida as she delivered the school's commencement address.

But DeVos has since drawn praise from leaders, in part for her work on a capital financing program that's helped their financially struggling schools.

“Mrs. DeVos has taken the time to consistently meet, listen and work with TMCF, learning more about the needs and value of our schools throughout her time at the Department of Education,"

Williams said. "We have had a productive and impactful working relationship with Mrs. DeVos and her entire team.”

DeVos made a $199,700 salary as a Cabinet member in 2018. The college fund would not say how much she gave. Nor would an Education Department spokesperson.

DeVos, a billionaire philanthropist, has a long history of donating to groups that support expanding access to charter schools and private schools and religious organizations, among other causes. Last year, she divided her government salary among four nonprofits, including the Special Olympics.

Besides the college fund, DeVos this year also gave unspecified amounts to:

— The Travis Manion Foundation, a nonprofit supporting veterans.

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/412/237/2017-412237951-0e5b08d4-9.pdf

— The Kennedy Center's Any Given Child initiative.

http://education.kennedy-center.org/education/anygivenchild/

It seems Any Given Child is not incorporated but was found 411 entities to directly link to the Van Wezel Foundation.

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/592/807/2017-592807055-0f15a7ff-9.pdf



— The National Academy Foundation, a national network supporting STEM education.

https://naf.org/

This one seems to be one of those Social Impact Bonds operation where you can write off a tax exemption as a PR marketing ploy to pump your federal and state Medicaid cost reimbursements double billing programs.

This is one of those start up charter schools when you want to set up shop to plunder the children's trust funds of a municipal school budget.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unofficial-National-Foundation-Engineering-Operations/dp/1599800438

— The Children's Scholarship Fund, a nonprofit school choice group.

https://scholarshipfund.org/

2017 Gross Receipts: $23,961,963.00

2017 Assets: $18,362,840.00

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/134/002/2017-134002189-0ed3a44c-9.pdf

This is one of those fun philosophical Gregorian Knots I like to throw at the heads of "The Elected Ones" every so often when I need a good chuckle by counting how many days it takes them to figure out that I just called them out for stealin'.

If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? 

If a child meets to qualifying criteria under the Title IV-A Poverty Means Test in being eligible for free or reduced school lunches in attending a public school, funded under Title I, then why is there a private scholarship fund to pay for what the student gets for free already?

In all situations, this exercise in ethics flies over the heads of "The Elected Ones".

This particular one is fun because it flat out tells you that they are using kids as lab rats, having Medicaid pay for their socio-economic research through child welfare, an expertise of Betsy.

https://scholarshipfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CSFImpactReport1718.pdf

https://www.erandarothschild.org/

Bethany Christian Border Babies grow up, you know.

— Jesse Lewis Choose Love, a social-emotional learning program.

https://www.jesselewischooselove.org/selawarenessmonth/

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2016/461/931/2016-461931751-0ec1dcfa-9.pdf

https://www.guidestar.org/profile/46-1931751

This is a Sandy Hook child welfare operation of privatizing through Social Imapct Bonds.

— The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation, which supports children with cancer and their families.

https://www.mattiemiracle.com/research

https://www.guidestar.org/profile/27-1238358

Another child lab rat operation where the entire family become human research subject cohorts, controlling for external variables, of course.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©