Showing posts with label North Carolina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North Carolina. Show all posts

Friday, August 21, 2020

Light Up The Network: Gary Lindberg Sentenced For The 2020 RNC Convention

Such a shame Gary Lindberg will be unavailable as a speaker for the Republican National Convention 2020.

Perhaps, Cardinal Dolan can include him in his opening prayer.

https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.eli_global_llc.9f3f3b24e4a3c70ff83e2fb57725e0e8.html

DOJ: Former North Carolina State Political Party Chairman Previously Pleaded Guilty to Lying to the FBI in Connection with the Bribery Scheme


#maytheheavensfall

Founder and Chairman of a Multinational Investment Company and a Company Consultant Convicted of Bribery and Public Corruption are Sentenced to Prison

The founder and chairman of a multinational investment company and a company consultant were sentenced to prison today for orchestrating a bribery scheme involving independent expenditure accounts and improper campaign contributions. 
Greg E. Lindberg, 50, of Durham, North Carolina, the founder and chairman of Eli Global LLC (Eli Global) and the owner of Global Bankers Insurance Group (GBIG), was sentenced to 87 months in prison and three years of supervised release.  Lindberg’s consultant, John D. Gray, 70, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was ordered to serve 30 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release.  Lindberg and Gray were also ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount approximately $1.45 million held in accounts established by the defendants for the purpose of funneling the bribe payments.
On March 5, 2020, a federal jury convicted Lindberg and Gray of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds following an approximately three-week trial.  U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. presided over the trial and today’s sentencing hearings.
Co-defendant, Robert Cannon Hayes, 74, of Concord, North Carolina, was also sentenced today to a one-year probationary term.  Hayes previously pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation.
“When Greg Lindberg and John Gray offered millions of dollars in bribes to the North Carolina Insurance Commissioner, they referred to their elaborately corrupt scheme as a ‘win-win’ – unaware that the FBI was watching and listening,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.  “Today, both men have been held accountable for their crimes, and their sentences underscore the Department of Justice's unyielding commitment to rooting out corruption wherever we find it.”
“Lindberg and his accomplices, driven by greed, devised an extensive political bribery scheme to illegally funnel millions of dollars to an elected official for the benefit of Lindberg’s business interests.  To this day, Lindberg and Gray remain unremorseful and refuse to accept responsibility for their criminal actions.  The severity of their brazen conduct is reflected in the Court’s sentence,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray for the Western District of North Carolina.  “Bribery of a public official is far from a victimless crime.  It is our duty to the American people to stop bad actors with deep pockets and unscrupulous intentions from wrecking the foundation on which this country proudly stands.  To those that greedily seek to line their own pockets through deceit and fraud, I offer the following advice: Keep a travel toothbrush handy.”
“When the prison bars close behind Mr. Lindberg and Mr. Gray, they will hear the sound of justice, loud and clear,” said Special Agent in Charge John Strong of the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office.  “The FBI will root out any and all forms of public corruption.  We remain committed to ensuring those who attempt to interfere with the integrity of our democratic process pay the price.”
According to filed court documents, evidence presented at trial, and today’s sentencing hearings, in January 2018, the elected Commissioner (Commissioner) of the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) reported concerns to the FBI about political contributions and other requests made by Lindberg and Gray, and agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation that was initiated. 
According to evidence presented at trial, from April 2017 to August 2018, Lindberg and Gray engaged in a bribery scheme involving independent expenditure accounts and improper campaign contributions for the purpose of causing the Commissioner to take official action favorable to Lindberg’s company, GBIG.  Trial evidence established that Lindberg and Gray gave, offered, and promised the Commissioner millions of dollars in campaign contributions and other things of value, in exchange for the removal of NCDOI’s Senior Deputy Commissioner, who was responsible for overseeing regulation and the periodic examination of GBIG. 
According to trial evidence, Lindberg, Gray and the Commissioner held numerous in-person meetings at different locations, including in Statesville, North Carolina, and had telephonic and other communications with each other, and others, to discuss Lindberg’s request for the personnel change in exchange for millions of dollars, and to devise a plan on how to funnel campaign contributions to the Commissioner anonymously.  In order to conceal the bribery scheme, at the direction of Lindberg, two corporate entities were set-up to form an independent expenditure committee with the purpose of supporting the Commissioner’s re-election campaign, and Lindberg funded the entities with $1.5 million as promised to the Commissioner.  In addition, at Lindberg and Gray’s direction, Hayes caused the transfer of $250,000 from monies Lindberg had previously contributed to a North Carolina state party of which Hayes was chairman, to the Commissioner’s re-election campaign.
According to admissions Hayes made in connection with his guilty plea, on or about Aug. 28, 2018, Hayes falsely stated to FBI agents that he had never spoken with the NCDOI Commissioner about personnel or personnel problems at NCDOI, or about Lindberg or Gray.  Hayes further admitted that, at the time he made the materially false statements, Hayes knew that it was unlawful to lie to the FBI, and knew that his statements were false because Hayes had in fact spoken with the NCDOI Commissioner about Lindberg and Gray, and about Lindberg’s request that the Commissioner move certain personnel within NCDOI.  
The FBI’s Charlotte field office investigated the case.
Trial Attorney James C. Mann of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William T. Stetzer and Dana O. Washington of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina prosecuted the case.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Thursday, July 16, 2020

North Carolina Approves Corporate Reparations Through Gerrymandering Public Private Partnerships - But Will There Be FARA Registrations?

Finding The Red Card: The Performance Of Three-Card Monte | Jack ...
"See, it is a spade.'
Presenting paperwork as an U.S. black owned
 nonprofit while the foreign corporate mother
intently watches over her human chattel.
Black Lives Matter, because it is how
you maximize revenues.
Yes, you heard me, correctly.

North Carolina has approved reparations.

https://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=reparations

Yippers.

Reparations for foreign corporations, that is!

Well, by golly, I must say, this particular slavific mission is the darnedest human asset forfeiture models I have seen yet.

Nope, I did not see this one coming.

Actually, I probably did because Saskia Thompson, of the Detroit Land Bank Authority, is form North Carolina and probably assisted in the construction of the test pilot model to see if it will fly in Detroit, with the endorsement of all our favorite afrocentristic drum beaters like the NAACP, NAN, and, let me not fail to mention the Congressional Black Caucus and all their financial stakeholders on their servers, to cover up what the did to my Sweetie.

No one wants to say his name.

So, money is going to be doled out to an authority, oh, let us just transpose this working model to Detroit for sake of a few jollies, and say the Detroit Land Bank Authority, who will not just assign a predictive modeling qualitative variable assignment label of one of the four humors, but theses pseudo-scientific determinations will be done, under the powers of a Public Private Partnership through an non-profit, the authority set up all by themselves, like those fake ass LLCs used to file quiet titles and take out fake mortgages.

Slavery was never abolished, just ask North Carolina.

Children are attached to the land as chattel, where, when they grow up, that land is still reconveyance powers of adverse possession.

So, if a foreign entity financially contributes to this 40 acre and a mule concept, must they register under FARA or will they have legally seized the land of the savages, filed a land patent, and leveraged it through a UCC lien as collateral in some other foreign state national treasury?

I find it absolutely fascinating that not one individual has whispered the name of my Sweetie.

I bet they are going to erect a statute to him in support of reparations, in a futile attempt to cover up all the gerrymandering activities to take over the United States, one city, one state at a time, because it all started in Detroit.

https://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=gerrymandering

I wonder how these nonprofits are going to be designated as "black"?

Will the determination process include foreign, corporate parents?

Boy, I will love to see what crafty schemes they will come up with to the doling out of this promotion of homeownership.

I wonder if they will be transposing the Michigan Black Caucus model for homeownership?

#maytheheavensfall

North Carolina City Approves Reparations for Black Residents

The measure passed by the City Council of Asheville, N.C., would provide funding to promote homeownership and business opportunities, but stopped short of stipulating direct payments.

As Americans debate how far the country should go to make amends for slavery and other racial injustices, a conversation reawakened by the killing of George Floyd, a city in North Carolina has taken the first step: It approved reparations for Black residents.

The city, Asheville, N.C., will provide funding to programs geared toward increasing homeownership and business and career opportunities for Black residents as part of a reparations initiative.

The measure was unanimously approved by the Asheville City Council on Tuesday night, but it stopped short of stipulating direct payments, which are usually associated with reparations. City leaders said their goal was to help create generational wealth for Black people, who have been hurt by income, educational and health care disparities.

The city, which is in Western North Carolina and has about 93,000 residents, also apologized for its participation in and sanctioning of slavery, as well as other historical injustices perpetrated against Black people, who make up about 12 percent of the city’s population.

Councilman Keith Young, who is one of two Black members on the Council, was one of the measure’s chief proponents. He said during the group’s meeting that systemic change was long overdue.

“Hundreds of years of Black blood spilled that basically fills the cup that we drink from today,” Mr. Young said.

The momentum for reparations was not limited to Asheville.

In Providence, R.I., the mayor signed an executive order on Wednesday to commence a “truth telling and reparations process,” The Providence Journal reported. In California, a bill creating a task force to develop reparation proposals for African-Americans was passed in the Assembly in June and was being considered by the Senate.

But some said the reparations initiative by city leaders in Asheville did not go far enough. And others panned it outright.

William A. Darity Jr., a professor of public policy at Duke University in Durham, N.C., wrote in an email on Wednesday night that he was “deeply skeptical about local or piecemeal actions to address various forms of racial inequality being labeled ‘reparations.’”

For reparations to be effective, he wrote, they would have to close the pretax racial wealth disparity in the United States, which would cost about $10 to $12 trillion — three to four times more than total state and municipal spending.

“So piecemeal reparations taken singly or collectively at those levels of government cannot meet the debt for American racial injustice,” he wrote.

As part of the resolution passed by the Council, city leaders in Asheville called on the state of North Carolina and the federal government to provide funding for reparations.

Councilwoman Sheneika Smith, who is also Black, said during the Council’s meeting that she had heard from residents who challenged the reparations measure.

“A lot of the feedback that we’ve gotten so far by email is that you know, ‘Why should we pay for what happened during slavery?’” Ms. Smith said. “And my pushback against that is reparations is more than restitution for what happened during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It is a dark evil sin of chattel slavery that is the root of all injustice and inequity that is at work in American life today.”

The developments in Asheville came after nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism, which were catalyzed by Mr. Floyd’s killing in late May. A Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes in an episode that was captured on video by bystanders. The officer and three other officers involved were fired and charged in Mr. Floyd’s murder.

Amid the demonstrations, Confederate statues have been toppled by protesters or taken down by local governments, and lawmakers on all levels have introduced police reforms.

There has also been a renewed push by some members of Congress to create a commission to study the impact of slavery and to make recommendations for reparations.

Several times in American history, people have been compensated for historical injustices, from Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II to victims of police brutality in Chicago.

“It’s simply not enough to remove statutes,” Mr. Young said during the Council’s meeting. “Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature.”

Some said that the action by the Asheville City Council could set a precedent.

“I just hope that we will be, just maybe, a little spark that will really get this conversation not only going in Asheville but in North Carolina and across the country,” Councilwoman Gwen Wisler, who is also the city’s vice mayor, said before the group’s vote.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Thursday, March 5, 2020

DOJ: Former North Carolina State Political Party Chairman Previously Pleaded Guilty to Lying to the FBI in Connection with the Bribery Scheme

The frauds of the Republican National Committee are being illuminated by DOJ.

I suggest Cocktails & Popcorn.

Here is the unsealed indictment... and you wonder why why no one will discuss the massive fraud scheme called health care.

I have been following UnitedHealth, the darling of the Democratic National Committee and #perkinscoiesucks.

A federal jury sitting in Charlotte, North Carolina, has convicted the founder and chairman of a multinational investment company and a company consultant of public corruption and bribery charges, for orchestrating a bribery scheme involving independent expenditure accounts and improper campaign contributions. 
Greg E. Lindberg, 49, of Durham, North Carolina, the founder and chairman of Eli Global LLC (Eli Global) and the owner of Global Bankers Insurance Group (GBIG), and Lindberg’s consultant, John D. Gray, 69, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, were convicted of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds after an approximately three-week trial before U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr.  A third co-defendant, Eli Global executive John V. Palermo, 64, of Pittsboro, North Carolina, was acquitted by the jury.  A fourth co-defendant, Robert Cannon Hayes, 74, of Concord, North Carolina, previously pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI.
“Greg Lindberg and John Gray undermined public confidence in our government by promising millions of dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for government decisions to benefit Lindberg’s business interests,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.  “The department is grateful for the assistance of the law-abiding public officials who reported the attempted bribes in this case, which allowed us to use all the tools at our disposal to investigate and root out this pernicious and greedy effort to corrupt North Carolina state government.”
“The defendants devised an elaborate plan to make a hefty campaign contribution to an elected official to secure favorable action.  This was not a lapse in judgment.  It was a deliberate bribery attempt and a clear violation of federal law,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray for the Western District of North Carolina.  “Public corruption is a threat to our way of life and if left unchecked it can tear apart the very fabric of our country. My office will continue to diligently ferret out public corruption schemes to protect the public and hold bad actors like these unscrupulous defendants accountable.”
“Greg Lindberg and John Gray plowed across the line from legal political donations to felonious bribery,” said Special Agent in Charge John Strong of the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office.  “These men thought they could buy changes to North Carolina Department of Insurance personnel, policies, and procedures to benefit Lindberg's businesses.  The FBI will work tirelessly to root out any and all forms of public corruption.”
According to filed court documents, witness testimony and evidence presented at trial, in January 2018, the elected Commissioner of Insurance (Commissioner) of the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) reported concerns to the FBI about political contributions and other requests made by Lindberg and Gray, and agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation that was initiated. 
The evidence established that from April 2017 to August 2018, Lindberg, Gray and Hayes engaged in a bribery scheme involving independent expenditure accounts and improper campaign contributions for the purpose of causing the Commissioner to take official action favorable to Lindberg’s company, GBIG.  Trial evidence further established that Lindberg and Gray gave, offered, and promised the Commissioner millions of dollars in campaign contributions and other things of value, in exchange for the removal of NCDOI’s Senior Deputy Commissioner, who was responsible for overseeing regulation and the periodic examination of GBIG. 
According to trial evidence, Lindberg, Gray and the Commissioner held numerous in-person meetings at different locations, including in Statesville, North Carolina, and had telephonic and other communications with each other, and with Hayes, to discuss Lindberg’s request for the personnel change in exchange for millions of dollars, and to devise a plan on how to funnel campaign contributions to the Commissioner anonymously.  In order to conceal the bribery scheme, at the direction of Lindberg, two corporate entities were set-up to form an independent expenditure committee with the purpose of supporting the Commissioner’s re-election campaign, and Lindberg funded the entities with $1.5 million as promised to the Commissioner.  In addition, at Lindberg and Gray’s direction, Hayes caused the transfer of $250,000 from monies Lindberg had previously contributed to a North Carolina state party of which Hayes was chairman, to the Commissioner’s re-election campaign.
According to admissions Hayes made in connection with his guilty plea, on or about Aug. 28, 2018, Hayes falsely stated to FBI agents that he had never spoken with the NCDOI Commissioner about personnel or personnel problems at NCDOI, or about Lindberg or Gray.  Hayes further admitted that, at the time he made the materially false statements, Hayes knew that it was unlawful to lie to the FBI, and knew that his statements were false because Hayes had in fact spoken with the NCDOI Commissioner about Lindberg and Gray, and about Lindberg’s request that the Commissioner move certain personnel within NCDOI.  
The FBI’s Charlotte field office investigated the case.
Trial Attorney James C. Mann of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Stetzer and Dana Washington of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina are in charge of the prosecution.


Financier Who Amassed Insurance Firms Diverted $2 Billion Into His Private Empire

The sheer scale of Greg Lindberg’s efforts has little precedent in recent decades, industry experts say

Soon after Greg Lindberg moved into the insurance business, the North Carolina entrepreneur went on a spending spree.

He bought nearly 100 companies around the globe, an estate in the Florida Keys, an Idaho lakeside retreat, a Gulfstream jet and the most expensive mansion ever sold in Raleigh, N.C. In September 2018 he added a 214-foot yacht with room for a dozen overnight guests. He also became the largest political donor in North Carolina and lavished money on other races around the country.

The cash came, at least in part, from huge sums Mr. Lindberg diverted from the group of life insurance firms he began assembling in 2014, a Wall Street Journal investigation found.

The Yale-educated executive lent at least $2 billion from those insurers to scores of entities he controlled, using much of it to expand his private holdings, according to interviews, regulatory filings and more than 4,500 internal documents from Mr. Lindberg’s companies reviewed by the Journal.

The sheer scale of Mr. Lindberg’s use of insurance assets to invest in his own businesses has little precedent in recent decades, industry experts say, and exposes hundreds of thousands of policyholders to an unusual and potentially risky strategy.

Greg Linberg
The insurers disguised the money flow by contending in public regulatory filings that many of the entities they invested in, with names such as Secured Loan-Backed Funding IV LLC, weren’t affiliated with his empire. In reality, documents show, that entity and more than 100 similar ones were set up by Mr. Lindberg to direct money to his own ventures, the Journal found.

Mr. Lindberg is among a wave of financiers who have snapped up life-insurance companies in recent years, contending they can do better than traditional owners in investing the vast assets on insurers’ books in a low interest-rate environment. Some in this new class of owners have deployed unusual financial structures and complex investments, challenging state regulators who have struggled to stay on top of the changing environment.

In Mr. Lindberg’s case, his empire-building has drawn scrutiny from both federal and state authorities.

A federal criminal investigation, made public in October after subpoenas were issued, is looking into Mr. Lindberg’s political donations and his relationship with North Carolina regulators, according to people familiar with the matter. North Carolina is one of 11 states in which insurance commissioners are elected. The probe also is exploring potential financial misdeeds related to the insurers, according to people familiar with the matter.

The federal investigation includes secret recordings made by North Carolina’s current insurance commissioner, who took office in January 2017 and began cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the first half of 2018, according to people with knowledge of parts of the probe.

Meanwhile, North Carolina insurance regulators are sorting through the complicated debt and equity structures set up by Mr. Lindberg to figure out where the money went and whether the insurers have losses, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Vermont also is investigating the Lindberg-related dealings of an insurer based there, a Vermont regulator said.

Mr. Lindberg declined interview requests. A spokesman said in a series of written responses that Mr. Lindberg is cooperating with the federal investigation and with state regulators, and is “aggressively working” to reduce the level of related-party loans. He declined to answer questions about Mr. Lindberg’s political donations.

The spokesman pegged the volume of investments by Mr. Lindberg’s insurers in entities in which he has a “significant economic interest” at $2 billion. He said the investment strategy was approved in advance by North Carolina regulators and was part of a plan by Mr. Lindberg to both improve investment returns for his insurers and expand his overall enterprise.

The spokesman said the U.S. insurers have large financial cushions, hold substantial cash and other liquid assets, and “to this point, there has never been a payment default” on the loans to Lindberg entities. When loans to unrelated borrowers soured, he said, Mr. Lindberg reimbursed his insurers for tens of millions of dollars in losses.

Life insurers, the type run by Mr. Lindberg, normally are very staid enterprises. They are paid premiums up front by policyholders and typically invest the money conservatively for years so they have enough to pay claims. Most invest premium funds in high-quality bonds. Many also own real estate and other less-liquid holdings.

Insurance-company owners are permitted to invest some of the premium money in their own ventures, but regulators monitor these transactions closely to be sure the investments are safe and are fair deals for the insurers. One concern is that related-party investments often aren’t publicly traded and can be difficult to value and sell.

Some states explicitly limit such “affiliated investments” to 10% of total assets, to protect policyholders.

Mr. Lindberg’s investment of insurance funds into affiliates at one point amounted to more than 50% of the assets of one of his main insurers, according to regulatory filings and other documents.

“Insurance-company assets are not intended to be a piggy bank for your other activities,” said Therese Vaughan, a former Iowa insurance commissioner who is now a Drake University insurance and actuarial science professor, speaking generally.

Now 48 years old, Mr. Lindberg began a health-insurance newsletter from his Yale dorm room. He eventually built a conglomerate based in Durham, N.C., that consisted of separate entities tied together with the brand name Eli Global. Before the insurance binge, Eli Global had annual revenue of about $150 million, according to internal corporate documents, and included a medical-coding company, collection agencies and a sports-memorabilia firm.

Mr. Lindberg owns 100% of Eli Global and his insurance empire.

Former employees recall Mr. Lindberg as a financially brilliant, hands-on owner. Mr. Lindberg gave considerable rein to his top executives, but would often personally approve even the smallest expenses at new acquisitions.

“It was a fun place to work” because it was informal and entrepreneurial, said Ian Lipman, a former Eli Global mergers specialist.

Mr. Lindberg also could be socially awkward and quirky, according to some former employees and people who have dealt with him on business matters. For years he wore only black pants and black T-shirts to work, and typically ate from bags of fruit and nuts. He gobbled vitamins and supplements and for exercise ran at high speed on a treadmill set at maximum incline for more than an hour, former employees say.

“Mr. Lindberg is health conscious and focuses on other variables in his life beyond what he wears,” his spokesman said.

He could be frugal. He wrote last year in a personal blog post of buying folding tables and chairs in the early days of his company, which he later replaced with “hideous” but more comfortable secondhand furniture. Eli Global shifted thousands of jobs to India to save money, then provided a bicycle—rather than a car—when Indian IT staffers visited Durham, former employees recall.

Mr. Lindberg began scouring insurers for possible acquisitions in about 2012. What most seemed to attract him, former employees say, was the large cache of assets on insurers’ balance sheets.

Initially, he looked for small insurers that wouldn’t cost much, according to a deposition in later litigation over banking fees. His purchases eventually included a Louisiana insurer bought out of receivership and a struggling Dutch insurer acquired for €1.

Mr. Lindberg told regulators that investing in his own businesses was a safe strategy for the insurers because his company had achieved 35% annual investment returns. “Eli Global has a long history in establishing private placements and managing the risks successfully,” the company said in one presentation to regulators.

His first acquisition, in 2014, was a small Alabama burial-policy insurer, Southland National Insurance Corp. It had about $170 million of assets to cover future claims as policyholders died. Mr. Lindberg paid about $22 million for it.

He was candid about wanting a bigger role for affiliated investments in seeking deal approval from Alabama regulators. At a hearing, he said he thought Southland could do better by swapping some low-yielding corporate bonds into floating-rate debt of his Eli Global operating companies.

Alabama had a law that explicitly limited such investments to the lesser of 10% of total assets or an amount less than half the insurer’s net worth. Mr. Lindberg assured Alabama regulators he would keep affiliated investments within the limits, which would have restricted such deals to just a few million dollars because of the insurer’s low net worth.

Unlike other areas of finance, insurers are regulated primarily by states, not a single federal agency. Although a national standards-setting body accredits insurance departments, states retain flexibility. As a result, companies can shop around for an accommodating venue.

Within four months of the deal’s approval in August 2014, Alabama regulators were out of the picture. Mr. Lindberg shifted Southland to North Carolina and began replacing tens of millions of dollars of its bonds with loans to Lindberg companies.

By the end of 2015, $177 million of Southland’s expanded portfolio was invested in affiliated entities, filings show—more than half its assets at that point.

Although North Carolina statutes are less direct than Alabama’s about affiliated investments, regulators there customarily enforce similar limits. They made a rare exception for Mr. Lindberg, allowing Southland to invest as much as 40% of its assets in Lindberg affiliates rather than the normal 10%, according to regulatory correspondence reviewed by the Journal.

The Lindberg spokesman confirmed that. He declined to say who gave the approval, but said it followed multiple discussions with the state’s insurance department.

A spokeswoman for the North Carolina insurance department declined to comment on regulation of the Lindberg insurers under the prior commissioner, citing the federal investigation.

At the time, the commissioner was Democrat Wayne Goodwin, who won the office in 2008 and was up for re-election in 2016.

Mr. Lindberg held a February 2016 fundraiser for Mr. Goodwin at his Durham estate. Between that gathering and later donations, Mr. Lindberg, his employees, business associates and some of their spouses and family members contributed about $125,000 to the commissioner’s campaign, or more than 10% of Mr. Goodwin’s total, election records show. Mr. Lindberg also created a PAC that purchased ads in support of Mr. Goodwin and gave $425,000 to it, records show.

Mr. Lindberg supported Mr. Goodwin because “he was a business-minded insurance commissioner,” his spokesman said, adding that the insurance department’s approval of Mr. Lindberg’s investment strategy preceded the donations by about two years.

In a statement, Mr. Goodwin said that “any suggestion that I have ever taken any action in return for contributions is categorically false.” He said he didn’t recall “being asked to take or direct any action” to benefit Mr. Lindberg and had deferred to staff experts on complex regulatory matters.

Mr. Goodwin, now chairman of the state’s Democratic Party, said he has cooperated with the federal investigation and has been told by federal officials he isn’t a subject of it.

Mr. Lindberg bought several other insurers in 2015 and 2016, in part using money from Southland. He moved them to North Carolina and began operating the collection as Global Bankers Insurance Group.

At first, Southland in its regulatory filings openly listed the flow of money to its owner’s ventures as “affiliated” loans, naming Eli Global companies as the borrowers.

The filings raised concerns in Florida, known for tough insurance regulation. Officials in 2016 took steps to suspend Southland from doing business in the state, finding it was “financially impaired” due to the high level of affiliated investments. Southland voluntarily withdrew from the state.

By putting half of its assets in affiliates, Southland had breached even the lenient agreement with North Carolina. A department examiner took note. She directed Mr. Lindberg in an early 2016 letter to “refrain from investing further in affiliates and to provide a plan outlining how [the insurer] will return to compliance with the 40% agreed upon limit,” according to a copy of the letter in the internal Lindberg documents.

Mr. Lindberg found a strategy that would allow him to contend on regulatory filings that his affiliated investments were, in fact, unaffiliated.

As part of the plan, an intermediate entity, a “special purpose vehicle,” would borrow from one of the insurers and in turn lend the money to a Lindberg company.

Mr. Lindberg put a small amount of capital into each SPV and was the financial owner, while the voting rights were held by an entity controlled by William Wofford, a partner at an outside law firm, Hutchison PLLC, the internal corporate documents show. Hutchison was paid $400,000 up front for this service.

Because it lacked voting rights, “Eli Global has absolutely no control” over the SPVs, and therefore they weren’t affiliates, the company said in a 2016 presentation to North Carolina regulators reviewed by the Journal. One slide in the presentation was headed: “Replacing Affiliate Loans with SPV.”

The law firm provided regulators with legal opinions that the SPVs weren’t affiliates. Some of the firm’s lawyers including Mr. Wofford donated to Mr. Goodwin’s campaign at the time of the February 2016 fundraiser at Mr. Lindberg’s home, held as regulators were considering the SPV plan.

Hutchison’s Mr. Wofford said he supported other Democratic candidates and causes that year, and “I feel that my firm and I have acted appropriately in these matters.”

The Lindberg spokesman said the SPV structure was “developed in consultation with, and ultimately with the approval of” the North Carolina insurance department, and was intended to achieve higher bond ratings for the investments, not avoid affiliate-reporting rules.

Internal Lindberg documents show how this structure worked. Mr. Lindberg’s Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Co. lent $8.8 million in November 2016 to a new SPV, Macon LLC, which promised to pay 9.5% annual interest over a decade. Mr. Lindberg used that money to acquire a Massachusetts public-relations firm for his conglomerate, the documents show.

By routing the loan through the SPV, Colorado Bankers could claim the loan wasn’t to an affiliated borrower, even though Mr. Lindberg was using the money to expand his empire and one of his companies was the ultimate borrower. (The loan was secured by the assets of the public-relations firm.)

Further muddying the waters, the insurers frequently bought and sold such investments, sometimes holding them for only a few months.

By the end of 2017, the U.S. insurers in total had about $710 million invested in entities in which Mr. Lindberg had a significant economic interest, his spokesman said.

Such related investments accounted for about one-third of the combined assets of his three North Carolina-registered insurers at that point, the spokesman said, not counting their investments in each other or related insurers.

U.S. life insurers in total reported investing about 1% of their bond holdings in affiliates in 2017, the latest available data, the Journal analysis showed. Only a handful reported more than 10%.

As his empire grew, so did Mr. Lindberg’s stated net worth. It reached $1.7 billion at the end of 2017, his spokesman said. That was up fivefold from the $340 million he claimed four years earlier, according to internal documents.

The entrepreneur began leasing a used Gulfstream V in 2014. Soon after, he purchased the Idaho property and filed plans to build a 20,000-square-foot compound. In 2016 he added a $6.2 million, seven-bedroom oceanfront home in the Florida Keys and later bought a second jet.

At his Durham home, on a rural road about 10 miles from the city’s center, Mr. Lindberg had a staff of more than 20 and built an indoor tennis facility for his wife Tisha, from whom he has since become estranged, according to interviews and court filings in legal disputes with his wife. The family took a $1 million yacht vacation, his wife said in one filing.

He also became extremely security conscious. He hired a half dozen guards, installed bulletproof glass at both his home and office, and built a separate security facility at his home along with an underground tunnel leading to a windowless “safe room,” according to interviews, court documents, and online photos of the house.

Tisha Lindberg said in a legal affidavit last year that she considered her husband “paranoid. Not only is the home completely enclosed by a 15-foot high wall and a 12-foot high fence, we also had a security system with more than 20 security cameras, trained guard dogs and security cameras within our home which were monitored by a 24-hour, seven-day a week armed security team.”

Corporate security is normal for any wealthy executive, the Lindberg spokesman said.

Although the maze of entities makes it difficult to trace insurance money directly to Mr. Lindberg’s home purchases, at least one can be linked. Last July, after splitting from his wife, Mr. Lindberg through a shell company paid $5.5 million for a 12,000 square-foot mansion in Raleigh.

The house was bought with the help of a $3.3 million loan from Kite Asset Management Inc., listing an address at Eli Global headquarters. A Lindberg insurer invested $40 million in Kite a few weeks before the home purchase. Delaware filings show Mr. Lindberg was Kite’s president.


Through a shell company, Mr. Lindberg paid $5.5 million for this 12,000 square-foot mansion in Raleigh, N.C., last July.

The Lindberg spokesman said the houses in Raleigh, Idaho and Florida were investments; the yacht has charter possibilities; his two aircraft were used primarily for business; and “insurance companies have not been used to fund Mr. Lindberg’s lifestyle.”

Mr. Lindberg used much of the insurance money to acquire scores of businesses for Eli Global, including a New Mexico wine wholesaler, an Australian software firm, a Canadian debt collector and chains of eye-doctor practices.

Eli Global now has more than 130 companies with 10,000 employees and annual revenue of $3 billion—20 times the revenue five years earlier—Mr. Lindberg says on his personal webpage.

Mr. Lindberg’s spokesman said some of the growth was funded with third-party loans.

A new North Carolina commissioner, Mike Causey, a Republican, took office in early 2017, after beating Mr. Goodwin. Mr. Causey is a farmer and former insurance-agency owner. The tone of communications to Mr. Lindberg’s insurers grew tougher.

“Concerns have been identified regarding the affiliated debt securities and the special purpose vehicles (“SPVs”) that are held by the Companies,” a senior state examiner wrote to the finance chief of Mr. Lindberg’s insurance group in March 2017.

Some affiliated entities borrowing money appeared insolvent, the official wrote. The examiner also said loans to affiliates “were used to provide subsequent dividends to Mr. Greg Lindberg”—suggesting that insurance money was flowing into his pockets. The letter questioned whether some actions complied with state laws.

The Lindberg spokesman said the insurers provided additional information “to substantiate the financial solvency of these entities.”

A few weeks after the combative letter, Mr. Lindberg and his wife each donated $5,000 to Mr. Causey, who returned the money. He said he did so “out of an abundance of caution.”

Amid the regulatory matters, Mr. Lindberg retained the former commissioner, Mr. Goodwin, as a consultant and hired two of his former deputies, including the aide who had overseen the Lindberg insurers. Mr. Lindberg’s spokesman declined to comment on those moves.


North Carolina’s current insurance commissioner, Mike Causey, secretly cooperated with an FBI investigation of Mr. Lindberg.

Mr. Goodwin said his work for Global Bankers was limited and no different than with his other consulting clients.

Mr. Lindberg continued to expand his empire, buying insurers in Michigan, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and establishing a reinsurer in Bermuda. He also helped finance a reinsurer in Vermont. The Bermuda and Vermont reinsurers proceeded to loan a total of more than $600 million to Mr. Lindberg’s companies.

Mr. Lindberg extracted money from the insurers via a Malta entity he set up to provide investment services to his companies. It received $34 million in fees in 2017, Malta filings show; the Lindberg spokesman said fees have since been sharply reduced.

Beginning in late 2017, Mr. Lindberg’s Colorado Bankers began hauling in large sums of new money to be invested: $1.3 billion in sales of annuities, a type of saving product, to retirees and other conservative investors. Much of that was lent to Lindberg-related entities, filings show.

Meanwhile, a multistate group of financial examiners was working with North Carolina regulators as they sought to understand the complex structures. Mr. Lindberg fielded questions at a March 2018 closed-door session at a gathering of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in Milwaukee. He showed up at the conference with a bodyguard, an attendee said.

Mr. Lindberg ramped up political donations in late 2017, giving to insurance commissioners in other states and $670,000 to national Republican organizations. In North Carolina, he donated $5.4 million in 2017 and 2018, mostly to Republicans.

After contributing $500,000 to the North Carolina GOP in May 2018, Mr. Lindberg suggested the party donate a portion to Mr. Causey’s campaign, said Dallas Woodhouse, the party’s executive director. Records show the party donated $250,000 to Mr. Causey in June and July. By this time, Mr. Causey was cooperating with the FBI on its secret probe, according to people familiar with the matter. Republican party officials weren’t aware of the investigation.

The party maintains it acted lawfully, because officials didn’t accept the $500,000 with the intent of helping Mr. Lindberg evade the state’s then-$5,200 individual-contribution limit.

Instead, “based on our discretion,” the party decided weeks after receiving the money that it made sense to both accommodate a big donor and help Mr. Causey, Mr. Woodhouse said. No authorities have told the party that its conduct “is under question in this matter,” he said.

In an interview, Mr. Causey said he turned over the $250,000 donation to federal officials, at their instruction. “It’s part of their investigation,” he said.

“The department of insurance is not a target,” he said, “and none of the employees including myself are targets.” He declined to discuss his role in the federal probe.

The North Carolina insurance department is still trying to answer a key question: Are Mr. Lindberg’s businesses good for the money they owe to the insurers? Mr. Lindberg’s spokesman said third-party valuations last year showed the borrowers had plenty of assets to cover the loans.

Mr. Lindberg’s team has shopped the U.S. insurance units to financial firms eager to expand or get into life insurance, and one is interested—if the affiliated investments can be eliminated, according to Wall Street bankers and other knowledgeable people.

Besides trying to sell parts of his empire, Mr. Lindberg has put the Florida Keys property, the Raleigh mansion, his former Durham home and the nearly finished Idaho property on the market, asking a total of $35.5 million.

The executive recently was spending time in Palm Beach, Fla., on board his yacht, according to people familiar with the matter. The boat had been for sale for $44.5 million when he purchased it in September through a newly formed LLC.

The yacht’s name: “Double Down.”

—Tom McGinty in New York contributed to this article.

Write to Mark Maremont at mark.maremont@wsj.com and Leslie Scism at leslie.scism@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
Greg Lindberg leased one Gulfstream jet and bought a second. An earlier version of this article said he purchased both. (Feb. 28, 2019)

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Thursday, October 3, 2019

DOJ: Former North Carolina State Political Party Chairman Pleads Guilty to Making a False Statement to The FBI

It seems DOJ has thwarted yet another privatized, foreign human asset management forfeiture operation of stealin' the children, land and votes, for the purposes of maximizing profits off "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth).

These privatized foreign corporate parents always insure their tiny human assets, for the best interests, of course.

North Carolina is special when it comes to the reengineering for the residuals of the peculiar institution.

Global Bankers Insurance to sell off life insurance operations



SNL Image
Greg Linberg
The former chairman of a North Carolina state political party pleaded guilty today to making a false statement to the FBI in connection with a federal investigation into the attempted bribery of a North Carolina elected official.  U.S. Magistrate Judge David S. Cayer presided over the plea hearing.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray for the Western District of North Carolina and Special Agent in Charge John A. Strong of the FBI Charlotte Field Office made the announcement.

On March 18, 2019, a criminal indictment was filed in the Western District of North Carolina, charging Robert Cannon Hayes, 74, of Concord, North Carolina, who at the time was Chairman of a state political party in North Carolina; Greg E. Lindberg, founder and Chairman of Eli Global LLC (Eli Global) and the owner of Global Bankers Insurance Group (GBIG); John D. Gray, a consultant for Lindberg; and John V. Palermo, an Eli Global executive, for allegedly attempting to make improper campaign contributions to the elected Commissioner of Insurance (Commissioner) of the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI), in exchange for official personnel action favorable to Lindberg’s company, GBIG.

Eli Global
https://www.eliglobal.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Global
According to admissions Hayes made in connection with his guilty plea, on or about Aug. 28, 2018, Hayes falsely stated to FBI agents that he had never spoken with the NCDOI Commissioner about personnel or personnel problems at NCDOI or about Lindberg or Gray.  At the time that Hayes made the false statements, the FBI was investigating matters related to the attempted bribery of the Commissioner, therefore the defendant’s false statements were material to the investigation.

As Hayes admitted in court today, at the time he made the materially false statements, Hayes knew that it was unlawful to lie to the FBI, and knew that his statements were false because Hayes had in fact spoken with the NCDOI Commissioner about Lindberg and Gray, and about Lindberg’s request that the Commissioner move certain personnel within NCDOI.

Lindberg, Gray, and Palermo are each charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and aiding and abetting. Their charges are still pending.  The details contained in the indictment are allegations.  The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The FBI’s Charlotte Field Office is leading the investigation.

Trial Attorney James C. Mann of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Stetzer and Dana Washington of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte are prosecuting the case.

Hayes’s resume: Congress, legislature, state GOP chair. Now he’s a defendant.

Here's what happened and the key players involved in the NCGOP chairman bribery and corruption charges

Chairman Robin Hayes and major campaign donor Greg Lindberg are at the center for this case. it all started when Mike Causey reported to officials issues with campaign contributions.

As an heir to the Cannon Mills textile fortune, Robin Hayes continued his family’s philanthropic work in Cabarrus County while serving as a Republican member of Congress, candidate for governor and state GOP chairman as the party swept to statewide victories.

This week, the genial, 73-year-old Hayes played a most unfamiliar role: a defendant under indictment for allegedly trying to funnel bribe money to the reelection campaign of North Carolina’s insurance commissioner.

That news came a day after Hayes announced Monday that he wouldn’t seek reelection as state chair, saying he would focus instead on recovery from recent hip surgery.

Party leaders at the time heaped praise on Hayes, crediting him with leading a Republican resurgence while serving as chair from 2011 to 2013 and again since 2016. The role confirmed his long-held gravitas among the party’s leadership, Christian conservatives and the business community.

“I could always count on Chairman Robin Hayes,” former Gov. Pat McCrory said in a statement accompanying Monday’s announcement. “His dedication to public service, the Republican Party and his fellow man are unquestioned.”

“It’s because of his leadership that the national convention is coming to North Carolina in 2020!” added Susan Mills, vice chair of the Ninth District GOP.

On Wednesday, the party said Hayes would turn over his duties to district chair Aubrey Woodard, who will serve as the state GOP’s acting chair. Hayes looks forward to clearing his name from this week’s allegations, his attorney, Kearns Davis, said in a statement.

Hayes is the grandson of textile magnate Charles Cannon, the founder of Cannon Mills, once the world’s largest producer of towels and sheets. The company was sold in 1982 and, following the bankruptcy of its buyer, the landmark main mill in Kannapolis was demolished in 2005.

The family’s fingerprints on the state continue through its philanthropies. Hayes still serves on the boards of the Cannon Foundation, which makes grants for healthcare, higher education, human services and community projects, and the Charles A. Cannon Charitable Trusts, according to their websites.

Hayes was born in Concord on the August day in 1945 when Japan surrendered to end World War II. He’s the only child of Shell oil distributor Robert Hayes and Mariam Cannon Hayes, the daughter of Cannon Mills magnate Charles Cannon. He graduated from Duke University and worked as a hosiery mill owner and highway contractor.

His public service began in 1978, when he was elected to Concord’s town board. Years later he said former President Ronald Reagan had sparked his interest in politics.

Hayes was elected to the N.C. House in 1992, serving two terms and rising to majority whip. He ran for governor in 1996, losing to four-term Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt, but was elected to the U.S. House representing the 8th Congressional District in 1998.

“He was devoted to the Republican Party and to conservative principles of government — that’s why this is so stunning to me. It’s so out of character for him,” said former Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot, who lost to Hayes in the 1996 Republican primary for governor.

Vinroot said he had been surprised that, following his decade in Congress, Hayes had invested so much of his time in building up the state GOP. “He may have gotten carried away with building the party,” he said, “but I know for sure he didn’t do it for Robin Hayes.”

In 2008, near the end of his five terms, Hayes was the eighth-wealthiest member of Congress with a net worth estimated at $82 million. Following the death of his mother, an auction that year of family treasures included a 19th-century Conestoga wagon and documents signed by presidents George Washington and Andrew Jackson.

As a House member, Hayes came under heavy political fire in 2005 for flipping his vote to support the Central American Free Trade Agreement, breaking a tie that passed the measure. Democrats argued the deal would send textile jobs to Central America. Hayes insisted his vote would help save the ailing industry.

In 2007, he defended NASCAR fans after some congressional aides were told to get hepatitis shots before visiting Charlotte Motor Speedway on a fact-finding trip about public health preparedness at mass gatherings.

“I feel compelled to ask why the heck the (Homeland Security) committee feels that immunizations are needed to travel to my hometown,” Hayes thundered in a letter to the committee’s Democratic chairman. “I have been to numerous NASCAR races, and the folks who attend these events certainly do not pose any health hazard to congressional staffers or anyone else.”

A ‘MOST SUCCESSFUL’ NC GOP CHAIR
Hayes’s 2008 campaign spent $3.8 million on his reelection, compared to his opponent’s $1.5 million, but Hayes lost to former textile worker and teacher Larry Kissell after narrowly defeating Kissell in 2006.

A slip-up two weeks before the election didn’t improve Hayes’s chances. “Liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God,” he told a crowd in Concord before an appearance by then-presidential candidate John McCain.

Hayes initially denied making the remark but later said he “wasn’t thinking” when he did so. The comment dogged him for the rest of the campaign, and Kissell easily won the seat. Four years later, Hayes’ former district director, Richard Hudson, beat Kissell to reclaim the 8th Congressional District seat for Republicans.

In the 2012 elections, during Hayes’ first stint as state GOP chair, Republicans gained a veto-proof supermajority in the state House and expanded one in the Senate, gained three congressional seats and made McCrory the state’s first Republican governor in nearly two decades.

Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the “pro-family” N.C. Values Coalition, said it’s hard for her to square this week’s indictment with the kind, likeable Hayes she’s known since he served in the legislature in the early 1990s. “He’s a steady man of prayer, and I greatly respect him,” she said.

Fitzgerald credits Hayes as a leader in opposing abortion and advocating abstinence-based sex education. As state party chair, she said, he was skilled at bringing factions together.


“He has led the conservative movement in this state to a great degree,” she said. “He’s been a man of integrity and I greatly appreciate how he conducts himself.”


When Hayes returned as state chair in 2016, replacing the ousted Hasan Harnett after a series of controversies, the GOP delivered 15 electoral votes for President Donald Trump and took six of nine Council of State seats.

In a Charlotte Observer op-ed following allegations of election fraud in the 9th Congressional District last December, Hayes railed against “paid political mercenaries” and called for their prosecution as “a scourge on our democracy.” He wrote that the state GOP had no knowledge of the absentee ballot harvesting under investigation.

“This is a national embarrassment that can never be allowed to repeat itself,” he wrote.
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

DOJ: Ukrainian Man Extradited to the United States to Face Charges in International Money Laundering and Fraud Scheme

Money Mules.  I like that term but I want people to understand, sometimes, when desperation comes to your door, and destruction of your life is at your back door, you will do what you have to do, without asking any questions because these operations are typically validated with the blessings "The Elected Ones", including all the heraldry of those foreign corporations with lots of shiny christian crosses on the flags that loves to fund those election campaigns.

But hey, what do I know?

I just know there was an interesting name that was identified in this release.

I also know this is just another layer of what is going on in our institutions.



Money Mule Operation Allegedly Effectuated the Theft and Laundering of at Least $2.8 Million

South Korean authorities extradited to the United States a Ukrainian man in connection with allegations that he conducted an extensive money laundering and fraud campaign that targeted dozens of victims, including a corporation based in the Western District of North Carolina.   
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray of the Western District of North Carolina and Special Agent in Charge John A. Strong of the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office made the announcement. 
Aleksandr Musienko, aka “Oleksandr Serhiyovych Musiyenko,” “Robert Davis,” and “Ply,” a Ukrainian national, was charged in a recently unsealed indictment with one count of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and two counts of money laundering.  Musienko had been traveling in South Korea, when, at the U.S. government’s request, South Korean officials arrested him on the charges out of the Western District of North Carolina.  South Korean officials extradited Musienko to the United States on March 28.  Musienko will make his initial appearance at 1:45 p.m. today before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge David S. Cayer. 
According to the indictment, Musienko is charged with engaging in an extensive international money laundering and fraud scheme targeting U.S. corporations and individuals.  He is alleged to have begun the scheme in 2009 and continued it through at least 2012. 
In particular, Musienko allegedly partnered with overseas cybercriminals who had hacked into, and stole funds from, online bank accounts belonging to a large number of individual and corporate victims in the United States.  One victim was a business based in the Western District of North Carolina.  Musienko operated a network of “money mules” throughout the United States.  According to the indictment, using aliases that included “Robert Davis” and phony front companies that included “Vita Finance AG” and “Hilpert AG,” Musienko recruited money mules throughout the United States using a variety of fraudulent techniques, including by advertising bogus “employment” opportunities to work as “Financial Assistants.”  He promised to pay the money mules a fee of approximately five percent for each overseas wire transfer they completed.
Once Musienko had his network of money mules in place, Musienko then offered his money mule services to his cybercriminal partners to assist them in transferring stolen funds.  He directed his “money mules” to use their own bank accounts to receive and then transfer proceeds from the compromised bank accounts overseas.  As alleged in the indictment, Musienko’s criminal money mule operation effectuated the theft and laundering of at least $2.8 million from 2009 to 2012. 
The investigation was conducted by the FBI Charlotte Field Office.  The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided significant support with the defendant’s extradition and with obtaining evidence from South Korea.  Senior Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Taylor Phillips of the Western District of North Carolina are prosecuting the case. 
An indictment is merely an allegation.  All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Michigan Manipulated Data - SCOTUS Does Not Want To Talk Fraud - TARP, Gerrymandering & The Wasted Votes Of Absentee Ballot Fraud

In the spirit of fuchsia...
North Carolina elected officials review
historical district maps in 2016.
Lansing — Michigan’s congressional maps continued to favor Republican candidates in 2018 even though Democrats flipped two seats to split control of the state’s delegation in a wave election, according to a new analysis.

It was planned. Check the absentee ballots. They are probably fake.

And its state House boundaries ranked among the most biased in the country.

Because it was planned. One day I shall sit everyone down and teach them about foreign propaganda in our lawmaking.

“Efficiency gap” measurements calculated by The Associated Press challenge GOP claims in the U.S. Supreme Court, which is set to hear oral arguments next week in alleged partisan gerrymandering cases from North Carolina and Maryland as Michigan judges consider a similar lawsuit here.

The Michigan case may be a bit different as we are dealing with a situation of "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending). Has anyone seen Mark Elias lately?

In a recent high court briefing, attorneys for the Republican National and the National Republican Congressional Committee pointed to Michigan’s 2018 elections as evidence that courts are incapable of determining partisan intent.

I can prove partisan intent. The Michigan Emergency Manager Law that took over Detroit, the most concentrated area of voters, and denationalized everything in state transfers to Public Private Partnerships of foreign corporations that came in as Corporate Shape Shifters to launch a massive fake mortgage fraud foreclosure scam in a real estate grab using federal funding through fraudulent cost reimbursements in the Medicaid child welfare system.

“The ‘durability’ of Michigan’s partisan gerrymander was apparently limited to elections prior to 2018,” lead GOP attorney Jason Torchinsky and his colleagues told the Supreme Court justices, noting Democratic gains last fall.

No, no, no. Michigan was gerrymandered intentionally based upon property ownership. That is how the MDP was able to run their absentee ballot fraud schemes in the City of Detroit.  The Michigan Democratic Party is not too concerned about anything else outside of Detroit.

“Time and time again courts have determined electoral maps to be unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders due to those maps’ effect of 'entrenching' a political party in power and then subsequently, under those same maps, the supposedly ‘entrenched’ party was defeated, sometimes in spectacular fashion.”

No. Those 2010 maps were based on predictive modeling crap.

Michigan congressional districts, drawn by Republicans and first implemented in 2012, did show smaller signs of partisan bias in 2018 than in other recent years, according to the AP analysis of election data across the country.

No mention of the trend in property tax or mortgage foreclosures? That is when you know you have bias.

But Michigan’s 8.1 percent efficiency gap score for 2018 was the 18th highest in the country and suggests Republican candidates won one extra congressional seat than would have been expected based on their vote share.

Right. That score is crap because it did not take into consideration the bogus property tax and mortgage fraud foreclosures. When you have a glaring, intentionally exclusion of independent data, you know you have fraud, or, for the Smarty Pants people, you are using dirty data.

Democratic congressional candidates won 54 percent of major party votes in Michigan, compared with 46 percent for Republicans. They flipped two seats to split the state’s 14 U.S. House seats, seven to seven.

Last time I checked, we still have some unanswered issues with the validity of the 2018 election.

Nationally, Democrats regained control of the U.S. House and flipped hundreds of seats in state Legislatures. But the cycle was not as bad as it could have been for Republicans, whose strong 2010 election cycle put them in position to draw decade-defining maps in many states, according to the AP analysis.

Those 2010 maps busted up neighborhoods going down to stratified household data. I saw it. You people need to stop lying.

“These districts are gerrymandered, but they’re not built for a thousand-year flood,” said Michael Li, senior redistricting counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

The people over at the Brennan Center for Justice need to talk to "Pookie" Brennan and ask him if he thinks we know who that predictive modeling crap in land speculation in civil asset forfeiture in real properties.

Republicans who drew district boundaries in Michigan and other states seven years ago had no way to foresee factors that shaped 2018, he said, including the 2016 election of President Donald Trump and unusually high voter turnout last fall.

They had no way to see the factors that shaped the 2018 election because they refuse to talk about those foreign corporations taking over the land, funding political campaigns, to launch those land banks to suck up TARP.

“It’s like saying I had a seven-foot wall and then a hurricane came and it still flooded my property,” Li said.

Measuring bias

The efficiency gap, a relatively new formula cited in Supreme Court arguments, measures wasted votes for losing candidates and votes for winners beyond what was needed to triumph. It’s a way to gauge the impact of “packing” and “cracking” voters into certain districts to minimize the power of the minority party.

No. The Supreme Court needs to be chastised for using such a crappy predictive model to "gauge" that "packing & cracking" voters into certain districts.  This is how you measure.

VOTER PACKING: WHEN THE CITY ELECTIONS CLERK LETS INTERESTED PARTIES FILLS OUT A BUNCH OF ABSENTEE BALLOTS FOR THE CANDIDATES THEY WANT IN OFFICE.

VOTER CRACKING: WHEN THE COUNTY TREASURER SENDS OUT FAKE TAX FORECLOSURE NOTICES TO PROPERTIES THEY NEED TO SECURE TO REGISTER MULTIPLE FAKE IDENTITIES TO CERTAIN ADDRESSES SECURED WITH THE LAND BANK

VOTER SMACKING: WHEN YOU PUT OUT ABSENTEE BALLOT REQUEST FORMS FROM THE PAST YEAR SO THE ELECTIONS CLERK CAN DISQUALIFY AND TOSS ANY VOTES CAST AGAINST THE CANDIDATE THEY WANT

The apparent impact of Michigan’s partisan map-making process was more pronounced in state House races. Michigan’s 10.87 efficiency gap score ranked fourth highest in the country for 2018, suggesting nearly 12 excess seats for the GOP, according to AP calculations.

Homelessness is another factor when it comes to measuring the vote. It is difficult to go vote when you are transient because you lost your home to a fake tax foreclosure.

Democrats won 54 percent of the major party statewide vote, but Republicans won 53 percent of state House races, returning a 58-52 majority in the 110-member chamber.

I would hold off putting any more weight on these results until DOJ & DHS comes out with their findings on the Michigan 2018 election.

Critics say the efficiency gap does not prove partisan gerrymandering and can produce “false positives” because of naturally occurring geographic factors and other legal requirements, including mandates for districts with a majority of African-American or other minority voters.

I wish these so-called Smarty Pants people would give the peculiar institution back its vessel manifest accounting codes.

Rural areas in Michigan, including the Upper Peninsula, have increasingly turned Republican in recent years.

That is because they were invaded by lots of foreign operatives, who launched lots of foreign propaganda, but hey, what do I know? I bet Butina knows.

“In many states, Democratic voters are concentrated in or near urban areas while Republican voters are more evenly distributed,” attorneys for North Carolina Republicans said in a recent Supreme Court filing.

It is called poverty. Land Banks typically target historic areas because the properties are located along major transportation lines and ports.

“As a result, the pre-existing political geography of the State will tend to produce more 'wasted' Democratic votes than Republican votes as long as the map drawer follows traditional districting principles like compactness, contiguity, and preserving communities of interest.”

Fraud, it is called, fraud.  Say it.  Ok, fine, let SIGTARP say it.

Experts say the efficiency gap alone does not prove a partisan gerrymander, and the North Carolina and Maryland cases going before the Supreme Court include other evidence lower courts have used to determine partisan intent.

All you have to do is use my land bank litmus test.  Does the state have a land bank.  Yes? Then there was gerrymandering.

In North Carolina, lawmakers openly discussed partisan intent and a legislative committee adopted a criterion holding that the new makeup of congressional maps would continue a 10-3 majority for Republicans.

The efficiency gap and other statistical evidence can “raise red flags” in states like Michigan that are worthy of additional exploration by courts, Li said.

SIGTARP is has an ongoing investigation into the fraudulent snatching of properties through fake tax schemes. I believe this matter is currently pending before the court, which may just put a monkey wrench on any SCOTUS future rulings. Stay! Good boys and girls.

Geographic factors and a desire to keep communities intact “for any number of good or moral reasons” could play a role in an efficiency gap score, he said.

“In some states, you actually would have to gerrymander to get zero because there’s sort of a natural bias there.”

Michigan decision looms

The North Carolina case before the U.S. Supreme Court alleges a statewide gerrymander by Republicans, while the Maryland case alleges gerrymandering by Democrats to flip a specific congressional seat.

Hardest Hit Fund, Community Development, anyone?

The Michigan suit alleges an unconstitutional Republican attempt to dilute the power of Democratic voters in congressional and legislative districts across the state and seeks an order for new maps in 2020.

There are multiple foreign nationals who have ensured that their Michigan GOP candidates and elected officials will promulgate law and policies to make the people poor, for the purposes of stealin' children, the land and the votes. It is called forced migration.

GOP attorneys had asked the Supreme Court to delay the Michigan case, arguing its resolution would directly affect deliberations here. The court declined the request in February without explanation, and the case proceeded to trial that month.

Do not make me have to do one of those amicus curiae because I will, you know.  I file an entire treatise on stealin': How the Detroit Land Bank Authority, et al, jacked up the 2016 & 2018 elections. I shall be kind and keep it to a small data set of Wayne County property tax foreclosure rolls.

See, if your house is on this list, you probably had your vote tossed, or rather wasted, because it would not be counted.

This is quantitative data, just to let you know.

2018 quantitative data gerrymandering of 2020 redistricting maps:

Evans calls for property tax payment plan review in Wayne Co.


Any Supreme Court decision will “likely supersede or control the ruling of the district court,” said Gary Gordon, an attorney representing some of the GOP lawmakers who have intervened in the Michigan case.

Yes, the lawmaker intervention, move.  Jolly good show to cover thine arse, mate!

Republicans argue Michigan mapmakers followed all applicable laws when drawing congressional and legislative districts in 2011.

Actually, the drawing of the maps did follow the law. Now, how they secured the data is an entirely different legal issue to be addressed.

Emails produced in the case have shown mapmakers used software that calculated the partisan makeup of each district they drew and told Republicans they were providing options “to ensure we have a 9-5 (congressional) delegation in 2012 and beyond.”

Michigan Congressional Redistricting and Its Challenges


The Supreme Court case gives justices the opportunity to “finally lay out the standard for what constitutes a partisan gerrymander,” said Li, who is part of a Brennan Center team that filed a legal brief supporting claims of unconstitutional partisan bias in the North Carolina and Maryland cases.

“That would help the court in Michigan and the courts elsewhere that are sort of wrestling with how to write opinions.”

No, it will not.  Say fraud.  Say it.  Fine.  Say stealin'. Say it.

The Michigan trial concluded in February and judges have since rejected two GOP motions to dismiss the suit or strike evidence. But it’s unclear if they will rule before or after the Supreme Court, which could do so by the end of June.

Force migration?

The impact of the high court ruling on the Michigan suit may depend on whether it is broad or narrowly focused on specifics of the North Carolina or Maryland cases, Li said.

Human trafficking. Say it.

“The Michigan case will be appealed to the Supreme Court as well,” he predicted, “and so it’s unclear to me if the court has any incentive to rush something out, other than at some point Michigan will need maps for the 2020 election.”

We have the technology. Use it. Technology stops fraud. I can tweet it for you if I was not backdoor shadowbanned on Twitter.

Michigan voters last year approved a ballot initiative to create a new citizen redistricting commission that will draw new congressional and legislative district lines, beginning in 2022. Previous state law had allowed whichever political party controlled the Michigan Legislature to control the process.

The following links will provide an in depth insight into the new citizen redistricting commission in Michigan.


Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs, Princeton University Wipes Out More Detroit Civil Rights Legacy By Publishing Michigan Privatization Voting Rights Gerrymandering Crap - Come Smell It


That continues to be the case in a majority of other states, meaning a Supreme Court decision could have a large impact heading into a 2020 election cycle that will decide who controls the process in those parts of the country.

The selected methodologies of SCOTUS to opine in the matter of gerrymandering is crap.  Please see link directly below.


Alan Krueger, Father Of Predictive Modeling Crap On Modern Human Trafficking, Self-Extracts Himself From Society - Detroit Land Bank Authority, FARA, TARP & Princeton University


“The court will be setting some ground rules for when maps are redrawn in 2021, and that’s going to be important because the data and the technology to do these sorts of gerrymanders are becoming more available and more powerful,” Li said. “People will slide and dice and recombine voters in ways that you would have only dreamed about in 2011.”

I believe Li is referencing that thing called being Butina-ed, foreign funded influence of "The Elected Ones".  Just pull their financials.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©