Mexican Government Corruption Update: Former Tamaulipas governor's brother-in-law indicted in US for money laundering S

10/7/2014

By Guillermo Contreras and  Jason Buch 

The brother-in-law of a former governor of the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas has been indicted on charges he helped the ex-politician launder bribe money in Texas.

Oscar Gomez Guerra, 43, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Corpus Christi on charges of conspiring to launder monetary instruments and aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business, Kenneth Magidson, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said Friday.

Gomez is married to the sister of former Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernández Flores, who served from 2005 to 2010. [governor is in photo above and below with EPN]

Gomez, who's currently a fugitive, said in a statement sent to Mexican media that his properties in the U.S. were bought with the proceeds of his Mexican business.

He said U.S. authorities never tried to contact him about his business, “which was conducted legitimately and in conformity with Mexican laws.”

He also added that whatever transactions are in question have nothing to do with the former governor.

Hernández has not been formally charged — though prosecutors have accused him of taking bribes from the Zetas so the cartel could operate freely in Tamaulipas, which borders Texas. Hernández also denies the allegations.

The indictment alleges Gomez conspired to commit international money laundering starting about January 2008 and aided and abetted the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business run by a Mexican businessman who lived part-time in San Antonio.

The businessman, Guillermo Flores Cordero, is in jail in Corpus Christi and was set to be sentenced there this week, but his hearing was postponed until February.

The indictment against Gomez includes a notice of criminal forfeiture for a home in Austin valued at $2.7 million and another in McAllen valued at $500,000 — properties the feds claim may have been purchased with illicit funds. 

The federal government also is seeking a personal money judgment from Gomez in the amount of $10 million. 

His prosecution is the latest in a series of U.S. money-laundering investigations targeting people close to governors in two states bordering Texas — Coahuila and Tamaulipas.

If convicted of the money-laundering conspiracy, Gomez faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $500,000 or twice what was laundered. Operating an unlicensed money transmitting business carries a maximum five years in prison.

The feds also have accused Hernández but haven't charged him — or at least unsealed any formal charges against him like they did in Gomez's case — of money laundering activities. 

Allegations against Hernández first surfaced in a transcript of the Dec. 5 plea hearing of Flores, in which he pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy.

During the hearing, prosecutors said Flores, who split his time between his homes in Coahuila and San Antonio, had run an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

He used shell companies to wire money from Mexico to bank accounts in the Rio Grande Valley on behalf of others to disguise where the funds were coming from, Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Hampton said.

Among Flores' clients, according to the transcript, were Hernández and members of his family.

Hernández had good reason to disguise the source of the money, prosecutors contended.

“Eugenio Hernández has been identified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as receiving bribes from the Los Zetas drug cartel, a transnational criminal organization, in order for the cartel to have the unfettered ability to operate in Tamaulipas while Mr. Hernández was governor, ” Hampton said in the hearing.

Hampton said that between 2009 and 2012, Flores used shell companies to wire $30 million into the U.S. for his clients and made $2.5 million in commission. Federal authorities have seized millions of dollars in Flores' U.S. bank accounts and his house in The Dominion in Bexar County. 

In a statement circulated to Mexican media in July, Hernandez said he “categorically denies” the allegations.

“It's a totally false declaration,” Hernandez wrote. “I'm clean. I was investigated along with my family exhaustively and with full rigor in Mexico by the past federal administration. ...”

Hernández succeeded then-Tamaulipas Gov. Tomás Yarrington Ruvalcaba, who served from 1999 to

2005. Yarrington himself was indicted in Corpus Christi last year and is being sought on charges that include racketeering, money laundering and drug trafficking.

The charges also claim he was laundering bribes in South Texas from the Zetas, and that the Gulf Cartel the Zetas once worked for paid him so they could operate in Tamaulipas.

Both cases are being investigated by multiple agencies, including the DEA, IRS, FBI and Homeland Security Department. None had additional comment beyond a news release issued by Magidson's office.

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Number of Cubans Trying to Reach U.S. Illegally Increases in 2014

10/7/2014

MIAMI – The number of undocumented Cuban migrants trying to reach U.S. territory by sea increased 75 percent during the 2014 fiscal year, the Coast Guard said.

The total climbed from 2,129 in fiscal 2013 to 3,722 Cubans in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Capt. Marcos Fedor of the Coast Guard’s 7th District said in a statement.

The figures include people intercepted at sea as well as those who succeeded in reaching shore, a Coast Guard spokesman told Efe.

Under the policy known as “wet foot, dry foot,” Cubans who are able to set foot on U.S. territory may remain and apply for legal residence, while those stopped at sea are returned to the island.

The 7th District’s area of operations coves Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Puerto Rico as well as 34 foreign territories.

During fiscal 2014 the District recorded a total of 9,081 undocumented migrants, a 42 percent increase over the previous year.

The largest group (5,478) was comprised of Haitians, whose numbers increased by 25 percent from fiscal 2013.

“We know of those we rescue and those who may make it to land, but we don’t know how many hundreds of people may perish attempting this dangerous journey,” Fedor said. “The Coast Guard is a military service and a law enforcement agency, but we also have a humanitarian role; we are committed to protecting the safety of life at sea.” 

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Left changes definition of "Xenophobic" to forward borderless agenda

10/7/2014

Bahamas Pursuing Xenophobic Policies Against Haitians, Expert Says

SAN JUAN – New immigration rules to go into effect in the Bahamas on Nov. 1 are “clearly xenophobic” because they further marginalize the Haitian population living there, according to U.S. anthropology professor Bertin Louis.

The archipelago, which gained independence from Britain in 1973, “has historically promoted a xenophobic policy” toward foreigners and Haitians in particular, the expert of Haitian descent told Efe on Friday in an interview.

Under the new immigration laws, the Bahamian government will no longer accept applications for work visas by persons residing in the country illegally.

“We will not accept applications for people who do not have legal status in the Bahamas to work and anyone who comes to do so ... will be arrested, charged and deported,” Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Frederick Mitchell said in mid-September.

The official also announced then that all persons living in the Bahamas will be required to have a valid passport of their home country.

Children of immigrants, once their legal status has been established, will be granted a permit that allows them to live, attend school and work on the islands, whose population is around 370,000.

Some 50,000 Haitians were living in Nassau, Bahamas’ capital, in 2013, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Although precise official data is lacking, the vast majority of immigrants in the Bahamas (around 16.3 percent of the population) are known to be Haitian, a population whose homeland is the poorest country in the Americas.

Louis, interim vice chair of the University of Tennessee’s Africana Studies program, says these regulations are in keeping with “what’s been happening since the early 20th century.”

He recalled that in 1957 a large stream of Haitian migrants arrived in the islands just after Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier was elected as Haiti’s new president.

Louis believes that influx is the origin of the “anti-Haitian” sentiment that currently exists in the Bahamas, where those migrants are viewed as “poor and disorganized” and suffer discrimination.

Haitians are viewed in the Bahamas as a public-safety problem and a kind of “disease,” he explained.

In 1967, Bahamas’ government began a crackdown that has centered on conducting raids, housing undocumented Haitian migrants in detention centers and subsequently deporting them.

The expert, author of “My Soul Is in Haiti: Protestantism in the Haitian Diaspora of the Bahamas,” notes that many of the Haitians living in the Bahamas work in the service industry and says the Bahamian system “doesn’t empower (Haitian) children. They prepare them to work in the service industry as well.”

Reflecting on why Haitians do not rebel against the daily societal and institutional discrimination they suffer, Louis noted that some people are using the Bahamas as a way station and do not want problems that prevent them from reaching their intended destination: the United States.

“They don’t stand up because they don’t have much legal ground for doing so. Haitians also are not organized in a manner to orchestrate a response to mistreatment,” Louis said, ruling out any improvement in the situation in the coming years.

On Sept. 26, Mitchell pledged in a memorandum of understanding signed with the IOM that the Bahamas would “manage its migration challenges effectively and humanely.”

But Louis said he expects a “continuation of the treatment and acceptance of the treatment by Haitians.”

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Mexico’s Largest Leftist Party Elects New Chairman

10/7/2014

MEXICO CITY – Carlos Navarrete was elected on Sunday to be the new chairman of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Mexico’s third-largest political party.

Navarrete, who will serve a three-year term, replaces Jesus Zambrano, the PRD said in a statement.

Navarrete and Hector Bautista, who was elected secretary-general, received the backing of 259 members, or 73 percent, of the PRD’s National Council.

The two beat out Carlos Sotelo and Gilberto Ensastiga, who received only 28 votes after the Nueva Izquierda faction won the Sept. 7 party elections.

Some 1.8 million PRD members, or 40 percent of the total membership, participated in last month’s vote, which was organized by the National Electoral Institute (INE).

The door is open to dialogue and reaching agreements to strengthen party unity and make inroads among the electorate in the 2015 midterm elections, Navarrete said.

“The party needs to get closer to its electorate, to consolidate ourselves as the country’s best opposition and spearhead the people’s demands,” Navarrete, who is from the central state of Guanajuato, said.

One of the PRD’s main challenges is carrying out its proposed referendum on Mexico’s oil industry reforms, which were approved in December 2013 and opened the way for private investment in the sector following more than seven decades of state control.

The governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) pushed for the oil industry overhaul, which ended the 75-year monopoly over the energy industry enjoyed by state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

The PRD and its allies vehemently oppose the energy industry overhaul, calling it unconstitutional.

Navarrete, who entered politics at the age of 20, has served as a state legislator in Guanajuato, a member of the lower house of Mexico’s Congress and a senator.

He was named Federal District transportation secretary in 2012, stepping down from that post last October to travel across the country and build support for his bid to lead the party.

The veteran politician has also held various leadership posts in the PRD, serving as a state party chairman and national secretary-general.

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CAUGHT ON VIDEO>>> LOIS LERNER Tries Busting Into Neighbor’s Home When Confronted on Targeting Scandal

10/7/2014

The IRS Conservative Targeting Scandal involved:

• Hundreds of conservative groups were targeted
• At least 5 pro-Israel groups
• Constitutional groups
• Groups that criticized Obama administration
• At least two pro-life groups
• An 83 year-old Nazi concentration camp survivor
• A 180 year-old Baptist paper
• A Texas voting-rights group
• A Hollywood conservative group was targeted and harassed
• Conservative activists and businesses
• At least one conservative Hispanic group
• IRS continued to target groups even after the scandal was exposed
• 10% of Tea Party donors were audited by the IRS
• And… 100% of the 501(c)(4) Groups Audited by IRS Were Conservative

** Emails released in July show Lois Lerner has a “deep animous” towards “a–hole”conservatives.

** Lois Lerner warned colleagues to hide information from Congress back in 2013 – after the targeting investigation was in full swing.

** Lois Lerner targeted conservative Senator Charles Grassley from Iowa.

** Lois Lerner reached out to the Holder Department of Justice on a plan to prosecute conservative tax-exempt groups.

** Lois Lerner funneled Democrat Elijah Cummings information on a targeted conservative group.

** Lois Lerner and the Treasury Department secretly drafted rules to target conservatives.

Tonight Jason Mattera released video of Lois Lerner trying to bust into a neighbor’s home when confronted by a camera crew on her role in the conservative targeting scandal.

Lois Lerner Doesn’t Like Being Targeted

Jason Mattera released the full video tonight after his appearance on Hannity.

And, DON’T MISS Jason’s latest book “Crapitalism: Liberals Who Make Millions Swiping Your Tax Dollars”
Now available at Amazon.

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Up to 80 Penn State students cleared of Ebola concerns after monitoring period

10/7/2014

Experts warn right up front that the chances of any Penn State Students falling ill with Ebola are very low. Nevertheless, Penn State officials in University Park tell WJAC-TV that they have identified 80 students who traveled to areas near the Ebola Virus outbreak. (file)

UPDATE: Up to 80 Penn State students across the university's campuses who were considered to be at risk of infection after traveling in areas close to Ebola outbreaks in West Africa are no longer being monitored for signs of the disease, university officials said this weekend. This positive development, according to Lancasteronline.com. 

Experts had warned right up front that the chances of any Penn State students falling ill with Ebola were very low.  

Nevertheless, Penn State officials in University Park told WJAC-TV that they had identified 80 students who traveled to areas near the Ebola Virus outbreak.

These students were monitored by the university for virus symptoms, the TV report said.

University officials said the students were spread out across all Penn State campuses and were not just located at the main campus in State College, WJAC said.

Background: Ebola is spread through bodily fluids and is spread from person to person but is not as easily spread as other illnesses like a cold or flu.


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Pa. ironworker's "goon squad" case details arsons, intimidation

10/6/2014

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — After the economy tanked in 2008 and took construction work with it, a goon squad of ironworkers flexed their muscles at non-union work sites in and around Philadelphia, threatening builders, smashing beams and even burning down a Quaker meeting house days before Christmas.

They called themselves "The Helpful Union Guys." THUGS, for short.

Eight of 12 ironworkers named in the February indictment have now pleaded guilty, admitting to intimidation tactics that included slashing tires, grabbing rivals by the throat and blockading worksites as they targeted apartment buildings, an elementary school, a boutique coffeehouse and a gym.

"The defendants relied on a reputation for violence and sabotage ... to force contractors to hire union members," the FBI said in a statement after the latest guilty pleas last week.

The 49-page indictment, which references Jimmy Hoffa and reads like a throwback to another era, also illustrates the pressure union officials faced as they tried to secure work for their members in Philadelphia, a city with a long history of union power — and regular bouts of labor strife. Complaints over labor rules — down to who can plug in a computer — at the gleaming new convention center are legend, while commuters regularly pass rowdy picket lines and giant inflatable rats along city highways.

Ironworkers, like the other building trades, consider all work done in the city "their own fiefdom," the February indictment said. And as construction languished from 2008 to 2012, Ironworkers Local 401 business agent Eddie Sweeney felt the heat.

Local boss Joseph Dougherty, who authorities said "ruled with an iron fist," ridiculed Sweeney as a drunk. Sweeney feared he would lose his post if he couldn't find more jobs for the approximately 80 people who showed up at 5 a.m. each morning at the union hall. So he tapped a few friends for some nightwork — the vandalism and violence allegedly used to lean on contractors.

"There has been a long tradition of nightwork within the Ironworkers Local 401 stretching back 50 years or more," prosecutors wrote in Sweeney's plea memorandum. "The defendants in this case took (it) to a new level."

The attorney for one defendant who has pleaded guilty, James Walsh, called the dirty work a matter of survival.

"It does seem you have to do 'nightwork' to be considered for day work," defense lawyer William J. Brennan said. "It's unfortunate."

Some builders acquiesced, fearing what might otherwise ensue. That meant forking over $73 an hour, on average, for union work, far more than they typically paid.

The Quakers, with their religious tradition of justice and nonviolence, had reflected on which contractor to use for the $3.5 million project in northwest Philadelphia. Some preferred a union shop, given the labor movement's long fight for workers' rights. But that bid was $1 million over budget.

"(And), in particular, concerns were raised about a lack of racial and gender equality in union hiring, as well as reports of the use of violence by some trade union members," the Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting said after the steel outline of their new building went up in flames on Dec. 20, 2012, causing $500,000 in damage.

Faced with incriminating texts and other evidence, Sweeney, 53, admitted Tuesday that he provided the torch for the 2012 meeting house fire, and also took part in a second arson and 10 extortion attempts. Sweeney's lawyer declined comment on the racketeering plea, which could bring up to 20 years in prison.

Walsh and two others have admitted their roles in the meeting house fire. However, the 73-year-old Dougherty, now retired, has vowed to fight the indictment at a trial set for early next year.

Pat Gillespie, the powerful business manager of the city's Building Trades Council, which has about 70,000 members in 36 unions, scoffed at the allegations when the indictment came out. He was more circumspect this week, amid the pleas.

 

"That's not the norm," said Gillespie, the front man for the city's building trades since 1983. "I'm saddened that people are in such a desperate state of mind that this kind of thing would be done."

"It's kind of ironic. Do you know how many schools and churches the trades have built pro bono? It's hard to count," he said. "And then they have a place of worship that's desecrated before it's even done? That's just sad."

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Approximately 213 qualify under Eugenics Compensation Program, initial determinations continue

10/6/2014

A portion of the summary file for a 18-year-old girl from Rutherford County who was sterilized during the state’s eugenics program.

As of Sept. 30, 2014, the Office for Justice of Sterilization Victims has forwarded 786 claim forms from potential Eugenics Board sterilization victims to the Industrial Commission. This number is the final count of all claim forms received by the office. To date, the Commission has issued initial determination orders on 731 claims. Approximately 213 claims have qualified for compensation under the Eugenics Compensation Program.

The victims of North Carolina’s 1933 Eugenics Board Program had until June 30, 2014 to submit a claim form to the Office for Justice of Sterilization Victims to be considered to receive compensation under the Eugenics Compensation Program.

From 2010 to present, the Department of Administration worked first to identify sterilization victims through the former N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, and later to promote the Eugenics Compensation Program under the Office for Justice of Sterilization Victims. The Foundation identified 176 living victims, as of early 2013.

Beginning November 2013, the Office for Justice of Sterilization Victims began promoting the compensation program and providing notice of the June 30, 2014 deadline. The Office sent more than 1,500 direct mail pieces to identified potential victims, placed and responded to hundreds of telephone calls and conducted media interviews on television, radio and print. In addition, the Office has partnered on general outreach with state agencies such as the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles, Council for Women, Commission of Indian Affairs, Human Relations Commission, Governor’s Office of Community and Constituent Affairs and the UNC Center for Civil Rights.

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