Amid concerns of the spread of COVID-19, salon owner Shelley Luther, left, holds the door open a Dallas police officer to leave the business after city officials cited her for reopening her Salon A la Mode in Dallas, Friday, April 24, 2020. Hair salons have not been cleared for reopening in Texas. Luther was asked to close and was issued a citation when she refused. Luther said she will remain open for business. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Texas salon owner Shelley Luther, who had been jailed for opening her business in violation of state coronavirus restrictions, has been ordered released by the Texas Supreme Court, Fox News is reporting.
The order came as Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order retroactively eliminating jail time for those found violating the state’s restrictions.
Abbott tweeted on Thursday: “Throwing Texans in jail whose biz’s shut down through no fault of their own is wrong. I am eliminating jail for violating an order, retroactive to April 2, superseding local orders. Criminals shouldn’t be released to prevent COVID-19 just to put business owners in their place.”
Luther is the owner of Salon A la Mode in Dallas.
She was sentenced to seven days in jail and a $7,000 fine by Judge Eric Moyé, after she refused to admit that her motivation in keeping her salon open was “selfish.”
Moyé said Luther had violated Texas stay-at-home orders when she reopened her salon.
The governor’s decision was hailed by the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton.
“I applaud Gov. Abbott’s decision to ensure that penalties for violating public health orders are reasonable and not excessive,” Paxton said. “All Texans are trying to get through this crisis together and no one should be put in jail unnecessarily.”
The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president and his supporters in attacking the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation.
The move is a stunning reversal for one of the signature cases brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. It comes even though prosecutors for the past three years have maintained that Flynn lied to the FBI in a January 2017 interview about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.
Flynn himself admitted as much, pleading guilty before asking to withdraw the plea, and became a key cooperator for Mueller the special counel investigated ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.
In court documents being filed Thursday, the Justice Department said it is dropping the case “after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information.” The documents were obtained by The Associated Press.
The JDepartment said it had concluded that Flynn’s interview by the FBI was “untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn” and that the interview was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.”
The U.S. attorney reviewing the Flynn case, Jeff Jensen, recommended dropping the case to Attorney General William Barr last week and formalized the recommendation in a document this week.
“Through the course of my review of General Flynn’s case, I concluded the proper and just course was to dismiss the case,” Jensen said in a statement. “I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed.”
The decision is certain to be embraced by Trump, who has relentlessly tweeted about the case and last week pronounced Flynn “exonerated,” and to energize supporters who have taken up the retired Army lieutenant general as a cause. But it will also add to Democratic complaints that Attorney General William Barr is excessively loyal to the president, and could be a distraction for a Justice Department that for months has sought to focus on crimes arising from the coronavirus.
The Department’s action comes amid an internal review into the handling he case and an aggressive effort by Flynn’s lawyers to challenge the basis for the prosecution. The lawyers cited newly disclosed FBI emails and notes last week to allege that Flynn was improperly trapped into lying when agents interviewed him at the White House days after Trump’s inauguration. Though none of the documents appeared to undercut the central allegation that Flynn had lied to the FBI, Trump last week pronounced him “exonerated”
The decision is the latest dramatic development in a years-old case full of twists and turns. In recent months, Flynn’s attorneys have leveled a series of allegations about the FBI’s actions and asked to withdraw his guilty plea. A judge has rejected most of the claims and not ruled on others, including the bid to revoke the plea.
The decision comes as Barr has increasingly challenged the Russia investigation, saying in a television interview last month that it was started “without any basis.” In February, he overruled a decision by prosecutors in the case of Roger Stone, another former Trump adviser, in favor of a more lenient sentence for the longtime Trump friend.
Earlier this year, Barr appointed U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen of St. Louis to investigate the handling of Flynn’s case. As part of that process, the Justice Department gave Flynn’s attorneys a series of emails and notes, including one handwritten note from a senior FBI official that mapped out internal deliberations about the purpose of the Flynn interview: “What’s our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” the official wrote.
Other documents show that the FBI had been prepared weeks before its interview of Flynn to drop its investigation into whether he was acting at the direction of Russia. Later that month, though, as the White House insisted that Flynn had never discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, FBI officials grew more concerned by Flynn’s conversations with the diplomat and what he had communicated to the White House. The investigation remained open, and agents went to visit him in the White House on Jan. 24, 2017.
Justice Department officials visited the White House two days later to warn officials that they feared that Flynn was compromised and vulnerable to blackmail by Russia because of his account of what was said on the call. White House officials waited several weeks to oust him from the job, saying they’d concluded that Flynn had lied to them.
Flynn pleaded guilty that December, among the first of the president’s aides to admit guilt in Mueller’s investigation. He acknowledged that he lied about his conversations with Kislyak, in which he encouraged Russia not to retaliate against the U.S. for sanctions imposed by the Obama administration over election interference.
He provided such extensive cooperation that prosecutors said he was entitled to a sentence of probation instead of prison.
As it turned out, that sentencing hearing was abruptly cut short after Flynn, facing a stern rebuke from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, asked to be able to continue cooperating and earn credit toward a more lenient sentence.
Flynn’s misgivings about the case were already on display when his then-attorneys pointedly noted in their sentencing memo that the FBI had not warned him that it was against the law to lie when they interviewed him at the White House in January 2017.
Since then, he has hired new attorneys — including Sidney Powell, a conservative commentator and outspoken critic of Mueller’s investigation — who have taken a far more confrontational stance to the government. The lawyers have accused prosecutors of withholding documents and evidence they said was favorable to the case and have repeatedly noted that one of the two agents who interviewed Flynn was fired from the FBI for having sent derogatory text messages about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Governor Andrew Cuomo delivers daily briefing on the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the state’s moratorium on COVID-related residential or commercial evictions will be extended for an additional 60 days until August 20th. The Governor also announced the state is banning late payments or fees for missed rent payments during the eviction moratorium, and allowing renters facing financial hardship due to COVID-19 to use their security deposit as payment and repay their security deposit over time.
Governor Cuomo also announced the state’s $25 million Nourish New York Initiative has purchased food and products from more than 2,100 New York farms and provided support to nearly 50 food banks, soup kitchens and food pantries to date. Within the next week, more than 20,000 households across the state will receive Nourish New York products. First announced by the Governor on April 27th, the Nourish New York Initiative provides relief by purchasing food and products from Upstate farms and directs them to the populations who need them most through New York’s network of food banks. The state is also asking any philanthropies or foundations that would like to help the state’s food banks to contact
The Governor also announced the results of state’s antibody testing survey of health care workers. The survey tested approximately 27,000 employees from 25 downstate health care facilities and found that the infection rate among health care workers is about the same or lower than the infection rate of the general population.
6.8 percent of health care workers in Westchester County tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, compared to 13.8 percent of the general population in Westchester County
12.2 percent of health care workers in New York City tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, compared to 19.9 percent of the general population in New York City
11.1 percent of health care workers on Long Island tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, compared to 11.4 percent of the general population on Long Island
“During these incredibly difficult and stressful times we must protect New Yorkers who are facing financial hardships due to COVID-19,” Governor Cuomo said. “The majority of people in the state live paycheck to paycheck, and all of a sudden the paychecks have stopped for these individuals but the rent bill keeps coming in. In March we issued a moratorium on all residential and commercial evictions, and we are going to extend that moratorium until August 20th to provide some relief to those New Yorkers who are struggling.”
Nearly 3.2 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the business shutdowns caused by the viral outbreak deepened the worst U.S. economic catastrophe in decades.
Roughly 33.5 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the seven weeks since the coronavirus began forcing millions of companies to close their doors and slash their workforces. That is the equivalent of one in five Americans who had been employed back in February, when the unemployment rate had reached a 50-year low of just 3.5%.
The Labor Department’s report Thursday suggests that layoffs, while still breathtakingly high, are steadily declining after sharp spikes in late March and early April. Initial claims for unemployment aid have now fallen for five straight weeks, from a peak of nearly 6.9 million during the week that ended March 28.
Applications for jobless aid rose in just six states last week, including Maine, New Jersey, and Oklahoma, and declined in the 44 others.
The report showed that 22.7 million people are now receiving unemployment aid — a rough measure of job losses since the shutdowns began. That figure lags a week behind the figures for first-time unemployment applications. And not everyone who applies for jobless aid is approved. The number of laid-off workers receiving aid is now equal to 15.5% of the workforce that’s eligible for unemployment benefits.
Those figures are a rough proxy for the job losses and for the unemployment rate that will be released Friday, which will likely to be the worst since modern record-keeping began after World War II. The unemployment rate is forecast to reach 16%, the highest rate since the Great Depression, and economists estimate that 21 million jobs were lost last month. If so, it would mean that nearly all the job growth in the 11 years since the Great Recession ended has vanished in a single month.
Even those stunning figures won’t fully capture the magnitude of the damage the coronavirus has inflicted on the job market. Many people who are still employed have had their hours reduced. Others have suffered pay cuts. Some who lost jobs in April and didn’t look for a new one in light of their bleak prospects won’t even be counted as unemployed. A broader measure — the proportion of adults with jobs — could hit a record low.
The impact has fallen unevenly on the U.S. population, with Hispanics much more likely to suffer an economic hit. According to a survey in mid-April by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 61% of Hispanics said their household has lost income because of the coronavirus, whether through a layoff, reduced hours or pay cuts. That compares with 46% of blacks and 43% of whites who said so.
Layoffs have also been more concentrated among the less-educated. Twenty-eight percent of Americans without college degrees say they’ve endured a layoff in their household, compared with 19% of people with college degrees.
The official figures for jobless claims may also be under-counting layoffs. Surveys by academic economists and think tanks suggest that as many as 12 million workers who were laid off by mid-April did not file for unemployment benefits by then, either because they couldn’t navigate their state’s overwhelmed systems or they felt too discouraged to try.
On Thursday, the government also reported how many self-employed, contractors and gig workers, who are newly eligible for jobless benefits, applied for them last week. Nearly 584,000 people did so. The government reported that figure separately because it isn’t adjusted for seasonal patterns, as the 3.2 million figure is.
Economists are projecting that the gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of economic growth — is contracting in the current April-June quarter by a shocking 40% annual rate. As it does, more layoffs appear to be spreading beyond front-line industries like restaurants, hotels and retail stores.
GE Aviation, for example, has said it is cutting up to 13,000 jobs. Uber will shed 3,700 positions. MGM Resorts International has announced that the furloughs of more than 60,000 employees could turn into layoffs.
But the job cuts have hammered workers at restaurants, hotels and retail firms particularly hard. According to the payroll processor ADP, about half the total jobs in the hotel and restaurant industry — 8.6 million — disappeared in April, based on data from its corporate clients. A category that includes retail and shipping shed 3.4 million workers.
The difference between the 30 million-plus unemployment claims that have been filed in the past several weeks and the expected April job loss of slightly more than 20 million reflects differences in how the figures are compiled.
The government calculates job losses by surveying businesses and households. It’s a net figure that also counts the hiring that some companies, like Amazon and many grocery stores, have done. By contrast, the total jobless claims are a cumulative figure; they include applications for unemployment aid that began in mid-March.
In addition, the government conducts its surveys for the monthly jobs reports in the middle of each month. So layoffs from the final two weeks of April won’t show up in Friday’s jobs report. They will instead be included in the May jobs report to be released in early June.
After problems with state computer systems had slowed the distribution of federal benefits for many laid-off workers, all 50 states are now paying the $600 extra weekly benefit that the federal government included in a relief package enacted in late March. That represents a significant help to millions of laid-off workers, many of whom still remain anxious and uncertain.
Jamie Stewart is renting out a spare bedroom in her home to try to make ends meets after losing her job at a southwest Florida resort. Having applied for unemployment benefits in late March, she finally received her first payment of $1,200 this week. Stewart, a 37-year-old resident of Bonita Springs, works as a concierge in the off-season and as a shift manager and bartender in the resort’s restaurants.
After her layoff, she deferred her car payment for two months and cancelled non-necessities like Zoom, Pandora and Netflix. She recently signed up for food stamps, which cover about half her monthly grocery bill.
“My mental health has deteriorated to a point that I don’t recognize myself anymore,” she said. “My eyes are swollen and bloodshot all the time now from regular moments of weakness that leave me completely inconsolable.
“It looks like I have aged 10 years since the lockdown started.”
(WIN)The judges of the Supreme Court on Wednesday evening unanimously ruled that there is no reason to interfere with imposing the task of forming the government on Binyamin Netanyahu, nor is there reason to intervene in the Likud-Blue and White coalition agreement.
They stated that “we have not found any legal grounds to intervene in imposing the task of forming the government on MK Netanyahu.”
“That is why we unanimously decided to dismiss the petitions on this issue,” the judges wrote.
The ruling was published by the judges after they heard the petitions against Netanyahu and the unity agreement in hearings that were held on Sunday and Monday of this week.
Regarding the coalition agreement, the judges noted that “the coalition agreement before us is an exceptional agreement, even in comparison with coalition agreements that we have seen in the past and which have been brought before this court due to difficulties that arose from them.”
However, the judges unanimously stated that despite the legal difficulties in the agreement, there is no room at this time to intervene in any of its clauses, among other things given the amendments and clarifications provided by the Prime Minister and the Likud and Blue and White factions.
Texas’ Republican governor and top law enforcement officer on Wednesday came to the defense of a Dallas hair salon owner who was jailed for keeping her business open in defiance of the governor’s restrictions meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Shelley Luther was booked in the Dallas County jail on Tuesday following a video hearing during which she refused to apologize for repeatedly flouting the order, leading the judge to find her in contempt of court and sentence her to a week behind bars.
Luther was cited last month for keeping her salon open despite state and local directives that kept nonessential businesses closed, but she continued to defy the order and tore up a cease and desist letter in front of TV cameras.
I couldn’t feed my family, and my stylists couldn’t feed their families,” Luther testified Tuesday, saying she had applied for a federal loan but didn’t receive it until Sunday.
Dallas County Judge Eric Moye said during the hearing that he would consider levying a fine instead of jail time if Luther would apologize and not reopen until she was allowed to do so, but Luther refused.
“Feeding my kids is not selfish,” she told Moye. “If you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision, but I am not going to shut the salon.”
Moye wrote in his judgment of contempt: “The defiance of the court’s order was open, flagrant and intentional.” He noted that despite being given the opportunity to apologize, Luther “expressed no contrition, remorse or regret” for her actions.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to the judge Wednesday asking him to release Luther from jail. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz also expressed support for her. Both are Republicans.
“I find it outrageous and out of touch that during this national pandemic, a judge, in a county that actually released hardened criminals for fear of contracting COVID-19, would jail a mother for operating her hair salon in an attempt to put food on her family’s table,” Paxton said.
Abbott called the salon owner’s punishment “excessive.”
“Compliance with executive orders during this pandemic is important to ensure public safety; however, surely there are less restrictive means to achieving that goal than jailing a Texas mother,” Abbott said in a Wednesday statement.
Moye’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The governor coming to the defense of someone violating his own executive order reflects the increasing pressure he faces to reboot the state at a much quicker pace than what he has outlined.
As Luther appeared in court Tuesday, Abbott gave permission for hair salons and barbershops in Texas to reopen by Friday, accelerating his own timeline.
Although Abbott last week allowed restaurants and retailers to begin reopening under limited capacity, he said at the time that mid-May was his goal to get hair salons and gyms back up and running.
But some Texans haven’t been willing to wait, including two GOP state lawmakers who let reporters film them getting haircuts outside Houston on Tuesday in defiance of Abbott’s rules.
Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University, said Abbott has to balance opening up too slowly and alienating the right wing of his party, and moving too quickly in a way that risks a resurgence of COVID-19 and the loss of moderate Republicans and swing voters.
“Gov. Abbott has been forced to follow a very narrow path,” Jones said.
A former Green Beret who has claimed responsibility for an ill-fated military incursion into Venezuela is under federal investigation for arms trafficking, according to current and former U.S. law enforcement officials.
The investigation into Jordan Goudreau is in its initial stages and it’s unclear if it will result in charges, according to a U.S. law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The probe stems from a frenzy of contradictory comments Goudreau has made since a small cadre of volunteer combatants he was advising on Sunday launched an impossible raid aimed at overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Members of the U.S. Congress are also asking the State Department about its knowledge of Goudreau’s plans and raised concerns that he possibly violated arms trafficking rules.
An AP investigation published prior to the failed raid places Goudreau at the center of a plot hatched with a rebellious former Venezuelan Army Gen., Cliver Alcalá, to secretly train dozens of Venezuelan military deserters in secret camps in Colombia to carry out a swift operation against Maduro. The U.S. has offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or conviction. He was indicted by the Trump administration in March on narcoterrorist charges .
The men were being readied for combat at three rudimentary camps in Colombia with the help of Goudreau and his Florida-based company, Silvercorp USA, multiple Maduro opponents and aspiring freedom fighters told the AP. But the plot seemed doomed from the start because it lacked the support of the Trump administration and was infiltrated by Maduro’s vast, Cuban-trained intelligence network, the AP found.
The law enforcement official said Goudreau’s comments suggests his work on behalf of the volunteer army may have violated laws that require any U.S. company supplying weapons or military equipment, as well as military training and advice, to foreign persons to seek State Department approval.
Experts agree.
“Goudreau’s public comments alone show he was exporting his lethal expertise into a foreign country,” said Sean McFate, a former U.S. Army paratrooper who worked as a private military contractor and is the author of a book, “The New Rules of War,” on the foreign policy implications of privatized warfare. “This is a serious violation.”
Goudreau declined to comment on Tuesday. The State Department said it is restricted under law from confirming licensing activities.
The law enforcement official said Goudreau’s possible involvement in weapons smuggling stems from the March 23 seizure by police in Colombia of a stockpile of weapons being transported in a truck. Alcalá claimed ownership of the cache shortly before surrendering to face U.S. narcotics charges in the same case for which Maduro was indicted.
The stockpile, worth around $150,000, included spotting scopes, night vision goggles, two-way radios and 26 American-made assault rifles with the serial numbers rubbed off. Fifteen brown-colored helmets seized by police were manufactured by High-End Defense Solutions, a Miami-based military equipment vendor owned by a Venezuelan immigrant family, according to Colombian police.
High-End Defense Solutions is the same company that Goudreau visited in November and December, allegedly to source weapons, according to two former Venezuelan soldiers who claim to have helped the American select the gear but later had a bitter falling out with Goudreau amid accusations that they were moles for Maduro. The AP could not independent verify their account.
Company owner Mark Von Reitzenstein has not responded to repeated email and phone requests seeking comment.
Two former law enforcement officials said an informant approached the Drug Enforcement Administration in Colombia prior to the weapons’ seizure with an unsubstantiated tip about Goudreau’s alleged involvement in weapons smuggling. The anti-narcotics agency, not knowing who Goudreau was at the time, didn’t open a formal probe but suspected that any weapons would’ve been destined for leftist rebels or criminal gangs in Colombia — not a ragtag army of Venezuelan volunteers, the former officials said on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. One of the officials said the information was later passed on to the Department of Homeland Security.
The DEA said it does not comment on ongoing potential investigations.
Authorities in Colombia are also looking into Goudreau as part of their investigation into the seized weapons shipment, a Colombian official told the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case.
Meanwhile, officials in U.S. Congress are expressing concern. Democratic congressional staff contacted the State Department multiple times on Monday seeking information about any possible contacts with Goudreau or knowledge of his activities, and whether his work may have violated International Traffic in Arms Regulations, according to a staffer on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private outreach.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday reiterated President Donald Trump’s claims a day earlier that there was no direct U.S. government involvement in Goudreau’s brazen operation.
“If we’d have been involved, it would have gone differently,” he joked. “As for who bankrolled it, we’re not prepared to share any more information about what we know took place. We’ll unpack that at an appropriate time, we’ll share that information if it makes good sense.”
Goudreau, a three-time Bronze Star recipient, has insisted that his work providing only strategic advice to the combatants doesn’t require special licensing. Still, he acknowledged sending into battle two special forces buddies associated with Silvercorp and who are now in Venezuelan custody after the plot was foiled.
“You’ve got to introduce a catalyst,” he said in a phone interview with the AP on Monday from Florida. “By no means am I saying that 60 guys can come in and topple a regime. I’m saying 60 guys can go in and inspire the military and police to flip and join in the liberation of their country, which deep down is what they want.”
Goudreau has said he was hired by Juan Guaidó, who the U.S. and some 60 nations recognize as Venezuela’s rightful leader. To back his claim, he’s produced an 8-page agreement he signed with what appears to be the signature of Guaidó. The opposition leader has refused to say whether the signature is authentic but has insisted he has no relationship with Silvercorp.
“The dictatorship insists on lying,” Guaidó said Tuesday in a virtual session of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, over which he presides. “The interim government has nothing to do with this operation.”
Contradictions abound in Goudreau’s account as well. In a televised interview with “Factores de Poder,” a Miami media outlet popular with Venezuelan exiles, he claims he never received a “single cent” for his work yet continued to prepare the men for battle, in the process going deep into debt. JJ Rendon, a Miami-based adviser to Guaidó, said that he gave Goudreau $50,000 as requested to cover some expenses. Goudreau acknowledged the payment to the AP and other media.
A person familiar with the situation said the agreement was signed by Rendon and another U.S.-based aide to Guaidó, lawmaker Sergio Vergara, in October. Guaidó at one point briefly greeted Goudreau via video conference — as evidenced by an audio recording made on a hidden cellphone by Goudreau and which he shared with the Venezuelan journalist.
“Let’s get to work!” said a voice that appears to be Guaidó in the leaked recording. He makes no mention of any military incursion.
A few days later, the team cut off contact with Goudreau, realizing he was unable to deliver what he had promised and because they were not getting along, the person said. An attempt to reactivate the accord fell through in November because the opposition has abandoned support for a private military incursion, the person said. The last contact with Goudreau was a few weeks ago when a lawyer on the veteran’s behalf wrote Rendon seeking to collect a promised $1.5 million retainer. Goudreau, through intermediaries, made it known that if they didn’t pay up he would release the agreement to the press, the person said.
It’s unclear how the weapons were smuggled into Colombia. But Silvercorp in December bought a 41-foot fiberglass boat, Florida vessel registration records show, and proceeded in February to obtain a license to install maritime navigation equipment. On his application to the Federal Communications Commission, he said the boat, named Silverpoint and with a capacity for 10 passengers, would travel to foreign ports.
The boat next appeared in Jamaica, where Goudreau had gathered with a few of his special forces buddies looking to participate in the raid, according to a person familiar with the situation on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive dealings.
But as they were readying their assault, the boat broke down at sea on March 28 and an emergency position-indicating radio beacon was activated, alerting naval authorities on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao. Goudreau had to return to Florida, prevented from rejoining his troops prior to the landing because of travel restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“He would have 100% gone out in a blaze of gunfire because that’s who he is,” said the person.
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AP Writer Scott Smith in Caracas, Venezuela, Matthew Lee in Washington and investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report
The Chinese ambassador to the U.S. railed against American “conspiracy theorists” who blame China for the coronavirus in a Washington Post editorial Monday.
Americans who blame China “regardless of the facts” are distracting Beijing officials as they focus on curbing the virus, Ambassador Cui Tiankai wrote in his editorial.
Tiankai also panned American politicians and conservatives who blame China for their approach to fighting the virus.
Tiankai responded to reports that the World Health Organization is doing China’s bidding. “The World Health Organization has spoken highly of China’s epidemic response, which led the conspiracy theorists to charge that China has either bought the WHO or exerted political pressure on the agency,” said Tiankai, who acknowledged that the virus originated in China.
Tiankai also warned those who believe that the U.S. should de-couple from China amid reports that the communist nation hoarded personal protective equipment as the virus spread across the globe.
“The United States would not emerge as a winner from this scenario,” Tiankai wrote.
As the virus dominates headlines, more businesses believe that some degree of separation from China is likely, according to The Wall Street Journal. Nearly 44% of 25 large U.S. companies believed in March that decoupling would be impossible, down 66% from October, The WSJ reported in April, citing a survey conducted by American Chamber of Commerce in China and the American Chamber of Commerce.
The U.S. needs China to help put the global economy back online, not to mention eliminate a pandemic that threatens to kill more people over the coming months, Tiankai said.
The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, was first detected in Wuhan, China, before killing more than 160,000 people worldwide.
The majority of U.S. intelligence community agencies believe the virus accidentally leaked out of a laboratory in, China, according to a May 2 Daily Caller News Foundation report. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence noted in a press statement in April that the IC is investigating the possibility of a lab leak.
Tiankai’s commentary comes after Chinese politician Lijian Zhao falsely stated in March that Centers For Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield was “arrested” over his agency’s handling of the virus. Zhao, the deputy director of China’s Foreign Ministry Information Department, also suggested in a March tweet that the U.S. Army initially introduced the virus into Central China.
The Department of Homeland Security stated May 3 that the Chinese government lied to the World Health Organization about the significance of the pandemic to horde personal protective equipment, among other medical supplies.
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(AP) The economic catastrophe caused by the viral outbreak likely sent the U.S. unemployment rate in April to its highest level since the Great Depression and caused a record-shattering loss of jobs.
With the economy paralyzed by business closures, the unemployment rate likely jumped to at least 16% — from just 4.4% in March — and employers cut a stunning 21 million or more jobs in April, economists have forecast, according to data provider FactSet. If so, it would mean that nearly all the job growth in the 11 years since the Great Recession had vanished in a single month.
Yet even those breathtaking figures won’t fully capture the magnitude of the damage the coronavirus has inflicted on the job market.
Many people still employed have had their hours reduced. Others have suffered pay cuts. Some who’ve lost jobs won’t have been able to look for work amid widespread shutdowns and won’t even be counted as unemployed. A broader measure — the proportion of adults with jobs — could plunge to a record low.
“What we’re talking about here is pretty stunning,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton. “The shock is unique because the cause is unique. It’s such a different animal from anything that we’ve ever seen.”
On Thursday, the government will also release the latest weekly report on applications for unemployment benefits. It will likely show that about 3.5 million people sought jobless aid last week. That would bring the total number of layoffs to nearly 34 million since the shutdowns began seven weeks ago.
That figure is much larger than the expected April job loss because the two are measured differently: The government calculates job losses by surveying businesses and households. It’s a net figure that also counts the hiring that some companies, like Amazon and many grocery stores, have done despite the widespread layoffs. By contrast, the total jobless claims is a cumulative figure that includes aid applications that began in March.
Still, the job loss for April may be much larger than expected, with most economists acknowledging that their usual models might not work as well in a collapsing job market. Swonk notes that several million unauthorized immigrants who weren’t able to file for unemployment benefits were nevertheless probably laid off last month. Those jobs losses would be counted, though, in the government’s surveys. Swonk estimates that April’s job loss could total as high as 34 million.
Companies are still cutting jobs in the midst of a severe downturn, with the economy possibly shrinking at an unheard-of 40% annual rate in the April-June quarter. GE Aviation said it is cutting up to 13,000 jobs. Uber will shed 3,700 positions.
Amy Egert, a dental hygienist in Severn, Maryland, was laid off in mid-March. She was told she could return a month later, but she’s still waiting and it’s unclear when she will able to go back. She monitors Maryland statistics on coronavirus cases in hopes that the figures will show enough of a downward trend for her to work again.
“As I watch the numbers, it’s like OK, are we going to make it back by the end of May?” Egert asked. “Is it going to be the first of June? Is it going to be mid-June?”
She is receiving the extra $600 in unemployment included in the government’s relief package but still wants to return.
“I’ve got diabetics out there that haven’t had their teeth cleaned,” Egert said. “They come every four months, and I’m thinking they’re going to be a mess.”
Even as the unemployment rate reaches dizzying heights, it will likely be held down by several factors. The Labor Department counts people as unemployed only if they’re actively searching for work. Yet many laid-off workers may be discouraged from looking for a new job given that so many non-essential businesses are closed. Others may stay home to protect their health. Still others may feel they have to stay with children who are home from school.
In addition, some workers on temporary layoff might be incorrectly classified as what the government calls “employed, but absent from work.” This can happen if employees assume they will return to their jobs once their employer reopens. In March, the Labor Department said that such misclassification by its survey takers — who have never before dealt with pandemic-related shutdowns — lowered the unemployment rate by a full percentage point.
Jason Faberman, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, says that including those workers, as well as millions who still have jobs but who have been reduced to part-time status, could raise a broader gauge of what’s called under-employment to 25% or higher on Friday.
Alexander Bick and Adam Blandin, economists at Arizona State University and Virginia Commonwealth University, respectively, have conducted two surveys since the virus outbreak began that mirror the government’s monthly survey that it uses to calculate the unemployment rate. They conclude that the proportion of American adults in their prime working years — 25 through 54 — who have jobs, fell to just 60.4% in April, the lowest on record.
They also noted that millions of Americans have had their hours cut in April.
“We have never had such low hours” worked, on average, for each employed person, Bick said.
In the latest piece of investigative journalism from Project Veritas: they reported that CBS News crew pulled medical professionals off the floor at the Cherry Medical Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to line up in their vehicles so a CBS film crew would have a long line for their COVID-19 coverage.
In an interview with the insider, O’Keefe asked the insider: “You’re telling me you’re a hundred percent certain that CBS News, CBS News Corporation–national, staged a fake event. They faked the news. They faked the reality and broadcasted that to all of their audience last Friday on “CBS This Morning.”
The insider said to him: “A hundred percent. Absolutely.”
The Cherry Health insider, who came forward to Project Veritas, said the CBS News crew working for CBS News reporter Andriana Diaz had to know what happened.
“Based on my knowledge, CBS News had asked Cherry Health to fabricate a line to obtain newsworthy footage, I was given this knowledge from a colleague at Cherry Health,” the insider said.
“After reviewing their response, I can say definitively that the majority of the line shown in their footage is fake, after CBS had gotten the shot they wanted the entire line dispersed and drove in separate directions,” the insider said.
In response CBS news denies this is true and instead blamed Cherry Health:
“CBS News did not stage anything at the Cherry Health facility. Any suggestion to the contrary is 100% false. These allegations are deeply disturbing. We reached out to Cherry Health to address them immediately. They informed us for the first time that one of their chief officers told at least one staffer to get in the testing line along with real patients. No one from CBS News had any knowledge of this prior to tonight. They also said that their actions did not prevent any real patients from being tested. We take the accuracy of our reporting very seriously and we are removing the Cherry Health portion from the piece”
Tasha Blackmon, the president and CEO of the Cherry Health told Project Veritas she did not talk to anyone at CBS News about their statement.
“Let me be clear: We are not aware of CBS staging anything as part of their visit to our site,” Blackmon said. “I have never spoken with the president of CBS, or any other CBS executive.”
Blackmon was outside during the filming for an interview with CBS News reporter Andriana Diaz.
“I did see the line of cars in the video that you shared with me. I can assure you that I did not instruct any staff to get in their cars and line up and I have no idea when it was filmed or who was in each car,” she said.
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Dr. Judy Mikovits a well known former virologist and health activist has released an explosive new book entitled “Plague of Corruption” which she co-authored with Kent Heckenlively which exposes the alleged criminality of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from the onset of the HIV outbreak in the early 1980s until today’s COVID-19 pandemic.
When she was part of the research community that turned HIV-AIDS from a fatal disease into a manageable one, she saw science at its best. But when her investigations questioned whether the use of animal tissue in medical research were unleashing devastating plagues of chronic diseases, such as autism and chronic fatigue syndrome, she saw science at its worst. If her suspicions are correct, we are looking at a complete realignment of scientific practices, including how we study and treat human disease.
Dr. Mikovits has spent twenty years at the National Cancer Institute, working with Dr. Frank Ruscetti, one of the founding fathers of human retrovirology, and has coauthored more than forty scientific papers. She co-founded and directed the first neuroimmune disease institute using a systems biology approach in 2006.
Her co-author, Kent Heckenlively, JD, is a former attorney, a founding editor of Age of Autism, and a science teacher. During college Heckenlively worked for Senator Pete Wilson, and in law school he was a writer and an editor of the school’s law review and spent his summers working for the US Attorney’s Office in San Francisco.
She claims her reputation was destroyed by the Health and Human Services. and the head of President Trump’s Coronavirus task force, Dr. Fauci.
Dr. Mikovits also scrupulously dissects “shelter in place” and every aspect of the way COVID-19 is currently being managed by governmental authorities.
Celebrated environmentalist and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. concludes his foreword to Plague of Corruption with, “This account by Judy Mikovits and Kent Heckenlively is vitally important both to the health of our children and the vitality of our democracy. My father believed moral courage to be the rarest species of bravery. Rarer even than the physical courage of soldiers in battle or great intelligence. He thought it the one vital quality required to salvage the world. If we are to continue to enjoy democracy and protect our children from the forces that seek to commoditize humanity, then we need courageous scientists like Judy Mikovits who are willing to speak truth to power, even at terrible personal cost.”
Please watch the following bombshell video that reveals facts never known before
(A.P) A woman, her adult son and husband have been charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard who refused to let the daughter enter a Family Dollar in Michigan because she wasn’t wearing a face mask to protect against transmission of the coronavirus.
Calvin Munerlyn was shot Friday at the store just north of downtown Flint a short time after telling Sharmel Teague’s daughter she had to leave because she lacked a mask, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton.
Teague, 45, argued with Munerlyn, 43, before leaving. Two men later came to the store.
Teague; her husband, Larry Teague, 44; and Ramonyea Bishop, 23; are charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun charges.
Larry Teague also is charged with violating Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order mandating that all customers and employees must wear face coverings inside grocery stores, Leyton said.
Witnesses identified Bishop as the man who shot Munerlyn in the back of the head, Leyton said.
Sharmel Teague has been arrested. Police were looking for her husband and son.
No information has been released about the daughter, who has not been charged in the shooting.
“It is important that the governor’s order be respected and adhered to, and for someone to lose their life over it is beyond comprehension,” Leyton said earlier Monday in a statement.
n Thursday, gun-carrying protesters and other demonstrators rallied inside the state Capitol, calling for coronavirus-related restrictions to be lifted. Some protesters with guns — which are allowed in the statehouse — went to the Senate gallery. Some senators wore bulletproof vests.
As of Monday, Michigan has reported 43,754 confirmed COVID-19 virus cases and 4,049 deaths due to complications from the disease.
“The hostile tone that we have seen in recent days on television and in social media can permeate our society in ways we sometimes don’t fully realize or anticipate,” Leyton told reporters Monday. “Decisions like staying home when we can, wearing a mask when going to the store and staying a safe distance from those around us — these should not be political arguments. They don’t necessitate acts of defiance, and we simply cannot devolve into an us versus them mentality.”
About 150 people attended a candlelight vigil Sunday night. On Monday, a makeshift memorial was started outside the Family Dollar.
Munerlyn’s mother, Bernadett, said she wants justice for her son.
“They didn’t have to take my baby and it wasn’t that serious,” she said. “All you people just have to do is listen to the law, listen to the governor. Just stay home. If you don’t have to come out, then you wouldn’t need a mask unless you’re out getting groceries or necessities. All my baby was doing was his job working and doing his job.”
Whitmer offered her condolences.
“It is incredibly sad that in this crisis that this life was lost,” Whitmer told reporters Monday. “We are mindful of how important it is that people keep a level head, that we do the right things protecting ourselves and protecting others.”
U.S. officials believe China covered up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak — and how contagious the disease is — to stock up on medical supplies needed to respond to it, intelligence documents show. Photo Credit: AP
By: Will Weissert, Carla K. Johnson & Mike Stobbe
U.S. officials believe China covered up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak — and how contagious the disease is — to stock up on medical supplies needed to respond to it, intelligence documents show.
Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic from the world in early January, according to a four-page Department of Homeland Security intelligence report dated May 1 and obtained by The Associated Press. The revelation comes as the Trump administration has intensified its criticism of China, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying Sunday that that country was responsible for the spread of disease and must be held accountable.
The sharper rhetoric coincides with administration critics saying the government’s response to the virus was slow and inadequate. President Trump’s political opponents have accused him of lashing out at China, a geopolitical foe but critical U.S. trade partner, in an attempt to deflect criticism at home.
Not classified but marked “for official use only,” the DHS analysis states that, while downplaying the severity of the coronavirus, China increased imports and decreased exports of medical supplies. It attempted to cover up doing so by “denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data,” the analysis states.
The report also says China held off informing the World Health Organization that the coronavirus “was a contagion” for much of January so it could order medical supplies from abroad — and that its imports of face masks and surgical gowns and gloves increased sharply.
Those conclusions are based on the 95% probability that China’s changes in imports and export behavior were not within normal range, according to the report.
A man wearing face mask walks past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange Monday, May 4, 2020. Shares have skidded in Asia as tensions between the Trump administration and China over the origins and handling of the coronavirus pandemic rattle investors.(AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
China informed the WHO of the outbreak on Dec. 31. It contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Jan. 3 and publicly identified the pathogen as a novel coronavirus on Jan. 8.
Chinese officials muffled doctors who warned about the virus early on and repeatedly downplayed the threat of the outbreak. However, many of the Chinese government’s missteps appear to have been due to bureaucratic hurdles, tight controls on information and officials hesitant to report bad news. There is no public evidence to suggest it was an intentional plot to buy up the world’s medical supplies.
In a tweet on Sunday, the president appeared to blame U.S. intelligence officials for not making clearer sooner just how dangerous a potential coronavirus outbreak could be. Trump has been defensive over whether he failed to act after receiving early warnings from intelligence officials and others about the coronavirus and its potential impact.
“Intelligence has just reported to me that I was correct, and that they did NOT bring up the CoronaVirus subject matter until late into January, just prior to my banning China from the U.S.,” Trump wrote without citing specifics. “Also, they only spoke of the Virus in a very non-threatening, or matter of fact, manner.”
Trump had previously speculated that China may have unleashed the coronavirus due to some kind of horrible “mistake.” His intelligence agencies say they are still examining a notion put forward by the president and aides that the pandemic may have resulted from an accident at a Chinese lab.
Speaking Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Pompeo said he had no reason to believe that the virus was deliberately spread. But he added, “Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories.”
“These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab,” Pompeo said. “And so, while the intelligence community continues to do its work, they should continue to do that, and verify so that we are certain, I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.”
The secretary of state appeared to be referring to previous outbreaks of respiratory viruses, like SARS, which started in China. Pompeo repeated the same assertion hours later, via a tweet Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, China’s official Global Times newspaper said Pompeo was making “groundless accusations” against Beijing by suggesting the coronavirus was released from a Chinese laboratory.
The populist tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily said the claims were a politically-motivated attempt to preserve Donald Trump’s presidency and divert attention from the U.S. administration’s own failures in dealing with the outbreak.
“As the U.S. presidential election campaigns are underway, the Trump administration has implemented a strategy designed to divert attention from the incompetence it has displayed in fighting the pandemic,” the paper said in an editorial.
The paper has made the U.S. top diplomat a main target of its attacks, in recent weeks describing him as “despicable” and of having “evil intentions” by blaming China for having caused the pandemic.
While the virus is believed to have originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, most scientists say it was most likely transmitted from bats to humans via an intermediary animal such as the armadillo-like pangolin. That has placed the focus on a wet market in the city where wildlife was sold for food.
The theories about a possible human release have centered on the Wuhan Institute of Virology which undertook research into the transmission of pathogens from animals to people.
Beijing has repeatedly pushed back on U.S. accusations that the outbreak was China’s fault, pointing to many missteps made by American officials in their own fight against the outbreak. China’s public announcement on Jan. 20 that the virus was transmissible from person to person left the U.S. nearly two months to prepare for the pandemic, during which the U.S. government failed to bolster medical supplies and deployed flawed testing kits.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a news conference at the State Department, Wednesday, April 29, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
In other coronavirus developments, it was reported that if the New York metropolitan area’s progress against the coronavirus is taken out of the equation and the numbers show the rest of the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction, with the infection rate rising even as states move to lift their lockdowns, then we are in for trouble, an Associated Press analysis found Tuesday.
Scientists warn those numbers will only grow as governors and local officials across the country ease their stay-at-home restrictions and reopen businesses.
Meanwhile, Britain’s official coronavirus death toll, at more than 29,000, surpassed that of Italy to become the highest in Europe and second-highest in the world behind the United States.
In the U.S., some states took continued steps to lift the lockdown restrictions that have thrown millions out of work, even as the country recorded thousands of new infections and deaths every day. Public health experts warned the easing could result in tens of thousands of additional deaths.
The New York metropolitan area, consisting of about 20 million people across about two dozen counties, including the city’s northern suburbs, Long Island and northern New Jersey, has been the hardest-hit corner of the country, accounting for at least one-third of the nation’s 70,000 deaths.
When the still locked-down metropolitan area is included, new infections in the U.S. appear to be declining, according to the AP analysis. It found that the five-day rolling average for new cases has decreased from 9.4 per 100,000 people on April 9 to 8.6 on Monday.
But taking the New York metropolitan area out of the analysis changes the story. Without it, the rate of new cases in the U.S. increased over the same period from 6 per 100,000 people to 7.5.
While the daily number of new deaths in the metropolitan area has declined in recent weeks, it has merely plateaued in the rest of the U.S., the AP analysis found.
Pockets of America far from New York City are seeing ominous trends.
Deaths in Iowa surged to a new daily high of 19 on Tuesday, and 730 workers at a single Tyson Foods pork plant tested positive. On Monday, Shawnee County, home to Topeka, Kansas, reported a doubling of cases from last week on the same day that business restrictions began to ease.
“Make no mistakes: This virus is still circulating in our community, perhaps even more now than in previous weeks” said Linda Ochs, director of the Shawnee County Health Department.
Gallup, New Mexico, is under a strict lockdown until Thursday because of an outbreak, with guarded roadblocks to prevent travel in and out the town and a ban on more than two people in a vehicle. Authorities have been sending water tankers into town, hospital space is running short, and a high school gym has been converted into a recuperation center with 60 oxygen-supplied beds.
New infections per day in the U.S. exceed 20,000 and deaths are well over 1,000, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
On Monday, one widely cited model from the University of Washington nearly doubled its projection of deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus to around 134,000 through early August, with a range of 95,000 to nearly 243,000.
Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the institute that created the projections, said the increase is largely because most states are expected to ease restrictions by next week.
Without stay-at-home orders and similar measures, Murray said, “we would have had exponential growth, much larger epidemics and deaths in staggering numbers.” But cooperation is waning, with cellphone location data showing people are getting out more, even before their states reopen, he said.
“The rise in mobility in the last week to 10 days is likely leading to some transmission” of the virus, Murray said.
Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang, a public health researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles, said it worries him that the rate of new cases is increasing at the same time some states are easing up.
“We’re one country. If we’re not moving in the same step, we’re going to have a problem,” Zhang said.
He worries that new hot spots will form and said he is particularly concerned about Florida and Texas, places where cases have been rising steadily and the potential for explosions seems high.
While death rates in places have been trending down, that could change as cases rise rapidly and hospitals become overwhelmed, he said.
Governments around the world have reported 3.6 million infections and more than a quarter-million deaths. Deliberately concealed outbreaks, low testing rates and the severe strain the disease has placed on health care systems mean the true scale of the outbreak is undoubtedly much greater.
The British government said about 29,400 people with COVID-19 have died in hospitals, nursing homes and other settings, while Italy reported just over 29,300 confirmed fatalities.
Both countries’ counts are probably underestimates because they do not include suspected cases. Britain reported more than 32,000 deaths in which COVID-19 was either confirmed or suspected; a comparable figure for Italy was not available.
Even so, the rate of deaths and hospitalizations in Britain was on the decline, and the government prepared to begin loosening the lockdown.
A trial began in Britain of a mobile phone app that authorities hope will help contain the outbreak. The app, which warns people if they have been near an infected individual, is being tested on the Isle of Wight, off England’s southern coast. The government hopes it can be rolled out across the country later this month.
Many European countries that have relaxed strict lockdowns after new infections tapered off were watching their virus numbers warily.
“We know with great certainty that there will be a second wave — the majority of scientists are sure of that. And many also assume that there will be a third wave,” said Lothar Wieler, the head of Germany’s national disease control center.
South Korea reported only three new cases of the virus, its lowest total since February. On Tuesday, the country’s baseball season began, with no spectators allowed. In China, it has been three weeks since any new deaths have been reported in the country where the outbreak began late last year.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Israel’s largest bank, Bank Hapoalim, and its Swiss subsidiary have admitted not only failing to prevent but actively assisting U.S. customers to set up secret accounts, to shelter assets and income, and to evade taxes.
Edited by: JV Staff
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jeffrey A. Rosen, the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Richard E. Zuckerman, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and Don Fort, the Chief of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”), recently announced the guilty plea of Bank Hapoalim (Switzerland) Ltd. and entry of criminal charges against Bank Hapoalim B.M. for conspiring with U.S. taxpayers and others to hide more than $7.6 billion in more than 5,500 secret Swiss and Israeli bank accounts and the income generated in these accounts from the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”).
Ralph Mascia, National Head of Sales for Bank HaPoalim
As part of last week’s resolutions, along with resolutions entered into with state and federal partners, Bank Hapoalim B.M. (“BHBM”), Israel’s largest bank, and its Swiss subsidiary Bank Hapoalim (Switzerland) Ltd. (“BHS”) (collectively, the “Bank”), agreed to pay approximately $874.27 million to the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the New York State Department of Financial Services. Today’s resolution is the second-largest recovery by the Department of Justice in connection with its investigations since 2008 into facilitation of offshore U.S. tax evasion by foreign banks. Officers of BHBM and BHS appeared on behalf of the Bank to enter the guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Israel’s largest bank, Bank Hapoalim, and its Swiss subsidiary have admitted not only failing to prevent but actively assisting U.S. customers to set up secret accounts, to shelter assets and income, and to evade taxes. The combined payment approaching $1 billion reflects the magnitude of the tax evasion by the Bank’s U.S. customers, the size of the fees the Bank collected to provide this illegal service, and the gravity of the illegal conduct.”
Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen said: “Today’s resolutions and payment of $874 million make clear that tax evasion cannot be taken lightly. A fair tax system requires even-handed compliance, and honest conduct by all participants in the system.”
Gabriel Hamani – Chief Executive Officer, BHI USA
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman said: “The Department of Justice continues to aggressively prosecute banks and other financial institutions that help U.S. taxpayers conceal their income and assets in offshore bank accounts. Today, Bank Hapoalim is being held accountable for its conduct – it has admitted to its crimes and will surrender all fees it earned, repay the United States for lost tax revenue, and pay a substantial fine.”
IRS-CI Chief Don Fort said: “There is no excuse for a foreign financial institution to unlawfully assist wealthy Americans in flouting their responsibilities to pay their taxes. With today’s guilty plea, Bank Hapoalim is taking responsibility for their role in deliberately breaking the law and undermining the integrity of this nation’s tax system. Offshore tax evasion is a top priority for IRS Criminal Investigation and we are wholeheartedly committed to bringing offenders to justice. Today’s resolution serves as proof that financial institutions engaging in tax fraud face dire criminal and financial consequences for their behavior.”
Bank Hapoalim was established in 1921 by the Histadrut, the Israeli trade union congress (lit. “General Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel”) and the Zionist Organization. The bank was owned by the Histadrut until 1983, when it was nationalized following the Bank Stock Crisis. The bank was held by the Israeli government until 1996 when it was sold to a group of investors led by Ted Arison.
The bank has a significant presence in global financial markets. In Israel, it has over 600 ATMs (automated teller machines), 250 bank branches, 7 regional business centers, 22 business branches and industry desks for major corporate customers. The bank’s stock is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
At the end of 2015, the bank had 11,930 employees worldwide. It is controlled by Arison Holdings, owned by Shari Arison. Arison Holdings owns a total of 20 per cent of the bank.
In January 2014, Danske Bank and the Dutch pension fund PGGM blacklisted Bank Hapoalim for its involvement in the financing of settlements in the Palestinian territories.
Today’s resolutions include agreements with BHBM and BHS under which the Bank agreed to accept responsibility for its conduct by stipulating to the accuracy of extensive Statements of Facts. BHBM further agreed to refrain from all future criminal conduct, implement remedial measures, and cooperate fully with further investigations into hidden bank accounts. Assuming BHBM’s continued compliance with its agreement, the Government has agreed to defer prosecution of BHBM for a period of three years, after which time the Government will seek to dismiss the charge against BHBM.
According to documents filed today in Manhattan federal court:
BHBM is Israel’s largest bank and operates primarily as a retail bank with approximately 250 branches throughout Israel and more than 2.5 million accounts. In addition to retail banking services, BHBM offered private banking services for onshore and offshore customers through its retail branches and its Global Private Banking Center. BHBM also wholly owned Poalim Trust Services Ltd., which provided trust formation and management services. Outside Israel, BHBM owned BHS, a Swiss subsidiary that provided private banking. BHS is headquartered in Zurich and at times during the prosecution period had branches in Geneva, Luxembourg, and Singapore. BHBM also had branches in New York, Miami, the Cayman Islands, the United Kingdom, and Jersey.
RIGHTS granted: For public relations, social media and marketing use by BHI only. Not for any additional usage unless a written permission granted by SA PRO, Inc. Images are not transferable. MUST INCLUDE PHOTO CREDIT: SHAHAR AZRAN
From at least in or about 2002, and continuing until at least in or about 2014, the Bank conspired with employees, U.S. customers, and others to: (1) defraud the United States with respect to taxes; (2) file false federal tax returns; and (3) commit tax evasion. Employees of BHBM and BHS assisted U.S. customers in concealing their ownership and control of assets and funds held at the Bank, which enabled those U.S. customers to evade their U.S. tax obligations, by engaging in the following conduct:
Assisting U.S. customers with opening and maintaining accounts in the names of pseudonyms, code names, trust accounts, and offshore nominee entities;
Opening customer accounts for known U.S. customers using non-U.S. forms of identification;
Enabling U.S. taxpayers to evade U.S reporting requirements on securities’ earnings in violation of the Bank’s agreements with the IRS;
Providing “hold mail” services for a fee, avoiding any correspondence regarding the undeclared account being sent to the U.S.;
Offering back-to-back loans for U.S. taxpayers to enable them to access funds in the United States that were held in offshore accounts at the Bank in Switzerland and Israel; and
Processing wire transfers or issuing checks in amounts of less than $10,000 that were drawn on the accounts of U.S. taxpayers or entities in order to avoid triggering scrutiny.
At least four senior executives of the Bank, including two former members of BHS’s board of directors, were directly involved in aiding and abetting tax evasion of U.S. taxpayers.
Under today’s resolutions, the Bank is required to cooperate fully with ongoing investigations and affirmatively disclose any information it may later uncover regarding U.S.-related accounts. The Bank is also required to disclose information consistent with the Department of Justice’s Swiss Bank Program relating to accounts closed between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2019. The agreements provide no protection from criminal or civil prosecution for any individuals.
BHBM will pay a total of $214.38 million, which has three parts. First, BHBM has agreed to pay $77,877,099 in restitution to the IRS, which represents the unpaid taxes resulting from BHBM’s participation in the conspiracy. Second, BHBM has agreed to forfeit $35,696,929 to the United States, which represents gross fees (not profits) that the bank earned on its undeclared accounts between 2002 and 2014. Finally, BHBM has agreed to pay a penalty of $100,811,585.
John Yoler – Representative Offices NJ, CA & FL.jpg
BHS will pay a total of $402.53 million, which also has three parts. First, BHS has agreed to pay $138,908,073 in restitution to the IRS, which represents the unpaid taxes resulting from BHS’s participation in the conspiracy. Second, BHS has agreed to forfeit $124,628,449 in gross fees to the United States. Finally, BHS has agreed to pay a fine of $138,998,399. These payments were approved by Judge Vyskocil today in connection with BHS’s plea and sentencing.
Both the penalty and fine amounts take into consideration that the Bank, after initially providing deficient cooperation through an inadequate internal investigation and the provision of incomplete and inaccurate information and data to the Government, thereafter conducted a thorough internal investigation, provided client-identifying information, and cooperated in ongoing investigations and prosecutions. The Bank further implemented remedial measures to protect against the use of its services for tax evasion in the future.
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is also announcing today that it has reached a resolution with BHBM, by which BHBM has agreed to a cease and desist order, certain remedial steps to ensure its compliance with U.S. law in its ongoing operations, and a civil monetary penalty of $37.35 million. Additionally, the New York State Department of Financial Services is announcing a similar resolution by which BHBM has agreed to a consent order and a monetary penalty of $220 million.
Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, and thanked the Justice Department’s Tax Division for their partnership on this case.
This prosecution is being handled by the Tax Division and the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Assistant Chief Todd A. Ellinwood and Senior Litigation Counsel Nanette Davis of the Tax Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sagar K. Ravi and Timothy V. Capozzi of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, are in charge of the prosecution. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman also thanked Assistant Chief Kathleen Barry and former Trial Attorney Timothy Russo of the Tax Division for their substantial assistance.
The Isabella Geriatric Center is shown Friday, May 1, 2020, in New York. The nursing home says nearly 100 of its residents have died from confirmed or suspected cases the novel coronavirus. It is among the hardest hit nursing homes in the state, with 46 confirmed fatalities and an additional 52 deaths of people suspected to have the virus. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
By: Marina Villeneuve
New York state has reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities as the state faces scrutiny over how it has protected vulnerable residents during the coronavirus pandemic.
At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state’s nursing homes since March 1, according to a tally released late Monday that, for the first time, included people believed to have been killed by the virus before their diagnoses could be confirmed by a lab test.
Exactly how many nursing home residents have died remains uncertain despite the state’s latest disclosure. The list released by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration did not include nursing home residents who were transferred to hospitals before dying.
With the inclusion of the additional deaths, the state now lists 22 nursing homes, largely in New York City and on Long Island, as having at least 40 deaths. And 62 nursing homes have reported between 20 and 39 deaths.
Parker Jewish Institute in Queens and the Isabella Geriatric Center in Manhattan are listed as having the most deaths: 71 and 64, respectively. Even those numbers are likely an undercount. Isabella Geriatric Center officials have said publicly that 98 residents are believed to have died, including those sent to hospitals.
Audrey Waters, a spokeswoman for Isabella Geriatric Center, said in an email last week, that the home, like others in the city, initially had limited access to tests to quickly diagnose residents and staff.
“This hampered our ability to identify those who were infected and asymptomatic, despite our efforts to swiftly separate anyone who presented symptoms,” she said.
In many cases, the state’s new figures reveal many more deaths than previously reported at nursing homes. For example, Ozanam Hall, a facility in Queens, now reports a total of 53 deaths, up from just 10.
Several veterans homes have been hit especially hard by the virus. The Long Island State Veterans Home has reported 53 deaths, including 48 confirmed and five presumed COVID-19 deaths.
Back on March 2, when only a handful of coronavirus cases had been reported in New York, Cuomo promised to make a “special effort” for nursing homes and congregate homes housing senior citizens. The state directed nursing homes to screen visitors and consider modifying visiting hours on March 6, and later suspended visits to nursing homes statewide March 12.
But the governor now faces questions over whether more could be done to help New York’s state-regulated nursing homes amass enough personal protective gear, get access to tests and ensure adequate staffing.
Cuomo has said that if a nursing home becomes overwhelmed by the virus and cannot care for all patients properly, it should ask for help.
The state also urged nursing homes to let local emergency management officials know if they need more personal protective gear.
Cuomo said he believed nursing homes were trying their best under difficult conditions.
“The nursing homes we said from day one are the most vulnerable place,” he said.
Families of residents at several of the affected facilities have expressed frustration with getting updates on outbreaks and the number of fatalities.
Adam Jankowitz said he has resorted to calling members of Congress after several failed attempts to get information about the Isabella Geriatric Center, where his mother, Joanne, lives.
He believed there had been only a handful of deaths until the facility reported last week that nearly 100 residents infected with the coronavirus had died.
“We’re trying to get a clearer idea of the risk to her in staying where she is. We’re also trying to arrange another living place for her until it is safe to be in her building, and to organize details of moving her and her cat to a safer place,” Jankowitz wrote in an email.
While the federal government has yet to release numbers on how the coronavirus has ravaged the industry, The Associated Press maintains its own tally based on state health departments and media reports, finding 22,101 deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide.
In this April 17, 2020, file photo, a patient is loaded into an ambulance by emergency medical workers outside Cobble Hill Health Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York. New York state is now reporting more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities as the state faces scrutiny over how it’s protected vulnerable residents during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
By: Marina Villeneuve & Michael Hill
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo argued that officials who are re-opening economies need to be upfront about the human costs. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is adding staff to the city’s deluged 311 helpline. And there was a slight uptick in the daily death toll.
Coronavirus developments in New York:
HUMAN COST
Cuomo said the national debate over when to re-open outbreak-ravaged economies ultimately boils down to the value placed on people’s lives.
“How much is a human life worth?” Cuomo asked at his daily press briefing. “That’s the real discussion that no one is admitting openly or freely. But we should.”
The Democratic governor made the argument as political pressure intensifies to relax outbreak-fighting restrictions keeping people at home and off the job. As other states begin lifting restrictions, Cuomo has opted for a slower approach that will allow parts of the state to phase in economic activity later this month if they meet and maintain a series of benchmarks.
“The faster we re-open, the lower the economic cost — but the higher the human cost, because the more lives lost,” he said. “That, my friends, is the decision we are really making.”
Cuomo claims his plan avoids the trade-off between economic and human costs because it will be controlled by officials constantly monitoring fatalities and hospitalizations.
The 230 new deaths reported by Cuomo were up slightly from the previous day, but far lower than the daily peak of 799 on April 8. There have been more than 19,000 deaths in New York since the beginning of the outbreak.
The state total doesn’t include more than 5,300 New York City deaths that were blamed on the virus on death certificates but weren’t confirmed by a lab test.
New York’s hospitalization rates continue to drop with 659 new admissions reported Monday, the lowest number since March. There were 9,600 patients hospitalized overall.
HELPLINE DELUGED
The coronavirus case surge that swamped New York City’s 911 emergency line last month also deluged its 311 helpline, as calls soared from an average of 55,000 a day to about 200,000 daily. Wait times grew long in some cases.
To tackle the problem, the city has trained 285 new call-takers and added four new call centers, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. He said the city also is creating 311 “express lanes” for COVID-19 matters and needs for food, so those calls would be taken with minimal wait times most of the day.
The 311 helpline was designed to handle non-emergency calls ranging from noise complaints to questions about jail visits.
De Blasio said typical wait times have dropped by 75 percent at peak-volume times.
In the 911 system, the virus spurred the busiest days ever for the city’s EMS operation. Requests for ambulance service hit a record 6,527 calls on March 30, over 50% more than average. They have since dropped to around normal levels of about 4,000 per day.
NURSING HOMES
New York state is reporting more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities as the state faces scrutiny over how it’s protected vulnerable residents during the coronavirus pandemic. At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state’s nursing homes since March 1, according to a tally released by Cuomo’s administration late Monday that, for the first time, includes people believed to have been killed by the coronavirus before their diagnoses could be confirmed by a lab test.
