probe Archives

Manafort & Cohen are criminals adds no weight to Mueller’s Russia collusion probe

August 22, 2018 By administrator

What do Paul Manafort’s five counts of tax fraud, one count of hiding foreign bank accounts and two counts of bank fraud all have in common? None of them have anything to do with collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

In the midst of the pandemonium and joyful celebration over Manafort’s guilty verdicts and Michael Cohen’s decision to plead guilty to charges brought against him, it’s important to remember that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate one thing: “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with” Trump’s campaign.

That is what the Mueller investigation is primarily about and that is what it has, so far, been unable to prove. We are more than 18 months into Donald Trump’s presidency and neither Manafort, nor anyone else, has been charged with, let alone found guilty of, anything that remotely fits that description. Indeed, Manafort’s crimes date to a time long before he was even hired for a brief stint as the Trump campaign manager.

Manafort’s ordeal is not over yet, however. Of the 18 charges against him, he was found guilty only of eight, while the other 10 resulted in a hung jury, which means he could end up facing another trial on those charges. He also faces another set of charges in a Washington DC court next month; failure to register foreign lobbying and money laundering conspiracy relating to work he did in Ukraine. Even if he is found guilty on the rest of those charges, it will not amount to any proof that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia.

So, Americans who are desperate to nail Trump for Russia collusion are now pinning their hopes on Cohen, the president’s former lawyer who has said under oath that he committed campaign-finance violations at Trump’s direction and that he paid hush money to two women (adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal) to buy their silence “for the principal purpose of influencing the election.”

Israel’s attorney general orders criminal probe against Netanyahu

December 29, 2016 By administrator

Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has approved the opening of a full criminal investigation into the financial activities of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid allegations of bribery and fraud.

Netanyahu will be investigated following a nine-month police inquiry into two unspecified matters, and will be summoned to give evidence in the coming days, Israel’s Hebrew-language Channel 10 television network reported.

An unnamed spokeswoman from Israel’s so-called Justice Ministry said in a statement that checks in the matter “are still ongoing and this is neither confirmation nor denial of what has been alleged.”

“The attorney-general, the police and prosecutors are working in close cooperation and a public announcement will be made in due course about the investigation,” she said.

Netanyahu has long been the subject of scrutiny over his financial dealings.

Mandelblit recently ordered an investigation into claims that Netanyahu accepted 1 million euros (about $1.1 million) from accused French fraudster Arnaud Mimran in the form of donations during his 2009 campaign.

In May, Comptroller Yosef Shapira issued a critical report on Netanyahu’s foreign trips, some of which were taken with his wife Sara and children, from 2003 to 2005, when he was the Israeli finance minister.

The Israeli prime minister is also under investigation over the billion-dollar purchase of three submarines from Germany, where media have reported “a serious conflict of interest” on the part of Netanyahu.

Reports emerged last month that Netanyahu’s personal lawyer and one of closest confidants, David Shimron, was representing the German arms manufacturer ThyssenKrupp, which is making the submarines.

Channel 10 later disclosed an email it claimed was proof that Shimron used his close relationship with Netanyahu to lobby for the deal.

A separate probe is also underway in Israel into accusation that Sara Netanyahu misused public funds for private expenses.

Armenia: ARF Leader Urges Prime Minister to Launch Probe Into Corruption Claim

September 28, 2016 By administrator

Leader of ARF’s parliamentary faction and a member of the party’s Bureau Armen Rustamian during a press conference on Sept. 16

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Law enforcement authorities should look into Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan’s allegations about the embezzlement of budgetary funds allocated for government officials’ travel expenses, a leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation said on Wednesday.

Karapetyan angrily denounced the “primitive theft” last week as his cabinet approved a new electronic system for the purchase of air tickets for officials travelling abroad on business. But he did not implicate any government agency or official in the alleged practice. Nor did law-enforcement bodies launch criminal proceedings in connection with his claim.

“I think that [the statement] should certainly be followed by concrete actions,” said ARF’s Armen Rustamian. “If the prime minister spoke about theft, he has all the levers and resources to dig deeper and substantiate that statement.”

“This must become the subject of a criminal case,” Rustamian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

None of the ARF ministers has publicly called for a criminal investigation into Karapetian’s claim.

Eduard Sharmazanov, the spokesman for ruling Republican Party of Armenia, was reluctant to comment on the lack of such an inquiry. “I’m the spokesman for the Republican Party of Armenia, not the prime minister,” he said.

Sharmazanov also claimed that Karapetyan talked about a “general philosophy,” rather than concrete cases of government corruption.

Justice Minister Arpine Hovannisian likewise said on Monday that the premier merely condemned the failure of various government agencies to properly perform their duties. Under Armenian law, that is not sufficient grounds for prosecuting government officials, she said.

ECHR court fines Turkey in wiretapping case during Ergenekon probe

June 7, 2016 By administrator

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has fined Turkey 7,500 euros for violating privacy through telephone wiretaps in disciplinary proceedings against a public prosecutor during the infamous Ergenekon investigation, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

The court ruled that public prosecutor Hamdi Ünal Karabeyoğlu’s “right to respect for privacy and family life” was violated in the use of information obtained by telephone wiretapping. It also ruled that his “right to effective remedy” was violated.

Karabeyoğlu had appealed to the ECHR over his case in Turkey, which was part of the Ergenekon investigation – a massive probe into hundreds of senior military personnel, journalists and politicians on charges of attempting to stage a coup against the Turkish government.

The ECHR found that Karabeyoǧlu had received “the minimum degree of protection required by the rule of law in a democratic society,” as his telephone wiretap was found to be based on reasonable suspicion and so was carried out in line with the relevant legislation.

However, the court also ruled that “the use of the information thus obtained in the context of a disciplinary investigation” was not in line with the law and that the relevant legislation was violated both when the information was used for “purposes other than the one for which it had been gathered” and when it was not “destroyed within the 15-day time limit after the criminal investigation had ended.”

Armenian Government Chooses U.S. Firm to Probe Electricity Networks

August 14, 2015 By administrator

YEREVAN (Combined Sources)—The Armenian government has selected Deloitte & Touche to determine whether a decision by Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) to allow Armenia’s national power distribution company to raise electricity price was economically justified or resulted from alleged corruption and mismanagement.

Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielyan said that the government had sent requests to top international consulting companies to take part in a tender that would select one of them to conduct a probe of the Electricity Networks of Armenia (ENA). Two firms—McKinsey and Deloitte & Touche—responded to the request. Deloitte & Touche was chosen because they reportedly offered a lower commission price for their service.

“Deloitte and Touche is an internationally renowned company, and I think that after their conclusions we will have sufficient grounds to move forward,” Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian said at a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.

The decision to conduct an audit of the company was reached on June 26 during President Serzh Sarkissian’s meeting in Yerevan with Russian transport minister Maxim Sokolov, the Russian co-chairman of the joint Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation. The following day, Sarkissian said the government will keep electricity prices unchanged for consumers by subsidizing their increased cost at least until the release of findings of a future audit.

Earlier, Sarkissian said that an audit would find out whether the price hike approved by state regulators was economically justified or resulted from alleged corruption and mismanagement in the ENA.

The government has yet to select a foreign consulting firm that will conduct the audit. Abrahamyan said on Thursday that it is still negotiating with “the Russian side” on the matter.

The PSRC’s decision on June 17 to increase the electricity price for consumers by 6.93 drams (16.7%) sparked a vigorous public backlash and street protests against the increase.

Swedish prosecutors drop Assange sexual assault probe

August 13, 2015 By administrator

Swedish prosecutors said on Thursday they had dropped a sexual assault probe against Julian Assange because the time limit on the case had expired, AFP reported.

Some of the allegations against the WikiLeaks founder — who has been holed up at Ecuador’s London embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition — have reached their statute of limitations after five years. “Now that the statue of limitations has expired on certain offences, I am obliged to drop part of the investigation,” prosecutor Marianne Ny said, adding she still wanted to question the Australian on a more serious rape claim.