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Category: Finance

  • MIL-OSI Security: Indy Man Sentenced to 3 Years Probation for Manufacturing and Mailing 30,000 Fake IDs

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    INDIANAPOLIS— James Watt, 26, of Indianapolis, has been sentenced to 3 years of probation after pleading guilty to unlawful production of document or authentication feature and money laundering.

    According to court documents, between March 13, 2019, and February 16, 2023, James Watt worked for a public website that allowed customers to purchase fake driver’s licenses, paid for mostly by Bitcoin. The website’s tag line boasted “Your #1 Trusted Source for Fake IDs.”

    Over the course of four years, Watt manufactured more than 30,000 fraudulent driver’s licenses and other forms of false identification. Customers would upload photos of themselves and an address to which to send the new I.D. Watt then mailed the false identifications via U.S. Postal Service collection boxes throughout Indianapolis, usually late at night to avoid detection.

    In exchange for this work, Watt was paid more than 14 Bitcoin. As of January 16, 2025, 14 bitcoin was worth more than $1.3 million.

    Although many of the fake IDs were purchased by underage college students, many IDs were purchased by adults far older than 21, implying their use for another nefarious purpose. Identification is needed to board a plane, buy cough medicine, rent a car, open a bank account, apply for government assistance, pick-up a prescription, visit a casino, and purchase a firearm. Through Watt’s help, his customers were able to get fake identifications for all these purposes.

    “Watt nearly became a millionaire simply through the manufacturing and mailing of thousands of fake IDs, essentially running a one-man BMV,” said John E. Childress, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. “While Watt was not the operator of the website, he had a far more critical role, utilizing equipment and skill to manufacture quality fake identifications and brazenly violate the law thousands of times over. I commend the IRS-CI and USPIS for their thorough investigative work leading to today’s outcome.”

    “I am proud of our inspectors who work so diligently to protect the mail from being utilized to further illicit activities,” said Acting Inspector in Charge Felicia George. “Thanks to our collaborative investigative efforts with IRS-CI, we were able to identify and take down part of a large-scale operation, while also seizing the proceeds of it from our area of responsibility. I would like to thank the inspectors, agents, and AUSA Eakman for their hard work on this case.”

    The U.S. Postal Investigation Service and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this case. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge James P. Hanlon.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Childress thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Eakman, who prosecuted this case.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: United States Attorney’s Office Underscores Enforcement of Executive Order on Immigration

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico, through United States Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow, issues the following statement to underscore support for the January 20, 2025, Executive Order, entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.”

    Department of Justice agencies in Puerto Rico, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, and the Bureau of Prisons, underscore their support and partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and all its components in Puerto Rico to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.

    The Justice Department and DHS will also continue to collaborate and work closely with our counterparts within the Government of Puerto Rico, to include the Puerto Rico Department of Justice, the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety, the Puerto Rico Police Bureau, and other governmental agencies, as well as municipal police departments to protect our communities from harm.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office’s implementation of the Executive Order will focus on the apprehension and prosecution of criminal aliens, as well as supporting the prosecution and/or expedited removal from the United States of aliens without legal status. The apprehension and prosecution or removal of aliens includes special interest aliens deemed by the DHS to be from a country that poses a national security or counterintelligence threat.

    “Those aliens who are involved in criminal activity, who are fugitives from justice, who have prior criminal convictions and/or come from nations that pose a threat to our national security, remain a priority for the Department of Justice,” said United States Attorney Muldrow. “We are also fully committed to supporting the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security, and all its components, to make Puerto Rico and the United States safer.”

    “The FBI remains committed to working alongside our law enforcement partners to uphold the rule of law and ensure public safety,” said Joseph González, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s San Juan Field Office. “Through this initiative, continued collaboration and intelligence-driven operations, we are supporting efforts to protect our communities, while adhering to our mission of upholding the Constitution.”

    “Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is dedicated to identifying and prosecuting individuals who are illegally present in the United States, ensuring they are swiftly removed to their home countries,” said Rebecca González-Ramos, Special Agent in Charge of HSI San Juan. “The executive order aims to protect the United States from individuals who pose a threat to public safety by committing crimes.”

    “The Drug Enforcement Administration remains resolute in its mission to protect the communities of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands from the devastating impact of drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations. These criminal networks not only threaten public safety through the distribution of dangerous narcotics but also exploit immigration vulnerabilities to further their illicit enterprises. Through intelligence-driven investigations, collaborative enforcement operations, and strategic partnerships with our federal, state, and local counterparts, the DEA will aggressively target those who pose a threat to our national security and the well-being of our citizens. Our enforcement efforts will focus on identifying, disrupting, and prosecuting individuals and organizations engaged in drug trafficking, money laundering, and violent crime. Additionally, we remain committed to supporting the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice in the apprehension and prosecution of criminal aliens involved in drug-related offenses. The DEA Caribbean Division will continue to conduct high-impact operations aimed at preventing narcotics and criminal elements from infiltrating our shores. These enforcement efforts are crucial in ensuring the safety and security of the people of Puerto Rico and the continental United States. The message is clear: those who attempt to use our territory as a gateway for illicit activities will be met with the full force of federal law enforcement,” stated Michael A. Miranda, Special Agent in Charge of DEA Caribbean Division.

    “We stand in unison with our Federal and Puerto Rico partners in this all-hands-on deck to stem the tide of illegal immigration,” said Christopher A. Robinson, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Miami Field Division.

    The United States Marshals Service, whose mission includes apprehending federal and state fugitives, will lead an initiative – Operation Homeland – to focus resources and coordinate enforcement operations with DOJ and DHS components on the apprehension of alien fugitives charged with federal and local crimes.

    “Historically, the United States Marshals have played a crucial role in serving our nation by apprehending and removing dangerous fugitives from our communities. In this instance, we have teamed up with our federal law enforcement partners to focus on apprehending non-U.S. citizens who have active criminal warrants. We are confident that these collaborative efforts will lead to safer communities. We encourage all citizens to continue cooperating with our investigations to help locate these fugitives and bring them to justice,” said Wilmer Ocasio-Ibarra, U.S. Marshal District of Puerto Rico.

    As recently announced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), on January 30, 2025, the below-listed individuals entered into Puerto Rican waters without inspection and were detained by the CBP. Earlier that day, Coast Guard had previously boarded the sailing vessel Mistress, but the vessel was allowed to continue its voyage to St. Martin.  Instead of going to St. Martin, the S/V Mistress entered U.S. waters without inspection and anchored off La Parguera, where they were arrested and processed for expedited removal by DHS officials, including the United States Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Specifically, the following eight individuals were encountered on a private boat off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico:

    Name                                    Country of Citizenship

    Erlanbek Narkoziev              Kyrgyzstan

    Jafar Valamatov                    Russia

    Kanal Assylbekov                 Kazakhstan

    Nikita Torshin                       Kazakhstan

    Sanjarjon Sidikov                  Uzbekistan

    Shackhat Uurustamov           Kyrgyzstan

    Odiljon Azimov                     Kyrgyzstan

    Shukrat Akhemodov              Russia

    “Every day CBP Officers are responsible with determining the admissibility of aliens arriving at our ports of entry.  Foreign travelers requesting entry undergo an inspection and determination of admissibility to the United States, and if they are not admissible, they are returned to their point of embarkation,” indicated Roberto Vaquero, Director of the San Juan Office of Field Operations. “Our officers will be vigilant in determining admissibility and will also inspect authorized presence from passengers in domestic flights as they try to reach the Continental US.”

    “The Ramey Sector of the US Border Patrol remains steadfast in protecting our Caribbean borders and deter irregular migration attempts.  U.S. immigration law makes it a crime to enter or attempt to enter without requesting admission at a port of entry designated for that purpose by immigration officials,” stated Reggie Johnson, Acting Chief Patrol Agent. “Migrants should know that they will face full legal consequences of unlawful entry.”

    “Air and Marine Operations agents and assets will support the whole of government effort to enforce immigration laws and protect our borders from emerging threats,” said Christopher Hunter, Director of the Caribbean Air and Marine Branch. “AMO safeguards our Nation by anticipating and confronting security threats through our aviation and maritime law enforcement expertise, innovative capabilities, and partnerships at the border and beyond.”

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI: Bpce: Groupe BPCE Results Q4-24 & 2024

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Paris, February 5, 2025

    STRONG PERFORMANCES IN 2024

    • Excellent performance in Q4-24 •
    • Net income (Group share) of €3.5bn in 2024, strong growth of +26% •
    • VISION 2030: dynamic implementation of the strategic project •

    Q4-24: net banking income at €6bn, up +11% YoY; very good performance achieved by retail banking and the global businesses; net income of €913m, +140% YoY
    2024: net banking income of €23.3bn, 5% growth YoY driven by all the business lines; gross operating income up by a strong 18% notably thanks to good cost control; reported net income2of €3.5bn, up by 26% YoY

    Very high levels of solvency and liquidity with a CET1 ratio of 15.6%3 and a LCR of 142%4 at end-2024

    RETAIL BANKING & INSURANCE    Sharp 14% growth in revenues in Q4-24 and 4% in 2024 driven in particular by the confirmed rebound in net interest margins and commissions. The Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne retail banking networks enjoyed sustained growth in their customer bases with the addition of 846,000 new clients6in 2024

    • Local & regional financing: €84bn of funding for our clients of individual, professional, corporate, and institutional clients; 1% year-on-year growth in loan outstandings, rising to a total of €724bn at end-December 2024
    • Deposits & savings7up by €5bn year-on-year, reaching a total of €681bn at end-December 2024
    • Insurance: gross inflows8 of €14.9bn in life insurance in 2024. Premiums up 15% in 2024 YoY. The equipment rate9for P&C and Personal Protection insurance stood at ~35% at end-December 2024
    • Financial Solutions & Expertise: net banking income remained stable in Q4-24 and rose by 2% in full-year 2024 vs. a high basis of comparison in 2023. Good performance reported by the Leasing and Consumer Credit activities
    • Digital & Payments: +5% growth in the number of card transactions at end-December 2024 YoY. Oney net banking income up 8% in full-year 2024

    GLOBAL FINANCIAL SERVICES Strong revenue growth, +8% in Q4-24 and full-year 2024; very dynamic business development in Corporate & Investment Banking, net banking income up 5% in Q4-24 year-on-year; very good performance achieved by Asset Management with net banking income up 11% in Q4-24 year-on-year

    • Corporate & Investment Banking: net banking income of €1.1bn in Q4-24; +19% growth in revenues in Q4-24 YoY for Global Markets, driven by the Fixed-income and Equity segments; net banking income up 2% for Global Finance, driven in particular by Trade Finance activities, and up by 6% for Investment Banking activities in Q4-24
    • Asset & Wealth Management: Natixis IM’s assets under management up 13% YtD, reaching an all-time high of €1,317bn at end-December 2024; very high net fund inflows of €40bn in full-year 2024, particularly from Fixed-Income expertise; net banking income of €968m in Q4-24, reflecting strong growth of 11% YoY.

    Expenses remained stable year-on-year in 2024 and good improvement in the cost/income by 3.5pp

    Prudent provisioning policy: cost of risk of €2.1bn in 2024, i.e. 24bps, standing below the announced guidance level; €596 million in Q4-24, down 20% year-on-year

    Financial strength: CET1 ratio of 15.6%3at end-December 2024; liquidity reserves of €302bn

    VISION 2030 strategic project: fast-paced and dynamic implementation  

    • April 2024: announcement of the project to acquire SGEF, making Groupe BPCE the European leader in equipment leasing; completion of the transaction scheduled for Q1-25.
    • June 2024: plan to create France’s No. 1 payment processor in partnership with BNP Paribas with a view to becoming one of the top 3 players in Europe.
    • June 2024: commercial partnerships with two leaders in their respective markets: Leroy Merlin and Verisure
    • January 2025: announcement of plan to create Europe’s leading asset manager in a joint venture with Generali.
    • Plans to create a shared technology platform for retail banking activities

    1 See the notes on methodology annexed to this press release 2Group share 3 Ratio estimated at end-December 2024 integrating pro forma the coming impact of SGEF and Nagelmackers acquisitions 4Average end-of month LCRs in Q4-24 5 Estimated at end-December 2024 6 196,100 new active clients over the year 7 On-balance sheet savings & deposits within the scope of the Retail Banking & Insurance business unit 8 Excluding reinsurance treaty with CNP Assurance 9 Scope of the individual clients in the BP and CE retail banking networks

    Nicolas Namias, Chairman of the Management Board of BPCE, said: “2024 marked the return of strong performance across all our business lines. Groupe BPCE saw its earnings grow by 26% over the year as a whole and by a total of 140% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

    Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne benefited from the confirmed rebound in their net interest margin along with an extremely buoyant level of commercial activity, illustrated by the arrival of 846,000 new clients in 2024. All the business lines serving the retail banking networks – Insurance, Payments, Financial Solutions & Expertise – generated growth both in full-year 2024 and in the 4thquarter of the year. It also proved to be a remarkable quarter and full-year period for the global business lines managed by Natixis CIB and Natixis IM with, in particular, 19% revenue growth in our capital markets activities in the fourth quarter, and a record-breaking 40 billion euros in net inflows for our asset management activities in the course of the year.

    These results testify to the dynamic implementation of our VISION 2030 strategic project. In the space of a year, we announced the planned acquisition of SGEF, making the Group the front-ranking European equipment leasing specialist, an initiative due to be completed early this year; the creation, with BNP Paribas, of the French leader in payment processing, with a view to becoming one of the top 3 players in Europe; plans to create a champion in asset management with Generali that would be No.1 in Europe in terms of revenues and one of the top 10 asset management specialists worldwide. Today, we announce our ambition to create a common technological platform for the Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne by setting up a joint information system. Designed to further enhance the Group’s performance, this project sets out to optimize the service offered to our 35 million clients and to improve the day-to-day lives of our employees and, in the process, support the development of retail banking in France. These projects give concrete expression to our determination to pursue well-balanced development across our three priority growth areas: France, Europe, and the rest of the world.

    These extremely exciting prospects for the months ahead will be driven by our staff of employees, who this year demonstrated their tremendous mobilization and enthusiasm during the Olympic & Paralympic Games Paris 2024. We gave expression to our promise to share the Games with as many people as possible in every territorial region of France. This event enabled us to strengthen our ties with our clients both in regional France and around the world, and we will continue to foster these relationships by contributing to the sustainable development of the economies in which we do business, in line with our cooperative values.”

    The quarterly financial statements of Groupe BPCE for the period ended December 31, 2024, approved by the Management Board on February 3, 2025, were verified and reviewed by the Supervisory Board, at a meeting chaired by Eric Fougère on February 5, 2025.

    In this document, 2023 figures have been restated on a pro-forma basis (see annex for the reconciliation of reported data to pro-forma data).

    Groupe BPCE

    €m1 Q4-24 Q4-23 % Change 2024 2023 % Change
    Net banking income 6,046 5,462 11% 23,317 22,198 5%
    Operating expenses (4,184) (4,129) 1% (16,384) (16,328) 0%
    Gross operating income 1,862 1,332 40% 6,933 5,870 18%
    Cost of risk (596) (744) (20)% (2,061) (1,731) 19%
    Income before tax 1,262 537 135% 4,956 4,182 19%
    Income tax (326) (159) 106% (1,357) (1,340) 1%
    Net income – Group share 913 381 140% 3,520 2,804 26%
    Exceptional items (64) (100) (35)% (155) (122) 28%
    Underlying2net income – Group share  977 481 103% 3,675 2,925 26%
    Underlying cost to income ratio3 67.8% 74.6% (6.8)pp 69.4% 72.9% (3.5)pp

    1 Reported figures as far as “Net income (Group share)” 2 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items 3 The underlying cost/income ratio of Groupe BPCE is calculated on the basis of net banking income and operating expenses excluding exceptional items. The calculations are detailed in the annex on pages 18 and 24.  

    1.     Groupe BPCE

    Unless specified to the contrary, the financial data and related comments refer to the reported results of the Group and
    business lines; changes express differences between Q4-24 and Q4-23 and between full-year 2024 and full-year 2023.

    Groupe BPCE’s net banking income rose by 11% to reach 6,046 million euros in Q4-24 thanks to strong commercial activity in all business lines. At the end of December 2024, it stood at 23,317 million euros, up 5%.

    Revenues from the Retail Banking & Insurance business unit (RB&I) rose 14% in Q4-24 to 4,064 million euros and stood at 15,397 million euros in full-year 2024, representing growth of 4%. Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne put up a strong commercial performance, attracting more than 846,000 new clients1 across all markets since the beginning of the year.

    Revenues in the Financial Solutions & Expertise business unit, stable in Q4-24 and up 2% in full-year 2024, were driven in particular by the leasing and consumer credit businesses. The Insurance business unit benefited from strong business momentum in life insurance with gross new inflows2 of 14.9 billion euros. Business was buoyant for the Digital & Payments business unit with renewed momentum for Oney.

    Revenues from the Global Financial Services (GFS) business unit were up 8% in Q4-24 and full-year 2024, reaching a total of 2,055 million euros and 7,947 million euros respectively. Corporate & Investment Banking revenues, buoyed up by strong commercial performance across all its business lines, came to 1,087 million euros in Q4-24, up 5%, and to 4,440 million euros in full-year 2024, up 7%. The net banking income generated by Asset & Wealth Management stood at 968 million euros in Q4-24, up 11%, and reached a total of 3,507 million euros in full-year 2024, up 10%. Assets under management, which rose to their highest level ever thanks to record-breaking fund inflows and positive market and currency effects, rose by 13% in the course of the year to reach 1,317 billion euros.

    The net interest margin stood at 7.6 billion euros, up 4% year-on-year, while commission income, which reached 11 billion euros in full-year 2024, was up 7% year-on-year.

    In full-year 2024, operating expenses remained stable at 16,384 million euros, rising 1% to 4,184 million euros in Q4-24, benefitting from positive jaws effects over the 2 periods.

    The underlying cost/income ratio3 improved by 6.8pp in Q4-24 to 67.8%, and by 3.5pp in full-year 2024 to 69.4%

    Gross operating income rose by 40% to 1,862 million euros in Q4-24, and by 18% to 6,933 million euros in full-year 2024.

    Groupe BPCE’s cost of risk, which came to -2,061 million euros in 2024, increased by a total of 19% vs. a low basis of comparison in 2023. In Q4-24, it stood at -596 million euros, down 20%.

    Performing loans are deemed to be rated ‘Stage 1’ or ‘Stage 2,’ while loans with proven risk are rated ‘Stage 3.’

    1    196,100 new active clients in full-year 2024 ² Excluding the reinsurance treaty with CNP Assurances3 The underlying cost/income ratio of Groupe BPCE is calculated on the basis of net banking income and operating expenses excluding exceptional items. The calculations are detailed in the annex on page 24

    For Groupe BPCE, the amount of provisions for performing loans rated ‘Stage 1’ or ‘Stage 2’ corresponds:

    • For the quarter, to a reversal of 31 million euros in Q4-24 vs. an allocation of 34 million euros in Q3-24 and vs. an allocation of 145 million euros in Q4-23,
    • For the 12-month period, a reversal of 177 million euros in 2024 vs. a reversal of 112 million euros in 2023.

    Provisions for loan outstandings with proven risk, rated ‘Stage 3,’ correspond:

    • For the quarter, to an allocation of 627 million euros in Q4-24 vs. an allocation of 488 million euros in Q3-24 and vs. an allocation of 598 million euros in Q4-23,
    • For the 12-month period, an allocation of 2,238 million euros in 2024 vs. an allocation of 1,843 million euros in 2023.

    In Q4-24, the cost of risk for Groupe BPCE stood at 28bps in terms of gross customer outstandings, down 7bps. This figure includes a reversal of 1bp on performing loans (vs. an allocation of 7bps in Q4-23) and an allocation on loan outstandings with proven risk of 29bps vs. an allocation of 28bps in Q4-23.
    In Q4-24, the cost of risk remained stable for the Retail Banking & Insurance business unit at 30bps, including a 1bp provision for performing loans (vs. a 5bps allocation to provisions in Q4-23) and a 30bps allocation on loan outstandings with proven risk, as in Q4-23.
    The cost of risk for the Corporate & Investment Banking business unit came to 55bps (vs. 37bps in Q4-23), including a 13bps reversal on performing loans (vs. a 16bps provision in Q4-23) and a 67bps provision on loans with proven risk (vs. a 21bps provision in Q4-23).

    In 2024, Groupe BPCE’s cost of risk stood at 24bps of gross customer loan outstandings. This figure includes a 2bps reversal of provisions on performing loans (vs. a 1bp reversal in 2023) and a 26bps provision on loans with proven risk (vs. a 22bps provision in 2023).
    The cost of risk was 24bps for the Retail Banking & Insurance business unit (21bps in 2023), including a 2bps reversal on performing loans (as in 2023) and a 26bps provision on loans with proven risk (vs. a 23bps provision in 2023).
    The cost of risk for the Corporate & Investment Banking business unit came to 40bps (24bps in 2023), including a 6bps reversal on performing loans (vs. a 4bps reversal in 2023) and a 46bps provision on loans with proven risk (vs. a 28bps provision in 2023).

    The ratio of non-performing loans to gross loan outstandings stood at 2.5% at December 31, 2024, up 0.1pp compared with end-December 2023.

    Reported net income (Group share) came to 913 million euros in Q4-24, up 140%. In full-year 2024, it stood at 3,520 million euros, up 26%.

    The impact of exceptional items on net income (Group share) was -64 million euros in Q4-24 vs. -100 million euros in Q4-23 and -155 million euros in full-year 2024 vs. -122 million euros in full-year 2023.

    Underlying net income (Group share)1 rose by 103% to stand at 977 million euros in Q4-24, and grew by 26% to 3,675 million euros in full-year 2024.

    1 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items

    2.   A Group mobilized to decarbonize the economy and committed to making impact accessible to all

    Strong commitments in 2024

    • Climate commitments:

    The Group has published new decarbonization ambitions for the 111 most highly emissive industrial sectors: Aluminum, Aviation, Commercial real estate, Residential real estate, Agriculture, Automotive, Steel and Cement, and has strengthened its ambitions in the Power Generation and Oil & Gas sectors.

    • Environmental commitments:

    Groupe BPCE has strengthened its commitment by joining act4nature international.

    • Social commitments by providing financing for players in the social & solidarity-based economy, in social housing and the Public Sector.

    Innovative and concrete actions for our clients

    • The Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne retail banking networks have launched innovations to facilitate home ownership and offer all individual customers energy-efficient renovation solutions to preserve the value of their real-estate assets: for example, by the end of November 2024, over 640 million euros in financing had been granted for energy-efficient home renovation, and the Advice and Sustainable Solutions digital module had received over 5 million unique visitors.
    • The Group serves the SME and ISE clients of the Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne, as well as local communities by providing locally-based advice and by financing the transition of their business models. It has also strengthened its partnership with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the innovation and energy transition with over one billion euros in transition and decarbonization financing.
    • Green revenues in the CIB rose by +14% in 2024 YoY, driven by sustainable finance and renewable energy & new energy activities including tailored-made solutions and dedicated expertise provided by the Green Hub.

    Groupe BPCE, a pioneer in sustainable finance, launched 5 green and social bond issues in the course of 2024 for an aggregate value of more than 3.6 billion euros, including the 1st Social Bond with a profit-sharing coupon for the benefit of the Institut Robert-Debré du Cerveau de l’Enfant (Children’s Brain Development Institute), supported by APHP (Paris Public Hospitals).

    1 Given the insignificant amount of Natixis CIB’s financing dedicated to freight and passenger ships, Groupe BPCE has not published its action plan for this industrial sector

    3.   Capital, loss-absorbing capacity, liquidity, and funding

    3.1        CET11ratio

    Groupe BPCE’s CET1 ratio at end-December 2024 stood at an estimated 16.2%, unchanged from the previous quarter. It includes the following impacts:

    • Retained earnings: +21bps,
    • Net issuance of cooperative shares: +3bps,
    • Change in risk-weighted assets: – 33bps,
    • Other changes, including variations in the prudential backstop provision, items included under Other Comprehensive Income, and other adjustments: +4bps.

    The Group’s CET1 ratio – presented on a pro-forma basis to reflect the inclusion of the future impacts of the SGEF and Nagelmackers acquisitions (-54bps) – stands at 15.6%,

    At end-December 2024, Groupe BPCE held an equity buffer estimated at 18.6 billion euros above the threshold for triggering the maximum distributable amount (MDA) for equity capital, taking account of the prudential requirements laid down by the ECB applicable on January 2, 2025.

    3.2         TLAC ratio1

    The Total Loss-Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) stood at an estimated 122.1 billion euros at the end of December 2024. The TLAC ratio, expressed as a percentage of risk-weighted assets, stood at an estimated 26.7%2 at the end of December 2024 (without taking account of preferred senior debt for the calculation of this ratio), well above the standard requirements of the Financial Stability Board that were equal to 22.4% at January 2, 2025.

    3.3        MREL ratio1

    Expressed as a percentage of risk-weighted assets at December 31, 2024, Groupe BPCE’s subordinated MREL ratio (without taking account of preferred senior debt for the calculation of this ratio) and the total MREL ratio stood at 26.7%2 and 34.6%, well above the minimum requirements laid down by the SRB at January 2, 2025 of 22.4%3 and 27.3%3 respectively.

    3.4        Leverage ratio1

    At December 31, 2024, the estimated leverage ratio stood at 5.1%, well above the requirement.

    3.5        Liquidity reserves at a high level

    The LCR (Liquidity Coverage Ratio) for Groupe BPCE is well above the regulatory requirement of 100%, at an average of 142% of month-end LCRs for the 4th quarter 2024.
    Liquidity reserves stood at 302 billion euros at December 2024, representing a coverage ratio of 177% of short-term financial debt (including short-term maturities of medium- to long-term financial debt).

    3.6        MLT funding plan: 32% of the 2025 objectives completed as at January 31, 2025

    The size of the MLT funding plan, excluding structured private placements and Asset Backed Securities (ABS), has been set at 23 billion euros for 2025. The breakdown per type of debt is as follows:

    • 10 billion euros in TLAC funding: 2.0 billion euros in Tier 2 funding and 8 billion euros in senior non-preferred debt,
    • 3 billion euros senior preferred debt,
    • 10 billion euros in covered bonds.

    The target for ABS is 8 billion euros.

    At January 31, 2025, Groupe BPCE had raised 7.3 billion euros, excluding structured private placements and ABS (32% of the 23 billion euro funding plan):

    • 5.6 billion euros in TLAC funding: 1.7 billion euros in Tier 2 funding (87% of requirements) and 3.9 billion euros in senior non-preferred debt (49% of requirements),
    • 1.7 billion euros in covered bonds (17% of requirements).

    At January 31, 2025, the amount of ABS raised came to a total of 0.7 billion euros, i.e. 8% of the target.

    Capital adequacy, Total loss-absorbing capacity – see the note on methodology
    1 Estimated at December 31, 2024 2 Groupe BPCE has chosen to waive the possibility provided by Article 72 Ter (3) of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) to use senior preferred debt to ensure compliance with its TLAC/subordinated MREL requirements. 3 Following reception of MREL’s annual letter for 2024

    4.   Results of the business lines

    Unless specified to the contrary, the financial data and related comments refer to the reported results of the Group and
    business lines; changes express differences between Q4-24 and Q4-23 and between full-year 2024 and full-year 2023.

    4.1        Retail Banking & Insurance

    €m1 Q4-24 % Change 2024 % Change
    Net banking income 4,064 14% 15,397 4%
    Operating expenses (2,497) (0)% (9,902) 1%
    Gross operating income 1,567 45% 5,495 10%
    Cost of risk (556) (13)% (1,751) 16%
    Income before tax 998 142% 3,807 8%
    Exceptional items (45) (60)% (115) 3%
    Underlying2income before tax 1,044 98% 3,922 8%
    Underlying cost/income ratio3 60.4% (8.5)pp 63.6% (2.2)pp

    At end-December 2024, loan outstandings rose by 1% to 724 billion euros. Outstanding home loans remained stables at 400 billion euros, while equipment loans rose by 3% during the year to 199 billion euros.

    At end-December 2024, on-balance sheet customer deposits & savings totaled 681 billion euros, representing an increase of 5 billion euros year-on-year, with a 5% rise in term accounts and a 3% year-on-year increase in both regulated and unregulated passbook savings accounts.

    Net banking income for the Retail Banking & Insurance business unit rose by 14% in Q4-24 to 4,064 million euros, and by 4% in full-year 2024 to 15,397 million euros. In Q4-24, these changes reflect the good level of business activities: in the networks, revenues rose by 17% for the Banque Populaire retail banking network and by 14% for the Caisse d’Épargne network. Net banking income for both networks also recorded growth in full-year 2024, by 4% for the Banque Populaire network and by 3% for the Caisse d’Épargne network.

    The Financial Solutions & Expertise business lines continued to benefit from strong sales momentum, particularly in the leasing segment. Revenues remained stable in Q4-24 but saw 2% growth in full-year 2024. In Insurance, premiums4 rose by 15% in 2024, driven by both Non-Life Insurance and Life & Personal Protection Insurance. The Digital & Payments business unit reported a 14% increase in revenues in Q4-24 and 7% growth in full-year 2024, driven by card transactions and instant payment operations.

    Operating expenses remained tightly managed, stable in Q4-24 at 2,497 million euros, and up by just 1% in full-year 2024 to 9,902 million euros.

    The underlying cost/income ratio3 improved by 8.5pp in Q4-24 to 60.4%, and by 2.2pp in full-year 2024 to 63.6%.

    The business unit’s gross operating income benefited from a strong positive jaws effect, rising by 45% in Q4-24 to
    1,567 million euros and by 10% in full-year 2024 to 5,495 million euros.

    The cost of risk amounted to -556 million euros in Q4-24, down 13%, and stood at -1,751 million euros in 2024, up 16%.

    For the business unit as a whole, income before tax amounted to 998 million euros in Q4-24, up 142%, and stood at 3,807 million in full-year 2024, up 8%.

    Underlying income before tax2 amounted to 1,044 million euros in Q4-24, up 98%, and came to 3,922 million euros in full-year 2024, up 8%.

    1 Reported figures until “Income before tax” 2 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items 3 The business line cost/income ratios have been calculated on the basis of net banking income and underlying operating expenses 4Excluding reinsurance treaty with CNP Assurance

    4.1.1         Banque Populaire network
    The Banque Populaire retail banking network is comprised of 14 cooperative banks (12 regional Banques Populaires along
    with CASDEN Banque Populaire and Crédit Coopératif) and their subsidiaries, Crédit Maritime Mutuel, and the Mutual
    Guarantee Companies.

    €m1 Q4-24 % Change 2024 % Change
    Net banking income 1,614 17% 6,098 4%
    Operating expenses (980) 1% (4,047) 2%
    Gross operating income 634 56% 2,051 8%
    Cost of risk (266) (6)% (814) 25%
    Income before tax 352 137% 1,285 (2)%
    Exceptional items (17) 77% (51) ns
    Underlying2income before tax 369 133% 1,336 2%
    Underlying cost/income ratio3 59.7% (10.2)pp 65.5% (1.9)pp

    Loan outstandings remained stable year-on-year, standing at 301 billion euros at the end of December 2024.
    On-balance sheet customer deposits & savings decreased by 2 billion euros year-on-year at the end of December 2024, with term accounts remaining stable during the 12-month period, while both regulated and unregulated passbook savings accounts saw 2% year-on-year growth.

    Net banking income came to 6,098 million euros in full-year 2024, up 4% year-on-year. This included 3.2 billion euros in net interest margin4,5 up 5% year-on-year, and 2.9 billion euros in commissions5 (up 3% year-on-year).
    In Q4-24, net banking income came to a total of 1,614 million euros, up 17% year-on-year.

    Operating expenses rose by a limited 1% in Q4-24 to 980 million euros, and increased by 2% in full-year 2024, to 4,047 million euros.
    The underlying cost/income ratio3 consequently saw a 10.2pp improvement in Q4-24, to 59.7%, and a 1.9pp improvement in full-year 2024, to 65.5%.

    Gross operating income benefited from positive jaws effects, rising by 56% to 634 million euros in Q4-24 and by 8% to 2,051 million euros in full-year 2024.

    The cost of risk stood at -266 million euros in Q4-24, down 6%, and -814 million euros in 2024, up 25%.

    Income before tax came to 352 million euros in Q4-24 (+137%) and 1,285 million euros in 2024 (-2%).

    Underlying income before tax2 amounted to 369 million euros in Q4-24 (+133%) and 1,336 million euros in full-year 2024
    (+2%).

    1 Reported figures until “Income before tax” 2 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items 3 The business line cost/income ratios have been calculated on the basis of net banking income and underlying operating expenses 4 Excluding provisions for home-purchase savings schemes 5 Income on regulated savings has been restated to account for the net interest margin and included under commissions

    4.1.2        Caisse d’Epargne network
    The Caisse d’Epargne retail banking network comprises 15 individual Caisses d’Epargne along with their subsidiaries

    €m1 Q4-24 % Change 2024 % Change
    Net banking income 1,616 14% 6,054 3%
    Operating expenses (1,084) 0% (4,216) 1%
    Gross operating income 531 55% 1,838 10%
    Cost of risk (205) (6)% (640) 16%
    Income before tax 328 161% 1,200 7%
    Exceptional items (27) 171% (60) ns
    Underlying2income before tax 355 162% 1,260 13%
    Underlying cost/income ratio3 65.4% (9.8)pp 68.7% (2.7)pp

    Loan outstandings rose by 1% year-on-year to 376 billion euros at the end of December 2024.
    On-balance sheet customer deposits & savings increased by 5 billion euros year-on-year, with growth in term accounts (+12%) and an increase in regulated and unregulated passbook savings accounts (+3%).

    Net banking income rose by 3% to reach 6,054 million euros in full-year 2024, including:

    • 2.6 billion euros in net interest margin4,5, down 3% year-on-year,
    • 3.4 billion euros in commissions5 up 7% year-on-year.

    Net banking income came to a total of 1,616 million euros, up 14% year-on-year, in Q4-24 and stood at 6,054 million euros, up 3% year-on-year in full-year 2024.

    Operating expenses remained stable at 1,084 million euros in Q4-24, and rose by 1% in full-year 2024 to 4,216 million euros.

    The underlying cost/income ratio3 improved by 9.8pp to 65.4% in Q4-24 and by 2.7pp to 68.7% in full-year 2024.

    Gross operating income benefited from positive jaws effects in Q4-24 (+55%), rising to 531 million euros, and enjoyed 10% growth in full-year 2024, rising to 1,838 million euros.

    The cost of risk came to -205 million euros in Q4-24, down 6%, and to -640 million euros in 2024, up 16%.

    Income before tax rose by 161% to 328 million euros in Q4-24, and came to 1,200 million euros in 2024.
    (+7%).

    Underlying income before tax2 amounted to 355 million euros in Q4-24 (+162%) and 1,260 million euros in full-year 2024
    (+13%).

    1 Reported figures until “Income before tax” 2 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items 3 The business line cost/income ratios have been calculated on the basis of net banking income and underlying operating expenses 4 Excluding provisions for home-purchase savings schemes 5 Income on regulated savings has been restated to account for the net interest margin and included under commissions

    4.1.3        Financial Solutions & Expertise

    €m1 Q4-24 %

    Change

    2024 %

    Change

    Net banking income 334 (0)% 1,303 2%
    Operating expenses (169) 1% (636) 1%
    Gross operating income 165 (2)% 667 3%
    Cost of risk (38) (30)% (108) 11%
    Income before tax 125 11% 555 2%
    Exceptional items 0 ns 0 ns
    Underlying2income before tax 125 11% 555 1%
    Underlying cost/income ratio3 50.7% 1.0pp 48.8% (0.3)pp

    Sales momentum remained strong in services designed for individual customers, particularly in consumer credit, with average loan outstandings (personal loans and revolving credit) up 7% year-on-year, consolidating the Group’s position as France’s leading bank for consumer credit.

    The Leasing activity continued to provide robust support to companies with growth in average outstandings (+10% year-on-year) chiefly driven by equipment leasing (+17%). Energéco, a player committed to the renewable energies sector, had an exceptional year with production exceeding, for the first time, one billion transactions arranged.

    Despite the unfavorable business environment, the business lines working in the housing and real estate sector demonstrated their resilience with confirmation in Q4-2024 of the positive upturn of activity in personal loan guarantees, leading to an increase in gross written premiums (+2% in Q4-24 year-on-year vs. -40% in the first 9 months of 2024).

    Net banking income for the Financial Solutions & Expertise business unit remained stable at 334 million euros in Q4-24, but rose 2% to 1,303 million euros in full-year 2024.

    Operating expenses, which stood at 169 million euros in Q4-24 and 636 million euros in full-year 2024, remained tightly managed.

    The underlying cost/income ratio3 increased by 1.0pp in Q4-24 to 50.7% and improved by 0.3pp in full-year 2024 to 48.8%.

    Gross operating income, which came to 165 million euros in Q4-24, was down 2%; it stood at 667 million euros in full-year 2024, up 3%.

    The cost of risk stood at -38 million euros in Q4-24, down 30%, and at -108 million euros in full-year 2024 (+11%).

    Income before tax rose by 11% to 125 million euros in Q4-24 and increased by 2% to 555 million euros in full-year 2024.

    Underlying income before tax2 rose by 11% in Q4-24 and by 1% in full-year 2024, to 125 million euros and 555 million euros respectively.

    1 Reported figures until “Income before tax” 2 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items 3 The business line cost/income ratios have been calculated on the basis of net banking income and underlying operating expenses

    4.1.4        Insurance1
    The results presented below concern the Insurance business unit held directly by BPCE since March 1, 2022.

    €m2 Q4-24 % Change 2024 % Change
    Net banking income 171 17% 694 10%
    Operating expenses3 (36) (10)%4 (143) (12)%4
    Gross operating income 135 28% 550 17%
    Income before tax 141 32% 566 19%
    Exceptional items 0 ns 0 ns
    Underlying5income before tax 141 30% 566 17%
    Underlying cost/income ratio6 21.3% (5.3)pp 20.7% (4.1)pp

    In Q4-24, premiums7 reached 4.8 billion euros, up 12% thanks to the considerable dynamism demonstrated by Life Insurance and Life & Personal Protection insurance. In full-year 2024, premiums7 rose by 15% to 18.6 billion euros, with a 16% increase for Life & Personal Protection insurance and a 9% increase for Property & Casualty insurance.

    Life insurance assets under management7 reached 103 billion euros at the end of December 2024 thanks to record-breaking net inflows in both euro funds and unit-linked products. Since the end of December 2023, life insurance assets have risen by 12%, driven by significant positive inflows in both euro funds and unit-linked products. Gross inflows7 in life insurance stood at 14.9 billion euros in 2024. Unit-linked products accounted for 53% of inflows7 at the end of December 2024.

    In the Property & Casualty segment, the client equipment rate for both networks was approximately 35%8 at the end of December 2024, up 0.5pp since the end of December 2023.

    Net banking income rose by 17% in Q4-24 to 171 million euros, and rose by 10% to 694 million euros in full-year 2024.

    Operating expenses3 fell by 10%4 year-on-year in Q4-24 to 36 million euros, and by 12%4 in full-year 2024 to 143 million euros.

    The underlying cost/income ratio6 improved by 5.3pp to stand at 21.3% in Q4-24, and improved by 4.1pp to reach 20.7% in full-year 2024.

    Thanks to positive jaws effects in Q4-24 and full-year 2024, EBITDA rose by 28% and 17% respectively.

    Income before tax also improved, rising by 32% to 141 million euros in Q4-24 and by 19% to 566 million euros in full-year 2024.

    Underlying5income before tax came to 141 million euros in Q4-24 (+30%) and to 566 million euros in full-year 2024 (+17%).

    1 BPCE Assurances 2 Reported figures until “Income before tax” 3 “Operating expenses” corresponds to “non-attributable expenses” under IFRS 17, i.e. all costs that are not directly attributable to insurance contracts 4 At constant method: +7% in Q4-24 YoY and +4% in 2024 YoY 5 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items 6 The business line cost/income ratios have been calculated on the basis of net banking income and underlying operating expenses 7 Excluding reinsurance treaty with CNP Assurance
    8 Scope: combined individual clients of the BP and CE networks

    4.1.5         Digital & Payments

    €m1 Q4-24 % Change 2024 % Change
    Net banking income 227 14% 873 7%
    o/w Payments 128 10% 491 6%
    o/w Oney 99 19% 382 8%
    Operating expenses (173) 1% (646) (1)%
    o/w Payments (108) 9% (394) 3%
    o/w Oney (65) (10)% (252) (7)%
    Gross operating income 54 96% 227 39%
    Cost of risk (33) (52)% (126) (26)%
    Income before tax 20 ns 97 ns
    Exceptional items (1) (99)% (5) (96)%
    Underlying2income before tax 21 ns 102 125%
    Underlying cost/income ratio3 76.2% (3.5)pp 73.9% (2.1)pp

    Digital & AI

    At the end of December 2024, 11.8 million customers were active on Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne mobile applications (up 3% vs. end-December 2023).

    The “AI for all” in-house generative AI solution was being used by over 26,000 employees at the end of December 2024 (i.e. 25% of all Group employees.)

    Thanks to transformative AI, 10 million documents had been verified automatically (+71%) by end-December 2024.

    Payments

    Net banking income enjoyed 10% growth in Q4-24 and 6% growth in full-year 2024, while operating expenses rose 9% in Q4-24 and 3% in full-year 2024.

    The widespread use of Wero (European Payments Initiative) enables all customers to send and receive money via instant account-to-account payments in less than 10 seconds. Wero handles 2 million transactions per month and serves over 2 million active customers.

    In the Payment Solutions business, the number of card transactions rose by 5% year-on-year, with continued growth in mobile and instant payments (+54% and +49% year-on-year respectively) and the ongoing rollout of Android POS terminals (multiplied by a factor of 2). The launch of Google Pay has strengthened our range of mobile products.

    Oney Bank

    Net banking income rose by 8% in 2024 thanks to improved margin rates and the asset repricing effect. Oney maintained its leadership position in the BNPL4 segment in France while business was robust in Europe outside France (+19% in volumes year-on-year).

    Management expenses remained well under control, falling by 7% in full-year 2024.

    The sharp drop in the cost of risk in 2024 (-26% YoY) confirms the positive impact of our action plans.
    Net banking income for the Digital & Payments business unit rose by 14% in Q4-24 and by 7% in full-year 2024, to reach 227 million euros and 873 million euros respectively.

    The business unit’s operating expenses were up 1% in Q4-24 and down 1% in full-year 2024, to reach 173 million euros and 646 million euros respectively.

    This led to a 3.5pp improvement in the underlying cost/income ratio3 to 76.2% in Q4-24 and a 2.1pp improvement to 73.9% in full-year 2024.

    Gross operating income, which benefitted from positive jaws effects, rose by 96% in Q4-24 to 54 million euros, and by 39% to 227 million euros in full-year 2024.

    The cost of risk fell by 52% in Q4-24 to -33 million euros, and by 26% in full-year 2024 to -126 million euros.

    Income before tax amounted to 20 million euros in Q4-24 and 97 million euros full-year 2024.

    Underlying2income before tax came to 21 million euros in Q4-24 and 102 million euros in full-year 2024, equal to a sharp rise of 125%.

    1 Reported figures until “Income before tax” 2 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items 3 The business line cost/income ratios have been calculated on the basis of net banking income and underlying operating expenses 4 Buy Now Pay Later

    4.2 Global Financial Services
    The GFS business unit includes the Asset & Wealth Management activities and the Corporate & Investment Banking activities of
    Natixis.

    €m1   Q4-24 % Change Constant Fx % change 2024 % Change Constant Fx % change
    Net banking income   2,055 8% 7% 7,947 8% 8%
    o/w CIB   1,087 5% 5% 4,440 7% 7%
    o/w AWM   968 11% 10% 3,507 10% 10%
    Operating expenses   (1,501) 8% 7% (5,651) 7% 7%
    o/w CIB   (738) 5% 5% (2,889) 8% 8%
    o/w AWM   (763) 11% 10% (2,763) 6% 6%
    Gross operating income   553 8% 7% 2,296 10% 10%
    Cost of risk   (86) 18%   (268) 73%  
    Income before tax   479 14%   2,051 4%  
    Exceptional items   0 ns   0 ns  
    Underlying2income before tax   479 10%   2,051 3%  
    Underlying cost/income ratio3   73.1% 0.7pp   71.1% (0.1)pp  

    GFS revenues rose by 8% in both Q4-24 and full-year 2024 to respectively 2,055 million euros (+7% at constant exchange rates) and 7,947 million euros (+8% at constant exchange rates). These trends are the result of the robust performance of our global business lines.

    In Q4-24, revenues generated by the Corporate & Investment Banking business rose by 5% to 1,087 million euros thanks, in particular, to the strong performance achieved by the Global Markets (+19%) and Global Finance (+2%) activities in full-year 2024. Net banking income for the CIB business in full-year 2024 rose by 7% to 4,440 million euros.

    In Q4-24, Asset & Wealth Management revenues rose 10% at constant exchange rates to 968 million euros, chiefly thanks to higher management fees year-on-year. Assets under management rose by 13% since the begging of the year to reach a historic high of 1,317 billion euros, with record inflows and a strong positive market and change effects.

    GFS operating expenses increased by 8% in Q4-24 and by 7% in 2024, to respectively 1,501 million euros (+7% at constant exchange rates) and 5,651 million euros (+7% at constant exchange rates). This rise in expenses is in line with revenue growth, leading to positive jaws effects in full-year 2024.

    In Q4-24, Corporate & Investment Banking operating expenses rose by 5% in line with revenue growth. Asset & Wealth Management expenses rose by 10% at constant exchange rates in Q4-24.

    The underlying cost/income ratio3 was 73.1% in Q4-24 and 71.1% in full-year 2024, up 0.7pp and down 0.1pp respectively.

    Gross operating income rose 8% in Q4-24 to 553 million euros (+7% at constant exchange rates); it rose 10% in full-year 2024 to 2,296 million euros (+10% at constant exchange rates).

    The cost of risk increased by 18% in Q4-24 and by 73% in full-year 2024, to -86 million euros and -268 million euros respectively.

    Income before tax rose by 14% in Q4-24 to 479 million euros, and by 4% in full-year 2024 to 2,051 million euros.

    Underlying2income before tax for Q4-24 was 479 million euros, up 10%, and stood at 2,051 million euros in full-year 2024, up 3%.

    1 Reported figures until “Income before tax” 2 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items 3 The business line cost/income ratios have been calculated on the basis of net banking income and underlying operating expenses

    4.2.1        Corporate & Investment Banking
    The Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) business unit includes the Global markets, Global finance, Investment banking and
    M&A activities of Natixis.

    €m1 Q4-24 % Change 2024 % Change
    Net banking income 1,087 5% 4,440 7%
    Operating expenses (738) 5% (2,889) 8%
    Gross operating income 349 5% 1,551 3%
    Cost of risk (98) 60% (282) 78%
    Income before tax 262 3% 1,293 (3)%
    Exceptional items 0 ns 0 ns
    Underlying2income before tax 262 1% 1,293 (4)%
    Underlying cost/income ratio3 67.9% 0.2pp 65.1% 1.2pp

    Global Markets revenues rose by 19% to 452 million euros in full-year 2024. Revenues generated by the Equity business rose 53% to 96 million euros in Q4-24, driven by a strong performance in the Global Securities Financing activity. FIC-T revenues rose by 14% to 354 million euros in Q4-24, driven by a strong performance in the Credit and Foreign Exchange segments.

    Global Finance revenues were up 2%, rising to 466 million euros in Q4-24 thanks to the sustained momentum of Trade Finance activities.

    Investment Banking revenues were up 6% to 50 million euros in Q4-24, driven by the Acquisition & Strategic Finance and SECM business lines.
    The M&A business lines recorded revenues of 361 million euros in full-year 2024, up 11% year-on-year.
    Natixis Partners has acquired a stake in Financière de Courcelles in order to strengthen its position in the French M&A market within the small, mid, and upper mid-cap segments.

    Net banking income generated by the Corporate & Investment Banking business unit rose by 5% in Q4-24 and by 7% in full-year 2024, to 1,087 million euros and 4,440 million euros respectively.

    Operating expenses, which stood at 738 million euros in Q4-24, reflect 5% growth; expenses rose 8% in full-year 2024 to 2,889 million euros, in line with revenue growth.

    The underlying cost/income ratio3 increased by 0.2pp to 67.9% in Q4-24, and by 1.2pp to 65.1% in full-year 2024.

    Gross operating income rose by 5% in Q4-24 to 349 million euros, and by 3% in full-year 2024 to 1,551 million euros.

    The cost of risk stood at -98 million euros, up 60%, in Q4-24, and at -282 million euros, up 78%, in full-year 2024.

    Income before tax was up 3% to 262 million euros in Q4-24, and down 3% to 1,293 million euros in full-year 2024.

    Underlying2income before tax was up 1% to 262 million euros in Q4-24, and down 4% to 1,293 million euros in full-year 2024.

    1 Reported figures until “Income before tax” 2 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items 3 The business line cost/income ratios have been calculated on the basis of net banking income and underlying operating expenses

    4.2.2        Asset & Wealth Management
    The business unit includes the Asset & Wealth Management activities of Natixis.

    €m1 Q4-24 % Change 2024 % Change
    Net banking income 968 11% 3,507 10%
    Operating expenses (763) 11% (2,763) 6%
    Gross operating income 205 12% 744 27%
    Income before tax 217 32% 759 21%
    Exceptional items 0 ns 0 ns
    Underlying2income before tax 217 24% 759 16%
    Underlying cost/income ratio3 78.8% 1.0pp 78.8% (2.0)pp

    In Asset Management, assets under management4 reached an all-time high of 1,317 billion euros at the end of December 2024, up 13% since the beginning of the year, with record net inflows and strong positive market and currency effects.

    Net inflows into Asset Management4 reached 40 billion euros in full-year 2024, chiefly thanks to fixed-income products from Loomis Sayles and DNCA, and to life insurance products. Private asset inflows remained positive on an annual basis.

    ESG assets accounted for 40.3% of assets under management at the end of December 2024.

    Asset management revenues grew at constant exchange rates by 10% in full-year 2024 but also in Q4-2024, driven by a higher level of average assets under management (+10% in Q4-2024).

    In Asset Management4 in full-year 2024, the total fee rate (excluding performance fees) stood at 25.2bps (stable) and at 36.8bps excluding insurance asset management (-1.1bp).

    Net banking income for the Asset & Wealth Management business unit rose by 11% in Q4-24 to 968 million euros, and by 10% in full-year 2024 to 3,507 million euros.

    Operating expenses came to 763 million euros, up 11% in Q4-24, and to 2,763 million euros, up 6% in full-year 2024.

    The underlying cost/income ratio3increased by 1.0pp in Q4-24 to 78.8%, and improved by 2.0pp in full-year 2024 to 78.8%.

    Gross operating income rose by 12% to 205 million euros in Q4-24, and by 27% to 744 million euros in full-year 2024.

    Income before tax came to 217 million euros in Q4-24 (+32%), and to 759 million euros in full-year 2024 (+21%).

    Underlying2income before tax rose by 24% to 217 million euros in Q4-24, and by 16% to 759 million euros in full-year 2024.
            

    1 Reported figures until “Income before tax” 2 “Underlying” means exclusive of exceptional items 3 The business line cost/income ratios have been calculated on the basis of net banking income and underlying operating expenses 4 Asset management: Europe includes Dynamic Solutions and Vega IM; North America includes WCM IM; excluding Wealth Management

    ANNEXES

    Notes on methodology

    Presentation on the pro-forma quarterly results

    The 2023 quarterly series are presented pro forma with changes in standards and organization:
    The sectoral reallocation of the results of the private equity activities of the entities BP Développement & CE Développement from Corporate center to RB&I and GFS divisions.
    The new management standards adopted by Natixis (including the normative allocation of capital to the business lines) within the GFS division.
    The main evolutions impact RB&I, GFS and the Corporate center.
    The data for 2023 has been recalculated to obtain a like-for-like basis of comparison.
    The quarterly series of Groupe BPCE remain unchanged.
    The tables showing the transition from reported 2023 to pro-forma 2023 are presented on annexes.

    Exceptional items

    Exceptional items and the reconciliation of the reported income statement to the underlying income statement of Groupe BPCE are detailed in the annexes.

    Net banking income

    Customer net interest income, excluding regulated home savings schemes, is computed on the basis of interest earned from transactions with customers, excluding net interest on centralized savings products (Livret A, Livret Développement Durable, Livret Épargne Logement passbook savings accounts) in addition to changes in provisions for regulated home purchase savings schemes. Net interest on centralized savings is assimilated to commissions.

    Operating expenses

    Operating expenses correspond to the aggregate total of the “Operating Expenses” (as presented in the second amendment of Group’s universal registration document, note 4.7 appended to the consolidated financial statements of Groupe BPCE) and “Depreciation, amortization and impairment for property, plant and equipment and intangible assets.”

    Cost/income ratio

    Groupe BPCE’s cost/income ratio is calculated on the basis of net banking income and operating expenses excluding exceptional items. The calculations are detailed in the annexes.
    Business line cost/income ratios are calculated on the basis of underlying net banking income and operating expenses.

    Cost of risk

    The cost of risk is expressed in basis points and measures the level of risk per business line as a percentage of the volume of loan outstandings; it is calculated by comparing net provisions booked with respect to credit risks of the period to gross customer loan outstandings at the beginning of the period.

    Loan oustandings and deposits & savings

    Restatements regarding transitions from book outstandings to outstandings under management are as follows:
    Loan outstandings: the scope of outstandings under management does not include securities classified as customer loans and receivables and other securities classified as financial operations,
    Deposits & savings: the scope of outstandings under management does not include debt securities (certificates of deposit and savings bonds).

    Capital Adequacy

    Common Equity Tier 1 is determined in accordance with the applicable CRR II/CRD IV rules, after deductions.
    Additional Tier-1 capital takes account of subordinated debt issues that have become non-eligible and subject to ceilings at the phase-out rate in force.
    The leverage ratio is calculated in accordance with the applicable CRR II/CRD V rules. Centralized outstandings of regulated savings are excluded from the leverage exposures as are Central Bank exposures for a limited period of time (pursuant to ECB decision 2021/27 of June 18, 2021).

    Total loss-absorbing capacity

    The amount of liabilities eligible for inclusion in the numerator used to calculate the Total Loss-Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) ratio is determined by article 92a of CRR. Please note that a quantum of Senior Preferred securities has not been included in our calculation of TLAC.
    This amount is consequently comprised of the 4 following items:

    • Common Equity Tier 1 in accordance with the applicable CRR II/CRD IV rules,
    • Additional Tier-1 capital in accordance with the applicable CRR II/CRD IV rules,
    • Tier-2 capital in accordance with the applicable CRR II/CRD IV rules,
    • Subordinated liabilities not recognized in the capital mentioned above and whose residual maturity is greater than 1 year, namely:
      • The share of additional Tier-1 capital instruments not recognized in common equity (i.e. included in the phase-out),
      • The share of the prudential discount on Tier-2 capital instruments whose residual maturity is greater than 1 year,
      • The nominal amount of Senior Non-Preferred securities maturing in more than 1 year.

    Liquidity

    Total liquidity reserves comprise the following:

    • Central bank-eligible assets include: ECB-eligible securities not eligible for the LCR, taken for their ECB valuation (after ECB haircut), securities retained (securitization and covered bonds) that are available and ECB-eligible taken for their ECB valuation (after ECB haircut) and private receivables available and eligible for central bank funding (ECB and the Federal Reserve), net of central bank funding,
    • LCR eligible assets comprising the Group’s LCR reserve taken for their LCR valuation,
    • Liquid assets placed with central banks (ECB and the Federal Reserve), net of US Money Market Funds deposits and to which fiduciary money is added.

    Short-term funding corresponds to funding with an initial maturity of less than, or equal to, 1 year and the short-term maturities of medium-/long-term debt correspond to debt with an initial maturity date of more than 1 year maturing within the next 12 months.
    Customer deposits are subject to the following adjustments:

    • Addition of security issues placed by the Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne retail banking networks with their customers, and certain operations carried out with counterparties comparable to customer deposits
    • Withdrawal of short-term deposits held by certain financial customers collected by Natixis in pursuit of its intermediation activities.

    Business line indicators – BP & CE networks

    Average rate (%) for residential mortgages: the average client rate for residential mortgages corresponds to the weighted average of actuarial rates for committed residential mortgages, excluding ancillary items (application fees, guarantees, creditor insurance). The rates are weighted by the amounts committed (offers made, net of cancellations) over the period under review. The calculation is based on aggregate residential mortgages, excluding zero interest rate loans.

    Average rate (%) for consumer loans: the average client rate for consumer loans corresponds to the weighted average of the actuarial rates for committed consumer loans, excluding ancillary items (application fees, guarantees, creditor insurance). The rates are weighted by the amounts committed (offers made net of cancellations) over the period under review. The calculation is based on the scope of amortizable consumer loans, excluding overdraft and revolving loans.

    Average rate (%) for equipment loans: the average customer rate for equipment loans is the average of the actuarial rates for equipment loans in each volume-weighted market.

    Digital indicators

    The number of active customers using mobile apps corresponds to the number of customers who have made at least one visit via one mobile apps over one month.
    The number of documents checked automatically corresponds to the number of documents transmitted by customers through their digital spaces or in a physical branch and checked automatically: eligibility for the LEP popular passbook savings account and customer intelligence documents (KYC) for consumer loans, mortgages (digital) and new business relationships (digital and physical branches).

    Impact indicators

    Financing for energy-efficient home renovation for individual clients: this indicator calculates the aggregate annual production of loans granted to individual customers (natural persons) to finance energy renovation work, expressed in €m:

    – Rénovation Energétique (Energy Renovation): consumer credit for environmentally-friendly properties,
    – ECO PTZ MPR: consumer credit designed for renovation work eligible for the MaPrimeRenov program (government scheme to support energy-efficient home renovation work) for up to a total of €30,000,
    – ECO PTZ: interest-free regulated home improvement loan for up to a total of €50,000

    Number of unique visitors to the ‘Advice and Sustainable Solutions’ digital module: this indicator calculates the aggregate annual number of unique visitors who consult the ‘Advice and sustainable solutions’ page on BP and CE mobile applications.

    Financing BtoB clients in their transition and decarbonization efforts: this indicator calculates the aggregate annual amount of loans granted to businesses to help finance their transition and decarbonization efforts, expressed in €m. This aggregate total is derived from the sum of BtoB loan amounts (Green loans + Impact loans + Vehicle Leasing + Green Lease with Purchase Option/Long-Term Rental agreements (LOA/LDD Green).

    Within the scope of CIB activities, Green revenues are comprised of:

    • Sustainable Finance (GSH scope)
    • Renewable & new energies franchises
    • Activities with clients/assets rated Dark & Medium Green (Green Weighting Factor).

    (restated for scope reconciliations).

    Reconciliation of 2023 data to pro forma data

    Retail banking and Insurance Q1-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures 3,891 (2,496) 1,107 (269) 840
    Sectoral reallocation 12 (1) 11 0 11
    Pro forma figures 3,903 (2,497) 1,118 (269) 851
    Global Financial Services Q1-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures 1,822 (1,303) 590 (146) 432
    Sectoral reallocation 0 0 0 0 0
    New rules 32 (2) 30 (4) 26
    Pro forma figures 1,854 (1,305) 621 (151) 458
    Corporate center Q1-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures 102 (788) (729) (10) (739)
    Sectoral reallocation (12) 1 (11) 0 (11)
    New rules (32) 2 (30) 4 (26)
    Pro forma figures 57 (785) (771) (5) (776)
    Retail banking and Insurance Q2-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures 3,655 (2,459) 952 (224) 729
    Sectoral reallocation (15) (1) (15) (0) (15)
    Pro forma figures 3,640 (2,460) 936 (224) 713
    Global Financial Services Q2-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures 1,798 (1,282) 429 (115) 300
    Sectoral reallocation (0) (0) (0) (0) (0)
    New rules 31 (5) 26 (3) 22
    Pro forma figures 1,829 (1,287) 455 (118) 322
    Corporate center Q2-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures 13 (58) (44) (14) (56)
    Sectoral reallocation 15 1 16 0 16
    New rules (31) 5 (26) 3 (22)
    Pro forma figures (3) (52) (54) (10) (63)
    Retail banking and Insurance Q3-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures 3,721 (2,358) 1,072 (268) 799
    Sectoral reallocation (13) (1) (14) 0 (14)
    Pro forma figures 3,709 (2,359) 1,058 (268) 785
    Global Financial Services Q3-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures 1,736 (1,279) 444 (114) 319
    Sectoral reallocation (0) (0) (0) 0 (0)
    New rules 31 (4) 27 (4) 23
    Pro forma figures 1,767 (1,283) 470 (118) 341
    Corporate center Q3-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures (3) (175) (176) (23) (200)
    Sectoral reallocation 13 1 14 0 14
    New rules (31) 4 (27) 4 (23)
    Pro forma figures (21) (170) (189) (19) (210)
    Retail banking and Insurance Q4-23      
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
         
    Reported figures 3,557 (2,497) 395 (122) 294      
    Sectoral reallocation 19 (1) 18 (0) 18      
    Pro forma figures 3,576 (2,499) 413 (122) 312      
                 
    Global Financial Services Q4-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures 1,874 (1,389) 391 (118) 255
    Sectoral reallocation 0 (1) (0) (0) (0)
    New rules 33 (4) 29 (3) 26
    Pro forma figures 1,908 (1,394) 420 (121) 280
    Corporate center Q4-23
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Income before tax Income
    tax
    Net
    income
    Reported figures 31 (243) (249) 81 (168)
    Sectoral reallocation (20) 2 (18) 0 (18)
    New rules (33) 4 (29) 3 (26)
    Pro forma figures (22) (237) (296) 84 (211)

    Q4-24 & Q4-23 results : reconcialiation of reported data to alternative performance measures

    €m   Net banking income Operating expenses Cost of
    risk
    Gains or
    losses on
    other assets
    Income
    before tax
    Net income
    – Group share
    Reported Q4-24 results   6,046 (4,184) (596) (35) 1,262 913
    Transformation and reorganization costs Business lines/Corporate center 0 (86)   (1) (87) (64)
    Disposals Corporate center       (1) (1) (1)
    Q4-24 results excluding exceptional items   6,045 (4,098) (596) (34) 1,349 977
    €m   Net banking income Operating expenses Cost of
    risk
    Gains or
    losses on
    other assets
    Income
    before tax
    Net income
    – Group share
    Pro forma reported Q4-23 results   5,462 (4,129) (744) (43) 537 381
    Transformation and reorganization costs Business lines/Corporate center (5) (54) (34)   (93) (57)
    Disposals Corporate center       (43) (43) (43)
    Pro forma Q4-23 results excluding exceptional items   5,467 (4,076) (710) (0) 672 481

    2024 & 2023 results : reconcialiation of reported data to alternative performance measures

    €m   Net banking income Operating expenses Cost of
    risk
    Gains or
    losses on
    other assets
    Income
    before tax
    Net income
    – Group share
    Reported 2024 results   23,317 (16,384) (2,061) 28 4,956 3,520
    Transformation and reorganization costs Business lines/Corporate center 3 (208)   (1) (206) (153)
    Disposals Corporate center 0     (3) (3) (3)
    2024 results excluding exceptional items   23,314 (16,176) (2,061) 32 5,165 3,675
    €m   Net banking income Operating expenses Cost of
    risk
    Gains or
    losses on
    other assets
    Income
    before tax
    Net income
    – Group share
    Pro forma reported 2023 results   22,198 (16,328) (1,731) 8 4,182 2,804
    Transformation and reorganization costs Business lines/Corporate center 2 (213) (32)   (242) (164)
    Disposals  Corporate center       (45) (45) (44)
    Litigations Business lines/Corporate center 87       87 87
    Pro forma 2023 results excluding exceptional items   22,108 (16,115) (1,699) 53 4,381 2,925

    Groupe BPCE : underying cost to income ratio

    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Underlying
    cost income ratio
    Q4-24 reported figures 6,046 (4,184)  
    Impact of exceptional items 0 (86)  
    Q4-24 underlying figures 6,045 (4,098) 67.8%
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Underlying
    cost income ratio
    Q4-23 Pro forma reported figures 5,462 (4,129)  
    Impact of exceptional items (5) (54)  
    Q4-23 Pro forma underlying figures 5,467 (4,076) 74.6%

    Groupe BPCE : underying cost to income ratio

    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Underlying
    cost income ratio
    2024 reported figures 23,317 (16,384)  
    Impact of exceptional items 3 (208)  
    2024 underlying figures 23,314 (16,176) 69.4%
    €m Net banking income Operating expenses Underlying
    cost income ratio
    2023 Pro forma reported figures 22,198 (16,328)  
    Impact of exceptional items 89 (213)  
    2023 Pro forma underlying figures 22,108 (16,115) 72.9%

    Groupe BPCE : quarterly income statement per business line

      RETAIL BANKING
    & INSURANCE
    GLOBAL FINANCIAL SERVICES CORPORATE CENTER GROUPE
    BPCE
    €m Q4-24 Q4-23 Q4-24 Q4-23 Q4-24 Q4-23 Q4-24 Q4-23 %
    Net banking income 4,064 3,576 2,055 1,908 (73) (22) 6,046 5,462 11%
    Operating expenses (2,497) (2,499) (1,501) (1,394) (186) (237) (4,184) (4,129) 1%
    Gross operating income 1,567 1,077 553 514 (259) (259) 1,862 1,332 40%
    Cost of risk (556) (643) (86) (73) 46 (28) (596) (744) (20)%
    Income before tax 998 413 479 420 (215) (296) 1,262 537 x 2
    Income tax (222) (122) (124) (121) 19 84 (326) (159) x 2
    Non-controlling interests (5) 21 (18) (19) 0 1 (23) 3 ns
    Net income – Group share 772 312 337 280 (196) (211) 913 381 x 2

    Groupe BPCE : 2024 income statement per business line

      RETAIL BANKING
    & INSURANCE
    GLOBAL FINANCIAL SERVICES CORPORATE CENTER GROUPE
    BPCE
    €m 2024 2023 2024 2023 2024 2023 2024 2023 %
    Net banking income 15,397 14,828 7,947 7,358 (27) 12 23,317 22,198 5%
    Operating expenses (9,902) (9,815) (5,651) (5,269) (831) (1,244) (16,384) (16,328) 0%
    Gross operating income 5,495 5,013 2,296 2,088 (858) (1,232) 6,933 5,870 18%
    Cost of risk (1,751) (1,505) (268) (154) (43) (72) (2,061) (1,731) 19%
    Income before tax 3,807 3,526 2,051 1,966 (902) (1,310) 4,956 4,182 19%
    Income tax (891) (882) (534) (507) 67 49 (1,357) (1,340) 1%
    Non-controlling interests (14) 18 (66) (56) 1 1 (79) (38) x 2
    Net income – Group share 2,902 2,661 1,452 1,402 (834) (1,260) 3,520 2,804 26%

    Groupe BPCE : quarterly series

    GROUPE BPCE
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24
    Net banking income 5,815 5,467 5,455 5,462 5,753 5,626 5,892 6,046
    Operating expenses (4,587) (3,799) (3,812) (4,129) (4,151) (4,008) (4,041) (4,184)
    Gross operating income 1,228 1,667 1,642 1,332 1,602 1,618 1,851 1,862
    Cost of risk (326) (342) (319) (744) (382) (560) (523) (596)
    Income before tax 968 1,337 1,339 537 1,233 1,124 1,336 1,262
    Net income – Group share 533 973 917 381 875 806 925 913

    Groupe BPCE : Consolidated balance sheet

    ASSETS
    €m
    Dec. 31, 2024 Dec. 31, 2023
    Cash and amounts due from central banks 133,186 152,669
    Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss 230,521 214,582
    Hedging derivatives 7,624 8,855
    Financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income 57,166 48,073
    Securities at amortized cost 27,021 26,373
    Loans and advances to banks and similar at amortized cost 115,862 108,631
    Loans and receivables due from customers at amortized cost 851,843 839,457
    Revaluation difference on interest rate risk-hedged portfolios (856) (2,626)
    Financial investments of insurance activities 115,631 103,615
    Insurance contracts issued – Assets 1,134 1,124
    Reinsurance contracts held – Assets 9,320 9,564
    Current tax assets 640 829
    Deferred tax assets 4,160 4,575
    Accrued income and other assets 16,444 14,611
    Non-current assets held for sale 438 –
    Investments in accounted for using equity method 2,146 1,616
    Investment property 733 717
    Property, plant and equipment 6,085 6,023
    Intangible assets 1,147 1,110
    Goodwill 4,312 4,224
    TOTAL ASSETS 1,584,558 1,544,022
    LIABILITIES
    €m
    Dec. 31, 2024 Dec. 31, 2023
    Amounts due to central banks 1 2
    Financial liabilities at fair value through profit or loss 218,963 204,023
    Hedging derivatives 14,260 14,973
    Debt securities 304,957 292,598
    Amounts due to banks and similar 69,953 79,634
    Amounts due to customers 723,090 711,658
    Revaluation difference on interest rate risk-hedged portfolios, liabilities 14 159
    Insurance contracts issued – Liabilities 117,551 106,137
    Reinsurance contracts held – Liabilities 119 149
    Current tax liabilities 2,206 2,026
    Deferred tax liabilities 1,323 1,640
    Accrued expenses and other liabilities 20,892 22,492
    Liabilities associated with non-current assets held for sale 312 –
    Provisions 4,748 4,825
    Subordinated debt 18,401 18,801
    Shareholders’ equity 87,768 84,905
    Equity attributable to equity holders of the parent 87,137 84,351
    Non-controlling interests 630 553
    TOTAL LIABILITIES 1,584,558 1,544,022

    Groupe BPCE : Goodwill

    €m Dec. 31, 2023 Acquisitions IRFS5 reclassifications Translation adjustments Dec. 31, 2024
    Retail Banking & Insurance 822 58     879
    Asset & Wealth Management 3,257 1 (72) 95 3,280
    Corporate & Investment Banking 144     7 151
    Total 4,224 58 (72) 102 4,312

    Groupe BPCE: Statement of changes in shareholders’ equity

    €m Equity attributable to shareholders’ equity
    December 31, 2023 84,407
    Restatements1 (56)
    December 31, 2023 restated 84,351
    Distributions (833)
    Change in capital (cooperative shares) 90
    Impact of acquisitions and disposals on non-controlling interests (minority interests) (48)
    Income 3,520
    Changes in gains & losses directly recognized in equity 144
    Capital gains and losses reclassified as reserves (31)
    Others (56)
    December 31, 2024 87,137

    1 Opening shareholders’ equity has been adjusted for Funding Valuation Adjustments whose non-material impact on income has not given rise to a change in the latter in the 2024 consolidated financial statements

    Retail Banking & Insurance: quarterly income statement

      BANQUE POPULAIRE NETWORK CAISSE D’EPARGNE NETWORK FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS & EXPERTISE INSURANCE DIGITAL & PAYMENTS OTHER NETWORK RETAIL BANKING & INSURANCE
    €m Q4-24 Q4-23 % Q4-24 Q4-23 % Q4-24 Q4-23 % Q4-24 Q4-23 % Q4-24 Q4-23 % Q4-24 Q4-23 % Q4-24 Q4-23 %  
    Net banking income 1,614 1,382 17% 1,616 1,423 14% 334 335 (0)% 171 146 17% 227 199 14% 101 91 12% 4,064 3,576 14%  
    Operating expenses (980) (975) 1% (1,084) (1,081) 0% (169) (167) 1% (36) (41) (10)% (173) (171) 1% (53) (63) (16)% (2,497) (2,499) (0)%  
    Gross operating income 634 407 56% 531 343 55% 165 168 (2)% 135 105 28% 54 27 96% 48 28 75% 1,567 1,077 45%  
    Cost of risk (266) (282) (6)% (205) (218) (6)% (38) (54) (31)%       (33) (69) (52)% (15) (19) (23)% (556) (643) (13)%  
    Income before tax 352 149 x2 328 126 x3 125 112 12% 141 107 32% 20 (89) ns 33 9 x4 998 413 x2  
    Income tax (73) (45) 62% (78) (20) x4 (33) (27) 22% (29) (25) 16% 0 (2) ns (8) (2) x4 (222) (122) 82%  
    Non-controlling interests (0) (6) (94)% (1) (3) (66)% 0 (0) ns 0 (1) ns (3) 30 ns       (5) 21 ns  
    Net income – Group share 278 98 x3 248 103 x2 92 85 8% 112 81 39% 16 (61) ns 25 7 x4 772 312 x2  
      BANQUE POPULAIRE NETWORK CAISSE D’EPARGNE NETWORK FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS & EXPERTISE INSURANCE DIGITAL & PAYMENTS OTHER NETWORK RETAIL BANKING & INSURANCE
    €m 2024 2023 % 2024 2023 % 2024 2023 % 2024 2023 % 2024 2023 % 2024 2023 % 2024 2023 %  
    Net banking income 6,098 5,862 4% 6,054 5,858 3% 1,303 1,274 2% 694 633 10% 873 816 7% 375 384 (2)% 15,397 14,828 4,%  
    Operating expenses (4,047) (3,970) 2% (4,216) (4,181) 1% (636) (630) 1% (143) (163) (12)% (646) (652) (1)% (213) (218) (2)% (9,902) (9,815) 1%  
    Gross operating income 2,051 1,892 8% 1,838 1,677 10% 667 644 3% 550 470 17% 227 164 39% 162 166 (2)% 5,495 5,013 10%  
    Cost of risk (814) (651) 25% (640) (553) 16% (108) (98) 11%       (126) (171) (26)% (62) (33) 89% (1,751) (1,505) 16%  
    Income before tax 1,285 1,308 (2)% 1,200 1,125 7% 555 545 2% 566 475 19% 97 (68) ns 103 140 (26)% 3,807 3,526 8%  
    Income tax (307) (329) (7)% (264) (254) 4% (146) (140) 4% (123) (99) 24% (27) (25) 9% (24) (35) (30)% (891) (882) 1%  
    Non-controlling interests (9) (24) (64)% (5) (7) (24)% 0 (0) ns 0 (0) ns (0) 49 ns       (14) 18 ns  
    Net income – Group share 970 954 2% 931 864 8% 409 405 1% 443 376 18% 70 (43) ns 79 106 (25)% 2,902 2,661 9%  

    Retail Banking & Insurance: 2024 income statement

    Retail banking & insurance: quarterly series

    RETAIL BANKING & INSURANCE
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24
    Net banking income 3,903 3,640 3,709 3,576 3,763 3,701 3,869 4,064
    Operating expenses (2,497) (2,460) (2,359) (2,499) (2,547) (2,456) (2,403) (2,497)
    Gross operating income 1,406 1,180 1,350 1,077 1,217 1,245 1,467 1,567
    Cost of risk (308) (252) (302) (643) (296) (475) (423) (556)
    Income before tax 1,118 936 1,058 413 934 831 1,044 998
    Net income – Group share 851 713 785 312 709 637 785 772

    Retail Banking & Insurance: Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne networks quarterly series

    BANQUE POPULAIRE NETWORK
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24
    Net banking income 1,569 1,442 1,469 1,382 1,489 1,489 1,506 1,614
    Operating expenses (1,018) (1,015) (961) (975) (1,043) (1,025) (999) (980)
    Gross operating income 551 427 508 407 445 464 508 634
    Cost of risk (132) (110) (127) (282) (125) (228) (195) (266)
    Income before tax 434 328 398 149 329 290 315 352
    Net income – Group share 332 240 284 98 252 210 230 278
                     
    CAISSE D’EPARGNE NETWORK
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24
    Net banking income 1,537 1,465 1,432 1,423 1,454 1,467 1,517 1,616
    Operating expenses (1,066) (1,041) (993) (1,081) (1,085) (1,038) (1,008) (1,084)
    Gross operating income 470 424 440 343 368 429 509 531
    Cost of risk (136) (84) (115) (218) (100) (176) (159) (205)
    Income before tax 334 340 325 126 270 252 350 328
    Net income – Group share 253 256 253 103 208 194 281 248

    Retail Banking & Insurance: FSE quarterly series

    FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS & EXPERTISE
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24
    Net banking income 315 306 318 335 327 320 322 334
    Operating expenses (157) (151) (154) (167) (162) (154) (151) (169)
    Gross operating income 158 155 164 168 166 166 171 165
    Cost of risk (6) (19) (18) (54) (24) (22) (24) (38)
    Income before tax 151 136 146 112 141 143 146 125
    Net income – Group share 112 102 107 85 104 106 108 92

    Retail Banking & Insurance: Insurance quarterly series

    INSURANCE
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24
    Net banking income 180 126 181 146 188 118 217 171
    Operating expenses (43) (37) (42) (41) (42) (25) (40) (36)
    Gross operating income 137 89 139 105 146 93 177 135
    Income before tax 139 93 137 107 149 99 177 141
    Net income – Group share 109 83 103 81 113 92 126 112

    Retail Banking & Insurance: Digital & Payments quarterly series

    DIGITAL & PAYMENTS
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24
    Net banking income 205 203 209 199 215 214 218 227
    Operating expenses (161) (163) (157) (171) (160) (159) (154) (173)
    Gross operating income 44 40 52 27 55 55 64 54
    Cost of risk (32) (41) (29) (69) (31) (32) (30) (33)
    Income before tax 8 (6) 19 (89) 24 22 32 20
    Net income – Group share 7 (3) 13 (61) 17 16 21 16

    Retail Banking & Insurance: Other network quarterly series

    OTHER NETWORK
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24
    Net banking income 97 97 99 91 91 93 90 101
    Operating expenses (51) (52) (52) (63) (55) (55) (51) (53)
    Gross operating income 46 45 47 28 37 38 39 48
    Cost of risk (2) 2 (14) (19) (16) (17) (14) (15)
    Income before tax 52 47 33 9 20 25 25 33
    Net income – Group share 39 36 25 7 16 19 20 25

    Global Financial Services: quarterly income statement per business line

      ASSET AND WEALTH MANAGEMENT CORPORATE & INVESTMENT
    BANKING
    GLOBAL FINANCIAL
    SERVICES
    €m Q4-24 Q4-23 Q4-24 Q4-23 Q4-24 Q4-23 %
    Net banking income 968 874 1,087 1,034 2,055 1,908 8%
    Operating expenses (763) (691) (738) (703) (1,501) (1,394) 8%
    Gross operating income 205 183 349 331 553 514 8%
    Cost of risk 12 (12) (98) (62) (86) (73) 18%
    Share in net income of associates 0 0 12 4 12 4 x3
    Gains or losses on other assets 0 (7) 0 (17) 0 (24) ns
    Income before tax 217 165 262 255 479 420 14%
    Net income – Group share 143 105 194 176 337 280 20%

    Global Financial Services: 2024 income statement per business line

      ASSET AND WEALTH MANAGEMENT CORPORATE & INVESTMENT
    BANKING
    GLOBAL FINANCIAL
    SERVICES
    €m 2024 2023 2024 2023 2024 2023 %
    Net banking income 3,507 3,192 4,440 4,166 7,947 7,358 8%
    Operating expenses (2,763) (2,604) (2,889) (2,666) (5,651) (5,269) 7%
    Gross operating income 744 588 1,551 1,500 2,296 2,088 10%
    Cost of risk 14 4 (282) (158) (268) (154) 73%
    Share in net income of associates 0 0 23 13 23 14 67%
    Gains or losses on other assets 0 35 0 (17) 0 18 ns
    Income before tax 759 627 1,293 1,338 2,051 1,966 4%
    Net income – Group share 500 425 952 977 1,452 1,402 4%

    Global Financial Services: quarterly series

    GLOBAL FINANCIAL SERVICES
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24  
    Net banking income 1,854 1,829 1,767 1,908 1,933 1,983 1,976 2,055  
    Operating expenses (1,305) (1,287) (1,283) (1,394) (1,368) (1,366) (1,415) (1,501)  
    Gross operating income 549 542 483 514 564 617 561 553  
    Cost of risk 27 (91) (17) (73) (58) (82) (41) (86)  
    Income before tax 621 455 470 420 510 539 525 479  
    Net income – Group share 458 322 341 280 364 384 366 337  

    Corporate & Investment Banking: quarterly series

    CORPORATE & INVESTMENT BANKING
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24  
    Net banking income 1,074 1,056 1,002 1,034 1,102 1,133 1,118 1,087  
    Operating expenses (661) (651) (650) (703) (706) (694) (751) (738)  
    Gross operating income 412 405 352 331 396 439 367 349  
    Cost of risk 21 (90) (28) (62) (54) (91) (39) (98)  
    Income before tax 437 318 328 255 346 352 333 262  
    Net income – Group share 321 233 247 176 255 261 242 194  

    Asset & Wealth Management: quarterly series

    ASSET & WEALTH MANAGEMENT
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24  
    Net banking income 781 773 764 874 830 850 858 968  
    Operating expenses (644) (636) (633) (691) (662) (673) (664) (763)  
    Gross operating income 137 137 131 183 168 178 194 205  
    Cost of risk 6 (1) 11 (12) (5) 9 (2) 12  
    Income before tax 184 136 143 165 163 187 192 217  
    Net income – Group share 137 89 94 105 109 123 124 143  

    Corporate center: quarterly series

    CORPORATE CENTER
    €m Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23 Q1-24 Q2-24 Q3-24 Q4-24
    Net banking income 57 (3) (21) (22) 57 (58) 46 (73)
    Operating expenses (785) (52) (170) (237) (236) (186) (223) (186)
    Gross operating income (728) (55) (191) (259) (179) (244) (176) (259)
    Cost of risk (46) 1 0 (28) (28) (2) (59) 46
    Share in income of associates 2 0 1 (9) 3 0 1 5
    Gains or losses on other assets (0) 0 (0) (0) (6) 1 3 (8)
    Income before tax (771) (54) (189) (296) (210) (245) (232) (215)
    Net income – Group share (776) (63) (210) (211) (198) (215) (226) (196)

    DISCLAIMER

    This document may contain forward-looking statements and comments relating to the objectives and strategy of Groupe BPCE. By their very nature, these forward-looking statements inherently depend on assumptions, project considerations, objectives and expectations linked to future events, transactions, products and services as well as on suppositions regarding future performance and synergies.

    No guarantee can be given that such objectives will be realized; they are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties and are based on assumptions relating to the Group, its subsidiaries and associates and the business development thereof; trends in the sector; future acquisitions and investments; macroeconomic conditions and conditions in the Group’s principal local markets; competition and regulation. Occurrence of such events is not certain, and outcomes may prove different from current expectations, significantly affecting expected results. Actual results may differ significantly from those anticipated or implied by the forward-looking statements. Groupe BPCE shall in no event have any obligation to publish modifications or updates of such objectives.

    Information in this presentation relating to parties other than Groupe BPCE or taken from external sources has not been subject to independent verification; the Group makes no statement or commitment with respect to this third-party information and makes no warranty as to the accuracy, fairness, precision or completeness of the information or opinions contained in this press release. Neither Groupe BPCE nor its representatives shall be held liable for any errors or omissions or for any harm that may result from the use of this presentation or of its contents or any related material, or of any document or information referred to in this presentation.

    The financial information presented in this document relating to the fiscal period ended December 31, 2024 has been drawn up in compliance with IFRS standards, as adopted in the European Union.
    This financial information is not the equivalent of summary financial statements for an interim period as defined by IAS 34 “Interim Financial Reporting”.

    Preparation of the financial information requires Management to make estimates and assumptions in certain areas regarding uncertain future events.

    These estimates are based on the judgment of the individuals preparing this financial information and the information available at the date of the balance sheet. Actual future results may differ from these estimates. For further information, see chapter 5, part 5.1, note 2.3 “Use of estimates and judgments” of the Universal Registration Document 2023 filed with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, the French financial markets authority.
    With respect to the financial information of Groupe BPCE for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, and in view of the context mentioned above, attention should be drawn to the fact that the estimated increase in credit risk and the calculation of expected credit losses (IFRS 9 provisions) are largely based on assumptions that depend on the macroeconomic context.

    Significant factors liable to cause actual results to differ from those anticipated in the projections are related to the banking and financial environment in which Groupe BPCE operates, which exposes it to a multitude of risks. These potential risks liable to affect Groupe BPCE’s financial results are detailed in the “Risk factors & risk management” chapter of the latest amendment to the 2023 Universal Registration Document filed with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers.

    Investors are advised to consider the uncertainties and risk factors liable to affect the Group’s operations when examining the information contained in the projection elements.

    The financial results contained in this presentation have not been reviewed by the statutory auditors. The quarterly financial information of Groupe BPCE for the period ended December 31, 2024, approved by the Management Board at a meeting convened on February 3, 2025, were verified and reviewed by the Supervisory Board at a meeting convened on February 5, 2025.

    The sum of the values shown in the tables and analyses may differ slightly from the total reported owing to rounding effects.

    About Groupe BPCE
    Groupe BPCE is the second-largest banking group in France. Through its 100,000 staff, the group serves 35 million customers – individuals, professionals, companies, investors and local government bodies – around the world. It operates in the retail banking and insurance fields in France via its two major networks, Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne, along with Banque Palatine and Oney. It also pursues its activities worldwide with the wholesale banking expertise of Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking and with the asset & wealth management services provided by Natixis Investment Managers.
    The Group’s financial strength is recognized by four financial rating agencies: Moody’s (A1, stable outlook), Standard & Poor’s (A+, stable outlook), Fitch (A+, stable outlook) and R&I (A+, stable outlook).

             groupebpce.com

    Attachment

    • Groupe BPCE_PR_Results_Q4-24 & 2024_FV

    The MIL Network –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General James’ Office of Special Investigation Releases Report on Death of Ervin Zacarias Antonio Agustin

    Source: US State of New York

    February 5, 2025

    NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James’ Office of Special Investigation (OSI) today released its report on the death of Ervin Zacarias Antonio Agustin, who died on May 19, 2024 following a motor vehicle collision involving a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer in Queens County. Following a thorough investigation, which included review of the vehicle’s dashboard camera, an interview with the involved officer, and comprehensive legal analysis, OSI determined that a prosecutor would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the officer committed a crime, and therefore criminal charges would not be pursued in this matter.

    In the early morning hours of May 19, 2024, an NYPD officer was traveling in a marked police vehicle with his turret lights and siren activated, traveling to the scene of a motor vehicle collision investigation in Queens. The officer was traveling southbound on the Van Wyck Expressway, a multi-lane highway that runs north-south with three lanes in each direction, separated by a concrete divider, and no pedestrian traffic. The speed limit of the expressway was 50 MPH, and 40 MPH in construction zones. As the officer approached the vicinity of Archer Avenue, he was traveling at a speed of 63 MPH. Mr. Agustin attempted to run across the expressway and was struck by the officer’s vehicle. The collision occurred near a construction site, with construction equipment parked behind the concrete barriers lining both sides of the southbound lanes.

    Under OSI’s analysis of New York’s Vehicle and Traffic Law, Penal Law, and case law from New York’s highest court, a police officer who causes a death while properly responding to an emergency in a police vehicle cannot be charged with a crime unless the officer acts recklessly or intentionally. The criminal charge that requires recklessness is Manslaughter in the Second Degree, in which a person is guilty when they recklessly cause the death of another person. “Recklessly” means that the person consciously disregards a “substantial and unjustifiable” risk of death and that their actions are a “gross deviation” from a reasonable standard of conduct.

    In this case, while the officer caused Mr. Agustin’s death, the evidence does not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer’s conduct was a gross deviation from the standard that would have been observed by a reasonable officer in the same circumstances, or that the officer consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death. The officer was speeding because he was responding to an emergency. In addition, the officer had no reason to expect that a person would attempt to cross the expressway on foot, as the Van Wyck Expressway is closed to pedestrians. There was no evidence that the officer was impaired by drugs or alcohol, and no evidence that he was otherwise distracted at the time of the collision. Therefore, OSI concluded that there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges.  

    MIL OSI USA News –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI: TrendPulse Quantitative Think Tank Center Leads Innovation in FinTech Under Johnathan Walker

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Denver, CO, Feb. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TrendPulse Quantitative Think Tank Center continues to lead innovation in the financial technology (FinTech) space, under the guidance of Johnathan Walker. The center’s commitment to integrating advanced technologies into financial strategies has created groundbreaking tools for investors looking to stay ahead of market trends, manage risk more effectively, and streamline investment processes.

    Pioneering Financial Technology

    In an era where the financial landscape is rapidly evolving, TrendPulse has positioned itself at the forefront of FinTech innovation. The center has developed cutting-edge solutions that integrate powerful data analytics, machine learning, and automation to reshape investment strategies. By combining quantitative investment models with state-of-the-art technology, TrendPulse provides investors with the tools they need to make better decisions and drive growth in an increasingly competitive market.

    Empowering Investors with Data and Automation

    A key pillar of TrendPulse’s success has been its ability to harness the power of data and automation. Under Johnathan Walker’s leadership, the center has introduced machine learning algorithms that analyze vast amounts of market data, enabling real-time predictions and automated trading. These tools allow investors to react quickly to market changes, optimize their portfolios, and execute strategies with minimal manual intervention. As a result, investors can capitalize on opportunities faster and more efficiently, significantly improving their potential for returns.

    The center’s use of automated systems also reduces human error, enhances accuracy, and provides a scalable solution that adapts to changing market conditions. Whether institutional investors or individual clients, TrendPulse’s automated solutions make it easier for users to optimize their investments while minimizing risks.

    Transforming Investment Strategy with Predictive Analytics

    One of the standout features of TrendPulse’s offerings is its use of predictive analytics to forecast market trends and guide decision-making. By leveraging advanced algorithms and big data, the center helps investors identify emerging opportunities, detect potential risks, and allocate assets more strategically. This approach enables investors to stay ahead of the curve, making data-driven decisions that have a higher probability of success.

    TrendPulse’s predictive tools have proven particularly valuable for identifying undervalued assets, recognizing short-term trading opportunities, and optimizing long-term investment strategies. The integration of these data-driven insights ensures that investors are not just reacting to market movements, but proactively shaping their portfolios for better outcomes.

    A Vision for the Future of FinTech

    Looking forward, TrendPulse Quantitative Think Tank Center aims to further expand its FinTech capabilities. The center plans to incorporate even more advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain into its offerings, providing an even greater level of sophistication in its investment tools. Johnathan Walker’s vision for the future is clear: to provide users with next-generation technology that empowers them to navigate the complexities of modern financial markets with confidence.

    The goal is not just to keep up with market changes, but to stay ahead of them. By continuously refining its investment tools and integrating the latest technological advancements, TrendPulse remains at the cutting edge of the FinTech industry.

    Building a Stronger Investment Ecosystem

    TrendPulse is not just creating innovative tools for individual investors; it is also fostering a broader investment ecosystem. The center has built a collaborative platform where investors can share knowledge, engage in discussions, and learn from each other. By promoting a community-driven environment, TrendPulse ensures that users not only have access to advanced technologies but also a network of like-minded individuals who are committed to shared financial success.

    Conclusion

    TrendPulse Quantitative Think Tank Center’s commitment to innovation in financial technology is reshaping the way investors approach the markets. Through advanced data analytics, machine learning, and automation, the center has empowered users to make smarter, data-driven decisions. As Johnathan Walker continues to lead the charge, TrendPulse will undoubtedly remain at the forefront of the FinTech revolution, providing investors with the tools, insights, and community needed to succeed in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.

    The MIL Network –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI: PawnTrust celebrates the start of Black History Month and launches its weekly “CEO Corner”

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    ATLANTA, GA, Feb. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Dinewise, Inc (OTC PINK-DWIS) (referred to as “Dinewise”, “we”, “us”, “our” or the “Company”) a fintech company operating as PawnTrust Inc., providing solutions to the pawn shop industry celebrates the start of Black History Month and launches its weekly “CEO Corner” on its You Tube Channel.

    As America commemorates Black History Month, PawnTrust honors the invaluable contributions of African American pioneers who have shaped this nation and upon whose shoulders we stand today. The company recognizes the sacrifices and resilience of its forebears and remains committed to preserving their legacy. “When I was young, I was fortunate to accompany my father to meetings with African American disruptors of change. At the time, I didn’t understand the significance of those gatherings, but now realize I am a direct beneficiary of their efforts,” Michael Farr, CEO.

    As previously announced in shareholder updates, Dinewise, Inc. will officially change its name to PawnTrust, Inc. in Q1 2025. Along with this rebranding, the company will undergo a ticker symbol change and file a new registration statement. Additionally, the final agreement for the acquisition of TitlePal, a fintech title loan company, is progressing ahead of schedule. The transaction is expected to close within the same timeframe as the registration statement, further strengthening PawnTrust’s strategic growth initiatives. Furthermore, PawnTrust is in talks regarding a major acquisition and expects to announce it in early Q2 2025.

    PawnTrust’s commitment to perseverance and integrity is ingrained in its corporate culture. The company stands on three fundamental pillars: transparency, timeliness, and trust. The upcoming name change to PawnTrust amplifies the critical pillar of trust. To reinforce these values and foster direct engagement with shareholders and the investment community, CEO Michael Farr will host a weekly “CEO Corner” on YouTube. This series will provide an in-depth look into the business, its strategies, and its leadership vision. The first episode of “CEO Corner” will premiere on Friday, February 7, 2025, at 2 PM Eastern Time. Tune in on http://www.youtube.com/@pawntrust

    About PawnTrust

    PawnTrust is an exclusively tailored marketplace for the estimated 11,000 pawn shops nationwide. The online marketplace (www.pawntrust.com) digitizes the inventory using advanced image recognition algorithms to automate item descriptions of the participating pawn shops and markets them on a national scale. The marketplace contains cutting-edge technology that streamlines the borrowing, buying, and bartering transactions typically found at a pawn shop. The platform plans to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimize pricing, reduce fraud, and create personalized search recommendations to enhance the customer’s experience. These enhancements let consumers experience a frictionless shopping experience on their mobile app that gives them instant access to this nationwide inventory of pawn shops. Not only does this provide a more efficient way for consumers to shop, eliminating the need to visit multiple stores, but it also amplifies the reach of individual pawn shop owners. By joining the PawnTrust- ‘Pawn Partners’ network, shop owners gain access to a broader audience, enhancing their visibility and sales opportunities. This innovative approach aligns customer convenience with business growth, reshaping how people interact with the pawn industry. Consumers that purchase items outside of their local area will have their items conveniently shipped to them. As the intermediary in each transaction, PawnTrust earns a fee on every item sold in the marketplace. Many of these local pawn shops lack an online presence or the capital to market their inventory on a national scale. By bridging this gap, PawnTrust opens up opportunities for incremental sales from a wider buying base, effectively transforming the pawn shop and micro-lending industries. This model not only supports local businesses but also extends their reach, driving growth and innovation within the market.” 

    Forward-Looking Information

    This release includes statements that may constitute ”forward-looking” statements, usually containing the words ”believe,” ”estimate,” ”project,” ”expect” or similar expressions. These statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While the Company believes the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurances such expectations will prove to be accurate. Security holders are cautioned such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Certain factors may cause results to differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements made in this release. Factors that would cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, acceptance of the Company’s current and future products and services in the marketplace, the ability of the Company to develop effective new products and receive regulatory approvals of such products, competitive factors, dependence upon third-party vendors, risks and uncertainties related to the current unknown duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and other risks detailed in the Company’s periodic report filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release.

    Investor Relations:
    Resources Unlimited
    718-269-3366
    mike@resourcesunlimitedllc.com

    The MIL Network –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI: SOITEC REPORTS FY’25 THIRD QUARTER REVENUE

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SOITEC REPORTS FY’25 THIRD QUARTER REVENUE

    • Reaching €226m, Q3’25 revenue was almost stable vs. Q2’25 and down 10% at constant exchange rates and perimeter compared with Q3’24
    • 9M’25 revenue reached €564m, down 12% on a reported basis and decreased by 13% at constant exchange rates and perimeter vs. 9M’24
    • FY’25 guidance revised: revenue expected to decrease by high single digit year-on-year at constant exchange rates and perimeter (compared to flat previously), and EBITDA1margin2expected between 32% and 34% (compared to around 35% previously)
    • Given the current lack of visibility on end markets, Soitec expects at this stage quite limited growth for FY’26

    Bernin (Grenoble), France, February 5th, 2025 – Soitec (Euronext Paris), a world leader in designing and manufacturing innovative semiconductor materials, today announced consolidated revenue of 226 million Euros for the third quarter of FY’25 (ended December 29th, 2024), down 6% on a reported basis compared to the third quarter of FY’24. This reflects a 10% decline at constant exchange rates and perimeter, a positive currency impact of 5% and a negative scope effect3 of 1%.

    Pierre Barnabé, Soitec’s CEO, commented: “After a very strong sequential rebound in the second quarter, we maintained the third-quarter revenue at a fairly similar level. The good performance of the Mobile Communications division was driven by sustained momentum in POI, and a seasonal tailwind in RF-SOI sales. Despite seasonal restocking in the second half of the fiscal year, the customers continue to optimize RF-SOI inventory levels based on seasonality and market conditions, which will keep driving fluctuations over the next few quarters. At the same time, we are strengthening our position as a leader, notably with the introduction of new innovative 300mm products. The Automotive and Industrial division continues to be impacted by a weak automotive market. In Edge & Cloud AI, the momentum remains strong, supported by significant investments in cloud infrastructure across the industry to accelerate AI computing power, as well as increasing demand at the edge for lower energy consumption and processing costs.

    Due to worsening conditions in the Automotive and Consumer markets, a couple of customers have requested to put some delivery requests on hold. As a consequence, we are adjusting our guidance for fiscal year 2025, with annual revenue expected to decrease by high single digit year-on-year. We are managing our EBITDA margin to be between 32% and 34%.

    With the lack of visibility on our end markets for now, it is also too early to provide specific guidance for fiscal year 2026. Given current market conditions, we expect at this stage quite limited growth for fiscal year 2026.

    Our fundamentals remain solid and will allow us to accelerate as end markets recover. We continue to enhance our technology leadership, to strengthen our SOI positioning with both existing and new customers, and to deploy our expansion into compound semiconductors with the acceleration of POI volumes and a fifth customer in qualification on SmartSiCTM.”

    Third quarter FY’25 consolidated revenue (unaudited)

      Q3’25 Q3’24 Q3’25/Q3’24
             
             
    (Euros millions)     change reported chg. at const. exch. rates & perimeter
             
    Mobile Communications 154 130 +18% +11%
    Automotive & Industrial 25 44 -43% -47%
    Edge & Cloud AI 47 65 -28% -30%
             
    Revenue 226 240 -6% -10%

    Q3’25 revenue reached 226 million Euros. After the sharp sequential increase achieved in Q2’25, it was up 4% versus Q2’25 on a reported basis (down 2% at constant exchange rates and perimeter). Compared to Q3’24, it was down 10% at constant exchange rates and perimeter.

    Q3’25 revenue reflected an improved performance in Mobile Communications and a weaker performance in Automotive & Industrial as well as in Edge & Cloud AI which was due to a different phasing in Imager-SOI wafer sales.

    Mobile Communications

    Mobile Communications revenue reached 154 million Euros in Q3’25, up 11% at constant exchange rates and perimeter compared to Q3’24. In the context of a healthier smartphone market and inventory situation, Mobile Communications revenue continued to recover in Q3’25 after the sharp rebound already experienced in Q2’25.

    As expected, growth in RF-SOI wafer sales has resumed. Q3’25 sales were significantly higher than in Q2’25, and also higher than in Q3’24. While reflecting different situations, inventories in the overall supply chain now seem to progressively normalize. Soitec is confident that growth in RF-SOI wafer sales will continue in Q4’25. Soitec continues to reinforce its strong customer intimacy, leveraging state-of-the-art Innovation capabilities to develop leading-edge products, as evidenced by the announcement of its commitment to provide GlobalFoundries with its latest generation of RF-SOI 300mm wafers to support GF’s most advanced 9SW platform.

    Sales of POI (Piezoelectric-on-Insulator) wafers dedicated to RF filters continue to grow quarter after quarter, as the adoption of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) filters on POI is accelerating with ten active customers in production, and more than ten in qualification. Q3’25 POI wafer sales were significantly higher than in Q2’25 and Q3’24. Soitec is engaged with all leading US fabless companies.

    Sales of FD-SOI wafers, the only solution for fully integrated 5G mmWave system-on-chip, have made further progress in Q3’25, showing an increase from Q2’25 as well as growth compared to Q3’24.

    Automotive & Industrial

    Automotive & Industrial revenue reached 25 million Euros in Q3’25, lower than in Q2’25 and down 47% at constant exchange rates and perimeter compared Q3’24, reflecting the ongoing difficulties of the automotive market.

    Power-SOI wafer sales reached a particularly low level in Q3’25, as the ongoing weakness of the automotive market is leading to some inventory adjustments at customer level. Power-SOI remains a key component for gate drivers, in vehicle networking and in Battery Management ICs.

    Conversely, FD-SOI wafers recorded a better level of sales in Q3’25 than in Q3’24. Automotive FD-SOI continue to be mostly driven by adoption for microcontrollers, radar and wireless connectivity, delivering on superior performance and power efficiency.

    Further SmartSiCTM samples and prototypes were delivered during Q3’25, paving the way for new qualifications. Soitec has engaged with a fifth customer in a qualification process. The current weakness of the automotive market and the longer than initially anticipated customers’ qualification cycles confirm a delay in the expected wafer production ramp-up, as stated earlier this year.

    Edge & Cloud AI

    Edge & Cloud AI revenue reached 47 million Euros in Q3’25, down 30% at constant exchange rates and perimeter compared to Q3’24. Performance was however contrasted from one product to another.

    Demand in Photonics-SOI wafers continue to benefit from a very positive momentum driven by high investments in Cloud infrastructure. Sales of Photonics-SOI were much stronger in Q3’25 than in Q2’25, and significantly higher than in Q3’24. This reflects the need for more powerful and more energy-efficient data centers to support the exponential growth of AI-related computing power capabilities. Photonics-SOI has become a standard technology platform for high-speed and high bandwidth optical interconnections in data centers, adopted in pluggable optical transceivers, and used for the development of Co-Packaged Optics.

    Sales of FD-SOI wafers remained as strong as in Q2’25 but were lower than in Q3’24. FD-SOI technology is a key enabler for AI-driven consumer and industrial IoT applications due to its unique power efficiency, performance, thermal management and reliability advantages.

    Sales of Imager-SOI wafers for 3D imaging applications are down year-on-year, reflecting the phase out of this product.

    First nine months FY’25 consolidated revenue (unaudited)

      9M’25 9M’24 9M’25/9M’24
             
    (Euros millions)     change reported chg. at const. exch. rates & perimeter
             
    Mobile Communications 326 388 -16% -18%
    Automotive & Industrial 84 119 -29% -31%
    Edge & Cloud AI 154 133 +15% +16%
             
    Revenue 564 641 -12% -13%

    Consolidated revenue reached 564 million Euros in 9M’25, down 13% at constant exchange rates and perimeter compared to 641 million Euros in 9M’24.

    Overall, the decrease in Soitec’s 9M’25 revenue essentially reflects lower volumes in both RF-SOI and Power-SOI wafers, partly offset by strong performances in POI, Photonics-SOI and Imager-SOI wafers.

    Mobile Communications revenue reached 326 million Euros in 9M’25 (58% of total revenue), down 18% at constant exchange rates and perimeter compared to 9M’24, with significant improvement quarter after quarter over FY’25.

    Automotive & Industrial revenue amounted to 84 million Euros in 9M’25 (15% of total revenue), down 31% at constant exchange rates and perimeter compared to 9M’24, reflecting the current weakness of the automotive market.

    Edge & Cloud AI revenue reached 154 million Euros in 9M’25 (27% of total revenue), up 16% at constant exchange rates and perimeter compared to 9M’24, supported by strong growth of photonics SOI products.

    FY’25 outlook

    Soitec expects FY’25 revenue to be down high single digit year on year, at constant exchange rates and perimeter (compared to flat revenue previously) as a couple of customers requested to put some deliveries on hold on the back of worsening conditions in the Automotive and Consumer markets. This implies strong sequential growth in Q4’25, primarily driven by the continued recovery in RF-SOI wafer sales supported by some seasonal restocking. Additionally, Soitec will continue to benefit from strong demand for Photonics-SOI products and the growing adoption of POI.

    Soitec is managing FY’25 EBITDA1margin2 to be between 32% and 34%.

    FY’26 outlook

    With the lack of visibility on our end markets for now, it is too early to provide specific guidance for fiscal year 2026. Given current market conditions, Soitec expects at this stage quite limited growth for fiscal year 2026.

    Q3’25 key events

    Divestment of Dolphin Design’s main businesses

    Dolphin Design’s mixed-signal IP activities have been acquired on November 5th, 2024, by Jolt Capital, a private equity firm specializing in European deeptech investments. Dolphin Design’s ASIC activities were sold to NanoXplore, a major player in SoC and FPGA semiconductor design, on December 30th, 2024.

    Dolphin Design, acquired by Soitec in 2018, has long been at the forefront of delivering cutting-edge semiconductor design solutions in mixed-signal IP and ASICs.The sale of Dolphin Design’s two main business activities will support Soitec’s focus on strategic development and growth opportunities in its core advanced semiconductor materials business.

    Following these operations, Dolphin Design revenue will no longer be reported from Q4’25 onwards, and will have no impact on Soitec financial statements from FY’26.

    Appointment of Frédéric Lissalde as Chairman of the Board

    During the meeting of the Board of Directors held on November 20th, 2024, upon recommendation of the Compensation and Nominations Committee, Frédéric Lissalde, who has been Director since the Annual General Meeting held on July 23rd, 2024, was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors as of March 1st, 2025, for the remainder of his term of office as Director.

    Soitec to collaborate with GlobalFoundries in the production of high-performance RF-SOI semiconductors

    On December 4th, 2024, Soitec announced its commitment to deliver 300mm RF-SOI substrates to GlobalFoundries (GF) for the production of GF’s leading RF-SOI technology platforms, including the company’s most advanced RF solution, 9SW. Building on the longstanding relationship between the two companies, this commitment will ensure the supply of advanced RF-SOI engineered substrates required for 5G, 5G-Advanced, Wi-Fi, and other smart mobile device Radio Frequency Front-End (RFFE) modules. To support advanced connectivity, GF’s 9SW RF-SOI platform with its superior switching, low-noise amplifiers (LNA) and logic processing capabilities offers significant advantages and value for premium smartphones by delivering enhanced RF performance, improved power efficiency and scalability. These features are critical for ensuring a superior user experience in high-end devices.

    Soitec continues its collaboration with MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories, thereby strengthening its presence in the United States

    On December 12th, 2024, Soitec announced the continuation of its research collaboration with the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This agreement covers research in innovative semiconductor materials for diverse applications, including mobile communications, power devices, sensors and quantum computing. Soitec is thereby further solidifying its presence in the North American semiconductor sector, intensifying its efforts amidst favorable industrial and regulatory dynamics supporting semiconductor development.

    # # #

    Analysts conference call to be held in English on Thursday 6thFebruary at 8:00 am CET.

    To listen this conference call, the audiocast is available live and in replay at the following address: https://channel.royalcast.com/soitec/#!/soitec/20250206_1

    # # #

    Agenda

    FY’25 results are due to be published on May 27th, 2025, after market close.

    # # #

    Disclaimer

    This document is provided by Soitec (the “Company”) for information purposes only.

    The Company’s business operations and financial position are described in the Company’s 2023-2024 Universal Registration Document (which notably includes the Annual Financial Report) which was filed on June 5th, 2024, with the French stock market authority (Autorité des Marchés Financiers, or AMF) under number D.24-0462, as well as in the Company’s 2024-2025 half-year financial report released on November 20th, 2024. The French versions of the 2023-2024 Universal Registration Document and the 2024-2025 half-year financial report, together with English courtesy translations for information purposes of both documents, are available for consultation on the Company’s website (www.soitec.com), in the section Company – Investors – Financial Reports.

    Your attention is drawn to the risk factors described in Chapter 2.1 (Risk factors and controls mechanism) of the Company’s 2023-2024 Universal Registration Document.

    This document contains summary information and should be read in conjunction with the 2023-2024 Universal Registration Document and the 2024-2025 half-year financial report.

    This document contains certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to the Company’s future prospects, developments and strategy and are based on analyses of earnings forecasts and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties as they relate to future events and are dependent on circumstances that may or may not materialize in the future. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of the Company’s future performance. The occurrence of any of the risks described in Chapter 2.1 (Risk factors and controls mechanism) of the 2023-2024 Universal Registration Document may have an impact on these forward-looking statements.

    The Company’s actual financial position, results and cash flows, as well as the trends in the sector in which the Company operates may differ materially from those contained in this document. Furthermore, even if the Company’s financial position, results, cash-flows and the developments in the sector in which the Company operates were to conform to the forward-looking statements contained in this document, such elements cannot be construed as a reliable indication of the Company’s future results or developments.

    The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or make any correction to any forward-looking statement in order to reflect an event or circumstance that may occur after the date of this document.

    This document does not constitute or form part of an offer or a solicitation to purchase, subscribe for, or sell the Company’s securities in any country whatsoever. This document, or any part thereof, shall not form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any contract, commitment or investment decision.

    Notably, this document does not constitute an offer or solicitation to purchase, subscribe for or to sell securities in the United States. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from the registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). The Company’s shares have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act. Neither the Company nor any other person intends to conduct a public offering of the Company’s securities in the United States.

    # # #

    About Soitec

    Soitec (Euronext – Tech Leaders), a world leader in innovative semiconductor materials, has been developing cutting-edge products delivering both technological performance and energy efficiency for over 30 years. From its global headquarters in France, Soitec is expanding internationally with its unique solutions, and generated sales of 1 billion Euros in fiscal year 2023-2024. Soitec occupies a key position in the semiconductor value chain, serving three main strategic markets: Mobile Communications, Automotive and Industrial, and Edge & Cloud AI (previously Smart Devices). The company relies on the talent and diversity of its 2,300 employees, representing 50 different nationalities, working at its sites in Europe, the United States and Asia. Soitec has registered over 4,000 patents.

    Soitec, SmartSiC™ and Smart Cut™ are registered trademarks of Soitec.

    For more information: https://www.soitec.com/en/ and follow us on X: @Soitec_Official

    # # #

    # # #

    Appendix

    Consolidated revenue per quarter (Q3’25 unaudited)

    Quarterly revenue Q1’24 Q2’24 Q3’24 Q4’24 Q1’25 Q2’25 Q3’25   9M’24 9M’25
     

    (Euros millions)

                       
                         
    Mobile Communications 89    169    130    222 48    124    154      388 326   
    Automotive & Industrial 37 38 44 44 26 33 25   119 84
    Edge & Cloud AI 31 37 65 70 46 61 47   133 154
                         
    Revenue 157    245    240    337 121    217    226      641    564   
    Change in quarterly revenue Q1’25/Q1’24 Q2’25/Q2’24 Q3’25/Q3’24   9M’25/9M’24
      Reported
    change
    Organic change1 Reported
    change
    Organic change1 Reported
    change
    Organic change1   Reported
    change
    Organic change1
    (vs. previous year)                  
                       
    Mobile Communications -45% -46% -27% -25% +18% +11%   -16% -18%
    Automotive & Industrial -29% -31% -13% -11% -43% -47%   -29% -31%
    Edge & Cloud AI +49% +47% +62% +66% -28% -30%   +15% +16%
                       
    Revenue -23% -24% -11% -9% -6% -10%   -12% -13%
    1. At constant exchange rates and comparable scope of consolidation (there was no scope effect in Q1’25 and Q2’25 vs. Q1’24 and Q2’24 – in Q3’25 Soitec sold Dolphin Design’s mixed signal IP activities on November 5th, 2024)

    # # #


    1 The EBITDA represents operating income (EBIT) before depreciation, amortization, impairment of non-current assets, non-cash items relating to share-based payments, provisions for impairment of current assets and for contingencies and expenses, and disposals gains and losses. This alternative indicator of performance is a non-IFRS quantitative measure used to measure the company’s ability to generate cash from its operating activities. EBITDA is not defined by an IFRS standard and must not be considered an alternative to any other financial indicator

    2 EBITDA margin = EBITDA from continuing operations / Revenue

    3 The scope effect is related to the divestment of Dolphin Design’s mixed signal IP activities which was completed on November 5th, 2024

    Attachment

    • Soitec Q3’25 revenue VUK 05 02 25_Published

    The MIL Network –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI: Canadian General Investments: Investment Update – Unaudited

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TORONTO, Canada, Feb. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Canadian General Investments, Limited (CGI) (TSX:CGI) (LSE: CGI) reports on an unaudited basis that its net asset value per share (NAV) at January 31, 2025 was $70.79 resulting in year-to-date and 12-month NAV returns, with dividends reinvested, of 2.1% and 26.3%, respectively. These compare with the 3.5% and 25.2% returns of the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index on a total return basis for the same periods.

    The Company employs a leveraging strategy, by way of bank borrowing, with the intent to enhance returns to common shareholders. As at January 31, 2025, the leverage represented 13.5% of CGI’s net assets, down from 13.8% at the end of 2024 and 14.7% at January 31, 2024.

    The closing price for CGI’s common shares at January 31, 2025 was $39.75, resulting in year-to-date and 12-month share price returns, with dividends reinvested, of -1.8% and 14.0%, respectively.

    The sector weightings of CGI’s investment portfolio at market as of January 31, 2025 were as follows:

         
    Information Technology 23.7 %
    Industrials 22.7 %
    Financials 13.9 %
    Energy 11.7 %
    Materials 11.4 %
    Consumer Discretionary 9.9 %
    Real Estate 4.2 %
    Cash & Cash Equivalents 1.9 %
    Communication Services 0.6 %
         

    The top ten investments which comprised 37.0% of the investment portfolio at market as of January 31, 2025 were as follows:

         
    The Descartes Systems Group Inc. 4.0 %
    TFI International Inc. 4.0 %
    Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited 4.0 %
    NVIDIA Corporation 3.9 %
    Celestica Inc. 3.7 %
    Apple Inc. 3.5 %
    Shopify Inc. 3.5 %
    WSP Global Inc. 3.5 %
    Mastercard Incorporated 3.5 %
    Franco-Nevada Corporation 3.4 %
         

    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
    Jonathan A. Morgan
    President & CEO
    Phone: (416) 366-2931
    Fax: (416) 366-2729
    e-mail: cgifund@mmainvestments.com
    website: www.canadiangeneralinvestments.ca

    The MIL Network –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Net Zero Council relaunched to supercharge Clean Energy Superpower Mission

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Government relaunches an expanded Net Zero Council, bringing together business, civil society and local authorities to drive the clean energy transition as part of the Plan for Growth.

    • New Net Zero Council is tasked with ensuring the clean energy transition drives economic growth and creates jobs as part of government’s Plan for Change
    • brings together a broader range of representatives from organisations including World Wildlife Fund, Design Council and Local Government Association, alongside others including Siemens, HSBC and Nestle
    • Council to deepen public-private partnership to maximise economic opportunities for the UK

    Leaders from major businesses, civil society and local authorities have backed the government’s pro-growth and clean energy superpower missions following a meeting of the relaunched Net Zero Council (5 February), with a plan to help sectors accelerate to net zero and support thousands of jobs.

    Co-chaired by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Co-operative Group CEO Shrine Khoury-Haq, the Council brings together leaders from some of the UK’s biggest businesses, charities and organisations, as well as trade unions and local authorities.  

    New members include representatives from the Trades Union Congress and Design Council, bringing expertise of green skills and jobs creation to the council to support the government’s mission for clean energy growth on the path to net zero.  

    This broader coalition strengthens the Council’s ability to unlock the opportunities of decarbonisation, with major industry players such as Siemens, Nestle and HSBC returning to the Council alongside new members including the Local Government Association and Aviva Investors to seize the growth opportunities of decarbonising the economy. 

    The first meeting focused on agreeing the Council’s priorities for 2025/26, which will include: 

    • a new focus on providing expert input to inform government strategies relating to net zero
    • supporting the development and delivery of sector roadmaps, helping businesses to develop transition plans and investors to identify opportunities
    • supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to decarbonise while maximising the benefits of the transition
    • informing the government’s approach to public engagement and developing products to support public participation with net zero

    A new Delivery Group will oversee the Council’s workstreams and help to drive progress. 

    The relaunch reflects a new mission-led approach, ensuring government actively engages with a broad range of industry leaders and stakeholders to drive progress towards net zero. This will support the Plan for Change to help deliver new jobs and economic opportunities while ensuring a fair transition. 

    Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: 

    Businesses and leaders across our country recognise that clean power and accelerating towards net zero represents the economic opportunity of the 21st century.  

    It is one which will protect bills, create jobs, and tackle the climate crisis. This Council is about mission-driven leadership, bringing government, business and civil society together to turn ambition into action. 

    By working in partnership, we can drive the investment, innovation and industrial transformation needed to make the UK a clean energy superpower.  

    Climate Minister Kerry McCarthy said: 

    The relaunch of the Net Zero Council comes at a critical moment in the UK’s journey towards a clean energy future.  

    Bringing together leaders from across business, finance and civil society, the Council will play a crucial role in accelerating net zero ambitions, driving economic growth and creating thousands of jobs. 

    Shirine Khoury-Haq, CEO of The Co-operative Group, said: 

    Working urgently for a faster, fairer transition to a greener, cleaner economy is an absolute imperative. For the sake of our planet and for every community here in the UK and around the globe, it’s crucial we work together to unlock the significant opportunities the transition will bring for economic growth too. 

    I’m therefore delighted to be continuing in my role as Co-chair of the Net Zero Council. The science couldn’t be clearer that we must act collectively and decisively, and co-operation between businesses, civic society and government is what we need now more than ever. 

    While the Council itself is made up of senior leaders from key sectors, it is committed to an inclusive engagement strategy, ensuring a broad range of voices contribute to net zero delivery beyond formal members. This approach will ensure that businesses, communities and experts across the UK have opportunities to inform strategy, share best practices and help shape the transition. 

    Statements from Net Zero Council and Delivery Group members  

    Bev Cornaby, Director of the UK Corporate Leaders Group (CLG UK), said:

    The relaunch of the Net Zero Council marks an important step in strengthening collaboration between government, business, civil society, and local government to accelerate the UK’s transition to net zero. Businesses are ready to lead, invest, and innovate, but they need the right policy framework and long-term clarity to unlock the full potential of a clean, competitive economy. The UK Corporate Leaders Group welcomes the opportunity to bring business leadership and ambition to the Council, supporting accelerated delivery and ensuring that government strategies are informed by real-world insights and that industry can play a central role in delivering a net zero future.

    David Thomas, Chief Executive of Barratt Redrow, said:  

    I’m pleased to join the Net Zero Council at a critical time for the environment and as we scale up to build the new high quality, energy efficient homes the UK desperately needs. 

    Government has set out its clear ambition to shift to clean energy, meanwhile the homebuilding industry is making good progress towards delivering net zero homes and places – but we must unite behind one plan and work together to build a sustainable future.

    Minnie Moll, Chief Executive of the Design Council, said:   

    I am honoured to join the Net Zero Council to contribute to this crucial national mission and represent the voice of design as a transformative tool for innovation. Design has the power to cut across sectors, fuelling innovative thinking, embracing circular approaches, and turning the challenges of climate change into opportunities for economic growth, improved quality of life, and a cleaner, more sustainable future for all. We are excited to bring our expertise to this ambitious mission and support the UK’s leadership in becoming a clean energy superpower.

    John Scanlon, Chief Executive Officer for SUEZ recycling and recovery UK said: 

    I am delighted to bring SUEZ’s expertise in the circular economy to the Net Zero Council. Often unseen, the work of the waste and resources sector sits at the core of the delivery of the Industrial Strategy – at the same time as we are taking steps to decarbonise our own operations, the sector is helping other sectors to decarbonise by providing secondary resources for manufacturing, and energy and fuels for transport, homes and industry. A resource efficient economy is a thriving economy and I’m looking forward to working in partnership with industry peers to advance the Government’s mission to become a Clean Energy Superpower.

    Ian Simm, Founder & Chief Executive, Impax Asset Management said:  

    It’s very encouraging to see the Net Zero Council relaunched and I welcome the decision to expand its membership to include representatives from civil society and local government. The Council has a vital role to play at a moment when pivotal decisions are being made that will decide the future shape of the UK economy, not least on housing, infrastructure, and energy supply. I look forward to providing an investor’s view regarding how the Council can maximise its impact and effectiveness, both in helping to shape the shift to a net-zero economy and in supporting the Government’s broader and much needed growth agenda.

     Jennifer Beckwith, Senior Manager, CBI, said: 

    Accelerating to net zero and achieving growth is society’s defining economic challenge – one that can only be achieved through industry and government partnership. Inaction on the transition is costlier than action and business wants to play its part in achieving sustainable growth. 

    Increasing decarbonisation beyond the power sector is the big opportunity to grow clean energy markets, scale infrastructure and advance green technologies. The government leading collaboration across business and finance sectors powerfully signals to investors a focus on delivery that can help get capital moving.

    Ed Lockhart, Convenor, Broadway Initiative, said: 

    UK businesses need certainty, including on the transition to a clean energy future, to invest, grow and ultimately improve living standards. 

    By launching the Net Zero Council aligned to the clean energy mission, the Government is providing a much-needed platform for the business community, financial institutions, civil society and Government to work in partnership on a shared and inclusive long-term plan. 

    The Broadway Initiative looks forward to bringing business and environmental organisations together to make the most of this opportunity.

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    Updates to this page

    Published 5 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Man Pleads Guilty in Connection with $17 Million Medicare Hospice Fraud and Home Health Care Fraud Schemes

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

    A California man pleaded guilty today to health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering in connection with a years-long scheme to defraud Medicare of more than $17 million through sham hospice companies and his home health care company.

    According to court documents, Petros Fichidzhyan, 43, of Granada Hills, engaged in a scheme with others to operate a series of sham hospice companies. Fichidzhyan, along with co-schemers, impersonated the identities of foreign nationals to use as the purported owners of the hospices — including using the identities to open bank accounts and sign property leases — and submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for hospice services that were not medically necessary and not provided. In submitting the false claims, Fichidzhyan and his co-schemers also misappropriated the identifying information of doctors, claiming to Medicare that the doctors had determined hospice services were necessary, when in fact the purported recipients of these hospice services were not terminally ill and had never requested nor received care from the sham hospices. As a result of the scheme, Medicare paid the sham hospices nearly $16 million. Fichidzhyan personally received nearly $7 million of the proceeds from the fraud scheme, including more than $5.3 million in transfers to his personal and business bank accounts, which were laundered through a dozen shell and third-party bank accounts. Fichidzhyan additionally admitted to wrongfully obtaining more than $1 million for his home health care agency through the fraudulent use of a doctor’s name and identifying information in certifying Medicare beneficiaries for home health care, which he attempted to cover up by paying the doctor $11,000.

    Fichidzhyan pleaded guilty to health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 14 and faces a mandatory penalty of two years in prison on the aggravated identity theft charge, a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the health care fraud charge, and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the money laundering charge. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    Today’s guilty plea is the most recent conviction in the Justice Department’s ongoing effort to combat hospice fraud in the greater Los Angeles area. Last year, a doctor was convicted at trial for his role in a scheme to bill Medicare for hospice services patients did not need, and two other defendants were sentenced for their roles in a hospice fraud scheme.  

    Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Diane N. Vu of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Los Angeles Regional Office made the announcement.

    The FBI and HHS-OIG are investigating the case.

    Trial Attorneys Eric C. Schmale and Sarah E. Edwards of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.

    The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,800 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Economics: coincapitals.net and easyinvestingpro.com: BaFin warns against websites

    Source: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – In English

    The operators of the websites appear under the names CoinCapitals and EasyInvestingPro, without using a legal form. They do not provide any information about their place of business.

    Recently, a large number of websites with almost identical content have already come to light, and BaFin has also issued warnings about these. In the vast majority of, cases the presentation on the websites begins with the following sentence: “Step into the trading arena with confidence & [name of website]”. However, this introductory sentence has been changed in some cases, as on the website easyinvestingpro.com, to: “Step into the world of trading with [name of website]” or “Step confidently into the world of trading with [name of website]”. However, the rest of the content on the websites has remained essentially the same.

    Anyone offering financial or investment services or crypto-asset services in Germany requires a license from BaFin. However, some companies offer such services without the required license. Information on whether a particular company is authorized by BaFin can be found in the company database.

    The information provided by BaFin is based on Section 37 (4) of the German Banking Act (KWG) and Section 10 (7) of the German Crypto Markets Supervision Act (KMAG).

    Please be aware:

    BaFin, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt – BKA) and the German state criminal police offices (Landeskriminalämter) recommend that consumers seeking to invest money online should exercise the utmost caution and do the necessary research beforehand in order to identify fraud attempts at an early stage.

    MIL OSI Economics –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Fresno Man with Prior Fraud Conviction Pleads Guilty to Running a $4.2 Million Fraud Scheme Through His Technology Startup

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

    FRESNO, Calif. — Royce Newcomb, 62, of Fresno, pleaded guilty today to wire fraud and money laundering charges today for a long-running fraud scheme where he stole $4.2 million from investors, lenders, and the federal government, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced.

    According to court documents, from 2017 through 2022, Newcomb owned Strategic Innovations, which was a technology startup company that purported to make smart home and business products meant to stop package theft, prevent weather damage to packages, and make it easier for emergency responders and delivery services to find homes and businesses. Newcomb developed prototypes of his products and received local and national media attention for them. For example, Time Magazine included his eLiT Address Box & Security System, which used mobile networks to pinpoint home and business locations, on its Best Inventions of 2021 list.

    Newcomb made several false representations to his investors to deceive and cheat them out of their money. The false representations included that he had been awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation and that he would use the investors’ money to further develop and bring his products to market. That was not true. Instead, Newcomb used the money to pay for gambling, a Mercedes and Jaguar, and a mansion. He also used the money to pay for refunds to other investors who wanted out, and to pay for new, unrelated projects without the investors’ authorization.

    During this period, Newcomb also received a fraudulent COVID-19 loan for more than $70,000 from the Small Business Administration and fraudulent loans for more than $190,000 from private lenders. He lied about Strategic Innovations having hundreds of thousands and even millions in revenue to get these loans.

    Newcomb was previously convicted federally in 2011 for running a real estate fraud scheme in Sacramento. He was sentenced to more than five years in prison for that offense, and he was on federal supervised release for that offense when he committed the offenses charged in this case.

    This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Barton and Jeffrey Spivak are prosecuting the case.

    Newcomb is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5, 2025. Newcomb faces maximum statutory penalties of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the wire fraud charge, and 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the money laundering charge. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

    This effort is part of a California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force operation, one of five interagency COVID-19 fraud strike force teams established by the U.S. Department of Justice. The California Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources in the Eastern and Central Districts of California and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors. The strike forces use prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds. 

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: New Orleans Man Sentenced for Federal Drug and Weapons Offenses

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

    NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA –KENDRICK WILLIAMS (“WILLIAMS”), age 20, was sentenced on January 27, 2025 by U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey to 90 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release, along with a $300 mandatory special assessment fee, after previously pleading guilty to possession with intent to distribute tapentadol and possession with intent to distribute tapentadol and marijuana, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(C), and 841(b)(1)(D); and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(c)(1)(A)(i).

    According to court documents, WILLIAMS advertised the sale of tapentadol and marijuana on social media.  Law enforcement officers executed two search warrants at WILLIAMS’s residence and recovered over 800 tapentadol pills, one pound of marijuana, two Glock handguns, a Glock Model 23, .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol and a Glock Model 19x, 9mm caliber semi-automatic pistol, with extended magazines, and over $9,000 in cash.

    This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

    The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Orleans Police Department.  Assistant United States Attorney David Berman of the Violent Crime Unit is in charge of the prosecution.

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Former SCDC Captain Pleads Guilty to $279,000 Bribery Conspiracy

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

    COLUMBIA, S.C. —Christine Mary Livingston, 47, of Gaston, has pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud conspiracy for her role in a bribery scheme in a South Carolina prison.

    According to evidence presented in court, the investigation revealed that Livingston was a 16-year veteran of the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) at the time of her resignation in November 2021. By virtue of her position as Captain at the Broad River Correctional Institute (BRCI) from 2016 through 2021, she managed security operations at BRCI and was responsible for enforcing contraband policy and law.  SCDC policy and state law prohibited her from accepting bribes or anything of value to influence the exercise of her official responsibilities.

    From July 2018 through November 2021, however, Livingston accepted bribes from a least 45 prisoners and three family members of prisoners in exchange for smuggling contraband into BRCI and in exchange for failing to enforce contraband law and policy. She operated at least 14 peer-to-peer payment accounts on platforms such as Cash App that were established in false names but were linked to her legitimate bank accounts. One of her Cash App accounts received at least $279,000 in bribes, of which more than $225,000 was transferred to her personal bank accounts.  She then used the proceeds for personal enrichment including on shopping, ATM cash withdraws, and the purchase of cryptocurrency.

    At least 173 cell phones were purchased by Livingston on her personal Amazon account during the conspiracy, along with 130 SIM cards and phone accessories, headphones, screen protectors, and phone chargers. At least eight witnesses would have cooperated against Livingston at trial, including family members of prisoners, and records obtained from Facebook and contraband phones recovered by SCDC confirmed the bribery scheme.

    “Livingston used her position and rank for personal, criminal gain which endangered other staff members and those housed at Broad River Correctional Institute,” said U.S. Attorney Adair Ford Boroughs for the District of South Carolina. “We will continue to work with SCDC to prosecute those who commit crimes within prison walls.”

    “This is one more example of how illegal cellphones ruin lives, including those of correctional officers who get involved in the contraband trade,” SCDC Director Bryan Stirling said. “We appreciate the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office investigating and prosecuting this case and holding these criminals accountable for their actions.”

    Jerell Reaves, a co-defendant and prisoner responsible for more than $42,000 in bribes to Livingston, was recently sentenced to 60 months imprisonment by United States District Judge Sherri A. Lydon, to be followed by three years of supervision by U.S. Probation.

    Livingston faces up to 20 years in federal prison, with the Government agreeing to recommend up to eight years as a part of her plea agreement, to be followed by court ordered supervision, $250,000 in monetary penalties, and forfeiture of assets including up to the full value of the bribes. Livingston is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Sherri A. Lydon on June 30 at 10:00 a.m.

    The case was investigated by the FBI Columbia Field Office and the SCDC Office of Inspector General.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elliott B. Daniels and Michael Shedd are prosecuting the case.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Columbus Man Admits Attempted Transfer of Obscene Material to Minor in Undercover Investigation

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

    BILLINGS — A Columbus man accused of attempting to send obscene material to a minor during an undercover investigation admitted to a charge today, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.

    The defendant, Jacob Curtis Wyckoff, 25, pleaded guilty to an information charging him with attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor. Wyckoff faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

    U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan presided. A sentencing date will be set before U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Wyckoff was released pending further proceedings.

    In court documents, the government alleged that in January 2023, law enforcement in the Billings area set up an undercover operation relating to those with a sexual interest in children. The undercover persona was that of a 14-year-old female. The undercover posed on a social media site and on Jan. 26, 2023, Wyckoff reached out on KIK, using the profile name of “Jake Smith.” The undercover made Wyckoff aware in communications that she was “almost 15.” In communications between the two from January 2023 to July 14, 2023, discussions became increasingly sexual in nature. On multiple occasions, Wyckoff expressed a desire to meet the “child” for a sexual encounter. On July 6, 2023, Wyckoff sent the undercover a picture of his allegedly erect penis in his jeans and made sexually suggestive comments.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case. The FBI, Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office, Laurel Police Department, and Montana Division of Criminal Investigations conducted the investigation.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.

    XXX

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI: RapidCents Enhances Merchant Payment Processing and Chargeback Protection with DeepSeek AI

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TORONTO, Feb. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

    RapidCents, the payment processing platform, that specializes in secure transactions and automated billing, has announced an expansion to better serve merchants across North America. The investment aims to cover the development of the application and the investment of USD 500,000 in advanced AI infrastructure and specialized hardware + GPUs, according to the organization, which was led by Founder and CEO Mani Rahnama.

    As a result, Rahnama says this major investment in machine learning is expected to lead to major advances in fraud protection, chatbot assistance, security, and marketing. These developments — which Rahnama said condensed projected timelines — explained that “There’s a growth roadmap that could have taken two to three years is now deliverable in less than six months with our AI platform. And we are doubling down on our company to accelerate progress and better serve our merchants.”

    Virtual Terminals: Process Payments on-the-go
    The RapidCents platform today includes an intuitive virtual terminal that allows merchants to take payments from anywhere. This function is advantageous for businesses with orders from the phone or email and those with no point-of-sale system. The solution seeks to empower companies of all sizes with fast and transparent payment experiences, by enabling merchants to securely accept credit cards regardless of location.

    Subscription Payments: Automated Billing
    Recurring billing is important for many subscription-based businesses, fitness facilities, and SaaS providers. RapidCents automates these recurring payment cycles with the least human participation. Its service is designed to allow businesses to automate billing and minimize mistakes, better manage cash flow, and keep customers in the longer term.

    Introduction to Chargeback Protection
    “Chargebacks can have a serious impact on a business operation, and erode trust,” Rahnama said. “RapidCents significantly reduces this risk by including in its low-fee payment processor over 70 machine-learning-based fraud-detection parameters. Such an approach helps maintain compliance, limit financial losses, and protect merchants’ revenue streams.”

    Integrated Engineering Capabilities and customized Solutions
    RapidCents enables integration with popular platforms such as WooCommerce and Microsoft 365 via simple plug-ins or sophisticated API connections. Key features of the platform include multi-currency support, subscription management, and detailed analytics. This payment plugin empowers businesses to tailor payment flows to meet their specific requirements while also maintaining a regulatory balance via a built-in chargeback prevention system.

    Investing in AI infrastructure in a smart way
    The recent Investment in AI hardware and GPUs by RapidCents supports the machine learning program through DeepSeek V3, 671B. The technology, already in immersive heavy training, boosts chatbot functions or security protocols, fraud detection even marketing. According to Rahnama, the initiative allows for more rapid and resilient growth across various aspects of the company, noting that future iterations of RapidCents will now be able to deploy “in a month” which would take years without AI.

    About RapidCents
    RapidCents is a payment processing solution that includes secure virtual terminals, automated recurring billing, and powerful chargeback protection. Through AI-guided attributes and advanced crypto security protocols, RapidCents is built to help merchants from all verticals who need fast, scalable, and secure payment options. Users can learn more, by visiting https://rapidcents.com.

    Contact

    Carlo
    John
    RapidCents Inc
    ea@rapidcents.com
    +1 (844) 957-2743

    Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

    https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d3bc921d-f303-4d8e-ae74-5f4e51820cec

    https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/339b627d-b63c-4372-8d93-9bca6721b383

    The MIL Network –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI USA: Durbin Leads Judiciary Committee Colleagues In Speaking Out Against Pam Bondi’s Nomination To Be Attorney General

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin

    February 04, 2025

    Durbin’s and Judiciary Democrats’ floor speeches come ahead of Bondi’s confirmation vote and after the Trump Administration forced out dozens of DOJ and FBI officials this weekend and is now threatening additional action against thousands of employees across the country who worked on investigations related to January 6 and President Trump

    WASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke out against Pam Bondi, President Trump’s Attorney General nominee, ahead of her confirmation vote. In his remarks, Durbin cited concerns over Ms. Bondi’s ability to act as an independent Attorney General. These concerns are especially pertinent as the Trump Administration purges dozens of senior career civil servants at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)—including longtime nonpartisan leaders of the government’s counterterrorism and counterespionage efforts—further exemplifying the need for an independent DOJ.

    Durbin was joined on the Senate floor by Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to speak out against Ms. Bondi’s nomination before the Senate proceeds to her confirmation vote.

    “Shortly, Senate Republicans will confirm the nomination of Pam Bondi to serve as Attorney General and lead the Department of Justice in the new Administration. Yesterday, I came to the Senate floor to discuss the Trump Administration’s decision to purge Justice Department officials and warn that Ms. Bondi’s record suggests that she will aid in this effort to pack the Department of Justice with loyalists seeking retribution against President Trump’s political rivals,” Durbin said. “Since the Watergate era, there has been bipartisan support for the principle that the Department of Justice investigations and prosecutions must be independent from the White House. Over the years, both Republicans and Democrats have asked many individuals seeking the office of Attorney General one basic question—would you be willing to tell the President ‘no?’ Given that Ms. Bondi—when speaking about President Trump’s criminal indictments—threatened ‘the prosecutors will be prosecuted’ and ‘the investigators will be investigated,’ I have serious doubts about her willingness to really say ‘no’ to this President.”

    Durbin went on to outline that his concerns are even more pressing because, over the last 16 days, the Trump Administration has purged dozens of senior career law enforcement officials at the Department of Justice and FBI. This purge has been particularly focused on dedicated, nonpartisan prosecutors and investigators working in the National Security Division and the FBI.

    “On its first day, the Trump Administration removed or reassigned as many as 20 experienced professionals with invaluable national security expertise without any comparable replacements, including the veteran career deputy assistant attorneys general in the National Security Division… Those who have been reassigned are reportedly being put in roles concerning immigration enforcement, for which they have little expertise… Since then, dozens more senior officials have been removed,” Durbin said. “This shameless partisan retribution is only the beginning. It has been reported that the future FBI Director will be guided by an advisory committee composed of solely partisan political operators, including an associate of Elon Musk… These actions will cripple FBI field offices and U.S. Attorneys’ offices across the country by increasing the caseload for the remaining agents, dramatically slowing down critical investigations and prosecutions.”

    Durbin continued, “As America faces a heightened threat landscape, these shocking removals and reassignments of hundreds of employees deprive the Department of Justice and the FBI of experienced leadership and decades of experience fighting violent crime, espionage, and terrorism.”

    Durbin concluded, “For years, my Republican colleagues have claimed they ‘Back the Blue,’ and accused Democrats of being ‘soft on crime.’ We’ve heard it over and over and over. But now, as President Trump is gutting our nation’s law enforcement agencies and putting our national security at risk, my Republican colleagues do not complain—they are nowhere to be found. Instead of condemning these actions, they will likely come to the Senate floor tonight and confirm an individual to lead the Department of Justice who is in lockstep with this policy of President Trump—and was chosen for the role specifically because she’s loyal. I urge my colleagues to consider what a danger President Trump and Pam Bondi present to this nation. I will oppose her confirmation and hope my colleagues will do the same.”

    Video of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.

    Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.

    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI USA: Durbin Votes Against Pam Bondi To Be Attorney General

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin

    February 04, 2025

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today voted against President Trump’s pick to be Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi. The Senate voted to confirm her nomination by a vote of 54-46.

    “Given the massive upheaval that President Trump has caused at the Justice Department in just his first few days in office—including purging dozens of senior career law enforcement officials at DOJ and FBI and the potentially unlawful targeting of thousands more—the next Attorney General will have her work cut out for her. As I said during Ms. Bondi’s hearing, it is absolutely critical that any nominee for Attorney General be committed first and foremost to the Constitution and the American people—not the President and his political agenda. Unfortunately, I am unconvinced that Ms. Bondi shares my belief. She is one of four personal lawyers of President Trump that he has already selected for top positions at the Department of Justice, has echoed President Trump’s calls for exacting revenge on his political opponents, and has undermined our democracy by joining in President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

    “In light of the Trump Administration’s actions over the course of the past week, the question of whether Ms. Bondi will be able to tell the President ‘no’ is even more critical. I did not receive a satisfactory answer from Ms. Bondi during her confirmation hearing. Since Watergate, there has been bipartisan support for the idea that the Justice Department must be independent from the White House. President Trump’s conduct during his first term underscored the need for this independence. I do not believe that Ms. Bondi will provide it. Today I voted ‘no’ on her nomination.”

    To view Durbin’s questions to Ms. Bondi in her confirmation hearing, click here and here.

    Yesterday, Durbin led all Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats in letters to Ms. Bondi; nominee to be the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel; nominee to be Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche; as well as the Acting Attorney General, James McHenry; and Acting FBI Director, Brian Driscoll, about the removal or reassignment across DOJ and FBI of career law enforcement officials. Last week, the Trump Administration reportedly purged dozens of DOJ and FBI officials involved in prosecuting Donald Trump and the January 6 rioters and is now threatening additional action against thousands of employees across the country who worked on investigations related to the attack on the Capitol.

    Durbin also outlined concerns regarding her nomination in a speech on the Senate floor yesterday.

    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Rochester Woman Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud, Money Laundering in Feeding Our Future Scheme

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)

    MINNEAPOLIS – A Rochester woman pleaded guilty for her role in the $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick.

    According to court documents, from approximately December 2020 through January 2022, Ayan Jama, 45, knowingly participated in a scheme to defraud a federal child nutrition program designed to provide free meals to children in need. Rather than feed children, the defendants took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic—and the resulting program changes—to enrich themselves by fraudulently misappropriating millions of dollars in federal child nutrition program funds.

    According to court documents, Jama was one of the principals of Brava Rochester in Rochester, Minnesota. In September 2020, Jama’s Brava Restaurant and Aimee Bock applied for enrollment in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Bock’s non-profit, Feeding Our Future. A co-conspirator enrolled Brava Restaurant in the Federal Child Nutrition Program after the co-conspirator first prepared application paperwork at the direction of Salim Said, the co-owner of Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, which was another business involved in the scheme to defraud the food program.

    From late 2020 through 2021, Jama and other conspirators claimed Brava Restaurant was serving approximately 2,000 to 3,000 daily breakfasts and lunches to children, for which they fraudulently claimed and received millions of dollars in federal child nutrition program funds. To accomplish his scheme, Jama and her co-conspirators submitted fake attendance rosters purporting to list the names of children who purportedly received their food at sites. These rosters were fraudulent in that the names on them were fake or did not correctly reflect the number of children that were fed.

    According to her plea agreement entered today, Jama claimed Brava Restaurant had served more than 1.7 million meals in Rochester as part of the Federal Child Nutrition Program in a little over one year, a number substantially higher than the actual number of meals served. Based on these fraudulent claims, Feeding Our Future paid out over $5.3 million in federal child nutrition program reimbursements for meals purportedly served to children by the defendant and her co-conspirators. Jama knew her receipt of such funds was fraudulent because she and other conspirators intentionally submitted inflated meal counts. Jama’s Brava Restaurant ultimately received $4.3 million directly from Feeding Our Future and over $900,000 from Safari Restaurant, co-owned by Salim Said.

    As part of their scheme, Jama and her conspirators coordinated the establishment of shell companies through which they received and dispersed funds from the federal child nutrition program. Specifically, on January 7, 2021, Salim Said paid to register six different shell companies with the state of Minnesota for Jama and others. For Jama, Salim Said paid to register East Africa LLC. In 2021, Jama deposited at least $407,070 in misappropriated Federal Child Nutrition Program funds into her East Africa LLC bank accounts.

    Jama used the federal child nutrition funds to pay for personal expenditures unrelated to feeding children, including $254,041 to purchase a home located in Rochester, Minnesota, $168,000 to purchase a home located in Columbus, Ohio, and $356,795 to purchase property on the Mediterranean Coast in Alanya, Turkey.

    Jama pleaded guilty last Friday in U.S. District Court before Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Her sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date.

    The case is the result of an investigation by the FBI, IRS – Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew S. Ebert, Joseph H. Thompson, and Harry M. Jacobs are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Baune is handling the seizure and forfeiture of assets.

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Russia: IMF Executive Board Concludes 2024 Article IV Consultation with Chile

    Source: IMF – News in Russian

    February 5, 2025

    Washington, DC: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation[1] with Chile on February 3, 2025 and endorsed the staff appraisal without a meeting on a lapse-of-time basis.[2]

    The economy’s imbalances have been largely resolved. Real GDP is expected to expand by 2.2 percent in 2024, close to its potential pace, driven by the strong mining and service exports, and 2-2.5 percent in 2025, related to an expected recovery in domestic demand. However, the recovery has been uneven across industries, with the construction sector lagging and the unemployment rate remaining high. Inflation is set to return to the 3-percent target in early 2026, after the impact of the significant increase in electricity tariffs between June 2024 and early 2025 subsides. The current account deficit has continued to narrow and is projected to reach around 2½ percent of GDP in 2024 and 2025.

    External risks and uncertainty remain elevated. The commodity price volatility linked to the economic outlook of Chile’s main trading partners and the pace of the global green transition is a key external risk. Moreover, the uncertainty surrounding monetary and fiscal policies in advanced economies could lead to tight financial conditions for longer periods of time and higher financial volatility. Domestically, concerns about crime, migration, and inequality persist; and political polarization is hindering the structural reform progress.

    Policies have supported macroeconomic stability. The Central Bank of Chile lowered the monetary policy rate by 325 basis points since January 2024 to 5 percent in December 2024. The headline fiscal deficit is projected to reach 2.7 percent of GDP in 2024 due to a notable revenue underperformance and despite significant spending restraint compared to the budget. The 2025 budget envisions a notable deficit reduction within a medium-term fiscal plan toward a broadly balanced fiscal position by 2027. By setting the neutral level of the countercyclical capital buffer at 1 percent of risk-weighted assets with a gradual and state-contingent implementation path from the current level of 0.5 percent, the Central Bank of Chile has provided banks with planning certainty for strengthening financial resilience.

    Executive Board Assessment

    The economy is broadly balanced but external risks are elevated. Chile’s macroeconomic position is sound due to its very strong fundamentals, policies, and policy frameworks. Real GDP is growing around its potential and inflation is expected to reach the 3-percent target in early 2026. The current account deficit has continued to narrow, and the 2024 external position is assessed as moderately weaker than implied by medium-term fundamentals. Public debt is still relatively low and sustainable with high probability. However, the external environment is unstable and uncertain, which calls for policies that further strengthen economic buffers to provide additional policy space for future shocks.

    Lifting Chile’s growth potential is a must to raise living standards and tackle social and fiscal pressures. Taking a consultative approach, the government is advancing several growth initiatives, including: (i) expediting investment permit applications and environmental evaluations to encourage investment, (ii) fostering the development of emerging industries, particularly those related to renewable energy to maximize the benefits from the global green transition, and (iii) facilitating R&D. Swift and consistent implementation of these initiatives is crucial, especially in rationalizing the regulatory burden and improving essential infrastructure. Additionally, better integrating women into the labor market could partially offset the unfavorable demographic trends. The proposed new development bank requires a targeted mandate, sound risk management practices, and robust corporate governance.

    The goal of a broadly balanced fiscal position by 2027 remains appropriate but has become more challenging. The authorities’ commitment to fiscal restraint by adjusting spending plans in 2024 and 2025 is welcome. To achieve a balanced fiscal position over the next three years, a gap of at least 1 percent of GDP needs to be filled. This could be achieved largely from the important tax compliance law if its implementation yields the planned additional revenue and is not used for new spending initiatives. It is therefore crucial to carefully monitor developments in tax compliance and remain flexible to adjust current spending in case revenue mobilization falls short of plans, while aiming to preserve public investment outlays in support of medium-term growth. Ensuring that any structural spending increases align with higher structural revenues is vital for fiscal sustainability, while unifying fragmented social programs could enhance access and effectiveness for the most vulnerable.

    Continuous enhancements to Chile’s already very strong fiscal framework would foster fiscal policy formulation and transparency. For instance, providing more details on debt-creating flows outside the fiscal deficit (“below-the-line” items) would strengthen the monitoring of fiscal pressures. Updating fiscal forecasting methods, in line with the government’s plans, could improve revenue projections in the context of economic and policy shifts. Adopting a medium-term strategy to rebuild the size of the Economic and Social Stabilization Fund (ESSF) would help provide resources to respond to future shocks. Finally, simplifying the presentation of the fiscal targets and budget execution in the Public Finance Report could deepen the understanding of the fiscal balance rule framework.

    A pension reform is essential to ensure adequate pensions and address the fiscal costs of population aging. Raising contribution rates and the number of contribution periods is vital for sustainably self-financing old-age pensions. The minimum guaranteed pension (PGU) has strengthened the system’s solidarity, increased replacement ratios, and reduced old-age poverty, but it also incurs high fiscal costs. With the ratio of pensioners to the working-age population set to nearly double in two decades, it is crucial to manage public spending pressures while maintaining a solid safety net. Targeting the PGU to the most vulnerable elderly, linking the retirement age to life expectancy, and implementing the proposed unemployment insurance for pension contributions could further strengthen the system.

    A cautious data dependent approach to the pace of monetary policy easing is warranted. The BCCh’s monetary policy adjustments have been in line with its inflation-targeting framework. The real monetary policy rate is close to its estimated neutral range. With near-term inflation risks tilted to the upside, future cuts to the policy rate should remain contingent on evidence that inflation is heading decisively back to its target.

    Rebuilding international reserve buffers is important for enhancing resilience. While the flexible exchange rate plays a critical role as a shock absorber, the Central Bank of Chile’s access to international liquidity can provide an additional shield against potential external shocks. This underscores the importance of incorporating a comprehensive international liquidity framework into the central bank’s longer-term financial stability strategy. The strategy and operational design should continue to follow high transparency standards, be persistent and robust to changes in external risks, and minimize distortions in the foreign exchange market.

    The financial system remains resilient despite rising vulnerabilities related to the real estate sector and lower financial market depth. The real estate sector is expected to recover modestly as long-term interest rates gradually decline, and there are several mitigants to credit risk associated with lending to this sector. Nevertheless, supervisors need to carefully monitor banks and insurers’ portfolio quality and buffers, including by closing commercial real estate data gaps and enhancing stress test models. Rebuilding the depth of local financial markets by increasing pension contributions, which would increase the pool of investable savings, is important to help reduce market volatility and sensitivity to shocks.

    Financial sector policies need to continue reinforcing resilience. The recent adoption of a positive neutral level of the counter-cyclical capital buffer with a gradual and state-contingent implementation provides banks with planning certainty. The ongoing implementation of Basel III capital and liquidity requirements needs to be completed. Prompt implementation of the Financial Market Resilience Law would enhance the BCCh’s ability to respond to financial distress situations. Other priorities continue to include adopting an industry-funded deposit insurance and a bank resolution framework, providing budget independence to the CMF, further enhancing bank corporate governance, and implementing the Consolidated Debt Registry.

    Table 1. Chile: Selected Economic Indicators, 2023-27

    GDP (2023), in trillions of pesos

    282

    Quota

    GDP (2023), in billions of U.S. dollars

    336

     

    in millions of SDRs

    1,744

    Per capita (2023), U.S. dollars

    16,815

     

    in % of total

     

    0.37

    Population (2023), in millions

    19.96

           

    Main products and exports

    Copper

           

    Key export markets

    China, U.S., Euro area

     

    Proj.

    2023

    2024

    2025

    2026

    2027

             

    Output

    (Annual percentage change, unless otherwise specified)

    Real GDP

    0.2

    2.2

    2.2

    2.3

    2.3

      Total domestic demand

    -4.2

    1.0

    2.4

    2.3

    2.3

    Consumption

    -3.9

    1.6

    1.9

    2.2

    2.1

    Fixed capital formation

    -1.1

    -1.0

    4.3

    3.4

    3.7

         Exports of goods and services

    -0.3

    5.5

    4.3

    4.7

    3.9

         Imports of goods and services

    -12.0

    1.2

    4.4

    4.3

    3.2

    Output gap (in percent)

    0.0

    -0.1

    -0.1

    0.0

    0.0

    Employment

    Unemployment rate (in percent, annual average)

    8.7

    8.5

    8.2

    8.0

    7.8

    Prices

    GDP deflator

    6.6

    6.0

    4.1

    2.9

    2.7

    Change of CPI (end of period)

    3.9

    4.5

    3.5

    3.0

    3.0

    Change of CPI (period average)

    7.6

    3.9

    4.2

    3.1

    3.0

    Public Sector Finances

    (In percent of GDP, unless otherwise specified)

    Central government revenue

    22.9

    22.1

    23.0

    23.8

    23.9

    Central government expenditure

    25.3

    24.8

    24.8

    24.7

    24.3

    Central government fiscal balance

    -2.4

    -2.7

    -1.8

    -0.8

    -0.4

    Central government structural fiscal balance 1/

    -3.4

    -3.1

    -2.1

    -1.2

    -0.5

    Central government gross debt

    39.4

    42.7

    43.7

    44.1

    43.5

    Public sector gross debt 2/

    70.2

    73.5

    74.5

    74.9

    74.4

    Balance of Payments

    Current account balance (% of GDP) 3/

    -3.5

    -2.3

    -2.5

    -2.5

    -2.7

    Foreign direct investment net flows (% of GDP) 3/

    -4.6

    -4.0

    -2.6

    -2.9

    -2.9

    Gross external debt (% of GDP) 4/

    71.1

    77.5

    76.5

    76.6

    75.7

    Sources: Central Bank of Chile, Ministry of Finance, Haver Analytics, and IMF staff calculations and projections.

    1/ The structural fiscal balance includes adjustments for output, copper prices, and lithium revenues based on IMF calculations. The lithium adjustment starts in 2022.

    2/ Includes liabilities of the central government, the Central Bank of Chile and public enterprises. Excludes Recognition Bonds.

    3/ Calculated as a share of US$ GDP.

    4/ Data from Dipres for the government and from BCCh for all other sectors. Calculated as a share of US$ GDP.

    [1] Under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country’s economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board.

    [2] The Executive Board takes decisions under its lapse-of-time procedure when the Board agrees that a proposal can be considered without convening formal discussions.

    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER: Jose Luis De Haro

    Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org

    @IMFSpokesperson

    https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2025/02/04/pr25027-chile-imf-executive-board-concludes-2024-article-iv-consultation

    MIL OSI

    MIL OSI Russia News –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer Delivers Remarks at Press Conference Announcing Criminal and Civil Actions Related to Unlawful Advertising and Sale of Dietary Supplements

    Source: United States Attorneys General 13

    Remarks as prepared for delivery

    Good afternoon.

    We are here today to explain critical steps the federal government is taking to stem the tide of unlawful dietary supplements being sold to consumers nationwide. 

    Almost every day, news sources on the Internet, television and in print feature stories about the dangers of dietary supplements:  A supplement is laced with an undeclared pharmaceutical ingredient.  A study is released about adverse health consequences of a so-called natural remedy.  An athlete or member of the military falls ill after taking an untested energy product.  These stories arise across the country all too often. 

    Consumers turn to supplements when they want to lose weight, get an edge in athletic performance, or improve their overall well-being.  From California to Maine, consumers ingest pills, powders and liquids every day, not knowing whether they are wasting money or whether they may end up harming, rather than helping, themselves.  Unfortunately, many of these products are not what they purport to be or cannot do what the distributors claim they can do.  In some instances, consumers might be choosing supplements over other, proven therapies for serious conditions under the mistaken belief that these products can help.

    I am honored to be joined at the podium today by my colleagues from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the Department of Defense (DoD), and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).  Today we are announcing a sweep of actions targeting unlawful dietary supplement makers and marketers.  Over the past year, we have pursued civil and criminal cases against more than 100 makers and marketers of dietary supplements and similar products. 

    A centerpiece of the sweep announced today is the indictment of USPlabs, relating to widely popular workout and weight loss supplements.  Bestselling dietary supplements, with names like Jack3d, OxyElite Pro, and OxyElite Pro “New Formula” and “Advanced Formula,” raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.

    As alleged in the indictment unsealed today, the defendants were on a perpetual search for the next miracle ingredient.  That search generally focused on Chinese chemical manufacturers.  When they found an ingredient that they believed was promising – and knowing full well how the market for dietary supplements operated – they doctored packaging, labeling, and other paperwork to defraud others about what the product was.  Much of the alleged fraud focused on the defendants’ claims that their products were made from natural plant extracts.  In truth, as one defendant put it, “lol stuff is completely 100 % synthethic [sic]”.

    These fraudulent claims ensured that the synthetic chemicals entered the United States, got on store shelves, and were purchased by consumers.  As alleged in the indictment, the defendants falsified paperwork to stay off the radar of regulatory agencies – when the products crossed the border and as they circulated in commerce.  They made misrepresentations to convince well-known retailers, who had concerns about untested synthetic chemicals, to sell their products.  They falsified labeling and marketing materials to convince consumers, who prized natural ingredients, to buy their products.  All of these people – regulators, retailers and consumers – trusted that the defendants were telling the truth about their products.  All of these people were deceived.

    This deception put lives at risk.  The indictment describes the safety testing – or, more accurately, the lack of safety testing – that the defendants undertook before hawking these factory-made stimulants.  For instance, the indictment alleges that the defendants sometimes tested the ingredients on themselves and sold the ones that made them feel good.  With one product, the defendants allegedly recognized that the substance could potentially cause “liver toxicity.”  Yet without conducting a single test to determine whether that substance was safe, they went ahead and sold it, working from the baseless assumption that they weren’t using enough of the substance in their products to cause problems. 

    But there were problems.  There was an outbreak of liver injuries allegedly associated with the OxyElite Pro New Formula.  Consumers experienced jaundice; several needed transplants to save their lives.  How did the defendants respond?  As the indictment alleges, they promised the FDA and the public that they would stop distributing the product at issue.  They didn’t.  Instead, they undertook a surreptitious, all-hands-on-deck effort to sell as much of the product as they could.

    We are here today, in part, to take an important step in holding USPlabs accountable for its actions.  The indictment unsealed today charges USPlabs in Texas, four of its executives, and one of its consultants with a series of crimes associated with the sale of dietary supplements.  Charged with these defendants is S.K. Laboratories based in Southern California, which manufactured many of USPlabs’ products, and one of S.K. Laboratories’ executives.  As noted, this is just a step.  All of the defendants will have their day in court.  Whatever the outcome, I am confident that the dedicated men and women – from the Department of Justice and the special agents from the FDA and IRS Criminal Investigation – who have worked so hard to bring us to this point will ensure that justice is served.

    The allegations against USPlabs and its operators should serve as a wake-up call to the supplement industry.  The unmistakable message is that the Department of Justice and its partners will be vigilant when it comes to the health and safety of the American public.  Fighting illegal activity in the dietary supplement industry is a high priority on our consumer protection agenda.

    The USPlabs case is only one of the many cases brought as part of the sweep announced today.  Over the past year, law enforcement and regulatory officials have focused efforts on many additional products that cause high levels of concern among health officials nationwide.

    Many of the cases we have brought relate to products that misrepresent the ingredients they contain. 

    We have also brought cases involving products that make unsupported claims about their effects.  In numerous matters, the defendants are selling products online through websites and touting their products to consumers for the cure, treatment, or prevention of diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease to herpes.  Making these disease cure claims defines these products as drugs under the law.  And even though they were warned by the FDA – and in some cases, through joint letters with the FTC – to stop making such claims, a number of the individuals and companies at issue continued to make these claims and promote their products as treatments or cures for diseases.  Yet these drugs lack substantial evidence of safety and effectiveness.  They are also being sold without adequate directions for their use.  Selling them in interstate commerce in these circumstances is illegal. 

    The government is taking a multi-faceted approach to combat the problem of unlawful dietary supplements.  In addition to criminal actions, we are using civil and administrative tools to safeguard consumers from harmful products.  As part of this sweep, the Department of Justice brought a dozen civil injunctive actions (including five in the last week) under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and in some cases, using the civil mail fraud injunction statute, seeking to stop the defendant entities and individuals from violating the law.  In these cases we are asking the courts to order the defendants to stop their illegal conduct and to put in place processes and procedures to prevent them from violating the law in the future.  Our partner agencies, including the FTC, FDA, USPIS, DoD and USADA, are taking other measures both to enforce the law and to educate the public.

    As I mentioned, I stand here in partnership with other agencies with whom we have joined forces to address this problem.  Through enforcement and education, each agency is performing its own mission to protect consumers or service members or athletes from dangerous, ineffective products.  You will hear more from my colleagues about the actions their agencies are taking.  Together, through cooperation and teamwork, we can multiply the impact of our efforts.  These actions will not put an end to this widespread problem.  But they will go some distance toward bringing change to the industry.

    We are not here to criticize the entire supplement marketplace.  Not every supplement contains an undisclosed ingredient.  Not every label lies about what is contained in the bottle.  Not every claim about dietary supplements is unsupported by scientific evidence.

    But consumers must be on guard before taking dietary supplements.  Oftentimes, it may be difficult or impossible to tell the conditions under which the supplements are manufactured, and it is challenging to sort through real scientific substantiation for a product as compared to unsupported hype.

    How can consumers perform their own due diligence? 

    Talk to your health care provider.  At physical exams, ask a physician whether the bottle seen on store shelves or on the Internet could cause you harm, or whether it is worth the money you are spending to buy it.

    Consult the public education materials provided by the FTC, FDA, DoD and USADA.  The FDA’s website, for example, includes tips for making informed decisions and evaluating dietary supplements, and the FTC’s website also has a wealth of information. 

    The Department of Defense and USADA have developed extraordinary tools, including a cell phone app, to help consumers make informed choices about supplements.

    This is only the beginning.  Thanks to the partnerships we have built, our efforts in this area will continue.  We will keep investigating violators and we will use all available tools at our disposal to advance our enforcement goals and to protect consumers.

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Director Tracy Toulou of the Office of Tribal Justice Testifies Before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Oversight Hearing “Tribal Law and Order Act (TLOA) — Five Years Later: How Have the Justice Systems in Indian Country Improved?”

    Source: United States Attorneys General 13

    Remarks as prepared for delivery

    Chairman Barrasso, Vice-Chairman Tester and Members of the Committee:

    I am honored to appear before you to discuss the implementation efforts of the Department of Justice to fulfill our responsibilities as established in the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 (TLOA) and, ultimately, to improve public safety in Indian country.  In introducing this Act in April 2009, Chairman Dorgan illuminated some of the hard realities faced by tribes in modern times, including: astonishingly high rates of violence, criminal exploitation of complex and sometimes confusing jurisdiction and crippling limitations on the legal authorities of tribal governments to ensure safety on their lands.  The introduction of TLOA included a charge to the federal government to provide tribal governments with the tools they need to better protect their communities, to live up to our treaty and trust obligations and to be more accountable for our efforts to enhance public safety in Indian country.  Thank you for the opportunity to provide an overview of the department’s efforts over the past five years to fulfill our responsibilities under this Act and honor our broader obligations to Indian country.  

    In October 2009, the department held a listening session with tribal leaders to help guide and inform the department’s policies, programs and activities affecting Indian country going forward.  Our leadership recognized the need to swiftly and meaningfully improve our contributions to public safety in Indian country and as a result of this listening session, launched a department-wide initiative to enhance public safety in Indian country, which is ongoing.  With the passage of TLOA in July 2010, the department’s initiative expanded to absorb new responsibilities and assumed a renewed sense of urgency.  Our work to enhance public safety has been and continues to be, shaped by our commitment to empower tribal governments; to improve coordination and collaboration at the federal, tribal, state and local levels; and to be appropriately accountable for the work we do.

    Empowering Tribal Governments

    The department views tribes as partners in ensuring public safety in Indian country and is committed to maximizing tribal control over tribal affairs.  It is our belief, informed by experience, that challenges faced by tribes are generally best met by tribal solutions.  In support of this commitment and the government-to-government nature of our relationships with tribes, the department has worked to fulfill its responsibilities under TLOA in a way that will ultimately empower tribes to operate with more autonomy.

    In order to support law enforcement activity by tribal officials in Indian country, tribes require access to law enforcement databases.  Under TLOA, the department must ensure that tribal law enforcement officials have access to national crime information databases.  The ability of tribes to fully engage in national criminal justice information sharing via state networks, which are the long-time conduit for such activities, has been dependent upon regulations, statutes and policies of the states that may not consistently enable tribal participation.  In order to improve access for tribes, the department has established two new programs and partnered on a third.

    First, the Justice Telecommunications System (JUST) program, which was launched in 2010, provided participating tribes with access to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).  This program is ongoing and currently serves 23 tribes.  This program, as well as the other two programs to improve data base access, were the result of on-going, substantive dialog with tribal governments and law enforcement.  

    Second, the department recently launched a more comprehensive access program based on feedback from tribes and lessons learned from the JUST program: the Department of Justice’s Tribal Access Program for National Crime Information (TAP).  The TAP program, first announced in August 2015, is designed to provide access to CJIS services, including: Next Generation Identification (NGI); National Data Exchange (N-DEx); Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP); National Crime Information Center (NCIC); National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS); and Nlets, the International Justice and Public Safety Network.  Nlets is an interstate public safety network for the exchange of law enforcement, criminal justice and public safety information owned by the states.  Nlets supports inquiry into state databases, such as motor vehicle, driver’s license and criminal history, as well as inquiry into several federal databases, such as Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Drug Pointer Index, ICE’s Law Enforcement Support Center and FAA’s Aircraft Registration and Canada’s Canadian Police Information Center.  With funding from the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART), the TAP program has selected ten tribal participants to help provide user feedback on the training, technical assistance, equipment, and maintenance of this program.  Early feedback has been very positive and it is our intention to eventually make this program available to any interested tribe.  We will continue to work with Congress for additional funding to more broadly deploy the program.

    The TAP Program was the result of a 2014 working group, which consisted of representatives from the Departments of Justice and the Interior.  From this same close collaboration, the department partnered with Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (BIA-OJS) in a third program known as  “BIA Purpose Code X,” which gives tribes the ability through BIA-OJS to perform emergency name-based background checks for child placement purposes.  This is a crucial capability for tribal social service agencies seeking emergency placement of children in Indian country.

    The Department of Justice has increased its efforts to support tribal governments that are exercising expanded sentencing authority rooted in TLOA.  While TLOA properly does not require the department to review or certify a tribe’s use of enhanced felony sentencing authority or the status of a tribe’s efforts to amend its codes and court processes to provide defendants with the due process protections described in TLOA, we have taken steps to help ensure that tribes interested in exercising enhanced sentencing authority have knowledge of and access to relevant resources.  For example, OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Tribal Civil and Criminal Legal Assistance Program has provided training and technical services to support tribal civil and criminal legal procedures, legal infrastructure enhancements, public education and the development and enhancement of tribal justice systems.  More specifically, training and technical services have included the following: indigent legal defense services; civil legal assistance; public defender services; and strategies for the development and enhancement of tribal court policies, procedures and codes.

    The provision of high-quality training to tribal representatives has been an area of increased activity within the department since the passage of TLOA.  The department believes that ensuring access to quality training is a necessary element to bolstering tribal autonomy.  In July 2010, the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA) launched the National Indian Country Training Initiative (NICTI) to ensure that federal prosecutors and agents, as well as state and tribal criminal justice personnel, receive the training and support needed to address the particular challenges relevant to Indian country prosecutions.  Importantly, the department covers the costs of travel and lodging for tribal attendees at classes sponsored by the NICTI. This allows many tribal criminal justice officials to receive cutting-edge training from national experts at no cost to the student or tribe.  The NICTI has sponsored approximately 75 training courses, and reached over 200 tribal, federal and state agencies.

    Additionally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced a forthcoming training course to be held at the FLETC campus in Artesia, New Mexico.  Jointly taught by FBI and BIA “mentors” and FLETC common core instructors, the course will include instruction in forensic evidence collection and preparatory instruction on investigations common to Indian country, such as domestic violence, child abuse, violent crimes, human trafficking and drug trafficking.  This course will be held four times each year, with a total of 24 students in each session.  This course, the result of collaboration between FBI, BIA and FLETC, was developed out of a recognized need to train federal and tribal law enforcement officers together.  Another recent training was held by the DEA.  In September 2015, the National Native American Law Enforcement Association held a collaborative training event where the DEA provided on-site training on clandestine lab awareness for first responders, emerging technologies, and money laundering.  The training included federal, state, local, and tribal partners with Indian country responsibility.   

    One of the most meaningful displays of the department’s commitment to a government-to-government relationship with tribes is in our efforts to cross-deputize tribal law enforcement officials.  In doing so, we not only expand their authorities, but we send an important message that we are partners and allies with tribes in our collective efforts to enhance public safety in Indian country.  The Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (SAUSA) Program was developed prior to the passage of TLOA to train tribal prosecutors in federal criminal law, procedure and investigative techniques to increase prosecutions in federal court, tribal court, or both.  The program enables tribal prosecutors to bring cases in federal court and to serve as co-counsel with federal prosecutors on felony investigations and prosecutions of offenses originating in tribal communities.  The program has grown considerably since the passage of TLOA.  To date, there are 25 SAUSAs representing 23 tribes.  In addition to the SAUSA program, the Department of Justice investigative agencies have cross-deputized tribal law enforcement officers through joint task forces.  For example, the FBI has deputized 85 tribal law enforcement officers as part of the Safe Trails Task Forces.  There are currently 15 active Safe Trails Task Forces located around the country, working to combat violent crime, drugs, gangs and gaming violations. 

    In 2014, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) fulfilled a key provision of TLOA by accepting certain tribal offenders sentenced in tribal courts for placement in BOP institutions.  The pilot program allowed any federally-recognized tribe to request that the BOP incarcerate a tribal member convicted of a violent crime under the terms of Section 234 of TLOA and authorized the BOP to house up to 100 tribal offenders at a time, nationwide.

    A fundamental goal of the BOP is to reduce future criminal activity by encouraging inmates to participate in a range of programs that have been proven to help them adopt a crime-free lifestyle upon their return to the community.  Through the pilot program, tribal offenders have access to the BOP’s many self-improvement programs, including work in prison industries and other institution jobs, vocational training, education, treatment for substance use disorders, classes on parenting and anger management, counseling, religious observance opportunities and other programs that teach essential life skills.  BOP has also ensured that there are culturally-appropriate offerings for native inmates.  In addition to increasing access to critical programs and treatments, the pilot program facilitated tribes’ ability to exercise enhanced sentencing authority under TLOA, which is an important indication of support for tribal sovereignty.  The pilot program was, by all accounts, a success and both tribes and the department would be supportive of necessary Congressional action to reauthorize this program.

    An important part of our support to tribes is necessarily tied to funds.  The department launched the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) in 2010, as a response to tribes’ request for increased flexibility.  Through CTAS, tribes and tribal consortia are able to submit a single application to apply for a broad range of the Department of Justice tribal grant programs.  Through CTAS, the department has awarded over 1,400 grants totaling more than $620 million.  Over time, we have refined this solicitation to enable tribes to take a truly comprehensive approach to improving public safety in tribal communities.  Under TLOA, the department was required to offer specific grants for delinquency prevention and response and to include dedicated funding for regional information sharing.  To date, we have awarded more than $44 million in support of tribal youth programs and more than $108 million to support regional information sharing systems.  The department continually seeks feedback from tribes on ways to improve CTAS and each year with our solicitation announcement we also communicate steps we have taken during the previous year to improve the process.  The most recent solicitation was released on Nov. 19, 2015, with an application deadline of Feb. 23, 2016.  It incorporates a number of changes, including the elimination of certain eligibility requirements, broadening allowable activities and extending the award period for certain grants.  Each year, the intention is to increase the accessibility and usefulness of CTAS grants.   

    In parallel to our outward-facing efforts, the department has made a number of internal structural changes to ensure our revamped presence in Indian country is long-lived.

    Evolution of Agency Infrastructure 

    To ensure that the day-to-day operations at the department are supportive of the policy and programmatic changes we have made since the passage of TLOA, we have made a number of internal adjustments across the department, from headquarters to field offices.  The intent in making these changes was to absorb the principles that drive the TLOA and our response to that Act, thus integrating them into the way we do business at the department.  Indeed, although not a direct response to TLOA, the department issued Attorney General Guidelines Stating Principles for Working with Federally Recognized Tribes (Statement of Principles) in December 2014 to guide and inform all of the department’s interactions with federally-recognized tribes.  This Statement of Principles serves as a point of reference for department employees and, importantly, a standard to which tribes can hold the department accountable.  

    In 1995, then-Attorney General Janet Reno established the Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ).  OTJ has operated continuously since then, although it was not made permanent until the passage of TLOA.  On Nov. 17, 2010, less than four months after TLOA’s enactment, the department published in the Federal Register a final rule that established OTJ as a permanent, standalone component of the department.  My office serves as a principal point of contact in the department for federally-recognized tribes, provides legal, policy and programmatic advice to the Attorney General with respect to the treaty and trust relationship between the United States and Indian tribes, promotes internal uniformity of department policies and litigation positions relating to Indian country and coordinates with other federal agencies and with state and local governments on their initiatives in Indian country. 

    The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices with Indian country in their districts play a primary role in our interactions with tribes.  U.S. Attorneys’ Offices often are the nexus of activity when federal involvement on reservations is necessary, from investigations to prosecutions to providing services to victims.  Every U.S Attorney’s Office, whose district includes Indian country or a federally-recognized tribe, has at least one Tribal Liaison and some districts have more than one.  Along with the TLOA-driven requirement that each relevant office appoint a Tribal Liaison, the U.S. Attorneys are required to hold annual consultations with tribes in their districts.  In order to assist the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee’s Native American Issues Subcommittee, as well as to serve as a liaison to other department components, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys formally established the position of Native American Issues Coordinator.          

    These changes to the structure of the department were driven by the department’s support for and fulfillment of its responsibilities under TLOA.  There have been a series of policy shifts that are not a direct response to the Act but are in keeping with the spirit of that legislation.  For example, the issuance of the Department of Justice Statement of Principles, discussed earlier, marks an important shift in our approach at all levels of the department to interacting with tribes.  Similarly, the Department of Justice Consultation Policy is based on three guiding principles: that the department must engage with tribal nations on a government-to-government basis; that tribal sovereignty and Indian self-determination are now and must always be, the foundations of every policy or program; and that communication and coordination with our tribal partners, among federal agencies and with our state and local counterparts are essential to accountability and to success.

    Greater Accountability

    Accountability is a critical element in a true partnership and the department has taken a number of steps to increase our accountability to tribes.  The TLOA-mandated reports were intended to promote greater transparency of department activities in Indian country and the process of responding has been a useful exercise for our agency to scrutinize trends and patterns of activity.  In some cases, the reports have revealed a need to expand our agency response to meet specific needs and organize our resources more effectively, such as those related to long-term detention.  In other cases, the reporting process highlighted positive impacts that department activity has had in Indian country over time and a need to perpetuate beneficial initiatives, such as the BOP pilot program report and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Report.  In tracking prosecutions and crime data, the department has benefitted from taking a focused look at our response to trends in Indian country and as a result is in a better position to adjust our resources internally to address emerging trends and issues.

    The department has made progress over the past five years in bolstering our government-to-government relationship with tribes and in honoring our treaty and trust obligations.  We are all fully cognizant that there is significant work still to be done to live up to our responsibilities in Indian country and we are committed to seeing this work through.  We appreciate Congress’ efforts to foster public safety and look forward to working closely with our partners in Indian country to fully honor our responsibilities.  I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.    

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch Delivers Remarks at Press Conference Announcing Law Enforcement Action Related to FIFA

    Source: United States Attorneys General 13

    Remarks as prepared for delivery

    Good afternoon, and thank you all for being here.  I know for many of you, the horrific events of San Bernardino are at the top of your mind.  I do want to take a moment before we begin to address yesterday’s shooting.  The FBI has a leadership role in the investigation, working in conjunction with state and local law enforcement, as well as the ATF and U.S. Marshals Service.  And as this investigation unfolds, we intend to provide any and all assistance necessary to local authorities and to the people of San Bernardino who have been so profoundly affected by this unspeakable crime. 

    As I said this morning, I know that I stand with all Americans when I say that my thoughts and prayers – and those of my colleagues at every level of the Department of Justice – are with the families and loved ones of the victims, and with the brave public safety officials who put themselves in harm’s way in order to save others.

    I am joined today by U.S. Attorney [Robert] Capers of the Eastern District of New York, Director [James] Comey of the FBI and Chief of Investigation [Richard] Weber of the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division.  Six months ago, the Department of Justice announced a 47-count indictment charging 14 defendants with pervasive and long-running conspiracies in the world of organized soccer.  We alleged that the defendants – including high-ranking FIFA officials; leaders of governing bodies under the FIFA umbrella; and sports marketing executives – had corrupted the business of worldwide soccer to serve their interests and enrich themselves.  We stated our determination to end these practices; to root out corruption; and to bring wrongdoers to justice.  And we pledged to work with our partners around the world to hold additional co-conspirators and corrupt individuals accountable.

    Today, we are announcing a superseding indictment, which includes new charges against new defendants, as well as additional arrests and guilty pleas in connection with our ongoing investigation.  A federal grand jury in Brooklyn has returned a 92-count superseding indictment, which includes charges against 16 new defendants, all of whom are current or former soccer officials.  These defendants include the sitting presidents of two of FIFA’s six continental soccer confederations – CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean, and CONMEBOL, which covers South America.  Both of these defendants, Alfredo Hawit of Honduras and Juan Ángel Napout of Paraguay, are also FIFA vice presidents and members of its executive committee.  In addition, the superseding indictment charges high-ranking officials of other soccer governing bodies, including current and former presidents of national soccer federations in Central and South America.  Each of the 16 new defendants is charged with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes in connection with their sustained abuse of their positions for financial gain.

    Earlier today, Swiss authorities arrested two of the new defendants, Alfredo Hawit and Juan Angel Napout, as they gathered to attend FIFA meetings in Zurich.  We are now working to extradite those defendants to the United States, just as we are working to secure the arrest and extradition of additional defendants residing in other countries.

    In addition to naming new defendants, the superseding indictment also expands the bribery and corruption charges set forth in the original indictment unsealed last May.  In the original indictment, we alleged that between 1991 and the present, two generations of soccer officials conspired to solicit and receive well over $200 million, often through an alliance with sports marketing executives who sought to obtain lucrative contracts and shut out competitors through the systematic payment of bribes and kickbacks.  We also alleged bribes and kickbacks in connection with the sponsorship of the Brazilian soccer federation by a major U.S. sportswear company, the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 FIFA presidential election. 

    The new charges highlight corruption schemes principally involving soccer officials in Central and South America and sports-marketing companies based in South America and the United States.  Consistent with the intergenerational nature of the corruption schemes, they involve payments relating to tournaments that have already been played, as well as matches scheduled into the next decade – including multiple cycles of FIFA World Cup qualifiers and international friendly matches involving six Central American member associations; a bribery scheme relating to the sale of broadcasting rights implicating nearly all of the top CONMEBOL officials; and an Argentinian sports marketing company’s scheme to bribe Central American soccer officials.  Not content to hijack the world’s most popular sport for decades of ill-gotten gains, these defendants, as alleged, sought to institutionalize their corruption to ensure that it lived on, not for the good of the game but for their own personal aggrandizement and gain.

    The roles of several of the defendants in these schemes illustrate the depth as well as the persistence of the alleged corruption.  The defendant Héctor Trujillo currently serves as a judge on the Constitutional Court of Guatemala, purportedly dispensing justice by day while allegedly soliciting bribes and selling his influence within FIFA.  Another, Alfredo Hawit, ascended to the position of CONCACAF president that was left open when we charged his predecessor with corruption in May – and then, as alleged, assumed the mantle of those same corrupt practices.  The defendant Ariel Alvarado is a member of FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee, entrusted with stamping out the corrupt behavior in which he is now alleged to be involved. 

    The betrayal of trust set forth here is outrageous.  The scale of corruption alleged herein is unconscionable.  And the message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation: You will not wait us out.  You will not escape our focus. 

    Many have already heeded that warning.  Today, I can report that eight additional defendants have agreed to plead guilty for their involvement in the corruption schemes we have outlined.  After the initial charges were filed in May, these eight defendants came forward and accepted responsibility for their criminal conduct.  Five of them were not named in the original indictment.  As I have stated before, anyone who seeks to live in the past and to return soccer to its old ways is on the wrong side of progress, and does a disservice to the integrity of this beautiful sport.  The Department of Justice is committed to ending the rampant corruption we have described amidst the leadership of international soccer – not only because of the scale of the schemes alleged earlier and today, or the brazenness and breadth of the operation required to sustain such corruption, but also because of the affront to international principles that this behavior represents.

    After all, global sports like soccer exemplify, in FIFA’s own words, “unifying, educational, cultural and humanitarian values.”  They are one of the primary ways we teach our children about character, about fair play and about teamwork.  International tournaments promote understanding between nations, and embody an acknowledgement of our common humanity – something that is desperately important, particularly in these times of global challenge.  That’s why this investigation does more than address corruption in a worldwide sports organization.  It also reaffirms the ideals that have always guided our society – and, most importantly, our young people – toward the fair and just future they deserve.  This Department of Justice intends to uphold those values – throughout this ongoing investigation, and always.

    I want to thank our international partners – particularly the Swiss authorities – for the close cooperation and invaluable assistance they continue to provide.  They have been instrumental in bringing these wrongdoers to justice and helping to restore the integrity of a vital athletic tradition.  Today’s action also relied on the tireless work of federal investigators and prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, in the FBI’s New York Field Office and in the Los Angeles Field Office of the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division.  I am so grateful to all of the agents, analysts and attorneys who continue to devote their time and their talents to this important investigation.

    At this time, I’d like to introduce U.S. Attorney Capers, who has done an outstanding job leading this effort since his appointment in October, and who will provide additional details on today’s announcement.

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell Delivers Remarks at the 12th Annual State of the Net Conference

    Source: United States Attorneys General 13

    Remarks as prepared for delivery

    Good morning. The Attorney General apologizes for not being able to be here today.  She was at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland – addressing cybercrime issues – and, unfortunately, unable to get back to D.C. in time for this because of the snowstorm.

    Thank you, Tim [Lordan], for that warm welcome, and for your leadership of the Internet Education Foundation (IEF).  I also want to thank the IEF for the invaluable services you have provided since your organization was founded nearly two decades ago – and that you continue to provide today.  Through this conference series, you bring together industry leaders, dedicated experts and devoted public servants to explore how we can harness new technologies to build more empowered communities and a stronger nation.

    As the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, my foremost task in the cyber area is the vigorous, fair and effective enforcement of our cyber laws.  The Justice Department does that by finding ways to protect our networks against evolving threats, by thwarting bad actors online, and by ensuring that both our security and our liberties remain as strong in the digital age as they have been throughout our history. 

    Essentially, we are focused on a question that President Obama posed in his State of the Union address a few weeks ago: How do we make technology work for us, and not against us? 

    In our age of rapid change and constant disruption, that question is relevant to almost every aspect of our lives, including law enforcement and national security.

    There is no doubt that technology has both expanded and complicated our capacity to detect, investigate and prosecute crimes.  Today, by using new technologies, we can analyze some types of evidence with unprecedented speed and accuracy, and coordinate with partners around the world in real time. 

    But as law enforcers have become better equipped, so have the law breakers we’re working to disrupt.  Digital technology has transformed how police and prosecutors do our jobs, but it has also transformed how wrongdoers commit their crimes.  Our bank accounts and personal information now exist online, tempting thieves and fraudsters. 

    The greater anonymity of cyberspace gives cover to drug dealers and arms traffickers.  Dark websites are used to circulate illicit content, like images of child sexual exploitation and stolen credit cards. 

    Communication is frequently by instant message and email, so there are no actual paper trails, but rather virtual ones in data stored on digital devices, hard drives and in the cloud.  And it isn’t just criminals who exploit the Internet for nefarious purposes. 

    The web also hosts groups and individuals who seek to harm our core security interests – from state-sponsored hackers conducting economic espionage; to rogue militants and official cyber warfare units targeting our infrastructure; to terrorist groups plotting attacks, radicalizing recruits and spreading hateful ideologies.

    These emerging threats require nimble, innovative and adaptive responses, and at the Department of Justice, we are committed to doing our part to ensure that law enforcement stays a step ahead of bad actors. 

    The FBI continues to investigate cyber intrusions and national security threats while monitoring individuals, organized groups and state actors who might attempt to steal sensitive data or inflict harm.  We recently created a Cybersecurity Unit within our Criminal Division, staffed with experienced prosecutors fluent in the law, policy and practice of cybercrime prevention. 

    And the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has established an Internet Investigations Center (known as IIC) where federal agents, legal counsel and investigators track and counter illegal online firearms trafficking.  The IIC – which was highlighted in the president’s recent recommendations to curb gun violence – has already identified a number of significant traffickers operating over the Internet, and their work has led to prosecutions against individuals and groups using the “dark net” to traffic guns to criminals or attempting to buy firearms illegally online. 

    Of course, the Department of Justice’s work to combat cybercrime is enhanced through our collaboration with law enforcement partners in other agencies, such as the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Postal Inspection Service.  And we are working to enhance cybersecurity and information sharing through our work with the Department of Homeland Security.

    These are important steps to protect our online information and to combat crime here at home – but with an entity as vast and complex as the Internet, we must also reach beyond our own borders to partner with other countries.  And that’s exactly what we’ve done. 

    In the last fiscal year, the FBI’s Cyber Division embedded three permanent Cyber Assistant Legal Attachés in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia to help facilitate information-sharing, improve cooperation on investigations and build even stronger relationships with our allies. 

    We recently placed a Criminal Division prosecutor with Eurojust in The Hague and one in Southeast Asia.  These positions will help to facilitate information-sharing, improve cooperation on investigations and build even stronger relationships with our law enforcement partners in other countries.

    We’ve also created a cyber unit in our Office of International Affairs (OIA) dedicated to responding to and executing requests for electronic evidence from foreign authorities – requests that have increased by 1,000 percent over the last decade. 

    To help manage that significant growth, we have been actively hiring additional attorneys and professional staff for OIA’s Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty Modernization Project, and we hope to continue expanding our ability to help our overseas counterparts.  And we are providing critical, real-time assistance to foreign counterparts through the 24/7 Points of Contact Network established by the Group of Seven Nations and by the Budapest Cybercrime Convention – a convention that, I am pleased to note, continues to be joined by countries around the world committed to fighting cybercrime.

    Partnerships like these don’t just cultivate closer connections with our friends and allies – they also get results.  In 2012, we participated in a multinational sweep of child-pornography websites, ultimately dismantling more than 200 websites that sexually exploited children. 

    In November 2014, we joined more than 15 countries under the auspices of the European Cybercrime Centre – or EC3 – to launch Operation Onymous, which shuttered a number of so-called “dark market websites” peddling drugs, weapons, stolen credit card data, fake passports and computer-hacking tools. 

    And this past July, our joint effort with EC3 shut down the Darkode hacking forum – an underground site where hackers convened to buy, sell and trade malicious software, botnets, intrusion tools and stolen personal information.  That operation involved a coalition of 20 nations, led by the U.S. Department of Justice and EC3, and allowed us to charge, arrest or search 70 Darkode members and associates around the world. 

    The Justice Department will continue to work with foreign law enforcement agencies to prevent and prosecute groups and individuals that illegally use the Internet for crime and exploitation.  Of course, as we seek to ensure the safety and integrity of our devices, databases and networks, it is crucial that we work closely not only with other law enforcement officers, but also with the people who create and design these products themselves – the executives, entrepreneurs and engineers who make America’s tech sector the envy of the world. 

    Our collaboration has been instrumental in a range of important victories, including the takedown of the GameOver Zeus Botnet, an operation in which technology and data-security companies played an invaluable role.  We are committed to building on those successes by maintaining strong partnerships with the private sector. 

    That’s why the department has placed a high priority on entities like the FBI’s National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, which enables collaboration across government to respond to computer intrusions and attacks, and the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance, which brings together law enforcement, private partners and experts in academia to address the cyber threats we face together. 

    And it’s why the Attorney General and I have been meeting regularly with industry leaders to foster cooperation and discuss urgent issues – including last week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, where the Attorney General joined with industry leaders to endorse five recommendations for enhancing public/private partnerships to fight cybercrime.  We will continue to reach out to representatives of the tech industry, and our door is always open to new ideas for combatting cybercrime and online extremism. 

    One area where cooperation between the government and the private sector is especially important is in addressing the growing problem of the government’s inability to obtain critical information in electronic form even when we have court authorization to do so.  This is the problem known as “going dark.” 

    While investigations used to rely on physical evidence – like handwritten notes, or documents stored in filing cabinets – as you can imagine, in the 21st century that kind of evidence is growing scarce.  Our ability to track and prosecute criminals now often depends on instant messages, emails and other forms of digital information.  In fact, nearly every criminal investigation we undertake at the federal level relies on electronic evidence. 

    But as new ways of using encryption become an increasingly standard feature of personal electronic devices and messaging platforms, companies are losing the ability to respond to lawful processes.  Those materials are increasingly inaccessible to law enforcement officers, even when we have a warrant to examine them.  And we find ourselves facing obstacles which can stop our investigations and prosecutions in their tracks.

    The security of our online information is critically important, and so is the legal process that protects our values and our safety.  These are complementary, not competing priorities.  After all, digital security is a vital tool, but it is not a cure-all – especially when it impedes our ability to protect ourselves and each other in the physical world. 

    The Department of Justice is completely committed to seeking and obtaining judicial authorization for electronic evidence collection in all appropriate circumstances.  But once that authorization is obtained, we need to be able to act on it if we are to keep our communities safe and our country secure. 

    From gang activity to child abductions to national security threats, the ability to access electronic evidence in a timely manner is often essential to successfully conducting lawful investigations and preventing harm to potential victims. 

    As FBI Director [James] Comey recently said, in May, two terrorists attempted to kill a lot of people.  One of the terrorists exchanged 109 messages with an overseas terrorist.  We have no idea what he said because it was encrypted.  That is a big problem.  We have to grapple with it.

    That’s why the Justice Department and organizations like the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National District Attorneys Association and the Major Cities Chiefs Association feel strongly that there needs to be a way for law enforcement to retrieve critical information in cases where it’s necessary and authorized.  We are committed to working with innovators, leaders and problem-solvers like you to figure out how we can best meet this public need together.

    Of course, our interest in working together with you extends beyond this particular issue.  The Internet has so fundamentally changed the way we live our lives that there are times when institutions like law enforcement must evolve.  And as we seek to adapt to this new reality in a wide variety of ways, your creativity, your expertise and your leadership can help us ensure that the innovations we enjoy will benefit and protect the American people – and not those who would harm them or their liberties and rights.

    We understand that this is no easy task.  These are novel and difficult challenges.  But what makes us confident about our ability to succeed is that, throughout our history, this country has always found a way to move forward while retaining the values that make us who we are.  We are certain that we will do the same in the digital age.  And together, we will build a brighter, safer and more prosperous future for all.

    Thank you for your ongoing cooperation in that effort, and for your commitment to our shared goals.  I look forward to all that we will accomplish – together – in the weeks and months ahead.

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Bradenton Man Sentenced To More Than 15 Years For Production And Receipt Of Child Sexual Abuse Material

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge Mary S. Scriven has sentenced Buddy Allen Travis (42, Bradenton) to 15 years and 8 months in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for the production and receipt of child sexual abuse material. Travis pled guilty on October 1, 2024.

    According to court documents, Travis persuaded a 14-year-old minor victim to engage in sexual activity with him using Facebook. Travis engaged in sexual conversations with the minor victim and asked her to produce and send sexually explicit images of herself to him. Travis also sent obscene images of himself to the minor victim.

    This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Courtney Derry.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Economics: IMF Executive Board Concludes 2024 Article IV Consultation with Chile

    Source: International Monetary Fund

    February 5, 2025

    Washington, DC: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation[1] with Chile on February 3, 2025 and endorsed the staff appraisal without a meeting on a lapse-of-time basis.[2]

    The economy’s imbalances have been largely resolved. Real GDP is expected to expand by 2.2 percent in 2024, close to its potential pace, driven by the strong mining and service exports, and 2-2.5 percent in 2025, related to an expected recovery in domestic demand. However, the recovery has been uneven across industries, with the construction sector lagging and the unemployment rate remaining high. Inflation is set to return to the 3-percent target in early 2026, after the impact of the significant increase in electricity tariffs between June 2024 and early 2025 subsides. The current account deficit has continued to narrow and is projected to reach around 2½ percent of GDP in 2024 and 2025.

    External risks and uncertainty remain elevated. The commodity price volatility linked to the economic outlook of Chile’s main trading partners and the pace of the global green transition is a key external risk. Moreover, the uncertainty surrounding monetary and fiscal policies in advanced economies could lead to tight financial conditions for longer periods of time and higher financial volatility. Domestically, concerns about crime, migration, and inequality persist; and political polarization is hindering the structural reform progress.

    Policies have supported macroeconomic stability. The Central Bank of Chile lowered the monetary policy rate by 325 basis points since January 2024 to 5 percent in December 2024. The headline fiscal deficit is projected to reach 2.7 percent of GDP in 2024 due to a notable revenue underperformance and despite significant spending restraint compared to the budget. The 2025 budget envisions a notable deficit reduction within a medium-term fiscal plan toward a broadly balanced fiscal position by 2027. By setting the neutral level of the countercyclical capital buffer at 1 percent of risk-weighted assets with a gradual and state-contingent implementation path from the current level of 0.5 percent, the Central Bank of Chile has provided banks with planning certainty for strengthening financial resilience.

    Executive Board Assessment

    The economy is broadly balanced but external risks are elevated. Chile’s macroeconomic position is sound due to its very strong fundamentals, policies, and policy frameworks. Real GDP is growing around its potential and inflation is expected to reach the 3-percent target in early 2026. The current account deficit has continued to narrow, and the 2024 external position is assessed as moderately weaker than implied by medium-term fundamentals. Public debt is still relatively low and sustainable with high probability. However, the external environment is unstable and uncertain, which calls for policies that further strengthen economic buffers to provide additional policy space for future shocks.

    Lifting Chile’s growth potential is a must to raise living standards and tackle social and fiscal pressures. Taking a consultative approach, the government is advancing several growth initiatives, including: (i) expediting investment permit applications and environmental evaluations to encourage investment, (ii) fostering the development of emerging industries, particularly those related to renewable energy to maximize the benefits from the global green transition, and (iii) facilitating R&D. Swift and consistent implementation of these initiatives is crucial, especially in rationalizing the regulatory burden and improving essential infrastructure. Additionally, better integrating women into the labor market could partially offset the unfavorable demographic trends. The proposed new development bank requires a targeted mandate, sound risk management practices, and robust corporate governance.

    The goal of a broadly balanced fiscal position by 2027 remains appropriate but has become more challenging. The authorities’ commitment to fiscal restraint by adjusting spending plans in 2024 and 2025 is welcome. To achieve a balanced fiscal position over the next three years, a gap of at least 1 percent of GDP needs to be filled. This could be achieved largely from the important tax compliance law if its implementation yields the planned additional revenue and is not used for new spending initiatives. It is therefore crucial to carefully monitor developments in tax compliance and remain flexible to adjust current spending in case revenue mobilization falls short of plans, while aiming to preserve public investment outlays in support of medium-term growth. Ensuring that any structural spending increases align with higher structural revenues is vital for fiscal sustainability, while unifying fragmented social programs could enhance access and effectiveness for the most vulnerable.

    Continuous enhancements to Chile’s already very strong fiscal framework would foster fiscal policy formulation and transparency. For instance, providing more details on debt-creating flows outside the fiscal deficit (“below-the-line” items) would strengthen the monitoring of fiscal pressures. Updating fiscal forecasting methods, in line with the government’s plans, could improve revenue projections in the context of economic and policy shifts. Adopting a medium-term strategy to rebuild the size of the Economic and Social Stabilization Fund (ESSF) would help provide resources to respond to future shocks. Finally, simplifying the presentation of the fiscal targets and budget execution in the Public Finance Report could deepen the understanding of the fiscal balance rule framework.

    A pension reform is essential to ensure adequate pensions and address the fiscal costs of population aging. Raising contribution rates and the number of contribution periods is vital for sustainably self-financing old-age pensions. The minimum guaranteed pension (PGU) has strengthened the system’s solidarity, increased replacement ratios, and reduced old-age poverty, but it also incurs high fiscal costs. With the ratio of pensioners to the working-age population set to nearly double in two decades, it is crucial to manage public spending pressures while maintaining a solid safety net. Targeting the PGU to the most vulnerable elderly, linking the retirement age to life expectancy, and implementing the proposed unemployment insurance for pension contributions could further strengthen the system.

    A cautious data dependent approach to the pace of monetary policy easing is warranted. The BCCh’s monetary policy adjustments have been in line with its inflation-targeting framework. The real monetary policy rate is close to its estimated neutral range. With near-term inflation risks tilted to the upside, future cuts to the policy rate should remain contingent on evidence that inflation is heading decisively back to its target.

    Rebuilding international reserve buffers is important for enhancing resilience. While the flexible exchange rate plays a critical role as a shock absorber, the Central Bank of Chile’s access to international liquidity can provide an additional shield against potential external shocks. This underscores the importance of incorporating a comprehensive international liquidity framework into the central bank’s longer-term financial stability strategy. The strategy and operational design should continue to follow high transparency standards, be persistent and robust to changes in external risks, and minimize distortions in the foreign exchange market.

    The financial system remains resilient despite rising vulnerabilities related to the real estate sector and lower financial market depth. The real estate sector is expected to recover modestly as long-term interest rates gradually decline, and there are several mitigants to credit risk associated with lending to this sector. Nevertheless, supervisors need to carefully monitor banks and insurers’ portfolio quality and buffers, including by closing commercial real estate data gaps and enhancing stress test models. Rebuilding the depth of local financial markets by increasing pension contributions, which would increase the pool of investable savings, is important to help reduce market volatility and sensitivity to shocks.

    Financial sector policies need to continue reinforcing resilience. The recent adoption of a positive neutral level of the counter-cyclical capital buffer with a gradual and state-contingent implementation provides banks with planning certainty. The ongoing implementation of Basel III capital and liquidity requirements needs to be completed. Prompt implementation of the Financial Market Resilience Law would enhance the BCCh’s ability to respond to financial distress situations. Other priorities continue to include adopting an industry-funded deposit insurance and a bank resolution framework, providing budget independence to the CMF, further enhancing bank corporate governance, and implementing the Consolidated Debt Registry.

    Table 1. Chile: Selected Economic Indicators, 2023-27

    GDP (2023), in trillions of pesos

    282

    Quota

    GDP (2023), in billions of U.S. dollars

    336

     

    in millions of SDRs

    1,744

    Per capita (2023), U.S. dollars

    16,815

     

    in % of total

     

    0.37

    Population (2023), in millions

    19.96

           

    Main products and exports

    Copper

           

    Key export markets

    China, U.S., Euro area

     

    Proj.

    2023

    2024

    2025

    2026

    2027

             

    Output

    (Annual percentage change, unless otherwise specified)

    Real GDP

    0.2

    2.2

    2.2

    2.3

    2.3

      Total domestic demand

    -4.2

    1.0

    2.4

    2.3

    2.3

    Consumption

    -3.9

    1.6

    1.9

    2.2

    2.1

    Fixed capital formation

    -1.1

    -1.0

    4.3

    3.4

    3.7

         Exports of goods and services

    -0.3

    5.5

    4.3

    4.7

    3.9

         Imports of goods and services

    -12.0

    1.2

    4.4

    4.3

    3.2

    Output gap (in percent)

    0.0

    -0.1

    -0.1

    0.0

    0.0

    Employment

    Unemployment rate (in percent, annual average)

    8.7

    8.5

    8.2

    8.0

    7.8

    Prices

    GDP deflator

    6.6

    6.0

    4.1

    2.9

    2.7

    Change of CPI (end of period)

    3.9

    4.5

    3.5

    3.0

    3.0

    Change of CPI (period average)

    7.6

    3.9

    4.2

    3.1

    3.0

    Public Sector Finances

    (In percent of GDP, unless otherwise specified)

    Central government revenue

    22.9

    22.1

    23.0

    23.8

    23.9

    Central government expenditure

    25.3

    24.8

    24.8

    24.7

    24.3

    Central government fiscal balance

    -2.4

    -2.7

    -1.8

    -0.8

    -0.4

    Central government structural fiscal balance 1/

    -3.4

    -3.1

    -2.1

    -1.2

    -0.5

    Central government gross debt

    39.4

    42.7

    43.7

    44.1

    43.5

    Public sector gross debt 2/

    70.2

    73.5

    74.5

    74.9

    74.4

    Balance of Payments

    Current account balance (% of GDP) 3/

    -3.5

    -2.3

    -2.5

    -2.5

    -2.7

    Foreign direct investment net flows (% of GDP) 3/

    -4.6

    -4.0

    -2.6

    -2.9

    -2.9

    Gross external debt (% of GDP) 4/

    71.1

    77.5

    76.5

    76.6

    75.7

    Sources: Central Bank of Chile, Ministry of Finance, Haver Analytics, and IMF staff calculations and projections.

    1/ The structural fiscal balance includes adjustments for output, copper prices, and lithium revenues based on IMF calculations. The lithium adjustment starts in 2022.

    2/ Includes liabilities of the central government, the Central Bank of Chile and public enterprises. Excludes Recognition Bonds.

    3/ Calculated as a share of US$ GDP.

    4/ Data from Dipres for the government and from BCCh for all other sectors. Calculated as a share of US$ GDP.

    [1] Under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country’s economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board.

    [2] The Executive Board takes decisions under its lapse-of-time procedure when the Board agrees that a proposal can be considered without convening formal discussions.

    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER: Jose Luis De Haro

    Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org

    @IMFSpokesperson

    MIL OSI Economics –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Acting Assistant Attorney General Renata Hesse of the Antitrust Division Delivers Remarks at the American Bar Association Fall Forum

    Source: United States Attorneys General 13

    Protecting Competition Across 50 United States: Advocacy and Cooperation in Antitrust Enforcement

    Good morning and thank you for that introduction.  It was an honor to be invited to speak to you all this morning.  Getting to speak to folks like you is one of the benefits of serving as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the Department of Justice, which is both a challenging and rewarding role.  Wow, have we been busy lately.  In addition to an unprecedented litigation and investigation caseload, with the FTC last month we issued new guidelines for human resources professionals, two weeks ago we proposed revisions to our international guidelines and we’re finalizing revisions to our intellectual property guidelines.  It’s an incredible time at the Antitrust Division.  

    On top of all that, I’ve had a fair number of these speaking opportunities lately, and I’ve been using them to discuss the great work the Antitrust Division has been doing.  A few months ago I spoke about our successes in civil enforcement, and more recently I’ve talked about the tremendous work of our criminal enforcers and the successes we’ve had in building relationships with our international counterparts.  I’ve intended these speeches not as exercises in chest-beating, but instead to be thoughtful assessments of where we are today, looking back over several decades of enforcement as we also look forward to the coming transition.  With this speech, I’d like to complete that retrospective by focusing on two particularly important, related areas of the Antitrust Division’s work: cooperation with our counterpart state enforcers and competition advocacy at the state level.  

    I say state cooperation and competition advocacy are related because they both incorporate the recognition that, notwithstanding the hard work of the Antitrust Division and the FTC, protecting competition is not a job the federal government can or should do alone.  Even as concentration has increased by certain metrics, our economy remains relatively disaggregated and threats to competition come in all shapes and sizes across our country. 

     Instead of just relying on prosecutorial work at the state and federal level, we combine enforcement with advocacy, and we partner with the states, other agencies and the business community to promote a competitive economy.  The states feature prominently in that mission.  As Alexander Hamilton told the New York Ratifying Convention:  The “states must…be considered as essential component parts of the union.”   That’s certainly true in antitrust enforcement, where they are essential component parts of the worthy effort to protect and promote competition throughout the American economy.  

    By the way I was going to do my best Lin Manuel Miranda impression for that Hamilton quote, but Bill MacCleod told me we weren’t allowed to rap at the Fall Forum.  

    Cooperative federalism works best on issues where the state and federal governments have a mutuality of interest, and that is certainly the case for antitrust enforcement.  The states and the federal government each hope to preserve and promote the competitive process that is the central organizing principle of our free market economy—our mutual economic strength relies on competition playing out across connected local and national markets.  While there may be some issues where state and federal goals diverge, antitrust is generally not one of them.  

    Then and Now – Antitrust Division Cooperation with State Antitrust Enforcers

    Although we are united in our goal of promoting competition, I cannot say there are never disagreements on how to achieve that goal.  As I’m sure you’ll hear today there are many perspectives on antitrust policy, and state enforcers share in that debate.  There have been times in the past where those policy disagreements were stark.  At the start of my career at the division, federal and state enforcers sometimes had very different views on how to apply the antitrust laws to promote competition.  In that environment cooperation between state and federal enforcers was less common, and tensions occasionally arose from differing perspectives on how to approach important enforcement decisions.  

    More recently, however, agreement has been much more common than disagreement, and the cooperation between state and federal antitrust enforcers has been excellent.  That success is no accident.  Constant nurturing from a great many hardworking people in state and federal government – and attention at all levels, from our career staffs right up to the top of our organizations – have helped foster the productive working relationships we enjoy today.  

    Christine Varney set a great tone in her 2009 speech on state cooperation, and she advanced that cause when she brought on Mark Tobey as the Antitrust Division’s Special Counsel for State Relations and Agriculture.  I have to give credit to Mark for his tireless efforts to make the partnership work well for the benefit of competition and the American consumer.  I know Edith Ramirez has also helped drive the federal side of the partnership in her role at the FTC.  

    Meanwhile the state attorneys general have contributed to the relationship with a number of important advocates.  I’d like to recognize the contributions of Vic Domen and Kathleen Foote, the current and immediately prior leaders of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) Multistate Antitrust Task Force, who are both here today, along with many others working through the Task Force and in the antitrust sections of State Attorneys General throughout the country.    

    Successful Cooperation in Civil Antitrust Enforcement  

    These consistent efforts to nurture the federal-state relationship have paid real enforcement dividends.  We’re proud at the division of our record of success.  As I’ve talked about before, our civil program is going strong, blocking 43 anticompetitive deals in important consumer industries like wireless, broadband, software, and appliances.  And we’ve brought a number of conduct cases in industries from publishing to high tech hiring to health care.  Our state partners have featured prominently in many of those cases.  I can fairly say that if you’ve recently used a health insurer, flown on a commercial airline, or paid a cell phone bill, then you’ve directly benefitted from cases where state cooperation played an important role.     

    The numbers bear out the level of cooperation we’ve enjoyed with our state partners.  Each of the six civil trial sections in the division has worked on enforcement matters with the states; collectively we have worked with all 50 States plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.  In the last seven years we have brought 25 cases with the states resulting in settlement or final disposition after trial.  Five others are pending.

    The Apple e-books case is a remarkable example of effective federal-state cooperation.  The Texas Attorney General’s Office opened the original investigation into the conduct of the e-book publishers and Apple and investigated for a period of time before calling the Antitrust Division.  Early fact investigation work by Texas and Connecticut enabled the division to get up to speed quickly about the nature of the industry and the anticompetitive conduct that occurred.  In fact, some testimony from early depositions taken by Texas and Connecticut proved to be very important in the liability phase of the trial.  And, as a further result of productive coordination, the states’ economist testified at trial about price and output effects of the alleged conspiracy, testimony which worked in tandem with expert testimony from the division’s retained economist to tell a compelling economic story.

    A short anecdote from that case illustrates quite concretely the benefits of federal-state cooperation.  One of the best documents that provided evidence of the conspiracy to raise e-book prices – a document that wound up being featured in the opening paragraph of the Government’s Trial Brief – was found during document review by a staff attorney from the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office.  

    No less significant in e-books, the states, using their parens patriae authority, along with private class counsel, negotiated monetary relief totaling over $500 million from the publishers and Apple, returning over 200% of overcharges to e-book buyers.  A novel feature of the relief is that consumers who purchased e-books during the damages period could opt to have their payouts transferred directly to customer accounts at the various online e-book stores.

    The New York City tour buses case is another noteworthy example of federal-state cooperation.  In that case, the division teamed up with the New York Attorney General’s Antitrust Bureau to examine the combination of the two largest hop-on, hop-off sightseeing tour bus companies in New York City at the time – the red buses and the blue buses.  The merged entity, called Twin America, had an effective monopoly and seemed determined to try to evade antitrust scrutiny.  At various points in time over a period of nearly three years Twin America tried to maneuver the case away from the New York Antitrust Bureau, such as by filing an application for transfer of federal licenses which would be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Surface Transportation Board.  The New York Antitrust Bureau kept the matter alive over the course of these gyrations by filing opposition papers every step of the way.  

    Because of the New York Antitrust Bureau’s work, after the parties removed the jurisdictional impediment, our teams were in a position to conduct a brief investigation and then file a lawsuit in 2012 to unwind the combination and obtain disgorgement of profits obtained from a ticket price increase imposed on consumers by the merged firm.  As it happens, that was one of my first matters in my first stint as Acting Assistant Attorney General, back before Bill Baer arrived in 2012.  In 2015, after nearly three years of litigation, the parties entered into a joint federal-state settlement that provided substantial disgorgement under state and federal law and forced the parties to give up scarce tour bus stop authorizations from the City so that other firms could compete in the market.    

    A further illustration of how the division has opened up new and productive relationships with the states, in order to take advantage of unique state statutory powers, involves an initiative one of our Washington, D.C. criminal sections is now taking with the Georgia Department of Law.  Under this plan, the division will work with the Consumer Protection Unit of the Georgia Department of Law to distribute nearly $1 million in restitution funds to victims of the real estate foreclosure auction bid-rigging cases brought in the Atlanta area.  The Consumer Protection Unit has a long and successful record of returning overcharge damages to victims of all manner of consumer fraud cases and we sought to take advantage of those capabilities by partnering with them.  A joint letter from the division and the Department of Law will soon go out to the first group of victims.  

    Formal Guidance to Shape Conduct and Foster Cooperation 

    Our cooperation on civil enforcement is bolstered by the formal and informal guidance the division provides through guidelines, workshops, and speeches, to name a few examples.  This guidance helps illuminate our current practices and our thinking about critical issues of law and economics, and fosters communication between the division and our state counterparts.  Plus, we think it’s just good government to be as transparent and predictable in our approach as possible—it’s the right thing to do.     

    Over the past several years, our non-litigating sections have been busy updating guidelines and developing new guidance to help educate and inform industry and fellow antitrust enforcers.  

    Two weeks ago, we released proposed updates to the International Guidelines.  We added a chapter on international cooperation to reflect the growing importance of antitrust enforcement in the globalized economy, updated the discussion of the application of U.S. antitrust law to conduct involving foreign commerce, and provided examples that address the issues we most commonly encounter in our international efforts.  We’re also updating our IP Guidelines, and are in the process of finalizing them based on the feedback we received through a public comment process.  

    About a month ago, we released new guidance for human resource professionals to educate them about how the antitrust laws apply to their job responsibilities and inform them of the division’s recent enforcement actions.  As part of this guidance, we made clear that going forward employers who conspire to hold down wages or restrict hiring of each other’s workers will be investigated criminally and, if appropriate, prosecuted criminally.  Naked “no-poaching” agreements or agreements to fix wages stamp out competition just like agreements to allocate customers or to fix product prices, violations of the law that the division has traditionally investigated criminally and prosecuted as hardcore cartel conduct.  We hope this guidance will help HR professionals implement safeguards to prevent inappropriate discussions or agreements with other firms seeking to hire similar employees.   

    We expect these updates will facilitate even greater coordination with state enforcers in our efforts to protect competition.

    State Legislative Efforts and Competition Advocacy 

    In addition to working with our counterpart antitrust enforcers in the offices of the State Attorneys General, we also work productively with state legislatures and regulatory bodies.  Later today I understand there will be discussion about how state law and regulation can work to open, and unfortunately sometimes close, markets.  It is important that state lawmakers are mindful of the consequences on competition of their actions and understand how legislation or policies can enhance or cripple competition. 

    The landscape within which state enforcers operate is different from the federal environment.  State attorneys general face the challenge of balancing their role as enforcers of state and federal competition law with the obligation to counsel professional licensing and regulatory agencies about the potential to displace competition.  They must balance their institutional role as advocates for free and fair markets with occasional pressure from state lawmakers to restrict markets and insulate local firms from emerging technologies and non-traditional competitors.  Recognizing this tension, it can be helpful for the federal antitrust agencies to weigh in regarding proposed state and local legislation to seek to vindicate competition principles.  

    State officials sometimes seek our views on the competitive significance of state legislation and policies.  We welcome those requests and are eager to share our expertise in a way that can help advance both legal frameworks and policies in the direction of more efficient and well-functioning markets, or to shape corporate behavior away from harmful anticompetitive conduct.  Additionally, inherent in these competition advocacy efforts is fruitful dialogue and learning that advances the division’s expertise.  

    States can play a critical role in addressing and preventing anticompetitive conduct through their own legislative efforts.  For example, in 2010 the Division sued Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan alleging that “most favored nation” provisions in its agreements with hospitals raised prices, discouraged discounts, and prevented competitive insurers from entering the market.  About two years later, Michigan enacted a law that banned these harmful clauses.  This move alleviated our concerns and now benefits competition and consumers throughout the state of Michigan.  Several other states have also enacted similar legislation. 

    We have also weighed in over the years on how state regulatory or legislative actions can sometimes close markets off from competition.  For example, the division, together with the FTC, has long supported repealing or scaling back state certificate of need laws.  These laws typically require certain health care providers to obtain state approval before establishing new facilities, providing new services or making certain large capital expenditures.  This can create barriers to competition by delaying or prohibiting entry and, as a result, can limit consumer choice and stifle innovation.  We’ve shared these views most recently with officials in South Carolina, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois and Florida. 

    The division, often with the FTC, has also been active in educating legislatures about how scope of practice laws, which define the set of professionals allowed to perform particular services, can limit competition for consumer services.  For example: 

    • In Massachusetts and Puerto Rico we advocated for legislation expanding the scope of practice laws to permit optometrists to provide certain treatments for glaucoma, thereby expanding competition and access to care.  
    • In the legal services realm, we have discouraged overly broad practice of law definitions that limit competition from non-lawyers for services that are not necessary to address legitimate and substantiated harms.  In July, the division and the FTC encouraged the adoption of legislation in North Carolina that would provide consumers with the ability to use interactive software programs to fill out legal forms.  
    • Similarly in the real estate industry, we’ve weighed in on the benefits of competition from brokers who offer “fee-for-service” options for consumers and have cautioned against restricting these new consumer-friendly competitive choices.  

    The division also recently submitted a statement on the potential anticompetitive effects of certain legislative proposals in California that would ban or limit contracts between court reporters or service firms and third parties, such as insurance companies, for multi-case contracts.

    Whether advocating in favor of state laws that help keep markets open, or working to help state legislatures understand the negative impacts on competition their laws might cause, we have great respect for the state legislative process.  While we as antitrust enforcers have a singular goal of competition, legislatures have to balance a host of potentially competing public policy goals that aren’t squarely in our purview.  All we can hope to do is foster an increased understanding and a deeper appreciation for the competition dimension of those decisions.  That’s the same approach we take in all the advocacy we do with other federal agencies and international enforcers as well.  
     
    Looking forward

    I hope that what you’ve heard in these remarks is that the Antitrust Division works hard to promote competition not only in our own cases, but also through our cooperation with and advocacy before our state counterparts.  And I also hope you’ve gotten some sense for the sustained commitment that this work requires from a great many talented people.  

    Our work advocating for competition with our state partners is never done.  In just four days, trial will start in the Anthem/Cigna merger challenge brought by the division alongside 11 states and Washington, D.C.  I won’t comment on pending cases, but we look forward to working with the states as that important matter proceeds.  

    With an eye toward the future, allow me to conclude with some suggestions on federal-state cooperation in the cases to come.

    For practitioners, I suggest embracing federal-state cooperation.  It’s not in anyone’s interest to have divergent federal and state investigations and enforcement outcomes.  Grant waivers early in investigations, and encourage state participation in Civil Investigative Demand (CID) depositions and party meetings.  These steps will often reduce the investigative burdens on your clients and foster a dialogue that will simplify resolution or settlement if possible under the circumstances.    

    For the federal and state enforcement agencies, I’d encourage continued investment in the relationships that make cooperation work.  As I mentioned earlier, those relationships were not always as strong as they are today, and I really believe they benefit from constant nurturing.  Today’s event provides a perfect opportunity for the kind of engagement that keeps our organizations connected, and I see many of our state counterparts out in the audience.  I look forward to catching up with you all today—enjoy the Fall Forum.

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Bill Baer Delivers Remarks Highlighting Elder Justice at the State Of Financial Fraud in America Event

    Source: United States Attorneys General 13

    Remarks as prepared for delivery

    Thank you Robert for that kind introduction and for your leadership and dedication as CEO of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).  And thank you to the Stanford Center on Longevity and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, for hosting this conference and for the great work that you do.  It is an honor to join with the many people in this audience who dedicate their lives to combatting financial fraud and protecting elderly Americans.  This is a noble and enduring effort.   

    As many people here know, financial fraud targeted at the elderly is a serious problem.  At the beginning of 2011, the first Baby Boomers reached the age of 65.  I reached that milestone myself just last year.  Indeed, 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day, and the percentage of Americas over 65 is growing.  5.8 percent of this group experiences identity theft in a given year.  I had that ugly experience just last month. 13.8 percent experiences consumer fraud in a given year.  4.5 percent of people over 50 experience financial fraud in a five-year period.  While there are varying accounts about how much the overall financial loss is, it is well into the billions of dollars.  

    Statistics aside, we are here together because we know all too well that this is a problem that takes a personal toll.  Almost all of us know someone who has been the victim of financial fraud.  And while it affects people of all ages, it can be especially devastating for elderly people, many of whom are dependent on their savings and are concerned about their own mental decline or other people’s perception of their mental decline.  

    I recently saw letters written by the victims of a set of schemes that we took action against.  One described having sent “hundreds of checks” for a company’s “great offers” and tried to explain to the fraudster that “due to bad eyes, [he] has to use magnifying glasses to read” and had “been caught paying many times for th[e] very same offer.”  Another, believing that the con men would send him a promised gift, tried to explain that he had sent his prior payments by money order and was now enclosing cash, “all [he] can send.”  Another explained that when she gets the vast inheritance she’d been promised, she would use it to help her family, the homeless and needy children.   

    The nature and scope of elder fraud varies tremendously.  At the Department of Justice, we see small, family based schemes, such as caregivers tricking elderly victims out of their savings or abusing powers of attorney.  We see institutional schemes, such as nursing homes that provide unnecessary services or bill for services never provided.  And we see global fraud networks that are—quite literally—organized crime.  These schemes involve networks of businesses with careful divisions of labor.  They target millions of Americans, maintain lists of victims, and, once someone has been duped, target those people again and again. One recent victim wrote a letter explaining: “Each day I keep getting more and more offers and it’s almost impossible for me to keep up with them.” 

    Large and diverse problems like this require broad based solutions.  We at the Department of Justice know we can’t solve this problem alone.  Coordination is essential not only with our federal partners, but with local, state and international authorities.  And public and private partnerships are key to our understanding of the scope of the problem and to the lasting success of any solution.

    Research into basic questions, such as why are elderly people vulnerable, and how can we detect fraud and abuse, is critical to attacking the problem.  The FINRA Foundation and Stanford Center on Longevity launched the Financial Fraud Research Center five years ago.  As some of your ongoing research has demonstrated, there is a natural decline in cognition as people age, especially ability to think fast and process new information.  The elderly are sometimes lonely or otherwise socially isolated. Some are uncomfortable with technology.  Many have pools of relatively liquid retirement assets.  Some are dependent on caregivers.  All of these factors make the elderly particularly susceptible to certain schemes. 

    There is much more to learn.  The Department of Justice has invested in partnerships to help us all better understand the causes and risk factors associated with elder financial exploitation.  For example, just a few weeks ago, we announced an award of nearly $800,000 to the Urban Institute and the University of Southern California to develop and test prevention programs that will address elder abuse, neglect and financial exploitation.  To enhance our understanding of financial exploitation by conservators and guardians, last year our Office for Victims of Crime funded a project to search for innovative, evidence-based programs and practices that successfully detect and remedy conservator fraud.  And people like you are furthering our understanding.  This conference is highlighting emerging research on susceptibility to fraud and fraud prevention.

    Beyond efforts to understand how and why elder fraud occurs, continuing dedication to enforcement is required to stop it.   This is not a partisan issue.  We have seen Democratic and Republican administrations alike express a shared commitment to using all tools in the Department of Justice’s enforcement arsenal.  Back in the 1990s, under Attorney General Reno, the Department of Justice created the Elder Justice Initiative to centralize information, facilitate training, and coordinate within the Department and across the federal government.  During the Bush Administration, the Department of Justice initiated an elder mistreatment research grant program, funding cutting edge research on elder abuse and financial exploitation that continues today.

    During this Administration, Congress created the Elder Justice Coordinating Council as part of the Affordable Care Act to facilitate interagency cooperation at the highest of levels.  At the Department of Justice, we formed the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee’s Elder Justice Working Group, which is comprised of U.S. Attorneys from across the country who are dedicated to improving our information sharing on financial scams targeting the elderly.  And just this year, we created ten regional Elder Justice Task Forces that operate throughout the country, partnering with state and local law enforcement and prosecutors to enhance our collective response to elder financial fraud and abuse. 

    Our Elder Justice Initiative has also been assisting with community capacity building.  This includes supporting the training of local law enforcement and prosecutors.  And to enhance civil legal aid to seniors, in June 2016, the Department of Justice, in collaboration with the Corporation for National and Community Service, launched the Elder Justice AmeriCorps, the first-ever army of lawyers and paralegals to help elderly victims of abuse and exploitation.  The program will support 300 AmeriCorps members throughout the country and is expected to reach over 8,000 older adults over the next two years.

    A multi-faceted problem requires coordination between different federal agencies; it demands a whole of government approach.  Mail is involved; we must coordinate with the Postal Inspection Service.  Money is involved; we must coordinate with the Treasury Department.  People target the elderly; we must coordinate with agencies that serve the elderly, such as the Social Security Administration.  

    And more and more, we are seeing schemes that are highly complex and global.  Stopping these schemes require extensive cooperation—not just with state and local authorities, but also across the federal government and with our international counterparts.  For example, the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch co-chairs the International Mass-Marketing Fraud Working Group, a network of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Europol, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.  

    We can point to meaningful progress.  In the past several years, we have successfully shut down several international lottery scams where con men and women have contacted elderly victims in the United States, told the victims they won cash and prizes, and persuaded them to send thousands of dollars in fees to release the money.  Of course, the victims never received cash or prizes in return.  In a series of cases, perpetrators made calls from Jamaica using Voice Over Internet Protocol technology that made it appear as if the calls were coming from the United States.  They convinced victims to send money to middlemen in South Florida and North Carolina, who forwarded the money to Jamaica.  We have had great success breaking up these networks through joint efforts between Jamaican law enforcement and U.S. agencies including the Postal Inspection Service, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service, Federal Trade Commission and Internal Revenue Service.  Since 2009, the Department of Justice has prosecuted or is prosecuting over 100 individuals linked to such lottery schemes, and has convicted and sentenced over 40 defendants.

    We have had similar success going after global “psychic schemes.”  Con men and women send letters purportedly written by “world-renowned psychics” stating that they had a vision revealing that the recipient has the opportunity to obtain great wealth.  The letters appear personalized, refer to the recipient by name, and often contain portions that appear handwritten.  The solicitations urge victims to purchase products and services that will ensure this good fortune.  Investigations by the Department of Justice and Postal Inspection Service, among others, revealed the complexity of these schemes.  Not only were there the fraudsters themselves, but there were separate companies performing different roles, such as processing victim payments and maintaining databases of consumers who responded to solicitations.  In a two-week period, one company in the United States processed as much as $500,000 in payments for just one psychic scheme.  We have discovered similar companies in Quebec, Hong Kong, Switzerland and France.  

    Perhaps the most significant example of cooperation to date were our wide-ranging enforcement actions taken in September of this year to dismantle a global network of mass mailing schemes targeting elderly and vulnerable victims.  The schemes involved a network with components in Canada, France, India, the Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.   The network included an India-based printer that manufactured solicitations and arranged for bulk shipment to U.S. victims; a mailer in Switzerland; list brokers in the United States who bought and sold lists of victims so that once victims had fallen prey, others could target them; a “caging” service in the Netherlands that collected money; and a Canadian payment processor that, for more than 20 years, helped dozens of international fraudsters gain access to U.S. banks and take money from Americans.  Stopping this network involved coordination between the Department of Justice, Department of Treasury, Postal Inspection Service, Federal Trade Commission, Iowa Attorney General’s office and counterparts in other countries.  Just to give you a sample of the coordinated actions, on Sept. 22, 2016: 

    • The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control blocked assets from the Canadian payment processor and a network of individuals and entities across 18 countries.
    • The Justice Department filed criminal charges and a civil injunction against a Turkish mass mailer. 
    • The Justice Department brought a series of civil actions to shut down companies based in the United States, India, Switzerland and Singapore.  These companies were responsible for mailing millions of multi-piece solicitations to potential victims throughout the United States.  
    • The Justice Department entered into a consent decree with two Dutch “caging” businesses that collected and forward money.  Our efforts were coordinated with Dutch authorities who executed search warrants on the businesses and took control of the Dutch post office boxes used to receive victims’ funds.   
    • The Federal Trade Commission filed a case against a related mass-mailer, printer, and list broker.  
    • The Iowa Attorney General negotiated a compliance agreement with two firms that brokered victim lists.

    Of course, what matters even more than going after these schemes is preventing people from falling prey in the first place.  Here too, federal agencies are working in cooperation and dedicated to the effort.   The Department of Justice has distributed educational materials about these kinds of scams, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has developed an electronic press kit for media outlets, my former colleagues at the Federal Trade Commission operate a “Pass It On” campaign that encourages people to share information about frauds that affect older Americans, the Social Security Administration is educating beneficiaries through its network of over 1,200 field offices nationwide, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has produced a mail fraud alert placemat in coordination with Meals on Wheels America to distribute to seniors nationwide.  Similarly, private organizations that work in the area of elder justice and consumer protection are doing their part.  For example, AARP will be posting information through its Fraud Watch Network.  And the Consumers Union, the policy arm of Consumer Reports, is alerting consumers about a variety of elder scams.  

    Going forward, the Department of Justice will continue to work with private, local, state, federal and global partners.   And we urge all of you to tell us where the Department can do more.  The federal government’s work on behalf of the elderly began long before this Administration, and it will continue long after.  I expect that my successors, and my successors’ successors, will share our commitment to making sure our parents, grandparents and friends age with grace and dignity.  And I look forward to all of you, who have worked so hard in this area, working with the next Administration to combat financial fraud and protect elderly Americans.  Thank you again for having me here today.  

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI Security: New Carrollton Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for Kidnapping Minors, Producing Child Sexual Abuse Material

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

    Greenbelt, Maryland – On January 31, 2025, U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman sentenced Julian Everett, 41, of New Carrollton, Maryland, to 20 years in federal prison and 20 years of supervised release, for kidnapping minors and producing child sexual abuse material.

    Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the sentence with Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha N. Braveboy; and Chief Malik Aziz, Prince George’s County Police Department.

    According to the guilty plea, in 2005, 2015 and 2016, Everett acknowledged sexually abusing and capturing sexual abuse material of several victims at his New Carrollton home – four were minors.

    On July 11, 2005, Everett drove Victim 2 — who was16 at the time — from the Commonwealth of Virginia to his New Carrollton residence.  While at his residence, Everett provided Victim 2 with a beverage, before engaging in sexual intercourse without her consent. Everett also took nude photographs of the victim without her consent.

    Additionally, on August 23, 2015, Everett drove another victim — who was 18 at the time — from a Washington, D.C. night club to a gas station. While there, Everett created and provided Victim 3 with a beverage before driving her to his New Carrollton residence. Everett then engaged in sexual acts with Victim 3 without her consent.

    Then on August 21, 2016, Everett drove Victim 1 — who was then 17 at the time — from her Washington, D.C. residence to a Northwest D.C. barbershop where he worked. While at the barbershop, Everett created and provided Victim 1 with a beverage. Victim 1 drank it and eventually lost consciousness before waking up at Everett’s home while he was performing a sexual act on her. Additionally, Everett recorded the sexual encounter and took naked pictures of the victim without her consent.

    Authorities arrested Everett in Prince George’s County on March 21, 2019. Federal law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Everett’s electronic devices, revealing images of child sexual abuse material, including a video of Everett engaging in sexual intercourse with an unidentified fifth female victim. During the video, Victim 5 can be heard mumbling and is physically unresponsive with her eyes closed.

    On March 26, 2019, a fourth victim reported a sexual-assault incident to the Prince George’s County Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division. Between March and April 2015, Everett transported Victim 4 — who was16 at the time — from her Washington D.C. residence to his New Carrollton home.  After arriving at his house, Everett mixed a drink for Victim 4 who drank it and became lightheaded. Everett then engaged in multiple sexual acts with Victim 4 without her consent, which he also digitally recorded. He also took nude photos of her. 

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.

    U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI, Office of State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County, Maryland, and the Prince George’s County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Barron also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Timothy Hagan and Thomas Sullivan who prosecuted the federal case.

    For more information about the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

    # # #

    MIL Security OSI –

    February 6, 2025
  • MIL-OSI: Outcrop Silver to Present at the Metals & Mining Virtual Investor Conference

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Outcrop Silver (TSXV: OCG, OTCQX: OCGSF, DE: MRG) (“Outcrop Silver”) today announced that Ian Harris, President and CEO, will participate in the Metals & Mining Virtual Investor Conference on February 12-13, 2025.

    PRESENTATION DATE: February 12, 2025
    TIME: 3:00 pm ET
    LINK: https://bit.ly/3WN4CNo

    Outcrop Silver invites individual and institutional investors, as well as advisors and analysts, to attend real-time, interactive presentations on VirtualInvestorConferences.com

    Investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.

    The management team is available for 1×1 meetings.

    It is recommended that investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.

    Investors can learn more about the event at www.virtualinvestorconferences.com.
    Details of these and other investor events are available on the “Events” section of Outcrop Silver’s website at www.outcropsilver.com

    Company Highlights

    • Flagship Project: Advancing the high-grade Santa Ana primary silver project in Colombia, recognized as one of the world’s highest grade primary silver projects.
    • Resource Quality: Indicated resource grade stands at 614 g/t AgEq.
    • Resource Categorization: 64% of the silver equivalent ounces are classified as indicated.
    • Resource Composition: The total mineral resources comprise 73% silver and 27% gold
    • Metallurgical Excellence: Achieved outstanding recoveries of 96.3% for silver and 98.5% for gold through advanced gravimetric and flotation methods.
    • Pathway to Growth: Recent drilling extended high-grade mineralization by 9 kilometres south of the resource area. Ongoing expansion drilling is complemented by efforts to de-risk the project through strengthened ESG performance, engineering advancements, and permitting progress.

    About Outcrop Silver

    Outcrop Silver is a leading explorer and developer focused on advancing its flagship Santa Ana high-grade silver project in Colombia. Leveraging a disciplined and seasoned team of professionals with decades of experience in the region, Outcrop Silver is dedicated to expanding current mineral resources through strategic exploration initiatives.

    At the core of our operations is a commitment to responsible mining practices and community engagement, underscoring our approach to sustainable development. Our expertise in navigating complex geological and market conditions enables us to consistently identify and capitalize on opportunities to enhance shareholder value. With a deep understanding of the Colombian mining landscape and a track record of successful exploration, Outcrop Silver is poised to transform the Santa Ana project into a significant silver producer, contributing positively to the local economy and setting new standards in the mining industry.

    CONTACTS:
    Outcrop Silver
    Ian Harris, Chief Executive Officer                       Kathy Li, Vice President Investor Relations
    +1 604 638 2545                                                       +1 778 783 2818
    harris@outcropsilver.com                                     li@outcropsilver.com www.outcropsilver.com

    About Virtual Investor Conferences®
    Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.

    Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.

    Virtual Investor Conferences
    John M. Viglotti
    SVP Corporate Services, Investor Access
    OTC Markets Group
    (212) 220-2221
    johnv@otcmarkets.com

    The MIL Network –

    February 6, 2025
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