NewzIntel.com

Category: Finance

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Minister Valdez kicks off Small Business Week 2024 by highlighting the Government of Canada’s commitment to supporting small businesses

    Source: Government of Canada News

    The Honourable Rechie Valdez, Minister of Small Business, made the following statement today in recognition of Small Business Week:

    October 20, 2024 – Ottawa, Ontario

    The Honourable Rechie Valdez, Minister of Small Business, made the following statement today in recognition of Small Business Week:

    “Small Business Week is a great occasion to celebrate Canada’s incredible small businesses. They may be small, but they have a huge impact. They make up 98% of all businesses in Canada, account for nearly half of the country’s private sector jobs and generate at least one third of our economic output.

    “Our government is taking action to ensure these businesses have the support they need to succeed today and compete in a rapidly changing business environment.

    “We are reducing costs, lowering fees and boosting small businesses’ bottom lines. We fulfilled our commitment to lower taxes for small businesses to 9%. We then kept taxes low for more small businesses by raising the income threshold for the small business tax rate from $15 million to $50 million, and we negotiated with Visa and Mastercard to lower credit card interchange fees by up to 27%, effective October 19, 2024. This will save eligible Canadian businesses about $1 billion over five years. We have also improved the Canada Small Business Financing Program by providing additional and more flexible loan and financing options for small businesses, while cutting the administrative burden.

    “Before the end of this year, eligible small and medium-sized businesses will also receive the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses directly into their bank accounts. For example, an eligible small business in Winnipeg with 10 employees will receive $4,810, a small business in Mississauga with 50 employees will receive $20,050, and a medium-sized business in Calgary with 200 employees will receive $118,200.

    “To ensure small businesses can keep up with emerging technologies and compete in an increasingly digital business environment, we’ve committed $2.4 billion to help secure Canada’s AI advantage. This includes $100 million to help small and medium-sized businesses scale up and increase productivity by building and deploying new AI solutions. Through the Canada Digital Adoption Program, we have invested $1 billion to help over 60,000 small businesses grow their business online and boost their business technologies.

    “We are also building an inclusive economy. We are dedicated to supporting under-represented communities through historic programs like our nearly $7 billion Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, which helps women entrepreneurs access the resources they need to start up and scale up their business. We also established programs like the Black Entrepreneurship Program and the 2SLGBTQI+ Entrepreneurship Program, which are helping remove systemic barriers that entrepreneurs from under-represented groups face in accessing the resources they need.

    “In July, I announced an investment of $25 million in five more venture capital (VC) fund managers as part of the inclusive growth stream of the renewed Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative committed to in Budget 2021. The inclusive growth stream will help advance equity, diversity and inclusion in the Canadian VC ecosystem by increasing access to capital for diverse fund managers and entrepreneurs.

    “To encourage young Canadians to pursue entrepreneurship, in Budget 2024 we committed $60 million to Futurpreneur Canada to provide young entrepreneurs with an extra year of collateral-free lending and increase their maximum collateral-free loan from $60,000 to $75,000. On top of this, young entrepreneurs that have been in business for up to two years will now be eligible for Futurpreneur loans. Futurpreneur’s Side Hustle Program will also increase its loans from $15,000 to $25,000.

    “I would like to take this moment to express my sincere appreciation for all of Canada’s small business owners. Investing in diverse entrepreneurs is among the most meaningful actions we can take to build a strong, inclusive economy. We remain committed to supporting you as you adapt and strive for continued success.

    “I invite all Canadians to join me in supporting our local businesses during Small Business Week and to keep doing so every week thereafter. Together, we will build a strong and resilient economy for all Canadians.”

    Media Relations
    Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
    media@ised-isde.gc.ca

    For easy access to government programs for businesses, download the Canada Business app.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI: Information on shares, voting rights and authorized capital

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    After acquiring its own shares on 21 October 2024, Šiaulių Bankas AB (hereinafter – the Bank) pursuant to Article 19(2) of the Law on Securities of the Republic of Lithuania provides information on the total number of voting rights granted by the shares issued by it and the amount of the authorized capital, the number of shares and their nominal value:

    Type of shares Ordinary registered shares
    ISIN code LT0000102253
    Bank’s LEI code 549300TK038P6EV4YU51
    Nominal value of 1 share, EUR 0.29
    Number of shares, units 662 996 646
    Authorised capital, EUR 192 269 027,34
    Number of votes granted by all issued shares, units 662 996 646
    Number of votes calculating the quorum of the General Meeting of Shareholders 655 746 646

    Additional information:
    Tomas Varenbergas

    Head of Investment Management Division
    tomas.varenbergas@sb.lt

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Transformation of Triller Group Begins With Appointment of CEO and Additions to the Board

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEW YORK, NY, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Triller Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ILLR) (“Triller Group” or “the Company”) today announced important updates to its executive leadership team and board of directors (“Board”).

    This marks the initial step in a series of forthcoming announcements as Triller Group strengthens its management lineup and kickstarts the transformation journey of the Company.

    Kevin McGurn, former T-Mobile/Vevo/Hulu Senior Executive, joins as Chief Executive Officer

    Triller Group proudly announces that its Board appointed Kevin McGurn as the Chief Executive Officer of the Company starting in November 2024. Mr. McGurn brings a wealth of leadership experience and industry expertise to the Company. Having most recently served in an executive role for T-Mobile’s marketing division, Mr. McGurn has a proven track record of driving hyper-growth and innovation in the media and music landscape.

    As President of Sales and Distribution at Vevo, the Universal Music and Sony Music Entertainment video joint venture, Mr. McGurn led the company’s expansion as a global music television network. Previous to Vevo, Mr. McGurn served as Head of Sales at Fullscreen and Otter Media Companies building revenue businesses throughout the creator economy. As Senior Vice President of Sales at Hulu, Mr. McGurn played a pivotal role in building Hulu’s sales team from the ground up, generating over half a billion dollars in advertising revenue.

    Mr. McGurn’s impressive career also includes senior positions at Shazam, NBC Universal and DoubleClick, equipping him with the strategic vision and operational acumen needed to lead the Company into its next phase of growth.

    “The future is bright in the world of entertainment, and I am extremely excited to join the team at Triller Group to maximize our value to Creators, Fans, and Brands.” said Mr McGurn. “Our renewed focus means Triller Group is well positioned to deliver best in class entertainment, when, where and how our fans watch it. We will continue to build from our strong roots in vertical video, music and sports, and optimise our expertise in mobile and connected television.”

    James McCann, founder of 1-800-Flowers.com, joins the Board

    Triller Group is delighted to announce that James McCann has joined its Board, assuming the role of Chairman of the Nominations Committee. He has over four decades of leadership experience as the founder and former Chairman and CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc., where he played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s success. As Chairman of the board of directors for Willis Towers Watson and director for Scott’s Miracle-Gro and International Game Technology PLC, he is expected to bring a depth of governance expertise to the Board of the Company.

    Bobby Sarnevesht moves to the Board

    Triller Corp.’s former Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Sarnevesht now sits on the Board, contributing a wealth of experience and understanding of the Company’s operations and goals. In addition, Mr. Sarnevesht’s entrepreneurial track record positions him uniquely to help guide the Company as it navigates new opportunities.

    Start of the Company’s Transformation

    “My fellow directors and I are thrilled to announce the first steps of our ambitious transformation plan. Kevin’s extensive experience and track record of driving growth and innovation position him uniquely to lead the Company and carry out our shared vision of a single, integrated platform that delivers for creators, brands and users while generating value for all of our stakeholders” said Bob Diamond, Chairman of the Board. “Jim will bring his unparalleled expertise in building and scaling successful businesses to the Board, combined with his deep understanding of consumer engagement, which will be invaluable as we continue to innovate and grow. Jim’s visionary leadership and entrepreneurial spirit align perfectly with our mission, and we look forward to leveraging his insights to drive our strategic initiatives forward. We also look forward to Bobby’s contributions to the Board. His experience within our company positions him uniquely to help guide the Board as we implement our new transformation plan.”

    In the coming weeks, the Company plans to announce further enhancements to its leadership team and capabilities. The Company expects to share detailed insights into its strategic business plan during an upcoming investor and media event scheduled for November 2024. This event is expected to highlight the Company’s future vision and immediate growth strategies. Triller Group looks forward to engaging with stakeholders as it unveils exciting developments in this new chapter of progress.

    The latest press release is available on the Company’s website, please visit: http://www.agba.com/ir.

    About Triller Group Inc.

    Triller Group is a US-based company that operates two main businesses: the newly merged US-based social media operations (Triller Corp.), and the legacy operations of the Company in Hong Kong (“AGBA”).

    Triller Corp. is a next generation, AI-powered, social media and live-streaming event platform for creators. Pairing music culture with sports, fashion, entertainment, and influencers through a 360-degree view of content and technology, Triller Corp. uses proprietary AI technology to push and track content virally to affiliated and non-affiliated sites and networks, enabling them to reach millions of additional users. Triller Corp. additionally owns Triller Sports, Bare-Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC); Amplify.ai, a leading machine-learning, AI platform; and TrillerTV, a premier global PPV, AVOD, and SVOD streaming service. For more information, visit http://www.triller.co.

    Established in 1993, AGBA is a leading, multi-channel business platform that incorporates cutting edge machine-learning and offers a broad set of financial services and healthcare products to consumers through a tech-led ecosystem, enabling clients to unlock the choices that best suit their needs. Trusted by over 400,000 individual and corporate customers, the Group is organized into four market-leading businesses: Platform Business, Distribution Business, Healthcare Business, and Fintech Business. For more information, please visit http://www.agba.com.

    Safe Harbor Statement

    This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as “may,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate” or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the following: the Company’s goals and strategies; the Company’s future business development; product and service demand and acceptance; changes in technology; economic conditions; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against us following the consummation of the business combination; expectations regarding our strategies and future financial performance, including its future business plans or objectives, prospective performance and opportunities and competitors, revenues, products, pricing, operating expenses, market trends, liquidity, cash flows and uses of cash, capital expenditures, and our ability to invest in growth initiatives and pursue acquisition opportunities; reputation and brand; the impact of competition and pricing; government regulations; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in Hong Kong and the international markets the Company plans to serve and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing and other risks contained in reports filed by the Company with the SEC, the length and severity of the recent coronavirus outbreak, including its impacts across our business and operations. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company’s filings with the SEC, which are available for review at http://www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward–looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.

    Investor & Media Relations:  

    Bethany Lai
    ir@agba.com

    Anthony Silverman
    ads@apellaadvisors.com

    # # #

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: RBI imposes monetary penalty on Family Home Finance Private Limited, Mumbai, Maharashtra

    Source: Reserve Bank of India

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, by an order dated October 17, 2024, imposed a monetary penalty of ₹50,000/- (Rupees Fifty Thousand only) on Family Home Finance Private Limited, Mumbai, Maharashtra (the company) for non-compliance with certain directions issued by RBI on ‘Know Your Customer (KYC)’. This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI conferred under section 52A of the National Housing Bank Act, 1987.

    The statutory inspection of the company was conducted by the National Housing Bank with reference to its financial position as on March 31, 2022 and March 31, 2023. Based on supervisory findings of non-compliance with RBI directions and related correspondence in that regard, a notice was issued to the company advising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed on it for its failure to comply with the said directions.

    After considering the company’s reply to the notice, oral submissions made during the personal hearing and examination of additional submissions made by it, RBI found, inter alia, that the following charges against the company were sustained, warranting imposition of monetary penalty:

    The company had not:

    1. conducted risk categorisation of its customers;

    2. conducted review of risk categorisation of its customers; and

    3. conducted periodic updation of KYC of its customers.

    This action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the company with its customers. Further, imposition of this monetary penalty is without prejudice to any other action that may be initiated by RBI against the company.

    (Puneet Pancholy)  
    Chief General Manager

    Press Release: 2024-2025/1348

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Open letter to climate ministers in advance of COP29 

    Source: International Chamber of Commerce

    Headline: Open letter to climate ministers in advance of COP29 

    Dear Ministers,  

    I am writing in advance of COP29 to seek your active support in ensuring the conference delivers robust and tangible outcomes capable of speeding climate mitigation and adaptation efforts across the real economy.

    Last year, the global business community unequivocally welcomed the successful adoption of the “UAE Consensus” as providing a clear path to keep global temperature increase to 1.5°C. COP29 must now deliver an outcome of equivalent ambition to enable the full implementation of that framework across all countries – and at the lowest possible economic cost.

    In this context, we urge you to ensure that COP29 delivers two core outcomes. Specifically:

    1. A truly ambitious, actionable, and comprehensive New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (“NCQG”).

      This should, of course, encompass a strong and central public finance commitment in keeping with the scale of climate finance needs of developing and climate-vulnerable economies. But – given that almost half of climate finance today is provided by private actors – we also urge you to seize the opportunity to incorporate in the NCQG an “outer layer” setting out a global investment target and an actionable roadmap to align the global financial system with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

      To be meaningful, this should include specific commitments to tackle prevailing barriers to the deployment of climate finance from private sources in developing economies – from the calibration of global financial stability rules to the impact of sovereign debt levels on climate-related investments. While we recognise that the solution to many of these challenges will need to be pursued outside the mandate of the UNFCCC, we believe a strong political commitment in the NCQG itself could have an important catalytic effect in advancing much-needed action by other relevant institutions.

      Barriers to the deployment of private climate finance are real, well evidenced and cannot be wished away by high-level targets. Setting a new action agenda to forge an enabling environment for private finance would – in our view – represent the biggest step forward in combatting climate change since the gavelling of the Paris Agreement.

      2. Full operationalisation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to unleash the potential of international carbon markets to accelerate the pace and scale of emissions reductions.

      In this context, we have been encouraged by the progress of negotiations in recent months in addressing outstanding issues on both Article 6.2 and 6.4 – but remain alert to continued differences amongst parties on critical provisions related to authorisations, registries and the sequencing of reporting and reviews.

      After almost a decade of negotiations, further delay in concluding outstanding guidance on Article 6.2 implementation and the operationalisation of a global trading mechanism under Article 6.4 would represent a serious blow to business confidence in the future of international carbon markets – placing a further (and entirely avoidable) drag on implementation efforts in the real economy.

      Given the scale of finance and efficiency savings that could be generated by robust cross-border carbon markets, we count on your leadership to resolve all outstanding issues with the necessary pragmatism in Baku – staying true to commitments made at prior COPs to avoid micro-management approaches and further politicisation of the issues at stake.

      Simply put: it is time to get a comprehensive and workable agreement on Article 6 over the line – laying the foundations for high-integrity cross-border carbon markets.

      Taken together, we believe these two core deliverables would provide the ideal foundation for governments to submit significantly upgraded Nationally Determined Contributions by 2025 – establishing clear and credible transition plans and coordinated policies at all levels, capable of enabling a virtuous cycle of green business investment in every country and real international cooperation.

      Companies across the International Chamber of Commerce’s global network are increasingly feeling the impacts of climate-related extreme weather events – from the destruction of infrastructure to the erosion of human capital. That is why we say – with genuine perspective – that decisions on finance and carbon markets cannot be delayed or deferred beyond this year.

      The time for action is now. And, in that spirit, please do not hesitate to let me know how we can best support you in ensuring COP29 delivers the ambitious and actionable outcomes the world – and, not least, the private sector – so desperately needs.

      Read more about ICC climate action policy

      MIL OSI Economics –

    1. MIL-OSI: CERo Therapeutics, Inc. Provides Corporate Update

      Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

      Company announces submission of IND Clinical Hold Complete Response Letter

      SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CERo Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CERO) (“CERo”), an innovative immunotherapy company seeking to advance the next generation of engineered T cell therapeutics that employ phagocytic mechanisms, provides the following corporate update to stockholders from Interim CEO Chris Ehrlich.

      To our Valued Stockholders:

      Following the events of the last several months, I believe it appropriate to discuss our recent progress and illuminate the path forward for CERo. As you know, we received notice of a clinical hold for CERO-1236 earlier this year. Since then, we have been diligently working to complete the experimental studies necessary to address and resolve the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (the “Agency” or the “FDA”) questions.   We recently completed communications with the FDA, in which we were able to gain feedback on our approach to addressing the Agency’s questions.

      We have now submitted our Complete Response Letter to the Agency and look forward to what we hope will be the authorization to begin human trials. That said, given the blocks of time between submission to the Agency and their expected 30-day response time, we feel it is more realistic to adjust our previous guidance about potential entry into the clinic from 2024 to early 2025.

      We are also very pleased to have made important changes to our management team and Board of Directors. As previously announced, Al Kucharchuk has joined as our new Chief Financial Officer. Al is well versed in the unique challenges associated with small and microcap life sciences companies in the public markets, having deep experience in both since 2006.

      In addition, as previously announced, we have promoted Kristen Pierce to the position of Chief Development Officer. Kristen has deep expertise in the management of preclinical oncology programs and has been instrumental in our development of CERO-1236. We believe that that our team is well-positioned to help drive our science and our business forward.

      We have also made several changes to our Board of Directors, which we believe will enhance our execution of our business plan and we are well-positioned to do so. Finally, we recently disclosed our cash balance of $3.2 million as of September 30, 2024, which we are optimistic should provide sufficient runway to execute on our strategy.

      I anticipate providing an update on FDA’s determination whether to release the clinical hold, as well as our path forward in the coming weeks and months and remain excited for the future of CERo. Thank you for your continued interest in our company, and the trust you continue to show both our management and our science.

      Sincerely,
      Chris Ehrlich
      Interim CEO
      CERo Bio

      About CERo Therapeutics, Inc.
      CERo is an innovative immunotherapy company advancing the development of next generation engineered T cell therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Its proprietary approach to T cell engineering, which enables it to integrate certain desirable characteristics of both innate and adaptive immunity into a single therapeutic construct, is designed to engage the body’s full immune repertoire to achieve optimized cancer therapy. This novel cellular immunotherapy platform is expected to redirect patient-derived T cells to eliminate tumors by building in engulfment pathways that employ phagocytic mechanisms to destroy cancer cells, creating what CERo refers to as Chimeric Engulfment Receptor T cells (“CER-T”). CERo believes the differentiated activity of CER-T cells will afford them greater therapeutic application than currently approved chimeric antigen receptor (“CAR-T”) cell therapy, as the use of CER-T may potentially span both hematological malignancies and solid tumors. CERo anticipates initiating clinical trials for its lead product candidate, CER-1236, in early 2025 for hematological malignancies.

      Forward-Looking Statements
      This communication contains statements that are forward-looking and as such are not historical facts. This includes, without limitation, statements regarding the financial position, business strategy, clinical development of CER-1236, and the plans and objectives of management for future operations of CERo. These statements constitute projections, forecasts and forward-looking statements, and are not guarantees of performance. Such statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. When used in this communication, words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “strive,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. When CERo discusses its strategies or plans, it is making projections, forecasts or forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on the beliefs of, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to, CERo’s management.

      Actual results could differ from those implied by the forward-looking statements in this communication. Certain risks that could cause actual results to differ are set forth in CERo’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed on April 2, 2024, and the documents incorporated by reference therein. The risks described in CERo’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission are not exhaustive. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all such risk factors, nor can CERo assess the impact of all such risk factors on its business, or the extent to which any factor or combination of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. You should not put undue reliance on these statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. All forward-looking statements made by CERo or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. CERo undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

      Contact:

      Investors:
      CORE IR
      investors@cero.bio

      The MIL Network –

    2. MIL-OSI: Endeavor Bancorp Reports Pretax Income of $1.3 million for the Third Quarter of 2024; Results Highlighted by Record Loan Growth and Net Interest Margin Expansion

      Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

      SAN DIEGO, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Endeavor Bancorp (OTCQX: EDVR) (the “Company,” or “Bancorp”), the holding company for Endeavor Bank (the “Bank”), today reported net income of $924,000, or $0.22 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2024, compared to net income of $760,000, or $0.18 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2024, and $1,218,000, or $0.29 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2023. Pretax net income was $1.3 million in the third quarter compared to $1.1 million in the preceding quarter and $1.7 million in the third quarter of 2023. All financial results are unaudited.

      Results for the third quarter of 2024 included a $609,000 provision for credit losses, compared to a $451,000 provision for credit losses in the second quarter of 2024, and a $301,000 provision for credit losses in the third quarter of 2023. Also noteworthy was the increase in interest expense on borrowings the past two quarters, with interest expense on borrowings of $493,000 for the third quarter of 2024, $492,000 for the preceding quarter, and $201,000 for the third quarter of 2023. The additional interest expense was associated with the recent subordinated debt issued late in the first quarter of 2024. Excluding taxes and loan loss provisions, the Company’s core pretax, pre-provision earnings were $1.9 million in the third quarter of 2024, compared to $1.5 million in the preceding quarter and $2.0 million in the third quarter of 2023.

      “Our third quarter operating results were highlighted by strong net interest income generation and record quarterly loan production,” stated Julie Glance, CFO. “Our earning assets yield also increased, up 28 basis points during the third quarter, which is contributing to net interest margin expansion. While the high-interest rate environment continues to be a challenge, we believe we are well positioned with a strong balance sheet and ample capital to continue to grow.”

      Income Statement
      Strong core earnings were driven by loan growth and higher rates on earning assets. Total interest income on loans and bank deposits and investments was $10.2 million, an increase of $983,000 compared to the preceding quarter, while total interest expenses increased $425,000 during the same timeframe. Net interest income was $5.9 million in the third quarter of 2024, which was an increase of $557,000, or 10.4% compared to the preceding quarter and a 14.6% increase compared to the third quarter of 2023.

      “We are encouraged by our net interest margin improvement. Third quarter net interest margin expanded 15 basis points compared to the prior quarter, boosted by robust loan growth and higher interest earning asset yields, combined with stabilizing funding costs,” said Dan Yates, CEO.

      Net interest margin (NIM) increased 15 basis points to 3.85% in the third quarter of 2024 compared to 3.70% in the second quarter of 2024 and increased 8 basis points compared to 3.77% in the third quarter of 2023. The yield on total earning assets increased 28 basis points during the third quarter of 2024 to 6.61%, compared to 6.33% in the preceding quarter, and up from 5.97% in the third quarter of 2023. The cost of deposits rose in the third quarter, increasing the overall cost of funds by 14 basis points during the third quarter of 2024 to 2.98%, compared to 2.84% in the preceding quarter.

      Non-Interest income decreased to $217,000 in the third quarter, compared to $390,000 in the second quarter of 2024, and increased compared to $181,000 in the third quarter 2023.

      The Company’s annualized return on average equity for the third quarter of 2024 was 8.17%, compared to 6.96% in the second quarter of 2024 and 11.71% in the third quarter of 2023. The annualized return on average assets for the third quarter of 2024 was 0.59% compared to 0.52% in the second quarter of 2024 and 0.88% in the third quarter of 2023.

      Balance Sheet
      Total assets increased $61.5 million, or 10.4%, during the third quarter of 2024 to $655.3 million at September 30, 2024, compared to $593.8 million at June 30, 2024, and increased $101.4 million, or 18.3%, compared to September 30, 2023. Balance sheet liquidity remains strong with cash balances of $87.4 million, which represents 13.3% of total assets as of September 30, 2024. The Company’s bond portfolio increased $1.9 million to $20.1 million as of September 30, 2024, representing only 3.0% of total assets. Total available borrowing capacity through the Federal Home Loan Bank and the Federal Reserve discount window exceeded $168.6 million as of quarter end.

      “The robust loan growth during the quarter was the highest in our history, excluding Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in 2020, as our lenders are doing an excellent job at finding high quality lending opportunities in our market where many banks are pulling back,” said Steve Sefton, President. “We continue to have minimal office exposure with very few office building loans in the portfolio, and 50% of the commercial real estate loans were owner-occupied as of quarter end.”

      Total loans outstanding increased $55.0 million, or 11.4%, during the third quarter of 2024 to $538.4 million at September 30, 2024, compared to $483.4 million three months earlier, and increased $121.7 million, or 29.2%, when compared to $416.7 million a year earlier. Total non-performing loans increased to 1.2% of the total loan portfolio as of September 30, 2024, up from 0.06% in the prior quarter. The rise in non-performing loans was temporarily inflated by a borrower in the renewal process, who had no credit issues and represented over a third of the reported non-performing loans. These loans have since been successfully renewed and are now current. The Company had no net charge offs during the third quarter of 2024, or in the prior quarter.

      Total deposits increased $59.6 million during the quarter to $577.8 million at September 30, 2024, compared to $518.2 million three months earlier. Compared to a year ago, deposits increased by $85.1 million, up 17.3%. The loan to deposit ratio was 93.2% at September 30, 2024, compared to 93.3% at June 30, 2024.

      “Earlier this year, we expanded our team and moved into the greater Los Angeles Metro and Inland Empire markets. While this expansion north is still in its early stages, we are already seeing positive momentum,” added Sefton.

      As a result of its participation in a reciprocal deposit placement network, the Bank accepted “reciprocal” deposits from other institutions, enabling the Bank to offer customers FDIC insurance on accounts in excess of the typical $250,000 FDIC insurance limit. Although the reciprocal deposit accounts maintained through the network are core deposits seeking FDIC insurance, the FDIC rules indicate that reciprocal deposits aggregating over 20% of total liabilities are classified as deposits obtained by or through a deposit broker. The total reciprocal deposits reported as brokered deposits were $127.0 million at September 30, 2024, and $127.8 million as of June 30, 2024. To support the strong loan growth, the Company is utilizing a conservative amount of wholesale deposits. As of September 30, 2024, total wholesale deposits, excluding the reciprocal deposits, was $40.7 million, representing 7.0% of total deposits compared to $10.0 million as of June 30, 2024, or 1.93% of total deposits.

      Shareholders’ equity was $45.0 million at September 30, 2024, compared to $43.8 million at June 30, 2024, and $41.5 million at September 30, 2023. Tangible book value per share increased to $12.97 at September 30, 2024, compared to $12.55 three months earlier and $12.16 a year earlier.

      Capital 
      The Bank’s Tier 1 leverage ratio was 10.95% as of September 30, 2024, compared to 11.70% at June 30, 2024. The Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio was 10.95% as of September 30, 2024, compared to 11.84% on June 30, 2024, and the Total risk-based capital ratio was 12.13% compared to 13.04% three months earlier, all of which were well above regulatory minimums.

      On March 5, the Company completed the issuance of $12.5 million in fixed-to-floating rate subordinated notes. The subordinated debt was structured such that it qualified as Tier 2 capital at the holding company with most of the new capital down streamed to the Bank as Tier 1 capital.

      Stock Dividend
      On May 20, 2024, the Company distributed a 2% stock dividend to shareholders of record on May 10, 2024.

      Recent Events
      Board member Jillian Murrish has announced her resignation due to personal reasons from the BanCorp and Bank board of directors, effective October 18, 2024.

      About Endeavor Bancorp 
      Endeavor Bancorp, the holding company for Endeavor Bank, is primarily owned and operated by Southern Californians for Southern California businesses and their owners. The bank’s focus is local: local decision-making, local board, local founders, local owners, and relationships with local clients in Southern California.

      Headquartered in downtown San Diego in the Symphony Towers building, the Bank also operates a loan production and executive administration office in Carlsbad and a branch office in La Mesa. Endeavor Bank provides traditional business banking services across a broad spectrum of industries and specialties. Unique to the bank is its consultative banking approach that partners our business clients with Endeavor Bank’s senior management. Together, we build strategies and provide resources that solve problems, plan for the future, and help clients’ efforts to grow revenues and profits. Endeavor Bancorp trades on the OTCQX® Best Market under the symbol “EDVR.” Visit http://www.endeavor.bank for more information.

      EDVR Shareholders 
      With many of our shareholders transferring their EDVR shares to their brokerage companies, along with ongoing trading taking place, Bancorp may not have the most current shareholder contact information. If you are an EDVR shareholder and would like to receive information via a more timely method, please complete the Shareholder Communication Preference Form on our website: https://www.bankendeavor.com/investor-relations so we can keep you updated on EDVR news, and invite you to various shareholder networking events throughout the year. 

      Forward-Looking Statements 
      This press release includes “forward-looking statements,” as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs of the Company’s directors and executive officers (collectively, “Management”), as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company’s Management. All statements regarding the Company’s business strategy and plans and objectives of Management of the Company for future operations, are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect” and “intend” and words or phrases of similar meaning, as they relate to the Company or the Company’s Management, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations (“cautionary statements”) are loan losses, rapid and unanticipated deposit withdrawals, unavailability of sources of liquidity, additional regulatory requirements that may be imposed on community banks or banks generally, changes in interest rates, loss of key personnel, lower lending limits and capital than competitors, regulatory restrictions and oversight of the Company, the secure and effective implementation of technology, risks related to the local and national economy, changes in real estate values, the Company’s implementation of its business plans and management of growth, loan performance, interest rates, and regulatory matters, the effects of trade, monetary and fiscal policies, inflation, and changes in accounting policies and practices. Based upon changing conditions, if any one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if any underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, or intended. The Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

      SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA                
      (In thousands of dollars, except for ratios and per share amounts)              
      Unaudited                  
              Three Months Ended          
        September 30, 2024     June 30, 2024     September 30, 2023  
        (Consolidated)     (Consolidated)     (Consolidated)  
      SUMMARY OF OPERATIONS                
      Interest income $ 10,186     $ 9,203     $ 8,200  
      Interest expense 4,266     3,840     3,032  
      Net interest income 5,920     5,363     5,168  
      Provision for credit losses 609     451     301  
      Net interest income after loss provision 5,311     4,912     4,867  
      Non-interest income 217     390     181  
      Non-interest expense 4,205     4,205     3,312  
      Income before tax 1,323     1,097     1,736  
      Federal income tax expense 255     215     328  
      State income tax expense 143     121     190  
      Net income $ 924     $ 760     $ 1,218  
                       
      Core pretax earnings* $ 1,932     $ 1,548     $ 2,037  
      *excludes taxes and provision for loan losses                  
                       
      PER COMMON SHARE DATA                
      Number of shares outstanding (000s) 3,494     3,493     3,394  
      Earnings per share, basic $ 0.26     $ 0.22     $ 0.36  
      Earnings per share, diluted $ 0.22     $ 0.18     $ 0.29  
      Book Value per share $ 12.97     $ 12.61     12.24  
                       
      BALANCE SHEET DATA                
      Assets $ 655,305     $ 593,803     $ 553,889  
      Investments securities 20,107     18,204     7,770  
      Total loans, net of unearned income 538,439     483,411     416,746  
      Total deposits 577,781     518,230     492,726  
      Borrowings 26,672     26,648     16,118  
      Shareholders’ equity 45,308     44,051     41,535  
      Loan to Deposit ratio 93.19 %   93.28 %   84.58 %
      Wholesale Deposits to Total Deposits 7.04 %   1.09 %   0.86 %
                       
      AVERAGE BALANCE SHEET DATA                
      Average assets $ 619,122     $ 590,625     $ 550,500  
      Average total loans, net of unearned income 506,469     461,476     417,451  
      Average total deposits 541,858     515,457     488,822  
      Average shareholders’ equity 44,990     43,825     41,266  
                       
      ASSET QUALITY RATIOS                
      Net (charge-offs) recoveries $ –     $ –     $ –  
      Net (charge-offs) recoveries to average loans 0.00 %   0.00 %   0.00 %
      Non-performing loans as a % of loans 1.22 %   0.06 %   0.11 %
      Non-performing assets as a % of assets 1.00 %   0.05 %   0.08 %
      Allowance for loan losses as a % of total loans 1.39 %   1.42 %   1.59 %
      Allowance for loan losses as a % of non-performing loans 113.61 %   22.94 %   6.94 %
                       
      FINANCIAL RATIOSSTATISTICS                
      Annualized return on average equity 8.17 %   6.96 %   11.71 %
      Annualized return on average assets 0.59 %   0.52 %   0.88 %
      Net interest margin 3.85 %   3.70 %   3.77 %
      Efficiency ratio 69.26 %   75.75 %   61.91 %
                       
      CAPITAL RATIOS                
      Tier 1 leverage ratio — Bank 11.38 %   11.70 %   10.20 %
      Common equity tier 1 ratio — Bank 10.95 %   11.87 %   11.26 %
      Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio — Bank 10.95 %   11.87 %   11.26 %
      Total risk-based capital ratio –Bank 12.13 %   13.07 %   12.51 %
                       
      TCE/TA * 6.91 %   7.42 %   7.50 %
      Tangible Book Value per Share $ 12.97     $ 12.55     12.16 %
                       
      *Non-GAAP financial measure.                
      Unaudited financials 2024                
                       

      Endeavor Bancorp Contact Information:
      (858) 230.5185
      Dan Yates, CEO
      dyates@bankendeavor.com

      (858) 230.4243
      Steve Sefton, President
      ssefton@bankendeavor.com

      The MIL Network –

    3. MIL-OSI: Intapp to announce fiscal first quarter 2025 financial results on November 4, 2024

      Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

      PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Intapp, Inc., (Nasdaq: INTA), a leading global provider of AI-powered solutions for professionals at advisory, capital markets, and legal firms, will report fiscal first quarter 2025 financial results after the market close on November 4, 2024. On that day, management will host a webcast at 5 p.m. ET to discuss the company’s business and financial results.

      Investors and other interested parties can access the webcast as follows:

      What: Intapp fiscal first quarter 2025 financial results earnings webcast

      When: Monday, November 4, 2024

      Time: 5 p.m. ET

      Live webcast: Investors | Intapp, Inc.

      Replay: An archived webcast of the event will be accessible from the “news and events” section of the company’s investor relations website at Investors | Intapp, Inc. The replay will be available for 90 days following the live presentation.

      About Intapp

      Intapp software helps professionals unlock their teams’ knowledge, relationships, and operational insights to increase value for their firms. Using the power of Applied AI, we make firm and market intelligence easy to find, understand, and use. With Intapp’s portfolio of vertical SaaS solutions, professionals can apply their collective expertise to make smarter decisions, manage risk, and increase competitive advantage. The world’s top firms — across accounting, consulting, investment banking, legal, private capital, and real assets — trust Intapp’s industry-specific platform and solutions to modernize and drive new growth.

      Investor contact 

      David Trone
      Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
      Intapp, Inc.
      ir@intapp.com

      Media contact

      Ali Robinson
      Global Media Relations Director
      Intapp, Inc.
      press@intapp.com

      The MIL Network –

    4. MIL-OSI: New Economic Report Finds Total Quantified Value of a Terrestrial GPS Backup is $14.6 Billion

      Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

      RESTON, Va., Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NextNav Inc. (Nasdaq: NN), a leader in next-generation positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) and 3D geolocation, announced today that its plan for a terrestrial PNT backup and complement to GPS in the Lower 900 MHz would prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in losses in the event of a global GPS outage. The Brattle Group’s economic analysis finds that a 1-day global GPS outage could cost the American economy $1.6 billion, and NextNav’s proposal could prevent a loss of $663 million to the economy for a 24-hour outage period.

      Adopting NextNav’s proposal to reconfigure the Lower 900 MHz band offers the US economy a $10.8 billion insurance policy to protect against GPS outages without taxpayer funding, plus additional benefits of $3.8 billion from increased resiliency. The total quantified value of a GPS backup is $14.6 billion based on The Brattle Group’s report.

      Conducted by economists Coleman Bazelon and Paroma Sanyal of the Brattle Group, a highly recognized global economics firm, the study carefully evaluates the potential economic impact of a GPS outage and explores various scenarios that could result in a GPS disruption. It also examines the benefits of adopting NextNav’s proposal, including enhanced location accuracy that would benefit first responders to help improve emergency services. More findings from the report are below. The full report is available here.

      “The need for greater resiliency in lifesaving and mission-critical terrestrial PNT technologies has been acknowledged by four Presidential administrations, yet few proposals have provided a clear path to a robust solution without substantial government intervention or taxpayer funding,” said Dr. Coleman Bazelon, lead economist of the report. “Our analysis shows that NextNav’s widescale solution provides a total economic value of $14.6 billion and the equivalent to more than a $10 billion insurance policy if GPS goes dark.”

      The Brattle Group Economic Analysis

      To estimate the private sector value, the Brattle Group treated the terrestrial PNT backup solution as an “insurance policy” against GPS outages. The analysis estimates the potential economic loss for a 1-day, 7-day, and 30-day GPS outage to be $1.6 billion, $12.2 billion, and $58.2 billion, respectively. In the event of an outage, NextNav’s solution could reduce losses by $663 million, $6 billion and $31.9 billion, respectively. Given the probability of these outage events, the value to the American economy of the proposed terrestrial PNT approach is the equivalent of offering a $10.8 billion economic insurance policy to protect against GPS outages.

      The report forecasts the top five sectors that would benefit most include telecommunications, maritime, telematics, location-based services, oil and gas.

      TABLE 5: POTENTIAL LOSSES BY SECTOR DUE TO A GPS OUTAGE ADRESSABLE BY NEXTNAV
      Sector   Potential Losses ($ millions)
          1-day Outage [A] 7-day Outage [B] 30-day Outage [C]
      Telecommunications [1] $51 $1,670 $13,528
      Maritime [2] $221 $1,545 $6,620
      Telematics [3] $164 $1,147 $4,915
      Location-based services [4] $89 $626 $2,681
      Oil and gas [5] $48 $333 $1,426
      Agriculture (soil mapping) [6] $42 $291 $1,247
      Mining [7] $30 $208 $890
      Surveying [8] $10 $72 $310
      Electricity [9] $9 $60 $258
      Finance [10] Negligible Negligible Negligible
      Total   $663 $5,951 $31,875
               

      Table: Summary of potential losses incurred by each sector for each outage scenario that are addressable by NextNav’s proposed 3D Terrestrial PNT Solution
      Source: The Brattle Group

      • The report also finds that additional resiliency for GPS backup has a value of $3.8 billion for the United States. Using the Government Accountability Office’s cost estimates for a jamming-resistant, military-grade GPS signal, the report estimates that NextNav’s proposal would result in additional benefits.
      • Finally, the Report examines a partial set of benefits from having a terrestrial PNT system that complements GPS. For example, first responders would benefit from more accurate location information, which would improve emergency services and save lives. The report notes that in a related context, the Federal Communications Commission stated that reducing emergency response times by one minute via improved location accuracy for emergency services could be valued at $97 billion annually.

      “The need for a reliable GPS backup is not just a national security issue, it’s an economic imperative,” said Mariam Sorond, CEO of NextNav. “Our proposal offers a solution to safeguard a system that underpins American commerce, public safety, and national security without relying on taxpayer funding. We are committed to being part of a solution that unleashes the Lower 900 MHz band’s potential and is a win for the American people.”

      Change drives innovation. With the NextNav proposal, the FCC has the opportunity to update legacy rules to ensure a safer tomorrow.

      About NextNav Inc.
      NextNav Inc. (Nasdaq: NN) is a leader in next generation positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), enabling a whole new ecosystem of applications and services that rely upon 3D geolocation and PNT technology. Powered by low-band licensed spectrum, NextNav’s positioning and timing technologies deliver accurate, reliable, and resilient 3D PNT solutions for critical infrastructure, GPS resiliency and commercial use cases.

      For more information, please visit https://nextnav.com/ or follow NextNav on X or LinkedIn.

      Media Contact:
      Howard Waterman
      hwaterma@nextnav.com
      917-359-5505

      About The Brattle Group
      The Brattle Group answers complex economic, regulatory, and financial questions for corporations, law firms, and governments around the world. We aim for the highest level of client service and quality in our industry. We are distinguished by our credibility and the clarity of our insights, which arise from the stature of our experts; affiliations with leading international academics and industry specialists; and thoughtful, timely, and transparent work. Our clients value our commitment to providing clear, independent results that withstand critical review. Brattle has over 400 talented professionals across three continents.

      Forward Looking Statements
      This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as “forecast,” “intend,” “seek,” “target,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “estimate,” “plan,” “outlook,” and “project” and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results and estimates of amounts not yet determinable and may also relate to NextNav’s future prospects, developments and business strategies. In particular, such forward-looking statements include the achievement of certain FCC-related milestones, the ability to realize the broader spectrum capacity and the advancement of NextNav’s terrestrial 3D PNT services, NextNav’s position to drive growth in its 3D geolocation business and expansion of its next generation terrestrial 3D PNT technologies, the business plans, objectives, expectations and intentions of NextNav, and NextNav’s estimated and future business strategies, competitive position, industry environment, potential growth opportunities, revenue, expenses, and profitability. These statements are based on NextNav’s management’s current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events.

      Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside NextNav’s control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors include, but are not limited to, those included in Part II, Item 1A, “Risk Factors” of the Company’s quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors” of the NextNav’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, as well as those otherwise described or updated from time to time in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made, and NextNav undertakes no commitment to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

      Source: NN-FIN

      The MIL Network –

    5. MIL-OSI Economics: New autonomous agents scale your team like never before

      Source: Microsoft

      Headline: New autonomous agents scale your team like never before

      Already, 60 percent of the Fortune 500 are using Microsoft 365 Copilot to accelerate business results and empower their teams. With Copilot supporting sales associates, Lumen Technologies projects $50 million dollars in savings annually. Honeywell(1) equates productivity gains to adding 187 full-time employees and Finastra is reducing creative production time from seven months to seven weeks.  

      Today, we’re announcing new agentic capabilities that will accelerate these gains and bring AI-first business process to every organization. 

      • First, the ability to create autonomous agents with Copilot Studio will be in public preview next month.  
      • Second, we’re introducing ten new autonomous agents in Dynamics 365 to build capacity for every sales, service, finance and supply chain team. 

      Copilot is your AI assistant — it works for you — and Copilot Studio enables you to easily create, manage and connect agents to Copilot. Think of agents as the new apps for an AI-powered world. Every organization will have a constellation of agents — ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous. They will work on behalf of an individual, team or function to execute and orchestrate businesses process. Copilot is how you’ll interact with these agents, and they’ll do everything from accelerating lead generation and processing sales orders to automating your supply chain.  

      Empowering more customers to build autonomous agents in Copilot Studio 

      Earlier this year, we announced a host of powerful new capabilities in Copilot Studio, including the ability to create autonomous agents. Next month, these capabilities are shifting from private to public preview, allowing more customers to reimagine critical business processes with AI. Agents draw on the context of your work data in Microsoft 365 Graph, systems of record, Dataverse and Fabric, and can support everything from your IT help desk to employee onboarding and act as a personal concierge for sales and service.  

      Organizations like Clifford Chance, McKinsey & Company, Pets at Home and Thomson Reuters are already creating autonomous agents to increase revenue, reduce costs and scale impact. Pets at Home, the U.K.’s leading pet care business, created an agent for its profit protection team to more efficiently compile cases for skilled human review, which could have the potential to drive a seven-figure annual savings. McKinsey & Company is creating an agent that will speed up the client onboarding process. The pilot showed lead time could be reduced by 90% and administrative work reduced by 30%. Thomson Reuters built a professional-grade agent to speed up the legal due diligence workflow, with initial testing showing some tasks could be done in half the time. This agent can help Thomson Reuters increase the efficiency of work for clients and boost its new business pipeline.  

      Scaling your teams with 10 new autonomous agents in Dynamics 365  

      New autonomous agents enable customers to move from legacy lines of business applications to AI-first business process. AI is today’s ROI and tomorrow’s competitive edge. These new agents are designed to help every sales, service, finance and supply chain team drive business value — and are just the start. We will create many more agents in the coming year that will give customers the competitive advantage they need to future-proof their organization. Today, we’re introducing ten of these autonomous agents. Here are a few examples: 

      • Sales Qualification Agent: In a profession where time literally equals money, this agent enables sellers to focus their time on the highest priority sales opportunities while the agent researches leads, helps prioritize opportunities and guides customer outreach with personalized emails and responses. 
      • Supplier Communications Agent: This agent enables customers to optimize their supply chain and minimize costly disruptions by autonomously tracking supplier performance, detecting delays and responding accordingly — freeing procurement teams from time consuming manual monitoring and firefighting. 
      • Customer Intent and Customer Knowledge Management Agents: A business gets one chance to make a first impression, and these two agents are game changers for customer care teams facing high call volumes, talent shortages and heightened customer expectations. These agents work hand in hand with a customer service representative by learning how to resolve customer issues and autonomously adding knowledge-based articles to scale best practices across the care team. 

      As agents become more prevalent in the enterprise, customers want to be confident that they have robust data governance and security. The agents coming to Dynamics 365 follow our core security, privacy and responsible AI commitments. Agents built in Copilot Studio include guardrails and controls established by maker-defined instructions, knowledge and actions. The data sources linked to the agent adhere to stringent security measures and controls — all managed in Copilot Studio. These include data loss prevention, robust authentication protocols and more. Once these agents are created, IT administrators can apply a comprehensive set of features to govern their use. 

      Microsoft’s own transformation  

      At Microsoft, we’re using Copilot and agents to reimagine business process across every function while empowering employees to scale their impact. Using Copilot, one sales team has achieved 9.4% higher revenue per seller and closed 20% more deals(2). And thanks to Copilot, one team is resolving customer cases nearly 12% faster(3). Our Marketing team is seeing a 21.5% increase in conversion rate on Azure.com with a custom agent designed to assist buyers(4). And in Human Resources, our employee self-service agent is helping answer questions with 42% greater accuracy(5).  

      With Copilot and agents, the possibilities are endless — we can’t wait to see what you create. Start building agents in Copilot Studio today. Read more about autonomous agent capabilities on the Copilot Studio and Dynamics 365 blogs. Head to WorkLab for more insights on Microsoft’s own AI transformation.

      YouTube Video

      NOTES

      1. Statistics are from an internal Honeywell survey of 5,000 employees where 611 employees responded.
      2. Internal Microsoft Sales Team data based on 687 sellers of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Jan. – June 2024, as compared with sellers with low usage of Copilot. Regular usage of Copilot means sellers who use Copilot daily at least 50% of the time during the testing period.
      3. Internal Finance analysis of costs, comparing actuals for FY ’24 and projections for FY ’25.
      4. Internal CSS experiment conducted by Microsoft, 600 participants using Copilot Q&A function, Azure Core team, Nov. – Dec. 2023. These results are statistically significant at the 95th% confidence interval.
      5. Internal Microsoft Marketing Team data, June – Sept. 2024. Conversion means initiating the free account sign-up process on Azure.com.

      Tags: AI, Copilot, Copilot Studio, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Graph, Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft Fabric

      MIL OSI Economics –

    6. MIL-OSI Economics: AI is already changing work—Microsoft included

      Source: Microsoft

      Headline: AI is already changing work—Microsoft included

      The Path Forward

      Learnings from our AI transformation to date.

      • Play offense and defense to get AI’s full value
        AI helps boost employee productivity and drive cost efficiencies, but you shouldn’t stop there. A winning AI strategy requires playing both offense and defense—leveraging it to grow revenue and cut costs. Organizations that find ways to apply AI to supercharge their key differentiation will gain a real competitive advantage. Microsoft’s sales team used Copilot to unlock revenue while legal focused on reducing spend related to regulatory work. As AI gets increasingly integrated into every aspect of work, look for opportunities to apply it across every team, function, and process. 

      • Start with your biggest pain point, then apply AI
        We know from both our own experience and from working with customers that it can be hard to know where to start with AI. Ask yourself: what are one or two processes that—if you could make them faster, cheaper, or better—would be transformational to the business? Our marketing team focused on content creation, for instance, while customer service concentrated on case resolution. For every process, partnership with IT was critical to success.

      • Ground AI in your organizational data
        When AI is grounded in your company’s data and knowledge—like Copilot—you can steer it toward your goals and needs. And of course, security, data governance, and responsible AI are a must. As agentic capabilities grow, secure data-grounding becomes even more essential to gaining a competitive edge—enabling agents to manage data and actions across disparate systems. They will help marketing teams predict customer needs and opportunities, say, or human resources improve employee engagement, or customer service automate aspects of its support process.

      • Future-proof your organization by giving every employee an AI assistant 
        AI transformation is moving fast for all of us—and agentic capabilities will only accelerate the pace of change. AI assistants like Copilot will help employees manage a constellation of agents that perform tasks ranging from simple prompt-and-response queries to fully autonomous actions. The first step toward empowering people for this new way of working is to give every employee an AI assistant. As always, you can’t get there with technology alone. Every leader must build an AI-forward culture that empowers people to scale their impact and focus on the important work that only humans can do. 

      To learn more about how to create an AI-forward culture, subscribe to the WorkLab newsletter.

      1 Internal CSS experiment conducted by Microsoft; 600 participants using Copilot Q&A function, Azure Core team; Nov. – Dec. 2023. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval. 

      2 Internal Microsoft sales team data based on 687 sellers of Microsoft 365 Copilot from Jan. – June 2024, as compared with sellers with low usage of Copilot. Regular usage of Copilot means sellers who use Copilot daily at least 50% of the time during the testing period.

      3 Internal Microsoft marketing team data. June – Sept. 2024. Conversion means initiating the free account sign up process on Azure.com. 

      4 Internal HR experiment conducted by Microsoft, 33 participants, Oct. 2024. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval.

      5 Internal Microsoft Finance data, Oct. 2023 – Aug. 2024.

      6 Projected numbers based on internal Microsoft legal team study. 56 participants. May 2024. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval.

      7 Internal Microsoft IT experiment. 46 employee participants. Sept. 16-27, 2024. Success rate means: use of self-help resources through to resolution without contacting an agent. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval. 

      8 Internal Microsoft IT experiment. 46 employee participants. Sept. 16-27, 2024. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval.

      9 Internal Microsoft sales team data based on 687 sellers of Microsoft 365 Copilot from Jan. – June 2024, as compared with sellers with low usage of Copilot. High usage of Copilot means sellers who use Copilot daily at least 50% of the time during the testing period.

      10 Internal Microsoft sales team data based on 24,000 sellers. Oct. 2023 – June 2024. As compared with sellers with low usage of Copilot. Regular usage of Copilot means sellers who use Copilot daily at least 50% of the time during the testing period.

      11 Internal Microsoft legal team study. 56 participants. May 2024. [These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval].

      12 Projected numbers based on internal Microsoft experiment of 56 participants from May 2024. Increased capacity means increasing the capacity for our legal professionals to meet the exponentially growing regulatory and compliance demands without a corresponding increase in resources (e.g., people and budget resources staying similar/flat). 

      13 Internal Microsoft marketing data based on use of Azure AI from a team that manages 35 commercial Microsoft web properties. Sept. 2024. Digital content creation process means brief creation, copywriting, web page creation, and sign-off. 

      14 Internal Microsoft marketing team data. June – Sept. 2024. Conversion means initiating the free account sign up process on Azure.com. 

      15 Internal CSS experiment conducted by Microsoft; 600 participants using Copilot Q&A function, Azure Core team; Nov. – Dec. 2023. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval.

      16 Office of Chief Economist, Wave 2.5 Study results of internal use of Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service among Microsoft commercial business support engineers. Outcomes reflect results from 9,900 agents from a specific five-month period (April-September 2023). Findings were evaluated at the business unit level, not across the entire CSS organization

      17 Internal HR study conducted by Microsoft, 33 participants, Sept – Oct 2024. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval. 

      18 Internal Microsoft Finance data, Oct. 2023 – Aug. 2024.

      19 Internal Microsoft IT experiment. 46 employee participants. Sept. 16-27, 2024. Success rate means: use of self-help resources through to resolution without contacting an agent. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval.

      20 This is a projected number based on user testing of DACA Copilot and the 12-year long-standing DACA clinic metrics.

      MIL OSI Economics –

    7. MIL-OSI Banking: New autonomous agents scale your team like never before

      Source: Microsoft

      Headline: New autonomous agents scale your team like never before

      Already, 60 percent of the Fortune 500 are using Microsoft 365 Copilot to accelerate business results and empower their teams. With Copilot supporting sales associates, Lumen Technologies projects $50 million dollars in savings annually. Honeywell(1) equates productivity gains to adding 187 full-time employees and Finastra is reducing creative production time from seven months to seven weeks.  

      Today, we’re announcing new agentic capabilities that will accelerate these gains and bring AI-first business process to every organization. 

      • First, the ability to create autonomous agents with Copilot Studio will be in public preview next month.  
      • Second, we’re introducing ten new autonomous agents in Dynamics 365 to build capacity for every sales, service, finance and supply chain team. 

      Copilot is your AI assistant — it works for you — and Copilot Studio enables you to easily create, manage and connect agents to Copilot. Think of agents as the new apps for an AI-powered world. Every organization will have a constellation of agents — ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous. They will work on behalf of an individual, team or function to execute and orchestrate businesses process. Copilot is how you’ll interact with these agents, and they’ll do everything from accelerating lead generation and processing sales orders to automating your supply chain.  

      Empowering more customers to build autonomous agents in Copilot Studio 

      Earlier this year, we announced a host of powerful new capabilities in Copilot Studio, including the ability to create autonomous agents. Next month, these capabilities are shifting from private to public preview, allowing more customers to reimagine critical business processes with AI. Agents draw on the context of your work data in Microsoft 365 Graph, systems of record, Dataverse and Fabric, and can support everything from your IT help desk to employee onboarding and act as a personal concierge for sales and service.  

      Organizations like Clifford Chance, McKinsey & Company, Pets at Home and Thomson Reuters are already creating autonomous agents to increase revenue, reduce costs and scale impact. Pets at Home, the U.K.’s leading pet care business, created an agent for its profit protection team to more efficiently compile cases for skilled human review, which could have the potential to drive a seven-figure annual savings. McKinsey & Company is creating an agent that will speed up the client onboarding process. The pilot showed lead time could be reduced by 90% and administrative work reduced by 30%. Thomson Reuters built a professional-grade agent to speed up the legal due diligence workflow, with initial testing showing some tasks could be done in half the time. This agent can help Thomson Reuters increase the efficiency of work for clients and boost its new business pipeline.  

      Scaling your teams with 10 new autonomous agents in Dynamics 365  

      New autonomous agents enable customers to move from legacy lines of business applications to AI-first business process. AI is today’s ROI and tomorrow’s competitive edge. These new agents are designed to help every sales, service, finance and supply chain team drive business value — and are just the start. We will create many more agents in the coming year that will give customers the competitive advantage they need to future-proof their organization. Today, we’re introducing ten of these autonomous agents. Here are a few examples: 

      • Sales Qualification Agent: In a profession where time literally equals money, this agent enables sellers to focus their time on the highest priority sales opportunities while the agent researches leads, helps prioritize opportunities and guides customer outreach with personalized emails and responses. 
      • Supplier Communications Agent: This agent enables customers to optimize their supply chain and minimize costly disruptions by autonomously tracking supplier performance, detecting delays and responding accordingly — freeing procurement teams from time consuming manual monitoring and firefighting. 
      • Customer Intent and Customer Knowledge Management Agents: A business gets one chance to make a first impression, and these two agents are game changers for customer care teams facing high call volumes, talent shortages and heightened customer expectations. These agents work hand in hand with a customer service representative by learning how to resolve customer issues and autonomously adding knowledge-based articles to scale best practices across the care team. 

      As agents become more prevalent in the enterprise, customers want to be confident that they have robust data governance and security. The agents coming to Dynamics 365 follow our core security, privacy and responsible AI commitments. Agents built in Copilot Studio include guardrails and controls established by maker-defined instructions, knowledge and actions. The data sources linked to the agent adhere to stringent security measures and controls — all managed in Copilot Studio. These include data loss prevention, robust authentication protocols and more. Once these agents are created, IT administrators can apply a comprehensive set of features to govern their use. 

      Microsoft’s own transformation  

      At Microsoft, we’re using Copilot and agents to reimagine business process across every function while empowering employees to scale their impact. Using Copilot, one sales team has achieved 9.4% higher revenue per seller and closed 20% more deals(2). And thanks to Copilot, one team is resolving customer cases nearly 12% faster(3). Our Marketing team is seeing a 21.5% increase in conversion rate on Azure.com with a custom agent designed to assist buyers(4). And in Human Resources, our employee self-service agent is helping answer questions with 42% greater accuracy(5).  

      With Copilot and agents, the possibilities are endless — we can’t wait to see what you create. Start building agents in Copilot Studio today. Read more about autonomous agent capabilities on the Copilot Studio and Dynamics 365 blogs. Head to WorkLab for more insights on Microsoft’s own AI transformation.

      YouTube Video

      NOTES

      1. Statistics are from an internal Honeywell survey of 5,000 employees where 611 employees responded.
      2. Internal Microsoft Sales Team data based on 687 sellers of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Jan. – June 2024, as compared with sellers with low usage of Copilot. Regular usage of Copilot means sellers who use Copilot daily at least 50% of the time during the testing period.
      3. Internal Finance analysis of costs, comparing actuals for FY ’24 and projections for FY ’25.
      4. Internal CSS experiment conducted by Microsoft, 600 participants using Copilot Q&A function, Azure Core team, Nov. – Dec. 2023. These results are statistically significant at the 95th% confidence interval.
      5. Internal Microsoft Marketing Team data, June – Sept. 2024. Conversion means initiating the free account sign-up process on Azure.com.

      Tags: AI, Copilot, Copilot Studio, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Graph, Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft Fabric

      MIL OSI Global Banks –

    8. MIL-OSI Banking: AI is already changing work—Microsoft included

      Source: Microsoft

      Headline: AI is already changing work—Microsoft included

      The Path Forward

      Learnings from our AI transformation to date.

      • Play offense and defense to get AI’s full value
        AI helps boost employee productivity and drive cost efficiencies, but you shouldn’t stop there. A winning AI strategy requires playing both offense and defense—leveraging it to grow revenue and cut costs. Organizations that find ways to apply AI to supercharge their key differentiation will gain a real competitive advantage. Microsoft’s sales team used Copilot to unlock revenue while legal focused on reducing spend related to regulatory work. As AI gets increasingly integrated into every aspect of work, look for opportunities to apply it across every team, function, and process. 

      • Start with your biggest pain point, then apply AI
        We know from both our own experience and from working with customers that it can be hard to know where to start with AI. Ask yourself: what are one or two processes that—if you could make them faster, cheaper, or better—would be transformational to the business? Our marketing team focused on content creation, for instance, while customer service concentrated on case resolution. For every process, partnership with IT was critical to success.

      • Ground AI in your organizational data
        When AI is grounded in your company’s data and knowledge—like Copilot—you can steer it toward your goals and needs. And of course, security, data governance, and responsible AI are a must. As agentic capabilities grow, secure data-grounding becomes even more essential to gaining a competitive edge—enabling agents to manage data and actions across disparate systems. They will help marketing teams predict customer needs and opportunities, say, or human resources improve employee engagement, or customer service automate aspects of its support process.

      • Future-proof your organization by giving every employee an AI assistant 
        AI transformation is moving fast for all of us—and agentic capabilities will only accelerate the pace of change. AI assistants like Copilot will help employees manage a constellation of agents that perform tasks ranging from simple prompt-and-response queries to fully autonomous actions. The first step toward empowering people for this new way of working is to give every employee an AI assistant. As always, you can’t get there with technology alone. Every leader must build an AI-forward culture that empowers people to scale their impact and focus on the important work that only humans can do. 

      To learn more about how to create an AI-forward culture, subscribe to the WorkLab newsletter.

      1 Internal CSS experiment conducted by Microsoft; 600 participants using Copilot Q&A function, Azure Core team; Nov. – Dec. 2023. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval. 

      2 Internal Microsoft sales team data based on 687 sellers of Microsoft 365 Copilot from Jan. – June 2024, as compared with sellers with low usage of Copilot. Regular usage of Copilot means sellers who use Copilot daily at least 50% of the time during the testing period.

      3 Internal Microsoft marketing team data. June – Sept. 2024. Conversion means initiating the free account sign up process on Azure.com. 

      4 Internal HR experiment conducted by Microsoft, 33 participants, Oct. 2024. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval.

      5 Internal Microsoft Finance data, Oct. 2023 – Aug. 2024.

      6 Projected numbers based on internal Microsoft legal team study. 56 participants. May 2024. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval.

      7 Internal Microsoft IT experiment. 46 employee participants. Sept. 16-27, 2024. Success rate means: use of self-help resources through to resolution without contacting an agent. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval. 

      8 Internal Microsoft IT experiment. 46 employee participants. Sept. 16-27, 2024. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval.

      9 Internal Microsoft sales team data based on 687 sellers of Microsoft 365 Copilot from Jan. – June 2024, as compared with sellers with low usage of Copilot. High usage of Copilot means sellers who use Copilot daily at least 50% of the time during the testing period.

      10 Internal Microsoft sales team data based on 24,000 sellers. Oct. 2023 – June 2024. As compared with sellers with low usage of Copilot. Regular usage of Copilot means sellers who use Copilot daily at least 50% of the time during the testing period.

      11 Internal Microsoft legal team study. 56 participants. May 2024. [These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval].

      12 Projected numbers based on internal Microsoft experiment of 56 participants from May 2024. Increased capacity means increasing the capacity for our legal professionals to meet the exponentially growing regulatory and compliance demands without a corresponding increase in resources (e.g., people and budget resources staying similar/flat). 

      13 Internal Microsoft marketing data based on use of Azure AI from a team that manages 35 commercial Microsoft web properties. Sept. 2024. Digital content creation process means brief creation, copywriting, web page creation, and sign-off. 

      14 Internal Microsoft marketing team data. June – Sept. 2024. Conversion means initiating the free account sign up process on Azure.com. 

      15 Internal CSS experiment conducted by Microsoft; 600 participants using Copilot Q&A function, Azure Core team; Nov. – Dec. 2023. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval.

      16 Office of Chief Economist, Wave 2.5 Study results of internal use of Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service among Microsoft commercial business support engineers. Outcomes reflect results from 9,900 agents from a specific five-month period (April-September 2023). Findings were evaluated at the business unit level, not across the entire CSS organization

      17 Internal HR study conducted by Microsoft, 33 participants, Sept – Oct 2024. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval. 

      18 Internal Microsoft Finance data, Oct. 2023 – Aug. 2024.

      19 Internal Microsoft IT experiment. 46 employee participants. Sept. 16-27, 2024. Success rate means: use of self-help resources through to resolution without contacting an agent. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval.

      20 This is a projected number based on user testing of DACA Copilot and the 12-year long-standing DACA clinic metrics.

      MIL OSI Global Banks –

    9. MIL-OSI: UPDATE – Grab to Announce Third Quarter 2024 Results on November 11, 2024

      Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

      NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Grab Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: GRAB, the “Company”  or “Grab”), plans to announce its unaudited third quarter 2024 results after the U.S. market closes on November 11, 2024.  

      The Company’s management will hold a conference call to discuss the third quarter 2024 results at:

      Date and time: 7:00 PM U.S Eastern Time on November 11, 2024
      8:00 AM Singapore Time on November 12, 2024

      A link to the call will be posted on the Company’s investor relations website at investors.grab.com prior to the call time.  Following the call, a replay of the call, along with the earnings press release and presentation slides, will be available at the same website.

      About Grab

      Grab is a leading superapp in Southeast Asia, operating across the deliveries, mobility and digital financial services sectors. Serving over 700 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries – Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – Grab enables millions of people everyday to order food or groceries, send packages, hail a ride or taxi, pay for online purchases or access services such as lending and insurance, all through a single app. Grab was founded in 2012 with the mission to drive Southeast Asia forward by creating economic empowerment for everyone. Grab strives to serve a triple bottom line – we aim to simultaneously deliver financial performance for our shareholders and have a positive social impact, which includes economic empowerment for millions of people in the region, while mitigating our environmental footprint.

      For more information, visit http://www.grab.com.

      For enquiries, please contact:
      Investors: investor.relations@grab.com
      Media: press@grab.com

      The MIL Network –

    10. MIL-OSI Security: Activity in the U.S. Attorney’s Office

      Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

      Federal Land Offenses

      Michael A. Tunis, age 66 of West Yellowstone, Montana, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a 5-year period of probation, with a ban from Yellowstone National Park during that time, for a DUI per se and open container violation. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ariel Calmes. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie A. Hambrick imposed the sentence on Oct. 11, in Mammoth, Wyoming.

      Darrell C. Osterhout, age 63 of New Brighton, Minnesota, was sentenced to 7 days in jail and 1 year of probation, with a ban from Yellowstone National Park during that time, for DUI per se and interference with law enforcement functions. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ariel Calmes. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie A. Hambrick imposed the sentence on Oct. 16, in Mammoth, Wyoming.

      Production of Child Pornography

      Robert Wayne Eaker, 38, of Boulder, Wyoming, was sentenced to 216 months in federal prison for production of child pornography with 15 years of supervised release. The court also ordered the defendant to pay $36,000 in restitution and a $100 special assessment. According to court documents, Eaker is a registered sex offender for prior offenses involving the sexual abuse of minors. In September 2023, the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force were conducting an online investigation for people sharing child pornography. Agents discovered a Wyoming IP address sharing numerous files of child pornography and traced it back to Eaker. Agents later received a search warrant for the house where he was living. Agents found Eaker had produced lewd and lascivious files of a child. Eaker admitted to producing the files without the child’s knowledge. In addition, investigators found hundreds of files of child pornography containing prepubescent children on multiple devices belonging to Eaker. DCI-ICAC investigated the crime and Assistant U.S. Attorney Z. Seth Griswold prosecuted the case. Eaker was indicted on May 16, pleaded guilty on July 25, and U.S. District Court Judge Kelly H. Rankin imposed the sentence on Oct. 16, in Cheyenne. 

      Drug and Firearm Offenses

      Brady Mitchell, 33, a transient, was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment for being a felon and unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm. According to court documents, on April 13, Cheyenne Police Officers contacted Mitchell who was asleep in his van in a gas station parking lot. During questioning, officers saw a hatchet under his seat and smelled marijuana. They asked him to step out of his van so they could secure the weapon and conduct a search. Officers found a .22 revolver on Mitchell and approximately 12 ounces of marijuana, 3.31 grams of Xanax, 3.75 grams of fentanyl, and 1.13 grams of methamphetamine in his van. Mitchell is a previously convicted felon and not allowed to possess a firearm. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives and the Cheyenne Police Department investigated this crime. Assistant U.S. Attorney, Michael J. Elmore prosecuted the case. Mitchell was indicted on April 13, pleaded guilty on July 11, and U.S. District Court Judge Kelly H. Rankin imposed the sentence on Oct. 15, in Cheyenne. 

      llegal Re-entry of a Previously Deported Alien

      Luis Barajas-Morales, 46, of Mexico, was sentenced to time served plus 10 days for deportation for illegal reentry into the United States. According to court documents, on Feb. 26, Barajas-Morales was arrested by the Teton County Sheriff’s Department for the charge of contempt of court. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was contacted. A Deportation Officer processed the defendant and obtained fingerprints matching pre-existing fingerprints in their database indicating Barajas-Morales was in the U.S. illegally and had not applied for permission to reenter the U.S. after being formally removed in December 2003. ICE investigated the crime and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron J. Cook prosecuted the case. U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson imposed the sentence on Oct. 15, in Cheyenne. Case No. 24-CR-00106.

      About the United States Attorney’s Office

      The United States Attorney’s Office is responsible for representing the federal government in virtually all litigation involving the United States in the District of Wyoming, including all criminal prosecutions for violations of federal law, civil lawsuits brought by or against the government, and actions to collect judgments and restitution on behalf of victims and taxpayers. The Office is involved in several programs designed to make our communities safer. They include:

      Environmental Justice
      The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

      Project Safe Childhood
      Project Safe Childhood (PSC) is a DOJ initiative that combats the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children. The threat of sexual predators soliciting children for sexual contact is well-known and serious.

      Project Safe Neighborhoods
      Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is a nationwide commitment to reducing gun and gang crime in America by networking existing local programs that target gun crime and providing these programs with additional tools necessary to be successful.

      Victim Witness Assistance
      The Victim Witness Coordinator for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming is dedicated to making sure that victims of federal crimes and their family members are treated with compassion, fairness, and respect.

      To report a federal crime, go to: https://www.justice.gov/actioncenter/report-crime#trafficking

      MIL Security OSI –

    11. MIL-OSI Security: Pediatric Physician Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography

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

      KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An Overland Park, Kansas, pediatric physician pleaded guilty in federal court today to using concealed video cameras to secretly record 13 child victims for the purpose of producing child pornography over a three-year period from Oct. 4, 2020, to Oct. 28, 2023. Aalbers also admitted that he was in possession of child pornography.

      Brian Michael Aalbers, 50, of Kansas City, Mo., pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lajuana M. Counts to 13 counts of attempting to produce child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.

      Aalbers, a pediatric neurologist at Overland Park Regional Hospital in Overland Park, Kan., remains in federal custody without bond.

      Concerns were received by both the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office regarding the potential victimization of patients of Aalbers’s pediatric practice. During the investigation, it was determined there was no evidence to indicate any current or former patients were victimized by Aalbers. To protect and maintain the privacy of Aalbers’s victims, no additional information regarding the victims will be released.

      According to today’s plea agreement, Kansas City, Mo., police officers investigated a report regarding concealed video cameras that had been found on Oct. 28, 2023. A witness later contacted officers to report that Aalbers was sending suicidal text messages. Lenexa, Kan., police officers located Aalbers and transported him to a local hospital to obtain voluntary mental health treatment. The hospital took possession of two laptop computers, two iPad tablets, and a cell phone that were inside a backpack Aalbers brought with him when he entered the facility.

      Investigators obtained search warrants for those devices, as well as other cameras and electronic devices owned by Aalbers. Investigators found more than 50,000 video files associated with the hidden video cameras used by Aalbers, including more than 1,000 videos that contained pornographic depictions of the 13 child victims.

      Investigators also obtained a search warrant for Aalbers’s iCloud account, which contained 1,000 additional images and 163 additional videos of child pornography, which included videos of the identified child victims that had been produced by Aalbers.

      Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, the government and Aalbers are jointly requesting a sentence of at least 20 years, but no more than 30 years, in federal prison without parole. The sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

      This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen A. Brackett. It was investigated by the FBI, the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, the Lenexa, Kan., Police Department, the Merriam, Kan., Police Department, and the Overland Park, Kan., Police Department, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Kansas.

      Project Safe Childhood

      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 Attorneys’ 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 http://www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

      MIL Security OSI –

    12. MIL-OSI Security: Pineville Woman Sentenced to Consecutive Life Sentences in Prison for Kidnapping, Murder of Pregnant Arkansas Woman and Unborn Child

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

      SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Pineville, Mo., woman was sentenced in federal court today for the kidnapping and murder of a pregnant Arkansas woman and her victim’s unborn child.

      Amber Waterman, 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to consecutive life sentences in federal prison without parole.

      On July 30, 2024, Amber Waterman pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of thereby causing the death of a child in utero. Waterman admitted that she kidnapped Ashley Bush in order to claim her unborn child, Valkyrie Willis, as her own. Waterman transported Ashley Bush from Maysville, Ark., to Pineville. The kidnapping resulted in the deaths of both Ashley Bush and Valkyrie Willis.

      Her husband, Jamie Waterman, 44, pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to one count of being an accessory after the fact to the kidnapping resulting in death. Jamie Waterman admitted that he knew Amber Waterman had kidnapped Bush, causing the death of her unborn child, and provided assistance in order to hinder or prevent the apprehension, trial, and punishment of Amber Waterman.

      Amber Waterman, using a false name, contacted Bush, who was approximately 31 weeks pregnant, via Facebook. Amber Waterman pretended to help Bush obtain employment, suggesting she had a job opportunity for her. That prompted an in-person meeting between the two women on Oct. 28, 2022, at the Gravette, Ark., public library. They agreed to meet again on Oct. 31, 2022.

      On Oct. 31, 2022, at roughly 11:45 a.m., Bush met Amber Waterman at the Handi-Stop convenience store in Maysville, Ark. Under the pretext that Amber Waterman was taking her to meet a supervisor to further discuss employment, Bush got into a truck driven by Amber Waterman. Amber Waterman then kidnapped and abducted Bush, driving her from Maysville to the Waterman residence in Pineville.

      According to court documents, Amber Waterman led Jamie Waterman to Bush’s body. Jamie Waterman assisted in hiding and disposing of the body.

      At about 5 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2022, first responders reported to the Longview store in Pineville for an emergency call of a baby who was not breathing. Amber Waterman admitted that she claimed to first responders that she had given birth to the child in the truck while on the way to the hospital. But in reality, she admitted, the child was Bush’s child, who died in utero, as a result of Amber Waterman’s kidnapping that resulted in the death of Bush.

      An autopsy indicated that Bush died as a result of penetrating trauma of the torso and her death was classified as a homicide.

      Under federal statutes, Jamie Waterman is subject to a sentence of up to 15 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

      This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephanie L. Wan and James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by the FBI, the Benton County, Ark., Sheriff’s Department, and the McDonald County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Arkansas and the Benton County, Ark., Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

      MIL Security OSI –

    13. MIL-OSI: Stilwell Will Vote in Favor of Proposal to Sell IF Bancorp – UPDATE

      Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

      NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Stilwell Activist Investments, L.P. (together with its affiliates, “Stilwell”), one of the largest stockholders of IF Bancorp, Inc. (“IROQ” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: IROQ), today issued the following statement in connection with the Company’s upcoming annual meeting of stockholders scheduled to be held on November 25, 2024 (the “Annual Meeting”), at which stockholders will vote on a number of matters, including Stilwell’s non-binding proposal requesting a sale of the Company (the “Proposal”), submitted pursuant to Rule 14a-8 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended:

      IF Bancorp – Chronically Disappointing.

      Based on chronic underperformance and the likelihood of continued underperformance, we intend to vote FOR the Proposal, copied directly below, at the upcoming Annual Meeting.

      Proposal: RESOLVED, that the stockholders of IF Bancorp, Inc. (the “Company” or “IROQ”) hereby recommend that the Board of Directors take all necessary steps to promptly effectuate a sale of the Company.

      As set forth in our Supporting Statement included in IROQ’s proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 16, 2024, we believe that the returns on the Company’s assets have been subpar for many years and that IROQ stockholders would be best served if the Company and its assets were sold at the earliest opportunity for the highest price available.

      Although our proposal is non-binding, we believe it provides a referendum for IROQ stockholders to express their views on the status quo and that it would be incumbent upon the Board of Directors to seriously consider such views if a majority of stockholders support this Proposal at the Annual Meeting.

      Investor Contact:
      Megan Parisi
      (787) 985-2194
      mparisi@stilwellgroup.com

      PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION OF AUTHORITY TO VOTE YOUR PROXY. DO NOT SEND US YOUR PROXY CARD. STILWELL IS NOT ASKING FOR YOUR PROXY CARD AND CANNOT AND WILL NOT ACCEPT PROXY CARDS IF SENT. STILWELL IS NOT ABLE TO VOTE YOUR PROXY, NOR DOES THIS COMMUNICATION CONTEMPLATE SUCH AN EVENT.

      The MIL Network –

    14. MIL-OSI: EverCommerce Announces Date of Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call

      Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

      DENVER, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — EverCommerce Inc. (NASDAQ: EVCM), a leading provider of SaaS solutions for service SMBs, will report its third quarter 2024 financial results after the U.S. financial markets close on Tuesday, November 12, 2024.

      Management will host a conference call on Tuesday, November 12 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time / 3:00 p.m. Mountain Time to discuss the Company’s financial results and provide a business update. Please visit the “Investor Relations” page of the Company’s website (https://investors.evercommerce.com/) for both telephonic and webcast access to this call; a replay will be archived on the website as well.

      About EverCommerce

      EverCommerce (Nasdaq: EVCM) is a leading service commerce platform, providing vertically-tailored, integrated SaaS solutions that help more than 690,000 global service-based businesses accelerate growth, streamline operations, and increase retention. Its modern digital and mobile applications create predictable, informed, and convenient experiences between customers and their service professionals. With its EverPro, EverHealth, and EverWell brands specializing in Home, Health, and Wellness service industries, EverCommerce provides end-to-end business management software, embedded payment acceptance, marketing technology, and customer experience applications. Learn more at EverCommerce.com.

      Investor Contact:
      Brad Korch
      SVP and Head of Investor Relations
      720-796-7664
      ir@evercommerce.com

      Press Contact:
      Jeanne Trogan
      VP of Corporate Communications
      512-705-1293
      press@evercommerce.com

      The MIL Network –

    15. MIL-OSI Security: Suburban Chicago Man Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison for Trafficking Fentanyl and Attempting To Support ISIS

      Source: Office of United States Attorneys

      CHICAGO — A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for trafficking fentanyl and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, also known as ISIS.

      On three occasions in 2019, JASON BROWN provided $500 in cash to an individual with the understanding that the money would be wired to an ISIS soldier engaged in terrorist activity in Syria.  Unbeknownst to Brown, the individual to whom he provided the money was confidentially working with law enforcement, and the purported ISIS fighter was actually an undercover law enforcement officer.

      Also in 2019, Brown trafficked fentanyl and other drugs from California to the Chicago suburbs and illegally possessed several loaded handguns in furtherance of his drug trafficking activities.

      Brown, 42, of Lombard, Ill., pleaded guilty last year to one count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, one count of distributing fentanyl, and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.  U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland imposed the sentence on Oct. 16, 2024, during a hearing in federal court in Chicago. Brown has been in law enforcement custody since his arrest in 2019.

      The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice, Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, Ramsey E. Covington, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation Chicago Field Office, and Larry Snelling, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.  Substantial assistance was provided by the Illinois State Police, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, Lombard, Ill. Police Department, Addison, Ill. Police Department, and FBI Field Offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Diego.  The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn McCarthy of the Northern District of Illinois and S. Elisa Poteat, Trial Attorney from the Justice Department’s National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section.

      MIL Security OSI –

    16. MIL-OSI Security: Federal Trial Jury Convicts New Orleans Men for Using Stash House for Methamphetamine, Heroin, Fentanyl Distribution Conspiracy and Being Felons in Possession of Firearms

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

      NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – A federal jury convicted TERENCE WILSON (“WILSON”), age 42, and TRAVIS ENCLADE (“ENCLADE”), age 42, both of New Orleans,  on October 9, 2024 for using a stash location in the 3500 block of Encampment Street in New Orleans to conspire to distribute methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl and, for being felons in possession of firearms.

      According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, WILSON and ENCLADE conspired together, and with others, to distribute methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl from August 2022 through October 12, 2022.  During this time, WILSON and ENCLADE engaged in multiple, near daily, hand-to-hand transactions with drug customers in the Hollygrove area. 

      In September 2022, law enforcement identified a residence being used by WILSON and ENCLADE as a stash house.  Both WILSON and ENCLADE regularly made short trips to the stash house, indicative of drug activities, and possessed access  keys.  When law enforcement executed a search warrant at the stash house, they seized over 534 grams of heroin and fentanyl, over 120 grams of fentanyl, and 363 grams of mostly pure methamphetamine.  Law enforcement also seized a Diamondback Model DB9, multicaliber pistol, a Palmetto State Armory Model PA-X9, multicaliber pistol and drug paraphernalia, including, vacuum seal bags, a plastic mixer bottle containing a brownish residue, digital scales with suspected drug residue, a mechanical press used to compress drugs into kilogram shaped packages for distribution, and bags of brown sugar, used as a cutting agent. 

      During a separate search of ENCLADE’s residence, law enforcement seized a stolen Ruger Model 57, 5.7 x 28-millimeter pistol.

      In Count 1, the jury convicted WILSON and ENCLADE of conspiracy to distribute and, possess with intent to distribute, 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, 40 grams or more of a fentanyl mixture, and 100 grams or more of heroin mixture.  With respect to Count 2, possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, 40 grams or more of a fentanyl mixture and, 100 grams or more of a heroin mixture, the jury found WILSON guilty and ENCLADE not guilty.  The jury convicted WILSON and ENCLADE of being felons in possession of firearms in Counts 3 and 4.  The jury found WILSON and ENCLADE not guilty on Count 5, which charged possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

      For both Counts 1 and 2, WILSON faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life imprisonment, a fine of up to $10,000,000, at least 5 years of supervised release.  For Count 1, ENCLADE faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life imprisonment, a fine of up to $10,000,000, at least 5 years of supervised release. For being a felon in possession of firearms, WILSON and ENCLADE each face up to 10 years imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to 3 years of supervised release. Additionally, for each count of conviction, both WILSON and ENCLADE face payment of a $100 mandatory special assessment fee.  Sentencing is set for January 21, 2025.

      This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation.  OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

      This prosecution is also 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 Drug Enforcement Administration, New Orleans Division, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Special Response Team, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Special Response Team, the New Orleans Police Department, the Louisiana State Police, the Slidell Police Department, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Gretna Major Crimes Task Force, and the Thibodeaux Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Rachal Cassagne and André Jones of the Narcotics Unit are in charge of the prosecution.

      MIL Security OSI –

    17. MIL-OSI USA: QUIGLEY, DURBIN, DUCKWORTH ANNOUNCE MORE THAN $81 MILLION IN ADDITIONAL FEDERAL FUNDING FOR THE CREATE PROGRAM

      Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05)

      U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL-05) and U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) announced $81,301,065 in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) INFRA (Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects) Program for the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program, which aims to reduce traffic delays, increase rail junction safety, and improve mobility throughout Chicago.

      DOT’s INFRA Grant Program provides federal funding for large projects of regional significance and is funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that the lawmakers worked to pass in 2021.

      Last month, Quigley, Durbin, and Duckworth announced $209 million in federal funding for the CREATE Program through DOT’s Mega Grant Program, bringing the total with today’s announced funding to $291,179,049.

      “The CREATE Program is fundamentally changing rail operations in Chicago for both commuters and freight. Last month, we secured $209 million in funding for this program. Today’s announcement marks another significant step toward fulfilling CREATE’s mission to improve safety, alleviate congestion, and boost mobility throughout our city,” said Quigley.

      “Today’s additional funding announcement is a major investment in the future of our transportation infrastructure. Chicagoans will be better connected because of the CREATE Program, which will improve the safety and quality of our rail system and roadways,” said Durbin. “Senator Duckworth, members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation, and I have long supported these investments, and I’m glad to see these federal dollars go toward improving safety and alleviating congestion in a region that desperately needs it.”

      “Investing in our transportation infrastructure is about growing our economy and making it easier, faster, safer and more efficient so people and goods can get where they need to go,” Duckworth said. “This significant federal investment in the CREATE Program—which Senator Durbin, members of the Illinois Delegation and I have been championing for years—will help us modernize our rail system for all Chicagoans while supporting good-paying South Side jobs and strengthening our region’s economy.”

      The CREATE Program brings together the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, the U.S. Department of Transportation, Metra, Amtrak, and the nation’s freight railroads in a partnership to eliminate transit bottlenecks, boost the economy, and improve overall safety of the Chicagoland area.

      Today’s announced funding will advance the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project, a three-mile elevated rail corridor on Chicago’s South Side, which approximately 90 freight trains and 30 Metra commuter trains use daily. The project will reconfigure track segments and signals at Belt Junction, add a third track to the Norfolk Southern line, replace and restore 14 aging bridge and viaduct structures, and implement mobility improvements on surface streets throughout the corridor.

      Quigely, Durbin, and Duckworth have long championed rail improvements, having helped secure $132 million in federal funding to begin this project in 2018.

      MIL OSI USA News –

    18. MIL-OSI USA: Durbin, Duckworth, Quigley Announce More Than $81 Million In Additional Federal Funding For the CREATE Program

      US Senate News:

      Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin

      10.18.24

      CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL-05) today announced $81,301,065 in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) INFRA (Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects) Program for the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program, which aims to reduce traffic delays, increase rail junction safety, and improve mobility throughout Chicago.

      DOT’s INFRA Grant Program provides federal funding for large projects of regional significance and is funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that the lawmakers worked to pass in 2021.

      Last month, Durbin, Duckworth, and Quigley announced $209 million in federal funding for the CREATE Program through DOT’s Mega Grant Program, bringing the total with today’s announced funding to $291,179,049.

      “Today’s additional funding announcement is a major investment in the future of our transportation infrastructure. Chicagoans will be better connected because of the CREATE Program, which will improve the safety and quality of our rail system and roadways,” said Durbin. “Senator Duckworth, members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation, and I have long supported these investments, and I’m glad to see these federal dollars go toward improving safety and alleviating congestion in a region that desperately needs it.”

      “Investing in our transportation infrastructure is about growing our economy and making it easier, faster, safer and more efficient so people and goods can get where they need to go,” Duckworth said. “This significant federal investment in the CREATE Program—which Senator Durbin, members of the Illinois Delegation and I have been championing for years—will help us modernize our rail system for all Chicagoans while supporting good-paying South Side jobs and strengthening our region’s economy.”

      “The CREATE Program is fundamentally changing rail operations in Chicago for both commuters and freight. Last month, we secured $209 million in funding for this program. Today’s announcement marks another significant step toward fulfilling CREATE’s mission to improve safety, alleviate congestion, and boost mobility throughout our city,” said Quigley.

      The CREATE Program brings together the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, the U.S. Department of Transportation, Metra, Amtrak, and the nation’s freight railroads in a partnership to eliminate transit bottlenecks, boost the economy, and improve overall safety of the Chicagoland area.

      Today’s announced funding will advance the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project, a three-mile elevated rail corridor on Chicago’s South Side, which approximately 90 freight trains and 30 Metra commuter trains use daily. The project will reconfigure track segments and signals at Belt Junction, add a third track to the Norfolk Southern line, replace and restore 14 aging bridge and viaduct structures, and implement mobility improvements on surface streets throughout the corridor.

      Durbin and Duckworth have long championed rail improvements, having helped secure $132 million in federal funding to begin this project in 2018.

      -30-

      MIL OSI USA News –

    19. MIL-OSI USA: Atlanta Attorney Pleads Guilty in Syndicated Conservation Easement Tax Scheme

      Source: US State of Vermont

      Attorney is 12th Individual Convicted in Scheme Involving Sale of Over $1.3B in Fraudulent Tax Deductions

      A Georgia man pleaded guilty last week to obstructing the IRS related to his participation in the promotion of abusive syndicated conservation easement tax shelters.

      According to court documents and statements made in court, Vi Bui was an attorney and partner at Sinnott & Co., an Atlanta-based company. Beginning in at least in 2012 and continuing through at least May 2020, Bui participated in a scheme to defraud the IRS by organizing, marketing, implementing and selling illegal syndicated conservation easement tax shelters created and organized by Jack Fisher, Sinnott and others. For their involvement in the scheme, Fisher and Sinnott were convicted at trial and in January sentenced to 25 and 23 years in prison, respectively.

      The scheme entailed the creation of partnerships that would purchase land and land-owning companies and then donate conservation easements over that land or the land itself. Appraisers would allegedly generate fraudulent and inflated appraisals of the conservation easements. The partnerships then claimed a charitable contribution tax deduction based on the inflated value of the conservation easement, resulting in a fraudulent tax deduction flowing to the wealthy clients who purchased units in the partnership. Many of these clients joined the tax shelters after the donation of the interest in land and after the close of the relevant tax year. Bui knew that, to make it appear that the participants had timely purchased their units in the tax shelters, Fisher, Sinnott and others backdated and instructed others to falsify documents, including subscription agreements, checks and other documents. And in at least one instance, Bui falsified documents himself.

      Bui anticipated that the syndicated conservation easement transactions would be audited. To deceive the IRS, Bui and others took steps to make the partnerships appear as legitimate real estate development companies. They would create and disseminate lengthy documents disguising the true nature of the transaction, institute sham “votes” for what to do with the land that the partnership owned despite knowing that outcome was predetermined and falsify paperwork, such as appraisals and subscription agreements.

      In one instance, when investigators conducted an undercover operation in 2018, Bui, believing that the IRS was auditing an individual’s 2014 tax return, prepared false documents that made it appear that the materials were executed before the purported donation of the conservation easement in 2014 and before the 2014 tax returns had been filed.

      Bui earned substantial income for his role in the illegal scheme. He also used the fraudulent tax shelters to evade his own taxes, filing false personal tax returns from 2013 through 2018 that claimed false tax deductions from the illegal syndicated conservation easement tax shelters.

      Bui is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 13, 2025, and faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison. Bui also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

      To date, in addition to the convictions of Fisher and Sinnott noted above, nine additional defendants have pleaded guilty to criminal conduct related to the syndicated conservation easement tax shelter scheme, including appraiser Walter Douglas “Terry” Roberts, accountants Stein Agee; Corey Agee, CPA; Ralph Anderson, CPA; James Benkoil, CPA; Victor Smith, CPA; William Tomasello, CPA; Herbert Lewis,  CPA; and Attorney Randall Lenz.

      Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia and Chief Guy Ficco of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) made the announcement. They also thanked U.S. Attorney Dena J. King for the Western District of North Carolina for her office’s assistance.

      IRS-CI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case.

      Trial Attorneys Richard M. Rolwing, Parker Tobin, Jessica Kraft and Nicholas J. Schilling Jr., of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Huber and deputy chief of the complex frauds section for the Northern District of Georgia  are prosecuting the case.

      MIL OSI USA News –

    20. MIL-OSI Security: New Orleans Man Sentenced for Cocaine Distribution and Possession Conspiracy

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

      NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – DAVID HESTER (“HESTER”), age 35, a resident of New Orleans, was sentenced on October 16, 2024 after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute and, possess with intent to distribute, five hundred grams or more of cocaine hydrochloride, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B), and 846.  HESTER was sentenced to eighty-eight (88) months imprisonment, four (4) years of supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee.

      According to court documents, HESTER, and other co-conspirators, are responsible for the distribution of multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine, fentanyl, and heroin within the Eastern District of Louisiana.

      During the investigation, law enforcement, led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, seized seventy- one (71) kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride, twelve (12) kilograms of fentanyl, four and a half (4.5) kilograms of heroin, and nearly $1,200,000.00 in U.S. Currency and other seized property.

      This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation.  OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

      This investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration – New Orleans Field Division Office and was assisted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Border Patrol, the Gretna Major Crimes Task Force, the Kenner Police Department, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, the St. John’s Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, and the New Orleans Police Department.  The prosecution was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Lynn E. Schiffman of the Narcotics Unit.

      MIL Security OSI –

    21. MIL-OSI: Rubis: Transactions carried out within the framework of the share buyback programme (excluding transactions within the liquidity agreement) – 14 to 18 October 2024

      Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

      Paris, 21 October 2024, 06:00pm

      Issuer Name: Rubis (LEI: 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742)
      Category of securities: Ordinary shares (ISIN: FR0013269123)
      Period: From 14 to 18 October 2024

      In accordance with the authorisation granted by the Ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting held on 11 June 2024 to implement a share buyback programme, the Company operated, between 14 and 18 October 2024, the purchases of its own shares in view of their cancelation presented below.

      Aggregate presentation per day and per market

      Name of issuer Identification code of issuer (Legal Entity Identifier) Day of transaction Identification code of financial instrument Aggregated daily volume
      (in number of shares)      		 Daily weighted average price of the purchased shares* Market (MIC Code)
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 14/10/2024 FR0013269123 2,931 25.1214 AQEU
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 14/10/2024 FR0013269123 19,209 25.2339 CEUX
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 14/10/2024 FR0013269123 3,736 25.0963 TQEX
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 14/10/2024 FR0013269123 33,694 25.0730 XPAR
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 15/10/2024 FR0013269123 3,426 24.9295 AQEU
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 15/10/2024 FR0013269123 18,686 24.9241 CEUX
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 15/10/2024 FR0013269123 3,322 24.8144 TQEX
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 15/10/2024 FR0013269123 34,624 24.8668 XPAR
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 16/10/2024 FR0013269123 1,623 24.9580 AQEU
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 16/10/2024 FR0013269123 18,815 24.8383 CEUX
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 16/10/2024 FR0013269123 1,768 24.8737 TQEX
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 16/10/2024 FR0013269123 36,185 24.9009 XPAR
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 17/10/2024 FR0013269123 12,705 25.0118 CEUX
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 17/10/2024 FR0013269123 36,792 25.0143 XPAR
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 18/10/2024 FR0013269123 1,028 25.2043 AQEU
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 18/10/2024 FR0013269123 13,424 25.1421 CEUX
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 18/10/2024 FR0013269123 205 25.2200 TQEX
      RUBIS 969500MGFIKUGLTC9742 18/10/2024 FR0013269123 34,473 25.1522 XPAR
      * Four-digit rounding after the decimal TOTAL 276,646 25.0070  

      Detailed presentation per transaction

      Detailed information on the transactions carried out from 14 to 18 October 2024 is available on the Company’s website (http://www.rubis.fr) in the section “Investors – Regulated information – Share buyback programme”.

        Contact
        RUBIS – Legal Department
        Tel. : + 33 (0)1 44 17 95 95

      Attachment

      The MIL Network –

    22. MIL-OSI: World’s largest investment managers see assets hit $128 trillion in return to growth

      Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

      NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Total assets under management (AUM) at the world’s 500 largest asset managers reached USD 128.0 trillion at the end of 2023, according to new research from leading global advisory, broking and solutions company WTW’s (NASDAQ: WTW) Thinking Ahead Institute.

      Despite not yet reaching 2021 levels, this amounts to 12.5% annual growth and marks a significant recovery from the major correction the year before (AUM dropped by $18 trillion in 2022).

      The research also reveals the continued evolution of active vs. passive assets under management among the largest investment managers. For the first time, passive investment strategies now account for more than one third of AUM among the 500 largest firms (33.7%), though this still leaves almost two thirds of assets managed by the world’s largest managers in active strategies.

      Asset class allocations have also evolved, with renewed growth of private markets. Core equity and fixed income remain the dominant asset classes, comprising 77.3% of total AUM (48.3% equity and 29.0% fixed income). However, this marks a slight decrease of 0.2% compared to the previous year, as investors turned to alternatives such as private equity and other illiquids in search of returns.

      Partly down to the recent dominance of US equities as performance drivers, North America experienced the largest growth in AUM with a 15.0% increase, followed closely by Europe (including the U.K.) with a 12.4% rise. Japan saw a slight decline, with AUM decreasing by 0.7%. As a result, North America now accounts for 60.8% of the total AUM in the top 500 managers, with USD 77.8 trillion at the end of 2023.

      At the very top of the rankings, U.S. managers make up 14 of the top 20, and account for 80.3% of the assets of the top 20.

      Turning to individual asset managers, the research shows that BlackRock remains the world’s largest asset manager, with its assets now above $10 trillion once more. Vanguard Group holds a strong second place at almost $8.6 trillion AUM and both remain significantly ahead of Fidelity Investments and State Street Global – ranked third and fourth respectively.

      Notable risers in the full rankings in the last 5 years include Charles Schwab Investment, up 34 places to reach 25th place from 59th place. Geode Capital Management, also U.S. based, is up 31 places to reach 23rd place from 54, while Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management is up 29 places from 60th to 31st.

      “Asset managers have experienced a year of consolidation and change. While there has been a return to strong market performance, the last year has also seen forces of change,” said Jessica Gao, director at the Thinking Ahead Institute. “Macro factors have played a key part in the story, with notable highs in interest rates during 2023 exerting varied pressure on different asset classes, geographies and investment styles. As this now gradually switches to a rate cutting environment, equity markets are beginning to return positive performance also driven by improving expectations of earnings growth. Uncertainties looking ahead are now focused on geopolitical events and several major elections.

      “We have continued to see net flows into passive strategies as they continue to offer a compelling value proposition, particularly in terms of lower fees and simplicity. Yet growing market volatility and issues with concentration, which typically highlights the need for expertise to outperform benchmarks, may be a source of caution from some allocators to passive market trackers.

      “Meanwhile, asset managers continue to face major pressure to evolve their own business models. Investment in technology remains essential not just to maintain a market edge, but also to meet evolving client requirements and expectation in reporting and customer service. Increased competition, fee compression, and the growing demand for more personalised, technology-driven investment solutions are challenging traditional structures. We have witnessed notable successes of independent asset managers versus many of the more affiliated insurer-linked vs bank-linked asset managers,” concluded Gao.

      The world’s largest money managers as of December 31, 2023
      Ranked by total AUM, in U.S. millions.

      Rank Fund Market Total Assets (US$)
      1. BlackRock U.S. $10,008,995
      2. Vanguard Group U.S. $8,593,307
      3. Fidelity Investments U.S. $4,581,980
      4. State Street Global U.S. $4,127,817
      5. J.P. Morgan Chase U.S. $3,422,000
      6. Goldman Sachs Group U.S. $2,812,000
      7. UBS Switzerland $2,620,000
      8. Capital Group U.S. $2,532,813
      9. Allianz Group Germany $2,454,495
      10. Amundi France $2,250,226
      11. BNY Investments U.S. $1,974,322
      12. Invesco U.S. $1,585,344
      13. Legal & General Group U.K. $1,475,442
      14. Franklin Templeton U.S. $1,455,506
      15. Prudential Financial U.S. $1,449,673
      16. T. Rowe Price Group U.S. $1,444,500
      17. Northern Trust U.S. $1,434,500
      18. Morgan Stanley Inv. Mgmt U.S. $1,373,456
      19. BNP Paribas France $1,364,099
      20. Natixis Investment Managers France $1,288,581

      Notes to editors:

      Figures were the latest available as of Dec. 31, 2023

      About the Thinking Ahead Institute

      The Thinking Ahead Institute was established in January 2015 and is a global not-for-profit investment research and innovation member group made up of engaged institutional asset owners and service providers committed to changing and improving the investment industry for the benefit of the end saver. It has over 55 members around the world and is an outgrowth of WTW Investments’ Thinking Ahead Group, which was set up in 2002.

      About WTW Investments

      WTW’s Investments is an investment advisory and asset management firm focused on creating financial value for institutional investors through its expertise in risk assessment, strategic asset allocation, fiduciary management and investment manager selection. It has over 900 colleagues worldwide, more than 1,000 investment clients globally, assets under advisory of over US$4.7 trillion and US$187 billion of assets under management.

      About WTW

      At WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), we provide data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk and capital. Leveraging the global view and local expertise of our colleagues serving 140 countries and markets, we help organizations sharpen their strategy, enhance organizational resilience, motivate their workforce and maximize performance.

      Working shoulder to shoulder with our clients, we uncover opportunities for sustainable success—and provide perspective that moves you.

      Learn more at wtwco.com

      Media contacts

      Ed Emerman: +1 609 240 6766
      eemerman@eaglepr.com

      Ileana Feoli: +1 212 309 5504
      Ileana.feoli@wtwco.com

      The MIL Network –

    23. MIL-OSI USA: Anderson Man Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* ChargeRead More

      Source: US State of South Carolina

      (COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of George Charles Lapierre, Jr.,  40, of Anderson, S.C., on one charge connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Anderson Police Department made the arrest. Investigators with the Attorney General’s Office, and Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, both also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation.

       

      Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Lapierre.  Investigators state Lapierre distributed files of child sexual abuse material.  

       

      Lapierre was arrested on October 15, 2024. He is charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.

       

       

      This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.

       

      Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.

       

       

       

      * Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. “Pornography” can imply the child was a consenting participant.  Globally, the term child pornography is being replaced by CSAM for this reason.

      MIL OSI USA News –

    24. MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Mfume, Team Maryland Announce More Than $38 Million for Critical Transportation & Port Infrastructure Projects in Baltimore

      Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Kweisi Mfume (MD-07)

      WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Congressman Kweisi Mfume, Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, Governor Wes Moore (all D-Md.), and Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeldtoday announced $38,406,076 in U.S. Department of Transportation awards to rehabilitate the Dundalk Marine Terminal and the Curtis Creek Drawbridge. This investment will improve vital infrastructure at and around the Port of Baltimore, which is critical to Maryland’s economy.

      “This monumental federal investment is a transformative display of the continued unity among us in Team Maryland to deliver for all of those who have been personally affected by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and continue to navigate the recovery alongside us. After speaking with so many of those impacted, I was and remain inspired by their grit, fierceness, and commitment to getting through this disaster together,” said Congressman Kweisi Mfume.

      “With these grants, the federal government is recognizing that Baltimore is home to nationally significant supply chain infrastructure that is overdue for investment and improvement. We are seeing once again how the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is delivering for Maryland, and we will continue to push for federal commitments to our infrastructure, including the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” said Senator Cardin. 

      “Through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, we continue to deliver historic resources to upgrade everything from our transportation network to the Port of Baltimore. With these major federal investments, we are priming the Port for future growth – while sustaining the thousands of jobs it already supports – and modernizing an essential bridge for commuting and commerce. These efforts will help drive Baltimore’s economic success and create more good paying jobs for Marylanders,” said Senator Van Hollen.

      “These two projects reinforce the Moore-Miller Administration’s commitment to making Maryland more competitive by investing in our critical infrastructure, including our world-class Port of Baltimore,” said Governor Moore. “We are grateful for the partnership from the Biden-Harris Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation and our Congressional delegation in supporting projects that will serve all Marylanders and help expand our growing economy.”

      “Together, these federal grants will support increased economic growth at the Port of Baltimore and the greater Baltimore region,” said Secretary Wiedefeld. “The funding will support critical rehabilitation efforts at the Dundalk Martine Terminal, the largest publicly owned terminal in the Port, and the Curtis Creek Drawbridge on I-695.  Thank you to our federal delegation and partners for their continued commitment in rebuilding Baltimore’s infrastructure better than before.”

      “Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Biden-Harris administration is carrying out ambitious, complex transportation projects that will shape our country’s infrastructure for generations to come,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “With this latest round of awards, dozens of major and much-needed projects – projects that are often difficult to fund through other means – are getting the long-awaited investment they need to move forward.”

      The funding was awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Infrastructure for Rebuilding America Grant Program (INFRA), which has administered historic levels of federal investments through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

      1. $30,906,076, Dundalk Marine Terminal: Awarded to the Maryland Port Administration to reconstruct Berth 11, consisting of the rehabilitation and replacement of 597 linear feet of wharf deck including pilings, substructure, storm water drainage, utilities, and installation of new mooring bollards, cleats, pneumatic fenders, flood barriers, and tidal gates.

      1. $7,500,000, Curtis Creek Drawbridge Rehabilitation: Awarded to the Maryland Transportation Authority to rehabilitate parallel drawbridges over Curtis Creek on I-695. The project will replace portions of the reinforced concrete deck, perform repairs to the exposed steel superstructure and existing catwalks, remove and replace bridge parapets, traffic lights, and low-level lights, and install new electrical service systems, drainage systems, and pavement markings.

      The Infrastructure for Rebuilding America Grant Program provides funding for multimodal freight and highway projects of national or regional significance to improve the safety, efficiency, and reliability of the movement of freight and people in and across rural and urban areas. 

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      MIL OSI USA News –

    25. MIL-OSI Security: FBI Seeks Information on Fatal Shooting of Carlos Honable in Stockton, California

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

      SACRAMENTO—The FBI is seeking information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of those responsible for the homicide of Carlos Honable, who was fatally shot on July 5, 2024.

      A ‘Seeking Information’ poster, which contains images of the suspect vehicle and a sketch of one of the vehicle’s occupants, is below. These visuals, products of the collaborative investigation with the Stockton Police Department, are intended to aid in solving this homicide and seeking justice for the victim.

      On July 5, 2024, at approximately 5:30 p.m., officers with the Stockton Police Department responded to a report of a person shot on the 3800 block of Fairburn Way. The investigation revealed that a 31-year-old male victim was sitting inside his parked vehicle when the suspect vehicle, a gray Toyota Camry (2018 model or newer), pulled up next to him. Occupants of the vehicle fired at the victim, striking him numerous times, before fleeing the scene. The victim, Carlos Honable, was transported to a local hospital but succumbed to his injuries.

      Investigators produced a sketch of one of the vehicle’s occupants based on the information gathered during the investigation. The individual is described as a young Black male, approximately 5’6″, with a thin build, weighing between 120 and 140 pounds. He was reportedly wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and dark-colored jeans at the time of the incident. He is considered armed and dangerous.

      If you have any information about this homicide and/or the occupants of the Toyota Camry, please contact the FBI Sacramento Field Office by calling 916-746-7000. You may also submit information online at tips.fbi.gov. You may remain anonymous.

      Link to FBI’s Most Wanted Release: FBI Seeks Information on Fatal Shooting of Carlos Honable in Stockton, California

      MIL Security OSI –