NewzIntel.com

Category: Justice

  • MIL-OSI Security: Madison Carrig Imprisoned For Employer Embezzlements

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Burlington, Vermont – The United States Attorney’s Office announced that Madison Carrig, 30, of Whitehall, New York, was sentenced yesterday in United States District Court in Burlington to four months of imprisonment following her guilty plea to charges of access device fraud. Chief U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss ordered that Carrig pay restitution in the amount of $141,000 and serve three years of supervised release following completion of her prison term. The court ordered Carrig to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on March 18 to begin serving her sentence.

    Last July, the United States Attorney filed an information charging Carrig with two counts of access device fraud. Carrig pleaded guilty to the information this past August. According to the information, beginning in September 2022 and continuing until February 2023, Carrig was employed as the office manager of two automobile dealerships located in central Vermont. In that capacity, Carrig supervised all accounting activities at both dealerships. Among other things, she had authority to sign checks, initiate wire transfers and make deposits to the dealerships’ bank account. She also possessed a company credit card and was authorized to use the credit card to make business-related purchases. Between February 2023 and November 27, 2023, Carrig was employed as the controller of a third Vermont automobile dealership, in Rutland. She had authority to sign checks, initiate wire transfers and make deposits to the dealership’s bank account. She also possessed a company credit card and was authorized to use the credit card to make business-related purchases.

    In the course of her employment, Carrig defrauded the three dealerships of approximately $140,000. She did this by embezzling cash receipts received from customers of the dealerships. She also misused company credit cards to purchase goods and services for her own use and benefit.

    This case was investigated by the Vermont State Police.

    Carrig is represented by Natasha Sen, Esq. The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Missouri Man Guilty of Travelling to Louisiana for Illicit Sexual Conduct with Twelve-Year-Old Girl

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    NEW ORLEANS –  U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that ERIC CHARLES FULLER (“FULLER”), age 54, from Springfield, Missouri, pled guilty on February 4, 2025, before United States District Judge Greg Gerard Guidry, to interstate travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2423(b).

    According to court documents, on or about December 7, 2023, law enforcement personnel, operating undercover online and pretending to be a twenty-nine-year-old mother with a twelve-year-old daughter, met FULLER on a social network and messaging application. Over approximately the next month, on numerous occasions, FULLER discussed his interest in engaging in various sexual acts with the “mother” and daughter.”  These discussions culminated in FULLER making arrangements to travel from his residence in Springfield, Missouri, to the New Orleans, Louisiana area to engage in sexual contact, individually and collectively, with the ”mother” and “daughter.” During his conversations, FULLER described the contact he anticipated as “highly taboo,” “highly illegal,” “risky,” “not the worst way to be,” and “a way to have a happier life.” FULLER drove from Springfield, Missouri on about January 11, 2024, and arrived at a predetermined location in Mandeville, Louisiana, on January 12, 2024, in order to engage in sexual conduct with the individual FULLER believed to be a twelve-year-old female.

    FULLER faces a maximum term of imprisonment of  thirty (30) years.  FULLER also faces at least five (5) years, and up to a lifetime of supervised release, up to a $250,000 fine and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee.  FULLER may also be required to register as a sex offender.  Sentencing before Judge Guidry has been scheduled for May 13, 2025.

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

    U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in investigating this matter.  Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg, Chief of the Public Integrity Unit, is in charge of the prosecution.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General Bonta Reminds Hospitals and Clinics of Anti-Discrimination Laws Amid Executive Order on Gender Affirming Care

    Source: US State of California

    Warns Children’s Hospital Los Angeles of potential violations of state anti-discrimination laws 

    OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today reminded California hospitals and federally-funded healthcare providers of their ongoing obligation under California anti-discrimination law to provide gender affirming care amid confusion resulting from President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directive on freezing or pausing federal funding and his executive order on gender affirming care. Attorney General Bonta also issued a letter putting Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on notice of its obligations under state anti-discrimination law, following reports that the hospital is pausing the initiation of hormonal therapies for all gender affirming care patients under the age of 19 and gender-affirming surgeries on minors. 

    “California supports the rights of transgender youth to live their lives as their authentic selves,” said Attorney General Bonta. “We will not let the President turn back the clock or deter us from upholding California values. I understand that the President’s executive order on gender affirming care has created some confusion. Let me be clear: California law has not changed, and hospitals and clinics have a legal obligation to provide equal access to healthcare services.”

    The California Department of Justice is aware of concerns about gender-affirming care being impacted by recent federal government actions attempting to restrict federal funds to recipients of federal grants, including the availability of federal financial assistance regarding the provision of gender affirming care to minors.

    On January 28, 2025, Attorney General Bonta, along with 22 other state attorneys general, filed suit in federal district court to halt the federal government’s illegal efforts to freeze such federal funding. The court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on January 31, 2025, prohibiting federal agencies from taking any action that would “pause, freeze, block, cancel or terminate” such funding. As a result of the TRO won by Attorney General Bonta and 22 other state attorneys general, federal agencies must continue to comply with existing grants, awards, and obligations, except as authorized by law.

    In a notice sent to federal agencies and filed with the court on Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice (U.S. DOJ) indicated its intent to comply with the court order and affirmed that the TRO blocking the illegal funding freeze applied to all federal funding awards or obligations, including those made to recipients such as hospitals, and federally funded healthcare providers. The U.S. DOJ stated that federal agencies “cannot pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards or obligations on the basis of the OMB memo, or on the basis of the President’s recently issued Executive Orders.” As such, the recent executive order pertaining to gender-affirming care for minors does not provide federal agencies with any basis to threaten or revoke federal funding from hospitals and federally funded healthcare providers. 

    Furthermore, California law, including the Unruh Civil Rights Act, Civil Code section 51 and Government Code section 11135, prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Electing to refuse services to a class of individuals based on their protected status, such as withholding services from transgender individuals based on their gender identity or their diagnosis of gender dysphoria, while offering such services to cisgender individuals, is discrimination. California families seeking gender-affirming care, and the doctors and staff who provide it, are protected under state laws.  

    RESOURCES 

    California has a number of resources for transgender youth and the broader LGBTQ+ community: 

    If you believe your rights are being violated as part of the enforcement of the President’s executive order, you can file a complaint with the California Attorney General’s Office here or with the California Civil Rights Department here. 

    A copy of the letter to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Highway closed at Brimbago

    Source: South Australia Police

    Police are currently at the scene of a crash at Brimbago.

    Just after 11pm last night (Wednesday 5 February), police and emergency services were called to the Dukes Highway after reports of a truck having crashed into a tree.

    The Dukes Highway at Brimbago is currently closed in both directions.

    All traffic is being directed along Emu Flat Road and Ngarkat Highway to travel between Keith and Bordertown.

    Please avoid the area if possible.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: FBI Philadelphia Continues Search for Wanted Fugitive Justin Smith

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

    The FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force continues to assist the Philadelphia Police Department with the search for Justin Smith, a convicted felon, wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder of his pregnant 21-year-old girlfriend.  

    She disappeared on March 30, 2021, and her body was found on April 5, 2021. He is alleged to have shot her in the head multiple times, causing her death and the death of her unborn child.   

    On April 9, 2021, Smith was charged with murder and related offenses in the 1st Judicial District in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, and a state warrant was issued for his arrest.   

    On August 10, 2023, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Smith in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after he was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. 

    Justin Smith is known to have connections to Greensboro, North Carolina, and New Castle, Delaware. After fleeing Philadelphia in 2021, he was seen in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami, Florida, and in Atlanta, Georgia. 

    The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to Smith’s location and arrest. 

    Anyone with information on Smith’s whereabouts is asked to contact the FBI at 215-418-4000 or tips.fbi.gov. Tipsters can remain anonymous.

    Link to poster: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/murders/justin-smith

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Murray, Ecology Director Sixkiller, Councilmember Zahilay, WA Head Start Association Director Call Out How Trump’s Ongoing Illegal Funding Freeze is Hurting WA State, Putting Critical Projects and Jobs at Risk

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray

    Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, led a virtual press conference highlighting how President Trump’s ongoing, illegal funding freeze is hurting people and organizations across Washington state—forcing them to make impossible choices, costing jobs, and putting critical projects and hundreds of millions of dollars for everything from infrastructure improvements to culvert removal at risk. Joining Senator Murray for the press call were King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, Washington State Department of Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller, and Joel Ryan, Executive Director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP.

    “People need to understand the Trump administration is still holding up billions of dollars, under Trump’s illegal Day One Executive Orders. We’re talking about funding Congress passed into law—funding that is owed to communities in Washington state and across the country,” Senator Murray said on this morning’s press call, outlining some of the ways President Trump’s ongoing illegal funding freeze from his Day One Executive Orders is putting critical projects and jobs in Washington state at risk:

    • “The Washington State Department of Transportation has told me Trump is blocking money to repair electric chargers, to install heavy duty chargers for trucks, to make critical repairs to bridges in order to protect the safety of millions of drivers, and to install new chargers along major roads like I-90, US-97, US-2, US-195, and US-395.
    • “Trump is holding up road projects to make streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers—a safe streets project in Richland, critical safety barriers in Spokane are just a few of the examples.
    • “Trump’s illegal freeze is, as we speak, blocking wildlife preservation work all over our state, and critical culvert replacement projects to help save our salmon.
    • “There are port projects right now on hold across Washington state, including for electrical infrastructure, and shore power for vessels. Absolutely essential electric transmission and distribution projects are on hold and in jeopardy.
    • “World class organizations in Washington state have told me they may have to lay people off this week—hundreds of people—because of Trump’s illegal funding freezes.

    “Make no mistake: the chaos is not over. There are still billions of dollars being illegally held up—and so many jobs in Washington state that are on the line I am going to continue fighting this and pressing the administration every way I can to get them to end these illegal funding freezes,” Murray concluded. “I’m going to continue doing everything I can as Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee to stand up and hold this administration to account, so we can get the money Congress passed into law flowing again to folks back home in Washington state.”

    “This is money that should be flowing into our communities, creating jobs, protecting public health, and improving the environment. Instead, it is being delayed at the expense of the people who need it most,” said Casey Sixkiller, director of the Washington State Department of Ecology.

    “King County is already grappling with a $150 million budget shortfall, putting essential services at risk. A freeze in federal funding would make this crisis even worse, threatening vital programs like healthcare, housing support, transportation, and services for veterans and seniors. For the people who depend on these services every day, these cuts aren’t just numbers—they’re lifelines that keep our community safe, healthy, and connected. Without immediate action and support, many of our most vulnerable neighbors will face even greater hardship,” said King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay.

    “This past week and half have been chaotic and disruptive roller coaster ride for Head Start programs here in Washington State. The half day shutdown caused by the Trump Administration caused confusion and nearly led to thousands of children and families losing access to childcare. Yesterday we continued to receive reports that Head Start programs were struggling to access their federal grant dollars with one program as of today still unable to gain access. Across the country there remains over 40+ Head Start programs impacting more than 20,000 children dealing with this ‘rolling blackout’ putting very low income children and families at risk of losing services,” said Joel Ryan, Executive Director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP.

    TIMELINE OF EVENTS

    January 20th: Within his first hours in office, President Trump signed a number of executive orders that illegally block funding that was signed into law to rebuild America’s infrastructure, lower families’ energy costs, create new, good-paying jobs, strengthen our national security, and more.

    January 27th: Trump expanded his funding freeze dramatically when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a sweeping, illegal memo directing a near-blanket freeze on virtually all federal funding, with carveouts for Social Security, Medicare, and “assistance provided directly to individuals.” Senator Murray immediately wrote a letter to OMB alongside House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) raising alarms about the sweeping directive and calling the acting director to restore funding, as the law requires.

    January 28th: Senator Murray joined millions of Americans in decrying the chaos and pain President Trump’s freeze caused—as reports poured in from across the country about how it risked shuttering Head Start programs, cutting off disaster relief, jeopardizing cancer research, and much more. The White House, in trying to clarify the scope of the memo, instead created more chaos, confusion, and headaches for the American people.

    January 29th: Senator Murray again slammed Trump’s devastating freeze cutting off funding families count on—noting that even programs the administration said were back online were, in fact, still shuttered, and she called on Trump to stop withholding funding. Then, facing nationwide backlash, President Trump had his OMB revoke its memo. But President Trump vowed to keep his freeze of hundreds of billions of dollars in funding tied up by his executive orders in place—and his aides continued their vows to block more funding signed into law.

    RIGHT NOW: President Trump continues to hold up vast swaths of funding implicated by his illegal executive orders—and chaos and confusion pervade over whether funding implicated by his now-rescinded OMB memo has been fully restored.

    His executive orders direct agencies to, among other things, halt disbursement of funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, foreign development assistance, and virtually any funding his administration deems “woke.”

    President Trump’s ongoing freeze is holding up funding Congress delivered—often on a bipartisan basis—to:

    • Rebuild America’s roads and bridges.
    • Connect families to high-speed internet access.
    • Upgrade transit and transportation infrastructure.
    • Lower Americans’ energy costs.
    • Create new, good-paying clean energy jobs.
    • Strengthen America’s national security.
    • Much more.

    President Trump must rescind his executive orders—and stop blocking funding the American people are counting on. His failure to do so will:

    • Kill good-paying American jobs.
    • Delay—or altogether scrap—infrastructure projects all across the county.
    • Raise American families’ energy costs.
    • Create more chaos, confusion, and uncertainty that hurt families, businesses, small businesses, and local organizations and governments.
    • Gut efforts to tackle the climate crisis and ensure every American has clean air and water.
    • Halt work cleaning up Superfund sites contaminated with hazardous waste and substances.
    • Undermine our national security and credibility on the world stage.
    • Much more.

    A fact sheet on the issue of impoundment—Trump’s unconstitutional scheme to withhold federal funding headed to communities across America—is HERE.

    Senator Murray’s full remarks, as delivered on today’s press call, are below and video is HERE:

    “Thank you everyone for joining us today. Last week, we saw a level of chaos and recklessness from the Trump administration that’s truly unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime, when the administration moved to brazenly and illegally freeze federal grants across government and across the country. 

    “The panic and the confusion were widespread. Because there was a long, long, list of programs President Trump tried to put on the chopping block.

    “Then, less than 48 hours later, in the face of intense public backlash and outrage from people all over the country—they admitted they were disastrously wrong and revoked the OMB memo.

    “But it’s really important that this fight is far from over. Not only is there still significant confusion—funding that was supposed to be turned back ‘on’ that is still not, it’s still locked up—but, just as importantly, people need to understand the Trump administration is still holding up billions of dollars, under Trump’s illegal Day One Executive Orders.

    “We’re talking about funding that Congress passed into law—funding that is owed to communities in Washington state and across the country.

    “Now, the harm they are causing with these funding freezes is hard to overstate, because this has never been done before. 

    “And we’ve been working around the clock to figure out exactly what all of this means, and who is affected—because they have been far from clear.

    “But today I want to give you all a sense of what folks across our state have told me about what Trump’s ongoing, illegal funding freezes have meant for them.

    “The Washington State Department of Transportation has told me that Trump is blocking money to repair electric chargers, to install heavy duty chargers for trucks, to make critical repairs to bridges in order to protect the safety of millions of drivers, and to install new chargers along major roads like I-90, US-97, US-2, US-195, and US-395.

    “Trump is still holding up road projects that make streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers—a safe streets project in Richland, critical safety barriers in Spokane are just a few of the examples.

    “Trump’s illegal freeze is, as we speak, blocking wildlife preservation work all over our state, and critical culvert replacement projects to help save our salmon. 

    “There are port projects right now on hold across Washington state, including for electrical infrastructure, and shore power for vessels. Absolutely essential electric transmission and distribution projects are on hold and in jeopardy.

    “And there are many other projects, organizations, and people—who are being harmed right now by the President’s reckless funding freeze.

    “Medical researchers in Washington state who are worried that their work will somehow be considered ‘woke,’ when in reality, it’s actually pretty darn important we understand the roots of health disparities—things like why the maternal death rate is so much higher for Black and Native American women.

    “Trump’s executive orders also froze lifesaving foreign assistance for people all around the globe.

    “And world class organizations in our state, in Washington state, have told me they may have to lay people off this week—hundreds of people—because of Trump’s illegal funding freezes.

    “It is just completely unclear when, or if these projects are going to get the funds they are counting on, and owed, from the bills Congress passed into law long before Trump came into office. 

    “So, make no mistake: the chaos is not over. There are still billions of dollars being illegally held up—and many jobs in Washington state are now on the line.

    “I am going to continue fighting this and pressing the administration every way I can to make them end these illegal funding freezes.

    “Democrats will speak out, we will challenge Trump’s illegal actions in the courts, we will demand accountability, and we will put the pressure on the administration and on our Republican colleagues. 

    “But we also need our Republican colleagues to say ‘enough.’ We need them to join us. 

    “Now, we learned something extremely important last week: that when the American people–all across our state, all across the country–speak out with one voice, and when regular people stand up, it makes a difference. 

    “So this fight is far from over—and I’m going to continue doing everything I can as Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee to stand up and hold this administration to account, so we can get the money Congress—by both parties, Republicans and Democrats–passed into law flowing again to folks back home in Washington state.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Holyrood — RCMP East District GIS continues to investigate break, enter, and theft at RBC in Holyrood, three more individuals charged

    Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    In continuing its investigation into a recent break, enter, and theft at the RBC bank branch in Holyrood, RCMP East District General Investigation Section (GIS) arrested and charged three more suspects, 33 -year-old Ryan Tobin, 38-year-old Matthew Scott, and 49-year-old Jodi Lewis.

    At approximately 3:45 a.m. on December 16, 2024, suspects used a stolen back hoe to break into the bank, causing extensive damage. An ATM was stolen from inside and loaded into a dump truck which was stopped by police a short time later on the Trans-Canada Highway heading east and the ATM was recovered. A second vehicle, a pickup truck, was also pulled over. This vehicle was believed to be involved in the breaking and entering and all three occupants were arrested but later released.

    As a result of further investigation, on January 29, 2025, Matthew Scott, Jodi Lewis, and Ryan Tobin, the occupants of the pickup truck, were charged and are set to appear in court on March 4, 2025, for the following offences:

    • Break and enter
    • Theft over $5000
    • Mischief over $5000

    Two other individuals, Jason Weir and Jamie Kennedy, were previously arrested and charged as part of this investigation.

    The investigation is continuing. Anyone having information about this crime is asked to contact Holyrood RCMP at 709-229-3892 or, to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers: #SayItHere 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit www.nlcrimestoppers.com or use the P3Tips app.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: “Dirtyman” sentenced and deemed repeat and dangerous offender against minors

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    McALLEN, Texas – A 46-year-old man has been sentenced for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.

    Brian Edward May, Rohnert Park, California, pleaded guilty Nov. 14, 2024.

    U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton has now ordered May to serve 136 months in federal prison. The court enhanced the sentence after determining May was a repeat and dangerous offender against minors. The court also heard that May continued to engage in predatory sexual conduct against children after he was released on bond from state custody. May will serve 15 years on supervised release following completion of his prison term. During that time, he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. He will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.

    “In today’s online world, predators can gain near-instantaneous virtual access to children,” said Ganjei. “The Southern District of Texas office is working hand in glove with our federal and state law enforcement partners to identify and pursue these predators before they can victimize innocent children.”

    “Children must be protected from sexual exploitation, and we remain committed to investigating the coercion and enticement of a minor,” said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – San Antonio Special Agent in Charge Craig Larrabee. “Today’s sentence means this defendant is no longer free to prey upon the most vulnerable among us. HSI will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute those who seek to victimize children.”

    On April 19, 2023, May operated an online account under the name of “dirtyman” and contacted whom he believed to be a 14-year-old child. May made arrangements to meet the child to engage in illegal sexual activity at a park in McAllen.

    He had been in McAllen working as a contractor at the time of the crime.

    During a subsequent review of May’s electronic devices, authorities found numerous messages that indicated May had attempted to pay adults to access children to engage in illegal sexual activity. They also recovered files containing child sexual abuse material.

    May will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

    Homeland Security Investigations and McAllen Police Department conducted the investigation.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Devin V. Walker prosecuted the case, which was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section leads PSC, which marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and identifies and rescues victims. For more information about PSC, please visit DOJ’s PSC page. For more information about internet safety education, please visit the resources link on that page.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Counterfeiting cash group disrupted: 12 arrests

    Source: Eurojust

    During an action day on 2 February, actions took place simultaneously in North Macedonia and Serbia. Authorities searched multiple locations and found machines used to make moulds and stamps for counterfeit money, hot rollers, presses, a counterfeit banknote detector and holograms. Over 180 000 counterfeit euro banknotes were seized during searches in Serbia, and over 500 000 in North Macedonia.

    Authorities also seized cash in different currencies, phones and laptops. Evidence collected during the searches will be further analysed to serve the ongoing investigations. Twelve members of the forgers group were arrested in North Macedonia and Serbia.

    The JIT between North Macedonian and Serbian authorities is supported by Eurojust through the Western Balkans Criminal Justice Project. This project strengthens cooperation within the Western Balkans and between the region and the European Union, using modern tools and methods to combat organised crime and terrorism. The JIT allowed the authorities to work together efficiently and effective, exchanging information in real time. The Western Balkans Criminal Justice Project purchased equipment for the North Macedonian and Serbian authorities, which was instrumental in executing the operation.

    Europol played a key role in the operation, supporting law enforcement with expertise on counterfeit banknotes, analytical and financial assistance, and coordination of operational activities. Europol’s analysis identified the country where the counterfeit banknotes were distributed. On the action day, Europol deployed staff to North Macedonia and Serbia to provide technical support and cross-check operational data against Europol’s databases and the European Central Bank’s systems.

    The following authorities carried out the operations:

    North Macedonia: Basic Public Prosecution Office for Prosecuting Organized Crime and Corruption; Investigative Centre from the Prosecution Office and Ministry of Interior

    Serbia: Public Prosecutor’s Office for organized crime, Service for combating organized Crime, Department for combating counterfeiting of money

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Belarus election: how ‘Europe’s last dictator’ held onto power as his opponents were jailed or exiled

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stephen Hall, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics, University of Bath

    The acclamation of Alexander Lukashenko as Belarus president for a seventh straight term was confirmed on January 26. The electoral authorities announced that the man known as “Europe’s last dictator” – the only president the country has had since it held its first “democratic” election in 1994 – had won 87% of the vote.

    Most western leaders have dismissed the result as a “sham”. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, posted on X that “the people of Belarus had no choice”, while the Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, commented that he was surprised “only” 87.6% of the electorate had voted for Lukashenko: “Will the rest fit inside the prisons?” he asked.

    But the result was never really in doubt. Sikorski’s barb about jailing opponent figures is right on the money. Many of Belarus’s main opposition figures are already behind bars and the rest are in exile. And, just to make sure of things, well before the campaign started – in January 2024 – Lukashenko changed the law so that only those people who were had lived permanently in Belarus for 20 years could stand for the presidency. This meant that the most prominent opposition leader not now in prison in Belarus, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, was ineligible.

    Tsikhanouskaya fled after the election to avoid the fate of her husband, Sergei Tsikhanouski, who was arrested in 2020, two days after declaring his candidacy for the election. He has since been jailed for 18 years on charges of “preparation of mass disorder” and “incitement to hatred”. Tsikhanouskaya was herself tried in absentia and sentenced to 15 years for high treason, inciting social hatred, attempts to seize power, forming an “extremist” group and harming national security.

    So with no real opposition allowed to stand, Lukashenko’s reelection was pretty much a foregone conclusion. A survey conducted by the think tank Chatham House at the end of 2024 found that about one-third of Belarusians said they supported Lukashenko – and most of these people also commented they thought the country was going in the right direction.

    Keeping Belarus out of the war was a major factor for these voters. A further 41% professed to be neutral. When it came to electoral integrity, 36% agreed or somewhat agreed that the result was predetermined. Among pro-democracy voters that number rose to 77%.

    Government in exile

    Tsikhanouskaya leads a government in exile from Lithuania, heading what her team has called a “united transitional cabinet”, tasked with “ensuring the transition of power from dictatorship to democracy, and promoting fair and free elections”. The cabinet is supported by a national coordinating council of 70 members which is elected on a two-yearly basis and who main function is to establish the ground rules for a “ democratic and rule-of-law-based state”.

    Tsikhanouskaya’s efforts have been supported by a range of countries, including the US which, in August 2020, urged the Lukashanko regime to “actively engage Belarusian society, including through the newly established National Coordination Council, in a way that reflects what the Belarusian people are demanding, for the sake of Belarus’ future, and for a successful Belarus”.

    But being a leader in exile means it is difficult to bridge the barrier to Belarusians at home.

    Political prisoners

    Other opposition figures are mainly still in prison. Sergei Tsikhanouski was recently was charged with violating prison rules, which will increase his existing 18-year sentence.

    His fellow opposition leader, Viktar Babaryka – who was also arrested in the run-up to the 2020 election – was given 14 years on trumped-up up charges. His assistant Maria Kolesnikova, who took over from him as a protest leader, was jailed after publicly destroying her passport so she could not be forcibly exiled by the authorities.

    Although not part of the political opposition another prominent figure, Ales Bialiatski, a human rights activist who won the Nobel peace prize in 2022 was sentenced to ten years in jail in 2023 for smuggling and allegedly financing the 2020 protests.

    Overtures to the west

    Since the summer of 2024, 200 political prisoners have been released, a possible sign that Lukashenko wants to reset relations with the west. He did something similar in 2015, the year after Russia annexed Crimea.

    At the time his release of six opposition activists was seen as a possible sign the Belarus leader was concerned his country could be at risk from Russian aggression and he was looking to keep with the EU and the US.

    Kolesnikova was recently allowed a prison visit from her father for the first time in nearly two years. Meanwhile a journalist was given access to Babaryka in jail and allowed to record a video of the jailed dissident for his daughter.

    If the release of prisoners and reappearance of the two jailed dissidents are indeed an attempt to reset relations with the west, the fact he still has more than 1,000 political prisoners behind bars will give Lukashenko plenty of diplomatic leeway.

    But given Lukashenko’s close alignment with Russian president Vladimir Putin and the fact that he allowed Belarus to be used as a launch pad for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is unlikely that many western countries will be won over.

    Lukashenko has shown himself to be an irritant many times over the years. In 2021, the year before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Belarus leader was roundly criticised for trying to spark a migrant crisis in neighbouring Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Belarus was reportedly flying Iraqi and Afghan migrants from the Middle East and bussing them to the border where Belarusian troops were trying to push them across.

    As far as armed resistance to Lukashenko is concerned, the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment, a group of Belarusian volunteers has been fighting as part of Ukraine’s armed forces since March 2022. The regiment’s stated aim is to help Ukraine fight off Russia and become part of the EU and Nato and to strive for Belarus to do the same.

    The next election is due to be held in 2030. Alexander Lukashenko will be 75.

    Stephen Hall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Belarus election: how ‘Europe’s last dictator’ held onto power as his opponents were jailed or exiled – https://theconversation.com/belarus-election-how-europes-last-dictator-held-onto-power-as-his-opponents-were-jailed-or-exiled-248962

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: United Nations/Environment – France’s ratification of the UN agreement on marine biodiversity (5 Feb. 2025)

    Source: Republic of France in English
    The Republic of France has issued the following statement:

    On 5 February, France deposited with the United Nations Secretary-General its ratification instrument for the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, known as the BBNJ Agreement.

    This deposit completes the ratification process, following Parliament’s unanimous adoption of the bill presented by the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, on 5 November 2024.

    France is fully mobilized to achieve the 60 ratifications necessary for the agreement to come into force, between now and the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC), which will be held in Nice in June 2025.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Shelburne — Shelburne RCMP charges man after seizing firearms

    Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    Shelburne RCMP Detachment has charged a Westphal man with multiple offences after executing a search warrant at a residence and seizing multiple firearms.

    On January 17, Shelburne RCMP responded to a report of an assault with a weapon, and learned that a man had assaulted an individual at a Shelburne home and left before police arrived. Subsequent attempts to locate and arrest the man were unsuccessful.

    On February 3, at approximately 4:30 p.m., RCMP officers learned that the man was at a residence on Parr St., and established containment of the home. Investigators evacuated surrounding residences and the Nova Scotia RCMP’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) attended the location.

    At approximately 9 p.m., ERT, supported by the RCMP’s Crisis Negotiation Team and Police Dog Services, safely arrested 28-year-old Liam Colin Cockerill.

    The Parr St. home was secured and officers executed a search warrant; they seized two firearms and a variety of ammunition.

    Cockerill has been remanded into custody and, at this time, faces 21 charges, including:

    • Assault
    • Assault with a Weapon
    • Possession of a Weapon for a Dangerous Purpose
    • Careless Storage of a Firearm (three counts)
    • Possession of a Prohibited Firearm
    • Possession of a Loaded Firearm
    • Possession of a Firearm While Prohibited
    • Failure to Comply with Undertaking

    The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Shelburne RCMP at 902-875-2490. To remain anonymous, call Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers, toll-free, at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), submit a secure web tip at www.crimestoppers.ns.ca, or use the P3 Tips app.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Psychotherapy may change memories of childhood – here’s why practitioners should warn clients

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lawrence Patihis, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Portsmouth

    Yuri A/Shutterstock

    One of the unfortunate legacies that my generation, gen X, has passed on to the millennials and gen Z, is the idea that therapy has no side effects. However, just like many other medical treatments, there can be negative effects. For example, in some cases psychotherapy can be linked with a worsening of psychiatric symptoms, increased anxiety and false memories.

    My team’s recent paper investigated the effect of evaluating a parent on the basis of their emotions and memories of those emotions in childhood. Our findings, which show these kinds of reappraisals can distort memories, may have implications for talking therapies that explore clients’ childhoods.

    Previous research has shown that as people’s thoughts change, their memory of emotions seems to do so too. In 1997 psychology professor Linda Levine found that people misremembered how they had felt when Ross Perot withdrew from the 1992 US presidential race, when they were asked to recall their emotions after the election. Psychologist Martin Safer found in his 2010 study that some people misremembered how much grief they felt when their spouse died, and this bias was related to their current evaluation of the death.

    In my team’s study, published in Psychological Reports, we found that writing out recent examples of participants’ mothers’ behaviour could lead them to reappraise their mother. It also seemed to change the participants’ current emotions towards their mother. And most surprisingly, it seemed to subtly affect the participants’ memories of emotions from childhood.

    Our participants were split into four groups and given different writing prompts. The first group were asked to give recent examples of their mother showing a positive attribute. For example: “Please write three to four sentences giving the most recent examples of when your mother showed competence (effectiveness) in her life.”

    The second group were asked to give examples of their mother showing a lack of those same attributes. A third group were asked to give examples of a former teacher showing a lack of positive attributes and the last group were given no writing tasks.

    The participants were then given questionnaires asking them to evaluate their mothers and about their memories of their emotions toward their mothers.

    We found that these reappraisals affected participants’ current happiness and interest towards their mother. Reappraisal also affected their memories of happiness from childhood.

    Counselling isn’t free of risks.
    Prostock-studio/Shutterstock

    In these experiments, we slightly nudged people’s appraisals of their mothers. But this may happen in a bigger way in the real world. Talking to a therapist for years in a way that reconstructs a client’s childhood, and then linking this to their problems, could cause more significant reappraisals of their parents. What therapy clients may not realise, nor perhaps even their therapist, is that these reevaluations could be changing their memories of childhood.

    Warning signs

    I believe that clients should be aware of the side effects of therapy, and there should be a line or two on the malleability of memory on the forms people sign before therapy begins.

    It would also help if all therapists were taught in their training about the ways memory can be distorted. Indeed, research on infantile and childhood amnesia suggests that humans seem to remember little of early childhood, leaving us all vulnerable to reappraising that period.

    We might debate whether therapists should be making negative comments about parents. Perhaps in cases of abuse, some might argue it could help. But in many other types of clients, therapists making negative comments could have a powerful effect that far exceeds our experimental nudges. For example: “Wow, your mother sounds like a controlling type,” if repeated enough by therapists, might cause reappraisals and family rifts over time.

    In some cases, reevaluating your parents in a positive direction can lead to better relationships over time. This may result in the real joy of childhood being better remembered and appreciated. Positive reevaluations may actually be fair and moving towards accuracy. For example in cases where previous negative reappraisals in adolescence and early adulthood were unfair and forgetful of the sacrifice and love the parents had given in early childhood.

    Nevertheless, there is a potential negative side effect if parents are positively reappraised too much. If your parents had set up conditions to illicit a lot of negative emotions in childhood, glossing over that might increase the risk of repeating the same mistakes as you raise your own children.

    I am a strong believer in living an examined life. People should be free to practice psychotherapy, and clients should be welcome to seek out therapies that dig deep into parental and childhood themes. In the same way that people who need X-rays should get them despite the small risks, people who need therapy should take it.

    Better to be as accurate as you can be, as we live fully examined and rich lives.

    Lawrence Patihis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Psychotherapy may change memories of childhood – here’s why practitioners should warn clients – https://theconversation.com/psychotherapy-may-change-memories-of-childhood-heres-why-practitioners-should-warn-clients-243060

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Cramer Reintroduces Fair Access to Banking Act to Protect Legal Industries from Debanking

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)

    ***Click here for audio.***

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – In recent years, prominent American banks have engaged in a discriminatory practice, referred to as debanking. Banks and financial institutions use their economic standing to categorically exclude law-abiding, legal industries by refusing to lend or provide services to them. This includes industries such as firearms, ammunition, crypto, federal prison contractors, as well as energy producers. 

    U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, reintroduced his Fair Access to Banking Act, which protects fair access to financial services and ensures banks operate in a safe and sound manner. The legislation requires that lending and services decisions must be based on impartial, risk-based analysis, not political or reputational favoritism. U.S. Representative Andy Barr (R-KY-6) introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives. 

    “When progressives failed at banning these entire industries, what they did instead is they turned to weaponizing banks as sort of a backdoor to carry out their activist goals,” said Cramer. “Financial institutions are backed by taxpayers, for crying out loud! They should be obligated to provide services in an unbiased, risk-based manner. The Fair Access to Banking Act ensures that banks provide fair access to services and enacts strict penalties for categorically discriminating against legal industries and individuals.”

    Specifically, this legislation penalizes banks and credit unions with over $10 billion in total consolidated assets, or their subsidiaries, if they refuse to do business with any legally compliant, credit-worthy person. It also prevents payment card networks from discriminating against any qualified person because of political or reputational considerations. The bill requires qualified banks to provide written justification for why they are denying a person financial services. Further, the Fair Access to Banking Act would penalize providers who fail to comply with the law by disqualifying institutions from using discount window lending programs, terminating status as an insured depository institution or credit union, or imposing a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation. 

    The bill is based on President Trump’s Fair Access Rule, which was introduced during his first administration and required financial institutions to make individual risk assessments rather than broad decisions regarding entire industries or categories of customers. Cramer helped craft the rule, and his legislation codifies these protections. The Biden administration paused the rule’s implementation in early 2021.

    Cramer’s legislation is a response to United States banks and financial institutions increasingly using their economic standing to categorically discriminate against legal industries and conservatives. For example, Citigroup instituted a policy in 2018 to withhold project-related financing for coal plants, and in 2020, five of the country’s largest banks announced they would not provide loans or credit to support oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, despite explicit congressional authorization. Such exclusionary practices also extend to industries protected by the Second Amendment, with Capital One, among other banks, previously including “ammunitions, firearms, or firearm parts” in the prohibited payments section of its corporate policy manual, and payment services like Apple Pay and PayPal denying their services for transactions involving firearms or ammunition. First Lady Melania Trump and technology companies alike allege banks have debanked them or refused to do business. During his address to the World Economic Forum in January, President Trump highlighted big banks and their discriminatory practices of targeting conservatives.  

    In the years since Cramer first introduced the Fair Access to Banking Act, support has grown every Congress. At the state level, Florida and Tennessee passed Fair Access laws and similar legislation was introduced in Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, and South Dakota. Banks have dropped membership in discriminatory groups which were aimed at starving specific industries.

    The Fair Access to Banking Act is endorsed by several organizations, including the National Shooting Sports Foundation, National Rifle Association, North Dakota Petroleum Council, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, The Digital Chamber, Blockchain Association, Independent Petroleum Association of America, Online Lenders Alliance, Day 1 Alliance, GEO Group, Lignite Energy Council, National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, and National Mining Association.

    The bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Jim Banks (R-IN), John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Boozman (R-AR), Katie Britt (R-AL), Ted Budd (R-NC), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Curtis (R-UT), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), John Hoeven (R-ND), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Jim Justice (R-WV), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Dave McCormick (R-PA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Jim Risch (R-ID), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL), Tim Scott (R-SC), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Roger Wicker (R-MS).

    Click here for bill text. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: RELEASE: Mullin, Cramer, Colleagues Reintroduce Fair Access to Banking Act to Protect Legal Industries from Debanking

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator MarkWayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma)

    RELEASE: Mullin, Cramer, Colleagues Reintroduce Fair Access to Banking Act to Protect Legal Industries from Debanking

    Washington, D.C. – In recent years, prominent American banks have engaged in a discriminatory practice, referred to as debanking. Banks and financial institutions use their economic standing to categorically exclude law-abiding, legal industries by refusing to lend or provide services to them. This includes industries such as firearms, ammunition, crypto, federal prison contractors, as well as energy producers. 

    U.S. Senators Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and 39 of their Senate GOP colleagues reintroduced the Fair Access to Banking Act, which protects fair access to financial services and ensures banks operate in a safe and sound manner. The legislation requires that lending and services decisions must be based on impartial, risk-based analysis, not political or reputational favoritism. U.S. Representative Andy Barr (R-KY-6) introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives. 

    Specifically, this legislation penalizes banks and credit unions with over $10 billion in total consolidated assets, or their subsidiaries, if they refuse to do business with any legally compliant, credit-worthy person. It also prevents payment card networks from discriminating against any qualified person because of political or reputational considerations. The bill requires qualified banks to provide written justification for why they are denying a person financial services. Further, the Fair Access to Banking Act would penalize providers who fail to comply with the law by disqualifying institutions from using discount window lending programs, terminating status as an insured depository institution or credit union, or imposing a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation. 

    The bill is based on President Trump’s Fair Access Rule, which was introduced during his first administration and required financial institutions to make individual risk assessments rather than broad decisions regarding entire industries or categories of customers. The Biden administration paused the rule’s implementation in early 2021.

    The senators’ legislation is a response to United States banks and financial institutions increasingly using their economic standing to categorically discriminate against legal industries and conservatives. For example, Citigroup instituted a policy in 2018 to withhold project-related financing for coal plants, and in 2020, five of the country’s largest banks announced they would not provide loans or credit to support oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, despite explicit congressional authorization. Such exclusionary practices also extend to industries protected by the Second Amendment, with Capital One, among other banks, previously including “ammunitions, firearms, or firearm parts” in the prohibited payments section of its corporate policy manual, and payment services like Apple Pay and PayPal denying their services for transactions involving firearms or ammunition. First Lady Melania Trump and technology companies alike allege banks have debanked them or refused to do business. During his address to the World Economic Forum in January, President Trump highlighted big banks and their discriminatory practices of targeting conservatives.  

    In the years since the first introduction of the Fair Access to Banking Act, support has grown every Congress. At the state level, Florida and Tennessee passed Fair Access laws and similar legislation was introduced in Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, and South Dakota. Banks have dropped membership in discriminatory groups which were aimed at starving specific industries.

    The Fair Access to Banking Act is endorsed by several organizations, including the National Shooting Sports Foundation, National Rifle Association, North Dakota Petroleum Council, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, The Digital Chamber, Blockchain Association, Independent Petroleum Association of America, Online Lenders Alliance, Day 1 Alliance, GEO Group, the Lignite Energy Council, and National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.

    Joining Sens. Mullin and Cramer on this legislation are Senators Jim Banks (R-IN), John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Boozman (R-AR), Katie Britt (R-AL), Ted Budd (R-NC), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Curtis (R-UT), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), John Hoeven (R-ND), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Jim Justice (R-WV), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Dave McCormick (R-PA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Jim Risch (R-ID), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL), Tim Scott (R-SC), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Roger Wicker (R-MS).

    Read exclusively about the Fair Access to Banking Act in the Daily Wire.

    Click here for bill text. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General Labrador Defends Union Gospel Mission’s Authority to Hire Based on Religious Beliefs

    Source: US State of Idaho

    [BOISE] – Attorney General Raúl Labrador joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general in defending a religious organization’s broad authority to make employment decisions based on religious beliefs to accomplish the organization’s mission and goals.  The coalition filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday.
    In the case of Union Gospel Mission of Yakima Washington v. Ferguson, the coalition of attorneys general argues that Union Gospel Mission, a nonprofit religious organization, should be allowed broad decision-making authority over who they employ to ensure all employees share their religious beliefs and will not undermine the organization’s religious mission. However, the Washington Supreme Court and former State of Washington Attorney General Robert Ferguson wrongly interpreted that the Washington Law Against Discrimination’s (WLAD) religious exemption should only give the Mission authority to hire and fire employees with a direct role in sharing or teaching the organization’s religious beliefs.
    “The government should have no role in dictating the affairs, management, or mission of any religious organization,” said Attorney General Labrador. “The Union Gospel Mission should be free to hire who they believe best represents their values, from the CEO to the janitor, without government demanding otherwise and saying that one classification of employee does not sufficiently embody the spirit of the organization.”
    The church autonomy doctrine, which enables religious organizations to govern themselves and make employment decisions without interference from the state, protects the Mission’s hiring decisions. Courts have decided that not only does the church autonomy doctrine apply to churches and religious schools, but also organizations whose “purpose and character are primarily religious,” which includes organizations like the Mission.
    “The Mission’s hiring policy is a quintessential matter of church government. Allowing Washington’s antidiscrimination law to regulate those decisions ‘would impermissibly inject … [the] government into [decisions on] religious doctrine and governance,’” the attorneys general wrote.
    Attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia also joined the brief led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General Bonta: Owner of Santa Cruz Residential Care Home Arrested for Elder Abuse

    Source: US State of California

    Wednesday, February 5, 2025

    Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

    SANTA CRUZ – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced the arrest and charges against the owner of Rose Garden Residential Care Home and her employee for felony elder abuse that caused the death of a dependent adult in their care. Both defendants have been taken into custody and will face prosecution by the California Department of Justice Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, for a single count of felony elder abuse each.
     
    “Elders deserve care, respect, and protection,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Those who are responsible for the care of elderly and dependent adults carry a profound duty to ensure their safety and well-being. At the California Department of Justice, we are committed to standing against any form of elder abuse or neglect, and we will take immediate action to hold accountable those who exploit or harm these vulnerable individuals.”
     
    The victim, an 88-year-old dementia patient, was discovered deceased after departing from Rose Garden. The investigation revealed that the staff member responsible for his care fell asleep and was unaware of his absence. Dressed only in a t-shirt and diaper, the victim wandered .4 miles away from Rose Garden and died due to cold exposure. 
     
    It is important to note that criminal charges must be proven in a court of law. Every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

    DMFEA works to protect Californians by investigating and prosecuting those responsible for abuse, neglect, and fraud committed against elderly and dependent adults in the state, and those who perpetrate fraud on the Medi-Cal program.
     
    The Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $69,244,976 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2025. The remaining 25 percent is funded by the State of California. FY 2025 is from October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025.
     
    A copy of the complaint can be found here.
     

    # # #

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former Soldier Sentenced to Over Seven Years in Prison for Sexual Abuse of a Child on Joint Base Lewis-McChord

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

    Defendant previously investigated in the Army and prosecuted in State Court for sexual assault crimes

    Tacoma – A former U.S. Army soldier was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 87 months in prison for abusive sexual contact with a child, announced U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Cameron James Taylor, 49, of Seattle, pleaded guilty in May 2024 and has been in custody since his guilty plea.  At today’s sentencing hearing Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo noted the conduct in this case may cause the victim lifetime torment. The victim “is a strong individual” and “shows courage to move on” Chief Judge Estudillo said.

    “This horrific conduct cannot go unpunished. Our work to protect children on our military bases is a priority in the Western District of Washington,” said U.S. Attorney Gorman. “Mr. Taylor sexually assaulted a child who was just 5 years old. He then pressured the child to hide the conduct when questioned by other adults. I commend the strength of the victim in this case.”

    According to records filed in the case, Taylor left the Army in 2016 with an “Other than Honorable” discharge after he was investigated for sexual assault of an unconscious female in Germany, and for assaulting soldiers who went to arrest him. Taylor resigned in lieu of Court Martial.

    Once back in the U.S., Taylor was convicted of the 2019 sexual assault of a 5-year-old neighbor child. Taylor forced the child to massage him and reach into his pants. In 2022, Taylor was sentenced in King County Superior Court to 18 months in prison.

    During the investigation related to the neighbor child, other children who had been in Taylor’s care were interviewed. Taylor had coached a child, who was now a teen about hiding his sexual assaults. Ultimately, the child disclosed to a relative that in 2012, while stationed on JBLM, Taylor locked the then 5- or 6-year-old in a closet and sexually assaulted the child.

    On the eve of trial, Taylor pleaded guilty.

    In asking for the 8-year sentence prosecutors wrote to the court, “Taylor’s crimes reveal a man who lacks empathy and who prioritized his own pleasure over others’ pain. Taylor is also no stranger to the justice system; this is his third criminal sex offense. The government hopes that a 96-month sentence, coupled with lifetime supervised release, will prevent Taylor from reoffending again.”

    Taylor is required to register as a sex offender following his prison term. Chief Judge Estudillo ordered that he be on supervised release for ten years following prison.

    The case was investigated by U.S. Army Criminal Investigations (CID), the King County Sheriff’s Office, and the FBI.

    The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Hillary K. Stuart and Erika J. Evans.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Jefferson Parish Man Sentenced for Federal Gun and Drug Charges

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that JAZZ GILDS (“GILDS”), age 39, a resident of Jefferson Parish, was sentenced on January 30, 2025, by United States District Judge Wendy B. Vitter, after previously pleading guilty to Counts 1 and 3 of a 3-count indictment.  Count 1 charged him with possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C).  Count 3 charged him with being a felon in possession of firearms, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2).

    GILDS was sentenced to 108 months’ imprisonment as to Counts 1 and 3 of the indictment, to run concurrently.  Judge Vitter also ordered GILDS be placed on supervised release for 3 years and pay a $200 mandatory special assessment fee.

    According to court documents, GILDS became involved in a physical altercation with two individuals at a Jefferson Parish hotel before fleeing in a stolen vehicle.  Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies later apprehended GILDS, who had attempted to flee on foot.  A search of the vehicle uncovered a Ruger Model P942 .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol, and a stolen Anderson Manufacturing Model AM-15, 5.56×45 millimeter caliber semi-automatic rifle.  Additionally, during a search of GILDS’s hotel room, deputies seized illegal narcotics and ammunition.

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

    U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Troy Bell of the Violent Crime Unit.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Morgantown Sex Offender Sentenced to 10 Years After Traveling to Mexico to Purchase Child

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    CLARKSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – Scott David Bixler, 43, of Morgantown, West Virginia, was sentenced to the statutory maximum sentence of 120 months imprisonment for failing to update his sex offender registration.  Bixler will serve a lifetime of supervision following his prison sentence.

    Bixler is a convicted sex offender and is required to register under the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORNA) for life.  As part of his registration obligations, he is required to report any international travel. In July of 2023, Bixler fled to Mexico shortly before he was scheduled to appear in state court for sentencing related to criminal convictions for failure to register as a sex offender under West Virginia law.

    When Bixler and his spouse were arrested in Mexico, they possessed two pellet guns, methamphetamine, a cell phone jammer, and a large amount of cash.  The investigation also revealed that the Bixlers were attempting to purchase a young girl while in Mexico.  Fortunately, Mexican authorities thwarted the plan and arrested the couple.

    “The sentence handed down by the Court ensures that the Defendant will be confined in prison for the maximum time allowed by law,” said Acting United States Attorney Randolph J. Bernard.  “I shudder to think what might have happened but for the dedication of AUSA Perri, the federal and state law enforcement agencies, as well as the Mexican authorities.  Our community and children are safer because of their efforts and the sentence imposed.”

    Assistant U.S. Attorney David Perri prosecuted the case on behalf of the government.  The FBI, the U.S. Marshals Services, and the West Virginia State Police investigated this case.

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

    Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh presided.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: U.S. Attorney’s Office Collects More Than $26 Million in Civil and Criminal Actions in Fiscal Year 2024

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    New Haven – Acting U.S. Attorney Marc H. Silverman today announced that the District of Connecticut collected $26,212,307 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2024.  Of this amount, approximately $14,110,085 was collected in criminal actions and approximately $12,102,222 was collected in civil actions.

    The Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office also worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $20,069 in cases pursued jointly by these offices.

    “In the last fiscal year, our dedicated attorneys and staff have helped to recover more than $26 million,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Silverman.  “These funds are returned directly to crime victims, used to support victim services, and bolster federal, state, and local law enforcement efforts.  Through our criminal prosecutions and civil enforcement actions, we remain steadfast in our commitment to seeking justice, removing illicit profits from wrongdoers, and safeguarding the integrity of crucial government programs.”

    Significant criminal recoveries included more than a $1 million in restitution from multiple defendants involved in a bid rigging scheme related to insulation contracts, and the satisfaction of a restitution obligation from a Connecticut business owner who was required to pay more than $2 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties to the IRS.  Large civil recoveries included approximately $4.5 million from a network of healthcare companies who are alleged to have submitted false claims to Medicare and Connecticut Medicaid for telehealth psychological care services, and more than $1 million from the operators of Connecticut dental practices who are alleged to have paid patient recruiters to steer Connecticut Medicaid patients to their practice, in violation of federal and state laws.

    The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U.S. and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims.  The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss.  While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the department’s Crime Victims Fund, which distributes the funds collected to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

    Additionally, the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $5,525,420 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2024.  Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office is charged with enforcing federal criminal laws in Connecticut and representing the federal government in civil litigation.  The Office is composed of approximately 68 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and 57 staff members at offices in New Haven, Bridgeport, and Hartford.

    MIL Security OSI –

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

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Name                                    Country of Citizenship

    Erlanbek Narkoziev              Kyrgyzstan

    Jafar Valamatov                    Russia

    Kanal Assylbekov                 Kazakhstan

    Nikita Torshin                       Kazakhstan

    Sanjarjon Sidikov                  Uzbekistan

    Shackhat Uurustamov           Kyrgyzstan

    Odiljon Azimov                     Kyrgyzstan

    Shukrat Akhemodov              Russia

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

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

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

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Stafford Man Indicted for Firearms, Meth Trafficking

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Stafford, Mo., man who purchased more than 50 firearms has been indicted by a federal grand jury for illegally trafficking firearms and methamphetamine.

    David Allen Gaunt, 57, was charged in a 16-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, Feb. 4. The indictment replaces a criminal complaint that was filed against Gaunt on Jan. 16, 2025.

    The federal indictment alleges that Gaunt participated in a conspiracy to traffic firearms from June 21, 2023, to Jan. 23, 2025. Those firearms, according to the indictment, included a Kalashnikov pistol, a Century Arms pistol, a Tokarev shotgun, a Canik pistol and an HS Produkt pistol. In addition to the conspiracy, Gaunt is charged with one count of trafficking those firearms to a recipient who was legally prohibited from possessing them.

    The federal indictment also charges Gaunt with being an unlawful user of a controlled substance while in possession of 15 different firearms. Gaunt is charged with four counts of making a false statement to a licensed firearms dealer in order to purchase firearms, four counts of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, four counts of possessing firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, and one count of distributing methamphetamine.

    According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, Gaunt has personally purchased more than 50 firearms. On every purchase, the affidavit says, Gaunt marked “No” on the federal form that asked, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” Eighteen of these firearms have been recovered by law enforcement, from Gaunt and others. Additionally, 11 of the firearms Gaunt purchased have been either sold to or pawned at pawn shops.

    Springfield police officers seized three of those firearms during the execution of two search warrants in separate drug-trafficking investigations in June 2023, and the Greene County Sheriff’s Department seized one of those firearms during enforcement activities in July 2023. All of the firearms were seized from individuals who were legally prohibited from possessing firearms, the affidavit says, and were traced to Gaunt as the original purchaser.

    On Aug. 16, 2023, Springfield police officers stopped Gaunt near S. Glenstone Avenue and E. St. Louis Street. When officers searched his vehicle, they found six firearms. On Nov. 6, 2024, Springfield officers conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle operated by Gaunt. Officers seized a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol from Gaunt’s waistband. A clear plastic bag of methamphetamine was found in the center console of the vehicle.

    The charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

    This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie L. Wan. It was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Greene County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, the Springfield, Mo., Police Department, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Turkey’s earthquake reconstruction efforts must balance speed with fairness

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Fatma Ozdogan, PhD Candidate & Researcher, Université de Montréal

    Earthquake survivors in Hatay Province, Turkey, on Sept. 6, 2024. (Fatma Özdoğan)

    Two years after the devastating 2023 earthquakes in Turkey that killed about 60,000 people and caused the collapse of 57,000 buildings, the country’s recovery remains slow, fragmented, and heavily politicized.

    Despite large-scale reconstruction efforts, branded the “Reconstruction of the Century,” there is no clear strategy or timeline, and affected communities are still excluded from decision-making.

    Given the scale of destruction, reconstruction efforts will likely take years. Large-scale government housing projects on city outskirts are being prioritized due to their speed and the ease of land acquisition. However, these developments often come at the cost of uprooting established communities, pushing people into peripheral areas with limited access to services like transport and education and fewer economic opportunities.

    Temporary accommodations like container cities continue to deteriorate. Overcrowding, inadequate sanitation and unreliable access to clean water, electricity, health care and education are widespread. Women face heightened safety risks, and schools are overwhelmed, forcing many families to relocate unwillingly or leaving children with no option but to hitchhike to school.

    ‘Disaster of the century’ narrative

    From the outset, Turkey’s political leadership framed the 2023 earthquakes as the “disaster of the century,” using their scale to deflect scrutiny from governance failures. Weak enforcement of earthquake regulations and systemic negligence played a key role in the destruction, yet officials have avoided accountability.

    This narrative was reinforced by contractors facing trial, who claimed the devastation was caused by an extraordinary natural event rather than poor construction practices or regulatory failures. By portraying the disaster as unavoidable, they have sought to shift responsibility away from those who contributed to the destruction.

    The rapid removal of debris further weakened efforts to establish accountability. Clearing ruins so quickly erased critical evidence that could have explained why some buildings collapsed while others remained standing. Many structures were never properly assessed, and legal cases against those responsible have struggled to move forward due to missing documentation.

    Survivors seeking justice remain trapped in lengthy legal battles with little hope for accountability. Among them are initiatives like Families in Pursuit of Justice and the Association for the Survival of the Champion Angels, led by relatives of victims, continue to demand accountability from contractors and officials.

    It is important to note that earthquake-induced ground motions in a few localities did exceed the parameters defined in the building codes, but this should only have resulted in damage, not total building collapses.

    Land expropriation and legal battles

    Turkey’s construction industry, closely tied to political power, has benefited from disaster recovery, reinforcing existing economic and political hierarchies. Large-scale reconstruction projects serve as an economic engine, giving firms with close government ties an advantage while sidelining local communities.

    The awarding of large-scale projects without competitive bidding has fuelled concerns that reconstruction is prioritizing political and economic interests over the needs of local communities.

    One of the key mechanisms enabling top-down reconstruction is the designation of reserve areas, a legal tool allowing the state to expropriate land for redevelopment under the justification of disaster recovery and urban renewal. This process has often led to forced displacement, particularly in areas with high land value or where redevelopment aligns with broader political and economic interests.

    This is evident in Akevler, a neighbourhood in central Antakya, where residents received sudden expropriation orders, even for structurally sound or repaired homes. Many launched legal challenges, marking their buildings with signs reading “Do not demolish; in court” to resist state-led destruction.

    In November 2024, there was a significant legal victory for residents when a court issued a stay within the reserve area in Akevler. The court cited “irreparable harm” and ruled that demolitions and evictions could not proceed without due legal process. This decision also extended to vacant parcels, reinforcing concerns about arbitrary land seizures.

    Beyond urban areas, rapid recovery decisions have also disregarded environmental concerns. In Defne, Hatay, earthquake survivor Çiğdem Mutlu Arslan has been fighting to protect her family’s ancestral olive grove. In July 2024, a contractor — citing post-disaster road construction — cut down 32 of 40 trees, some more than 150 years old, without an expropriation decision.

    Determined to resist further encroachment, Arslan set up camp on her land, documenting the destruction and raising awareness of how recovery policies are exacerbating environmental degradation. Her struggle reflects broader post-disaster consequences, where recovery efforts threaten communities, heritage and the environment.

    ‘Building Back Better’

    While these struggles highlight the shortcomings of post-disaster recovery, there are potentially better and fairer ways to approach reconstruction. Building Back Better (BBB) has become a central principle globally accepted, shaping expectations for reconstruction.

    Introduced by the United Nations after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, BBB promotes rebuilding stronger, more resilient and more equitable communities rather than simply restoring pre-disaster conditions. BBB prioritizes disaster-resistant infrastructure, social equity and sustainability to reduce future risks.

    Yet, BBB faces significant challenges. The tension between rapid reconstruction and long-term resilience often leads to trade-offs, where speed takes priority over equity and sustainability. Vulnerable communities, particularly low-income groups with insecure land tenure rights, frequently receive inadequate attention, exacerbating pre-existing inequalities.

    For BBB to be effective, recovery strategies must be inclusive and adapted to local contexts. However, many disaster-prone regions lack the social safety nets and institutional capacity to implement BBB successfully. Additionally, the framework’s broad and ambiguous goals often result in inconsistent applications, where vulnerabilities are reinforced rather than addressed.

    A more effective path forward

    Drawing from these examples and considering the global discourse around post-disaster recovery, a more effective approach must prioritize social justice, transparency and long-term resilience. Several key measures should be considered:

    A people-centred recovery: Reconstruction must prioritize affected communities rather than external economic or political interests. Ensuring access to stable housing, education and health care while addressing existing inequalities is crucial. Organized civil society groups can assist with articulating needs and developing community-driven plans. Decentralized access to financing for communities coupled with technical support can help with realizing these plans.

    Transparency and accountability: Decision-making must be open to public scrutiny, and legal rulings must be enforced.

    Challenging dominant narratives: Moving beyond narratives that frame disasters as inevitable is critical. Acknowledging governance failures and addressing systemic issues will be key to preventing future tragedies.

    Balancing speed with resilience: While urgent needs must be met, reconstruction should incorporate more sustainable planning to prevent future displacement and social impacts.

    Reforming the construction industry: Ensuring the effective enforcement of regulations and addressing systemic gaps in oversight are essential to reducing vulnerability to future disasters.

    Without these measures, Turkey risks repeating past mistakes, deepening inequalities and failing to provide stability for disaster-affected communities.

    Cassidy Johnson receives funding from UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, “Learning from Earthquakes: Building Resilient Communities Through Earthquake Reconnaissance, Response and Recovery,” grant EP/P025951/1.

    Fatma Ozdogan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Turkey’s earthquake reconstruction efforts must balance speed with fairness – https://theconversation.com/turkeys-earthquake-reconstruction-efforts-must-balance-speed-with-fairness-248730

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Lawyers Appointed to the King’s Counsel

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Thirteen accomplished Nova Scotian lawyers are being recognized with the distinguished King’s counsel designation.

    Attorney General and Justice Minister Becky Druhan announced the appointments today, February 5.

    “I offer my sincere congratulations to this deserving group of outstanding lawyers,” said Minister Druhan. “This honour recognizes their significant and commendable contributions to our province’s justice system and their profession.”

    The appointees are:

    • Nadine Smillie, Nova Scotia Department of Justice
    • Gregory Hardy, C3 Legal
    • Shawn O’Hara, Nova Scotia Department of Justice
    • Colleen Keyes, Stewart McKelvey
    • Jennifer Glennie, Nova Scotia Department of Justice
    • Kim McOnie, Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service
    • Shelley Wood, Stewart McKelvey
    • Derek Land, Blackburn English
    • Michael Dull, Valent Law
    • Scott Campbell, Stewart McKelvey
    • Naiomi Metallic, Burchell Wickwire Bryson/Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law
    • Robert Kennedy, Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service
    • Heidi Walsh-Sampson, National Research Council.

    The King’s counsel designation is awarded annually to members of the legal profession to recognize exceptional merit and outstanding contributions to the legal community.

    A formal ceremony to honour the appointees will be held this spring.

    Quick Facts:

    • an independent advisory committee makes King’s counsel recommendations to the attorney general and minister of justice
    • criteria include a minimum of 15 years as a member of the Nova Scotia bar, demonstrated professional integrity and good character

    MIL OSI Canada News –

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

    Source: US State of New York

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

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

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

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

    MIL OSI USA News –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    The FBI and HHS-OIG are investigating the case.

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

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

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Met officers tackle drug supply in Kingston

    Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

    Local and specialist Met officers were involved in raids at six properties early on Wednesday, 5 February as part of an investigation into drug dealing on the Cambridge Road Estate and more widely across Merton.

    Six arrests were made as part of the Met’s Clear, Hold, Build strategy, which is designed to reclaim and rebuild neighbourhoods affected by serious and organised crime, focusing on what matters most to locals.

    Superintendent Josh Laughton, the Met’s neighbourhood policing lead for Kingston, said: “Today’s operation followed months of planning by local officers, who have been listening to people on the Cambridge Road Estate to understand their concerns.

    “We know drug dealing is often linked to other offences such as violent crime and anti-social behaviour. By taking targeted action, we aim to reduce offending across the board.

    “The service we provide to Londoners is at the heart of everything we do. Across the Met, we remain focused on tackling the crimes that matter most to communities to reduce offending and improve neighbourhoods.”

    One of the raids was carried out at a fast-food restaurant in Surbiton Crescent. The other six addresses were residential properties. Officers seized drugs, including heroin and cocaine.

    The three men, one woman and two teenage boys, who were arrested during the operation, remain in custody.

    Clear, Hold, Build involves the Met working with partner agencies and communities to make areas safer, and is proven to drive down crime.

    It focuses on taking out the criminal gangs that make the lives of some Londoners a misery by fuelling violent and organised crime.

    Kingston Council’s Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care and Health, including community safety, Councillor Sabah Hamed said: “Kingston is one of London’s safest boroughs, and this work reflects our continued commitment to working with the police and our partners to make it even safer for everyone.

    “We are committed to working with the local communities most impacted by crime to address their concerns, improve confidence in reporting issues and safeguard those who are vulnerable.”

    Targeted neighbourhood policing delivered through Clear, Hold, Build has already been proven to have a positive impact on communities across London.

    The framework comprises of three parts: Clear, which sees police pursue gang members; Hold, where police maintain a grip on the area to prevent other criminal groups from taking control; and Build, which works to help the community become less susceptible to the draw of organised crime groups.

    In Northumberland Park and Edmonton, an intensification resulted in 424 arrests and recent data shows violent crime in the area has fallen to its lowest level in three years.

    Improved neighbourhood policing was one of the reasons the Met was removed from special measures in January. His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services also praised improvements to call handling, child exploitation, and public protection.

    MIL Security OSI –

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

    Source: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – In English

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

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

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

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

    Please be aware:

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

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Global Trade Verein: BaFin warns against website gtv-holdings.com

    Source: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – In English

    The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) warns against offers on the website gtv-holdings.com. According to its findings, the Global Trade Verein, Zurich, Switzerland, offers financial and investment services there without a license.

    Der Betreiber tritt auf seiner Website unter der Bezeichnung Global Trade Verein auf, ohne Nennung einer Rechtsform. Unter diesem Namen lässt sich kein Eintrag im Schweizer Handelsregister finden.

    The operator appears on its website under the name Global Trade Verein, without mentioning a legal form. No entry can be found under this name in the Swiss commercial register.

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

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

    Please be aware:

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

    MIL OSI Economics –