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☆ 2 convicted in human smuggling case after Indian family froze to death while crossing U.S.-Canada border
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-22 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

They were each convicted on four counts related to human smuggling, including conspiracy to bring migrants into the country illegally. Because of this unimaginable greed, a father, a mother and two children froze to death in sub-zero temperatures on the Minnesota-Canadian border,” Luger added. Shand was to pick up 11 Indian migrants on the Minnesota side of the border, prosecutors said. Canadian authorities found the Patel family later that morning, dead from the cold. Rajinder Singh, 51, testified that he made over $400,000 smuggling over 500 people through the same network that included Patel and Shand.

Persons: FERGUS, Ramanlal Patel, Harry, ”, Steve Shand, Attorney Andy Luger, Harshkumar Patel, ” Luger, Luger, Jagdish Patel, Vaishaliben, Dharmik, Jan, Patel, Shand, Prosecutors, Rajinder Singh, Singh, John Woods, El Salvadorans, Jamie Holt, ” Holt, “, Kevin Paul, ” Paul Organizations: Indian, Minnesota U.S, Attorney, Sherburne County Sheriff’s, “, Minnesota -, Attorney’s, Associated Press, Canadian Press, Bank, U.S ., The U.S . Border Patrol, Pew Research, Homeland Security Investigations Locations: Minn, —, Canada, U.S, American, Florida, Minnesota, Sherburne County, Elk River, Minnesota - Canadian, India, Fergus Falls , Minnesota, Gujarat, “, United States, Emerson , Manitoba, The U.S, El, Clearwater , Minnesota, North Dakota

Minneapolis CNN —One state audit found that bonus checks intended for frontline workers during the pandemic were handed out to undeserving recipients. Another criticized a Minnesota state agency for failing to ensure there were no conflicts of interest in taxpayer-funded mental health and addiction programs. His fans were easy to find last month at the Minnesota State Fair, which drew nearly 2 million people this year. Republican state Sen. Mark Koran, second from right, speaks with constituents at the Minnesota State Fair. “We are troubled by MDE’s decision,” the auditor’s report said, using the acronym for the Minnesota Department of Education.

Persons: Tim Walz, Judy Randall, –, Walz, Randall, “, ”, Lisa Demuth, Elizabeth Flores, Sen, Mark, Governor Walz, Rick Hansen, Erik Biever, ” “ Tim Walz, Stephen Maturen, Willie Jett, Jett –, ” Walz, “ There’s, Mark Koran, CNN “ They’ve, they’ve, Dan Myers, ’, Blois Olson, he’s, “ They’re, ” Olson, Olson, Aimee Bock, Bock, Bock –, MDE, ” Andrew Luger, Glen Stubbe, Andrew Luger, ” Luger, Walz’s, Heather Mueller –, Jett, Ann, Keith Ellison, Scott Jensen, ” Jensen, “ Who’s, ” Miriam Ackerman, ” Randall, Democrat Mark Dayton –, Lisa Demuth CNN Walz, haven’t, Bill Walsh, Randall “, … you’re Organizations: Minneapolis CNN, Democratic Gov, CNN, of Public, Democratic, GOP, Twin Cities, Star Tribune, Getty, Republican, ”, Randall’s Office, Legislative, Minnesota State Fair, Gov, Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota Star Tribune, Congressional Republicans, Democrats, Minnesota, Fair, University of Minnesota, Republicans, White, Democrat, FBI, Feds, Minneapolis TV, –, Department of Human Services, DHS, of, American Locations: Minneapolis, Minnesota, unaccountability, East

Michel was in a four-man sled piloted by Michael Vogt when it crashed Tuesday during training for this weekend's World Cup races in Altenberg. This weekend's Altenberg races are the last World Cup events prior to the world championships; there is one last World Cup weekend coming in mid-March to Lake Placid, New York. The Swiss team said Vogt “suffered a severe concussion and bruises” and push athletes Dominik Hufschmid and Andreas Haas also had slight injuries. The pair won a World Cup race in December and are third in the season-long standings. Vogt’s four-man bob crew is fourth in that discipline’s World Cup standings.

Persons: Sandro Michel, Michel, Michael Vogt, ” Michel, Training, Greg Cackett, ”, Vogt “, Dominik Hufschmid, Andreas Haas, Chris Spring, Mateusz Sochowicz, Vogt Organizations: —, Michel, Swiss, ” Locations: ALTENBERG, Germany, — Swiss, Altenberg, Dresden, British, Swiss, Winterberg, Lake Placid , New York, Canadian, China

☆ DOJ charged an Iranian operative with hiring Hells Angels bikers for assassinations in the US
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read previewAn Iranian drug trafficker with ties to its spy agency has been charged by the US Department of Justice with hiring members of the Hells Angels biker group to carry out an assassination on American soil. AdvertisementThe DOJ's indictment alleges that Zindashti hired the Hells Angels bikers to conduct the assassination in January 2021. All three defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. Advertisement"Zindashti's network has carried out numerous acts of transnational repression including assassinations and kidnappings across multiple jurisdictions in an attempt to silence the Iranian regime's perceived critics.

Persons: —, Naji Sharifi, Damion Patrick John Ryan, Adam Richard Pearson, Zindashti, Andrew Luger, Pearson, Ryan Organizations: Service, US Department of Justice, Hells Angels, Business, DOJ, District of, US Department of, Foreign Assets, United, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence, Security Locations: Maryland, Iran, Minnesota, District of Minnesota, United Kingdom, United States

NEW YORK (AP) — Palestinian artist Nida Sinnokrot, one of 18 artists receiving the 2023 Soros Arts Fellowships from the Open Society Foundations on Tuesday, says that art provides hope and resilience, even in the midst of war. This year's class of Soros Arts Fellows is the largest since the program launched in 2018. This is the launchpad of something new — a new realm of direct action in the arts.”Molemo Moiloa also plans to incorporate community action in her art project in Johannesburg, South Africa, for her Soros Arts fellowship. “One of the reasons I still feel hope is that there is powerful solidarity around the world that embraces this ethos,” he said. “And that’s what’s so amazing about this year’s (Soros Arts Fellows) and their communities.

Persons: Nida Sinnokrot, “, ”, Sinnokrot, Tatiana Mouarbes, George Soros, Alex — Mouarbes, Jordan Weber, ” “, Weber, ” Molemo Moiloa, Moiloa, Nelson Mandela's, we’ve, it’s, Fellows, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Carolina Caycedo, Chemi, Dalton Paula, Deborah Jack, Kenan Darwich, Sami Rustom, Ixchel Tonāntzin, Martha Atienza, Molemo Moiloa, Mónica de Miranda, Omar Berrada, Rijin Sahakian, Sari Dennise, Yto Barrada Organizations: Open, Massachusetts Institute, Technology’s, Technology, Soros Arts Fellows, Open Society, Culture, Society, Soros Arts, South, Soros, Fehras, Associated, Lilly Endowment Inc, AP Locations: Palestinian, York, ”, Detroit, Johannesburg, South Africa, Israel, Palestine, Guinea, Hidatsa, Lakota, United States, Carolina, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, St, Maarten, Syria, Germany, Philippines, Portugal, Morocco, Iraq, Mexico

☆ ‘A Wound That Is On the Mend’: Indigenous Art Today
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Lauren Christensen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 2021, along a two-lane highway in Mandan, N.D., a giant billboard showing masked figures in clothing that was inspired by both Indigenous tradition and science fiction declared: “WE SURVIVE YOU.” Its artist, Cannupa Hanska Luger, is one of 17,000 members enrolled in the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nations today. In 2007, the Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore photographed an Indigenous woman with a “fringe” of blood (represented by red string) trickling from a diagonal scar across her back. “To me it is a wound that is on the mend,” Belmore has said. “She will get up and go on, but she will carry that mark with her.”Over the years, the Kalaaleq artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory has performed Greenlandic mask dances, or uaajeerneq, for audiences around the world: “It is a fearsome, sexy clown act,” she’s written, “that was handed down to me from my mother and other Inuit activist artists from Greenland’s movement to self-government in the 1970s.”

Persons: ”, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Rebecca Belmore, ” Belmore, “, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory Organizations: N.D, “ Locations: Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nations

☆ Leo Messi is coming to New York, and New Yorkers are paying through the nose to see him
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Seeing superstar soccer player Leo Messi’s debut in the New York area could cost you as much as a steak dinner at Peter Luger. Ticket reseller VividSeats told CNN that the average price for this weekend’s game is averaging $483. Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesFor the New York Red Bulls, Messi’s appearance is “trending as the Red Bull’s hottest ticket in over a decade,” a VividSeats spokesperson told CNN. Prices for MLS games where Messi is playing have surged since the 36-year-old entered American competition. Apple said that subscriptions to its soccer streaming package have soared since Messi joined in July.

Persons: Leo Messi’s, Peter Luger, VividSeats, Messi, Kevin C, Cox, He’s, “ Messi, ”, Apple Organizations: New, New York CNN, Saturday’s Inter Miami CF, Major League Soccer, New York Red Bulls, CNN, MLS, FC Barcelona, Inter Miami, Leagues, Liga MX, Adidas Locations: New York, Harrison , New Jersey, Manhattan, York

☆ Exclusive: The FBI's McGonigal labyrinth
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +28 min

She never saw McGonigal pay. "The notion that Mr. Deripaska is some proxy for the Russian state is a blatant lie," Ruben Bunyatyan, a spokesperson for Deripaska, told Insider by email. McGonigal was not charged with espionage, and although there is currently no evidence that McGonigal committed espionage, an FBI source told Insider that the investigation is ongoing. At the FBI, McGonigal racked up a string of big cases and promotions. "He said he needed to make more money," Guerriero told Insider.

☆ Feds charge dozens in Minnesota in alleged scheme to steal $250 million in pandemic aid
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Prosecutors say few meals were actually served, and the defendants used the money to buy luxury cars, property and jewelry. "This $250 million is the floor," Andy Luger, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, said at a news conference. According to court documents, the alleged scheme targeted the USDA's federal child nutrition programs, which provide food to low-income children and adults. But during the pandemic, some of the standard requirements for sites to participate in the federal food nutrition programs were waived. Luger said the scheme involved more than 125 million fake meals, with some defendants making up names for children by using an online random name generator.

"These defendants exploited a program designed to provide nutritious food to needy children during the COVID-19 pandemic." The alleged scheme was tied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Federal Child Nutrition Program aimed at feeding needy children. The program, which was expanded during the pandemic, allows private restaurants to run federally funded food distribution sites, as long as they are sponsored by a non-profit organization. Prosecutors said restaurant owners and others paid bribes to Feeding Our Future employees to get the organization to sponsor sham distribution sites. Defendants created dozens of shell companies to run the fake distribution sites and to launder the proceeds of the scheme, prosecutors said.

☆ Fraudsters used a fake-name generating website to steal $250 million meant for hungry children, Justice Department alleges
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

According to prosecutors, the accused exploited the federal Child Nutrition Program, which provides free or low-cost meals to impoverished children. Feeding Our Future, in turn, collected $18 million in administrative fees for disbursing that money, according to the indictment. In 2019, it dispersed $3.4 million in federal aid, according to prosecutors, rising to nearly $200 million in 2021. Those involved in the scheme, prosecutors claim, spent proceeds on travel, luxury vehicles, and property in Minnesota, Ohio, and Kentucky — as well as real estate in Turkey and Kenya. A search warrant, executed in January, accused Bock of accepting a $310,000 payment from one client, Sahan Journal reported.

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