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☆ Federal government investigating possible human trafficking of children who cleaned slaughterhouses
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Laura Strickler | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Julia-Ainsley-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +12 min

There is no indication DHS is investigating the company that hired the children, Packers Sanitation Services Inc., or PSSI, for human trafficking. The Labor Department’s Child Labor Regulations designate many roles in slaughterhouse and meatpacking facilities as hazardous for minors. The Labor Department says its investigation, which began in August, is ongoing as it scours company records from 50 locations. I don’t anticipate unless there are severe ramifications for this that it will actually change policies.”The Labor Department has issued no penalties or fines to date. Labor DepartmentQuestions about child labor at PSSI in Grand Island and Worthington are not new.

The House Ways and Means Committee plans to release Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, a spokesperson for the Committee said Tuesday. The assortment of six years of the former president's personal returns and some of his business returns are expected to be placed into the Congressional record on Friday as part of the House’s pro-forma session. The clock is ticking for the committee, which will turn over control to Republicans when the new Congress is sworn in next week. The committee obtained the returns in November, following a years-long court fight for the closely-held documents that other presidents have routinely made public for the last four decades. A 39-page report from the Joint Committee on Taxation released last week showed Trump had been paying relatively little in taxes, including paying only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and none in 2020.

“It’s an utter betrayal,” his son, Kevin Gnida, said in an interview from his home in Edmonton, Canada. “I know with 100 percent confidence that my dad would have never participated in this,” Kevin Gnida added. “I’m glad they got caught.”Evan, 64, and Josh Edwards, 30, were arrested at their home in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, on Dec. 14. Josh Edwards is taken into custody outside the Edwards family’s New Smyrna Beach home on Dec. 14, 2022. “They came to my dad because they had no money.”Joy Edwards, Evan and Mary Jane Edwards, and Josh Edwards.

☆ New York Attorney General Letitia James sues owners of Long Island nursing home
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Laura Strickler | Laura Strickler Is A Senior Investigative Producer | Reporter For Nbc News. She Is Based In Washington. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing the owners of a Long Island nursing home who also have stakes of dozens of other facilities nationwide. It is the third suit she has filed in six weeks alleging financial fraud and abuse of nursing home residents. Among other allegations, the lawsuit states that one resident was at the facility for five months and received just three showers. One of the previous lawsuits targeted Fulton Commons Nursing Home in East Meadows, N.Y. The Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center in Albion, N.Y., was sued by the attorney general at the end of November.

"There are grave medical concerns," Erin Hyde told a federal judge in Orlando on Wednesday, according to a transcript of the hearing obtained by NBC News. Things took a stranger turn when the judge turned his attention to Josh Edwards, who did appear in the courtroom. Josh Edwards is taken into custody outside the Edwards family’s New Smyrna Beach home on Wednesday. Jon Levy / AFP via Getty ImagesThe 13-minute hearing ended with Evan Edwards’ lawyer telling the judge there were grave concerns around his health. The case centers on a Paycheck Protection Program loan application Josh Edwards filed in April 2020.

ASLAN International was ultimately approved for an $8.4 million loan. Agents escorted Josh Edwards out of the home and into a law enforcement vehicle, his hands cuffed behind his back. Josh Edwards is taken into custody outside the Edwards family’s New Smyrna Beach home on Dec. 14, 2022. The Edwards family did missionary work in Turkey for many years before moving to Florida in 2019. The Edwards family did not challenge the seizure.

☆ The company accused of employing dozens of minors in slaughterhouses on the graveyard shift reaches agreement with the feds
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Laura Strickler | Julianne Mcshane | Laura Strickler Is A Washington-Based Investigative Reporter With The Nbc News Investigative Unit. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

An industrial cleaning company accused by federal investigators of hiring dozens of children to clean slaughterhouses during the graveyard shift has resolved the allegations with the U.S. Department of Labor, according to a federal court filing filed Tuesday morning. The company will also provide a new child labor provision in its contracts with clients and will notify the Labor Department as to how many employees it terminated as a result of its compliance with child labor laws. Allegations of child labor at a slaughterhouse in Grand Island, Nebraska, date back to 2016, according to a previously unreported local police report obtained by NBC News. At least three chiildren suffered chemical burns as a result of working in the slaughterhouses, according to that complaint. The Department of Labor’s Child Labor Regulations designates many roles in slaughterhouse and meatpacking facilities as hazardous for minors.

☆ Executives at ‘fintechs’ made hundreds of millions handing out PPP Covid cash, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Laura Strickler | Laura Strickler Is A Washington-Based Investigative Reporter With The Nbc News Investigative Unit. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

The report says Reis is not Black or a veteran. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis$80 billion in fraudIt’s well known that the $800 billion PPP program was plagued by fraud, with some fraud estimates as high as $80 billion. In a text message obtained by the committee, Reis commented on his company’s success, noting it made nearly $1.5 billion in less than six months processing PPP loans. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus CrisisThe report cited a text message in which Kristen Spencer described the anticipated windfall from processing PPP loans. In July 2021, two months after the last PPP loans went out the door, the Spencers bought an $8 million, 10,975-square-foot mansion, according to local property records.

☆ Brett Favre files motion to dismiss lawsuit in Mississippi welfare fraud case
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Laura Strickler | Laura Strickler Is A Washington-Based Investigative Reporter With The Nbc News Investigative Unit. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Attorneys for former NFL star Brett Favre filed court papers in Mississippi on Monday seeking to dismiss a civil lawsuit against him tied to a state welfare fraud scandal. Favre was sued in May by the state welfare agency after he received $1.1 million in federal welfare funds intended to lift children out of poverty in the poorest state in America. Favre’s attorneys say that he and his organization, Favre Enterprises LLC, repaid the funds and that Mississippi officials are to blame for the misspending. "Mr. Favre never had any control over how Mississippi spent its welfare funds. Six people have been charged in what state and federal officials call a massive fraud scheme to misspend state welfare funds, including the former director of the state welfare agency, who is cooperating with the FBI and federal prosecutors.

☆ Brett Favre helped an experimental drug maker get $2M in welfare money. Experts doubt the drug can work.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Dilanianmug.Jpg | Ken Dilanian | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

And he did more than evangelize, court records show — he successfully lobbied Mississippi state officials who granted the company $2.1 million in federal welfare money that was intended to help poor families. The payment was illegal, state officials allege in a lawsuit — part of a huge Mississippi welfare misspending scandal that has tarnished Favre’s reputation. Favre, who is being sued by Mississippi, has consistently said that he did not know the money he was seeking from the Mississippi Department of Human Services—the state welfare agency—was welfare money. Six people have been charged in what state and federal officials call a massive fraud scheme, including the former director of the state welfare agency, who is cooperating with the FBI and federal prosecutors. Favre is among 38 defendants in a civil lawsuit by the state seeking to recoup the welfare money, including the funds devoted to the volleyball facility and the unproven concussion drug.

A California couple who fled the country after being convicted in a multimillion-dollar Covid relief scam have been extradited from Montenegro, the Justice Department said Friday. They are expected to appear at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon. They were among eight members of a California crime ring convicted of stealing more than $18 million in Covid relief loans. Following their conviction in June 2021, the couple cut off their ankle monitoring bracelets and fled their home, leaving behind their three children. It wasn’t immediately clear what led to the couple’s extradition, but the Justice Department said in a press release that the government of Montenegro provided significant assistance.

NBC News, in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Washington Post, and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, interviewed more than 40 current and former employees of contractors at military bases. According to an NBC News analysis, at least 10 companies with substantiated trafficking violations since 2007 have received billions in new government contracts. ‘Mad scramble’Foreign workers are crucial for the more than 700 military bases with U.S. service members around the world. One company that continues to get work at Middle East bases despite past violations documented in an Army compliance agreement is Tamimi, Abdulla’s employer. Lusambu Karim, a 50-year-old Ugandan, told NBC News about trafficking violations he said he encountered working for Aegis in Afghanistan from 2018 to 2020.

Prosecutors with the 18th Judicial District and DEA agents seized 114 pounds of pure fentanyl in Colorado. A spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol, which made the initial discovery of the fentanyl, provided a blunt account of the botched operation. But after this story was published, a DEA official confirmed the seizure of 114 pounds of fentanyl. "DEA is relentlessly pursuing the individuals that were involved in the trafficking of the seized fentanyl and will continue to do so." “We’ve got a record amount of fentanyl involved here, in fact, enough fentanyl to kill everyone in the state of Colorado,” Figliuzzi said.

☆ Brett Favre told Mississippi governor he would not ‘take No for answer’ over volleyball stadium, court filing shows
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Dilanianmug.Jpg | Ken Dilanian | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Phil Bryant on Sept. 4, 2019 about funding the volleyball center at the University of Southern Mississippi’s main campus in Hattiesburg. “Use of these funds (is) tightly controlled,” Bryant texted Favre on July 28, 2019, according to the filing. Favre also secured $3.2 million for a drug company in which he had invested, according to court records. Favre has also denied wrongdoing through his lawyer, who acknowledged that the ex-Packer has been interviewed by the FBI. He added that Favre behaved honorably and never knew the state grants he was seeking were from the federal welfare program.

The welfare funds in question were part of the $86 million Mississippi is given each year by the federal government to lift families out of poverty. The state auditor uncovered $77 million in misspent welfare funds in February 2020. The text messages, which were part of a filing by New's attorney, do not establish that Favre knew the public funds discussed were welfare money. The newly released text messages indicate Bryant, a Republican, was much more involved in the project as governor than previously known. She would pay Favre $1.1 million in state funds directly and he would do a few radio ads.

The Mississippi state auditor said Favre never gave the speeches and demanded the money back, with interest. In an interview with the website Mississippi Today, Bryant said he never knew the grants came from welfare money. The former head of the state welfare agency, John Davis, has pleaded not guilty to state charges of bribery and conspiracy, and law enforcement officials say the investigations continue. Favre defended himself in a series of tweets last year against allegations from White, the state auditor, that he accepted state money for speeches he never intended to give. Marcus Dupree, a former college football star, also received $370,000 in welfare funds, which prosecutors say partly went to fund his horse ranch.

Evan Edwards told the officers they were headed to a conference in Texas, but he could not provide any specifics, according to the complaint. The scam and its unraveling stunned their neighbors as well as members of Evan Edwards’ extended family. “We knew we wanted to preach the gospel where it was not preached,” Evan Edwards said in a 2008 radio interview. Joy Edwards, Evan and Mary Jane Edwards, and Josh Edwards. The family moved back to Canada about 10 years ago, and Evan Edwards continued to preach, his cousin said.

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