TIG Post

Tag: FBI

  • Abu Trica sues gov’t, FBI over alleged torture and rights abuse

    Abu Trica sues gov’t, FBI over alleged torture and rights abuse

    Twenty-seven-year-old Ghanaian, Frederick Kumi, popularly known as Abu Trica, has filed a lawsuit at the High Court against the Government of Ghana and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over an alleged cyber fraud-related arrest.

    Mr Kumi is accusing the state and the foreign agency of subjecting him to torture, unlawful detention and violations of his fundamental human rights.

    In an application filed at the Human Rights Division of the High Court in Accra, Kumi is demanding GH₵10 million as compensation. He claims he was subjected to what he described as a coordinated act of “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” after his arrest on December 11, 2025.

    The suit lists the Minister for Interior, the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), the FBI, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), and the Attorney-General as respondents.

    Kumi alleges that his arrest and detention involved physical assault, forced interrogations by foreign officers, and the unlawful seizure of his belongings.

    Court documents indicate that his legal team claims more than 15 armed officers allegedly raided his apartment at the Airport Residential Area while he was playing video games with friends.

    Kumi contends that he was immediately placed in handcuffs and kept restrained from morning until evening without being provided food, water, or rest.

    A key aspect of his claims centres on the alleged involvement of the FBI.

    He alleges that while in the custody of Ghanaian security agencies, he was interrogated by three foreign nationals introduced as FBI agents.

    Kumi further claims the officers allegedly compelled him to sign documents he could not read due to limited literacy and threatened to associate him with fraudulent transactions amounting to $8 million if he refused to provide passwords to his mobile phones.

    “The decision and conduct of officers of the 2nd Respondent in permitting agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation… to interrogate the Applicant without access to Counsel, was unlawful and in violation of Articles 14 and 19 of the 1992 Constitution,” the motion states.

    Kumi also alleges that officers from NACOC and EOCO conducted searches at his residence in Swedru, known as “Abu Trica’s Mansion,” while he remained in detention.

    He claims the officers seized several luxury items and electronic gadgets, including vehicles such as a Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz, and Cybertruck.

    The applicant further alleges that several electronic devices, including multiple iPhones ranging from model 7 to 15 Pro, MacBooks, an Alienware laptop, a PlayStation 5 console, and a Starlink Wi-Fi modem, were taken.

    He also claims personal items, including Cartier watches, jewellery and silver chains, were confiscated during the operation.

    Kumi alleges that some of the items seized belonged to his friends and that officers failed to provide any inventory list or receipt for the confiscated properties.

    He is also accusing EOCO of breaching his presumption of innocence after describing him as a “notorious cyber-criminal” in an official publication before any court ruling.

    Apart from seeking GH₵10 million in damages, Kumi is requesting additional reliefs from the court.

    He is seeking an order to prevent the use of any information or items obtained through what he describes as coercive interrogations and unauthorised searches in future legal proceedings.

    He is also asking the court to issue an interlocutory injunction to stop the state from extraditing or deporting him to any foreign country until the case is determined.

    Additionally, he is seeking an order to restrain the FBI and its agents from conducting investigations or interrogations involving him within Ghana.

    The case is expected to be heard at the Human Rights High Court in February 2026.

    The outcome of the case is anticipated to influence the scope of operations of foreign law enforcement agencies in Ghana and reinforce safeguards for citizens involved in cybercrime investigations.

    MOTION-ON-NOTICE-FOR-ENFORCEMENT-OF-FUNDAMENTAL-HUMAN-RIGHTS-Frederick-Kumi (1)Download

    Abu Trica was initially arrested by Ghanaian security agencies on Thursday, December 11, 2025, following an indictment by United States authorities over his alleged role in a large-scale online romance scam estimated at more than $8 million.

    Unsealed documents from the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio allege that he was part of a criminal network that targeted elderly victims across the United States beginning in 2023.

    Prosecutors say the group relied on artificial intelligence software to create fake identities and establish intimate online relationships with senior citizens through social media and dating platforms. Victims were then allegedly deceived into sending money and valuables under false pretences, including claims of medical emergencies, travel costs, and investment opportunities.

    The indictment further alleges that Abu Trica assisted in distributing funds transferred from Ohio to conspirators in Ghana and other locations. He faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and a forfeiture specification.

    Months ago, a secret FBI operation also led to the arrest of Ghana’s nightlife mogul and alleged crypto kingpin, Nana Kojo Boateng, popularly known as Dada Joe Remix, with possible extradition to the United States of America (U.S.A).

    Sources said he was “scooped up Rambo-style,” over his alleged involvement in fraudulent financial activities.

    Even though people have known him as a big player in the oil and gas business, rumors have it that he might have been involved in shady activities behind the scenes.

    Panic has reportedly gripped Accra’s elite social circles since the news broke.

    Some prominent figures allegedly involved in cryptocurrency, forex trading, and high-end real estate have also allegedly gone into hiding.

    Dada Joe Remix could stand trial and face significant legal consequences if convicted.

    Official details regarding his arrest and the nature of the charges are yet to be released.

    It will be recalled that in 2022, the Nigerian social media influencer, Ramon Abbas, who called himself Ray Hushpuppi and flaunted a lavish lifestyle supported by laundering millions of dollars was sentenced in Los Angeles to more than 11 years in federal prison.

    Ramon Abbas, 40, was also ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.7m in restitution to two fraud victims, according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice.

    Abbas was “one of the most prolific money launderers in the world,” Don Alway, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said in the statement.

    Prosecutors said Abbas and a Canadian man laundered money from various online crimes, including bank cyberheists and business email compromise, or BEC, a prolific crime in which crooks hack into email accounts, pretend to be someone they’re not, and fool victims into wiring money where it doesn’t belong.

    Abbas had more than two million Instagram followers before he was arrested in 2020 in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

    His social media posts showed him living a life of luxury, complete with private jets, ultra-expensive cars, and high-end clothes and watches.

    “I hope someday I will be inspiring more young people to join me on this path,” read one Instagram post by Abbas, who pleaded guilty in April 2021 to one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

    In the aftermath of recent FBI-led operations in Ghana involving suspected fraud, entertainment pundit Kwaku Osei Korankye Asiedu, popularly known as KOKA, has pushed for an inquiry into Criss Waddle’s source of wealth.

    His concerns come on the back of Criss Waddle’s frequent display of large sums of money and luxurious vehicles on social media.

    In an interview spotted by The Independent Ghana on social media, KOKA intimated that since the musician criticized Akufo-Addo’s government over economic hardship, it is appropriate to investigate the legitimacy of his wealth too.

    “I am looking for the FBI to ask them to commerce an investigation on Criss Waddle because his source of revenue is questionable to me.”

    “Lately, when our girls are celebrating their birthday, you will see them posting their wish list on Snapchat because they don’t want to fry eggs anymore since there are people buying cars for them.”

    “The FBI should look for him, and also look for all the cars he has shipped into the country…Those who claim that they bought their Rolls-Royce from Acheke should also be investigated,” he added.

    Entertainment pundit Kwaku Osei Korankye Asiedu, popularly known as KOKA, has pushed for an inquiry into Criss Waddle’s source of wealth.

    His concerns come on the back of Criss Waddle’s frequent display of large sums of money and luxurious vehicles on social media.

    In an interview spotted by The Independent Ghana on social media, KOKA intimated that since the musician criticized Akufo-Addo’s government over economic hardship, it is appropriate to investigate the legitimacy of his wealth too.

    “I am looking for the FBI to ask them to commerce an investigation on Criss Waddle because his source of revenue is questionable to me.”

    “Lately, when our girls are celebrating their birthday, you will see them posting their wish list on Snapchat because they don’t want to fry eggs anymore since there are people buying cars for them.”

    “The FBI should look for him, and also look for all the cars he has shipped into the country…Those who claim that they bought their Rolls-Royce from Acheke should also be investigated,” he added.

  • Popular Ghanaian socialite Abu Trica allegedly arrested by FBI

    Popular Ghanaian socialite Abu Trica allegedly arrested by FBI

    Reports circulating on social media claim that popular Ghanaian socialite Abu Trica has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

    The yet-to-be-confirmed news was shared by an anonymous whistleblower identified as SelTheBomb, through a cryptic post yesterday.

    “Information reaching me is that Abu Trica will trend this week because of cyber something,” SelTheBomb wrote on X.

    Months ago, a secret FBI operation also led to the arrest of Ghana’s nightlife mogul and alleged crypto kingpin, Nana Kojo Boateng, popularly known as Dada Joe Remix, with possible extradition to the United States of America (U.S.A).

    Sources said he was “scooped up Rambo-style,” over his alleged involvement in fraudulent financial activities.

    Even though people have known him as a big player in the oil and gas business, rumors have it that he might have been involved in shady activities behind the scenes.

    Panic has reportedly gripped Accra’s elite social circles since the news broke.

    Some prominent figures allegedly involved in cryptocurrency, forex trading, and high-end real estate have also allegedly gone into hiding.

    Dada Joe Remix could stand trial and face significant legal consequences if convicted.

    Official details regarding his arrest and the nature of the charges are yet to be released.

    It will be recalled that in 2022, the Nigerian social media influencer, Ramon Abbas, who called himself Ray Hushpuppi and flaunted a lavish lifestyle supported by laundering millions of dollars was sentenced in Los Angeles to more than 11 years in federal prison.

    Ramon Abbas, 40, was also ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.7m in restitution to two fraud victims, according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice.

    Abbas was “one of the most prolific money launderers in the world,” Don Alway, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said in the statement.

    Prosecutors said Abbas and a Canadian man laundered money from various online crimes, including bank cyberheists and business email compromise, or BEC, a prolific crime in which crooks hack into email accounts, pretend to be someone they’re not, and fool victims into wiring money where it doesn’t belong.

    Abbas had more than two million Instagram followers before he was arrested in 2020 in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

    His social media posts showed him living a life of luxury, complete with private jets, ultra-expensive cars, and high-end clothes and watches.

    “I hope someday I will be inspiring more young people to join me on this path,” read one Instagram post by Abbas, who pleaded guilty in April 2021 to one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

    In the aftermath of recent FBI-led operations in Ghana involving suspected fraud, entertainment pundit Kwaku Osei Korankye Asiedu, popularly known as KOKA, has pushed for an inquiry into Criss Waddle’s source of wealth.

    His concerns come on the back of Criss Waddle’s frequent display of large sums of money and luxurious vehicles on social media.

    In an interview spotted by The Independent Ghana on social media, KOKA intimated that since the musician criticized Akufo-Addo’s government over economic hardship, it is appropriate to investigate the legitimacy of his wealth too.

    “I am looking for the FBI to ask them to commerce an investigation on Criss Waddle because his source of revenue is questionable to me.”

    “Lately, when our girls are celebrating their birthday, you will see them posting their wish list on Snapchat because they don’t want to fry eggs anymore since there are people buying cars for them.”

    “The FBI should look for him, and also look for all the cars he has shipped into the country…Those who claim that they bought their Rolls-Royce from Acheke should also be investigated,” he added.

    Entertainment pundit Kwaku Osei Korankye Asiedu, popularly known as KOKA, has pushed for an inquiry into Criss Waddle’s source of wealth.

    His concerns come on the back of Criss Waddle’s frequent display of large sums of money and luxurious vehicles on social media.

    In an interview spotted by The Independent Ghana on social media, KOKA intimated that since the musician criticized Akufo-Addo’s government over economic hardship, it is appropriate to investigate the legitimacy of his wealth too.

    “I am looking for the FBI to ask them to commerce an investigation on Criss Waddle because his source of revenue is questionable to me.”

    “Lately, when our girls are celebrating their birthday, you will see them posting their wish list on Snapchat because they don’t want to fry eggs anymore since there are people buying cars for them.”

    “The FBI should look for him, and also look for all the cars he has shipped into the country…Those who claim that they bought their Rolls-Royce from Acheke should also be investigated,” he added.

  • ‘Tech Queen’ Sapphire Egemasi faces over 20 years sentence due to fraud allegations

    ‘Tech Queen’ Sapphire Egemasi faces over 20 years sentence due to fraud allegations

    Nigerian programmer, Sapphire Egemasi, known on social media as a “tech queen,” faces over 20 years in prison after the FBI arrested her for allegedly helping defraud U.S. government agencies of millions of dollars.

    Egemasi was taken into custody in April 2025 in the Bronx, New York, alongside other suspects, including Ghanaian national Samuel Kwadwo Osei, believed to be the leader of their circle of fraudsters

    The charges stem from a federal indictment for internet fraud and money laundering, with crimes said to have occurred between September 2021 and February 2023.

    Court documents allege that Egemasi’s role was to create fake U.S. government websites to steal login credentials, which were then used to divert public funds.

    She also reportedly helped transfer stolen money into accounts controlled by the syndicate.

    Investigators say the group rerouted $965,000 and $330,000—both stolen from the city of Kentucky—into accounts at PNC Bank and Bank of America in 2022.

    Egemasi, who previously lived in Cambridge, UK, is believed to have met her co-conspirators in Ghana years ago.

    She later became the syndicate’s tech specialist, operating across the U.S. and Nigeria.

    To conceal the source of her income, she claimed to have had internships at companies like BP, H&M, and Zara.

    Known for her flashy online presence, Egemasi often posted photos of expensive trips to countries like Greece and Portugal, presenting a life of success fueled by tech expertise.

    She and her co-defendants are currently being held in Lexington, Kentucky, awaiting trial.

    If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison, steep fines, and possible deportation.

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  • FBI warns there could be threats against LGBTQ2S+ events

    FBI warns there could be threats against LGBTQ2S+ events

    The US government has warned that groups from other countries who support terrorism might attack LGBTQ events and places in June during Pride Month.

    The FBI and Homeland Security warned people on May 10 about possible attacks by foreign terrorist groups or their supporters at LGBTQIA+ events and places.

    “International terrorist groups or their supporters might try to take advantage of larger gatherings during the June 2024 Pride Month,” the agencies said.

    The announcement did not say where or what the agencies were looking for. The report says that in the past, terrorist groups from other countries have spread hateful ideas about LGBTQ2S+ people and have attacked events related to them.

    The announcement said that June 12 is the eighth anniversary of the attack on the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was the worst attack ever on the LGBTQ2S+ community in the US. 49 people were killed and 53 were injured during “Latin Night” at the club. The SWAT team shot and killed Omar Mateen after he held them off for three hours. He promised to be loyal to the Islamic State.

    Last year in June, three people who supported the Islamic State group were arrested in Vienna for trying to attack a Pride event.

    The announcement also mentioned some things to look for that could show there’s a problem, like violent threats online or in the mail. Potential bad people could try to take pictures of security stuff or ways to get in at events. They might also try to get into areas they’re not supposed to be in or pretend to be police officers. They might also talk to workers at different places to find out what events are coming up and how many people might be there.

    In June, Pride Month is a really important time for LGBTQ2S+ people and their rights. The first Pride march in New York City was on June 28, 1970. Now, Pride marches happen all over the country to talk about issues and celebrate.

  • EOCO to return docket ‘wrongly’ accusing Cecilia Dapaah of money laundering back to OSP

    EOCO to return docket ‘wrongly’ accusing Cecilia Dapaah of money laundering back to OSP

    Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Maame Yaa Tiwa Addo-Danquah, has announced that her office will be returning the dossier it received from the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) concerning the investigation into former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah, for money laundering.

    Addressing the media at the 14th Commonwealth Regional Conference of Heads of Anti-corruption Agencies in Africa, Tiwa Addo-Danquah explained that EOCO could not proceed with the investigation as there was insufficient evidence to pursue.

    She expressed concerns that continuing the investigation would amount to a futile effort, suggesting that her office would be engaging in a fruitless pursuit.

    Furthermore, Tiwa Addo-Danquah emphasized the importance of state institutions being transparent and forthright with the public, particularly when their investigations yield no substantial findings.

    “If you read the Attorney-General’s advice, whatever we would have done has already been directed at the Police CID. And as he (the Attorney General) said this morning, when you investigate a case and do not find anything, we should be bold enough to come and tell the public that for this case, even though I suspected this at the outset, that wasn’t what came out; we should be bold with the Ghanaian.

    “So, we cannot continue to fish when you don’t even know what you are looking for. You just go about looking for something that you know you are not even sure of,” she is quoted to have said.

    The EOCO boss added, “So, what I am going to do is that, with the Attorney-General’s advice, I will send the docket that we received from the OSP back to him, confirming that there is nothing in it.”

    The OSP closed its case against the former minister and her husband, who were accused of corruption and corruption-related offences after two of their housekeepers allegedly stole $1 million and €300,000 in cash, along with other valuable items from their residence in Abelemkpe.

    The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, concluded that his office lacked the authority to prosecute or take further action against the former minister and referred the case to EOCO. The referral was based on the suspicion that the large sums of money found at Cecilia Dapaah’s residence and bank accounts could be the proceeds of a money laundering and structuring scheme.

    The Attorney General, Godfred Dame, in advice to the EOCO boss on how to proceed with Cecilia Dapaah’s case, said, “The OSP’s referral to EOCO for investigations to be conducted into money laundering is without basis.”

    He also said that there was no evidence of corruption or procurement breaches against the former minister and her husband, Daniel Osei Kufuor.

    “A study of the docket from the OSP and the report by your office indicates that: a. investigations by the OSP did not establish any evidence of corruption, corruption-related offences, or procurement breaches against the suspects; b.

    the OSP has returned money and other properties retrieved from the suspects in the course of their investigations to them, and the suspects have been accordingly discharged by the OSP,” parts of a letter Dame wrote to Tiwa Addo-Danquah, which was sighted reads.

  • You collaborated with the FBI, what were the findings? – Sammy Gyamfi asks OSP over Cecilia Dapaah case

    You collaborated with the FBI, what were the findings? – Sammy Gyamfi asks OSP over Cecilia Dapaah case

    The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has expressed disappointment with Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng over the handling of the case involving former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah.

    Mr. Gyamfi criticized the decision to refer the case to the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) for investigation, stating that the OSP should have conducted its probe into the money laundering allegations against Cecilia Dapaah.

    In an interview with TV3, Mr. Gyamfi questioned the OSP’s decision not to include their report findings with the FBI in the docket presented to EOCO, calling it a “missing link” in the investigation.

    “Kissi Agyebeng announced that a search was being conducted but he couldn’t make the findings public. In referring Cecilia Dapaah to EOCO he should have at least added the findings that he made through that search. He even told us he collaborated with the FBI, what were his findings? That is a missing link,” he stated.

    Sammy Gyamfi accused the government of attempting to cover up the truth and avoid a thorough investigation into the allegations against Cecilia Dapaah.

    “There is a grand conspiracy by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia NPP government to cover up the truths and real facts of this Cecilia Dapaah case. This should be obvious to any objective bystander,”

    “This government led by the President himself has acted in ways that show they are not interested in an investigation at all and you see if they think that they are helping Madam Cecilia Dapaah in doing so, then they’re mistaken,” the communication officer stated.

    The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, stated in a letter addressed to EOCO dated Thursday, April 25, that there is no basis for EOCO to investigate Cecilia Dapaah.

    According to the AG, the OSP failed to attach their report findings with the FBI to the docket presented to EOCO after probing into the financial transactions of the former minister.

  • Ex-NSA employee serving nearly 22 years in jail for disclosing secrete to an undercover FBI agent

    Ex-NSA employee serving nearly 22 years in jail for disclosing secrete to an undercover FBI agent

    A person who used to work for the US National Security Agency has been sentenced to almost 22 years in prison, as requested by the government after he sold secret information to someone he thought was a Russian official but was actually an undercover FBI agent.

    The judge said he could have given Jareh Sebastian Dalke an even longer prison sentence, but chose to be merciful by giving a 262-month sentence. He believed Dalke deliberately took a job at the NSA to sell national security secrets.

    “This was obvious. ” It was bold and I think it was done on purpose. Moore said it was like treason, a big betrayal.

    Dalke’s lawyers requested that the Army veteran, who admitted to spying and made a deal with prosecutors, be given a 14-year prison sentence. They said this because the information he shared didn’t end up with the enemy and didn’t cause any harm. Public defender David Kraut said Dalke should get a lighter punishment because he had a brain injury, tried to kill himself four times, and had a rough childhood with domestic violence and drug abuse. Studies have found that experiencing certain traumas as a child makes it more likely for people to act recklessly in the future, he said.

    Later, Dalke told Moore that he felt sorry and embarrassed. He also said that he had PTSD, bipolar disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder.

    He said he wasn’t motivated by beliefs or money when he agreed to sell the secrets. Dalke thought he might be talking to the police, but he was still excited about what he was doing.

    But Moore did not believe Dalke’s claims about his health because there were no expert opinions or hospital records provided by the defense.

    Based on papers from the court, Dalke was at the NSA for about a month. He talked to an undercover FBI agent and said he wanted to “cause change” because he was worried about the United States causing harm to the world. He also mentioned that he owed $237,000. He apparently said he chose to work with Russia because his ancestors were from there.

    Dalke first got $16,499 in digital money for parts of the documents he had. Then he wanted to sell the rest of the information for $85,000.

    The agent told him to go to the Denver train station on Sept. 1stOn March 28, 2022, send the papers using a safe online link within a four-hour time frame. Dalke came with his laptop and used the Wi-Fi to send a thank you letter in Russian. In the letter, he said he was looking forward to being friends and working together, as agreed in the plea deal. Shortly after he used his laptop to move all the files, FBI agents took him into custody.

    As per the charges, Dalke tried to share information with Russia about the military strength of another country. It also has details about important US defense abilities, some of which are related to the foreign country.

  • Two Ghanaian women arrested by FBI for $6m romance scam

    Two Ghanaian women arrested by FBI for $6m romance scam

    Whitney Adams, also known as Girl Boss, and her mother, Flavia Annang, are reported to have collaborated with scammers from Ghana to defraud elderly or older men in the U.S.

    According to U.S. court documents with case number 1:22-mj-01123, Whitney, based in Accra, is known on Snapchat for her extravagant lifestyle, which includes frequent trips to Dubai for luxurious vacations at 5-star locations.

    The document details fraudulent activities that allegedly occurred between July 2018 and April 2022.

    “From a time unknown, but by at least July 2018, and through April 7, 2022, in the District of Arizona, and elsewhere, FLAVIA ANNANG, WHITNEY ADAMS, and their co-conspirators conducted a romance/inheritance scam,” the document said in part.

    The report detailed the extent of the scams, including a victim who lost $283,000 between 2018 and 2020.

    Another victim reportedly gave out approximately $5,000,000 between 2015 and 2022 under the belief that he was assisting his online lover in claiming a $10,000,000 gold inheritance.

    “Victim #1, age 67, resides in Sierra Vista, Arizona and fell victim to an inheritance scam in which he believed he was sending money for fees to release an inheritance belonging to his online girlfriend. Bank records show that between July 2018 and June 2020, Victim #1 sent more than $283,000 to various individuals via wire transfers and other means in an unsuccessful effort to claim the inheritance. Victim #1 sent some of his money to Gulit Bonx Enterprise, Inc., in Massachusetts. Examination of Guilt’s bank records showed that Victim #2 also sent money to Gulit”.

    The FBI document detailed how the gang operated, using fake romance to deceive their victims.

    “Unknown co-conspirators created phony online dating profiles and personas to engage in online chats, text messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls, and otherwise with unwitting Victims located in the United States in efforts to convince those Victims they were involved in an online romantic relationship with a real person.

    “These unwitting Victims were usually elderly or older men. ANNANG’s and ADAMS’ co-conspirators then convinced the Victims to send money to, or on behalf of, those fake romantic partners to collect a fake inheritance that was supposedly due to the romantic partner.

    “The Victims believed the money was to pay attorney’s fees, customs duties, government fees, taxes, or other expenses related to “releasing” the inheritance and were often told that they would share in the ultimate inheritance or that the receipt of the “inheritance” proceeds would allow the fake romantic partner to join the Victim in the United States.

    “The co-conspirators provided the Victims with addresses to mail checks to and bank accounts to wire money or deposit checks to, which were controlled by ANNANG, ADAMS, or other co-conspirators. ANNANG, ADAMS, and the co-conspirators then fraudulently transferred and/or kept the Victims’ money and no “inheritance” proceeds were ever remitted in exchange,” it said.

    Further details from the document revealed that Flavia Annang, Whitney’s mother, is based in the U.S. Following their arrest, both individuals have been detained while a Maryland court processes their case.

    Additional information from pulse.com.gh showed that “throughout the conspiracy, ANNANG and ADAMS were located in Maryland and traveled to Ghana on occasion. On July 21, 2020, ANNANG was recorded as the Registered Agent for Flavy Merchandising LLC with the Maryland Department of State Business Registration (MDSBR).

    “On January 11, 2021, ADAMS was recorded as the Registered Agent for McWells Auto Logistics, LLC with the MDSBR. Both ANNANG and ADAMS opened and managed several domestic bank accounts in order to receive and negotiate funds sent by Victims of these fraudulent romance schemes.

    “When ANNANG and ADAMS received Victim funds, they would use their various bank accounts to accept bank wire or bank deposits, or deposit checks received via the mail, and then disperse the funds to other accounts or to locations outside of the United States, all at least in part to conceal the nature, source, and control of those assets,” it added.

  • Driver rams car into FBI’s Atlanta office

    Driver rams car into FBI’s Atlanta office

    The FBI has reported that an individual drove a car into their Atlanta office’s front gate on Monday, but they are currently unaware of the motive behind the act.

    The crash happened just after lunchtime. Pete Ellis, a manager at the FBI’s office in Atlanta, said that a man tried to get onto the FBI campus in Chamblee by following another vehicle through the gate, but security stopped him from entering. Some police officers arrested the man as they were nearby, and nobody got hurt, Ellis said.

    Ellis said a man, who was not part of the FBI place, was taken to a hospital in Atlanta to be checked.

    The police are investigating crimes at both the state and federal level.

    Agents and bomb experts looked at the vehicle to make sure it was safe, as required by the agency’s rules.

    A video showed a red-orange SUV with a smashed hood against a gate in the front. The tow truck took the car at almost 4 p. m

    Ellis said they are still looking into the case and don’t have any more details to share yet.

  • Confirmed! FBI agents are in Ghana for investigation

    Confirmed! FBI agents are in Ghana for investigation

    Officials from the Chicago Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States have conducted a working visit to meet with the Executive Director, COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah and the management of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) in Ghana.

    EOCO recently announced its plan to conduct lifestyle audits targeting celebrities and individuals suspected of having unexplained wealth, a decision made public on February 23, 2024.

    This initiative comes in the wake of concerns raised after Ghanaian social media influencer and musician Mona Montrage (Hajia4reall) pleaded guilty in a $2 million romance scam case, highlighting challenges in addressing illicit enrichment.

    The visiting team from the Chicago Field Office includes a Forensic Accountant and two Special Agents, aiming to assist EOCO in ongoing forensic investigations.

    During a meeting held on Tuesday, February 20, COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah briefed the officials on EOCO’s mandate, highlighting the longstanding relationship between the two institutions and the effectiveness of past collaborations in investigations.

    She expressed EOCO’s eagerness to collaborate again on the current investigations.

  • Hunter Biden and Burisma: FBI source accused of fabricating allegations of Biden bribery

    Hunter Biden and Burisma: FBI source accused of fabricating allegations of Biden bribery

    A former FBI informant has been accused of lying about a plan to get money illegally from a Ukrainian company, involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

    Alexander Smirnov, who is 43 years old, is being accused of saying things that are not true about the Bidens getting money from a company called Burisma that works with energy.

    The Justice Department said Mr Smirnov lied to the FBI because he didn’t like President Biden.

    The Republicans used his statements to try to impeach Mr.

    Hunter Biden will speak to the House Oversight Committee this month about the things people are saying about him, even though he says they’re not true.

    Mr Smirnov was taken into custody in Las Vegas on Thursday after coming back from a trip outside the country, according to the Justice Department. He was accused of lying and making up fake documents.

    Special Counsel David Weiss accused Mr Smirnov of giving wrong information to the FBI about the president and his son in June 2020.

    This info was given after Mr. Biden became the Democratic nominee for the 2020 election, prosecutors said. Smirnov had shown bias against the former vice-president before this.

    Republican members of Congress have been using Mr. Smirnov’s claims for the past year to investigate and possibly remove President Biden from office.

    When the investigation was announced, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that a reliable FBI informant claimed that the Biden family was offered a bribe.

    Republicans asked the FBI to share their notes about Mr. Smirnov’s statements and they were successful.

    At that time, important Republicans in Congress said the claim was not proven, and there was no proof that Joe Biden got money from Ukraine.

    Mr Smirnov said that Burisma hired the president’s son, Hunter, to keep them safe from problems because of his dad, during meetings in 2015 and 2016.

    At that time, Mr. Biden was the second-in-command to Barack Obama, and his son Hunter was on the board of a company called Burisma.

    Burisma was also being looked into by the Ukrainian prosecutor for possible criminal activity.

    Mr Smirnov said the company gave $5 million to Mr. Biden and his son so that Hunter could help with the company’s legal problems because of his dad.

    The prosecutors said that Mr. Smirnov only talked with Burisma officials in 2017, after Mr. Biden was not vice-president anymore and after the Ukrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016.

    “In simple terms, the indictment said that when Joe Biden couldn’t affect US policy and the Prosecutor General was no longer in office,”

    The prosecutors said that Mr. Smirnov turned his regular business dealings with Burisma into accusations of bribery against Joe Biden in 2017 because he didn’t like the president and didn’t want him to win the election.

    When FBI agents asked Mr. Smirnov again in 2023, he allegedly changed parts of his story and made new accusations after saying he had met with Russian officials.

    If found guilty, Mr Smirnov could be in prison for up to 25 years.

  • OSP has handed Cecilia Dapaah’s docket to us – EOCO Boss

    OSP has handed Cecilia Dapaah’s docket to us – EOCO Boss

    The Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, has confirmed the receipt of the docket pertaining to the alleged money laundering case involving former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Dapaah.

    While acknowledging that the Office of the Special Prosecutor(OSP) has officially submitted the docket,Madam Addo-Danquah stated that she is currently in the process of reviewing it.

    In an interview with 3News she stated that “I have that, and we are now reviewing. At the appropriate time, we will speak about it. I am not well-briefed about the docket, so I don’t want to make any comment on it until we review it. The most important thing is that he has handed over; I don’t have anything more to add”.

    When questioned about the contract awarded by the Ghana Revenue Authority to Strategic Mobilization Limited (SML), Addo-Danquah emphasized that she refrains from discussing matters she is not well-briefed on.

    Recalling events from January 25, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) transferred the Cecilia Dapaah case to EOCO, with Special Prosecutor Mr. Kissi Agyebeng highlighting the focus on money laundering falling within EOCO’s mandate.

    Approximately 11 months ago, the OSP initiated an investigation into then Sanitation Minister Cecilia Abena Dapaah after reports of substantial sums being stolen from her residence by domestic staff. Cash sums ranging from $590,000 to 2.7 million cedis were discovered at various residences linked to Dapaah, leading to the freezing of her bank accounts.

    Despite an unsuccessful attempt to secure court approval, the OSP retained control of the funds and sought court confirmation. However, on January 25, the OSP announced the discontinuation of the case, citing extensive collaborative investigations within and outside Ghana.

    “The Office has determined that the crime borders largely on money laundering, which falls within the mandate of EOCO,” he said.

  • Cecilia Dapaah’s hearing pushed to 2024 amidst FBI investigation

    Cecilia Dapaah’s hearing pushed to 2024 amidst FBI investigation


    The Accra High Court has postponed the hearing in the case involving former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, to January 11, 2024.

    The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) requested the adjournment during Friday’s proceedings, citing the pending investigative report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding Cecilia Dapaah.

    In October of this year, the FBI collaborated with the OSP in investigating Cecilia Dapaah and her husband, Daniel Osei Kuffour. The joint effort aims to scrutinize the legality of wealth amassed by the former minister and her associates in both Ghana and the United States.

    The OSP sought the adjournment of the case, titled ‘Special Prosecutor V Cecilia Dapaah & Daniel Osei Kuffour (civil case) FT/0074/2023,’ involving frozen bank accounts and seized cash.

    The presiding judge granted the request, emphasizing the significance of the FBI’s involvement but directed the OSP to conclude its review of the motion before the next hearing.

    Background:

    The OSP charged Cecilia Dapaah for failing to declare her income and property.

    The statement of offense, filed at the High Court on October 6, stated that she failed to respond to a notice to declare her property within the stipulated 30 days, as required by the OSP Act.

    The OSP argued that this contravened the OSP Act, and Cecilia Dapaah should face punishment.

    In response, lawyers for Cecilia Dapaah filed an injunction application against the OSP on October 10, stating that if not restrained, irreparable damage would be inflicted upon the former Minister.

  • Man detained by US in connection with Australian terror attack

    Man detained by US in connection with Australian terror attack

    The FBI caught a man in Arizona for an attack on a religious property in Australia that killed six people last year.

    The 58-year-old person from the United States is accused of two crimes, one of which is about encouraging violence on the internet.

    Police say he sent many messages online with Christian end of days beliefs to the attackers.

    The attack at Wieambilla resulted in the deaths of two police officers, a neighbor, and the three shooters.

    The FBI arrested a man from the US in Heber Overgaard, northeast of Phoenix, on Friday.

    Police say three people named Nathaniel, Stacey and Gareth Train, were watching videos on two YouTube accounts created by the man. They said he kept sending messages to Gareth and Stacey before the attack happened in Queensland last December.

    The police officer said that there is proof that the suspect and Gareth were leaving comments on each other’s YouTube videos.

    Queensland Police are helping FBI and local US police with their investigation. They have gone to the US for this.

    On 12 December, a very bad attack happened when the police went to Gareth and Stacey Train’s property in Wieambilla – which is about 270km (168 miles) west of Brisbane.

    Four police officers went to see Nathaniel Train, who had been reported missing.

    As soon as they got out of their car and walked towards the house, they were attacked with a lot of gunfire.

    Two police officers – Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29 – were hit first and then shot again as if they were being executed.

    Another police officer got hurt but ran away, while the fourth officer was frightened by the shooters who started fires to try and force her out of hiding.

    Alan Dare, who was 58 years old and lived nearby, came to help at the scene and was also shot and killed.

    The police used a lot of guns during the siege, which lasted for many hours. The suspects were eventually shot by officers who had special training.

    Investigators believe the attack was planned ahead of time and involved careful preparation to target law enforcement officers.

    Hidden shelters, walls, mounds of dirt, weapons, surveillance cameras, and mirrors on trees were placed all over the land.

    Queensland police said the incident was a “religiously-motivated terror attack” and they believe the person involved followed a Christian belief system called premillennialism.

    Premillennialism is the idea that Jesus will come back to Earth after a hard time and make things better.

    Australian authorities say this is the first time a violent attack has been connected to an extreme Christian belief in Australia.

    The man is accused of breaking the law in the US and they don’t have any plans to send him back to Australia.

    There are not many shootings in Australia because it has very strict gun laws.

  • Special Prosecutor engages FBI officials in Washington

    Special Prosecutor engages FBI officials in Washington

    The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has met with officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) at their Washington, D.C. headquarters.

    The purpose of the OSP’s visit to the FBI was to gain insights into their organizational structure, operations, and best practices, and enhance collaboration and capacity building.

    The Special Prosecutor met with Jason Beachy, the Acting Assistant Director of the International Operations Division at the FBl and a host of unit chiefs.

    During the visit to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the OSP was received by Arun G. Rao, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and Richard Goldberg, Deputy Director of the Consumer Protection Branch (CPB) within the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

    From left – Jason Beachy, the Acting Assistant Director of the International Operations Division at the FBI and Kissi Agyebeng, The Special Prosecutor of Ghana.

    On October 11, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States of America had initiated investigations into the activities of former Sanitation Minister Cecilia Abena Dapaah and her associates.

    The OSP, in a post on ‘X’ formerly Twitter indicated that “these investigations primarily focus on examining their assets and financial transactions within the United States of America.”

    According to the OSP, the collaborative effort is to ascertain the lawfulness of Ms Dapaah and her associates’ wealth, “both in the context of their funds transitioning from Ghana to the United States and vice versa.”

    Ms Dapaah came into the limelight in July when it emerged that two of her house helps were before an Accra Circuit Court, for allegedly stealing monies and items, running into millions of Ghana cedis.

    She subsequently resigned from her position on July 22, 2023, after intense calls from the public.

  • Senator enters not guilty plea as FBI investigates connections to Egypt

    US Senator Bob Menendez and his wife said they are innocent of giving or receiving bribes, even as the FBI investigates his connection with Egyptian officials.

    The senator from New Jersey is being accused of taking gold bars and lots of money as bribes.

    The authorities claim that he used his power to assist the government of Egypt and his business partners in New Jersey.

    The senator refused to quit even though other Democrats asked him to.

    The Department of Justice accused Mr Menendez and his wife, Nadine, of accepting bribes and engaging in schemes to extort money. They are also accused of conspiring to commit fraud by dishonestly serving their responsibilities.

    The FBI and CBS News are investigating possible bad actions between the senator and Egyptian officials, on top of the bribery charges.

    Even though Mr. Menendez is no longer the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, his colleagues, including members of his own party, are asking him to quit.

    When he was in charge of the committee, he helped manage lots of money that was given to Egypt by the US.

    Mr Menendez’s suspected connection to Egypt has caused members of the US Congress to request a review of $235 million in military assistance given to Cairo.

    Chris Murphy, a Democratic Senator, who is in charge of the Middle East subcommittee on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed his hope that the committee would use its power to temporarily stop giving money to Egypt until they investigate and find out what Egypt was actually doing.

    Mr Menendez, who is 69 years old, was accused of taking bribes in the past. However, the trial for that case was stopped without a final decision in 2017, which means it did not reach a conclusion.

    Last year, when investigators searched the senator’s home in New Jersey, they claim to have found $480,000 in cash hidden all over the house. They also say that they discovered 13 gold bars, which they estimate are worth around $155,000.

    The federal indictment claims that Mr Menendez and his wife received money for their home loan, a job where they did little or no work, a fancy car, and other valuable items.

    The agents found a fancy Mercedes-Benz parked in the couple’s garage, which was paid for by one of the businessmen.

    Three business owners were accused in the legal document. On Tuesday, one person named Wael Hana was brought to court and said they didn’t do anything wrong.

  • Man admits to committing ‘ice-blooded’ cold case murder in 1979

    Man admits to committing ‘ice-blooded’ cold case murder in 1979

    A person from Oregon went to an FBI office and admitted to committing a murder in a different part of the country in 1979.

    John Michael Irmer, who is 68 years old, appeared in a Massachusetts court on Monday. He is being charged for the murder of Susan Marcia Rose, which happened nearly 44 years ago.

    Rose was discovered lifeless on October 30, 1979 in an unfinished building in the Back Bay area of Boston. The reason she died was because she had many injuries on her body and cuts in her brain.

    They found her dead body in the building the following day. Irmer had left and gone to New York City.

    In August, Irmer told FBI agents in Portland that he met Rose, who was 24 at that time, at a Boston skating rink the day before Halloween. The two people decided to go and check out a building at 285 Beacon Street. The building was being fixed up at that time.

    After going into the building, Irmer quickly picked up a hammer and hit Rose on the head, causing her death. He then went on to force her to have sex against her will.

    No one was able to find out who killed Rose for a long time. Another person who was believed to have killed her was arrested and accused of the crime, but in 1981 he was found innocent after a trial.

    At the same time, Irmer was found guilty of killing a person who sold drugs in California in 1983. He was in prison for 30 years before being released in 2013.

    He didn’t speak for 10 more years before going to the Portland FBI office last month, where he admitted to another murder in the south.

    It is said that Irmer didn’t know Rose’s name when he admitted, but he gave enough information for them to connect his confession to her unsolved case.

    The FBI investigators found that Irmer’s DNA matched a sample taken from Rose’s body.

    Irmer was brought back from Oregon to Massachusetts on the weekend. He was officially charged with committing very serious crimes, including murder and rape.

    “This was a very violent and cold-hearted murder. It was even more upsetting because someone was accused and taken to court, but thankfully, they were found innocent. Meanwhile, the true killer stayed silent until recently,” stated Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden.

    Irmer is currently in custody and not allowed to be released on bail.

  • FBI detains man,67, for ‘trying to steal bank of $650 to pay rent’

    FBI detains man,67, for ‘trying to steal bank of $650 to pay rent’

    A man was detained after reportedly attempting to steal a bank of $650 in order to pay his rent and stay off the streets.

    According to a federal complaint that was released on Monday, the FBI detained Michael Noojin, 67, when he attempted to rob a Bank of America in Hollywood, Florida, of the money.

    Noojin stood in queue to see a teller while donning a yellow polo shirt with sailboats and birds printed all over it, blue jeans, white sneakers and sunglasses.

    Noojin waited as the teller promised to help him in a moment.

    According to the complaint, when Noojin approached the teller and she asked for his debit card, he responded by saying that he had a gun and instructed her to put all the money in a bag.

    At that moment, Noojin put a brown plastic bag under the glass in front of the teller.

    Noojin said, “I’m serious, I have a gun. Please put the money in the bag. ”

    According to the complaint, the person who was working at the counter did not see a gun and began to lock her drawer with money.

    Two more people who heard what happened started locking their cash drawers and a loud alarm went off to get help quickly.

    As the bank employees started to move away because they were scared, Noojin quickly took a bag from under a protective glass and ran out of the bank through an emergency exit in a direction that nobody knows.

    In the afternoon of August 24, someone noticed Noojin from pictures of the bank robbery on the news. They then told the police where he was living in a halfway house in Hallandale Beach.

    In the evening, police talked to Noojin at the halfway house and he admitted to stealing money from the bank.

    The complaint says that Noojin said he robbed the bank because he needed money to pay his rent and he was very desperate.

    ‘He only had one more opportunity to get $650. 00 before he would become homeless. ’

    Noojin has been accused of trying to steal money from a bank employee using intimidation. The money belonged to the bank and was in their control.

    He is in FBI custody because the bank is insured by the FDIC. Noojin has to go to a court in Fort Lauderdale that is run by the government.

  • Maui wildfires: 100 people reported safe in Maui after list was made public

    Maui wildfires: 100 people reported safe in Maui after list was made public

    The FBI reported that, of the 388 individuals who were missing following the Maui wildfires, 100 have since been located and confirmed to be out of danger.

    The officials gave out the names on Thursday and told survivors to share their information, so they could concentrate on finding anyone else.

    The number of people who have died in the fires is currently 115.

    Search teams are still going through the burned remains of the old town of Lahaina and other places.

    The very harmful fires started on August 8th and quickly burned through the town of Lahaina, which is near the ocean and where 12,000 people live.

    During a press conference, Steven Merril, the FBI’s leader in Honolulu, expressed gratitude for the individuals who contacted them by phone or email.

    “We are able to focus more attention on the people who are still on the list because we have removed someone from it. ”

    On Thursday, the police chief of Maui, John Pellettier, said that the names were made public to help figure out who is still missing.

    Chief Pelletier said that they are aware that it will assist with the investigation.

    Officials also told residents to let them know if they see the name of someone they know is safe.

    Earlier this week, officials said that over 1,000 people were still missing and their whereabouts were unknown.

    As of Thursday, Chief Pelletier said that they found an additional 1,732 people who were previously thought to be missing, and they are all safe now. Officials have compared the list of missing people with the names of those staying at shelters and made it shorter.

    Chief Pelletier added in his statement that when the names are revealed, it will make people sad and cause them pain if their loved ones are listed.

    “This is a difficult task, but we want to ensure that we are doing everything we can to thoroughly investigate and gather all necessary information. ”

    The wildfires are the worst ever in the US, and officials think more people might die.

    The confirmed number of people who died in the Maui wildfire is 115. However, officials are warning that this number might increase.

    Officials in Maui have announced the names of 46 people who lost their lives in the fire. The most recent names, published on Thursday, are about a family of four who were found dead in a burned car close to their house.

    They found out that the people were 7-year-old Tony Takafua, his mother Salote Tone who is 39 years old, and his grandparents Faaoso Tone who is 70 years old and Maluifonua Tone who is 73 years old.

    Tony is the first child who has been confirmed to be hurt by the wildfire.

  • There was a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth II in 1983 – FBI

    There was a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth II in 1983 – FBI

    Newly released FBI documents reveal that Queen Elizabeth II was potentially at risk of assassination during her visit to the United States in 1983.

    The files, released after the Queen’s passing last year, shed light on the concerns of the FBI, which played a role in ensuring the monarch’s safety during her trips, particularly regarding threats from the IRA.

    The threat of assassination was reported to a police officer based in San Francisco.

    The documents state that the officer, a regular visitor to an Irish pub in the city, alerted federal agents about a phone call he received from an individual he had encountered at the establishment.

    The officer said the man told him he was seeking revenge for his daughter who “had been killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet”.

    The threat came on 4 February 1983 – about a month ahead of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip’s visit to California.

    “He was going to attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth and would do this either by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge onto the Royal Yacht Britannia when it sails underneath, or would attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite National Park,” the document says.

    In response to the threat, the Secret Service had planned to “close the walkways on the Golden Gate Bridge as the yacht nears”. It is unclear what measures were taken at Yosemite, but the visit went ahead. No details of arrests were published by the FBI.

    The 102-page cache was uploaded to the Vault, the FBI’s information website, on Monday, following a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by US media outlets.

    Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in Yosemite National Park
    Image caption,Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip spoke with National Park rangers during the visit to Yosemite

    The recently released FBI documents highlight the fact that several of Queen Elizabeth II’s state visits to the United States, including her trip to the West Coast in 1983, took place during a period of heightened tensions related to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. During America’s Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, the late Queen visited New York City.

    According to the files, a pilot was summoned for flying a small plane over Battery Park with a sign that read “England, Get out of Ireland.” This incident occurred during one of the Queen’s visits.

    The documents also reveal the FBI’s continued vigilance regarding perceived threats to the late Queen. The assassination of her second cousin, Lord Mountbatten, in 1979 off the coast of County Sligo, Republic of Ireland, in an IRA bombing, further underscored the potential risks.

    Overall, the released files shed light on the FBI’s dedication to ensuring the safety of Queen Elizabeth II during her visits to the United States, especially considering the context of the Troubles and the ongoing IRA threats.

    Ahead of a personal visit by the late Queen to Kentucky in 1989, an internal FBI memo read “the possibility of threats against the British Monarchy is ever-present from the Irish Republican Army (IRA)”.

    It continued that “Boston and New York are requested to remain alert for any threats against Queen Elizabeth II on the part of IRA members and immediately furnish same to Louisville,” in Kentucky.

    The late Queen, who owned racehorses, is known to have visited Kentucky several times during her life to enjoy the state’s equestrian highlights, including the Kentucky Derby.

    On a state visit in 1991, the late Queen was scheduled to see a Baltimore Orioles baseball game with President George H Bush.

    The FBI warned the Secret Service that “Irish groups” were planning protests at the stadium and “an Irish group had reserved a large block of grandstand tickets” to the game.

    The bureau told NBC News there might be “additional records” that exist besides the ones released this week, but it did not set out a timetable for their publication.

  • Man charged with stealing Dorothy’s The Wizard of Oz slippers

    Man charged with stealing Dorothy’s The Wizard of Oz slippers

    A man has been charged by US prosecutors for the theft of the iconic red slippers worn by Judy Garland’s character Dorothy in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.”

    The valuable shoes were recovered in an FBI operation back in 2018, following their theft from a museum in August 2005. However, no arrests were made at that time.

    Federal prosecutors have now filed charges against Terry Martin, a 76-year-old resident of Minnesota, for the theft of this significant artwork. These particular slippers are one of only four pairs known to exist.

    The theft occurred at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The thief had broken through a window in the building’s back door to gain access, leaving no fingerprints and triggering no alarms, as reported by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

    They were found in a sting operation launched by the FBI’s art crime team. The case is being handled by federal prosecutors in North Dakota and the FBI’s Minneapolis Division.

    The red shoes are central to The Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy clicks the heels of the shoes together and says “there’s no place like home” she is transported back to Kansas.

    Charging documents released on Tuesday contained no information about what led to Mr Martin’s arrest. On Wednesday, Martin told a reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “I gotta go on trial. I don’t want to talk to you.”

    According to the newspaper, Mr. Martin resides approximately 12 miles away from the museum, which is situated at Judy Garland’s childhood home.

    Janie Heitz, the executive director of the museum, stated that she does not believe the suspect had any association with the museum as an employee.

    These cherished pieces of Hollywood memorabilia, valued at $3.5 million (£2.8 million), were appraised by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota. It was noted that at the time of the theft, nearly 18 years ago, they were insured for $1 million.

    One of the other pairs of red sequined slippers is housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, while another pair was acquired by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in 2012.

    The stolen slippers remain under the custody of the FBI. “Until the court cases are done, nothing can be done with them,” the museum wrote on Facebook.

  • US FBI discovers ‘dead’ man’s stolen Maserati in Ghana

    US FBI discovers ‘dead’ man’s stolen Maserati in Ghana

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a domestic intelligence and security department of the United States of America (USA), has been able to trace a modern Maserati that was snatched at gunpoint and had its owner fatally shot in the US to Ghana, The New Publisher can disclose.

    The FBI were able to locate the vehicle shipped on their blind sight before it was cleared from the Tema Ports.

    The FBI reportedly flew to Ghana even before the car arrived at the country’s ports. This was to allow them to obtain finger prints and other crucial clues to identify those responsible for the victim’s murder and the theft of his car.

    According to insiders, the FBI flew to Ghana before the car arrived at the country’s ports in order to take finger prints and other crucial leads to identify those responsible for the victim’s murder and the theft of his car.

    Security agents in Ghana towed the car from the ports of entry and collaborated with the FBI to unravel the case.

    Since completing their initial investigations, FBI agents have left the country to further investigate the matter.

    It is said that the vehicle was put in a container with some other luxurious vehicles that made way to the Tema Port.

    Sources told The New Publisher for weeks since it was taken by the security agencies, no one has come forward to claim ownership with titles.

    In a related story, the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) three weeks ago announced that some Ninety-Five(95) luxurious cars have been frozen by its Executive Director.

    These cars which are in the possession of some individuals and car dealerships were supposed to be brought to the offices of EOCO no later than May 3, 2023.

    Owners of these vehicles were expected to come along with the needed documents.

    The statement from EOCO said if owners of the said vehicles do not report with them on the said date, it will take the needed steps to confiscate them in accordance with the law.

    It would be recalled that in December last year, the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) in collaboration with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the FBI busted a vehicle stealing syndicate in Ghana.

    A statement from EOCO said an Intelligence-led operation resulted in the retrieval of some luxury cars stolen from the United States of America and Canada.

    During the operation, which took place on December 9, 2022, thirty-seven (37) of the cars were retrieved from garages in Accra.

    Ten people were also arrested in the process. The suspects have since been questioned and granted bail.

  • Classified leaks: FBI apprehends 21-year-old Air Force guardsman in Pentagon leak case

    Classified leaks: FBI apprehends 21-year-old Air Force guardsman in Pentagon leak case

    Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Thursday that the FBI had detained a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard in connection with the internet posting of classified documents.

    The US authorities conducted a quick search for the identification of the leaker who uploaded secret papers to a social media site that is well-liked by video gamers before making the arrest of Jack Teixeira, 21.

    Teixeira was arrested in Massachusetts without incident, Garland said, and will be arraigned in federal court there. “This investigation is ongoing. We will share more information at the appropriate time,” the attorney general said, declining to answer questions.

    Teixeira will first appear in court on Friday in Boston, according to the US attorney’s office there.

    The FBI said in a statement that it took Teixeira into custody “at a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts, for his alleged involvement in leaking classified U.S. government and military documents.”

    “The FBI is continuing to conduct authorized law enforcement activity at the residence,” the agency said. “Since late last week the FBI has aggressively pursued investigative leads, and today’s arrest exemplifies our continued commitment to identifying, pursuing, and holding accountable those who betray our country’s trust and put our national security at risk.”

    The leaked documents posted to social media, some of which have been obtained by CNN, included detailed intelligence assessments of allies and adversaries alike, including on the state of the war in Ukraine and the challenges Kyiv and Moscow face as the war appears stuck in a stalemate.

    Multiple US officials told CNN that Teixeira is believed to be the leader of the group where a trove of classified documents had been posted.

    The search for the suspect began with thousands of people who had access to the documents, but investigators were able to quickly narrow the search to potential members of the chat group with evidence collected in the days immediately following the discovery of classified documents online by US officials.

    While there’s a large number of people who had access to the documents, investigators were able to home in on a small number for closer scrutiny thanks to the forensic trail left by the person who posted the documents.

    Teixeira was under surveillance for at least a couple of days prior to his arrest by the FBI on Thursday, according to a US government source familiar with the case.

    Earlier Thursday, President Joe Biden appeared to suggest that the US government was close to identifying the leaker. Biden was then briefed on the arrest in between his speech to parliament and his departure for a banquet dinner in his honor at Dublin Castle, according to a US official. He was at the hotel for roughly 90 minutes in between the two events.

    Biden has been regularly briefed on the investigation, officials said, as well as the efforts by his top officials to engage with allies who have been identified within, or unsettled by, the content of the leaked information, according to one of the officials. Behind the scenes, it has been a reality that has loomed over a deeply personal and important foreign trip for Biden, one official acknowledged.

    Jack Teixeira is taken into custody Thursday in Dighton, Massachusetts.

    Jack Teixeira is taken into custody Thursday in Dighton, Massachusetts.WBZ

    Joined Air National Guard in 2019

    The Air Force released service details for Teixeira, an Airman 1st Class.

    Teixeira is an enlisted airman at the Massachusetts Air National Guard, according to details from his service record released by the Air Force Thursday. He joined the service in September 2019 and his official job is Cyber Transport Systems journeyman. According to the Air Force, Cyber Transport Systems specialists are tasked with making sure the service’s “vast, global communications network” is “operating properly.”

    On Wednesday, The Washington Post first reported that the person behind the leak worked on a military base and posted sensitive national security secrets in an online group of acquaintances. The leaker was described in the Post story as a lonely young man and gun enthusiast who was part of a chatroom of about two dozen people on Discord – a social media platform popular with video gamers – that shared a love of guns and military gear, according to a friend of the alleged leaker the Post interviewed who was also part of the group.

    Several former high school classmates of Teixeira’s told CNN Thursday that he had a fascination with the military, guns and war. He would sometimes wear camouflage to school, carried a “dictionary-sized book on guns,” and behaved in a way that made some fellow students feel uneasy.

    “A lot of people were wary of him,” said Brooke Cleathero, who attended middle school and high school with Teixeira. “He was more of a loner, and having a fascination with war and guns made him off-putting to a lot of people.”

    John Powell, who also attended middle school and high school with Teixeira, said he recalled him as a pleasant and quiet kid who was sometimes picked on. “He didn’t have many friends,” he said.

    A photo of Jack Teixeira taken from Instagram.

    A photo of Jack Teixeira taken from Instagram.From Instagram

    Teixeira grew up in the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island, according to public records. He attended Dighton-Rehoboth High School where he graduated in 2020, according to the superintendent of the regional school district.

    Powell recalled Teixeira occasionally toting around a textbook on military vehicles – tanks, planes and submarines – and having a fascination with anything “military related” from an early age.

    “He was dead set on joining some branch of the military, even as a kid,” he said.

    Other students, who asked not to be identified, said they detected a more menacing vibe from Teixeira, who some recalled making comments they perceived as racist or mumbling derogatory things about people under his breath.

    One student recalled him showing up for school wearing a shirt with an AR-15 on it the day after a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.

    Teixeira didn’t behave in a manner that rose to the level where “people felt the need to report him,” another former classmate said, but “he made me nervous.”

    The same student said she took his fascination with the military as a form of American nationalism, and was therefore surprised by the allegations against him. “I didn’t think he would be capable of doing something like this,” she said.

    On Thursday, Biden said he was concerned about the fact the leaks happened, but not necessarily about their content.

    “I’m not concerned about the leak. I’m concerned that it happened, but there’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that is of any consequence.”

    Pentagon tightening access to classified intelligence

    The Pentagon has begun to limit who across the government receives its highly classified daily intelligence briefs following the leak.

    Some US officials who used to receive the briefing materials daily have stopped receiving them in recent days, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, as the Pentagon’s Joint Staff continues to whittle down its distribution lists.

    The Joint Staff, which comprises the Defense Department’s most senior uniformed leadership that advises the president, began examining its distribution lists immediately after learning of the trove of leaked classified documents – many of which had markings indicating that they had been produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence arm, known as the J2.

    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that he is directing the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to review intelligence access, following the arrest of the Air National Guardsman.

    “As Secretary of Defense, I will also not hesitate to take any additional measures necessary to safeguard our nation’s secrets,” Austin said. “Accordingly, I am directing the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to conduct a review of our intelligence access, accountability and control procedures within the Department to inform our efforts to prevent this kind of incident from happening again.”

    Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder confirmed Thursday that the Defense Department is taking steps to tighten the community of people who receive classified intelligence.

    Ryder said the Pentagon continues “to review a variety of factors as it relates to safeguarding classified materials. This includes examining and updating distribution lists, assessing how and where intelligence products are shared, and a variety of other steps.”

    Ryder also emphasized that there are already “stringent guidelines” in place to safeguard classified intelligence.

    “This was a deliberate criminal act,” he said, “a violation of those guidelines.”

    The criminal investigation is being led by the FBI’s Washington field office, including a team of counterintelligence investigators experienced in hunting leaks.

    Those investigators are also working with Pentagon officials on the damage assessment, which would become part of the evidence to be used in any potential prosecution that results.

    When asked how Discord has cooperated with the FBI investigation, a spokesperson told CNN that they “have cooperated with officials and remain committed to doing so.”

  • Metal detectorist sues FBI over secret overnight dig of 7 tons of Civil War-era gold

    Metal detectorist sues FBI over secret overnight dig of 7 tons of Civil War-era gold

    A treasure hunter is more convinced than ever that there is a cover-up and is equally committed to proving it as a result of the court-ordered disclosure of a vast collection of official photographs, videos, maps, and other documents relating to the FBI’s covert search for gold from the Civil War.

    In Dents Run, Pennsylvania, where local lore holds that an 1863 shipment of Union gold vanished on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, Dennis Parada engaged the FBI in a legal battle to compel the agency to turn over records of its excavation. The FBI has long maintained that the dig at Dents Run, where they went after cutting-edge testing suggested tonnes of gold might be buried there, turned up nothing.

    Parada and his advisers, who have spent countless hours poring over the newly released government records, believe otherwise. They accuse the FBI of distorting key evidence and improperly withholding records in an apparent effort to conceal the recovery of a historic, extremely valuable gold cache. The FBI defends its handling of the materials.

    Parada’s dispute with the FBI is playing out in federal court, where a judge overseeing the case must decide whether the FBI will have to release its operational plan for the gold dig and other records it wants to keep secret. The judge could also order the FBI to keep looking for additional materials to turn over to the treasure hunter.

    “We feel we were double-crossed and lied to,” Parada said in an interview at his cramped, wood-paneled office, where huge drill bits and high-end metal detectors compete for space with rusty miners’ picks, Civil War-era cannon parts and other odds and ends he’s dug up over the years.

    “The truth will come out,” said Parada, co-founder of the treasure-hunting outfit Finders Keepers. Solving the mystery is not his only goal — he had hoped to earn a finder’s fee from the potential recovery of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold.

    An FBI spokesperson declined to answer questions about the agency’s gold dig records or respond to the coverup allegations, citing the ongoing litigation. Last year, the FBI released a statement publicly acknowledging for the first time that it had been looking for gold in Dents Run. The statement said the FBI did not find any, adding the agency “continues to unequivocally reject any claims or speculation to the contrary.”

    There is little evidence in the historical record to suggest that an Army detachment lost a gold shipment in the Pennsylvania wilderness — possibly the result of an ambush by Confederate sympathizers — but the legend has inspired generations of treasure hunters, Parada among them.

    He and his son spent years looking for the fabled gold of Dents Run, eventually guiding the FBI to a remote woodland site 135 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh where they say their instruments identified a large quantity of metal. The FBI brought in a geophysical consulting firm whose sensitive equipment detected a 7- to 9-ton mass suggestive of gold.

    Armed with a warrant, a team of FBI agents came in March 2018 to dig up the hillside. An FBI videographer was on hand to document it, at one point interviewing a Philadelphia-based agent on the FBI’s art-crime team who explained why the FBI was in the woods of one of Pennsylvania’s most sparsely populated counties.

    “We’ve identified through our investigation a site that we believe has U.S. property, which includes a significant sum of base metal which is valuable … particularly gold, maybe silver,” the agent said on the video, his face blurred by the FBI to protect his privacy.

    Calling it a “155-year-old cold case,” he said the FBI had corroborated Parada’s information about the location of the reputed gold through “scientific testing.” He stressed the test results did not prove the presence of gold. Only a dig would help law enforcement “get to the bottom of this story once and for all,” the agent said.

    Parada obtained the video and other FBI records through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, hoping they would help answer lingering questions about what took place at Dents Run five years ago. Parada was mostly kept away from the dig site while the FBI did its work.

    He suspects the agency conducted a clandestine, overnight dig between the first and second days of the court-authorized excavation, found the gold, and spirited it away. Residents have previously told of hearing a backhoe and jackhammer overnight — when the dig was supposed to have been paused — and seeing a convoy of FBI vehicles, including large armored trucks. The FBI has denied it conducted an overnight dig.

    Parada and a consultant, Warren Getler, have focused on a handful of FBI photos and an accompanying photo log that have them questioning the FBI’s official gold dig timeline. At issue is the presence or absence of snow in the images and the timing of a storm that briefly disrupted operations. For example, an FBI image that was supposed to have been taken about an hour after the squall does not show any snow on a large, moss-covered boulder at the dig site. That same boulder is snow-covered in a photo that FBI records indicate was taken the next morning — some 15 hours after the storm.

    They accuse the FBI of altering the sequence of events to conceal an overnight excavation.

    “We have compelling evidence a night dig took place, and that the FBI went to some large effort to cover up that night dig,” said Getler, co-author of “Rebel Gold,” a book exploring the possibility of buried Civil War-era caches of gold and silver.

    There are other seeming anomalies in the records, according to Finders Keepers’ legal motion. Among them:

    — The FBI initially turned over hundreds of photos, but rendered them in low-resolution, high-contrast black-and-white, making it impossible to tell the time of day they were taken or even, in some cases, what they show. The treasure hunters went back and requested several dozen of the photos in color, which the FBI provided.

    — The agency did not provide any video of the second and final day of the dig. Nor did it produce any photos or video showing what the FBI’s own hand-drawn map described as a 30-foot-long, 12-foot-deep trench — which the treasure hunters claim could have only been dug overnight. Government lawyers acknowledged these gaps in the photo and video record but did not elaborate in a court filing last week.

    — The consulting firm hired by the FBI to assess the possibility of gold produced a report on its findings, but the version given to the treasure hunters seems to be missing key pages.

    — The FBI did not provide any of its agents’ travel and expense invoices, which could shed further light on the dig timeline.

    The records released so far “cast doubt on the FBI’s claim to have found nothing and raise serious and troubling questions about the FBI’s conduct during the dig and in this litigation, where it has gone to great lengths to distort critical evidence,” Anne Weismann, a lawyer for Finders Keepers, wrote in a legal filing that seeks records, including the FBI’s operational plan, that she says were improperly withheld.

    The Justice Department did not address the treasure hunters’ most explosive claims of a possible coverup in its latest legal filing. The government instead told a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that the FBI had satisfied its legal obligation to the treasure hunters to search for its records of the dig, and asked for the case to be closed.

    The judge has yet to rule.

    Parada said he will keep asking questions until he gets satisfactory answers.

    “I will stick at this until the end, until I know everything that happened to that gold,” he said. “How much, where it went to, who has it now. I gotta know.”

    Learn how to navigate and strengthen trust in your business with The Trust Factor, a weekly newsletter examining what leaders need to succeed. 

  • Biden’s papers being searched for by FBI at University of Delaware

    Biden’s papers being searched for by FBI at University of Delaware

    The FBI has searched the University of Delaware twice in the past month to see if US President Joe Biden donated any papers that might have been classified.

    According to CBS, the BBC’s US partner, investigators took multiple boxes from the campus on two different days.

    Thousands of cartons of documents from Mr. Biden’s time in the Senate are kept at his alma school, the university.

    A criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of sensitive information is ongoing.

    Documents marked classified have been found in recent months at Mr Biden’s home in Delaware and offices that he used in Washington DC. The FBI recovered some of the files during a search of his private residence at Wilmington last month.

    Sources familiar with the investigation told CBS that the searches at the University of Delaware were carried out at the end of January and beginning of February.

    The material recovered did not appear to have classified markings, but the FBI is now reviewing the files, reports CBS.

    As with previous searches, Mr Biden and his team consented, meaning no warrant was needed, according to NBC News.

    The college received 1,850 boxes of files from Mr Biden in 2012, however, those files have not been available to the public since then.

    Mr Biden’s personal lawyer, the US Department of Justice and the University of Delaware have not yet commented.

    A special counsel, Robert Hur, has been appointed by the justice department to lead the investigation into how sensitive documents were handled by Mr Biden.

    The home of former US Vice-President Mike Pence was also searched last week, after his aides came forward to say that they had discovered documents marked classified during their own search.

    Former President Trump is facing a separate investigation after hundreds of papers with classified markings were found by FBI agents executing a search warrant at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate last year.

    Source: BBC

  • EOCO “hunts” for 400 stolen vehicles from US and Canada

    EOCO “hunts” for 400 stolen vehicles from US and Canada

    Ninety-five vehicles believed to have been stolen and smuggled into the country will be seized by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) following a court order.

    EOCO in a statement noted that the freezing order from the court would enable them to seize 95 more vehicles.

    This, according to them will add up to 41 others seized earlier in collaboration with the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in December 2022.

    EOCO added that the court order obtained would also restrain anyone from disposing of the vehicles.

    According to the statement, information available to EOCO indicates that about 400 luxury vehicles suspected to have been stolen from the USA and Canada were in the country.

    The said vehicles were alleged to have been obtained through fraud and other crimes and shipped into the country, with some being displayed for sale in a number of garages in Accra.

    Meanwhile, the Deputy Head of EOCO, Nana Antwi says the culprits will face the law.

    According to him, although the vehicles cannot be seen in the garages, EOCO is convinced that the vehicles are in the country, adding that “they would be taken one after the other.”

    “We are in the process of asking for special documents or orders to do a publication of those suspected vehicles, we have their chassis numbers and ask those in possession to voluntarily submit, failing which we will draw a plan to get all of them,” he said.

    Source: Myjoyonline

  • Tyre Nichols: Biden calls for decorum ahead of police beating video release

    Tyre Nichols: Biden calls for decorum ahead of police beating video release

    President Joe Biden is pleading with demonstrators in Tennessee to keep their demonstrations peaceful as authorities prepare to release video of an arrest that resulted in the death of a motorist.

    Tyre Nichols, 29, was severely beaten, according to bodycam video of the encounter that will be released on Friday, according to the family’s attorneys.

    After Mr. Nichols passed away a few days after a traffic stop on January 7, five now-fired police officers are being charged with murder.

    Police in Memphis have increased patrols amid reports that the city is on edge.

    “I’m sickened by what I saw,” Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director David Rausch said on Thursday after reviewing the footage, describing the officers’ actions as “absolutely appalling”.

    From left: Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills, Jr, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean
    Image caption,From left: Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills, Jr, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean

    Mr Nichols, a black man, was stopped by five police officers, who are also black, on his way home after taking photos of a sunset at a local park, an attorney for the family said.

    Officials say he was suspected of reckless driving.

    A first confrontation occurred as Mr Nichols attempted to flee on foot when officers approached his car, the local authorities said.

    They said a second confrontation happened when officers tried to arrest him.

    Mr Nichols later complained of shortness of breath and was taken to hospital, police said, where he was listed in a critical condition.

    A lawyer for Mr Nichols’ family said the bodycam footage showed Mr Nichols being pepper-sprayed, struck with a stun gun, restrained and kicked.

    He likened the incident to the notorious footage of Los Angeles police officers beating black motorist Rodney King more than 30 years ago.

    All five of the officers face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.

    Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith were booked into jail on Thursday. They all joined the Memphis Police Department in the last six years, and were fired last week.

    ‘Failing of basic humanity’

    President Biden released a statement on Thursday appealing for calm as authorities prepare to release the footage on Friday evening, local time.

    “I join Tyre’s family in calling for peaceful protest,” he said. “Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable.”

    The city’s police chief, Cerelyn Davis, the first black woman in that role in Memphis, also called for calm amid what she said was a “failing of basic humanity toward another individual.”

    https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.47.2/iframe.htmlMedia caption,

    Watch: Tennessee official on bodycam footage of Tyre Nichols

    The Nichols family and their legal team privately reviewed the video footage of the arrest earlier this week.

    “He was a human piñata,” lawyer Antonio Romanucci said of its contents. “It was an unadulterated, unabashed, non-stop beating of this young boy for three minutes.”

    In a news conference on Thursday, lawyers for two of the ex-officers said their clients planned to fight the charges.

    “No-one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die,” said a lawyer for one of the men.

    Officials said Mr Nichols “succumbed to his injuries” on 10 January, but provided no further details. An official cause of death has not yet been disclosed.

    His family say he will be remembered as a “good kid” who enjoyed photography and skateboarding.

    The father-of-one, who worked at the parcel delivery company FedEx, had Crohn’s disease and suffered severe weight loss, relatives say.

    Reverend Al Sharpton, a US civil rights leader, told the BBC the alleged crime was particularly painful because of the officers’ race.

    “We fought to put blacks on the police force,” he said. “For them to act in such a brutal way is more egregious than I can tell you.”

    https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.47.2/iframe.htmlMedia caption,

    Watch: Emotional testimony by residents over deadly traffic stop

    “I do not believe these five black police officers would have done this had he been a young white man,” he added.

    California-based trial lawyer Adanté Pointer said instances of black men being killed by black officers rarely make the news.

    “This case exemplifies that it is not simply a white versus black issue, but instead that this is a power dynamic that plays itself out no matter the race of the police officers,” he told the BBC.

    The FBI and the Department of Justice have opened a civil rights investigation into Mr Nichols’ death.

    The officers involved are members of a special team known as Scorpion – short for “Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods”.

    The unit, which was created to police high-crime areas, is now under review, along with all of the city’s specialised units, according to the city’s police chief.

  • North Carolina: FBI probing a gun attack on Moore County electricity system

    The FBI is investigating after two power plants in North Carolina were damaged by gunfire, leaving tens of thousands without power.

    Since the attack on Saturday evening, no motive or suspect has been identified, but police have stated that it was deliberate.

    According to officials, 35,000 people in Moore County are without power, and the damage could take several days to repair.

    On Tuesday, a state of emergency has been declared, and schools will be closed for the second day in a row.

    The declaration of emergency includes a countywide overnight curfew that will expire on Friday afternoon.

    “This kind of attack raises a whole new level of threat,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said in a briefing on Monday, adding that protecting critical infrastructure must be a “top priority”.

    The two substations are located around five miles apart (8km), and in one case a gate was breached to access the facility.

    “The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing,” Sheriff Ronnie Fields said at a news conference on Sunday. “We don’t have a clue why [they targeted] Moore County.”

    He said the FBI was working with local authorities to determine who was responsible, adding that someone pulled up and “opened fire on the substation, the same thing with the other one”.

    “It wasn’t random,” he said.

    It could take until Thursday to restore power, officials say, as the damage to the two substations is significant. Around 45,000 people were initially affected by the outage.

    “We are looking at a pretty sophisticated repair with some fairly large equipment and so we do want citizens of the town to be prepared,” Jeff Brooks, a spokesman for the local energy company Duke Energy, said at the news conference.

    Two holes that a Duke Energy worker said were caused by gunfire at a substation
    IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, Apparent bullet holes were seen at the damaged substations following the attack on Saturday evening

    A fire chief, Mike Cameron, said there were several road accidents when the power went out including a four-vehicle pile up. “The car wreck was totally because the stop lights were out,” he told the Charlotte Observer newspaper.

    A major hospital switched to using generator power, while water and sewage services are also running on back-up generators.

    Federal officials are concerned about copy cat attacks. In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said they were carefully watching developments in the investigation.

    Temperatures hit a low of 32F (0C) on Monday morning, and the county opened an emergency shelter at a sports complex for those in need.

    Grocery stores in the region were open, and running on generators on Monday, according to the local newspaper The Pilot.

    Some local restaurants were giving away perishable goods as their freezers stopped working, the paper reported.

    It is unclear how long schools in the county will remain closed, with officials saying decisions on openings will be made on a day-by-day basis.

    While a suspect has not been identified and the motive in unclear, Sheriff Fields addressed social media rumours that the vandalism was an attempt to stop a drag show from taking place.

    “[Investigators] have not been able to tie anything back to the drag show,” he said. The event had been scheduled for 19:00 on Saturday, which is around the same time the power went out.

  • Responding to FBI search, Trump and allies return to his familiar strategy: flood the zone with nonsense

    In response to the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida on Monday, Trump and his allies in Congress and right-wing media have returned to his preferred strategy for communicating in a crisis: say a whole bunch of nonsense in rapid succession.

    From his battles against impeachment to his effort to limit the political fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump has attempted to flood the zone with such a quantity and variety of lies, conspiracy theories and distractions that Americans will tune out, turn away or cease to know what is true and not. And he has regularly been joined by a large cast of eager defenders.

    Baseless conspiracy theories about the search

    Using his familiar just-asking-questions style of promoting conspiracy theories, Trump posted on his social media platform on Wednesday a suggestion that the FBI could have planted evidence. His legal team had already been suggesting the same thing. One Trump lawyer, Alina Habba, said on Fox on Tuesday: “I’m concerned that they may have planted something; you know, at this point, who knows?”

    Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky echoed this question on Wednesday, wondering on Fox how we know “they won’t put things into those boxes to entrap him.” Fox host Jesse Watters had gone further on Tuesday, saying the FBI was “probably” planting evidence, and Paul’s campaign had adopted the “probably” by Friday.

    There is just zero basis for any of this.

    Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida offered up a different baseless conspiracy theory about federal malfeasance, saying on Fox on Tuesday that he didn’t think they were looking for documents at all but were probably using that as an “excuse” to root around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence for “whatever they could find.” Rubio’s comments were at least more plausible than the hogwash offered up Tuesday by Anna Perez, a host for right-wing media outlet Real America’s Voice, who uttered a QAnon-style monologue, falsely claiming the search was a conspiracy to prevent Trump from carrying out a (nonexistent) plan to expose criminals serving in government.

    More deception

    Another Real America’s Voice host, right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, claimed Thursday that the FBI “occupied Trump’s home — a military occupation.” Though it’s odd to describe the execution of a search warrant as an “occupation” of any kind, it’s flat false to claim the military was involved in this search.

    The former President’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump delivered an impressive variety of claptrap in a single sentence, saying on Fox on Tuesday that the searchers were “a bunch of people unannounced breaking into your home like this and taking whatever they want for themselves.” A source told CNN that the FBI gave the Secret Service about an hour’s advance notice of the search and that the Secret Service met up with the FBI agents as they arrived and ensured they had uninhibited access. And a search warrant does not allow searchers to take “whatever they want,” certainly not “for themselves”; the Department of Justice asked a court to unseal a document listing what was taken, and Trump consented.

    Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House minority whip, went on Fox on Thursday and said that “it concerns everybody if you see some agents go rogue.” There is no sign that any agent went rogue. Even Trump-friendly Fox host Steve Doocy challenged Scalise, noting that agents were simply executing a search warrant. Scalise then invoked an inaccurate report that Attorney General Merrick Garland hadn’t known about the search, falsely saying Garland himself had said he hadn’t known about it. (Later on Thursday, Garland said he personally approved the decision to seek the search warrant.)

    Whataboutism about Democrats

    As usual, Trump and his defenders tried some whataboutism — pointing a finger, dishonestly, toward prominent Democrats.

    Trump baselessly suggested former President Barack Obama had mishandled presidential records after leaving office by, Trump claimed, keeping more than 30 million documents, many of them classified, and taking them to Chicago. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) issued a Friday statement explaining it has “exclusive legal and physical custody” of the Obama-era records, that NARA itself moved about 30 million pages of unclassified records to one of its own facilities in the Chicago area, that the classified Obama-era records are maintained in a separate NARA facility near Washington, and that “former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration.”

    Trump and some of his media defenders went back to his old chestnut about how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been permitted to “acid wash” emails, a fabrication loosely based on the fact that an email-deletion software program happens to be called BleachBit; Fox’s Watters was especially literal, falsely claiming Tuesday that Clinton had “poured acid” on emails.

    Trump also suggested that there was something suspicious about the fact that, he said, his lawyers had not been allowed to witness the search, posting on his social media platform on Wednesday: “Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out?” But there is nothing unusual about this; lawyers don’t have a right to be in the room to monitor a search.

    For good measure, Trump lawyer Christina Bobb threw in a transparently false claim about Trump’s popularity. She said on Right Side Broadcasting Network on Tuesday that the Department of Justice was trying to find an easy way to prosecute “the most popular president, and probably the most famous president, in American history.”

    Trump’s average Gallup approval rating over his term, 41%, was by far the lowest for any president since Gallup began measuring presidential approval in 1938.

    Source: CNN

  • Trump search warrant: FBI took top secret files from Mar-a-Lago

    The FBI seized top secret files in a search of former US President Donald Trump’s estate in Florida this week, according to a search warrant.

    Agents removed 11 sets of documents, including some marked “TS/SCI”, a designation for material that could cause “exceptionally grave” damage to US national security.

    Mr Trump denied any wrongdoing and said the items were declassified.

    It was the first time an ex-president’s home was searched in a criminal probe.

    The list of items was made public on Friday afternoon after a judge unsealed a seven-page document that included the warrant authorising the search of Mr Trump’s Palm Beach residence, Mar-a-Lago.

    It said more than 20 boxes of items were taken on Monday, including a binder of photos, a handwritten note, unspecified information about the “President of France” and a clemency letter written on behalf of long-time Trump ally Roger Stone.

    As well as four sets of top secret files, the cache includes three sets of “secret documents” and three sets of “confidential” material.

    The warrant indicates that FBI agents were looking into potential violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it illegal to keep or transmit potentially dangerous national security information.

    The removal of classified documents or materials is prohibited by law. Mr Trump increased the penalties for the crime while in office and it is now punishable by up to five years in prison.

    The warrant notes that the locations searched at Mar-a-Lago include an area called the “45 office” and storage rooms, but not private guest suites being used by Mr Trump and his staff.

    The justice department had asked a court to make it public on Thursday, a move considered rare amid an ongoing investigation.

    It was approved by a judge on 5 August, three days before it was carried out on Monday, 8 August.

    On Friday night, Mr Trump’s office issued a statement maintaining that he had used his authority while president to declassify the documents.

    “He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken into the residence were deemed to be declassified,” the statement said.

    “The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the President of the United States.

    “The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated by the president, needs to approve of declassification is absurd.”

    Legal experts have told US media it is unclear whether this argument would hold up in court. “Presidents can declassify information but they have to follow a procedure,” Tom Dupree, a lawyer who previously worked in the justice department, told the BBC.

    “They have to fill out forms. They have to give certain authorisations. They can’t simply say these documents are declassified. They have to follow a process [and it is] not clear that was followed here.”

    A spokesman for Mr Trump, Taylor Budowich, said the administration of President Joe Biden “is in obvious damage control after their botched raid”.

    Mr Budowich accused the administration of “leaking lies and innuendos to try to explain away the weaponisation of government against their dominant political opponent”.

    Mr Trump’s conservative allies have also condemned the raid as a political hit job as he considers another run for the presidency in 2024.

    Law enforcement agencies around the country are reportedly monitoring online threats against government officials that have emerged in the wake of the FBI search.

    US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who personally approved the warrant, defended federal agents on Thursday as “dedicated, patriotic public servants”.

    “I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” he told reporters.

    Source: BBC

  • FBI foiled terror plot to kill George W Bush

    The FBI claims that Mr Shihab told a confidential source, a purported people smuggler, that he belonged to a group known as Al-Raed – Arabic for thunder – which is based in Qatar.

    In conversations with the FBI source, Mr Shihab said he wished to murder Mr Bush for “killing many Iraqis” and “breaking apart” Iraq.

    He added that he hoped to take part in the operation personally “and did not care if he died, as he would have been proud to be involved”.

    Mr Shihab was allegedly seeking fake police badges and was inquiring about whether militants could be smuggled across the Mexican border to conduct the operation and then smuggled back out to escape.

    Two people he hoped to smuggle in to the US were described as former Iraqi intelligence agents with experience in assassination operations.

    Mr Shihab was also allegedly in touch with a second FBI source who claimed to be a client for the faux smuggler. Both informants recorded meetings with him.

    Mr Shihab allegedly told the sources he hoped to use the people smuggling service to bring Islamic State members into the US, though he is not accused of being a member of the terror group.

    In one instance, Mr Shihab and one of the informants drove to Dallas, Texas to take video of Mr Bush’s residence and the George W. Bush Institute.

    In March 2022, he allegedly held a meeting in a Columbus, Ohio hotel room to look at weapons and fake law enforcement uniforms.

    He now faces 10 years in prison for attempting to bring someone illegally into the US, and another 20 for aiding and abetting the attempted murder of a former US official.

    A spokesman for Mr Bush said the former president “has all the confidence in the world in the United States Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities”.

    The BBC has asked the FBI for comment.

    Source: BBC

  • FBI warns of plans for nationwide armed protests ahead of Biden’s inauguration

    The FBI has warned of armed protests being planned for Washington and all 50 U.S. state capitals in the run-up to President-elect Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, a federal law enforcement source said on Monday.

    Threatened with more violence from outgoing President Donald Trump’s supporters following last Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol, the FBI issued warnings for next weekend that run at least until Inauguration Day, the source said.

    In other steps to safeguard the U.S. capital, the National Guard was authorised to send up to 15,000 troops to Washington, and tourists were barred from visiting the Washington Monument until Jan. 24.

    The chief of the National Guard Bureau, General Daniel Hokanson, told reporters he expected about 10,000 troops in Washington by Saturday to help provide security, logistics and communications.

    He said the number could rise to 15,000 if requested by local authorities.

    At least one lawmaker asked the Pentagon to do more.

    Senator Chris Murphy, who said he was sending a letter to the acting secretary of defense on Monday, said it was unclear if the National Guard would be sufficient to protect the nation’s capital and that active-duty troops may be needed also.

    “I’m not afraid of taking the oath outside,” Biden told reporters in Newark, Delaware, referring to the traditional setting for the swearing-in ceremony on the Capitol grounds. But he said it was critically important that people “who engaged in sedition and threatened people’s lives, defaced public property, caused great damage” be held accountable.

    Biden’s inaugural committee said on Monday the theme of the Jan. 20 ceremony would be “America United.” Trump, who has sought unsuccessfully to overturn the Nov. 3 election results with false claims of widespread fraud, said last week he would not attend the ceremony, a decision the president-elect supported.

    Washington monument closed to tours

    The Park Service said it would suspend tours of the Washington Monument, an obelisk honouring the country’s first president, due to safety concerns from threats to disrupt the inauguration.

    Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called for the U.S. Interior Department to cancel public-gathering permits through Jan. 24. “This inaugural planning period has to be very different than all the others,” she told reporters on Monday.

    In a letter to acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf made public on Sunday, Bowser called for a fresh approach to security after what she called last week’s “unprecedented terrorist attack.”

    Bowser asked Wolf to extend the National Special Security Event period from Monday through Jan. 24. The Secret Service heads security operations for events, including presidential inaugurations, considered to be nationally significant.

    Wolf said in a statement he had instructed the Secret Service to begin National Special Security Event operations for the inauguration effective Wednesday, instead of Jan. 19 as previously scheduled. The acting secretary told his staff he was stepping down on Monday.

    The assault on the Capitol, challenging the certification of Biden’s election victory, sent lawmakers into hiding and left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer. Dozens of people have been charged in the violence and hundreds more cases are expected.

    The assault occurred shortly after Trump urged supporters to march on the Capitol during a rally where he repeated false claims his resounding defeat in November’s election was illegitimate.

    Democrats in Congress began a push on Monday to force Trump from office, introducing an article of impeachment that accuses him of inciting insurrection.

    The presidential inaugural committee and Bowser have told Americans not to travel to the inauguration, and said Washington’s National Mall would be covered with 191,500 flags of different sizes, to represent the missing crowds.

    A presidential inauguration traditionally draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to Washington, but the ceremonies have been scaled back dramatically because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    In state capitols, governors are on high alert ahead of the inauguration.

    In Wisconsin, a swing state where Trump alleged election fraud, Governor Tony Evers authorised the Wisconsin National Guard to support the state’s Capitol Police.

    In Michigan, another swing state where Biden’s victory was contested by Trump, the state’s Capitol Commission, which oversees the legislature, issued an order to ban the open carrying of weapons inside the Capitol building in Lansing.

    Source: france24.com

  • Jeffrey Epstein ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell arrested by FBI

    British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, an ex-girlfriend of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, is facing charges in the US after being arrested by the FBI.

    The six charges include enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts and two counts of perjury.

    She was reportedly arrested in New Hampshire and is due in federal court later.

    She has denied any involvement in or knowledge of Epstein’s alleged sexual misconduct.

    Epstein died in prison on 10 August as he awaited, without the chance of bail, his trial on sex trafficking charges.

    He was arrested last year in New York following allegations that he was running a network of underage girls – some as young as 14 – for sex. His death was determined to be suicide.

    What are the charges?

    She is charged with conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts; enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts; conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity; and transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

    There are also two counts of perjury. The charge sheet says she “repeatedly lied when questioned about her conduct, including in relation to some of the minor victims”.

    What is the background?

    Some of Epstein’s alleged victims say Ms Maxwell brought them into his circle to be sexually abused by him and his friends.

    One of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, has accused Ms Maxwell of recruiting her as a masseuse to the financier at the age of 15.

    Details of that allegation against Ms Maxwell emerged in documents unsealed by a US judge last August in a 2015 defamation case.

    Other women have also made allegations that Ms Maxwell was involved. One, Sarah Ransome, told the BBC’s Panorama that Ms Maxwell “controlled the girls. She was like the Madam”.

    Ms Maxwell has denied any wrongdoing.

    Earlier this year Ms Maxwell sued Epstein’s estate seeking reimbursement for legal fees and security costs. She “receives regular threats to her life and safety”, court documents in that case said.

    Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?

    Ms Maxwell is the daughter of late British media mogul Robert Maxwell.

    A well-connected socialite, she is said to have introduced Epstein to many of her wealthy and powerful friends, including Bill Clinton and the Duke of York (who was accused in the court papers of touching a woman at Jeffrey Epstein’s US home, although the court subsequently struck out allegations against the duke).

    Buckingham Palace has said that “any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors” by the duke was “categorically untrue”.

    Ms Maxwell has mostly been out of public view since 2016.

    In a BBC interview last year, the Duke of York said he had met up with Ms Maxwell last year, before Epstein was arrested and charged.

    However they did not discuss Epstein, he said.

    Last month a US prosecutor said Prince Andrew had “sought to falsely portray himself” as eager to cooperate with the inquiry into Epstein.

    US attorney Geoffrey Berman said Prince Andrew had “repeatedly declined our request” to schedule an interview.

    The duke’s lawyers previously rejected claims he had not co-operated, saying he offered to help three times.

    Prince Andrew stepped away from royal duties last year after an interview he gave to the BBC about his relationship with Epstein.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Just after Hushpuppi was arrested, FBI declares these three Nigerians wanted, Check out who they are

    Despite several arrests and convictions over fraudulent acts, Nigerian youths have continued to ply the trade in droves both at home and abroad. The capture of the famous Nigerian big boy popularly known as HushPuppi was meant to be a lesson that Fraud doesn’t pay, but still, more and more cases of defrauding acts are even being recorded.

    The sad news about it is that Nigerian youths seem to be taking the lead in the game. They choose to follow the get rich quick system instead of working hard and earning a living legitimately.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI have declared these three Nigerian citizens wanted to be involved in defrauding acts in the United States.

    Abiola Ayorinde Kayode

    Richard Izuchukwu Uzuh

    The trio is currently wanted for their alleged involvement in a Business Email Compromise (BEC) scheme that defrauded over 70 different businesses in the United States, resulting in combined losses of over USD 6,000,000.

    Say no to fraud; it doesn’t pay.

    Stop bringing bad names to our dear country Nigeria.

    Source: IdikaIdman

  • FBI to investigate death of black man in Minnesota after arrest

    The FBI will investigate the death of a black man in the US state of Minnesota after a video emerged showing a policeman kneeling on his neck.

    In the footage, the man, believed to be in his 40s, is heard groaning and repeatedly saying “I can’t breathe” to the white officer.

    The Minneapolis Police Department said it was responding to a reported crime.

    The incident echoed that of Eric Garner, a black man who died being arrested in 2014.

    Garner was placed in a chokehold and uttering the words “I can’t breathe” nearly a dozen times.

    The phrase became a rallying cry for activists protesting alleged police brutality against people of colour in the US.

    The Minnesota Police admitted that the man in the footage filmed on Monday died after a “medical incident” in a “police interaction”.

    He was suspected of committing a forgery, meaning to have been fraudulently altering or making a false reproduction of a product.

    At a press conference on Tuesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey described the incident as “completely and utterly messed up”.

    “I believe what I saw and what I saw is wrong on every level,” Mr Frey said. “Being black in America should not be a death sentence.”

    It is the latest accusation of US police brutality against African Americans. Recent high-profile cases include an officer in Maryland who fatally shot a man inside a patrol car.

    The incident in Minneapolis on Monday evening began after officers located the man in his car, police said in a statement. They were told the man, who has not been identified, was “sitting on top of a blue car and appeared to be under the influence”.

    After being ordered to step away from the vehicle, the man physically resisted officers, according to police. “Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress,” the statement added.

    In the 10-minute video filmed by a witness, the man is kept on the ground by the officer and, at one point, says: “Don’t kill me”.

    Witnesses urged the officer to take his knee off the man’s neck, noting that he was not moving. One says, “His nose is bleeding”, while another pleads, “Get off his neck.”

    The man then appears motionless before he is put on a stretcher and into an ambulance.

    Police said no weapons were used during the incident and that body camera footage had been handed to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is investigating the case. Two of the officers involved have been put on paid administrative leave.

    After the video emerged, police said in a statement: “As additional information has been made available, it has been determined that the Federal Bureau of Investigations will be a part of this investigation.”

    Speaking to US media on Tuesday, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said the force’s policies “regarding placing someone under control” will be reviewed as part of the probe.

    The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

    Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar – reportedly shortlisted as Joe Biden’s running mate – issued a statement calling for a “complete and thorough outside investigation.”

    “Justice must be served for this man and his family, justice must be served for our community, justice must be served for our country,” she said.

    “I can’t breathe” became a national rallying cry against police brutality in the US after the July 2014 death of Eric Garner.

    Garner, an unarmed black man, uttered the phrase 11 times after being detained by police on suspicion of illegally selling loose cigarettes. They were the final words of the 43-year-old, who died after a police officer placed him in a chokehold.

    A city medical examiner ruled the chokehold contributed to Garner’s death. The New York City police officer involved in Garner’s deadly arrest was fired from the police force more than five years later, in August 2019.

    Source: bbc.com

  • FBI ‘mistakenly reveals Saudi official linked’ to 9/11 attackers

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has accidentally disclosed the name of a Saudi diplomat suspected of directing support to two al-Qaeda hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Yahoo News reported.

    The mistake about the identity of the Saudi embassy official was made in a declaration by an FBI official in response to a lawsuit by families of 9/11 victims who accuse Saudi Arabia’s government of involvement in the attacks, the report said on Tuesday.

    Michael Isikoff, the chief investigative journalist at Yahoo News who was the first to notice the apparent mistake, told Al Jazeera he knew right away the disclosure was “a slip-up”.

    “When I noticed that the declaration included this information, I contacted the FBI for comment. Because I knew that the justice department and the Trump administration had been going to extraordinary length to keep all of this under wraps,” he said.

    “In fact, both Attorney General William Barr and the Acting Director of the National Intelligence Richard Grennell had filed motions with the court saying that any information relating to the Saudi embassy official and all internal FBI documents about this matter were so sensitive; they were state secrets, that means if revealed they could cause damage to the national security.”

    The declaration by Jill Sanborn, the assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, was filed in April but unsealed late last week, according to Yahoo News.

    Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah was mistakenly named in the declaration, an error that Yahoo News said was also confirmed by a senior US government official.

    Al-Jarrah was a mid-level Saudi foreign ministry official who was assigned to the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC in 1999 and 2000.

    He was in charge of supervising the activities of Ministry of Islamic Affairs employees at Saudi-funded mosques and Islamic centres in the US, according to the report.

    In a portion of the filing describing the material sought by lawyers for the families of 9/11 victims, Sanborn refers to a partially declassified 2012 FBI report about an investigation into possible links between the al-Qaeda hijackers and Saudi government officials, Yahoo News said. That probe initially focused on two individuals, Fahad al-Thumairy, a cleric, and Omar al-Bayoumi, a suspected Saudi agent.

    A redacted copy of a three-and-a-half page October 2012 FBI “update” about the investigation said that FBI agents had uncovered “evidence” that al-Thumairy and al-Bayoumi had been “tasked” to assist two hijackers by another person whose name was blacked out. This prompted the lawyers for the families of the 9/11 victims to refer to this individual as “the third man”.

    Describing the request by the lawyers to depose that person under oath, Sanborn’s declaration said in one instance that it involved “any and all records referring to or relating to Jarrah”, according to Yahoo News.

    This represented the first public confirmation that the so-called “third man” was an accredited Saudi diplomat. But all of the FBI evidence the agents had gathered about al-Jarrah and his communications about the two attackers remain under seal, the report said.

    It is unclear how strong the evidence is against al-Jarrah, whose whereabouts remain unknown. But the disclosure appears likely to revive questions about Saudi Arabia’s potential links to the 9/11 plot and highlights the extraordinary efforts by US government officials to prevent internal documents about the issue from becoming public, Yahoo News said.

    “This shows there is a complete government cover-up of the Saudi involvement,” Brett Eagleson, a spokesman for the families, told the news outlet. “This is a giant screw-up.”

    Yahoo News said it contacted the Department of Justice on Monday, but officials notified the court and withdrew the FBI’s declaration from the public docket.

    “The document was incorrectly filed in this case,” the docket now reads, said the report.

    Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, were Saudi citizens.

    The Saudi government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attacks in which al-Qaeda-affiliated men hijacked and crashed planes into New York’s World Trade Center, destroying the towering buildings and sending plumes of debris shooting through the most populous US city.

    A third aircraft struck the Pentagon just outside of Washington, DC, and a fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

    Source: aljazeera.com