tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14761429321537695662026-08-18T08:23:27.529-07:00Watch out for The Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia who will steal your life's work like they stole mine Roy Harris. They are the most dishonest people I have ever met They ripped me off for more than $800 Million. Don't do business with these 2 banks as their computer system is rigged cheats on their Canadian income taxes and defraud their customers out of their wealth and rig world wide currency, stock and gold markets. Dave McKay and John Cleghorn are low life thieves.British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.comBlogger570125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-72227053435897656872026-08-18T08:23:27.529-07:002026-08-18T08:23:27.529-07:00August 18, 2026. Todd Burkhalter, the founder and CEO of the Georgia-based financial advisory group Drive Planning, on Friday was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison – the maximum penalty - for orchestrating a years-long Ponzi scheme that resulted in thousands of investors losing nearly $400 million. Burkhalter, 55, of St. Petersburg, Fla., from September 2020 to June 2024, along with Drive Planning, marketed several investment opportunities, including the “Real Estate Acceleration Loan” opportunity dubbed the “REAL,” and “Cash Out Real Estate Fund” called the “CORE Fund,” according to the Department of Justice. “Drive Planning claimed that investing in REAL and the CORE Fund was ‘easy and simple,’ telling prospective investors that they did not have to be accredited investors to participate and encouraging them to invest money from retirement accounts, savings, and lines of credit,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Atlanta. “Todd Burkhalter organized what is likely the largest Ponzi scheme in Georgia history to fund an extravagant lifestyle,” said Marlo Graham, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, in the statement. “He even continued to exploit victims while under federal investigation.” Two other Drive Planning executives, David Bradford and Julie Edwards, were also sentenced to federal prison last week. Bradford, 53, of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, was Drive Planning’s Chief Operating Officer. He previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in the CORE Fund scheme. He was sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Edwards, 59, of Cumming, Georgia, was Drive Planning’s Chief Administrative Officer. She previously pleaded guilty to laundering proceeds of the Ponzi scheme. She was sentenced to two years in prison. Burkhalter was also ordered to pay $233.8 million in restitution to victims. Burkhalter operated REAL as a Ponzi scheme from the inception, according to the Department of Justice. In September 2020, after Drive Planning received its first $50,000 investment in REAL, Burkhalter used at least $21,000 to repay an earlier Drive Planning investor. None of the REAL funds were used for their supposed intended purpose: to finance bridge loans or enter joint ventures with any real estate developers. Within the first couple of months of marketing REAL, Burkhalter used at least $80,000 in investor money to pay his ex-wife’s attorneys and expenses related to recreational vehicles. Throughout the scheme, investors’ monies were used to pay off other Drive Planning investors, make commission payments to Drive Planning’s agents, and pay for personal expenditures, according to the Department of Justice. Burkhalter spent approximately $2 million to purchase a yacht; $2.1 million as part of a purchase of a luxury condo in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; $800,000 on multiple luxury vehicles, including a 2020 Prevost Marathon motorcoach and two 2024 Land Rovers; millions of dollars on luxury travel, including chartering private jets; and $320,000 on clothing, jewelry, and beauty treatments. Even after the Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating Drive Planning in approximately March 2024, Burkhalter and others continued to solicit tens of millions of dollars in investments for REAL and the CORE Fund. Over the course of the scheme, Burkhalter defrauded more than 2,000 investors out of approximately $380 million. He should have set up his scam here in British Columbia where this sought of thing goes on all the time by members of the Law Society of British Columbia who defeaud their clients out of millions of dollars without any consequenmces. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-52402885605291951742026-06-26T09:23:16.536-07:002026-06-26T09:23:16.536-07:00RBC fined $4.25 million for making inaccurate credit card claims made by Royal Bank of Canada June 25, 2026 Royal Bank of Canada Plans To Cut Jobs As CEO McKay Vows To Rein In his Expenses Royal Bank of Canada was fined $4.25 million by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) for providing some customers monthly credit card statements that contained inaccurate information. The violations, which took place from 2021 to 2024, were related to the way RBC deactivated a customer's credit card account and then migrated those details to a new credit card after fraud was reported, the government agency said in a statement on Thursday. It said RBC failed to transfer certain credits from the deactivated accounts to the new ones, which led to customers receiving inaccurate credit card statements. Some customers also incurred additional charges demonstrating the corruption by RBC bank employees stealing funds from customers bank accounts using questionable methods. "Accurate disclosure is a foundational element of the consumer protection provisions of the Bank Act," the agency said. "For consumers to make informed financial decisions, they must be provided information that is accurate." A total of 227,947 accounts were impacted. RBC transferred and refunded about $22.4 million to affected customers and donated $299,000 on behalf of those customers who could not be located. "The root cause of the violation was inadequate and ineffective control and oversight procedures and operational challenges with processes and proper reporting," the FCAC said in a separate document that summarized the case against RBC. The $4.25-million penalty reflects the significant harm done to customers, among other things, it said. RBC paid the penalty on April 17 after the agency issued a notice of violation on March 18. The Penalty imposed by FCAC is nothing more than a wrist slapping and should have been $425 million. To be effective. A spokesperson for RBC said the bank self-reported this matter to the FCAC and fully cooperated with it throughout the process. "Where areas for improvement are identified, we act to address them," he said in an email. This was the second penalty the agency announced against a big bank this year. In February, the agency said it applied a $4-million penalty on Bank of Montreal for violations of consumer provisions in the Bank Act. Something they do all the time being a raciest bank well known in Canada. The violations were related to erroneous charges for monthly plan fees that should have been waived or discounted for certain personal deposit accounts, the agency said in a statement in February. "From 2010 to 2024, BMO failed to disclose all charges applicable to these accounts," it said. A total of 101,091 customers were financially impacted in the BMO case. The bank issued more than $3 million in refunds and redressed interest to impacted customers. It also made a donation of more than $600,000 on behalf of affected customers who could not be found. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-32739915028298197992026-05-12T06:32:00.000-07:002026-05-12T06:32:34.916-07:00 GWG, Beneficient boss found guilty of all charges in securities fraud trial MAY 12, 2026 After a three-week trial, a jury on Thursday in Manhattan convicted Bradley Heppner, former chairman of GWG Holdings and Beneficient, of all charges federal prosecutors brought against him in a corporate blow up that has caused more than $1 billion in losses to retail investors. According to a federal charges Bradley Heppner, 60, received more than $150 million in payments through funneling money from GWG Holdings to a shell company he owned. Heppner was guilty of four charges: securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, and false statements to auditors. His sentencing is in October. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each of the counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and false statements to auditors, and a maximum of five years in prison on the conspiracy count. The federal government’s charges against Heppner stemmed from a scheme to fraudulently extract more than $150 million from GWG, which collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022 and left thousands of Mom and Pop investors who bought more than $1 billion of GWG bonds from financial advisors holding the bag. GWG’s bonds, which were illiquid and did not trade, are now worthless. According to a federal indictment from last October, Heppner, 60, received more than $150 million in payments through funneling money from GWG Holdings to a shell company, Highland, he controlled at the Dallas-based Beneficient. “Heppner used shell companies to hide his scheme,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in a statement. “When his house of cards began to collapse, he did not come clean. Instead, he doubled down by falsifying emails and backdating documents to lie to the auditors, directors, and the SEC.” For years, Heppner spent with a free hand on home improvements for his residence in an affluent Dallas neighborhood, eventually laying out $59 million on the eight bedroom, 12 bathroom, 22,000 foot Tudor-styled mansion, according to testimony at his trial. From 2018 to 2022, when he was working on his mansion, his total compensation from Beneficient was close to $2.7 million, according to testimony. Heppner acted solely on behalf of his family office to perpetrate this scheme through a shell company he controlled, according to a statement Monday morning by Beneficient. And Beneficient is also evaluating other claims against Heppner and entities associated with him in light of the verdict. Beneficient is a financial services company that sought to buy illiquid alternative investments like private equity limited partnerships and then sell them for a profit. Heppner founded and controlled Beneficient; it and GWG became intertwined and related when GWG in 2018 purchased a stake in Beneficient. With the two companies linked, Heppner became chairman of both in 2019. About 40 broker-dealers and their financial advisors sold close to $1.6 billion in GWG L bonds, so called because they were backed by life settlements, before the firm declared bankruptcy in 2022, leaving investors in the lurch.British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-20149883063517412762026-04-20T06:57:00.000-07:002026-04-20T06:58:44.032-07:00 Olof Olsson, a former broker with Aegis Capital Corp., allegedly stole $3.8 million from the Swedish Church of New York. April 20, 2026 Former licensed securities broker Olof Olsson was charged yesterday for allegedly stealing $3.8 million from his church, the Manhattan-based Swedish Church of New York – also known as the Swedish Seamen’s Church, according to a statement from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office. Olsson, 45 and of Manhattan, served as a member of the church’s board of directors and as a financial advisor to the church, according to the indictment. He is being accused of grand larceny in the first degree. The alleged theft occurred over six years and he faces 24 charges in the indictment. “As a licensed securities broker and church board member, Olsson was responsible for safeguarding the church’s donations and bequests,” according to the New York Attorney General’s statement. An investigation “found that Olsson abused his position and funneled the Church’s money into bank accounts he controlled, and then spent the funds on risky investments and personal expenses,” according to the statement. Olson was registered with Aegis Capital Corp. from 2011 to 2021, according to his BrokerCheck profile, which shows no history of Olsson being investigated by regulators or being part of lawsuits from clients. His alleged crime overlaps with his time at the firm; according to the indictment, Olsson stole the money from the church from July 2018 to the end of 2024. Olsson could not be reached to comment. The CEO of Aegis Capital, Robert Eide, did not return a call on Friday to comment. One industry attorney noted that New York’s charges sounded like affinity fraud, a type of crime that occurs when a member of one religious or ethnic group gains access to others with similar backgrounds and hurts them financially. “What’s alleged is a jambalaya of fraud and textbook examples of affinity fraud, as well as a failure to supervise by the brokerage firm,” said Andrew Stoltmann, a plaintiff’s attorney. “If what’s alleged is true, the advisor’s career is obviously over and he will likely be spending time in jail,” Stoltmann said. “On top of that, FINRA may have a target on the firm for ignoring any likely brazen red flags.” “Olsson used his role as a financial advisor to steal millions of dollars, including by making unlawful transfers from church accounts to a bank account he opened in the name of the church, but that he alone controlled,” according to the statement. “Olsson was able to accomplish this theft without the church board’s knowledge by creating forged financial statements that concealed and omitted his unlawful withdrawals, leaving the church to believe its investments remained intact and secure,” according to the statement. He allegedly used the stolen church funds for personal expenses, including an investment in a risky and failed venture, according to the Attorney General’s statement, and also allegedly falsified the church’s financial records to overstate the value of its investments in the yearly ledgers and conceal his theft. He should have come to British Columbia to operate where this sort of thing goes on all the time and members of the Law Society of British Columbia steal Billions from their clients and law enforcemrnt turns a blind eye to all the fraud that goes on leaving thousounds of British Columbians destitute. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-36756301332648429582026-04-06T08:36:00.000-07:002026-04-06T08:36:56.320-07:00 NY-based RIA A.G. Moran charged in alleged $138M fraud targeting elderly clients Owner and CEO Vincent Camarda pleaded guilty to securities fraud after allegedly funneling client money into a mining venture and his son's coffee shop – while pocketing the difference APR 06, 2026 A Long Island-based RIA and two of its principals have been hit with civil and criminal charges after allegedly defrauding clients into putting more than a hundred million dollars into conflicted private fund investments – while telling those clients their money was safe. In a civil complaint filed April 3 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors, along with its sole owner and CEO Vincent J. Camarda and president James E. McArthur, raised at least $138 million from at least 431 investors. They solicited those investments between approximately June 2020 and December 2023, through a series of promissory notes issued by five private equity funds that Camarda and McArthur created, managed and owned, according to the SEC. What clients were told – and what actually happened Many of the investors tapped by A.G. Morgan – which was charged previously by the SEC in 2022 in connection with another unregistered $500 million fraudulent offering, and ordered to pay at least $7 million in a FINRA arbitration late last year – were existing advisory clients, including retirees and people approaching retirement. According to the SEC's latest complaint, Camarda and McArthur told clients the funds were "conservative and safe investments that would generate monthly distributions at an annualized interest rate of 9% or 11%." Offering documents described diversified investment strategies spanning mining, real estate, merchant cash advances and financial planning firms. But in practice, four of the funds invested entirely in a single mining company – Millennium Holdings – and the fifth invested exclusively in Buzz'd Express Coffee Enterprises, a drive-thru coffee shop in North Bellmore, New York, owned by Camarda's son. The complaint alleges Camarda and McArthur formed the fifth fund, the Wilshire Capital Fund, for the sole purpose of backing his son's business. The funds used interest received from those underlying ventures to make the 9% or 11% payments back to investors. In the case of the mining-linked funds, the complaint describes a hidden spread: Millennium was paying the funds 17% interest, while investors received only 9% or 11% – with Camarda and McArthur allegedly pocketing the difference. Camarda reportedly took 90% of that spread, while McArthur kept the remaining 10%. Together, the complaint says, the two collected at least $2.97 million through that arrangement – none of which was disclosed to clients. The filing also describes a pattern of investors being steered away from the written risk warnings in offering documents. In some cases, clients said they never read the risk language because the adviser told them the investment was safe and they trusted him. In others, clients were sent signature pages without any accompanying offering memorandum at all. When investors raised questions about risk disclosures, Camarda allegedly told them not to worry about it. The scheme unravels By April 2023, Camarda reportedly knew Millennium was having trouble meeting its payment obligations. Rather than alerting clients, the complaint alleges he continued recommending the funds as safe and conservative – and simultaneously began diverting incoming investor money to his own bank account. On at least 14 occasions between April and December 2023, he allegedly transferred offering proceeds directly to himself instead of investing them. In one instance, a client wired $770,000 into the Omni Diversified Fund; within two days, $400,000 of it was reportedly moved to Camarda's personal account. In total, the complaint says Camarda misappropriated at least $1,028,500 in client money that year. In January 2024, Millennium stopped making payments, the funds stopped paying investors, and the scheme collapsed. Investors collectively lost approximately $123 million in unreturned principal. Guilty plea and criminal exposure On the same day the civil complaint was filed, Camarda appeared in federal court in Central Islip and pleaded guilty to securities fraud and investment adviser fraud, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Under that parallel criminal case, the 62-year-old faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, restitution of at least $160,022,836.81 and forfeiture of $6,639,498.17. US Attorney Joseph Nocella said in a statement that Camarda "used a series of lies to lure clients, including elderly and other vulnerable individuals, into investing with him." The FBI, whose New York field office worked the case alongside the SEC, said he "repeatedly deceived trusting clients to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance extravagant purchases." According to the US Attorney, at least some of the money was used to pay for "personal expenses and luxury items, including plastic surgery, travel, jewelry and luxury goods." On the civil side, the SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, disgorgement with prejudgment interest and civil penalties. It is also asking the court to permanently bar both Camarda and McArthur from acting as or associating with any broker, dealer or investment adviser. None of the civil allegations against McArthur or A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors have been proven in court.British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-38541175743702816252026-03-18T11:02:00.000-07:002026-03-18T11:02:07.413-07:00New research unpacks North Korea’s stealthy, sophisticated remote IT worker schemes - businesses to avoid unwittingly hiring Pyongyang’s operatives. Published March 18, 2026 North Korea’s remote IT worker schemes rely heavily on Western collaborators, an elaborate hierarchy of roles and the extensive use of an open-source messaging application, IBM and the cybersecurity vendor Flare said in a report published on Wednesday. The new research details the tactics and technologies that North Korean operatives use to trick companies into hiring them and fly under the radar while they funnel their salaries to Pyongyang. Flare and IBM said the report could help businesses improve their ability to root out North Korean operatives posing as legitimate employees. Dive Insight: The Flare/IBM report describes a sophisticated operation through which North Korea places operatives inside Western and other businesses, fooling everyone including executives, hiring managers and coworkers at those organizations while siphoning their revenues and potentially compromising sensitive data. The scheme involves recruiters who approach potential IT workers, facilitators who review recruiters’ recommendations, the workers themselves and the brokers in Western countries who offer services such as financial transfers and operating laptop farms. Notably, some IT workers don’t realize they are serving Pyongyang — “when asked about adopting a ‘more “US American” name,’” the report said, “candidates express confusion rather than acceptance — a reaction inconsistent with knowing they’d be working for the DPRK under false American identities.” The supervisors of these operations have shown a particular interest in IT workers with experience in WordPress, blockchain technologies and Microsoft’s .NET framework, according to the report, indicating the kinds of roles in which Pyongyang seeks to place its operatives. North Korea’s remote IT worker schemes generate approximately $500 million annually for the regime, according to a UN report. Flare and IBM obtained copies of slide decks used to help recruits obtain IT jobs, with advice such as “Address[ing] the letter to the hiring manager or recruiter by name increases your chance for an interview by 26%.” North Korea expects operatives to keep detailed records of how much time they spend looking for jobs. The report describes documents that urge workers to track their time down to the second. “Analysis of available timesheets indicate that time worked is averaged out, and groups/individuals are labelled with a number rank,” the report said. It added that this kind of ranking “may be part of North Korean life,” referencing “self-criticism sessions” common in the country. The report describes several of the software programs that North Korean IT workers use to communicate with their handlers, including the Pyongyang-owned VPN NetKey and the open-source messaging tool IP Messenger. The latter program is especially valuable, according to the report, because it does not use central servers, making it easier for North Korea to evade detection by messaging-platform owners such as Google or Discord. Operatives living in North Korea, China or Russia use commercial VPN services, especially Astrill VPN, to obscure their locations and pretend to be living in Western countries. But Flare and IBM also obtained data from likely North Korean-controlled servers showing searches for free proxy servers. Flare and IBM offered a range of recommendations for keeping North Korean operatives out of organizations’ workforces, including forming close relationships with applicants. “With the help of Western collaborators, North Korean operatives have more capability to bypass traditional vetting processes such as identity verification and background checks,” researchers wrote, “but by building a personal relationship with candidates from day one, the warning signs can be detected early, and the level of personal engagement can make an infiltration attempt infeasible for the operative and the collaborator.” British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-25905563070391290412026-03-04T07:32:00.000-08:002026-03-04T07:32:48.802-08:00 MAR 04, 2026 A federal jury in Manhattan on Tuesday convicted a former Morgan Stanley financial advisor Darryl Cohen on two counts of fraud related to a scheme to rip off professional basketball players by overcharging them for insurance investments, according to a statement this morning from the U.S. Justice Department. He made a mistake should have come to British Columbia Canada where the Law Society and Supreme Court rip off foreign born Jews of their wealth. The ex-advisor, Darryl Cohen, was convicted of wire fraud and investment advisor fraud, according to the reports. A third charge, of conspiracy was dismissed by the judge after the jury, which started deliberating on Friday, failed to reach a unanimous verdict. As part of the fraud, Darryl Cohen allegedly used clients’ money to build a gym in the backyard of his home. Cohen, 52, of Chatsworth, Calif., faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the wire fraud conviction and a maximum of five years for the investment advisor fraud. Cohen had been fighting charges that he defrauded NBA players out of millions of dollars when he sold them viatical settlements, a complex investment product that allows individuals with a limited life expectancy to sell their life insurance to another person or group. Cohen, along with three other people, was charged in March 2023 with six counts for schemes to defraud professional basketball players, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the southern district of New York. As part of his scheme Cohen allegedly transferred $500,000 from the accounts of two professional basketball players as purported donations to a non-profit organization, according to federal charges. He then used approximately $238,000 of those funds to build athletic training facilities in the backyard of his home. Cohen was registered with Morgan Stanley in the Los Angeles suburbs from 2016 to 2021, according to his BrokerCheck profile, when the firm “discharged,” or fired him. The same year FINRA barred him from the securities industry. Cohen’s trial began at the end of January. The NBA players who were the targets of Cohen’s alleged scheme included Jrue Holiday, Chandler Parsons and Courtney Lee. From 2017 through 2020 Cohen managed a scheme to defraud three different professional basketball player clients of over $5 million by taking advantage of his advisory and fiduciary relationships with those clients, according to the federal charges. Cohen conspired with Brian Gilder, an independent financial planner whom Cohen “encouraged his clients to work with and who assisted in tax preparation,” according to the federal allegations. Cohen and Gilder allegedly fraudulently induced three athletes to purchase viatical life insurance policies at massive markups of 222%, 310%, and 244%, respectively, without disclosing Gilder controlled the transaction, according to the indictment. Cohen and Gilder also allegedly used a sports agency and another law firm to channel approximately $328,125 of one of his client’s money to repay a former professional baseball player, a disgruntled client. In February 2020, in the midst of making those payments, Cohen sent a message to Gilder saying: “We gotta send [the baseball player] more to get rid of him,” according to the indictment. Gilder previously pled guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, according to Law360. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-54209291321444212952026-02-13T08:52:00.000-08:002026-02-13T08:52:30.130-08:00 The sophisticated worm — which uses invisible code to steal credentials and turn developer systems into criminal proxies — has so far infected nearly 36 thousand machines. October 23, 2025 A self-propagating worm is targeting Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extensions in a complex supply chain attack that has infected 36,800 developer machines so far with techniques the likes of which researchers said they haven't seen before in the wild. Researchers at Koi Security discovered the malware, dubbed "GlassWorm," on Oct. 18, after flagging an extension on the OpenVSX marketplace — an open source alternative to the Visual Studio Marketplace — called CodeJoy that "introduced some suspicious behavioral changes," according to a blog post by Koi CTO and co-founder Idan Dardikman published on Saturday. An investigation revealed that the extension was infected with an unusually stealthy malware that used printable Unicode characters that don't render in a code editor, basically making "malicious code literally disappear," Dardikman wrote. "The malware is invisible," he wrote. "Not obfuscated. Not hidden in a minified file. Actually invisible to the human eye." Further analysis uncovered a self-propagating malware that uses the Solana blockchain as its C2 and Google Calendar as a backup command server; harvests credentials from NPM, GitHub, and Git credentials for supply chain propagation; targets cryptocurrency wallets; deploys SOCKS proxy servers to turn developer machines into extended C2 infrastructure; installs hidden virtual network computing (VNC) servers for complete remote access; and spreads further by using stolen credentials to compromise additional packages and extensions. Related:It Takes Only 250 Documents to Poison Any AI Model GlassWorm initially infected several extensions on Oct. 17, three of which are still actively distributing malware, while four of which have since been updated to a clean version, Dardikman tells Dark Reading on Monday. However, their malicious versions are still online and available for download, he says. Meanwhile, GlassWorm also has spread beyond Open VSX to an extension on Microsoft's official VS Code marketplace; once Koi reported the extension, however, Microsoft immediately removed it, Dardikman tells Dark Reading. Invisible Code 'Like Glass' Dardikman compared GlassWorm to another malware campaign that affected the NPM package supply chain that Koi also discovered: Shai Hulud. However, GlassWorm is potentially more dangerous in that its invisible code obfuscation technique — which inspired its name — "completely breaks traditional code review," Dardkiman wrote in the post. "Like glass, it's completely transparent," he wrote. "You can stare right at it and see nothing. The developer whose account got compromised probably looked at this file, saw what appeared to be their legitimate code, and had no idea they were about to distribute malware to hundreds of users." Related:AI Chat Data Is History's Most Thorough Record of Enterprise Secrets. Secure It Wisely This is a major paradigm shift for security researchers, who have built entire systems around the assumption that humans can review code to ensure its security and legitimacy, Dardikman wrote. "GlassWorm just proved that assumption wrong," he wrote, telling Dark Reading on Monday that "this is honestly the most sophisticated attack we've yet to investigate." Beyond its built-in invisibility cloak, GlassWorm also has an extensive ability to wreak havoc on an infected system through its various aforementioned features once it spreads via infected extensions. Among these, two aspects of the malware are particularly dangerous. One is its use of stolen NPM, GitHub, OpenVSX, and Git credentials to compromise more packages and extensions. "Each new victim becomes an infection vector," giving the malware its classification as a worm and not a one-off infection, Dardikman wrote. The other is its final stage, a module called "ZOMBI" that "transforms every infected developer workstation into a node in a criminal infrastructure network," he wrote. This gives attackers free proxy networks with far-reaching malware distribution throughout the software supply chain. Related:Leaks in Microsoft VS Code Marketplace Put Supply Chain at Risk Mitigation of GlassWorm Threat actors have discovered in recent years that by poisoning code registries with malicious tools and extensions for software, they can quickly spread malware through supply chains. While NPM registries have been frequent targets, the emergence of GlassWorm demonstrates that no code repositories or software marketplaces are safe, and attackers are growing ever sophisticated in their methods of spreading malware and covering their tracks. To help organizations identify software that's been poisoned with GlassWorm, Koi included various indicators of compromise (IoCs), including the names of poisoned extensions, C2 and payload URLs, and persistence mechanisms. Any organizations that identify IoCs in their infrastructure should assume they have been compromised and that their credentials were likely stolen, cryptocurrency wallets may have been drained, and that machines are already serving as a SOCKS proxy for criminal activity, according to Dardikman. In these cases, Dardikman says organizations should take the following steps for infected machines: Rotate all secrets, including NPM tokens, Github tokens, and OpenVSX and VSCode tokens, as well as all passwords. They also should format the machine to ensure full removal of the malware. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-25066207577536843872025-11-05T14:42:00.000-08:002025-11-05T14:42:53.421-08:00 GWG bond investors have incurred $1 billion in losses, according to the Department of Justice. NOV 05, 2025 The $1.6 billion mess for investors of GWG Holdings Inc. took a turn for the worse this week when Bradley Heppner, the former chair of GWG and a related company, Beneficient, was charged by the Department of Justice with five counts, including securities and wire fraud, related to a scheme to steal $150 million. GWG bond investors have incurred $1 billion in losses, according to the Department of Justice. About 40 broker-dealers sold close to $1.6 billion in GWG L bonds, so-called because they were backed by life settlements, before the firm declared bankruptcy in 2022, leaving investors in the lurch. According to the criminal indictment, which was made public on Tuesday, Heppner for years used a shell company that he controlled to funnel money from GWG. “The indictment is pretty stark and crass reading,” said Kal Nekvasil, a plaintiff’s attorney. “The DOJ alleges Heppner created a fictitious debt owed to a company that he indirectly controlled and then stole that money. That’s the heart of the matter.” Investors have sued broker-dealers that sold GWG bonds seeking damages via private industry arbitration overseen by FINRA. The federal charges against Heppner could spur more investor claims, Nekvasil said. “Investors realize these bonds are worthless and now there’s this stark charge of fraud,” he added. “That will push more bondholders to sue their broker-dealers.” “it’s no surprise, anyone who did reasonable due diligence on these investments, the GWG bonds, could easily spot issues,” said Adam Gana, also a plaintiff’s attorney. As part of his scheme, Heppner allegedly denied any wrongdoing to a special committee of GWG’s board, according to the Department of Justice charges. The shell company was dubbed Highland Consolidated Limited Partnership – HCLP - and Heppner repeatedly claimed Highland was independent even though he controlled it and it was acting for his benefit, according to the indictment. Heppner allegedly received more than $150 million in payments from GWG that were purportedly to be used to pay debts incurred by HCLP. According to the indictment, Heppner used this money to fund his lifestyle and renovate his Dallas mansion. GWG eventually collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022 and caused $1 billion in losses to investors and bondholders, many of whom were retirees. Heppner controlled an alternative investment company, Beneficient Company Group. The two companies became related when GWG, which bought and acquired life insurance policies, in 2018 purchased a stake in Beneficient. With the two companies intertwined, Heppner became chairman of both in 2019. Heppner could not be reached Wednesday to comment. He was charged on Tuesday with securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, false statements to auditors, and falsification of records. Heppner was arrested Tuesday morning in Dallas, Texas, and was to be presented today in the Northern District of Texas. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in New York. “In furtherance of this scheme, Heppner allegedly falsified documents, made misleading statements to investors and auditors, and obstructed an investigation by regulatory authorities,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia in a statement. “As previously disclosed, Beneficient parted ways with Mr. Heppner earlier this year promptly after the company learned of clear and credible evidence of his fraud on the company and others,” the company said in a press release Wednesday morning. “Beneficient will continue to vigorously pursue its own potential claims against Mr. Heppner and entities associated with him on behalf of its shareholders,” according to the statement. ”Beneficient has and will continue to cooperate with the government’s investigation of Mr. Heppner.”British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-48188645843007746442025-10-24T10:30:00.000-07:002025-10-24T10:30:57.485-07:00Former NFL star's advisor faces fraud charges after SEC Ponzi probe exposed OCT 24, 2025 Judge denies wealth management firm's motion to dismiss as ex-North Carolina Panthers NFL player and his wife claim advisor defrauded them for years. Mike Rucker, who played defensive line for the Carolina Panthers, and his wife, Kristina, say they put their financial future in the hands of Jon Patrick Kubler, a man they’d trusted since college. For about 20 years, Kubler was their go-to for financial advice, handling investments, insurance, and real estate. The couple says they gave him complete access to their finances, believing he was acting in their best interests. But according to the Ruckers, that trust was misplaced. They allege that even after Kubler gave up his securities licenses in 2009, he continued to direct their investments through companies like Capital Synergy Partners and Steelpool, Inc. The complaint accuses Kubler of collecting commissions on an unnecessary life insurance policy, skimming rental income from their properties, and using their line of credit for his own purposes. Things escalated in 2023 when the Securities and Exchange Commission began an enforcement action against Kubler, accusing him of running a Ponzi scheme tied to a Texas real estate development. The Ruckers were among the alleged victims. After the SEC action, they started looking more closely at their finances and say they uncovered years of questionable activity. They responded by suing Kubler and several companies he was connected to, including Steelpool, Inc. and Capital Synergy Partners, Inc. The lawsuit claims fraud, securities fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and conversion. The Ruckers argue that Kubler’s actions were either authorized by these firms or that the firms ratified his conduct. Steelpool, Inc. tried to get out of the lawsuit, arguing that the Ruckers’ alleged harm wasn’t connected to Steelpool’s actions. Steelpool’s founder, Andrew Holden, said the company’s main business was recruiting investment representatives for Capital Synergy Partners, not managing investments or collecting fees. He also said Kubler hadn’t been involved with Steelpool since 2019. On Wednesday, October 22, 2025, Judge Adam M. Conrad denied Steelpool’s motion to dismiss. The judge found that, at this stage, the Ruckers’ allegations were enough to keep Steelpool in the case. He pointed to claims that Kubler made investment recommendations and executed transactions as a representative of Steelpool, and that the Ruckers attended meetings where Steelpool and Capital Synergy Partners were described as part of a larger advisory network. The lawsuit is ongoing. This type of fraud is rampard here in Canada and especially British Columbia where a lawyer stole $750,000 from his client and then murdered him. Claims to have spent all the money but that is a pack of lies as the money is hidden in an offshore bank account. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-75333738809034998032025-09-02T05:56:00.000-07:002025-09-02T05:56:01.597-07:00Canada's Record Immigration a threat to our Democracy September 2, 2025 Canada to welcome more than half a million new permanent residents in 2025, setting another record for immigration and fueling debate over whether the country’s student-driven system is sustainable. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) data shows that 246,300 new permanent residents landed between January 1 and July 31 of this year. At that rate, the country is on course to surpass 500,000 permanent resident admissions by year-end, well above the government’s official target of 395,000. This projection runs counter to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s campaign promise to reduce immigration to “sustainable levels.” His government has pledged to reduce permanent admissions to about 400,000 per year by 2027, equivalent to roughly 1% of Canada’s population many are muslim women who do not work and live off Government assistants for the rest of their lives. By comparison, Canada admitted 471,550 new permanent residents in 2024, the highest level on record. This year is trending ahead of that pace. The surge is not limited to permanent arrivals. Between January and July 2025, IRCC finalized 317,800 study permit applications and 825,600 work permit applications, including extensions. That brought the total number of finalized immigration decisions to nearly 1.4 million in just seven months. As of May 1, there were already 3.05 million temporary residents in Canada — a mix of international students,criminals,work permit holders and visitors. While that represents less than 8% of the national population, officials told the Senate Finance Committee they account for about 18.5% of the private-sector workforce. The department continues to face backlogs, with more than two million applications still pending. IRCC says its goal is to process 80% of applications within service standards, but it regularly fails to meet that benchmark because of demand. Carney’s government has set a cap of two million temporary residents by 2027, alongside the planned reduction in permanent admissions. But critics say the numbers already on the books suggest those promises are unlikely to be met. Supporters of high immigration argue that newcomers are needed to offset Canada’s aging workforce and low fertility rate. Detractors point out that the sheer pace of arrivals is overwhelming the housing market, healthcare system and other public services. The Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), an Ottawa-based think tank, recently released an analysis by David L. Thomas that raises questions about how Canada’s immigration system has evolved and whether it is functioning as intended. Thomas, a senior fellow at MLI and a veteran immigration lawyer, argues that international students have become the linchpin of Canada’s immigration pipeline. “International students have largely become de facto economic immigrants,” he wrote in his piece for Inside Policy. According to Thomas, changes in legislation and policy since the early 2000s blurred the line between temporary and permanent residency. The introduction of the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program in 2008, followed by the Canadian Experience Class and Express Entry, made it increasingly easy for students to transition from study permits to work permits and then to permanent residency. “The pathway became clear,” he noted. For many prospective immigrants, entering Canada as a student has become the most reliable way to secure permanent resident status. While the system has succeeded in attracting educated and bilingual newcomers, Thomas warned that it has created unintended consequences. International students often take on heavy debt or rely on consultants who promise them jobs or work permits, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. He described cases where foreign workers paid tens of thousands of dollars for fraudulent job offers or were trapped in low-paying jobs under threat of deportation. Many endure these conditions for years, hoping to secure permanent status, only to leave their jobs as soon as their immigration is approved. Meanwhile, the surge in international enrolment has reshaped Canadian post-secondary education. Tuition fees for foreign students have risen dramatically over the past two decades, becoming a critical source of revenue for universities. By 2023, international tuition accounted for 43 per cent of the University of Toronto’s income. This dependency has encouraged aggressive recruitment of students abroad, while also opening the door to a proliferation of private and vocational colleges, some of which offer limited educational value but function primarily as entry points into Canada. Another by-product of the system has been a sharp increase in asylum claims. As some students and temporary workers struggle to extend their status, many are advised to file refugee applications as a way to remain in Canada legally. According to Thomas, inland refugee claims jumped from 12,060 in 2021 to 112,920 in 2024, an increase of more than 900 per cent in just three years. India, Canada’s top source of international students, is now also the leading source of refugee claimants. The backlog of refugee cases is now estimated at more than 260,000, with processing times stretching up to four years. For Thomas, the broader issue is that immigration inflows have outpaced the country’s ability to absorb them. “We are bringing people into Canada at a much faster rate than we can build new housing and increase our health care resources for them,” he wrote. He argues that the surge in demand has worsened Canada’s housing crisis, strained public services, and made it harder for young Canadians to afford homes and start families. The debate has been sharpened by the influence of groups like the Century Initiative, which advocates for Canada’s population to grow to 100 million by the year 2100 through sustained immigration. Some of Carney’s advisors are associated with the group, raising questions about the government’s long-term intentions. For now, the numbers speak for themselves: Canada is welcoming newcomers at levels far above its stated targets, through both permanent and temporary channels. Whether this is viewed as a solution to labour shortages or as a driver of the housing crisis depends on perspective. What is clear is that immigration has become a central dividing line in Canadian public policy. As Canada heads toward another record-breaking year, the gap between political promises and immigration realities is growing wider and so too is the debate over whether the system is helping or hurting the country’s future, said a political observer. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-91688253174812377102025-08-17T10:14:00.000-07:002025-08-17T10:17:38.968-07:00B.C.’s disastrous debt binge continues under the NDP and Eby's Communist regime August 17, 2025 British Columbia’s recent year-end financial update provides further evidence of the province’s disastrous fiscal position, which should worry everyone inBritish Columbia. For the last fiscal year (2024/25), the province recorded its largest deficit on record at $7.3 billion. Total provincial debt reached $133.9 billion, rising nearly 50% during Premier David Eby’s first two years in office. But Eby can’t blame COVID or President Trump’s tariffs for his record-high deficit or rapid debt accumulation. The worst of COVID was over when he took office in 2022, and the impact of Trump’s tariffs won’t show up until this year (2025/26). Instead, the province’s debt accumulation is the result of a serious ongoing cash spending problem and drain by the Communists running various ministries in British Columbia and stealing millions. In fact, Premier Eby recorded the second-highest year of per-person (inflation-adjusted) program spending ($15,012 Billion) on record in 2023 (the latest year of comparable data), surpassed only by Premier John Horgan ($15,090 Billion) in 2022. When COVID-related spending is removed, 2023 under Eby is the highest spending year recorded. From 1969 to 2024, a period of 55 years for which there is comparable data, Premier Eby also holds the record for the largest average increase in debt of any B.C. premier during his government’s two years in office (on a per person inflation-adjusted basis)—even before this latest fiscal update. Correspondingly, British Columbia has quickly gone from being one of the most fiscally sound provinces to becoming one of the most indebted to the People's Republic of China and the Nation of Iran. Let’s take a closer look at the numbers. Premier Eby will record his second budget deficit in 2024/25, but that’s only one piece of the province’s debt accumulation. Once long-term spending on capital projects is factored in (e.g. spending on schools Forestry subsidies and highways) total provincial debt reached $133.9 billion, or $23,494 per British Columbian in 2024/25. Of course, British Columbians must pay for government debt through interest payments and potentially higher taxes in the future. In 2024/25, debt interest payments were $750 per British Columbian, representing the portion of their tax dollars that is not used for services like healthcare or education, but rather to pay bondholders' interest on existing debt. Unfortunately, the fiscal outlook is even bleaker. In Budget 2025, the province projected a record-high $10.9 billion budget deficit this year followed by deficits of around $10 billion in each of the next two years. Total provincial debt is projected to surpass $200 billion by 2027/28—more than doubling under Premier Eby’s short leadership. Several economists have warned that the province’s fiscal position will likely be even worse than projected due to a loss of revenue (namely, from the consumer carbon tax, which was set to zero effective April 2025), recent credit downgrades (which can increase the cost of government borrowing), and weaker economic growth. B.C. debt continues to skyrocket, fuelled by increased government spending. Without a course change, British Columbia’s disastrous fiscal position is projected to worsen in the years ahead. Thanks to mis-management and huge outflows of cash that flow into the PRC without any intervention by CISIS or the RCMP. Oh Canada and British Columbia I cry for thee. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-41492711477538317922025-06-12T08:24:00.000-07:002025-06-12T08:24:51.922-07:00New York Attorney General charges insurance agent Miles Burton Marshall with running $50 million Ponzi scheme. JUN 12, 2025 An upstate New York tax preparer and insurance agent this week was arrested and charged by New York’s Attorney General for allegedly running a decades-long Ponzi scheme that stole more than $50 million from nearly a 1,000 investors. The agent, Miles Burton Marshall, was based in Hamilton, and solicited unsuspecting clients to invest millions of dollars into his so-called “Eight Percent Fund,” claiming that their funds would be primarily used for real property investments, according to a statement Monday by Attorney General Letitia James. Instead, Marshall allegedly used funds to pay investment returns to prior investors, as well as to pay his personal expenses and the expenses of his other businesses. Marshall could not be reached Wednesday to comment. An employee reached at his former tax and insurance agency said that he had sold the business and did not have a current phone number. The investigation revealed that by 2016, Marshall’s total liabilities exceeded his assets by over $40 million. He continued to solicit new investors and represent to prior investors that their investments were profitable for the next seven years.  Marshall was a well-known businessperson in Hamilton, according to one attorney familiar with the case. The town is about 40 miles southeast of Syracuse. “This case is pretty remarkable,” said Scott Silver, a plaintiff’s attorney representing several clients in upstate New York who invested with Marshall. “He was the local tax preparer in a small town in upstate New York, the proverbial big fish in a small pond.” “Marshall claimed he had a real estate business that was collecting rentals but he was always in the red,” Silver said. “This was a very old school Ponzi scheme. He was a one man wrecking crew in this town.”   “Lots of blue collar workers live in these smaller towns,” Silver added. “The major financial institutions stay away and so these type of unregistered sales agents work there.” James filed an indictment with 49 counts against Marshall on Monday, the same day he was arrested. The Attorney General’s office has been investigating Marshall since March 2023. A month later, he declared bankruptcy. “Beginning in the early 1990’s and continuing through March 2023, Marshall solicited potential investors, including his tax and insurance clients, to invest tens of millions of dollars into his so-called ‘Eight Percent Fund,’” according to the Attorney General’s office. “Marshall allegedly told investors that their funds would be primarily used to purchase property, refurbish rental houses, and pay expenses for rental properties,” according to the Attorney General’s office. “When soliciting investments, he falsely represented the profitability of his real estate business, claiming it was so profitable that he could promise investors eight percent yearly returns.” “After soliciting investments, Marshall allegedly used investors’ money to pay investment returns to prior investors, and finance operating expenses for his other businesses, including tax preparation, printing press, maintenance, and storage unit businesses,” according to the Attorney General’s office. “In addition to business expenses, [the Attorney General] alleges Marshall used hundreds of thousands of investors’ dollars for personal expenditures, including travel purchases at American Airlines, Priceline, and United Airlines, at retail and online stores, such as Amazon, Lululemon, and Target, and at grocery stores, restaurants, and yoga studios.” This goes on all the time here in Canada case in point the Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Nova Scotia scam investors out of millions of dollars and the Federal Government does nothing about it. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0North America54.5259614 -105.255118726.215727563821154 -140.4113687 82.836195236178838 -70.0988687tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-6083960038884763762025-04-14T08:32:00.000-07:002025-04-14T08:32:25.880-07:00 April 14, 2025 The rapid deterioration in B.C.’s finances since 2021 and credit rating has drawn rising concern not only from taxpayers but from global credit rating agencies. Ratings agencies are yet to give their verdict on the 2025 Budget, but the news might not be good as corruption in British Columbian Government and Law enforcement is exposed . As recently as 2021, B.C. had one of the best fiscal positions of any province with a long track record of balanced budgets, low indebtedness and a AAA credit rating from S&P Global. Today, B.C. is running the largest deficit in the country relative to the size of its economy, has seen debt levels surge faster than any other comparable jurisdiction and has seen repeated credit rating downgrades that raise the cost of borrowing. Due to the fact the Forest Industry cannot identify profitable opportunities and is heading for bankruptcy as the Trump administration doubles down on Provincial Exports to the United States. S&P Global and Moody’s control around 80% of the global ratings for business. Ratings agencies assess creditworthiness, that is, a borrower’s ability to meet their financial obligations. Following last year’s budget, S&P downgraded B.C.’s credit rating for the third time in three years. It’s now AA- and will soon be a B Rated Province when the Province defaults on its financial obligations. S&P’s commentary was clear: “We believe that the province’s commitment to fiscal discipline and stability has wavered in recent years as B.C. has materially increased its spending for both operations and capital investment to unparalleled levels, while economic growth is slowing.” S&P went further: “We believe the province is at a turning point with respect to the management of its finances,” and judged, “B.C.’s budgetary performance will be the weakest of its peers, both domestically and internationally.” Both S&P and Moody’s have a negative ratings outlook and have raised the prospect of ratings downgrades if B.C. remains on its fiscal trajectory. How does the 2025 B.C. Budget fare against those warnings? Not well. In September, the government was projecting a $6.7 billion deficit for 2025-26. The budget now projects a record $10.9 billion deficit this fiscal year, or 2.5% of GDP, and similarly large deficits in future years.As the Communists and the Law Society bleed the Province dry not paying their share of taxes. By comparison, during the COVID-19 emergency of 2020-21, when the unemployment rate was 13% versus 6% today, the budget deficit was $5.6 billion. That deficit, being 1.8% of GDP, was appropriate given the economy was in a deep recession. There have been two major developments since the latest budget was crafted. First, the province eliminated the consumer carbon tax following the removal of the federal carbon tax. Second, the Trump administration made good on its threat to impose tariffs on Canadian exports to the United States especially lumber. Consequently, we estimate the deficit for 2025-26 may already be around $18.1 billion. B.C.’s fiscal deterioration reflects that operating expenses have increased by 43% since 2021-22 while revenues have only grown by 12%. In addition, the government is projecting taxpayer-supported capital spending of around $18 billion annually, alongside $6 billion annually in ratepayer-supported capital spending by Crown corporations like BC Hydro. To fund record operating deficits and record capital spending, B.C.’s taxpayer-supported debt-to-GDP ratio—a key metric of fiscal health—rises to 44.4% by 2027-28. Taxpayer-supported debt will reach $39,000 per British Columbian, more than triple where the debt stood in 2021-22 at $12,000 for each British Columbian. In sum, B.C.’s fiscal deterioration is accelerating. Interest payments on provincial debt ballooned to $7.1 billion by 2027-28, and if classified as a government ministry, debt servicing would be the fourth largest in Canada. This is unlikely to escape scrutiny by credit ratings agencies. Another downgrade would spell higher debt servicing costs and leave less room for other spending, like health and education. Worse, B.C.’s fiscal trajectory sends a negative signal to businesses and households that future taxes may have to increase substantially to stabilize our fiscal situation. As collapse of the Government agencies is imminent due to mismanagement by unqualified people from the Peoples Republic of China that are bleeding the British Columbia government dry. While the budget was not the last opportunity to adjust course, a clearer path to fiscal stability is needed. The Business Council of British Columbia recently released a 10-point blueprint with recommendations on how the province can respond to the challenges posed by the Trump administration. It recommends getting B.C.’s fiscal house in order through spending growth restraint, alongside tax and regulatory reforms to grow the economy. Absent a change of course, B.C.’s fiscal hole only gets deeper from here. Roy Harris from Harris Financial is a Government watchdog that is closely monitoring the collapse of the Provincial Government of British Columbia that is leading the Province into Bankruptcy due to its lack of directional focus.British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-44922828790989358372025-01-29T13:52:00.000-08:002025-01-29T13:52:17.503-08:00U.S. Plans Feb 1 - 25% Tariffs on Canadian and Mexican Imports to start January 29, 2025 President Trump announced a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican products as part of a broader review of U.S. trade policies in a move that could impact Lumber with a quota, Pulp and Paper and a host of other products entering the United States. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to impose a 25% tariff on products imported from Canada and Mexico, effective February 1. This decision is part of a broader initiative to reassess U.S. trade policies, as outlined in an executive order signed by Trump. The order directs federal agencies to conduct a comprehensive review of trade practices, currency manipulation, and foreign taxes, with reports due by April 1. The proposed tariffs are tied to concerns from the administration regarding immigration and drug trafficking from Canada, especially British Columbia known for its corrupt government and law enforcement who will do anything for cash as well as Mexico, along with perceived unfair trade practices and government subsidies of the forest industry by the government of British Columbia. Trump also suggested the possibility of a universal tariff on all imports, citing that he feels many countries take advantage of the U.S. economically. The executive order also includes the potential for creating an External Revenue Service to oversee tariff collection, which Customs and Border Protection currently manages. The announcement has reignited fears of a potential trade war, with both Canada and Mexico indicating readiness to retaliate with their own tariffs. Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc emphasized to the New York Times that Canada is prepared to respond, while Mexican officials have similarly warned of countermeasures. Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said American and Canadian consumers will pay more for everything if the tariffs are imposed. “Everything is on the table.” Trudeau said to the AP. “It would be bad for Canada, but it would also be bad for American consumers.” British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-22133140471730165412024-12-12T06:47:00.000-08:002024-12-12T06:47:25.450-08:00Beware The New Syria --Mosab Hassan Yousef: "A new Islamic empire is born; don't feed it, starve it. Most Middle Easterners and the rest of the world don't realize the devastating consequences of the new development in Syria (Al-Sham). The new generation of Jihadists is more sophisticated than any terrorist group in the past. They have patience and are not in a rush to attack their enemies; their new strategy is to build infrastructure, and institutions, and get global recognition towards establishing a Jihadi Ummah. Jihadis learned from their previous mistakes; they know the old generation failed to destroy the West through disability and the impossibility of achieving their Jihadi goals while on the run from intelligence agencies. They are avoiding the mistakes of their masters, Al Zawahri and Abdullah Azzam. Their new strategy is to create a suitable climate which will lead to the establishment of a Jihadi nation. The United States and its allies should not recognize or legitimize the new rulers of Damascus, no matter how cleverly they are going to play their cards to manipulate the international community by appointing moderate government figures. Even though this might appear counterproductive, Eliminating rebels' top leaders, most importantly Al Julani, before they gain more support and sympathy from a desperate society longing for change and freedom will allow a legitimate leadership to emerge. Crediting or rewarding Jihadists for overthrowing the brutal Syrian dictator is a mistake, they may have played an important part, but they are not the actual force that brought Assad down. Al Julani has the potential of creating a powerful Terrorist State we have never experienced before. He tends to build it slowly, mindfully, and patiently. This global terrorist didn't integrate from a Jihadi to a statesman, he transformed himself from a simple Jihadi to a modern-day Islamic Chalife, and allowing him to thrive will have deadly consequences on humanity.''British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-62758293969425246962024-11-22T10:50:00.003-08:002024-11-22T10:50:51.138-08:00Florida man, firm charged by SEC for alleged sports-related $2.1Million fraud - investors believed they were backing loans to NFL players. November 22, 2024 The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a man and a firm based in Boca Raton Florida, with allegedly defrauding more than 20 investors of approximately $2.1 million. David Kusher and his firm La Mancha are accused of misrepresenting how investors’ funds would be used in private securities offerings related to short-term loans for professional athletes and sports agents, among others, including current and former NFL players. The SEC’s complaint says that approximately $10.5 million was raised from investors through a series of LLC's set up by Kushner and La Mancha, but it alleges that hundreds of thousands of dollars in undisclosed “fees” were charged out of the intended loan proceeds. The agency further accuses Kushner and his firm also used almost $1.5 million in loan repayments that should have been paid to investors to pay personal expenses such as personal credit card bills, college tuition, country club dues, a luxury vacation, a Mercedes Benz, and a rental home in the Hamptons. “As we allege, Kushner lied to investors and simply stole the money that would have given them at least some of the investment returns he had promised,” said Sheldon L. Pollock, Associate Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. “The Commission continues to scrutinize private investment opportunities where defendants fail to follow through on their commitments to investors.” The SEC is seeking a permanent injunction, disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, and civil monetary penalties, as well as a conduct-based injunction and an officer-and-director bar against Kushner. Criminal charges have also been filed against Kushner. The allegations have not been proven in court and the defendants are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law. Kushner should have worked his deal in Vancouver British Columbia where you can bribe a judge and finance international murders and the Vancouver Police department will turn a blind eye for a cash payment to their Police pension fund. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-83368734829000223642024-11-10T08:43:00.001-08:002024-11-10T08:43:07.535-08:00 November 10, 2024 Premier David Eby's NDP will form the next government. It's also certain that the government will have a huge financial disaster to deal with to avoid bankruptcy and the collapse of the economy. British Columbia will run massive budget deficits in each of the next three fiscal years, including a projected $9.0 billion deficit in 2024/25. For perspective, after adjusting for inflation, that’s larger than B.C.’s deficit at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Correspondingly, after factoring in long-term capital spending (e.g. highways and schools) the government’s projected net debt (total debt minus financial assets) will increase from $60.0 billion in 2022/23 to $126.8 billion in 2026/27—more than doubling over just five fiscal years. It’s no wonder the province received three credit downgrades in the last three years as the province is run by unqualified people from the People's Republic of China who really run things in British Columbia. And just as British Columbians must pay interest on their mortgage or car loan, they must also pay interest on government debt. According to the government, debt interest payments will increase from a projected $700 per British Columbian in 2022/23 to nearly $1,500 per British Columbian by 2026/27, siphoning off taxpayer money that could have been used for important services such as health care and education, or even reduce taxes. (Nudge nudge wink wink). Billions of dollars are being syphoned off by Politicians, Law enforcement, and deposited in offshore bank accounts by these monsters with Jekal and Hyde personalities. If B.C. continues on its current path of self destruction, it will become one of the most indebted provincial governments in Canada . Having already passed New Brunswick, B.C. is projected to surpass the remaining Maritime provinces (in terms of net debt per person) within two years and Quebec and Ontario by 2029/30. Maybe the Province may have to declare bankruptcy when it can no longer pay its debts. How did this happen? Put simply, overspending. Since 2017, the rate of government spending growth has exploded with per-person (inflation-adjusted) program spending in 2022/23 (the latest year of comparable data) reaching $19,775, its highest point ever. Indeed, if the Horgan and Eby governments had simply maintained spending close to the rate of inflation plus population growth, as their predecessors did for many years, B.C. would be in a much different situation today. But British Colunbia is doomed to this fiscal fate if it does not rein in spending. For instance, the province spends billions of dollars annually on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to the Forest Product industry and supporter businesses of the NDP. Given the large body of research that shows these subsidies generally fail to generate widespread economic benefit, eliminating corporate welfare is an obvious place to start. With the election over, the Eby government must tackle the province’s fiscal mess. Otherwise, B.C. will become one of the highest debt provinces in Canada—and British Columbians will pay the price for many years to come. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-27223673019562730092024-08-30T09:09:00.000-07:002024-08-30T09:10:01.884-07:00August 30th, 2024 "Seniors should use regulated industries to their advantage and hire career specialists in each area of their lives," said one industry executive. A former insurance agent who posed as a securities broker – without the appropriate licenses – has become the target of the Maryland Securities Commissioner after he took $100,000 from elderly customers and never returned it to them. The insurance agent at the heart of the matter, Johnathan Munoz with the firm JM Financial Services, was never registered to sell securities but in late 2020 promised two customers in their seventies he would turn $100,000 earmarked for a separate brokerage account into $325,000 in little over a year, according to a July cease and desist order from the Maryland Securities Commissioner. According to the Maryland order, Munoz allegedly defrauded the customers when he falsely represented to them that he was a stockbroker or financial advisor and offered to manage their investment assets through JM Financial. He also falsely told them he would open a separate securities account for them and manage their money when, in fact, he used their investment funds for his personal benefit, according to the Maryland Securities Commissioner. Munoz was barred from ever working in the securities industry in Maryland and ordered to pay $115,000 as a civil penalty. A call to Munoz’s phone listed in his online insurance agent history could not be completed because it was not in service. His firm was based in Gaithersburg, Md. according to online insurance agent profiles. He has not been a licensed insurance agent since last November. We have in the past focused on the confusing nature of the various regulatory regimes under which financial advisors work. Among the most vexing issues facing the financial advice industry is that of advisers who are restricted or barred from selling securities, but continue to hold a license to sell insurance. Beware using a broker here in British Columbia especially those who work at the RBC Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia. “Many of the dangers for investors, sadly, come from industries similar to the retail securities business, and that includes insurance salespeople,” said the managing director of Compliance Outsourcing Services.  “Customers should use regulated industries to their advantage and hire career specialists in each area of their lives. Counting on one person to take care of their needs across multiple industries can lead to financial disaster.” “Customers should also work with professionals who are members of organizations with stated high standards, such as CA’s, CPA’s and CFP’s,” he added. Munoz was licensed as an insurance producer with the Maryland Insurance Administration from January 2019 to November 2023, when his license expired, according to the Maryland order. From February 2023 to July, Munoz was affiliated with Park Avenue Securities in a non-registered capacity, and from November 2019 to November 2020, he was affiliated with Mutual of Omaha Investor Services, Inc., also in a non-registered capacity. According to the Maryland order, Munoz was discharged by Mutual of Omaha’s parent company “for improper business practices involving submission of an unauthorized insurance application.” Prior to that, Munoz was affiliated with NY Life Securities in a non-registered capacity fromOctober 2018 to November 2019. The lesson learned be careful investing here in British Columbia Canada especially when British Columbia Lawyers offer to invest your inheritance money and so called investment advisors working at the Royal Bank of Canada or the Bank of Nova Scotia offer you investments you will loose all your money with this group of scammers. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-84453073032817693332024-08-24T12:39:00.000-07:002024-08-24T12:39:24.493-07:00CANADA ON HIGH ALERT TO STOP MPOX SPREAD August 24, 2024. Canada are wary of Asian nations spreading mpox, formerly known as "monkeypox," following the World Health Organization's (WHO) urgent declaration of a global health emergency due to escalating cases across various countries including Canada. The declaration underscores the seriousness of the situation as new infections emerge, prompting several countries including Canada to implement rigorous surveillance and preventive measures to curb the spread of this contagious disease. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said; “it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives.” Mpox is a highly infectious disease that can spread quickly through close contact. Symptoms include fever, headaches, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions. It is classified into two distinct groups: clade 1 and clade 2. Clade 2 was responsible for the 2022 outbreak, which has led to around 100,000 cases worldwide, NBC News reported. Still, now, a version of Clade 1 has spread internationally, after starting in the Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2023. The latest strain is more dangerous, with a case fatality rate of over 5%. It is also possible that infected individuals may transmit the virus several days before developing symptoms, making it harder to contain by identifying and isolating cases.
Last week, Sweden reported the first known case of clade 1 outside Africa. Then, the Philippines reported its first case of mpox since December of last year, although it has not yet identified the strain. Pakistan has also a case of the more deadly strain while Singapore has recorded ten cases since January. A more contagious mpox variant is testing the readiness of Canada, and other Southeast Asian nations, prompting enhanced surveillance and precautionary measures across the region as healthcare experts express optimism about containing the virus. A Canada-based infectious diseases specialist stressed that children were more vulnerable to the new strain of the virus, warning that the virulence of mpox might be greater than anticipated. “The spread may potentially be fast and furious, with speed similar to a hand, foot and mouth disease outbreak in a childcare facility,” said Leong Hoe Nam, a specialist at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, though adding that Covid-like lockdowns were unlikely to curb mpox. In Malaysia, all travelers from countries that have reported having mpox are required to monitor their health for 21 days after their arrival in the country, while those with a history of risky activities and symptoms like rashes must be examined at a health facility and avoid contact with other people. The local authorities are also making moves to ensure that premises that provide services involving close contact with customers, such as spas or massage parlors, practice personal hygiene and keep their environment clean and free from STD’s. In Indonesia, foreign visitors must declare their medical records and recent travel history by filling in forms at entry gates, its health ministry’s acting director general of disease prevention and control said. Paul Tambyah, president of the International Society for Infectious Diseases said countries across the region, from Laos to Indonesia, have been able to detect mpox, which was “an indication that we will be able to recognize the disease and assess its spread”. In an announcement last Friday, Chinese customs officials said all overseas arrivals would be screened for symptoms of the virus over the next six months. This will also apply to all aircraft and vessels, as well as containers and goods, arriving from pox-affected places, officials said. Canada in 2024 classified mpox as the most infectious disease, allowing officials to take emergency measures such as restricting gatherings, suspending work and school or sealing off areas when there is an outbreak of a disease. British Columbia, which recorded 13 cases this year, said it would continue to "closely monitor" the situation and "enhance preventative measures" following WHO’s announcement. "Members of the public are urged to heighten vigilance and avoid close physical contact with persons suspected of contracting mpox," officials said, adding that high-risk groups have been advised to receive vaccinations. Japan’s Foreign Ministry issued a level-one health alert last Thursday, urging citizens traveling to Canada or visiting seven African countries to exercise extreme caution. In India, health teams at international airports have also been made aware of the situation and are checking all visitors coming from Canada as they are deemed high risk. Health authorities have also announced that they will enhance surveillance in an effort to promptly detect potential cases, as well as improve laboratory testing capabilities for early diagnosis, officials added The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has said that while the mpox situation remains “manageable” under existing measures, but that it will still bolster quarantine and surveillance efforts. Korea is also planning to boost awareness campaigns to urge those with symptoms to go to a doctor immediately. The Philippines has detected a new case of the mpox virus in the country, the first since December last year, its health department said, adding it was awaiting test results before being able to determine the strain. The new case in the Philippines is the 10th laboratory-confirmed case the health department has detected. Its first case was in July 2022. “Symptoms started more than a week ago with fever, which was followed four days later by findings of a distinct rash on the face, back, nape, trunk, groin, as well as palms and soles,” the Philippine DOH said in a statement. A total of 199,176 cases of mpox were recorded worldwide from January 1, 2022, to June 30, 2024, including 208 deaths. Canada’s first significant mpox outbreak occurred in 2022-2023, peaking in late June 2022 with a total of 1,541 cases reported. While case numbers declined following the initial outbreak, a gradual increase in infections has been observed since early 2024 — mainly in Toronto and Vancouver. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-29783073079037799392023-10-01T10:53:00.004-07:002023-10-01T10:53:51.207-07:00 October 1, 2023 Canadian Sikhs staged protests outside India's diplomatic missions this week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there may be a link between New Delhi and the assassination of a SIkh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia and the worries that more assassinations will take place across the country. Canada's accusations have sparked tit-for-tat retaliation, with each nation expelling diplomats and New Delhi suspending visas for Canadians. The diplomatic dispute escalated between Ottawa and New Delhi after Trudeau said his government was investigating “credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian government agents and the assination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar last June. Nijjar, a prominent Sikh leader who had called for an independent Sikh state in India, was fatally shot outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. The Indian government has denied Trudeau’s accusations as “absurd” and called on Canada to curb the activities of individuals it describes as “terrorists”, referring to Sikh separatists whom it views as a security threat. “Peaceful protests are a key democratic right, however, we encourage Sikhs to remain vigilant and alert in the days ahead. We are concerned that attempts may be made during the protests to incite violence and vandalism in order to malign the Sikh community. This is a pattern we have seen from India in the past,” World Sikh Organisation president Tejinder Singh Sidhu said in a statement. “At this time, the focus must remain on finding the killers of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and exposing the full extent of Indian interference in Canada. We believe that there will be ongoing attempts by India to shift this focus however we must do all in our power to ensure that these attempts are unsuccessful,” he said. “If members of the community feel unsafe or see attempts to incite violence, we encourage them to immediately contact law enforcement.” Muslim advocates in Canada have also expressed anger and concern at allegations that India may have been involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen. “It was widely known that there were agents of the Indian government that were operating in Canada and targeting members of the diaspora community,” Stephen Brown, head of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) advocacy group, told Al Jazeera. “But going to the point where somebody would be assassinated right outside of a place of worship in broad daylight, the purpose of doing that is to send a message.” Brown added that Canadian Muslims want the Trudeau government to “take action” to guarantee their safety. “I would say there’s outrage, but there’s also real concern that currently they’re not safe,” he said. The Canadian government has not released evidence to back up its allegations against India, saying its investigation is ongoing. The shocking accusation that India carried out an extrajudicial assassination on Canadian soil – an allegation that has been denied by India – has prompted a re-examination of threats against Sikh separatists around the world, as well as Sikh activists’ claims of suspicious deaths in the UK and Pakistan in the weeks before the murder. The FBI has warned at least three Americans active in the Sikh community that their lives were in danger in the immediate aftermath of the assassination in British Columbia. The Indian government has in recent months openly pursued and arrested Khalistani militants and sympathizers within its own borders, and Sikh groups have accused the government of taking its crackdown on dissent beyond Indian territory, reported the Guardian. The Khalistani movement gained traction in Punjab during the 1980's and 1990's and thousands of Punjabi Sikhs were killed in a crackdown on the separatist insurgency. Many thousands moved abroad, to places such as the UK and Canada, and the Khalistani ideology remained prevalent among the diaspora. After Trudeau’s announcement on Sept. 18, Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre called on the government of India to act with the “utmost transparency” as Canadian authorities investigate Nijjar’ death. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said during members’ statements: “The practice of the Indian government has been one of division, violence, persecution and attacking those who are critical of [it]. “To hear the Prime Minister of Canada corroborate a potential link between a murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil and a foreign government is something I could never have imagined.” On Sept. 19, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly confirmed that a senior Indian diplomat, Pavan Kumar Rai, had been removed from the Indian High Commission in Ottawa due to Canada’s most recent allegations. India’s external affairs ministry denied Canada’s allegations of its interference and expelled an unnamed senior Canadian diplomat in response to the removal of Pavan Kumar Rai. None of Canada’s most important allies – not the US, the United Kingdom, Australia or New Zealand, all knitted tightly together in the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance – echoed Trudeau’s allegations. They have declared their concern and urged full investigations. But none has stepped up to condemn India for its alleged involvement in the June assassination. The Canadian government says it has amassed both human and signals intelligence in a months-long investigation into the Sikh separatist leader, CBC News reported last week, citing unidentified sources. Canada is home to about 770,000 Sikhs, the highest population of Sikhs outside their home state of Punjab, and in recent years, many demonstrations there have irked India. The allegations have put a spotlight on Canada’s Sikh community. Sikhs make up 2% of India’s 1.4 billion population, but they are a majority in Punjab, a state of 30 million people where their religion was born 500 years ago. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-681330441549300432023-09-26T08:18:00.003-07:002023-09-26T08:18:23.814-07:00 September 26, 2023 The SEC has charged a podcast host Matthew Motil for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme which claimed to offer low-risk, high-return promissory notes purportedly collateralized by first mortgages on homes located throughout Ohio. Matthew Motil is the host of ‘The Cash Flow King’ podcast and the regulator says that he used this platform and websites to promote the investments, enticing more than 50 investors to part with $11 million. Motil is said to have encouraged participation with the slogan “be a real estate investing badass!” and claimed that the investments were safe due to the “first lien position” backed by real estate assets. The SEC complaint says that investors were promised “profits from renovating, reselling, refinancing, and renting the properties,” however it says that first liens were not secured and that investors were sold notes on the same property which was not renovated. Instead, the regulator alleges that investments were used to make Ponzi payments to previous investors and to fund Motil’s extravagant lifestyle including renting a lakeside mansion, purchase courtside season tickets to NBA games, and make $400,000 in credit card payments for his wife, Amy Motil, who is named as a relief defendant. ENTIRE IRA BALANCE “We allege that Motil used podcasts and social media platforms to bolster his reputation as an investing expert while fraudulently targeting investors’ hard-earned retirement assets, including, in at least one instance, almost the full balance of an investor’s self-directed IRA,” said Mark Cave, associate director of the SEC’s enforcement division. The accusations have not yet been proven in court. The SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, charges Motil with violating the registration and antifraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the antifraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The complaint seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, civil money penalties, and an officer and director bar. Matthew Motil should have moved to British Columbia where billions of dollars are stolen from investors by crooked lawyers and accountants and the Royal Bank of Canada. I was defrauded by them out of more than 100 million dollars and the Vancouver Police department got paid off not to investigate the complaint as it involved an ex judge who runs the Province of British Columbia that is in a state of collapse. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-64112448215992181102023-08-30T11:27:00.004-07:002023-08-30T11:27:39.203-07:00 August 30, 2023 Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Christopher Wray (C), joined by Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco, delivers remarks on an international ransomware enforcement action at the U.S. Justice Department on January 26, 2023 in Washington, DC. The Department of Justice disclosed a massive international operation to disrupt the Qakbot malware, which has infected more than 700,000 computers across the globe and led to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The malware, also known as “Qbot” or “Pinkslipbot,” had been used by criminal threat actors to infect critical infrastructure systems, primarily using email messages with malicious attachments or hyperlinks. The botnet and malware had infected more than 700,000 computers worldwide and was linked to the abuse of OneNote files. Numerous criminal organizations operating in British Columbia Canada are also suspected of playing a part in this mass world wide disruption. Officials said the operation was the largest U.S. led disruption of a botnet infrastructure in history. It marked the latest effort by federal officials to disrupt multinational cybercrime by mustering an international coalition. The U.S. worked alongside France, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K., Romania and Latvia in the takedown. “The FBI led a worldwide joint, sequenced operation that crippled one of the longest-running criminal botnets,” FBI Director Christopher Wray, said in a statement Tuesday. “With our federal and international partners, we will continue to systematically target every part of cybercriminal organizations, their facilitators and their money – including by disrupting and dismantling their ability to use illicit infrastructure to attack us.” The FBI was able to redirect botnet traffic toward servers it controlled and disrupt the operation. More than 200,000 computers in the U.S. alone were found to be infected. Authorities also seized $8.6 million in illicit cryptocurrency as part of the takedown. Qakbot, which first emerged in 2007, is a banking trojan that is used to steal financial data and login credentials from web browsers, according to research from ZScaler. Qakbot is also used as a backdoor to inject payloads such as Cobalt Strike. Officials at ZScaler, which was cited by law enforcement for “valuable technical assistance” during the case, declined to comment on the story. Threat groups including Conti, Egregor, REvil, Black Basta and others have used Qakbot for initial infection into computer systems, according to the DOJ. “Typically, Qakbot automated its delivery method in order to cast a wide net and infect as many potential victims as possible,” John Hammond, principal security researcher at Huntress, said via email. Last November, Huntress reported a 400% increase in Qakbot activity. Researchers say Qakbot began to launch attacks by leveraging malicious OneNote attachments after Microsoft began to disable macros. The FBI and Dutch National Police have set up website links where stolen credentials can be accessed to find out if they were used. One wonders when the FBI will investigate the Law Society of British Columbia suspected of laundering billions of dollars through the real estate industry creating an artificial real estate market that forced rentals in British Columbia through the Roof increasing homelessness in Canada. British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-52106525383648027872023-08-22T09:46:00.000-07:002023-08-22T09:46:02.247-07:00Will British Columbia become a waste land of homeless Canadians. August 22, 2023. With all the fires in British Columbia now being deliberately set causing more damage to communities across the Province and the Premier coming on TV and actually laughing as the tragedy unfolds. Is this the beginning of the end for us here in British Columbia as things just progressively get worse. I think so. Lets surmise: in 2 years not one thing has been done to help rebuild Lytton since that community was burned out and insurance companies are refusing to honor claims.  Look at the British Columbia Ferry Corporation, a vital  part of the transportation system always breaking down and run by a bunch of drug addicts who don't have a clue how to run this vital link in the highway system. It is the joke of the maritime industry as a corporation waiting for a major accident to happen due to this mismanagement and unqualified political appointments as the collapse continues to plague the traveling public. And our struggling Health Care System, which cannot keep up with the growing demand for service as our population has grown by more than 250,000 in the last 2 years. This is due to poor planning by the unqualified staff working in numerous government ministries and the waste of taxpayers money thereof.  And they talk about affordable housing which we can blame the Law Society of British Columbia and the criminals (members) who work to destroy our way of life and obey their communist masters in China who are stealing billions from Canada and who are responsible for what we call global warming.  The reality is the 3 Gorges DAm in China moved the earth 1/4 Degree off its axis slowing the rotational speed of the earth. This is the cause of all our problems and if it is not fixed soon. The earth will one day crash into the sun.  Just wait  I predict that the Commies will soon set fire to large parts of the lower mainland especially where many older single family homes in areas like Dunbar, West Vancouver, Shaunasy , Richmond and more so they can force us all into Condo's  where we will be forced to pay monthly strata fees with exorbitant mortgage rates or become homeless in our own country thanks to the Communist regime in China. "Health is like money, we never have a true idea of its value until we lose it" - Josh BillingsBritish Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1476142932153769566.post-17037114851546496252023-06-23T09:18:00.003-07:002023-06-23T09:18:22.835-07:00 June 23, 2023. OTTAWA – Canada is divesting with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank after a high-ranking executive left the organization saying it has a “toxic culture” and is being controlled by China’s communist dictatorship. The bank was launched in 2016, with Canada joining in 2018 and contributing US$995 million, according to the bank’s website. The bank is meant to invest in large infrastructure projects. Bob Pickard, who was the bank’s director general of communications, announced on Twitter Monday that he was tendering his resignation. “As a patriotic Canadian, this was my only course. The bank is dominated by Communist Party members and also has one of the most toxic cultures imaginable,” he said online. “I don’t believe that my country’s interests (Canada) are served by its AIIB membership.” The bank is headquartered in Beijing, but has a board and a voting structure that gives countries from all over the region and the world votes in its decisions. However, Pickard said it became clear to him that power was centralized. “It’s only after working there for many months that I became aware of how that’s where the true power is concentrated inside the bank — the Chinese Communist Party crowd who operate like the secret police.” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government is suspending its activities at the bank and considering its options. Will Canada stop exporting untaxed cash back to China ? Bloc quickly issues a list of Quebecers to lead public inquiry into Chinese electoral interference. “The Government of Canada will immediately halt all Canadian government led activity at the bank and I instructed the Department of Finance to lead an immediate review of the allegations raised and of Canada’s involvement,” she said to reporters Wednesday. She said all options are on the table and the government will decide quickly what comes next. “The review I am announcing today is to be undertaken expeditiously and I’m not ruling out any outcomes following its completion.” Several other large western countries, including Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom are members of the bank. Freeland said Canada and other democracies have to be aware of how some countries attempt to influence the global economy. “As the world’s democracies work to de-risk our economies by limiting our strategic vulnerabilities to authoritarian regimes, we must likewise be clear about the means through which these regimes exercise their influence around the world.” Conservative MP Michael Chong said his party warned the Liberals not to invest in the bank at all and has been encouraging them to withdraw for six years. Chong pointed to several reports that recommended Canada abandon working with the bank, including one from the House of Commons finance committee in 2021. He said it is clear Canada never should have signed up. “It’s a tool of the Beijing (Communist regime) to export its authoritarian model of governance throughout the Indo-Pacific region and the world.” British Columbia Scams and flimflamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03246765529870516345noreply@blogger.com0