Barely a week after FBI and IRS agents raided her two homes, office at city hall and a non-profit belonging to a friend, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh’s lawyer said Thursday that his client would resign, making her the second Baltimore mayor to leave office under a cloud of corruption in the past decade.
Pugh, who has been on a leave of absence since April 1, the same day that Gov. Larry Hogan said he would call for a criminal investigation into allegations of self-dealing, reportedly tried to make a run for it after the raids. Shortly beforehand, members of the city council signed a letter asking her to resign.
According to the Washington Post, Pugh’s resignation brings her more than two-decade career in politics to an end. Her candidacy for mayor was championed by Elijah Cummings (yes, that Elijah Cummings) one of Maryland’s most influential politicians, and she initially triumphed in a hotly contested primary as the city reeled from the aftermath of the Freddie Gray riots.
A scandal erupted in March when the Baltimore Sun revealed that Pugh, who sat on the board of the University of Maryland Hospital System, was paid half a million dollars for 100,000 copies of her “Healthy Holly” children’s books (there’s suspicion that half of these books were never even delivered, yet Pugh was paid in full).
But more galling, Pugh was also paid $100,000 by Kaiser Permanente, the managed care consortium that was in the process of securing a $48 million contract with the city.
Her departure will usher in another era of political instability in a city that’s struggle with high levels of violent crime and deep mistrust of the police following the Gray killing and several other corruption scandals.
Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, 64, who has been serving as acting mayor in Pugh’s absence, will replace Pugh at the helm of city government until next year’s election, where he said he would not seek another term.
Utilizing language favored by President Trump, Pugh initially derided the “Healthy Holly” scandal as a “Witch Hunt” before issuing a public apology.
Though facing potential criminal charges, Pugh’s position as mayor was relatively secure: According to the city charter, there is no way for the council or the governor to remove her from office.
Which suggests to us that she got the tap from prosecutors that they wanted her to resign as the investigation ramps up.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2Y7MsFf Tyler Durden
Chips, candy, and carbonated beverages may soon be off the list of for food stamper recipients…
In the ongoing battle to reorganize a federal welfare program, the state of Texas is considering a bill that would prohibit people on the taxpayer-funded Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Plan (SNAP) from purchasing junk food, including caffeinated beverages, candy, cookies, and some types of salty snacks.
State Representative Briscoe Cain (R-Baytown) is the man behind HB 4364 – the latest attempt to force benefit recipients to make healthier food choices.
Mr. Cain made his intentions clear:
“At-risk Texans and families who utilize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are often the most susceptible to diabetes and the serious complications associated with it. HB 4364 seeks to curb the spread of diabetes and other health complications among Texans in at-risk populations by eliminating sugary drinks and snacks from the state’s nutrition assistance program.”
The bill is specific in outlining the types of consumables Cain believes are detrimental to the health of his fellow Texans. For example, any beverage that “contains 65 milligrams of caffeine per eight fluid ounces, a carbonated beverage, a sweetened beverage,” and what may be considered sacrilege in the Lone Star state, “potato or corn chips.” How will folks scoop up salsa, pico de gallo, and guacamole without corn chips?
There is good news for Texans currently depending on food stamps – coffee and naturally sweetened juice drinks are exempt from the proposed law.
It sounds like a solid, well researched plan — but will it pass through both chambers and land on Governor Greg Abbot’s desk for signature?
Unsuccessful Attempts
A similar proposal was narrowly rejected by the Arkansas state House of Representatives in a 31-29 vote earlier in the year. It was the second attempt in as many years and made it to the Senate, where it stalled and was left dead on the chamber floor.
The United States Department of Agriculture recently released a report on what recipients spend their monthly benefits on, and it paints an unhealthy picture with point of sale tallies showing 23 cents of every food-stamp dollar spent on processed food – terrible nutrition. Leading the junk food pack was the purchase of sugary, carbonated beverages, with the only other category in which more money was spent being “meat, poultry, and seafood.”
But the study also compared the purchasing habits of non-SNAP beneficiaries and found that most Americans are steering into the skid of obesity, heart problems, diabetes, and ongoing health crisis – with our without food stamps.
SNAP’s Love Affair With Diabetes And Obesity
Cindy Leung, a nutrition researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, is warning of the alarming connections between SNAP recipients and obesity. She found that “SNAP participants had double the odds of obesity compared to eligible non-participants.”
Leung also concludes that “The diets of low-income children are far from meeting national dietary recommendations. Policy changes should be considered to restructure SNAP to improve children’s health.”
Mr. Cain knows nearly 3 million people have diabetes in Texas and type 2 diabetes is directly linked to poor nutritional choices and obesity. The cost to treat Texans with the disease is estimated at $23.7 billion every year as serious complications like heart disease, stroke, amputation, end-stage kidney disease, and blindness are part and parcel with Diabetes progression.
It is the Texas legislator’s goal to rein in expenditures through SNAP to healthier, nutritionally balanced choices. If the bill does get the nod from Texas lawmakers, it still must be approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture – and you can bet on salty snack and soda pop lobbyists lurking around in the Swamp are going to pull out all the stops to keep that from happening.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2Y23Nzi Tyler Durden
Paige Spear is a paramedical tattooist in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where she helps her customers use tattoo art to camouflage scars and vitiligo, and recreate areolas and nipples for customers who have undergone mastectomies. Spear isn’t performing medicine and she and her clients both understand the risks of tattooing on sensitive types of skin. Nevertheless, Spear says a new regulation from the Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) would be “devastating” both for her shop, THE STUDIO Tattoo Co., and for her clients.
WLKY reports that the DPH has recently proposed new regulations that would ban tattooing over scars. Several tattoo artists in the state have already spoken out against the proposed regulation. Not only is the practice common in their line of work, but the new rules do not appear to stem from medical concerns.
In fact, the DPH has yet to give its reasoning for wanting to ban the practice. A statement from the Cabinet of Health and Family Services simply says, “Regulations in this area have not been updated for about 15 years.”
Spear tells Reason that there are two “major concerns” associated with tattooing over scars.
Some clients are prone to keloidal scarring, in which the skin overreacts to an injury and produces a raised mass of scar tissue. The American Academy of Dermatology explains that keloids are not cancerous and that not everybody gets them. Simply put, not every scar is in danger of overgrowth.
Spear says the second concern is tattooing a scar that is too fresh. A scar should be older than 12 months before going through the tattooing process.
“Other than those two major things, there isn’t really a reason someone couldn’t tattoo over a scar,” she says.
Spear believes that the regulation is too vague and she would rather see it reworded to include the two specific concerns. Prohibiting the practice altogether would leave artists and their customers in the lurch. “Imagine if you were someone who wanted a sleeve tattooed on your arm and had a carpet burn near your elbow when you were [five] and had a scar so you couldn’t get tattooed in that one specific spot—that would make for an awkward tattoo.”
Spear also tells Reason that the ban would impact those trying “to feel better about themselves.” She’s helped women with mastectomies “feel a sense of normalcy,” covered up scars on veterans that evoke traumatic memories, and empowered people who have engaged in self-harm to move forward with skin art. A blanket ban on those services would likely hurt more people than it helps.
A public hearing regarding the changes is scheduled for May 28.
from Latest – Reason.com http://bit.ly/2Y3eCkI
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Paige Spear is a paramedical tattooist in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where she helps her customers use tattoo art to camouflage scars and vitiligo, and recreate areolas and nipples for customers who have undergone mastectomies. Spear isn’t performing medicine and she and her clients both understand the risks of tattooing on sensitive types of skin. Nevertheless, Spear says a new regulation from the Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) would be “devastating” both for her shop, THE STUDIO Tattoo Co., and for her clients.
WLKY reports that the DPH has recently proposed new regulations that would ban tattooing over scars. Several tattoo artists in the state have already spoken out against the proposed regulation. Not only is the practice common in their line of work, but the new rules do not appear to stem from medical concerns.
In fact, the DPH has yet to give its reasoning for wanting to ban the practice. A statement from the Cabinet of Health and Family Services simply says, “Regulations in this area have not been updated for about 15 years.”
Spear tells Reason that there are two “major concerns” associated with tattooing over scars.
Some clients are prone to keloidal scarring, in which the skin overreacts to an injury and produces a raised mass of scar tissue. The American Academy of Dermatology explains that keloids are not cancerous and that not everybody gets them. Simply put, not every scar is in danger of overgrowth.
Spear says the second concern is tattooing a scar that is too fresh. A scar should be older than 12 months before going through the tattooing process.
“Other than those two major things, there isn’t really a reason someone couldn’t tattoo over a scar,” she says.
Spear believes that the regulation is too vague and she would rather see it reworded to include the two specific concerns. Prohibiting the practice altogether would leave artists and their customers in the lurch. “Imagine if you were someone who wanted a sleeve tattooed on your arm and had a carpet burn near your elbow when you were [five] and had a scar so you couldn’t get tattooed in that one specific spot—that would make for an awkward tattoo.”
Spear also tells Reason that the ban would impact those trying “to feel better about themselves.” She’s helped women with mastectomies “feel a sense of normalcy,” covered up scars on veterans that evoke traumatic memories, and empowered people who have engaged in self-harm to move forward with skin art. A blanket ban on those services would likely hurt more people than it helps.
A public hearing regarding the changes is scheduled for May 28.
from Latest – Reason.com http://bit.ly/2Y3eCkI
via IFTTT
A mysterious Turkish woman who “assisted” FBI spy Stefan Halper in a London operation targeting Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos has been revealed as yet another FBI operative sent to spy on the Trump campaign during the 2016 US election, according to the New York Times.
The woman, who went by the name Azra Turk, repeatedly flirted with Papadopoulos during their encounters as well as in email exchanges according to an October, 2018 Daily Callerreport, confirmed today by the Times. “Turk,” posed as Halper’s assistant according to the report.
While in London in 2016, Ms. Turk exchanged emails with Mr. Papadopoulos, saying meeting him had been the “highlight of my trip,” according to messages provided by Mr. Papadopoulos.
“I am excited about what the future holds for us :),” she wrote. –New York Times
And as the Times makes clear, “the FBI sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer” to investigate the Trump campaign.
The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?
…
Ms. Turk went to London to help oversee the politically sensitive operation, working alongside a longtime informant, the Cambridge professor Stefan A. Halper. The move was a sign that the bureau wanted in place a trained investigator for a layer of oversight, as well as someone who could gather information for or serve as a credible witness in any potential prosecution that emerged from the case. –New York Times
Halper – who was paid more than $1 million by the Pentagon while Obama was president – contacted Papadopoulos on September 2, 2016 according to The Caller – and would later fly him out to London under the guise of working on a policy paper on energy issues in Turkey, Cyprus and Israel – for which he was ultimately paid $3,000. Papadopoulos met Halper several times during his stay, “having dinner one night at the Travellers Club, and Old London gentleman’s club frequented by international diplomats.”
As the Times notes, the London operation “yielded no fruitful information,” while the FBI has called their activities in the months before the 2016 election as both “legal and carefully considered under extraordinary circumstances,” according to the report.
Mr. Papadopoulos was baffled. “There is no way this is a Cambridge professor’s research assistant,” he recalled thinking, according to his book. In recent weeks, he has said in tweets that he believes Ms. Turk may have been working for Turkish intelligence but provided no evidence.
The day after meeting Ms. Turk, Mr. Papadopoulos met briefly with Mr. Halper at a private London club, and Ms. Turk joined them. The two men agreed to meet again, arranging a drink at the Sofitel hotel in London’s posh West End.
Also of interest, the British government was informed of the spy operation on their soil, according to the Times, however it is unclear whether they participated.
“Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson accuses United Kingdom Intelligence of helping Obama Administration Spy on the 2016 Trump Presidential Campaign.” @OANN WOW! It is now just a question of time before the truth comes out, and when it does, it will be a beauty!
As for the FBI, the agency’s actions are now under investigation by the Justice Department’s Inspector General, Michael Horowitz.
He could make the results public in May or June, Attorney General William P. Barr has said. Some of the findings are likely to be classified.
It is unclear whether Mr. Horowitz will find fault with the F.B.I.’s decision to have Ms. Turk, whose real name is not publicly known, meet with Mr. Papadopoulos. Mr. Horowitz has focused among other things on the activities of Mr. Halper, who accompanied Ms. Turk in one of her meetings with Mr. Papadopoulos and also met with him and other campaign aides separately. The bureau might also have seen Ms. Turk’s role as essential for protecting Mr. Halper’s identity as an informant if prosecutors ever needed court testimony about their activities. –New York Times
During Congressional testimony last month, Attorney General Barr told Congress “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” adding “I think spying did occur. The question is whether it was adequately predicated. And I’m not suggesting that it wasn’t adequately predicated. But I need to explore that.”
Maybe he could explore the role of Joseph Mifsud – a Maltese professor and self-professed member of the Clinton Foundation, who reportedly seeded Papadopoulos with the rumor that Russia had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude that Mifsud seeded the information with Papadopoulos, who was pumped for that same information during a “drunken” encounter at a London Bar with Clinton-associate and Australian diplomat Alexander Downer – who told authorities about the “dirt” rumor, which launched the FBI/DOJ counterintelligence operation that included Halper and “Azra Turk” spying on Papadopoulos.
Mr. Barr again defended his use of the term “spying” at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, saying he wanted to know more about the F.B.I.’s investigative efforts during 2016 and explained that the early inquiry likely went beyond the use of an informant and a court-authorized wiretap of a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, who had interacted with a Russian intelligence officer. –New York Times
“Many people seem to assume that the only intelligence collection that occurred was a single confidential informant,” and the warrant to surveil Carter Page, said Barr. “I would like to find out whether that is in fact true. It strikes me as a fairly anemic effort if that was the counterintelligence effort designed to stop the threat as it’s being represented.”
Nice hedge, Barr, but what happened appears to be anything but “fairly anemic.”
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2vAOFwC Tyler Durden
Facebook has decided to ban a number of high-profile individuals the company believes have violated its (hate and other) speech rules. The list features Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos, Alex Jones, and a number of other agitator types, plus entities such as InfoWars.
I will be discussing this and other topics this coming Wednesday (May 8) at 6:30-8pm on a panel entitled “Hate Speech on Social Media: Is There a Way to More Civil Discussion?” with former ACLU president and current NYLS professor Nadine Strossen and Justitia founder Jacob Mchangama at the NYU Journalism Institute. The event is free and open to the public, and you can register here if interested in attending.
from Latest – Reason.com http://bit.ly/2JahdFi
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Ironically, their ample compensation allows them to avoid the poor-quality services they’ve designed for everyone below them.
If we define middle class by the security of household income and what that income can buy rather than by an income level, what do we conclude? We have little choice but to conclude the middle class is decaying, both in the percentage of the workforce that qualifies as “middle class” according to traditional standards and in the quality of life of those who do qualify.
There’s a longstanding way to understand the middle class quality of life: it’s supposed to be superior to the indignities of being poor. If you’ve been poor (and I’ve been down to my last $100), even for short periods, you know the indignities and frictions of being poor (and by poor I don’t mean on welfare, I mean working poor, with unreliable incomes and low wages).
Being middle class meant being able to escape the hassles and indifferent services that await the poor. Fast-forward to today: what day-to-day tasks and interactions are easy and cost-free for the middle class? How many are nightmarish, complicated, frustrating, and costly?
Virtually all of them. Being “middle class” is no longer a buffer to the indignities and friction of a dysfunctional, costly status quo that only serves the wealthy with anything resembling what was once afforded the middle class.
No wonder what remains of the middle class is so anxious to qualify for “elite” airline miles programs and similar “special” service, because it approximates what every middle class person once expected as the norm.
In terms of the quality of life and of services, the bottom 95% is now poor. Can you really contest this, or is contesting a matter of hurt pride?
What qualifies as middle class? I’ve defined it by characteristics rather than income: starting with What Does It Take To Be Middle Class? (December 5, 2013), I’ve used 12 minimum standards of membership that were implicit characteristics of the conventional middle class a generation ago:
1. Meaningful healthcare insurance ($5,000 deductible plans don’t qualify, and neither does government-provided low-income coverage such as Medicaid.)
2. Significant equity (25%-50%) in a home or other real estate
3. Income/expenses that enable the household to save at least 6% of its income
4. Significant retirement funds: 401Ks, IRAs, etc.
5. The ability to service all debt and expenses over the medium-term if one of the primary household wage-earners lose their job
6. Reliable vehicles for each wage-earner
7. If a household requires government assistance to maintain the family lifestyle, their Middle Class status is in doubt.
8. A percentage of non-paper, non-real estate hard assets such as family heirlooms, precious metals, tools, etc. that can be transferred to the next generation, i.e. generational wealth.
9. Ability to invest in offspring (education, extracurricular clubs/training, etc.) without going into debt to pay for the extracurricular activities.
10. Leisure time devoted to the maintenance of physical/spiritual/mental fitness.
11. Continual accumulation of human and social capital (new skills, networks of collaborators, markets for one’s services, etc.)
12. Family ownership of income-producing assets such as savings bonds, etc.
To these core attributes we might add the host of services that are being cut back or eliminated en masse listed in yesterday’s guest post,‘Workarounds’ Galore: How Real Americans Deal with ‘Real’ Inflation: attending sporting events, regular haircuts, dry-cleaning, membership in service clubs and country clubs, and dozens of other once-standard benefits of middle class life.
The decay of this standard of living is not just quantitative, it’s qualitative. The quality of life available to those with middle class incomes is decaying on two fronts: quantitatively, households can no longer afford services and activities, and what they can afford is of lower quality, both the goods and the services.
I touched on this in The Erosion of Everyday Life, but I only scratched the surface of the accelerating decay of the quality of services available to what remains of the middle class.
Do you get excellent service from automated Corporate America customer service? You must be joking if you answer “yes.”
The point here is the quality has been stripped out of Corporate America’s products and services to maximize quarterly profits. Whatever digital device that lasts more than a few years is obsoleted by some software “upgrade” that forces customers to buy a new device.
The quality of government services has also decayed, often to the point of dysfunction. Try getting a double-billing from a local government agency cleared up. Try getting the potholes on your local street that doubles as a bikeway (so the city can brag it’s bicycle-friendly) filled in less than a few years. And so on.
People in customer service and public service are doing their best, but they’re often hobbled by inefficient work rules, outdated equipment and software (or software that simply doesn’t function properly), poor training, overzealous compliance, staffing shortages, maxed-out managers and other hindrances to quality service.
As for the security of household income–at least one wage earner has to work for the government or a government-funded industry such as education, healthcare or defense to have even minimum security. Private-sector security simply doesn’t exist outside of the quasi-government sectors which are largely or completely funded by government.
Let’s not forget the insecurity of traditional middle class assets such as the family home and pensions. The family home has plenty of equity at the top of the bubble du jour, not so much when the bubble pops. The 401K retirement fund exudes security at the top of the bubble, not so much after it crashes. The pension is only as good as the pension fund and its annual growth rate, both of which are contingent on forces beyond the reach of the pension managers.
Yes, the super-wealthy have siphoned off most of the gains in income and wealth generated by financialization as shown on this chart. But that’s only part of the picture, as that only impacts income and capital–it doesn’t measure the decay of purchasing power and the quality of life available to everyone below the top of the wealth-power pyramid.
Many of the most richly compensated people in our economy are those who figure out ways to eliminate costs by degrading quality and service. Ironically, their ample compensation allows them to avoid the poor-quality services they’ve designed for everyone below them.
If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com. New benefit for subscribers/patrons: a monthly Q&A where I respond to your questions/topics.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2DEZBOf Tyler Durden
Facebook has decided to ban a number of high-profile individuals the company believes have violated its (hate and other) speech rules. The list features Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos, Alex Jones, and a number of other agitator types, plus entities such as InfoWars.
I will be discussing this and other topics this coming Wednesday (May 8) at 6:30-8pm on a panel entitled “Hate Speech on Social Media: Is There a Way to More Civil Discussion?” with former ACLU president and current NYLS professor Nadine Strossen and Justitia founder Jacob Mchangama at the NYU Journalism Institute. The event is free and open to the public, and you can register here if interested in attending.
from Latest – Reason.com http://bit.ly/2JahdFi
via IFTTT
The market asked Powell, “where’s the ‘dovish’ meat?” and he had no answer…and the market suddenly tightened its rate-cut expectations by 14bps!!
Powell translated:
Oh and in case you wondered where the meat was – it was here! Beyond Meat soars over 175% from its IPO price…
Chinese markets were closed overnight but European markets reopened weaker after US ended lower…
US markets tried to rebound from Powell’s mishap but headlines from China that the trade deal had reached an “impasse” sparked selling as Europe closed…
NOTE – The cash Dow filled its gap from the 4/12 open
VIX spiked to almost 16 intraday before ramping back, but remains decoupled from stocks…
And bear in mind that VIX specs are at a record short…
Which, given VVIX’s surge today, makes us wonder if all those VIX shorts are buying VIX protection…
Treasury yields were higher across the curve today as Powell’s “transitory” hawkishness rippled up the curve… (the belly slightly underperformed +5bps vs the wings at +3.5bps)
The yield curve has flattened quite notably after an initially exuberant steepening…
Still could be worse – could be Argentina’s Century Bonds (which just hit a new record low)…
Inflation breakevens continued to slide (along with crude prices)…
The Dollar extended yesterday’s gains post-Powell…
Yuan was pressured on the back of China trade deal “impasse” headlines…
Cryptos held on to gains today with Bitcoin best on the week…
WTI was the worst performer among the commodity complex but all drifted lower…
WTI traded very technically, breaking down to its 50DMA after breaking below its 200DMA, only to rebound back up to the 200DMA
Gold was smacked lower again, testing its 200DMA and bouncing hard once again…
Silver was also slapped to five-month lows…
And Dr.Copper collapsed through key technical levels to its lowest since mid Feb…
And finally, as BMO’s Brad Wishak highlighted, the world’s favorite (and also largest) index to completely ignore is flashing another negative divergence here…the exact same divergence that kicked off the the fall equity slide lower.
Back in SEP the SPX pushed to new all time highs while the NYSE did not, flagging the initial divergence. Y’day the SPX again made fresh all time highs with the NYSE again NOT confirming.
Is it different this time?
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2ZNA1QB Tyler Durden
An Oregon-based metals manufacturer faked test results and provided faulty materials to NASA, which the agency says caused over $700 million in losses and two failed satellite launches, according to the results of an internal investigation.
Hydro Extrusion Portland, Inc. – formerly known as Sapa Profiles, Inc., (SPI) falsified thousands of certifications for aluminum components over a 19-year period for hundreds of customers, including NASA.
When the launch of NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory and Glory missions failed in 2009 and 2011, the agency said it was because their launch vehicle malfunctioned. The clamshell structure (called fairing) encapsulating the satellites as they traveled aboard Orbital ATK’s Taurus XL rocket failed to separate on command. Now, a NASA Launch Services Program (LSP) investigation has revealed that the malfunction was caused by faulty aluminum materials. –Engadget
SPI would generally alter the tests in one of two ways. Between 1996 and 2006, an SPI plant manager “led a scheme to make thousands of handwritten alterations to failing test results by changing failing numbers that fell below the minimum required test results to appear to be passing,” according to the Justice Department. Then, from around 2002 through 2015, SPI testing lab supervisor Dennis Balius “led a scheme to alter tests within SPI’s computerized systems and provide false certifications with the altered results to customers.” He also instructed employees to routinely violate other testing standards, such as increasing the speed of the testing machines or cutting samples in a way that did not meet testing standards.
Balius was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay more than $170,000 in restitution.
“When testing results are altered and certifications are provided falsely, missions fail,” said NASA’s Director for launch services, Jim Norman, who added that years of scientific work were lost because of the fraud.
The Oregon company has agreed to pay $46 million for the fraud, including $34.1 million in combined restitution to NASA, the Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA), and commercial customers. They will also forfeit $1.8 million in ill-gotten gains.
“Corporate and personal greed perpetuated this fraud against the government and other private customers, and this resolution holds these companies accountable for the harm caused by their scheme,” said Brian Benczkowski, assistant attorney general of the criminal division at the Department of Justice, in an April 23 statement reported by Bloomberg.
A Norsk Hydro spokesman said that the case was settled, and that it had invested “significant time and resources to completely overhaul our quality and compliance organizations.”
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2vBeWe6 Tyler Durden
