Antiwar.com Original
Originally posted at TomDispatch.
Strange, isn’t it? Our secretary of state emphatically claims that China has been acting “more aggressively abroad” and behaving “increasingly in adversarial ways.” No, he insists, we’re not exactly at the edge of a new cold war or planning, in the style of the last century, to “contain China.” All this country is doing is “uphold[ing] this rules-based order that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we’re going to stand up and and defend it.” Ah, you remember that “rules-based order,” don’t you? The one this country has sponsored in this
First Posted: May 11, 2021 01:02 AM EDT
Photo : Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
After obtaining $5 million in federal COVID loans for phony businesses and then used the money for vacations and buying ultra-luxury cars like Ferrari, Bentley, and Lamborghini, a California man pleaded not guilty to the charges he is facing, prosecutors shared on Monday.
The 38-year-old man, identified as Mustafa Qadiri, was arrested on suspicion of scheming to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The program was implemented last year to help small businesses struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Associated Press, the U.S. Attorney s Office stated that the 38-year-old man from Irvine in Orange County, California, pleaded not guilty to multiple charges he faces, which include bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and wire fraud on Friday.
NationofChange
Joe Biden s first 100 days were a Pentagon prize.
The first 100 days of President Joe Biden’s administration have come and gone. While somewhat exaggerated, that milestone is normally considered the honeymoon period for any new president. Buoyed by a recent election triumph and inauguration, he’s expected to be at the peak of his power when it comes to advancing the biggest, boldest items on his agenda.
And indeed, as far as, say, infrastructure or pandemic vaccination goals, Biden has delivered in a major way. Blindly funding the Pentagon and its priorities in the stratospheric fashion that’s become the essence of Washington has, however, proven another matter entirely. One hundred days later and it’s remarkable how little has changed when it comes to pouring money into this country’s vast military infrastructure and the wars, ongoing or imagined, that accompany it.
Red Flags: The First Year of COVID-19 Loan Fraud Cases
With over $189 billion in questionable Paycheck Protection Program loans, law enforcement has just scratched the surface
April 15, 2021
(Illustration: Leslie Garvey / POGO)
More than a year after the pandemic brought much of the economy to a standstill, mounting fraud cases underscore how the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) oversight of its massive taxpayer-backed lending programs proved to be inadequate as they became magnets for fraudsters.
The Justice Department has brought criminal charges against at least 209 individuals in 119 cases related to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud since banks and other lenders began processing loan applications on behalf of the Small Business Administration on April 3, 2020. And these cases are just the beginning.
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