Category Archives: White Collar Crime
NFL White Collar Crime Not Just For Owners Anymore
Former Cleveland Browns linebacker Mychal Kendricks isn’t your run of the mill pro athlete thug. But he fell in with the wrong crowd. Goldman Sachs.
NFL White Collar Crime
His friend Damilare Sonoiki, a Harvard educated investment analyst at Goldman until 2015, gave him trading tips in exchange for game tickets and cash. And next thing you know Mychal’s busted for insider trading.
He allegedly turned $80,000 into $1.2 million. Not Hillary Clinton scale growth, but not bad.
Still, the Browns cut him. No word yet if he’ll be called up to owner Jimmy Haslem’s Pilot Flying J franchise.
Campaign Spending Laws Apply Equally
After busting Trump fixer Michael Cohen for violating campaign spending laws, U.S. attorney Robert Khuzami bragged “we are a nation of laws, with one set of rules that applies equally to everyone.”
Kimberly Strassel at the WSJ doesn’t buy it:
If there is only “one set of rules,” where is Mr. Mueller’s referral of a case against Hillary for America? Federal law requires campaigns to disclose the recipient and purpose of any payments. The Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS to compile a dossier against Mr. Trump, a document that became the basis of the Russia narrative Mr. Mueller now investigates. But the campaign funneled the money to law firm Perkins Coie, which in turn paid Fusion. The campaign falsely described the money as payment for “legal services.” The Democratic National Committee did the same. A Perkins Coie spokesperson has claimed that neither the Clinton campaign nor the DNC was aware that Fusion GPS had been hired to conduct the research, and maybe so. But a lot of lawyers here seemed to have been ignoring a clear statute, presumably with the intent of influencing an election.
Unindicted Co-Conspiritor Witch Hunt
President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen ratted him out. He says Trump directed him to arrange hush money payments to a playboy model and a porn star. Trump then reimbursed him for the Stormy Daniels payment. Cohen claims that helped Trump’s 2016 election chances and therefore it was an illegal in-kind campaign contribution.
Witch Hunt
Democrats are wary of impeachment talk but Cohen’s lawyer (and Bill Clinton’s old impeachment defender) Lanny Davis is howling “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
But Bill Clinton’s former speech writer Mark Penn says there’s nothing illegal about it. Had Trump used campaign funds to pay hush money it would have been an illegal personal use of campaign funds. So using his own money can’t be considered a campaign contribution. And Professor Dershowitz says even if it is a campaign contribution there’s no limit to the amount Trump can contribute to his own campaign.
Trump tweets “witch hunt.” Stay tuned.
Manafort’s Money
President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted on eight charges of bank and tax fraud. The judge ruled a mistrial on 10 other charges. The conviction isn’t related to Robert Mueller’s collusion investigation.
But maybe it was related to Manafort’s taste for the the finer things in life. He once spent $15,000 on an ostrich jacket. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Except that he lied to banks for loans and didn’t pay taxes on $16 million.
Vox follows Manafort’s money here.
Integrity Beyond Question
Attorney General Loretta Lynch was caught red handed discussing grandkids with Bill Clinton. Bill’s wife, Hillary, was under investigation at the time for her secret email server. So the AG turned over her decision making authority in the caper to FBI Director James Comey.
When Comey decided not to prosecute, a Greek Chorus of Democrats sang his praises. But when he reopened the case, due to emails found on Carlos Danger’s laptop, they changed their tune.
Integrity Beyond Question
Harry Reid, having pronounced Comey’s integrity beyond question, questioned it by accusing him of violating the Hatch Act. At least he hasn’t accused Comey of not paying his taxes. Yet.