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Crime spree hits one of Trump’s top supporters in Congress
February 06, 2023
Another Republican congressman — one of former President Donald Trump’s top supporters — has lost gobs of campaign cash to cyberthieves.
The re-election campaign of two-term Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas reported that someone on July 7 made an “unauthorized” withdrawal from its campaign account, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by Raw Story.
The money went to an outfit listed as “Misty J Productions,” although there’s no evidence in federal campaign or corporate organization records that such a firm exists.
Total amount taken from the Nehls for Congress committee: $157,626.
“There was an unauthorized wire transfer initiated through fraudulent means on our campaign account,” Nehls spokesman Taylor Hulsey confirmed to Raw Story.
The Nehls campaign indicated in federal records that it has so far recouped $137,626 of the lost money.
Nehls’ office declined to answer specific questions about the fraud incident, including the status of any criminal investigation and whether a perpetrator has been identified.
Hulsey did not elaborate on what steps the congressman’s campaign committee has instituted to defend against additional theft attempts.
“We are unable to comment further as all information has been submitted to the FBI for criminal investigation,” Hulsey said.
The FBI, which does not generally comment on open investigations, did not respond to a request for comment.
Nehls himself is a former law enforcement official, having served as the sheriff of Fort Bend County, Texas — immediately southwest of Houston — before voters elected him to Congress in 2020.
A staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, Nehls rose to national prominence during his first week in office when he helped U.S. Capitol Police officers prevent rioters from entering the U.S. House of Representatives chambers on January 6, 2021.
Nehls would later call the Democrat-dominated House select committee investigating the January 6 attack, on which Nehls was initially slated to serve, a “partisan circus” that only sought to “distract the voters from their numerous failures and do everything they can to destroy Republicans and President Trump.”
‘WHERE THE MONEY IS’
Willie Sutton once said he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is.”
Cybercriminals and check trawlers have increasingly targeted political campaigns, which often accumulate big money quickly but lack security measures that adequately safeguard their hauls.
Nehls is hardly alone in his financial misfortune.
Federal records reviewed this month by Raw Story also indicate that former Rep. John Katko, a Republican who until January represented a congressional district spanning Central New York, was hit on Christmas Eve with $14,000 worth of “fraudulent bank debits.”
Katko, who recently joined Washington, D.C., lobbying firm HillEast Group, according to Politico, did not respond to messages seeking comment.
But in a Jan. 30 letter to the FEC, the Katko campaign stated that the lost $14,000 “was related to fraudulent checks processed thru the committee bank account” and that “the committee is working with the bank to retrieve the funds. This fraud was external and not caused by committee personnel.”
Although no longer in office, Katko’s campaign committee technically remains open and active — and still had more than $902,000 remaining in its account as of Dec. 31, according to a federal campaign finance disclosure.
Raw Story in recent days has identified several other Republican members of Congress who’ve been victimized by fraudsters in what’s fast becoming open season on politicians’ campaign accounts.
Money losers include Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas ($690,000), Rep. Neal Dunn of Florida ($10,855), Rep. Russell Fry of South Carolina ($2,607.98) and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida ($362.04).
The Republican National Committee and Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) also experienced recent campaign cash thefts.
The problem isn’t unique to Republicans, either: President Joe Biden’s 2020 Democratic presidential campaign committee lost at least $71,000.
One-time Democratic presidential candidate and congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and rapper-turned-2020 presidential candidate Ye, formerly Kanye West, are among others who reported money stolen from their political accounts.
Meanwhile, the political action committees of Google, National Association of Manufacturers, Consumer Technology Association, National Association of Home Builders, National Air Traffic Controllers Association, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, MoveOn.org, and law firms Akerman LLP and Blank Rome LLP have also experienced theft of various kinds, be it cyber theft, forgeries or check tampering, according to Insider.
MORE THEFT TO COME?
Political committees can be particularly vulnerable to cyberthieves because of the nature of campaigns, which often start up quickly, are operated frugally and employ inexperienced staffers, Chris Wysopal, co-founder and chief technology officer for cybersecurity company Veracode, recently told Raw Story.
Poorly maintained campaign security systems can invite fraudsters — or even rival political operatives or foreign agents — to not only steal campaign money, but swipe sensitive information such as donor lists and strategy documents, he said. Emails are particularly insecure, he added.
“I’m actually surprised we are not seeing more activity like this to influence and harm campaigns,” Wysopal said.
For people who want to harm political committees, “the sky’s the limit,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security has also recently warned political committees that they are “facing cyber-attacks of varied sophistication” from “malicious actors.”
The agency published guidelines for “instilling a culture of digital vigilance” to “put your team in the best position to focus on your campaign priorities instead of the consequences of a cyber incident.”
Recommendations include using two-factor authentication, using stronger passwords, installing security patches for computer systems and defending against phishing attempts where scammers use emails or text messages to dupe campaign staffers into opening links or documents that contain “destructive software”.
On January 25, the FEC sent Nehls for Congress a letter asking the campaign for more details about its theft-of-funds situation.
“Although the Commission may take further legal action regarding this apparent improper use of Committee funds, any further clarifying information that you can provide will be taken into consideration,” agency senior campaign finance and reviewing analyst Ryan Furman wrote.
The FEC has also instituted a "safe harbor" provision that encourages political committees to establish "internal controls" that help "prevent misappropriations and associated misreporting" of their campaign finance accounting, agency spokesman Christian Hilland told Raw Story.
Per the FEC's "safe harbor" provision, the commission "does not intend to seek civil penalties against a political committee for filing incorrect reports due to the misappropriation of committee funds if the committee has the specified safeguards in place.”
Nehls’ campaign committee reported $386,478 cash on hand as of Dec. 31, according to FEC records.
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Britain faces biggest healthcare worker strikes in history of NHS
February 06, 2023
Britain faces its largest ever strike by health workers on Monday as tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance workers walk out in an escalating pay dispute which the health minister said would place further strain on the National Health Service (NHS).
Nurses and ambulance workers have been striking separately on and off since late last year but Monday's walkout involving both, largely in England, will represent the biggest in the 75-year history of the NHS.
England's top doctor, Stephen Powis, said strike action this week, which will also see physiotherapists walk out on Thursday, would most probably be the most disruptive so far.
Health workers are demanding a pay rise that reflects the worst inflation in Britain in four decades, while the government says that would be unaffordable and cause more price rises, and in turn, make interest rates and mortgage payments go up.
Around 500,000 workers, many from the public sector, have been staging strikes since last summer, adding to pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to resolve the disputes and limit disruption to public services such as railways and schools.
Health minister Steve Barclay urged people to continue to access emergency services and attend appointments unless they had been cancelled but underlined there would be disruption.
"Despite contingency measures in place, strikes by ambulance and nursing unions this week will inevitably cause further delays for patients who already face longer waits due to the COVID backlogs," he said in a statement.
"I have held constructive talks with the trade unions on pay and affordability and continue to urge them to call off the strikes."
Sharon Graham, leader of the Unite union, told the BBC on Sunday she wanted Sunak to come to the negotiating table. "This government is putting lives at risk," she said.
Nurses leave
The NHS, historically a source of pride for most Britons, is under extreme pressure with millions of patients on waiting lists for operations and thousands each month failing to receive prompt emergency care.
The RCN says a decade of poor pay has contributed to tens of thousands of nurses leaving the profession — 25,000 over just the last year — with the severe staffing shortages impacting patient care.
The RCN initially asked for a pay rise of 5% above inflation and has since said it could meet the government "halfway", but both sides have failed to reach an agreement despite weeks of talks.
Meanwhile, thousands of ambulance workers represented by the GMB and Unite trade unions are also set to strike on Monday in their own pay dispute. Both unions have announced several more days of industrial action.
Not all ambulance workers will strike at once and emergency calls will be attended to.
In Wales, nurses and some ambulance workers have called off strikes planned for Monday as they review pay offers from the Welsh government.
Sunak said in a TalkTV interview last week he would "love to give the nurses a massive pay rise" but said the government faced tough choices and that it was funding the NHS in other areas such as by providing medical equipment and ambulances.
(Reuters)
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Russian Patriarch Kirill spied in Switzerland for KGB in 70s: media
February 06, 2023
The Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a strong supporter of President Vladimir Putin, worked for Soviet intelligence while living in Switzerland in the 1970s, Swiss newspapers reported, citing declassified archives.
According to the Sonntagszeitung and Le Matin Dimanche weeklies, the Swiss police file on the man who today serves as the spiritual head of the Russian Orthodox Church "confirms that 'Monsignor Kirill', as he is referred to in this document, worked for the KGB."
The two papers said they had gained access to the file in the Swiss national archives.
Kirill, who today is a fervent supporter of Putin's war in Ukraine, lived in Geneva in the early 1970s, officially as a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church at the World Council of Churches (WCC).
Under the code name "Mikhailov", Kirill's mission was to influence the council, already infiltrated by the KGB, the papers said.
The Russian Orthodox Church has refused to comment on Kirill's spying activity in Geneva, while the WCC had maintained it had no information about the case, they said.
But, they reported, the archives showed the Soviet objective was to push the institution to denounce the United States and its allies, and to tone down its criticism of the lack of religious freedoms in the Soviet Union.
The patriarch's nephew Mikhail Gundyaev, who currently represents the Russian church at the WCC in Geneva, however insisted to Le Matin Dimanche that his uncle "was not an agent, although he was subjected to 'strict controls' by the KGB."
And this, he insisted, "did not affect the sincerity of his engagement in ecumenical work with other churches."
Gundyaev also insisted that his uncle had had a special appreciation for Switzerland.
Kirill has visited the wealthy, Alpine nation at least 43 times, the paper reported.
He was among other things passionate about skiing, even reportedly breaking a leg on the Swiss slopes in 2007.
"Between religious diplomacy, espionage and finances, Kirill has continuously been drawn to the Alps and the shores of Lake Geneva," Le Matin Dimanche said.
"I have special feelings for your country," the patriarch himself said in 2019 upon receiving the president of the upper house of the Swiss parliament.
"Of all the countries in the world, it is possibly the one I have visited the most often."
© 2023 AFP
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