1…………> Money Laundering: VA
A former Vienna, Virginia attorney named Raymond Juiwen Ho, 48, was sentenced to 84 months in prison for conspiring to launder over $2 million dollars from the proceeds of smuggling illegal aliens into the United States and trafficking firearms in Africa.
According to the complaint, Ho engaged in a large-scale money laundering scheme that resulted in millions of dollars being moved through bank accounts (some of which were attorney trust accounts) that Ho or his co-conspirators controlled. Specifically, between July and November 2014, Ho participated in a conspiracy in which co-conspirators sent emails from compromised or imitation accounts that duped victims into transferring money to accounts controlled by Ho and others. Ho then laundered these stolen funds, moving them through and to accounts located in the United States and abroad. Ho, who recruited others to aid his laundering activities, laundered over $2 million in unlawfully obtained funds.
2…………> DarkNet Bust: Kelihos
A Russian national named Peter Yuryevich Levashov, 37, also known as Petr Levashov, Peter Severa, Petr Severa and Sergey Astakhov, of St. Petersburg, Russia, was arrested by Spanish authorities and extradited to US based on a criminal complaint from Bridgeport, Connecticut. The charges against him are stemming from his operation of the Kelihos botnet – a global network of tens of thousands of infected computers, which he allegedly used to facilitate malicious activities including harvesting login credentials, distributing bulk spam e-mails, and installing ransomware and other malicious software, the Department of Justice announced today.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/alleged-operator-kelihos-botnet-extradited-spain
3…………>SU25 Shot Down: Syria
A Russian Sukhoi-25 fighter jet was shot down in a rebel-held area in Syria’s north-western province of Idlib, MOD reporting that the pilot had ejected but was killed in a ground fight, adding the plane was shot down by a portable air defense missile system.
Video posted on social media appeared to show the plane being hit, while other video showed burning wreckage on the ground, with a red star on a wing.
Russian losses in Syria are estimated to be 45 military personnel, along with an unknown number of contractors.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42932616
4…………> Forgotten Cities: Maya
Researchers using a high-tech laser based LiDAR aerial mapping technique have found 60,000 of previously undetected Mayan houses, buildings, defence fortifications and pyramids in the dense jungle of Guatemala’s Peten region, suggesting that 10 millions people have lived there.
The “archaeological treasure trove” included industrial-sized agricultural fields and irrigation canals, indicating that a massive food production infrastructure was employed by the Maya.
5…………> CA Brooming: ICE
DHS ICE police units raided 77 California businesses in many cities including San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose, an attack on a “sanctuary state” where law enforcement has been mostly prohibited from working with federal officials seeking to arrest undocumented immigrants.
“The actions taken this week reflect … stepped-up efforts to enforce the laws that prohibit businesses from hiring illegal workers,” with a focus on “protecting jobs for US citizens and others who are lawfully employed,” US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement.
In 2017, the government carried out 1,360 similar raids and arrested more than 300 people — with businesses paying out over $100 million in restitution and fines, ICE said.
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