Tag Archives: Homeland Security Investigations

The Covid Relief Debacle

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On Saturday, The Epoch Times posted an article about a case of fraud involving the Covid-19 relief funds.

The article reports:

Fourteen people were arrested on May 28 for their alleged involvement in a scheme to fraudulently obtain over $25 million in COVID-19 relief funds and federally guaranteed small business loans, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The individuals are among the 18 people charged in connection with the case. Four who have not yet been arrested are currently believed to be in Armenia, the DOJ said in a statement.

All of them are facing charges of conspiracy to defraud the government, false claims, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transactions involving property derived from specified unlawful activity, and structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements.

Law enforcement officers seized about $20,000 in cash, two money-counting machines, paper cash bands, cellphones, laptops, two loaded semi-automatic handguns, and boxes of ammunition during the arrests.

Tyler Hatcher, special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation agency, said the defendants were accused of fraudulently obtaining funds through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, and other federal funding programs.

The article concludes:

“This transnational criminal network sought to defraud the government of millions of dollars and almost succeeded,” John Pasciucco, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles, said.

It remains unclear whether the defendants have been assigned legal representation as of publication.

Was anyone in government paying attention to where taxpayer money was going?

Rescuing The Children Impacted By The Open Border

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On Tuesday, The New York Post reported that Homeland Security agents in California rescued two teenage migrant sisters who were sex trafficked after they came across the southern border as unaccompanied minors.

The article reports:

It’s the latest effort by the Trump administration to track down more than 320,000 migrant children who went missing under President Joe Biden’s watch — kids whom whistleblowers have warned are vulnerable to exploitation.

Special agents with Homeland Security Investigations saved the girls, ages 16 and 18, Saturday from captivity at a hotel in West Covina, California, where Christopher Ramirez was allegedly “pimping” the young sisters out, sources told The Post.

Cops with the West Covina Police Department initially found the girls and arrested Ramirez on local charges.

The feds are still looking for co-conspirators who helped move the migrant girls, who are from Honduras, from Texas to California and forced them into prostitution, sources said.

The article concludes:

The Trump administration recently found that approved migrant sponsors were providing fake or doctored photos in their applications to HHS.

Tara Rodas, who became a whistleblower on the issue after she was recruited as a federal government employee to help HHS with an influx of migrant kids in 2021, told The Post that “targeting criminal sponsors is a simple yet powerful tool” the Trump administration can use to “save the children.”

“By targeting fraudulent sponsors, the Trump administration is sending a powerful message to predators who commit crimes against children,” she said.

Of the 320,000 missing migrant kids, 291,000 were released into the US and never given a date to appear in immigration court — meaning there is no way to track their whereabouts, according to the 14-page report — which tracked a period from October 2018 to September 2023.

Another 32,000 children were released with hearing dates but then failed to show up to their immigration hearings.

All of these children need to be located, assuming they are still alive. What happened at America’s southern border under the Biden administration was a disgrace. The cartels got richer, and innocent people paid the price.