Despite multiple rejected-bids to build border wall segments for the US government, due to conceptual design flaws and lack of experience, Fisher Sand & Gravel constructed 3 miles in Texas and < 1 mile in New Mexico for "We Build the Wall." That, coupled with amplified visibility on Fox News, subsequently earned them billions in government contracts with support from President Trump. 60 minutes reported on the history of the company's wall projects, and problems such as erosion plaguing the Texas portion of the private wall, which was built directly on the Rio Grande river. Sep 2020 60 MINUTES ARTICLE Update 01/20/2021: Steven Bannon pardoned by Donald Trump. However, since his co-defendants were not pardoned, his new immunity prevents him from invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to testify against them. Update 02/25/2021: Steven Bannon's financial records are subpoenaed by Manhattan's DA, who has a state investigation into the scheme.
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Examples of behavior which has already resulted in fines: Opening fake deposit and credit card accounts, in customer names but without customer consent, to meet employee cross-selling goals. Retaliation against a whistleblower for reporting suspected bank, mail and wire fraud. Charging consumers for unnecessary auto insurance, mortgage fees Failure to issue GAP insurance refunds for consumers who paid off their car loan early Failure to comply with Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)
Misleading California investors, charities, and small businesses about the risk-level of auction-rate securities More recent alleged scandals: Sacramento Bee: "The city of Sacramento has filed a federal lawsuit against Wells Fargo alleging the banking giant steers African American and Latino borrowers into high-risk and high-cost mortgages." KTLA in Los Angeles: "Hundreds of people had their homes foreclosed on because software used by Wells Fargo incorrectly denied them mortgage modifications." NBC news: "Lawyers say they've found cases in 11 states in which Wells Fargo has wrongly claimed borrowers asked to pause mortgage payments during the COVID-19 pandemic" causing erroneous forbearance filings. The Mueller investigation discovered that retired Gen. Michael Flynn worked for the government of Turkey during 2016 without registering with the U.S. government as a foreign agent. In March 2017 he eventually did file his Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statement, but he omitted information about the true nature of the work, for which the Flynn Intel Group was paid more than $500K. For example, Flynn's firm was hired to influence
In Dec 2017 Mr. Flynn admitted to doing the above, in addition to lying to the FBI while serving as Trump's transition team and as national security adviser about the content of his telephone conversations/negotiations with Russian officials about sanctions recently imposed by the U.S. SIGNED STATEMENT OF OFFENSE In 2020 the DOJ (under AG William Barr) surprisingly moved to drop the charges against Flynn for lying to the FBI, though Flynn had already pled guilty. Consequently the lead prosecutor, Brandon Van Grack, resigned in protest. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan does not want to drop the case without examining whether doing so is in the public interest. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will review the judges request. Update 10/7/2020: Attorneys for both Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok filed letters accusing the government of recently altering evidence provided to Flynn's defense team for their Sept. 24 filing to dismiss Flynn's case:
Now the Justice Department has admitted that it "inadvertently" altered evidence provided to Flynn's defense by adding sticky notes to pages of FBI notes before scanning them. COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE ARTICLE ABOUT ALTERED NOTES Update 11/26/2020: Pardoned by Donald Trump Update 01/05/2021: Spoke at the pro-Trump rally in Washington D.C., on the eve of the capitol insurrection. Update 01/27/2021: The Defense Department inspector general's office closed their investigation against LTG Flynn and forwarded several administrative matters to the Acting Secretary of the Army for review and appropriate action. The Donald J. Trump Foundation, a "charitable" organization, was dissolved by court order in 2019 due to misuse of funds for personal, business and political purposes taking credit for some donations to the Foundation that were made by others failure by the Trump family (directors) to provide oversight or adopt legally required policies and procedures. AG SUMMARY OF NEW YORK SUPREME COURT ORDER The $1.8 million remaining assets of that foundation, as well as a $2 million penalty, were subsequently distributed among eight legitimate New York charities. Donald J. Trump agreed to 19 "admissions" acknowledging his personal misuse of funds. Meanwhile Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump completed compulsory training on the duties of officers and directors of charities.
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