Related:
Dad who bought Harvard fencing coach’s house also tied to real estate deal with youth fencing coach
"A native of Israel who is the son of an Auschwitz survivor and a Czech physician, coach Peter Brand immigrated to the United States at age 13. He credited his time on a kibbutz with teaching him the importance of teamwork. “The challenge is bringing individuals to a place and convincing them that the only way they will win is as a team,” he told Harvard magazine in 2006. In 2005, Brand told the Harvard Crimson student newspaper that his secret to success was loving what he does......"
It's now become a chore.
Also see: Marching Backwards
Continuing to go forward:
"Second parent to plead guilty in bribery scandal" by Shelley Murphy Globe Staff, April 5, 2019,
A New York attorney announced Friday that he will plead guilty to paying a college consultant $75,000 to boost his daughter’s standardized test score, saying his daughter was unaware of the scheme and “has been devastated to learn what I did.”
Gordon Caplan, 52, who was placed on leave from his job as cochairman of Willkie Farr & Gallagher after he was charged last month in the college admissions bribery scandal, said, “I take full and sole responsibility for my conduct.”
Caplan, huh?
“I want to make clear that my daughter, whom I love more than anything in the world, is a high school junior and has not yet applied to college, much less been accepted by any school,” Caplan said in a statement. “She had no knowledge whatsoever about my actions, has been devastated to learn what I did, and has been hurt the most by it.”
The Greenwich, Conn., father was among 50 people, including celebrities, financiers, and college coaches, charged in an audacious bribery scheme to help their children be admitted into some of the nation’s top colleges.
Caplan was among 32 wealthy parents charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. Caplan is the second parent who has indicated he will plead guilty in the case, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.”
He is accused of paying the admitted ringleader of the cheating scheme, William “Rick” Singer, $75,000 last year to have someone change the incorrect answers on his daughter’s ACT test to give her a dramatically higher score.
Singer was the ringleader, 'eh?
“She won’t even know it happened,” Singer told Caplan during a call that was secretly recorded by the FBI last June, according to an FBI affidavit. “It will happen as though, she will think that she’s really super smart, and she got lucky on a test, and you got a score now. There’s lots of ways to do this. I can do anything and everything, if you guys are amenable to doing it.”
In another conversation in July about the cheating scheme, Caplan said, “To be honest, I’m not worried about the moral issue here. I’m worried about the, if she’s caught doing that, you know, she’s finished.”
At Singer’s direction, Caplan arranged for his daughter to meet with a psychologist who provided medical documentation that allowed her extra time to take the ACT, according to the affidavit. On Dec. 8, Caplan’s daughter took the test in California, where Singer’s accomplice served as a proctor for the test and corrected her answers afterward.
In his statement Friday, Caplan expressed remorse for the pain he caused his daughter.
“My immediate goal is to focus on making amends for my actions to try to win back the trust and respect of my daughter, my family, and my community,” Caplan said. “The remorse and shame that I feel is more than I can convey.”
Caplan said he will “dedicate myself to trying to right this wrong.”
Shortly after Caplan’s announcement, he was out of a job. Willkie released a statement saying he was no longer a partner at the firm, noting, “Nothing is more important to us than our integrity and we do not tolerate behavior that runs contrary to our core values.”
Prosecutors have been negotiating with some of the parents about pleading guilty, but they plan to seek some jail time for all of them, ranging from around six months to several years, according to several people familiar with the negotiations. Under federal sentencing guidelines, the amount of prison time the parents face depends on how much they paid in bribes.
Parents who don’t plead guilty are expected to be indicted as early as next week on mail fraud and possible money laundering charges. Three parents have already been indicted in the college admissions bribery case.
On Wednesday, lawyers for another parent, Peter Sartorio, disclosed in court filings that he intends to plead guilty. Two other parents, Jane Buckingham and Devin Sloane, notified the court they are in negotiations and hope to resolve their cases.
On Wednesday, Caplan appeared in US District Court in Boston’s Seaport for an initial appearance along with nine other parents, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
Singer began cooperating with federal authorities in September. He admitted he rigged a system in which parents paid bribes to his company disguised as charitable donations.....
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"Test taker in college admissions scam pleads guilty in Boston" by Milton J. Valencia Globe Staff, April 12, 2019
A Harvard graduate, Mark Riddell had an uncanny knack for standardized tests, able to calibrate his answers perfectly to get any score.
Looks like, you know.
His mastery made him an invaluable commodity in the college admissions bribery scheme, an SAT and ACT ringer who doctored entrance exams or took the tests on behalf of students at least 25 times, prosecutors said Friday in federal court in Boston. He was paid a total of $240,000, they said.
Riddell, a 36-year-old former tennis pro from Palmetto, Fla., pleaded guilty Friday to two federal felony charges in connection with the nationwide college admissions scandal.
He faces a sentence of 33 to 41 months in prison under sentencing guidelines, and is the latest defendant to plead guilty in the college admissions cheating scheme that helped the children of celebrities and wealthy power brokers get into elite colleges that otherwise may not have accepted them.
Many of the students were unaware of the fraud, but in at least one case, the daughter of a Silicon Valley hedge fund leader was there when Riddell helped her with the SAT, and gloated about it afterward, prosecutors say.
“They celebrated the successful cheating on the car ride to Riddell’s hotel,” Assistant US Attorney Eric S. Rosen told a federal judge Friday.
After his arrest, Riddell was placed on leave from his job as director of college entrance exam preparation at IMG Academy, a private prep school in Florida that coaches elite high school athletes.
Dressed in a navy blue suit and wearing a black scarf, Riddell appeared calm as he sat in US District Court and told Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton that he understood the charges.....
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Also see:
Who was acing tests for rich kids in the admissions scam? A look at the man officials called a ‘really smart guy’
Related:
Exam Companies Move to Fix Weakness
Peter Schwartz is the chief risk officer and general counsel for the College Board, and he says, "We've never seen somebody try to weaponize students with disabilities to beat our security systems."
Parents of children lost to opioid epidemic urge Harvard to change name of Sackler museum
Related: "Three men were charged Thursday in federal court in Boston with participating in a scheme to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl in the Merrimack Valley, according to US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling’s office. In a statement, Lelling’s office identified the suspects as Javier Marrero, 27, and Ariel Pagan-Romero, 29, both of Lawrence, and Jonathan Bermudez, 23, of Lowell....."
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Joe Biden makes joking reference to controversy over touching women" by Matt Viser, Washington Post, April 5, 2019
Former vice president Joe Biden on Friday morning twice made jokes about the recent criticisms of his physical behavior toward women, prompting fresh upset among two who had previously complained about him, and yet another attempt by him to insist that he was taking the matter seriously.
He's Joe the Jester!
Biden began his remarks before a ballroom of union workers in Washington by making light of the statements by at least seven women that he had made them uncomfortable with his close contact.
So much for #MeToo.
After entering the stage to a Bruce Springsteen song — “We Take Care of Our Own” — and an introduction from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers President Lonnie Stephenson, Biden looked out at the audience and smiled about their interaction.
“I just want you to know,” he said. “I had permission to hug Lonnie.”
The crowd of mostly white men inside the Washington Hilton laughed and applauded.
Partway through his speech, Biden spotted a quartet of children walking through the middle of the ballroom and invited them onto the stage. He shook each of their hands; then he put his arm around one of the young boys.
“By the way, he gave me permission to touch him,” he joked again.
OMFG!
He is showing pedophile proclivities!
The labor event marked Biden’s first public appearance since the seven women went public, in various forums, about their uneasiness with Biden’s conduct. Biden recorded a video on Wednesday saying that he would work on his demeanor.
Throughout his nearly five decades in public life, Biden has indulged a personal style in which he regularly dispenses hugs, holds hands, and presses his forehead against someone else’s, but in the era of #MeToo, those interactions have been cast in a new light.
A former Nevada state legislator, Lucy Flores, says he has been ‘disrespectful,’ but Creepy Uncle Joe says he doesn’t recall incident.
Amy Lappos, a woman from Connecticut who recounted earlier in the week an instance in which Biden rubbed noses with her, also found his response troubling.
“Biden’s consent joke is a clear indication Biden doesn’t get it and doesn’t take the voice of the women who have come forward seriously,” she told The Washington Post. “A man who jokes about consent isn’t on the right side of women’s issues. This was also a joke about consent from a child, which adds a new level of creepy and gross.”
Related: Joe Biden’s Disturbing Groping of Young Girls and Women
Makes you want to say yuck, and don't worry, she wasn't creeped out.
Minutes after his labor speech ended, Biden addressed reporters outside the hotel.
“It was not my intent to make light of anyone’s discomfort,” he said. “I realize my responsibility is to not invade the space of anyone who is uncomfortable in that regard. And I hope it wasn’t taken that way. I literally think it is incumbent upon me, I think everybody else, to make sure that if you embrace someone, if you touch someone, it’s with their consent — regardless of your intentions, if you’re trying to bring solace, if you’re trying to welcome them. And it’s my responsibility to do that.”
Well, a kid can't consent, you sick f***, regardless of your "intentions."
He said he wouldn’t be surprised if more women came forward, but asked whether he owed the women an apology, he avoided a direct answer.
“Well, look, I — the fact of the matter is I made it clear that if I made anyone feel comfortable, I feel badly about that. That was never my intention. Ever. Ever. Ever.”
Awwww, now he is the victim!
When reporters said that some of the women had said they just want to hear that he is sorry and acknowledges his fault, he declined to do so.
“I’m sorry I didn’t understand more,” he said. “I’m not sorry for any of my intentions. I’m not sorry for anything that I have ever done. I have never been disrespectful intentionally to a man or a woman. You know, that’s not the reputation I had since I was in high school for God’s sake.”
That's a pretty broad sorry for everything you have ever done as he reaches back to high school (sickie).
The scrutiny of Biden’s past behavior in a new light is only one of the challenges he may face if he enters the presidential race. Since Biden last ran for president on his own in 2008, the Democratic Party has shifted dramatically in recent years, with much of the energy being guided by millennials, women and people of color.....
Any one of them would be better than this sick old fossil.
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"Man charged with making false statements after abuse claim" by Dan Sewell and Don Babwin Associated Press, April 5, 2019
CINCINNATI — A 23-year-old former convict accused of pulling a cruel hoax by pretending to be a long-missing Illinois boy was charged Friday with making false statements to authorities.
The FBI said the suspect had twice before made similar claims in which he falsely portrayed himself as a juvenile sex-trafficking victim.
Brian Rini of Medina, Ohio, was jailed in Cincinnati on Thursday, a day after he identified himself to authorities as Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared in 2011 at age 6. The FBI declared Rini’s story a hoax based on DNA testing.
The charge against Rini should send a message about the damage that making such false claims can cause, said Benjamin Glassman, US attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
‘‘It’s not OK to do it, because of the harm that it causes, the pain, for the family of that missing child,’’ Glassman said.
Except is is okay if you are trying to start a war!
Glassman said authorities were skeptical early on of Rini’s claim because he refused to be fingerprinted.
Rini was found Wednesday in Newport, Ky., ‘‘wandering the street and looking confused and in need of assistance,’’ according to the six-page affidavit from FBI agent Mary Braun.
After identifying himself as Pitzen, Rini complained of abdominal pain and was taken to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Emergency Room, the affidavit said. Rini refused to be fingerprinted Wednesday and Thursday but agreed to a DNA test that on Thursday identified him as Rini, according to Braun.
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Also see:
Gender bending fashion at the MFA: Men in skirts, women in tuxes, them in genderless gear
Making one even more convinced of the contrived conspiracy surrounding water bottles or melon.
"Beverly man accused of sending threatening letters to Trump sons avoids prison" by Maria Cramer Globe Staff, April 19, 2019
Prosecutors called Daniel Frisiello of Beverly a prolific letter writer who filled his missives with white powder to terrify the sons of President Trump and other high-profile public figures.
His family and doctors said the case was more complex: At the time of his arrest in March 2018, Frisiello was a 24-year-old autistic man with serious cognitive problems and little understanding of the chaos and fear he had caused.
It never ends!
On Friday, dozens of his relatives filled a Boston courtroom and waited anxiously to hear the decision of US District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton, a judge known for handing down tough sentences and following the recommendations of prosecutors, who in this case were seeking three years imprisonment.
“I’m not going to send the defendant to jail,” Gorton said.
Frisiello lowered his head in relief and his lawyer, William Fick, patted his back. The FBI agents who had pursued the case were stoic as Frisiello’s relatives gasped and began to cry.
“Thank God,” one of them whispered.
Frisiello’s supporters had sent about 90 letters imploring Gorton to spare Frisiello from prison. He had pleaded guilty in October 2018 to 19 counts of mailing threats and hoaxes.
It was an unexpected outcome in a case that drew national attention in large part because of the people Frisiello targeted in his letters: Eric Trump and his older brother, Donald Trump Jr.; Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat; law enforcement leaders in Connecticut and Rhode Island; and the office Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn III.
In his letter to Quinn’s office, Frisiello threatened to shoot the prosecutor in the case of Michelle Carter, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself.
See the many faces of a Russian agent (see update here before quitting)!
In February, 2018 Frisiello sent a letter to the New York home of Donald Trump Jr. that said, “You are an awful, awful person . . . This is the reason why people hate you, so you are getting what you deserve.”
Trump Jr.’s then-wife, Vanessa, opened that letter and was rushed to the hospital after white powder fell from it. The powder was not toxic, but prosecutors said the substance showed Frisiello wanted to intimidate people he disagreed with politically or simply disliked.
Frisiello’s therapist and family had encouraged him to write letters to celebrities and political leaders, believing it would help him gain a stronger sense of self-worth. They did not know he was threatening people, according to one of his doctors, who wrote a report on Frisiello’s behalf that was cited in the defense sentencing memorandum.
Now this is looking like the "therapists" manipulating a vulnerable idiot in what can only be described as a contrived series of events!
“The tragedy in this case is that Daniel’s letter-writing, which began as a benign activity, was an important outlet for his self-expression, and allowed this socially anxious, cognitively limited, and deeply isolated young man a meaningful connection to the world,” the doctor wrote.
Yeah, he was just blowing off steam.
Fick said that Frisiello accepts responsibility for his actions but argued that prison would be the worst place for someone like him. After his arrest, he spent 12 days at the Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island where he was kept in isolation for nine days. Fick said in that short amount of time Frisiello became withdrawn and unable to engage with visitors. His mother, Joyce Frisiello, wrote of how he sobbed uncontrollably during her visits.
“Although an adult by age, Daniel is still emotionally, intellectually and functionally still a child,” Joyce Frisiello wrote Gorton on April 8. “I am almost certain that incarceration in federal prison would destroy him physically, mentally and emotionally.”
Now I'm thinking crisis actors!
WTF?!
It appeared those concerns swayed Gorton. He imposed strict conditions on Frisiello, who will spend one year under house arrest and cannot leave unless it is for work, religious services, or mental health treatment. Frisiello also cannot access the Internet, send e-mail or letters, or even use a cellphone unless he receives the permission of probation.
“If you violate any of those conditions . . . your probation will be revoked and you will indeed go to prison,” Gorton warned Frisiello. “Do not underestimate how seriously I am treating your crimes.”
UNREAL!
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If you want to root around in the weeds, this Globe is for you.
Related:
"A psychologist who examined her told the court the suspect is “bright, articulate” with “no reported mental health or substance abuse,” the psychologist said. Deborah Gideon, a 53-year-old Hyde Park woman [who] has worked as a nurse for 20 years, told the psychologist the charges amounted to “religious persecution” and that she doesn’t think she can get a fair trial, owing to “Christian persecution,” the psychologist said. “Her rational understanding may be impaired,” the psychologist said....."
Another self-inflicted false flag, wouldn't you know!
"Man arrested after allegedly making racist death threats against Omar, Tlaib and Booker, officials say" by Eli Rosenberg Washington Post, April 19, 2019
A Florida man was arrested and charged Friday with allegedly making a series of threatening phone calls to Democratic officials, in which he ranted in explicitly racist terms about Muslims, black people, and Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota.
John Kless, 49, of the Fort Lauderdale area, was charged with making an interstate threat, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
Marlene Fernandez-Karavetsos, a spokeswoman for Fajardo Orshan, the US attorney for Southern Florida, said Kless was expected to be released on a $25,000 bond. She said that some weapons owned by him had been seized but declined to give specifics.
Officials said that Kless made a series of disturbing phone calls on Tuesday, beginning, at 7 a.m. with a phone call to the office of Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, who recently announced a 2020 presidential campaign.
‘‘The day you come after our guns,’’ Kless said a voice mail, ‘‘is the day you’ll be dead,’’ according to the federal court complaint filed against him. He ranted about 9/11, ‘‘illegals coming in,’’ and used the n-word to describe people on welfare, prosecutors said.
‘‘You’re gonna die,’’ Kless continued, according to the complaint. ‘‘You’ll be your death bed . . . along with all the rest of you Democrats.’’
About 10 minutes later he left a message for Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, officials said. She and Omar are the first Muslim women elected to Congress.
Prosecutors said he ranted at length about Omar, focusing in particular on the way she had referred to the 9/11 terrorist attacks at a recent event, and using multiple racial epithets to describe both her and Tlaib.
Prosecutors said he added that there were ‘‘millions of us who hate you . . . for what you done on 9/11,’’ and used both Muslim and black racial epithets against former president Barack Obama, as well.
The arrest comes amid complaints from Omar’s supporters that the right-wing fixation on her statements about 9/11 could amount to an incitement of violence.
The latest controversy over Omar stems from comments she made in March that were resurfaced earlier this month. During a speech about Islamophobia, Omar had referred to 9/11 in a way that some felt was dismissive.
And we all must bow down and worship upon the altar of the official story and narrative of that event.
Prosecutors said Kless’s last threatening phone call of the day Tuesday was made to Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey. He called Booker the n-word and other racial epithets, continued to rant about Omar’s 9/11 remark, and made several violent threats, according to a transcript included in the indictment.
‘‘We need to kill all you,’’ he said, according to the transcript.
Kless had previously made a harassing phone call to Representative Nancy Pelosi’s office where he ranted about people taking away his guns, abortion, illegal immigration, and Muslims in Congress, the court complaint said.....
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He thinks he is a free speech martyr that will mollify your concerns.
