DEFENSE SECRETARY HAGEL CALLS NATO "AN ANCHOR OF SECURITY FOR THE WORLD"

 

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel receives the Atlantic Council's 2014 Distinguished International Leadership Award from Brent Scowcroft, chairman of the Atlantic Council International Advisory Board, during an awards ceremony and dinner at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, April 30, 2014. DOD photo by Glenn Fawcett. 

Hagel Emphasizes NATO’s Importance to World Security
By Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2014 – On a night in which the Atlantic Council honored Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the secretary called NATO an anchor of security for the world.

After receiving the council’s Distinguished International Leadership Award here last night, Hagel said he's been privileged and fortunate to have lived at such a spectacular time in world history. While this time is not without its problems and new threats emerge daily, he said, the transatlantic alliance embodied by NATO has served as a bulwark for peace and security.

"I know of no anchor of security more important to keeping peace in the world since World War II than NATO," Hagel said.

NATO has been instrumental to averting problems like those that occurred in the first 50 years of the 20th century, the defense secretary said. "Problems? Yes. Still humanitarian disasters? Yes. Conflicts? Yes. But overall, it's been a pretty successful last 60 years because of this alliance."

And though all of the world's problems haven't yet been solved, he said, the nations of the world have built platforms, abilities and alliances to work together in common purpose to address these challenges together.

"And that, fundamentally, was the point of NATO: knitting together a strong transatlantic alliance after World War II," Hagel said.

Today's accelerated rate of change and shift is unprecedented in the history of man, the defense secretary noted. But, he said, the rapid pace of change demonstrates that the groundwork laid more than 60 years ago is paying dividends.

"Wasn't that the point behind all of this effort that our great leaders came to and agreed upon after World War II -- to, in fact, give people of the world opportunities, freedom? That is directly connected to security and continuity and stability," Hagel said.

And while that hard work is paying off, he said, it also brings new complications.
"Therein,” he said, “lies the essence of alliances -- alliances of common purpose. … We probably won't always agree on issues, but on the end result and the purpose of an alliance, the purpose of [governance], the purpose of organized society remains the same."

After World War II, the great leaders of the era came together to form a lasting alliance because the world had had enough war, Hagel noted. But after extended periods of conflict, nations tend to look inward, he cautioned, and now the world runs the risk of again becoming captive to that kind of inward thinking, the defense secretary said.

"I don't think we're there," he said, "but it's going to require continued focused strong, steady, wise [and] engaged leadership with the world, with each other. … This is not a time to retreat. This is not a time to pull back."
NATO and organizations like it allow nations to engage peacefully with each other, even when the world remains dangerous, Hagel said.

"If there was ever a time in history where we have the tools, where we have the capacity, where we have the institutions to engage and fix the problems, it is now," the defense secretary said.

TO ONLY FALL ASLEEP, NSF EXAMINES RESEARCH

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Finding a formula for zzzzzzzs

Math and a good night's sleep

We boast when our infant finally sleeps through the night. We bemoan the teenager who requires a cannon shot to arise from his bed before noon. And in our "golden" years, we wonder why sleep is so fleeting, yet napping seems to come as easily as breathing. Such are the mysteries of sleep.

And when we think of a way to understand sleep and wakefulness better, it's natural to think of biologists, behavioral scientists, neuroscientists and even mattress makers who for years have studied all kinds of animals and approaches to help us get a better night's sleep. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep problems that range from insomnia and sleep apnea to narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome, and circadian rhythm disorders.

CDC's Sleep and Sleep Disorders Team, which evaluates the prevalence and impacts of sleep insufficiency and sleep disorders has said, "sleep deprivation is associated with injuries, chronic diseases, mental illnesses, poor quality of life..., increased health care costs and lost work productivity."

These days, researchers have found that in taking a collaborative approach to addressing sleep-related issues, mathematics needs to be part of the equation.

Janet Best, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded mathematician at The Ohio State University who is affiliated with the NSF-funded Mathematical Biosciences Institute there, has spent the past 10 years studying sleep-wake cycles using mathematical models.

"To understand sleep, we try to reformulate biological questions in terms of mathematics, typically systems of differential equations," she explained. "Sleep is both regular and random. It's regular in that we go to sleep generally at the same time of day. The randomness occurs in infants who seem to have no pattern to their sleep cycles and in the variability of when we might wake up during the night. I've been investigating how neural structures in the brain affect the random and regular transitions between sleep and wake."

By describing through equations the properties of neurons involved in sleep-wake brain circuitry, Best develops mathematical models for the way in which the neurons interact and influence each other. She checks model predictions against data that biologists have accumulated in studies involving both humans and rats. Surprisingly, baby rats' sleep patterns go through similar changes as those of human infants, but it is not clear how similar adult rat sleep is to human sleep.

"The idea is to see how people sleep normally, so we can understand when things go wrong," Best said. "Throughout the night we experience bouts of sleep and wakefulness. There's variability that we're aware of, but actually even more variability is occurring--we only recall longer wake episodes. However, both short and long episodes occur, and that's something I'm trying to understand. Experimentalists collect data on these wake-sleep bouts. Since the length of sleep and wake bouts and the transitions between them show some regular and some random behavior, the differential equations must have both of these facets."

Best became interested in sleep research as a doctoral student in mathematics after she had a bike accident. She suffered a serious head injury and began to experience simultaneous sleep and wakeful moments. In other words--not to be confused with daydreaming--she would experience dreams while being awake, and memories and dreams were being stored in a way that differentiating between the two was difficult. The medical literature of the time, however, said her experience was impossible.

"In 10 years, there have been a lot of changes in this field," she said. "Ten years ago, the emphasis was on regular patterns. Now the random aspects of sleep are getting more attention. Models are now based on the real underlying physiology."

That means that Best now spends a lot of time working with non-mathematicians. Beyond reading research papers by biologists and neuroscientists and using data from their experiments in her model, Best also works directly with sleep researchers who do experiments on rodents or who see patients clinically.

"You need a lot of interaction with biologists and medical scientists, and you have to have conversations with the people who generate the data," Best said. "If I relied just on reading the papers, I would not be able to understand all of the underlying hypotheses and the ways in which the data was collected, and that could significantly affect how I formulate the mathematical models."

Best's research benefits from the Mathematical Biosciences Institute at Ohio State, which hosts 12 workshops a year, drawing world-renowned bioscience experts and providing an important crossroads for biology and mathematics. Best, herself, collaborates with researchers both at Ohio State and at other institutions. In fact, she's currently on sabbatical at Duke University so she can work more closely with some of her collaborators there.

"The understanding of sleep-wake cycles can have enormous impact on developing a better knowledge of the dynamics of the brain and, in turn, how systems within an entire physiological organism interact and function," said Mary Ann Horn, an NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences program director. "Research that involves collaboration between mathematical and biological scientists gives rise to results for which not only does the biology inform the modeling and analysis, but also spurs new mathematical developments as novel techniques are developed to address these challenging questions."

"NSF support has been extremely important to my career," Best said. "It has allowed me to maintain a research group, support graduate students and devote myself 100 percent to my research during the times of year when my academic salary stops."

She believes the BRAIN Initiative, announced by the Obama Administration a little over a year ago, will also help advance this field of study, too.

"It's enormously difficult to figure out how the brain works," she said. "We're talking about 100 billion neurons, all this chemistry, hormones--so many variables. We have to infer how brains accomplish their tasks. And there are always multiple ways that a particular task can happen, so the challenge comes in teasing apart information, and in my case, building a good model that helps fill in the missing pieces."

Best and her collaborators are gradually doing just that when it comes to understanding sleep-wake cycles. Their findings indicate that the longer a "wake bout" during the night, the less likely it is that sleep will come along to interrupt it. And while one might think the same would be true for a "sleep bout," it doesn't appear to be. Sleep bouts seem to be equally prone to interruption at any moment. The mathematical models show how the structure of the neuronal network affects the timing of the sleep-wake bouts.

These findings may not sound particularly groundbreaking, but understanding interesting and unusual phenomena can give clues to the underlying sleep-wake mechanisms. Researchers investigate the mechanisms by transforming them into mathematical models and testing the models against data. If the models work well and provide a good understanding, then the researchers could potentially develop insomnia treatments, effective remedies for medical condition-induced sleep disorders, or strategies to reduce jet lag more quickly.

"There are a lot of data from sleep studies," Best said, "but data by itself does not give understanding. One must understand the underlying neural mechanisms. The sleep-wake field is growing very rapidly now, and this is providing new data for us to interpret and understand. The mathematical analysis and the comparison with new data should enable us to formulate a new understanding of how sleep-wake functions."

-- Ivy F. Kupec,
Investigators
Janet Best
Related Institutions/Organizations
Ohio State University
Mathematical Biosciences Institute

SEC CHARGES RETIREMENT PLAN ADMINISTRATOR WITH DEFRAUDING INVESTORS WITH IRA ACCOUNTS

FROM:  SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges and an asset freeze against a Utah-based retirement plan administrator who defrauded investors in self-directed individual retirement accounts (IRAs), causing them to lose millions of dollars of savings.

The SEC alleges that American Pension Services Inc. (APS) and its founder, president and CEO Curtis L. DeYoung squandered more than $22 million of investor funds on high-risk investments.  DeYoung hid the losses by issuing inflated account statements, allowing him to continue collecting fees and further victimizing his customers.

“This misconduct jeopardized retirement security for thousands of APS customers,” said Karen L. Martinez, director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional Office.

According to the SEC’s complaint unsealed yesterday in federal court in Salt Lake City,  DeYoung’s scheme dates back to at least 2005 and targeted customers with retirement accounts holding non-traditional assets typically not available through traditional 401(k) retirement plans or other IRA custodians.  Although APS has no authority to direct customer trades, DeYoung allegedly used forged letters and signatures to invest on behalf of customers, including in promissory notes issued by a friend whose businesses never turned a profit.  DeYoung continued to recommend that APS customers invest in the notes, and he sent customer funds to the friend until at least April 2013 without disclosing to investors that the friend had defaulted on the notes in 2010 and DeYoung had forgiven the debt.

The SEC further alleges that investments in other bankrupt ventures, including an office building in Wichita, Kan., caused APS customers to lose more money.  APS concealed those losses and issued account statements that inflated the value of customer holdings, allowing APS to levy fees based on the full value of the holdings even when they were worthless.

According to the SEC’s complaint, when DeYoung was questioned by the SEC about a $22 million gap between actual holdings and those showing on account statements, he invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to answer.

The Honorable Robert J. Shelby granted the SEC’s request for a temporary restraining order to freeze the assets of APS and DeYoung.  The court appointed Diane Thompson of Ballard Spahr LLP as the receiver in this case to recover investor assets.

HABTOM NERHAY EXTRADITED FROM ERITREA TO U.S. TO FACE CHARGES OF HUMAN SMUGGLING

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, April 28, 2014

Alleged Human Smuggler Extradited to Face Charges in Washington, D.C.

Habtom Merhay, a national of Eritrea and a citizen of the United Kingdom, made his initial appearance Monday in Washington, D.C., federal court to face human smuggling charges for his role in smuggling primarily Eritrean and Ethiopian undocumented migrants from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, through South and Central America and Mexico into the United States.

Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. of the District of Columbia and Acting Special Agent in Charge Katrina W. Berger of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) made the announcement.

Merhay, 47, arrived in the United States on April 25, 2014, and made his initial appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson in the District of Columbia.   He was indicted under seal in the District of Columbia in 2012, and the charges were unsealed today.   Merhay has been in the custody of Moroccan authorities pending extradition since his arrest in Marrakech, Morocco, in August 2013.

The indictment charges Merhay with one count of conspiracy to bring undocumented migrants to the United States for profit and 15 counts of unlawfully bringing an undocumented migrant to the United States for profit.   Court documents allege that Merhay operated with a network of smugglers in Africa, the United Arab Emirates, South and Central America, Mexico and elsewhere to coordinate and implement arrangements, including providing fraudulent identity and travel documents, for undocumented migrants to travel through Latin America and ultimately into the United States without authorization.   For up to $15,000, Merhay arranged for individual undocumented migrants to travel from points in Africa to a house or apartment in Dubai, where he provided travel documents, tickets and instructions for meeting other smugglers while on the way to the United States.   Merhay coordinated the migrants’ air travel to South America, where they would meet with Merhay’s associates, who would direct or guide them across the various country borders.   The undocumented migrants then met with other smugglers associated with Merhay and were further guided north to Mexico and then into the United States, sometimes by crossing the Rio Grande River by raft.

The investigation was conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and ICE-HSI.  The ECT program focuses on human smuggling networks that may present particular national security or public safety risks or present grave humanitarian concerns.  ECT has dedicated investigative, intelligence and prosecutorial resources.  ECT coordinates and receives assistance from other U.S. government agencies and foreign law enforcement authorities.

The investigation was conducted by HSI Washington.  This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Jay Bauer of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederick Yette of the District of Columbia.  The extradition was handled by Dan E. Stigall of the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs.

The Department of Justice and HSI expressed their appreciation for the significant assistance provided by the Moroccan Ministry of Justice.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT EMBASSY ADDIS ABABA AND U.S. MISSION TO THE AFRICAN UNION

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at Embassy Addis Ababa and the U.S. Mission to the African Union

Remarks

John Kerry

   Secretary of State

Patricia M. Haslach

   Ambassador to Ethiopia

Embassy Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

May 1, 2014

---

AMBASSADOR HASLACH: Salam’no. I’d like to welcome you all today. Thanks for coming in.

We’d like to welcome Secretary Kerry back to our Embassy here. Secretary, about a week ago we had an awards ceremony here for all of our employees and that we were all honored by all the great work that everyone here does and now we’re doubly honored to have you here with us today.

SECRETARY KERRY: Wow. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, Ambassador. Thank you very much Ambassador Haslach. Thank you for all that you do.

I remember very well presenting the award to the marathon winner, Desisa, when I was here last time and he, rather remarkably, gave his marathon medal to me to take back to Boston, and it was really an enormous gesture of friendship and very, very well received. Everybody back in Boston was very excited.

This year, nothing negative to anybody in Ethiopia, but an American won the Boston Marathon. (Applause.) So, anyway. Pretty remarkable, though I might add of Kenyan descent. So I don’t know what it is. We’ve got to, I think, somehow get people running more or something like that.
Anyway, it’s great to be here with everybody. I just had the privilege of meeting two people – Ms. Mezegebua Tadesse – where is she? Here somewhere. She’s FSN – Foreign Service National award winner of the year. And with her also, Ephrem Girma, who has been the transportation division and helps to arrange the movement of all the vehicles. So why doesn’t everybody say “thank you” to our two Foreign Service nationals again? Well, probably – (Applause.)

You already did that, right, when they were awarded? But anyway. But I’m the Secretary of State and I get to come here and do that at least once anyway. And pleasure to do so.
I’m delighted to be here with your terrific ambassador. Patricia is a pro and she’s been in many, many spots and earned her spurs, and I think you have great leadership here. And the all-star DCM Molly Phee to support the efforts. And I’m honored to be here with all of you again. This is like old home week for me here now. Start doing this regularly, in Addis Ababa.
But I just came from a good meeting at the AU. I want to pay tribute to Reuben Brigety and the AU team here. This is sort of one team/two missions, and I appreciate that slogan and I appreciate all that it imparts in terms of what goes on here.

This is a critical time and I mentioned that just now in my comments as we open the dialogue – the High-Level Dialogue between us and the AU. Africa is on the move, but there’s also a lot of challenge. Eight of the ten fastest growing countries in the world are in Africa, and at the same time, some very persistent, dangerous conflicts – one right next door – are threatening to pull at least some countries back into an era that we really had hoped we had left behind.

So we have some serious challenges right now to try to mobilize a sufficient international sanctioned force of African Union, principally, countries that are able to go in and try to make peace and keep people from engaging in this unbelievably dangerous downward ethnic, sectarian spiral that winds up with literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people paying a price. Here is Addis Ababa, you all are on the cutting edge of that because this is the home of the AU, and also because Ethiopia plays such an essential role – a key role, a leadership role – and we’re very, very grateful for that.

I knew former Prime Minister Meles when I first became involved with the issue of Sudan a number of years ago, met with him here and talked with him frequently. And now I talk to Prime Minister Hailemariam likewise, and the – Foreign Minister Tedros as we try to navigate our way to try to help resolve that issue. But in every respect, this post where you have some two hundred-plus direct hire members of the Embassy team and the various teams that come with it – Defense Department, Justice Department, Agriculture Department, USAID, and so forth – also with our thousand or so foreign nationals who help us here, and I want to particularly say thank you to you. We’ll all – the foreign nationals who are here – I know this is a holiday even. So I’m – I don’t know if you’re crazy or I’m particularly grateful – (laughter) – but I want to thank you for being here today. (Applause.) Thank you.

It means a lot to me that you came in here today, I really mean that, so that I have an opportunity to say thank you to you. But I’ve also got something special for you. Since it’s a holiday, I’m going to make you feel really good. All of the Foreign Service nationals are about to get a 45[1] percent pay increase. (Cheers and applause.) And I want you to know – (applause) – it’s long overdue. You deserve it, and I want to note that the biggest applause of the day was for you getting your money, I don’t know. (Laughter.) Go figure. (Laughter.)

Everybody else, you will get a much smaller pay increase. (Laughter.) I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is. But at least it’s moving in a better direction than it has been in the last years, and I’m happy for all of you for that, that – it’s very important.

So look, very, very short message to everybody here. We are unbelievably grateful to you for what you’re doing. I personally as Secretary can’t thank you enough for the time you put in to carry the message of our country, but I’m happy to say I think it’s a universal message about the rights of people to be free, about democracy, about the ability for people to be able to choose their government and not be oppressed when they speak out or say something.

We still have some work to do here with respect to political inclusivity and liberty and freedom, and we’ll work at it steadily. We will never stop working at that. But all of you who are Americans are the face of America, and those of you who are foreign nationals – not just of here, but maybe of somewhere else – you have freely chosen to help us carry this message about health care, about education, about job opportunities, about the ability to be free from oppression, and to speak out and speak your mind. This is not an easy task, and so I just want to say a profound thank you to all of you for being willing to undertake that. It is always – got its challenges, as we all know.

This is a time here in Africa where there are a number of different cross-currents of modernity that are coming together to make things even more challenging. Some people believe that people ought to be able to only do what they say they ought to do, or to believe what they say they ought to believe, or live by their interpretation of something that was written down a thousand plus, two thousand years ago. That’s not the way I think most people want to live.
And so we’re engaged in a long-term challenge, a long-term investment. There is a saying in Africa that if you want to go somewhere quickly, go alone, but if you want to go somewhere far, go together. That’s what we’re trying to do here. That’s what we will work to do with AU, with partner countries, with our friends around the planet, all of whom have a vision for a world that can be more stable, and for a place that can welcome everybody with a sense of tolerance and understanding, that we have learned too many ways through horrible circumstances, when we don’t honor that, bad things happen.

So thank you to every single one of you for being part of this incredible embassy effort. Thank you, ambassador, for your leadership. And I look forward – I’m sure I’ll see you again when I come through here sometime in the future. Can’t guarantee you there’ll be a 45[2] percent pay increase that time, but please be nice to me anyway. Thank you. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA CONGRATULATES PEOPLE OF IRAQ ON THEIR PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

May 01, 2014

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Statement by the President on Elections in Iraq

On behalf of the American people, I congratulate the Iraqi people on the completion of yesterday’s parliamentary elections.  Millions of Iraqis embraced their democratic right to vote.  The people of Iraq know better than anyone else the enormous challenges that they face, and yesterday’s turnout demonstrated to the world that they seek to pursue a more stable and peaceful future through the political process.  Once results are finalized, a new parliament will convene and debate the makeup of a new government to serve the Iraqi people.  Whatever the outcome of this process, it should serve to unite the country through the formation of a new government that is supported by all Iraqi communities and that is prepared to advance tangible and implementable programs.  There will be more difficult days ahead, but the United States will continue to stand with the Iraqi people as partners in their pursuit of a peaceful, unified and prosperous future.

U.S. EXTENDS WARM WISHES TO PEOPLE OF POLAND ON THEIR CONSTITUTION DAY

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
On the Occasion of Poland's Constitution Day
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
May 1, 2014

On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I extend warm wishes to the people of Poland on the 223rd anniversary of your constitution on May 3.

I had the privilege of traveling to Poland as Secretary of State in November. I’ll never forget standing at the gravesite of former Prime Minister Mazowiecki. It was deeply moving to lay a wreath on behalf of the people of the United States in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the cause of freedom and human rights.

The United States and Poland share a remarkable history. It’s been well over two centuries since George Washington and Casimir Pulaski stood side by side as America was struggling for freedom. And it’s safe to say that our two countries have stood side by side ever since.

Today, Poland is a model of successful democratic transition for many nations and a powerful reminder that investment in democratic institutions creates the conditions for prosperity. We especially appreciate Poland’s support for the people of Ukraine as they move forward on constitutional reform and elections.

As NATO Allies, the U.S.-Poland security partnership is stronger than ever. U.S. and Polish forces train together in Poland and our troops fight together in Afghanistan. As I said during my visit to Poland last year, our strategic partnership remains strong and the U.S. supports Poland’s defense modernization.

As you celebrate Constitution Day, we offer the people of Poland our warmest wishes and look forward to strengthening the Polish-American relationship in the years to come.

U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTS FOR MAY 1, 2014

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

CONTRACTS

NAVY

Northrop Grumman Technical Services, Herndon, Virginia (N00189-14-D-Z012); Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia (N00189-14-D-Z014); Capstone Corp., Alexandria, Virginia (N00189-14-D-Z015); Science Applications International Corp., McLean, Virginia (N00189-14-D-Z016); Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems Inc., Bethesda, Maryland (N00189-14-D-Z017); General Dynamics Information Technology, Needham, Massachusetts (N00189-14-D-Z018); MacAulay-Brown Inc., Dayton, Ohio (N00189-14-D-Z019) are being awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts to the Joint Force Development program continuously adaptive support for training and real-world operations by offering varying combinations of education (academics), training assessment, experimentation (warfighting solutions), and infrastructure as the foundation of learning. The total estimated value for the seven contracts combined is $876,934,815. These seven contractors shall compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contracts. Work will be performed at various contractor facilities (86 percent) and at government facilities (14 percent) as task orders are determined. Work is expected to be completed by April 30, 2019. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance, defense appropriations funds in the amount of $210,000 will be obligated at the time of award, and funds will not expire before the end of the current fiscal year. The requirement was competitively procured through full and open competition and solicited through the Federal Business Opportunities website, with eight offers received in response to this solicitation. NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department, Philadelphia Office, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the contracting activity.

Armtec Countermeasures Co., Coachella, California, is being awarded $29,900,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity delivery order contract for the manufacture of the simulator, flare, and SM-875/ALE. The SM-875B/ALE is a training flare which can be used to familiarize pilots and ordnance technicians with operational use and handling of decoy flares. Work will be performed at East Camden, Arkansas, and work is expected to be completed by April 2017. Fiscal 2014 procurement of ammunition Navy and Marine Corps funds in the amount of $10,676,945 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire before the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with two offers received in response to the solicitation. The NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00104-14-D-K064).

Shell Marine Products US, Houston, Texas, is being awarded a $14,953,192 modification under a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00033-13-D-8020) with firm-fixed-price delivery orders to exercise a one-year option for the supply and related services of lubricant oil products for the Engineering Directorate of the Military Sealift Command and other government agencies in need of lubricant oil supplies and related services. Work will be performed worldwide and is expected to be completed May 4, 2015. If all options are exercised, work will continue through May 2018. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Working capital funds in the amount of $14,953,192 will be obligated in fiscal 2014 on the individual delivery orders are they are issued, and will expire at the end of this current fiscal year. The U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, San Diego, California, is being awarded a $10,833,670 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the development and integration of a Multi Capability Pod (MCAP) onto the MQ-8C, including the purchase of two MCAPS and one MCAP Mass Model. The MCAP provides multiple electronic warfare sensors for employment in the littorals. Work will be performed in Rancho Bernardo, California (59 percent); Chantilly, Virginia (40 percent); and Fort Worth, Texas (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in June 2015. Fiscal 2013 research, development, test and evaluation, Defense-wide and fiscal 2013 procurement, Defense-wide funds in the amount of $10,833,670 are being obligated at time of award, $4,219,667 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-14-C-0011).

InSynergy Engineering Inc.*, Honolulu, Hawaii, is being awarded a maximum amount $7,500,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for architect-engineer services for various utility systems and energy studies at various locations under the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Pacific area of responsibility (AOR). The work to be performed provides for, but is not limited to, electrical utility system studies, mechanical utility system studies, civil utility system studies and engineering and mapping services for various projects with associated multi-discipline architect-engineer support services. No task orders are being issued at this time. Work will be performed at various installations within the NAVFAC Pacific AOR. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of May 2019. Navy working capital funds in the amount of $10,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website with 11 proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62742-14-D-0101).

ARMY

Onopa/Dorado Joint Venture II*, Sanford, Florida (W912P8-14-D-0014); Conquistador Dorado, Joint Venture*, Sanford, Florida (W912P8-14-D-0015); Xpert’s Inc.*, San Juan, Puerto Rico (W912P8-14-D-0016); Coastal/QRI Joint Venture*, New Orleans, Louisiana (W912P8-14-D-0017); TFR Enterprise Inc.*, Leander, Texas (W912P8-14-D-0018); TFR Enterprise Inc.*, Leander, Texas (W912P8-14-D-0019); will share a $580,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for advanced contracting initiative debris management services for the United States and its territories (small business set-aside). Funding and performance locations will be determined with each order. Bids were solicited via the Internet with 21 received. Estimated completion date is May 1, 2019. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans, Louisiana, is the contracting activity.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Herndon, Virginia, was awarded a $27,345,564 firm-fixed-price, multi-year contract for point-of-presence A-Kits (maximum quantity 111) and soldier network extension A-Kits (maximum quantity 525). A-Kits are a critical component of the network vehicle integration upgrade for the MRAP A-ATV. Funding and work performance location will be determined with each order. Estimated completion date is April 29, 2017. Bids were solicited via the Internet with 13 received. Army Contracting Command, Warren Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-14-D-0065).
IBIS TEK LLC*, Butler, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $17,990,222 modification (P00007) to contract W56HZV-13-C-0036 to exercise option one to purchase armored 58-gallon and 78-gallon B-Kits for the family of medium tactical vehicles. Fiscal 2014 other procurement funds in the amount of $8,289,182; fiscal 2013 in the amount of $8,269,709; and fiscal 2012 in the amount of $1,431,331 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion dated is Feb. 27, 2015. Work will be performed in Butler, Pennsylvania. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity.

Blinderman Construction Co., Inc.*, Chicago, Illinois, was awarded an $11,356,438 firm-fixed-price contract with options for the renovation of Historical Building 211, Fort Riley, Kansas. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $11,356,438 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Dec. 2, 2015. Bids were solicited via the Internet with 14 received. Work will be performed at Fort Riley, Kansas. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City, Missouri is the contracting activity (W912DQ-14-C-4004).

National Technologies Associates Inc., Alexandria, Virginia, was awarded a $6,567,668 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for engineering/logistics and acquisition logistics support services to the V-22 Joint Program Office. Fiscal 2014 other procurement funds in the amount of $3,751,515 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is April 30, 2017. Bids were solicited via the Internet with one received. Work will be performed in Patuxent, Maryland. Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (W15QKN-14-C-0049).

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Tullahoma Industries LLC.,** Tullahoma, Tennessee, has been awarded a maximum $59,389,738 modification (P00105) exercising the first option period on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1050) with four one-year option periods for three types of permethrin Army combat uniform trousers. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina with a May 6, 2015 performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2015 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
*Small Business

**Small Business in HUBZone

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT AFRICAN UNION HIGH-LEVEL DIALOGUE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at the U.S.-African Union High-Level Dialogue

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

African Union Commission

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

May 1, 2014

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Well, Mr. Deputy Chairperson, thank you very, very much. Thank you. First of all, we do feel at home. We’re very grateful to you for another generous welcome. We’re happy to be here. I’m personally happy to be back. And I appreciate the detail and breadth of your opening comments, and they’re very important, particularly your discussion about trade and the possibilities with respect to the meeting in Washington and beyond.

Please extend my best wishes to Chairperson Dlamini-Zuma. I know she’s off on another visit. And we both understood that we were not able to coordinate our schedules sufficiently this time, but I’m very appreciative to her for being willing to allow the meeting to go on, and we’re appreciative for your chairmanship and participation in the meeting. And after I have a chance to share a few comments here and we’ve opened up the meeting, as you know, our Assistant Secretary of State Linda Thomas-Greenfield will continue the dialogue with Ambassador Brigety, and we’ve very appreciative for both of their leadership on these issues.

My privilege is to join you in opening the fourth U.S.-AU High-Level Dialogue. And very simply, President Obama is excited that I am here on his behalf, together with our delegation, in order to build on what we have achieved together since the United States first launched our mission to the AU in 2006. I would note that the United States is the only AU partner with a permanent presence. And we hope that that underscores the importance that we place on the relationship.
It’s fair to say – and I think your comments sort of summarized it when you talked about the reduction in trade to some degree. When you combine that with other challenges throughout Africa, particularly the challenge of governance; some failed states, some failing; the challenge of violence, which we see in obviously the neighbor in South Sudan and in other places, is a challenge for all of us. Because those who challenge stability and peace and the structure of government are doing so by promoting a brand of lawlessness and extremism that is destructive to the democratic hopes and aspirations of the vast majority of people in Africa. So we need to work together.

We also know, in addition to the challenges of that side of the ledger, on the other side of the ledger you have an enormous growth in the population of young people, who need to be educated, who will need jobs in the future. And at the same time, Africa is home to eight of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world. The United States is the largest market in the world, and we think there is a lot more that we can do together to promote prosperity, shared prosperity, in keeping with our shared interests. Doing so is going to be critical to making the most of the economic opportunities. It’s also going to be critical to dealing with this challenge of violence and of young people. I think you know, Mr. Deputy Chair, that there are too many nations that risk falling into broad-based violence, or remain embroiled in too much bloodshed. And so we are very, very supportive.

This morning I had a discussion with our foreign minister friends from Kenya, and from Uganda, and here, our host. And we talked about this, about the challenge of South Sudan now. The United States, I want everybody to understand, fully supports African-led efforts to confront the most deadly conflicts of the continent. And it is clear that the unspeakable violence in Central African Republic, the deliberate killing of civilians on both sides in South Sudan – both of those underscore the urgency of the work that we have to do together. So I came here committed today to make clear to you, and to our colleagues who are working on this issue, that the United States will do everything we can, with the United Nations to support the effort, to bring and help in assisting with a peacekeeping force – peacemaking force, in some cases – and we think that this is absolutely critical.

We are also enormously encouraged by the remarkable economic activity, the rise of the economies that we see in parts of Africa. And we want to support your efforts to spread that prosperity, to make sure that everybody has a sense that they can share in the future. So a lot of this is going to depend on the decisions that we take. It’ll depend on the kinds of things that we’re going to dig into today in this dialogue. It will depend on real, concrete choices that we can make about how we could work together and proceed together. So I think this forum is really a vital opportunity to deepen our partnership and make the most of this particular moment of opportunity on the continent.

Now each of our key areas of success – of focus – peace and security; democracy and governance; economic growth, trade, and investment; and development and opportunity – each of these are critical parts of President Obama’s strategy for the sub-Saharan Africa. That is exactly the way he is looking at and trying to break up the choices that we’re making. They happen to also represent an area where the African Union has already taken a leading role. And so on each of these fronts, you are really already engaged in the business of developing solutions to the real concerns of the continent.

With the dialogue that we’re having here – and you mentioned it – we also have this important meeting. The President is inviting all African nations to come and join us in Washington. It’s not a – I want to emphasize it’s not a summons. It’s not some kind of a sort of summary invitation. It’s really representative of the President’s desire to make clear to the world, as well as to Africa, that we want Washington to focus more on this. And we believe that by inviting people to come to Washington, it will help the Congress of the United States. It will help the American people. It will help everybody to be able to share in the importance of this agenda.

So with our work over the next few days here, with our work together in the weeks and months ahead, we are absolutely committed to forging stronger ties on the continent. And the President, as you know, will be visiting. And he looks forward to that, as we look forward in the two and three-quarter years of his Administration, to strengthen these bonds and open up these opportunities to the greatest degree possible. Most importantly, the President and I and all of us in this delegation want to help forge a shared future, a sense of shared engagement, of shared commitment to making the choices we have to make. And in the end, we’re absolutely confident that the relationship between Africa and the United States will be stronger and better for that. So thank you for inviting me here today to share in this, and we look forward to the dialogue.

DOJ, eBAY INC., SETTLE "NO POACH" HIRING AGREEMENTS CASE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Justice Department Requires eBay to End Anti-competitive “No Poach” Hiring Agreements

Settlement Preserves Competition for High Tech Employees

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement with eBay Inc. that prevents the company from entering into or maintaining agreements with other companies restraining employee recruitment and hiring.
         
The department’s Antitrust Division filed the proposed settlement in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose.   If approved by the court, the settlement would resolve the department’s competitive concerns and the original lawsuit filed on Nov. 16, 2012.

In its lawsuit, the department alleged that senior executives and directors of eBay and Intuit entered into an agreement, beginning no later than 2006, that prevented each firm from recruiting employees from the other and that prohibited eBay from hiring Intuit employees that approached eBay.

In the high technology sector, employees with advanced or specialized skills are highly valued and sought after.   Companies often heavily recruit and hire experienced and capable employees of other technology firms, offering significantly better job opportunities or pay.   The agreement between eBay and Intuit diminished important competition between the firms to attract highly skilled technical and other employees to the detriment of affected employees who had less access to better job opportunities and higher pay.

“eBay’s agreement with Intuit served no purpose but to limit competition between the two firms for employees, distorting the labor market and causing employees to lose opportunities for better jobs and higher pay,” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.   “The proposed settlement resolves the department’s antitrust concerns and ensures that eBay will not engage in similar conduct in the future.”

Previously, in denying eBay’s motion to dismiss the case, the district court found that the agreement alleged by the department, if proven, would constitute a naked horizontal market allocation agreement that was manifestly anticompetitive and lacking in any redeeming virtue, and thus could be found per se unlawful.  

The proposed settlement would prohibit eBay from entering or maintaining anticompetitive agreements relating to employee hiring and retention for five years.   It would broadly prohibit eBay from entering, maintaining or enforcing any agreement that in any way prevents any person from soliciting, cold calling, recruiting, hiring or otherwise competing for employees.   eBay will also implement compliance measures tailored to these practices. Intuit is already subject to a similar consent decree, and for that reason was not a defendant in this case.

Today, the California Attorney General’s Office also filed a settlement in its related case, The People of the State of California v. eBay Inc., based on the same facts alleged in the department’s complaint.
 
This case and the proposed settlement arose out of a series of Antitrust Division investigations into employee recruitment practices at a number of high tech companies.   In September 2010, the Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against six high tech firms– Adobe Systems Inc., Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corporation, Intuit Inc. and Pixar–for antitrust violations arising from “no cold call” agreements.   In December 2010, the Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Lucasfilm Ltd. alleging antitrust violations involving similar activities restraining competition for employees.   In both cases, settlements were filed at the same time the lawsuits were filed resolving the department’s competitive concerns.   Today’s proposed settlement with eBay is substantially the same as the court-approved settlements in the two prior cases.

eBay Inc. is a California corporation with its principal place of business in San Jose.

The proposed settlement, along with the department’s competitive impact statement, will be published in The Federal Register, as required by the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act.   Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement within 60 days of its publication to James J. Tierney, Chief, Networks & Technology Enforcement Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street N.W., Suite 7100, Washington D.C. 20530.   At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the court may enter the final judgment upon a finding that it serves the public interest.

SEC ANNOUNCES ENFORCEMENT ACTION AGAINST NYSE, AFFILIATES FOR COMPLIANCE FAILURE

FROM:  SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an enforcement action against the New York Stock Exchange and two affiliated exchanges for their failure to comply with the responsibilities of self-regulatory organizations (SROs) to conduct their business operations in accordance with Commission-approved exchange rules and the federal securities laws.  Also charged was the NYSE exchanges’ affiliated routing broker Archipelago Securities.

The NYSE exchanges agreed to settle the SEC’s charges by retaining an independent consultant and together with Archipelago Securities paying a $4.5 million penalty.

“The SEC regulates exchanges, in part, by reviewing rules proposed by the exchanges that govern exchange activities and allow market participants to decide how and where to place orders,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.  “We will hold exchanges accountable if they fail to have rules governing their operations or fail to follow them.”

As SROs, the NYSE exchanges are required to conduct their operations in accordance and compliance with their own rules as well as the federal securities laws.  They are required to file all proposed rules and rule changes with the Commission, which publishes them for public comment, before they take effect.  This transparency enables all participants trading on the exchanges to understand how their orders are processed and executed.

According to the SEC’s order instituting settled administrative proceedings, the NYSE exchanges repeatedly engaged in business practices that either violated exchange rules or required a rule when the exchanges had none in effect.  For example, all of the NYSE exchanges used an error account maintained at Archipelago Securities to trade out of securities positions taken on as a result of their operations despite not having rules in effect that permitted them to maintain and use such an account.  In another example, NYSE Arca failed to execute a certain type of limit order under specified market conditions despite having a rule in effect that stated that NYSE Arca would execute such orders.

“The order highlights instances where the exchanges conducted business without a rule in place due to weak or inadequate policies and procedures,” said Antonia Chion, an associate director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.  “In other instances, the exchanges did not operate in compliance with their effective rules.  Both failures reflect a troubling lack of compliance with the requirements and obligations imposed on securities exchanges.”

The violations detailed in the SEC’s order occurred during periods of time from 2008 to 2012.  The SEC’s order finds that the NYSE exchanges violated Section 19(b) and 19(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 through misconduct that included the following:

NYSE, NYSE Arca, and NYSE MKT (formerly NYSE Amex) used an error account maintained at Archipelago Securities to assume and trade out of securities positions without a rule in effect that permitted such trading and in a manner inconsistent with their rules for the routing broker, which limited Archipelago Securities’ activity primarily to outbound and inbound routing of orders on behalf of those exchanges.

NYSE provided co-location services to customers on disparate contractual terms without an exchange rule in effect that permitted and governed the provision of such services on a fair and equitable basis.

NYSE operated a block trading facility (New York Block Exchange) that for a period of time did not function in accordance with the rules submitted by NYSE and approved by the SEC.

NYSE distributed an automated feed of closing order imbalance information to its floor brokers at an earlier time than was specified in NYSE’s rules.
NYSE Arca failed to execute Mid-Point Passive Liquidity Orders (MPLOs) in locked markets (where the bid and ask prices are the same) contrary to its exchange rule in effect at the time.

In addition, the SEC’s order finds that NYSE Arca accepted MPLOs in sub-penny amounts for National Market System stocks trading at over $1.00 per share, in violation of Rule 612(a) of Regulation NMS.

The SEC’s order further finds that Archipelago Securities failed to establish and maintain policies reasonably designed to prevent the misuse of material, nonpublic information in connection with error account trading.  Archipelago Securities also violated and failed to give the SEC timely notice of its violation of the net capital rule – a critical federal securities law provision intended to ensure that brokers and dealers remain solvent and can meet their financial obligations.  

Now wholly-owned subsidiaries of IntercontinentalExchange Inc., NYSE, NYSE Arca, NYSE MKT, and Archipelago Securities have consented to the SEC’s order without admitting or denying the findings.  They agreed to collectively pay the penalty of $4.5 million, and the NYSE exchanges agreed to complete significant undertakings including retaining an independent consultant to complete a comprehensive review of their policies and procedures for determining whether (1) a new business practice or a change to an existing business practice requires the filing with the SEC of a proposed rule or rule change, and (2) business practices requiring an exchange rule are conducted pursuant to and in accordance with an effective exchange rule.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Jason Litow, Vinyard Cooke, and Kevin Gershfeld.  The case was supervised by Yuri Zelinsky and Antonia Chion.

REMARKS: SECRETARY KERRY, AFRICAN FOREIGN MINISTERS MAKE REMARKS ON SOUTH SUDAN

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks With Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom, Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Chawahir Mohamed, And Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa After Their Meeting

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

May 1, 2014

---

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, folks. We just had a very positive meeting, laid out a strong agenda which we all agreed on which we’ll talk about later in the day when we have a little more time. But I think it’s clear that everybody is in agreement the killing must stop; that humanitarian access needs to be delivered; most importantly, a legitimate force that has an ability to help make peace needs to get on the ground as rapidly as possible. And we agreed on both the terms and timing and manner and size, and we need to go to work to make sure that happens. I think that’s a quick summary.

FOREIGN MINISTER TEDROS: Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Anybody else?

FOREIGN MINISTER TEDROS: Thank you. I think I agree with him. One thing that we have stressed is the deployment – as Secretary Kerry said, the deployment of the force as soon as possible. And I think with that, many of the other interests can be addressed. And I would like to use this opportunity, actually, on behalf of my colleagues and myself to thank Secretary Kerry, who is here today with us. But since the crisis started, he has been in contact regularly, frequent phone calls and good support, and we hope that support will continue, especially from him and the U.S. Government, and we really appreciate the support.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER TEDROS: But there is an agreement now that we have to really be as aggressive as possible in order to have an impact on the ground in South Sudan, in order to (inaudible). Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Tedros.

FOREIGN MINISTER TEDROS: Merci.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER TEDROS: Thank you. Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Sam, thank you.

NATIONAL GUARD PROVIDES HELP AFTER TORNADO DAMAGE IN MISSISSIPPI

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

GUARDSMEN PROVIDE RELIEF TO MISSISSIPPI RESIDENTS AFTER TORNADOES

An aerial view shows tornado damage to houses in Tupelo, Miss., April 28, 2014. Mississippi National Guard photo by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jessica McCormick.

An aerial view shows tornado damage to a home in Louisville, Miss., April 29, 2014, where about 50 Mississippi Guardsmen responded to help. Mississippi National Guard photo by U.S. Army Maj. Andy Thaggard.

UNLICENSED DOCTOR, OTHERS CONVICTED IN $14.9 MILLION MEDICARE FRAUD

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Detroit-Area Physical Therapist, Physical Therapy Assistant and Unlicensed Doctor Convicted in $14.9 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

A federal jury in Detroit today convicted a physical therapist, physical therapy assistant and unlicensed doctor for their participation in a nearly $15 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan, Special Agent in Charge Paul M. Abbate of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the Detroit Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Office of Investigations made the announcement.

Shahzad Mirza, 43, a physical therapist; Jigar Patel, 30, a physical therapy assistant; and Srinivas Reddy, 38, a foreign medical school graduate without a license to practice medicine were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in connection with a scheme perpetrated from approximately July 2008 through September 2011 at Detroit area companies Physicians Choice Home Health Care LLC (Physicians Choice), Quantum Home Care Inc. (Quantum), First Care Home Health Care LLC (First Care), Moonlite Home Care Inc. (Moonlite) and Phoenix Visiting Physicians.  In addition, Mirza and Patel were each found guilty of two counts of health care fraud in connection with the submission of false claims to Medicare for home health services, and Reddy was found guilty of three counts of health care fraud in connection with the submission of false claims to Medicare for home health services and physician home visits.  Patel was found guilty of one count of money laundering in connection with his laundering of the proceeds of the fraud through his company MI Healthcare Staffing.

The defendants were charged in a superseding indictment returned Feb. 6, 2012.  Three other individuals charged in the indictment remain fugitives.

According to evidence presented at trial, Physicians Choice, Quantum, First Care and Moonlite operated a fraudulent scheme to bill Medicare for home health care services that were never provided.  The home health care companies paid kickbacks to recruiters who in turn paid Medicare beneficiaries cash and promised them access to narcotic prescriptions.  The conspirators created the company Phoenix Visiting Physicians, which employed unlicensed individuals, including Reddy, to visit patients and provide them with narcotic prescriptions as well as obtain the information necessary to fill out paperwork to refer them for medically unnecessary home health care services.

Evidence presented at trial showed that beneficiaries pre-signed medical paperwork that was provided to Patel and other physical therapist assistants to fill in with false information purporting to show that the care was provided, when it was not.  Patel, registered physical therapist Mirza and others would sign this paperwork as though they had provided services.  In the course of the conspiracy, Patel incorporated his own staffing company, MI Healthcare Staffing, through which he laundered proceeds of the fraud from home health care companies and a shell company owned and operated by his co-conspirators.

Physicians Choice and the related companies were paid nearly $15 million in the course of the conspiracy.

Sentencing for all three defendants has not yet been scheduled.

The investigation was led by the FBI and HHS-OIG, and was brought by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a joint effort of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant Chief Catherine K. Dick and Trial Attorneys Matthew C. Thuesen and Rohan A. Virginkar of the Fraud Section.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged more than 1,700 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $5.5 billion. In addition, HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, is taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BROWNFIELD'S REMARKS AT WILDLIFE CRIMINOLOGY SYMPOSIUM

FROM:   U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at the Wildlife Criminology Symposium

Remarks

William R. Brownfield

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

World Bank,

Washington, DC

April 23, 2014

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Thank you very much, Mr. Magrath and Mr. McCarthy. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to open with my own personal note of thanks, not just to the two gentlemen seated up here with me, but to the entire World Bank. I say this with sincerity. The World Bank has done excellent work in managing, leading, and in many ways, pioneering the effort worldwide to address the crisis of illegal wildlife trafficking. I have this on the best authority on the entire planet – the United States Ambassador to Thailand, a woman to whom I have the unmitigated pleasure of being married for the past 30 years -- and her assessment this morning is that no organization has been more active and more effective in this effort in South East Asia than the World Bank.
Ladies and gentlemen, you may be asking yourselves the question, “What is Mr. Brownfield, a man who is known in the State Department as Mr. Drugs and Thugs, doing here to discuss the issue of international wildlife conservation, protection, and preservation?” My message for all of you is that I am here because there is a very important connection between what I do and what those in the conservation community do. We are talking about two communities that for the past 100, 1000, or 5000 years have not actually worked together a great deal. The conservation community is comprised of men and women who have done extraordinarily effective and noble work in protecting and preserving not dozens, not scores, but hundreds of species of life on our planet that would otherwise be as extinct today as the dinosaurs. To them, we all owe a tremendous debt of gratitude. On the other hand, there is the law enforcement community -- a community that while not traditionally dedicated to the conservation and preservation of species, is very dedicated and quite talented at the process by which we combat and eventually defeat criminal trafficking organizations. Our challenge, ladies and gentlemen – and what I submit to you is the unspoken theme of this symposium - is how to make these two communities work effectively together. That is our challenge for the 21^st century.

I know why I am doing this. I am doing this because two and a half years ago a woman looked at me with very firm eyes and said to me, “Brownfield, you are going to do counter-wildlife trafficking, whether you like it or not.” Her name was Hillary Rodham Clinton and I did what you would expect any Assistant Secretary of State to do under those circumstances -- I said ‘yes Ma’am, I will get right on it.’ And if any of you are wondering whether her departure and the arrival of her successor generated any change in this regard, may I offer you a personal anecdote? The only conversation that I have had with John Kerry that was, shall I say, “pointed,” over the last 14 months has been about how fast I was moving in order to make progress on the issue of wildlife trafficking. So that is why I am here.

Why are you here? I offer the following suggestions. One, you are here because if you did not come or did not focus on this issue, hundreds of species of our planet would be dead, eliminated forever, before this century is out. And second, law enforcers are now dealing with a criminal enterprise that is generating perhaps as much as $10 billion in criminal proceeds every year. Ten billion, ladies and gentlemen, that begins to be real money. You might actually want to begin to pay attention to an enterprise that is moving in an illegal and illicit manner, corrupting institutions and governments to the tune of $10 billion a year.

Ladies and gentlemen, I, like Mr. McCarthy, do not claim to be an expert on wildlife conservation or even on wildlife trafficking. I do think I know something about trafficking in general, and I know that there are certain elements common to each and every one of the trafficking industries. Whether it is cocaine and heroin, firearms, people, cut flowers, or wildlife, I know that first, in every case; there is a demand for the product, which produces a market. In every case, there will be a producer at the source region. Perhaps that producer is growing the product. Perhaps that producer is manufacturing the product. Perhaps that producer is butchering the product in order to traffic it. I know that every trafficking organization develops a logistics network – normally an extremely sophisticated logistics network, because it must move a product from one country across numerous national borders to get to the final market, and it must do so in an illicit manner. Every trafficked product eventually has a retail marketing system at the country of destination. And finally every trafficking network has a financial system that permits those involved in the enterprise eventually to convert their product into some form of cash or other marketable commodity that they can use in the open and licit market. This, law enforcers, is the challenge that we confront as we move down the road toward combatting illegal wildlife trafficking; while every product is different, there are not that many differences between how we will attack this problem and how we attack the problem of drugs or trafficking in persons or trafficking in firearms.

From the law enforcement perspective, we are not at a bad starting point. We do have international conventions, foremost among them CITES, but others as well, that give us the international authority or basis to cooperate and attack this problem. We have certain existing international organizations which have taken on this responsibility, such as Interpol and its regional subgroups, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Customs Organization, even ICCWC, as Leonard laid out. These international organizations or groupings give us natural allies and umbrellas beneath which we can operate. We have regional organizations that have taken on the mission: the OECD, APEC for the Pacific nations, ASEAN specifically for Southeast Asia, and the UN Crime Commission. We are not starting at point zero. Man has walked this path before us and we can take advantage of some of the institutions, the infrastructure, and the architecture that has already been built for us.
For those of us who are from the United States of America, and specifically the United States Government, we have a new weapon as of February of this year, when the President’s new National Strategy for Combatting Wildlife Trafficking came online. This Strategy is easily available online to anyone who may choose to access it.

The President’s National Strategy offers three areas of focus: first, strengthening enforcement of laws and regulations. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I do for a living. I support law enforcement around the world.

Second, reducing demand for illegally trafficked wildlife. That, to a very considerable extent, is what the conservation community does for a living. However, I do predict that demand will drop rather substantially if, for instance, we tell most individuals that they could be sent to prison for 20 years for buying a rhino horn. I predict that the demand for rhino horn just might diminish a little bit as a result of law enforcement efforts.

The third area laid out in this strategy is building greater international and domestic cooperation. And, that is what both the conservation and the law enforcement communities do.
Now, despite the fact that I am widely referred to in the State Department as “drugs and thugs,” I am actually the Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, or INL. We have $15 million that we are putting to wildlife trafficking in 2014. And, without going into detail, I am going to divide it into two basic categories. One, we are processing roughly $5 million through some of these international organizations that I just laid out for you. They have already developed programs that are transnational in scope and address the wildlife trafficking issue in an entire region. They need support, they need funds, they need resources. We are trying to provide some of that for them.

The remaining $10 million or so is going into programs with individual countries and governments. This is heavily focused at this time on Africa, and we will have cooperative and close programs with the Governments of Kenya and the Republic of South Africa. Some of the $10 million will be available for other regional programs and cooperation in southern Africa.
We have organized our work on this issue around four basic categories. The first is what we call “legislative framework.” The principle behind this is amazingly simple: it is very difficult to prosecute someone for wildlife trafficking if there is no law on the books that makes it a criminal offense. Judges get annoyed when prosecutors bring cases before them and the prosecutors cannot explain what law has been violated by the defendant. And, believe it or not, in many countries and regions around the world, there are not existing statutes on the books criminalizing this sort of activity or, in some cases; it is criminalized to such a minimal extent that it becomes the equivalent of a traffic offense or a failure to pay parking tickets. Creating the legislative framework must be the first plank in a successful strategy of combatting wildlife trafficking.

Our second organizational concept is support for law enforcement. In the United States of America, this is largely a ranger’s function, though not exclusively. The more we get into prosecutions, the more state and local law enforcement will become engaged, but trying to stop poachers and traffickers at the point of infraction is an expanded ranger function. By expanded, I mean that what these poor guys have to deal with are groups of people armed to the level of an infantry platoon – that degree of firepower. The prospect of coming in and enforcing the law with a nightstick and possibly a 9mm pistol puts local law enforcement in an extraordinarily difficult position. They need training, they need equipment, and in some instances, they need weaponry. That must be part of our challenge.

Our third organizational category includes prosecutors and courts. As you can well imagine, if we have identified them, arrested them, and brought them to court, but a prosecutor has no experience whatsoever on how to prosecute this particular type of crime, then we are not likely to have success. There is nothing that will kill a strategy and a policy more quickly than two or three losing cases that send the message out to everyone in the trafficking industry that “they can’t touch us even if they get us to court.”

Our fourth organizational category is cross-border cooperation. We do it through something we call wildlife enforcement networks – WENS. The principle behind this initiative is extremely simple. It is that governments that are neighbors or at least in the same region as each other stand to benefit from sharing intelligence and information and notifying each other about trafficking groups that seem to be moving across frontiers and borders. At times, regional partners might even plan and cooperate on joint operations and efforts. I can assure you that sophisticated wildlife trafficking organizations know exactly where the borders are located and know precisely how to take advantage of the border if country or government X is enforcing and government Y is not enforcing.

That is the plan. Has there been an impact? I would suggest that there has been. Let me offer three examples from the INL anti-wildlife trafficking initiative. First, recently, 28 governments and their law enforcement communities cooperated for one month in an exercise called COBRA II. This involved law enforcement communities and organizations from Asia, Africa, and North America. What did they accomplish in one month? More than 400 arrests and 350 seizures of illegally trafficked wildlife - and they learned in that month how to do it. They learned lessons from other law enforcement organizations as to what worked and what did not work. They also learned how to communicate with one another and learned new tactics, techniques, and technologies.

Second, in April 2013, the United Nations Crime Commission met and - with the eventual sponsorship of 20 different governments - passed a resolution that stated that wildlife trafficking is a “serious crime” in the United Nations system. Now, ladies and gentlemen, in UN speak, that is about as tough as you can get. They have given the tool and the weapon to any government that is prepared to take on the challenge, by saying the United Nations system and the world’s global community says that this act is a serious crime.

Third and finally, in November of last year, the government for which I work issued its first ever reward offer of the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program. Under the authority created by the President of the United States and supporting our Transnational Organized Crime Strategy, this reward program was designed to fill the gap between counterterrorism on one side and counternarcotics on the other side by creating the authority to offer rewards for the most serious participants in transnational organized crime. Who was the very first named suspected criminal under this authority? Ladies and gentleman, it was the organization known as the Xaysavang Network, under the leadership, we believe, of Mr. Keosavang, a citizen of Laos. We believe this organization is perhaps one of the world’s largest wildlife trafficking organizations. They traffic product from Asia and Africa in search of markets around the world.
We have offered $1 million to anyone who assists in taking down this trafficking network. It is symbolic, I acknowledge, but it is important symbolism to say that at the first opportunity we had to identify a transnational criminal organization and to put real money behind its dismantlement, we selected a wildlife trafficking organization. May I say to anyone in the Xaysavang network who may be listening today or in the future that this reward offer still stands. There is no rock beneath which you can hide; no tree behind which you may conceal yourself that will make that $1 million go away.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I mention one other program? I believe there are some academics in this room and I would like to draw you in to this conversation as well. There is a program that the State Department has been managing for several years. It’s kind of a cool program that we call the Diplomacy Lab. It works on the following concept. Neither the Department of State nor any other foreign ministry in the world has so many resources, so many people, so much money that it can do all of the research and analysis that it requires with its own employees. We want to draw in the academic world to this effort. We want to allow them the opportunity, whether they are undergraduate or graduate students or tenured professors, to do research and work that will have a direct, real-world impact on what we are doing. We identify areas and invite research and analysis in those areas. We had excellent success with this in areas related to my line of work, including corrections, prison management, community policing, and tribal courts. There have been a half-dozen of these sorts of research efforts which we absorb in the INL bureau, integrate into our programs and then attempt to apply in genuine programs in many countries around the world. May I suggest to you, academics, to look to the year 2014 for the opportunity to engage in several of these projects and programs that are related to illicit wildlife trafficking?

The problem of wildlife trafficking is not going to be solved today or even this year. It has taken us centuries and perhaps even millennia to get into this problem. It is going to take us some years as a human race to solve it. Yet we will solve the problem, step by step. We will do it together as two communities: a community that is dedicated to conservation and preservation and a community that is dedicated to the enforcement of our nations’ and our planet’s laws. We will do it because we can. We will do it because we must.

Leonard mentioned in his remarks the sound of a lioness mourning the loss of its cub. I come from the west Texas panhandle. I can assure you that I have never heard that sound. I hope I never do. But there is one sound of a mother mourning that, I suggest to you, I would not mind hearing at all. That would be the sound of a homo sapien mourning the departure of her poacher son as he begins several years of incarceration following his conviction and sentencing for wildlife trafficking. That is a vision that I would not mind associating myself with, because the more of that sort of mourning we hear, the less mourning we will hear from lionesses who have lost their cubs. Someday, if we do our jobs right and well, perhaps we’ll hear neither of those two sorts of mourning. Neither the lioness nor the elephant nor the rhino mother, mourning the loss of its young, nor the homo sapien mother mourning the departure of her poacher son. When that day comes, we will have succeeded.

I thank you very much; I look forward to further discussion.

FTC TESTIFIES BEFORE SENATE COMMITTEE REGARDING PRECIOUS METALS INVESTMENT SCAMS

FROM:  FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 

FTC Testifies on Precious Metals Investment Scams Before Senate Special Committee on Aging

In testimony before Congress, the Federal Trade Commission described its efforts to stop precious metals investment scams and inform consumers how to avoid them.

Testifying on behalf of the Commission before the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Dama Brown, Director of the FTC’s Southwest Region, said the agency is committed to protecting consumers from investment schemes that swindle money from people and often prey on older Americans’ concerns about the security of their retirement savings, particularly during periods of economic uncertainty.

Following the economic downturn in 2008, the testimony states, the FTC observed a proliferation of schemes that targeted financially-distressed consumers, including telemarketers offering precious metals as purported high-profit, low-risk investments. FTC cases have alleged that, to lure consumers into purchasing these investments, telemarketers claimed that the precious metals investments were certain to rise in price and the investments were safe because they were backed by physical metal.

According to the Commission, in reality, the telemarketers offered a highly leveraged, high-risk investment. Telemarketers allegedly failed to disclose that consumers were financing most of the investments’ purchase price and they were required to pay hefty fees. The terms of the investments rendered them highly risky and largely unprofitable.

The Commission recently filed three law enforcement actions involving precious metals investment schemes, the testimony states. In addition to stopping the alleged scams, the Commission expects to return approximately $5 million to consumer victims. The testimony describes the schemes, the agency’s law enforcement actions, and its consumer education efforts, including providing information about how to avoid scams, what to know before investing in precious metals, coins, or other investments, and practical investment advice.

The Commission vote approving the testimony and its inclusion in the formal record was 4-0.

For information about investing in precious metals, read Investing in Gold, Investing in Bullion and Bullion Coins, and Investing in Collectible Coins.

The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them.

SWISS TAX EVASION ENABLER PLEADS GUILTY

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Swiss Offshore Tax Evasion Enabler Pleads Guilty

Josef Dörig, 72, of Switzerland, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in connection with his work as the owner of a trust company in Switzerland.  Deputy Attorney General James Cole, Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Keneally for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente for the Eastern District of Virginia and IRS-Criminal Investigation Chief Richard Weber made the announcement after the plea was accepted by U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee.  Dörig was charged in a one count superseding indictment on July 21, 2011.  Sentencing is set for Aug. 8, 2014, and Dörig faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison.

“Today’s plea further pulls back the curtain on efforts by Swiss banks to help U.S. taxpayers evade taxes through the use of sham trusts and foundations,” said Deputy Attorney General Cole.  “Rest assured, the days of bank secrecy for U.S. tax cheats in Switzerland – and around the world – are numbered.”

“This plea sends a strong message to those who use or help others use offshore bank accounts to evade U.S. taxes,” said Assistant Attorney General Keneally.  “We are receiving information from a variety of sources and are committed to investigating and prosecuting this wrongdoing.”

“We will continue to investigate and prosecute banks and individuals who assist U.S. citizens in the evasion of income taxes with overseas accounts,” said U.S. Attorney Boente.  “The doors are quickly closing on this illegal activity.”

“Assisting American taxpayers to evade their tax obligations with the use of secret bank accounts held in sham entities violates the law, and we will find those who are doing it,” said Chief of IRS-Criminal Investigation Richard Weber.  “IRS-CI will pursue those who use anonymous offshore accounts to avoid paying their fair share.  IRS Criminal Investigation is proud to have shared our hallmark expertise in following the money trail in this and other increasingly sophisticated criminal schemes.”

In a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Dörig admitted that between 1997 and 2011, while owning and operating a trust company, he engaged in a wide-ranging conspiracy to aid and assist U.S. customers in evading their income taxes by concealing assets and income in secret bank accounts held in the names of sham entities at a financial institution referred to in the superseding indictment as International Bank (IB), one of the biggest banks in Switzerland and one of the largest wealth managers in the world.

According to the statement of facts, from 1972 to 1996, Dörig worked for a subsidiary of IB.  The subsidiary formed, managed and maintained nominee tax haven entities.  Individuals concealed their assets by holding their accounts at IB in the names of these tax haven entities.  During this time, the subsidiary managed and maintained over 100 sham entities for U.S. taxpayers committing tax evasion.

Also included in the statement of facts, in 1997, executives at the subsidiary devised a plan to spin off all of these sham entities into a new trust company, Dörig Partner AG, to be owned and operated by Dörig, who was then an employee of the subsidiary.  Dörig was required to make his best efforts to keep the existing accounts at IB open and to ensure that any clients referred to him by IB would open new accounts at that institution.

According to the statement of facts, IB promoted Dörig Partner as a provider of various entity structures.  The phone list used in IB’s New York representative office identified Dörig Partner as an external trust expert.  Dörig Partner also sublet space from IB in an office tower where a private bank owned by IB was the major tenant.

As part of the conspiracy, Dörig traveled to the United States to introduce himself to new clients he had obtained as part of the spin-off.  In the following years, he traveled to the United States with bankers from IB, including his co-defendants Markus Walder, Marco Parenti-Adami and Michele Bergantino, to meet with existing and prospective clients who already had undeclared accounts at IB but had been identified by the IB’s bankers as potential candidates for the use of a structure.

According to the statement of facts, although Dörig ostensibly controlled both the structure and the account at IB, in practice, many of the U.S. taxpayers with undeclared accounts controlled the assets in those accounts by dealing directly with IB bankers, often without either the knowledge or consent of Dörig.

According to the statement of facts, in 2008, IB ordered Dörig Partner to close accounts for the structures they managed.  Dörig turned to an asset manager at a financial services firm in Zurich for assistance.  The financial services firm maintained a master account in its own name at a private bank in Gibraltar, and then opened sub-accounts for Dörig’s clients at that bank to which Dörig transferred the funds from the clients’ undeclared accounts at IB.  The financial services firm provided the Gibraltar bank only with the number associated with each sub-account and did not inform the bank of any information regarding the owners of the assets in the sub-accounts.

This case is being investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark D. Lytle and Trial Attorneys Mark F. Daly and Nanette L. Davis of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.