Wed: Once You Dance With the Devil, You Can't Stop Dancing

The Wolf of Tiblisi Street

A global scamming network has robbed ordinary investors of more than a billion dollars. BBC Eye identified a shadowy network of businessmen who appear to be behind it.

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First, you hear a phone ringing. An elderly man answers.

The caller introduces himself as "William Grant", from the trading firm Solo Capitals. He says he has a "great promotion" to offer.

The elderly man sounds vulnerable and confused. "I'm not interested, I'm not interested," he says.

But William Grant is persistent. "I only have one question," he tells the old man.

"Are you interested in making money?"

Jan Erik, a 75-year-old pensioner in Sweden, is about to get scammed, again. The call was made from the offices of Solo Capitals, a purported cryptocurrency trading firm based in Georgia. The recording is hard to listen to, because not only does the elderly man, Jan Erik, sound muddled, he tells the caller he has already lost one million Swedish Krona (about £80,000) in trading scams.

But the caller already knows this. And he knows it makes the pensioner a good target for a follow-up "recovery scam". He tells Jan Erik that if he hands over his card details and pays a €250 deposit, Solo Capitals will use special software to track his lost investments and get his money back.

"We will be able to recover the whole amount," William Grant says.

It takes him a while to wear Jan Erik down. But after about 30 minutes on the phone, the pensioner begins reading out his credit card details.

The audio recording was saved by the company under the file name "William Sweden scammed". The BBC obtained the file from a former employee, but the company had not tried hard to hide it. In fact, it had handed it out to new recruits as part of the company training package.

This was a lesson in how to scam.

For more than a year, BBC Eye has been investigating a global fraudulent trading network of hundreds of different investment brands that has scammed unwitting customers like Jan Erik out of more than a billion dollars.

Our investigation reveals for the first time the sheer scale of the fraud, as well as the identities of a shadowy network of individuals who appear to be behind it.

The network is known to police as the Milton group, a name originally used by the scammers themselves but abandoned in 2020. We identified 152 brands, including Solo Capitals, that appear to be part of the network. It operates by targeting investors and scamming them out of thousands - or in some cases hundreds of thousands - of pounds.

One Milton group investment brand even sponsored a top-flight Spanish football club, and advertised in major newspapers, lending it credibility with potential investors.

On the hunt for the businessmen behind a billion-dollar scam

This is a Whole Lot Better Than the Russian Solution: Steal Ukranian Babies

With the world’s lowest birth rate, South Korea faces a looming demographic and economic disaster. In 2022, the average number of babies expected per South Korean woman dropped to 0.78, down from the previous record low of 0.81 the previous year.

The replacement rate in developed countries – the number of births needed to keep the population stable – is typically about 2.1.

South Korean couples such as Kwon Jang-ho and Cho Nam-hee can avail of a range of government benefits aimed at supporting young families [Raphael Rashid]
To reverse the trend, South Korea’s central and local governments are scrambling to provide payments and other benefits to anyone who gives birth to a child.

South Korea, which rose from poverty to developed country status in the span of a generation, is not known for its strong social safety – its social spending is among the lowest in the OECD.

But even compared with European countries known for their well-developed social welfare systems, many of which have implemented their own “baby bonuses” in response to low birth rates, South Korea’s schemes are generous and come with few strings attached.

Since 2022, mothers have received cash payments of 2 million won ($1,510) upon the birth of a child, more than in famously socialistic France.

Families receive 700,000 won ($528) in cash per month for infants up to the age of one and 350,000 won ($264) per month for infants under two, with the payments set to rise to 1 million won ($755) and 500,000 won ($377), respectively, in 2024.

A further 200,000 won ($151) per month is provided for children up until elementary school age, with additional payments available for low-income households and single parents.

Other benefits include medical costs for pregnant women, infertility treatment, babysitting services and even dating expenses.

Of Course, If They Want More People, There Are Millions of Refugees Who Would Love to Come. Some are Families With Babies.

Does Moving Contaminated Soil From One Place to Another Solve Anything?

A truck carrying around 40,000 pounds of contaminated soil from the site of a train derailment in Ohio, which saw officials release toxic chemicals into the area to prevent an explosion, overturned on a highway this week, officials said.

The commercial vehicle was headed northbound on State Route 165 when it careened off the roadway and overturned onto its right side, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency said in a statement, citing the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

The incident unfolded Monday in Unity Township, NBC affiliate WFMJ, which is based in Youngstown, Ohio, reported.

The driver sustained minor injuries in the incident and around 20,000 pounds of the contaminated soil spilled onto the roadway and berm, the emergency management agency said.

"Cleanng Up" a Radioactive Site is Just Removing the Contaminated Stuff. It Still Goes Somewhere.

Alvin Bragg is Cross With Jordan

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sued in federal court on Tuesday to block Rep. Jim Jordan from using his position as chair of the House Judiciary Committee to undermine and interfere in Bragg’s prosecution of Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records. But saying Bragg sued does not get to the level of fury and outrage—all of it justified—tightly contained in the legal language of the court filing.

In the very first sentence, Bragg describes Jordan’s effort as an “unprecedently brazen and unconstitutional attack by members of Congress on an ongoing New York State criminal prosecution.”

The lawsuit seeks most immediately to block Jordan’s subpoena to Mark Pomerantz, a former special assistant district attorney who left the district attorney’s office over what he said was Bragg’s unwillingness to pursue charges against Trump. Jordan has called Pomerantz to testify on April 20, and the filing argues that Jordan has used a series of “baseless pretext for hauling Mr. Pomerantz to Washington for a retaliatory political circus designed to undermine the rule of law and New York’s police power.” But Bragg is also seeking a declaratory judgment against any future subpoenas from Jordan to Bragg or any other current or former member of his office to testify about this investigation and prosecution.

Bragg lawsuit shreds Jordan's 'constantly shifting' justifications in intimidation campaign

Who Would Have Predicted That Attorneys Representing Fox Noise Would Have a Credibility Problem?

Attorneys defending Fox in a defamation case related to false claims about the 2020 election withheld critical information about the role company founder Rupert Murdoch played at Fox News, a revelation that angered the judge when it came up at a Tuesday hearing.

It was not clear whether the development would affect a trial scheduled to begin Thursday with jury selection. Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox for $1.6 billion, saying it damaged its reputation by repeatedly airing false claims that the company helped orchestrate a fraud that cost former President Donald Trump re-election.

The role of Fox executives is at the heart of the case. The company’s attorneys have sought to insulate members of the Murdoch family and to keep them from testifying live before a jury, arguing that their roles at the parent company, Fox Corp., put them at a distance from the Fox News shows that aired the bogus claims.

Fox Corp. had asserted since Dominion filed its lawsuit in 2021 that Rupert Murdoch had no official role at Fox News. In its filings, it had listed Fox News officers as Suzanne Scott, Jay Wallace and Joe Dorrego. But on Easter Sunday, Fox disclosed to Dominion’s attorneys that Murdoch also is “executive chair” at Fox News. The disclosure came after Superior Court Judge Eric Davis wondered aloud during a status conference last week who Fox News’ officers were.

Davis was clearly disturbed by the disclosure, coming on the eve of the trial.

“My problem is that it has been represented to me more than once that he is not an officer,” the judge said.

Davis suggested that had he known of Murdoch’s dual role at Fox Corp. and Fox News, he might have reached different conclusions in a summary judgment ruling he issued last month. In that ruling, the judge said there was no dispute that the statements aired by Fox were false, but that a jury would have to decide whether Fox News acted with actual malice and whether Fox Corp. directly participated in airing the statements.

To Fox attorney Matthew Carter, Davis said: “You have a credibility problem.”

Will the QOP Be Hoist By Their Own Petard?

Republican leaders have followed an emboldened base of conservative activists into what increasingly looks like a political cul-de-sac on the issue of abortion — a tightly confined absolutist position that has limited their options ahead of the 2024 election season, even as some in the party push for moderation.

And Hoist By Their Own Judges?

Given that [Matthew] Kacsmaryk’s decision has heaped fuel onto the conflagration caused by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Republicans might want to ponder: Is the right-wing judiciary as a whole a threat to the MAGA movement’s viability?

It is one thing to gin up the base on invented threats from critical race theory or the “great replacement theory.” But when the MAGA movement’s judges begin to inflict radically unpopular edicts on those outside the right-wing audience, that risks sparking a counter-response: a determined, broad-based movement insistent that the United States not turn the clock back on decades of social progress.

Republican setbacks such as the disappointing 2022 midterms, a progressive Democrat last week winning a crucial Wisconsin Supreme Court seat and rising support for abortion rights over the past year suggest that conservatives may have won the battle to stack the courts with ideologues but might be losing the war for public opinion and, ultimately, electoral control.


If there was ever a news cycle engineered in a lab to animate younger voters — and harden their antipathy toward Republicans — it probably would look like the one we’re living in now.

The capper was a Texas judge’s ruling Friday threatening nationwide access to the abortion pill that’s been available for more than two decades. That occurred less than 24 hours after Republicans in the Tennessee statehouse expelled two Black lawmakers for leading a protest over the state’s inaction on gun safety, following a shooting at a Nashville school that left six dead. Those events almost obscured the historic arrest of former President DONALD TRUMP just days earlier. And if the issue of gun safety had been fading from the headlines, another gunman opened fire Monday inside a Louisville, Ky., bank, leaving at least four people dead.

After a liberal candidate for a pivotal seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court won a special election last week by 11 points, former Gov. SCOTT WALKER acknowledged the biggest reason for the surprisingly decisive result.

“Younger voters are the issue,” Walker said. He attributed the increasing leftward lean of voters under 35 to “years of liberal indoctrination.”

But the actual data tells a different story, one that requires Republicans to admit that their party’s stance on the issues that matter most to millennials and the subsequent Gen Z — including abortion, which was by far the biggest issue in the Wisconsin special election — is hurting them with voters under 35.

Whoopee! A QOP Governor Does Some Meanless Stuff That Won't Put a Dent in Gun Violence

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order to tighten background checks on Tuesday, marking a victory for gun reformers in the GOP-controlled state.

Lee also called upon the state legislature to pass a “red flag” law that will make it easier to remove guns from people who pose a danger to themselves or others.

“I’m asking the General Assembly to bring forward an order of protection law,” Lee told reporters in Nashville, according to The Tennessean. “A new, strong order of protection law will provide the broader population cover, safety, from those who are a danger to themselves or the population.”

Lee’s call for reform comes after a lone shooter killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School in Nashville on April 3.

The suspect in the Covenant case, 28-year-old Audrey Hale, had been receiving treatment for an “emotional disorder,” according to Nashville police, but still bought seven firearms legally in recent years.

The executive order mandates government offices and law enforcement to report all relevant criminal and court mental health information to the state instant background check system within 72 hours of receiving it. The order also gives the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation 60 days to submit a report detailing ways the current background check system could be improved.

And the Medai Swoons