Latest news with #FBI
Fox News
32 minutes ago
- General
- Fox News
US IT specialist arrested after attempting to share classified information with foreign government: DOJ
A government employee in Virginia was arrested on Thursday after he attempted to share classified information with an officer or agent of a foreign government, the Department of Justice announced. Nathan Laatsch, a 28-year-old IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency since 2019, was arrested after the FBI received a tip in March 2025 that someone was willing to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government. Laatsch was a civilian employee in the DIA's Insider Threat Division and held a top secret security clearance, according to the DOJ. An email to the FBI said that the person – later identified as Laatsch – didn't "agree or align with the values" of the Trump administration, and would be willing to share classified information that he could access, including "completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation." DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTOR CHARGED AFTER PRINTING TOP SECRET DOCUMENTS, TRYING TO LEAVE WITH THEM TO MEXICO Laatsch communicated with an FBI agent, whom he believed to be a foreign government official, multiple times and would confirm that he was ready to share classified information that he transcribed onto a notepad at his desk, the DOJ said. He allegedly exfiltrated the information from his workspace multiple times over a three-day period in preparation. The FBI set up an operation at a northern Virginia park where Laatsch was to deposit classified information "for the foreign government to retrieve," according to the DOJ. He was observed by the FBI on or around May 1 depositing an item at the specified location. Once he left, the DOJ said FBI agents retrieved a thumb drive from the area found to contain a message from Laatsch and multiple typed documents with information portion-marked for Secret or Top Secret levels. His message allegedly indicated that he was sharing "a decent sample size" of classified information to demonstrate the types of things he has access to. On May 7, after Laatsch learned that the thumb drive had been retrieved, he allegedly sent a message to the undercover agent appearing to say that he was seeking something in exchange for providing the information. The following day, he specified that he was interested in "citizenship for your country" because he didn't expect things in America "to improve in the long term," the DOJ said. He also allegedly said he was "not opposed to other compensation," but not in a place where he needed "material compensation." Laatsch was told on May 14 by the FBI agent that the "foreign government" was ready for additional classified information. Between May 15 and May 27, he transcribed more information and began to remove it from the building by folding the notes and hiding them in his clothing. On Thursday, Laatsch arrived at a prearranged location in northern Virginia to drop the information off to the "foreign country." He was arrested once the FBI received the documents. His first court appearance is scheduled for Friday in the Eastern District of Virginia.
GMA Network
39 minutes ago
- Business
- GMA Network
US sanctions PH-based firm over $200-M virtual currency scam
LOS ANGELES, California — The United States has imposed sanctions on a Philippine-based company that provides critical computer infrastructure for alleged scams involving virtual currency. In separate advisories dated May 29, the United States' Department of State, Department of the Treasury, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) flagged the activities of Funnull Technology Inc. Also sanctioned was its administrator, Chinese citizen Liu Lizhi, according to the State and Treasury Departments. "Fraudulent virtual currency investment scams cause serious financial harm to the American people. Today's targets are directly connected to over $200 million in losses reported by U.S. victims, with an average cost of over $150,000 per individual," the US State Department said in its advisory. It added that the US will continue to hold accountable those who use virtual currencies and online services to commit fraud, as well as cybercriminals who exploit the United States' financial system. Meanwhile, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said Funnull's alleged acts of providing infrastructure to numerous websites involved in virtual currency investment scams is commonly referred to as "pig butchering." "Funnull has directly facilitated several of these schemes, resulting in over $200 million in U.S. victim-reported losses," the OFAC advisory read. Majority of virtual currency investment scam websites reported to the FBI, the OFAC said, are linked to Funnul. Citing a 2023 alert by the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), OFAC said pig butchering scams are largely perpetrated by criminal organizations based in Southeast Asia. These groups exploit victims of labor trafficking to reach out to unsuspecting individuals worldwide. Scammers use fictitious identities, the OFAD said, under the pretense of potential romantic or business relationships, and elaborate storylines to deceive victims. They then steal the victims' assets by convincing them to invest in virtual currency through fake websites designed to look like legitimate investment platforms, which falsely show significant returns. Once a victim is unable or unwilling to invest more, the scammer abruptly cuts off communication—taking the entire investment with them. US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender said the action taken against Funnull underscores the government's "focus on disrupting criminal enterprises," which enable cyber scams and deprive Americans of their savings. "The United States is strongly committed to ensuring the continued growth of a legitimate, safe, and secure digital asset ecosystem, including the use of virtual currencies and similar technologies," he added. The OFAC online statement provided a link to a cybersecurity advisory by the FBI, which indicates technical details about Funnull's operations. GMA News Online has requested comment from Funnull through the email address and Telegram contact number listed in its company website. GMA News Online has also emailed the official addresses indicated in Funnull's corporate document with the Philippines' Securities and Exchange Commission. Responses to these requests for comment have yet to be received as of posting time. Under US sanctions, all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons described above that are located in the United States, or in the possession or control of US persons, are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. Additionally, any entities owned—directly or indirectly—individually or in the aggregate, 50% or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or otherwise exempt, OFAC regulations generally prohibit all transactions by US persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons. — with a report from Ted Cordero/ VDV, GMA Integrated News
The Independent
42 minutes ago
- General
- The Independent
Bernard Kerik: 9/11 police commissioner later imprisoned and pardoned dies aged 69
Bernie Kerik, who led the New York City Police Department on 9/11, has died aged 69. Kash Patel, former FBI director, confirmed Kerik's death on social media on Thursday. He said Kerik had suffered from a 'private battle with illness' before his death. Kerik had a controversial career after his service as police commissioner, pleading guilty to tax fraud and other charges. He was later pardoned. Rudy Giuliani, former New York City Mayor, spoke on his show on Thursday, reflecting on his long relationship with Kerik. 'We've been together since the beginning. He's like my brother,' Giuliani said through tears. 'I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man.' Kerik, an Army veteran, rose to the pinnacle of law enforcement before a fall so steep that even a city jail named after him was renamed. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud and false statement charges, partially stemming from over $250,000 in apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say counted on Kerik to convince New York officials it had no organized crime links. He served three years in prison before his release in 2013. President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik during a 2020 clemency blitz. Kerik was among the guests feting Trump after his first appearance in federal court in Florida in a case related to his handling of classified documents, attending the former president's remarks at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club. Kerik was appointed by Rudy Giuliani to serve as police commissioner in 2000 and was in the position during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He later worked for the former major of New York City surrounding the efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 loss.
Fox News
an hour ago
- General
- Fox News
20 years after Natalee Holloway vanished, suspect's confession still leaves questions: PI
Graphic content warning Twenty years have passed since 18-year-old Natalee Holloway of Alabama disappeared on May 30, 2005, during a senior trip to Aruba with her high school friends, but the Holloway family's private investigator says there are still many unanswered questions in the case. In 2023, 36-year-old Dutch national Joran van der Sloot, the primary suspect in Holloway's disappearance and murder, confessed to bashing the teenager's head with a brick and dumping her body in the ocean after she refused his advances. "I smash her head in with it completely," van der Sloot said in an Oct. 3, 2023, interview with federal authorities. "Her face basically, you know, collapses in. Even though it's dark, I can see her face is collapsed in." TJ Ward, a private investigator hired by Holloway's family in 2005 and again in 2010, does not believe he acted alone. "Twenty years, can you believe that?" he told Fox News Digital in an interview this week, marking two decades since the 18-year-old graduate vanished from Carlos'n Charlie's, a restaurant and nightclub in Oranjestad, Aruba. "She had a bright future. She got a scholarship to go to college for medical school – ubelievable." Ward does work for a voice analysis company based in Israel, which paid the private investigator to travel to Aruba after Holloway disappeared. There, he met with her parents as well as the FBI and Aruba authorities. Ward said he used the voice analysis technology on van de Sloot's existing interviews at the time and determined that he was lying to authorities and to the public. "We knew numerous times along the course of the investigation [and] over the last few years that Joran van der Sloot was not telling the truth," Ward said. "Thereafter, we started locating witnesses and talking and finding information that was going on with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, and we knew a lot of the information that Van der Sloot was communicating was not true." Holloway was last seen leaving Carlos'n Charlie's with van der Sloot and two other men, brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, on the evening of May 30, two decades ago as of Friday. The three men were considered early suspects in the case. Police arrested van der Sloot but eventually released him due to a lack of evidence. Authorities eyed the same suspects again in 2007 after uncovering "new facts" but wound up releasing them once more. Holloway's remains have never been found. Five years to the day after Holloway's disappearance, van der Sloot killed 21-year-old Stephany Flores, a business student from a wealthy Peruvian family who crossed paths with the killer on May 30, 2010. Van der Sloot later confessed to killing her in a fit of anger after she learned about his connection to Holloway's disappearance. They had met earlier in her father's casino in Lima, and he beat her to death in his hotel room the following morning. In June 2010, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Alabama announced an indictment on extortion and wire fraud charges against Van der Sloot for allegedly trying to sell information about the whereabouts of her body to her family. "Joran contacted Natalie's mother and Natalie's attorney, John Q. Kelly, in New York and said that for $250,000 he would tell Beth exactly what happened to his daughter," Ward said. "So John Q. Kelly, along with the FBI, arranged to set up a room in the Marriott with the Aruban authorities … and Joran van der Sloot came in and started telling Beth and John Q. Kelly that Natalie was buried under a house in the concrete. Well, they in turn gave him $25,000 cash, on film, and he then departed. He should have been arrested right then and there for the FBI for trying to extort Natalie's mother." He then left the United States and later told Beth Holloway and Kelly that he lied. Van der Sloot is currently serving prison time in Peru for Flores' murder. He is expected to be released in 2036, at which point Peruvian authorities will extradite him back to the United States to serve his concurrent 20-year sentence for Holloway's murder. AUDIO: LISTEN TO JORAN VAN DER SLOOT'S CONFESSION "You have brutally murdered, in separate incidents, years apart, two young women who refused your sexual advances," Judge Anna Manasco told van der Sloot in court in 2023, referencing Flores' murder. Manasco called the extortion and fraud charges "heinous" because the killer knew the information he was selling was a lie to make a profit. However, as part of the deal, she said federal prosecutors have agreed not to use his confession against him for any other purposes. "After 18 years, Natalee's case has been solved," Beth Holloway told reporters outside the courthouse immediately after van der Sloot's 2023 sentencing hearing in Holloway's death. "Joran van der Sloot is the killer." "You are a killer, and I want you to remember that every time that jail door slams." In a victim-impact statement during the hearing, Holloway's mother tore into van der Sloot, saying he taunted her family and caused indescribable pain before turning to him and saying, "You look like hell." Ward told Fox News Digital this week that Beth Holloway feels "kind of satisfied with the fact that he is in prison, and now he's gotten jail time in the United States, which he's going to have to do concurrent to the charges in Peru of the 20 years in the United States in the federal penitentiary. " The private investigator added that he continues to stay in touch with Dave Holloway to this day and that they have not reached "a finalization of what happened." "Even though Joran van der Sloot confessed in 2023, we're not convinced that he was alone with what transpired with Natalee Halloway," Ward said. "But again, our conclusion, as of today, Dave Holloway and I are still looking and trying to gather information, which we believe that there's other people involved with Joran van der Sloot when she was on the beach in May 30, 2005." Ward said he does not believe van der Sloot acted alone, and he is still working to determine if others were involved.
Indianapolis Star
an hour ago
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
Bernard Kerik, New York City's top cop on 9/11, dies at 69
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik died at the age of 69 "after a private battle with illness," FBI Director Kash Patel announced May 29. Kerik was New York City's top cop in the wake of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. "With over forty years of service in law enforcement and national security, he dedicated his life to protecting the American people," Patel wrote on X. "As the 40th Police Commissioner of New York City, Bernie led with strength and resolve in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, guiding the NYPD through one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history." The NYPD echoed Patel's sentiment in a statement posted on X, saying, "for nearly two decades, Kerik served and protected New Yorkers in the NYPD, including helping rebuild the city in the aftermath of 9/11." Kerik was later nominated by President George W. Bush to lead the Department of Homeland Security during the early stages of the United States' War on Terror. "Bernie Kerik understands the duties that came to America on September the 11th. The resolve he felt that morning will guide him every day on his job," Bush said in 2004. The nomination was short-lived as Kerik withdrew from consideration days after. His employment of an undocumented migrant as a nanny was later stated as the reason for his withdrawal. Kerik spent three years in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2009 to eight felonies, including tax fraud. His case centered around claims that a construction company seeking a city license paid for renovations at his home. He was later pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020. Former New York City Mayor Rudy W. Giuliani posted on X: "He was a decorated police officer, Corrections commissioner and NYC police commissioner during the worst terrorist attack on American soil. Bernie oversaw the biggest evacuation of a city during this time. His work in security has benefited many communities."
