Tuesday, November 22, 2022

COVID-19 Scammers Who Fled to Montenegro While Awaiting Sentencing Extradited Back to US: Report; Let’s Do It Again: New Push for Probe of Cuomo’s $5M COVID-19 Book Deal, and other C-Virus related stories

COVID-19 scammers who fled to Montenegro while awaiting sentencing extradited back to US: Report:
A pair of convicted felons who scammed COVID-19 relief programs out of $18 million were extradited back to the U.S. this week from Montenegro, where they fled last year while awaiting sentencing, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday, citing local police.
Richard Ayvazyan, 43, and his wife, Marietta Terabelian, 37, were convicted in June 2021 on multiple counts of bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.
The couple led an eight-person fraud ring that used dozens of fake or stolen identities to submit applications for about 150 fraudulent PPP loans, which netted them $18 million.
They used the ill-gotten funds to purchase gold coins, luxury watches, designer handbags and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
While awaiting sentencing, they cut their ankle monitors off in August 2021 and fled the country, according to the FBI. --->READ MORE HERE
AP
Let’s do it again: New push for probe of Cuomo’s $5M COVID-19 book deal:
Government watchdogs say a new state ethics panel should hold ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo accountable over his notorious $5.1 million payday for a COVID-19 memoir written while he was still on the job and potentially using government staffers and resources.
“The governor of the state in New York is the highest paid governor in the country, we expect him to do full time work,” Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said Monday.
“How seriously the [state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government] takes this issue on may set it a real precedent for how these issues are handled in the future,” Horner added ahead of a Nov. 15 commission meeting where the matter could come up.
Reports released by the state Assembly and the much-criticized Joint Commission on Public Ethics – a now defunct body replaced by the Commission months ago – detail how Cuomo was able to profit off of his 2020 best-seller “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” under questionable circumstances. --->READ MORE HERE
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USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates

WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates

YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates

NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest

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