Stupid people of the week

Carver County Sheriff deputies arrest person driving 5 times over the legal limit

The Carver County [Minnesota] Sheriff’s Office arrested a driver for drunk driving towards Waconia on County Road 10 Tuesday night after the driver’s blood alcohol content registered as 0.440.

After responding to a complaint of a vehicle driving all over the road on County Road 10, deputies pulled them over and investigated for a DWI, according to the Carver County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies field tested the driver who registered as 0.440 for blood alcohol content, which is over five times the legal driving limit.

The sheriff’s office advises people to get a safe ride home if they are going to drink.

Source; KSTP

U.S. customs officer accused of letting drug-filled cars enter from Mexico, spending bribe money on gifts, strip clubs

A former U.S. Customs officer has been convicted of accepting bribes to let drug-filled vehicles into the United States from Mexico, giving traffickers a one-hour window to reach his lane at a San Diego border crossing and pocketing at least $13,000 per vehicle, officials said Thursday.

Prosecutors say Leonard Darnell George, a Customs and Border Protection officer working for two separate criminal organizations, allowed at least 19 crossings between late 2021 to June 2022. The vehicles contained several hundred pounds of methamphetamine as well as smaller amounts of cocaine, fentanyl and heroin, and also people being brought into the country illegally, according to court documents.

Text messages obtained by investigators showed George agreed to let cars through for $17,000 per vehicle, and one message showed he received $68,000 after letting through four vehicles from drug traffickers in June 2022, the news release said. Prosecutors allege that George would notify drug traffickers when he was at work and what lane he was on.

On the same day he received one $13,000 bribe payment, George bought a 2020 Cadillac CT5 for an associate of the drug trafficking organization as a Valentine’s Day gift, prosecutors said.

George’s attorney, Antonio Yoon, did not immediately respond to emails and voicemail seeking comment.

George was convicted by a federal jury in U.S. District Court in San Diego on Monday of taking a bribe by a public official, conspiracy to import controlled substances, and two counts of allowing vehicles with unauthorized individuals to enter the country.

“Abandoning the integrity of the uniform for the conspiracy of drug trafficking is a path to a criminal conviction,” said U.S. Attorney Tara K. McGrath in a statement.

Witnesses testified that George used the money to buy vehicles, motorcycles and jewelry, and also spent lavishly at a strip club in Tijuana, the news release said.

“He would stand on the second level of the club and throw cash over the balcony to the dancers below, ‘showering’ them with money,” prosecutors said. “He would buy bottles of alcohol, and occasionally gifts, for dancers.”

His sentencing hearing is set for Sept. 13. The maximum penalty for his charges range from 10 years to life in prison.

Source; CBS News

Glamorous Atlanta prosecutor is jailed for stealing $15m of Covid funds and using the cash to buy diamond rings and a Rolls Royce

The former assistant city attorney of Atlanta, who was also a life advice podcaster, has been jailed for seven years after fraudulently obtaining approximately $15 million in COVID relief loans.

Shelitha Robertson, 62, used the illegally gained funds to splash out on luxuries such as a 10 carat diamond ring, a Rolls Royce and a motorbike.

The former police officer had obtained the money under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a federal stimulus program that was set up during the pandemic.

But only weeks before she was imprisoned, Robertson was still gleefully appearing on her daughter’s ‘Mommy & Me’ podcast in which the pair would give their advice on dealing with the world – including advising listeners on how to earn money though hard work and ‘integrity’.

But Robertson didn’t follow her own advice and decided to make her money through deception, submitting one false loan application after another to the COVID relief scheme claiming she needed the cash to support four businesses she owned.

What she said in the loan documents was extraordinary, claiming she had a workforce of more than 400, meaning she was entitled to millions of dollars in handouts for each of the companies she claimed to run.

Court documents show that Robertson falsely claimed she was responsible for a 427 employees.

The number of ‘staff’ in her ‘companies’ allowed her to obtain enormous PPP loans, which were designed to keep legitimate businesses afloat through the pandemic.

In an October episode of the podcast Robertson presented alongside her daughter Brii Renee, she was asked if she would choose integrity over poverty when asked how she would react to the chance to make money quickly.

‘I choose integrity and whatever else it brings. I don’t choose selling your soul to the devil. Because that would mean I am willing to belittle myself and degrade myself for the love of what? Of a dollar,’ Robertson began, knowing full well the Department of Justice were already investigating her.

‘How my kids view me and respect me, means more to me than earning a quick dollar for me to be something that I’m not,’ Robertson said, just weeks before she was hauled off to jail.

Robertson used the multi-million dollar proceeds from her loans to purchase luxury items, including a 10-carat diamond ring worth at least $150,000, as well as luxury vehicles, including the Rolls.

The DOJ also said she transferred funds to a co-conspirator, Chandra Norton, and other family members.

The pair had no such qualms about abusing such a scheme, even submitting false tax documents to back up their inflated income statements within each loan application.

A jury convicted Robertson of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, with the judge sentencing her to seven years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

Robertson will be almost 70 by the time she’s released from prison, leaving her influencer daughter Brii, who has over 600,000 Instagram followers, without a podcast partner.

In the ‘Mommy and Me’ in which the pair discuss ‘navigating life’s challenges’, according to an Apple Podcasts preview.

In one episode of the podcast from October 2023, Robertson advises followers to ‘chase their dream’ because ‘the money will come’.

‘When you have a passion for something that you love, you can do it for free. Don’t ever chase the money. The money will come. Chase your passion, Chase your dream. The money will come,’ Robertson insists.

Her daughter, who was born through artificial insemination, posted a glowing tribute to her mother.

‘I wouldn’t be who I am today without the amazing mother, example, hustler, you are!’, daughter Renee wrote just a few weeks ago.

‘Thank you for every sacrifice you made and every dream you pushed me to achieve!’

In court, Robertson tried to appeal to the judge before her sentencing.

‘I’m dead broke,’ she said.

‘My business is gone. My (law) license is gone. My assets are gone. The only thing I have left is my family and my faith in God.’

She said she was deeply sorry for the impact her conduct has had on her family, wife and community.

‘I’m not that person that tries to take advantage of anybody or any situation,’ she said. ‘I’ve owned up to what I’ve done.’

U.S. District Judge Steven D. Grimberg said the loss of the $14 million in funds was staggering.

‘It was her level of direction and confidence in being able to commit this level of fraud without being detected that instigated it in the first place,’ Grimberg said in court.

‘Motivated by greed, Robertson deceptively obtained funds that were designated to provide emergency financial relief to struggling small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic,’ said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. ‘

‘It was her level of direction and confidence in being able to commit this level of fraud without being detected that instigated it in the first place,’ Grimberg said in court.

‘Motivated by greed, Robertson deceptively obtained funds that were designated to provide emergency financial relief to struggling small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic,’ said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. ‘

‘Today the defendant in this case was held accountable for fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars through the Paycheck Protection Program and using those stolen funds to enrich herself, while small businesses were struggling during the pandemic,’ added Kyle Myles, Special Agent in Charge of the FDIC.

‘The FDIC Office Inspector General remains committed to working with our law enforcement partners to pursue and bring to justice those who took advantage of such pandemic relief programs and threatened the integrity of our Nation’s financial institutions.’

Source; Daily Mail

Update–New York Times Clarifies: Amazon Tribe that Recently Received Internet Access Is Not Addicted to Porn

A secluded tribe in the Amazon rainforest is apparently grappling with the effects of high-speed internet since Elon Musk’s Starlink gave them access to the World Wide Web.

The Marubo people, who live along the Ituí River, got access to the internet in September 2023, and it has brought significant changes to their community, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Seventy-three-year-old Tsainama Marubo said at first everyone was happy about the arrival of the internet because it meant her neighbors could talk to loved ones who live far away and have access to help when they experienced an emergency.

However, the situation has reportedly deteriorated, she explained, adding that the young people have grown lazy. But she also emphasized she did not want the internet taken away from the tribe.

The Times article continued:

After only nine months with Starlink, the Marubo are already grappling with the same challenges that have racked American households for years: teenagers glued to phones; group chats full of gossip; addictive social networks; online strangers; violent video games; scams; misinformation; and minors watching pornography.
…

Alfredo Marubo, leader of a Marubo association of villages, has emerged as the tribe’s most vocal critic of the internet. The Marubo pass down their history and culture orally, and he worries that knowledge will be lost. “Everyone is so connected that sometimes they don’t even talk to their own family,” he said.
He is most unsettled by the pornography. He said young men were sharing explicit videos in group chats, a stunning development for a culture that frowns on kissing in public. “We’re worried young people are going to want to try it,” he said of the graphic sex depicted in the videos. He said some leaders had told him they had already observed more aggressive sexual behavior from young men.

The Addiction Center defines social media addiction as “being overly concerned about social media, driven by an uncontrollable urge to log on to or use social media, and devoting so much time and effort to social media that it impairs other important life areas.”

The center also said addiction to social media can resemble substance use disorder and might result in mood modification, salience (i.e., behavioral, cognitive, and emotional preoccupation with social media), tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflict, and relapse.

A 2016 study found the more time young adults spent on social media the more likely they were to end up depressed, according to Breitbart News.

Musk launched Starlink on Indonesia’s island of Bali in May, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

“Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 17,000 islands sprawled across three time zones with a population of more than 270 million, has been trying for years to secure deals with Musk’s Tesla on battery investment and for Musk’s SpaceX to provide fast internet for the country’s remote regions,” the article said.

Source; Breitbart

Command senior chief convicted for unauthorized Wi-Fi on her ship

The former command senior chief of the littoral combat ship Manchester’s gold crew pleaded guilty at a court-martial in March to charges that she installed an unauthorized Wi-Fi system aboard the ship and then lied about it to superiors, according to records obtained by Navy Times.

Before her trial, Naval Surface Force Pacific, or SURFPAC, quietly relieved then-Senior Chief Grisel Marrero from her leadership position aboard Manchester in September, due to a “loss of confidence,” the command said in a statement.

Marrero, whose online biography indicates a background in Navy intelligence, declined comment for this report. SURFPAC officials also declined to discuss further specifics of the case.

She was sentenced to reduction in rank to E-7 in March, according to a trial summary obtained by Navy Times.

Marrero wasn’t the only high-level relief aboard Manchester’s gold crew last year.

The Navy also ousted the second-in-command of the ship’s gold crew, Cmdr. Matthew Yokeley, in May 2023. The reliefs of Marrero and Yokeley were not related, according to SURFPAC, which declined to provide further details regarding the reasons for Yokeley’s ouster.

At a special court-martial earlier this year, Marrero pleaded guilty to willful dereliction of duty charge specifications.

According to her charge sheet, Marrero failed to safeguard the Manchester against operational security risks when she set up the secret Wi-Fi.

Such Wi-Fi systems are generally banned aboard Navy ships because of cybersecurity concerns.

Marrero “willfully coordinated the procurement, installation and use of an unauthorized and unapproved Wi-Fi system” onboard the ship between March 2023 and August 2023, according to her charge sheet.

Charge sheets state that she “willfully failed” to share a commanding officer’s suggestion box comment from a crew member about the Wi-Fi system with the then-commanding officer of the Manchester’s gold crew in June 2023.

She pleaded not guilty to an obstruction of justice charge, but was found guilty at trial, according to the trial summary record.

That charge involved an incident near Naval Base Guam in August 2023, where Marrero altered a data usage image on a chiefs mess Starlink account to reflect less data usage, which she did to “influence or impede” pending criminal or disciplinary actions against another Navy member whose name is redacted on the charge sheet copy provided to Navy Times.

Starlink provides broadband internet access to remote locations via an array of satellites.

SURFPAC spokesman Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson told Navy Times that other sailors were also disciplined in connection to the unauthorized Wi-Fi, but he declined to provide further details.

Marrero also pleaded guilty to two false official statement charge specifications that involved her telling the CO that there was no Wi-Fi aboard the Manchester, according to her trial summary.

Marrero is currently assigned to Naval Surface Forces.

The Manchester was in or around San Diego, Hawaii and Guam at the time of Marrero’s crimes.

Source; Navy Times

 

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime, Police, Stupid Criminals