Citizens of Armenia among “Armenia Power” street gang members? | Armenia News - NEWS.am

Citizens of Armenia among “Armenia Power” street gang members? | Armenia News - NEWS.am: "The Armenian Foreign Ministry declined to comment the information that there are Armenian citizens in the street gang “Armenian Power” arrested in California last week.

According to some information, more than a dozen members of the group were born in Armenia and some of them retained citizenship of Armenia. However, the Foreign Office told RFE/RL that they do not want to comment on this information.

More than 70 reputed members of a well-known street gang “Armenian Power” were arrested in California.

About 1000 agents, including FBI agents, tax authorities, the National Security Agency and local police participated in the hunt.

On February 16, intelligence agents managed to arrest dozens of members of “Armenian Power”, reported the Los Angeles Times

“Armenian Power” started in the 1980s as a common street gang and has about 200 members with ties to black gangs and the Mexican Mafia, officials said.

Member of the group are accused of extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and drug trafficking."

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Crime boss Tanveer Jaffery dubbed 'Mr Persil' jailed for 10 years

Crime boss Tanveer Jaffery dubbed 'Mr Persil' jailed for 10 years The boss of one of the underworld's biggest money laundering outfits has been jailed for ten years, it has emerged.

Tanveer Jaffery, 61, received an estimated £50million from crime gangs around the world then 'cleaned it' to appear legitimate.

Once the money had been cleaned by Jaffery - dubbed 'Mr Persil' - it was fed back to the hardened crooks to spend as they pleased."

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Fallout from Contra Costa drug agent's arrest begins

Fallout from Contra Costa drug agent's arrest begins - San Jose Mercury News: "Public defenders on Thursday quickly moved to re-examine cases against their clients following the arrests of a Contra Costa County drug task force chief and a private investigator accused of running a narcotics-selling scheme, possibly with confiscated drugs.
The arrest of Norman Wielsch, commander of the state's Central Contra Costa County Narcotics Enforcement Team, or CNET, could have far-reaching ramifications in superior and appellate courts, said Contra Costa County Public Defender Robin Lipetzky. The arrest not only calls into question the credibility and integrity of Wielsch as an individual, she said, but also that of the task force as an investigative body and the guardian of prosecution evidence.
'Was he motivated by a desire to confiscate as much drugs as he could so he could turn around and sell them? Was he writing false police reports? Was he exaggerating in police reports? You have to question everything in a CNET investigation,' Lipetzky said. 'You also have to wonder when it's the top cop of the investigation that's a crooked cop, what did others in CNET know?'"

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Pinoys knew they were smuggling drugs: Ang-See |

Pinoys knew they were smuggling drugs: Ang-See | ABS-CBN News | Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features: "Anti-crime crusader Teresita Ang-See said the 3 Filipinos on death row in China knew that they were smuggling illegal drugs.

Ang-See, who served as an interpreter for Chinese authorities who investigated the cases, said the 3 Filipinos had a deal with drug syndicates.

She told TV Patrol on Thursday that it was not the first time that the 3 brought drugs to China.

She added that the cases went through a thorough review and “back-channeling” between the 2 countries."

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Stars' accountant faces £117m fraud inquiry by Revenue | Business | The Guardian

Stars' accountant faces £117m fraud inquiry by Revenue | Business | The Guardian: "An accountant whose clients included Fiona Bruce and Sadie Frost has won a partial victory against the taxman — but still faces a full-scale criminal investigation into an alleged £117m fraud.

A judge has ruled that HM Revenue & Customs should not have banned Sussex-based accountancy firm Christopher Lunn & Co from filing tax returns because it had not given reasons for its move or a right to reply. But in winning its case, damaging allegations about the criminal investigation into Lunn and his firm were aired in public for the first time.

All 7,000 of Lunn's customers, many of whom work in television and radio, have been contacted by HMRC about the investigation and given a deadline of 28 February to make a 'full disclosure' if they feel there are irregularities in their tax affairs.

HMRC raided Lunn's offices in June 2010, amid concerns about tax returns being filed by the firm. The taxman feared that one client had allegedly omitted £7,000 of income from their return, claimed that £65,000 of income came from a 'non-domiciled distant relative' without the necessary supporting evidence, and said that a holiday in Palma had in fact been a business trip to New York."

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Armenian gang: Raids targeting Armenian Power gang net 74 fraud suspects - latimes.com

Armenian gang: Raids targeting Armenian Power gang net 74 fraud suspects - latimes.com: "U.S. prosecutors accused an Armenian organized crime gang of bilking victims out of an estimated $20 million in an audacious series of financial scams that included replacing the credit-card machines at more than a dozen 99 Cent-Only stores with their own scanners designed to steal customers' banking information.

The charges filed Wednesday against alleged members and associates of the Armenian Power gang included allegations of two kidnappings, theft of money from elderly bank customers, the smuggling of cellphones into state prisons, and trafficking in drugs and weapons. Seventy-four suspects were arrested in early-morning raids at about 90 locations throughout Southern California in an operation that involved nearly 1,000 local, state and federal law enforcement officials. Additional arrests were made in Miami and Denver."

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Mob arrests raise issues of crime, port security

Mob arrests raise issues of crime, port security - BusinessWeek: "recent federal sweep netted more than 120 defendants, among them several dockworkers and longshoremen union officials. The FBI called it one of the largest Mafia takedowns in history.

The indictments seem to indicate that organized crime elements persists in the ports, despite decades of law enforcement efforts to root them out.

Some experts say it's a troubling trend, because the ports are considered extremely sensitive homeland security targets in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. They say that although the indictments don't indicate any direct threats to port security, having criminal elements in the ports could pose a danger.

Others say that a badly diminished mob no longer wields the influence among dockworkers that it once did, and that changes in the way ports operate have made them safer."

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The investment banker Littlewood, 37, his Singaporean wife Angie Lew, 39, and a friend Helmy Omar Sa'aid, 34, made about S$1.2 million over eight years of insider trading.Probe on rogue trader took two years

Probe on rogue trader took two years: "The investment banker Littlewood, 37, his Singaporean wife Angie Lew, 39, and a friend Helmy Omar Sa'aid, 34, made about S$1.2 million over eight years of insider trading.


Littlewood's method of operations was to eavesdropp on colleagues and spy on their computers to find out pending takeover annoucements, then inform his accomplices to buy shares in the lead up to the announcements.

They would then sell the shares to profit on the deal.

The trio pleaded guilty to eight counts of insider trading.

Last week, a London court sentenced Littlewood to 40 months' jail, while Helmy was sentenced to 24 months' jail. Lew was given a suspended sentence.

Police said it took 33 staff to analyse the large volume of evidence related to the case.

The evidence included 1,700 gigabytes of computer data, 43,000 pages of printed material and 10 years of banking and trading records."

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