Tag: Covington & Burling

A Front Company and a Fake Identity: How the U.S. Came to Use Spyware It Was Trying to Kill.

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

A Front Company and a Fake Identity: How the U.S. Came to Use Spyware It Was Trying to Kill.

The secret contract — which The New York Times is disclosing for the first time — violates the Biden administration’s public policy, and still appears to be active. The contract, reviewed by The Times, stated that the “United States government” would be the ultimate user of the tool, although it is unclear which government agency authorized the deal and might be using the spyware. It specifically allowed the government to test, evaluate, and even deploy the spyware against targets of its choice in Mexico.

…

The secret November 2021 contract used the same American company — designated as “Cleopatra Holdings” but actually a small New Jersey-based government contractor called Riva Networks — that the F.B.I. used two years earlier to purchase Pegasus. Riva’s chief executive used a fake name in signing the 2021 contract and at least one contract Riva executed on behalf of the F.B.I.

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The deal unfolded as the European private equity fund that owns NSO pursued a plan to get U.S. government business by establishing a holding company, Gideon Cyber Systems. The private equity fund’s ultimate goal was to find an American buyer for the company.

Related:

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Sheila Bair, Former Chair of the FDIC, Is Now an “Organizer/Director” of a Cayman Islands Crypto Company that Got a U.S. National Bank Charter Last Year

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

On November 17, Sheila Bair, the former Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) during the financial crisis of 2008, went on CNBC to lament the lack of controls leading to the collapse of the crypto currency exchange, FTX. During the interview, Bair used the phrase “nobody looking behind the curtain.”

Sheila Bair, Former Chair of the FDIC, Is Now an “Organizer/Director” of a Cayman Islands Crypto Company that Got a U.S. National Bank Charter Last Year

Related (why no one was prosecuted for the financial crisis of 2007–2008 + another comment):

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During Both Obama and Trump Administrations, the Justice Department Has Looked the Other Way at Crimes by the Powerful (and nothing will change with Biden)

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Last Thursday evening, Justice Department Attorney General, Merrick Garland, held a brief press conference to announce that he had asked a federal court to unseal the search warrant and inventory receipts filed in connection with the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Palm Beach oceanfront home and beach resort, Mar-a- Lago. As part of his statement to the press, Garland said this:

“Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department and of our democracy. Upholding the rule of law means applying the rule of law evenly, without fear or favor.”

During Both Obama and Trump Administrations, the Justice Department Has Looked the Other Way at Crimes by the Powerful

Related:

Vowing Not to ‘Demonize’ the Rich, Biden Tells Billionaires ‘Nothing Would Fundamentally Change’ If He Was Elected

“No one’s standard of living will change,” said Biden. “Nothing would fundamentally change.”