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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Chicagoan sentenced to prison for illegally lobbying for Zimbabwe |
| 2015-02-05 |
| [Chicago Tribune] A South Side man was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison Tuesday for illegally lobbying on behalf of top Zimbabwe government officials in an attempt to lift U.S. economic sanctions against the southern African nation.. Before the sentence was handed down, C. Gregory Turner, 72, made lengthy remarks in which he described his actions as "reckless" but well-meaning, saying he intended to help the destitute people of Zimbabwe and invoking everything from genocide in Rwanda to the recent social unrest in Ferguson, Mo. "It was never my intention to circumvent the U.S. government," Turner told U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo. "I'm sorry for the mistake, but I am not sorry for attempting to help 14 million people who are starving." But prosecutors said Turner's effort to appear humanitarian was a fraud. Friendly fire? Appears none of this would have seen the light of day had the 2008 transition team been operating on the same page. Revealing excerpt from Aug 2013 'Thinkprogress' article follows. On or about December 15, 2008, a scheduler for President Elect Obama'€™s transition team sent an email to another member of the transition team stating that State Representative A ''€œwants a phone call from [transition team officials] regarding a meeting he had last week in Zimbabwe. I am not sure who to pass this on to but it's the second time they have called.'' The transition team forwarded this email to the FBI based on its concerns that State Representative A had violated sanctions in his travels to Zimbabwe. Link to the above. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 he described his actions as "reckless" but well-meaning, saying he intended to help the destitute people This is different than the latest Ebola episode of Dw/oB on the African coast? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2015-02-05 12:31 |
| #2 Is Valjar registered to lobby for Iran? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-02-05 08:44 |
| #1 The 'transition team's' concern over sanctions violation is a convenient cover for action. They likely called in the FBI to make the contacts simply go away. In doing so, the FBI found a thread they could not ignore. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2015-02-05 05:26 |