Terra's UST Algorithmic Stablecoin Loses Dollar Peg, Triggering $40 Billion Death Spiral and Crypto Market Crash

TerraUSD (UST), the fourth-largest stablecoin with $18 billion market capitalization, began losing its dollar peg on May 7-9, 2022, triggering a catastrophic “death spiral” that would destroy $40 billion in value within days and crash the broader crypto market. The algorithmic …

Tether Fined $41 Million by CFTC for Lying About Dollar Reserves Backing Stablecoin

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Tether Holdings Limited to pay a $41 million civil penalty for making untrue and misleading statements about the reserves backing its USDT stablecoin, the world’s largest stablecoin with over $69 billion in circulation. The CFTC found that from …

Jeffrey Clark Attempts DOJ Coup to Overturn Election

Environmental lawyer Jeffrey Clark attempted to use the Department of Justice to overturn the 2020 election by sending false fraud letters to swing states. Clark drafted a letter falsely claiming DOJ had identified ‘significant concerns’ about the election and urging Georgia to convene a …

CNP Holds Post-Election Strategy Meeting - Planning Electoral College Challenge

The Council for National Policy convened a critical strategy meeting November 12-14, 2020 to coordinate the conservative movement’s response to Trump’s election loss, with strategists laying out a multi-stage plan to challenge the results through claims of election fraud and state …

CNP September 2020 Membership Directory Leaked - Current Network Exposed

A September 2020 Council for National Policy membership directory was obtained and shared by a member, later obtained by Documented in January 2022, exposing the current coordination network two months before the presidential election and three months before January 6, 2021.

The leaked directory …

NY AG sues NRA seeking dissolution over $64M fraud by Wayne LaPierre, executives

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed lawsuit to dissolve the National Rifle Association after three-year investigation revealed $64 million in financial misconduct by executive leadership (2015-2018). The suit charged NRA chief Wayne LaPierre and three senior executives with diverting …

DeJoy Removes 711 Mail Sorting Machines During Mail-In Voting Surge

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, appointed despite lacking postal experience and having conflicts of interest with USPS competitors, removed 711 high-speed mail sorting machines capable of processing 21.4 million pieces per hour during the 2020 election mail voting surge. DeJoy also eliminated …

New York Times Exposes Erik Prince's Recruitment of Former Spies for Project Veritas Domestic Intelligence Operations

The New York Times published a detailed investigation revealing that Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, recruited former American and British intelligence officers to conduct domestic espionage operations targeting Democratic political campaigns and …

Betsy DeVos Repeals Gainful Employment Rule, Eliminating All Accountability for For-Profit College Job Outcomes Despite $1.3 Billion Projected Cost to Taxpayers

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos formally repealed the Obama Administration’s Gainful Employment Rule on July 1, 2019, eliminating the only federal accountability mechanism that measured whether career training programs at for-profit colleges and non-degree programs at all institutions …

Utah adopts ALEC model legislation requiring legislative approval for "major" agency rules

Utah Representative Ryan Wilcox and Senator Daniel McCay championed HB 474, legislation requiring legislative approval for “major” agency rules with significant economic impact, modeled directly on ALEC’s Targeted Legislative Review Act. The law created a Legislative Economic …

Operation Varsity Blues indicts 50 in largest college admissions fraud scheme

Federal prosecutors unveiled Operation Varsity Blues, the largest college admissions fraud case ever prosecuted, charging 50 people including wealthy parents and university coaches. Mastermind Rick Singer ran a $25 million bribery scheme (2011-2018) through his firm The Key, facilitating fraudulent …

New York Times Investigation Exposes McKinsey's Work Raising Stature of Authoritarian Governments

The New York Times publishes a major investigation by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe titled ‘How McKinsey Has Helped Raise the Stature of Authoritarian Governments’ based on interviews with 40 current and former McKinsey employees and dozens of clients. The investigation reveals …

McKinsey Holds Lavish Corporate Retreat in Kashgar Four Miles from Uyghur Concentration Camps

McKinsey & Company holds a lavish corporate retreat themed ‘Connecting Together’ in Kashgar, Xinjiang from September 6-9, 2018, where hundreds of consultants ‘frolicked in the desert, riding camels over sand dunes and mingling in tents linked by red carpets.’ The retreat …

McKinsey Agrees to Repay $74 Million to South Africa's Eskom After State Capture Scandal

McKinsey & Company reaches a settlement with South African power utility Eskom Holdings and a unit of the prosecuting authority, agreeing to return approximately R1 billion ($74 million) in fees earned on work for the electricity producer. Eskom had asked McKinsey to pay back the funds the …

Trump reduces Bears Ears National Monument by 85% to open lands for extraction

President Trump ordered an 85 percent reduction of Bears Ears National Monument from 1.35 million acres to 201,397 acres, the largest rollback of conservation protections in U.S. history. The proclamation split the monument into two noncontiguous units (Indian Creek and Shash Jáa), opening …

Trump Installs Mick Mulvaney as CFPB Acting Director, Beginning Systematic Gutting of Consumer Protection Agency

President Trump installed Mick Mulvaney, his Office of Management and Budget director, as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a contested appointment that triggered a legal battle. As a congressman, Mulvaney had been a top recipient of payday lending campaign cash and once …

V.C. Summer Nuclear Project Abandoned After $9 Billion Failure - Ratepayers Forced to Pay $2.3 Billion for Never-Built Reactors

On July 31, 2017, SCANA Corporation and South Carolina’s state-owned utility Santee Cooper abandoned the V.C. Summer nuclear expansion project after a decade of construction, $9 billion in expenditures, and massive cost overruns. Despite the complete failure to deliver any functioning nuclear …

Trump Fires FBI Director Comey to Stop Russia Investigation, Tells Russians "Pressure Taken Off"

Trump fired FBI Director James Comey while under FBI investigation for Russian connections. Day after firing, Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Ambassador Kislyak in Oval Office that he had “faced great pressure because of Russia” which had been “taken off” by …

McKinsey Ghostwrites Its Own $2.2 Million ICE Contract Extension: Consulting Firm Defines Its Own Scope of Work

McKinsey’s influence at ICE grows to such an extent that McKinsey staff ghostwrite a government contracting document that defines the consulting team’s own responsibilities and justifies the firm’s retention—a contract extension worth $2.2 million. When an ICE official discovers …

Attorney General Jeff Sessions Rescinds Obama-Era Private Prison Phase-Out, Citing 'Future Needs of Federal Corrections System'

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issues a one-paragraph memorandum rescinding the August 18, 2016 directive from Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to phase out federal use of private prisons. Sessions claims the Obama policy “changed long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the …

McKinsey Redirected from Obama-Era ICE Reform to Trump Immigration Crackdown Consulting

Just days after President Trump takes office in January 2017 and issues executive orders to shift ‘all legally available resources’ to border detention facilities and hire 10,000 new immigration officers, ICE quickly redirects McKinsey & Company - originally brought on under the …

Federalist Society Captures Federal Judiciary with $250M Dark Money

The Federalist Society, funded by $250 million in dark money from anonymous donors, orchestrated the most systematic judicial capture in U.S. history. Trump outsourced judicial selection to the Society, appointing 231 federal judges including 3 Supreme Court justices, all from their pre-approved …

Kentucky Governor Bevin Seizes Control of Pension Board Through Executive Order

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, a former hedge fund partner at Waycross Partners, issues an executive order abolishing the existing Kentucky Retirement Systems board of trustees and creating a new board that gives him authority to appoint 10 of 17 board members. The restructuring comes two months …

CNP's Secret 2014 Membership Directory Leaked - 413 Conservative Elite Exposed

The Southern Poverty Law Center obtained and released a leaked copy of the Council for National Policy’s 2014 Membership Directory, exposing 413 members of what it described as a “Who’s Who of the Right” - the first comprehensive membership list made public since 1998.

The …

McKinsey Develops Saudi Vision 2030 Economic Blueprint for Crown Prince MBS

McKinsey Global Institute issues a comprehensive report titled ‘Moving Saudi Arabia’s Economy Beyond Oil’ in December 2015, which becomes the foundation for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 economic transformation plan. The Saudi government hires McKinsey as the …

Education Management Corporation (EDMC) Settles Largest-Ever For-Profit Education Fraud Case for $95.5 Million, Forgives $103 Million in Student Loans

The United States Department of Justice and attorneys general from 38 states and the District of Columbia reached a landmark $95.5 million settlement with Education Management Corporation (EDMC) on November 16, 2015, resolving allegations that the nation’s second-largest for-profit education …

Maine Governor LePage Threatens to Withhold School Funding to Block Political Opponent's Hiring

Maine Governor Paul LePage threatened to withhold $500,000 in state funding from Good Will-Hinckley, a nonprofit charter school serving at-risk youth, to force the organization to rescind a job offer to Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves. Good Will-Hinckley had announced on June 9, 2015 that it …

Former Utah Attorneys General Shurtleff and Swallow arrested on 23 corruption counts

Former Utah Attorneys General Mark Shurtleff and John Swallow were arrested by FBI and Utah Department of Public Safety agents on 23 combined felony and misdemeanor charges including bribery, accepting gifts, tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, and racketeering. Prosecutors alleged both …

Richard Mellon Scaife Dies After Investing $620 Million in Conservative Movement Infrastructure

Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire heir to the Mellon banking and aluminum fortune who became the most important financial architect of the modern conservative movement, died on July 4, 2014, one day after his 82nd birthday, after a battle with cancer. Scaife’s death marked the end of a …

South Dakota EB-5 official Richard Benda dies amid investigation into $550K theft

Former South Dakota economic development secretary Richard Benda died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound near Lake Andes as state Attorney General Marty Jackley prepared felony theft charges against him. Jackley disclosed his office had drafted a criminal complaint and arrest warrant on October 8, …

Edwin Feulner Retires as Heritage Foundation President After 36 Years Building Conservative Movement Infrastructure

Edwin J. Feulner Jr. retired as president of the Heritage Foundation on April 3, 2013, after an extraordinary 36-year tenure that transformed Heritage from a small Capitol Hill operation with 9 staff members and a $1 million budget into the most influential conservative think tank in Washington, …

Holder Testifies Some Banks Are Too Big to Jail

During a critical congressional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 6, 2013, Attorney General Eric Holder revealed the Department of Justice’s emerging doctrine of ’too big to jail’, acknowledging that prosecuting certain financial institutions could …

Department of Education Issues Gainful Employment Rule to Regulate For-Profit Colleges, Industry Immediately Challenges in Court

The U.S. Department of Education under Secretary Arne Duncan published the final “Gainful Employment Rule” on June 13, 2011, establishing that career training programs at for-profit colleges and non-degree programs at all institutions must demonstrate that graduates earn sufficient …

University of Phoenix Settles $78.5 Million False Claims Act Lawsuit for Illegal Recruiter Incentive Compensation

The University of Phoenix and its parent company Apollo Group agreed to pay $78.5 million on December 14, 2009, to resolve allegations that the nation’s largest for-profit university violated the False Claims Act by illegally paying recruiters based on the number of students they enrolled, …

Kids for Cash Scandal Exposed: Pennsylvania Judges Accepted $2.8 Million in Kickbacks to Fill Private Juvenile Detention Centers

Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan are exposed for accepting $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of PA Child Care, a for-profit juvenile detention facility. From 2003 to 2008, the judges altered the lives of more than 2,500 …

Alexander Acosta Approves Secret Non-Prosecution Agreement with Jeffrey Epstein

U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta approves a controversial plea deal allowing Jeffrey Epstein to plead guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor, avoiding federal prosecution. The agreement was negotiated in secret without informing victims, violating the Crime Victims’ …

ICE Conducts Largest Immigration Raid in U.S. History at Postville, Iowa Agriprocessors Plant, Arresting 389 Workers While Management Faces No Criminal Charges Despite Systematic Labor Law Violations and Exploitation

On May 12, 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deployed 900 federal agents to execute the largest worksite enforcement raid in U.S. history at the Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, arresting 389 employees—nearly 20% of the town’s total …

Hans von Spakovsky Overrules DOJ Career Staff to Approve Georgia Voter ID Law Targeting Black Voters

Hans von Spakovsky, serving as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, led the department’s approval of Georgia’s controversial photo ID law in August 2005 despite unanimous objections from career Justice Department attorneys and …

FAA Delegates Safety Certification Authority to Boeing Through Organization Designation Authorization Program

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) formally establishes the Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program, delegating unprecedented safety certification responsibilities to aircraft manufacturers, specifically Boeing. This regulatory capture mechanism expanded the scope of …

Porter Goss Begins Systematic Purge of CIA Analysts

Newly appointed CIA Director Porter Goss, accompanied by his ‘Gosslings’ staff from House Intelligence Committee, begins systematic removal of senior CIA officials who had challenged Bush administration intelligence claims. The purge targeted the Directorate of Operations and included …

Network Booking Coordinators Systematically Facilitate WHIG Synchronized Propaganda Appearances

Television network booking coordinators across CNN, NBC, CBS, and Fox News implement coordinated scheduling to facilitate White House Iraq Group’s synchronized propaganda rollout for September 8, 2002. Senior booking producers receive direct White House communications staff coordination to …

WHIG Establishes Systematic Media Coordination Infrastructure with Network Executives

In August 2002, the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) formalized a systematic media coordination infrastructure through strategic meetings with television network executives. By establishing pre-arranged booking protocols, talking point distribution systems, and synchronized messaging frameworks, they …

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Systematically Subordinated to Corporate Input

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) under John Graham implemented new procedures requiring federal agencies to submit proposed regulations to corporate ‘stakeholder panels’ before internal government review. These panels, dominated by industry representatives, gained …

Brooks Brothers Riot: Republican Operatives Physically Stop Miami-Dade Recount

On November 22, 2000, a mob of Republican operatives and staffers violently disrupted the Miami-Dade County canvassing board’s recount of votes from the disputed 2000 presidential election, successfully forcing officials to shut down the recount early. Roger Stone, Richard Nixon’s …

Gingrich-DeLay Formalize K Street Project Coordination Structure

In February 1995, Speaker Newt Gingrich and Majority Whip Tom DeLay formalized the K Street Project, a systematic strategy to transform Washington lobbying by pressuring firms to hire Republicans and limit Democratic influence. By 2003, this approach ensured that 33 of 36 top lobbying positions were …

Oregon Voters Defeat Measure 9, Anti-LGBTQ Constitutional Amendment Backed by Christian Right

Oregon voters defeat Ballot Measure 9 by a margin of 56.5 percent to 43.5 percent, rejecting what has been described as “one of the most comprehensive and harshest anti-gay measures put to voters in American history.” The initiative, sponsored by the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) and …

Russia Begins Mass Voucher Privatization: 148 Million Citizens Given Certificates Worth 'Two Volga Cars' That Become Worthless

Russia launched the world’s largest privatization program, distributing vouchers worth 10,000 rubles each to approximately 148 million citizens, enabling the privatization of over 15,000 medium and large enterprises. The program was designed and implemented by Anatoly Chubais, chairman of the …

Harvard Receives $40 Million USAID Contract to Advise Russia's Economic Transition: 'Harvard's Blank Check from Uncle Sam'

Harvard University’s Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) received a $40.4 million contract from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide advice on privatization and market reforms in post-Soviet Russia, awarded without normal competitive …

Reagan HUD Scandal Exposed, Samuel Pierce Influence Peddling Investigation

Congress begins investigating whether HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce engaged in mismanagement and abuse of resources during his eight-year tenure under Reagan, uncovering that the department became a center of influence peddling and favoritism toward Pierce’s friends and political allies. During …

First Fully Privatized Prison Opens in Houston Under CCA Contract with Immigration and Naturalization Service

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) opens the first adult detention facility to be fully managed and run by a private corporation in the United States in over a century. After winning “the first contract ever to design, build, finance and operate a secure correctional facility” from …