Surveillance

Police Tapped Sprint Customer GPS Data 8 Million Times In A Year

Justin Elliott | December 4, 2009, 6:03PM

Under a new system set up by Sprint, law enforcement agencies have gotten GPS data from the company about its wireless customers 8 million times in about a year, raising a host of questions about consumer privacy, transparency, and oversight of how police obtain location data.

What this means -- and what many wireless customers no doubt do not realize -- is that with a few keystrokes, police can determine in real time the location of a cell phone user through automated systems set up by the phone companies.

And while a Sprint spokesman told us customers can shield themselves from surveillance by simply switching off the GPS function of their phones, one expert told TPM that the company and other carriers almost certainly have the power to remotely switch the function back on.

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Scott Rothstein

Single Group Of Hedge Funds Claim $775M Hit In Alleged FL Scam

Justin Elliott | December 4, 2009, 12:11PM

Scott Rothstein

We had wondered how the alleged Ponzi scheme of Scott Rothstein, an attorney, not a financier like Bernie Madoff, could reach the sum of $1.2 billion.

The latest eye-popping number in the case seems to provide an answer: one man's hedge funds had $775 million tied up in Rothstein's allegedly phony investments. And now that man, George Levin, is being accused of trying to help Rothstein prolong the scheme.

Five of Fort Lauderdale investor Levin's Banyon funds are in the list of the top 20 Rothstein creditors, compiled by the trustee in the case. That accounts for about 65 percent of the money in the alleged scheme.

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Bobby Jindal

Alleged Fraudster Threw Versace Mansion Fundraiser For Jindal (See The Invitation)

Justin Elliott | December 4, 2009, 11:04AM

The Versace Mansion

Here's a fun coda on Bobby Jindal's links to Scott Rothstein, the Fort Lauderdale lawyer who is accused of a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme: at the time of the Republican governors' conference in Miami last year, Rothstein and his wife hosted a $10,000-per-couple cocktail reception for Jindal at Casa Casuarina, the mansion where designer Gianni Versace was murdered in 1997.

We already knew about a pre-game fundraiser for the Louisiana governor, co-chaired by Rothstein, that was held the day of the LSU-UF matchup in October 2008. After TPMmuckraker reported that event, Jindal said he would give back $30,000 to a victim's compensation fund, once one was created.

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War In Afghanistan

Stock Analyst: Obama's Surge Good News For Security Contractor

Justin Elliott | December 3, 2009, 6:33PM

DynCorp instructor with police recruits in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, June 2008.

The White House isn't sure if Obama will be hiring more private contractors for the Afghan war -- there are currently 104,100 in the country -- but one financial analyst thinks it's a go. Reports the AP:

Engineering and construction firm Fluor Corp. and contractor DynCorp International Inc. stand to benefit from the deployment of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, an analyst said Thursday.

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Orly Taitz

New Orly Taitz Filing (In Dismissed Case): I Get Death Threats Daily

Justin Elliott | December 3, 2009, 4:33PM

Orly Taitz

Birther leader Orly Taitz, who may be the hardest working lawyer in the country, isn't letting a little issue like the dismissal of her case get in the way of submitting new filings in court.

The Orange County Register has the rundown of her latest effort, which comes in a Birther case in which she allegedly suborned perjury. A judge in California threw out the case in late October.

With the new filing, she submitted a putative immigration form showing Barack Obama's ethnic code listed as "Equatorial Guinea." And she lashes out against a "well orchestrated effort ... to assassinate my character," saying she receives death threats on a daily basis.

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War In Afghanistan

Will Obama Expand Afghan War Contractor Force? Gibbs Says He'll Look Into It

Justin Elliott | December 3, 2009, 1:17PM

Robert Gibbs

Now that we know there are 104,100 private contractors who make the war in Afghanistan possible, TPMDC put the question to Robert Gibbs this morning: will the Obama Administration expand that contractor force, as it sends 30,000 more troops?

Gibbs told our Christina Bellantoni this morning that he isn't sure, but will try to find out.

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Scott Rothstein

An Unbelievable Spree: How Scott Rothstein Spent His Money

Justin Elliott | December 3, 2009, 11:20AM

Scott Rothstein

In the years spent living off the profits of his alleged $1 billion Ponzi scheme, Florida attorney Scott Rothstein went on a Mike Tysonesque buying spree that's likely to make even the denizens of money-drenched Fort Lauderdale blush.

We already knew about the $52,000 birthday cake for Gov. Charlie Crist, and the special performance of Life in the Fast Lane for Rothstein's wife at an Eagles concert, but court papers filed earlier this week show the disgraced attorney also indulged his taste for gaudy jewelry, luxury automobiles, and real estate, even buying a 10% stake in the Versace Mansion in Miami Beach.

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Blackwater

Blackwater's Prince Blames Dems For CIA Leak, Says He'll Become School Teacher

Justin Elliott | December 2, 2009, 5:52PM

Worth a read this evening is Vanity Fair's new 6,000-word profile of Blackwater Xe chief Erik Prince, which comes complete with man-of-action photo spread and a shot of a Blackwater facility near the Pakistani border.

Perhaps the biggest revelation in the story, written with Prince's full cooperation, are the unprecedented levels of collaboration between Prince and the CIA -- to the point, according to Vanity Fair, that he was "a full-blown asset."

It's worth noting that the author of the piece, Adam Ciralsky, was himself a lawyer for the CIA before leaving in the 1990s amid a controversy about allegations he was wrongly suspended on suspicions of unauthorized contact with Israel.

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War In Afghanistan

How Many Private Contractors Are There In Afghanistan? Military Gives Us A Number

Justin Elliott | December 2, 2009, 2:37PM

Private contractors employed by the Defense Department in Afghanistan will continue to outnumber the size of the American troop presence, even after President Obama sends 30,000 more soldiers to fight in the war, according to the military's most recent contractor count.

The latest figure on DOD contractors in the country is a whopping 104,100, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command tells TPM. That number, which is expected to grow, is already greater than the 98,000 U.S. troops that will be in the country after the new deployments.

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Health Care

GOP Goes After Quasi-Lobbyist Daschle For Role In Health Care Talks

Justin Elliott | December 2, 2009, 11:39AM

Tom Daschle

Tom Daschle is taking heat from a good government group for his dual role as a participant in high-level health care reform talks and a quasi-lobbiyst for a law firm -- and the Republicans aren't missing the chance to take a shot at Daschle as well.

A "senior policy adviser" at DLA Piper, Daschle was the only outsider at a Monday meeting that included Harry Reid, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Obama health czar Nancy-Ann DeParle, and White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, Politico reports.

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Scott Rothstein

Rothstein Charges Released: 'It Was All Smoke And Mirrors'

Justin Elliott | December 1, 2009, 4:01PM

Scott Rothstein

Charges released this afternoon against Scott Rothstein, who was arrested earlier today, provide new details on how his alleged Ponzi scheme worked. He plead not guilty this morning.

The five-count criminal information seeks forfeiture of $1.2 billion, including bank accounts and no less than 24 luxury cars. The full 34-page document, released by the U.S. Attorney for southern Florida, can be read below (see page 23 for the car list).

"Scott Rothstein appeared to be a charismatic, reputable attorney one could trust to invest one's money and make a sizeable profit," said Miami FBI agent John Gillies, in a statement today. "We now know it was all smoke and mirrors."

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War In Afghanistan

As Obama Sends More Troops, Giant Shadow Army Of Contractors Set To Grow In Afghanistan

Justin Elliott | December 1, 2009, 3:09PM

Contractors watch for threats on plane departing from Forward Operating Base Sharana in Eastern Afghanistan in May of 2009.

With President Obama addressing the nation tonight about a new escalation in Afghanistan, a perennially underexamined topic is once again receiving short shrift: the huge force of contractors, which as of June outnumbered the size of the U.S. troop presence itself, is likely to swell.

The Administration seemingly hasn't addressed the issue, and the word "contractor" doesn't appear much in media coverage -- for example, in the Times and Post stories on the escalation today.

But David Berteau, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells TPM that as Obama increases troop levels to at least 100,000, "there will definitely be an increase in the number of contractors."

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Scott Rothstein

Rothstein Arrested By FBI On Racketeering Charge

Justin Elliott | December 1, 2009, 9:39AM

Scott Rothstein

A month after he returned to Florida from a brief trip to Morocco, prominent attorney Scott Rothstein was arrested by federal authorities this morning, accused of running a $1 billion investment fraud, the Miami Herald reports.

Rothstein, who has reportedly cooperated with authorities in recent weeks, is expected to plead guilty to a RICO conspiracy charge, according to the Herald.

Investors have accused Rothstein of promising them big returns on phony legal settlements he sold out of a side business at his Fort Lauderdale firm, Rothstein, Rosenfeldt, and Adler. Over the past seven years, he has had a meteoric rise through the South Florida business and political elite, doling out millions in campaign and philanthropic donations along the way.

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Washington Police Killings

How Clemmons Went From Prisoner To Alleged Cop Killer -- And Why It Matters For Mike Huckabee

Justin Elliott | November 30, 2009, 5:17PM

Seattle Police search for Maurice Clemmons 11/29/09; Clemmons and Mike Huckabee (inset).

How did Maurice Clemmons, once sentenced to 100 years in prison in Arkansas, end up a free man and the prime suspect in the grisly killing of four Seattle area police officers Sunday?

Clemmons' story begins with a teenage crime spree, winds through his years as a young man spent behind bars and the commutation of his life sentence by Mike Huckabee, continues with more years in and out of prison and the degeneration of his mental state, and finally leaves off today with a massive search for a man police describe as armed and dangerous.

The story carries potentially big political ramifications for possible presidential contender Huckabee, who is now trying to deflect criticism of the commutation to the state parole board. That's in part because Huckabee's effort to downplay his role in the Clemmons commutation echoes his response in the case of another Arkansas parolee who went on to commit a gruesome crime.

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Washington Police Killings

Huckabee Cites System's 'Failures' In Response To Washington Police Killings

Justin Elliott | November 30, 2009, 9:53AM

Mike Huckabee and Maurice Clemmons (inset).

Mike Huckabee has responded to the killing of four police officers in Washington State by saying that if the suspect in the case -- a man whose sentence Huckabee commuted in 2000 -- is found responsible, "it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State."

Huckabee's statement, posted late last night on the Web site of his PAC, downplays any agency on the governor's part in commuting the 95-year prison sentence of Maurice Clemmons, who had been convicted of aggravated robbery.

As Josh noted on the editors blog, Huckabee previously faced another controversy about a prisoner who won parole, Wayne Dumond.

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