World News

IDENTITY THEFT RING BUSTED IN NEW-YORK.

The Richmond County District Attorney, Daniel M. Donovan, and NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced the indictment of 18 individuals as part of a multi-million dollar identity theft scam which victimized two banks and sixty individuals, including twenty members of the military stationed at Fort Hood, some deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Amongst the defendants, 15 were arrested and arraigned.This case started when a woman from Montana called the police to report that someone on Staten Island was stealing money from her checking account. That one call, transferred to the NYPD’s special frauds squad, led to the arrest of a ring that has stole millions from unsuspecting victims from Staten Island, New-York to Fort Hood, Texas, making victims of soldiers serving their country. With insiders stealing valuable data, the ring stole from checking accounts, credit and debit cards and lines of home equity credit.The District Attorney explained that the defendants were able to arrange for the members of their criminal enterprise to gain access to active checking, investment and credit card accounts. The group operated under a loose organizational structure, nicknamed “BRO” for the last names of the principals, Kazeem Badru, Ganiu Rilwan and Okechukwu Okoronkwo, who through the use of underlings, recruiters were able to create a network of individuals to launder stolen or forged checks, act as a mail drop for stolen or compromised accounts, or utilize stolen or compromised credit card accounts for a fee. The participants in the organization would receive a percentage of the stolen amount, a portion of merchandise acquired with stolen cash/credit , or a portion of the proceeds of the sale of that merchandise.   

OIL DISASTER IN THE GULF OF MEXICO.

The gulf coast continues to get hit with oil from the deep water well. Late in April, the rig exploded, with 11 oil workers dead and the oil-spill has also destroyed many marine and aquatic lives in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill is now threatening many Gulf States like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida’s white and beautiful beaches. The essence of this write-up is to examine the conducts of British Petroleum(BP) before and after the explosion in the Gulf. For every problem, there has to be a source or reason, BP is the source of this problem.BP is a global company with multi-billion dollars assets. This is a company that cannot strike a balance between profit and safety. All BP knows is profit, the company wants to make more and more profit at the expense of the safety of their workers. In the long run, it is unwise for an organization to elevate profit ahead of safety.For over two months, British Petroleum could not stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico with the environment and the coastlines at risk. Many aquatic lives are also at risk because oil inhibits the supply of dissolved oxygen, which is essential for their existence.President  Barack Obama has made BP to cough-out 20 billion dollars of their profit  to the people of the Gulf. It is not a shake-down, it is the right thing to do. BP needs to learn to be a source of the solution and not a source of the problem.Olakunle O. Bolarinwa,Is a Nightline Family Member Of The Voice Of America {VOA}.E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it