Kenya Insights

Tag: USA

  • Chinese Broker Laundered Latin American Drug Money Around the World

    Chinese Broker Laundered Latin American Drug Money Around the World

    A Chinese businessman laundered tens of millions of dollars in drug money through a Guatemalan casino, a US seafood export company, Miami banks, and Chinese bank accounts, in a case that reveals the wide reach of such money laundering networks.

    Xizhi Li, a Chinese national with US citizenship, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money in early August, according to a news release from the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Between 2008 and 2019, Li laundered some $30 million in drug proceeds for traffickers in Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala.

    Prosecutors said Li “forged close ties” with these groups while living in Mexico, obtaining contracts to conduct financial transactions with their US-based proceeds, according to an indictment against him and other conspirators. He used fake identities such as “Francisco Ley Tan” to open Miami bank accounts and purchase a casino in Guatemala used in the scheme.

    The scheme used “a foreign casino, foreign and domestic front companies, foreign and domestic bank accounts, false passports and other false identification documents” to launder the drug money, the Justice Department said in its news release.

    According to prosecutors, bulk cash made from US cocaine sales was moved among different states to cover up its origins. It was later sent to Chinese bank accounts to purchase Chinese goods. Goods were also bought in the United States and sent to China. Merchants in Latin America looking to import these goods then used their local currency to pay Li and others for the items.

    One of Li’s co-conspirators Tao Liu, of Hong Kong, was sentenced to seven years in prison on August 3rd for his role in the network. Prosecutors said Liu accepted drug money on behalf of Li, which he later deposited into bank accounts.

    Between April and June of this year, three other conspirators pleaded guilty, according to the Justice Department. Another suspect was charged and is pending extraditionafter he was arrested in Peru.

    InSight Crime Analysis

    Drug money is not only increasingly being laundered through Chinese bank accounts but brokers are setting up throughout the Americas and beyond to serve trafficking clientele and move cash.

    Prosecutors said nodes of the money laundering group were based in the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, China and elsewhere. One suspect made trips to New York and Los Angeles, as well as to the Mexican city of Cancún and Guatemala City to facilitate the network’s activities. The Guatemalan casino owned by Li served as a meeting point for the network.

    The group also used a US seafood import and export business to purchase seafood products using cocaine money. The products were later exported for sale in China and Hong Kong.

    Messaging platforms, including WhatsApp and WeChat, were used by associates to communicate.

    Li and his co-conspirators sought to obtain as many “contracts” as possible from drug trafficking organizations. They then received commissions on the transactions, or a percentage of the funds involved, prosecutors said.

    What’s more, Chinese players in the money laundering trade have a wide range of schemes open to them. In one, the US and Mexican financial systems were bypassed altogether. Chinese-owned businesses simply received drug cash and then transferred a corresponding amount through a Chinese banking application.

  • Tik Tok’s Global Success A Threat To Silicon Valley Apps

    Tik Tok’s Global Success A Threat To Silicon Valley Apps

    TikTok, an app that allows users to create short videos with music, filters, and other features. Right now, China-based TikTok is the popular trending app in the world. It’s been downloaded over a billion times in the two years that it’s been around. Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is perturbed.

    Tik Tok is blowing to an extent the silicon valley apps have sought the governments ‘protection’. Which, by the way, if you look at it, they already have. Zuckerberg’s increased anti-China rhetoric is an attempt to please US lawmakers and to fend off regulation. US senators have been criticizing TikTok for censorship, privacy, and child safety. About 41 percent of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24.

    TikTok is an iOS and Android social media video sharing that was launched in 2017 by Chinese developer ByteDance. ByteDance, a Beijing-based company founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. ByteDance is one of the most valuable startups in the world estimated to be worth about $75 billion.

    In 2019, Zhang Yiming, Tik Tok founder was listed in the top 20 of the Hurun China Rich List with $13.5 billion in wealth, surpassing more established tech tycoons, such as the founder of search giant Baidu.

    Since launching in 2017, TikTok has been downloaded more than 1.5 billion times, according to US-based research agency Sensor Tower. It has huge followings globally something that has threatened US-based Silicon Valley companies, like Facebook, Google, Twitter.

    Forbes estimates show that TikTok has 1 billion monthly active users, the figure is the same or probably more than Facebook-owned Instagram. Tik Tok has been set and it’s destined to floor Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and they have massive data, right now,  the world’s most valuable asset.

    TikTok now requires users to verify their age after the Federal Trade Commission accused Musical.ly of violating US child-privacy laws and fined them $5.7 million in February this year.

    Reuters reported in September that CFIUS, which reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks, is probing ByteDance’s $1 billion acquisition of social media app Musical.ly in 2017, which laid the foundations for TikTok’s rapid growth.

    China-based ByteDance in their response said that they are seeking to provide assurances to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that personal data held by TikTok is stored securely in the United States and will not be compromised by Chinese authorities.

    TikTok is also hiring more U.S. engineers to reduce its reliance on staff in China.

    “Shifting a company’s operations away from China, geographically and technically, can give CFIUS more comfort that the company is really independent of its Chinese owner and the Chinese government,” said Nevena Simidjiyska, a partner at  Fox Rothschild LLP law firm.

    Personally, TikTok is far way better and the opposite of Instagram. Insta is all about vanity and fake aspiration and wannabe chest thumbing ‘best life’ bluffs.  Everything feels very artificial on Instagram.

    TikTok is real, I mean, users film themselves in their bedrooms, roadside, living room, school, street, church, bars, smoking zones, farms, etc. It’s all about short clips, all about kind of goofing around, a pass and totally recommendable.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Kipchoge And Kosgei Wins Big At Abbott World Marathon Majors Series XII Awards

    Kipchoge And Kosgei Wins Big At Abbott World Marathon Majors Series XII Awards

    Eliud Kipchoge has set the genesis of recognisable athletes and Kenyan marathoners are bagging awards on and off the track since his moon landing INEOS sub 2 marathon in Viena.

    Eliud Kipchoge floored Ethiopian athletes Lelisa Desisa and Birhanu Legese to attain the award after garnering 50 points from the 41 points the Ethiopians garnered.

    View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter

    Kipchoge took his joy to Twitter streets and posted this…

    Bridgit Kosgei also accumulated 50 points  showing dust to her fellow female athletes. Kosgei harmered Ethiopia’s Ruti Aga and fellow Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot. Ethiopia’s Ruti Aga and Kenya’s Cheruiyot finished second and third respectively.

    Eliud Kipchoge and Bridgit Kosgei will pocket Ksh25Million each as the AWMM price money. This comes after the two also bagged the Virgin Money London Marathon last April.

    On her part, Kosgei won the 2018 Bank of America Chicago Marathon last October in 2:18:35 before winning the title again in London in her first series title.

    Before the moon landing sub 2 INEOS challenge, Kipchoge won the BMW Berlin Marathon in September 2018. He set a world record of  2:01:39, which still-standing world record on top of his INEOS Sub 2 marathon challenge.

  • Most Unsafe Gadget Huawei Suffers 1Million Cyber-attacks Daily

    Most Unsafe Gadget Huawei Suffers 1Million Cyber-attacks Daily

    You remember when the late Jacob Juma was murdered and investigations into his gruesome death led by the former CID now DCI boss Ndegwa Muhoro launched that never clearly yielded something? Nairobi’s CCTV cameras apparently failed to capture the most important video details of the murder that has remained a blame game to this very date. Huawei CCTV that costed Kenyans billions of shillings and almost zero benefits, to say the least, was at the center of all that.

    Away from that, the Chinese tech giant Huawei stomachs more than a million cyberattacks per day on its computers and networks.  China’s under fire Huawei security chief, John Suffolk has confirmed this.

    According to Suffolk most of the attacks are focused on IP-theft, and Huawei, which leads the world for 5G network innovation and files more patents than any other company, has accused the U.S. government of mounting cyberattacks as part of its concerted campaign against them.

    Last month, Huawei alleged in the media that; “The U.S. law enforcement has threatened, coerced and enticed existing and former employees, and has executed cyberattacks to infiltrate Huawei’s intranet and internal information systems.”

    Suffolk, however, did not attribute the attacks to any country or particular threat actor and did not confirm whether they were from nation-states or competitors. He, however, acknowledged that although almost all attacks are defended, some attacks on older systems get through.

    “Cyberattacks have included a type of theft of confidential information by sending a computer virus by email.” Reads Huawei’s report

    Such phishing or business email often rely on social engineering to trick employees into installing malware disguised as attachments, or visiting fake sites or viewing social media clips that are laced with harmful code.

    Suffolk used the media to confirm his claims that although Huawei is battling its own allegations around cybersecurity, vulnerable to intelligence tasking by Beijing within overseas markets—either to steal or disrupt. Suffolk told the media that if the company’s CEO Ren Zhengfei was ever asked to compromise the company, he would blankly refuse to do that if he was pressurized to do that, he would close the company down.

    Last week, the EU report warned that the combination of new technologies and 5G networks risks hostile state control of critical infrastructure, logistics, transportation even law enforcement. Even though the report failed to openly mention China or Huawei, but did reference sole 5G suppliers from countries with poor democratic standards, which clearly means Huawei and China was the reference.

     

  • Kenyans Running With All World Marathon Records

    Kenyans Running With All World Marathon Records

    Yesterday, Kenyans were fuddled with almost free booze from EABL after Eliud Kipchoge broke the world record and became the first man to run a sub 2  marathon. Specific brands of beers were retailing at sh159 something that saw the country record unofficial drinking spree record.

    And today, Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei is the new women’s world marathon record holder.

    Kosgei achieved the feat when she clocked 2 hours, 14 minutes and 04 seconds during Sunday’s Chicago Marathon.

    Kosgei now has broken Britain’s Paula Radcliffe record time of 2:15:25 set on April 13, 2003 in London.

    It is also a course record also erasing Radcliffe’s time of 2:17:18 set in October 13, 2002.

    Here are randomly sampled rections of Kenyans on twitter after yet another world record was broken by one of their own.

    Kenya Insights says Hongera and congratulation Brigid Kosgei for yet another moon landing record run. Kenya is so proud of your efforts and achievements.??????????

  • Next Series Of iPhone To Have Touchscreen Keyboards You Can Feel

    Next Series Of iPhone To Have Touchscreen Keyboards You Can Feel

    Apple Inc, an American multinational technology company headquartered that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services has already started making its fanatics to admire the next series of its unreleased products. iPhone 11 Pro was released just a few weeks ago!

    Image result for iphone 11

    According to an exciting new patent application from Apple, the company is looking to replicate the familiar feeling of typing on a keyboard to touchscreens. The patent, uncovered by Patently Apple, explains how haptic motors and electrostatic charges would make the virtual keys feel more like physical ones.

    “Electrostatics may use an electrical field to attract and/or repel conductive objects, such as a user’s finger. Changing the normal force between a surface and a conductive object directly affects the friction between the two, and the resulting forces may be perceived as texture when the object moves,” the patent reads.

    Basically, what Apple is saying is that this is something that looks like a keyboard on-screen that ‘feels’ like keys thanks to the imagined ‘texture’ and it should feel just like you’re typing on a regular keyboard. I don’t know if the theory FEELs from your end, me thinks this looks like a modernized past, and yes, I mean this feels good from my side. Or you are waiting to see it to believe it!

    Still, it’s a fascinating idea and could prove a viable alternative for iPad keyboard cases and the like for people who only occasionally use their tablets for long-form writing.

    But as ever, patents should come with a health warning: very few of them actually get made into products you can buy, especially with Apple which has over 80,000 of them. Whether we’ll see this particular one in a product likely depends on how well it works in practice.

  • FBI Nabs 3 US-Based Kenyans Linked To ISIS

    FBI Nabs 3 US-Based Kenyans Linked To ISIS

    In yet another intensified war against terrorist and their sympathizers, US Federal Bureau of Investigations has arrested three Kenyans in the United States over their links and support to ISIS.

    According to official statements send to the media, the victims Muse Abdikadir Muse, 23, his brother Mohamud Abdikadir Muse, 20, and another relative, 26-year-old Mohamed Salat Haji, are US citizens by registration and Kenyan citizens by birth. They have been charged with conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organisation.

    FBI agents arrested Muse Muse at Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids on Monday, when he was about to take a series of flights that would have eventually landed him in Mogadishu, Somalia, according to a federal complaint. Mohamud Muse and Haji were arrested hours later.

    The three defendants had all pledged allegiance to ISIS through videos they recorded themselves, according to a statement by the Department of Justice seen by NBC News.

    “Haji and Mohamud Muse had aided in the purchase of the ticket and drove Muse Muse to the Grand Rapids airport, each knowing the true purpose of the travel was for Muse Muse to join and fight for ISIS,” federal authorities said.

    According to stiff US immigration and anti-terrorism rules, the Kenyan suspects all face up to 20 years in jail if convicted by the federal courts and department of Justice. The three arrested terrorists have been denied rights to foreign lawyers.

    “Muse Muse and Haji allegedly discussed with each other their desire to join ISIS, to kill non-believers, and even to potentially use a car for a martyrdom operation to run down non-believers here in the United States if they could not travel overseas to fight for ISIS,” according to prosecutors.

    The investigation began in April 2016 when agents found pro-ISIS writings on Mohamud Muse’s Facebook page and they were later contacted by an FBI agent, posing as an ISIS recruiter, according to the federal complaint. Muse Muse’s airfare was $1,799 and the family asked for the phony ISIS recruiter to contribute $1,200, officials said. The FBI said it came through with the $1,200, to help buy the ticket

  • Michelle Karume, Granddaughter To Billionaire Njenga Karume Succumbs To Cancer After Begging For Treatment Funds

    Michelle Karume, Granddaughter To Billionaire Njenga Karume Succumbs To Cancer After Begging For Treatment Funds

    Kenya’s most renown Politician and late billionaire Njenga Karume’s granddaughter Michelle Karume has died in a US-based medical facility after spending a few of her last days on earth begging for financial help.

    The 26 years old Michelle Karume succumbed to cancer in the US last Saturday days after penning a painful plea for funds from home to treat her cancer. From her pleas for help, Michelle’s last days were spent in agonizing pain after lacking basic medicines such as painkillers.

    This, as a fierce inheritance battle for her grandfather’s immense wealth, rages on back here in Kenya. Michelle stunned the court in a past session when she interrupted lawyers and cried to the presiding judge that she was dying of cancer and could not afford medication. The Judge directed the trustees of Karume’s estate to provide the required funds to meet her medical expenses.

    The late businessman Njenga Karume (Courtesy)

    Michelle was among the grandchildren that Karume had put in his Will as beneficiaries of his vast estate that was estimated at Sh17.8b last year. Prior estimates had placed his wealth by the time of his death at more than Sh100b. As the inheritance matter drags on in court, Michelle’s emotional letter that was also shared with the family’s lawyers, painted a picture of destitute last days.

    In an uncanny reference to her death, Michelle wrote that her time was running out.

    “I kindly would like to know the way forward because it is such a terribly long time since I was on treatment, it is going to a year now,” she wrote.

    According to the late Michelle, she did not understand why there was no money to help her get treatment and accusing the family of neglecting her after her grandfather’s death.

    Michelle Karume deceased

    Her grandfather’s vast wealth did not help her when she needed it most, and only brought her pain and more pain.

    “The clock is ticking while every day I sit by my phone to hear some good news on funds, but three months later I am waiting here; still waiting for my phone to ring, but in return, I get less communication to a point nobody can pick up my calls,” she wrote.

    From the distressing messages that the deceased send and shared before her last breathe indicate that her financial distress fuelled by her need for medical attention had been ongoing for at least three years.

    According to Michele’s messages, she has not been receiving funds from as far back as 2016 something she shad claimed that saw her miss out on a clinical trial which could have diagnosed and treated cancer before it progressed further.

    It was not until last December when Michelle travelled to the US on the belief that the funds would be unlocked. She was enrolled for the clinical trials in January, but the anticipated money did not come, prompting her to drop out. She then expressed her wish to come back home.

    “Living here has been very tough, my son has no routine in lifestyle as he doesn’t go to school, but I wish to enroll him in daycare that also requires money,” Michelle wrote.

    She said the hospital called every day to inquire if she was still interested in the clinical trial and that she kept pleading for more time to find the money.