Category: Crimes

Major refugee resettlement agency in meltdown?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Sure sounds like it! 

We reported here that we had heard rumblings, but Breitbart News yesterday has all the gory details from a reliable source close to the organization—Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service—headquartered in Baltimore, MD.

Read the bombshell story by Michael Patrick Leahy here.

‘Source: Claims of Financial Mismanagement, Fraud, and Harassment at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service Spark External Investigation’

Hartke and Bishop on Hill in March (2)
LIRS CEO Linda Hartke (left) with ELCA Bishop Eaton lobbying on the Hill for more refugees (aka paying clients) in March of this year.

My questions include:

~Will Trump’s federal government suspend LIRS (96% funded by taxpayer dollars) until the truth is learned?

~Will Congress have the energy and the guts to take a look at this?

~And, could this be the tip of the iceberg—is LIRS a one-off or could others of the nine federal contractors  have gotten loosey-goosey with their finances too?

After all when you are ‘doing good’ who would have the audacity to question how you handle free federal money, right?

~And, here is another: If proven true, what impact do these allegations have on LIRS subcontractors (aka affiliates)?

Just to remind longtime readers and for new readers arriving here today, there are nine organizations (supposedly non-profits)*** almost completely funded with US taxpayer dollars which distribute federal money to hundreds of subcontractors working in towns and cities across America where refugees are being placed.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is the parent organization to the offices listed below. So whatever happens in Baltimore could have a direct impact on these local “affiliates.”

For example, LSS-MN does not act independently of the Baltimore ‘mothership’ when it comes to resettling refugees. It is the Baltimore office that sends them cases and the money that comes along with the refugees.  Federal taxpayer dollars simply flow through LIRS headquarters to these subcontractors.  (At the heart of the allegations about federal grant funds is the issue of how much headquarters keeps of the millions of dollars it passes through.)

LIRS affiliates could see an impact if the allegations of financial wrong doing are significant enough for the federal agency (HHS in this case) to issue a ‘stop work order.’

Arkansas
Canopy of Northwest Arkansas, Fayetteville

Arizona
Refugee Focus, Phoenix, Tuscon

California
Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service, Los Angeles

Colorado
Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, Denver, Colorado Springs, Greeley

Florida
Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida, Jacksonville
Lutheran Services Florida, Miami, Orlando, Tampa

Georgia
Lutheran Services of Georgia, Atlanta, Savannah

Illinois
RefugeeOne, Chicago

Maryland
Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, Hyattsville

Massachusetts
Ascentria Community Services, Westfield, Worcester

Michigan
Samaritas, Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Troy

Minnesota
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, Minneapolis, St. Cloud

Nebraska
Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, Omaha

New Hampshire
Ascentria Community Services, Concord

New Mexico
Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, Albuquerque, Santa Fe

New York
Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, Utica

North Carolina
Lutheran Services Carolinas, Raleigh

North Dakota
Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota—Center for New Americans, Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks

Oregon
Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Portland

Pennsylvania
Bethany Christian Services, Allentown, Lancaster, Philadelphia

South Carolina
Lutheran Services Carolinas, Columbia, Charleston

South Dakota
Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota, Sioux Falls

Texas
Refugee Services of Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth, Amarillo, Houston

Virginia
Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, Falls Church

Washington
Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Tacoma, Vancouver

Wisconsin
Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Madison, Milwaukee

When you read Breitbart’s investigative piece you might not have much concern for the internal personnel machinations/squabbles/bullying/firings/ etc, but like me, you might find anything that suggests the misuse of your tax dollars compelling. Pistachio nuts! (you will have to read Leahy’s piece to see what that means!)

Here is one bit of the detailed report from a source to Breitbart (source refers to LIRS as LIaRS):

Over the six year period from 2011 through 2016, LIaRS revenue from the U.S. government grew from $30 million to almost $65 million. During that time, under CEO Hartke’s oversight, the headquarter’s spending exploded from $8.8 million to $13.5 million with a staff of less than 100. Hartke’s salary also jumped from $182,270 to more than $293,000 last year (note this does not include her 9 percemt employer retirement plan contribution, 100% employer paid health care, and paid time off).

Given that USG revenue accounts for almost 95 cents of every LIaRS dollar, the only way Hartke could continue to spend on herself and the headquarters is through charging the USG an indirect cost recovery rate on the entire amount of their grants, even though 90 percent of the funds were simply passed through to subawards to the dozens of independent affiliates that actually do the refugee resettlement work (i.e. Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, RefugeeOne of Chicago, Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, etc.).

This is direct contradiction to the Code of Federal Regulations which only allows the ICR to be charged on the first $25,000 of each subaward. LIaRS charges it on all the money, thereby giving them millions of dollars per year to fund their headquarters for doing nothing. As an example, in 2016 of the $54 million in government funds received by LIaRS, more than $55 million was sent out in subawards to the independent affiliates to do the actual resettlement work … but LIaRS managed to charge the government the ICR rate of over 10 percent on that $55 million which brings over $5 million to be kept in Baltimore for Hartke and her office.

If I may be so bold as to tell the Inspector General at Health and Human Services what to do….

….it would be prudent for the IG to issue a Stop Work Order.

If the allegations of inflating direct costs are true and the commensurate lack of internal controls are found, LIRS financial practices raise serious questions about their ability to function as a federal resettlement agency (receiving millions of dollars appropriated by Congress!) at least until this mess is cleared up.

So what can you do?

Wilmot Collins
Note that the new refugee mayor of Helena, Montana is on this board. Ask him what he thinks about the allegations!  http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/11/08/liberian_refugee_wilmot_collins_elected_mayor_of_helena_montana.html

Tell Donald Trump to suspend LIRS while the investigation continues.

And….

After reading the Breitbart expose’ you know that LIRS Board of Directors has launched an internal investigation in addition to whatever the federal government is doing.

See the Board members here and below.  If you are of the Lutheran faith you need to have a word with anyone of them you know plus speak up to your local pastors!

From LIRS website:

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service’s board of directors sets the organization’s mission goals and ensures that we have the resources, leadership and oversight necessary to carry them out. Our president and leadership team guides the day-to-day operations of the organization as we work toward achieving our mission goals with integrity, courage and fiscal responsibility.

Board Members
The board is composed of 15 members who have knowledge of and commitment to refugees and immigrants. LIRS believes strength is found in diversity and that refugees and immigrants need a voice at the table of influence. All branches of the Lutheran Church as well as other denominations are represented on the board. There are also three former refugees or first generation immigrants on the board. The LIRS president is an ex-officio member of the board.

Executive Committee

At-Large Members

Leadership Team Members

President — Linda Hartke
Contact: president@lirs.org or call 410-230-2785

Chief Operating Officer — Gary Gold-Moritz
Vice President for Programs — Kay Bellor
Vice President for Development, Outreach and Communications — Staci Coomer
Chief Information Officer — William Bisbee

To contact a member of the Leadership Team, email lirs@lirs.org or call 410-230-2700.

 

See my complete archive on LIRS here.

***These are the nine federal contractors receiving millions of tax payer dollars annually. Could any of the others not be following federal grant reporting rules?  Come on Congress, time to get serious about reviewing the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program and how the contractors are spending our money!

 

 

Afghan refugee charged with murder not an “unaccompanied minor” as he claimed

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

So, how did the prosecution in Germany know he was in his mid-20’s—that he was a liar?

They checked his teeth—actually one tooth had been removed, but saved. (Is that some sort of method to scam naive western countries—take out the teeth that could give them away as adults?).

You probably know about this dreadful case where the Afghan asylum seeker murdered the young daughter of an EU official and dumped her body in a nearby river.

The poor young woman had worked as a volunteer with the so-called migrant ‘children’ in her university town.

 

Afghan migrant Hussein Khavari
Boo hoo! This evil creep will now be treated as an adult in the German legal system

 

Here is what I’d like to know—why can’t we examine the teeth of every ‘unaccompanied alien minor’ arriving at our borders and treat them according to what we find—detention in an adult facility or a teen facility until they can be removed!

From the Daily Mail:

A migrant who raped and killed an EU official’s daughter and lied that he was an ‘unaccompanied minor’ is between 22 and 29 years old, dental checks have proved.

Hussein Khavari ambushed 19-year-old medical student Maria Ladenburger in Freiberg in October last year before raping her and drowning her in a river.

Today, a dental expert appeared to have wrecked his hopes of escaping with a lighter sentence by showing with ‘near certainty’ that Khavari was 25. The bogus Afghan refugee originally claimed to be just 17.

Speaking at Khavari’s trial on Tuesday, research scientist Ursula Wittwer-Backofen revealed her analysis of his upper right canine tooth.

The tooth was removed eight months before he attacked the teenager.

He kept the tooth as some sort of souvenir and on Tuesday it became exhibit A in the courtroom in Freiburg, southern Germany, where he has been standing trial for the past two months for the crime.

More here including pictures of the beautiful student.

Come on Germany, wake up!

See my previous post on Germany earlier this morning.

More ‘Invasion of Europe’ news is here.

St. Cloud Somali one of four facing charges he lied to get in to US, could be stripped of citizenship

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday, here, I told you about the ‘family’ of four who are now being charged with lying about their family relationship in order to get in to the US through the Diversity Visa Lottery (the same program used by the recent Uzbek terrorist in NYC).

ignorance-is-bliss
Welcoming city leaders!

However, I had not seen the press release from the US Justice Department on Monday.

The original winner of the lottery—the supposed mother—lives in Eden Prairie, MN, but the now ‘divorced’ father lives in St. Cloud. The ‘sons’ live in Hennepin County.

Here is what the DOJ press release says about him:

Ahmed Mohamed Warsame

Ahmed Mohamed Warsame aka Jama Solob Kayre, 54, a native of Somalia, using the fictitious identity of Jama Solob Kayre, applied for and received a beneficiary diversity visa as the fictitious spouse of Fosia Abdi Adan, the principal diversity visa immigrant of the fictitious family. Warsame unlawfully obtained his visa as the spouse of a diversity visa immigrant from the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, under the DV Program on Jan. 10, 2001. Warsame arrived and was admitted to the United States on May 30, 2001, on his diversity immigrant visa as a permanent resident. Throughout the diversity visa application process, Warsame fraudulently claimed that he was married to Adan and that he and Adan had three children together. Such children included Mohamed Jama Solob, the fictitious identity used by Mustaf Abdi Adan, and Mobarak Jama Solob, the fictitious identity used by Faysal Jama Mire. Adan and Warsame, who used the fictitious identity of Jama Solob Kayre, obtained a divorce in Minnesota for their fictitious marriage after Warsame was admitted as a permanent resident. Warsame continued to fraudulently represent his previous fictitious marriage and fraudulently represent his fictitious parentage of Mohamed Jama Solob and Mobarak Jama Solob, throughout the naturalization process. Warsame, using the fictitious name of Jama Solob Kayre, naturalized on Sept. 13, 2006. During his naturalization, he changed his name to Ahmed Mohamed Warsame. Warsame has been residing in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Does anyone in St. Cloud know him?

LOL! Check voter registration rolls! Has Ahmed Mohamed Warsame aka Jama Solob Kayre been voting? And, check the welfare rolls too!

One more fail for the vetting process. How many more like this bunch are in Minnesota?

Twin Cities Pioneer Press has a story here.  Let me know if the Star Tribune and the Saint Cloud Times report this news. ***Update*** thanks to a reader, here is the Star Tribune on the alleged scammers.

I’m repeating my recommendation of yesterday and that is that the US Dept. of Justice should set up a hotline for tips on others who thumbed their noses at our legal system and are here because they lied.

See my ever-growing St. Cloud archive here.

Wow! Justice Department looking at denaturalization process for 4 Somalis who lied!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Their crime is that they pretended to be a family when one of the four won the Diversity Visa lottery!

Before I give you the story, the first thing I thought of was the huge family reunification fraud revealed back in 2008 when the State Department shut down the so-called P-3 program when they found as many as 20,000 Somalis got in to the US by lying about family connections. The program was on hold for 4 years but nothing happened to the cheaters!

Can we go back and find those liars too?

 

SAMSUNG
How many of Minnesota’s Somalis are here because they lied about family connections on refugee applications? State Dept. said as many as 20,000 got in to the US fraudulently.

 

Here is yesterday’s news from the Washington Free Beacon:

Four individuals who pretended to be a family and arrived in the United States from Somalia through the controversial diversity visa program are now the subject of civil complaints seeking their denaturalization, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

The complaints were filed by the Department of Justice, Department of State, and Department of Homeland Security, challenging Fosia Abdi Adan, Ahmed Mohamed Warsame, Mustaf Abdi Adan, and Faysal Jama Mire. According to the Justice Department, the four came to the United States claiming to be part of a family, ultimately naturalizing on the basis of this apparently false contention.

[….]

The four coordinated after Fosia Adan, 51, received a diversity visa in January of 2001. Under fictional identities, Fosia and Ahmed, 54, claimed to be married, with Mustaf, 33, and Faysal, 31, pretending to be their children. Fosia and Ahmed subsequently obtained a divorce in Minnesota, maintaining their fictitious identities in the separation.

Both Fosia and Ahmed naturalized in 2006; Faysal and Mustaf naturalized in 2010 and 2013, respectively. If, as the Justice Department alleges, their naturalizations were predicated on lies, all four can be denaturalized in compliance with the Immigration and Nationality Act.

See more posts on ‘family reunification fraud’ by clicking here.

Maybe the Justice Department could set up a hotline where people can call in tips about those they know who scammed our welcoming country by lying about who they are (so much for security screening, right!).

LOL! This is my third Minnesota post of the day!

Jihadist Uzbek Diversity Visa Lottery winner kills eight near World Trade Center

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You don’t need me to give you that news, but let’s first talk about the Diversity Visa Lottery (aka Green card lottery) which we have discussed often on these pages over the previous ten years.  It is one more LEGAL immigration program that must go!

(Here is my archive on the program.  And, I’ll say it again. There are many possible themes for ‘amateur’ investigative bloggers that I’ve been nagging some of you to jump in to over the years including the Diversity Visa Lottery, Temporary Protected Status and immigrant food stamp and medicaid fraud.  There is a desperate need for individual bloggers focusing solely on those topics and more every day because we cannot count on the mainstream media to inform us!)

Here is a good summary about Trump and the Diversity Visa Lottery in the wake of this latest Islamic terrorist attack from John Binder at Breitbart.

 

Sayfullo Saipov
Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov

 

President Trump could shut this down in a heartbeat with an Executive Order if he so chose. Or, at minimum, add Uzbekistan to the list of countries requiring additional screening.

Binder:

The suspected foreign national terrorist behind the New York City attack that has left at least eight individuals dead came to the United States years ago through the Diversity Visa Lottery, a program that President Trump and pro-American immigration reformers have demanded an end to.

According to ABC New York, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov — the man who allegedly mowed down pedestrians in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City — entered the U.S. in 2010 from Uzbekistan under the Diversity Visa Lottery before obtaining a Green Card.

Just think about this!  We haven’t enough diversity in America according to Congress (which has never been able to kill the program) so every year we bring in 50,000 more including from countries that hate us!

The Diversity Visa Lottery gives out 50,000 visas every year to foreign nationals from a multitude of countries, including those with known terrorist problems – such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Yemen, and Uzbekistan.

Trump, though, along with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Sen. David Perdue (R-GA), has been calling for an end to the Diversity Visa Lottery program since August. Under the RAISE Act, introduced in February and endorsed by Trump in August, the Diversity Visa Lottery would be eliminated altogether.

The Trump administration took eliminating the Diversity Visa Lottery even more seriously earlier this month when they introduced the president’s immigration priorities, which like the RAISE Act called for the elimination of the program.

Binder has more, click here.

We do not need to wait for the RAISE Act to kill the Diversity Visa Lottery!

(BTW, I’m not a big fan of the RAISE Act because it doesn’t do enough to reform the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.  Let’s not dither around, let’s have a stand alone bill to kill the Diversity Visa Lottery right now.)

Now let’s talk about Uzbeks who have arrived LEGALLY in the US including through the Refugee Admissions Program.

The poster boy for Uzbek Islamic terrorist refugees is Fazliddin Kurbanov who was convicted of  conspiracy to commit terrorism in Idaho in 2015.  See here.

Fazliddin Kurbanov
I’m assuming the bleeding hearts in Idaho who defended Kurbanov were disabused of his goodness when they heard of his brutal attack on the California prison warden.

And, if you had any doubts about how bad he is, he attempted to kill the California  prison warden shortly after arriving to serve his 25-year sentence.

Here is what I reported in May of this year:

For all of the refugee contractors and their groupies busily spreading propaganda that refugees never commit crimes, take note of Muslim Fazliddin Kurbanov who was already in prison, convicted on terrorism charges, and then tried to kill the prison warden a year ago this week!

Where the heck was (is!) the national media on this story? 

Unless you read RRW, you may never have known this from KTVB7:

Indictment: Boise man serving terrorism sentence tried to kill prison warden

RIVERSIDE, California — A Boise man who was convicted in 2015 of terrorism-related crimes has been indicted after prosecutors say he attacked the warden at the federal prison where he was held.

Fazliddin Kurbanov, 34, was just months into a 25-year sentence when the attack happened May 31, 2016 at the Federal Correctional Institute in Victorville, California.

He was indicted Wednesday on charges of attempted murder of a federal officer, assault on a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and possession by an inmate of a prohibited object intended to be used as a weapon.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Kurbanov used a prison-made knife to attack Calvin Johnson, seriously injuring him. According to the Amercian Federation of Government Employees, the warden needed more than 80 staples to close wounds on his torso.

Of course we don’t have the full story and my primary questions are:  How did he get a knife? And, how did he get close enough to the warden?  Were they alone? Was the warden naive or attempting to show the convicted Jihadist how nice he (the warden) was?

Where is Jamshid Muhtorov another Uzbek refugee arrested in 2012 on terrorism charges?

Here is what I said in July of this year:

Recently when I told you about another Uzbek refugee already in prison on terror charges after a guilty verdict in an Idaho trial, here, I wondered what happened to Jamshid Muhtorov who I wrote about in 2012, here.

Jamshid-Muhtorov--30291984_3085_ver1.0_320_240

Before I give you the latest on Muhtorov, the big question remains:

Why were we bringing in this group of known Uzbek troublemakers anyway? Some didn’t even want to be here!

As one of my knowledgeable readers suggests, maybe the reason Muhtorov has not gone to trial yet is that the government might have to reveal why the Bush Administration was taking in Uzbek dissidents as legitimate refugees in the first place!

Isn’t it time for President Trump to force the US State Department and Homeland Security (and the CIA!) to tell us exactly what happened after the 2005 Andijan Uprising in Uzbekistan (a Muslim country where the Muslim factions are fighting each other) and why we admitted some of the trouble makers to the US as refugees?

But that isn’t the end of my Uzbek file!  Here are some other posts from over the years where you can learn more about why we should, at minimum, add Uzbekistan to the Trump extreme vetting list:

Uzbek among three arrested in New York, charged with supporting ISIS

Ohio: More of those charming “Uzbek refugees” in trouble with the law

Why are we importing Uzbeks in the first place?

Update on Uzbek would-be assassin

Racketeering charges filed against Kansas City, MO Uzbeks

And do your remember this story from American Thinker? Uzbek wanted to shoot then Senator Lieberman in the face:

Shoot the Jewish Senator in the Face: Not News?

If you are looking for something to do today, call or write to the White House and tell Donald Trump to put a halt to the Diversity Visa Lottery and add Uzbekistan to the list of countries whose migrants to America will undergo “extreme vetting.”  Click here.