Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
Unfortunately, in this case, the vessel appears not to have transmitted since 23rd June (this doesn't really mean much, though - many vessels transmit sporadically).
'International waters' would begin 12 nautical miles (22.2 km or 13.8 miles) from the coastline.
coffin_dodger » Tue Nov 11, 2014 4:17 pm wrote:Is 13.8 miles by sea a long way (in a boat like that) or would it be a 'quick jaunt'? i.e. would that distance preclude making the trip worth it?
A prominent banker was found dead in the tub of his posh downtown apartment with his throat slashed — in what detectives suspect is a suicide, police sources said on Wednesday.
Shawn D. Miller, 42, who traveled the world for Citigroup as one of its top environmental policy experts, sliced his neck and wrists with a knife inside his home at 120 Greenwich St, the sources said.
His body was found by a doorman Tuesday, after his boyfriend called building operators and said he was worried for the banker’s safety. ...
Shawn D. Miller, a Citigroup Inc. (C) managing director who was global head of environmental and social risk management, was found dead in his New York apartment after suffering a neck wound, police said.
Miller, 42, was found unconscious yesterday in the bathtub of his Greenwich Street apartment in lower Manhattan with a neck laceration, the New York City Police Department said in a statement. Medics declared him dead after responding to an emergency call at 3:11 p.m. and investigators are waiting for the medical examiner to determine a cause of death, police said.
The New York Post reported that Miller’s throat was slashed and that no knife was recovered, leading authorities to suspect foul play. The Wall Street Journal, citing a law enforcement official, reported that police are seeking to talk with a man who was seen in the elevator with Miller before 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 15 and appeared to have a dispute with him.
Slain MassMutual Executive Held Wall Street “Trade Secrets”
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: December 8, 2014
On Thursday, November 20, 2014, the body of 54-year old Melissa Millan, a divorced mother of two school-age children, was found at approximately 8 p.m. along a jogging path running parallel to Iron Horse Boulevard in Simsbury, Connecticut. A motorist had spotted the body and called the police.
According to the coroner’s report, it was determined that Millan’s death was attributable to a stab wound to the chest with an “edged weapon.” Police ruled the death a homicide, a rarity for this town where residents feel safe enough to routinely jog by themselves on the same path used by Millan.
Information has now emerged that Millan had access to highly sensitive data on bank profits resulting from the collection of life insurance proceeds from her insurance company employer on the death of bank workers – data that a Federal regulator of banks has characterized as “trade secrets.”
Millan was a Senior Vice President with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts and a member of its 39-member Senior Management team according to the company’s 2013 annual report. Millan had been with the company since 2001.
According to Millan’s LinkedIn profile, her work involved the “General management of BOLI” and Executive Group Life, as well as disability insurance businesses and “expansion into worksite and voluntary benefits market.”
BOLI is shorthand for Bank-Owned Life Insurance, a controversial practice where banks purchase bulk life insurance on the lives of their workers. The death benefit pays to the bank instead of to the family of the deceased. According to industry publications, MassMutual is considered one of the top ten sellers of BOLI in the United States. Its annual reports in recent years have indicated that growth in this area was a significant contributor to its revenue growth.
Banks as well as other types of corporations enjoy major tax benefits through the use of this type of insurance. The cash buildup in the policies contribute to annual earnings on a tax-free basis while the death benefit is received free of Federal income tax when the employee eventually dies. Even if the worker is no longer employed at the bank, it can still collect the death benefit. Banks owning BOLI routinely conduct “death sweeps” of public records using former employees’ Social Security numbers to determine if a former employee has died. It then submits a claim request for payment of the death benefit to the insurance company.
Four of Wall Street’s largest banks are the largest owners of BOLI according to December 31, 2013 data from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), holding a combined total of $68.1 billion. The four banks’ individual BOLI assets are as follows as of the end of last year:
Bank of America $22.7 billion
Wells Fargo 18.7 billion
JPMorgan Chase 17.9 billion
Citigroup 8.8 billion
The BOLI assets, however, support a far greater amount of life insurance coverage in force on the workers’ lives – potentially as much as a ten to one ratio – meaning that just these four banks could be holding $681 billion on the lives of their current and past employees.
Since details on the number of workers insured and the annual amounts that big Wall Street banks report as profits on the death of their current and former workers are closely guarded secrets, in March of this year Wall Street On Parade wrote to the regulator of national banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), asking for BOLI information under the Freedom of Information Act.
Because JPMorgan Chase has experienced a number of tragic deaths among young workers in their 30s this year, we asked the OCC for the number of deaths from 2008 through March 21, 2014 on which JPMorgan Chase collected death benefits; the total face amount of BOLI life insurance in force at JPMorgan; the total number of former and current employees of JPMorgan Chase who are insured under these policies; and any peer studies showing the same data comparing JPMorgan Chase with Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.
The OCC responded to our request on April 18, 2014, advising that they did have documents responsive to our request but that all documents were going to be withheld because they were “privileged or contains trade secrets, or commercial or financial information, furnished in confidence, that relates to the business, personal, or financial affairs of any person,” or relate to “a record contained in or related to an examination.” (See OCC Response to Wall Street On Parade’s Request for Banker Death Information).
It is noteworthy that JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are all publicly traded companies with shareholders. Under securities law, shareholders have a right to material information on how the company is making its profits. An investor who wants to own the shares of a well-run bank whose business model is to make prudent loans to businesses or loans to responsible retail customers, should have a right to know how much of a bank’s profits are coming from the unseemly practice of collecting death benefits on its workers.
While the OCC refused to provide this information, Millan was among a limited group outside of Federal regulators who was in a position to have broad data on the death benefit claims being submitted by multiple banks. Having data across multiple banks could have facilitated the type of peer review studies we had requested from the OCC – trade secrets that Wall Street does not want to allow into the sunshine.
In the past eight years, Millan had received two important promotions at MassMutual according to corporate press releases, elevating her into the role of Senior Management. In October 2006, she was promoted to Senior Vice President of Product Management from the post of Corporate Vice President of the Disability Insurance and Long Term Care Insurance operations.
On July 1, 2011, Millan assumed the leadership “of an expanded and centralized services and operations division” that included “business underwriting and operations, as well as claims.”
There is evidence that Millan did use internal studies to see trends. On September 18, 2013, MassMutual released a 2013 Employer Perspectives on Disability Benefits study showing inadequate coverage of some workers in case they became disabled. The press release announcing the study quotes Millan as follows:
“ ‘Not only are many executives at risk, but so are their families,’ said Melissa Millan, senior vice president, worksite insurance, MassMutual. ‘We commissioned this study to help employee benefits executives and benefits managers benchmark their disability insurance plans more effectively, and help lead organizations to fully informed recommendations and decisions.’ ”
On December 4, Simsbury Police Chief Peter Ingvertsen held a press conference to provide the press and public with updates on the case. He said friends, family and co-workers have been interviewed and that the public has come forward with information.
A reporter at the press conference indicated that she had spoken with sources and learned that Millan had not been robbed nor was it a sexual assault. She asked the police chief if he had other reasons to believe it was not a random crime. Police Chief Ingvertsen said it had not yet been determined if this was or was not a random crime.
The Chief asked anyone with relevant information to call 860 658-3145.
Moroccan Politician Ahmed Zaidi Dies
Sunday 9 November 2014 - 10:35
According to media sources, the member of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, known by its French acronym as USFP, died as he was trying to cross the Sherat river, near Rabat, to reach his home.
While trying to reach his house, Zaidi reportedly did not realize the high level water of the river as a result of the recent rainfall in Morocco. His car fell from a bridge in the Oued Cherrat. He was alone in the vehicle.
Zaidi was the president the USFP group in the house of representatives, the lower chamber of the parliament, until last April. Zaidi was 61 and was the father of three children.
Moroccan minister killed in train crash
Abdellah Baha, close ally of Moroccan Prime Minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, dies in accident
Morocco's minister of state and one of the top members of the Islamist party leading the government died in a train accident on Sunday, the interior ministry and the government spokesman said.
The minister, Abdellah Baha, was known as a close friend of the Moroccan Prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane, and an influential member of the Islamist PJD party who rose to power in 2011.
Baha died in a train accident in Bouznika town, a statement from the interior ministry carried by the state news agency MAP said without giving details of any other possible casualties in the incident. Bouznika is located between the capital Rabat and Casablanca city.
"We are still waiting for the results of the investigation, I can't even say whether he was walking or he was in his car," Mustapha Khalfi, communication minister and government spokesman, said.
Baha, Benkirane, and the former foreign minister Saadine el-Othmani and many other Islamist activists formed the PJD in the 1990s, after working as a secret organisation, known as the Islamic youth, in the 1970s.
Unlike Morocco's biggest Islamist movement Justice and Spirituality which opposes the king, the PJD supports a strong monarchy and remains focused on economic reforms.
Testimony of Train Driver Who Hit Abdellah Baha
Monday 8 December 2014 - 12:28
Rabat – The train driver who hit Minister of State Abdellah Baha said he saw the deceased holding his head between his hands just seconds before the fatal collision.
Speaking to news website le360, the train driver who is currently undergoing psychological treatment following the incident said:
“I saw someone trying to cross the rail; suddenly, I pressed the horn loudly, especially as the distance separating the deceased from the train was very close. He panicked, hesitating to cross or to go back.”
Asked whether the former minister was alone or if someone had pushed him on the track, the driver said that Abdellah Baha was alone at the time of the accident, adding that the last things he saw him doing was to hold his head between his hands.
Sources cited by the French-speaking website said that the death of Benkirane’s right hand was purely accidental.
The deceased was hit by a commuter rail coming from Rabat, running at the speed of 80 kilometers per hour. The place of the accident was two kilometers from the railway station of Bouznika.
Dominic Di-Natale, a globetrotting journalist whose work at Fox News Channel and other news organizations took him to Usama bin Laden’s compound, demonstrations in Egypt’s Tahrir Square and, more recently, to the scene of racially charged riots in Ferguson, Mo., has died.
The coroner in Jefferson County, Colo., where Di-Natale owned property, said the veteran journalist took his own life. Officials discovered Di-Natale's body Wednesday after being alerted by a friend who knew of his state of mind regarding serious undisclosed health issues...
At a violent Florida prison, a death foreshadowed
By Julie K. Brown
12/13/2014
Jerry Washington’s terror began shortly after he filed a grievance claiming that a corrections officer at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution had grabbed his buttocks and called him “sweet cheeks.”
Within days of his filing a sexual harassment complaint, the officer and two others told Washington that they were going to kill him, Washington wrote in another grievance.
On Sept. 10, 2013, he sent his sister a copy of the grievances and warned her that if anything happened to him, it would be no accident.
Seven days later, Washington was dead.
The department’s investigative summary into Washington’s death is so heavily redacted that no one reading it — including his family — would know what happened to him before he died. The report doesn’t say whether he was transported to the hospital or whether anyone did anything to help him.
But Washington’s words, and those of his fellow inmates, allege a climate of racism, brutality, negligence and sexual harassment at Santa Rosa, which is located at the tip of the state’s Panhandle.
In letters to the family, two of Washington’s fellow inmates claimed that several corrections officers warned the inmate that they were going to “f--- him up,” when they returned to the prison for their weekend shift.
“They were going to get him that weekend, which would have been on pick-a-n---- Friday,” one wrote Washington’s family, using a slang version of the n-word. “It’s a saying that the officers have ... that comes from slavery when the master goes to the slave quarters on Friday to pick a n---- to hang.”
In detail, the inmate, whose name is being withheld by the Miami Herald, claimed that one of the sergeants placed drugs in Washington’s food that day and an orderly served the 5-foot-8 inmate his poisoned meal that afternoon.
By dinnertime, Washington was seriously ill, inmates told DOC inspectors.
He was found sprawled in his cell at 9:20 p.m. on Sept. 16, but he was still alive, and officers and other staff reported he was able to sit up and talk.
The next nine hours are a mystery.
Here are excerpts from the inspector general report:
“Later in the evening, [redacted] stated she was instructed by [redacted] and report to [redacted] D-dormitory. [redacted] and the infirmary officer [later identified as Officer William Hopkins] went with her to D-dormitory. When they arrived at D-dormitory, inmate Washington was sitting [redacted]. Inmate Washington was assisted [redacted] by officers.
“[redacted] and officer Hopkins took inmate Washington [redacted] and placed inmate Washington [redacted] inmate Washington, who appeared [redacted].”
Suicide Ends a Japanese Scandal
By Toko Sekiguchi/Tokyo Monday, May 28, 2007
Japan's Agricultural Minister has been at the center of scandal for months. On Monday, Toshikatsu Matsuoka was scheduled to appear before the Japanese Diet to face parliamentary committee questioning over campaign contributions. At noon, after he failed to show up for a strategy meeting by his party to discuss the issue, his secretary and a bodyguard entered the dormitory room of the parliament and found Matsuoka, 62, in his pajamas, hanging from the top of a doorway at the end of what appeared to be a dog leash. He was pronounced dead two hours later at a nearby hostpital. Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported that several notes were later found, including one addressed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and another to the Japanese public. If his death is confirmed as a suicide, it will be the first of its kind for an active cabinet minister in post-war Japan — and it compounds the domestic problems of the government of Prime Minister Abe, whose approval ratings have plummeted.
At the news of Matsuoka's death, Abe said, "[His death] was very unfortunate. He was a very capable minister. This will have a big impact on the cabinet." But Matsuoka's gaffes and controversies had made the Abe government the butt of jokes. In March, for example, he explained the 29 million yen (nearly $240,000) utility bill for his parliamentary office — where rent, electricity and water are free of charge — by saying "We've installed nantoka [Whatchamacallit] rejuvenated water in our plumbing." Matsuoka was once again forced into the spotlight last week when Tokyo district prosecutors investigated and arrested officials affiliated with agricultural ministry-related organizations for bid-rigging in public works projects.
An independent filmmaker and his family were found dead in a Minnesota home over the weekend from what media outlets are describing as an “apparent murder suicide.”
On Saturday, a neighbor alerted authorities after seeing the lifeless bodies of 29-year-old writer, film producer and Army veteran David Crowley, his wife Komel, 28, and their 5-year-old daughter, Rani, laying inside their Apple Valley home.
David and Komel Crowley / Image credit: Instagram
Neighbor Collin Prochnow was investigating why packages had been sitting on the family’s doorstep for weeks. Prochnow says that after ringing the doorbell he peered through the window and “saw three bodies on the ground with a black handgun next to them,” according to KARE11.
It’s uncertain how long the bodies had been there, but neighbors suspect they died sometime over the Christmas holiday.
Numerous law enforcement agencies are investigating the causes of death, but police have yet to release a statement. They are reportedly treating the death as “suspicious,” notes the Daily Mail.
“Crowley served a tour of duty in Iraq during his five-year stint in the Army and met Komel while stationed in Texas,” reports New York Daily News.
Neighbors say they hadn’t taken notice of the family’s absence, but say they’d previously seen Crowley in his yard playing with his daughter.
Though scant details have been made public, reports are already suggesting Crowley may be responsible due to a recent short haircut, recent pictures uploaded to social media and because he “started wearing fatigues” according to the Star Tribune.
Adding to the suspicious circumstances surrounding the deaths is the controversial nature of Crowley’s latest project, entitled Gray State, a highly-anticipated independent film envisioning a brutal police state, martial law crackdown, complete with biometric identification, a ubiquitous surveillance state and FEMA stormtroopers rounding dissidents up into camps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy7FVXERKFE
One of the actors appearing in a trailer for Gray State, Charles Hubbell, told Pioneer Press Crowley seemed level-headed and destined to succeed.
“He seemed more grounded and focused than would lend itself to anything chaotic,” Hubbell described. “The entire time I worked with him there was nothing aggressive or chaotic or strange or abnormal. He was one of the ones I was hanging my hat on, one who was going to succeed.”
The film’s Indiegogo campaign met its finance goal in October 2012, raising $61,332 that would go towards “pre-production needs.”
Crowley had also been working on a non-fiction film entitled Gray State: The Rise, “a documentary extolling the beauty of liberty over oppression, slavery, and tyranny,” according to the film’s Facebook page. A message appearing on the page yesterday lamented its director’s loss:
Director David Crowley and Gray State co-producer Danny Mason were interviewed on the Alex Jones Show in September 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK-F72mnygA
“Going back to the nature of resistance, resistance is victory. That is a statement that the Gray State does a very good job of describing,” Crowley told Alex. “Even though you may be killed resisting, the act of resistance on a metaphysical level has value…”
http://www.infowars.com/anti-establishm ... ound-dead/
Former Fox Station Employee Shoots Himself Outside News Corporation Building
By Pervaiz Shallwani and Rebecca Davis O'Brien
New York police vehicles are parked outside the News Corporation building at 1211 Avenue of the Americas after a man shot himself Monday outside the building. —Peter Foley for The Wall Street Journal
A former employee of a Fox television station in Texas shot himself outside the front doors of a Midtown Manhattan office building shortly before 9 a.m. Monday, a law-enforcement official said.
The building houses 21st Century Fox Inc., owner of the station, and News Corporation, which owns The Wall Street Journal.
He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, police said.
The man, Phillip Perea, 41 years old, of Irving, Texas, shot himself once in the chest outside of 1211 Avenue of the Americas, the official said. Mr. Perea had previously worked for a Fox station in Austin, Texas, police said.
Mr. Perea had also been handing out fliers, which criticized his employer for having “ended my career,” moments before he shot himself, the official said.
“This morning, a former employee at FOX 7-KTBC (Austin) committed suicide outside FOX Television Stations’ headquarters in New York City,” Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy said in a message to employees Monday. “He was employed at our Austin television station for ten months and has not been with the station or FTS since June 2014. We are deeply saddened by this tragedy.”
Kris Lew said she was preparing to open a coffee-and-food cart, the Cinnamon Snail, on 48th Street at about 7: 45 a.m. when she heard gunfire. “I thought to myself, ‘Those sound exactly like gunshots, but it can’t be, because we’re in Rockefeller Center.’”
A suicide note and a gun were recovered at the scene, the official said. Mr. Perea took to his Twitter page about an hour before the shooting, further criticizing his former employer and linking to a more than 8-minute YouTube video laying out his complaints.
Heather Haddon and Mike Vilensky contributed to this report.
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2015/01 ... ng-police/
Phillip Perea Commits Suicide
Former Fox employee blames corp for killing his career
By Chase Hoffberger, 12:35PM, Mon. Jan. 26
The picture that started it all: Amanda Jo Stephen and Art Acevedo
Phillip Perea, the man who shot and killed himself outside New York City’s News Corp. building Monday, spent the morning handing out fliers that detailed ways in which Fox News, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s global media conglomerate, ruined his career. Specifically, reports note, he was referring to the deeds of Austin’s Fox affiliate, KTBC.
Perea was dismissed from the network late last May. In July, the Chronicle covered his dismissal in the context of a reported media stonewalling on the part of Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo – a circumstance that came to light after Perea emailed extended soundbites of conversations recorded to video tape between him and KTBC Vice President and General Manager Michael Lewis.
The conversations came about, the soundbites detail, because Acevedo took issue with an unflattering picture of his likeness that Perea, then a promotion producer with the network, posted onto Facebook in the wake of the chief’s much-criticized February press conference following the jaywalking arrest of jogger Amanda Jo Stephen (in which, amidst an emotional week, Acevedo dismissed backlash against his officers’ actions by saying “In other cities there’s cops who are actually committing sexual assaults on duty, so I thank God that this is what passes for controversy in Austin, Texas”).
The transgression put Perea on the outs with his immediate employers and brought about a series of instances in which he was accused of being disruptive, threatening, and insubordinate. At one point, in an effort to demonstrate the ways in which he was being unfairly targeted, Perea hired a ghost-writer to submit broadcast copy on his behalf (in hopes that his bosses would overly edit a superior writer’s stories).
Perea approached us about reporting on the “quid pro quo dynamic between FOX 7 and the police chief” in early June, just as he was beginning production on the YouTube series national media outlets are embedding on their web pages today.
“My career is over,” he wrote when asked if he wanted to associate his name with the accusations. “I have nothing left to lose.”
http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/ne ... s-suicide/
Published on Jul 2, 2014
For those looking for the "bite-sized" version, please advance to Chapter 3:
http://youtu.be/vfz9wteWsLA
The American Workplace Bully continues:
2-1 http://youtu.be/BerflXVl5QM
Please share this video with as many friends as you can. Get the word out.
Also, feel free to vent your workplace bullying horror stories.
Just remember, employers will be reading, too. So protect yourself.
© 2014 The American Workplace Bully
Second FOX News Suicide in Two Months: Employee Shoots Himself in Front of NYC Head Office
January 26, 2015 By 21wire
...
Perea was the second FOX News employee who is said to have committed suicide in the last 60 days. On December 14, 2014, Fox News Channel international correspondent Dominic Di-Natale, 43, was tragically found dead in Colorado. His work was featured on the Fox News Channel, the Fox Business Network, and FoxNews.com. Di-Natale was covering Ferguson over Thanksgiving weekend, when he tweeted a picture of the famous Gateway Arch in St. Louis with a caption that simply said “last one.”
Interestingly, Di-Natale (photo, above) had also reported from the ‘Osama bin Laden compound’ in Abbotabad, Pakistan after the alleged raid which the US government claimed “took out” the al-Qaeda leader.
....
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/01/26/s ... ad-office/
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