Manager of CBS employees’ credit union stole $40M over 20 years, authorities say

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A credit union set up to serve employees of CBS was shuttered last week after its manager was accused of embezzling $40 million over 20 years, according to reports.
The suspect, identified as Edward Martin Rostohar, 62, was a 30-year employee of the Studio City, Calif.-based credit union, reports said. He was arrested at his Studio City home and charged with bank fraud and identity theft, authorities said.
If convicted on both counts, he faces up to 32 years in prison and a $1 million fine, Deadline Hollywood reported.
Prosecutors say Rostohar, as manager, made online payments to himself from his employer or forged a fellow employee’s signature on checks made out to him. He gambled away much of the money and also financed a lavish lifestyle that included flights on private jets and purchases of expensive watches and sports cars, Variety reported,
The alleged scheme began sometime before 2000, but suspicions were finally raised March 6 of this year, when another credit union employee discovered a $35,000 check made out to Rostohar with no record of the reason justifying the large sum, prosecutors said.
That employee then conducted an audit and learned that checks totaling $3.7 million had been made out to Rostohar since January 2018, according to prosecutors.
Rostohar was suspended from his job soon after, then arrested after his wife called 911, saying her husband had stolen money from his employer and was planning to leave the U.S., prosecutors said.
Authorities said Rostohar later told them he had been stealing for 20 years, taking more than $40 million over that time. The information was later confirmed by the National Credit Union Administration, authorities said.
Prosecutors said the accounts of CBS employees were taken over from the shuttered credit union and assumed by University Credit Union of Los Angeles.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Chris Rock slams Jussie Smollett at NAACP awards: 'What the hell was he thinking?'

Jussie Smollett might have been a no-show at Saturday night's NAACP Image Awards in Hollywood but that didn't stop comedian Chris Rock from blasting the "Empire" star.
"They said 'No Jussie Smollett jokes' ... What a waste of light skin. Do you know what I could do with that light skin? That curly hair? My career would be out of here! I'd be running Hollywood," said Rock, who was on hand to present the award for Outstanding Comedy Series.

"They said 'No Jussie Smollett jokes' ... What a waste of light skin. Do you know what I could do with that light skin? That curly hair? My career would be out of here! I'd be running Hollywood!"
— Chris Rock

He continued: "What the hell was he thinking? You're 'Jessie' from now on. You don't get the 'u' no more. That 'u' was respect. You ain't getting no respect from me!"

"What the hell was he thinking? You're 'Jessie' from now on. You don't get the 'u' no more. That 'u' was respect. You ain't getting no respect from me!"
— Chris Rock

Smollett was nominated -- but lost -- for best supporting actor in a television drama for his role as Jamal Lyon on the Fox series. He was edged out by "Grey's Anatomy" star Jesse Williams.
Smollett has been nominated for the award four years in a row and won in 2017.
The award was handed out during the untelevised portion of the show Friday night.
Leading up to the event, NAACP Image Awards host and "Black-ish" actor Anthony Anderson said in light of the charges against Smollett being dropped, he hopes the "Empire" actor will win for his work on the show.
Smollett has been in the middle of a firestorm for weeks in Chicago.
He is accused of staging an anti-gay, racist attack on himself in January in order to promote his career.
He has denied the charges from the start and says two men approached him, beat him, threw bleach on him and tied a rope around his neck before shouting, "This is MAGA country," in reference to President Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."
On Tuesday, the Cook County State Attorney's Office dropped all charges against Smollett, who was previously facing 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false report that he was the victim of a hate crime.
After the surprise announcement, Smollett said, "I would not be my mother’s son if I was capable of one drop of what I’m accused of."

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Former Clinton adviser defends her -- 2 months later -- from criticism by likely 2020 Dem Pete Buttigieg

Call it a delayed reaction.
A former top aide to Hillary Clinton expressed outrage Friday night, more than two months after expected 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg shared his views on why Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016.
In a January profile in the Washington Post Magazine, Buttigieg -- the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., who has formed an exploratory committee in anticipation of a White House run -- provided some post-mortem commentary on the 2016 election.
“Donald Trump got elected because, in his twisted way, he pointed out the huge troubles in our economy and our democracy,” Buttigieg said back then. “At least he didn’t go around saying that America was already great, like Hillary did.”
Two months later, Nick Merrill, the former Clinton aide, finally issued his rebuttal via Twitter.
“This is indefensible," Merrill wrote about Buttigieg's comments. "Hillary Clinton ran on a belief in this country & the most progressive platform in modern political history. Trump ran on pessimism, racism, false promises, & vitriol.
“Interpret that how you want, but there are 66,000,000 people who disagree. Good luck,” Merrill added.
Buttigieg, who served in Afghanistan as a member of the U.S. Naval Reserve and is South Bend's first openly gay mayor, has seen a recent surge in the polls, ranking fifth in the most recent Quinnipiac survey with support from 4 percent of Democratic respondents.

Valerie Plame, outed CIA agent and Trump critic, plans US Senate run in New Mexico: report

Former CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson testifies at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington March 16, 2007. (Reuters)

Valerie Plame, the former CIA operative who was at the center of an intelligence leak when her identity was publically revealed during the George W. Bush administration, plans to run for a U.S. Senate seat in New Mexico as a Democrat, according to reports.
Plame told the Washington Examiner on Friday that she would "like another opportunity to serve my country." Her disclosure follows the announcement Monday by U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., that he will not seek re-election.
Plame, 55, has a been vocal critic of President Trump, at one point raising nearly $90,000 on a crowdsourcing site to buy a stake in Twitter in hopes of banning the president from the social media platform. She also hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s super PAC in 2014 and another for Clinton's presidential campaign.
FORMER CIA OPERATIVE VALERIE PLAME WILSON 'FELT HIT IN THE GUT' WHEN IDENTITY WAS REVEALED
But Plame could face a revival of the anti-Semitism allegations she faced in 2017 after retweeting an article in the Unz Review titled “America’s Jews Are Driving America’s Wars.” (The website was founded by former California GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron Unz.)
“First of all, calm down. Re-tweets don't imply endorsement,” Plame said in her initial response. “Yes, very provocative, but thoughtful. Many neocon hawks ARE Jewish." She later added: "OK folks, look, I messed up. I skimmed this piece, zeroed in on the neocon criticism, and shared it without seeing and considering the rest."
She later apologized and resigned from the board of the Ploughshares Fund, which provides grants for projects aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, according to the Examiner.
The ex-spy moved to New Mexico in 2007 after making headline following her outing during the Bush presidency. Journalist Robert Novak revealed Plame’s identity in a 2003 column that cited “two administrative officials” as sources. Plame claimed the revelation was payback from the Bush administration for an op-ed authored by her then-husband, former U.S. ambassador Joe Wilson, that questioned the intelligence used to invade Iraq.
Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted in 2007 of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements in connection with the leak. He was pardoned last year by President Trump. Plame later wrote a best-selling memoir, "Fair Game," about the ordeal that was made into a movie.
In 2017, Plame and Wilson quietly divorced after nearly two decades of marriage, the Examiner reported.
Others contemplating bids for Udall’s seat include Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, New Mexico's Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and freshman Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland, the news site said.
Possible Republican opponents include Mick Rich, a former Senate candidate and former New Mexico Lt. Gov John Sanchez.

Trump: Revoke NY Times, WashPost Pulitzers

President Donald Trump on Friday said The New York Times and Washington Post should have their Pulitzer prizes revoked now that the Mueller report showed no collusion between himself or anyone on his campaign and the Russian government.

Trump took his argument to Twitter Friday night:
"So funny that The New York Times & The Washington Post got a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage (100% NEGATIVE and FAKE!) of Collusion with Russia - And there was No Collusion! So, they were either duped or corrupt? In any event, their prizes should be taken away by the Committee!"
The president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was quick to agree, tweeting:
"He’s right... unless they give Pulitzer’s for fiction. #fakenews"
The New York Times' communications team on Friday stood by the paper's stories, tweeting:

"We're proud of our Pulitzer-prize winning reporting on Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Every @nytimes article cited has proven accurate."

 

 

AG Barr to Release Redacted Copy of Mueller Report in Mid-April

U.S. Attorney General William Barr plans to issue a redacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April, he said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday.
"Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees.

He said he is willing to appear before both committees to testify about Mueller's report on May 1 and May 2.
Mueller completed his 22-month investigation probe into whether President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia on March 22. On Sunday, Barr sent a four-page letter to Congress summarizing Mueller's findings.
Barr told lawmakers that Mueller's investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia in its election interference activities.
Mueller left unresolved the question of whether Trump obstructed justice during the investigation. Barr said that based on the evidence presented, he concluded it was not sufficient to charge the president with obstruction.

Lawmakers have since been clamoring for more details, with Democrats calling for a full release of the report. At a rally on Thursday in Michigan celebrated the end of the investigation and what he called "lies and smears and slander."
Barr said in his letter on Friday that certain information must be redacted before the report is release, including secret grand jury information, intelligence sources and methods and information that by law cannot be public or might infringe on privacy.

He said that while Trump has the right to assert executive privilege on some materials, that "Trump has stated publicly that he intends to defer to me." Because of that, he said, there are no plans for the Justice Department to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review.
Trump addressed the news during a brief media appearance at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida Friday afternoon, saying he welcomes whatever Barr decides to do.

"I have great confidence in the attorney general. If that is what he would like to do, I have nothing to hide," Trump said. "This was a hoax. This was a witch hunt.
"I have absolutely nothing to hide and I think a lot of things are coming out with respect to the other side."

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