#tax-evasion

#tax-evasion

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

A Chinese real estate company was fined $4 million Friday for the lavish bribes that its owner paid former Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar as it sought approval to build a downtown skyscraper.U.S. District Judge John F. Walter, who has presided over a series of City Hall graft cases, bemoaned "the crushing weight of corruption" as he imposed the sentence on Shen Zhen New World I.
Its billionaire owner, Wei Huang, is "more than capable," Walter said, of resorting to payoffs once again as he seeks to redevelop the company's L.A. Grand Hotel at West 3rd and Figueroa streets.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot will have the chance to appoint a fourth member to the Chicago City Council next month, as 12th Ward Ald.George Cardenas announced he is stepping down as alderman effective Nov. 30.Cardenas is slated to take a seat on the Cook County Board of Review, a property tax appeals body, following next Tuesday's elections.

An operation against the Italian Ndrangheta mafia takes place in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.Police across several European countries have arrested more than 100 people as part of an operation to clamp down on the Italian Ndrangheta mafia.Arrests took place in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, according to German police.

One of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winners was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison after a Belarusian court found him guilty of financing actions violating public order and smuggling.Ales Bialiatski, one of Belarus' top human rights advocates, is the founder and chairman of the Viasna Human Rights Center, a nonprofit that focuses on providing financial aid and legal assistance to political prisoners and their families.

Italy's new PM secured a majority of 115 votes in favour of her coalition government in a Senate vote.Italy's new far-right-led government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has easily won the second of two required confidence votes in Parliament by a comfortable margin.Wednesday night's vote in the Senate was 115 in favour of her coalition government and 79 against, while there were five abstentions.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Veteran Los Angeles politician Mark Ridley-Thomas' felony convictions bring new shock waves to a City Hall that had been settling into relative normalcy after months of upheaval.For 17 long months, Ridley-Thomas had been in a kind of limbo - suspended from the City Council but not permanently removed.

Real estate TV stars sentenced to jail
Couple to sentenced for fraud, tax evasion and falsifying documents
Todd and Julie Chrisley (Getty)
It turns out Chrisley might not know best after all.Married couple Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of the USA reality show " Chrisley Knows Best," have been sentenced to serve 12 and seven years, respectively, in federal prison for fraud and tax evasion, the Washington Post reported.

'Playtime is over' for the ubiquitous sweet vendors

 

Over the past couple of years, Oxford Street and other parts of central London have been mysteriously taken over by a scourge of American Candy Shops flogging US sweets (sometimes out of date), super-strength vapes and tacky souvenirs.An investigation by Time Out revealed that many of them were fronts for illegitimate businesses and were being used to avoid business rates, and sometimes commit 'other civil or criminal offences'.

A Unite employee is the subject of a criminal investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud, money-laundering and tax evasion, South Wales police have confirmed.The police said they were working with HM Revenue and Customs, the tax department, on an investigation into the union employee, as well as several companies.

Children's movies are, well, made for kids, but they're made by adults - adults who understand that parents make up a good deal of their audience.That's why a lot of animators bury sexual innuendos, dirty one-liners, and other adult-themed jokes among the standard mix of gags.They're sly and subtle, intended to fly over a kid's head and into a parent's ears.

Former Aston Villa striker John Carew has been sentenced to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of tax evasion in his native Norway.The 43-year-old admitted failing to report taxable income and assets of around £26.7m between 2014 and 2019.Carew said he thought he did not need to pay tax there as he lived abroad.