- Trump's Huawei Reprieve Is A National Security Debacle
Authored by Gordon Chang via The Gatestone Institute,
Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross outlined the scope of exemptions to be granted to sales and licenses to Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecom giant.
At the end of last month, President Donald Trump publicly promised to give the Chinese company a reprieve from newly implemented U.S. restrictions.
Trump’s move, announced after his meeting with Chinese ruler Xi Jinping at the conclusion of the Osaka G20 summit, was a strategic mistake. Moreover, it was a humiliation for the United States, almost an acknowledgment of Beijing’s supremacy.
The U.S. Commerce Department, effective May 16, added Huawei, the world’s largest networking equipment manufacturer and second-largest smartphone maker, to its Entity List. The designation means that no American company, without prior approval from the Bureau of Industry and Security, is allowed to sell or license to Huawei products and technology covered by the U.S. Export Administration Regulations.
Beijing then demanded the Trump administration withdraw the designation. On June 27, the Wall Street Journal reported that Huawei’s removal from the Entity List was one of China’s three main preconditions to a comprehensive trade deal.
Trump, incredibly, complied with the demand from Beijing. At his June 29 press conference, the American president said he was granting the reprieve.
Trump was not specific about the reprieve’s scope, and since then administration officials have tried to walk back his comments. Trade advisor Peter Navarro, for instance, this month told CNN that sales to Huawei for its 5G products — 5G is the fifth generation of wireless communication — would be forbidden. Earlier, there were suggestions that waivers for smartphones would be allowed.
Should any waivers be granted? “It is their mechanism for spying,” Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), referring to Huawei, told Fox News on Sunday.
She is right. Huawei is in no position to resist Beijing’s demands to illicitly gather intelligence. For one thing, Beijing owns Huawei. The Shenzhen-based enterprise maintains it is “employee-owned,” but that is an exaggeration. Founder Ren Zhengfei holds a 1 percent stake, and the remainder is effectively owned by the state. Moreover, in the Communist Party’s top-down system, no one can resist a command from the ruling organization. Furthermore, Articles 7 and 14 of China’s National Intelligence Law, enacted in 2017, requires Chinese nationals and entities to spy if relevant authorities make a demand. Ren has maintained the company would not snoop on others, but that claim, in view of the above, is not credible.
Huawei has, in fact, been implicated in stealing tech almost from the moment it was formed in 1987. The company was built on stolen Cisco Systems technology, and according to recent allegations, Huawei has never stopped stealing. The Justice Department in January unsealed an indictment against the company for the theft of intellectual property from T-Mobile. The FBI, according to a Bloomberg report, is investigating Huawei for pilfering smartphone glass technology from Akhan Semiconductor, an Illinois-based firm.
Huawei’s rampant theft has been effective in injuring its competition. For instance, many consider the company’s campaign to take tech was largely responsible for the 2013 failure of Nortel Networks, the Canadian company.
Additionally, Beijing has used Huawei servers to surreptitiously download datafrom others, most notably the African Union from 2012 to 2017.
Not surprisingly, Huawei is laying the groundwork for grabbing tomorrow’s data.
First, Christopher Balding’s study of résumés of Huawei employees reveals that some of them claim concurrent links with units of the Chinese military, in roles that look as if they involve intelligence collection. As he writes in his study, “there is an undeniable relationship between Huawei and the Chinese state, military, and intelligence gathering services.”
Second, recent analyses show Huawei software to have an unusually high number of security flaws. According to Finite State, a cybersecurity firm, a scan of nearly 10,000 Huawei firmware images showed that “55% had at least one potential backdoor. These backdoor access vulnerabilities allow an attacker with knowledge of the firmware and/or with a corresponding cryptographic key to log into the device.” Huawei, according to the survey, ranked the lowest among its competitors in this regard.
Theft is not the only risk. As Sen. Blackburn pointed out to Fox News, Huawei will also serve as Beijing’s mechanism for controlling the networks operating the devices of tomorrow. The concern is that the Chinese government and military will be able to use Huawei equipment to remotely manipulate devices networked on the Internet of Things (IoT), no matter where those devices are located. So, China may be able to drive your car into oncoming traffic, unlock your front door, or turn off or speed up your pacemaker.
On Tuesday, Secretary Ross echoed earlier administration comments when he promised his department would only issue exemptions “where there is no threat to U.S. national security.”
That sounds reassuring, but it is not possible to divide Huawei into threatening and non-threatening components. Huawei management can take profits from innocuous-looking parts of the business to support the obviously dangerous parts. Money is fungible, so the only safe course would be to prohibit all transactions with the company.
Ross on Tuesday implied that licenses would be granted for items available from other countries, saying “we will try to make sure that we don’t just transfer revenue from the U.S. to foreign firms.” At first glance, sales of those items appear non-objectionable, but, as the New York Times reported on Tuesday, U.S. companies seeking exemptions acknowledge that their products are often more advanced than those from Japan, South Korea, and other countries.
Therefore, the better course would be to get all American suppliers to stop all sales and licenses and to rally Tokyo, Seoul, and other capitals to do the same. That would severely disrupt Huawei, perhaps forcing it out of business or at least impeding its progress. In short, Ross is underestimating America’s leverage.
As Eli Lake, writing on the Bloomberg site, points out, American policy on Huawei looks like it had “collapsed” after the bilateral meeting with Xi. Lake is right. Beijing, buoyed by the talk of the American climb-down, is now fast selling Huawei equipment around the world, which means, in the normal course of events, the Chinese will soon control the world’s 5G backbone.
Think of the consequences.
“Imagine a world dominated by China,” Jonathan Bass of PTM Images told Gatestone. “Close your eyes and pretend to wake up in a world controlled by Xi Jinping, militarily, economically, politically, culturally.”
This is the world, thanks to Huawei, that we will soon face.
- These Are The Cities With The Most Billionaires And Most Expensive Luxury Homes
New York City has been unveiled as home to the most billionaires, which has helped the city’s luxury housing prices rise, according to Barron’s.
There are 85 billionaires who make New York City their main residence, including former mayor Michael Bloomberg and David Koch. Their presence in the city has helped push luxury property prices up 15% over the last five years to $3,220 per square foot. But New York is actually still considered a discount compared to Hong Kong and Tokyo, where luxury homes cost nearly twice as much.
In US dollars, it cost $8,370 per square foot for luxury property in Hong Kong, which is home to 79 billionaires and the most expensive real estate in the world. Luxury housing prices have soared 51% over the last five years in Hong Kong.
Sophie Chick, head of Savills World Research said:
“It is no coincidence that many of the cities with the largest number of billionaires are also among the most expensive cities in the world for ultra-prime residential property.”
Beijing is an exception because luxury prices haven’t yet caught up with the pace of billionaires. Beijing has 61 billionaires, but the city remains one of the less expensive places to buy a luxury home at about $1,780 per square foot. This is still double what it was five years ago. Shanghai, which hosts 45 billionaires, has an average price of $2740 per square foot.
A Savills World Research report said:
“China’s relatively recent growth in wealth is also reflected in the average age of its billionaires—56 years. This compares with 66 for the U.S. and 64 globally.”
The cheapest home to billionaires was revealed to be Dubai, where despite luxury home prices increasing 13% over the past year, they are still at $750 per square foot. Dubai is home to 15 billionaires.
- Is This Project Mayhem Or Project Epstein?
Only Donald Trump knows…
From the moment I heard Jeffrey Epstein had been arrested I knew none of us had anything close to the real story. And, by the time this is over, I don’t think we’ll have anything close to the real story either.
That shouldn’t, however, keep us from picking through the bread crumbs and see where they lead us. I wrote previously that I thought this story would lead to Hillary Clinton. The MAGA crowd loved that.
Regardless of whether Hillary winds up being the target is irrelevant. What I wrote the other day I still feel is the most likely situation.
I was cautiously optimistic that Trump would turn the corner on his presidency now that Mueller, impeachment and the rest of it would lift from his shoulders. His foreign policy maneuvers didn’t fill me with much, if any, confirmation of this hope.
But domestically signs were there that he had stabilized the battlefield.
Epstein’s arrest tells me he’s now out for blood.
That was, frankly, my gut instinct talking when I wrote that. It fit the sequence of events and the changes we’ve seen in D.C. over the past four months since Attorney General William Barr shut down the Mueller investigation.
What was done to Trump went far beyond egregious. It went far beyond even lawlessness. It was an operation that spanned multiple governments, showed complete contempt not only for procedure but the people themselves.
It was, in short, a supremely arrogant attempted coup that expected to get away with it all because they always had in the past. It was also amatuerish as hell.
The reason I’ve never believed any of the arguments that Trump is simply a bait and switch pitch man for the Deep State is because that description defies reality.
It doesn’t pass Occam’s Razor. The people Jeffrey Epstein represents hate Trump holding power because they have nothing of substance on him. Sure he’s bribed building contractors or paid off unions to get his buildings finished. Whatever.
No one other than the squeakiest of wheels would get upset over that. Everyone accepts that to do business in a corrupt world like New York you swim with some of it because that’s simply how things are done, like it or not.
But using fourteen-year-old girls as blackmail agents and prostitutes to run guns, drugs, topple governments and steal weapons research is another level of corruption. It’s orders of magnitude worse. And to Trump’s credit it seems like he’s never dabbled in that particular thing.
Because if he had, he would never have become President and the Deep State would have never organized a coup attempt against him.
Occam’s Razor, folks. They don’t have anything of substance on him. At best they’ve got a few pictures of him at an Epstein party and then he’s gone.
Watch a few minutes of this report by George Webb and tell me this doesn’t sound exactly like what we’ve been presented as evidence that Trump is one of Epstein’s perverts.
We know Trump helped a case against Epstein in 2009. We know that Trump threw Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for hitting on a young girl. What we don’t know is left to our imagination to reinforce our view of Trump one way or the other.
For the past six days it has been wall to wall, “Epstein is a pervert. Trump went to a few parties. Acosta, Trump’s guy, let Epstein off.”
Now Acosta resigns as Secretary of Labor.
But Epstein is most definitely an asset. The breadcrumbs are everywhere for you to find. The last thing Acosta did before resigning was letting it be known that he thought Epstein was connected to intelligence.
“Is the Epstein case going to cause a problem [for confirmation hearings]?” Acosta had been asked. Acosta had explained, breezily, apparently, that back in the day he’d had just one meeting on the Epstein case. He’d cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein’s attorneys because he had “been told” to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” he told his interviewers in the Trump transition, who evidently thought that was a sufficient answer and went ahead and hired Acosta. (The Labor Department had no comment when asked about this.)
And now he resigns because of the 2009 plea deal? Something doesn’t pass the sniff test here. This is the biggest revelation of the entire week.
It’s also easily inferred from simply looking at the magnitude of the crimes committed and the final deal that was signed.
The news comes at us so fast, just like in a good action movie, that sometimes we forget to step back and ask basic plot questions, like “If this guy is that connected why are we hearing about this now at all?”
“Why did the FBI kick in the door of his home?”
“Why is this even news?”
“Who ordered the judge to unseal the records from the previous case?”
Because if this is that big a cover-up – implicating everyone from the CIA, to the State Dept. and Dyncorp to the Israeli Mossad — none of this should be in the news.
No way would these people risk exposing Epstein to this level of scrutiny if they were just trying to run a ‘nuts and sluts’ operation on Trump to impeach him.
And all of those questions, again using Occam’s Razor, lead to one answer. Donald Trump.
I think Trump started this thing and is now going to watch it play out to the end. Acosta was chum, sent out to fall on his sword and keep the story moving quickly to make it look like Trump is in cahoots with Epstein.
This first act is to go all out in attacking Trump. The intense focus on the sex-trafficking, the ‘nuts and sluts’ angle, is your key to understanding the stakes here. This is Alinsky 101, accuse your target of that which you are guilty of and make it personal. Guilt by association to put Trump on the defensive.
But to do that they also have to hand over the Clintons. And this is what I was getting at the other day. Hillary is over-extended here. Trump knows the way to take her and the rest of them down is to get to them through Epstein.
And most importantly, notice how no one in D.C. is out in front of the cameras, clutching their pearls about how horrible it all is. That silence you don’t hear is fear. Chuck Schumer, who was all over the news in December/January when it looked like Mueller was going to get Trump impeached is now nowhere to be found.
Pelosi, as I mentioned the other day, is fighting an internal battle within her party and not joining the #MeToo chorus. The outrage is simmering. And the Swamp can’t contain this by hoping to sweep this under the rug.
Notice how Epstein asked for immunity the other day. But have you heard anything about it since? No.
What did they get from Harvey Weinstein? Remember him?
There comes a point where a line is crossed, morality is truly compromised and people look at themselves and ask, “Is this the world I want to live in? Is this what we’ve been reduced to?”
Act I is the outrage and the attempt to keep the focus on the pervie side of things. Keep people focused on their disgust circuit and, hopefully, off the man behind the curtain.
But, as I said on Fault Lines, we live in a post-Dorothy Oz where the curtain was pulled back and reveals the weird little man with the levers and we realize yes, this is what we’ve been reduced to.
And that’s when the anger starts and Act II begins.
* * *
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- Harley Davidson Unveils "LiveWire" Electric Motorcycle That Goes 0-60 In 3 Seconds
Harley Davidson looks like it will be the first company to market with a mainstream electric motorcycle, according to engadget. The company’s LiveWire electric motorcycle will soon be on the road and will have a longer range than expected, at 140 miles of city driving on a single charge. But, like any other electric vehicle, you’ll still need to hook it up to a charger once in a while.
According to Harley Davidson’s website, the bike will be “available in select dealerships through North America and Western Europe in the fall of 2019. Select additional markets will follow.”
The motorcycle has been in the works for more than four years now. You’ll be able to charge it with a Level 1 charger at home, or with a quicker Level 2 or 3 DC fast chargers, that’ll be available at Harley Davidson dealerships.
The bike comes with seven riding modes that tune the suspension and electric drivetrain differently. It sports anti-lock brakes and a traction control system, along with a color touchscreen for navigation and Bluetooth connectivity.
Harley Davidson is offering free charging for its new US customers.
The motorcycle is soon going to be available at a limited number of dealerships and will cost about $30,000. It can go from 0 to 60 mph in just three seconds. There is no clutch and no shifting.
Harley Davidson is looking to revitalize its business after struggling with declining sales and an aging client base both in the United States and abroad. Sales of its motorcycles were down 4.2% and international sales were down 3.3% in the first quarter of 2019.
- Watch 4K Drone Footage Of Epstein's 'Pedo Island'
Following the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein, interest in his 75-acre island, Little St. James, has hit an all time high.
Purchased in 1998 for $7.95 million, Epstein visited the island up to three times a month up until 2008, when he struck his infamous ‘sweetheart’ deal with just-resigned (fired) Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta.
All sorts of debauchery is said to have taken place on ‘orgy island,’ as the locals call it (‘pedo island’ is also acceptable). In addition to an alleged sex-trafficking hotbed, Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts told her lawyers in 2011 that she saw former President Bill Clinton with “two young girls,” saying “I remember asking Jeffrey, ‘What’s Bill Clinton doing here?‘ kind of thing, and he laughed it off and said, ‘Well, he owes me a favor.‘”
Clinton has denied ever being on the island, or having much of a connection with Epstein at all – despite the financier bragging that he helped conceive the Clinton Global Initiative, as well as contributing $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
According to Fox News, Epstein had a dedicated team of workers on the island who trafficked girls as young as 12 to his clients. Sarah Ransome, one of his alleged victims, said she tried to swim off the island only to be found by a search party that included Epstein and his cohort Ghislaine Maxwell. Ransome also said that they kept her passport so she couldn’t leave.
Though the specifics of the visits are unclear, one former employee told Bloomberg that Epstein would fly young women into St. Thomas, whom he would then ferry over to his private island via a boat named “Lady Ghislaine.” –The Cut
Epstein loved collecting “pirate treasure” from all over his island – paying staffers between $100 and $1,000 if they discovered old rum bottles, plates and other relics from the property.
Odd structures
Since purchasing the island, Epstein has had all manner of roads and buildings constructed – including the infamously weird cube-shaped building which used to sport a copper dome (until Hurricane Irma knocked it off in 2017).
At present it appears to be under construction, and has what looks to be two stripped mattresses inside.
The estate also features a strange sun dial in the middle with benches and rocks around the perimeter.
Drone footage
With all of the newfound interest in ‘pedo island,’ someone took several minutes of 4K drone footage, which can be seen below:
- Epstein Has 'Secret' Steel Safe In Off-Limits Room On 'Pedo Island'
With all eyes on Jeffrey Epstein following his Saturday arrest on charges of underage sex-trafficking, we now turn our attention to the mysterious island owned by the pedophile financier.
Little St. James – or as locals call it “Pedophile Island” or “Orgy Island,” sits to the east of Puerto Rico right next to St. Thomas island. Epstein reportedly preferred the nickname “Little St. Jeff’s.”
The ‘temple’ in better days:
Epstein purchased the island for $7.95 million in 1998 – visiting the island up to three times a month for a few days at a time up until his 2008 ‘sweetheart’ deal for 13 months in prison with partial work-release, brokered by now-fired (‘resigned’) Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta.
Back in his heyday, before his 2008 guilty plea in Florida, Epstein would visit his piece of the Virgin Islands archipelago about two or three times a month for stays of three or four days, according to the former staffer, who asked not to be named because Epstein insisted on secrecy from his employees. He described it as a Zen-like retreat when Epstein was there, padding around shirtless in shorts and flip-flops, with meditative music piped into the area around the main house, the cabanas and the pool, where women would sometimes sunbathe topless or in the nude. –Bloomberg
Shortly after he purchased the island, Epstein began construction on the 72-acre property, according to Bloomberg – carving roads, planting palm trees, and building a massive stone mansion and a weird temple-like structure which had its gold-colored dome blown off by Hurrican Irma in 2017.
Tourists still take boats out to get a glimpse of the island, where, according to a former employee, Epstein hosted young women who flew into St. Thomas with him and were ferried over in groups aboard a 38-foot vessel called the “Lady Ghislaine,” apparently named for his friendGhislaine Maxwell. –Bloomberg
Epstein also installed a secret safe in his office, which was off-limits aside from the occasional housekeeper.
The only unusual aspect of the main residence the former worker said he was aware of were the security boxes in two offices. The level of secrecy around a steel safe in Epstein’s office, in particular, suggested it contained much more than just money, he said. Outside of an occasional visit by a housekeeper, no one was allowed in those rooms. –Bloomberg
With the source of Epstein’s wealth a longstanding mystery, and rumors swirling that Epstein may have been backed by a “state sponsor” for a honeypot blackmail operation, the contents of Epstein’s off-limits safe should be of the utmost interest to US prosecutors.
- "Playing With Fire": China's Military Warns US Over Taiwan Arms Sales
China’s military has predictably slammed Washington’s recent approval to send $2.2 billion in arms to Taiwan, announced Monday. The PLA warned among other things that the move “severely undermined Sino-US military-to-military relations” at an already sensitive juncture in relations. Additionally, as we reported previously, Beijing authorities are preparing potential sanctions against any US firms found to be involved in future Taiwan weapons sales.
“The People’s Liberation Army is strongly dissatisfied by and resolutely opposes Washington’s recent approval of a $2.2 billion arms deal for Taiwan, an action that has seriously undermined Sino-US military relations,” according to Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, as reported in Chinese state media.
Earlier this week the US State Department approved the possible sale to Taiwan of M1A2T Abrams tanks, Stinger missiles and related equipment at an estimated value of $US2.2 billion despite vocal Chinese criticism of the deal.
A U.S. M1A2 SEP Abrams battle tank in a live-fire exercise, via Axios/Getty The PLA’s Friday statements continued: “China’s adamant opposition against US arms sales to Taiwan has always been clear and consistent,” Colonel Qian said.
“The wrongful actions by the US have seriously violated the one-China principle and the three Sino-US joint communiques, and they have interfered with China’s domestic affairs and violated its sovereignty and security interests.”
As a reminder, one month ago China’s Foreign Ministry urged the United States to halt the sales to avoid harming bilateral ties, saying it was “seriously concerned”.
And now Beijing appears to be taking more aggressive action:
Beijing said on Friday it will issue sanctions against the US companies involved in the latest arms sale to Taiwan, as tensions between China and the United States continue to rise.
The foreign ministry said in a brief statement that the move by Washington had violated China’s territorial sovereignty and national security.
“To protect our national interest, China will impose sanctions on the US companies involved in the arms sale,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang was quoted as saying.
And separately, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a state visit to Budapest on Friday that the US must stop “playing with fire”.
“We urge the US to fully recognise the gravity of the Taiwan question … [and] not to play with fire on the question of Taiwan,” the foreign minister told a news conference.
The proposed sale also comes at a perilously sensitive moment: at the start of June, during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe warned the United States not to meddle in security disputes over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
File photo of Ministry of National Defense spokesman Wu Qian, via SCMP He had also launched into a bellicose attack on opponents to China’s expansionist plans towards the South China Sea and Taiwan, declaring: “If they want to fight, we will fight till the end”.
Though long seen by Beijing as China’s “renegade province,” the United States remains Taiwan’s primary arms supplier, despite having no “official” or formal ties other than the crucial Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which has loomed large in Sino-US relations of the past decades.
- The Economics Of South Park
Authored by Emmanuel Sessegnon via The American Institute for Economic Research,
People love South Park.
In an age where shows attempt to avoid controversy at all costs, South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone practically go out of their way to find it.
When asked by the Huffington Post which group they have angered the most their answer was fast: mainstream progressives.
This should come as no surprise. It’s no secret that the two friends are strong supporters of free markets and free speech, neither of which are supported by the modern Left. And their episodes always hinted at their healthy distrust of the government. But more importantly it’s because the shows reveal a confidence in the capacity of human beings to adapt to difficult situations without the seeming aid of legislation and imposition by know-it-alls at the top.
Last year at an award ceremony they officially announced that they were Republicans, though they later clarified they were more libertarian.
So, in extremely belated honor of their announcement, here are five (hilarious) episodes that showcase their views and hopefully caused their viewers to trust the government just a little bit less.
1- Cartmanland (Season 8 Episode 6)
This episode teaches that capitalism works despite human selfishness.
When Cartman, an extremely selfish boy, inherits a million dollars from his grandmother, he immediately uses the money to buy an amusement park. His plan? To take the park for himself and not allow anyone else in.
But without security, he can’t keep people from coming. Eventually he has to let people into the amusement park in order to make enough money for security, keeping the rides in good condition, etc.
In the end, the free market produced the best result.
2- Goobacks (Season 8 Episode 6)
Originally aired back in 2004, this episode is more relevant now than ever.
In Goobacks, a portal suddenly opens allowing millions of time travelers to come to South Park. These immigrants are poor, and are coming through the portal in order to better their lives. However, many of the locals start saying that the time immigrants took their jobs. In fact, the boys themselves lose their snow shoveling job because immigrants would do it for 25 cents.
In the end, the two groups learn to listen to each other and eventually make peace – something people today need to learn how to do.
3- Stunning and Brave (Season 19, Episode 1)
No list about South Park would be complete without PC Principal, its most famous antagonist.
In this first appearance PC Principal, a frat boy with shades on, decides that the school is not politically correct enough. The episode focuses on society’s increasingly strict policing of language. When Kyle refuses to say that Caitlyn Jenner is ‘stunning and brave’, he gets suspended.
This episode is one of the funniest the show has to offer – and easily one of the most relevant.
4 – Margaritaville (Season 13, Episode 3)
Airing in 2009, this episode deals with the Great Recession and public ignorance of economics.
Stan gives money to a bank but it is immediately lost because the bank decides to put it in a “money-market mutual fund” which goes belly up. Led by Randy, the town decides that the best course of action is to spend money only on the bare essentials in order to appease the economy (viewed as a god).
After a series of shenanigans, including Kyle using a credit card to pay off everyone’s debts, the economy gets better and stores start opening once more.
5- Starvin Marvin (Season 1 Episode 8)
When a famine devastates Ethiopia, the boys decide to donate to a charity. After a series of misunderstandings, the government brings Cartman to Africa and Marvin to America instead of sending over the money.
Though it all works out in the end – with Cartman learning gratitude and Marvin bringing food back for his people – the episode is an amusing story of government incompetence
These episodes and many others can be watched in full on South Park’s website.
- Drugmaker Pays Largest Opioid Settlement In History To Make Investigations Go Away
A UK-based drugmaker has agreed to pay a record $1.4 billion settlement to the US government in order to end criminal and civil probes into allegations of illegal marketing of opioid addiction treatment medication, according to the Justice Department.
The settlement with Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB Group) will include multiple investigations into a subsidiary, Indivior (formerly Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals Inc.).
“Opioid withdrawal is difficult, painful, and sometimes dangerous; people struggling to overcome addiction face challenges that can often seem insurmountable,” said assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the DOJ’s Civil Division. “Drug manufacturers marketing products to help opioid addicts are expected to do so honestly and responsibly.”
Suboxone, which proved to be a blockbuster-selling drug for Indivior, is an addiction-fighting medication that also contains opioids. Indivior was spun off into a separate company from the RB Group in December 2014, but the exposure and looming litigation and probes related to Suboxone were still attached to the parent company.
On April 9, a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted Indivior for “allegedly engaging in an illicit nationwide scheme to increase prescriptions of Suboxone,” according to the DOJ. The company denied the charges and trial is scheduled to start in May 2020.
Federal prosecutors charged that Indivior allegedly marketed a version of Suboxone (Suboxone Film) to medical professionals as less addictive and safer than other drugs containing its active ingredient, the opioid buprenorphine, according to the DOJ statement. –ABC News
According to the indictment, Indivior’s “Here to Help” web and phone resources actually funneled opioid-addicted patients to doctors who were actively prescribing Suboxone and other opioids “to more patients than allowed by federal law, at high doses, and in a careless and clinically unwarranted manner.”
The company was also accused of discontinuing its tablet form of Suboxone “based on supposed ‘concerns regarding pediatric exposure’ to tablets, despite Indivior executives’ knowledge that the primary reason for the discontinuance was to delay the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of generic tablet forms of the drug.”
Included in the settlement is an immunity agreement, while RB Group will forfeit $647 million of proceeds from the sale of Indivior – nor will it manufacture, market or sell Schedule 1 – 3 controlled substances for three years.
That said, it’s not over for Invidior.
The trial against the RB Group’s former subsidiary Invidior is still slated to start next May. Thursday’s settlement was only with RB Group, and not Indivior.
In addition, the company also agreed to pay $700 million in civil settlements to the federal government and six states, as well as $50 million to the Federal Trade Commission.
RB issued a statement denying any wrongdoing.
“While RB acted lawfully at all times and expressly denies all allegations that it has engaged in any wrongful conduct, after careful consideration, the board of RB determined that the agreement is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” they said.
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