AN ALLEGED RUSSIAN SPY, who used a forged Brazilian identity to travel internationally, has been jailed in Brazil after he was denied entry in Holland, where he had traveled to work as an intern. IntelNews has discussed at length the case of Victor Muller Ferreira, who was outed as a Russian spy by the Netherlands General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) in June. According to Dutch officials, Muller’s real name is Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, and he is a Russian intelligence officer.
According to Muller’s biographical note, he was born to an Irish father and a Spanish-speaking mother in Niteroi (near Rio de Janeiro) on April 4, 1989. However, according to the AIVD, Cherkasov was actually born on September 11, 1985, and has been working for at least a decade for the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, which is commonly known as GRU. Cherkasov was apprehended by the Dutch authorities as he tried to enter Holland via air. He was en route to The Hague, where he was about to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a paid intern. He planned to eventually transition into full-time employment in the ICC, where he “would be highly valuable to the Russian intelligence services”, according to the AIVD.
The AIVD reportedly notified the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service, which detained Cherkasov upon his arrival at Amsterdam’s Airport Schiphol. The Dutch government promptly declared the alleged GRU officer persona non grata and expelled him back to Brazil “on the first flight out”. Last month, a Brazilian federal court in Guarulhos, a suburb of Sao Paolo, found Cherkasov guilty of identity theft that had lasted for at least a decade. The court found that, during that time, Cherkasov used the identity of a dead Brazilian citizen named Victor Muller Ferreira to enter and leave Brazil 15 times. The 10-year period started in 2010, when Cherkasov entered Brazil using his real Russian identity. But when he left the country a few months later, he did so using the forged identity that had allegedly been provided to him by Russian intelligence. Now, according to the British newspaper The Times, Cherkasov has been jailed for 15 years.
Meanwhile, in a separate development, Richard Moore, director of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), claimed last week that half of all Russian spies operating in Europe under diplomatic cover have been expelled since March of this year. Moore was speaking at the annual Aspen Security Forum in the United States. Such expulsions do not relate to alleged intelligence officers like Cherkasov, who do not operate under diplomatic cover. They are therefore far more difficult to detect than their colleagues, who are officially attached to Russian diplomatic missions around the world.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 25 July 2022 | Permalink
Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi (Dennis A Jones/Metro Puerto Rico)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — On May 5, the super PAC Salvemos a Puerto Rico and its president pled guilty to one count of falsifying documents to hide donor identities from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), leading to an investigation into whether they coordinated with Gov. Pedro Pierluisi’s 2020 campaign.
Joseph “Joey” Fuentes Fernández served as the president and treasurer of Salvemos a Puerto Rico, which organized to raise funds and support the 2020 gubernatorial campaign of then-candidate Pierluisi.
Shortly after Salvemos a Puerto Rico was established, Fuentes Fernández and his associates founded “two shell § 501(c)(4) nonprofit social welfare” organizations, Fundacion Pro Igualdad Inc. and Foundation for Progress Inc., according to a Department of Justice press release.
The nonprofits, which shared some of the same officers and were founded within minutes of each other, were used to solicit $495,000 that was then rapidly passed along to Salvemos a Puerto Rico. With the money safely in Salvemos a Puerto Rico’s coffers, the super PAC and Fuentes Fernández reported to the FEC that the money came from the two aforementioned nonprofits in a bid to conceal the identities of the true donors to the Super PAC.
In October 2020, Fuentes Fernández sent a text message to a potential donor telling them that they could “use a third party to not disclose the true donor.”
Fuentes Fernández declined a request for comment from Latino Rebels, saying by email: “I don’t want to say more than what I said on May 5th.”
“The government has a justified basis (for this case),” Fuentes Fernández told the judge on May 5, 2022 when asked if he was sure he wanted to waive his right to present a defense. “It was a huge error on my part. I feel terribly bad about this and I only want to put it behind me.”
In connection with the plea, Salvemos a Puerto Rico has agreed to pay a $150,000 fine and file an amended report with the FEC that must contain the true identities of donors to the nonprofit from 2020 to the present.
Meanwhile, Fuentes Fernández and Salvemos a Puerto Rico are scheduled to be sentenced on August 15. Fuentes Fernández faces a maximum of five years in prison.
The most prominent project funded by the donations was a smear campaign against Pierluisi’s political rival for the New Progressive Party (PNP) nomination, Wanda Vázquez Garced, who herself is embroiled in a federal investigation due to irregularities in her 2020 campaign for governor.
Many have questioned whether then-candidate Pierluisi’s electoral campaign, run by his sister Caridad Pierluisi, had any involvement or arrangement with the super PAC, given that Fuentes Fernández and Gov. Pierluisi have been friends since they were in university.
Gov. Pierluisi has repeatedly denied these claims, saying “it’s impossible” that his campaign was involved in any sort of collusion with Salvemos a Puerto Rico.
Audio in possession of En Blanco y Negro con Sandra disputes these claims. In the audio, businessman Ricky Castro, who was implicated in the federal charges against Salvemos a Puerto Rico, can be heard explaining that he donated $50,000 to attack Vázquez Garced and names one of his six lawyers as Andrés “Andy” Guillemard, husband of Caridad Pierluisi and the Governor’s brother-in-law.
According to Castro in the audio, he originally was going to donate the $50,000 to fund a campaign against then-San Juan mayoral candidate Rossana López of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), but changed his mind after Guillemard told him she was third in the polls. Afterward, he fixed his sights to Wanda Vázquez Garced.
“He (Guillemard) tells me ‘a PAC will be created’ and I told him ‘here I have the $50,000. Let me know when you need them. When you need them, there they are,’” Castro can be heard saying in the audio.
The Office of the Governor did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Castro could not be reached either.
During the federal investigation into Salvemos a Puerto Rico, Fuentes Fernández collaborated with federal authorities and wore a recording device while meeting with multiple public officials and legislators. The federal authorities have these recordings in their possession, which will likely be revealed to the public as the judicial proceedings continue.
The Office of the Electoral Comptroller opened, closed, and then re-opened an investigation into possible coordination between Salvemos a Puerto Rico and Pierluisi’s campaign. Involved parties have 15 days to respond to the investigation.
Vázquez Garced’s campaign manager Jorge Dávila made the original complaint that launched the first investigation, discontinued in September 2020.
While the alleged connections of Gov. Pierluisi to Salvemos a Puerto Rico and the federal trouble on the heels of Wanda Vázquez Garced are the most high-profile political dramas currently gripping Puerto Rico’s politics, they are by no means the only ones. This, election cycle has seen five mayors, one vice mayor, and one former mayor arrested on corruption charges by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco is a freelance journalist, mostly focused on civil unrest, extremism, and political corruption. Twitter: @Vaquero2XL
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez was arrested Thursday on bribery charges related to the financing of her 2020 campaign, the latest hit to an island with a long history of corruption that brought fresh political upheaval to the U.S. territory.
Vázquez is accused of engaging in a bribery scheme from December 2019 through June 2020 — while she was governor — with several people, including a Venezuelan-Italian bank owner, a former FBI agent, a bank president and a political consultant.
“I am innocent. I have not committed any crime,” she told reporters. “I assure you that they have committed a great injustice against me.”
The arrest embarrassed and angered many in Puerto Rico who believe the island’s already shaky image has been further tarnished, leaving a growing number of people who have lost faith in their local officials to wonder whether federal authorities are their only hope to root out entrenched government corruption. Concern over previous corruption cases led to a delay in federal aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria as the U.S. government implemented more safeguards.
Thursday’s arrest also was a blow to Vázquez’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party, which is pushing to hold a referendum next year in a bid to become the 51st U.S. state.
Vázquez was the second woman to serve as Puerto Rico’s governor and the first former governor to face federal charges. Former Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá of the opposing Popular Democratic Party was charged with campaign finance violations while in office and was found not guilty in 2009. He had been the first Puerto Rico governor to be charged with a crime in recent history.
“For the second time in our history, political power and public office are used to finance an electoral campaign,” said José Luis Dalmau, president of Acevedo’s party. “Using the power of the government to advance political agendas is unacceptable and an affront to democracy in Puerto Rico.”
Then-Gov. Wanda Vázquez gives a news conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to announce the extension of a COVID-19 curfew on May 21, 2020.
Vázquez’s consultant, identified as John Blakeman, and the bank president, identified as Frances Díaz, have pleaded guilty to participating in the bribery scheme, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In early 2019, the international bank owned by Julio Martín Herrera Velutini was being scrutinized by Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions because of transactions authorities believed were suspicious and had not been reported by the bank.
Authorities said Herrera and Mark Rossini, the former FBI agent who provided consulting services to Herrera, allegedly promised to financially support Vázquez’s 2020 campaign for governor in exchange for Vázquez dismissing the commissioner and appointing a new one of Herrera’s choosing.
Authorities said Vázquez accepted the bribery offer and in February 2020 demanded the commissioner’s resignation. She then was accused of appointing a former consultant for Herrera’s bank as the new commissioner in May 2020. After the move, officials said Herrera and Rossini paid more than $300,000 to political consultants to support Vázquez’s campaign.
A flurry of messages exchanged during that time between people involved in the case included a heart emoji attached to the commissioner’s resignation letter and three sealed lips emojis when someone provided Rossi’s name to Vázquez, who requested the name of “the guy from the FBI.” In addition, Herrera texted Rossini about the need for a campaign manager and said he didn’t want “a monkey from Puerto Rico.”
After Vázquez lost the primary to current Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, authorities said Herrera then allegedly sought to bribe Pierluisi to end an audit into his bank with favorable terms. Herrera is accused of using intermediaries from April 2021 to August 2021 to offer a bribe to Pierluisi’s representative, who was actually acting under FBI orders, according to the indictment.
Officials said Herrera then ordered a $25,000 payment to a political action committee in hopes of trying to bribe Pierluisi.
Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for Puerto Rico, said Pierluisi is not involved in the case.
Vázquez, Herrera and Rossini are each charged with conspiracy, federal programs bribery and honest services wire fraud. If they are found guilty on all counts, they could face up to 20 years in prison, officials said.
Meanwhile, Díaz and Blakeman could face up to five years in prison, officials said.
Muldrow said officials believe Herrera is in the United Kingdom and Rossini in Spain. It wasn’t clear if the U.S. would seek to extradite them.
Juan Rosado-Reynés, a spokesman for Vázquez, told the AP he did not have immediate comment.
Attorneys for the other suspects charged in the case could not be immediately reached for comment.
In mid-May, Vázquez’s attorney told reporters that he and his client were preparing for possible charges as the former governor at the time denied any wrongdoing: “I can tell the people of Puerto Rico that I have not committed any crime, that I have not engaged in any illegal or incorrect conduct, as I have always said.”
Vázquez was sworn in as governor in August 2019 after former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló stepped down following massive protests. She served until 2021, after losing the primaries of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party to Pierluisi.
In a statement Thursday, Pierluisi said his administration will work with federal authorities to help fight corruption.
“No one is above the law in Puerto Rico,” he said. “Faced with this news that certainly affects and lacerates the confidence of our people, I reiterate that in my administration, we will continue to have a common front with federal authorities against anyone who commits an improper act, no matter where it comes from or who it may implicate.”
Vázquez previously served as the island’s justice secretary and a district attorney for more than 30 years.
She became governor after Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court ruled that the swearing in of Pierluisi — who was secretary of state in 2019 — as governor was unconstitutional. Vázquez at the time said she was not interested in running for office and would only finish the nearly two years left in Rosselló’s term.
Rosselló had resigned after tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans took to the street, angry over corruption, mismanagement of public funds and an obscenity-laced chat in which he and 11 other men including public officials made fun of women, gay people and victims of Hurricane Maria, among others.
Shortly after she was sworn in, Vázquez told the AP that her priorities were to fight corruption, secure federal hurricane recovery funds and help lift Puerto Rico out of a deep economic crisis as the government struggled to emerge from bankruptcy.
During the interview, she told the AP that she had long wanted to be in public service: as a girl, she would stand on her balcony and hold imaginary trials, always finding the supposed defendants guilty.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
AN ALLEGED RUSSIAN SPY, who used a forged Brazilian identity to travel internationally, has been jailed in Brazil after he was denied entry in Holland, where he had traveled to work as an intern. IntelNews has discussed at length the case of Victor Muller Ferreira, who was outed as a Russian spy by the Netherlands General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) in June. According to Dutch officials, Muller’s real name is Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, and he is a Russian intelligence officer.
