vault backup: 2026-10-07 22:19:10
This commit is contained in:
parent
163dbddde1
commit
8261234367
36 changed files with 844 additions and 246 deletions
|
|
@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ created: 2026-09-22
|
|||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[[Anthropic]] announced the council on August 27, 2025, as "a group of leading bipartisan national security and public policy practitioners who will help Anthropic support the [[U.S. government]] and closely allied democracies in building and maintaining enduring technological advantages in an era of strategic competition," with the task of identifying "high-impact applications" in areas "ranging from cybersecurity to intelligence analysis to scientific research." Its inaugural members were:[^1]
|
||||
[[Anthropic]] announced the council on August 27, 2025, as "a group of leading bipartisan national security and public policy practitioners who will help Anthropic support the [[United States|U.S. government]] and closely allied democracies in building and maintaining enduring technological advantages in an era of strategic competition," with the task of identifying "high-impact applications" in areas "ranging from cybersecurity to intelligence analysis to scientific research." Its inaugural members were:[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
- [[Roy Blunt]], former senator from Missouri and member of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]], director of Tenet Healthcare and of the cyber company Nightwing, and former chairman of the advisory board of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
|
||||
- [[David S. Cohen]], former deputy director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ On June 6, 2025 a panel of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District
|
|||
[^15]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, Key findings, p. 7.
|
||||
[^16]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, Introduction, pp. 1, 4.
|
||||
[^17]: Robert Parry, "The Lost Opportunity of Iran-Contra," *Consortium News*, December 1, 2011, https://consortiumnews.com/2011/12/01/the-lost-opportunity-of-iran-contra/ ; Parry, "Regret over Gary Webb's Demise," *Consortium News*, June 1, 2013, https://consortiumnews.com/2013/06/01/regret-over-gary-webbs-demise/
|
||||
[^18]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion* (Seven Stories Press, 1998), ch. 27 (citation carried from the existing vault page for the Associated Press; not reopened in this run).
|
||||
[^18]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion* (Seven Stories Press, 1998), ch. 27.
|
||||
[^19]: "Bad Deal For Berrellez," *Phoenix Republic*, April 2, 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030015-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp09t00207r001000030015-6
|
||||
[^20]: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, "Justice Department defends decisions in secret seizure of AP phone records as criticism mounts," May 14, 2013, https://www.rcfp.org/justice-department-defends-decisions-secret-seizure-ap-phone-records/ (describing the Machen letter of May 10, 2013 and quoting Pruitt's letter of May 13).
|
||||
[^21]: James M. Cole, Deputy Attorney General, letter to Gary B. Pruitt, May 14, 2013, https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/oip/legacy/2014/07/23/dag-letter-to-ap-president-pruitt.pdf
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ Under a Corporate Conversion Agreement dated November 15, 2022, BGC Partners and
|
|||
|
||||
### Leadership Change and the Lutnick Divestiture
|
||||
|
||||
Howard Lutnick, BGC's chief executive officer and chairman since 1999, was confirmed by the [[United States Senate]] as [[United States Department of Commerce|Secretary of Commerce]] on February 18, 2025, and stepped down that day. The board appointed [[John Abularrage]], [[JP Aubin]] and [[Sean Windeatt]] co-chief executive officers, appointed [[Brandon Lutnick]] to the board, and named [[Stephen Merkel]], the company's chief legal officer, to the board and as chairman. On May 19, 2025 BGC announced the repurchase of 16,452,850 Class A shares from Lutnick at $9.2082 per share, an aggregate of $151,501,133, "in furtherance of Mr. Lutnick's [[U.S. government]] ethics agreement." On October 6, 2025 Lutnick completed the divestiture of his holdings in BGC, Cantor and CFGM, selling the voting shares of CFGM to trusts controlled by Brandon Lutnick, who as of February 27, 2026 beneficially owned 2.0 million Class A and 109.4 million Class B shares, "collectively representing 75.1% of the total voting power."[^1][^8]
|
||||
Howard Lutnick, BGC's chief executive officer and chairman since 1999, was confirmed by the [[United States Senate]] as [[United States Department of Commerce|Secretary of Commerce]] on February 18, 2025, and stepped down that day. The board appointed [[John Abularrage]], [[JP Aubin]] and [[Sean Windeatt]] co-chief executive officers, appointed [[Brandon Lutnick]] to the board, and named [[Stephen Merkel]], the company's chief legal officer, to the board and as chairman. On May 19, 2025 BGC announced the repurchase of 16,452,850 Class A shares from Lutnick at $9.2082 per share, an aggregate of $151,501,133, "in furtherance of Mr. Lutnick's [[United States|U.S. government]] ethics agreement." On October 6, 2025 Lutnick completed the divestiture of his holdings in BGC, Cantor and CFGM, selling the voting shares of CFGM to trusts controlled by Brandon Lutnick, who as of February 27, 2026 beneficially owned 2.0 million Class A and 109.4 million Class B shares, "collectively representing 75.1% of the total voting power."[^1][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### The September 2019 CFTC Orders (Release 8035-19)
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ Basterfield wrote on June 28, 2025, citing page 3 of the Ten Month Report, that
|
|||
|
||||
Basterfield wrote on July 7, 2025, quoting the Ten Month Report, that its description of Project Campus gives the objective as "to stimulate, motivate and encourage the senior levels of the academic community within the [[United States]] to involve themselves in study and research of very advanced aerial spacecraft that is presently considered phenomenological." As a "test case" BAASS approached senior management at the [[University of Nevada, Las Vegas]], which "responded positively"; BAASS proposed ten scenarios, including announcements by the [[United States Air Force]] or other officials that unidentified aerial phenomena were real and extraterrestrial, for the university to study with regard to "the media, economy, department of defense, political groups, science, the general public, religion, public health and academia." The report states: "Dr. Smith and four others have expressed strong interest in submitting a specific proposal to BAASS by August 2009."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
According to Basterfield's quotation, BAASS also sought proposals from [[Battelle Memorial Institute]], Southwestern Research Institute, the [[Center for American Progress]] and [[Sandia National Laboratories]] for a study budgeted at 400,000 dollars. The request for proposals states: "For the purpose of the proposed study we take the presence of such advanced exotic aerospace craft as a given." It asks whether "by 2050 there will be confirmation to the public by the [[U.S. government]] and its military authorities" of craft "beyond those of our own most advanced military craft," what format such a confirmation should take and what its effects would be on the military and "the U.S. body politic in the areas of commerce, religion, academia and so forth," and what steps could be taken to "soften the societal blow." As of the report date: "BAASS has not received a reply from CAP or SWRI regarding the RFP. Sandia National Laboratories volunteered that they did not have the expertise for the project and Battelle Memorial Institute declined the RFP."[^4]
|
||||
According to Basterfield's quotation, BAASS also sought proposals from [[Battelle Memorial Institute]], Southwestern Research Institute, the [[Center for American Progress]] and [[Sandia National Laboratories]] for a study budgeted at 400,000 dollars. The request for proposals states: "For the purpose of the proposed study we take the presence of such advanced exotic aerospace craft as a given." It asks whether "by 2050 there will be confirmation to the public by the U.S. government and its military authorities" of craft "beyond those of our own most advanced military craft," what format such a confirmation should take and what its effects would be on the military and "the U.S. body politic in the areas of commerce, religion, academia and so forth," and what steps could be taken to "soften the societal blow." As of the report date: "BAASS has not received a reply from CAP or SWRI regarding the RFP. Sandia National Laboratories volunteered that they did not have the expertise for the project and Battelle Memorial Institute declined the RFP."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Medical Effects Research
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ The SEC announced on April 6, 2020 that Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. had agreed to pa
|
|||
|
||||
### Government and Political Connections
|
||||
|
||||
An invitation sent on November 3, 2015 from the account "Lutnick, Howard" and forwarded to Epstein by his assistant [[Lesley Groff]] announced an event with [[Hillary Clinton]] at the Cantor Fitzgerald offices on November 11 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., described as "a very intimate fundraising event," with a [[Hillary for America]] contribution form attached (EFTA02671545). At his May 6, 2026 House Oversight interview Lutnick said that emails addressed to "Howard Lutnick" or "Lutnick, Howard" "went to [[Matthew Gilbert]]. They did not go to me," and that "You would know if they went to me if they are listed as 'HWL.'"[^38][^15] Lutnick was confirmed as Secretary of Commerce on February 18, 2025, and stepped down that day as chairman and chief executive of BGC; Brandon Lutnick was appointed chief executive officer and chairman of Cantor and chief executive officer of CFGM, and [[Kyle Lutnick]] executive vice chairman of Cantor and president of CFGM.[^2][^3] On May 19, 2025 BGC announced it would repurchase 16,452,850 shares from Lutnick for $151,501,133 "in furtherance of Mr. Lutnick's [[U.S. government]] ethics agreement," and that Lutnick would transfer his ownership interest in Cantor to trusts for the benefit of Brandon, Kyle and his other adult children, with Brandon as controlling trustee. The divestiture of holdings in BGC, Cantor and CFGM was completed on October 6, 2025, including the sale of all voting shares of CFGM to trusts controlled by Brandon Lutnick, who beneficially owned 2.0 million BGC Class A and 109.4 million Class B shares, 75.2 percent of BGC's total voting power, as of the date of BGC's annual report for 2025.[^2][^3][^39] The 2012 and later documents on Lutnick's relationship with Epstein are at Howard Lutnick; the 2020 [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] complaint concerning Lutnick, BGC and Cantor is at BGC Group.
|
||||
An invitation sent on November 3, 2015 from the account "Lutnick, Howard" and forwarded to Epstein by his assistant [[Lesley Groff]] announced an event with [[Hillary Clinton]] at the Cantor Fitzgerald offices on November 11 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., described as "a very intimate fundraising event," with a [[Hillary for America]] contribution form attached (EFTA02671545). At his May 6, 2026 House Oversight interview Lutnick said that emails addressed to "Howard Lutnick" or "Lutnick, Howard" "went to [[Matthew Gilbert]]. They did not go to me," and that "You would know if they went to me if they are listed as 'HWL.'"[^38][^15] Lutnick was confirmed as Secretary of Commerce on February 18, 2025, and stepped down that day as chairman and chief executive of BGC; Brandon Lutnick was appointed chief executive officer and chairman of Cantor and chief executive officer of CFGM, and [[Kyle Lutnick]] executive vice chairman of Cantor and president of CFGM.[^2][^3] On May 19, 2025 BGC announced it would repurchase 16,452,850 shares from Lutnick for $151,501,133 "in furtherance of Mr. Lutnick's U.S. government ethics agreement," and that Lutnick would transfer his ownership interest in Cantor to trusts for the benefit of Brandon, Kyle and his other adult children, with Brandon as controlling trustee. The divestiture of holdings in BGC, Cantor and CFGM was completed on October 6, 2025, including the sale of all voting shares of CFGM to trusts controlled by Brandon Lutnick, who beneficially owned 2.0 million BGC Class A and 109.4 million Class B shares, 75.2 percent of BGC's total voting power, as of the date of BGC's annual report for 2025.[^2][^3][^39] The 2012 and later documents on Lutnick's relationship with Epstein are at Howard Lutnick; the 2020 [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] complaint concerning Lutnick, BGC and Cantor is at BGC Group.
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ The consortium is an other-transaction arrangement between the Army Contracting
|
|||
|
||||
### FCC experimental licence WK2XCW
|
||||
|
||||
The FCC Experimental Licensing System lists call sign WK2XCW (station class MO, radar) in Dynetics' name. A modification filed February 3, 2022 (file 0025-EX-CM-2022) lists nine sites: Huntsville, [[Yuma Proving Ground]], [[White Sands Missile Range]], [[Dugway Proving Ground]], two at [[Eglin Air Force Base]], [[Joint Base San Antonio]]-Randolph, Redstone Arsenal and [[Joint Base Andrews]], with 9.2 to 9.9 GHz, 19.2 W mean and 7.6 kW peak power and emission designator 100MQ3N; it carries "[[U.S. government]] contract: Yes" and no Sierra Blanca location.[^14]
|
||||
The FCC Experimental Licensing System lists call sign WK2XCW (station class MO, radar) in Dynetics' name. A modification filed February 3, 2022 (file 0025-EX-CM-2022) lists nine sites: Huntsville, [[Yuma Proving Ground]], [[White Sands Missile Range]], [[Dugway Proving Ground]], two at [[Eglin Air Force Base]], [[Joint Base San Antonio]]-Randolph, Redstone Arsenal and [[Joint Base Andrews]], with 9.2 to 9.9 GHz, 19.2 W mean and 7.6 kW peak power and emission designator 100MQ3N; it carries "[[United States|U.S. government]] contract: Yes" and no Sierra Blanca location.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
Later filings list a Sierra Blanca, Texas entry ("Ground Temp Fixed and Mobile, Sierra Blanca, TX," [[Hudspeth County, Texas]], 31 20 05 N, 105 30 16 W, 10 km radius). The filings are file 0012-EX-CM-2023 (filed January 16, 2023), 0148-EX-CM-2023 (May 5, 2023), 0007-EX-CM-2024 (January 10, 2024; adds "Ground Temporary Fixed and Mobile - Albuquerque, NM," within 10 km of 34-58-01 N, 106-26-44 W), 0127-EX-CR-2024 (February 15, 2024), 0161-EX-CM-2025 (July 30, 2025) and 0179-EX-CR-2026 (February 24, 2026). The exhibit to the February 2024 renewal (0127-EX-CR-2024), titled "Contract and Stop Buzzer Update Notification," states that the license file "should be updated to reflect support for the contract set forth below - which replaces the previously specified contract (DARPA No. HR0011-17-9-0017): New Contract: Agency/Customer: AvMC Contract No.: AMTC 20-01-017." The exhibit to the July 2025 modification states: "The contract below replaces the previously specified contract (DARPA No. HR0011-17-9-0017): New Contract: Agency/Customer: AvMC Contract No.: AMTC 20-01-017." The 2026 renewal's Exhibit 1 states "No Updates to Supported Contract Information: Agency/Customer: AvMC Contract No.: AMTC 20-01-017." Other licensees filing for Sierra Blanca locations in the same period are listed on [[Sierra Blanca, Texas]].[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ The acknowledgments of "ISIS in America" name the Program's research associates
|
|||
|
||||
### Court-record research
|
||||
|
||||
The Program's report of March 2021 on the [[January 6, 2021 Capitol breach|January 6 attack]], "This is Our House!", was written by Vidino, Hughes, [[Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens]], [[Devorah Margolin]], [[Bennett Clifford]], [[Jon Lewis]], [[Andrew Mines]] and [[Haroro Ingram]]. It counted 257 individuals charged in federal court as of February 25, 2021, identified 33 with military backgrounds, and stated that its data came from hundreds of court documents, Department of Justice press releases, [[Freedom of Information Act]] requests, interviews with [[U.S. government]] officials and news articles. The report stated that the Program had hosted an annual talk by the Domestic Terrorism Counsel since 2015.[^5]
|
||||
The Program's report of March 2021 on the [[January 6, 2021 Capitol breach|January 6 attack]], "This is Our House!", was written by Vidino, Hughes, [[Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens]], [[Devorah Margolin]], [[Bennett Clifford]], [[Jon Lewis]], [[Andrew Mines]] and [[Haroro Ingram]]. It counted 257 individuals charged in federal court as of February 25, 2021, identified 33 with military backgrounds, and stated that its data came from hundreds of court documents, Department of Justice press releases, [[Freedom of Information Act]] requests, interviews with [[United States|U.S. government]] officials and news articles. The report stated that the Program had hosted an annual talk by the Domestic Terrorism Counsel since 2015.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 18, 2025 the Program held an online panel, "Holding 764 Accountable," moderated by its senior research fellow [[Barry Jonas]], with [[Justin Sher]] of the [[Counterterrorism Section]] and [[Steve Grocki]], chief of the [[Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section]], both of the Department of Justice, [[Kavitha Babu]] of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, and [[James Kitchen]] of [[Jones Day]].[^6] Earlier that month [[Luke Baumgartner]] and Barry Jonas wrote in [[Just Security]] that by charging a member of [[764 Network]] under [[18 U.S.C. § 2339A]], the Department of Justice "has signaled that NVE networks like 764 are terrorist enterprises."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ Skywatcher (also written Sky Watcher) is a private group that described itself a
|
|||
|
||||
### Formation and founders
|
||||
|
||||
NewsNation described Barber as the founder of Skywatcher and reported on January 16, 2025 that his "Skywatcher Team" had deployed "on behalf of the [[U.S. government]]" to investigate the [[2024 New Jersey drone sightings|2024 East Coast drone sightings]], and that in August 2024 the team had conducted "their own operation, with a psionic asset, to see if they could summon a UAP themselves."[^1] A later NewsNation column by [[Ross Coulthart|Coulthart]] gave the founders as "Jake Barber, James Fowler and financier Alex Klokus."[^4] The writer Jimmy of the [[UAP Files]] newsletter stated in August 2026 that the Skywatcher [[YouTube]] account was created on January 18, 2025, six days before Barber's January 24, 2025 appearance on Coulthart's "[[Reality Check (NewsNation)|Reality Check]]," and that Klokus "personally registered the skywatcher.ai domain in his name in December 2024."[^5] [[Jason Colavito]]'s blog wrote on January 19, 2025 that [[Steven Greenstreet]] had reported that Barber "launched his own UFO organization, Skywatcher, in November, and its website is owned by Alex Klokus, the co-founder of the [[SALT (conference)|SALT]] conference, where UFO figures frequently speak to tech and financial elites."[^6]
|
||||
NewsNation described Barber as the founder of Skywatcher and reported on January 16, 2025 that his "Skywatcher Team" had deployed "on behalf of the [[United States|U.S. government]]" to investigate the [[2024 New Jersey drone sightings|2024 East Coast drone sightings]], and that in August 2024 the team had conducted "their own operation, with a psionic asset, to see if they could summon a UAP themselves."[^1] A later NewsNation column by [[Ross Coulthart|Coulthart]] gave the founders as "Jake Barber, James Fowler and financier Alex Klokus."[^4] The writer Jimmy of the [[UAP Files]] newsletter stated in August 2026 that the Skywatcher [[YouTube]] account was created on January 18, 2025, six days before Barber's January 24, 2025 appearance on Coulthart's "[[Reality Check (NewsNation)|Reality Check]]," and that Klokus "personally registered the skywatcher.ai domain in his name in December 2024."[^5] [[Jason Colavito]]'s blog wrote on January 19, 2025 that [[Steven Greenstreet]] had reported that Barber "launched his own UFO organization, Skywatcher, in November, and its website is owned by Alex Klokus, the co-founder of the [[SALT (conference)|SALT]] conference, where UFO figures frequently speak to tech and financial elites."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
The website's FAQ states that Skywatcher "is funded through private partnerships and professional consulting engagements," and, in answer to the question whether it is "a direct extension, surrogate for, or acting as a public messaging conduit for the US Government or any element of the US Intelligence Community," answers "No. Skywatcher is an independent and private entity." It also states that it does not "currently claim possession" of recovered materials, although it is "actively engaged in the public recovery and analysis of exotic aerospace materials."[^7] It lists 20 or more experts and "400+ years of combined" experience, and describes its approach as bridging "Special Operations, Advanced Sensing, & Non-Traditional Air Defense Techniques."[^7] Its research page lists a "Skywatcher Discovery Framework," described as "our proposed model for responsible UAP engagement, civilian access to data, and long-term transparency."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ No Form D filing by an issuer named Skywatcher was found in a full-text search o
|
|||
|
||||
### Trademark ownership
|
||||
|
||||
The SKYWATCHER service mark application (serial 98864113, Class 35 "Business management," intent to use, standard characters, filed November 20, 2024) names as owner [[ENNEA LLC]], "a limited liability company organized in Delaware," at the VCORP address in [[Wilmington, Delaware]]. The same owner holds applications for ENNEA (serial 98873547, filed November 26, 2024) and PSIONIC (serial 99091501, filed March 19, 2025). Every filing in the public [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] file for SKYWATCHER (the application of November 20, 2024, an extension request of February 11, 2026 and a petition to revive of September 14, 2026) is signed "/[[Robert Drolet]]/," attorney of record, of [[Fort Lauderdale]]; no owner-signed declaration, specimen or owner email appears in the public copy. The owner telephone on the filings is the number printed on the 2016 Form D of Futurism, LLC (signed by Alex Klokus as chief executive officer) and on the March 30, 2026 Form ADV of [[SALT Fund Management LLC|SALT Fund Management, LLC]].[^16]
|
||||
The SKYWATCHER service mark application (serial 98864113, Class 35 "Business management," intent to use, standard characters, filed November 20, 2024) names as owner [[ENNEA LLC]], "a limited liability company organized in Delaware," at the VCORP address in Wilmington, Delaware. The same owner holds applications for ENNEA (serial 98873547, filed November 26, 2024) and PSIONIC (serial 99091501, filed March 19, 2025). Every filing in the public [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] file for SKYWATCHER (the application of November 20, 2024, an extension request of February 11, 2026 and a petition to revive of September 14, 2026) is signed "/[[Robert Drolet]]/," attorney of record, of [[Fort Lauderdale]]; no owner-signed declaration, specimen or owner email appears in the public copy. The owner telephone on the filings is the number printed on the 2016 Form D of Futurism, LLC (signed by Alex Klokus as chief executive officer) and on the March 30, 2026 Form ADV of [[SALT Fund Management LLC|SALT Fund Management, LLC]].[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
ENNEA LLC is registered in Florida (document M25000008651, filed June 16, 2025) with "ALEX KLOKUS" as sole listed person, titled Member on the application, "CEO" on the annual report of April 17, 2026 and "Authorized Signer" on the amended report of July 15, 2026. The co-existence agreement it signed with Waterkress Creative LLC, effective November 19, 2025 and filed with the USPTO on December 7, 2025, carries the typed signature "Alex Klokus," title "ENNEA LLC Authorized Representative," and an Acrobat Sign audit entry "Signer alex@ennea.io entered name at signing as Alex Klokus," November 25, 2025.[^17] The Delaware certificate attached to the Florida application states that ENNEA LLC "was formed on the first day of January, A.D. 2024" and gives the file number 2861775.[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ The domain skywatcher.ai was registered December 6, 2024; its public registratio
|
|||
|
||||
- January 5, 2024: ennea.io registered; ENNEA LLC's Delaware certificate gives its formation as January 1, 2024.[^17][^19]
|
||||
- May 22 and August 9, 2024: ennea.io captures read "The central node for capital, research, and relationships fueling contrarian ideas."[^19]
|
||||
- October 14 to 18, 2024: the "Explorer's Club by Ennea" gathering at the [[Esalen Institute]], announced as "patron-funded, invite-only"; no organizer is named on the captured pages.[^19]
|
||||
- October 14 to 18, 2024: the "Explorer's Club by Ennea" gathering at the Esalen Institute, announced as "patron-funded, invite-only"; no organizer is named on the captured pages.[^19]
|
||||
- November 20, 2024: SKYWATCHER application filed in ENNEA LLC's name.[^16]
|
||||
- November 27, 2024: Skywatcher Technologies Corporation incorporated in Delaware.[^10]
|
||||
- December 6, 2024: skywatcher.ai registered to "Skywatcher Technologies."[^18]
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ A California business-registry entry last updated September 1, 2023 lists the co
|
|||
|
||||
The [[Internal Revenue Service]] Exempt Organizations Business Master File lists the organization under EIN 93-3649160 as a 501(c)(3) with a ruling date of June 2024, in care of "Attn Nolan" at 5 Hermosa Road, [[Redwood City]], California 94062.[^6] The Form 990 for 2024 gives the Auburn address, a telephone number in the 408 area code, a year of formation of 2023 and California as the state of legal domicile.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The résumé that Grusch submitted to the House Committee on Oversight for its July 26, 2023 hearing lists, under "May 2023-Present," the position "Chief Operating Officer (COO), The Sol Foundation," and describes the employer as a "501c3 federally recognized non-profit," followed by the text "The premier center for research in the natural and social sciences, engineering, and the humanities, but also extends activities to advisory and policy work for the [[U.S. government]]/public outreach."[^3] The IRS ruling date on record for EIN 93-3649160 is June 2024.[^6] Nolan said in September 2023 that Grusch's title had since changed to senior founding advisor, that the earlier title "seemed the right thing at the time," and that Grusch was "a founder of the Sol Foundation."[^2]
|
||||
The résumé that Grusch submitted to the House Committee on Oversight for its July 26, 2023 hearing lists, under "May 2023-Present," the position "Chief Operating Officer (COO), The Sol Foundation," and describes the employer as a "501c3 federally recognized non-profit," followed by the text "The premier center for research in the natural and social sciences, engineering, and the humanities, but also extends activities to advisory and policy work for the [[United States|U.S. government]]/public outreach."[^3] The IRS ruling date on record for EIN 93-3649160 is June 2024.[^6] Nolan said in September 2023 that Grusch's title had since changed to senior founding advisor, that the earlier title "seemed the right thing at the time," and that Grusch was "a founder of the Sol Foundation."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The Form CT-1 registration of the California corporation with the California Attorney General's Registry of Charitable Trusts, stamped received May 2, 2024, lists Nolan as chair and director, Skafish as secretary and director and Berte as treasurer and director, gives January 22, 2024 as the date assets were first received, and answers "No" to line 3, which asks whether the organization "is under common control, does it have a close connection with, or is it related to, any other nonprofit or for-profit organization or trust." The Internal Revenue Service determination letter dated June 27, 2024, filed with the registry, gives an effective date of July 7, 2023.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ The Form 990 for the calendar year 2024 lists four people in Part VII: Garry Nol
|
|||
|
||||
Press statements used other titles. Nolan was "Executive Director of the Board" and Skafish "Director of Research" in September 2023, and Skafish was "executive director" in December 2024.[^2][^22] Nolan said in 2023 that his Stanford appointment did not allow him to hold an officer role in an outside company and that he took no salary.[^2] [[Diana Walsh Pasulka]] posted on September 11, 2023 that she was joining the board, and the foundation named [[I. Charles McCullough III]], a former [[Inspector General of the Intelligence Community]], as its legal counsel.[^2] McCullough signed the November 12, 2024 letter to Congress on the review-board provisions of the [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act]] under the heading "Former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community," as did Nolan, Skafish, Pasulka and Gallaudet.[^23] McCullough is also counsel to Grusch, whom he represented in a May 2022 urgent-concern complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
Berte founded the machine-vision company [[Robovision]], which was reported in March 2023 to be assisting Stanford with artificial-intelligence applications for the study of complex diseases.[^2] Mindrila hosted the 2024 symposium as Director of Strategy.[^22] Part IV of the 2024 Form 990 answers yes to maintaining an office, employees or agents outside the [[United States]].[^7]
|
||||
Berte founded the machine-vision company [[Robovision]], which was reported in March 2023 to be assisting Stanford with artificial-intelligence applications for the study of complex diseases.[^2] Mindrila hosted the 2024 symposium as Director of Strategy.[^22] Part IV of the 2024 Form 990 answers yes to maintaining an office, employees or agents outside the United States.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Website roster
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -60,11 +60,11 @@ updated: 2026-10-04
|
|||
|
||||
Tom DeLonge founded TTSA in 2017 with the goal of bringing the UAP conversation out of the shadows and into the mainstream. He assembled a team of former high-ranking government officials and scientists to lead the organization, including [[Luis Elizondo]], [[Christopher Mellon]], [[Jim Semivan]], and [[Hal Puthoff]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The company was structured with three divisions: Science, Aerospace, and Entertainment. The plan was to use the entertainment division to generate revenue that would fund the scientific and aerospace research. TTSA released three Navy videos, "FLIR" ([[Tic Tac]]), "[[GIMBAL]]," and "GoFast," on its [[YouTube]] page. The 2017 [[New York Times]] article that revealed the existence of [[AATIP]] carried two of them (FLIR1 and GIMBAL), and GOFAST followed in March 2018.[^1][^2] [[The Black Vault]] describes the videos as "subsequently released by To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, the source of where the New York Times originally received them." [[Pentagon]] spokesperson [[Christopher Sherwood]] told *[[The Intercept]]* in 2019 that the videos were released "for research purposes ... and not for general public release," and the [[Department of Defense]] stated on April 27, 2020 that it "authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos," which had been "circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017." [[Politico]] reported in 2021 that the [[Washington Headquarters Services]] declassification division had approved the videos "for unlimited distribution" inside the government before the Times placement. The Office of the Secretary of Defense file released to [[The Black Vault]] under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] in August 2019 contains an August 23, 2017 email in which [[Luis Elizondo]] asked Michael Russo of the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review to "consider our request for unrestricted release"; an August 24, 2017 reply from Russo that if the service-level classification authority verified that removing the metadata made the videos unclassified, "please feel free to move forward with release"; and a DD Form 1910 whose publication-data block reads "Not Applicable. Not for publication. Research and analysis ONLY and info sharing with other USG and industry partners for the purposes of developing a database to help identify, analyze and ultimately defeat UAS threats." Joseph Gradisher, a Navy spokesman, said in 2019 that neither the cognizant Navy offices nor the review office had a record of correspondence responding to a request for unrestricted release of the videos in 2017.[^3] Mellon said in 2020 that he received the videos in the Pentagon parking lot from a Defense Department official.[^4][^5][^2]
|
||||
The company was structured with three divisions: Science, Aerospace, and Entertainment. The plan was to use the entertainment division to generate revenue that would fund the scientific and aerospace research. TTSA released three Navy videos, "FLIR" ([[Tic Tac]]), "[[GIMBAL]]," and "GoFast," on its [[YouTube]] page. The 2017 [[New York Times]] article that revealed the existence of [[AATIP]] carried two of them (FLIR1 and GIMBAL), and GOFAST followed in March 2018.[^1][^2] [[The Black Vault]] describes the videos as "subsequently released by To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, the source of where the New York Times originally received them." [[Pentagon]] spokesperson [[Christopher Sherwood]] told *[[The Intercept]]* in 2019 that the videos were released "for research purposes ... and not for general public release," and the [[Department of Defense]] stated on April 27, 2020 that it "authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos," which had been "circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017." [[Politico]] reported in 2021 that the [[Washington Headquarters Services]] declassification division had approved the videos "for unlimited distribution" inside the government before the Times placement. The Office of the Secretary of Defense file released to The Black Vault under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] in August 2019 contains an August 23, 2017 email in which Luis Elizondo asked Michael Russo of the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review to "consider our request for unrestricted release"; an August 24, 2017 reply from Russo that if the service-level classification authority verified that removing the metadata made the videos unclassified, "please feel free to move forward with release"; and a DD Form 1910 whose publication-data block reads "Not Applicable. Not for publication. Research and analysis ONLY and info sharing with other USG and industry partners for the purposes of developing a database to help identify, analyze and ultimately defeat UAS threats." Joseph Gradisher, a Navy spokesman, said in 2019 that neither the cognizant Navy offices nor the review office had a record of correspondence responding to a request for unrestricted release of the videos in 2017.[^3] Mellon said in 2020 that he received the videos in the Pentagon parking lot from a Defense Department official.[^4][^5][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Role in UAP Disclosure
|
||||
|
||||
TTSA played a significant role in the early stages of the modern UAP disclosure movement. The organization provided a platform for Luis Elizondo to speak publicly about his work with [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AATIP]] after he resigned from the [[Pentagon]]. The company also produced the television show "[[Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation]]" on the [[History Channel]], which featured Elizondo and other former government officials investigating UAP cases.[^1]
|
||||
TTSA played a significant role in the early stages of the modern UAP disclosure movement. The organization provided a platform for Luis Elizondo to speak publicly about his work with [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AATIP]] after he resigned from the Pentagon. The company also produced the television show "[[Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation]]" on the [[History Channel]], which featured Elizondo and other former government officials investigating UAP cases.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
While the organization was ultimately not financially successful and many of its key members, including Elizondo, Mellon, and Puthoff, eventually moved on, TTSA was instrumental in raising the public profile of the UAP issue and helping to break the long-standing stigma surrounding the topic.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ The report's related-party note states that "monies due to Mr. DeLonge under rel
|
|||
|
||||
### Launch and the December 2017 placement
|
||||
|
||||
At a launch event in October 2017 (reported as October 11, 2017, [[Seattle]]), Tom DeLonge invited Luis Elizondo onstage; Elizondo said the group was "planning to provide never-before-released footage from real [[U.S. government]] systems." [[Gideon Lewis-Kraus]] reported that on October 4, 2017, a week before, Christopher Mellon had arranged for the journalist [[Leslie Kean]] to meet Hal Puthoff, Jim Semivan and Elizondo at a hotel bar near the Pentagon, where she was told she could have the videos with chain-of-custody documentation "if she could place a story in the Times." [[Bryan Bender]] wrote in 2021 that Mellon, "by then also a paid adviser to DeLonge's TTSA," served as Elizondo's "unofficial public relations manager" and "started dangling the story to the New York Times, POLITICO and several other mainstream outlets."[^16][^5] Bender also wrote that DeLonge, in 2016, "reached out to Christopher Mellon" and that in the same year "one of DeLonge's cold calls unearthed the name" of Elizondo.[^5] The Times and Politico published on December 16, 2017; see [[December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report]]. Politico's article of that date described the company as "a for-profit company" co-founded by DeLonge, quoted DeLonge's video calling it a "public benefit corporation," reported that its website "claims 2,142 investors, who have purchased slightly more than $2 million worth of shares" with "a minimum purchase of $200 in common stock shares," and placed Mellon at "a recent press conference for To The Stars in [[Las Vegas]]" describing a Navy pilots' sighting; Elizondo was listed as "director of global security and special programs."[^17]
|
||||
At a launch event in October 2017 (reported as October 11, 2017, [[Seattle]]), Tom DeLonge invited Luis Elizondo onstage; Elizondo said the group was "planning to provide never-before-released footage from real [[United States|U.S. government]] systems." [[Gideon Lewis-Kraus]] reported that on October 4, 2017, a week before, Christopher Mellon had arranged for the journalist [[Leslie Kean]] to meet Hal Puthoff, Jim Semivan and Elizondo at a hotel bar near the Pentagon, where she was told she could have the videos with chain-of-custody documentation "if she could place a story in the Times." [[Bryan Bender]] wrote in 2021 that Mellon, "by then also a paid adviser to DeLonge's TTSA," served as Elizondo's "unofficial public relations manager" and "started dangling the story to the New York Times, POLITICO and several other mainstream outlets."[^16][^5] Bender also wrote that DeLonge, in 2016, "reached out to Christopher Mellon" and that in the same year "one of DeLonge's cold calls unearthed the name" of Elizondo.[^5] The Times and Politico published on December 16, 2017; see [[December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report]]. Politico's article of that date described the company as "a for-profit company" co-founded by DeLonge, quoted DeLonge's video calling it a "public benefit corporation," reported that its website "claims 2,142 investors, who have purchased slightly more than $2 million worth of shares" with "a minimum purchase of $200 in common stock shares," and placed Mellon at "a recent press conference for To The Stars in [[Las Vegas]]" describing a Navy pilots' sighting; Elizondo was listed as "director of global security and special programs."[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
Mellon told the Politico writer: "Tom called me up out of the blue and then through him I met Jim and Hal." DeLonge told Bender: "From day one, I figured I needed knights of the round table."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -4,13 +4,120 @@ tags:
|
|||
- OrganizedCrime
|
||||
- Japan
|
||||
- TheOctopus
|
||||
- PostwarJapan
|
||||
- Lockheed
|
||||
- Sanctions
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
summary: "The Yakuza is a Japanese organized crime syndicate that was implicated in the broader network investigated by Danny Casolaro as 'The Octopus."
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Yakuza
|
||||
- Japanese Yakuza
|
||||
- Japanese organized crime
|
||||
- Boryokudan
|
||||
- Gokudo
|
||||
summary: "The Yakuza are Japanese organized crime groups named in CIA files on Yoshio Kodama, in the Lockheed bribery affair, in Treasury sanctions from 2012 and in the Casolaro Octopus literature."
|
||||
created: 2026-10-07
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-07
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: Tadamasa Goto
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: leader of the Goto-gumi, described by David Kaplan as an offshoot of the Yamaguchi-gumi
|
||||
fn: 21
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: Harold Okimoto
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: alleged top agent of the Yakuza overseas
|
||||
fn: 28
|
||||
---
|
||||
The [[Yakuza]] is a Japanese organized crime syndicate that was implicated in the broader network investigated by [[Danny Casolaro]] as "[[The Octopus]]." The syndicate's involvement was highlighted in [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] wiretap summaries, which revealed a government drug trafficking operation that included high-ranking [[La Cosa Nostra]] figures, the [[Gambino Crime Family]], and the Yakuza.[1]
|
||||
The Yakuza (also Boryokudan, Gokudo) are organized crime groups in [[Japan]] divided into clans, the largest of which, the [[Yamaguchi-gumi]], the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury Department]] designated in 2012.[^1] The group appears in the postwar record through occupation-era [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] files on [[Yoshio Kodama]] and [[Ryoichi Sasakawa]], the 1976 [[Lockheed bribe scandal]], and the reporting of [[Danny Casolaro]] on [[The Octopus]].
|
||||
|
||||
[[Robert Booth Nichols]], a key figure in Casolaro's investigation, was linked to the Yakuza. An [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] wiretap summary on Nichols, part of [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent [[Thomas Gates]]'s affidavit, connected Nichols to the Yakuza as a money launderer. Furthermore, [[Michael Riconosciuto]] alleged that Nichols was the "godson" of [[Harold Okimoto]], a figure believed to be a top Japanese organized crime figure based in Hawaii and described as a top agent in the Yakuza overseas.[1]
|
||||
### Occupation-era files
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[1] Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
A CIA name file on Kodama, released under the [[Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act]], contains a profile sheet stating that Kodama "was instrumental in founding the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)," "had a hand in naming several ministers," and "commands the allegiance of Japan's ultrarightists and is blood brother to a number of yakuza (leaders of the Japanese underworld)."[^2] A second profile sheet in the file states that Kodama, "notorious since the 1920's for his connections with right-wing and underworld groups, is widely reported to have high-level connections in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)," that he has been described by many sources as "a powerful figure in behind-the-scenes political maneuvering," and that he was allegedly visited at his residence by cabinet ministers and by Prime Minister [[Eisaku Sato]]. The sheet also records a reported close relationship with [[Ichiro Kono]] and [[Bamboku Ono]].[^3] The file's background summary describes Kodama (alias Moshakoji Takeharu) as a rightist with underworld connections ("gambling and gangster groups") and with important LDP political figures, and gives his birth as February 18, 1911 in Fukushima Prefecture.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
A counter-intelligence memorandum dated October 3, 1945, filed in the same name file, identifies Kodama as the publisher of a nationalistic journal.[^5] A document dated April 24, 1950, excerpted verbatim in the file, states that on December 24, 1948, [[Shumei Okawa]], Sasagawa Ryoichi, Kodama and a fourth man "were released from prison by the allies and charges against them of being class 'A' war criminals were dropped," and that these men "are reported to be planning in secret the reconstruction of the Japanese military," with an initial aim of "a volunteer corps to join the Chinese Nationalists in their defense of Formosa."[^6] A CIA office memorandum of June 29, 1950 states that Kodama was released on December 24, 1948 along with 13 other suspects and that the Legal Section of [[Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers|SCAP]] announced that no additional trial would be brought. The same memorandum states that Kodama had apparently led underground right-wing movements since his release, that a magazine writer's list of released "Class A" suspects included Kodama, Sasagawa and others, and that Kodama was in fact a "Class B" suspect. It also lists Kodama among officers reported in a recruitment program in Japan for [[Chiang Kai-shek]] and the CC Clique, with 123 recruited on November 11, 1949, and states that when he was picked up by SCAP in 1945 he reportedly turned over radium that was placed in the Bank of Japan vaults.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
Counter-intelligence reports in the file note Kodama's close contact after his release from [[Sugamo Prison]] with [[Tsuji Masanobu]], whom the same reports describe as involved in recruiting Japanese soldiers and weapons for Chinese Nationalist forces.[^8] Handwritten notes of an interview with Kodama, attached to a CIA station dispatch of January 10, 1950 that describes him as a former naval intelligence officer in China and a known member of the revised JIS, record him proposing an espionage net whose members would be natives of Korea and China with whom he had business connections. According to the notes, he had promised Mr. Carpenter of the SCAP Legal Section to stay in Tokyo, and a former colonel then working in a G-2 section could vouch for him.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
A document dated April 7, 1950 and excerpted in the file describes a merger of the groups of General Maki, Kodama, a network whose name is obscured in the copy, and probably General Doi, together with a former Foreign Office intelligence group under Tsuchida, working covertly with GHQ and CIC.[^10] The file's background summary states that Kodama was one of the high advisers in Prince Higashikuni's administration in 1945, was the first man to make a personal connection with General [[Douglas MacArthur|MacArthur]] and the Premier, was arrested as a Class A war criminal for dealings in war materiel, and spent three years in jail before being found not guilty.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
A 1953 record in the file identifies Sasagawa as a former head of the Nationalist League who was increasingly active behind the scenes in political and financial circles and was said to be Kodama's "political adviser." The same record states that Sasagawa founded in 1951, with the backing of Osaka and Kansai financiers, an enterprise to promote motorboat racing.[^11] A 1952 record in the file describes [[Taketora Ogata]], a former editor-in-chief of the [[Asahi Shimbun]], as in contact with leading members of the pre-war [[Genyo-sha]], in particular with Sasakawa and Kodama.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group|Interagency Working Group]], which administered the [[Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act]], records in its 2007 final report that the Simon Wiesenthal Center lobbied for release of U.S. documents on amnesties granted to Japanese war criminals, including amnesties granted to supervisors of Japan's biological and chemical warfare program in exchange for data from experiments on humans in [[Unit 731]].[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### Covert funding of Japanese politicians
|
||||
|
||||
The editorial note to the 1964 to 1968 Japan volume of the [[Foreign Relations of the United States]] series states that the U.S. Government approved four covert programs in Japan between 1958 and 1968. The note states that the Eisenhower administration authorized the CIA, before the May 1958 elections for the Japanese House of Representatives, to provide a few key pro-American and conservative politicians with "covert limited financial support and electoral advice." The recipients were told only that they were getting support from American businessmen. A 1959 program to split the moderate wing of the leftist opposition received $75,000 for 1960. The note states that "the subsidy program for Japanese political parties was phased out in early 1964," and that a broader program divided almost equally between propaganda and social action was funded at $450,000 for 1964 and continued "throughout the Johnson administration."[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
The New York Times News Service reported on October 9, 1994 that retired intelligence officials and former diplomats said the CIA gave money to the [[Liberal Democratic Party]] and its members in the 1950s and 1960s. "We financed them," said [[Alfred C. Ulmer Jr.]], who ran the CIA's Far East operations from 1955 to 1958. [[Roger Hilsman]], head of the State Department's intelligence bureau in the Kennedy administration, said the payments were by the early 1960s "so established and so routine" that they were a part of American policy toward Japan, and [[U. Alexis Johnson]], Ambassador to Japan from 1966 to 1969, said: "We were financing a party on our side." The report states that the Liberal Democrats have always denied that the support existed.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
### Lockheed
|
||||
|
||||
The CIA file contains a background summary on Kodama, titled as concerning his involvement in the Lockheed scandal with former prime minister [[Kakuei Tanaka]].[^4] The summary states that it was brought to light during the Lockheed scandal that Kodama received a bribe in connection with a sale, that he was not arrested because of illness but was prosecuted for tax evasion, that after his release from Sugamo he was involved in LDP fund-raising for [[Ichiro Hatoyama]], and that he died of heart failure on the evening of January 17, 1984. It adds that an actor in pornographic films crashed a small plane into Kodama's home and that Kodama's autobiography, translated into English as "I Was Defeated," was a best seller.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Sasakawa and the Unification Church
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Unification Church]] founded the International Federation for Victory over Communism in Japan and named Sasakawa its honorary chairman, according to a 2023 article on the church's relations with the LDP. That article states that Sasakawa had close ties to former prime minister [[Kishi Nobusuke]] and to the conservative wing of the LDP.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Treasury designations
|
||||
|
||||
Executive Order 13581 of July 24, 2011, issued by President [[Barack Obama]], blocks the property of significant transnational criminal organizations. Its Annex lists four entities: the Brothers' Circle, the Camorra, the Yakuza (a.k.a. Boryokudan; a.k.a. Gokudo) and [[Los Zetas]].[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
On February 23, 2012, the Treasury Department designated the Yamaguchi-gumi, its leader [[Kenichi Shinoda]], and [[Kiyoshi Takayama]]. The release called these the first designations under Executive Order 13581. It states that the Yakuza was listed in the Annex for its involvement in serious criminal activities, including weapons trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking, drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering, and that "The Yamaguchi-gumi is the largest and most prominent of the Yakuza’s crime families."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
On September 27, 2012, Treasury designated the [[Sumiyoshi-kai]], which the release calls "the second-largest clan within the Japanese Yakuza criminal network," together with two of its leaders, Shigeo Nishiguchi and Hareaki Fukuda.[^18] An OFAC listing under the Transnational Criminal Organization program, dated December 2016, names the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi under the heading "YAKUZA" and lists Tadashi Irie as previously designated on December 19, 2013 as a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi.[^19] On October 2, 2018, Treasury designated two Kobe-based companies, Yamaki, K.K. and Toyo Shinyo Jitsugyo K.K., and four individuals under the same order, describing the companies as real estate firms tied to Yamaguchi-gumi operations.[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
### Goto and the UCLA transplants
|
||||
|
||||
[[Tadamasa Goto]] underwent a successful liver transplant in July 2001 at the [[UCLA Medical Center]], performed by [[Ronald W. Busuttil]], executive chairman of the university's surgery department, according to the [[Los Angeles Times]]. The Times reported in articles of May 30 and May 31, 2008 that four surgeries on Japanese men were done between 2000 and 2004, that the most prominent recipient, Goto, had been barred from entering the United States because of his criminal history, and that Goto leads the Goto-gumi, which the journalist [[David Kaplan]] describes in his book as an offshoot of the Yamaguchi-gumi. Goto flew from Narita to Los Angeles on May 18, 2001 with his son and, according to his lawyer [[Yoshiyuki Maki]], had hepatitis C.[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Jim Stern]], a retired chief of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s Asian criminal enterprise unit, told the Times that the FBI helped Goto obtain a visa to enter the United States in 2001 in exchange for leads on potentially illegal activity in this country by Japanese criminal gangs. Stern said: "I don't think Goto gave the bureau anything of significance." Stern said the FBI did not help Goto arrange his surgery at UCLA, and a law enforcement official told the Times that Goto was again barred from reentering the United States after the transplant.[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
The Times reported, citing a law enforcement official, that Busuttil performed liver transplants on three other men barred from entering the United States because of criminal records or suspected affiliation with Japanese organized crime groups, whom it did not name because they could not be reached. UCLA and Busuttil said in statements that they do not make moral judgments about patients and treat them based on medical need.[^21] Maki said that Busuttil traveled to Japan, examined Goto on more than one occasion and evaluated him while he was in custody in 2006, and that Busuttil's medical opinion was cited in a court petition to have Goto released for medical care.[^21] The former Yomiuri Shimbun reporter [[Jake Adelstein]] told the Times that after he made inquiries in 2005 about the circumstances of Goto's transplant, men visited him and told him: "Erase the story or be erased."[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
In its follow-up, the Times reported that Goto donated $100,000 to the hospital less than three months after the surgery, that a plaque dated November 2001 recognizes the "Goto Research Fund," and that a second man from the group of four donated $100,000 in 2002. UCLA spokeswoman Dale Tate said the university had "no reason to question" the source of the money, and when asked whether the money had any bearing on the transplants said: "Absolutely not." Senator [[Charles Grassley]] said he would demand additional information from the university.[^22] Goto was arrested in Japan in May 2006 on suspicion of real estate fraud and was acquitted in March 2008.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
### Federal prosecutions
|
||||
|
||||
On February 21, 2024, federal prosecutors in the [[United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]] announced a superseding indictment charging Takeshi Ebisawa with trafficking nuclear materials from [[Burma]]. Prosecutors alleged that Ebisawa is a leader of a Japan-based international crime syndicate and that he and others showed samples of the material to an undercover agent of the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] who was posing as a trafficker with access to an Iranian general.[^24] In a Justice Department release of March 3, 2026, Ebisawa was reported sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty before Judge Colleen McMahon to six counts, including nuclear materials trafficking, narcotics trafficking, weapons and money laundering offenses. The release states that the DEA investigated him from about 2019 until his arrest on or about April 4, 2022, and that he laundered $100,000 of what the undercover agent described as narcotics proceeds for a 15 percent commission.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
### Fukushima decontamination work
|
||||
|
||||
The Asahi Shimbun reported that at least two gangsters were arrested in 2011 on suspicion of sending laborers to construction sites in Iwate Prefecture, one a senior member of a Sumiyoshi-kai affiliated gang arrested in July and the other a member of a Yamaguchi-gumi affiliated gang arrested in October. It reported that on January 31, 2013 police arrested a senior member of a gang affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai on suspicion of sending laborers in November to a decontamination project in Date, Fukushima Prefecture, which it described as the first arrest of a gangster over suspected involvement in a project to remove radioactive substances.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
Jake Adelstein, writing in [[The Atlantic Wire]], reported that Makoto Owada, identified as a high-ranking member of the Sumiyoshi-kai, was charged with dispatching workers to the Fukushima reconstruction site from May to July 2011. According to Adelstein, Owada first sent the workers to a [[Tokyo Electric Power Company|TEPCO]] subcontractor in Tochigi Prefecture, and some of the hazard pay the workers received was allegedly kicked back to the Sumiyoshi-kai as "association dues." Adelstein wrote that Owada admitted in initial statements to police that he had dispatched workers, including his own yakuza soldiers, to nuclear plant construction sites around Japan from as early as 2007, and that police suspected he worked with the Yamaguchi-gumi in a joint labor-supply venture.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
### Okimoto and the Octopus
|
||||
|
||||
The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that FBI wiretap summaries revealed a government drug trafficking operation that included high-ranking [[La Cosa Nostra]] figures, the [[Gambino Crime Family]], and the Yakuza.[^28] Seymour wrote that the FBI wiretap summary on [[Robert Booth Nichols]], part of the affidavit of FBI agent [[Thomas Gates]], connected Nichols to the Yakuza as a money launderer.[^28] Seymour also wrote that [[Michael Riconosciuto]] alleged that Nichols was the "godson" of [[Harold Okimoto]], whom Seymour describes as a 67-year-old car dealer in Hawaii believed by some sources to be a top Japanese organized crime figure and a top agent of the Yakuza overseas.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
Seymour wrote that Okimoto's company, [[Island Tobacco]], sold cigarettes at the Casino du Liban, which was controlled by the Syrian mob and used as a front by narcotics people.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Treasury Imposes Sanctions On Key Members Of The Yakuza And Brothers’ Circle Criminal Organizations," press release, February 23, 2012, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/tg1430.
|
||||
[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, name file "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, released under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, PDF p. 11 (profile sheet, "Rightist Leader"), copy at https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^3]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 7 (profile sheet, "Rightist Leader"), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^4]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 83 (background summary, "Background of KODAMA Yoshio, who was involved in the Lockheed Scandal with former prime Minister TANAKA Kakuei"), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^5]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 23 (counter-intelligence memorandum, October 3, 1945), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^6]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 46 (cross-file abstract of a document dated April 24, 1950, Attachment A, "Plans for Reconstruction of the Japanese Military"), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^7]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF pp. 48 to 49 (office memorandum, June 29, 1950, Request K-2202), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^8]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 60, https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^9]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF pp. 125 to 127 (dispatch to Chief, FE, January 10, 1950, with handwritten interview notes), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^10]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 155 (cross-file abstract of a document dated April 7, 1950), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^11]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 1, PDF p. 50 (activities of Sasagawa Ryoichi, September 10, 1953), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol01_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^12]: CIA, "KODAMA, YOSHIO," vol. 2, PDF p. 6 (abstract of a document dated October 10, 1952 on Ogata Taketora), https://mansell.com/Resources/special_files/KIKAN/KODAMA_Yoshio_Vol02_CIA.pdf.
|
||||
[^13]: Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, Final Report to Congress (April 2007), "Japan Under Scrutiny," pp. 20 to 21, https://www.archives.gov/files/iwg/reports/final-report-2007.pdf.
|
||||
[^14]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, vol. XXIX, pt. 2, Japan, ed. Karen L. Gatz (Washington: Government Printing Office, 2006), Editorial Note, p. 1, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v29p2/d1.
|
||||
[^15]: "CIA Spent Millions to Back Right Wing in Japan, Ex-Agents Say," New York Times News Service, Deseret News, October 9, 1994, https://www.deseret.com/1994/10/9/19135214/cia-spent-millions-to-back-right-wing-in-japan-ex-agents-say/.
|
||||
[^16]: Power News, "An Unholy Alliance: How the Unification Church Penetrated Japan's Ruling Liberal Democratic Party," nippon.com, March 3, 2023, https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/c12101/an-unholy-alliance-how-the-unification-church-penetrated-japan%E2%80%99s-ruling-liberal-democrat.html.
|
||||
[^17]: Executive Order 13581 of July 24, 2011, Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations, 76 Fed. Reg. 44757 (July 27, 2011), Annex, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2011-07-27/pdf/2011-19156.pdf.
|
||||
[^18]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Treasury Sanctions Members and Associates of Japanese Criminal Organization," press release, September 27, 2012, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/tg1722.
|
||||
[^19]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, "Transnational Criminal Organization Executive Order 13581," new designations, December 2016, https://ofac.treasury.gov/media/7026/download.
|
||||
[^20]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Treasury Sanctions Individuals and Companies Associated with Japan's Major Organized Crime Syndicate, the Yakuza," press release, October 2, 2018, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm499.
|
||||
[^21]: John M. Glionna and Charles Ornstein, "Japanese gang figures got new livers at UCLA," Los Angeles Times, May 30, 2008, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-30-me-ucla30-story.html.
|
||||
[^22]: Charles Ornstein and John M. Glionna, "After livers, cash to UCLA," Los Angeles Times, May 31, 2008, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-31-me-ucla31-story.html.
|
||||
[^23]: "Japanese gangsters got livers at L.A. hospital," NBC News, May 30, 2008, relaying the Los Angeles Times story, https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/japanese-gangsters-got-livers-l-hospital-flna1C9463298.
|
||||
[^24]: Associated Press, report of February 21, 2024 on the Ebisawa indictment, https://www.news4jax.com/news/national/2024/02/21/feds-accuse-alleged-japanese-crime-boss-of-conspiring-to-traffic-nuclear-material/; U.S. Department of Justice, "Justice Department Announces Nuclear Materials Trafficking Charges Against Japanese Yakuza," press release, February 21, 2024, https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-nuclear-materials-trafficking-charges-against-japanese-yakuza.
|
||||
[^25]: U.S. Department of Justice release of March 3, 2026 on the sentencing of Takeshi Ebisawa, as posted by the Internal Revenue Service, https://www.irs.gov/node/157161.
|
||||
[^26]: Asahi Shimbun, "Police struggle to prevent gangsters from profiting in disaster areas," Asahi Asia & Japan Watch, January 31 to February 1, 2013, as archived by the Japan Disaster Archive, https://jdarchive.org/api/item/1698468.
|
||||
[^27]: Jake Adelstein, "How the Yakuza and Japan's Nuclear Industry Learned to Love Each Other," The Atlantic Wire, reprinted by TRANSCEND Media Service on July 22, 2013, https://www.transcend.org/tms/?p=32135.
|
||||
[^28]: Cheri Seymour, *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal* (TrineDay, 2010). Sole source for the passages so cited.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue