Husband of ‘CIA scammer’ sent to jail.
Almost a year ago now I wrote about Stacey Finley, who posed as a CIA agent who had access to secret healing technology, in order to defraud friends and family out of almost a million dollars.
On Monday her husband, Brent Eric Finley, 38, of Rayville, was sentenced to serve 51 months in prison by a federal court in Monroe.
Brent Finley was convicted of fraud for his part in convincing relatives and friends that Stacey could cure their ills, for a fee, via her access to secret satellite imaging techniques.
Stacey Finley sentenced to 63 months
The prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release. His wife, Stacey Finley, was sentenced in August to spend 63 months in prison and both are ordered to jointly pay restitution in the amount of $873,786.94.
Both Brent and Stacey Finley pleaded guilty to wire fraud in August, according to court records.
In a news release, issued by U.S. Attorney Donald W. Washington, it was stated that Brent Finley duped numerous people into believing that Stacey Finley was a CIA agent who, through her contacts, could schedule a medical scan of the victims’ bodies via satellite imaging.
They claimed that this process would detect any hidden medical problems.
Covert CIA medical team
The Finley’s then convinced their victims that if any medical conditions were discovered that they would be cured, after making suitable payment, by a CIA medical team whilst they slept.
“These audacious criminals should remind all of us that scam artists will go to great lengths to take our life’s savings,” Washington said.
A recent commentator here at Scam Types dot Com, Danny Bloom, has at least two blogs on the subject of global warming.
I also predict that he will have an increasing inventory of kayak vs canoe blogs in the very near future too, but that’s an altogether different story.
An ex-pat American, living in Taiwan, who can often be found selling his book, ‘I’m Just Crazy About Taiwan’, in the night markets, or from his red bicycle, Dan would appear to be quite passionate about the subject.
Polar Cities Resources
If you have no idea what a polar city is then Google and Wikipedia can be your friends.
However, you would be well advised to visit Dan’s page which includes some great illustrations which will allow you to visualise the concept in ways that simple words could never evoke.
Dan also has a text-based resource for those interested in the concept of a Polar City.
With 243 comments, it certainly seems to be an emotive, and somewhat highbrow, talking point.
What is a polar city?
Dan’s blog talks of a time, somewhere in the future, when humankind will need to take long-lasting refuge from a global warming catastrophe.
Polar cities would be the last refuge of mankind. (Such a phrase reminds me of my favourite TV show, Battlestar Galactica, which I personally think is about as factual as the information we are fed about global warming by those in power).
In essence, a polar city would be a self-contained and self-sufficient living space for the survivors of humanity.
Possibly operating via nuclear energy, they would need to be able to support human life for an indeterminable time, until re-population of the world at large would once again be possible.
Dan asks if consideration should be given to such projects NOW?
After all, if a catastrophe occurs at short notice then the raw materials, construction tools, manpower and knowledge required for such retreats may be lost for ever.
What do I think?
I think that Dan raises some good questions.
He is right, I believe, to highlight global warming and the dangers that today’s custodians of the earth are posing to their own descendants.
In terms of surviving a climatic disaster, polar resorts seem like a sensible precaution and viable solution, at least in the short term.
I do wonder, however, just how sustainable such a construct could be if the entire planet was to become inhospitable topside - surely some natural resources would be required in the longer term?
I am of the opinion that global warming is the latest hype in the financial and political markets, designed to cause fear amongst the vast majority of the world’s population, who wouldn’t know how to live in a world that didn’t continually keep them under the whim and illusionary safety of their controlling masters.
Sheep
Too many people like, or maybe even need, to be told what to do and what to think.
They cannot function unless a leader, government, renowned thinker or preacher spoon-feeds them with simple directions.
Sadly, nor would they want to.
I propose that these people pay ridiculous amounts of taxes to fund ridiculous solutions to problems that don’t really exist.
Long live the sheep… your government needs you.
Renowned Hollywood actor Robert Redford appears to be less confused about the global warming scam than Time magazine -
(Thanks to David for finding this cover).
Redford would also seem to be less than impressed by Al Gore’s Nobel Prize for his work on global warming, or the fact that he is earning a considerable amount of money his association with the scam, as evidenced by comments reported by the New Statesman last week -
Redford was an early convert to the environmental movement, and talks proudly of having campaigned on it since 1969.
“It was not a happy easy time, because those were the days that the oil and gas companies pretty much controlled the show on propaganda. Anyone speaking about solar energy would be smashed down as being a radical, a tree-hugger and granola-cruncher or what have you.”
He is notably cynical, however, about Al Gore’s recent award of a Nobel Peace Prize.
“He’s making a lot of money, he’s having a belle poque, a heroic moment,” he says.
“It must have been really hard for Gore to suffer all that [losing the presidential election], so he found another thing to come back with: the environment.
He had a lot of money behind him, because in Clinton’s administration there was a lot of money.
With that he was able to build himself a new campaign and pick an issue.
And he picked an issue that just happened to arrive at its moment in time.”
The less-than-subtle subtext is that Gore is an arriviste, while Redford has been out there, a grizzled loner, bearing the jibes and right-wing clobbering before the environmental cause was fashionable.
Asked why he thinks Gore is not going back into politics, he says: “What’s most important - to be a hero to your country and go save it . . . or do you want to be happy and rich and be a hero and not get into the political scene?”
One wonders how much longer this global warming debacle will continue if current and former A-listers continue to be so vocal in their opposition to Al Gore’s misrepresentation of the ‘facts’?’
A ghost-like blue glow has been found on security camera film at the gas station, and it is causing quite a stir.
The blue image you can see in the photo moves around the screen for about half an hour, leaves, and then returns.
At one point it seems to land on a car windshield, before floating away.
The spooky images have drawn quite a crowd to the filling station in Parma, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland.
Many motorists have asked to take a look at the surveillance images for themselves.
Spectators are queuing up to catch a glimpse of the mysterious blue haze, and there are plenty of suggestions about what it could be.
Some feel there’s nothing supernatural about the light and say it is merely a plastic bag that is out of focus whilst others are sure it’s some kind of spiritual presence.
Do you believe in ghosts?’
The Yomiuri Shimbun,YOKOHAMA–
A Kanagawa prefectural police superintendent suspected of involvement in a fraudulent scheme to con people with spiritual claims is believed to have used his name card to convince a businessman into handing over large sums of cash to a “healing salon,” the police said Saturday.
Sumio Yoshida, who was removed from his position as head of the police force’s security division Thursday, also allegedly drove the man to and from the Vivid Tokyo Aoyama Salon in Akasaka, Minato Ward, Tokyo, on a number of occasions.
The 44-year-old company executive from Yokohama was said to be initially hesitant to use the salon’s “special prayer” services, but felt reassured when he found out that a police officer was part of the salon’s operation, the police said.
The prefectural police suspect that Yoshida, 51, was deeply involved in the operation of the salon.
The police have searched the salon and the premises of Shinsekai Yugen Kaisha, a pseudoreligious entity based in Kai, Yamanashi Prefecture, that controls the salon.
They suspect the man was swindled out of about 4.9 million yen in May 2004 for the special prayers by a 44-year-old female company executive, who runs the salon.
According to the police, the man met Yoshida and received his name card in April 2004 after he took part in communal prayers at the salon at the invitation of an acquaintance.
The man had doubts about the credibility of the organization and was in two minds about becoming a member, but a person working at the salon told him a high-ranked police officer also was a member and introduced the man to Yoshida.
Yoshida handed the man one of the name cards he used as a senior police officer.
The man felt reassured and joined up, saying that “it must be credible if a police officer is a member.”
“Your company stands on land that was used as an execution ground during Japan’s Sengoku [Warring States] period [1467-1586],” the woman told the man at the salon later that month.
“Those executed have not attained nirvana, and the omens are bad for you.”
The woman is suspected of deceiving the man out of about 4.9 million yen in cash the following month for “special prayers” she proposed to improve the performance of his business.
As the man moved up “spiritually” from beginners level to advanced level, he was allegedly pressed to spend about 20 million yen on spiritual items such as an expensive “power license” protective charm.
Yoshida and the woman also drove the man to and from the salon on a number of occasions.
The superintendent also is believed to have been in charge of accounts at the salon and its second in command.
With Yoshida also persuading junior colleagues and subordinates from the prefectural police department to use the salon around 2004, some members of the salon reportedly said they felt “reassured by the presence of police officers.”
“I’ve caused trouble for the [police] organization,” Yoshida reportedly told investigators during questioning, but he denied allegations of fraud, saying he “did it to help troubled people.”
“The Aum Supreme Truth cult also made police officers and Self-Defense Forces personnel join,” said Masaki Kito, a lawyer who is a member of a defense council for victims of crime.
“It’s possible a police officer was targeted this time, too.”
Academy graduates targeted
The Kanagawa prefectural police found that Yoshida lured people into joining fictitious investment schemes at gatherings of a police academy association held by police officers who were his students when he was an instructor at the academy.
Yoshida had worked in the enforcement team, which mainly handles security at events featuring large crowds, and was quickly promoted.
The prefectural police questioned three police officers who worked in the team-a 47-year-old superintendent, a 43-year-old inspector and a 36-year-old senior policeman.
The superintendent told investigators that he spent 3 million yen on the healing service, while the senior policeman said he spent 7 million yen to buy religious goods.
Yoshida used his personal ties to lure colleagues into the salon, the police said.
According to investigators, Yoshida gave the woman 10 million yen to open the Aoyama Salon.
The rent for the salon in the Akasaka district of central Tokyo is 1.5 million yen a month.
The police said the woman found herself short of funds, and sought help from Yoshida, who helped her procure the money.
To raise money to operate the salon, Yoshida persuaded police academy graduates and instructors to join fictitious investment schemes, saying they would get a 3 percent annual return for every 500,000 yen they invested.
The prefectural police questioned five other officers who attended the police academy graduates’ gatherings with Yoshida.
Four said they had invested a total of 4.3 million yen with Yoshida.
Friday, December 28, 2007
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