...it filed a federal lawsuit against the highest law enforcement agency and officer in the United States – the U.S. Department of Justice and the man who sat at its helm, Attorney General Eric Holder.

The lawsuit challenged a $13 billion out-of-court settlement that had been agreed to by the Justice Department and the Wall Street mega bank, JPMorgan Chase, over its sale of toxic mortgages. Better Markets wrote on its website that this was at the time “The largest settlement in U.S. history from a single entity by more than 300%” and that it “granted JP Morgan blanket civil immunity for years of alleged, but undisclosed, pervasive, egregious and knowing fraudulent and illegal conduct that contributed to the 2008 financial crash and the worst economy since the Great Depression.”

Among the many eyebrow-raising allegations in the Better Markets’ press release, these three stood out:

“The Attorney General and other senior DOJ political appointees negotiated directly and entirely in secret with the CEO of JP Morgan Chase [Jamie Dimon], someone who was considered a possible Treasury Secretary just a few years ago.

“The cellphone of DOJ’s third highest ranking official rang with the ‘familiar’ phone number of JP Morgan Chase’s CEO [Jamie Dimon], who called to offer billions of dollars to stop DOJ from holding a press conference and filing a lawsuit in just a few hours. The call worked, and the press conference and lawsuit were both called off.

“DOJ gave complete civil immunity to JP Morgan Chase for defrauding thousands in exchange for $13 billion, via a contract that was negotiated and finalized in secret without any review or approval by a federal court.”

Attorneys for the Justice Department asked the federal court to dismiss the Better Markets lawsuit on the basis that Better Markets lacked standing to file the lawsuit. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia did just that in a longwinded decision that effectively stripped Americans of their ability to fight back against the increasingly corrupt nexus between Washington and Wall Street.

We reached out this week to Better Markets’ President and CEO, Dennis Kelleher, to explain how federal courts can get away with this type of cronyism. He responded as follows:

“Unfortunately, the U.S. legal system is an unlevel playing field tilted in favor of Wall Street’s banks/Corporate America and against Main Street Americans/the public interest. That’s because judges require anyone bringing a lawsuit to show ‘standing’ to file a case, which almost always depends on a plaintiff showing quantifiable, concrete, and specific if not unique harm. Because banks/Corporate America can always show or make up some dollar amount of injury from a government action or rule, they virtually always have standing to sue. But Main Street Americans/the public interest almost always cannot because public harm usually is not quantifiable, concrete, specific or unique to a particular plaintiff.

“For example, even if it was objectively true that the DOJ/Eric Holder sold out to JPMorganChase/Jamie Dimon, Better Markets’ case would have been thrown out because the harm from that sell out would be to everyone in the country and not a quantifiable, concrete, specific, or unique harm to Better Markets. The same is true if an agency like the CFTC or SEC knowingly enacted a rule that unlawfully favored the financial industry. Public interest groups or just ordinary citizens would likely get thrown out of court if they sued unless there was some unique harm inflicted. Put differently, while there are some exceptions, as long as the harm is to the broad public interest you basically cannot sue to protect the public interest.”

If this sounds like the Kafkaesque court logic of a vast wealth transfer conspiracy, you’re thinking along the right lines.

Better Markets’ Graphic from Press Conference Announcing Lawsuit Against the DOJ

Take a closer look at the graphic that Better Markets presented at its press conference announcing the lawsuit. What it effectively shows is a money laundering operation where a recidivist bank pays $13 billion to a federal agency in the executive branch of government; bypasses the judicial branch of government; and walks away with immunity and no questions asked. If that feels more like a banana republic form of justice than that of a thriving democracy, welcome to the new world of kleptocracy in America.

Nine months after Better Markets had filed its lawsuit, its worst suspicions about the secret backroom deal materialized in the pages of Rolling Stone under the byline of Matt Taibbi. The Justice Department had silenced the perfect eyewitness, Alayne Fleischmann, a former attorney at JPMorgan Chase who had reported the wrongdoing to her superiors. What Fleischmann described to Taibbi was “massive criminal securities fraud” within the bank. Taibbi describes what happened to Fleishmann as follows:

“Six years after the crisis that cratered the global economy, it’s not exactly news that the country’s biggest banks stole on a grand scale. That’s why the more important part of Fleischmann’s story is in the pains Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.”

The Justice Department announced its $13 billion civil settlement with JPMorgan Chase on November 19, 2013. At the time, it clearly knew that it would be bringing stunning criminal charges against the same bank just 49 days later.

On January 7, 2014, the Justice Department shocked the country with the announcement that the largest federally-insured bank in the U.S., JPMorgan Chase, had played a key role in the largest Ponzi scheme in history – that of Bernie Madoff. And because the bank hid its suspicions from U.S. law enforcement that a Ponzi scheme was occurring and failed to file the legally-mandated Suspicious Activity Reports, the Justice Department charged the bank with two criminal felony counts.

But instead of prosecuting the case in a federal court, where the disgusting details would play out in newspaper headlines for months, the Justice Department allowed the bank to admit to the charges and walk away with a hefty fine and a two-year deferred prosecution agreement; meaning that if the bank did not violate its two-year probation, it would never be prosecuted for these crimes.

Since 2014, this kind of backroom deal between JPMorgan Chase and the Justice Department has become enshrined as the new standard for crony justice between Wall Street and Washington. JPMorgan Chase has racked up five felony counts, received three deferred prosecution agreements and two non-prosecution agreements. (See the highlights of its breathtaking rap sheet here.)

And yet, there is zero indication that JPMorgan Chase’s appetite for crime as a business model has been satisfied. The Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands last year brought credible evidence into federal court in Manhattan that JPMorgan Chase “actively participated” in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors by ignoring a decade of his money laundering inside the bank – the very money laundering conduct that resulted in the bank admitting to two felony counts in 2014 in the Madoff case. In both matters, the bank failed to file the legally mandated Suspicious Activity Reports with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) despite internal communications showing it was well aware that the financial transactions were highly suspicious.

Despite the Justice Department and FBI sitting on reams of evidence in the Jeffrey Epstein/JPMorgan case since 2008, the DOJ has brought no criminal charges against the bank related to Epstein.

On 25 January, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah orchestrated a bold strike against Israel's strategic Jal al-Alam site, using what appeared to be a new missile system that immediately captured the attention of war observers.

As seen in a video released by Hezbollah's media division, the Iranian-made Almas missile appeared to ascend before homing in on its target with extraordinary clarity - thanks to a camera affixed to the projectile itself — prompting widespread buzz about this "special weapon," its features, and capabilities.

Twitter video: https://farside.link/twitter.com/mahdisaade1/status/1751720355306086680

‘Plunging fire’

The Almas is an anti-armor missile equipped with a distinctive "top attack" feature. Unlike traditional systems such as the American TOW, Russian Concourse, or Russian Kornet, which follow a straight trajectory toward the target, this weapon takes an “indirect” path. Operating on an arc trajectory, the missile ascends to a specific altitude before descending toward its target from above.

Why the top-down approach? Armored vehicles, including tanks, prioritize varying thicknesses of armor on different sides to balance weight and maintain mobility. Typically, armor is thickest on the front, less on the sides, and even less on the back or roof.

For instance, a tank's front armor might be three to four times thicker than its side armor. Consequently, a projectile needs a smaller, more targeted explosive charge to penetrate the tank, specifically from above or the front.

The concept of top-down missiles is not novel, and recent conflicts have seen a surge in their use. In the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Israeli Spike anti-tank missiles wreaked havoc on Armenian vehicles, complemented by Turkish Bayraktar drones dropping projectiles from above. Both weapons rarely failed to break the armor of Soviet-era Armenian tanks, (mostly T-72E and B tanks).

Drones and anti-tank dynamics

The battlefield in Ukraine, it should be said, has been a wider and more geographically and temporally extended arena for experimenting with multiple different types of these munitions.

As air defenses heightened on both sides, larger armed drones like the Bayraktar and its Russian counterpart, the Orion, were sidelined in favor of smaller quadcopters. These nimble drones either drop munitions from the air or act as suicide missions, targeting tanks at their weakest points—namely, the roof, sides, or rear.

Notable anti-armor weapons, such as the US-made Javelin or the British NLAW, initially shifted the balance but later succumbed to conventional two-dimensional anti-armor weapons like the Kornet-inspired Stugna.

Several countries boast portable weapons with top-attack capabilities, including China's Red Arrow and Japan's Type 1 LMAT. Notably, Israel possesses a range of such weapons, with the Spike system leading the pack in various sizes and ranges.

The differentiating factor lies in the Spike's ability to not only employ the "fire-and-forget" (F&F) feature, where the missile autonomously directs itself based on the target image, but also in its semi-automatic guidance across the line of sight. This distinctive feature also surfaced in a recent rocket utilized by the Lebanese resistance in two strikes, leaving analysts speculating on the identity of this advanced weapon.

Iranian engineering excellence

In recent years, Hezbollah’s ally Iran has achieved remarkable advancements across various military technology domains, showcasing prowess in cruise missiles, drones, and air defense systems. A notable addition to this arsenal boasting a top attack feature is the Almas (Diamond) missile, described as a clone of the Spike-MR.

Initially unveiled in a 2020 video, the Diamond made its debut on the global stage with the armed Ababil-3 surveillance and reconnaissance drone, gaining attention at military exhibitions. What distinguishes this weapon is its readiness for export, as evident from appearances not only in Iranian military showcases but also at arms exhibitions abroad.

The screen of the Almas’ scoring device matches the screen that appeared in the one launched by Hezbollah, and the blurred image of the device in the second video of the Naqoura strike matches the shape of the weapon itself, which is mounted on a three-legged base.

Twitter video: https://farside.link/twitter.com/JamalCheaib/status/1752060598874231026

A similar Iranian anti-tank guided missile, the Sadid-365, which differs from the Almas in various aspects, surfaced in a test video last year. The Naqoura site's second video revealed a significant change in the rocket's post-launch behavior, transitioning from a fully-driven system to a lock frame, a departure from the Sadid’s method of scoring.

This locking mechanism appeared to memorize the target's image, adjusting its course based on the target's shape rather than a singular point and direction, as observed in the case of the Almas.

Despite the rocket's upward trajectory in the first video, the missile's sensor remained fixated on the target. This seemingly complex operation is facilitated by top-down missiles employing a biaxial seeker or "gimbal," akin to the gyroscope principle used in stabilizing cameras for movement. This feature allows the missile's researcher to maintain focus on the target while the rocket ascends, directing the hull towards the target when reaching a certain altitude.

Shaking up the northern front

There are three main tactical implications for Hezbollah using this new weapon on the battlefield against the Israeli occupation forces:

First, is to target the enemy's vulnerabilities: The Almas’ ability to hit Israeli tanks and vehicles from above exploits the weakest angle of their armor. Cages installed on Israeli tanks may offer little defense against such munitions, designed primarily for smaller threats like quadcopter-dropped munitions.

Second, is to defeat Israel's costly Trophy systems: The Israeli defense system, "Trophy" or "Windbreaker," proves ineffective against projectiles coming from above.

Third, is complicating Israel's target searches: Launching the rocket from behind natural barriers, without direct line-of-sight, makes it nigh impossible for enemy forces to locate the shooters or their launch areas. This goes beyond the Israeli struggle with direct missiles like the Kornet; the Almas creates new angles and possibilities that evade traditional search calculations, rendering the old shooting-and-hiding tactics unnecessary.

The ramifications of Hezbollah's Almas missile disclosure are not just limited to the weapon's battlefield implications. This tactical “reveal” also places Israel's military top brass on notice about the potential pitfalls of an expanded conflict with Lebanon.

The cost of conflict for Tel Aviv could significantly increase if the resistance adopts this method to strike the enemy's military vehicles and gatherings. The weapon's unique features, including its wired guidance through fiber optic wire, make traditional countermeasures like jamming ineffective.

While the Almas’ existence does not single-handedly alter the strategic outlook of the battles on Israel's northern front, it complements second-generation anti-armor weapons like the Konkurs. Each weapon on the battlefield plays a specific role, and their integration with shooters and strategic planners is crucial in imposing Hezbollah's will on the occupation entity.

~~The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.~~

Pirate sites were early adopters of cryptocurrency. The Pirate Bay, for example, started accepting bitcoin donations in 2013.

At the time, a single bitcoin was worth roughly $120, just a fraction of today’s price of $43,000. If The Pirate Bay had kept all donations received it would have millions in bitcoin today.

Movie2K was another pirate site that showed an early interest in bitcoin. In its heyday, the site was the dominant pirate streaming portal in German-speaking countries. It generated a healthy revenue stream, part of it held in bitcoin.

Movie2K Bitcoin Loot

The operator of the site never got to spend most of it though. The site surprisingly shut down in the spring of 2013. Many suspected that legal troubles had plagued the site, something confirmed years later when Dresden police announced several arrests.

It was rare to see new activity in an already-dated dossier, but the biggest surprise followed later when the police announced that $29.7m in bitcoin had been secured from the site’s operators.

This ‘seizure’ was one of the largest of its kind but the authorities estimated that the operators had more bitcoin stashed away, much more. Today, new information released by Dresden police shows that the assumption was correct.

50,000 Bitcoin Secured

Following an investigation carried out by the Dresden General Prosecutor’s Office, the Saxony State Criminal Police, and the local tax authority (INES), nearly 50,000 bitcoin were ‘provisionally’ secured earlier this month. The haul is worth more than $2 billion at today’s exchange rate.

Never before has this much bitcoin been secured by German authorities; it’s also one of the largest crypto hauls worldwide.

“The Bitcoins were seized after the accused voluntarily transferred them to official wallets provided by the [Federal Criminal Police Office]. This means that a final decision has not yet been made about the utilization of the Bitcoins,” police write.

Operators Bought Bitcoin

The German authorities received help from forensic experts at the FBI to secure these assets. According to publicly released information, the operators earned money through advertising and dodgy subscription scams.

Interestingly, the site operators didn’t necessarily get paid in bitcoin; they purchased the coins. They started converting their revenue to bitcoin in 2012 when it was worth just a few dollars per coin.

Looking back, this must be one of the best investments ever made, although the operators don’t get to enjoy it. As noted by Tarnkappe, a 40-year-old German and a 37-year-old Polish man remain under investigation for copyright infringement and money laundering.

It’s not clear whether the authorities believe that all Movie2K bitcoin have now been secured, or if they have even more in their sights.

The tokens were forfeited in a plea agreement from Banmeet Singh, who sold large quantities of drugs including fentanyl, LSD, ecstasy, Xanax, Ketamine and Tramadol on various dark web marketplaces including the Silk Road.

Singh pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit money laundering, charges for which he's expected to serve around 8 years in prison.

• "Defendant pleads guilty in dark web narcotics case involving largest cryptocurrency seizure of $150 million in drug proceeds", U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Ohio
• "Dark-web drug-ring plea nets DEA millions in cryptocurrency", The Washington Post