There are a few things in life that if somebody tells you, you automatically know they are a grifter. They&#8217;re a con man; they&#8217;re trying to con you into something.
The most obvious sign of a con artist is somebody who&#8217;s telling you that a well-known, well-worn truth — something that is absolutely irrefutable — is not true. They know better.
They know better because they&#8217;ve seen through the matrix, they&#8217;ve seen through that truth; that truth is actually a mask for the underlying reality.
Now, there may be some widely held notions that are untrue, but in order to debunk those notions, you would actually have to show why your notions are better.
However, if someone suggests, for example, “Hard work is useless. I have a better way to earn you fast money without a lot of work, without getting yourself educated, without putting in the hours to develop a skill set,” that person is conning you. They are lying to you.
If somebody were to tell you there is an easy way for you to get fit with no exercise while eating trash, that person would be lying to you. That person would be conning you because, obviously, you need to eat healthy and exercise if you want to be in shape.
And the biggest one of all — and it&#8217;s held true by pretty much every grifter movement of the last couple of centuries — is the idea that you should not get married, that marriage is bad for you, that somehow marriage is going to ruin your life.
Now, there are a lot of problems with the current legal structure of marriage. I agree with the critique of the current legal structure of marriage. No-fault divorce is one of the worst things that ever happened to Western civilization.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1949-andrew-tate-s-filthy-grift-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
Marriage is a commitment. That commitment is lifelong. There should actually have to be a really good reason why you are divorcing. That is particularly true if you have children because marriage is designed as the fundamental building block of institutional society. It is the place where children are reared. It is the place where you produce children, and children require stability.
It is from those fundamental building blocks of civilization — “the little platoons,” as Edmund Burke called them — that you can actually build a functional, free civilization, which is why every grifter movement of the last couple of centuries has assaulted the family from the outside.
For example, Karl Marx was very big on assaulting the family. The Communist Manifesto famously suggests abolition of the family. Why? Because the family is a place where you might learn “bourgeois” values. It&#8217;s a place where you might be inculcated into responsibility, duty, or church. These are all very bad, according to the Marxist movement, which is why the Communist Manifesto <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a>,
<blockquote>On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form, this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution.</blockquote>
So blowing up the family would allow for a better world. Don&#8217;t get married. Fight the fight. Blow up the traditional institutions that actually support a functional society, and fight the fight.
The idea of the Left is that every single person is basically a malleable widget violating the strictures of the evil society. This is part of the big con, which is the idea that there are things like gender roles that are rooted in biology; however, if you can see through that immutable truth, then you will have destroyed the matrix. This is the perspective of the Left, and this is why they fight the family. This is also why children have become a tote bag to this group of people. It&#8217;s something you occasionally have in order to manipulate in a particular form or fashion.
But the attack on the family is not, unfortunately, restricted to the political Left. All grifters, all con men, have to take immutable truths and subvert those immutable truths in favor of something only they have uncovered — something incredible that you never knew about. And if you just take the red pill, then you&#8217;ll know it.
You&#8217;ll know it, and then you&#8217;ll be right. You won&#8217;t have to do hard work in order to be rich. You won&#8217;t have to be a good person in order to attract a good mate. You won&#8217;t have to spend the time raising your children in order to be a successful man. They&#8217;ve discovered the secret.
The leader on this side of the movement is Andrew Tate, who got his start as a provocative reality TV star, then began a webcam business effectively grooming women into sex trafficking. According to his own admission, that&#8217;s how he made his money. Whether he says they were groomed or not, the reality is he groomed women into getting into the webcam industry and pornography.
This is Andrew Tate’s game. He&#8217;s considered entertaining because he “explodes the myths.” But the way that he “explodes the myths” is by playing a really stupid game for stupid people.
The game is like this. “I&#8217;m going to say two transgressive things, things that violate the taboos of the culture around me. One of those things is true, and one of those things is false. But because they are both transgressive and because people will oppose me on both of them — one for bad reasons and one for good reasons — I have somehow gotten under the skin of the matrix. Everyone opposes me, which is why I&#8217;m a rebel.”
That&#8217;s Andrew Tate&#8217;s entire game.
So he will say things like feminism has ruined men by usurping the male role and robbing men of their initiative. That is true. That is not politically correct to say.
But then he will say another transgressive thing that is absolutely false. For example, “Women love it when you treat them like garbage, and you should treat women like garbage; dominant men are the kind of men who treat women like garbage.”
That is not true. It&#8217;s transgressive. And it&#8217;s transgressive specifically because it&#8217;s evil. It is bad to say. It is bad to think. Women should not be treated like trash, and good women do not want to be treated like trash. Further, treating women like trash is not going to make your life better. And it is not going to make their life better.
But it is transgressive to say; it is taboo. Tate has violated many taboos, and he can get away with it because the rules don&#8217;t apply to him. He&#8217;s a “Nietzschean Ubermensch” because he is very buff and because he works out a lot and because he smokes cigars. And this means you should listen to him.
You should listen to him so much that you should pay him $49.99 a month to join Hustler&#8217;s University, where you will learn other secrets — secrets like how you don&#8217;t need hard work and initiative in order to really get ahead. You can learn his magical methods for making lots of money.
You can own a Bugatti, just like Tate owns a Bugatti. All you have to do is listen to his magical business advice, which explodes all of the matrices of truth, the immutable truths.
The reason I&#8217;m bringing up Andrew Tate is because he, again, is playing the game with two transgressive things. The true thing that he has said is, “I pray Christianity regains its strength and protects its societies against the pervasive and constant erosion of morality by the devotees of Satan. If you accept everything, you stand for nothing.” I agree with every word of that statement. Christianity ought to regain its strength and protect its society against the pervasive and constant erosion of morality by the devotees of Satan.
But then, Tate put out tweets like the one that he did yesterday. It comes up in the context of marriage. Yet again, he is saying an immutable truth must be exploded. That immutable truth is the fundamental good and necessity of family.
He stated, “Dear white men. You’re f***ed. You&#8217;re being replaced because none of you have children.” Even within this tweet, he is making a couple points: one true, one false.
One, Western societies are not reproducing at replacement rate. That&#8217;s very bad. But he goes further because his game is to say many transgressive things — some true, some false. <a href="https://twitter.com/Cobratate/status/1780180832369402005" target="_blank" rel="noopener">He writes</a>: 
<blockquote>Dear white men. You’re f***ed. You&#8217;re being replaced because none of you have children. Even those of you bi***ing about the replacement online like little girls don&#8217;t find the gumption to f***. I see white men bragging about having 5 kids as if it&#8217;s an achievement. lol. Five? Lolol. Per year right? Ohhhh. All you white boys lost control of you’re (sic) women and now they won&#8217;t accept multiple wives anymore. 
Now they tell you they don&#8217;t want anymore kids. One’s (sic) enough. They don&#8217;t want to do their god given job anymore no, they want Instagram likes instead. So you’re (sic) genetic potential is stumped by the whims of some singular female. A female who takes 9 whole months to grow a single baby. Other races have multiple ovens for bread. We&#8217;re not cucked. Some **** is screaming at you about loyalty and you&#8217;re sitting there saying, “yes, baby” Jerking off to porn when she&#8217;s asleep or maybe cheating with a side***** (CONDOM ON!) Oh no I couldn&#8217;t get another woman pregnant my wife would kill me!!! Total f***ing losers. 
Soon your race will be nothing more than a few pages in a history book. A lesson on what happens when you f *** the female psyche so hard they&#8217;re obsessed with money and social media as opposed to being one of many baby factories for a king. 30 children minimum for the dons. White people? Go talk to your “best friend” wife about what to do this weekend. Maybe you can take a nice walk around the Ikea. Enjoy extinction. </blockquote>
So, one true thing, many false things. One true thing: People need to have more kids in Western civilization. But many false things: Marriage is bad. Loyalty to your spouse is bad. Society can be built on men running around having sex with 30 women and having 30 kids per year, and this is the true measure of a man.
And young men think, “Wow, that sounds amazing,” because the male sex drive looks for various women. That is just the way that mammalian biology is built. Men seek to impregnate many females. So that sounds great to a bunch of young men. Or getting off on Tate&#8217;s webcam business. It sounds amazing to them.
That&#8217;s also not how societies are built. But again, the idea is — and this is how you know it’s a con — marriage is bad. He&#8217;s actually saying marriage is bad because if you&#8217;re a “person who has five kids, lol.”
I have four kids. I’ve been married for 15 years. If you have four kids, double the replacement rate, you are doing your societal job. But that can only exist and can only create functional children, children who are going to propagate good values, if there’s a father in the home.
Here&#8217;s the thing. If you impregnate many ladies and then you leave, you have created a generation of young men who are incapable of raising themselves. The effects of single motherhood in the United States are very well known: high levels of drug use, of crime, of poverty, of suicidal ideation. It creates actual pathologies. 
That is what Andrew Tate is promoting because he is a con artist, and he&#8217;s conning you into doing something. He is conning you into giving away the only pathway toward actual societal success and personal success in favor of his vision of a Genghis Khan-like spreading of his seed.
The reason this is important is because a lot of young men are falling into this sort of treachery.

ROMANIA-BRITAIN-US-COURT-CRIME

Andrew Tate’s Filthy Grift

Andrew Tate

Ben Shapiro

Capitalism

family

Marriage

Money

Opinion

Pornography

Readers Pass

Western Civilization

The startup <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/electric-cars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">electric car</a> company Fisker said this week that it is halting the production of its vehicles to raise $150 million in emergency funds as it grapples with a cash crunch spurred by a low demand for electric vehicles.
The California-based company, which says its mission is to &#8220;create the world’s most emotional and sustainable electric vehicles,&#8221; has barely produced over a thousand electric vehicles worldwide for the year.
&#8220;The company has approximately 4,700 vehicles in its currently inventory, carried over from 2023 and including 2024 production,&#8221; the company said. &#8220;While it has not completed an NRV analysis for 2024, Fisker believes the completed vehicle value for its inventory as of March 15, 2024, is in excess of $200 million.&#8221;
&#8220;Fisker will pause production for six weeks starting the week of March 18, 2024, to align inventory levels and progress strategic and financing initiatives,&#8221; it added.
Reuters <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ev-startup-fisker-sell-166-115743611.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> last month that signals from the car company indicated that there was &#8220;substantial doubt about its ability to continue&#8221; due to the financial health of the company.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/electric-vehicle-startup-fisker-prepares-for-possible-bankruptcy-filing-26e63d32" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> last week that the company hired outside help to assist with a possible bankruptcy filing.
The company&#8217;s struggles comes as the Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it would continue its efforts to destroy the gas-powered car industry by implementing the most extreme pollution restrictions in history on automakers.
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The Washington Post, which called the effort “controversial,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/03/20/biden-car-emissions-rules/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that the rule will force automakers “to ramp up sales of electric vehicles while slashing carbon emissions from gasoline-powered models.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claimed that its national pollution standard, which could end up getting killed in the courts, would prevent more than 7 billion tons of carbon emissions, which it claimed would provide $100 billion in annual benefits to the U.S.
The announcement was met with swift backlash online across the political Right, who warned that Biden’s agenda would damage the American car industry.
&#8220;Biden’s latest ban on gas-powered vehicles and replacement with electric vehicles is another direct assault on consumer choice and the American way of life,&#8221; said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). &#8220;It ignores the needs of American families in order to appease the radical environmental lobby at the expense of millions of jobs supported by the automotive industry. It’s time to put an end to this regulatory overreach.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-finalizes-plan-to-kill-off-gas-cars-in-u-s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden Finalizes Plan To Kill Off Gas Cars In U.S.</a>

SWITZERLAND-AUTO-SHOW

EV Startup Fisker Halts Production To Raise Emergency Funds Amid Cash Crunch From Low Demand

Business

Economy

Electric cars

Oil and Gas

<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattcraig/2024/03/06/highest-paid-actors-2023-adam-sandler-margot-robbie/?sh=53001af063a0">Forbes</a>&#8216; list of the top-earning <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/celebrities">actors</a> for 2023 has been released, and it contained some familiar names as well as a few surprises.
Comedian <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/adam-sandler">Adam Sandler</a> was the highest <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/money">earner</a> last year thanks in part to his partnership with the streaming giant Netflix. The 57-year-old celebrity starred in and produced “Murder Mystery 2,” a comedy about detectives launching their own agency, which also starred Jennifer Aniston (another name on the top earners list).
Sandler also wrote, produced, and did voice work on the coming-of-age musical comedy “Leo” and appeared in the action comedy “The Out-Laws,” also put out by Netflix. He acted alongside his wife and daughters  in the comedy “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.”
Thanks to these efforts, Sandler brought in $73 million for the year.
Second on the list of top earners for 2023 was Margot Robbie, star of the summer blockbuster “Barbie.” The actress earned $59 million last year, and at the age of 33, was the youngest celebrity to appear on the list for 2023. 
Tom Cruise came in third place thanks to “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” The action thriller underperformed expectations but still brought in a huge payday for the A-lister. Cruise also earned residuals from his massive hit, “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022), bringing his salary in 2023 to an estimated $45 million. 
Two actors tied for the fourth place position. Both Matt Damon, who had a supporting role in the smash hit “Oppenheimer,” and Ryan Gosling, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in “Barbie,” brought home $43 million. Damon’s earnings were boosted by selling “Air,” his first project with Artists Equity Studio, to Amazon for $130 million.
Other names rounding out the top 10 for 2023 include Jennifer Aniston ($42 million), Leonardo DiCaprio ($41 million), Jason Statham ($41 million), Ben Affleck ($38 million) and Denzel Washington ($24 million). 
Forbes noted that the results are estimated based on interviews and data collected from industry sites such as IMDbPro. The outlet also reported that the numbers represent taxed earnings for the whole year and only account for income accrued through entertainment projects.
Tyler Perry was the number one top earner on the list in 2022, while Dwayne Johnson took the top spot for three consecutive years prior, per <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/08/adam-sandler-beats-margot-robbie-to-be-named-hollywoods-top-earner">The Guardian</a>.

Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler Was Highest Paid Actor In Hollywood For 2023

Adam Sandler Revealed As Highest Paid Actor In Hollywood For 2023

Celebrities

Entertainment

Hollywood

Movies

U.S.

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fedex" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FedEx</a> Founder and Executive Chairman Fred Smith warned during an interview that the BRIC nations — which primarily consist of Brazil, Russia, India, and China — have set out to dethrone the U.S. dollar as the world&#8217;s reserve currency, and if that happens, the standard of living that Americans are accustomed to will be gone forever.
Smith made the warning during an interview with Bret Baier while talking about today&#8217;s inflation report showing that inflation was worse than projected and that prices are up overall 17.9% since Biden took office.
&#8220;I think the issue is much broader than just the CPI that was announced today,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I mean, we&#8217;re the wealthiest nation in the world because of all these wonderful inventions since the end of World War II. But we&#8217;re also prosperous because we lead the world in opening markets for trade and protected those trade flows with the American Military and our alliances. And then third, and probably equally important, we&#8217;re the reserve currency of the world, the dollar is the medium of exchange and our financial institutions control the movement of money around the world. All three of those things went together.&#8221;
&#8220;And you had a repudiation of both trade beginning in 2018, when the trade wars began with President Xi and President Trump, and more recently, our government has been borrowing money at an enormous rate, almost $2 trillion last year,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;And the CBO just announced that we&#8217;ll spend more on interest this year than we&#8217;ll spend on the Defense Department. These subjects are not even mentioned in our political discourse these days. It&#8217;s very concerning.&#8221;
Smith said during a recent speech that in order to avoid a catastrophic fiscal crisis, political leaders needed to recognize the extreme and unprecedented dangers that are facing the U.S. and that grand comprise would be needed to fix these problems.
When asked during the interview if he was seeing leaders step up to the plate to address the crisis, he responded: &#8220;No, quite the contrary.&#8221;
&#8220;The political process is really focused on the extremes of both parties,&#8221; he said. &#8220;No one is supporting trade, which made America great, really, since Roosevelt and his Secretary of State Hall, passed the first major trading bill in 1934. And then we led opening the world and restored Germany and Japan, our enemies, to prosperity through trade and the American Alliance system.&#8221;
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&#8220;And then on top of that, our financial capabilities to print money at will is dependent on the dollar remaining the reserve currency,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And the so-called BRICS alliance &#8212; Brazil, Russia, India, and China &#8212; have set out on a deliberate course to dethrone the dollar. If that happens, and we can&#8217;t sell our bonds, I can assure you the living standards that we all enjoy today are going to be a thing of the past.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WATCH: FedEx founder Fred Smith to <a href="https://twitter.com/BretBaier?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BretBaier</a>: “The so-called BRICs alliance—Brazil, Russia, India &amp; China—have set out on a deliberate course to dethrone the dollar. If that happens and we can&#39;t sell our bonds, I can assure you the living standards that we all enjoy today are… <a href="https://t.co/fclTIKHw3A">pic.twitter.com/fclTIKHw3A</a>
&mdash; Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1757610173533724802?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Key Speakers At The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Aviation Summit

FedEx Founder, Chairman Issues Dire Warning About What BRIC Nations Are Plotting

Communist China

FedEx

Global Politics

Russia

A former Facebook global diversity strategist pled guilty to stealing more than $4 million from the company through an &#8220;elaborate scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fictitious charges, and cash kickbacks,&#8221; federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Barbara Furlow-Smiles, 38, <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.gand.323491/gov.uscourts.gand.323491.1.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pled</a> guilty to wire fraud related to the scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga/pr/former-global-diversity-executive-facebook-pleads-guilty-defrauding-company-out-more-4?te=1&amp;nl=dealbook&amp;emc=edit_dk_20231213" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement.
Furlow-Smiles led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs at Facebook between January, 2017 and September, 2021. As Facebook&#8217;s lead strategist and global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement, Furlow-Smiles was responsible for developing and executing DEI initiatives, operations, and engagement programs, prosecutors said.
She had access to company credit cards and was able to approve invoices and used her position to &#8220;cheat and defraud the company,&#8221; prosecutors said.
Furlow-Smiles linked PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App accounts to her Facebook credit cards and used those accounts to pay friends, relatives, and others for goods and services that were never provided to Facebook, prosecutors said.
She then submitted fraudulent expense reports to hide those charges, falsely claiming that her friends had performed work for Facebook, such as providing swag or marketing.
Those people then paid kickbacks to Furlow-Smiles, sometimes through accounts in her husband&#8217;s and other people&#8217;s names, prosecutors said. Sometimes the kickbacks were paid in cash in person and sometimes through the mail. Cash was even hidden in a t-shirt at one point, prosecutors said. Furlow-Smiles also sometimes told her friends to pay one another to hide the scheme, prosecutors said.
Furlow-Smiles also had Facebook hire vendors operated by her friends, prosecutors said, and she approved fraudulent and inflated invoices to pay the vendors, who then paid her kickbacks.
People who were part of the scheme included friends, relatives, former interns from a prior job, nannies and babysitters, a hair stylist, and her university tutor. She even had Facebook pay for several expenses of other people, including $10,000 to an artist for specialty portraits and more than $18,000 for preschool tuition, according to prosecutors.
&#8220;She used the money to live a luxury lifestyle in California and Georgia,&#8221; prosecutors said.
Her sentencing is scheduled for March 19.
It is not clear whether any of the other people involved in the scheme will be charged. Prosecutors said most of the people were not aware that the money was coming from Facebook.
Meta, Facebook&#8217;s parent company, cooperated with the investigation, which is being investigated by the FBI.
“This defendant abused a position of a trust as a global diversity executive for Facebook to defraud the company of millions of dollars, ignoring the insidious consequences of undermining the importance of her DEI mission,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan.
“Motivated by greed, she used her time to orchestrate an elaborate criminal scheme in which fraudulent vendors paid her kickbacks in cash. She even involved relatives, friends, and other associates in her crimes, all to fund a lavish lifestyle through fraud rather than hard and honest work,” Buchanan said.

In this photo illustration a Facebook logo seen displayed on

Former Facebook Diversity Manager Pleads Guilty To Stealing More Than $4 Million From Company

Crime

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Facebook

Internet

Social Media

The following excerpt is taken from the new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Life-Pits-Rough-Tumble-Exchange/dp/B0CKPNCMQW">Life In The Pits: My Time As A Trader On The Rough-And-Tumble Exchange Floors</a>,&#8221; by Brad Schaeffer (Post Hill Press, December 2023)
<h2>The Big Dog And The Fox</h2>
You have to work pretty hard to lose almost $7 billion in a week. 
Brian Hunter managed to do just that. Although he was coldly indifferent to the devastation his activities had wrought, it was an agonizing experience for Amaranth’s remaining investors, such as county pension funds representing teachers and public servants and others far removed in both geography and understanding of what was happening to their quickly evaporating money. But, once again, as seems to be the mantra of the trading and brokering business, their pain was our gain. The day after Hunter flew back from a golf outing, for example, the hosting broker received a call calmly instructing him to sell tens of thousands of one-year-out strips of call options. And these phone calls and instant messages from Hunter and his assistants were going out all over the broker community. One broker was paid a million dollars in fees for one day’s work … somehow, even though the fund lost billions, they managed to scrape together the money to pay the commissions. 
As lucrative as it was to be a broker in the Big Dog’s pound, being one of the traders on the other side of Hunter’s epic collapse was a far better deal … if you had the deep pockets and diamond-hard testicles to stay the course in the face of his attempts to artificially squeeze you out of your fundamentally correct position in natural gas spreads and other derivatives by relentlessly buying and pushing the market up in your face until you were compelled by margin calls to turn the paper loss into a real one. This happened to one well-respected fund manager who got the trade right but entered just a little too big and a tad too early to withstand the paper losses he was incurring due to Hunter’s Banzai charge of nonstop buying, especially of the March/April spread, known in energy trading circles as “the widow-maker” for its propensity to gyrate wildly with the slightest weather events. Eventually the fund manager’s investors couldn’t take the heat and bailed on him, forcing him to buy back his shorts and lock in his losses in a liquidation to meet a wave of redemptions.
Down in Houston, John Arnold was also taking heavy paper losses as Hunter dug his own grave deeper and deeper by buying gas that no one with any fundamental understanding of the supply/demand dynamic in play would want anywhere close to these inflated prices once he stopped his artificial short squeeze. But Arnold had made his investors a mint already, and they’d learned to trust his judgment. So the ever-calm trader patiently waited for Hunter’s inevitable tumble from the mountaintop once he ran out of bullets and had to turn around and offload his position … to no one. When Amaranth initiated a fire sale of their non-energy positions just to meet Hunter’s rising margin calls, The Street knew there was blood in the water.
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The besieged Canadian’s problems only worsened when on August 29, 2006, the expiration day of the September 2006 contract, he decided to make a huge play by selling more of the September futures and buying the October throughout the course of the day. Since he owned the more expensive leg, he was effectively long the September/October spread starting at 36 ticks October over. By noon, his selling of September and buying of October had pushed the spread to as wide as October trading 50 over September … meaning what Hunter was short (September) was falling more than what he was long (October). The trade was moving in his favor. Or, more correctly, he was muscling it his way.
Given the sheer size Hunter was trading, he inevitably widened the differential between the two months, which in turn prompted him to pay higher and higher prices to keep it moving in his favor. He was caught in a vicious cycle. Still, he figured that, as the September contract would expire in a few hours, he might just run out the clock before any correction occurred. By 1:30 p.m. that afternoon, the September futures had only one hour left until it expired and so its settlement price would be locked in place. Hunter could then sell out his long October position, which wasn’t set to expire for another month, and be flat, with a tidy profit. All would be well…at least for this day.
That’s when Arnold made his move. He sensed from the sudden slowing of trading activity that Hunter had run out of ammo and thus was no longer able to hold his September shorts down relative to the long Octobers to protect his massive bet. This was due to trading limits and the already enormous size of his other positions relative to his total capital. (In some months Amaranth held over half of the total amount of open interest on the exchanges…&#8221;open interest&#8221; meaning the number of contracts or commitments outstanding in futures and options that are trading on an official exchange at any one time.)
Arnold, however, had a deeper reservoir of money, along with a fundamental conviction, based on both weather forecasts and gas in storage going into the end of summer, that the spread should be closer to flat than October trading a full fifty cents over September. So once Hunter was done, with less than an hour to go before the contracts expired, Arnold swooped in and bought thousands of September futures … the very ones Hunter was short and needed to stay low into expiry. His quiver now empty, the Big Dog could only watch helplessly as his enemy — for he saw Arnold as his chief rival — pushed up the September contract in his face with a torrent of unrelenting buying. By the time the clock hit 2:30 p.m. and the September contract’s final settlement was posted, the spread, which had shown Hunter a hefty profit when it was trading at $0.50 to the October just forty-five minutes before, settled at a mere six cents. Arnold had crushed him.
This one episode cost Amaranth another $600 million. Hunter fumed, insisting that he was the victim of market manipulation. But no. He was just on the losing end of a battle he initiated. In short, his ego was now writing checks his dwindling account could no longer cash. The market knew that he was in a bind. And they had no interest in letting him out without a serious, even fatal, exit toll.
Finally, inevitably, with the March/April spread steadily collapsing in the face of a serene winter outlook, once again earning its ominous “widow-maker” sobriquet, with his losses in other overleveraged positions across the board mounting, it was time for Hunter to shut it all down and pay the piper. But his inventory of futures and options was so colossal that there was no way he could ever trade out of them piecemeal. The market would eat him alive. As such, Hunter’s last hope to offload his enormous portfolio that stretched out for years along the curve was to find someone willing to buy the entire decimated book in one trade. It was the only way Amaranth could raise the funds quickly enough to meet its multi-billion-dollar margin calls from anxious clearing firms. In desperation, Hunter went directly to the victorious Arnold—whose inventory of futures and options was the opposite of the defeated Canadian’s now-hemorrhaging natural gas book—and asked him to name a price to take it all off his hands. The bid Arnold showed was both reasonable and devastating. The taciturn Texan was telling Hunter in no uncertain terms that without his artificially moving the market where he wanted it to go, this was the true value of his depleted book. Take it or leave it. Hunter left it. 
As it turned out, another hedge fund, Citadel, and the energy trading group at J.P. Morgan took Amaranth’s losing positions onto their books for a slightly better price than Arnold had shown, if still at a crushing discount. The giant one-off transaction stopped the bleeding. But Amaranth, the once admired hedge fund whom their rogue trader had brought to its knees, was forced to shut its doors for good. There were at least no market repercussions as it was an orderly and contained unwind.
When the hedge fund/IB duo made its final price for buying what remained of Hunter’s demolished position to close out his trades in one massive asset transfer, the losing trader chafed at the great “deal” the buyers were getting at his expense. “Brian was right; it was a good deal for us,” said my Citadel client, who was one of the hedge fund’s chief traders assigned to take the book onto their balance sheet. But he reminded Hunter that “maybe you shouldn’t put yourself in a position to hold a fire sale to begin with.”
After grudgingly accepting the terms of the position transfer — thus locking in what was at the time the largest loss suffered by any single trader in Wall Street history — Hunter asked the Citadel trader with a hint of irritation at surrendering his massive portfolio that had defined him for two years: “You sure you can handle a book this size?” My customer, a math whiz, and as humbly brilliant as the man chafing on the other end of the phone was patronizing, was honest. “No,” he said, “I’ll just have to do my best.” And though he was above ever pointing it out, the irony of the question considering who’d asked it was self-evidently astounding. It certainly showed that even at the very end, after he’d destroyed a business that others worked years to build, and sent investors across the country reeling, he never lost his sense of who he was … the biggest monster trader to ever sling natural gas. He also was finished in the industry.
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As for John Arnold, who’d won the game of high-stakes chicken, Reuters reported that in 2006 his fund returned over 300 percent net of fees. He’s retired now and doing charitable work with his Matterhorn-sized pile of money. Well played.
Interesting side note. Although Hunter’s 2006 losses eclipsed the $4.6 billion lost by bond-trading guru John Meriweather’s hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) in 1998, which had been the most sizable nonfraud-related trading loss in history up to that point, astoundingly just two years later, the Big Dog himself would be dethroned as trading’s single biggest losing individual. This accomplishment was courtesy of a relatively unknown credit default swaps trader at the staid white shoe investment bank Morgan Stanley. Howie Hubler managed to sacrifice an astounding $9 billion to the gods of the market, albeit real quiet-like. To my knowledge, all of these men who had, as the phrase went, “blown up their books” managed to walk away from their debacles with tens of millions. Wall Street is one of the only businesses wherein over the course of your career you can be a net loser and still come out on top. I liken it to an architect who may have designed a house or two that stayed up nicely but then designed a skyscraper that came crashing down and still walked away from the rubble with millions. Nice work if you can get it.
* * *
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities trader and author. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, National Review, The Federalist, The Hill, The Daily Wire, and Zerohedge among others. 
This excerpt is taken from &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Life-Pits-Rough-Tumble-Exchange/dp/B0CKPNCMQW">Life In The Pits: My Time As A Trader On The Rough-And-Tumble Exchange Floors</a>,&#8221; by Brad Schaeffer. Copyright © 2023 by Brad Schaefer. Reprinted by permission from Post Hill Press. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Traders waving arms on Exchange floor

You Have To Work Pretty Hard To Lose $7 Billion In A Week

Books

Chicago

New York City

Stock Market

Americans need over $11,000 more this year to keep the same standard of living they enjoyed at the beginning of 2021.
Thanks to soaring inflation, the typical American household must spend $11,434 more in 2023 to achieve that quality of life, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inflation-households-need-extra-11400-these-states-its-even-higher/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&amp;linkId=251671293" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to an analysis of government data, CBS News reported.
The inflation rate has slowed slightly since 2021, when it spiked to the highest levels in four decades, but many American families say they are struggling more financially now than they did before the pandemic, CBS News polling from September showed.
Less than half of Americans, 47%, say they cannot live comfortably and have little money left over after meeting their expenses, down from 56% who said so in 2019, according to the polling. Meanwhile, more than half, 53% of Americans, say they either have just enough or cannot meet their expenses, up from 44% in 2019.
Food, transportation, housing, and energy are the top categories requiring more spending and make up nearly 80 cents of every $1 in extra spending, according to an <a href="https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/state-inflation-tracker" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">analysis</a> from Republicans on the Senate Joint Economic Committee.
Meanwhile, the income needed to cover basics like these was short by an average of nearly $14,000 last year, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/middle-class-standard-of-living-best-expensive-cities-san-francisco/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to an analysis by the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity. About 6 in 10 Americans were failing to meet their basic needs in 2022, the analysis noted.
Wages have grown, but they have not kept up with inflation.
The average hourly wage has increased 13.6% since January 2021, but inflation has outpaced that growth with a 17% spike, government data <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inflation-households-need-extra-11400-these-states-its-even-higher/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&amp;linkId=251671293" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shows</a>.
Some states are struggling with inflation more than others.
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Colorado families face the highest expenses hike this year to maintain their 2021 standard of living, needing an extra $15,000 per year, according to the Republican congressional analysis. Colorado saw a particularly high housing increase of $267 per month since the beginning of 2021.
Arkansas, meanwhile, had the lowest expenses increase with an $8,500 hike.
Prices for holiday celebrations have spiked in the last several years as well.
A Thanksgiving meal for ten people cost an average of 14.7% more this year than the $53.31 the meal cost in 2021, and a whopping 25% higher than the $48.91 in 2019.
This year, Halloween candy prices saw double-digit inflation for the second year in a row, spiking 13% since October last year.
Also, last month, a report from the Alliance for Consumers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-report-outlines-the-high-costs-bidens-rules-and-regulations-have-on-u-s-homeowners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated</a> that the Biden administration’s rules and regulations may have forced a $9,000 price tag on American homeowners due to price hikes related to cars, washing machines, gas stoves, and dishwashers.
About 75% of people described the economy as poor, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/economy-inflation-prices-jobs-income-recession-unemployment-e9e96643d8a1eb3ab2f57810219b8324" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a poll last month from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

An Indian money changer poses as he coun

Americans Need Over $11K More To Keep 2021 Standard Of Living: Report

Americans

Biden Administration

Inflation

More than 60 branches of major banks filed to close in just one week this month, the latest in a growing trend of banks shuttering physical locations.
A total of 64 branches filed to close branches between November 12 and 18, according to data from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, ZeroHedge <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/64-us-bank-branches-file-shut-down-single-week-are-you-affected" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
The bank with the most closures was PNC Bank, the country&#8217;s sixth largest, which has been working on cutting costs lately.
PNC filed to shut down 19 branches across eight states, including five in Pennsylvania, four in Illinois, and locations in Texas, Alabama, New Jersey, Indiana, Ohio, and Florida.
During PNC&#8217;s second quarter earnings call, CEO William Demchak said the bank is “going to have to take a hard look&#8221; at where it can &#8220;generate savings &#8230; without cutting the potential for growth.”
Last month, PNC also said it was cutting 4% of its workforce. The bank has already shut down dozens of branches this year and is aiming for $725 million in expense cuts next year.
One factor driving the branch closures is the rise of online banking. During the pandemic, the number of bank branches shutting down <a href="https://ncrc.org/the-great-consolidation-of-banks-and-acceleration-of-branch-closures-across-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">doubled</a> as more people stayed at home and banked through their bank&#8217;s website or banking app.
Between 2017 and 2021, about 7,500 bank branches, or 9% of all brick-and-mortar locations shut down, <a href="https://ncrc.org/the-great-consolidation-of-banks-and-acceleration-of-branch-closures-across-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
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Last year alone, a net of 2,054 bank branches closed, <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/64-us-bank-branches-file-shut-down-single-week-are-you-affected" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to data from S&amp;P.
Although closing physical banking locations may save banks money, they have also created banking deserts for customers or areas where the closest bank is many miles away. This can cause a litany of other unintended effects, such as a decline in small business lending, as well as the area losing an employer and commercial tenant.
Also, when there are fewer branches in the area, more people use &#8220;alternative financial services that open them to unregulated and predatory financial practices,&#8221; a report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/64-us-bank-branches-file-shut-down-single-week-are-you-affected" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
PNC&#8217;s closures are expected to result in 60% of its banking business being online.
JPMorgan Chase was the bank with the second most branch closure filings during the week of November 12. The bank filed to shutter 18 branches in 14 states including New York, Ohio, and Connecticut.
Citizens Bank filed to close eight branches, including six branch closures in New York.
U.S. Bank filed to shutter seven locations including three in Tennessee.
Bank of America filed to close five locations including two in New York, and one each in Texas, Massachusetts, and California.
Citibank filed to shut down two branches.
Several other banks filed to shut down one branch each, including Sterling, Bremer, First National Bank of Hughes Springs, Windsor Federal Savings &amp; Loan Association, and Aroostook County Federal Savings &amp; Loan Association.

PNC Bank Branch Locations Ahead Of Earning Figures

Over 60 U.S. Bank Branches File To Shutter In One Week

Bank of America

Banks

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/internal-revenue-service-irs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Internal Revenue Service</a> (IRS) estimates that the gross tax gap amounts to at least $688 billion, resulting from Americans’ non-filing, underpaying, and underreporting of their taxes.
In a Thursday press release, the IRS <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-updates-tax-gap-projections-for-2020-2021-projected-annual-gap-rises-to-688-billion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">characterized</a> the tax gap increase as “a significant jump” from previous years’ estimates, though noncompliance was at around 15 percent. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said that the agency would apply Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds into compliance efforts, namely targeting those with higher incomes and wealth.
“With the help of Inflation Reduction Act funding, we are adding focus and resources to areas of compliance concern, including high-income and high-wealth individuals, partnerships and corporations,” said Werfel. “These steps are urgent in many ways, including adding more fairness to the tax system, protecting those who pay their taxes and working to combat the tax gap.”
Last month, the IRS <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-to-establish-special-pass-through-organization-to-help-with-high-income-compliance-efforts-new-workgroup-to-blend-current-employees-and-new-hires-to-focus-on-complex-partnerships-other-key-areas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that it would establish a 3,700-member special pass-through organization within its Large Business and International (LB&amp;I) Division to assist in raising high-income compliance. The newest LB&amp;I Division followed an earlier <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-sweeping-effort-to-restore-fairness-to-tax-system-with-inflation-reduction-act-funding-new-compliance-efforts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a> pledging to “shift attention to [the] wealthy from working-class taxpayers” using an Artificial Intelligence-bolstered detection system.
The IRS promised to ensure audit rates wouldn’t increase for those earning less than $400,000 annually and additional safeguards for those claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit. It also promised to began investigations into 75 of the largest industry partnerships in the nation by the end of the month.
Earlier this week, the IRS <a href="https://microsoft.gcs-web.com/node/31951/html%23d530324dex991.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Microsoft it owed $28.9 billion in tax for 2004 to 2013, plus penalties and interest. Microsoft responded that it disagreed with the IRS determination, and that it has paid over $67 billion in taxes since 2004. Microsoft also said its taxes paid under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would decrease the IRS estimation by up to $10 billion.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
In the largest audit in U.S. history, the IRS rejected Microsoft’s attempts to channel profits to a small factory in Puerto Rico that burned Windows software onto CDs. <a href="https://t.co/Kr460cDtnf">https://t.co/Kr460cDtnf</a>
&mdash; ProPublica (@propublica) <a href="https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1712845812592410674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
According to the IRS, one percent in compliance equals about $46 billion in collections. That 15 percent noncompliance, therefore, amounts to about $688 billion.
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Last year’s compliance efforts yielded over $4.9 trillion in taxes, penalties, interest, and user fees.
The IRS noted in Thursday’s announcement that it anticipated its enforcement efforts and taxpayers’ late payments to shrink the tax gap by $63 billion, achieving 86.3 percent compliance. The projected share of taxes paid between 2014-2016 was 87 percent. The IRS stated that the decline in compliance was due to changes in types of income and how that income is reported, not a shift in compliance behavior.
Taxes owed due to nonfiling increased from $41 billion in 2017-2019 to $77 billion in 2021. Taxes owed due to underreporting increased from $445 billion in 2017-2019 to $542 billion in 2021. Taxes owed due to underpayment increased from $64 billion in 2017-2019 to $68 billion in 2021.
However, the IRS noted that noncompliance may be greater than their estimates. The agency cited their shortcomings in oversight on pandemic credits, offshore activities, digital assets, cryptocurrency, corporate income tax, and income from flow-through entities and illegal activities as factors that likely rendered their $688 billion figure too low.
The IRS also announced that the estimate was the first given for a single tax year, breaking away from prior practice of issuing biennial tax gap projections.
Tax gap estimates and projections rely on compliance behavior derived from the most recent completed audits. This latest estimate was gleaned from the 2014-2016 tax years’ audits. The IRS estimated the tax liability to have increased by 38 percent from those years to 2021.

Taxes

IRS Estimates American Underpayment Caused $688 Billion Tax Gap

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/rolling-stones" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rolling Stones</a> frontman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/music" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mick Jagger</a> insinuated that he may not leave his entire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/money" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fortune</a> to his 8 children.
The 80-year-old musician made the comments while discussing the potential sale of the Stones’ post-1971 catalog. The Wall Street Journal interviewer <a href="https://www.wsj.com/style/mick-jagger-rolling-stones-hackney-diamonds-7d4f193b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> a huge sum of cash may be less complicated for his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/father" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kids</a>, but Jagger insisted he wasn’t selling, saying, “the children don’t need $500 million to live well. Come on.” 
The rock star added that he considered donating his wealth to charity. “You maybe do some good in the world,” he said, also noting how he’s not planning on publishing an autobiography.
Jagger also mentioned how the idea of his music living on has changed in the technology era. “You can have a posthumous business now, can’t you? You can have a posthumous tour,” he told the outlet. “The technology has really moved on since [ABBA’s recent “Voyage” virtual show], which I was supposed to go to, but I missed it,” he went on.
Jagger’s oldest child is daughter, Karis, 52, who he shares with Marsha Hunt. He has a daughter, Jade, 51, with ex-wife Bianca Jagger.
The musician shares four children with ex-wife Jerry Hall: daughters Elizabeth, 39, and Georgia May, 31, and sons James, 38, and Gabriel, 25. The pair was married from 1990 until 1997.
He had son Lucas, 24, with his model girlfriend Luciana Morad Gimenez. Jagger’s youngest child is his son Deveraux, 6, who he shares with Melanie Hamrick. 
Jagger also has five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
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Elsewhere in the interview, the “Gimme Shelter” singer mentioned how having a young child helped give his life purpose, especially now. “I have this really wonderful family that supports me. And I have, you know, young children—that makes you feel like you’re relevant,” he told WSJ.
The Rolling Stones made headlines earlier this month when they announced the release of their first new music in 18 years in the form of an album called, “Hackney Diamonds.” The album features guest stars including Elton John, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and Bill Wyman. 
“Hackney Diamonds” will debut October 20.

Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger Says His 8 Kids ‘Don’t Need $500M To Live Well,’ May Donate To Charity

Mick Jagger Says His 8 Kids 'Don't Need $500M To Live Well,' May Donate To Charity

Children

Music

Rock and Roll

Rolling Stones

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tennessee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee</a> lawmakers are looking at rejecting federal dollars for public education and replacing them with state dollars in a move that would make Tennessee the first in the nation to turn down federal education funding.
Republican leadership in the state <a href="https://onthehill.tnjournal.net/speakers-announce-task-force-to-look-into-rejecting-federal-education-money/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> the formation of a panel to look at the impact of federal education funding in Tennessee and the “strings” that can come attached with that funding.
“Any time the federal government sends money, there are always strings attached to those dollars, and there is always a possibility that it opens the state up to other regulations or restrictions,” said Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton. “This working group will help provide a clearer picture of how much autonomy Tennessee truly has in educating our students.”
Sexton announced on Monday the formation of a 10-member Joint Working Group to look at whether the state can fund education without utilizing federal funds. The panel, which will have members of both the state House and Senate, will have eight Republicans and two Democrats.
“The education of our youth is one of the essential responsibilities of our government,” said Lt. Gov. Randy McNally. “Federal dollars and the various mandates and restrictions that come with those dollars affect the way Tennessee’s children are educated. Due to our state’s excellent financial position, this is a worthy subject of examination and study.”
Sexton <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-bill-lee-tennessee-education-19c635555a8b766322c91b8a5680047a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously discussed</a> turning down $1.8 billion in federal education funding during the last regular legislative session, but the proposal never ended up advancing.
“We as a state can lead the nation once again in telling the federal government that they can keep their money and we’ll just do things the Tennessee way,” Sexton said earlier this year. “And that should start, first and foremost, with the Department of Education.”
Democrats in Tennessee oppose the move, with state Senator Raumesh Akbari claiming that there would be “harsh consequences” if Tennessee rejected federal funding.
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&#8220;Federal funds are crucial in supporting students with special needs, English language learners, and those from low-income families,&#8221; Akbari <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/nashville/2023/09/26/tennessee-group-consider-rejecting-federal-education-funding" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “Through this committee, I will advocate that Tennessee keep accepting these necessary funds.&#8221;
Tennessee has established itself as one of the more conservative states in the country, moving to ban sex change procedures on minors, moving to protect children from sexually explicit performances, and overwhelmingly rejecting proposed “red flag” legislation in the past year despite heavy pressure from Left-wing activist groups.

Drone view of Tennessee State Capitol

Tennessee To Consider Cutting Off Federal Government Funding For Education

Department of Education

Education

Politics

Tennessee

Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bob Menendez</a> (D-NJ) was defiant amid growing calls for him to resign on Friday after he was indicted on multiple federal corruption charges.
&#8220;Those who believe in justice believe in innocence until proven guilty,&#8221; said Menendez. &#8220;I intend to continue to fight for the people of New Jersey with the same success I&#8217;ve had for the past five decades.&#8221;
&#8220;This is the same record of success these very same leaders have lauded all along,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
NEW: Sen Menendez responds to calls for his resignation w/ new stmt: “It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere.”
Full statement is here: <a href="https://t.co/qkVTXhwoAw">pic.twitter.com/qkVTXhwoAw</a>
&mdash; Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) <a href="https://twitter.com/frankthorp/status/1705353232233480498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 22, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Shortly after the charges were announced earlier in the day, Menendez <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-sen-bob-menendez-suggests-vast-conspiracy-is-after-him-after-hes-hit-with-federal-charges" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> that he was the victim of a vast conspiracy.
“For years, forces behind the scenes have repeatedly attempted to silence my voice and dig my political grave,” said the 69-year-old senator. “Since this investigation was leaked nearly a year ago, there has been an active smear campaign of anonymous sources and innuendos to create an air of impropriety where none exists.”
“The excesses of these prosecutors is apparent. They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office,” he claimed. “Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. Senator and serve with honor and distinction. Even worse, they see me as an obstacle in the way of their broader political goals.”
Menendez faces charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.
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The indictment says that Menendez and his wife had a corrupt relationship with New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes, who allegedly gave the senator bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to the DOJ, the bribes were intended to protect the businessmen and to benefit Egypt.
“Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” the indictment said. Federal authorities reportedly found gold bars and cash stuffed throughout the senator’s home that they traced back to the businessmen Menendez allegedly worked with.
“Over $480,000 in cash — much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe — was discovered in the home,” the indictment said. Photos included in the indictment included pictures of gold bars and hundred dollars bills that had been stuffed in clothing.

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