MANILA, Philippines — Philippine police will arrest 18 suspects in a corruption scandal involving flood control projects that has sparked huge protests and forced implicated congressional leaders to step down, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced Friday.
Marcos has been scrambling to quell public outrage over the massive corruption, which has been blamed for substandard, defective or non-existent flood control projects in a poverty-stricken country, long prone to deadly typhoons, floodings and extreme weather in tropical Asia.
The president said the arrests were only the beginning.
The warrants were issued by the Sandiganbayan, a special anti-corruption court, against former lawmaker Zaldy Co, who has resigned from the House of Representatives and fled to an unspecified country, and 17 others, including government engineers and executives of Sunwest Corp., a constructions firm, over irregularities in a flood control project in Oriental Mindoro province.
Government prosecutors have recommended no bail for the suspects because of the scope of the irregularities in the river dike project, worth 289 million pesos ($4.8 million).
“They will be arrested, presented to the court and made to answer to the law,” Marcos said in a video message where he thanked the public for its patience. “There will be no special treatment, and nobody would be spared.”
Last week, Marcos said many of at least 37 powerful senators, members of Congress and wealthy construction executives implicated in the corruption scandal would be in jail by Christmas.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, a key prosecutor in charge of fighting government corruption, told The Associated Press that at least five former and incumbent senators were under investigation for allegedly pocketing huge kickbacks in the faulty flood control projects. Among them is former Senate President Chiz Escudero, who has strongly denied any wrongdoing.
Those implicated include lawmakers opposed to and allied with Marcos, including Rep. Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin and key ally, who has denied any involvement but has stepped down as House of Representatives speaker. Sen. Bong Go, a key ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte, has also come under suspicion but has denied any wrongdoing.
Duterte was arrested in March and detained by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands for alleged crimes against humanity over his deadly anti-drugs crackdowns.
He is a harsh critic of Marcos and father of the incumbent vice president, Sara Duterte, who has said that the president should also be held accountable and jailed for signing into law the 2025 national budget that carried appropriations for irregular infrastructure projects.
Aides have defended Marcos from allegations linking him to the irregularities, saying that he first raised alarm over them in July in his annual state of the nation address before Congress.
Some 9,855 flood control projects worth more than 545 billion pesos ($9 billion) that were supposed to have been undertaken since Marcos took office in mid-2022 are under investigation. In September, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto told legislators that up to 118.5 billion pesos ($2 billion) for flood control projects may have been lost to corruption since 2023.
1875: The Cathedral of the Holy Name, at the corner of Superior and State streets, was dedicated with Bishop Thomas Foley presiding. The $200,000 building (more than $6 million in today’s dollars) was designed by Patrick Keely of Brooklyn.
The Tribune had one criticism of the church’s interior design: “The decorator deserves whatever censure is bestowed. He appears to have aimed at two objects — light and softness — and to have missed both in the artistic sense.”
The William Green Homes public housing project at Division Street and Ogden Avenue was dedicated on Nov. 21, 1961. (Chicago Tribune)
1961: The 1,099 apartments of the William Green Homes — a $17 million project named for the former American Federation of Labor president — were dedicated just north and west of the Cabrini extension towers.
Nicknamed the “Whites” for their white concrete exterior, the William Green housing complex consisted of eight buildings that were each 15 or 16 stories tall. The development, as a whole, became known as Cabrini-Green.
Ald. Wallace Davis Jr. was indicted on Nov. 21, 1986, as part of Operation Incubator, an undercover investigation into alleged City Hall corruption. (Chicago Tribune)
1986:Seven were indicted — including Chicago Aldermen Wallace Davis Jr., 27th, and Clifford P. Kelley, 20th, — by the FBI as part of its 2½-year undercover investigation into alleged City Hall corruption known as Operation Incubator.
Davis Jr. was convicted in 1987 of accepting a $5,000 bribe from an FBI informant, forcing his niece to pay $11,000 in kickbacks from her salary as his ward secretary and extorting $3,000 from the owners of a restaurant in his ward. He was sentenced to 8½ years in prison by a federal judge who accused Davis of committing perjury at his trial and castigated him for his lack of remorse after a jury convicted him.
Kelley pleaded guilty in June 1987 to charges he accepted $6,500 from Waste Management Inc., the world’s biggest trash hauler, and $30,000 from a New York bill-collection agency vying for lucrative city work. A flamboyant 16-year Chicago City Council veteran, Kelley was sentenced to one year in prison and served nine months in a minimum-security prison in Duluth, Minnesota.
NEW YORK — Three men were arrested Monday for allegedly trying to pay up to $100,000 in cash to a juror at the Brooklyn drug trial of a former heavyweight boxer, leading a judge to abruptly dismiss the jury as it was about to hear opening statements.
John Marzulli, a spokesperson for federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, said an anonymous jury will be chosen when the trial of Goran Gogic resumes in a month.
Gogic, of Montenegro, was set to stand trial for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 20 tons (18.1 metric tons) of cocaine to Europe from Colombia through U.S. ports using commercial cargo ships. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Law enforcement officials have described Gogic as a “major drug trafficker” and said he operated on a “mammoth scale.”
A former heavyweight boxer, Gogic fought professionally in Germany from 2001 to 2012, compiling a 21-4-2 record, according to boxing website Sport & Note. He was listed as 6-foot-5 (1.96 meters) and weighed in at anywhere from 227 pounds (103 kilograms) to 250 pounds (113 kilograms).
In a criminal complaint in Brooklyn federal court, an FBI agent wrote that the bribery scheme unfolded between Thursday and Sunday.
According to the court papers, one of the men charged in the plot — Mustafa Fteja — already knew a juror described in the complaint as “John Doe #1” and called him multiple times on his cellphone Thursday before the juror agreed to meet him in Staten Island.
During the meeting, which took place Thursday, Fteja told the juror that associates in the Bronx were willing to pay him to return a not guilty verdict, the complaint said.
Two days later, Fteja told the juror during a second meeting that they were willing to pay him between $50,000 and $100,000 to corrupt the trial, the complaint said.
It was not immediately clear who will represent Fteja and two others accused in the alleged jury tampering scheme when they appear in court later Monday.
According to the complaint, investigators secured several recorded conversations of the defendants planning the juror corruption plot as the men spoke in Albanian and English.
At his trial, Gogic is charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
According to prosecutors, Gogic and his co-conspirators worked with the ships’ crew members to smuggle cocaine in shipping containers, hoisting loads of the drug from speedboats that approached the cargo vessels along their route, including near ports in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Three shipments were intercepted by U.S. law enforcement agents, prosecutors said, including 1,437 kilograms (3,168 pounds) of cocaine aboard the MSC Carlotta at the Port of New York and New Jersey in February 2019 and 17,956 kilograms (39,586 pounds) of cocaine — with a street value of over $1 billion — aboard the MSC Gayane at the Port of Philadelphia in June 2019.
MANILA, Philippines — Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos gathered Sunday in the capital in the largest rally so far to demand accountability for a flood-control corruption scandal that has implicated powerful members of Congress and top government officials.
Various groups have protested in recent months following the discovery that thousands of flood defense projects across one of the world’s most typhoon-prone countries were substandard, incomplete or simply did not exist.
Government engineers, public works officials and construction company executives have testified under oath in hearings by the Senate and a fact-finding commission that members of Congress and officials at the Department of Public Works and Highways took kickbacks from construction companies to help them win lucrative contracts and avoid accountability. Most denied the allegations.
About 650,000 members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, or Church of Christ, joined the start of the three-day rally Sunday in Manila’s Rizal Park despite intermittent rains, police said. Many wore white shirts and carried anti-corruption placards. About 2,000 people, including retired generals, held a separate anti-corruption protest late Sunday at the “People Power” monument in suburban Quezon city.
“These thieves have made us very outraged because we pay our taxes and these officials just plunder the treasury and rob us of our future,” said Rachel Morte, a 41-year-old resident from northern Pampanga province who joined the huge Manila rally. “We hope we’ll get justice and the stolen money will be returned to the people.”
Iglesia is an influential group that votes as a bloc and is courted by political candidates during elections.
The police, backed by the military, went on full alert and deployed thousands of personnel to secure the weekend rallies, which were peaceful, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said.
During a Sept. 21 anti-corruption demonstration, a few hundred black-clad protesters threw rocks, bottles and firebombs at police near the presidential palace in Manila, injuring more than 100 officers. Criminal complaints have been filed against 97 protesters.
The presidential palace went on security lockdown over the weekend, with major access roads barricaded by anti-riot police, cargo containers and barbed wires.
National police chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. ordered law enforcement to exercise “maximum tolerance” in Sunday’s rallies.
Flood control is an especially sensitive issue in the Philippines, one of the Asian countries most prone to deadly typhoons, flooding and extreme weather. Two typhoons left at least 259 dead this month, mostly from flash floods and landslides, and affected millions of others.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been trying to quell public outrage and street protests sparked by the scandal, saying on Thursday that many of the powerful senators, members of Congress and wealthy businesspeople who were implicated would be in jail by Christmas.
Marcos said an independent fact-finding commission he created has already filed criminal complaints for graft , corruption and plunder against 37 suspects. Criminal complaints have also been filed against 86 construction company executives and nine government officials for allegedly evading nearly 9 billion pesos ($152 million) in taxes.
Among those accused are lawmakers opposed to and allied with Marcos, including former House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin and a key ally; and former Senate President Chiz Escudero. Both have denied any wrongdoing.
Sen. Bong Go, a key ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte, has also been accused of involvement in corruption in flood control and other infrastructure projects. He has denied the allegations.
Duterte, a harsh Marcos critic, was detained by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands in March on charges of crimes against humanity over his brutal anti-drugs crackdowns.
His daughter, the current vice president, said Marcos should also be held accountable and jailed for approving the 2025 national budget, which appropriated billions for flood control projects.
There have been isolated calls, including by some Duterte supporters, for the military to withdraw its backing for Marcos, but Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. has repeatedly rejected the idea.
“With full conviction, I assure the public that the armed forces will not engage in any action that violates the Constitution,” Brawner said. “Not today, not tomorrow and certainly not under my watch.”
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Before the revelation of a multi-million dollar embezzlement and kickbacks scandal involving Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company brought his name to the forefront, Tymur Mindich was a shadowy presence — navigating deals and moving behind the scenes with unseen influence, known to many, yet rarely spoken of.
Mindich was linked to growing fears over his expanding influence within the country’s lucrative industries, his access facilitated by his ties to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The two were once business partners and Mindich’s influence had expanded under Zelenskyy’s tenure.
Mindich has fled the country, with any criminal proceedings against him likely to be carried out in absentia. Two top government ministers have resigned.
Ukrainian officials, experts and activists contend Mindich’s rise to power is closely tied to his privileged relationship with the president and Zelenskyy’s inner circle.
“What we were hearing only as rumors now has some evidence,” said activist Tetiana Shevchuk, of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center. “For a long time we have heard that Tymur Mindich is a shadow controller of the energy sector.”
Until Zelenskyy’s presidency, Mindich, 46, was just one among many wealthy Ukrainian entertainment industry entrepreneurs.
Mindich was a co-owner of Zelenskyy’s production company Kvartal 95, named for the comedy troupe that helped catapult the Ukrainian president to fame as a comedian before he entered politics. Zelenskyy transferred his stake in the company to his partners after he was elected.
Despite expanding his business portfolio since Zelenskyy’s election, Mindich maintained ties to the entertainment world. Until the corruption probe was exposed this week, he was a producer of the comedy show “Stadium Family” on YouTube. In light of the scandal and his tarnished reputation, the show’s owners shut it down this week.
He is also a relative of Leonid Mindich, who was arrested by Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs in June when he was trying to flee the country, according to local reports; he was charged with embezzling $16 million from an electric power company.
Zelenskyy and Mindich’s close friendship is documented. The president used Mindich’s armored car during the final stretch of his presidential campaign in 2019. In January 2021, Zelenskyy celebrated his birthday in Mindich’s apartment during COVID. The two own apartments in the same building.
After Zelenskyy’s 2019 presidential win, Mindich’s political ties grew.
He was a close business associate of Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky, who backed Zelenskyy’s presidential campaign. Zelenskyy later cut ties with the billionaire and in 2023 Kolomoysky was arrested by Ukrainian security services on fraud and money-laundering charges.
Businesses once associated with Kolomoysky began claiming that Mindich was now their beneficiary. “Gradually, in three years, he became, not an oligarch, but a known businessman with an interest in a lot of businesses,” said Shevchuk, the anti-corruption activist.
They include agricultural enterprises and the nationalized SENSE bank. But, his name appeared most often in association with state energy companies, according to current and former Ukrainian officials, activists and experts.
Ukrainian activists contend that without his close association with Zelenskyy, it would have been impossible for Mindich to cement his rise.
Mindich “would have never been in politics, never been in a position of power or business without his connection to Zelenskyy, and this magnitude is worse because it’s happening during war time, and it is related to energy infrastructure at a time when Ukrainians don’t have electricity in their homes,” Shevchuk said.
The case against Mindich rests on 1,000 hours of wiretaps revealing his significant influence over Herman Haluschenko, Ukraine’s energy minister from 2021-2025 until he was named justice minister in July. Haluschenko resigned that post after the investigation became public this week.
While rarely named as a direct beneficiary in official documents, investigators cite extensive wire-tapping evidence they allege shows Mindich exerted control over a network of loyalists who pressured contractors for Energoatom, the state nuclear power company, demanding kickbacks of up to 15% to bypass bureaucratic obstacles and do business smoothly.
Investigators allege the illicit funds were siphoned off, laundered through shell companies and funneled into Mindich’s pockets and those of his associates.
These findings collected by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, known as NABU, and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, or SAPO will be central to any future court proceedings.
NABU is also conducting an investigation into Mindich’s alleged dealings with Ukraine’s top drone manufacturer, Fire Point, but has not yet revealed its findings. Fire Point, which develops deep-strike drones capable of hitting targets inside Russian territory, has denied any such dealings.
Ukraine’s domestic drone industry has seen a swift and remarkable rise, fueled by wartime innovation and urgent military demands. What was once a niche sector quickly evolved into a formidable technological force within just a few years.
Fire Point is among local companies and startups that have rapidly developed advanced drones for reconnaissance, surveillance and combat operations, supported by growing investments. The NABU investigation is looking into whether Mindich is the ultimate beneficiary of the company.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Dana Williamson, a longtime political consultant, was the subject of a “multiyear investigation,” by the FBI for a slew of corruption-related crimes, prosecutors say
A former Chief of Staff for Governor Gavin Newsom was arrested Wednesday after what federal prosecutors call a “multiyear investigation” into pilfered campaign cash that allegedly propped up a lifestyle of “private jet travel, luxury hotel stays, home furnishings, and designer handbags, as well as deductions for no-show jobs for friends and family.”
Dana Williamson, 53, of Carmichael, was charged by a federal grand jury with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct justice, subscribing to false tax returns, and making false statements, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant for California’s Eastern District announced Wednesday. The 23-count indictment was unsealed following Williamson’s arrest.
Prosecutors say Williamson, who served as the governor’s top aide from 2022 until 2024, is accused of helping funnel around $225,000 from a dormant campaign account apparently belonging to former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to Becerra’s former chief of staff Sean McCluskie. McCluskie appears to be cooperating with federal prosecutors, as is Sacramento lobbyist Greg Campbell, who was part of the alleged scheme.
According to the indictment, Williamson and another unnamed co-conspirator transferred money from Becerra’s state campaign account to Campbell’s firm for purported consulting services. Then, according to court documents, Campbell’s firm sent thousands of dollars a month to a third-party payroll provider, which paid McCluskie. The payments were disguised as pay for a no-show job supposedly performed by McCluskie’s spouse, according to the indictment.
“This is a crucial step in an ongoing political corruption investigation that began more than three years ago,” Grant said. That timeline puts Williamson as a top executive in the Governor’s office as federal investigators were probing her for corruption.
Williamson is also accused of cheating on her taxes by putting roughly $1 million in luxury expenses on her returns as business appropriations, prosecutors say. Those bogus business expenses include an HVAC system for her house, a $15,000-plus Chanel handbag and ring, a $10,000 payment to one of her relatives, a $21,000 private jet trip, and a watch worth more than $9,000 for a close friend, according to the indictment. She also deducted an $11,000 yacht rental along with luxury hotel stays during a birthday trip in Mexico, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say Williamson lied to FBI agents about the scheme involving Becerra’s campaign money. She is also suspected of feeding inside information to a company regarding a lawsuit by the state of California.
“Disguising personal luxuries as business expenses—especially to claim improper tax deductions or to willfully file fraudulent tax returns is a serious criminal offense with severe consequences,” said IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Oakland Field Office Special Agent in Charge Linda Nguyen. “IRS-CI will pursue charges against those who deliberately exploit their business for personal enrichment.”
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When Williamson left Newsom’s office, while under investigation, the Governor released a statement praising her as a “fighter” with a “big heart.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former Chief of Staff was indicted after “multiyear” FBI investigation, prosecutors say Credit: (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
“I greatly appreciate Dana’s counsel and her service to the state and the people of California over the last two years,” Newsom said in 2024. “Her insight, tenacity, and big heart will be missed.”
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Thousands of mainly young people in Serbia embarked on a two-day march from Belgrade on Thursday, aiming to join a major rally in the country’s north this weekend that will mark the anniversary of a deadly train station disaster.
Protesters believe the victims died because government corruption led to sloppy renovation work at the station. They have been demanding accountability for the disaster, and an early parliamentary election that they hope will oust Vucic’s populist government from power.
Flag-waving university students on Thursday led the huge column of marchers setting off on the 90-kilometer (58-mile) journey toward Novi Sad. Saturday’s gathering there is expected to draw tens of thousands of people, piling pressure on Vucic.
Various other groups of university students also have been trekking across Serbia for two weeks before they all converge in Novi Sad on Saturday.
Belgrade residents came out of their houses on Thursday to greet the protesters as they passed by. People honked their car horns, waved or blew whistles. Some cried.
Mihajlo Jovanovic, a sports academy student from Belgrade, said that he joined the march because “nothing has changed and we are going there (to Novi Sad) hoping that it finally will change.”
Veterinary student Ana Marija Seslija said that “we are walking to show that our struggle has not stopped and that we are all still active. ”
Authorities have detained scores of university students and other protesters in the past months, trying to crush the resistance. Police have been accused of brutality toward protesters, including beatings and arbitrary detentions.
While 13 people have been charged in the disaster, no trial date has been set. Doubts prevail that proceedings would untangle an alleged top-level corruption web that critics believe led to the fatal negligence and disregard of construction safety rules during the station building renovation.
Vucic, without offering evidence, has branded student-protesters as Western-backed “terrorists,” while the governing Serbian Progressive Party organized counterrallies. This has fueled political tensions.
Serbia is formally seeking to join the European Union. But the accession process has been stalled, because Vucic has nurtured close ties with Russia and China, while being accused of clamping down on democratic freedoms.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NEW YORK — A plot to assassinate Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad at her Brooklyn home came “chillingly near success,” prosecutors told a judge who will sentence two purported Russian mobsters.
Prosecutors are seeking 55-year prison terms for Rafat Amirov, 46, and Polad Omarov, 41, at their sentencing on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors said Amirov, of Iran, and Omarov, of Georgia, were crime bosses in the Russian mob.
Lawyers for Amirov say he should not spend more than 13 years behind bars. Omarov’s attorneys called for a 10-year prison sentence.
The men were convicted in a two-week March trial that featured dramatic testimony from a hired gunman and Alinejad, an author, activist and contributor to Voice of America.
Alinejad said in a message to supporters Tuesday that she planned to be in court to face the men prosecutors say were high-ranking members of the Gulici, a faction of the Russian Mob that carried out murders, assaults, extortions, kidnappings, robberies, and arsons in the United States and abroad.
“They’ll receive their sentence, and I’ll speak my truth in my impact statement,” she said.
Alinejad, 49, led online campaigns encouraging women in Iran to record videos of themselves exposing their hair to protest edicts for head coverings in public.
Prosecutors said Iranian intelligence officials first plotted in 2020 and 2021 to kidnap Alinejad in the U.S. and move her to Iran to silence her criticism.
Iran offered $500,000 in a July 2022 attempt to kill Alinejad after efforts to harass, smear and intimidate her failed, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said in court documents that Alinejad was targeted by the Iranian government after she “dedicated her life to exposing the cruelty, corruption, and tyranny of the Islamic Republic.”
When Alinejad, Amirov and Omarov were offered the $500,000 bounty, they “appeared completely incurious about who they were plotting to murder and why,” prosecutors wrote.
“Amirov and Omarov were interested in one thing only: their own power and wealth,” they said.
Prosecutors said the plot “came chillingly near success,” interrupted only by the luck that Alinejad was out of town while a hired gunman tried persistently to locate her and because of the “diligence and tenacity of American law enforcement, which detected and disrupted the plot in time.”
Lawyers for Amirov said in court documents ahead of sentencing that no one was physically hurt and their client’s involvement in the plot was “minimal, if not non-existent.”
Lawyers for Omarov said he deserved leniency because his life had been threatened after a relative who was a reputed leader of the “thieves-in-law” criminal organization in Russia and Azerbaijan was killed in 2020. Omarov was extradited to the U.S. in February 2024, a year after he was detained in the Czech Republic.
Alinejad testified at the March trial that she came to the United States in 2009 after she was banned from covering Iran’s disputed presidential election and the newspaper where she worked was shut down.
Establishing herself in New York City, she built an online audience of millions and launched her “My Stealthy Freedom” campaign to encourage Iranian women to expose their hair when the morality police were not around.
Prosecutors have kept the investigation open. In October 2024, they announced charges against a senior Iranian military official and three others, none of whom are in custody.
Alinejad said she has moved nearly two dozen times since the assassination plot was discovered.
NEW YORK (AP) — For nearly three years, JPMorgan Chase has picking up the legal tab of Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar, the two convicted fraudsters who sold their financial aid startup Frank to the bank.
But the two have racked up an astronomical, nine-figure legal bill that far exceeds any reasonable amount the two may have needed for their defense, the bank said in a court filing late Friday. Chase shouldn’t have to pay and its agreement as part of the startup purchase to shoulder the costs should end, the bank argued.
According to the filing, Javice’s team of lawyers across five law firms have billed JPMorgan approximately $60.1 million in legal fees and expenses, while Amar’s lawyers have billed the bank roughly $55.2 million in fees.
In total, the bank alleges Javice and Amar’s lawyers have racked up legal fees of $115 million, with one law firm receiving $35.6 million in reimbursements alone. In comparison, Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of defrauding investors in the Theranos case, reportedly ended up with a legal bill of roughly $30 million.
The bank would be “irreparably injured” if the court does not put an end to “abusive billing,” the bank said. Javice and her lawyers have treated the process “like a blank check,” Chase said.
Javice, 33, was convicted in March of duping the banking giant when it bought her company, called Frank, in the summer of 2021. She made false records that made it seem like Frank had over 4 million customers when it had fewer than 300,000. Amar was convicted of the same charges.
Early in the case, a Delaware court ruled that the bank was required to advance Javice and Amar for any legal fees, which was part of the bank’s agreement when Frank was acquired in 2021.
Part of Javice’s legal team is Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, who is also the lawyer who has previously represented Elon Musk. Spiro did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
A law firm representing Amar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The legal fees sought by Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar are patently excessive and egregious. We look forward to sharing details of this abuse with the court in coming weeks,” said Pablo Rodriguez, a spokesman for the bank
NEW YORK — For nearly three years, JPMorgan Chase has picking up the legal tab of Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar, the two convicted fraudsters who sold their financial aid startup Frank to the bank.
But the two have racked up an astronomical, nine-figure legal bill that far exceeds any reasonable amount the two may have needed for their defense, the bank said in a court filing late Friday. Chase shouldn’t have to pay and its agreement as part of the startup purchase to shoulder the costs should end, the bank argued.
According to the filing, Javice’s team of lawyers across five law firms have billed JPMorgan approximately $60.1 million in legal fees and expenses, while Amar’s lawyers have billed the bank roughly $55.2 million in fees.
In total, the bank alleges Javice and Amar’s lawyers have racked up legal fees of $115 million, with one law firm receiving $35.6 million in reimbursements alone. In comparison, Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of defrauding investors in the Theranos case, reportedly ended up with a legal bill of roughly $30 million.
The bank would be “irreparably injured” if the court does not put an end to “abusive billing,” the bank said. Javice and her lawyers have treated the process “like a blank check,” Chase said.
Javice, 33, was convicted in March of duping the banking giant when it bought her company, called Frank, in the summer of 2021. She made false records that made it seem like Frank had over 4 million customers when it had fewer than 300,000. Amar was convicted of the same charges.
Early in the case, a Delaware court ruled that the bank was required to advance Javice and Amar for any legal fees, which was part of the bank’s agreement when Frank was acquired in 2021.
Part of Javice’s legal team is Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, who is also the lawyer who has previously represented Elon Musk. Spiro did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
A law firm representing Amar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The legal fees sought by Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar are patently excessive and egregious. We look forward to sharing details of this abuse with the court in coming weeks,” said Pablo Rodriguez, a spokesman for the bank
Paris — France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy became the first previous head of a European Union state to be jailed on Tuesday, proclaiming his innocence as he entered a Paris prison. France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012, Sarkozy was found guilty last month of seeking to acquire funding from Muammmar Qaddafi’s Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.
AFP journalists saw the 70-year-old — who has appealed the verdict — leave his home, and after a short drive flanked by police on motorbikes, enter the La Sante prison in the French capital.
“Welcome Sarkozy!”, “Sarkozy’s here,” AFP reporters heard convicts shouting from their cells.
In a defiant message posted on social media as he was being transferred, Sarkozy again denied any wrongdoing.
“It is not a former president of the republic being jailed this morning, but an innocent man,” he said in the post. “I have no doubt. The truth will prevail.”
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni are seen leaving their home, Oct. 21, 2025, in Paris, France.
Pierre Suu/Getty
Sarkozy was handed a five-year jail term in September for criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Qaddafi to fund his electoral campaign. Qaddafi was killed in 2011 — the first leader killed amid the “Arab Spring” uprisings that rocked the Middle East as a number of countries with long-time dictatorial regimes faced popular revolts.
After his September 25 verdict, Sarkozy had said he would “sleep in prison — but with my head held high.”
Dozens of supporters and family members had stood outside the former president’s home from early Tuesday, some holding up framed portraits of him.
“Nicolas, Nicolas! Free Nicolas,” they shouted as he left his home, holding hands with his wife, singer Carla Bruni.
Earlier they had sung the French national anthem as neighbors looked on from their balconies.
“This is truly a sad day for France and for democracy,” said Flora Amanou, 41.
Sarkozy’s lawyer Christophe Ingrain said a request had been immediately filed for Sarkozy’s release.
The Paris appeals court in theory has two months to decide whether to free him pending an appeals trial, but the delay is usually shorter.
“He will be inside for at least three weeks to a month,” Ingrain said.
France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy waves to supporters as he leaves his residence to present himself to La Sante Prison to serve a five-year prison sentence after being convicted of criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi to help fund his 2007 electoral campaign, in Paris, France, Oct. 21, 2025.
Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto/Getty
Sarkozy is the first French leader to be incarcerated since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state who was jailed after World War II.
Sarkozy told Le Figaro newspaper he will be taking with him a biography of Jesus and a copy of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a novel in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail but escapes to take revenge.
Sarkozy facing likely solitary confinement
Sarkozy is likely to be held in a 95 square foot cell in the prison’s solitary confinement wing to avoid contact with other prisoners, prison staff told AFP.
In solitary confinement, prisoners are allowed out of their cells for one walk a day, alone, in a small yard. Sarkozy will also be allowed visits three times a week.
The former French presidents multiple legal woes
Sarkozy has faced a flurry of legal woes since losing his re-election bid in 2012.
He has also been convicted in two other cases.
In one, he served a sentence for graft — over seeking to secure favors from a judge — under house arrest while wearing an electronic ankle tag, which was removed after several months in May.
In another, France’s top court is to rule next month in a case in which he is accused of illegal campaign financing in 2012.
In the so-called “Libyan case”, prosecutors said his aides, acting in Sarkozy’s name, struck a deal with Qaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.
Investigators believe that in return, Qaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.
Libya leader Muammar Qaddafi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are seen arriving for a dinner at the Elysee Palace in Orly, France, Dec. 10, 2007.
Thomas SAMSON/Gamma-Rapho/Getty
The court convicted him of criminal conspiracy over the plan, but it did not conclude that Sarkozy received or used the funds for his campaign.
It acquitted him on charges of embezzling Libyan public funds, passive corruption and illicit financing of an electoral campaign.
Sarkozy had already been stripped of France’s highest distinction, his Legion of Honor, following the earlier graft conviction.
Six out of 10 people in France believe the prison sentence to be “fair,” according to a survey of more than 1,000 adults conducted by pollster Elabe. But Sarkozy still enjoys support on the French right and has on occasion had private meetings with President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron welcomed Sarkozy to the Elysee Palace on Friday, telling the press this week: “It was normal, on a human level, for me to receive one of my predecessors in this context.”
OROSZLÁNY, Hungary—Jabbing his finger at a life-size cardboard cutout of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Péter Magyar wooed the voters of this coal-mining town with a feisty speech about corruption and economic decline.
Magyar, Orbán’s main rival in next year’s pivotal election, mocked him as a mafia boss, a Turkish sultan and Ali Baba with 40 thieves. He concluded with the Russian phrase “Tovarishchi, konetz”—or comrades, it’s over—the motto of the 1990 democratic election that ousted Hungary’s Soviet-installed regime.
A third-party investigation released Tuesday turned up no evidence of corruption or unethical behavior on Charlotte City Council.
Investigators looked into statements by at-large Councilwoman Victoria Watlington that alleged “unethical, immoral, and frankly, illegal activities occurring within City government.” And the city hired attorneys with the Cranfill Sumner law firm in July to conduct the investigation for a maximum cost of $25,000. The final cost was not immediately available.
Council received a report on the investigation during a closed session meeting on Monday. It shared a five-page report with the public at a Tuesday news conference.
Some processes and communications could be improved, the report found, but “these issues do not amount to misconduct or corruption.”
“Over the past several months, our city has been under a lot of scrutiny,” Mayor Vi Lyles said. “These egregious allegations hurt our team, and we owed it to them to investigate.”
Watlington allegations
Council voted in closed session in May to pay Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings a controversial $305,000 settlement, reportedly to avoid a lawsuit over comments from former Council member Tariq Bokhari.
Watlington, a Democrat, issued a statement from her campaign email shortly after council approved the agreement. The email contained the quote “Power Corrupts … and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely” and went on to allege unethical, immoral and illegal activity in city government.
In a subsequent email two days later, Watlington said her concerns had nothing to do with financial or widespread corruption.
Watlington told reporters at Tuesday’s news conference she stands by her previous statements, although the “power corrupts” quote was not interpreted how she had intended.
“At the end of the day, it wasn’t about causing any kind of chaos,” Watlington said. “It was about making sure that we are raising the standard and that people know there’s something to look at here.”
Investigation into alleged corruption in Charlotte government
At the direction of City Council, the city attorney’s office contacted Cranfill Sumner to conduct an independent investigation into Watlington’s statements.
Investigators Patrick Flanagan and Ariella Walsh spoke to Interim City Attorney Anthony Fox, the deputy city attorney, the city auditor, Lyles and all 11 council members. They also reviewed a host of documents, including emails between city leaders, city policies and an informal internal report on the matter by Fox and the city auditor.
In each instance, investigators found no evidence of unethical or illegal behavior. Findings on one issue — the leaking of closed meeting information to the public — remain inconclusive because the investigation could not trace the source of the leaks.
“This does not diminish Councilmember Watlington’s belief in her concerns. While certain processes could have been handled more effectively, we did not uncover evidence of illegality or corruption within City government,” the report states.
Watlington said she would have liked the report to include a detailed analysis of each of her concerns so she can better understand how investigators reached their conclusions, she said.
Moving forward, city leaders will discuss how they can change their policies, ensure council members understand statutes governing their roles and adhere to their procedures, Watlington said.
She does not have specific policy changes in mind, she said. Her priority will be honoring policies that already exist.
This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 2:31 PM.
Nick Sullivan covers the City of Charlotte for The Observer. He studied journalism at the University of South Carolina, and he previously covered education for The Arizona Republic and The Colorado Springs Gazette.
TOKYO — TOKYO (AP) — The head of Japan’s Komeito says it is leaving the ruling coalition headed by the Liberal Democratic Party due to concerns over corruption, in a major setback for the woman who hopes to become the country’s next prime minister.
The decision announced Friday by Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito deals a serious blow to the Liberal Democrats, who last weekend chose Sanae Takaichi, an ultra-conservative lawmaker, as its leader.
Takaichi could still become Japan’s first female prime minister, but the departure of the Buddhist-backed Komeito will compel the Liberal Democrats to find at least one other coalition partner in order to stay in power.
Speaking to reporters, she said Saito had “one-sidedly announced the decision to leave the coalition” even though she and her deputy, LDP Secretary General Shunichi Suzuki, had said the Liberal Democrats would discuss the issues he raised and respond promptly.
“We’ve been together for 26 years and it was extremely disappointing, but this is how we ended up,” Takaichi said.
The ruling coalition had already lost its majorities in both houses of parliament. The lower house is due to vote on a new prime minister later this month.
Saito said his party, which has been a coalition partner with the Liberal Democrats for 26 years, had raised several concerns in a meeting with its leaders.
They include objections to Takaichi’s stance about Japan’s wartime history and her visits to Yasukuni Shrine, seen as a symbol of its past militarism. Another was Takaichi’s hardline position toward foreigners, part of a backlash against growing numbers of foreign workers and tourists.
But the deciding factor, he said, was the Liberal Democrats’ response to scandals over the use of political slush funds.
Saito said he found Takaichi’s response to his concerns over history, the Yasukuni visits and foreigners to be acceptable. But he said she showed a lack of “sincerity” about doing more to clean up corruption.
“The LDP’s response was that it will think about it, which was highly insufficient and extremely disappointing,” Saito said.
“We have decided to return to the drawing board and stop here,” Saito said. “Our endeavor against money politics is the highest priority for the Komeito.”
Komeito was founded in 1964 by the leader of the Buddhist sect Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda, to represent diverse public interests and fight corruption, as an alternative to political parties backed by labor unions and big corporations.
The LDP has been beset by scandals involving dozens of lawmakers, many of them belonging to a party faction previously led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe’s vision for Japan is one that Takaichi has emulated.
The Liberal Democrats have removed some senior lawmakers from top party and Cabinet posts. Takaichi has said that if she is chosen to be prime minister, she plans to put them back into key positions after they were re-elected twice more after their ousters.
Saito told reporters Komeito lawmakers would not vote for Takaichi to become prime minister and the party won’t perform its usual role of trying to drum up support for LDP politicians, who have long relied on votes from Soka Gakkai members, the Komeito’s main source of support.
In the vote to replace departing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, expected around Oct. 20, he said, “I will vote for Tetsuo Saito.”
MEXICO CITY — Tens of thousands of Mexicans are set to gather downtown Sunday in a choreographed tribute to President Claudia Sheinbaum, who closed out her initial year in office with approval ratings north of 70%.
Apart from her personal popularity as Mexico’s first woman president, polls show strong support among poor and working-class Mexicans for her continuation of social-aid programs launched by her predecessor and mentor, ex-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum screams during the annual shout of Independence (Grito de Independencia) as part of Mexico’s Independence Day celebration on Sept. 15 in Mexico City.
(Hector Vivas / Getty Images)
Sheinbaum, who took office last Oct. 1, has embraced and expanded López Obrador’s leftist social agenda, often repeating his mantra: “For the good of all, the poor first.”
But, amid the plaudits, there is also a disconnect: Polls and interviews show deep concerns about crime, the economy and, increasingly, the defining issue of corruption — the elimination of which is a central plank of the president’s Morena movement, founded by ex-president López Obrador.
Almost three-quarters of respondents (73%) gave Sheinbaum’s government a negative rating for its handling of corruption, the poorest mark to date for its anti-corruption efforts, according to a poll last month from the newspaper El Financiero.
We are seeing the same corruption as in past governments, it’s very disappointing
— Lorena Santibañez, medical student
While crime remains Mexicans’ most pressing concern, many cite corruption as a core issue that could eventually erode trust in the administration of Sheinbaum, whose term lasts five more years.
“We are seeing the same corruption as in past governments. It’s very disappointing,” said Lorena Santibañez, 25, a medical student. “I want to give la presidenta the benefit of the doubt — it’s her first year. But I don’t have much hope.”
Almost daily headlines here highlight instances of alleged graft, nepotism and other questionable behavior within Sheinbaum’s ruling circles. Some reports have focused on relatives or close associates of the retired López Obrador, whom Sheinbaum regularly extols as a visionary and exemplar of moral integrity.
The corruption revelations tend to range from the somewhat venal — party bigwigs living on limited government salaries enjoying lavish lifestyles — to more insidious allegations of Morena officials in league with organized crime.
Making a social media splash this summer were news reports on the ritzy vacations of various Morena heavyweights, notably Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, the son of the ex-president, who serves as Morena’s party secretary.
His stay at a $400-a-night Tokyo hotel and reported $2,600 restaurant bill sparked outrage in a nation where many earn $10 a day or less. Amid the escalating reports of Morena officials enjoying the high life abroad, Sheinbaum signaled her disapproval.
“Power must be exercised with humility — that is my position and always will be,” she told reporters. “We have a responsibility with the movement we represent, and the principles that we represent.”
No allegations have touched Sheinbaum, a scientist and longtime academic known for her austere lifestyle and serious demeanor.
“We haven’t heard of any scandal about her, of corrupt relatives, or family members in public office doing business,” said José Farías, 54, a bus driver. “That has helped her remain popular, along with the fact that people view her as well-prepared, intelligent and honorable.”
Sheinbaum, who was recruited into public service by López Obrador while she was an obscure academic and he the mayor of Mexico City, is now the standard-bearer for Morena. It is a movement that, in little more than a decade, has become a juggernaut.
Morena dominates government, the judiciary and other facets of Mexican life in a way that has drawn inevitable comparisons to a previous Mexican political colossus — the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which ruled Mexico in authoritarian fashion for much of the 20th century.
The PRI is now greatly diminished, and Morena’s model differs from the PRI playbook of rigged elections, institutionalized graft, repression and an all-powerful president. But many of Morena’s old guard, including López Obrador, earned their stripes as PRI operatives.
“It’s very hard to explain Morena’s hegemony without acknowledging that it cannibalized a lot of what was left of the PRI,” said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a political analyst. “And a lot of what was left of the PRI was criminal governance and complicity with criminal organizations.”
Such complicity has become more problematic as the Trump administration has essentially declared war on drug cartels, designating a half-dozen Mexican crime syndicates as terrorist groups. Several recent scandals have suggested Morena politicians were in cahoots with organized crime.
Morena’s top member of the Senate, Adán Augusto López Hernández — a former interior minister, ex-governor of Tabasco state and lifelong associate of López Obrador— has publicly denied links to a mob known as La Barredora (The Sweeper). The alleged leader of La Barredora, a former security chief in Tabasco, is now imprisoned in Mexico after being arrested as a fugitive in Paraguay.
It was López Hernández who, while governor of Tabasco, appointed the alleged mob chieftain to the security post. The senator says he knew nothing.
Even the Mexican navy, ranked among the nation’s most-trusted institutions, has been implicated in a far-reaching fuel-theft scheme, with 14 suspects arrested so far. One is a nephew of the admiral who served as secretary of the navy under López Obrador. In response, Sheinbaum defended the admiral and said he helped denounce the thievery.
Repeatedly, Sheinbaum has been put in the position of declaring that no one is above the law. “We won’t cover up for anyone,” has become a presidential mantra.
Some reformers have credited Sheinbaum with confronting corruption, while others say she has been too cautious, too hesitant, to take on a problem deeply entrenched in Mexican politics.
“A lot of people inside Morena are saying, ‘Let’s push out the bad apples,’ “ noted Bravo Regidor. “But what’s rotten is the barrel, not the apples.”
Earlier this year, the president publicly pressured Morena to institute a strict anti-nepotism policy. But her plan ran into strong headwinds in a party where patronage is rampant.
Luisa María Alcalde Luján, a lawyer who presides as president of Morena, has been mocked for declaring that the party is nepotism-free. Both of her parents were prominent in the government of López Obrador, and her sister is the attorney general for Mexico City.
“It’s so false when politicians from Morena say there is no corruption,” said Miguel Angel García, 32, a salesman. “Yes, Sheinbaum is more honest. But she has a lot of work to do.”
Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Right Livelihood Award was awarded Wednesday to activists from Sudan and Myanmar, where military and political violence devastates communities, to the Pacific Islands, where climate disaster threatens entire nations, and to Taiwan, which is the frequent target of threats and disinformation.
“As authoritarianism and division rise globally, the 2025 Right Livelihood Laureates are charting a different course: one rooted in collective action, resilience and democracy to create a livable future for all,” the Stockholm-based foundation said about the winners. It considered 159 nominees from 67 countries this year.
The youth-led organization Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change and Julian Aguon were awarded the prize “for carrying the call for climate justice to the world’s highest court, turning survival into a matter of rights and climate action into a legal responsibility.”
Justice for Myanmar was awarded “for their courage and their pioneering investigative methods in exposing and eroding the international support to Myanmar’s corrupt military.” The covert group of activists is working to expose the financial architecture and global corporate complicity sustaining the military government, Right Livelihood said.
Audrey Tang from Taiwan won the prize “for advancing the social use of digital technology to empower citizens, renew democracy and heal divides.” Tang is a “civic hacker and technologist who rewires systems for the public good,” the organization said.
In Sudan, the Emergency Response Rooms network was awarded for “for building a resilient model of mutual aid amid war and state collapse that sustains millions of people with dignity.” The Sudanese community-led network has become the backbone of the country’s humanitarian response amid war, displacement and state collapse. They helps includes health care, food assistance, and education, where many international aid organizations cannot reach, according to the foundation.
Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honors efforts that the prize founder, Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.
“At a time when violence, polarization and climate disasters are tearing communities apart, the 2025 Right Livelihood Laureates remind us that joining hands in collective action is humanity’s most powerful response,” said Ole von Uexkull, the nephew of the prize founder and the organization’s executive director.
“Their courage and vision create a tapestry of hope and show that a more just and livable future is possible,” he added.
Previous winners include Ukrainian human rights defender Oleksandra Matviichuk, Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Matviichuk and Mukwege received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 and 2018, respectively.
The Right Livelihood Award comes just a week before the Nobel Prizes. The 2025 laureates will be given their awards on Dec. 2 in Stockholm. The size of the prize amount was not announced.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
South Africa’s ambassador to France was found dead on Tuesday at the foot of the Hyatt Regency hotel, a high-rise tower in the west of Paris, the Reuters news agency reported, citing the Paris prosecutor’s office.
South Africa’s government, in a statement sent to CBS News, confirmed that Ambassador Nkosinathi Emmanuel “Nathi” Mthethwa had died, noting with “deep sorrow and profound regret the untimely passing” of the diplomat.
“The circumstances of his death are under investigation by the French authorities,” the South African foreign ministry said in the statement.
South African Ambassador to France Nkosinathi Emmanuel “Nathi” Mthethwa is seen in a file photo provided by the embassy.
Handout/South African Embassy in Paris
Mthethwa was reported missing by his wife on Monday evening, according to Reuters, which said she had received a worrying text message from him before calling police.
Reuters cited the prosecutor’s office as saying Mthethwa was staying in a 22nd story room, in which a secured window had been found forced open.
French media, including the Le Parisien newspaper, said investigators believed Mthethwa likely had killed himself.
Mthethwa previously served as the Minister of Police in South Africa between 2009 and 2014. Within the last few weeks, a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into alleged corruption, criminality and political interference in the country’s criminal justice system started work.
Two weeks ago, the provincial police commissioner in South Africa’s Kwa-Zulu Natal province, Nhlanhla Mkwanazi, alleged at the commission that when Mthethwa was the national police minister, he interfered in an investigation into a head of criminal intelligence by asking the Inspector General of Intelligence to drop charges all charges against him.
LOS ANGELES — Paul Thomas Anderson spent about 20 years writing “One Battle After Another.” After two decades, it’s never felt more relevant.
The epic action thriller, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland,” hits theaters Friday. With a running time of 2 hours and 50 minutes, “One Battle After Another” wastes no time immersing audiences in its politically charged world.
The revolution will not be televised, but it will be placed at the front and center of Anderson’s film. The director isn’t there to make his audience comfortable, star Teyana Taylor says, as he zeros in on themes of immigration, racism and systemic corruption showcased at their most absurd.
“I feel like PTA calls out a lot of things that are trying to get swept under the rug,” Taylor told The Associated Press, referring to the director by his nickname. “And that’s what I respect. This is really waking, shaking and baking some s—. Like, you gotta shake the table.”
Taylor’s character, Perfidia Beverly Hills, is a member of the Weather Underground-inspired French 75 revolutionary group. From the film’s first scene, we see the French 75 take matters into their own hands, liberating undocumented detainees, destroying corrupt political offices and launching their own form of justice, one right after the other. The group is peppered with members portrayed by musicians-turned-actors like Dijon Duenas, Alana Haim, and Shayna McHayle and notable actors like Regina Hall and Wood Harris.
“I mean, this movie is based on some of the revolutionaries and anarchists of the late ’60s, the Weathermen that were fighting for civil rights, environmentalism too at the time, capitalism, Vietnam,” star Leonardo DiCaprio told the AP. “But it’s about the implosion of that too, about the extremes that people go to for their own ideology.”
DiCaprio portrays Bob Ferguson, known in the French 75’s initial scenes as Ghetto Pat, known for his knowledge of explosives and undying devotion to both Perfidia and the revolution. Together, Perfidia and Pat seem unstoppable, until the racist and xenophobic Col. Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn) sets out end the group to fuel his rise to power.
“And this is a movie, fast-forward, in today’s day and age, where you see this sort of systematic breakdown that comes from it, if it’s not done with grace and purity and consistently, the whole sort of— our revolution is dismantled and our past comes back to haunt us,” said DiCaprio. “So that’s what I love that Paul did. He shows extremity on both sides of the spectrum and how no one seems to be communicating or getting things done in the right way nowadays.”
The film jumps 16 years into the future. Perfidia has disappeared and DiCaprio’s character lives under a new alias in a sanctuary city as a paranoid, stoner dad with his teenage daughter, Willa (newcomer Chase Infiniti). Everything is seemingly mundane until Lockjaw reappears, forcing the father-daughter duo on the run.
“There’s a lot of moments where I was like, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do this, but thankfully I had amazing scene partners and a great support system to kind of assure me that I was here to do my job and I knew exactly that I could do it,” Infiniti said.
“One Battle After Another” is Anderson’s most expensive project to date and shot entirely in VistaVision — a decades-old format that’s been revived in recent years by movies like “The Brutalist.”
Benicio del Toro, who plays karate instructor Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, says blending improv scenes with DiCaprio and shooting in the antique format forced the actors and Anderson to have unwavering faith in each other’s decisions, knowing they only had a limited amount of takes. His character, also the head of an undocumented migrant hideaway, hopes his storyline will be an example of showcasing compassion beyond political affiliation.
“I wouldn’t be pompous enough to say movies change people. But it might just open a door that leads to another door that leads to a hallway to another door,” he said.
DiCaprio says portraying Bob Ferguson is his own version of freedom of speech, allowing him to “shine a light on certain issues about humanity and different subject matters.”
“I’m always searching for a movie that doesn’t necessarily have meaning but is thought-provoking, that holds a mirror up to who we are as a society, as people, of humanity,” said DiCaprio. “And that’s what I think the heart of this movie is, is how to find humanity in a world that is incredibly divided. … It’s not a film where there’s a specific sort of ideology that Paul is putting into it. It’s saying this is who we are, this is the world we live in.”
For Taylor, the 20-year-old script’s relevance is evidence of American history continuing to repeat itself.
“It didn’t need a change; it didn’t need to be updated because it was all still so relevant,” said Taylor. “It’s time to wake up, and it’s time to shed light on the necessary conversations.”
A new watchdog group aiming to hold major institutions accountable and promoting good governance says it plans to become a “leading voice” for conservative values and effective governance across the country.
The Safety and Prosperity Oversight Coalition, which launched on Wednesday, will be led by seasoned political operative Chris Zeller. The group announced its creation this week and said it will be focused on promoting transparency, integrity and efficiency across American governmental institutions and the private sector. Zeller has a long history in GOP politics, including work on numerous national campaigns and a stint as the executive director for multiple state Republican parties.
“The coalition brings together some of the nation’s top attorneys and financial investigators, leveraging their expertise to scrutinize institutional practices, expose inefficiencies, and advocate for policies that prioritize safety and prosperity for all Americans,” stated a press release from the group. “Backed by a team of established professionals, the coalition is poised to become a leading voice for conservative values and effective governance.”
A police officer is seen stationed outside of the U.S. Capitol.(Getty Images)
Per the press release, the watchdog will focus on three core pillars: “rigorous oversight of government spending, accountability for corporate and public sector misconduct, and advocacy for common-sense reforms to strengthen democratic institutions.” This work will subsequently be accomplished via independent audits, legal challenges to governmental overreach brought forward by the nonprofit, and public education campaigns “to empower citizens with the facts.”
A GOP strategist who was willing to speak on background said the new watchdog group is a much-needed entity to combat efforts from the left. The strategist highlighted how the new conservative watchdog will help Republicans hold corporate America’s feet to the fire the same way the left did during the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, or the same way they did with “woke” diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Protesters in Michigan rally against President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI policies, denouncing federal rollbacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.(Getty Images/Dominic Gwinn)
“The Safety and Prosperity Oversight Coalition is a response to the growing need for accountability in our institutions,” Zeller added. “Americans deserve leadership that upholds integrity and delivers results. Our coalition will shine a light on waste, corruption, and mismanagement, ensuring that those in power serve the public, not themselves.”
Zeller most recently spent time as a top aide for Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., which followed his stint working on Kari Lake’s Arizona Senate bid in 2024. Lake ultimately lost to Democrat challenger Ruben Gallego.
Former House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., speaks during a news conference in the U.S. Capitol.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Zeller also worked as the campaign manager for Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., when she successfully won her 2021 bid to represent New York’s 22nd Congressional District by a razor-thin margin of just over 100 votes.
Meanwhile, Zeller has spent time as the Executive Director at both the Connecticut and New Hampshire state Republican parties as well.
