₦airaland Forum

A conman Catholic cleric raised at least $650,000 for overseas medical clinics he claimed to operate, but in reality used the donations to his bogus charities to fuel an extravagant lifestyle that included heavenly meals, trips to the Hamptons and plastic surgery, federal authorities allege. Pawel Bielecki, known as “Father Paul,” claimed he ran medical clinics in war-torn Lebanon, but he was 5,600 miles away in Manhattan. “Bielecki exploited his position as a friar to gain the trust of victims across the country and steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from them,” said Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which collared the clergyman on Aug. 17 on charges of wire and mail fraud. For the past eight years, the priest preyed on the compassionate, soliciting donations on local radio shows and crowdfunding websites for non-existent Lebanese hospitals and ambulances, authorities said.

The friar liar specifically exploited the horrific Aug. 4, 2020 chemical explosion in Beirut, which killed 218, to fill his coffers. No one has yet been held accountable for the blast, where Bielecki claimed he was injured. But prosecutors said he wasn’t even there — and “made several purchases at coffee shops, restaurants and other businesses” in Manhattan the day of the disaster. In fact, he did not leave the US between December 2019 and April 2022, they said. Friar Buck would direct his marks in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Georgia and Florida to send checks to his friary with “Fr. Paul Bielecki’s Mission” in the memo line, the feds said.

He would also sweet-talk victims into sending donations by mail to “St. Francis in Beirut Inc.”— a non-profit Bielecki established at the Manhattan friary where he resided. Between December 2017 and February 2024, the friar withdrew almost $50,000 in cash from his bank accounts; transferred more than $600,000 to two credit card companies to pay for personal expenses, including $334 per month for a luxe gym membership; forays to the Hamptons and “numerous meals at high-end restaurants,” the complaint says. He also committed the cardinal sin of vanity by shelling out at least $15,000 on liposuction surgery, authorities said. His lies could fill a confessional.

At different times he claimed to be a surgeon or a United Nations researcher, and the 48-year-old cleric used multiple aliases, including “Dr. Phaakon Sonderburg-Glucksburg.” In September he legally changed his name to “Paul HRH Saxe-Coburg-Gotha” — with “HRH” standing for “His Royal Highness,” authorities said. “He’s the George Santos of the cloth,” said a source familiar with the investigation. Bielecki tugged at the heartstrings of good-willed people to get them to open up their wallets.

In 2018, he told the Salaam Club of New York and the Rotary Club of Verrazano: “Doctors are being taken along the Syrian border. I was supposed to have had four physicians with me but they are in jail now,” according to a story in the Brooklyn Reporter. A Pennsylvania woman and her husband transferred $84,000 to Bielecki’s bank account between June 2020 and October 2023, the feds said. The woman emailed Bielecki on Christmas Eve 2021, wishing him and “the people of Lebanon . . . many blessings of consolation and peace during this Holy Season.” Two weeks later, Bielecki replied that he was “buying a new ambulance” that would “allow [him] to visit villages far north and provide medical help.” The woman emailed back expressing her happiness that “the many prayers for an ambulance were answered” — and wired Bielecki another $10,000. The cagey cleric followed up with her the day after Valentine’s Day, writing, “God is great. The ambulance is OK to go . . . I already did a few villages with medical help. People were crying . . . God bless you both every day . . . every minute — Love Fr. Paul.” In reality, Bielecki had just gone to a “body contouring examination” at a NYC liposuction clinic, where he scheduled his $15,000 plastic surgery on March 8, the feds said. A week after procedure, Bielecki, perhaps feeling like a million bucks, made a $1,000 cash withdrawal and went on a shopping spree at a high-end Manhattan men’s clothing store, court docs show.

Read more here: https://nypost.com/2024/08/24/us-news/conman-cleric-father-paul-used-650k-in-donations-for-phony-charity-to-fund-lavish-lifestyle-plastic-surgery-feds/

This means all the Chinese agents and children of Chinese "businessmen" will still be flooding their country.

sammirano:
22000 yen to 150 USD. And to think yen used to be very strong

I'm not praising Japan, however, to rent in central Tokyo it costs an average of:

172,672.2 (=22Kx7.85)

Yokohama is 100,625
Osaka is 86,364.83

To rent in central NYC it costs an average of:

4,105.3 (150x7.85=1,177)

Chicago is 2,394.7
Miami is 2,823.55
Atlanta is 1907.73

Also, federal minimum wage in US: 7.25 (567 hours to rent NYC central avg)
NYC minimum wage: 16 (257 hours to rent NYC central avg)
Average minimum wage in Japan: 1,054 (163 hours to rent Tokyo central avg)
Tokyo minimum wage: 1113 (156 hours to rent Tokyo central avg)

Also, population:
NYC - 8M
Tokyo - 14M

ETA: I noticed a data entry error above. I was putting a lot of figures in and missed it. I put 8 where I meant to put 7.85.

I'm not saying dr*g trafficking is okay, but this is the same country where they barely do anything about this:

https://www.nairaland.com/8205606/se-asias-scamming-compounds-global
https://www.nairaland.com/8194982/sale-pervasive-organ-trade-asia

That looks like 2 men.

Furthermore:

https://www.nairaland.com/8212594/us-imposes-sanctions-cambodian-tycoon
https://www.nairaland.com/8205606/se-asias-scamming-compounds-global

The United States announced sanctions on Thursday on Cambodian businessman and ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat as well as several entities over alleged abuses related to workers who were trafficked and forced to work in online scam centers. The move, plans for which were first reported by Reuters, comes at a delicate phase in relations between the United States and Cambodia, which has moved ever closer to Washington's strategic rival China despite U.S. efforts to woo its new leader Hun Manet, son of longtime strongman Hun Sen. Ly Yong Phat was appointed Hun Sen’s personal adviser in 2022. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control said the sanctions targeted Ly's L.Y.P. Group Co. conglomerate and O-Smach Resort. It said it was also sanctioning Cambodia-based Garden City Hotel, Koh Kong Resort, and Phnom Penh Hotel for being owned or controlled by Ly.

Bradley Smith, the Treasury's acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the move was made to "hold accountable those involved in human trafficking and other abuses, while also disrupting their ability to operate investment fraud schemes that target countless unsuspecting individuals, including Americans."

Cambodia and other countries in Southeast Asia have emerged in recent years as the epicentre of a multibillion-dollar criminal industry targeting victims across the world with fraudulent crypto and other schemes, often operating from fortified compounds run by Chinese syndicates and staffed by trafficked workers. The Treasury statement said scammers leverage fictitious identities and elaborate narratives to develop trusted relationships and deceive victims. In many cases, this involves convincing victims to invest in virtual currency, or in some cases, over-the-counter foreign exchange schemes, it said. The statement said traffickers force victims to work up to 15 hours a day and, in some cases, "resell" victims to other scam operations or subject them to sex trafficking. It noted that the U.S. State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report this year highlighted abuses in O’Smach and Koh Kong and that[b] official complicity in trafficking crimes remained widespread[/b], resulting in selective and often politically motivated enforcement of laws.

Americans have been targeted by many of the scams. In 2022, in the U.S alone, victims reported losses of $2.6 billion from pig butchering, opens new tab – a type of long-term scam – and other crypto fraud, more than double the previous year, according to the FBI.
The Treasury report said that for more than two years the O-Smach Resort has been investigated by police and publicly reported on "for extensive and systemic serious human rights abuse." It said victims reported being[b] lured there with false employment opportunities, having phones and passports confiscated upon arrival[/b], and being forced to work scam operations. "People who called for help reported being beaten, abused with electric shocks, made to pay a hefty ransom, or threatened with being sold to other online scam gangs," it said, adding that there had been two reports of victims jumping to their death from buildings within the resort.

The report said local authorities had conducted repeated rescue missions, including in October 2022 and March 2024, freeing victims of various nationalities, including Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai, and Vietnamese. The U.S state department said, opens new tab in June that Cambodian government officials were complicit in trafficking and that some officials owned facilities used by scam operators. Spokespeople for Cambodia's government and foreign ministry did not answer phone calls or respond to messages seeking comment when asked about the sanctions. The U.S. and other governments have repeatedly engaged with Cambodia to put a end to the scam centers. Washington had considered sanctions for months, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters. They said the decision was initially expected earlier this year but had been delayed. A change of leadership to West Point-educated Hun Manet last year was seen by U.S. officials as an opportunity to mend ties with Cambodia, but despite U.S. efforts, its ties with China have steadily grown. Beijing sent warships to Cambodia this year and is backing the expansion of a key naval base.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-plans-sanction-prominent-cambodians-linked-scam-factories-sources-say-2024-09-12/

A woman who claimed she was raising funds to help Chinese students and tourists was conducting a “predatory” multi-million-dollar fraud, B.C.’s financial regulator has ruled. Meiyun Zhang solicited approximately $3.2 million from three B.C. investors, promising them their money would generate a risk-free return of six to 10 per cent a month between 2014 and 2016.

To the investors, who were all born in China but lived in Vancouver or Richmond, Zhang varied her pitch “to find a message which would work for each of them,” according to a decision by a panel of the B.C. Securities Commission. In the ruling published Wednesday, the panel found Zhang’s business proposals included using investors’ money to exchange foreign currency for Chinese students or tourists visiting Canada, providing loans for students to obtain visas, or helping them immigrate to the country to study.

“Zhang did not spend the Investors’ money as promised,” the ruling states. Instead, Zhang used the funds for gambling at casinos, retail shopping sprees, utility bills and covering her debts, including making returns to investors and paying back a loan from a Calgary realtor. She was also found to have spent some of the funds on an immigration lawyer to dispute her removal order from Canada. “Zhang’s actions were calculated and even predatory,” states the decision. Zhang’s con had similarities to both a Ponzi scheme, as she used new investments to pay back old returns, and affinity fraud, given that she targeted “a particular section of the population, exploiting trust and friendship within a group that (has) things in common.”

Of the three victims Zhang defrauded, one made 102 investments totalling $1,745,414, while the other two made 34 investments each, one contributing around $1,178,996 and the other, $227,700. One of them took out high-interest loans and used property as collateral to continue.

Throughout the scheme, the panel found Zhang had “actual knowledge” that her actions put the invested funds at risk.

“When funds are received on the basis that they will earn an implausibly high return … and then those funds are diverted to personal expenses and uses which cannot earn the expected return, there can be no doubt that both the invested amounts and the expected contractual return are at risk,” the decision read.

While she has returned a combined $1.5 million to the investors, $1.7 million or so of funds remain lost.

Since last April, Zhang has been banned from participating in the investment market pending the investigation into the allegations, and the delay of an in-person hearing. The hearing was conducted Tuesday in writing, without Zhang’s participation, after several unsuccessful attempts to hold the matter in person.

Following this week’s decision confirming Zhang’s misconduct, the panel will decide at a later hearing if she will face sanctions.

https://vancouversun.com/news/3-million-investments-help-chinese-students-ruled-a-fraud

Another problem with Japan:

https://www.nairaland.com/8137163/black-box-diaries-womans-fight

Would they say this to oyinbos, or do they just complain about protecting black women?

You need mental health treatment.

Five years later, a 26-year-old doctor from a hospital in Kobe died by s**cide after working more than 200 hours of overtime in a single month.

Hisakazu Kato, an economics professor at Meiji University in Tokyo, said the country has labor laws in place to protect workers and make sure they are free to resign.

“But sometimes the atmosphere in the workplace makes it difficult to say so,” he said.

So why did these resignation agents only emerge in recent years? That, experts say, is down to young people’s changing approach to work.

“When one party is unhappy, you could end up in a divorce. But like a divorce, nobody is 100% faultless, right?” Ono, from Hitotsubashi University, said.

As the country grapples with a labor shortage fueled by a rapidly aging population and declining birth rates, young people now have more say in the market than their predecessors.

Many of them no longer subscribe to older generations’ thinking that one should do whatever they are told regardless of the job’s nature, Ono said, adding that when there is a mismatch of expectation, they won’t hesitate to quit.

But that doesn’t mean they want to march into their boss’s office and quit in a blaze of glory – preferring to let a third party handle it.

“I think that younger people these days are more non-confrontational,” the expert said, noting that many have been deprived of social interactions at work due to Covid. As a result, young workers prefer to quit without having direct contact with their bosses.

But Ono suggested that it’s always good to have a discussion and not to burn bridges with employers, so he would recommend against accessing such services.

Kawamata, from Momuri, somewhat agreed.

“We honestly think that our resignation agency service should disappear from society and we hope for that. We think it’s best if people can tell their bosses themselves, but hearing the horror stories of our clients, I don’t think that our business will disappear anytime soon,” she said.

For now, Momuri offers a 50% discount for those who seek their service to resign the second time.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/31/business/japan-workers-resignation-agencies-intl-hnk/index.html

At a cost of 22,000 yen (about $150) – or 12,000 yen for those who work part time – it pledges to help employees tender their resignations, negotiate with their companies and provide recommendations for lawyers if legal disputes arise.

“Some people come to us after having their resignation letter ripped three times and employers not letting them quit even when they kneel down to the ground to bow,” she said, in another illustration of the deferential workplace culture embedded in Japan.

“We sometimes get calls from people crying, asking us if they can quit their job based on XYZ. We tell them that it is okay, and that quitting their job is a labor right,” Kawamata added.

Some workers complain that bosses harass them if they try to resign, she said, including stopping by their apartments to ring their doorbell repeatedly, refusing to leave.

For another quitter, what would have been a straightforward business took a bizarre turn. The person was dragged to a temple in Kyoto by their boss. “[The worker] was told to go to Onmyoji temple because ‘they were cursed,’” she said.

Kawamata said people who reach out often work for small to medium-sized businesses, with those in the food industry most vulnerable, followed by healthcare and welfare. Japan has long had an overwork culture. Employees across various sectors report punishing hours, high pressure from supervisors and deference to the company. These employers are widely known as “black firms.”

Human resources professor Hiroshi Ono, from Hitotsubashi University Business School in Tokyo, said the situation had become so pressing that the government had begun publishing a list of unethical employers to hamper their ability to hire, and warn job seekers of the dangers of working for them. “There are some issues with… black firms, where working conditions are so bad, there’s no psychological safety, and some employees might feel threatened,” he said. More than 370 companies have been blacklisted by labor bureaus across the country since the list was published in 2017.

The stress has proven fatal for decades, as exemplified by a phenomenon called “karoshi,” or “death by overwork.”

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 54 people died from work-induced brain and heart conditions and were granted compensation in 2022, which is actually a major decline from the 160 recorded two decades ago.

But the number of people filing claims over mental stress at work is on the rise, shooting up to 2,683 from 341 over the same period of time.

A 31-year-old political reporter from national broadcaster NHK died in 2017 after suffering heart failure caused by spending long hours on the job. She worked 159 hours of overtime in the month before her death.

Article continues in next post.

Yuki Watanabe used to spend 12 hours every day toiling away in the office. And that’s considered a short day.

A typical 9-to-9 workday is the bare minimum. “The latest I would leave [the office] would be 11 p.m.,” said the 24-year-old, who used to work for some of Japan’s largest telecoms and e-payment companies.

So intense were the demands that Watanabe - who used an alias to speak to CNN, for fear of jeopardizing future job prospects - began to develop health problems. She had “shaky legs and stomach issues.”

She knew she had to quit, but there was one thing in the way: Japan’s notoriously top-down work culture.

Asking to leave work on time or taking some time off can be tricky enough. Even trickier is tendering a resignation, which can be seen as the ultimate form of disrespect in the world’s fourth-biggest economy, where workers traditionally stick with one employer for decades, if not for a lifetime.

In the most extreme cases, grumpy bosses rip up resignation letters and harass employees to force them to stay.

Watanabe was unhappy at her previous job, saying her former supervisor often ignored her, making her feel bad. But she didn’t dare resign.

“I didn’t want my ex-employer to deny my resignation and keep me working for longer,” she told CNN during a recent interview.

But she found a way to end the impasse. She turned to Momuri, a resignation agency that helps timid employees leave their intimidating bosses.

For the price of a fancy dinner, many Japanese workers hire these proxy firms to help them resign stress-free.

The industry existed before Covid. But its popularity grew after the pandemic, after years of working from home pushed even some of Japan’s most loyal workers to reflect upon their careers, according to human resources experts.

There is no official count on the number of resignation agencies that have sprung up across the country, but those running them can testify to the surge in demand.

Shiori Kawamata, operations manager of Momuri, said that in the past year alone they received up to 11,000 enquiries from clients.

Located in Minato, one of Tokyo’s busiest business districts, the firm launched in 2022 with a name that seeks to resonate with their helpless clientele – “Momuri” means “I can’t do this anymore” in Japanese.

Article continues in next post.

belovedmimz:
🤣🤣
Na Dem dey Sabi pass oo

^One of Tensazangetsu20's alts he uses to boost his Chile thread.

ednut1:
you dey argue with person wey no likely get passport.

Is this the part where I give you a bunch of personal information? Not happening.

Nigerians should be thankful any time an Arab country makes it hard to go there.

That is probably the absolute worst part of the world.

https://www.nairaland.com/8204295/dark-side-dubai

The one and only exception is if you're working for the US military, and working ON the base. You'll be paid very well and protected.

It's crazy that people are blaming trafficked girls for being in that situation.

And while I don't cosign someone engaging in self-trafficking, why is it that people have all the smoke for these women, but not the men creating demand? They're all sick people.

Another related thing is if you don't mind some of these side hustles, you might as well consider trucking. It's one of very few jobs where you can train for a few weeks and make $70,000 (USD) or more your first year. And there's a shortage of drivers, so it's not hard to get in.

It's not exactly a dream job because you'll have long days, be away from family for weeks at a time, sleep in your truck, and generally give up some comforts. You'll also travel to some of the more unpleasant parts of America. However, once you have enough experience, you have way more options as far as your schedule, for example, you can do area driving where you have a 9-5 schedule and you're home every night. You can also be an owner-operator.

Also, women typically might not be thinking about a job like this, but it's a good option. However, safety is an issue. You need to do research on protecting yourself.

ETA: It's also one of the least racist industries. There aren't a ton of people going out of their way to block black people from opportunities.

tensazangetsu20:
I am a black African living in Chile and I have never experienced any racism.

There's a lot of things you can debate, but that's just a lie.

If anyone actually believes this man...smh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-BWx6mJQj8

A grieving boy begins to read a Bantu tale written by his late father. Adventure into the beautiful and treacherous lands of Kenzera as Zau, a young shaman who bargains with the God of death to bring his Baba back from darkness. With your cosmic powers and untried courage, you advance into unknown mythological lands. Once bursting with life, Kenzera is now rife with lost ancestral spirits. As Zau advances toward his goal, three mighty beings lie in wait, fearsome in their strength yet somehow strangely familiar.

Anyone played this? What do you think?

Also, NEVER use an agent for a visa.

Don't do it.

It's not hard to figure out or find reliable info on at all.

Argentina, along with being racist af, is a dumpster fire.

https://apnews.com/article/argentina-economy-crisis-javier-milei-president-peronist-crisis-8a8ac450fa5f7942f61ab092fdd4ed15

The cartels run Mexico, and things are so bad, they're even shooting up resorts.

https://www.foxla.com/news/cartel-violence-against-americans-tropical-resorts

As for Chile, I'll let Haitians tell you:

“Sometimes, I can’t believe I left my home to come take humiliation in a foreign land,” he said. Saintila Pierre, 45, who left a six-bedroom house and a tailoring business in his native Gonaives, said it was fear for personal safety — a common reason for leaving for those who had jobs back in Haiti — that forced him out, knowing that he had almost no recourse with Haiti’s corrupt criminal justice system. Now he works at least 10 hours a day, five days a week and makes $500 a month working in a factory. “If I am five minutes late to work, they start taking money from me,” he said. “They do it for all of us, except for their people.”

“They are objects of exploitation,” Tijoux said of Haitians. “They are being found in animal corrals. They are not paid the minimum wage. They are not given a current work contract, they have very long working hours and they are continuously being mistreated.”

“This is a nation that’s very racist. They mistreat us a lot,” he said, to a chorus of agreement from several other Haitian migrants gathered in a yard in a Santiago neighborhood.

But where Haitians experience the most racism and discrimination is in their employment, where they are often found in low-valued, low-paying jobs in agriculture, construction and street cleaning, Dorsainvil said — jobs frequently available to recent Haitian arrivals without papers. Even if they are professionals, they can’t work in their fields because Chile doesn’t recognize professional degrees from Haiti.

they expressed concerns about the prejudices Chileans hold — such as the 47 percent who said they could justify violence against migrants

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article202589599.html