Daily Archives: December 14, 2021

How to Fix Cancún Cruz’s Blockade? Send All Pending Nominees Out as Special Presidential Envoys

December 14, 2021 By in Ambassadors, Biden, State Department, Trends, U.S. Missions, U.S. Senate Tags: , , , , ,

 

That’s right.
Skip the  boring U.S. Senate votes.
President Biden ought to just send out all the pending nominees for ambassadors as Special Presidential Envoys to countries around the globe. If the nominees have cleared the SFRC but have been subjected to the blanket hold by senators chasing their presidential ambitions in laughable displays, President Biden should just save these senators from their jobs, and appoint his nominees as Special Presidential Envoys. He should then swear-in all the SPEs at the White House and send them off packing to get to their new posts ASAP. The Special Presidential Envoys would still need to report to the geographic assistant secretaries in Foggy Bottom, but they will be at our missions overseas instead of being held hostages in Washington D.C.
Back in 2014, the GOP Senate did the same thing with President Obama’s nominees. At that time we wrote:

Certainly, a mass appointment of Special Presidential Envoys would be a bad precedent.  We are also pretty sure our U.S. Senate would be terribly unhappy and offended if President Obama simply announce the appointments of five dozen Special Presidential Envoys in place of his ambassadors. And without the advice and consent of the Senate. Of course, they would!

(Gosh! If this happens,we would missed a whole lot of informative and entertaining performances on C-Span).

That said, if our senators cannot do kumbaya work for the sake of the United States, if they continue trading blame on why the nominees are stuck in the Senate, and if they kept on putting party before country, why then should we mind if they are offended and get ulcers?

Right now, the two parties are not trading blame.
It’s just one party that has long lost control of its screaming children (oh let’s not even start about the best quality people they have in the House). It is bonkers that one or two senators could place a blanket hold on nominees with no relation to their pet issues or even without any pet issue. One senator placed a hold on nominations unless two cabinet secretaries resign. One senator wanted diplomats to”not get invited to parties” in China. This senator must think diplomats go to diplomatic receptions and parties for fun; just how deep is this willful ignorance?
These senators went to the best schools, and have been in office for a while; they must realized the consequences their actions have on our overseas missions. So, no, it’s not that they don’t know that their actions have consequences. It’s simply that they don’t care. Whatever consequences may befall our overseas missions due to their actions; they don’t care. There’s no way around that reality.
But surely, these senators’ pet issues are the most important issues in all the world, right? More important than our country’s standing in the world. More important than the perceptions among foreign audience that the United States is screwy these days. Also more important than finding out who’s to blame for the January 6 insurrection. Servants of the people serving their own selves and ambitions. Oh, yes, aren’t we lucky to be served by these servants who loved our country more than they love their own pretty selves? Give them an applause, please.
But go ahead, Joe … make our day and give these senators some goddamn ulcers!
Release all the Special Presidential Envoys into the wild (and not so wild places)!
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Related post:

Dear Senators, Do You Really Want President Obama to Appoint 65 Special Presidential Envoys?

 

First Extradition From Cameroon to US: Fugitive to Serve an 80-Year Prison Sentence

December 14, 2021 By in AF |Africa, Americans Abroad, Consular Work, Court Cases, Diplomatic Security, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

 

Via USDOJ:

In the first extradition from the Republic of Cameroon to the United States, a Texas man was extradited to Houston on Friday to serve an 80-year prison sentence he received in absentia four years ago after he pleaded guilty in two separate cases to conspiracy, health care fraud, money laundering, and tax offenses.

According to court documents, in November 2016, Ebong Aloysius Tilong, 57, of Sugar Land, Texas, and his wife, Marie Neba, went to trial on the conspiracy, health care fraud, and money laundering charges. The trial evidence and court documents showed that between 2006 and 2015, Tilong, Neba, and their co-conspirators used Tilong and Neba’s company, Fiango Home Healthcare Inc. (Fiango), to corruptly obtain more than $13 million by submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for home health care services that Fiango’s patients did not need or receive. The trial evidence and court documents also showed that Tilong and Neba paid illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters to refer patients to Fiango, and that Tilong falsified and directed others to falsify medical records to make it appear as though Fiango’s patients met the Medicare qualifications for home health care. Additional evidence demonstrated that Tilong attempted to destroy evidence and blackmail and suborn perjury from witnesses. After the first week of trial, Tilong pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, three counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks, three counts of payment and receipt of health care kickbacks, and one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.

In June 2017, Tilong pleaded guilty in a separate case to two counts of filing fraudulent tax returns. In connection with this guilty plea, Tilong admitted that he created a shell company called Quality Therapy Services (QTS) to limit the amount of tax that he paid to the IRS on the proceeds that he and his co-conspirators stole from Medicare. According to Tilong’s plea agreement, in 2013 and 2014, Tilong wrote almost $1 million in checks from Fiango to QTS for physical-therapy services that QTS never provided to Fiango’s patients and deducted as business expenses. Tilong admitted that his tax fraud scheme caused the IRS a tax loss of approximately $344,452.

In August 2017, Neba was sentenced to 75 years in prison the Medicare fraud scheme at Fiango. The U.S. District Court scheduled Tilong’s sentencing for Oct. 13, 2017, but court records show that on the morning of his sentencing hearing, Tilong removed an ankle bracelet monitoring his location and failed to respond to phone calls from, or appear in, the U.S. District Court for his sentencing. On Dec. 8, 2017, the U.S. District Court sentenced Tilong in absentia to 80 years in prison for his role in the Medicare and tax fraud schemes.
[…]

In September 2021, the Republic of Cameroon President Paul Biya signed a decree ordering Tilong’s removal to the United States.

On Dec. 10, 2021, U.S. Marshals escorted Tilong from Cameroon to the United States.

The United States is grateful to the Government of Cameroon for its cooperation and support of this extradition request.

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