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Jodi Vittori

@jodi1994.bsky.social

Professor/scholar of nexus of corruption, illicit finance, conflict, and national security. Military Veteran. Views are my own; likes are not endorsements.

785 Followers  |  563 Following  |  522 Posts  |  Joined: 17.11.2024  |  2.4877

Latest posts by jodi1994.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Melania Trump Used as ‘Window-Dressing’ in Elaborate Memecoin Fraud, Legal Filing Claims The first lady of the United States became a pawn in an intricate memecoin scam that resulted in millions of dollars in losses, crypto investors have alleged.

“By the time Chow and Davis launched $MELANIA in January, they had refined a “repeatable six-step ‘playbook’ for pump-and-dump fraud,” the investors claim.”
#crypto #kleptocracy

www.wired.com/story/melani...

22.10.2025 12:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The US forces threatening Venezuela Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to see Nicolás Maduro ousted. Here are the forces he has sent to the region

"As of Monday, roughly 8 per cent of American warships deployed globally were in the Caribbean, according to a fleet tracker from the US Naval Institute." ft.com/content/dc10...

22.10.2025 10:51 — 👍 84    🔁 21    💬 3    📌 6
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Trump has claimed millions from the government. He could order payment. President Trump has claimed he was damaged by investigations and wants compensation. “It sort of looks bad. I’m suing myself,” he acknowledged.

#Trump found a loophole so any POTUS can take extraordinary amounts of our tax payments and put it right in his pocket: just have his DOJ approve bogus lawsuits. 💰#kleptocracy #corruption
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

22.10.2025 10:55 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Thanks! I hadn’t seen this. I wonder how Trump even thought to bring this up during one of his “weaves”? 🤔

19.10.2025 03:36 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Explain? I haven’t heard this.

19.10.2025 02:31 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

The wildest thing about every Trump pardon and commutation?

“Mr. Santos will also no longer be required to pay more than $370,000 in court-ordered restitution to his victims…”

18.10.2025 03:32 — 👍 1144    🔁 426    💬 48    📌 15
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Special Charlie Kirk Honorary Recognition Withdrawn by Air Force Academy Board Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September and his death has resulted in some to honor him posthumously in myriad ways.

More info on this
www.military.com/daily-news/2...

18.10.2025 11:38 — 👍 0    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

This Russian sovereign wealth fund is the RDIF and is considered Putin’s slush fund; it has a history of making deals with tons of red flags for corruption.

18.10.2025 02:17 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Update: A big thank you to everyone who contacted the USAFA AOG. I just received word that the proposal has now been withdrawn.

17.10.2025 21:31 — 👍 15    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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Air Force Academy alumni group’s board considers giving honorary membership to Kirk A separate motion to award Kirk an honorary degree from the prestigious military institution in Colorado Springs is also being considered.

My alumni association is considering giving Charlie Kirk an honorary membership/degree despite his well-documented history of racist and misogynist comments. (His only ties to USAFA were a few months on the Board of Visitors as a political appointee.)
www.stripes.com/theaters/us/...

17.10.2025 21:05 — 👍 7    🔁 1    💬 2    📌 0
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Exclusive | Trump Team Plans IRS Overhaul to Enable Pursuit of Left-Leaning Groups The effort would install a Trump ally at the IRS’s criminal unit who has drawn up a list of investigative targets.

"The undertaking aims to install allies of President Trump at the IRS criminal-investigative division...to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations.... The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes..."

16.10.2025 10:46 — 👍 10    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 2
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Parliamentlive.tv Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

The former lobbying registrar, Harry Rich, appeared before the @houseofcommons.parliament.uk Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee this week to give his reflections on the measures the govt should be taking to improve lobbying transparency.
💭 Here’s a few thoughts from us... 🧵

16.10.2025 11:34 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0

Because so many companies pay bribes, citizens of kleptocracy find it is hard to be an ethical consumer.

For example, if you have a Carrier a/c system, it’s not like you can stop using it. Or your Apple phone. Or using Amazon.

Living ethically becomes impossible under state capture

16.10.2025 11:12 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Trump wants a White House ballroom. These companies are funding it. Tech, crypto and defense companies are among the donors that have committed millions to help turn Trump’s ballroom dream into a reality, according to the White House.

Trump is already hitting up these same companies for an arch near Arlington Cemetery. When companies start paying bribes, it doesn’t stop; the bribee simply demands more. 💸 #Lockheed #Carrier #Amazon
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

16.10.2025 11:00 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1
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The Rules of Investing Are Being Loosened. Could It Lead to the Next 1929?

How is October 2025 looking an awful lot like October 1929? An analysis from the historian who literally wrote the book on 1929.
(P.S. A lot of these schemes are also used for money laundering.)
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/m...

14.10.2025 16:15 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Parable of the Sower (novel) - Wikipedia

Reminds me of description of how agricultural labor conditions decline in dystopian novel “The Parable of the Sower,” but the book was supposed to be a warning rather than a how-to guide. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable...

12.10.2025 12:43 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices U.S. farmers face labor shortages and potential food price hikes due to Trump’s immigration policy, the administration acknowledged in a Federal Registry document.

[Workers on] “H-2A visas…allowing farmers to pay migrant laborers less. It also shifts the burden for paying for worker housing from employer sponsors to migrant workers, with some exceptions.”
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

12.10.2025 12:35 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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What Thiel is saying about tax havens = what Altman is saying about copyright:

"I can't be rich unless you let me steal from you."

This is how Broligarchs differ from oligarchs of yore: the latter tried to hide their thievery; the Broligarchs trumpet their entitlement to steal as a natural right.

11.10.2025 10:51 — 👍 1507    🔁 617    💬 75    📌 79
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Trump Says Federal Layoffs Have Begun During Government Shutdown

Note what is being considered so un-essential that Vought/Trump decided they can be permanently fired: those protecting us from cybersecurity attacks, fighting wildfires, elementary education, our financial system.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

11.10.2025 11:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
A sports marketing firm has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to narrow an anti-fraud law after it was found guilty of its role in a scheme to bribe South American soccer officials for broadcasting rights.

A sports marketing firm has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to narrow an anti-fraud law after it was found guilty of its role in a scheme to bribe South American soccer officials for broadcasting rights.

A sports marketing firm has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to narrow an anti-fraud law after it was found guilty of its role in a scheme to bribe South American soccer officials for broadcasting rights.

www.mlex.com/mlex/article...

04.10.2025 18:54 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1
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ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team Documents show that ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation.

Wired - Documents show that ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok and other platforms to target people for deportation. www.wired.com/story/ice-socia...

04.10.2025 13:42 — 👍 50    🔁 47    💬 3    📌 7
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🇲🇦 VIDEO: 'Clear demands': young Moroccans sustain week of protests

Youth-led protests demanding reforms to public healthcare and education take place in Morocco's capital Rabat for a seventh day in a row.

04.10.2025 13:40 — 👍 149    🔁 57    💬 0    📌 3
The CFIUS Review That Will Never Be What it means that the president’s son-in-law is part of the group buying Electronic Arts.

Why would a Saudi sovereign wealth fund purchase a video game company for vastly more than what it’s worth? And why bring the president’s son-in-law onto the deal? Perhaps for reputation laundering, access to AI, cuddle up to Trump, etc.👇🏻
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

04.10.2025 13:37 — 👍 1    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
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Cuban Americans denounce plan to give Miami land for Trump library The DeSantis administration wants to donate a valuable parcel next to the iconic Freedom Tower in downtown Miami to honor President Donald Trump.

$67m looks like a pretty big bribe by Florida lawmakers to Trump 💰

“The land is being used as a parking lot. It is in a prime location in downtown Miami, not far from Biscayne Bay, and is now valued at an estimated $67 million.”
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

30.09.2025 10:59 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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New antiaircraft weapons propel Sudan’s war, imperil global security Fighters now possess antiaircraft weapons that could threaten civilian air traffic and what appears to be a Chinese surface-to-air missile system, experts said.

Sudan's civil war has seen a proliferation of anti-aircraft weapons: deadly drones, MANPADS, and truck-borne surface-to-air missile systems. Even Turkey's advanced Akinci drones, which the military used to help retake the capital, are getting shot down. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

29.09.2025 10:31 — 👍 24    🔁 7    💬 2    📌 1
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Advancing Beneficial Ownership Transparency in the Data Privacy Age In several previous pieces for BriberyMatters, I have examined the links between beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) and anti-corruption, such as safeguarding government procurement, limiting busi...

Delighted to share this #BriberyMatters blog post on TRACE International, in which our Executive Director @thomtownsend.bsky.social is interviewed by Marc Schleifer. Delve into this exploration of the #BeneficialOwnership, #transparency #AntiCorruption nexus👇

www.briberymatters.com/post/advanci...

29.09.2025 09:12 — 👍 1    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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180. The Roberts Court Turns 20 The Supreme Court is much less popular and much more divisive today than it was when John Roberts was sworn in as the 17th Chief Justice on September 29, 2005. And at least much of that is his fault.

“Is it that the Chief Justice doesn’t accept that the Court is losing credibility on a daily basis; that he thinks the Court doesn’t need that credibility in order to fulfill its intended role in our constitutional system; or that he doesn’t care?”

Me on John Roberts as his Court turns 20 today:

29.09.2025 11:30 — 👍 3430    🔁 1172    💬 348    📌 114
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Transparency International UK x Spotlight on Corruption x More In Common: Who Pays, Who Decides? Big Money in British Politics — UK Anti-Corruption Coalition Join us to discuss the corrupting influence of money from home and abroad on our democracy. Drawing on new public opinion insights, this panel will discuss what must be done to stop the rise of mega d...

🔥 EVENT: "Who Pays, Who Decides? Big Money in British Politics"
Our executive director @suehawley.bsky.social joins Baroness Hodge, @liambyrnemp.bsky.social, @duncanhames.bsky.social, &
@edhodgsoned.bsky.social on the panel for this crucial discussion at 4.30pm today.
Check out the details below 👇

29.09.2025 12:05 — 👍 7    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 0
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Trump’s Argentina bailout enriches one well-connected billionaire A $20 billion taxpayer-funded rescue package for Argentina is a gift for a hedge fund manager with personal and professional ties to the Treasury Secretary

1. The $20 billion taxpayer-funded rescue package for Argentina, announced last week by the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, delivers an enormous windfall to hedge fund billionaire Rob Citrone.

Citrone has a longstanding personal and professional relationship with Bessent.

29.09.2025 11:50 — 👍 2505    🔁 1503    💬 155    📌 269
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Opinion | How Elon Musk could turn national governments into Potemkin powers His SpaceX deal could fundamentally alter the relationship between a state and its citizens.

“The infrastructure owners—SpaceX, Amazon, Meta, Google—will accumulate what amounts to sovereign power without sovereign responsibility…Algorithm changes that influence elections, network policies that enable or restrict speech… are already here.”
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

29.09.2025 11:56 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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