WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): As many as 16 Indian American inventors figure among 162 academic inventors in the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) 2023 Class of Fellows. Election as an Academy Fellow is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors.
The 2023 class of Fellows will be honored and presented their medals by a senior official of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) at the NAI 13th Annual Meeting on June 18, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Indian American inventors in the list are: Arvind Agarwal, Florida International University; Sanjoy Banerjee, City University of New York; Ashok Gadgil, University of California, Berkeley; Balakrishna Haridas, Texas A&M University; M. N. V. Ravi Kumar, The University of Alabama; Prashant Kumta, University of Pittsburgh; Prashant Mali, University of California, San Diego; Dinesh Manocha, University of Maryland, College Park; Arumugam Manthiram, The University of Texas at Austin; Seemantini Nadkarni, Massachusetts General Hospital; Jagjit Nanda, Stanford University; Ravindra Pandey, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York; Niketa Patel, University of South Florida; Anil Sood, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Srinivas Sridhar, Northeastern University; and Karthikeyan Sundaresan, Georgia Institute of Technology.
The 2023 class of Fellows represents NAI’s foundational and continuing commitment to diversifying innovation on all levels, with underrepresented inventors comprising 33% of this year’s class, according to a media release.
This year’s class also showcases regional diversity with Fellows representing 35 US states and 10 countries, exemplifying the Academy’s belief that great innovators can be found everywhere.
“This year’s class of NAI Fellows showcases the caliber of researchers that are found within the innovation ecosystem. Each of these individuals are making significant contributions to both science and society through their work,” said Dr. Paul R. Sanberg, FNAI, President of the NAI.
“This new class, in conjunction with our existing Fellows, are creating innovations that are driving crucial advancements across a variety of disciplines and are stimulating the global and national economy in immeasurable ways as they move these technologies from lab to marketplace. We are honored to welcome these highly regarded innovators to the Academy and look forward to formally inducting them at our 2024 Annual Conference in the Research Triangle of North Carolina.”
The 2023 Fellow class hails from 118 research universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutions worldwide. This class includes 89 individuals from the Association of American Universities (AAU) institutions and 128 individuals from R1 universities that boast very high research activity.
Collectively, the 2023 Fellows hold over 4,600 issued U.S. patents. This year’s class includes 2 Nobel Laureates, 3 National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees, 22 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and individuals holding other honors and distinctions as well as senior leadership from universities and research institutions.
Their work spans across disciplines and exemplifies their dedication and inspiration to translating research into commercial technologies that benefit society, the release stated.
Since its inception in 2012, the NAI Fellows program has grown to include 1,898 exceptional researchers and innovators, who hold over 63,000 US patents and 13,000 licensed technologies. NAI Fellows are known for the societal and economic impact of their inventions, contributing to major advancements in science and consumer technologies. Their innovations have generated over $3 trillion in revenue and generated one million jobs.
Tag: Washington
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Sixteen Indian Americans elected fellows of National Academy of Inventors 2023 Class
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Indian American official Sanjay Virmani to lead FBI counterterrorism division in DC
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): : Sanjay Virmani, a senior Indian American FBI official, has been named the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Counterterrorism Division of the Washington Field Office by Director Christopher Wray.
He most recently served as deputy assistant director in the Counterterrorism Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, according to an FBI press release.
Virmani joined the FBI as a special agent in 2003 and was assigned to the San Francisco Field Office where he worked on cyber and counterterrorism matters. In 2007, he was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Counterterrorism Division.
In 2010, he was selected as the supervisory special agent to lead the San Francisco Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in the Oakland Resident Agency. In that role, he led a squad of agents, analysts, and task force officers working on international terrorism investigations.
In 2013, Virmani was selected to serve as Director of the INTERPOL Digital Crime Center at the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore. In this role, he led the directorate in providing operational support to INTERPOL’s 190 member countries to address cybercrime threats.
In 2016, Virmani returned to FBI Headquarters as a unit chief of the Cyberterrorism unit, which was focused on identifying, obtaining intelligence on, and disrupting cyberterrorists and their networks globally.
In 2018, he was promoted to assistant section chief of the Counterterrorism Division’s Internet Operations Section, where he worked to foster partnerships within the US intelligence community and with international partners. In 2018, he also returned to the San Francisco Field Office as the supervisory special agent of the Private Sector Engagement squad, then was promoted to assistant special agent in charge over the Cyber Branch.
In 2021, Virmani returned to the Counterterrorism Division as section chief of the Strategic Partner Engagement Section, where he oversaw the FBI’s liaison efforts with the law enforcement community, US interagency, and private sector partners on counterterrorism-related matters.
In 2022, he served as the acting special agent in charge of the Tampa Field Office. The same year, he was promoted to deputy assistant director in the Counterterrorism Division.
He earned a bachelor’s in industrial engineering from California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo and received a master’s in business administration from the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California. -
Amid China tension, US to send unofficial delegation to Taiwan
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): The Biden administration will send an unofficial delegation comprised of former senior officials to Taiwan shortly after the self-governed island holds an election for a new president this weekend, a move that could upset Beijing in an already-fragile bilateral relationship. A senior administration official confirmed the plan on Wednesday, January 10, without offering more details but said such a face-to-face meeting was the “most effective way” to engage the new Taiwanese government and convey US policy in the region, according to an AP report.
China and Taiwan’s opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) have warned of the danger ruling party presidential candidate Lai Ching-te can pose to peace if he wins election this weekend.
The KMT favors closer ties with China but denies being pro-Beijing. The poll is being closely watched internationally. Reuters
The official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive plans, said the administration believed the move would contribute to peace and stability in the region. Beijing claims Taiwan to be part of Chinese territory and vows to unify with it eventually.In August 2022, Beijing reacted angrily by firing missiles and blockading the island after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping, at his most recent meeting with President Joe Biden in November, called Taiwan the “most sensitive issue” in US-Chinese relations.
Washington has a security pact with Taiwan to provide it with sufficient hardware and technology to deter any armed attack from the mainland. The US has stepped up support for Taiwan and its democratically elected government in recent years as Beijing ratchets up military and diplomatic pressure on the island. The US government takes no side on the island’s statehood but insists the differences must be resolved peacefully. Biden told Xi in November that the US government opposes any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
The US has endorsed no political party or candidate in Taiwan. Beijing has made it clear that it does not want a victory by Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, the candidate from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party known for its pro-independence leaning.
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Committed to managing China ties responsibly: US
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): US President Joe Biden on Monday, January1, assured his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that he is committed to managing the bilateral ties “responsibly” as the two leaders exchanged congratulatory messages to mark the 45th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The two presidents met on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco in November and agreed to cool down the raging tensions between the top two economies of the world. In his message to Xi, Biden said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979, the ties between the US and China have facilitated prosperity and opportunities for both the countries and the world. Biden said he is committed to “managing this important relationship responsibly”, adding that he looks forward to continuing advancing the US-China relationship based on the progress made by the predecessors of the two leaders and through multiple meetings and discussions between the two heads of state, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Their summit took place after a comprehensive round of talks between high-level officials of the two countries. In his letter, Xi urged Biden to earnestly implement the outcomes of the summit, saying history has already proven and will continue to fully prove that mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation are the right way for China and the US to get along with each other as two major countries. Xi pointed out that he and Biden, during their meeting in San Francisco, laid out a future-oriented “San Francisco Vision,” charting the course for the development of China-US relations.
Xi Jinping stressed that he was willing to work with Biden to continue to steer the course of China-US relations to benefit the two countries and their people and promote the cause of world peace and development.
During their summit, Xi and Biden agreed to resume high-level military communications which were severed after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022.
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Tax Season 2024: IRS launches Tax Professional Awareness Week from Jan 8
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): With the 2024 tax filing season just around the corner, the IRS is launching a special Tax Professional Awareness Week on Monday, Jan. 8, to assist tax professionals on what to expect during the filing season and start 2024 on the right foot.
The special week is the IRS’ latest effort in support of taxpayers and the tax community. Each year, millions of taxpayers seek the help of tax professionals to prepare their federal tax returns and other filings.
“As the 2024 tax season rapidly approaches, Tax Professional Awareness Week highlights the vital role they play in helping taxpayers and our nation,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “Tax professionals play a critical role in ensuring the integrity of our tax system. We continue to urge taxpayers who need help to reach out to a trusted tax professional, including those who work with recognized national organizations.”
A significant number of taxpayers eligible for refundable credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit choose to enlist the assistance of tax preparers and rely on paid tax professionals to accurately file their returns. The IRS reminds taxpayers to make sure they choose a trusted, respected tax professional for help. The IRS has more information available to help taxpayers select a tax professional.
As a reminder, taxpayers can also use the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs offer free basic tax return preparation to qualified individuals. For available more information and locations, see free tax return preparation for qualifying taxpayers.
During the week, the IRS will focus on several critical topics often faced by tax professionals through social media posts and outreach materials:
Due Diligence issues.
Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFINs).
Preparer Tax Identification Numbers (PTINs).
E-File.
E-Services.
Identity Theft.
The IRS will also present two important webinars:On Wednesday, Jan. 10: Answering Your Frequently Asked Questions on Due Diligence.
On Friday, Jan. 12: Sailing Through the Rules of Refundable Tax Credits.
The IRS webinars will include information on additional resources, training and tools available, at no charge, to tax professionals through the online Tax Return Preparer Toolkit. Attendees can earn Continuing Professional Education credit for attending the live webinars.In addition to the IRS webinars, other training opportunities will be available during Tax Professional Awareness Week at courses, seminars or expos presented by members of the tax professional community including the Texas Society of CPAs, the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan.
For more information, visit Tax Professional Awareness Week.
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IRS expands Business Tax Account access to S corporations, partnerships; adds ability to view business tax transcripts
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): As part of continuing transformation work, the Internal Revenue Service, on December 18, announced the launch of the second phase of a new online self-service tool for businesses that expands the business tax account capabilities and eligible entity types. As a result, individual partners of partnerships and individual shareholders of S corporation businesses are now eligible for a Business Tax Account in addition to sole proprietors.
Available at IRS.gov/businessaccount, the new business tax account is a key part of the agency’s continuing service improvement initiative. This is part of the larger effort under last year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and described in the multi-year Strategic Operating Plan released this spring.
“This is part of the ongoing IRS modernization effort to make improvements for business taxpayers and others,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “This next step in the evolution of the Business Tax Account will help these businesses download transcripts and other features. Ultimately, these new online options will help make interactions easier for businesses while reducing paper-based processes and the need to call the IRS.”
This phase of Business Tax Account also adds new features:
Users can now download a PDF of a business tax transcript:
For sole proprietors, this includes Forms: 940, 941, 943, 944, 945, 8752, 8288, 11-C, 730, 2290.
For S corporations, this includes Forms: 940, 941, 943, 944, 945, 8752, 8288, 11-C, 730, 1120S, 2290.
For partnerships, this includes Forms: 940, 941, 943, 944, 945, 1065, 8752, 8288, 8804, 11-C, 730, 2290.
Sole proprietors can also view certain notices:
CP080: Reminder – We Have Not Received Your Return, Credits May be on Your Account.
CP136: Annual Notification of Federal Tax Deposit (FTD) Requirements (Forms: 941, 941-SS).
CP216F: Application for Extension of Time to File an Employee Plan Return – Approved.
Individual partners and individual shareholders will be able to access Business Tax Account information once they have filed a business return with the Schedule K-1 and it is processed by the IRS. To access Business Tax Account, individuals must have a Schedule K-1 for a minimum of one year during the 2019-2022 period on file. They will only be able to view information for the year(s) they have a Schedule K-1 on file. New businesses won’t have access until a business return is submitted, processed, and on file with the IRS.Sole proprietors with an Employer Identification Number (EIN) qualify to access their Business Tax Account. Also known as self-employed individuals, sole proprietors with EINs are those who file a business return under their EIN, such as reporting payroll taxes and reporting the highway use tax on trucks and buses.
Sole proprietors who have already set up an individual account under their SSN or ITIN, and have an EIN linked to their SSN or ITIN, can use their existing login to access their Business Tax Account. At this time, sole proprietors who do not have an EIN are not eligible to set up a Business Tax Account. Instead, they can access their tax records by setting up an IRS individual Online Account.
Over time, Business Tax Account will be a one-stop application that provides business taxpayers a suite of digital products and services, including access to viewing letters or notices, requesting tax transcripts, adding third parties for power of attorney or Tax Information Authorization, and storing bank account information to manage tax payments.
It will help users manage their tax obligations, reducing the burden on taxpayers who would otherwise need to call or mail the IRS.
To set up a new Business Tax Account, or for more information about this app, visit www.IRS.gov/businessaccount.
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IRS issues guidance on the incremental cost for the Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service, on December 20, issued Notice 2024-05 regarding the commercial clean vehicle credit for commercial vehicles placed in service in 2024.
The guidance provides a safe harbor for certain qualified commercial clean vehicles placed in service in calendar year 2024, which allows for reliance on the Department of Energy (“DOE”) analysis of incremental costs. The analysis shows that the incremental cost of all street electric vehicles (other than in the case of compact car PHEVs) that have a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 pounds will be greater than $7,500 in calendar year 2024.
Accordingly, the incremental cost will not limit the available credit amount for street electric vehicles that have a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 pounds and are placed in service in calendar year 2024. For compact car plug-in electric hybrids placed in service during calendar year 2024, for which the incremental cost was calculated to be less than $7,500, the IRS will accept a taxpayer’s use, when calculating the credit amount, of the incremental cost published by the DOE.
In addition, the DOE analysis provided an incremental cost analysis of current costs for several representative classes of street electric vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 14,000 pounds or more. For those vehicles placed in service during calendar year 2024, the IRS will accept a taxpayer’s use, in calculating the credit amount, of the incremental cost published by the DOE.
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Colorado Supreme Court bars former president Donald Trump from running for President over 2021 Capitol riots
Court ordered exclusion of his name from the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): In a stunning verdict, the Colorado Supreme Court has barred Donald Trump from running for President next year in the state citing his role in the unprecedented attack on the US Capitol in 2021 and ordered exclusion of his name from the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot. The disqualification of the 77-year-old former President on Tuesday, December 19, was based on the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which says officials who take an oath to support the US Constitution are banned from future office if they “engaged in insurrection.” The 4-3 ruling by the seven-member Colorado Supreme Court does not apply outside the state. Indian-American presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday, December 20, opposed the Supreme Court decision Haley said “the last thing we want” is judges deciding who can and cannot be on the presidential ballot
Ramaswamy vowed to withdraw from Colorado Republican party primary ballot until Trump eligibility is restored
Trump is currently the front-runner in the Republican Party’s nomination process for the race for the White House in 2024. Trump’s campaign has vowed to appeal against the “flawed” ruling by the Supreme Court of Colorado in the US Supreme Court.The Colorado Supreme Court upheld a trial judge’s decision that Trump engaged in the January 6, 2021, insurrection and also overturned her conclusion that the ban does not apply to the presidency.
The landmark decision from the divided top state court marks the first time a court has found Trump ineligible to return to the White House due to his conduct surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, CBS News reported.
Never before has a court determined that a presidential candidate is disqualified under the Civil War-era provision clause, it said.
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Indian American Venkat Kotla appointed CTO of cybersecurity firm Securonix
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP) : Leading cybersecurity firm Securonix has appointed two Indian Americans to key posts. Former Google executive Venkat Kotla has been named as Chief Technology Officer and former Onapsis executive Biju Muduli as Chief Marketing Officer. In his new role, Kotla is responsible for leading and scaling the company’s engineering function and fostering partnerships with leading technology organizations to support the growing demand for the company’s Unified Defense SIEM platform, the company announced. “I am thrilled to have Venkat join our executive leadership team,” said Nayaki Nayyar, Chief Executive Officer, Securonix. “As we continue to evolve and move into our next phase of growth, it is critical for our platform to scale with enterprise-grade reliability and meet the growing needs of modern enterprises charged with defending an expanding threat landscape.
“Venkat’s deep experience with advanced technologies, including AI, successfully expanding technology partnerships and streamlining processes across multiple stakeholders will be invaluable in driving product development that protects our customers from internal and external threats.”
With more than 25 years of experience at world class enterprise software companies, Kotla brings an established track record of driving engineering innovation at global organizations, the release stated.
He most recently served as Vice President and Head of Engineering for Economy BU at Atlassian, a leader in workplace productivity tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Trello.
Kotla helped grow the Economy line of business to more than $500 million ARR, which empowered global organizations to become more nimble, creative and aligned with the marketplace, ecosystem, partnerships, distribution and commerce billing platform.
Prior to joining Atlassian, Kotla spent over 14 years in senior engineering leadership roles at Google. He spent more than three years at Google as the Senior Director of Engineering for Google Assistant and the Google Looker, a multi-cloud enterprise SaaS for business intelligence, data applications, and embedded analytics.
“I’m excited to join a team that is hyper focused on product development and deeply committed to innovation,” said Kotla. “SIEM is the backbone of cybersecurity defenses, and Securonix has long been the industry’s premier solution provider. I look forward to working with the leadership team to incorporate advanced technologies into the platform and aggressively develop new partnerships with the world’s leading technology providers.”
In her new role, Muduli will be responsible for the development, implementation and execution of marketing initiatives that will help drive Securonix’s next phase of growth and strengthen its position as one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity companies, according to a company release.
“We are thrilled to welcome Biju to Securonix and our executive leadership team,” said Nayyar. “Biju is a strategic thinker with a passion for analyzing market trends, buying behaviors, and competitive landscapes.”
“She has an outstanding record of formulating and executing successful global marketing strategies based on real metrics to achieve business goals. As we enter our next phase as a company, proven industry executives like Biju will play a key role in our continued growth, both internally and externally.”
With more than 15 years of experience in strategic marketing and global operations, Muduli has created compelling brand messaging and value propositions for hypergrowth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies.
She most recently served as the Chief Marketing Officer at Onapsis, the leader in SAP and Oracle business applications cybersecurity, where she oversaw the strategy and execution of global marketing initiatives across a rapidly scaling venture-backed security company.
Prior to joining Onapsis, Muduli was the Vice President of Global Demand Generation & Field Marketing at Brightcove, a provider of cloud-based solutions for publishing and distributing professional media.
During her time at Brightcove, Muduli led the company’s global marketing functions, which helped drive breakout growth across all regions, including the Americas, EMEA, APAC and Japan.
She has also held global leadership roles at Carbonite, a data protection and cybersecurity company that was acquired by OpenText in 2019, and Dassault Systémes, a provider of collaborative virtual environments to imagine sustainable innovations.
“I am excited to join a team of talented growth-focused executives that is committed to innovation and driving the future of cybersecurity,” said Muduli. “As the proven market leader with a history of market-defining innovations, Securonix has demonstrated the ability to understand the future of SIEM and execute its vision to serve customer needs better than anyone in the space. I look forward to working with Nayaki and the leadership team, enhancing our value proposition and helping our customers and partners stay ahead of cyber threats.” -
Indian American Economist Bharat Ramamurti joins Economic Liberties as Senior Adviser
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Indian American economist Bharat Ramamurti, former Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, has joined Economic Liberties Project, working to advance economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy, as Senior Adviser for Economic Strategy.
“Throughout his career, Ramamurti has been a vocal advocate for economic justice and has contributed significantly to legislative efforts aimed at creating a more competitive and equitable economic system,” the organization said announcing his appointment.
“Bharat is one of the key architects of the Biden administration’s competition agenda, where he helped drive the President’s whole-of-government approach to tackling corporate concentration across the economy,” said Faiz Shakir, Interim Executive Director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “He understands that robust competition is the cornerstone of a healthy economy and the importance of returning antitrust back to the people. We’re thrilled to welcome his expertise, and excited to add someone who understands how to maneuver government authorities to make change happen.”
“I’m excited to help advise an organization that has played a critical role in tackling one of the most important economic policy issues of our time: growing corporate concentration and its impact on prices, wages, and innovation across our economy,” said Ramamurti.
“In its few short years, Economic Liberties has built an impressive team of strategists, researchers, and legal experts that has helped rein in junk fees across industries, allowed small businesses to compete on a more level playing field, and taken on anti-competitive conduct. “In my time at the White House, the Biden Administration took great strides to promote competition across industries, and I’m thrilled to try to build on that work.” Ramamurti previously worked at National Economic Council in the White House, where he served as Deputy Director from January 2021 to August 2023 under President Joe Biden.
Prior to his tenure in the Biden administration, Ramamurti was senior counsel for Senator Elizabeth Warren, where he focused on issues related to economic fairness and financial accountability.
In 2020, he was appointed by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to the Congressional Oversight Commission for the CARES Act, tasked with overseeing a portion of the federal government’s economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic. -
Indian American AAG Vanita Gupta to step down from DOJ
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Associated Attorney General Vanita Gupta will leave the Department of Justice at the beginning of February, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced on Thursday, December 21.
“I am deeply grateful to Vanita for her extraordinary service as Associate Attorney General. Vanita’s commitment to the pursuit of justice, and her relentless focus on bringing people together to find common ground, has made her an incredibly effective leader in dealing with some of the most complex challenges facing the American people,” Garland said in a press release. “She has distinguished herself as the kind of leader who is also a partner to the career and non-career employees who work for her, to the stakeholders the Department works with, and to the public we all work for.”
Gupta, 49, has been serving in the number three position at the Justice Department since April 2021.
The seasoned civil rights lawyer is responsible for managing civil litigation under the guidance of Garland. Her portfolio encompasses various areas within the Justice Department, including civil rights, antitrust, environmental divisions, and the administration of over $5 billion in federal grants for public safety and criminal justice.
In 2022, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down federal protections for abortion access, Garland entrusted Gupta with the leadership of a Justice Department reproductive rights task force. Under her leadership, federal authorities took legal action against Idaho for a restrictive abortion law and intensified prosecutions of antiabortion activists accused of impeding access to reproductive clinics.
“As a trusted advisor and key member of the Department’s leadership team charged with overseeing all of our civil litigating components and grantmaking entities, Vanita has played an essential role in our work to fulfill DOJ’s mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, and protect civil rights,” a report said on Thursday. “Among her many accomplishments during her tenure, Vanita stood up and has led the Department’s Reproductive Rights Taskforce to defend the reproductive freedoms that are protected by federal law.” The attorney general said Gupta has “played an integral role” in the department’s “efforts to combat violent crime and gun violence and to support the victims of crime” and has facilitated its “efforts to advance a criminal justice system that keeps people safe and reflects our values.”
A report said that the Indian American “has prioritized work that centers its impact on people.” He added, “We at the Justice Department will dearly miss our colleague and friend, but I am confident that her enormous contributions to the Department will continue to be felt long after her departure.”
An alumnus of Yale University and New York University School of Law, Gupta has had a stellar career as a civil rights attorney and Justice Department official. Commencing her journey with two prominent civil and human rights organizations, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), she tackled significant cases. Notably, one of her initial victories involved arguing against the wrongful drug convictions of 38 African American individuals in Tulia, Texas, by all-white juries.
During her tenure at the ACLU, Gupta spearheaded the Smart Justice Campaign, dedicated to ending mass incarceration. -
Giuliani ordered to pay $148 million in damages to Two Georgia election workers
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): A jury awarded $148 million in damages on Friday, December 15, to two former Georgia election workers who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020 that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment, according to media reports.
The damages verdict follows emotional testimony from Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who tearfully described becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Republicans as they tried to keep then-President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.
There was an audible gasp in the courtroom when the jury foreperson read aloud the $75 million award in punitive damages for the women. Moss and Freeman were each awarded another roughly $36 million in other damages.
“Money will never solve all my problems,” Freeman told reporters outside Washington’s federal courthouse after the verdict. “I can never move back into the house that I call home. I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I choose to share my name with. I miss my home. I miss my neighbors and I miss my name.”
Giuliani didn’t appear to show any emotion as the verdict was read after about 10 hours of deliberations. Moss and Freeman hugged their attorneys after the jury left the courtroom and didn’t look at Giuliani as he left with his lawyer. The former New York City mayor vowed to appeal, telling reporters that the “absurdity of the number merely underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding.”
“It will be reversed so quickly it will make your head spin, and the absurd number that just came in will help that actually,” he said.
Giuliani had already been found liable in the case and previously conceded in court documents that he falsely accused the women of ballot fraud. Even so, the former mayor continued to repeat his baseless allegations about the women in comments to reporters outside the Washington, D.C., courthouse this week.
Giuliani’s lawyer acknowledged that his client was wrong but insisted that Giuliani was not fully responsible for the vitriol the women faced. The defense sought to largely pin the blame on a right-wing website that published the surveillance video of the two women counting ballots.
Giuliani’s defense rested Thursday, December 14 morning without calling a single witness after the former mayor reversed course and decided not to take the stand. Giuliani’s lawyer had told jurors in his opening statement that they would hear from his client. But after Giuliani’s comments outside court, the judge barred him from claiming in testimony that his conspiracy theories were right.
The judgment adds to growing financial and legal peril for Giuliani, who was among the loudest proponents of Trump’s false claims of election fraud that are now a key part of the criminal cases against the former president.
Giuliani had already been showing signs of financial strain as he defends himself against costly lawsuits and investigations stemming from his representation of Trump. His lawyer suggested that the defamation case could financially ruin the former mayor, saying “it would be the end of Mr. Giuliani.”
And Giuliani is still facing his biggest test yet: fighting criminal charges in the Georgia case accusing Trump and 18 others of working to subvert the results of the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden, in that state. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty and characterized the case as politically motivated.
Jurors in the defamation case heard recordings of Giuliani falsely accusing the election workers of sneaking in ballots in suitcases, counting ballots multiple times and tampering with voting machines. Trump also repeated the conspiracy theories through his social media accounts. Lawyers for Moss and Freeman, who are Black, also played for jurors audio recordings of the graphic and racist threats the women received.
The women’s lawyers asked for at least $24 million for each woman in defamation damages alone. They also sought compensation for their emotional harm and punitive damages.
On the witness stand, Moss and Freeman described fearing for their lives as hateful messages poured in. Moss told jurors she tried to change her appearance, seldom leaves her home and suffers from panic attacks. Her mother described strangers banging on her door and recounted fleeing her home after people came with bullhorns and the FBI told her she wasn’t safe.
“It’s so scary, anytime I go somewhere, if I have to use my name,” Freeman said, gasping through her tears to get her words out. “I miss my old neighborhood because I was me, I could introduce myself. Now I don’t have a name, really.” Defense attorney Joseph Sibley told jurors they should compensate the women for what they are owed, but he urged them to “remember this is a great man.”
An attorney for Moss and Freeman, in his closing argument, highlighted how Giuliani has not stopped repeating the false conspiracy theory asserting the workers interfered in the November 2020 presidential election. Attorney Michael Gottlieb played a video of Giuliani outside the courthouse on Monday, in which Giuliani falsely claimed the women were “engaged in changing votes.”
“Mr. Giuliani has shown over and over again he will not take our client’s names out of his mouth,” Gottlieb said. “Facts will not stop him. He says he isn’t sorry and he’s telegraphing he will do this again. Believe him.” The judge overseeing the election workers’ lawsuit had already ordered Giuliani and his business entities to pay tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees. In holding Giuliani liable, the judge ruled that the former mayor gave “only lip service” to complying with his legal obligations while trying to portray himself as the victim in the case.
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Ramaswamy calls Haley a “fascist”, “corrupt”; she says responding to him “not worth her time”
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Calling her “fascist” and “corrupt,” biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy launched a tirade against his Republican presidential rival and fellow Indian-American Nikki Haley, who refrained from a verbal duel, saying it is not worth her time to respond to him.
Ramaswamy launched the volley of charges against the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the UN in Arizona during the Republican Party’s fourth presidential debate, which was attended by just four candidates, the other two being former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The front-runner for the Republican Party’s nomination, former President Donald Trump, skipped the debate once again and held a fundraiser in Florida instead.
Participating in the debate, Ramaswamy, 38, accused Haley of having “a corruption problem” and held up a pad of paper with “NIKKI = CORRUPT” written on it. This resulted in a mix of boos and cheers from the audience. He called her “a puppet” and accused her of “using identity politics” as “a form of intellectual fraud.”
“Nikki, you were bankrupt when you left the U.N. After you left the U.N., you became a military contractor,” he started and recounted her journey to end with further allegation: “That math doesn’t add up. It adds up to the fact that you are corrupt.”
“It’s not worth my time to respond to him,” Haley, 51, said when asked by the moderator to respond to the allegations. However, Ramaswamy did not give up and continued to attack Haley.
“The only person more fascist than the Biden (US President Joe Biden) regime now is Nikki Haley, who thinks the government should identify every one of those individuals with an ID,” he alleged. “That is not freedom, that is fascism, and she should come nowhere near the levers of power, let alone the White House,” he said.
Ramaswamy was referring to a recent remark by Haley in which she said that social media users needed to be verified by name, “Every person on social media should be verified, by their name. That’s, first of all, it’s a national security threat. When you do that, all of a sudden, people have to stand by what they say,” she said.
“And it gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots and the Chinese bots. And then you’re gonna get some civility, when people know their name is next to what they say,” she had said.
Haley defended her remarks on the debate stage.
“What I said was that social media companies need to show us their algorithms. I also said there are millions of bots on social media right now. They’re foreign. They’re Chinese. They’re Iranian. I will always fight for freedom of speech for Americans. We do not need freedom of speech for Russians and Iranians and Hamas. We need social media companies to go and fight back on all of these bots that are happening,” she said. “As a mom, do I think that social media would be more civil if we went and had people’s names next to that? Yes, I do think that because I think we’ve got too much cyber-bullying. I think we’ve got child pornography and all of those things. But having said that, I never said the government should go and require anyone’s names,” Haley said.
Haley, whose popularity has been on the rise, was also attacked by DeSantis. “She caves anytime the Left comes after her, anytime the media comes after her,” he said.
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Influential US Senators criticize India on allegations of plot to assassinate a separatist Sikh in New York
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): A bipartisan group of influential American Senators has criticized India after US prosecutors linked an Indian official to a man charged with conspiring to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader in New York. The Senators were speaking at a Congressional hearing ‘Transnational Repression: A Global Threat to Rights and Security’ organized on Wednesday, December 6, by the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator Ben Cardin, chairman of the Committee, said: “We’ve seen disturbing allegations against an Indian government official for involvement in planning to assassinate a US citizen in New York, who was critical of the Indian government. This follows allegations of India’s involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh leader. Earlier this year, the Modi government had labelled both critics as terrorists.” The hearing was organized with China in the focus, but India popped up several times, mainly because of the allegations from Canada and the US regarding the theme.
US federal prosecutors on November 29 charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta with working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh extremist, who is an American and Canadian citizen.
Describing it as a “matter of concern,” India has announced a high-level investigation and asserted that follow-up action will be taken based on the findings of the investigation panel.
Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on September 18 made an explosive allegation of the “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil on June 18. India has strongly rejected Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd” and “motivated.”
“We often say we’re the oldest democracy in the world and India is the largest democracy in the world. This is not the behavior of a respectable democracy,” Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said during the hearing.
Ranking Member Senator James Risch, who is a Republican, also raised the issue. “Governments who have gotten away with silencing dissidents inside their own country are now trying to stifle free speech around the world, including the United States. Just last week, the Department of Justice ….unsealed an indictment alleging an Indian government official engaged in a plot to assassinate a US citizen in New York City,” he said.
“It should surprise no one that China is leading the world and using transnational repression to quash any sign of dissent,” he noted at the same time. Testifying before the committee, Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, an advocacy group that raises awareness about the fascist threat to American security and values, said the Canadian Prime Minister has implicated the government of India in the June murder of a Sikh activist and a Canadian citizen in Canada. And just last week, the Department of Justice alleged in an indictment that an Indian national in India was hired by an Indian government official to orchestrate the assassination of a US citizen who is a Sikh activist, he said.
“Congress should urge the executive branch to continue to raise transnational repression as a priority issue with our partners and allies. The United States must not hesitate to raise this issue directly at the highest levels with those countries perpetrating, transnational repression, even when those perpetrators are close partners such as Saudi Arabia and India,” Abramowitz said.
Abramowitz said that this should be a matter that is in the bilateral relationship. “If it is being swept under the rug, then I think other governments will not take it as seriously,” he said.
Senator Kaine said that it’s interesting to note that the Indian government’s reaction to the prosecution in the United States has been somewhat different than to the claim that their intelligence officials, at least one official, were implicated in the murder in Canada.
“When the Canadian government Prime Minister Trudeau raised the issue and laid out the evidentiary case, the Indian government responded in a very negative way and asked Ottawa to recall about 40 Canadian diplomats that were in India. When the news of this prosecution in the United States came out, the Indian government at least suggested they were somewhat concerned and potentially chastened by this story and their comments have been a little bit more reasonable,” Kaine said.
On Monday, the US State Department welcomed India’s decision by the Indian to set up a high-level committee to investigate the allegations of an assassination attempt by a junior Indian official on Pannun.
“With respect to this specific case, there is an ongoing law enforcement matter at issue here, and we don’t talk about those from this podium. I would defer to the Department of Justice to do that,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in response to a question.
“When this alleged incident was brought to our attention, we made it very clear at the most senior levels of our government to the most senior levels of the Indian government how seriously we would treat something like this. They have opened an investigation into the matter and we look forward to seeing the results of that investigation,” he told reporters at his daily news conference.
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Indian motel manager sentenced for trafficking, forced labor in US
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): A 71-year-old Indian motel manager in the US state of Georgia has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for trafficking a woman for peonage and slavery, and ordered to pay over USD 40,000 in restitution to seven people, officials said.
According to court documents, Shreesh Tiwari, an Indian national and legal US permanent resident, began managing the Budgetel Motel in Cartersville, Georgia, in 2020.
Tiwari hired the woman to work as a maid at the motel and provided her with a room. He was aware that the victim had previously experienced homelessness, struggled with a heroin addiction and lost custody of her young child, the Department of Justice said in a statement. Tiwari promised the victim that he would help her regain custody of her child by providing her with pay, an apartment and an attorney, it said.
However, instead of following through with his promises, Tiwari monitored the victim’s interactions with motel guests and employees and forbade her from speaking to them, federal prosecutors alleged.
He also discouraged the victim from communicating with her family and friends, falsely claiming that they did not care about her, they added. Tiwari made sexual overtures to the victim and often threatened to evict her from the room he provided her at the motel, the prosecutors said.
They said Tiwari also threatened to report the victim’s drug use to law enforcement or child welfare agencies.
Tiwari began to regularly “evict” the victim from her motel room and even locked her out of her room at night without warning, according to the statement.
Ultimately, he required the victim to perform sex acts with him to stay at the motel. If she did not, Tiwari removed her from the property, causing her to be homeless, it added.
“Human trafficking can occur anywhere since traffickers are adept at identifying someone’s vulnerabilities and often fraudulently extend hope to someone looking for an opportunity to improve their dire circumstances,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said.
“Tiwari used his position of power to ruthlessly abuse a victim he knew had already suffered immeasurably,” said US Attorney Ryan K Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia. “The level of this defendant’s callousness is shocking. But we are thankful that our community is now safer, and other potential victims spared… Our office also intends for Tiwari’s prosecution and sentence to provide a stark warning to other traffickers,” he said.
Acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Atlanta said Tiwari preyed upon the victim’s difficult past and fear of homelessness to control and extort her, subjecting her to unspeakable horrors.
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2023 the best year historically for US-India ties: says former top American trade official
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): The relationship between the US and India has been very productive, in particular on the trade and technology front, and 2023 can be considered the best year historically for bilateral ties, according to a former top American trade official. Arun Kumar, an Indian-American, who served as the assistant secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and director general of the US and Foreign Commercial Service (USFCS) during the Obama administration, said this during an interview with PTI here. “Looking back on 2023, it was a very productive year for the US-India relationship, by many accounts the best year historically,” he said.
Currently a managing partner of Celesta, Kumar most recently served as the chairman and CEO of KPMG in India.
“The relationship is on a strong upward trajectory. This is backed by numbers as well. Trade doubled over the last eight years to a level of USD 190 billion in 2022. Major commitments were made by US companies in India – from Apple to Micron,” he said.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, when remote working across the globe became well-accepted, there was a significant increase in the activities of global capability centers based in India, he said.
Both countries seemed to have found an unprecedented congruence of views in a move to make onshore, be it the Modi government’s “Make In India” or the Biden administration’s support of advanced manufacturing in America, to contend with tumult in global supply chains and China’s economic rise, Kumar added.
“The optical high point in 2023 undoubtedly was the state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington in June. This was surrounded by a steady drumbeat of activities advancing the relationship,” he said.
On areas of alignment between the two countries, Kumar said that from a geoeconomics point of view, India and the US are in generally good spots relative to the rest of the world.
The US growth rate has bounced back to pre-Covid levels, unlike in Europe and China where this has not happened, Kumar said, adding that India’s growth rate has picked up, exceeding many estimates, and is among the fastest-growing large economies.
Inflation pressures seem to be easing in both economies, he said.
Kumar said both countries today share some important points of view that result in economic alignment. COVID-19 – and geopolitical tensions – brought into focus for both countries the need for resilience as opposed to only efficiency or cost optimization in supply chains.
They both share a desire to boost manufacturing, for jobs, skills and strategic reasons, he further said.
With over a quarter of the world’s manufacturing being based in China, the need for supply chain diversification brings opportunities for manufacturing to India. The quality of India’s manufacturing capabilities has been steadily advancing and with these kinds of operations, this trend will accelerate, Kumar said.
“Beyond the bilateral relationships, increased alignment was promoted through important multilateral initiatives where both countries have prominent roles. “The Quad configuration began taking on more of an economic dimension. Knowledge sharing and capacity building initiatives were launched in infrastructure, connectivity, technology and financing,” he pointed out. Referring to the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) initiative in May, Kumar said it aims to advance resilience in supply chains, promote clean energy and sustainability, and advance capacity building in a range of areas.
The lofty goal is to promote cooperation, stability, prosperity, development, and peace within the region, he added.
“The I2U2 (India, Israel, the US and the UAE), a framework of four countries working together on economic issues, is worth noting as an example of US-India cooperation. This may temporarily take a back seat considering the current Middle East situation.
“This unique grouping of countries identifies bankable projects with a particular focus on joint investments and new initiatives in water, energy, transportation, space, health, food security, and technology,” Kumar said.
Kumar, who is active in the technology field, said a very important development to note is the rising conviction that technology will play a defining role in deepening the US-India partnership.
The Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) launched in January 2023 is a major milestone in US-India relations. The plan is to mobilize governments, businesses, and academic institutions to collaborate to accomplish the strategic technology partnership, he told PTI.
The stated goal is for the United States and India to foster an open, accessible, and secure technology ecosystem, based on confidence and trust that reinforces our shared values and democratic institutions.
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Indian American Global venture capitalist Deven Parekh nominated to IDFC board
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): President Joe Biden has nominated Deven J. Parekh, a leading Indian American global venture capitalist, to the Board of Directors of the US International Development Finance Corporation for a fresh term of three years.
The White House sent the nomination of Parekh, a Managing Director at Insight Partners, a growth equity investment fund based in New York City, to the Senate Thursday. Parekh was initially nominated as a member of the IDFC board for a term of three years by President Donald Trump in June 2020.
Since joining Insight in 2000, Parekh has made more than 140 investments in enterprise software, data, and consumer internet businesses globally, including in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Australia, according to his White House profile.
In addition to his work at Insight and for the Development Finance Corporation, Parekh serves as a Board Member for the Council on Foreign Relations, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, NYU Langone, the Tisch New York MS Research Center, and the Economic Club of New York.
He has previously served on the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Advisory Board of the US Export-Import Bank, and the Technical Advisory Council of the Federal Communications Commission.
He is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Publicolor, a non-profit organization focused on New York City public schools. In 2021, Parekh received the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award. He is also a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.
Prior to joining Insight, Parekh was a Principal at Berenson Minella & Company, a New York-based merchant banking firm, where he served on the M&A Committee.
He also worked for Blackstone on M&A and other investment activities. Parekh has a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
By statute, the Development Finance Corporation Board of Directors includes four members recommended to the President from Senate and House leadership. Parekh is the nominee recommended by the Senate Majority Leader. -
‘Good, appropriate’: US on India setting up high-level probe in alleged murder attempt on Sikh separatist
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): The US has welcomed as “good and appropriate” India’s decision to announce a high-level probe into its allegations that an Indian official was involved in a foiled plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on American soil and said it is looking forward to seeing the results.
US federal prosecutors on Wednesday, November 29, charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta with working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh extremist who is an American and Canadian citizen. An unnamed Indian official appeared in an indictment filed by US federal prosecutors in a Manhattan court on Wednesday along with the Indian national, who the Department of Justice alleges hired someone in the US to assassinate Pannun.
India on Thursday described as a “matter of concern” the US charging the Indian national with conspiring to kill the Sikh separatist, and asserted that a high-level probe committee will investigate all aspects of the case.
“The government announced today that it was conducting an investigation, and that’s good and appropriate, and we look forward to seeing the results,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters travelling with him in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday, November 30.
Blinken did not give any details about the case, calling it an ongoing legal matter.
“So, you’ll understand I can’t comment on it in detail. I can say that this is something we take very seriously. A number of us have raised this directly with the Indian Government in past weeks,” Blinken said.
Separately, the White House on Thursday also praised New Delhi for setting up its own investigations into the matter and said this will not have an impact on the India-US relationship.
“These allegations in this investigation, (we) take it very seriously.
And we’re glad to see that the Indians are too announcing their own efforts to investigate this. And we’ve been clear that we want to see anybody that’s responsible for these alleged crimes to be held properly accountable,” John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, told reporters at a news conference here.
However, this will not have an impact on the India-US relationship, he said, observing that the US unearthed this plot after the historic visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US in June.
“I want to be careful here that I don’t get ahead of the Department of Justice and talk about an ongoing investigation. I would just say two things. India remains a strategic partner and we’re going to continue to work to improve and strengthen that strategic partnership with India. At the same time, we take this very seriously,” Kirby said in response to a question.
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US issued record 140K visas to Indian students last year: Official
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): As part of the Biden administration’s endeavor to promote people-to-people ties with India, the US issued more than 1,40,000 visas to Indian students last year and is taking several steps to reduce visa appointment wait period. In an interview to PTI, Julie Stufft, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services, said US missions in India worked six, seven days a week to make sure that students could be interviewed before their classes started.
This year, the US made a huge effort to concentrate on the demand coming out of India, she said.
“We are really proud of what we have done in India this year. I think for the first time in history, we set a goal to issue one million visas in India and not only did we accomplish that, but it was done several months in advance. So, the number will go way beyond that. “There are record-setting numbers this year for workers, crew members and students applying in India to come to the United States,” she added.
Stufft further said, “We specifically made sure that we saw the students who were applying coming out of India. India is now the largest source country for foreign students in the United States, as well as many other visa categories. That’s a very important one for us. We have also had a lot of cases where the interview was waived, so no interview for Indian travelers who have previously travelled and are now going back to the US.”
Last year, the US issued a record over 1,40,000 visas to Indian students, she said.
“For students who are applying in India, I would say the biggest thing is that the missions there have worked six, seven days a week to interview students to make sure that everyone can be interviewed before their classes start. The amount of effort and importance that we place on Indian students coming to the US is born out in the visa process. We want to make sure everyone has that chance,” she said. The US, Stufft said, is working on taking several steps to reduce the visa appointment wait time in India, which is still a bit high.
“I hope it will be (coming down) this year, meaning this fiscal year for us. But we are sending huge numbers of officers to India to manage the wait time and move them around the country as needed. I mean, it has gotten much better but it still needs to come down quite a bit,” she said.
“We had a state visit recently. Everyone from the president of course, to Ambassador (Eric) Garcetti and the secretary of state is so committed to making sure that the people-to-people ties between our two countries expand. We are carrying that out in the visa process. So, we really expect more innovations and a much quicker process in the future,” Stufft told PTI. The State Department official said anyone who is interested in travelling to the US for any reason should apply as soon as possible.
“If you are travelling for work-related reasons, there’s another special avenue to use. There is a special channel to use so that business-related visas are also prioritized. Bear with us, I would say as we get through this.
“India is unique because it represents the highest number of visas in several categories. Not just visitors, not just students, not just maritime crew members but highly skilled work. I mean, it is a tremendous demand across the board for us. So, our priority is to get all of those wait times down,” she said.
During a media round table with a group of foreign journalists organized by the Foreign Press Centre, Stufft said the US has issued more than 10.5 million visas in 2023 so far, which is 2 million more than what it had anticipated and is almost hitting the highest-ever level at its overseas missions.
“Half of our overseas missions set their own record for that country for adjudications of visas in that country. We set records for visa adjudication, for work visas and for student visas as well in some (other) categories,” she said.
For 2024, the US is still working very hard on reducing wait times, Stufft said.
“In some overseas locations, we still have very high wait times, some exceeding a year still for one category of visa, which is a first-time visitor, someone who needs an interview for their visa. “All other categories have low wait times globally, but we are very focused on the first-time visitor interview wait times and what’s very interesting to us is that many of the places where we have set records for visa production this year are the same places where we still have really high wait times. This just indicates a very high level of demand and we are going to use this year to really get control of that in these five or six places with very high wait times,” she said.
(Source: PTI) -
Nikki Haley bags big endorsement from PAC backed by powerful Koch brothers
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Indian-American Nikki Haley received a big boost towards her presidential ambition as she landed an endorsement from powerful conservative money bags Koch brother-backed American for Prosperity network. The influential Americans for Prosperity super-PAC on Tuesday said it is endorsing Haley, 51, for president and she is best positioned to beat former president Donald Trump in the primary elections and incumbent President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential elections. “AFP Action is proud to throw our full support behind Nikki Haley, who offers America the opportunity to turn the page on the current political era, to win the Republican primary and defeat Joe Biden next November. Haley will have the full weight and scope of AFP Action’s unmatched grassroots army and resources to help her earn the support of Americans to become the next President of the United States of America,” said Emily Seidel, senior adviser of the group, in a memo.
In a statement, Haley said, “I am honored to have the support of Americans for Prosperity Action, including its millions of grassroots members all across the country.” “AFP Action’s members know that there is too much at stake in this election to sit on the sidelines. This is a choice between freedom and socialism, individual liberty and big government, fiscal responsibility and spiraling debt. We have a country to save, and I am grateful to have AFP Action by our side,” the Republican presidential candidate said.
Notably, Trump continues to be the leading candidate by far in all the opinion polls among Republican primary voters. However, in several opinion polls, Haley, a two-term former governor of South Carolina and former US Ambassador to the UN, is seen defeating Biden in a hypothetical poll.
“AFP Action’s endorsement will put thousands of AFP Action activists and grassroots leaders into the field — with a focus on the early primary states — knocking on doors and urging voters to support Nikki Haley. Additionally, in the coming days, we will launch extensive mail, digital, and connected television campaigns to supplement those on-the-ground efforts,” the memo said. It said Haley has a long track record of empowering people with more freedom and opportunity and supporting policies that favor competition over control.
“As Governor, Haley’s work to expand education opportunities, improve access and lower costs in our healthcare system, and protect freedom and flexibility in our workforce shows she shares our belief that the solutions to our most pressing challenges lie in free people – not heavy-handed government. While we don’t agree with anyone on every issue, Nikki Haley, by far, offers the best opportunity to improve the lives of all Americans,” the memo said.
“The foremost challenge confronting our nation, affecting every American, is the economy. Nikki Haley presents a bold and robust strategy to tackle the inflation that is making everything more expensive for American families – addressing the out-of-control government spending and simplifying the tax code to benefit the American people rather than special interests. Simultaneously, she has the courage to advocate for reforms to an entitlement system that makes promises it can’t keep,” it added.
Seidel said up until this point there have been several candidates that could lead the country forward but their data has now pointed towards Haley as someone who could both lead and win.
“As voters have gotten to know more about her, her favorable ratings, as well as her ballot share, has only increased,” AFP senior adviser Michael Palmer told reporters.
“In these early states and then particularly going into South Carolina and Super Tuesday, it is much easier to define or to craft a narrative around a blank slate which people don’t know about versus a book that’s already written, which is the case with Donald Trump and also the case to a certain extent with Governor DeSantis,” Palmer said. According to The Washington Post, Haley has gained momentum in the Republican primary and has in many ways surpassed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the top alternative to Trump.
“She is pitching herself as the most capable general election candidate, with some polls showing her outperforming rivals against President Biden,” The Daily reported.
The rival DeSantis campaign described AFP’s decision as an endorsement of Trump.
“Every dollar spent on Nikki Haley’s candidacy should be reported as an in-kind to the Trump campaign. No one has a stronger record of beating the establishment than Ron DeSantis, and this time will be no different,” DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo said in a statement.
Former New Jersey governor and GOP presidential aspirant Chris Christie said he doesn’t think voters in Iowa and New Hampshire are going to give a darn who the Koch brothers support.
“They are going to decide who they want to support by listening to us on the ground, in their living rooms, in their schools, in their cafeterias, where we’re all campaigning regularly,” he told Fox News in an interview.
In a statement, Democratic National Committee national press secretary Sarafina Chitika said it is no surprise that the Koch network, architects of Trump’s MAGAnomics agenda, found their match in Haley, who checks all of their boxes — slashing taxes for the ultra-wealthy, gutting social security and Medicare, and ripping healthcare away from millions of Americans.
(Source: PTI) -
Henry Kissinger, secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, dies at 100
WASHINGTON , D.C. (TIP) : Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, November 29, his consulting firm said, according to AP. He was 100.
With his gruff yet commanding presence and behind-the-scenes manipulation of power, Kissinger exerted uncommon influence on global affairs under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, earning both vilification and the Nobel Peace Prize. Decades later, his name still provoked impassioned debate over foreign policy landmarks long past. Kissinger’s power grew during the turmoil of Watergate, when the politically attuned diplomat assumed a role akin to co-president to the weakened Nixon. “No doubt my vanity was piqued,” Kissinger later wrote of his expanding influence. “But the dominant emotion was a premonition of catastrophe.”
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Diaspora panel in US seeks to include extremist Pannun and SFJ on no-fly list
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): A diaspora panel in the US has sought to include designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and his banned organization Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) on the no-fly list for issuing video messages threatening people flying Air India. Participants of a panel discussion “Indians in Canada under Threat of Terror and Hate Crimes”, organized by the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS), a group of Indian-Americans and Indo-Canadians, asserted that it’s time for the governments to take strong action against the separatist Sikh leader from the SFJ.
The SFJ is a US-based organization banned by the Government of India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for its anti-India activities.
In July 2020, Pannun was also declared an “individual terrorist” under the UAPA for promoting secessionism and allegedly encouraging Punjabi Sikh youth to take up arms. “Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has misrepresented freedom of expression for freedom of terror and his allegations against India for the killing of extremist Niggar stirred anti-Indian and anti-Hindu crimes in Canada,” said FIIDS Khanderao Kand.
“His policies seem to be ignoring the threats of extremism which will ultimately adversely impact Canada,” he said. “The panelists questioned why Gurpatwant Pannu and members of SFJ are not on the no-fly list for his threats to travel by Air India, alluding to the 1985 Air India ‘Kanishka’ bombing,” Kand said in a statement.
Observing that historical seeds of hatred were sown by both the British and the Congress Party among Hindus and Sikhs, California-based Sukhi Chahal said the Sikh for Justice did not represent Sikhs as a whole and propagated a distorted and hateful narrative against Hindus and Sikhs.
Chahal urged collective responsibility to dismantle this narrative, engage with the silent Sikh community, and recognize that many Sikhs have fallen victim to the influence of fake Khalistanis who are well-funded and supported by Western states. Ruchi Walia from Canada mentioned the importance of the unity of Hindus and Sikhs, which personifies her own personal story and mission.
Walia expressed concern about the radicalization of young Sikh individuals through the dissemination of incorrect historical information which needs to be corrected. Vijay Jain, spokesperson of Canadian Hindus for Harmony, emphasized the radicals are smaller but loud, suppressing moderate voices, and threatening peace and harmony. He stressed the importance of community and political-level engagement.
Mohan Sonti, a FIIDS analyst, said the current threats to Indians in Canada, particularly from Khalistani terrorists, originated approximately 45 years ago with Pierre Trudeau, the former Prime Minister of Canada and the father of the current premier. Sonti claimed that Pierre Trudeau’s complacency contributed to the growth of Khalistani terrorism, citing the 1985 Kanishka bombing.
The 1985 Kanishka Air India bombing, one of the largest aviation terrorist attacks at the time, saw Boeing 747 — named after the Emperor Kanishka — exploding off the Irish coast, killing all 329 people on board.
The Canada to India via London flight was bombed by a Sikh separatist group in revenge for the 1984 storming of the Golden Temple. Sonti accused subsequent Canadian governments of nurturing and supporting the immigration of Khalistani terrorists, turning it into a significant issue.
Sonti claimed that this support continued to the present day, with prime minister Trudeau openly aligning with Khalistani elements, and criticized Canada for harboring Khalistani terrorists.
(Source: PTI) -
Haley vows to defund the UN ‘as much as possible’ if elected
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, a former United Nations ambassador, vowed Wednesday to defund the U.N. “as much as possible” if elected to the Oval Office, but she stopped short of saying the U.S. should withdraw from the international organization.
Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview pressed Haley on whether she agreed with the statement that the U.N. has been “historically anti-American and antisemitic.” “That’s a true statement,” Haley responded. Hannity pressed her on whether the U.S. would “get out” of the U.N. if she assumed the presidency.
“The only thing is we would defund the U.N. as much as possible. The only reason, Sean, you don’t get out of the U.N. is we’re one country of five that has a veto,” Haley said. “And the number of things we were able to stop China, Russia and Iran from doing with that veto matters, and so you keep bad things from happening. But we don’t have to pay at the level that we’re paying, and we don’t have to be in any of those other organizations.”
Haley, who has previously called the U.N. Human Rights Council “a farce,” said she would pull out of that council and said the U.S. “would certainly not get back into the Paris Climate Agreement” if she were president.
The Trump administration withdrew from the Human Rights Council in 2018, but the Biden administration rejoined it in 2021. The administrations also diverged over the Paris accords. Haley further told Hannity the World Health Organization, a U.N. body, is “bought and paid for by the Chinese.”Haley served as U.N. ambassador during the Trump administration. She is now challenging former President Trump for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination. Trump stands as the Republican front-runner with a significant double-digit lead over his competitors, but Haley has notably risen to second place in some recent polling.
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IRS highlights International Fraud Awareness Week; taxpayers urged to protect against scams, schemes
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): As part of ongoing efforts to protect taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service reminds people that International Fraud Awareness Week serves as an important time to protect personal and financial information from scam artists and tax schemes.
International Fraud Awareness Week, which runs through Nov. 18, is an effort to minimize the impact of fraud through awareness and education. During the special week, the IRS – including the agency’s Office of Fraud Enforcement and IRS Criminal Investigation – continue working to raise awareness of fraud and scams affecting taxpayers across the country.
The IRS continues to encourage individuals, businesses and tax professionals to take time now to know the red flags of a scam, and to ensure defenses are in place to stop scammers and those who promote unscrupulous tax schemes. Although this special week highlights international fraud, the IRS works throughout the year to raise awareness about tax scams and schemes. These efforts range from the annual Dirty Dozen list of tax scams to other tax schemes, including aggressive marketing involving Employee Retention Credit claims. In addition, the IRS, state tax agencies and the nation’s tax industry work together in the Security Summit initiative to protect taxpayers, businesses and the tax system from identity thieves and related scams.
“During this special week, the IRS reminds taxpayers that we are on their side and looking out for them,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “Our work on tax scams and schemes reflects this commitment. IRS employees are working to protect honest taxpayers from scam artists, raising awareness about emerging issues and rooting out the nefarious actors that perpetrate them. With modernization funding in place, the IRS is well positioned to disrupt scams as part of our transformation efforts.”
IRS Office of Fraud Enforcement: Shining a light on fraud
The IRS Office of Fraud Enforcement (OFE) promotes compliance with tax laws by strengthening the IRS response to fraud and mitigating emerging threats. This includes improving fraud detection, identifying areas of high risk, enhancing enforcement and helping develop and submit fraud referrals to IRS Criminal Investigation where appropriate. During International Fraud Awareness Week, the IRS reminds taxpayers to be especially wary of scammers and promoters of bogus tax schemes aimed at reducing taxes or avoiding them altogether.
Many of these tax avoidance schemes are included in the 2023 IRS Dirty Dozen list and often involve unscrupulous asset protection professionals or promoters who lure people into placing their assets in offshore accounts and structures.
These promoters often sell their scams by promising that assets are out of the government’s reach. They may also suggest that digital assets are untraceable and undiscoverable by the IRS and that the transactions are anonymous. In fact, the IRS has a vast array of tools to combat offshore tax evasion, including working with its international treaty partners to identify and track assets, transactions and evidence.
Improper Employee Retention Credit claims
The IRS has seen a high volume of incorrect and improper Employee Retention Credit claims and continues warning taxpayers about them. The ERC, sometimes also called the Employee Retention Tax Credit or ERTC, is a pandemic-related credit for which only certain employers qualify. Credit is not available to individual employees.
Scam promoters are luring people to incorrectly claim the ERC with “offers” online, in social media, on the radio or through unsolicited phone calls, emails and even mailings that look like official government letters but have fake agency names and usually urge immediate action.
These unscrupulous promoters make false claims about their company’s legitimacy and often don’t discuss some key eligibility factors, limitations and income tax implications that affect an employer’s tax return.
It’s important to watch for warning signs such as promoters who say they can quickly determine someone’s eligibility without details, and those who charge up-front fees or a fee based on a percentage of the ERC claimed.
Anyone who incorrectly claims the ERC must pay it back, possibly with penalties and interest.
The only way to claim the ERC is on a federal employment tax return. The IRS continues to warn employers to not fall for aggressive marketing or scams related to the ERC. Employers should first check with their trusted tax professional before submitting an ERC claim, and the IRS has developed a special Employee Retention Credit Eligibility Checklist and Frequently Asked Questions to help people quickly determine if they might be eligible.
As part of a larger effort to protect small businesses and organizations from scams, the Internal Revenue Service created a special withdrawal process to help those who filed an ERC claim and now want to withdraw it. This new withdrawal option allows certain employers that filed an ERC claim but have not yet received, cashed or deposited a refund to withdraw their submission to avoid future repayment, interest and penalties.
The new withdrawal process follows an immediate moratorium, announced by the IRS on Sept. 14, 2023, on processing new ERC claims. The moratorium, which will last until at least the end of this year, follows concerns about ineligible ERC claims.
Know the red flags
IRS impersonation scams involve fake text messages, social media accounts, e-mail and phone calls. Knowing what to watch out for can help keep taxpayers safe.
Remember, the IRS does not:
Initiate unexpected contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information. Scammers attempt to use these methods of contact to con individuals, businesses, payroll and tax professionals into providing personal information, PINs, passwords and other data.
If a taxpayer receives an unsolicited SMS/text that appears to be from either the IRS or a program closely linked to the IRS, the taxpayer should copy the entire message and send it as an attachment to phishing@irs.gov.
Call to demand immediate payment using a specific payment method such as a prepaid debit card, gift card or wire transfer. The IRS does not use these methods for tax payments. Threaten to immediately bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have the taxpayer arrested for not paying.
Demand that taxes be paid without giving the taxpayer the opportunity to question or appeal the amount owed.
Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
Leave pre-recorded, urgent or threatening phone messages.
In many variations of the phone scam, victims are told if they do not call back, a warrant will be issued for their arrest. Other verbal threats include law-enforcement agency intervention, deportation or revocation of licenses.
Criminals can fake or “spoof” caller ID numbers to appear to be anywhere in the country, including from an IRS office, which makes it difficult for taxpayers to verify the actual caller’s number.
Fraudsters have spoofed local sheriff’s offices, state departments of motor vehicles, federal agencies and others to convince taxpayers the call is legitimate. Any taxpayer receiving a scam phone call should hang up immediately and not give out any information.
Contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to report the call at IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting. Report the caller ID and/or callback number to the IRS by sending it to phishing@irs.gov with the subject “IRS Phone Scam.”
Watching for these common scams can keep people from becoming victims of identity theft. Individuals should protect their sensitive personal information that can be used to file fraudulent tax returns and steal refunds.
Small businesses are big targets
Businesses of all types and sizes, especially small businesses, need to be aware cybercriminals could target their businesses with scams to steal passwords, divert funds or steal employee information. The IRS continues to see instances where small businesses, including tax professionals, face a variety of identity-theft related schemes that try to obtain information to file a business tax return or use customer data for identity theft.
Businesses, including tax professionals, are encouraged to follow best practices from the Federal Trade Commission, including to:
Use multi-factor authentication.
Set security software to update automatically.
Back up important files.
Require strong passwords for all devices.
Encrypt devices.
In partnership with the IRS, the Security Summit initiative is at the forefront of protecting taxpayers, businesses and the tax system from identity thieves. Working together as the Security Summit, the IRS, state tax agencies and the nation’s tax industry have taken numerous steps to warn people to watch out for common scams and schemes.
Report fraud
To report an abusive tax scheme or a tax return preparer, people should mail or fax a completed Form 14242, Report Suspected Abusive Tax Promotions or Preparers, and any supporting materials to the IRS Lead Development Center.
Mail:
Internal Revenue Service Lead Development Center
Stop MS5040
24000 Avila Road
Laguna Niguel, California 92677-3405
Fax: 877-477-9135
Alternatively, taxpayers and tax practitioners may send the information to the IRS Whistleblower Office for possible monetary reward.
For more information, see Abusive Tax Schemes and Abusive Tax Return Preparers.
Resources
Tax Scams and Consumer Alerts on IRS.gov.
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George Santos faces new motion to expel him from Congress
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Rep. George Santos will face a third vote to oust him from Congress the week after Thanksgiving as a growing number of lawmakers say they will back a new expulsion motion filed Friday, November 17, a day after the release of a scathing House Ethics Committee report, Newsday reported.
Santos (R-Nassau/Queens), in an interview with Newsday Friday, November 17, defended some of the expenses cited in the report — such as payments for Botox treatments — accusing his former campaign treasurer of telling him the purchases were considered campaign expenses. His assertions came hours after House Ethics Committee Chairman Mike Guest (R-Miss.) on Friday filed a motion to expel Santos that is expected to start the process to require a vote within two legislative days when the House reconvenes on Nov. 28.
Santos survived one expulsion vote on May 16, initiated by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and another on Nov. 1 on a measure sponsored by Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park), but he may not dodge the third try after the release Thursday of a detailed and damning Ethics Committee report.
A growing number of lawmakers who voted previously against expelling him say Santos no longer should be a member of the House after release of the 55-page report that laid out the case that Santos exploited his position for personal gain. Only five House members have been expelled — three for disloyalty in the Civil War era and two after being convicted of criminal activity. It takes two-thirds of those voting to approve a motion to expel, a high hurdle considering that Santos would be the first to be expelled while indicted but before conclusion of a trial.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who had raised concerns about ousting Santos because of the slim Republican House majority and Santos’ due process rights, issued a statement Thursday night that did not discourage his Republican conference from ousting Santos.
“As members from both parties, members of the Ethics Committee and Representative Santos return to Congress after the Thanksgiving break, Speaker Johnson encourages all involved to consider the best interests of the institution as this matter is addressed further,” Johnson spokesman Raj Shah said.
At least three of the House Ethics Committee members — Guest (R-Miss.), Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) and Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), the ranking member — said they would vote to expel Santos.
“I think the fact that the Republican Ethics Committee chairman not only supports expulsion, but is leading the resolution to do it, is a good indicator that for some of my more senior colleagues following suit,” said Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville). Also, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-N.C.), who were among the 31 Democrats who voted against expelling Santos earlier this month, said Thursday they would now vote to force him out of the House. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said Thursday on MSNBC he would vote to expel Santos after having voted against expulsion earlier this month. Possibly easing concern over losing a Republican vote by expelling Santos is the special election on Tuesday to fill the House’s only current vacant seat in a majority Republican district in Utah, which could maintain the Republicans’ current eight-vote majority. After the report came out, Santos said he would not run for reelection.
Santos, who faces trial in U.S. District Court in Central Islip in September on a 23-count federal criminal indictment, complained in a social media post Thursday about allegations in the Ethics Committee report about issues such as misuse of campaign funds. Santos has denied all the federal charges. “What the ‘ethics committee’ did today was not part of due process, what they did was poison a the (sic) jury pool on my ongoing investigation with the DOJ. This was a dirty biased act and one that tramples all over my rights,” Santos wrote.
Santos told Newsday on Friday that several of the charges were campaign related, but never reported to the Federal Elections Commission by his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks of Shirley.
Asked about the $1,500 in charges for Botox cited in the ethics panel’s report, Santos said he was advised by Marks the cosmetic procedure was considered a campaign expense because it was “to keep fresh because of a campaign.” “I’ve always gotten my Botox on myself, I’ve always paid it out of my pocket, but then during the campaign, she told us it was covered,” Santos said.
Marks’ attorney, Ray Perini, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Friday.
Asked about a $12 expense for the OnlyFans adult website, Santos said the charge was made on his business credit card, not his campaign credit card. He denied making the charge and said he was looking into who was behind it.
“It wasn’t put there because it was significant, it was put there to smear me,” Santos said.
He said he would respond in further detail to the report at a Nov. 30 news conference on the U.S. Capitol steps — which could coincide with the vote to expel him.