White House considering new immigration order

WASHINGTON -- The White House confirmed Sunday it is considering issuing a new order on immigration now that President Donald Trump's travel ban has been halted as it makes its way through the courts.

"Right now we are considering and pursuing all options," presidential aide Stephen Miller told Fox television.

He said the next step would be either filing an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, defending the merits of the order in lower courts or issuing a new one.

"The president's powers here are beyond question," said Miller, who is considered one of the driving forces behind Trump's first actions on immigration.

Miller insisted the president has the power to keep some people from entering the United States.

"We are contemplating new and additional actions to ensure that immigration is not a vehicle for admitting people into our country that are hostile to its nation and its values," Miller said.

The order that Trump issued abruptly on January 27 halts resettlement of all refugees for 120 days and that of Syrian refugees indefinitely.

It also bars for 90 days the entry of nationals from seven mainly Muslim countries.

A federal judge in Seattle issued a stay against the order on February 3. Then a three judge appeals panel in San Francisco voted unanimously last week against reinstating Trump's ban. Among other things, it rejected the argument that the president's actions in the area of immigration cannot be reviewed by the courts.

The Trump ban was supposed to be in place while the government comes up with a new system of so-called "extreme vetting" of people seeking entry visas. This could include checks on their social media accounts, according to John Kelly, the secretary of homeland security.

"Our immigration system should not be a vehicle for admitting people who have anything but love in their hearts for this nation and this constitution," said Miller, who is 31.

"It is a message that I want the world to hear today. This country will protect its borders. It will protect its people," Miller said.

The idea of the White House issuing a modified immigration order that would survive scrutiny in the courts does not convince Democrats, who from the outset have charged that Trump's order is simply anti-Muslim and plays into the hands of extremists.

"It will be used as a recruitment for terrorist organizations. It will put Americans at greater risk traveling abroad," said Democratic Senator Ben Cardin.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Texas tycoons hid $550 M in profits offshore, U.S. tells jury

NEW YORK -- Texas tycoons Sam and Charles Wyly employed a labyrinthine system of offshore trusts to conceal stock trades in four companies on whose boards they sat, netting themselves more than $550 million in undisclosed profits, a U.S. government lawyer told a federal jury on Thursday.

"This is a case about lies, deception and fraud," said Bridget Fitzpatrick, a lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, at the start of a civil trial in New York against Sam Wyly and the estate of his late brother, Charles.

The SEC has accused the Wylys of concealing stock trading from 1992 to 2004 in Sterling Software Inc, Michaels Stores Inc, Sterling Commerce Inc, and Scottish Annuity & Life Holdings Ltd through the use of more than a dozen trusts and 40 different entities in the Isle of Man.

But Stephen Susman, a defense attorney for the Wylys, told the jury that the brothers relied on an "army of lawyers" to tell them what they were legally required to do and never intended to violate any securities law.

"The Wylys acted in complete good faith - the exact opposite of being a liar and fraudster, as charged by the SEC," he said during his opening statement.

The trial, which follows years of litigation and investigation of the Wylys by the SEC, is the latest test of the regulator's ability to win verdicts against individuals, following a recent series of losses in fraud and insider trading cases.

The jury of eight women and four men will be asked to decide whether the Wylys controlled the securities held in the offshore system, as the government claims, or whether trustees had sole power to sell the stock, as the Wylys contend.

In her opening statement to the jury, Fitzpatrick argued that every transaction in the offshore entities originated as a "recommendation" from the Wylys that was effectively a command.

"The Isle of Man trustees were not independent," she said. "They did everything the Wylys wanted."

Susman, however, pointed to language in the trust contracts that granted the trustees authority over stock sales.

According to the government, the brothers sold more than $750 million of stock in the four companies, while failing to disclose that such transactions had occurred. They used the proceeds to buy everything from jewelry for their wives to a horse ranch in Dallas, Fitzpatrick said.

Susman told the jury he did not dispute that the trades occurred and that they used the profits to buy various items. But, he said, the trusts were created to protect assets and reduce tax liabilities, not to hide anything from the SEC.

The trial will feature testimony from several people involved in operating the offshore system, including the Wylys' former lawyer, Michael French. French will appear as a government witness after reaching a deal this month to settle charges against him by paying $794,609 and admitting to aiding in the Wylys' alleged scheme.

The 79-year-old Wyly will also take the stand, though his lawyers have indicated he will only testify for up to two hours at a time due to unspecified medical issues. Charles Wyly died in a 2011 car crash.

The SEC has also accused the Wylys of earning $31.7 million from insider trading of Sterling Software.

The jury will not consider those charges. Once the jury phase is over, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin will preside over a second proceeding on the insider trading claims.

The trial comes after several recent upsets for the SEC in other fraud and insider trading cases, most prominently in October when a jury cleared Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, of insider trading.

The case is SEC v. Wyly et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-05760.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com