On Mon, Feb 10, 2025 at 10:03:56AM -0500, Gunnar Larson wrote:
> https://wallstreetonparade.com/2025/02/after-tech-geeks-built-a-back-door-to-loot-billions-from-ftx-republicans-refuse-to-investigate-what-elon-musks-tech-squad-did-inside-the-u-s-treasurys-payment-system/
>
>
> By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: February 10, 2025 ~
>
> Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
> Elon Musk
>
> It was just two years ago that bold headlines were swirling around the
> world that young techies with degrees from top American universities had
> engineered one of the most brazen frauds in U.S. history, including
> building a backdoor to a computer system that allowed billions of dollars
> to be looted from customer accounts at crypto exchange FTX.
>
> Despite this recent reminder that anyone with access to large sums of other
> people???s money requires constant and competent policing, President Donald
> Trump has allowed the insanely greedy Elon Musk to send young techies into
> the U.S. Treasury Department and access its $6 trillion payment systems.
> The tech news website, Wired, has provided in-depth coverage of insider
> allegations that one of those Musk techies, Marko Elez, was given
> administrative access, meaning that he could write and alter code in the
> Treasury payment system.
>
> Last Tuesday, Wired reported the following:
>
> ???Despite reporting that suggests that Musk???s so-called Department of
> Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force has access to these Treasury
> systems on a ???read-only??? level, sources say Elez???has many
> administrator-level privileges. Typically, those admin privileges could
> give someone the power to log in to servers through secure shell access,
> navigate the entire file system, change user permissions, and delete or
> modify critical files. That could allow someone to bypass the security
> measures of, and potentially cause irreversible changes to, the very
> systems they have access to.
>
> ??? ???You could do anything with these privileges,??? says one source with
> knowledge of the system, who adds that they cannot conceive of a reason
> that anyone would need them for purposes of simply hunting down fraudulent
> payments or analyzing disbursement flow.???
>
> Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo confirmed Wired???s reporting, adding
> alarming new details. Marshall wrote: ???I???m told that Elez and possibly
> other DOGE operatives received full admin-level access on Friday, January
> 31st. The claim of ???read only??? access was either false from the start or
> later fell through. The DOGE team, which appears to be mainly or only Elez
> for the purposes of this project, has already made extensive changes to the
> code base for the payment system.???
>
> Despite this reporting, which also aired on major television news programs,
> Republicans on the House Oversight Committee quashed a demand from
> Democrats to subpoena Musk to testify before the Committee concerning the
> activities of his tech geek squad operating inside federal agencies.
>
> Congressional Republicans, who are the majority party at present in both
> the House and Senate, appear to be so fearful of earning the wrath of
> Donald Trump that they are seemingly willing to let the U.S. Treasury
> payment system be potentially hacked rather than ask probing questions in a
> timely fashion.
>
> This head in the sand attitude among Republican ???lawmakers??? forced 19 state
> Attorneys General to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the
> Southern District of New York on Friday, asserting that people associated
> with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) were allowed ???to access
> Americans??? personal and private information, including bank account and
> social security numbers.??? The lawsuit sought to ???halt improper access to
> this sensitive information while litigation proceeds.???
>
> California Attorney General Rob Bonta released this statement regarding the
> lawsuit:
>
> ???President Trump???s and the Treasury Department???s actions to allow DOGE
> access to Americans??? private information is chilling and unconstitutional ???
> and Americans are paying attention. Millions entrust the federal government
> to carry out vital operations that people rely on every day. In doing so,
> we also entrust them with our sensitive and personal information. This
> week???s action is a breach of that trust and a gross and blatant power grab.
> The President does not hold the power to give Americans??? bank account and
> social security numbers to anyone he???d like. I am proud to stand with
> attorneys general around the country to demand the immediate halt to this
> violation of both trust and law.???
>
> In addition to the California Attorney General, AGs from the following
> states signed on as plaintiffs: New York, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut,
> Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
> Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and
> Wisconsin.
>
> You can read the full complaint here.
>
> On Saturday, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction
> against further access by DOGE to Treasury payment systems and set a court
> hearing on the matter for this Friday.
>
> The Judge???s action sent Elon Musk into a rage on X (Twitter), where he
> called for the Judge to be impeached.
>
> Trump has regularly attempted to create the narrative that Elon Musk is a
> genius that the American people are fortunate to have working to eliminate
> fraud and waste in federal agencies under this Trump concoction called DOGE.
>
> The unfortunate reality is that Musk is a serial grifter with a history of
> tawdry and illegal acts. Musk previously battled in court to obtain a $56
> billion pay package at Tesla. (That???s billion not million.) Tesla is a
> publicly-traded company and Musk is its CEO ??? meaning that under law he
> owes an oath of loyalty to the company and its shareholders.
> Notwithstanding that law, Musk simultaneously serves as CEO of rocket and
> satellite company, SpaceX, and controls numerous other companies.
>
> In January and February of last year, Musk was profiled in two shocking
> Wall Street Journal articles regarding his use of illegal drugs. The Wall
> Street Journal???s January 6, 2024 (paywall) article carried this assessment
> of Musk???s drug use:
>
> ???The world???s wealthiest person has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and
> psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties around the world, where
> attendees sign nondisclosure agreements or give up their phones to enter,
> according to people who have witnessed his drug use and others with
> knowledge of it. Musk has previously smoked marijuana in public and has
> said he has a prescription for the psychedelic-like ketamine.???
>
> In October, five Wall Street Journal reporters dropped the bombshell news
> that Musk ???has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir
> Putin since late 2022.??? In February of 2022, the U.S. placed Putin on a
> sanction list in response to his ???unjustified, unprovoked, and premeditated
> invasion of Ukraine???.???
>
> Musk has also been the target of multiple cases brought by the Securities
> and Exchange Commission which allege that he violated federal securities
> laws at Tesla and Twitter (now called X). See here and here.
>
> Despite this profile of an out-of-control, obscenely rich bully attempting
> to seize power, he and his techies continue to move into more federal
> agencies.
>
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--
  Dave Emery N1PRE/AE, die@dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493
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