TV Martí executive admits taking kickbacks

[Mika]

TV Martí executive admits taking kickbacks
A former executive for a U.S. government-run
broadcasting station pleaded guilty to failing
to report more than $100,000 in kickbacks.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/16692632.htm

A TV Martí executive charged with failing to disclose about $112,000 in kickbacks he pocketed from a video vendor pleaded guilty Tuesday in Miami federal court.

Jose M. Miranda, nicknamed ''Chema,'' accepted about 73 checks from Perfect Image Film and Video Productions from November 2001 to December 2004 while the vendor was doing business with the TV Martí operation.

Miami-based TV Martí is part of the federal government's Office of Cuba Broadcasting, a taxpayer-funded television network that attempts to beam news and other programming into Cuba.

-

According to federal records obtained by The Miami Herald through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting paid at least $239,000 to Perfect Image from 2001 to 2006.

Perfect Image is among dozens of companies that have been contracted by the broadcasting office over the past few years, federal records show. Since 2001, the agency has paid at least $3.3 million to outside vendors.

Part of the anti Cuba gravy train - on our (US taxpayer) dime.

[UpInArms]

1. lying down with dogs and waking up with fleas

is what comes to mind.

a propaganda station pushing bullshit propaganda cannot, in a real world, have honor or honesty in any of the parties involved.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Business as usual all across America, and the world, is what comes

to my mind.

[Missy M]

2. What a waste of taxpayers money.....

most of the propaganda they attempt to beam into Cuba is blocked. We pay that guy $103,000 a year to broadcast so called news that never reaches anyone.

[Mika]

4. Cubans can tune into all the antiCastro TV and radio from Miami, if they want to.

Cubans can get most all of the TV and Radio out of S Florida, the Bahamas, Jamaica, PR, Honduras, etc.

Been there. Seen it.

[Missy M]

5. As long as it's not on the taxpayers dollar!

[Mika]

6. Cubans in Cuba don't need Marti. They have access to US propaganda.

My post was to illustrate that Cubans aren't deprived of information from the outside.

TV & Radio Marti are simply the method of payola, money laundering, campaign funding, and scams to benefit the corrupt factions of the anti Castro exile community in Miami.

[Judi Lynn]

10. It would be delightful to see that pork black hole removed from their greedy, sticky pudgey fingers.

They had a $27,000,000.00 budget in 2006, as well as an additional $10,000,000.00 to set up the new equipment for beaming from a satellite.

They handle all the money, design, create all the programming, choose all the staff, make all the decisions conerning the daily operations. It's their little pork heaven on earth.

They need to lose that pork, and return that money to the U.S. taxpayers.

Democratic Congressman David Skaggs from Colorado tried to get 'er done years ago, and he infuriated gnarly Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart that he threatened him nose to nose, then waged a war on Skaggs' projects for Colorado, got them all axed, and with the help of the Cuban American National Foundation, took out ads in all the large Colorado newspapers informing Colorado voters that Skaggs had lost their projects, and Skaggs lost his next election.

It's time the voters got to have the last word on Radio/TV Marti.



Congressman and woman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, with Elián Gonzalez.

These two idiots have hauled their Cuban "exile" fathers over to Radio Marti to become permanent Cuban fixtures there, offering their exalted opinion on everything known to mankind, over and over, for years. It's time the American taxpayers stopped footing the bill. The last thing in the world Cubans want to hear is the voices of some old farts they can't stand, and kicked out of office in Cuba, yammering back at them from Miami.

[Mudoria]

16. Unless it's on the Internet..

[tanyev]

3. Funny how so many Republicans, who have apoplectic fits over entitlement programs,

have no problem with breaking the law to put even more money into their own pockets. Maybe that's the real reason they hate government programs so much. When programs are privatized it's easier to divert the money to themselves.

[Mika]

7. Unfortunately, its not just repukes..

.. the Dems play at the appropriations-for-votes game also.

[tanyev]

12. Yes, that's true, but at least they are not trying to do away with all govt social programs.

[Judi Lynn]

11. I'm sure you're right. It fits the pattern, doesn't it? n/t

[burrowowl]

8. I'm shocked I tell you shocked!

:sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

13. (Democratic) U.S. Rep. wants investigation into Office of Cuban Broadcasting

U.S. Rep. wants investigation into Office of Cuban Broadcasting
By Laura Wides-Munoz, Associated Press

December 21, 2006

Rep. William Delahunt has called for a congressional investigation into the U.S. Office of Cuban Broadcasting, following its decision to air anti-Castro programming aimed at Cuban audiences on local Spanish-language TV and radio stations.

Delahunt, D-Mass., said Wednesday he was also concerned about the recent indictment of a senior executive at the broadcasting office, as well as other allegations of mismanagement at its Radio and TV Marti stations.

"Is the investment of taxpayers dollars in Radio and TV Marti a worthwhile investment for the American taxpayer? Does it accomplish anything? And is it being mismanaged?" said Delahunt, who recently returned from a bipartisan congressional fact-finding trip to Cuba and favors ending the U.S. embargo of the communist island.

U.S. law generally prohibits government broadcasting aimed at foreign audiences from airing within the country to avoid the appearance of government propaganda. But the law allows for the broadcasting of Radio Marti if Cuba jams its signal there. TV Marti can be aired on local airwaves if done so inadvertently in an effort to reach the Caribbean island.
(snip)

John Nichols, a Pennsylvania State University professor of communications who specializes in international broadcasting, said the broadcast may not technically violate the law, "but they're certainly in violation of the spirit of the law."

He noted that the Marti stations' budgets have grown over the last two decades despite a series of government reports criticizing them. The Office of Cuban Broadcasting received $37 million in federal funds this year.

"It's as if the Office of Cuban Broadcasting is the Teflon industry," he said.
(snip/)

http://www.citizensforethics.org/press/pressclip.php?view=4598

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

U.S. Senator introduces bill that would put an end to anti-Cuba propaganda and repeal Cuba travel ban.
Yesterday, U.S. Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate (S. 554) that would "stop providing Federal funding for TV Marti broadcasts into Cuba that are jammed and therefore are not watched by their intended recipients. This provision would save U.S. taxpayers an estimated $100 million in the next half decade."

S. 554 would also "lift the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens. Repealing this obsolete and ineffective restriction on travel to Cuba would raise an estimated $1 billion in U.S. tax revenues over five years from increased U.S. business activity."
(snip/)

http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/search/label/TV%20Marti

[Judi Lynn]

14. FORMER DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS OF TV MARTI INDICTED ON CONFLICT OF INTEREST CHARGES

FORMER DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS OF TV MARTI INDICTED ON CONFLICT OF INTEREST CHARGES
November 17, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Howard Krongard, Inspector General, U. S. Department of State, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, announced today that defendant, Jose M. Miranda, a/k/a "Chema," was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami, for unlawfully participating in government matters in which he had a financial interest, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 208. Miranda was also charged with making false representations to the U.S. government, in that he falsely reported no outside income in financial disclosure reports filed with the government, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001. The defendant made his initial appearance in federal court today, and was released on a $250,000 personal surety bond.

Defendant Miranda was Programs Director at TV Marti. As such, Miranda was responsible for the selection and acquisition of programs for broadcast at TV Marti. As part of his duties, the defendant was involved in the approval of payment for programs, features, supporting materials, supplies, and in the selection of vendors, contractors, and suppliers at TV Marti.

TV Marti is operated by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), a component of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB). The IBB provides administrative and engineering support for United States government-funded non-military international broadcast services. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent federal agency responsible for all United States government and government sponsored, non-military, international broadcasting, supervises the IBB.

According to Count 1 of the Indictment, defendant Miranda participated personally and substantially as a Government officer and employee through decision, approval, and otherwise, in particular matters in which he had a financial interest. Specifically, the Indictment alleges that the defendant personally received more than $100,000 from Perfect Image Film and Video Productions, a vendor that was doing business with TV Marti. Miranda was accepting these monies during the same time that he approved requisitions and invoices for services rendered by Perfect Image to TV Marti.
(snip/...)

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/PressReleases/061117-04.html

[Judi Lynn]

15. Marti Madness

November 18, 2006
Marti Madness
Filed under: Uncategorized

It’s hard not to laugh. On the same weekend that the Miami Herald publishes a corporate-induced appeasement to readers and newsroom staffers still angry at the firing (and of company’s reporters who took payments from the TV and Radio Marti propaganda stations, a senior executive at Marti was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly taking $100,000 in kickbacks.

Somebody wipe up that irony, it’s dripping all over the place.

For some hare-brained reason, I had high hopes for Clark Hoyt’s review of the Miami Herald’s coverage of the reporters who moonlighted for Marti. It’s running in tomorrow’s edition, but Editor & Publisher got an advance copy that can be read here.

The Herald hired Hoyt to help heal the newsroom after three reporters were fired from its Spanish-language sister El Nuevo Herald after it was revealed they took money from Marti, a U.S. government-run anti-Castro station beamed onto the Cuban island. Think of Hoyt as a journo-analyst, a man hired to find the root psychological problems in the newsroom and make them all better.

In his report, Hoyt writes that reporter Oscar Corral’s stories “raised a serious and legitimate issue,” an observation that should elicit a resounding and collective “duh” from the world. Then he starts with the appeasement. When Clark lists the “flaws” of the story, his No. 1 is as follows:

“Its placement at the top of Page One, its hard and accusatory tone and the large and breathless headline suggested something more sinister than the story actually reported. The subjects of the story said they felt treated as though they were criminals.”

Guess what? They are criminals — well, journalistic criminals, anyway. Any reporter who takes money from a propaganda station should expect to be fired and drummed out of the business forever (hey, they’d find suitable work, they’re already obvious experts at P.R.). So how does Clark, who obviously knows the truth of the previous sentence, rationalize the reporters’ actions?
(snip)

But you have to wonder if the Marti executive who allegedly took those kickbacks, Jose M. Miranda, will fall back on the same justifications listed in Clark’s report. You can almost hear him now:

“Your honor, I am of the Latin American culture, where kickbacks are business as usual. It’s a way of life, sir, so why should I be judged by your harsh U.S. standards? Also, I believe in the Marti mission — propaganda is in my soul, sir. I’ve lost all ability to think for myself, so, really, what do you expect …”
(snip/...)

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/blogs/?p=455