Only now after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad does Washington come clean about the actual number of American troops it has in Syria.

On Thursday, the Pentagon revealed it has roughly 2,000 troops occupying northeast Syria, home to the country’s vital supply of oil and gas, which is over twice the number it has been officially disclosing for years.

US military spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said this has been the figure for a “while”—apparently long before the dramatic events of this month. Ryder claimed the he had just “learned” the true troop number.

“As you know, we have been briefing you regularly that there are approximately 900 US troops deployed to Syria. In light of the situation in Syria and the significant interest, we recently learned that those numbers were higher, and so asked to look into it. I learned today that in fact there are approximately 2,000 US troops in Syria,” he said.

He then tried to pass off the discrepancy as merely a distinction between the 900 long term deployments and those forces rotating in on a more temporary basis.

“As I understand it and as it was explained to me, these additional forces are considered temporary rotational forces that deploy to meet shifting mission requirements, whereas the core 900 deployers are on longer-term deployments,” Ryder said.

The Pentagon and CENTCOM have also recently been reviving talk of the ‘counter-ISIS’ mission as justification for keeping the US occupation ongoing. This even as NATO member Turkey has been seeking to drive out the Kurdish-led SDF from northern Syria, which the US backs.

The Biden administration has also this week said it is in direct contact with designated terror organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which holds Damascus and major cities. 

Obviously this is some absurd gaslighting of the American public by the Pentagon. The question remains: why reveal it now?

How does the Pentagon “recently learn” that it has more than double the number of US troops in Syria than it claimed to have a day earlier? pic.twitter.com/fydxpWcNqT

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) December 20, 2024

The US is likely to use its possession of the oil and gas fields in Deir Ezzor, which was previously vital to meeting the Syrian population’s domestic consumption needs, as leverage to get HTS leadership to fall in line with Washington’s agenda for the region.

The US had long occupied the energy fields in the first place in order to tighten the economic blockade noose around Assad’s neck, but ultimately it is the common people who suffer most.

On Friday for the first time top Biden administration envoys met with Abu Mohammed al-Jolani in Damascus. Ironically the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader, who has reverted to going by his birth name of Ahmad al-Sharaa, is wanted by the FBI for terrorism and still has a $10 million bounty on his head.

That didn’t stop Barbara A. Leaf, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and a Biden admin delegation from meeting with the HTS leader in Damascus, where they discussed sanctions, the thorny issue of the $10 million reward, and locating missing US citizens in Syria (specifically journalist Austin Tice).

HTS leader who has a $10 million bounty on his head meets with delegation from country that put the $10 million bounty on his head pic.twitter.com/u0TYh9PWqP

— Hassan Ridha (@sayed_ridha) December 20, 2024

Jolani is trying to present himself as a “moderate”. Perhaps this is why for one of the first times he allowed himself to be photographed alongside a woman without a head-covering.

He and HTS are trying to attract Western legitimacy and support, and so have pledged to uphold the rights of women and non-Muslim religious communities (such as Christians, Alawites, Druze, etc.) 

In the aftermath of the Friday meeting a member of the US delegation called it “good and productive.” This marked the first trip to Damascus by State Department officials in over a decade. 

American diplomats had long refused to meet with the now ousted President Bashar al-Assad, yet now they quickly flock to the Syrian capital to embrace someone who literally fought with ISIS a mere few years ago.

The US had shuttered its embassy in Damascus and relocated its diplomatic staff by 2012, in protest of the Assad ‘regime’. All the while US intelligence had ramped up its covert operations for regime change known as ‘Timber Sycamore’.

The NY Times had previously described of these efforts, “The shuttering of the C.I.A. program, one of the most expensive efforts to arm and train rebels since the agency’s program arming the mujahedeen in Afghanistan during the 1980s, has forced a reckoning over its successes and failures.”

Reporter: Is $10,000,000 for Jolani still valid?

Miller: It is

Reporter: So if someone arrested him and gave him to US, he/she is gonna take 10 million dollars

Miller: I’m not gonna deal with hypotheticals

Matt Lee: The reward can’t be claimed by a government official… pic.twitter.com/Z1H5ka10pv

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) December 17, 2024

Now, with apparently mission accomplished, and Assad in Moscow, the US is returning its diplomatic presence to Damascus, perhaps permanently. 

For the Friday meeting between the US officials and Jolani, Leaf was “accompanied by former U.S. envoy to Syria Daniel Rubinstein who will stay in Syria as the top U.S. diplomat on the ground.” Clearly, Washington is now OK with Syria being run by an al-Qaeda faction, and as Israeli and Turkey divide up the territorial spoils in the south and north.

For the first time since the Great Financial Crisis (2008/9), short-dated Chinese bond yields have plunged back below 1%. In fact they are now at record lows…

Source: Bloomberg

As we head into the end of the year, impatient investors are left waiting for a real plan to underwrite consumption (as yields melt inexorably lower), and capital flight accelerates (spurred by concerns about yuan weakness). China suffered a record fund exit last month under the category of securities investment, according to official data released this week.

The drop in one-year yields reflects “prevailing expectations for PBOC’s strong easing next year amid the moderately loose policy and the shortage of high quality fixed-income assets,” said Ken Cheung, chief Asian foreign-exchange strategist at Mizuho Bank in Hong Kong.

“Such developments could intensify concerns over US-China monetary policy divergence, and reinforce yuan depreciation pressure.”

Demand for shorter-maturity debt is also rising after the central bank pushed back against the bond-buying frenzy, prompting traders to shift away from longer-dated securities that are more exposed to the risk of intervention.

Shorter-dated bonds may be benefiting from several factors, including ample liquidity and the central bank’s operation of “buying short-term government bonds and selling some longer-dated notes,” said Zhaopeng Xing, a senior strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.

While the PBOC’s operations may have contributed to the front-end rally, the slide in yields “looks quite extreme,” said Zhaopeng Xing, a senior strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.

That’s because yields have fallen below the level of about 1.1% paid by banks for deposits that are often used to buy bonds, he said.

However, as Bloomberg reports, some analysts at least are warning the bond rally may be nearing its end.

A pickup in economic growth, along with a shift in consumer savings behavior and a more cautious-than-expected PBOC policy, may turn the bond bull run into a rout next year, said Adam Wolfe, an emerging markets economist at Absolute Strategy Research in London.

“China’s bond market likely overstates the easing that’s expected.”

The decline in yields is spurring debate about whether China’s economy is heading toward a recession… especially if Trump’s tariff threats become real and not just a negotiating tactic.

There’s some speculation interest rates may fall to zero if government efforts to bolster consumption and property demand continue to fall short.

The nation’s longer-maturity yields dropped below their Japanese counterparts last month in a sign investors are positioning for so-called Japanification of the world’s second-biggest economy.

Watch Live German News

Watch Live UK News

*   *   *

Update (1556ET):

AFP News reports that 60 to 80 people were injured when a car rammed through a Christmas market in Germany. There is no official word regarding fatalities.

Reportedly the footage of the arrest. https://t.co/uVrKGIq5zu pic.twitter.com/brBhSMD19V

— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 20, 2024

*   *   *

Update (1540ET):

There are a lot of casualty numbers being thrown out on X. 

According to German news outlet MDR News:

“At least one person is dead and several people are injured. A large number of rescue workers are deployed. The suspected driver of the car has been arrested. An overview of the latest developments.” 

Overview of the Christmas market:

Shocking video…

JUST IN: At least one car plows through a large crowd of people at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.

The driver of the car was arrested.

Local reports say that many people are injured. It’s unclear how many have d*ed.

“A vehicle drove through the Christmas market… pic.twitter.com/UY6jsA5n0L

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 20, 2024

*   *   *

Panic erupted at a popular Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on Friday evening after a vehicle plowed through the market. Details remain scant, but such incidents have become all too familiar around Christian holidays, often involving vehicle or knife attacks.

“A state of emergency currently prevails at the Magdeburg Christmas market. According to eyewitnesses, numerous people fled the market area in panic. A vehicle is said to have driven into the crowd,” Epoch Times Deutsche reported.

Auf dem Magdeburger Weihnachtsmarkt herrscht derzeit Ausnahmezustand. Wie Augenzeugen berichten, flüchteten zahlreiche Menschen panisch vom Marktgelände. Ein Fahrzeug soll in die Menge gefahren sein. pic.twitter.com/HvZgLhtAio

— Epoch Times Deutsch (@EpochTimesDE) December 20, 2024

Unverified footage on X published moments ago shows what appears to be a number of causalities…

Es ist eine Katastrophe… Wurde mir gerade zugeschickt. #Magdeburg pic.twitter.com/5lFVPx5xKP

— koerner_23 (@koerner_23) December 20, 2024

#Magdeburg #Weihnachtsmarkt pic.twitter.com/YVkNJX1WkA

— Anabel Schunke (@ainyrockstar) December 20, 2024

Naomi Seibt, a German teen who has a prominent voice on X and denounces mass migration in Europe, asked if this incident was “terrorism”?

“Islamists have been sending explicit threats that they will attack our Christmas markets via immigrants. The police already prevented several attempts last minute,” Seibt, adding, “Elon Musk is right: Only the AfD can save Germany.” 

🚨🇩🇪TERR0RISM⁉️ CAR DRIVES INTO MAGDEBURG CHRISTMAS MARKET!

Islamists have been sending explicit threats that they will attack our Christmas markets via immigrants.
The police already prevented several attempts last minute.

Elon Musk is right:

Only the AfD can save Germany. https://t.co/REfNC9TGD5 pic.twitter.com/SthsstP1q7

— Naomi Seibt (@SeibtNaomi) December 20, 2024

“I can’t believe it was an accident, it’s a pedestrian zone & cars never drive there, and the car probably got there,” another X user said. 

On Dec. 19, 2016, in Berlin, an Islamic extremist attacker plowed into a Christmas market with a truck, leaving 13 people dead and dozens injured. 

This aged well…

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant.-AP News

*Developing… 

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Discount retail store chain Big Lots announced Thursday that it will initiate “going out of business” sales at all its remaining locations after it was unable to reach an agreement with an investment firm.

“In parallel with these efforts, the company is preparing to commence going out of business sales at all remaining Big Lots store locations in the coming days to protect the value of its estate,” the company said in a statement, which added that Big Lots will continue “to serve customers in-store and online, and will provide updates as available.”

Big Lots CEO Bruce Thorn said in a statement that Big Lots attempted to complete a sale of the company to Nexus Capital Management but it fell through. He said the company will, in the meantime, attempt to close the deal with Nexus or another party by early next month.

“We all have worked extremely hard and have taken every step to complete a going concern sale,” he said.

“While we remain hopeful that we can close an alternative going concern transaction, in order to protect the value of the Big Lots estate, we have made the difficult decision to begin the [going-out-of-business] process.”

Big Lots, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, operates more than 1,400 stores across 48 states. The firm has closed a number of locations in recent months after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after having grappled with declining sales over the past few quarters, putting pressure on its balance sheet.

Big Lots had listed its assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion, according to a filing with the bankruptcy court in Delaware, which showed creditors in the range of 5,001 to 10,000.

Under the previous agreement that fell through, Big Lots said in court that Nexus would serve as a “stalking horse bidder” in a court-supervised auction process, adding that the deal would close in the fourth quarter of 2024 if Nexus was deemed the winning bidder. A stalking horse bid is used as a starting or minimally accepted offer that other interested bidders must surpass if they want to buy the asset or the company.

Earlier this year, when confirming the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Thorn blamed economic factors such as higher-than-normal inflation and other pressure points. Customers have been forced to change their spending behavior due to inflation, which has been sticky since the COVID-19 pandemic, his company said.

“The prevailing economic trends have been particularly challenging to Big Lots, as its core customers curbed their discretionary spending on the home and seasonal product categories that represent a significant portion of the company’s revenue,” the company said in a statement in September.

The company’s stock has declined by more than 98 percent in the past year. As of Thursday, Big Lots’ stock dropped another 7 percent, to about $0.09 per share. A year before, the stock had stood at around $7 per share.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Labor Department released a report showing that U.S. consumer prices increased in November by the most in seven months. The consumer price index rose by 0.3 percent last month, the largest gain since April after advancing 0.2 percent for four straight months, the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

Cross-border tit-for-tat missile exchanges between Russian and Ukraine are really accelerating fast, and growing in size with each wave. On Friday, Ukraine’s military pummeled southern Russia with US-made weapons for the second consecutive day.

“Ukrainian forces launched a missile attack on Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk Region on Friday, killing six people, including a child, and injuring ten others,” the acting governor of the region Aleksandr Khinshtein announced. He said further according to state media sources that Ukrainian forces had used US-made HIMARS missiles.

The US has been supplying these shorter range missiles to Ukraine since the opening six months of the war, in 2022. But it was only on Thursday that Ukraine used the longer-range ATACMS on southern Rostov region. These attacks really do nothing strategically in terms of advancing battlefield gains or objectives, but are ultra risky.

The new Friday HIMARS attack also destroyed civilian infrastructure, including schools, the regional governor’s statement further indicated. Rylsk is merely some 30km from the Ukrainian border, with a population around 15,000.

Khinshtein in a social media video accused Kiev’s forces of “deliberately choosing civilian facilities [and] social facilities as their targets.”

Further details were reviewed by one independent regional media source as follows:

Media reports indicate that dozens of buildings were damaged in the strike. Khinshtein detailed that the attack caused damage to the buildings of two local colleges, a cultural center, a gym complex, a school, and other facilities. Windows were shattered in three apartment buildings, while several private homes and 15 vehicles were also damaged. The blast wave reportedly damaged the Church of the Ascension, according to a church employee who spoke to state media.

At the time of publication, neither the Russian Defense Ministry nor the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ General Staff have commented on the incident. However, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced that Russia plans to address the missile strikes on Rylsk at a UN Security Council meeting on December 21. The Russian Investigative Committee reported that it had opened a criminal terrorism case over the strike.

Six dead after Ukrainian strikes using US-made HIMARS
on the town of Rylsk by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 26 injured. A teacher training college, a bus station, a school, and a cultural center were damaged in the strike, according to local reports. pic.twitter.com/H6C8Yukjo4

— sonja van den ende (@SonjaEnde) December 20, 2024

Russia’s retaliation has also been ongoing and has been deadly… On Friday major Russian missile barrages have targeted the capital of Kiev. At least one person was killed in the attack, which also damaged a number of foreign embassies. A dozen other people were injured in these strikes.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said that the Albanian, Argentinian, North Macedonian, Palestinian, Portuguese and Montenegrin embassies were damaged in the attack. It appears they were all housed in one large building.

Russia could step of these attacks on the Ukrainian capital, which until recently have remained somewhat rare. It seems like assaults on Russia with US/UK-made long-range weapons are definitely growing in pace with just weeks to go before Trump enters the White House.

Authored by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann via American Greatness,

As was proven during the 2024 election cycle, we are well beyond the scope of mere bias in the legacy media. Given the shrinking audience influence coupled with massively declining income from severe loss of cable subscriptions and advertising revenue, American media outlets have chosen a different course: straight-up propaganda intended for consumption by a niche audience, half of which don’t know they’re being lied to and the other half not caring.

Broadcasting has been replaced with “wish casting.” How else can we explain the completely lopsided coverage from the alphabet news outlets, which provided Kamala Harris with “78 percent positive coverage, while these same networks have pummeled former President Donald Trump with 85 percent negative coverage?” And it was even more biased on CNN and MSNBC.

Major media outlets broadcast opinion-centric journalism that push narratives, ranging from “extinction-grade climate crisis” pronouncements to the “existential threat to democracy” dangers of a second Donald Trump presidency. There are no “two sides” reporting here; it is commentary passed off as “journalism” that wraps news stories around pre-packaged and carefully circulated talking points that favor the establishment bureaucracy and big-moneyed interests over American citizens.

Simultaneously, Trump is a threat to democracy and will jail or even execute his opponents, is in service to Vladimir Putin, and will wreck the economy with his extremist MAGA agenda that is tied directly to Project 2025. Trump will launch World War III, he’ll outlaw homosexuality and transgenderism, and he’ll cancel all future elections and become dictator for life. It will be the end of America, and a vote for Kamala Harris will be our “new way forward.”

Nobody Left to Lie To

The American legacy media always had a tenuous relationship with its viewers and readers, losing its credibility every time the public finds that what is reported turns out to be completely untrue. Exhausted from the lies of omission and outright fabrications, the legacy media found itself without much of an audience and surprisingly little influence on the 2024 presidential election.

But a ridiculous narrative is shaping up, one plainly untrue on its face, that the reason for Trump’s victory was not inflation, illegal immigration, or the economy, or that Harris-Walz was an outrageously insulting offering by the Democrats. No, the reason Trump sailed to victory was “the massive influence of right-wing media.”

Let that last statement sink in for a moment.

That’s right, you can blame One America News, X, Newsmax, Fox News (still considered “right-wing” by many, especially on the left), assorted podcasts, and especially Joe Rogan, for putting Trump back into the White House. And the legacy media, who provided hideously lopsided coverage against Trump for years and conducted the presidential and vice-presidential debates in a grossly biased fashion, whines that their massive investment in Kamala Harris was thwarted by a relatively tiny segment of alternative media and citizen journalism. You have delusional, far-left, Democrat operatives like Julie Roginsky being taken to the woodshed by Scott Jennings, saying that the media and social media, especially, are now controlled by conservatives, as seen in this hilarious clip from CNN.

Need more evidence? Watch compressed election night coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and, worst of all, MSNBC to see how optimism at 8 PM EST morphed to concern by midnight and outright despair around 3 AM when Trump declared victory.

Both left-leaning cable channels, CNN and MSNBC, didn’t call the race until shortly after 5 AM on Wednesday. The Associated Press, the New York Times, CBS, and ABC all called the race around 5:30 AM. This was hours after the result was no longer in doubt.

Well, it actually was. But it’s not because of the outsized influence of conservative media; it was because of the decimated influence of the legacy media. Most Americans no longer need solid evidence to conclude that they are being lied to by legacy outlets; thus, they turn to alternative media for truthful content and credible opinion.

This obvious shift in content consumption should be solid proof that the left can no longer control, frame, or even influence public opinion. The growth of alternative media and Elon Musk’s refusal to censor conservative thoughts and opinions on X/Twitter have loosened the multi-generational grip legacy media has had over journalism and have brought new voices into the mix, offering a mere balance in information. But the American Left cannot tolerate informational balance.

The Censorship-Industrial Complex

Information control and manipulation have been historically vital for Democrats and the left in their efforts to sell bad ideas and gaslight the public to believe outright lies. As opposed to both 2016 and 2020, the left-leaning mainstream media posted an epic fail in 2024.

We believe the American Left will not accept losing control over the public’s access to information without a fight. They will therefore redouble their efforts to regulate “online misinformation” and prevent inconvenient truths from reaching the public.

You can call this the “censorship-industrial complex” that has deep roots in government, academia, tech companies, and NGOs. The international community in particular has a penchant for censorship of ideas that don’t follow along with those in charge. Deplatforming and preventing the monetization of content are powerful tools to silence conservative voices. We have already seen tech companies using algorithms to shadow-ban new media and limit their reach in search engines.

As legacy media loses whatever audience it still commands and alternative media allows for conservative voices to be heard, we expect naked attempts by the American Left to “legally” violate the First Amendment through the legislative process. Collusion with the “censorship-industrial complex” is already underway, and Democrats will try to codify their information control scheme into law.

If there was ever a solid argument for conservative control of the Supreme Court, this might be it. Thankfully, as we have noted previously, Donald Trump will be likely given the opportunity to nominate replacements for Justices Alito and Thomas before the 2026 midterms. Both will likely not run the risk of stepping down after the midterms in the unlikely event that Democrats regain Senate control in 2026.

If one or both step down before the midterms in 2026, Trump can nominate young, reliably conservative jurists in their 40s who, after Senate confirmation, can sit on the bench for the next 30 years. Having nominated at least five Supreme Court justices over his two terms, Trump’s influence on the Supreme Court and the constitutional guardrails the court provides will last to mid-century. That prospect scares Democrats whose legislative agenda will be stymied for decades to come.

Yesterday Ukraine launched six US-made long-range ATACMs missiles and four British-made Storm Shadow missiles against Russian territory, many of which were reportedly intercepted over the Rostov region. Russia said in the aftermath that swift and appropriate retaliation would come, and already Friday morning it appears Moscow has made good on its threat.

Significantly, major Russian missile barrages have targeted the capital of Kiev. At least one person was killed in the attack, which also damaged a number of foreign embassies. A dozen other people were injured in these strikes.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said that the Albanian, Argentinian, North Macedonian, Palestinian, Portuguese and Montenegrin embassies were damaged in the attack. It appears they were all housed in one large building.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry called the attack “barbaric” after severe destruction in some districts, including an area which saw a gas pipeline damaged and five cars catch fire. Five among the injured have been hospitalized.

Portugal, whose diplomatic mission was among those hit, summoned the Russian ambassador to condemn the assault and damage. “It is absolutely unacceptable that any attack should target or have an impact on diplomatic premises,” the Portuguese government said in a written statement.

The Kremlin has specified that it was direct retaliation for the Thursday attacks on Rostov using Western weapons:

The city’s authorities claim Russia used a combination of Kinzhal ballistic missiles and either Iskander-M or KN-23 systems.

The Russian defence ministry, meanwhile, claimed the attack was a response to Kyiv’s strike on the Kamensky Combine in Russia’s Rostov region and said Moscow forces had launched a strike with long-range precision weapons targeting the Ukrainian security service’s command post and the Kyiv Luch design bureau, which develops various anti-aircraft and missile systems.

This morning, russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles. Terrorists killed at least one person and wounded seven.

Ukraine needs more air defense systems. russian terror must be stopped.

📹: @United24media pic.twitter.com/j6UcitHUSE

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) December 20, 2024

Moscow has repeatedly warned that it could begin targeting “decision-making centers” in Ukraine as a result of the US greenlighting long-range strikes on Russian territory utilizing Western weapons.

During Thursday remarks before the annual press Q&A with the Russian president, Putin warned that more Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missiles could be used, emphasizing that there is no defense against them. He further warned that if the West and US want to test Russia’s red lines, then some kind of missile “duel” could happen.

“Let them propose… some kind of technological experiment – a kind of high-tech duel of the 21st century, let’s say,” Putin proposed at the Moscow event.

“Let them name some object, let’s say, in Kyiv, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense forces there, and we will hit it with Oreshnik and see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment. Is the other side ready?” he posed threateningly. 

Apparently the several embassies were all located in a single building which suffered damage:

BREAKING –
A building which hosts the embassies of Portugal, Argentina, Morocco, North Macedonia and Palestine was damaged in this morning’s Russian attack on Kyiv.

I took this photo approx 90 minutes after the explosion – windows blown out and shattered. https://t.co/sYra63S1ug pic.twitter.com/3SfcDEFucU

— Alex Cadier (@alexcadier) December 20, 2024

The fact that Russia launched powerful missiles on areas of the Ukrainian capital known to house embassies is a dangerous precedent and could be some intentional signaling. What happens if the US, UK, German, or French embassies are hit or suffer damage? It could be a sure path to WW3.

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A New York tax preparer, nicknamed The Magician, pleaded guilty to duping the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with fake returns filed on behalf of his clients for several years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Rafael Alvarez, 61, was charged with one count of conspiring to defraud the United States and stealing government funds and one count of assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, according to a Dec. 17 statement from the agency.

“The charges arise from Alvarez’s orchestration of a decade-long, $145 million tax fraud scheme to file tens of thousands of federal individual income tax returns that included false information designed to fraudulently reduce the individuals’ tax burden.”

Alvarez pleaded guilty on Tuesday and, as part of the plea, agreed to pay the IRS $145 million in restitution. The tax preparer also forfeited more than $11.84 million he collected from his criminal actions.

The charges stem from Alvarez’s actions roughly between 2010 and 2020, when he was the CEO and owner of Bronx-based ATAX New York, LLC, a “high-volume tax preparation company.”

Alvarez and his employees submitted false information about customers on their tax returns, like fake business expenses, non-existent capital losses, and false itemized tax deductions. This enabled them to reduce the tax liability of ATAX customers and increase IRS refunds for the clients.

In total, roughly 90,000 federal income tax returns were prepared by ATAX.

“Alvarez was so consistent at falsifying ATAX customer tax returns that he became known to ATAX’s customers as ‘the Magician,’” the DOJ stated.

The count of conspiring to defraud the United States carries a potential maximum prison sentence of five years, and the false returns count carries a jail term of up to three years. Sentencing in the case is set for April 11.

“Today’s guilty plea, in one of the largest ever tax frauds by a return preparer, should serve as an important reminder to tax professionals that this Office will vigorously investigate and prosecute tax offenses,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim.

According to the IRS, anyone who assists or prepares federal tax returns for an individual in exchange for a payment must have a preparer tax identification number (PTIN). The PTIN must be renewed every year. As of Dec. 2, close to 850,000 people had current PTINs in the United States.

Fraud Cases

Multiple legal actions have been taken against fraudulent tax preparers over the past months.

In November, a tax preparer from Somerville, Massachusetts, was convicted of preparing false tax returns. Between 2012 and 2020, Yves Isidor, the defendant, prepared and filed over 1,200 tax returns for clients. He added false tax claims like non-existent medical and dental expenses and charity gifts.

The clients received refunds to which they were not entitled. During the trial, six taxpayers testified they had no idea that Isidor had added false items to their tax returns.

“When someone hires an individual to complete your tax returns, they have a right to expect honesty, professionalism, and integrity. Most importantly, you expect them to provide accurate information to the IRS,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy.

“Yves Isidor lied to his clients, who had no idea that he had improperly filed tax returns on their behalf until they were contacted by investigators and alerted to the false information in their returns. Tax fraud is not a victimless crime. We all suffer when people like Yves Isidor lie and cheat the tax system.”

Earlier in October, another tax preparer was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison, also for filing false income returns.

The defendant filed 83 federal returns over a roughly three-year period that contained fake items like business expenses, tips, and salaries. Most of the clients neither owned a business nor discussed any business expenses with the preparer.

In April last year, the IRS warned against unscrupulous tax preparers who seek to “tempt taxpayers into fraud” through various schemes while charging high fees.

Even if a taxpayer is duped into filing a return with false information by the preparer, “taxpayers are legally responsible for what’s on their return,” the agency said. The IRS recommends that people use reputable professionals to file returns.

“I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large-scale purchase of our oil and gas. Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!” President-elect Donald Trump warned early Friday morning on Truth Social. 

According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US trade deficit in goods and services with the EU totaled $131.3 billion in 2022. Following Trump’s presidential victory last month, the EU has been gearing up for a potential trade war with Trump. 

The good news is that the US has become the world’s largest crude oil producer and the top LNG exporter. As Brussels and Washington work aggressively to curtail Russia’s energy flows into Europe—whether crude oil, refined products, or NatGas—the US is well-positioned to fill the gap. 

Bloomberg noted that the euro traded slightly higher, up about .3% to $1.0398, amid signs that EU officials may increase energy imports from the US in 2025 to avoid a full-blown trade war and remain in Trump’s good graces.

In late November, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the Group of Seven conference in Italy that the EU is “well-prepared for the possibility that things will become different with a new US administration,” adding, “If the new US administration pursues an ‘America first’ policy in the sectors of climate or trade, then our response will be ‘Europe united.'”

The EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said last month that US LNG has the potential to replace the bloc’s remaining imports of Russian LNG. 

“We still get a whole lot of LNG via Russia, from Russia,” von der Leyen said, adding, “And why not replace it with American LNG, which is cheaper, and brings down our energy prices.”

NEW: President of the European Union commission says they want to start buying oil from the United States and not Russia.

Trump wins the election and the world falls in line. Remarkable.

“We still get a lot of [liquified natural gas] from Russia, and why not replace it by… pic.twitter.com/E6OwSN6UrR

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 8, 2024

The US is already Europe’s largest provider of LNG, but imports from Russia remain number two. Brussels continues to search for new ways to curb Moscow’s energy flows into the continent, which will only suggest US energy supplies will be the eventual replacement. We commented earlier this week on the latest fiasco with Russian NatGas pumped into Ukraine, then Slovakia, which is set to be halted at the first of the year. 

Final Countdown: Slovakia Warns Of “Economic Damage” As Ukraine NatGas Transit Nears End https://t.co/YIMOHCx7uZ

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 18, 2024

However, Bloomberg pointed out, “The US doesn’t have much more capacity to increase shipments. And since LNG is sold through long-term contracts, adding shipments to Europe would require original buyers of the gas to agree to divert its shipments to Europe — but that wouldn’t boost the amount being exported by the US,” adding, “Over the longer term, more capacity will come on line with dozens of projects in the US currently in the works.”