• 163 Posts
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Joined 22 days ago
Cake day: May 28th, 2025
  • daniel_callahan@jlai.lutoEurope@feddit.org•Europe’s attempted bonfire of red tape is impressing no oneEnglish
    7·
    20 days ago

    Daily reminder that Paul Deighton is the chairman of The Economist.

    https://www.economistgroup.com/esg/board

    This individual has stolen millions of pounds from taxpayers through PPE fraud.

    From the New York Times:

    Waste, Negligence and Cronyism: Inside Britain’s Pandemic Spending

    To shine a light on one of the greatest spending sprees in Britain’s postwar era, The New York Times analyzed a large segment of it, the roughly 1,200 central government contracts that have been made public, together worth nearly $22 billion. Of that, about $11 billion went to companies either run by friends and associates of politicians in the Conservative Party, or with no prior experience or a history of controversy. Meanwhile, smaller firms without political clout got nowhere.

    The procurement system was cobbled together during a meeting of anxious bureaucrats in late March, and a wealthy former investment banker and Conservative Party grandee, Paul Deighton, who sits in the House of Lords, was later tapped to act as the government’s czar for personal protective equipment.

    Lord Deighton helped the government award billions of dollars in contracts –– including hundreds of millions to several companies where he has financial interests or personal connections.

    Dozens of companies that won a total of $3.6 billion in contracts had poor credit, and several had declared assets of just $2 or $3 each. Others had histories of fraud, human rights abuses, tax evasion or other serious controversies. A few were set up on the spur of the moment or had no relevant experience — and still won contracts.

    Lord Deighton, who was once a Goldman Sachs executive, remains involved in business and has financial or personal connections to at least seven companies that were awarded lucrative government contracts totalling nearly $300 million, the Times has learned.

    Many companies and business people, often better qualified to produce P.P.E. but lacking political connections, had no access.

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/17/world/europe/britain-covid-contracts.html

    Why is he still chairman of The Economist?

  • daniel_callahan@jlai.lutoFrance@jlai.lu•Vidéosurveillance algorithmique : Christian Estrosi fustige (encore) la CNIL - NextFrançais
    3·
    20 days ago

    Pour comprendre le personnage.

    Nice et ses relations avec Israël. Deux de nos confrères, Christian Chesnot, journaliste au service international de Radio France, et Georges Malbrunot, grand reporter au Figaro, viennent de publier un livre aux éditions Michel Lafon.

    Dont un chapitre est consacré aux relations entre la France et Israël. Plus précisément, ils reviennent sur les liens entre Christian Estrosi et l’État Hébreux en matière de sécurité, de cybersurveillance. Le titre de cet ouvrage : “Le déclassement français. Elysée, quai d’Orsay, DGSE : Les secrets d’une guerre d’influence stratégique”.

    Dans ce livre les auteurs pointent l’admiration du maire de Nice pour les techniques de cybersécurité israéliennes : Christian Estrosi est fasciné par Israel “il y a eu l’application Reporty, développée par la start-up de l’ancien premier ministre Ehoud Barak testée en 2018 à Nice, l’objectif était pour les utilisateurs témoins d’incivilités de filmer la scène, et d’envoyer les images au centre de supervision urbain.” indique Christian Chesnot.

    Mais ce n’est pas tout. Après avoir été réfréné par la CNIL, Commission informatique et liberté, le maire s’est essayé à un tout autre dispositif “l’expérimentation reconnaissance faciale lors du Carnaval 2019, avec la technologie israélienne Anyvision.” précise l’auteur.

    https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/international/deux-journalistes-publient-une-enquete-qui-revele-les-liens-entre-nice-et-israel-en-matiere-de-1642585641

    On peut aussi lire l’excellente enquête du site Les Jours :

    https://lesjours.fr/obsessions/thales-surveillance/ep1-nice-safe-city/