Blackrock Ripped Off For $500 Million In Curious Case Of Bankim Brahmbhatt

 

• BlackRock’s HPS Investment Partners has written off roughly $150 million after discovering allegedly falsified collateral behind loans to telecom entrepreneur Bankim Brahmbhatt.
• The financing, arranged with BNP Paribas, was backed by what turned out to be fabricated accounts receivable and forged customer emails, lawsuits show.
• Brahmbhatt’s companies - Broadband Telecom, Bridgevoice, and Carriox Capital - have filed for bankruptcy; lenders say total exposure exceeds $500 million.
• BNP Paribas took a €190 million ($220 million) provision for a “specific credit situation,” without naming the borrower.

The private-credit arm of BlackRock Inc. and other lenders are racing to recover hundreds of millions of dollars after falling victim to what they’ve described as a “breathtaking” fraud - the latest sign of weakness in an opaque corner of the U.S. debt markets.

The lenders, led by HPS Investment Partners, which BlackRock acquired earlier this year, accused businessman Bankim Brahmbhatt of fabricating invoices and accounts receivable that he used as collateral for loans totaling more than $500 million to his telecom-services firms, Broadband Telecom and Bridgevoice.  The alleged scheme is now the subject of an August lawsuit and multiple bankruptcies.

Brahmbhatt, through his attorney, has denied the fraud allegations to the Wall Street Journal. 

A Familiar Pattern of Trouble

The dispute centers on asset-based financing, a type of private credit deal where lenders extend funds secured by cash flows or receivables from the borrower’s business. The market has ballooned alongside the broader private-credit boom, now topping $1.7 trillion globally, as nonbank lenders rush to fill a void left by traditional banks.

But a series of collapses, which include the headline-grabbing bankruptcies of First Brands and Tricolor Auto Group, both accused of pledging questionable assets - has raised concerns that private lenders’ due-diligence standards are being stretched thin.

The unraveling of those companies has stoked warnings from finance industry titans including JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon, who cautioned that one “cockroach” likely portends more. Private credit executives such as Blue Owl Capital Inc.’s Marc Lipschultz pushed back, saying that the firm isn’t seeing rising defaults and noting that the highest-profile issues were in lending that banks led. -Bloomberg

According to public records, Brahmbhatt founded Bankai Group in 1989 in Ahmedabad, India, initially manufacturing push-button telephones before expanding into telecom software and infrastructure. His firm later created technology subsidiary Panamax Inc. and, in 2017, launched Carriox Capital, a non-bank lender offering invoice financing and working-capital loans to telecom carriers.

HPS began financing Carriox Capital in late 2020, later expanding the facility to about $430 million by mid-2024, according to the Journal, while Bloomberg notes that HPS has "since written off its roughly $150 million exposure to zero." 

BNP Paribas helped fund nearly half of that exposure, the people said, though the French bank has declined to comment publicly. In its most recent earnings filing, BNP disclosed a €190 million ($220 million) loan-loss provision tied to a “specific credit situation.”

Bankim Brahmbhatt Bankai Group

The loans were held in two HPS-managed funds. A person close to BlackRock said the exposure represents a small portion of the firm’s $179 billion in assets under management and won’t materially affect fund performance.

Still, the incident underscores how even the largest asset managers are struggling to contain risks as they pour billions into direct lending.

A Trail of Fake Emails and Empty Offices

The unraveling began this summer, when an HPS employee spotted suspicious email addresses supposedly belonging to Carriox customers. The domains mimicked legitimate telecom firms but were slightly altered — a red flag suggesting someone was fabricating customer correspondence.

When confronted, Brahmbhatt assured HPS there was nothing to worry about, then abruptly stopped answering calls, people familiar with the matter said.

A building housing the offices of Brahmbhatt’s companies in Garden City, N.Y.

An HPS representative visiting the company’s Garden City, N.Y. offices found them shuttered. Neighbors said the office had appeared empty for weeks.

The lenders’ subsequent investigation, led by accounting firm CBIZ and law firm Quinn Emanuel, allegedly revealed that every customer email provided by Brahmbhatt’s companies to verify invoices over the previous two years was fake. One supposed customer, Belgium’s BICS, confirmed in writing that the invoices were “a fraud attempt.”

“Brahmbhatt created an elaborate balance sheet of assets that existed only on paper,” lawyers for the lenders wrote in their complaint.

Bankruptcy Filings and Vanishing Collateral

Brahmbhatt’s companies filed for Chapter 11 protection in August, alongside Carriox Capital II and related entities. The lenders allege that millions in pledged assets were quietly transferred to offshore accounts in India and Mauritius before the defaults.

On the same day the corporate bankruptcies were filed, Brahmbhatt himself sought personal bankruptcy protection, despite having previously provided a personal guarantee to his lenders.

HPS and its partners believe Brahmbhatt has since traveled to India, according to people briefed on the matter. His lawyer has not commented on his whereabouts.

For BlackRock and HPS, the direct financial hit appears modest. But for the broader private-credit industry - now rivaling the leveraged-loan market in size - the reputational damage could prove more lasting.

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/breathtaking-fraud-blackrock-ripped-500-million-curious-case-bankim-brahmbhatt

Arctic Frost And Financial "Crimes"

 by Technofog via The Reactionary,

Thanks to releases by FBI Director Kash Patel and Senate Republicans (here and here and here), we are finally getting sunlight into the FBI’s overarching investigation of not only President Trump but of nearly everyone in his orbit - the investigation assigned the name “Arctic Frost.”

The Arctic Frost opening document, dated April 13, 2022, provides a number of potential statutory violations that justified its opening. Here is the exact text.

“By conspiring, attempting to submit, and/or submitting allegedly fraudulent elector certificates, subjects, both known and unknown, may have violated one or more of the following federal statutes of which the FBI has enforcement responsibility:

• Attempt or conspiracy to corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede the certification of the Electoral College vote (18 USC § 1512(c)(2) and (k)).

• Obstruction of certain proceedings (18 USC § 1505).

• Falsification of records (18 USC § 1519).

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (18 USC § 371).

• Mail Fraud (18 USC § 1341).

• Seditious Conspiracy (18 USC § 2384).”

Now, that April 13, 2022 document wasn’t the original Arctic Frost opening communication. Rather, from the records that have been published, the original was dated March 22, 2022. And if you look into the alleged statutory violations (which we outlined above), the March 22, 2022 document omits “Mail Fraud.” That’s an important addition for the reasons we’ve outlined below.

By the time Arctic Frost commenced, a related grand jury investigation had been opened “with federal law enforcement agencies on January 31, 2022.” Those other agencies were identified as the US Postal Inspection Service and the Investigative Unit of the Office of the Inspector General for the National Archives. The subjects of Arctic Frost included: Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. (and those involved in the campaign); attorney John Eastman, who helped lead some of the challenges to the 2020 election; Rudy Giuliani; and Trump advisor (and campaign attorney) Boris Epshteyn. The subjects also included the electors – 60+ persons from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin who were part of the election challenge efforts.

As we have known for a while, Arctic Frost was expansive. Previous filings in Trump’s DC criminal case (which we discussed here) showed that discovery included hundreds of witnesses, 8.5 terabits of data, hundreds (if not thousands) hours of audio and video, and over 11.5 million pages of documents.

Now, thanks to releases from the FBI and Republicans in Congress, we have more details on the specifics of the investigation. It was sweeping, and included:

• Phone records from not only targets of the investigation – Trump, et al., but of Republican members of Congress (which we also covered).

• Search warrants for digital conduct.

• A full grand jury investigation of the alleged criminal activity.

What has been lost is also that the FBI’s Washington Field Office (WFO), back in October 2020, assessed that “the use of American Made Media Consultants (AMMC) as a clearinghouse for Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. (the Trump campaign) spending is likely vulnerable to campaign finance crimes by campaign-connected sub-vendors.”

This campaign finance investigation – which was opened by the FBI’s New York Field Office – stemmed from an AMMC member’s potential gambling activities, his efforts to allegedly evade federal $10,000 reporting requirements when cashing-in his winnings, and the alleged pay-off of a Senegalese government official. The FBI’s thought was that the party (the gambler) potentially used Trump campaign funds distributed through AMMC “for personal or unauthorized use.” It should be noted that the FBI’s October 2020 “Tactical Intelligence Report” made its assessment with “low confidence.”

In June 2022, the FBI re-assessed the financial investigation (or at least had renewed interest in the financial investigation), citing to the House January 6th Committee’s “investigation” into the Trump Campaign’s post-2020 election fundraising, which was promoted as the “Election Defense Fund.” See the FBI email below.

We mention campaign finance and the use of funds to challenge the 2020 election because of Senator Grassley’s recent release of 1700+ pages of grand jury subpoenas requesting financial records from a number of individuals and entities, including:

• Donald J. Trump for President

• Jeff Clark

• American Voting Rights Foundation (which helped fund the Arizona audit)

• Conservative Partnership Institute (which assists Republicans in training and educating staff, builds coalitions, and helps with staffing)

• A large number of vendors and contractors involved with the Trump Campaign

• Cyber Ninjas (who were involved in the Arizona election audit)

• Sidney Powell

• Individuals and attorneys who assisted with fundraising for, or distributing funds concerning, election audits.

• MyPillow

• Representation or legal fee agreements between fundraising committees and their attorneys

• Dan Scavino

• Mark Meadows

Some of these subpoenas were issued by the grand jury before Jack Smith was appointed Special Counsel. But most of them were came after Smith’s November 18, 2022 appointment – some just days after.

It’s pretty clear what happened.

By April 2022 (at the latest), the Biden DOJ wasn’t just pursuing “election interference” charges against Trump, et al. They were going after conservative fundraising and groups promoting conservative causes, as well as the individuals associated with those groups and entities.

That’s why you see mail fraud – a statute used by federal authorities to charge fundraising-related crimes – in the April 2022 Arctic Frost opening communication. (We’re fairly certain they also looked at wire fraud.) And through the use of the grand jury, the Biden Administration was able to reach every single group and individual that pursued truth in the 2020 presidential election.

But it’s not only that. The Biden Administration also targeted those groups formed after the 2020 election – such those groups who weren’t involved in “alternative electors” but who assisted and conducted audits.

The predicate for an expansive financial crimes investigation is not addressed in the Artic Frost opening communication. Nor is it addressed in Special Counsel Smith’s final report. It’s telling that a prosecutor as aggressive as Jack Smith found no financial crimes after receiving the records – an indication of just how weak the predicate was.

This wasn’t just about 2020. It was about 2024 and a plan to not only indict the former President and Republican frontrunner, but to kneecap his support and financial infrastructure.

It’s not like the FBI is immune to advancing conspiracy theories. The agency never learned its lesson from Crossfire Hurricane. In September 2022, there was this email from an agent with the Seattle Field Office that relayed “intelligence” from one of their sources regarding Ed Corrigan (bio here), the President and CEO of Conservative Partnership Institute. Corrigan is as harmless as they come - and here we have internal FBI documents discussing him being “pro-Putin and anti-Biden”, that he is engaged with Mark Meadows “in willful criminal activity”, that Corrigan has “properties at which he wants to build up infrastructure to train people for civil war”, and that Corrigan “has plans that are not good for the FBI.”

One of the key questions remaining is what the FBI did with that information - whether that source was trusted, and whether investigations were opened into Corrigan or Kushner based on that obviously false intelligence. We’ll see.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/artic-frost-and-financial-crimes

From CRT to Campus Protest: The Making of a Mamdani Voter

 As a young person deeply engaged in politics, I am often asked why my generation is elevating figures like Zohran Mamdani, a self-described socialist, in New York. People across the political spectrum want to understand how a candidate who openly advances antisemitic rhetoric has gained traction among young voters.

To me, Mamdani’s popularity is unsurprising – it reflects how my generation has been raised, educated, and conditioned to think.

The reality is that when teachers support Mamdani and when teachers unions endorse him – as they have – students are not far behind. The New York State United Teachers and the United Federation of Teachers together represent nearly 700,000 members. Their financial and organizational backing carries enormous weight. 

When students see authority figures in their classrooms lining up behind a candidate, the lesson is clear: This is who “good people” support. The classroom, whether overtly political or not, becomes a training ground for a generation of activists shaped by their educators’ worldview.

Yet what schools do not teach is as revealing as what they do. In most classrooms, divisive but essential topics – tariffs, the economy, abortion, immigration – are avoided under the excuse of being “too controversial.” As a result, students are denied exposure to the real debates that define American politics. 

Instead, we are presented with a simplified moral framework: oppressed vs. oppressor. This binary is the foundation of critical race theory (CRT) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which seeped into nearly every aspect of education under the previous administration.

The first major political controversy for my generation was the death of George Floyd, which sparked the largest protests and riots in American history, causing billions of dollars in damages. Yet even then, the facts were ignored. Floyd was not an innocent man – he had a criminal record, including a conviction for armed robbery. 

During Derek Chauvin’s trial, prosecutors did not argue that race motivated the arrest, and toxicology reports revealed fentanyl in Floyd’s system. Still, media narratives turned the incident into a symbol of racial oppression. That framing sent a clear message to my generation: America is irredeemably racist, and the only way to fight injustice is to align with movements that claim to represent the oppressed.

From there, it became fashionable to apply the oppressor-vs.-oppressed lens everywhere. Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, was recast as an “apartheid state.” Protests against Israel became trendy on college campuses, with groups like Students for Justice in Palestine receiving backing from national activist networks. 

Polling in 2024 showed that 51% of Americans aged 18-24 sided with Hamas over Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, a staggering indicator of how deep this mindset runs. When students are constantly told that to be moral is to side with “the oppressed,” it is no surprise that they gravitate toward candidates like Mamdani, who frame politics around that very narrative.

At the same time, history is taught in fragments. Students learn about the Holocaust, but few are told about present-day legislative fights against antisemitism. For example, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has repeatedly refused to bring forward the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would align U.S. policy with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. 

That definition includes denying Israel’s right to exist – something Mamdani has implicitly endorsed through his associations. When students are shielded from these modern realities, they lack the context to see how today’s politics echo the same prejudices they are taught to condemn.

Economic illiteracy only deepens the problem. Politicians like Mamdani rally against the wealthy, insisting they do not “pay their fair share.” But data shows that the top 1% of earners pay roughly 40% of all federal income taxes, while the bottom 50% pay less than 3%. This is not mentioned in classrooms or in most mainstream media coverage. 

Instead, the narrative is simplified: The rich exploit the poor. My generation absorbs that message without ever seeing the numbers, leaving them predisposed to embrace socialism despite decades of evidence showing its failures in countries from the Soviet Union to Venezuela.

Surveys reveal that young Americans are abandoning the values that sustain strong societies. A 2023 Wall Street Journal poll found that only 30% of adults under 30 said having children was very important to them, compared with 59% in 1998. Birth rates in the United States are at their lowest in history, with the fertility rate dropping to 1.6 births per woman in 2024 – well below the replacement level of 2.1. 

At the same time, surveys show rising support for government expansion, with 62% of Gen Z viewing socialism favorably. These are not isolated trends but interconnected symptoms of a generation taught to distrust family, free markets, and personal responsibility.

Mamdani is rising because my generation has been shaped by an education system that avoids hard conversations, promotes simplistic moral frameworks, and shields students from inconvenient facts. 

And even if you don’t live in New York City, do not think for a moment that this election won’t affect you. Mamdani’s rise shows that Gen Z, as it stands, is failing America – and while the consequences may not be immediate, in 20 years, when Gen Z takes over, the very future of our country could be at stake.

Gregory Lyakhov is the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States, writing regularly write for outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Hill, and many others. He is also a columnist for Townhall Media, Newsmax, and The Gateway Pundit.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/11/01/from_crt_to_campus_protest_the_making_of_mamdani_voter_153481.html

IDEXX Laboratories (IDXX) Upgraded to Buy with Price Target of $700

 Stifel has upgraded IDEXX Laboratories (IDXX, Financial) from hold to buy, driven by anticipated growth in recurring revenue for its Coag Dx analyzer and increased veterinary visits. The firm also raised its price target to $700, reflecting an approximate 11% upside from the October 31 closing price. Analyst Jonathan Block foresees a soft landing in pricing and expects the company's premium to strengthen, potentially leading to over 15% annual EPS growth in the coming years. Non-wellness vet appointments are showing better trends compared to wellness visits.

https://www.gurufocus.com/news/3176305/idexx-laboratories-idxx-upgraded-to-buy-with-price-target-of-700

China to 'effectively eliminate' rare earth curbs, end probes of U.S. firms - White House

 China will "effectively eliminate" all existing and proposed rare earth and critical mineral export controls and will end investigations into U.S. chipmakers and other major companies, the Trump administration said on Saturday. 

The White House released a fact sheet outlining the details of a deal reached between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping earlier this week. The meeting aimed to defuse relations between the world's two largest economies, which had soured since China's announcement of expansive new export curbs on rare earths last month.

"China will suspend the global implementation of the expansive new export controls on rare earths and related measures that it announced on October 9, 2025," the White House said. 

"China will issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony, and graphite for the benefit of U.S. end users and their suppliers around the world. The general license means the de facto removal of controls China imposed in April 2025 and October 2022," the fact sheet added.

Other details of the deal include China stopping the shipment of certain designated chemicals to North America to stem the flow of fentanyl to the U.S., and the suspension of all retaliatory tariffs imposed since March 4.

Furthermore, China has committed to buying at least 12M metric tons of U.S. soybeans in November and December and at least 25M metric tons of soybeans in each of the next three years. 

Additionally, China will halt its various antitrust, anti-monopoly, and anti-dumping investigations of U.S. firms in the semiconductor supply chain. 

Looking at U.S. actions, the White House said tariffs on Chinese imports imposed to curb fentanyl flows will be lowered by 10 percentage points of the cumulative rate, effective November 10.

The U.S. will also "maintain its suspension of heightened reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports until November 10, 2026. (The current 10% reciprocal tariff will remain in effect during this suspension period.)"

The deal struck between Trump and Beijing played its part in lifting Wall Street's sentiment this week, along with strong big tech earnings and a Federal Reserve interest rate cut. Here are some exchange-traded funds that track the benchmark S&P 500 index (SP500): (SPY), (VOO), (IVV), (RSP), (SSO), (UPRO), (SH), (SDS), and (SPXU). 

Here are some China-linked ETFs: (KWEB), (PGJ), (CQQQ), (FXI), (GXC), (MCHI), (FLCH), (CNYA), (ASHR), and (YINN).

And here are some ETFs linked to rare earths and critical minerals: (REMX), (BATT), and (SETM).

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/china-to-effectively-eliminate-rare-earth-curbs-end-probes-of-u-s-firms-white-house/ar-AA1PDov4

Universal Basic Income – Making Slavery Great Again

 I once worked in communities supported mainly through a form of Universal Basic Income (UBI). Most money was received from the government for no (or token) work, or from mining royalties where others worked digging on the communities’ lands. There were walls black and heaving with cockroaches while children slept with dogs on stained mattresses below, and babies covered head to toe in pustular scabies while the mother complained about a sore back. This was not universal, but not uncommon. Other communities that stood out as strong and healthy had people working hard for a living – particularly in roles that reflected their culture – a very different economy.

Men who once worked hard to support families lose the reason to do so when it makes no real difference, when basics of life and leisure are equally available to those who work for them and those who do nothing. It is not a political issue, just a human behavioural and psychological one. Removing the need to work and the dignity that striving and succeeding brings, especially for one’s family, leads to inaction, loss of interest in the world, a loss of role, loss of dignity and depression. This is dampened by alcohol or drugs. Wives and children suffer by being beaten up by drunk, frustrated and drug-addled men. Having two frequently drunk parents ensures children are malnourished and aimless.

This is not theoretical – it is seen all over the world where people of one culture are overrun by those of another and confined to subservience, economic and societal irrelevance, and handouts. Some people and communities break out of it, usually by finding ways to grow their local economy and achieve some form of self-governance and self-reliance. Breaking out is not common and requires an opportunity, the possibility, to do so.

Our brave new technocratic world

The road much of the ‘developed’ world is currently on is towards UBI, but without that potential for escape. I use this term ‘developed’ in a technological sense – not a human sense – as it denotes technology rather than awareness. UBI will be introduced as a panacea to the problem of artificial intelligence replacing a lot of jobs. The use of AI is increasing because it can accumulate wealth for investors more reliably than employees can. Amazon’s plans to replace humans with robots will not only mean a few hundred thousand human jobs gone at Amazon, but lots more high-street shops boarded up and their employees and owners gone. AI may be overplayed or not, but what Amazon is doing will be widely repeated.

The people out of work, by and large, will be city and town dwellers who must obtain their food from shops (or Amazon). They will need to be given money or food vouchers to do this. Governments will provide these, because they cannot afford responsibility for abject poverty on a mass scale, and many in government also mean well. People will increasingly rent their housing from Blackstone or a similar corporate entity rather than own it, further increasing their dependence. For a while, some people will play online games or draw pictures and grow token lettuces on their balconies, but knowing this is just window dressing on life. Then they will go the way of the communities at the top of this piece, taking families and communities with them.

Government UBI will happen – it already does to some extent in the widespread use of welfare payments, but the future will see it on a far, far larger scale. It will not be cash handouts but digital currency. This will be a tightly controlled version, as in a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), because the government will claim responsibility to control the money it dispenses. CBDC is essentially food vouchers, and intended to be. Your UBI will be yours as long as you use it for what the government allows, within the time it allows.

Well-meaning people are already building the social acceptability for this. Those suggesting now that a virtuous society should prevent food vouchers or unemployment benefits being used for sugar-based drinks or tobacco believe already that dependent people have lost the right to autonomy. Again, this is not at all theoretical.  It is exactly what this form of money is intended for. Most people in society will see its introduction as a good thing, as they are fine limiting the freedom of others if they beileve it serves a greater good.

Living as safe as slaves

In countries like Canada, if you protest against the government you can already lose your right to buy or sell. If you need permission to obtain the basics of life and cannot make your own choices on the pursuit of happiness, and you are punished for questioning those who restrict you, then you are in a master-slave relationship. In time, most people will become essentially a slave of the UBI provider, the government. This is the design behind UBI and CBDCs. It is why very rich people, the people who own the AI and robotics that are going to make so much human labour superfluous, see this as an excellent path.

All the above will not seem at all dystopian. Governments will control their populations as part of ‘saving the world’ and will readily convince a majority of the population that being saved is a good idea. We need governments to save us from climate catastrophe by stopping us travelling, as our children are already told. We need large corporations to save us from pandemics, including those the same corporations’ laboratories may develop. We need ever more expensive pharmaceuticals injected into us to save us from the scourge of obesity – to save us from our own inability to control our eating. We will certainly need saving from mass unemployment and the inability of a large part of the population to earn their own keep.

Saving people is, after all, the government’s job. As the last few years have shown, convincing populations to indulge in self-harm on the pretext of being saved is much easier than we thought. We will slip back into slavery, into a feudal system, because most people will choose it.

A conversation we are unlikely to have

So, we need to talk about UBI because a lot of people think it is a harbinger of a great future, but it is something else. They think people will somehow flourish when they have nothing much useful to do, when they get money for being idle and compliant and there is no compelling incentive to get out of bed in the morning. A temporary social welfare net is what society should do to protect its members and act with decency. UBI – permanent free money for the majority – is something else entirely. It will ensure that the vast majority can never break out of their lot and recover any semblance of the real economic autonomy necessary for societal flourishing.

The UBI future is simply a return to the default of human societies through the ages – feudalism – but without even the relative purpose found in walking behind a plough. Human nature leads us to want to stay on top if we are already there, or wallow in depression if there is no potential for improvement. Depression, drugs, violence, neglect – this is the UBI and CBDC future.

Over the past few hundred years many societies broke free of feudalism. This freedom has been a brief time in the sun. Accepting or rejecting Universal Basic Income as a basis for fixing the rapidly approaching decimation of useful employment will determine whether the sun keeps shining or we return to the oppressive societal default. Slavery for many will seem easier than struggling, and far safer. Once dependent, the luxury of struggling may be gone. We need a real conversation before we turn irretrievably down that road.

Dr David Bell is a clinical and public health physician with a PhD in population health and background in internal medicine, modelling and epidemiology of infectious disease. Previously, he was programme head for malaria and acute febrile disease at FIND in Geneva and coordinating malaria diagnostics strategy with the World Health Organisation. He is a Senior Scholar at the Brownstone Institute.

https://dailysceptic.org/2025/10/30/universal-basic-income-making-slavery-great-again/

Yes, President Trump Can Blow Up Drug Boats

 Since September, U.S. forces have destroyed at least 15 vessels originating in either Venezuela or Colombia that were believed to be engaged in international drug trafficking, killing 61 individuals.

“What’s illegal are the drugs that were on the boat, and the drugs that are being sent into our country,” President Donald J. Trump said on Sept. 14, answering questions about the legality of a U.S. airstrike that destroyed a speedboat believed to be trafficking drugs from Venezuela.

The administration has not yet released evidence proving its allegations but releasing such intelligence now would almost certainly compromise sources and operations. Nevertheless, the Dominican Republic’s National Directorate for Drug Control, which cooperated with a U.S. strike on Sept. 19, has revealed that it salvaged over 1,000 kilograms of cocaine from the boat destroyed that day, with even more presumably lost at sea.

In addition, a submarine that was attacked on Oct. 16 yielded two survivors who were detained by the U.S. Navy. One of them, an Ecuadorian national, was previously convicted in a U.S. court and deported from the United States for—no surprise—drug smuggling. All surface vessels that were attacked appear to have been moving at high speeds while following courses along commonly identified drug trafficking routes; none appear to have been engaged in any other activity.

Amid a major military buildup in the Caribbean, which began in mid-August but has accelerated in recent weeks, some critics—and some admirers, including hopeful Venezuelan political dissidents—have argued that Trump seeks regime change in Venezuela. The administration has not officially called for the ouster of that country’s Marxist president Nicolás Maduro, but it has denounced him as “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world” and announced a $50 million bounty for information leading to his arrest. It has also authorized CIA operations within Venezuela and suggested it could open military operations on land. Venezuela has mobilized its army and civil militia.

Other observers view the strikes as “gunboat diplomacy”—a localized demonstration of U.S. military might, which could be magnified against Venezuela and other countries. It could also be a trial run for future intervention in Colombia—another state with a drug problem whose Marxist president’s U.S. visa was recently revoked. Or, even Mexico, which continues to spiral into chaos, while serving as the landward conduit into the United States for drugs and illegal immigrants.

“Murder!” scream the international left and the Democratic Party. They are joined by the dwindling remnant of NeverTrumpers, the small number of libertarian nonintervention absolutists on the right, and, of course, the imperiled governments of Venezuela and Colombia. These critics argue that Trump’s boat strikes have violated international law and U.S. laws limiting the powers of the president.

They are wrong.

International law, according to the United Nations Charter, does limit military actions not sanctioned by the UN Security Council to “self-defense” against “armed attack” and prohibits forcible regime change. The UN, however, has no mechanism or authority for defining an “armed attack” or for determining when one has or has not occurred.

Tren de Aragua and the Cártel de los Soles, the Venezuelan organized crime gangs most closely implicated in narcotics trafficking, are U.S.-designated terrorist groups whose operations and personnel are violent and have killed and supported the killing of American citizens. They illegally traffic people as well as drugs into the United States, violate numerous U.S. laws on American soil, and routinely facilitate or materially support the South American drug trade, which causes tens of thousands of American deaths every year.

This is a far cry from the descriptions in many of the stricter legal analyses floating around, which claim that the gangs, as mere drug smugglers, are guilty of peddling an objectionable product but not more. According to a more accurate memo that the White House sent to Congress on Oct. 1, “the president determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States.” The UN may appear to have a high moral tone, but it has no authority to override Trump’s finding.

Even if it did, it has no more means to enforce it than it had when U.S. forces were engaged in Iran or Yemen in recent months. The U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities in June alone killed hundreds of foreign citizens in their own country, which had not carried out any recent attack against the United States and posed only a theoretical threat due to its rapidly evolving nuclear weapons program. Nor, for that matter, did the UN have any bite the last time a U.S. president intervened militarily in Latin America. Back in 1989, President George H. W. Bush ordered an invasion of Panama to arrest its president, Manuel Noriega, who was wanted under U.S. law on strikingly familiar drug trafficking and related racketeering and money laundering charges. The UN complained and later condemned the action, but the elder Bush invaded anyway and killed over 300 Panamanians to topple and arrest Noriega.

Applicable U.S. law, generally laid out under the War Powers Resolution of 1973—a Vietnam-era throwback—does require congressional authorization to begin or continue some military operations, but it still allows significant latitude for the president to act against perceived aggression without congressional approval, including against non-state actors, under his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Moreover, in 2001 Congress passed into law the Authorization for Use of Military Force resolution, which handed back to the presidency the power to use “necessary and appropriate” force against anyone broadly involved in or assisting with that year’s terrorist attacks on the United States. Ever since, multiple presidents of both major parties have routinely ordered military strikes against terror groups and their affiliates.

With the Venezuelan gangs now officially designated as terrorists, the same rationale should apply. Even if it did not, a new congressional war powers resolution proposed by Democrat Senators Adam Schiff and Tim Kaine earlier this month failed. Had it succeeded, however, Trump certainly would have vetoed it, secure in the knowledge that Congress would not have overridden the veto.

The future of Venezuela remains unknown, but the boats going up in flames are legitimate targets of the U.S. military.

Paul du Quenoy is president of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute.

https://chroniclesmagazine.org/web/yes-president-trump-can-blow-up-drug-boats/