The Washington Post - 05.10.2019

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C O R R E C T I O N S

l An article about a heart
transplant that took place in
Virginia in 1986 in this
weekend’s Washington Post
Magazine, which was printed in
advance, misidentifies Alan
Speir, one of the surgeons
involved in that transplant, as
the person who sewed a new
heart into former vice president
Richard B. Cheney in 2012. Speir
was part of the team that
performed Cheney’s surgery, but
the principal surgeon — the
person who sewed in the new
heart — was Anthony Rongione.

l A Sept. 23 A-section article
about the World Health
Organization accusing officials
in Tanzania of withholding
information about suspected
Ebola cases misidentified the
capital of that country. It is
Dodoma, not Dar es Salaam,
which is the former capital.

l A March 24 A-section article

about a growing insurgency in

Burkina Faso incorrectly said

that Air Force Maj. Gen. J.

Marcus Hicks, then head of U.S.

Special Operations Command

Africa, was talking to a group of

reporters when he said, “I would

tell you at this time, we are not

winning” in the region. He was

speaking to Voice of America.

Collins resigns over

insider trading case

Former Republican

congressman Chris Collins of

New York pleaded guilty

Tuesday to two charges in an

insider-trading case, just over a

year after proclaiming his

innocence to allegations he

schemed with his son to avoid

significant losses on a

biotechnology investment.

Collins, President Trump’s first

congressional supporter,

resigned from the House on

Monday.

washingtonpost.com/national

Ruling favors Harvard

in admissions case

A federal judge ruled Tuesday

that Harvard University does not

discriminate against Asian

Americans in undergraduate

admissions, handing the school

a victory in a lawsuit that marks

one of the latest chapters in the

affirmative action debate. U.S.

District Judge Allison D.

Burroughs rejected a plaintiff ’s

claims that Harvard violates the

law as it considers race in

selecting an incoming freshman

class.

washingtonpost.com/education

U-Md. student paper

to end print edition

After more than a century in

circulation, the student

newspaper at the University of

Maryland’s flagship campus will

cease publishing a weekly print

edition in March, the

publication’s parent company

announced Monday. Leaders of

the Diamondback cited

economic pressures and growing

online readership in their

decision to remove the paper

from College Park news racks.

washingtonpost.com/education

The Washington Post is committed to

correcting errors that appear in the

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contacting the paper for that purpose

can:

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connected to the desk involved —

National, Foreign, Metro, Style, Sports,

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[email protected].

I N C A S E Y O U M I S S E D I T

Some reports that you may have missed. Read more at washingtonpost.com.

Sanders undergoes

heart procedure

Democratic presidential
contender Bernie Sanders was
treated for an artery blockage
this week, sidelining him from a
race in which the candidates’ age
and physical health have been
significant factors. The senator
from Vermont was hospitalized
after experiencing chest pains at
a Tuesday campaign event. It
was revealed Friday that he had
suffered a heart attack. Story,
A
washingtonpost.com/national

Dallas police officer

sentenced to 10 years

The white former police
officer who shot and killed her
unarmed black neighbor in his
own apartment was sentenced
Wednesday to 10 years in prison.
Amber Guyger, 31, could have
faced up to 99 years in the 2018
slaying of Botham Jean, a 26-
year-old St. Lucia native, church
singer and accountant whose
death sparked protests.
washingtonpost.com/national

WTO: U.S. can impose

tariffs on E.U. goods

The World Trade Organization
on Wednesday authorized
President Trump to impose
tariffs on about $7.5 billion
worth of European goods,
capping a 15-year transatlantic
dispute over illegal subsidies to
aircraft maker Airbus. The
decision — the largest in the
trade body’s history — opened
the door to a broader trade war
with the European Union. The
administration plans to impose
tariffs of 10 percent on European
aircraft and 25 percent on a
variety of agricultural and
industrial products.
washingtonpost.com/business

BY KAREN WEINTRAUB

AND NICK ANDERSON

boston — A California winemak-

er whom authorities describe as a

“demanding fraud client” was

sentenced Friday to five months in

prison for conspiring to inflate the

SAT score of one of his daughters

and secure her admission to the

University of Southern California

as a phony water polo recruit.

Agustin F. Huneeus, 53, of San

Francisco, pleaded guilty in May

to fraud conspiracy in the college

admissions bribery scandal. Un-

like other parents sentenced so

far, he participated in both parts

of the scam uncovered in the Var-

sity Blues investigation: test

cheating and athletic recruiting

fraud.

U.S. District Judge Indira Tal-

wani imposed a slightly longer

prison term on Huneeus than four

parents previously sentenced,

who received terms from two

weeks to four months. Talwani

also sentenced Huneeus to two

years of supervised release and

ordered him to pay a $100,

fine and provide 500 hours of

community service.

Huneeus’s attorneys had sug-

gested a two-month prison term.

But prosecutors had recommend-

ed 15 months, arguing in a sen-

tencing memorandum that he

participated vigorously in the

scam with admitted mastermind

William “Rick” Singer.

In spring 2018, court records

show, Huneeus paid $50,000 for

his second-oldest daughter to ob-

tain illicit help on the SAT from a

corrupt proctor during and after

the test. Afterward, prosecutors

said, Huneeus was upset his

daughter received a score of only

1380 out of a maximum 1600.

Singer told the father, records

show, that a higher score “would

have got investigated for sure

based on her grades.”

Later that year, Huneeus

agreed to pay Singer $250,000 to

help the daughter get into USC as

a purported water polo recruit.

She had played the sport, records

indicate, but not at a level that

would qualify for intercollegiate

competition.

The consultant spelled out the

scheme in detail in a wiretapped

August 2018 phone call, according

to court records. First, Huneeus

would pay $50,000 when his

daughter received provisional ac-

ceptance as a recruited athlete.

“Okay, so there’s no chance I

give that 50 and then she’s not

admitted?” Huneeus asked, ac-

cording to the records.

“You won’t send it until you get

the letter,” Singer replied. The con-

sultant told Huneeus he would

pay a second installment of

$200,000 after his daughter re-

ceived a formal admission offer.

Huneeus told Singer his daugh-

ter was “not worthy to be on that

team,” records show, and he wor-

ried that the scheme could “blow

up in my face... like some article

comes out that the, the polo team

is selling seats into the school for

250 grand.” Singer assured him

there was no risk.

Singer pleaded guilty in March

to racketeering conspiracy and

other crimes and is cooperating

with the investigation. The daugh-

ter, one of four in the Huneeus

family, was not charged with a

crime. She was conditionally ac-

cepted to USC in November 2018,

records show, but never received

final admission. Her father was

arrested, prosecutors said, before

the school released formal offers.

In a letter to the court,

Huneeus’s wife praised their

daughter’s resilience, saying she

retook the SAT and is enrolled at

another college.

Huneeus, born in Chile, is a

naturalized U.S. citizen and the

son of a vintner. After earning a

bachelor’s degree from the Uni-

versity of California at Berkeley

and a master’s in business admin-

istration from Northwestern Uni-

versity, he followed his parents

into the family wine business in

northern California. But his ca-

reer is in jeopardy because of his

felony conviction. Huneeus ex-

pressed remorse for his crime.

“I am looking forward to my

sentencing so I can start to put

this behind me,” Huneeus wrote

the judge on Sept. 25. “I want to

pay my dues and feel clean again.”

On Friday, Huneeus reiterated

that he wants to atone.

“I am deeply ashamed of myself

for taking part in a scheme that

could have taken a deserving stu-

dent’s future away,” he said at the

hearing. “My actions threatened

to disadvantage the very people

the system was already stacked

against.”

[email protected]

Anderson reported from Washington.

Vintner sentenced to 5 months in college scandal

BY JAY GREENE,

TONY ROMM

AND ELLEN NAKASHIMA

seattle — An effort believed to

be tied to the Iranian government

attempted to identify, attack and

breach email accounts belonging

to a U.S. presidential campaign,

government officials and journal-

ists, according to new data un-

veiled by Microsoft, highlighting

the continued global security

threats that loom over the fast-ap-

proaching 2020 election.

The intrusion observed by

Microsoft, spearheaded by an out-

fit it calls Phosphorus, made more

than 2,700 attempts to identify

personal email addresses that be-

longed to the company’s custom-

ers over a 30-day period between

August and September, 241 of

which were then attacked. Four

were compromised, but they do

not belong to the presidential

campaign or government officials,

according to the tech giant.

Reuters and other news media

outlets reported Friday that the

hackers had targeted President

Trump’s campaign.

Microsoft said it notified the

customers attacked and has

worked with those whose ac-

counts were compromised to se-

cure them. It declined to disclose

the names of the account holders,

including the presidential cam-

paign that had been targeted.

Microsoft declined to comment

beyond a blog post disclosing the

news on Friday.

Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman

for President Trump’s 2020 cam-

paign, said he has “no indication

that any of our campaign infra-

structure was targeted.” Asked to

clarify whether Microsoft had

contacted the campaign about Ira-

nian targeting of either the cam-

paign or campaign personnel’s

personal email accounts, Mur-

taugh said: “We have no further

comment.”

The news Friday is the latest

reminder that the United States is

probably still vulnerable to secu-

rity threats when it comes to the

2020 presidential election — and

not just from Russia. Analysts

have seen an increase in cyber-

activity by Iran and its proxies in

recent months targeting the Unit-

ed States and other countries, as

tensions have heightened be-

tween Iran and the West.

Tech giants such as Facebook

and Twitter, and politicians and

security officials have all made the

next presidential election a priori-

ty as they race to combat hackers

— some of whom are working for

foreign governments.

Still, recent technology devel-

opments, such as increasingly re-

alistic “deepfake” or otherwise

manipulated videos, have many

cybersecurity experts concerned

about how hackers might be able

to influence public perception.

During the last presidential

election, U.S. officials uncovered a

sprawling Kremlin-backed effort

on major social media sites to

trigger social and political unrest.

Russian hackers also targeted

Democratic candidate Hillary

Clinton by hacking the emails of

one of her top lieutenants, the

contents of which were later

dumped on WikiLeaks.

Since then, other countries

have come to adopt more of Rus-

sia’s playbook. Iran for years had

targeted U.S. officials through

“large-scale intrusion attempts,”

said John Hultquist, the director

of intelligence analysis at the cy-

bersecurity firm FireEye. But it

has become more aggressive re-

cently in response to President

Trump, who has imposed exten-

sive sanctions and pulled out of an

international deal over the coun-

try’s nuclear program, he said.

“The Iranians are very aggres-

sive, and they could leverage

whatever access they get for an

upper hand in any kind of negotia-

tions,” Hultquist added. “They

could cause a lot of mayhem.”

Other tech companies also have

been warning about the rising Ira-

nian threat, largely out of concern

that malicious actors originating

in the country were spreading dis-

information online. In May, for

example, Facebook and Twitter

said they had removed a sprawling

Iranian-based propaganda opera-

tion, including accounts that

mimicked Republican congres-

sional candidates and appeared to

try to push pro-Iranian political

messages on social media. Some of

those accounts similarly took aim

at U.S. policymakers and journal-

ists, researchers said at the time.

Christopher Krebs, director of

the Cybersecurity and Infrastruc-

ture Security Agency under the

Department of Homeland Secu-

rity, said in a statement that the

agency is working with Microsoft.

“Microsoft’s claims that a presi-

dential campaign was targeted is

yet more evidence that our adver-

saries are looking to undermine

our democratic institutions,” he

said in the statement.

Microsoft software is present in

far more computers around the

world than U.S. law enforcement

and intelligence agencies, giving

the company a broader window

into the threat.

The Democratic National Com-

mittee warned campaigns about

the Phosphorus attacks Tuesday,

noting that the hacking group has

been targeting personal and pro-

fessional email accounts. It rec-

ommended that members review

logs for connection attempts in

August and September.

“They create believable spear

phishing emails and fake Linked-

In profiles as primary tactics,” ac-

cording to the email from the DNC

obtained by The Washington Post.

Microsoft also owns the LinkedIn

professional social network.

Spokespeople for Democratic

candidates, including Sens. Eliza-

beth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory

Booker (D-N.J.), did not immedi-

ately respond to requests for com-

ment. Spokespeople for former

vice president Joe Biden and Sen.

Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) declined to

comment. Ian Sams, a spokesman

for Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-

Calif.), said he had “no indication

that our campaign is the one

Microsoft referenced or that we

have been targeted by this attack.”

To target political and govern-

ment officials’ emails, Phosphorus

hackers tried to figure out how to

reset passwords or otherwise trig-

ger account recovery features to

take over accounts, Microsoft said.

In some instances, Microsoft

found that the group gathered

phone numbers belonging to its

targets to try to authenticate pass-

word resets.

The attacks were not “techni-

cally sophisticated,” Microsoft’s

vice president of customer secu-

rity and trust, Tom Burt, wrote in

the blog post. But he noted that

they used significant amounts of

the targets’ personal information,

suggesting that Phosphorus was

willing to invest “significant time

and resources engaging in re-

search and other means of infor-

mation gathering.”

This isn’t Microsoft’s first brush

with Phosphorus. The company,

which names hacking groups after

elements on the periodic table,

seized 99 websites in March that it

said were used by the group to

launch cyberattacks against gov-

ernment agencies, businesses and

users in Washington. Microsoft

said it has been tracking the group

for six years. Other researchers

have tagged the group Ajax Secu-

rity Team, APT 35 and Charming

Kitten.

Phosphorus used the websites

Microsoft seized this spring to

trick visitors into downloading

malicious software that appeared

authentic. But that was only one of

the group’s tactics. In Phospho-

rus’s latest attempts, the group

tried to trick users into giving up

codes that are used for two-factor

authentication.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed to

this report.

Microsoft: Hackers targeted presidential campaign

C A L I FO RN I A

Man to be retried in

deadly warehouse fire

The founder of an artists’

work-live collective in the San

Francisco Bay area, where a fast-

moving fire trapped and killed

36 partygoers three years ago,

will be tried again on

manslaughter charges,

prosecutors said Friday.

Alameda County prosecutors

said they decided on a retrial

after a jury last month

deadlocked on whether to find

Derick Almena, 49, guilty or

innocent. Jurors split 10-2 in

favor of finding him guilty.

The same jury acquitted his

co-defendant Max Harris, 29, of

manslaughter charges in

September after an emotionally

taxing three-month trial that

drained family and friends of

defendants and victims.

Judge Trina Thompson set a

new trial date in March. She

also denied a motion by defense

attorneys to reduce bail for

Almena from $750,000 to

$50,000. He has been jailed for

more than two years.

The Dec. 2, 2016, fire broke

out during an electronic music

party at the Ghost Ship

warehouse in Oakland, killing

36 mostly young partygoers.

Prosecutors allege Almena,

who was the master tenant on

the lease, was criminally

negligent when he illegally

converted the industrial

building into a residence for

artists and held unpermitted

events inside.

— Associated Press

T E X A S

Execution stayed over

claim of anti-Semitism

A Jewish death row inmate

who faced execution in less than

a week has won a reprieve after

claiming the former judge at his

trial was anti-Semitic and

frequently used racial slurs.

The Texas Court of Criminal

Appeals on Friday granted a

stay of execution for Randy

Halprin, who had been

scheduled to receive a lethal

injection Oct. 10.

Halprin alleges in his appeal

that ex-Dallas County Judge

Vickers Cunningham referred to

him with anti-Semitic language.

Cunningham declined to

comment Friday.

Halprin was among the

inmates who escaped from a

South Texas prison in 2000 and

committed numerous robberies,

including one in which a

suburban Dallas police officer

was fatally shot.

— Associated Press

N E W J E R S E Y

After scandal, a new

Atlantic City mayor

Atlantic City got a new mayor

Friday in the wake of yet

another scandal in the seaside

gambling resort with a history

of political corruption.

City Council President Marty

Small was sworn in a day after

fellow Democrat Frank Gilliam

Jr. pleaded guilty to stealing

$87,000 from a youth basketball

club he founded. He resigned

hours later.

Gilliam pleaded guilty in

federal court in Camden to

stealing money that was

purportedly for the basketball

team and for school supplies for

poor children. But prosecutors

say he used it on himself — for

trips, fancy clothes and other

personal expenses.

Small, who has run several

times for mayor and lost a

primary to Gilliam in 2017,

himself has been charged twice

— and acquitted twice — of

election-related fraud. Gilliam

could face 20 years in prison

when he is sentenced Jan. 7.

— Associated Press

D I G E S T

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

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