By ANSELM GIBBS

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — The government of Trinidad and Tobago said Monday that it would allow the U.S. military to access its airports in coming weeks as tensions build between the United States and Venezuela.

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The announcement comes after the U.S. military recently installed a radar system at the airport in Tobago. The Caribbean country’s government has said the radar is being used to fight local crime, and that the small nation wouldn’t be used as a launchpad to attack any other country.

The U.S. would use the airports for activity that would be “logistical in nature, facilitating supply replenishment and routine personnel rotations,” Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. It did not provide further details.

Trinidad’s prime minister previously has praised ongoing U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

Only seven miles separate Venezuela from the twin-island Caribbean nation at their closest point. It has two main airports: Piarco International Airport in Trinidad and ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago.

Amery Browne, an opposition senator and the country’s former foreign minister, accused the government of being deceptive in its announcement.

Browne said that Trinidad and Tobago has become “complicit facilitators of extrajudicial killings, cross-border tension and belligerence.”

“There is nothing routine about this. It has nothing to do with the usual cooperation and friendly collaborations that we have enjoyed with the USA and all of our neighbors for decades,” he said.

He said the “blanket permission” with the U.S. takes the country “a further step down the path of a satellite state” and that it embraces a “’might is right’ philosophy.”

American strikes began in September and have killed more than 80 people as Washington builds up a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest U.S. aircraft carrier.

In October, an American warship docked in Trinidad’s capital, Port-of-Spain, as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump boosts military pressure on Venezuela and President Nicolás Maduro.

U.S. lawmakers have questioned the legality of the strikes against vessels in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean, and recently announced that there would be a congressional review of them.

ROCHESTER — Matthew Onofrio, the former Mayo Clinic nurse anesthetist turned commercial real estate investment “guru,” was sentenced this week to three years in prison and ordered to pay $5.39 million in restitution to a Bloomington bank.

In handing down her sentence, Judge Susan Richard Nelson described Onofrio as the “ringleader and architect of a vast bank fraud.” She said she wanted to send a message to other would-be fraudsters that there is no such thing as a get-rich-quick scheme, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minneapolis.

Onofrio’s sentence will start on Feb. 10.

Onofrio’s attorney, Marsh Halberg, had requested one year of home detention or community confinement. The federal government, which brought the case against Onofrio, had asked for six years in prison.

The average prison sentence for people convicted of similar crimes in similar circumstances is five years, according to prosecutors.

Onofrio pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud involving a Minnesota property in St. Cloud on July 10 in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. He was originally indicted by a grand jury and charged with three counts on Nov. 17, 2022.

Onofrio’s sentencing at the federal courthouse in St. Paul wraps up a complicated case that prosecutors described as involving $420 million in “fraudulently obtained bank loans” for 68 commercial real estate deals over a time period of about two years.

While none of the commercial properties listed in the 2022 grand jury indictment were in Olmsted County, Onofrio had been very active in buying and selling large commercial properties in Rochester. As part of the case, the court seized a $35 million bank account that he had with Premier Bank in Rochester.

In a related case, 82-year-old Rochester real estate agent Merl Groteboer was sentenced to one year of probation and a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to one count of making “false, fictitious and fraudulent” statements to a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations during a voluntary interview in 2023. The interview was part of the investigation of Onofrio.

Prosecutors say Onofrio created a real estate investment system that was “guaranteed to make him rich” as long as the buyers and the banks didn’t fully understand what he was doing.

He would find undervalued commercial properties and negotiate purchase agreements allowing him to purchase the property at a later date for a determined price. Onofrio then assigned the purchase agreements to his investors for a higher price, “earning himself a substantial profit.” He did not tell the buyers about the purchase agreements.

To line up inexperienced investors, Onofrio promoted his own financial success and real estate investment strategies in online professional networking groups, in YouTube videos and on a popular podcast called “Bigger Pockets” to craft a reputation as a real estate savant, who had cracked the code of commercial real estate investing.

“The problem with Mr. Onofrio’s investment program was that many of the aspiring real estate investors it attracted did not have the kind of money necessary to purchase the multi-million-dollar properties Onofrio offered,” according to the government’s case. “Banks typically will only approve a commercial real estate loan if the buyer has about 30% of the purchase price in cash, and very few of Onofrio’s investors had that kind of money. Mr. Onofrio therefore conspired with his investors to defraud banks by misrepresenting their creditworthiness in loan applications.”

That meant helping his clients prepare fraudulent financial statements to make it look like they had enough money to cover the down payment. When banks asked for proof of funds, Onofrio would temporarily wire funds into his clients accounts to create the illusion that they had enough money. He told the buyers to tell the banks that it was “family money.”

Sometimes he would actually loan the money to the buyer, but hide that fact from the bank.

While the judge and the federal prosecutors painted Onofrio as a “ringleader” and “fraudster,” his attorney as described him as a remorseful man who was a home-schooled, former missionary and is a devoted Christian who has led a law-abiding life, with the “exception of the 14-month range of his offense conduct.”

About 30 letters of support from his family, friends and church were sent to the judge to ask for mercy in his sentence.

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By BEN FINLEY

WASHINGTON (AP) — The two Iowa National Guard members killed in a weekend attack that the U.S. military blamed on the Islamic State group in Syria were identified Monday.

The U.S. Army named them as Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered all flags in Iowa to fly at half-staff in their honor, saying that, “We are grateful for their service and deeply mourn their loss.”

The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, has said a civilian working as a U.S. interpreter also was killed. Three other Guard members were wounded in the attack, the Iowa National Guard said Monday, with two of them in stable condition and the other in good condition.

The attack was a major test for the rapprochement between the United States and Syria since the ouster of autocratic leader Bashar Assad a year ago, coming as the U.S. military is expanding its cooperation with Syrian security forces. Hundreds of American troops are deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting IS.

The shooting Saturday in the Syrian desert near the historic city of Palmyra also wounded members of the country’s security forces and killed the gunman. The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and recently was reassigned amid suspicions that he might be affiliated with IS, a Syrian official said.

The man stormed a meeting between U.S. and Syrian security officials who were having lunch together and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards, Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba said Sunday.

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Al-Baba acknowledged that the incident was “a major security breach” but said that in the year since Assad’s fall, “there have been many more successes than failures” by security forces.

The Army said Monday that the incident is under investigation, but military officials have blamed the attack on an IS member.

President Donald Trump said over the weekend that “there will be very serious retaliation” for the attack and that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was “devastated by what happened,” stressing that Syria was fighting alongside U.S. troops.

Trump welcomed al-Sharaa, who led the lightning insurgency that toppled Assad’s rule, to the White House for a historic meeting last month.

Torres-Tovar and Howard were dedicated soldiers and “cherished members” of the Iowa National Guard family, Stephen Osborn, adjutant general, said in a statement.

“Our focus now is providing unwavering support to their families through this unimaginable time and ensuring the legacy of these two heroes is never forgotten,” Osborn said.

Howard remembered as first in, last out

Howard had wanted to be a soldier since he was a young boy, according to Jeffrey Bunn, Howard’s stepfather and chief of the Meskwaki Nation Police Department in Tama, Iowa, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northeast of Des Moines. Howard “loved what he was doing and would be the first in and last out,” Bunn wrote late Saturday in a post on the police department’s Facebook page.

Howard also was a loving husband and an “amazing man of faith,” Bunn said, adding that Howard’s younger brother, a staff sergeant in the Iowa Guard, would escort “Nate” back to Iowa.

Howard was inspired by his grandfather’s service and wanted to serve for 20 years, according to an April post on a Facebook page dedicated to sharing stories of the unit. He had already served for over 11 years.

Howard “wants his battle buddies to know he’s always there,” the post said, “whether to help or simply listen.”

Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

What did Pro Football Focus think of how the Vikings performed on Sunday night at AT&T Stadium? Here’s a look at the player grades from the Vikings’ 34-26 win over the Dallas Cowboys:

Top 3 on offense (minimum 20 snaps)

J.J. McCarthy … 89.7

Jalen Nailor … 86.0

T.J. Hockenson … 82.4

Analysis: It was by far the highest grade McCarthy has garnered in his career so far. He was lights out after throwing an interception on his first pass of the game. It doesn’t appear that he got docked too much for that miscue after the ball got tipped at the line scrimmage. The body of work was stellar other than that as McCarthy was surgical while only missing a few layups that he’d like to have back. It makes sense that Nailor and Hockenson earned high grades because they were McCarthy’s favorite targets in the game.

Bottom 3 on offense (minimum 20 snaps)

Donovan Jackson … 46.2

Justin Skule … 57.6

Josh Oliver … 59.3

Analysis: It’s a little bit surprising to see a pair of offensive linemen near the bottom of the list considering that group up front did not allow a sack. There were clearly instances where the grading system felt Jackson and Skule got beat, even if it didn’t result in McCarthy being brought down for a sack. As for Oliver, he was much better as a pass catcher than a run blocker, which isn’t always the case with him.

Top 3 on defense (minimum 20 snaps)

Jonathan Greenard … 90.5

Fabian Moreau … 79.6

Eric Wilson … 78.7

Analysis: It was a dominant effort from Greenard rushing the passer as he was no match for whoever was tasked with blocking him. He finished with a sack in the game and could have had even more with how many pressures he generated. It was a solid showing from Moreau during his limited snaps in the slot. It was also a solid showing from Wilson as he continues to prove himself as a late bloomer.

Bottom 3 on defense (minimum 20 snaps)

Jonathan Allen … 27.6

Blake Cashman … 34.1

Andrew Van Ginkel … 53.0

Analysis: The fact that Allen and Cashman finished near the bottom of the list had most to do the defense being unable to stop the run for prolonged stretches. There were way too many chunk plays given up on the ground, and while that was an issue across the board, Allen and Cashman were deemed the biggest culprits in the struggles. That also cost Van Ginkel in the grading system.

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