Category: _enforcement

Mother of 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot teacher faces US gun charges

VIRGINIA – The mother of a 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot and wounded his elementary school teacher was charged on Monday with two US firearms felonies, and her lawyer said she will plead guilty to both offences under a deal with federal prosecutors. Deja Taylor was charged with being a user of illegal drugs in possession of a gun and…

ASIC bans Sydney mortgage broker for six years

ASIC has banned a Sydney mortgage and finance broker for six years from engaging in credit activities after allegedly making false disclosures and mishandling home loan applications among other offences. The broker, Qingshan Yu, was also banned from controlling a credit business and performing any function in relation to carrying on a credit business while the regulator cancelled the Australian…

Pakistan’s ex-PM Imran Khan arrested

Following are details of the cases against former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was arrested on Saturday after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts. Khan has denied wrongdoing. An Islamabad court issued the arrest warrant after convicting the cricket star-turned-politician, who remains the leading opposition figure despite his removal. Police moved…

Why was Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan arrested?

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been arrested from his residence in Lahore after he was handed a three-year prison sentence in a corruption case. After convicting Khan, the Islamabad court issued an arrest warrant which says he is to serve his sentence in the Rawalpindi central jail in Pakistan’s Punjab province, with police in Lahore quickly moving to…

U.S. Blacklists Israeli-owned Cyber Arms Firms: Intellexa and Cytrox

Intellexa (AKA Intellexa Anonymi Etaireia), an alliance of digital intelligence firms in Greece run by an ex-Israeli intel officer, and Cytrox AD (AKA Sytrox), which produces their Predator spyware, added to U.S. ‘entity list’ which already includes Israel’s NSO and Candiru. Late last year, Citizen Lab uncovered the hacking of an Egyptian dissident’s phone. The affected device was host to two forms…

Judge says she’s not ready to accept Hunter Biden’s plea deal, which tried to get him immunity for multiple crimes

The judge in the Hunter Biden case said Wednesday she is not ready to accept the plea deal struck between the president’s son and the Justice Department, and asked both parties to submit additional briefs and return to the court on a future date. Judge Maryellen Noreika demanded that the lawyers from both sides make clear that the deal does…

Amazon agrees to $25 million fine for Alexa children privacy violations, Ring subsidiary also facing $5 million fine

The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that Amazon has agreed to pay a $25 million fine to settle alleged children’s privacy laws violations related to the company’s Alexa voice assistant service. Amazon has offered Alexa voice-activated products and services targeted at children under 13 years old since May 2018. In May 2023, the Federal Trade…

Google Analytics data transfer to U.S. brings $1 million fine to Swedish firms

The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten – IMY) has fined two companies with 12.3 million SEK (€1 million/$1.1 million) for using Google Analytics and warned two others about the same practice. In a decision published yesterday, the agency explains that by using Google Analytics to generate web statistics the firms were breaching European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)….

French court upholds freezing of assets of Lebanon’s embattled central bank chief

BEIRUT (AP) — A French court Tuesday upheld the freezing of the assets of Lebanon’s embattled central bank governor, rejecting his appeal to have them released, an official close to the investigation said. Several European countries are investigating central bank Gov. Riad Salameh and his associates over myriad alleged financial crimes, including illicit enrichment and laundering of $330 million. A…

BNK Banking Corporation fined for breach of data reporting requirements

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has slapped BNK Banking Corporation with a $247,500 fine for failing to meet its data reporting requirements to the APRA.  In a statement, the prudential regulator said BNK was 32 days late in filing statistical reports for the month ending Feb. 23 under the Economic and Financial Statistics program. This failure to report data by…

US Backs Israel ‘Right to Defend’ Itself After Deadly Raid in West Bank

The United States said Monday that ally Israel had a right to “defend its people” against Islamist militants but called for protection of civilians after a major, deadly raid in the occupied West Bank. “We support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups,” a State Department spokesperson said. “It is…

Stop using Google Analytics, warns Sweden’s privacy watchdog, as it issues over $1M in fines

Sweden’s data protection watchdog has issued a couple of fines in relation to exports of European users’ data via Google Analytics which it found breach the bloc’s privacy rulebook owing to risks posed by US government surveillance. It has also warned other companies against use of Google’s tool. The fines — just over $1.1 million for Swedish telco Tele2 and…

Ex-Goldman banker was ‘framed’, attorney says at insider trial’s close (insider trading charges)

NEW YORK – Former Goldman Sachs banker Brijesh Goel’s trial on insider trading charges drew to a close on Tuesday, with his attorney saying he was framed by his friend and a prosecutor saying Goel had lied to a New York jury. Goel, a former Goldman Sachs vice-president, faces securities fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges for allegedly tipping…

TerraUSD: South Korea ‘cryptocrash king’ Do Kwon jailed for forging documents

Do Kwon, the cryptocurrency boss behind the $40bn (£31.3bn) collapse of the terraUSD and Luna tokens, has been sentenced to four months of jail in Montenegro. Mr Kwon was found guilty of forging official documents. He was arrested in March as he tried to board a flight to Dubai at Podgorica Airport, in the country’s capital. Mr Kwon also faces…

Canada Freezes Ties with China-Led AIIB, Probes Allegations of Communist Domination

Canada is freezing ties with the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, while it probes allegations it is dominated by the Chinese Communist Party, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday. Freeland said she did not rule out any outcome of the investigation, a clear hint that Ottawa could pull out of a bank it officially joined in March…

US expands China forced-labour embargo, banning two new firms

WASHINGTON – The US expanded a ban on imports from China’s Xinjiang region, placing two more companies on its so-called entity list, the first additions since a law targeting forced labour in the area took effect a year ago. Printing and imaging company Ninestar Corp and eight of its subsidiaries, as well as Xinjiang Zhongtai Chemical, were added to the…