Category: Crime
Ex-CIA Officer Accused of Disturbing ‘Sex Training’ Has Gone MIA
A former CIA clandestine services officer accused of putting an aspiring operative through a sordid “training” program centered on servicing him sexually is now nowhere to be found, the alleged victim’s lawyers say. Adding additional intrigue to the search for ex-spy Shaun Wiggins, the upstate New York data analytics firm he co-founded has apparently vanished. The attorneys representing Wiggins’ accuser…
U.S. prosecutors accuse FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried of witness tampering
U.S. prosecutors have accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried of witness tampering and asked a federal judge to issue an order that would bar the former billionaire and other parties from making public statements likely to interfere with a fair trial. The prosecutors wrote to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday referencing a New York Times article titled “Inside the…
A ton of folks don’t know what ‘Right to Repair’ Is, but strongly support it once they do
In just the last five years, the “right to repair” movement has shifted from nerdy niche to the mainstream, thanks in part to significant support from the Biden FTC and efforts in states like Minnesota and New York to pass new right to repair laws, making it easier and less expensive for consumers and independent repair shops to gain affordable access…
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…
New Zealand gunman kills 2 people on the eve of the Women’s World Cup
Enlarge this image An armed New Zealand police officer stands at a road block in the central business district following a shooting in Auckland, New Zealand, Thursday, July 20, 2023. New Zealand police are responding to reports that a gunman has fired shots in a building in downtown Auckland. Abbie Parr/AP Abbie Parr/AP WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A gunman killed…
Tennessee Arrests Klan Leader on Same Day It Honors 1st Grand Wizard
Three years ago, the Tennessee state Senate voted of 20-to-9 to keep July 13 a Day of Special Observance marking the birthday of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a millionaire slave trader, Confederate general, mass murderer of more than 200 Black Union POWs, and the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The legislature did remove a bust of Forrest from…
U.S. Virgin Islands Wants JPMorgan Chase to Pay Big Over Epstein
Backstory: Epstein continued socializing with A-listers despite conviction – media, New reports on Jeffrey Epstein demonstrate deep-going corruption of US ruling elite The U.S. Virgin Islands government is seeking at least $190 million in penalties from JPMorgan Chase in connection to its banking relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. In a new legal filing on Friday, the USVI’s Attorney General…
British intelligence in the dock for CIA torture
Recent developments raise the prospect that British intelligence agents could finally face justice for their little-known role in the CIA’s global torture program. Britain’s foreign and domestic intelligence apparatus is facing scrutiny by a tribunal tasked with intelligence oversight. On May 26, London’s infamously opaque Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) unanimously issued a landmark ruling which means the complaints of two…
DBS to sell majority stake in AXS to private equity firm Tower Capital Asia
SINGAPORE – DBS Bank has agreed to sell a 77.8 per cent stake in electronic payment services provider AXS to Tower Capital Asia, a private equity firm based in Singapore. The bank will retain a minority stake of 9.9 per cent in AXS, it said on Tuesday. It did not disclose the stake’s sale price. The deal is slated to…
German Real Estate Tycoon Found Dismembered in Rental Home Freezer
The remains of a German real estate tycoon who has been missing since July 4 have been found inside a freezer of a rental home in the Thai city of Pattaya, according to local authorities. Hans Peter Mack, 62, had been reported missing by his wife, 24-year-old Thai national Piraya Boonmak, a day after his disappearance. According to local…
RomCom hackers target NATO Summit attendees in phishing attacks
A threat actor referred to as ‘RomCom’ has been targeting organizations supporting Ukraine and guests of the upcoming NATO Summit set to start tomorrow in Vilnius, Lithuania. BlackBerry’s research and intelligence team recently discovered two malicious documents that impersonated the Ukranian World Congress organization and topics related to the NATO Summit to lure selected targets. The attackers used a replica of the…
Military police find missing teen in barracks at Marine Corps base
SAN DIEGO — A 14-year-old girl was found in the barracks at a California Marine Corps base last month, two weeks after her grandmother in San Diego reported she had run away from home, and a Marine was detained for questioning, officials said Monday. The Marine has since been released to his command while federal law enforcement officials investigate,…
Disney Deletes Months Old Film From Disney Plus, Ostensibly For More Tax Benefits
Here we go again. It was only a month ago that Karl Bode wrote about Disney’s absolutely and totally cool process of removing a bunch of content from its Disney Plus streaming platform not because the content sucks and nobody liked it, but because it gets to play accounting tricks as to its assets in order to receive giant tax…
Reddit Tells Protesting Mods It Will Remove Them If They Don’t Stop, As Reddit’s Subreddit For The Blind Can No Longer Be Moderated By Blind Users
As you’ll recall, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman whined about what he called the “landed gentry” among moderators of subreddits that were protesting his ridiculous extractive API changes. He insisted that perhaps things should be more democratic. In response, many subreddits took a vote on how subscribers to those subreddits wanted the mods to handle things, and many urged the moderators…
Deputies accused a Texas sheriff of corruption and dysfunction. Then came the mass shooting
COLDSPRING, Texas (AP) — Sheriff Greg Capers was the classic picture of a Texas lawman as he announced the capture of a suspected mass killer: white cowboy hat on his head, gold star pinned to his chest, white cross on his belt and a large pistol emblazoned with his name on his hip. For four days, Francisco Oropeza had evaded…
Missing Mexican Journalist Found Dead
The body of missing 59-year-old Mexican journalist Luis Martín Sanchez Iniguez was found in the Mexican state of Nayarit with signs of violence, the state public prosecutor’s office confirmed Saturday. Sanchez Iniguez worked for the newspaper La Jornada. He had been missing since Wednesday and his wife filed a missing person’s report with Mexican authorities on Friday. His body…