Corruption Ledger

SEOUL – South Korean authorities arrested Kakao’s chief investment officer (CIO) for alleged stock price manipulation in a high-profile takeover battle over K-pop agency SM Entertainment. Bae Jae-hyun was arrested early on Thursday, according to the Seoul Southern District Court which issued the warrant. Internet giant Kakao won a controlling stake in SM after an intense bidding war with Hybe, the label behind hit boy group BTS. Financial regulators accused the executive, along with two others working at Kakao and…

Marquis Hooper, a former U.S. Navy IT manager, has received a sentence of five years and five months in prison for illegally obtaining US citizens’ personally identifiable information (PII) and selling it on the dark web. The man was indicted with his wife, Natasha Renee Chalk, in February 2021 and pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in March 2023. According to information contained in the indictment, Hooper opened an online account with a company maintaining a…

A hacker has leaked an additional 4.1 million stolen 23andMe genetic data profiles for people in Great Britain and Germany on a hacking forum. Earlier this month, a threat actor leaked the stolen data of 1 million Ashkenazi Jews who used 23andMe services to find their ancestry info and genetic predispositions. 23andMe told BleepingComputer that this data was obtained through credential stuffing attacks on accounts using weak passwords or credentials exposed in other data breaches. However, the company says there is no evidence of…

SANTIAGO, Chile — The Israeli government has suspended all sales and supplies of defense and security hardware and related services to Colombia. The move followed a heated exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter, between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Israeli Ambassador in Bogota Gali Dagan about the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip. Petro had refused to condemn the Hamas raid. When Dagan urged Petro to speak about the attack on Israel, Colombia’s president replied with a message that…

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is calling on the UK government to reduce the current cap on individual per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water from 100ng/l to 10ng/l, warning that levels above this pose a significant risk to public health. The RSC’s call follows new analysis revealing that more than a third of water courses tested in England and Wales contain medium or high-risk levels of PFAS, which have been linked to a range of serious adverse…

U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Florida FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, October 12, 2023  BEAUMONT, Texas – A Houston man who served as a production manager in a counterfeit drug trafficking scheme has been sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking and money laundering violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Damien M. Diggs today. Willis Reed, 61, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison today by U.S. District Judge Marcia…

If government regulators prevail against Google in the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century, it’s likely to unleash drastic changes that will undermine the dominance of a search engine that defines the internet for billions of people. As the 10-week trial probing Google’s business practices nears its midway point, it’s still too early to tell if U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta will side with the Justice Department and try to handcuff one of the world’s most dominant tech…

Palestinians struggled Saturday to flee from areas of Gaza targeted by the Israeli military while grappling with a growing water and medical supply shortage ahead of an expected land offensive a week after Hamas’ bloody, wide-ranging attack into Israel. Israel renewed calls on social media and in leaflets dropped from the air for Gaza residents to move south, while Hamas urged people to stay in their homes. The U.N. and aid groups have said such a rapid exodus along with…

Gaza – As the ultimatum given to the population expires, MSF calls on the Israeli authorities to show humanity. Despite Israeli announcements suggesting that there are safe areas for the population trapped in the Gaza Strip, they are in fact exposed to bombardment throughout all the territory, including in the south, where tens of thousands of people have fled following the ultimatum. As the Israeli army has been bombarding the Gaza Strip without restraint for a week, we are calling…

Now the Israeli government has decided to completely cut off water and electricity supplies, and the phone network has been badly damaged. This morning, we were unable to reach our teams in Gaza by phone. Inevitably, this all makes it extremely difficult to coordinate rescue operations and access the injured. In Gaza today, people are terrified. I speak very regularly with our colleagues there. They are very tough people because, unfortunately, they have lived through a lot of wars, but…

Jewish communities in North America are ramping up security in the face of rising emotions over the massacre of Jews in Israel and the imminent invasion of Gaza, with pro- and anti-Israel rallies being held daily in cities across the United States. Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, told VOA that the communities are prepared and have built “comprehensive security programs.” But, he said, last Saturday’s Hamas attack against Israel and its aftermath has brought the…

Genetic testing provider 23andMe faces multiple class action lawsuits in the U.S. following a large-scale data breach that is believed to have impacted millions of its customers. Late last month, a threat actor leaked 23andMe customer data in a CSV file named ‘Ashkenazi DNA Data of Celebrities.csv’ on hacker forums. The file allegedly contained the data of nearly 1 million Ashkenazi Jews who used 23andMe services to find their ancestry info, genetic predispositions, and more. Initial leak of 23andMe data on a…

As a ‘very large platform’ under the EU’s new Digital Services Act, X is required to respond by next week and could face massive penalties. The European Union (EU) has formally opened an investigation into X, the platform previously known as Twitter, to ensure it’s complying with the Digital Services Act (DSA) following Hamas’ attack on Israel in early October and subsequent Israeli air assault on Gaza. According to the request, this comes after “indications received by the Commission services…

“In Ministry of Health hospitals, medical staff report that they are running out of anaesthetics and painkillers,” says Darwin Diaz, MSF Medical Coordinator in Gaza. “On the MSF side, we moved medical supplies from our two-month emergency reserves to Al-Awda hospital and now we have used three weeks’ worth of stock in three days.” MSF staff, including medical personnel, have been extremely restricted in their movements since Saturday. They are unable to obtain safe passage to support Palestinian medical colleagues…

Boeing has begun delivering smart munitions to Israel as the country intensifies retaliation in the wake of Hamas’ large-scale surprise attack. An Israeli Air Force transport aircraft recently flew with the 250-pound (113 kilogram) Small Diameter Bombs from the US to Israel, Bloomberg revealed citing a US official. Israel bought 1,000 GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs (SDB) in 2021 for $735 million.  Precision Munition The air-launched guided SDB can strike a target 40 miles (64 kilometers) away, providing “the means to…