(CNN) — British law enforcement officers have arrested a 23-year-old man suspected of hacking the U.S. Department of Defense and swiping data from a satellite-based system used by the military to communicate with people worldwide, UK authorities said Friday.
This arrest was one of 56 made this week in 20 separate operations conducted by regional organized crime units, Metropolitan Police officers and others. The others caught range from a family of suspected fraudsters and a 16-year-old believed to be behind hundreds of cyberattacks, according to Britain’s National Crime Agency.
Yet the arrest that the agency highlighted most was the one that targeted the world’s most powerful last June 15.
After being re-invited to give a presentation in Mesquite, Bureau of Land Management representatives received threats from Ryan Bundy, son of Cliven Bundy, who said the BLM needs to “stay gone and the people won’t allow them to come back.”
BLM representatives came to discuss how to give comments on the Resource Management Plan Draft but were instead drilled with public comments mostly about the Gold Butte area.
Police in Europe will soon be at a technical disadvantage to organized criminals as austerity and funding cuts threaten investment, Europol warned in a new report.
Europe’s policing agency said Monday that criminal gangs will in future do business in a “virtual criminal underground”, using virtual currencies like Bitcoin, which are much harder to trace as well as using communication structures to make themselves more decentralized and looser and thereby harder for police to keep track of.
In light of recent news headlines about Albany corruption, a Westchester assemblyman has proposed extending whistleblower protections for those who witness corruption by their bosses or co-workers in state government.
“The discussion about ethics in state government is missing a key component: encouraging whistleblowers to report wrongdoing to law enforcement,” said Assemblyman Tom Abinanti, D-Greenburgh.
To add to the discussion, Abinanti submitted legislation (A.1137) that would prohibit retaliation against an employee who reports bribery, attempted bribery, defrauding the government or other unlawful activity by a public official.
The whistleblower who carried out the largest banking leak in history told Bloomberg he can prove that HSBC executives knew about alleged schemes to help wealthy clients avoid taxes at HSBC’s private Swiss bank.
The leaker, Herve Falciani, said he can provide “logical proof” that top brass at British-based HSBC was aware of the problems that have now provoked a flurry of investigations. He added that his alleged proof “has to be explained” and that he does not have “documents signed by top management.”
HSBC, the world’s second-largest bank, was rocked last month by a report that drew on the leaks to identify individual account-holders involved in a range of unsavory activities, from arms-dealing to public corruption to money laundering. The client list included royalty such as Morocco’s King Mohammed and relatives of foreign officials, such Li Xiaolin, daughter of former Chinese premier Li Peng.
The United States is offering a $3million reward for information on a Russian hacker charged with bank conspiracy and fraud. Russian citizen Evgeniy Bogachev is charged with running computer attacks that diverted more than one hundred million dollars. He was indicted in Pittsburgh last year on serious charges of bank fraud and conspiracy. The FBI has released pictures of Evgeniy Bogachev; he is charged in US with running a computer attack network called Game over Zeus which stole more than $100 million from online bank accounts. Unconfirmed reports about whereabouts of Evgeniy Bogachev had surfaced earlier.
This week Pope Francis described Mexico as terrifying and expressed fear of the “Mexicanisation” of his native Argentina. Amnesty International denounced enforced disappearances and the use of torture by security forces. Donald Trump criticised the “reign of corruption” in business circles. And, after receiving an Oscar for ‘Birdman’, the director Alejandro González Iñárritu appealed for a “better government” and described the injustice and impunity in his country as unbearable.
OS ANGELES (CN) – Victims of L.A. street gangs sued HSBC Bank in a federal RICO class action, claiming the bank is partly responsible because it accepts and launders money for the gangsters, who are associated with the Sinaloa drug cartel.
NEW ORLEANS — A woman who was cleared by a federal judge this week on charges of fraud and misconduct is now suing the former FBI director who made the allegations against her.
Christine Reitano, an attorney who worked along with her husband for the court-authorized BP oil spill claims settlement program, was accused in 2013 of unethical conduct by former FBI director Louis Freeh.
Freeh had been hired to serve as a special master to investigate possible fraud inside the claims center. Reitano was fired and sued the claims administrator, Patrick Juneau, saying she did nothing wrong.
PHOENIX — Former Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi reported to a federal prison in West Virginia on Friday to begin serving a three-year sentence for corruption, money laundering and other convictions.
Renzi previously succeeded in postponing the start of his sentence. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that he must report to the minimum security Federal Correctional Institution by Friday.
Bureau of Prisons spokesman Edmond Ross confirmed Renzi had arrived at the Morgantown, West Virginia, facility.
Meanwhile Friday, attorneys for Renzi filed paperwork asking for the U.S. Supreme Court to review the appeals court ruling. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Renzi’s convictions last October after his lawyers argued that prosecutors had violated a constitutional clause that grants members of Congress protection for their legislative acts.
